This episode is a rough one to watch and honestly not one that I tend to revisit.  I have never been a fan of torture episodes like this, and mostly for very simplistic reasons.  I like these characters! Why would I want to see them get brutalized? However I will concede that there is an element of necessity in it.  We are being set up for a grand galactic struggle between good and evil.  The Minbari, Babylon 5, and the Vorlons on one side and the Shadows on the other.  However this would not be a show for grown ups without some attempt to muddy those waters.  

The episode opens with G’Kar continuing the good fight, shouting at a crowd that the Centauri will not stop with just his world.  It is kind of funny, and maybe a sign of how far his status has fallen that some random human civilian stops and talks back to him.  The point is driven home further when his own people ask him to stop, thinking that it is pointless.  As the Narn leave the camera pans up to a thoughtful looking Vir. 

We switch gears and get a menacing scene of Kosh informing Delenn that he has sent for an inquisitor.  Delenn knows what he is talking about it, and Kosh just tells her to submit, and that she may not live through the process. 

After credits, Delenn and Lennier go to see Sheridan and ask him for a vague favor so that the inquisitor can come aboard and do his thing. Sheridan pushes back and the two Minbari eventually tell Sheridan the truth, that Kosh is unsure of Delenn and her motivations and wants to confirm that she is the right person for the fight ahead.  Apparently Vorlon’s like to do this through torture.  

G’Kar meanwhile is also coordinating the purchase and delivery of a large amount of small arms to Narn from a disreputable looking man known as Mr.Chase..  From the list he gives it seems clear that the Centauri will not enjoy the experience of occupying Narn for the second time.  He informs the arms merchant that this resistance is being funded by the personal accounts of the free Narn, and that if it is stolen he has no problem with murdering Mr. Chase. Thankfully the arms merchant takes no offense, probably used to that kind of warning. 

A Vorlon transport shows up and Sheridan goes to meet it personally.  The inquisitor reveals himself with the clicking of his cane against the floor, and he appears to be a human dressed in a Victorian getup.  Sheridan escorts him through the station, badgering him with questions about the Vorlons, before Sebastian responds that he is from Earth, from the 19th century and that he was taken and preserved for his skills. 

Garibaldi gets a fun scene with G’Kar where he offers to help G’Kar move weapons for the resistance as long as the weapons don’t come through the station.  He even arranges for the weapons to be moved through an out of the way place for G’Kar. 

Delenn has to meet with Sebastian and the mind games start pretty quickly, as she is given manacles to wear and the explanation that at any time she can remove them and leave but that will mean failing Kosh’s test.  He then gets to business by asking her repeatedly “who are you?”.  Delenn struggles for an answer that will be acceptable, as Sebastian rejects her name and title as acceptable answers, and he keeps shocking her through the manacles when he is displeased. He taunts by telling her about all of the people that he has broken in the past, and how he does not believe that Delenn has a destiny. 

Another short powerful scene with G’Kar happens later, when Vir accidentally gets on the elevator with him.  G’Kar stares him down and Vir is incredibly uncomfortable, before he summons up the nerve to apologize to G’Kar.  G’Kar whirls on Vir with a knife and cuts his own hand, repeating “dead” for every drop of blood that hits the floor. He challenges Vir to apologize to the drops of blood and tells him that he cannot forgive.  It is a good scene, and one I like because I feel that it is the catalyst for some independent Vir plots that come later. 

Back in the torture chamber, Sebastian is still mocking Delenn and her belief that she has a destiny.  He shocks her and asks her to call out to the universe for help, then uses the resulting silence to poke at her some more.  When she admits that she has had doubts, he allows her some rest. 

G’Kar is meeting with his people and talking about their progress, before he gets challenged to actually deliver something meaningful.  The crowd wants him to prove he can get a message from Narn, before they are willing to support him in trying to get weapons to Narn.  G’Kar somewhat rashly promises that he can do it within 24 hours and then he scrambles to accomplish it.  He runs to ask Sheridan and Garibaldi, and the two privately discuss sending in the Rangers.  Sheridan sees it as a good test for them, and he also points out that it is to their advantage to keep G’Kar in charge. The Rangers pull it off, and bring back a message from Narn.  This earns G’Kar immense influence with the Narns on the station.  

Back in the torture chamber, Delenn tries to hit back against Sebastian accusing him of being someone that lashes out because he was a chosen one that failed. He responds by shocking her, and asking once more “who are you?”.  Eventually she gets another break, and Lennier runs in to see her.  She sends him away, but he is clearly rattled, enough so that he runs off to Sheridan and asks for his help.  Sheridan interrupts, pointing a gun at Sebastian, but the creeper smiles and appears to have anticipated this.  He quickly dispatches the captain and strings him up, to participate in the torture.  He taunts them both before getting Delenn and Sheridan to agree to sacrifice themselves for the other.  This apparently passes the test, the test being whether they would be willing to sacrifice themselves for just one life, and give up their destiny without fame or reward.  Pretty moralistic but I guess the Vorlons like this kind of thing. 

After he gets cleaned up, Sheridan orders Ivanova to look into Sebastian’s background, using the facts that he knows about him.  Sheridan uses the information to confront Sebastian, outing him as Jack the Ripper.  Sebastian explains that he thought of himself as a man on a mission from God, to clean up the city.  The Vorlons plucked him from his crusade and showed him how wrong he was. He admits that doing his work has been tortuous and he hopes that the Vorlons will finally let him die. 

Next week we go to a pretty eventful season finale with “The Fall of Night”.  Also I tend to consider this one the closest thing that Babylon 5 has to a Christmas episode so that is fun.

As always the show is available to watch for free on Tubi with ads. 

Where do I know them from?

• Wayne Alexander mostly bounced around TV, with his biggest single job being eleven different episodes of Babylon 5.  However he also showed up in three episodes of X-Files.

The Good

• The interrogation scenes were pretty good overall, and Wayne Alexander was a pretty good creep.
• I like how the episode shows G’Kar and the Narn barely breaking stride between the loss of the conventional war and the start of the guerilla war. 

The Bad

• For me the Jack the Ripper reveal kind of falls flat, but I have never really been all that interested in serial killer stuff.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• The Rangers get to pop up again and show off their skills.
• G’Kar and the resistance to the Centauri will be a recurring plot thread, and it starts off pretty quickly.
• This is our first exposure to the Vorlon question, “Who are you?” which contrasts with the Shadow question of “What do you want?”
• There have been hints that the Vorlons are not exactly on the up and up, and they always come across as patronizing towards other races, but this is the first episode that introduces the idea that the Vorlons can be outright cruel.
• An infamous dubbing occurs at the end of the episode due to a mistake in the scripts.  Sheridan is clearly saying West End.  
• One of the Narns is played by CNN reporter Dennis Michael, who was on set doing a story about Babylon 5’s makeup department.