Such a calm, quiet, introspective episode title. Who would think it would become a huge WHAM-stick to the head?
A-Plot: The Shadows are on the move, striking into hapless small star nations (many of them conveniently weakened from fighting with each other (at, conveniently, the Shadows’ behest). The various stray star systems and League of Unaligned Worlds races are panicky, but still fragmented, each wanting to hold onto their own resources, or staying ducked down in the hopes the Shadows won’t notice them. And Sheridan’s frustrated with any attempt at unifying them because, well, he’s got nothing he can promise them. The Shadows are an unstoppable force …
… until he lights on the idea that Kosh and the Vorlons might be able to (finally) help.
SHERIDAN: I know you can’t take the entire Shadow fleet by yourselves, but if you could beat them in just one fight, it could be the break we need to get everyone organized. Then we’d have a real chance. You could do it, couldn’t you?
KOSH: Perhaps. But there are still few of us. It is not our time. It is yours. We are not prepared yet. [Turns and glides away.]
Sheridan forgets it’s never nice to point.
SHERIDAN: Don’t turn your back on me! Don’t you even try to walk away from me! Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway? No, wait, I know what you think you are, what you want us to believe, but I don’t buy it. For three years now you’ve been pulling everyone’s strings, getting us to do all the work, and you haven’t done a damned thing but stand there and look cryptic. Well, it’s about time you started carrying your own weight around here. I hear you’ve got a saying: “Understanding is a three-edged sword.” Well, we’ve got a saying, too: “Put your money where your mouth is.”
KOSH: Impudent.
SHERIDAN: Yeah? Well, maybe that’s the only way to get through to you. You said you wanted to teach me to fight legends. Well, you’re a legend, too. And I’m not going away until you agree.
SHERIDAN: Up yours![Kosh zaps him again, slashing his cheek.] So, the real Kosh shows his colors at last. You angry now? Angry enough to kill me? Because that’s the only way I’m leaving. Unless your people get off their encounter-suited butts and do something, I’ve got nothing to lose. My own government wants to kill me, and if we lose this war I’m just as dead. Our only chance is to get the other races on board for this fight, and right now you’re the key to doing that.
KOSH: It is not yet time.
The Vorlons are the good guys, right? Right?
SHERIDAN: And who decides that time? You? You put me in this position, you asked me to fight this damned war — well, it’s about time you let me fight it my way. [He blocks Kosh’s departure.] How many people have already died fighting this war of yours? How many more will die before you come down off the mountain and get involved. Ships, colonies, whole worlds are being destroyed out there while you do nothing. How many more? How many more, Kosh? How many more dead before you’re satisfied? [Kosh telekinetically lashes out again, holding Sheridan against the wall, half-choking him.] Go ahead. Maybe one more death will balance out the books. Go on. Get it over with. Save us both the trouble later.
KOSH: [After a long, long moment, releases him.] I will do as you ask.
But Kosh warns him that if he does, he won’t be able to help Sheridan when the captain goes to Z’ha’dum, where “you will die.” Sheridan assumes that means Kosh is extracting that as part of the deal. “You do not understand,” intones the Vorlon.
And, sure as shooting, next big Shadow incursion, in pops a Vorlon fleet, which basically beats the snot out of the Shadows. Cheers and huzzahs from the various alien reps on B5, who all eagerly agree to band together (with the Vorlons), hip-hip-hooray.
And here’s a video that hits all of the key points for this plot:
(Slightly better video, but not quite as much footage, here.)
Sic transit Kosh
So we have an alliance now, but Kosh … is dead — as is his living ship “familiar,” which glides its way (with Kosh’s encounter suit remains) into the pyre of the local sun. They’ve lost Earth, and they’ve lost (for the moment) their local Vorlon backer. Our Heroes are going to have to figure things out on their own.
Yikes.
B-Plot: As noted above, Morden is back, here to have it out with Londo (and, in passing, Vir). The Shadows aren’t happy with how the Centauri are behaving, and Morden warns him of such. Londo clearly recognizes the threat to himself, but still insists that their dealing days are over; the Centauri are interested in their own destiny. “I think you are using us as, shall we say, agents of chaos?” he asks Morden. He shrugs off the not-so-veiled threats. “There is nothing you can do to me, Mr. Morden, that has not already been done.”
Besides, Londo’s preoccupied with his One True Love, Adira (from “Born to the Purple,” way back in early Season 1) coming to B5 to visit him. He arranges for a fabulous suite, for food and drink and clothing and the whole nine yards, and has a true shit-eating grin of joy that he shares with Vir, telling his attache that he feels, for the first time in so long, genuinely happy.
Which is, of course, the setup for discovering that she died en route from Centauri Prime, poisoned.
Londo — stunned, in tears, emotionally crushed — immediately thinks of Lord Refa, whom he so recently half-poisoned.
