Season 1, Episode 7:
The War Prayer
Delenn is entertaining Shaal Mayan, a renown Minbari poet and an old friend of hers in her quarters. They have spent the evening reminiscing, but must part for the evening, as Mayan is preparing to travel to Earth to present one of her works and Delenn's day begins even earlier. As Mayan walks down the corridor, strange sounds are heard, and a shadow moves in the darkness. As she looks around in fear she is suddenly stabbed in the stomach. As she falls to the ground a strange mark is burned into her forehead and a human voice says, "Stay away from Earth, freak!"
The next morning an enraged Delenn is in Sinclair's office demanding answers. When he says they are doing all they can, she retorts, "Then you are required to do better, Commander. Much better!" Garibaldi notes that this is the sixth attack on a prominent alien, and that the perpetrators are known as Home Guard, an anti-Alien group that is growing in influence. Sinclair wants them dealt with before they undermine Babylon 5's mission, but Garibaldi says there are too many who agree with them and even more that don't care.
In Medlab Garibaldi is asking Mayan about the attack. She remembers only a shadow, and can think of no one who would want to harm her for any reason.
A Centauri transport arrives at the station, requesting security take custody of some detainees. Ivanova sends Garibaldi to deal with it, but he manages to blackmail her into going instead. She finds a pair of Centauri youth, who demand to see "Ambassador Cotto." As she sends them off, she turns and sees an old friend, Malcolm Biggs. She is on duty and doesn't spare him much time, though...at least for now.
In Sinclair's office an annoyed Londo asks what the problem is. Sinclair says, "I suggest you ask Ambassador Cotto." Londo looks at Vir. "Who?" Vir introduces his cousin Kiron and his lover Aria. They were arrested for stealing credit chits and Sinclair is turning them over to Londo's custody. Back in his quarters, he finds out they are runaways and asks why. Because they were both in arranged marriages, he to the ugliest woman on Centauri Prime, and she to a man old enough to be her father. Londo concludes both must be rich and powerful and commends their families on excellent choices. He urges them to go through with it, that it is their duty to Centauri Prime. They are not impressed.
Garibaldi, meanwhile, has found a person of interest, someone who was caught with an unauthorized weapon, one that has fresh blood on it. He claims it's his own, but his attitude suggests his sympathies would lie with Home Guard.
Sinclair has gone to see Ambassador Kosh, to ask for help in dealing with the other ambassadors, but the Vorlon says, "We take no interest in the affairs of others." Sinclair again asks for a hand...then trails off. He notices that Kosh is viewing images from Earth. When he asks why, Kosh says he is studying, but won't say what or why.
In C&C, Sinclair tells Ivanova about something that he could never figure out. When Kosh first came on board he was nearly killed by a poison patch administered through the hand, but since he wears an encounter suit, it should have been completely covered. Susan wonders if they really need those suits or if they're just to keep other races from seeing what's inside.
Londo is now taking the heat from the lovers' outraged families. Vir protests that they love each other, but Londo dismisses it as overrated, and shows Vir a picture of his own three wives, "Pestilence," "Famine," and "Death." Arranged marriages each one, but they worked out and inspired him, keeping him on Babylon 5, 75 light years away.
Garibaldi's suspect turns out to be a dead end, so he sets him loose and puts a tail on him, figuring he might attract a recruiter. The situation is getting tense, fights are starting to break out, and the very purpose of Babylon 5 is in danger of collapsing.
Ivanova is having dinner...with Malcolm, who persuaded her to join him. He says he is moving to the station permanently to set up a business, this way they can be together.
Another couple is enjoying time together, but Kiron and Aria are suddenly attacked by figures that seem to appear out of thin air. Kiron gets shot, and Aria is stunned. Later in Medlab, they are both recovering. Aria is only shaken up but Kiron is still unconcsious.
Elsewhere on the station, a riot is on the verge of breaking out. G'Kar is on a walkway calling for the non-humans to fight back against the attackers. Sinclair tries to reason with them but Garibaldi realizes anything they could say would only make a bad situation worse. He tells G'Kar to leave and they'll just call it a misunderstanding. G'Kar backs down. Shortly thereafter, Garibaldi's mark is attacked by aliens.
Susan and Malcolm go back to her quarters but they are interrupted by Sinclair calling her to a meeting. The riots are dying down...for the moment, but the only way it'll stay that way is if they put Home Guard out of business.
In Medlab, Aria wants to be near Kiron, but Dr. Franklin won't allow it. She asks Londo to intervene, but he tells her to go back to her quarters. Mayan, still recovering herself, overhears and takes the ambassador aside. They have a frank discussion about the nature of young love, which Londo tries to dismiss, but begins to realize that doing so would cause them to become like him.
Garibaldi has had a break. His suspect from earlier was just visited...by Malcolm Biggs. Ivanova is deeply torn to learn her ex-lover is part of Home Guard. Sinclair asks her to introduce them.
