This episode feels like a pretty good standard episode of a scifi show.  We have an alien culture that is being difficult to work with, and we have a telepath that has to decide on what to do with her talents.  The Babylon 5 angle is that the alien culture is the one that unleashed a devastating war on Earth in the past, which ties it into our lead character’s backstory and the telepath issue also ties into two main character’s relationships.  Overall I like this one, mostly for introducing Neroon, so lets just jump in. 

Sinclair and Garibaldi deliver some clunky exposition while awaiting a Minbari ship.  A renowned military leader has died and his people are transporting the body back to Minbar, but they are also parading it before any community of Minbari on their way.  Their conversation is broken up by the arrival of the ship, which they are surprised to see is a full on war cruiser.  The war cruiser makes them uneasy due to their memories of the war, and then things get worse when they realize that all the gunports of the ship are open and its weapons exposed, ready for a fight.

Back from the credits and the Babylon 5 crew is readily preparing for battle.  They communicate all of this to the cruiser and get back cryptic sneering from John Vickery’s Neroon.  Delenn arrives and explains that it is due to a funerary custom, and that it is not a threat.  She then invites Garibaldi and Sinclair to honor the memory of Branmer the dead war leader. 

The B plot kicks off between Talia and Ivanova when a thief, played by Grace Una,  gets caught but suffers from a side effect of her untrained telepathy.  Ivanova responds to the cries of “thief” and Talia responds to the telepathic energy. They take the girl to go see Franklin, and Talia lets him know that the girl must have just come into her telepathic powers.  Talia begins talking about making arrangements for the girl to be sent to the Psi-Corps and Ivanova reacts how you would expect.  She asserts her authority due to the theft, and says the girl will stay on Babylon 5. Franklin cuts the debate short by ordering everyone to leave. 

Garibaldi and Sinclair still have reservations about the ceremony.  Sinclair even acknowledges that Branmer was in command of the the ships that killed his whole squadron.  However he is committed to trying to reconcile the two worlds.  Neroon and the other warriors proceed with the body.  This is our first look at the warrior caste, and they certainly do not seem as nice as their religious colleagues, even down to sporting a spikier bone on their head.  Delenn talks with Sinclair and lets slip that she new Branmer, and that she also does not approve of the funeral procession. 

he telepath girl regains consciousness in Medlab, and Talia is on hand to sooth her telepathic issues. Talia finds that her name is Alisa Beldon, and she was orphaned by an accident that killed her father. 

eroon and entourage barge into Sinclair’s office to give him orders on how security will be handled for the body and the viewing.  He demands that other races be kept away, especially humans. Which you know gross.  He also demands that his own soldiers be allowed to act as security for the body during the night, which Sinclair agrees to over Garibaldi’s objections.  Neroon starts to bait Sinclair, before Delenn manages to intervene.  The ceremony does not go great, when they open the coffin and find the body missing. 

Neroon is suitably pissed, and promises to do everything he can to start a war over the missing body if it is not found.  Delenn pulls rank, and shuts him down, allowing Garibaldi to begin an investigation.  The plots collide in the scene and Ivanova asks for Sinclair’s help in figuring out how to keep Alisa out of Psi-Corps custody. 

Delenn and Sinclair share a drink in her quarters, and discuss the missing body.  Delenn points the finger at humans and then explains that Branmer started as a priest, but only became a warrior during the war against humans.  Sinclair points out that the Religious Caste was the one to issue the surrender order and Delenn hints that the Warrior Caste are still angry about that one. She even mentions another war leader who killed himself rather than obey the order.  Sinclair points out that Neroon seems to be eager to start the war up again.

Garibaldi is on the trail, questioning Na’Toth.  She denies everything, and then suggests that the various races on the station that eat carrion may be better suspects.  He starts with a race called the Lort that are obsessive collectors, before having to explain to Neroon that the next suspects are the Pak’ma’ra, a carrion eating race.  Another security officer shows up with a piece of Branmer’s burial robe that was found outside the Pak’ma’ra section of the station.  Garibaldi and Neroon question a resident, and he amusingly plays pretty tough with the questions, dismissing the piece of fabric.  Garibaldi responds by insisting that all of the Pak’ma’ra that live there have their stomachs pumped. 

