This episode is another one that I dont revisit often, but I would not go as far as saying it is a bad episode. It is held back by laying track for a train that never comes along, but inside of that utilitarian work there are some pretty great character moments, and hey any excuse to get Walter Koenig in the house!
We open on possibly the most exciting scenario for this bureaumancer: a budget meeting between Ivanova and Sheridan. We get the tiniest hint that Earth is still up to no good, when Ivanova mentions a lot of Earth military traffic going to and fro, and then we light up the B plot of the episode. Turns out Earth wants Sheridan and Ivanova to start paying a modest rent on their deluxe quarters, and Sheridan is outraged over the very thought. As silly as it is, it does show Sheridan is willing to stand up, even to his own government, over matters of principle.
The A plot get its start on the Mars Colony. Our old friend the Psi Cop Bester is busily torturing a captured telepath. He tries to sell the guy on the idea that the Psi Corps is basically his family, but when he doesn’t go for it, he forcibly scans him to death, in the process finding out that the telepath underground railroad runs through Babylon 5. If Sheridan’s tantrum tells us something about him, the casual murder of another telepath in the performance of his duties, tells us more about Bester.
Back from the credits, and Sheridan is complaining about the rent thing to Franklin, the implication being that he is probably complaining about it to anyone he can. On his way out of the bar, Delenn stops him and asks him to go to dinner. She couches it as an exchange of culture, but Sheridan seems quite charmed by the whole thing.
Eventually Bester arrives at Babylon 5, and proceeds to be his smarmy self. He lets Garibaldi, Ivanova, Sheridan and Talia know about the underground railroad. When they discuss it among themselves, Garibaldi points out they are obliged to help Bester by law. He also comments on how everyone is to blame for creating the Psi Corps, by being so frightened of telepaths. Kinda reminiscent of how ICE is now rampaging through America, but I angrily digress. The staff resolve to assist Bester, despite not being thrilled at the prospect.
Bester and Talia meanwhile do a walk and talk to discuss the situation. Bester implies that he may scan people without their permission, and while they talk he gets a strong sense that someone in the crowd is thinking that he is a murderer. Bester is please, thinking of this as confirmation that Babylon 5 is the right place. A frightened telepath goes back to a group and they resolve to kill Bester before they try to escape.
Garibaldi goes to Earhart’s to find Ivanova, as he wants to discuss the underground railroad and he pegged Ivanova as the command staff member most likely to be involved. Garibaldi also needs to tell her that she has been locked out of her own quarters.
Sheridan meets up with Delenn, and she is wearing a human style dress. She says that it is to understand humans a little bit, and Sheridan is clearly smitten. Their dinner goes well, and to be fair they do genuinely learn a bit about each other’s cultures. Sheridan comes back from dinner to find he is locked out of his quarters on the orders of Earth Central. He takes Ivanova with him and camps out in his office, much to her irritation.
Bester calls Talia early in the morning to invite her to breakfast. This sparks a very melodramatic memory in Talia of the last time Bester was there, and we get an extended flashback to the plot of the season 1 episode “Mind War”, which is something of a let down. Babylon 5 normally trusts it’s audience more than this, but on the other hand it was one episode a while ago and they haven’t really gone back to it since.. We also get a reminder that Talia may be telekinetic.
The telepaths begin preparing to take their shot at Bester, repeating the same nursery rhyme their colleague had been repeating, an attempt to keep Bester from picking up their thoughts. It does not work for them and they give the game away before attacking Bester and Talia at their breakfast. Before they interrupt Bester does some very shady asking about what the command staff feel about the death of President Santiago and asks Talia to keep an eye on them. Bester easily kills off his attackers, but Talia gets nabbed by the telepaths when she runs away.
Bester is once again elated, thinking this attempt on his life is good evidence he is on the right track. Bester goes on to have a shocking level of unconcern for what happened to Talia, even stating he assumed she made it out safely. Later Franklin comes by to speak with Sheridan alone. He lets him know he has heard from the underground railroad and that they do indeed have Talia. He says that they are using him to arrange a meeting between Sheridan and the head of the railroad on Babylon 5.
Talia wakes up in the telepath camp. Instead of torturing her or harming her they try to convert her. Their leader, previously seen helping Garibaldi in the season 1 finale, arranges for everyone to tell her why they went on the run from the Psi Corps. The stories are pretty awful, which is not shocking to us, but Talia gets broken down by them. The leader then reveals that he and Ironheart were part of the same experiments, though he did not get the same powers. The also knows that Talia now has some of the same powers Ironheart had.
Garibaldi naturally figures out where the telepaths are, and shares that with Bester. He extracts a promise from Bester to wait for the station tactical team, which Bester naturally gives without intending to honor.
Sheridan makes it to his meeting with the leader of the railroad, and surprise surprise it turns out to be Franklin. Talia vouches for Franklin, and he explains that as a doctor he had heard some of the horror stories coming out of the Psi Corps. He explains that some doctors alter records to keep telepaths out of the Psi Corps, and that even his free clinic was partially cover for doing so on the station. There are echoes of doctors when abortion was illegal here, and certainly having the show’s only black character being in charge of the underground railroad is also pretty on point.
Bester arrives to interrupt all of this, gun in hand. He speaks to the telepaths letting them know that they can come back and not be harmed. Talia confronts him, and the telepaths join hands to attack Bester telepathically. However Talia betrays the group. She and Bester make quick work of all of them in a gun battle. Bester is pleased with this outcome, and scampers off to avoid Garibaldi and tell Talia to do the same.
Except what really happened was that the telepaths were able to plant all of that into Bester’s mind, so he just wandered off after staring at them for a little while. Since Bester thinks he just committed a bunch of murders he will try to leave before anything happens, Sheridan is inclined to let the telepaths go. He is still of course furious with Franklin. The leader of the railroad imparts some unsettling information to Talia about her changes and then fades into the shadows.
As the plots wrap up, Sheridan informs Ivanova that he has found a work around to their rent situation, deducting the cost of rent from the military budget and using it to pay the rent. Ivanova is satisfied that she can get back to her quarters. Bester speaks with Talia, and expresses that he was informed that Sheridan would be more supportive, as he leaves he seems somewhat unsettled by Talia. Finally we are treated to a scene of Talia opening up to Ivanova about her problems with the Psi Corps.
Next week is a big one as we get treated to “The Coming of Shadows”. It has space battles, political intrigue and is heavily focused on G’Kar and Londo, so everything I enjoy in a grade A episode of B5.
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
- Another good look at the Psi Corps and everything involved with it. Also I like the idea of there being good hearted people doing their best against Earth’s government.
- Bester as always is a treat. Walter Koening seems to enjoy playing such a vile character.
- The small scenes with Sheridan and Delenn are sweet.
The Bad
- Andrea Thompson is not the best actor, so she does her best with what she has, the silly music over her memories is also a touch melodramatic. I realize it is from Mind War, but still.
- It is disappointing that Franklin does not get to be involved with anything like this again.
Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)
- All the Talia stuff will be thrown out before the end of the season so in a sense this is a waste of an episode.
- I like how they start small with Delenn and Sheridan. More realistic for a romance of two people in their 40’s that come from vastly different cultures.
- For as much as Bester presents himself as 100% Psi Corps he later admits that he doesn’t really care for his wife or child, and that he did it for the good of the Corps.
- Talia and Ivanova’s tentative relationship begins here, and it is another wasted opportunity that gets killed off by Andrea Thompson and Jerry Doyle’s marital troubles.