At a diplomatic function, he goes out of his way to be rude to aliens, much to Delenn's astonishment, but Biggs approves, and later they are in Sinclair's quarters, telling about his experiences in the war. Biggs is intrigued enough to invite him to meet some "friends." But first, he wants a favor.
The favor turns out to be telling the alien representatives that the attackers have fled back to Earth, but the lack of detail only makes them angrier.
Sinclair and Ivanova prepare for their next meeting with Biggs. They don't have an exact location, but it's somewhere in the Zocalo, and they will maintain a link with Garibaldi.
In Medlab, Londo comes to Aria and the now-awakened Kiron and tells them he has made new arrangements. They will go to live with his second cousin on Centauri Prime, and once they are old enough they will be able to choose who they want to marry.
As Sinclair arrives at the meeting place, figures materialize out of thin air, a classified technology called Blacklight, given by "friends" in Earthforce R&D. Biggs explains that soon there will be a mass assassination, targeting all the major ambassadors on the station, which will signal their counterparts on Earth to take out the ambassadors there. They are ready to induct Sinclair, but first they want him to kill an alien. Sinclair stalls for a bit, but Garibaldi's team rushes in and a firefight breaks out. Eventually the Home Guard members, including Biggs, are captured.
The next day, as they are about to be shipped to Earth, Biggs asks Ivanova how she could side with the aliens. She replies she finds them more human than him.
This episode contains examples of:
- Altar Diplomacy: Part of what the Arranged Marriages are for.
- Appeal to Tradition: Londo's defense of the arranged marriages relies entirely on this. He eventually reflects on how miserable being bound by tradition has made his own life, and helps them out by exploiting another old tradition.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Shaal Mayan starts the process that Vir later finishes:Londo: [Aria and Kiron] will learn to live without love.
Mayan: As you did? - Arranged Marriage: A first look at Centauri marriages, which are entirely political in nature. Kiron says he is to marry “the ugliest woman on Centauri Prime” while Aria is betrothed to "a man old enough to be her grandfather". Londo, cynical after three arranged marriages of his own, merely tells them "ugly and old, yes? Then their families must be both rich and powerful. I commend your parents on fine choices".
- Continuity Nod: Apparently Ivanova has kept Takashima's coffee plant.
- Fantastic Racism: A general hatred of non-humans on the part of the Home Guard. Lampshaded by the casting of one of the Home Guard members: an Asian man who spouts the rhetoric of a stereotypical white supremacist. JMS has stated that he was working with the idea that after contact with aliens, humans would begin to view each other as all being "normal" no matter their differences, and prejudices would turn towards other races.
- Fish People: This episode marks the first appearance of the Abbai, one of the minor aliens involved in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds.
- Happiness Realized Too Late: Londo Mollari relates something his father said when he has a Heel Realization and allows two young Centauri to get out of their arranged marriages.Londo: Something my father said. He was... Old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting, alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight. But it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Londo's wives are Famine, Pestilence, and Death, which implies that Londo is War.
- Hypocrite: The ending has Delenn and G'Kar both tutting disapprovingly at human hatred. Delenn who started a genocidal war in a ragenote , and G'Kar who is entirely defined by his hatred of the Centauri. Not to mention, the sentiments they express about how incomprehensible and disturbing human behavior can be is not all that different from Homeguard's own anti-alien rhetoric.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Sinclair is placed in this situation by Home Guard; asked to murder a member of the Abbai delegation in order to prove his intentions.
- The Infiltration: Sinclair attempts one with Home Guard. He doesn't go so far as to be initiated into the group, though.
- Invisibility Cloak: The Blacklight suits.
- Irony: G'Kar joining Delenn and Mayan in shaking their heads at Humans' racial hatred...this despite his own burning racial hatred of the Centauri. For that matter, given her history, Delenn's actions here might be a more subtle example of irony, albeit one that was not apparent during the initial run.
- It's All Junk: After Susan learns of Biggs's involvement with Home Guard, she throws away the flower he got her.
- Pet the Dog: Londo arranging for Kiron and Aria to be fostered by his family, enabling them to marry each other once they grow a bit older without disgracing their families.
- Rabble Rouser: G'Kar starts stirring up a crowd of aliens, urging them to take action. Commander Sinclair and Chief Garibaldi arrive to try and defuse the situation, but Garibaldi realizes anything they say will only make them angrier, and has G'Kar either back down and they'll call it a misunderstanding, or his forces will take him by force. G'Kar backs down, but the damage has been done and tensions aboard the station reach an all-time high.Sinclair: I could strangle that damn G'Kar!
- The Runaway: Kiron and Aria.
- Shame If Something Happened: Garibaldi, early in the episode, threatens Ivanova's unauthorized coffee plant this way.
- The War Just Before: Sinclair is able to use resentment from the Minbari War to convince Biggs he's the kind of guy Homeguard is looking for.
- What the Hell, Hero?: This is the first time in the series where we see Vir stand up to Londo (here, for making the two young lovers unhappy in the name of "tradition"). It will not be the last time.
