After re-establishing the status quo last episode we dive right into trying to solve some of the new mysteries that were left over from last season.  In the process we also get developments in Londo’s plight back on Centauri Prime.  This is very much an episode that is moving the story arcs forward, so lets get moving.

We start with Dr.Franklin entering a log, and talking about the war, and about how everyone is waiting for the next big crisis to happen.  He is interrupted by Lennier asking for help, claiming there is a problem with Delenn.

We jump right over to a trippy looking sequence of Sheridan being held aloft by tendrils of energy that keep asking him “Who are you?”, the Vorlon question, and “What do you want?” the Shadow question. Sheridan wakes implying that this was simply a bad dream.  The strange alien from before begins pestering him, telling him that he cannot escape.  He eventually tells Sheridan that his name is Lorien, while posing meandering philosophical questions that Sheridan ignores. He eventually confronts Sheridan with the fact that he is dead.  

Returning from the credits and Lorien is meandering around his point again, before showing that he is the source of Sheridan’s strange dream, causing him to relive it momentarily just by looking at him. 

On another unnamed world, G’Kar strolls into a seedy bar, and begins asking questions of a scavenger that found Garibaldi’s Starfury.  He is starting to press on the man when the owner comes over and kicks him out.  Just before violence can begin, it is interrupted by violence from Marcus.  The two flee as an alarm sounds, and the sleazy bar owner calls a Centauri guard over promising him information.  

Franklin goes to Delenn’s quarters and finds out that she has been fasting for over seven days.  She claims that Minbari can do so for weeks, but Franklin points out that she is no longer fully Minbari. Delenn has been blaming herself for Sheridan leaving for Z’Ha’Dum insisting that since she had lied to him and broke his trust she had pushed him into it.  She dismisses the doctor insisting that nothing is wrong, but implying that she may well plan to fast until she dies. 

G’Kar and Marcus hole up on the planet and discuss G’Kar’s investigation into Mr.Garibaldi’s whereabouts, while taking a short detour to discuss G’Kar being jealous of Marcus’s Minbari fighting pike.  The bar owner meanwhile goes through some mugshots with the Centauri guards, before recognizing G’Kar’s picture.  Marcus confronts the salvager and reports back to G’Kar, who decides they should split up, sending Marcus to Babylon 5 to coordinate the search from there using their resources while he stays in the field and continues to dig up clues.  Marcus is barely off the planet before G’Kar gets ambushed by the Centauri and arrested.

Back on the station Franklin calls Delenn to Sheridan’s quarters and gives her a log message he found while sorting through the captain’s effects.  It is a nice message he recorded in the middle of 2260, describing how he is beginning to fall in love with her.   The message galvanizes Delenn and she calls a meeting of the Rangers informing that she plans to rally all the Rangers and the few remaining worlds that support her to launch an attack on Z’Ha’Dum.  

Back on Centauri Prime Londo is dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.  He answers the door with a hidden dagger, finding the court minister summoning him to an audience with Cartagia.  He manages to defuse the emperor’s anger at being late, and he is informed that he is going to be given a gift.  Cartagia rings a little bell, and to Londo’s horror G’Kar is dragged into the court in chains. Londo quickly appeases the emperor by thanking him and Cartagia begins tormenting G’kar, who only asks them if they know where Garibaldi is. 

We get to see a short scene of Garibaldi locked in a tiny cell, angrily banging on the walls, before a voice tells him to stop and begins asking him what happened after he left Babylon 5.  The question drives him nuts and he begins to wreck the place.  His captors pump gas into the chamber, knocking him out, before we the audience get to see that he is being held by the Psi-Corps.  

Londo goes to visit G’Kar to talk, beginning by criticizing his decision to leave Babylon 5.  He expresses some regret that G’Kar will be tortured for weeks, and then be executed via slow surgery.  Londo is offended when G’Kar asks if this will please Londo.  Londo then gets down to business. He believes that G’Kar can be useful to his plot to kill Cartagia, but warns him that he will have to endure great suffering and torture until the time is right.  G’Kar agrees to help on the condition that Londo end the Centauri occupation of Narn. 

Sheridan finds that he has been traveling in circles, while Lorien continues to talk in circles, but eventually reveals that he is from the first sentient race in the entire galaxy, and has been alive for billions of years.  He also reveals that the big ball of energy is his true form, and that he can choose to look more like an organic creature at will.  Lorien also figures out that Kosh is inside of Sheridan, and he points out that both of them need to surrender to death, in order for him to help them.  As he implores Sheridan to let go, and fall into the abyss the fire they sit beside slowly dies.  As the darkness rises up Lorien comforts Sheridan, and he finally does surrender using a last memory of Delenn as his catalyst to come back to life after he is done falling. 

Things are chugging along so far this season, one of the upsides to the compressed schedule is that it feels like lots of big things are happening in every episode, possibly the biggest in this one being G’Kar’s capture.  Next we get the fallout from that, as well as escalations in the Shadow War, in “The Summoning”

Hard to say where you can find Babylon 5 at the moment(maybe Roku Channel?), but I am continuing on with some pretty good quality downloads from Itunes that I made years ago.

Where do I know them from?

• Anthony DeLongis as the sleazy bar owner has a long history in hollywood as an actor and fight coordinator.  He also has a long career as a voice actor and voiced many characters in the Fallout adjacent game series Wasteland.
• Lenny Citrano as our salvager, also has a long TV career, and a long voice acting career including doing voices for Batman:Arkham Knight.

The Good

• The pace is moving along really well, which is shocking when compared to the ten episode streaming tv shows of today.  They had 22 episodes and they still felt the need to get things moving.
• I like Londo and G’Kar having their quiet scene here, the beginning of a truly odd relationship throughout the next two seasons. 

The Bad

• The downside of the speed I talked about was how rushed G’Kar’s capture was.  It makes the character look foolish to basically leave the station and immediately get rounded up by the Centauri authorities. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• We meet Lorien who claims to the first one, and the show pretty much backs him up on it.  
• Garibaldi is being held by Psi-Corps, which make you wonder if the gassing was extra necessary because of Walter Koenig availability.  Part of me does not like this reveal because it undercuts some of what comes next.  Then again since they only had a few episodes to work with they may have felt that they needed a strong explanation.  
• Delenn is planning on a massive assault against Z’Ha’Dum, but we have seen from earlier episodes that many of the league worlds do not support that.
• Sheridan is being asked to let go of much of his humanity in order to purify himself and cheat death.  We will see that this has consequences for his personality later on.