That thought is later reinforced by some judiciously sympathetic gossip by Morden (who, we are fairly certain from our viewing perspective, was the one what done her in, to this very end). Londo, blinded by grief, throws himself whole-heartedly back into an alliance with the Shadows, if it will net him his revenge. “Everyone around me dies, Mr. Morden, except the ones that most deserve it. That is about to change. You said that you would go away for as long as I wanted. I no longer want that. All I want now — is revenge. They took from me the one thing that I have … have ever truly loved. And you will help me, Mr. Morden, to strike them down. Give me this, and the safety of my people — give me that, and let the rest of the galaxy burn. I don’t care anymore.”
Yikes.
Just Say No, Stephen!
C-Plot: This plot, alas, feels a bit like filler, even though it’s a culmination of two seasons of foreshadowing and will play a role for another season’s worth of eps. Franklin is acting more and more erratic, clearly due to his stim use. Garibaldi tries to intervene, but gets shut out — he considers breaking into Franklin’s health records for proof, but decides at the last moment not to. But Franklin has, and, faced, with the hard numbers, realizes he’s well and truly (and dangerously) addicted. He resigns his post as chief medical officer, for a future unknown.
Yikes.
Franklin tenders his resignation
Though … honestly … human interest notwithstanding, it’s not that big of a deal, or as bid a deal as it should be. Franklin’s role on the show has almost always been as a B- or C-Plot. Aside from sitting in on meeting and making more-or-less-appropriate commentary, he’s rarely been key to much of anything except for plots where Franklin is the star. That will change a bit down the road, but part of what struck me watching this is how little Franklin’s departure from MedLab will actually have on the main storyline (or on B5 itself).
Overall: Hommina-hommina-wow. From big space battles to new alliances Sheridan going toe-to-toe with Kosh to Kosh’s death to Adira’s death to Franklin’s resignation, this one is a serious series of baseball bats to the head. Calling this an “everything changes” ep is to understate it.
So many of the elements of this episode are played perfectly, under solid direction by Jesus Trevino. The pettiness of the negotiating aliens is heartbreakingly real. Sheridan bracing Kosh (and then Kosh appearing in Sheridan’s dreams) is some of Boxleitner’s best work on the series. Ed Wasser gets a strong workout in a variety of scenes as Morden. Londo veers from self-possessed rationality to giddy joy to emotional devastation to burning vengefulness — a tour de force for Jurasik. Jerry Doyle as Garibaldi hits every note perfectly, a far cry from his first season clumsiness. Richard Biggs’ Franklin nails the addict being dragged to his senses — furious, resentful, self-critical, and finally resolute — as well as he’s done anything on the show.
And Ardwight Chamberlain, the oft-ignored voice of Kosh, manages to get a hell of a lot of different emotions out of his normally quiet delivery.
The supporting main cast — Delenn, Ivanova, Vir — do a reasonable supporting job (Ivanova’s introductory voice-over, describing the situation at the beginning of the episode, is strong and well-played), but the main players steal the show.
All that said, there’s almost too much going on here. The A- and B-Plots meld together beautifully; the C-Plot is solid, but feels like a distraction I’d rather have seen in another episode. That keeps this ep from being perfect, but it’s damned, damned good.
It’s noted in a few of the commentaries below that this episode book-ends the previous “Ship of Tears” in an odd way. Bester turns to to his antagonists, the B5 crew, to ask for help to protect his people and get vengeance on the forces who hurt his lover. In this ep, Londo ends up turning to his recognized antagonists, Morden & Co., to ensure the protection of his people and to get vengeance on the forces who killed his lover. It’s not clear how intentional that parallel is, but it is … interesting.
Londo’s joy turns to ashes.
Most Dramatic Moment: Londo learns of Adira’s death (see the video above). Okay, there are a ton of dramatic moments in this ep — Kosh vs. Sheridan, Kosh talking to Sheridan while being killed, the death of Kosh’s ship, the Vorlons fighting the Shadows — but this one scene of happiness turning to horror turning to wracking sobs is exquisitely moving.
Most Amusing Moment: There’s a serious dearth of amusement in his ep, except for when Sheridan is chatting with Delenn and lays out their limited options and difficulty in getting the other races aboard — and she says they’ll just have to be given a victory. When he asks how, she smiles, says, “I’m sure you’ll think of something,” then sashays out. A true leader of men, that Delenn.
Most Arc-ish Moment: Sheridan forces Kosh to commit Vorlon assistance to the fight against the Shadows (see also above). It leads immediately to the beginning of the great Alliance, proximately to Sheridan’s fate at Z’ha’dum, and ultimately to the later stages (and outcome) of the Shadow War. And, no, I’m not going to be more specific than that …
Overall Rating: 4.9 / 5 — Almost as perfect as the show could get, hampered only by crowding in the C-Plot. (Rating History)
Next episode: “War Without End,” or perhaps we should call it, “Whatever Happened to Babylon 4?” A two-parter that not only manages to neatly deal with all sorts of pre-established time travel occurences in the first season — but does so with some significant changes in the master story from when that first season episode was written.
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