Every season of Babylon 5 has a title.  It is an interesting conceit from the showrunner J. Michael Strazynski.  The point of it is to reinforce that Babylon 5 was always meant as one coherent story, with each season being a piece of it.  Within that framework, there is an episode each season that shares the same name as the season.  These episodes usually hit at the midpoint of the season and tend to throw the show into some chaos that increases the stakes.  “Signs and Portents” is quieter than some of the others, but it does change the show and the arc of the story significantly. 

The episode opens calmly, showing Ivanova waking groggily in her quarters and starting her day.  As she strolls into C&C Sinclair is much more chipper and she reveals that she never wakes easily because it is always dark in space.  The moment is ruined when they receive a distress call from an Earth Alliance Starfury that is under raider attack. Before they can do much about it, the pilot is killed and we jump to credits.

We come back to a mysterious stranger going through customs.  He chats with the security guard, explaining that he has been exploring out on the rim for the past few years.  

Garibaldi, Ivanova and Sinclair discuss the problem of raiders.  The attacks are getting closer to the station, and threatening their ability to guarantee the safety of visiting ships.  The three of them are also mystified as to how the raiders are getting in and out of the area so fast, when the distance between jump gates should make that impossible.

As the meeting breaks up, Sinclair confides in Garibaldi about his recent revelations concerning the time he was missing from the Battle of the Line.  Garibaldi agrees to help him investigate the matter, so Sinclair lays everything out for him. 

Meanwhile Londo is meeting with a shady guy in the casino, played by Robert Silver.  The man had been employed by the Centauri government to recover a long lost artifact, The Eye.  The property of the very first emperor, it is a powerful symbol of Centauri royalty and Londo seems suitably impressed to have it in his custody.  The mysterious stranger from earlier watches the exchange from the bar.  On his way back to his quarters, G’Kar and Londo run into each other at the elevator and get into a spat and there is a poor human caught in the middle.  It is a bit of an over the top comedic scene, which does not quite gel with the rest of the episode.  It seems like it was mostly slotted in to remind a more casual viewer of the history between Londo and G’Kar and the Cenaturi and Narn.

The mysterious stranger gets himself a meeting with G’Kar, and introduces himself as Morden.  He is deferential and polite, and a bit slimy as played by Ed Wasser.  Once the introductions are done, he asks one question to G’Kar: What do you want?  The question irritates G’Kar with its vagueness and he initially dismisses the man.  Morden does not take offense at the dismissal and he is almost out the door before G’Kar decides to answer the question.  What follows is a bloodthirsty rant from G’Kar about the Centauri.  What he wants is to do to the Centauri what they did to his people. He starts with justice before he talks about spoiling their planet and annihilating their people.  When prompted to go further, G’Kar is at a loss.  The idea of revenge is so central to him that he has never even considered what he might want afterwards.  Morden leaves, and G’Kar dismisses the conversation as nonsense. 

We then get a glimpse at some more Centauri.  Lord Kiro,played by Gerrit Graham and Lady Ladira played by Fredi Olster arrive with a small entourage.  It will be Kiro’s job to escort the Eye back to Centauri Prime.  Lady Ladira is along for the ride as she is the seer of the house.  The Centauri have been implied through Londo to have mild prophetic abilities concerning themselves, and this further establishes that certain Centauri have a limited ability to see other people’s futures as well.  In any case the seer experiences a very powerful vision of the destruction of Babylon 5, and then passes out.

Ladira recovers in Medlab and and insists she had a powerful vision of Babylon 5 being destroyed.  Londo looks unsettled by the prediction, but Kiro is dismissive, mentioning that she has been wrong in the past, and how she had predicted at his first birthday that he would be killed by shadows.  Both men chuckle at the absurd vision before Kiro aggressively demands to see the Eye claiming that it belongs to his house. As the men head towards Londo’s quarters another mysterious stranger played by Whip Hubley speaks into a hidden radio and begins following them. 

Mr. Morden arranges his next meeting with Delenn.  Delenn is suspicious of his intentions, and then her Grey Council symbol appears on her forehead.  She covers it up and when she turns to speak with Morden the shadows deepen around him.  Delenn orders him out of her quarters, and then fearfully tells herself “they are here”.  

Back in Londo’s quarters Kiro cradles the Eye in his hands.  Kiro then starts probing Londo on how much he knows about what is going on back home.  It seems that Earth is not the only government that is having trouble.  The emperor has not been seen in public in over a year, and the people are growing restless without his leadership.  Kiro then floats the idea of taking custody of the Eye himself and returning to challenge the emperor for leadership.  Londo dismisses the idea out of hand.  Kiro leaves wondering where everything went wrong, and Londo is visibly uncomfortable with the question.

Out in space our old friends the raiders are up to their usual hijinks, chasing down a transport ship that begins sending out a distress call.  Ivanova is on alert and launches with Delta Wing right away.  This is apparently what our second mysterious stranger was waiting for, and he signals someone to kill Delta Wing, while someone else handles the station.

Londo gets to have his run in with Morden.  He initially tries to give him the brush off, and he seems just as dismissive as G’Kar was initially.  Just like G’Kar though he is able to be goaded into saying what he wants.  Londo also has a rant, but he has a better idea of what he wants long term.  He “…wants it all back the way it was!”.  Morden seems more impressed with Londo’s response than he was with G’Kar’s.  

