We have arrived at the climax of the Shadow War plot and instead of a great big Death Star style confrontation, it ends up being won by ideas and the sharing of information.  As far as sticking to the themes of the show this resolution works pretty well, even if it is a bit of a let down for the audience.  Still it continues to show off Sheridan’s craftiness against long odds.  We also get a nice capper to Londo and Vir’s adventures.

We start off by checking in on Ivanova and Lorien’s quest to find the First Ones. Ivanova is feeling the pressure and is anxious to get back to Babylon 5.  Lorien is more placid, calmly waiting for the last of the First Ones to respond to their signal.  A crazy volcano looking ship arrives and Lorien smugly asks Ivanova if she would like to meet them.  

Elsewhere Sheridan and Delenn lead a White Star fleet against a Vorlon listening post, destroying it to allow their fleet to pass unseen.  They rejoin and we get another look at what Sheridan describes as thousands of ships, all on their way to confront the Shadows and the Vorlons.

Back on Centauri Prime, Londo is spurring the government that he inherited into action.  He demands to assemble the cabinet and then wisely orders every single employee of Cartagia to be removed from the palace.  No civil service in the Centauri government I guess.  

At the station Ivanova prepares to join the rest of the fleet, and ends up chatting with Lorien.  He reveals that he is the last of his race, the others having gotten sick or been injured and died.  Ivanova is skeptical of him, accusing him of lying about his immortality not believing his race could have achieved that technology.  Lorien simply states that his race was born that way, suggesting that the universe itself later decided to grant shorter life spans to the races that followed his. The explanation being somewhat mystical, Ivanova’s doubts are very much not put to rest. 

Londo is busying himself in his palace rooms when the Minister of Intelligence pays him a private visit.  He outlines that Emperor Cartagia had ordered him to look into Lady Adira’s death and he had made a personal report to the emperor that was then ordered sealed.  Since the emperor is dead he has decided that he can share it with Londo.  He reveals that Morden, not Refa, was behind the poisoning of Londo’s one true love.  Londo reacts about as well as you would expect and goes into full wrath mode. 

Londo has Morden dragged into the throne room by the guards.  He gives him a simple order, to withdraw the Shadow ships at once, lest the Vorlons arrive to find them and incinerate the whole planet in response.  Morden refuses, claiming that the Vorlons would never destroy such a populated world. Londo decides to ensure that he and Morden can discuss things privately and has the guards shoot all around Morden, killing his invisible Shadow associates.  Londo then reveals his next trick, blowing up the entire island where the Shadow vessels are based.  Morden rants about the Shadow’s allies taking their revenge someday as he is dragged away. 

Back with Sheridan, the Shadow and Vorlon fleets arrive and begin heading towards each other. Sheridan uses hidden nukes to get both factions to come to him, and a three way battle ensues.  Sheridan tries to reason with the Vorlon’s to call off their planet killer.  When that fails he calls in the First Ones and their crazy looking ships make short work of the massive Vorlon ship. 

While the battle is happening, back on Centauri Prime we get a fun little scene where Vir ends up being the only one that ends up getting exactly what he wants from the Shadows, namely Mr.Morden’s head on a pike.  He even does the little wave he promised.  Londo runs in to let him know that he contacted the Vorlons and gave them all the proof they would need that the Shadows are gone. Vir reluctantly points out that Londo himself is something that has been touched by the Shadows, and the arriving Vorlon fleet appears to confirm his suspicion. Londo is aghast that the Vorlons would kill the whole planet to get him, and to his credit he quickly orders Vir to murder him and present his body to the Vorlons.  Thankfully he is let off the hook by Sheridan who is doing enough damage in the battle that the Vorlons call in all their ships as reinforcements.

At the battle the Shadows and the Vorlons make contact via Lyta with Sheridan and Delenn, trying to reassert their dominance and get them to go back to being followers.  Lorien reveals that this is what Sheridan was hoping to have happen. Lorien uses his crazy First Ones magic to let every single person in the fleet see the conversations that Delenn and Sheridan are having. The Vorlons appear to Sheridan as a woman locked in a block of ice, and the Shadows appear to Delenn as a constantly rotating cast of people. Sheridan and Delenn manage to get through to them a little before they realize that Lorien is broadcasting.  They break contact and decide to just murder the entire fleet.  Before they go though with it they appear again.  Delenn and Sheridan talk to them again while the fleet accepts the missile hits to give them more time.  Sheridan and Delenn reject both philosophies, and Lorien then steps into to gently assure both races that they will still be accepted into the company of their peers that all previously left the galaxy.  And just like that 10,000 years of warfare is ended.  

Londo and Vir discuss the end of the war and how happy they are that it is all over.  Londo also lets Vir know that he is also going back to Babylon 5.  Freeing Narn and killing the emperor were not the most politically popular moves, so he feels that it is best to lay low on the station while the dust settles at the royal court. 

The White Star fleet arrives back at the station, victorious.  Sheridan and Delenn share a quiet moment as they contemplate the future without the Vorlons and Shadows.  Sheridan is wistful that some of the magic is going to be gone, but Delenn is hopeful about what the future holds.

The Shadow War, one of the most consistent plot threads since at least mid season 1 is finally over.  It feels both appropriate and realistic that it was not finished with a military victory but with some talk.  The Vorlons and Shadows had been built up in terms of their strength to have it be believable that they would be beaten with a battle.  We also get the end of Londo and Vir’s homeworld adventures, so things will be back to status quo for a little while, before the other plots need to be closed off as well. Next week we move on to the next stuff with “Ephinanies”

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?

• Julian Barnes shows up as the Centauri intelligence minister.  He had brief appearances in Pacific Rim, and Lost. 

The Good

• The Shadow War is over! As much fun as that plot was, from now on we end up dealing with much less fantastical conflicts which feel a lot more real.

The Bad

• This complaint is only for people that are viewing these episodes but in Itunes and on the old DVD’s this episode had poorly transferred sound which kind of sucks for such a pivotal episode.  

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Londo kills someone that was previously thought to be dead.  Many fans believe this act to mean he has missed one of the chances he had to avoid damnation that Lady Morella gave him.  Others think that failing to stop G’Kar from getting his eye poked out was another.
• We finally get a direct explanation of the “Dawn of the third age” line from the opening credits in years past.  It is the age where the galaxies civilizations will have to stand on their own without secretive benefactors.
• In the future it seems that the Vorlons did a good job of tidying up before they took off, but as we will see the Shadows apparently just shrugged and left behind a ton of incredibly dangerous technology.  
• A lot of races sacrificed a lot to help win the war, and we will get to see the repercussions of that in future episodes which is pretty great.