Talia and Ivanova both start fighting over Alisa’s future.  Talia sweet talks her with talk of the Corp taking care of her own, while Ivanova shares her mother’s story with Alisa.  Ivanova also lets her know that there may be options other than the Psi-Corps.  One of these is the Narns who make a strong pitch as they are desperate to jump start a genetic engineering program to get Narn telepaths.  Franklin and Ivanova both try to discourage her, but the real hurdle is when she tries to read Na’Toth’s mind and is put off by it’s alienness.  Ivanova decides to try Delenn next.

While meeting with Delenn, Alisa finds out about how the Minabri treat their telepaths.  The Minbari regard telepaths as gifted, and the telepaths view service to others as their calling in life, and a rewarded with gifts for their services. Alisa tries to read Delenn’s mind and sees religious caste Minbari stealing Branmer’s body by stunning the warriors on guard. She quickly tells Ivanova, as the plots bump into each other once more.

Neroon decides that clearly Sinclair stole the body and he ambushes him in his quarters.  Garibaldi arrives shortly after the fight concludes and has Alisa tell Sinclair what she found out.  Sinclair and Garibaldi interrupt Delenn shipping Branmer’s ashes home with another caste member.  Delenn explains that Branmer was a very close friend, and that he had wanted a small funeral that would not be a monument to the war.  Delenn has a lame excuse that she thought maybe she could have sold it as a religious miracle, but Neroon is too focused.  She is also worried that knowledge of what she did may further widen the rift between the Warrior and Religious Castes.  She breaks the news to Neroon, and then asserts her authority as a Gray Council member to dress down Neroon, and shut down any protest by threatening to disgrace his entire clan.   She also orders him to apologize to Sinclair. 

To his credit Neroon actually seems to make a heartfelt apology to Sinclair.  Sinclair accepts it gracefully as well, impressing Neroon.  Neroon even decides that maybe it is a good thing that the Minbari did not exterminate the Human race.  Delenn even decides to have her people take in Alisa. 

Alisa shares a goodbye with Talia and Ivanova, and Talia apologizes to Ivanova and offers to buy her a drink, and we see the two take a step toward detente.  Sinclair swings by to talk to Alisa about what she saw in Delenns mind, and she just reports one word, chrysalis. 

As always, a reminder that you can watch the episodes on Tubi with ads.  

Next week is the start of Season 1’s two parter ”A Voice in the Wilderness”.  The concept of a two parter seems strange on such a serialized show, but season one in many ways is a bridge season from regular episodic television towards more serialization. 

The Good

• Neroon is a great recurring character and his introduction is pretty great.
• I enjoy how everyone basically tells Garibaldi to get lost when he is in cop mode.  Apparently these other races dont back the blue(gray). 
• I liked the show’s choice to have Sinclair still working through some of his trauma about the Minbari military.

The Bad

• Another guest actor that is not quite up to snuff.  Grace Una just doesnt quite click with the role, maybe because of having to play a young character. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• In the original airing order this episode was meant to come later.  It does not affect it too badly, only the Chrysalis mention is somewhat out of place due to timing.
• There is a rift in the Minbari culture that is almost as bad as the ones appearing in Earth’s culture.  Apparently winning a war, but not finishing a war is as upsetting to the Minbari military as outright losing a war is to the Earth military. 
• The Narn’s lack of telepaths is brought up here for the first time since the pilot.  It is a minor plot point that will become more important when the reason for it is discovered in mid season 3. 
• The suicidal war leader, that killed himself rather than surrender will come up again in the beginning of Season 2.  
• The Minbari are painted as a very non-imperial power here.  In ten years Sinclair has not seen another war cruiser which suggests that the Warrior Caste does not spend much time outside their own borders. 
• I have mentioned how much I enjoy Neroon, and he gets to come back each season to cause a ton of trouble, and then learn a lesson about being a better Minbari.