Season 1’s title was “Signs and Portents” and it was a season all about establishing the universe while hinting at what was to come.  By and large it did a great job at that, establishing several long running conflicts, and some mysteries as well.  Season 2 is titled “The Coming of Shadows”, an escalation but not a full reveal. Not yet.  However before we can get to that we need to gather up some lingering plot threads and make a major change to the main cast.

The episode “Points of Departure” opens with a shot of a more advanced Earth warship, the EAS Agamemnon.  Its captain, John Sheridan, sits on what is clearly a redressed C&C set, and lets a civilian ship know that they are there to help them. Sheridan is played with a sunny disposition by Bruce Boxleitner, a staple of 80’s TV and film.  Sheridan gets a call from General Hague, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, played by Robert Foxworth, an old hand at military type roles.  A rogue Minbari warship has been spotted near Babylon 5, the Trigati. Sheridan is ordered to assist in locating it, as he is the only human captain to successfully defeat a Minbari ship and live to talk about it.  The general then relays a presidential order to Sheridan before we cut away.

Ivanova meanwhile gets to do some narration revealing that Sinclair was recalled to Earth without explanation five days ago.  She narrates while being screamed at by a group of ambassadors.  She does some yelling back and then moves on to C&C.  She also fills in the audience on Garibaldi and Delenn. Her narration gets interrupted by a General Hague, who calls to let her know that Sinclair ain’t never coming back.  With that we jump to the credits, with a new opening, and a new narration courtesy of Bruce Boxleitner.  

When we return Hague helpfully elaborates that Sinclair is being reassigned to Minbar, and that John Sheridan will be arriving to take over.  Ivanova mentions serving with Sheridan on Io, but points out he may be a controversial choice.  She goes to make preparations with Corwin, but is shocked to learn that Sheridan just docked.  She sprints down to customs to receive him and turn over command.  They walk and talk, and Sheridan starts obsessing over fresh fruit while mentioning that he has spent the last two years patrolling on the rim of the galaxy.  Ivanova gives him a rundown of the current problems of the station.  

Lennier is still sitting vigil over Delenn’s cocoon, when he receives a visit from a Minbari played by sci-fi veteran Robin Sachs.  I don’t think anyone ever uses his name but it is Hedronn.  He also mentions the rogue ship the Trigati.  He orders Lennier to take a message to the humans if the ship should appear at Babylon 5.  Another Minbari arrives at customs, played by Richard Grove who I mostly know from Army of Darkness.  He finds directions to the diplomatic section of the station and heads that way. 

Ivanova’s tour continues, and Sheridan is delighted to know that he gets to have a shower with real water a nice little scifi detail.  Ivanova asks why Sheridan has been assigned.  He lets her know that he was President Santiago’s choice to take over if anything happened to Sinclair.  In his work on the Agamemnon he had extensive dealings with most races, even the Minbari.  She mentions that some Minbari still call him “Starkiller”.  Sheridan dismisses that concern and excitedly says that he cant wait to meet the rest of the crew and give them his good luck speech.

Meanwhile the gruff Minbari walks past Hedronn and is recognized as Kalain.  He gives chase before being ambushed by Kalain.  Kalain claims that the Grey Council have betrayed them, and indicates that he knows Sheridan, who he does call Starkiller, has been chosen to lead Babylon 5.  Kalain also objects to Sinclair going to Minbar, before wrapping things up with a threat and vanishing. 

Ivanova drops by medlab to check in on Garibaldi.  Franklin lets her know that there is no change in the security chief’s status.  She heads back to C&C and introduces Sheridan to the rest of the crew.  Sheridan launches into his speech, dropping some exposition about being the son of a diplomat, and expanding on his obsession with food.  The speech gets interrupted by a Minbari that demands to speak with Sheridan.  

Hedronn lets the humans know that Kalain is on the station and is dangerous, before letting them know that he wants him arrested so he can be sent back to Minbar.  Sheridan guesses that Kalain is from the Trigati and the Hedronn is from the Grey Council.  In a nod to the first season the humans get told the story of a war leader that killed himself rather than surrender to Earth. His ship went into exile. Sheridan questions how Hedronn was able to recognize Kalain, and that causes Hedronn to explode at him, accusing Sheridan of being the cause of all the problems.  Ivanova and Sheridan have a quick conversation where he reveals that he tricked the Minbari flagship the Black Star by mining asteroids with nukes.  The conversation about the war and grudges leads them to realize that Kalain might go after Delenn next.