Kiro, Londo and Ladira get ambushed by the stranger.  He knows all about the Eye and takes them hostage.  Meanwhile Sinclair realizes that something is off about the raider attack and recalls Ivanova. He then orders Garibaldi to go on standby with Alpha Wing.  He runs to warn Lord Kiro about a possible raider attack before the stranger reveals himself and threatens Kiro’s life to get off the station. Sinclair lets them go, knowing that they will not be able to access the jump gate.  Ladira is agitated saying that the shadows are coming for Kiro.

This is when the raiders spring their surprise.  They have a carrier ship that can jump without a jump gate.  It arrives and launches twenty or so fighters against the station.  Garibaldi and Alpha Wing jump into the fray, and the station activates its defense grid and starts blasting.  Inside the station Ladira insists that this is the end, and that the shadows have come for them all.  Kosh floats up behind Morden, and orders him to leave saying “they are not for you”.  Morden seems unintimidated by the Vorlon. Outside the battle rages, though the Centauri ship gets scooped up by the raider carrier.  Sinclair brings things to a close by summoning Delta Wing back through the jump gate and surrounding the raiders.  What follows is a massacre as the surrounded raiders get picked apart by Garibaldi, Ivanova and the station’s guns.  The raider carrier escapes with the hostage while all the other raiders get destroyed or captured.

Garibaldi gives Sinclair the after action report of the battle in his office, and slips in the little nugget that Kosh requested some equipment to repair his encounter suit that he claims got damaged during the battle.  Sinclair summons Londo and Ladira and asks them to explain their part in all the chaos.  Ladira looks into a cup and sees a vision about what happened to the raider carrier. 

Turns out Kiro was in on the heist the whole time.  He hoped to use the Eye combined with the raiders to overthrow the emperor and install himself on the throne.  The raiders predictably betray him, explaining that they never intended to help him.  Just like Londo they have the opinion that the Eye wont help as much as Kiro seems to think it will in swaying people to his cause.  Their real plan is to ransom back the Eye so that they can buy even more carriers.  They also plan to ransom back Kiro, and then blackmail him due to his part in all of this.  The raider is interrupted in his gloating by an alarm on the ship. A large black spider looking ship shimmers into existence near the carrier and destroys it in a few seconds.  

Londo sees Lady Ladira off.  He laments that his career is over, since he was the one that had the Eye in custody.  He fully expects to be recalled and cast out by the government.  Once he is alone Morden pops back up with a gift for Londo.  Londo unwraps it to reveal the Eye, its outer casing somewhat battered looking.  Londo is overjoyed but Morden disappears back into the hallway before he can be thanked.

Garibaldi reports in to Sinclair, while they are in the men’s room, and lets him know he found out a little bit that may help Sinclair in his investigation.  Turns out Sinclair was pretty far down the list of candidates for running the station, but all the other candidates were rejected by the Minbari government.  The Minbari signed on early and provided funding in exchange for being allowed a say in who ran the station and they insisted on Sinclair. 

Sinclair goes and speaks with Ladira before she leaves.  Ladira shares her vision with him, and he also sees the station being consumed by fire as a shuttle barely escapes in time.  Ladira allows that this is a possible future, and that the future is always changing. 

Next week we take a small step down in quality when we enter the ring with TKO.  A pretty silly A plot is completely overshadowed by a great B plot so it is not a total loss.  

As always, a reminder that you can watch the episodes on Tubi with ads. It looks like Amazon has already pulled the show.

The Good

• So much good stuff in this episode.  I would mark it as the first that really shows what you can do with an outer space battle when you are not limited by models.  It is not as great as it will get, but it finally feels like they are on the right track.
• Mr. Morden’s arrival and the new mysterious race are a fun raising of the stakes.
• Aside from an absent Franklin, most of the main human characters get something fun to do. 
• Despite being wobbly so far, I admire that the show had the confidence to expand their plot so aggressively with new alliances and a new mysterious faction.
• I like the idea of a “house seer”. It straddles that scifi/fantasy line and it reminds us that the Centauri have an interesting relationship with prophecy.

The Bad

• The guest actors for this one are pretty weak, particularly Olster.  Her line readings just don’t really come across as quite right. Hubley also comes across a little wooden.
• The silly silver triangle is back for Delenn.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• This one does a lot of serious arc work.  Mr. Morden, a recurring antagonist, shows up for the first time and we get the classic Shadows question out of him. Notably he does not bother to ask anyone from Earth.
• The Shadows show up for the first time.  In a show of strength they obliterate the season long villains in a few seconds. I have always liked how the Shadows just shimmer into existence.  It is a creepy effect, and it also speaks to their technological advantage.
• The show decided to hold a scene in a bathroom as a bit of a joke at Star Trek’s expense, as the official maps of the Enterprise originally did not include bathrooms.
• I love the scenes with G’Kar and Londo’s interactions with Morden.  G’Kar almost has the epiphany he will fully realize later on, that the desire for revenge is limiting his thinking and blinding him in dangerous ways.  Londo on the other hand shows once again that he is at heart a Space Republican.  His speech could practically be a GOP Convention speech. Obviously the Shadows had their preference for widespread imperialism. 
• This is our first glimpse of a Shadow ship. They only get one more outing in this season before they start becoming a more and more steady presence in seasons 2, 3, and 4.