Garibaldi stumbles around a trashed Zocalo finding the bodies of Sheridan and Zack with messages drawn nearby reading, "YOU FAILED ME" and "WHERE WERE YOU?" He then sees Stephen crawling toward him asking where he's been before someone shoots him. Garibaldi looks around and is stunned to see the shooter is...himself. He stumbles against a bar which begins enveloping him like some kind of ooze as his evil twin tells him not to fight it, the more he does the stronger it gets.
As he's enveloped, Michael bolts awake, stopping to see Lyta sitting at the end of his bed with her eyes glowing. She says she decided to stop hiding what the Vorlons did to her and is testing her limits. She says he shouldn't have woken up and that this is just a dream, it never happened.
Micheal bolts awake and looks around. No one there. Then the door opens and he grabs a gun and points it at the door.
- Lise: It that any way to welcome the love of your life, Michael?
Michael's surprised, wondering what she's doing there. She used the passcode he gave her and decided to surprise him. She's surprised he's still in bed, usually he's up a lot earlier than this. He asks if she saw anyone leaving here. No she didn't, why is someone hiding here? He hopes not, but he's still wondering why she's there.
- Lise: Will you stop being a detective long enough to stop asking questions and say hello properly?
Michael obliges her, then asks what she's doing there. Does she need a reason? She missed him. For now they've got an hour before he needs to be anywhere, plenty of time for a more enthusiastic welcome.
Delenn is grabbing some things from Sheridan's office when a call comes in from Lennier. He informs her of several more attacks that have occurred, but there have also been heavily encoded Centauri transmissions twenty hours before each one. It could be instructions for the attacks but unless he can decode them he has no way to know for sure or where they're going. He asks if Sheridan knows yet, but he's been too busy keeping the Alliance together. Delenn says she'll inform him as soon as they have proof.
Sheridan, meanwhile, appears in the entryway behind her and hides in the corridor. Lennier says he's needed for the next training exercise, and Delenn bids him be careful. The transmission ends and Delenn walks off as Sheridan emerges from his hiding spot.
Lyta is walking with a businessman trying to convince him to allow her to send some of the rogue telepaths on deep space exploration ships. He's reluctant since Psi Corps can provide that, but, she counters, only one at a time per ship and they only do anything if there's a first contact. She argues 200 telepaths investigating a planet would enable them to learn much more about it in the limited amount of time a a commercial schedule permits. And if they find a livable planet with no native sentients, they can claim it as the new telepath homeworld. The man seems intrigued, but refuses. The telepaths they employ have to be members of the Corps, otherwise their insurance wouldn't cover their activities. Also, they have a contract with the Corps, and violating it will have penalties that could be harmful to his company. What she's asking for is simply beyond the capabilities of his or any other company.
- Businessman: You need someone with a lot more resources and no contractual obligations to the Psi Corps. Good luck trying to find him.
As he walks off, Lyta goes to the Babcom terminal and arranges an appointment for later with Ambassador G'Kar.
Londo and Vir are in the Zocalo going over some business, which is surprisingly light. They keep getting requests from Centauri Prime on the trade deals with Alliance worlds, specifically the shipping timetables. But with meetings called off until the attacks are resolved and seemingly every other ambassador cancelling their appointments there's hardly anything else to do. Londo wonders what could be going on.
- Londo: You'd think they don't trust us.
Vir: I don't think anyone trusts anyone right now, Londo.
Londo: (laughs) You say that as if it were a bad thing. No one really trusts anyone, Vir. It is the natural order of things. But until now it has never interfered with business. I find this very strange.
They get up, Vir noting he has the day off, he can do whatever he wants. Londo hasn't been in this position for so long he doesn't know what to do with it. Vir suggests the casino, but Londo's been gambling with such high stakes recently that betting something as mundane as money has lost its appeal. Vir says he's sure Londo will think of something and walks off, leaving Londo alone in the Zocalo, looking around like he's lost.