And he does! Lennier stands up to him before security bursts in and arrests him, quite peaceably.  Sheridan and Ivanova try and sneak a peek at the cocoon but Lennier politely rebuffs them. Sheridan then begins interrogating Kalain.  Kalain indicates that he may be willing to kill Minbari, but Sheridan is suspicious and lets Kalain know that he is not buying it.  As they leave Lennier pops up in the hallway to let them know he is going to fill them in on why the Minbari surrendered at the Battle of the Line. If they have time. 

We get treated to a flashback featuring Delenn and Hedronn at the Grey Council.  It shows them randomly selecting Sinclair’s fighter to be captured so that they can interrogate him on Earth’s remaining defenses.  During his and other pilot’s interrogations the Minbari discovered that Minbari are being reincarnated as humans.  Reincarnation is central to their belief system and they could not justify killing themselves.  The council didn’t think anyone would deal well with this information, so they kept it a secret and simply surrendered to call off the war.

The meeting is interrupted by the Trigati arriving and moving in towards Babylon 5.  This also introduces us to another new character, Lt. Warren Keffer of Zeta Wing.  Played by Robert Rusler this is a network mandated character that was brought in so that the show could have a hot shot fighter pilot character. You can tell over the course of the season that JMS’s heart was not really into it when it came to this character.   While the station crew begin organizing a defense, Kalain does the old false tooth filled with poison trick and kills himself in his cell, just in time for his ship to demand his immediate release. This is all part of a ploy by the Trigati to jump start a new Earth Minbari War.  It almost works until Sheridan realizes that the Minbari are purposely trying to throw the fight to go out as martyrs.  Sheridan calls for the Minbari ship that was hunting for the Trigati and it arrives and defeats the renegade ship.  The departing Minbari captain gives Sheridan some snide remarks before his ship leaves the area. 

Sheridan and Ivanova chat while he unpacks, and Sheridan reflects that maybe it is not a great idea for him to be in charge of Babylon 5.  He also lets Ivanova know that the President knows what Lennier told them, and he indicates that he is not so sure about the Minbari souls in human bodies thing.  

Lennier talks to Delenn’s cocoon, and dumps some info about how he did not tell the humans everything and that there is a prophecy about the humans and Minbari coming together to fight the coming darkness.  As he leaves we see the cocoon begin cracking and oozing. 

A new set gets introduced at the end, Aerhart’s, a Earth Force bar where new character Keffer gets to whine about the battle that almost just happened.  Ivanova realizes that Sheridan ran off to give his good luck speech to an empty C&C.  He ends the speech with a quote from Lincoln that sounds suspiciously prescient for the conflicts ahead. 

Next week we actually address most of the plot threads that were left hanging after season 1, in the aptly named “Revelations”.

As always, a reminder that you can watch the episodes on Tubi with ads.  It is apparently back on Amazon Prime, but Tubi is free and their ad breaks are smaller.  

The Good

• Captain Sheridan arrives!  The excitable golden retriever, to Sinclair’s wounded brooder, I have always preferred this character.  I think it was smart of JMS to not try and load down the new character with the same traits and stories that had been slated for Sinclair.  Though he does decide to also give this character his first and last initial. 
• There is an upgrade in how the space scenes look.  In particular the Minbari ship slicing off the other one’s engine looks pretty good. 
• Speaking of, I liked how they made the Trigati look more weathered than the other ship.  Makes sense since it has been just tooling around for twelve years. 

The Bad

• New uniforms with red piping make their appearance here. I kind of like the older ones.  New dress uniforms will also show up.  
• Warren Keffer shows up! That is a thing that happens this season that is for sure. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Sheridan’s relationship with other Minbari is dropped pretty quickly (aside from coming up a bit when he goes to marry Delenn). 
• The Minbari, as the saying goes , do not tell anyone the whole truth, and this is no exception.  Sinclair’s DNA sets off their instruments not his “soul”.  
• This is our first look at a Omega-Class destroyer which will become the default Earth ship moving forward in the series. 
• Garibaldi does eventually recover, though in the commentaries Jerry Doyle indicated that these were among his favorite episodes because he got to just lay there and still got paid for it.