Lise is drying off from a shower and goes to make some tea. She says Michael needs some normality, so she's decided they're going on a date tonight. As she rummages around the kitchenette, she finds his bottle of liquor. When he comes out of the shower, he finds her sitting at the table staring at it. She wants to talk about it, but Michael tries to blow it off as nothing.
He tries to tell her he's a different person now. He used to be this aimless drifter but now he's got a good job, he's a war hero and he has her. She demands to know why it's there and when he started drinking again. He says she wouldn't understand, but does apologize for not returning her calls. He tries to get her to understand what he's been through, how he's had Bester messing with his head, nearly got executed by the Mars Resistance and he couldn't do anything to stop it. Lise says she's sorry, but he doesn't want pity, he's just tired of being controlled by others, by the past, by everyone's expectations. SO this is his own little act of rebellion. This way, he's at least in control of something.
- Lise: So you don't mind going off the road as long as you're behind the wheel when it happens, is that it?
Michael insists he's not going off the road, he's in full control, and Lise demands he prove it. While she's there, no booze. Garibaldi, after some waffling, agrees and takes the bottle and pours it down the sink as she watches.
The Maria is in hyperspace as Lennier is analyzing some equipment when Captain Montoya finds him. He and Lennier talk a little about the signals they've been receiving, of which he's managed to decode three words: "Do not reply". Montoya believes it to mean they don't want their ships to reveal their position by responding, but Lennier raises the possibility that it could be coming from a ship to a base of some sort. Montoya's intrigues, but if they don't reply you can't find them. Lennier may have a solution; a station like that would have to have a carrier signal running through the jump beacons at all times to be able to communicate in hyperspace. Lennier is devising a way to be able to lock onto that signal and track it to its source.
Just then, another Ranger comes and hands the captain a message. Apparently they've been ordered back to Babylon 5, by President Sheridan.
Sheridan is currently raking Delenn over the coals for ordering Lennier out on a covert spy mission without telling him. And Delenn says he's absolutely right.Sheridan is caught flat-footed, and the wind completely goes out of his sails. She admits it was wrong to send Lennier there without informing him, just as it was wrong for him not to send Lennier there. He's the best one for the job, and they both know it. He knows more about the Centauri than any of the other Rangers. Furthermore, he will do whatever it takes to accomplish his mission. Sheridan protests that she's just saying that because he's her friend, which Delenn readily admits, then points out that's the very reason he did not assign Lennier to do this. Sheridan stares at her, then laughs.
- Sheridan: I called you in here to confront you about using the Rangers to gather covert information without telling me. So, why am I all of a sudden having to defend myself?
Delenn: I did not tell you so you would have deniability in case things went badly. You're being defensive because I'm right. You did not send him because he's my friend.
Sheridan tries to assuage her, recalling the people she's lost over the last year, Marcus, Neroon. He just wanted to protect her.
Then a call comes in from Captain Montoya. Lennier apparently turned off the launch bay sensors on the White Star and took a fighter out. When they turned back to look for him he was gone. He could be anywhere by now. In that fighter, Lennier is doggedly pursuing the Centauri signal, but has found the distance is much longer than his air supply will last. He is thus entering a meditative state to conserve oxygen for as long as possible.
G'Kar is in his quarters when Lyta comes to meet with him. They spend a little time reminiscing about when they first met, and Lyta brings up something he offered way back then. He said she would be "compensated handsomely" for some of her genetic material, either through cloning of her genetic material or...a direct mating.
- G'Kar: Pity. We never did find out what your pleasure threshold is.
But that was years ago, and he asks what he can do for her now. She accepts that proposition. The part where she grants access to her genetic material. The telepathic gene is something they've been trying to rediscover ever since their own telepaths were wiped out by the Shadows. The Shadows are gone, but they are still at a disadvantage to the other races that still do have telepaths. Lyta offers not only her DNA, but the sequences from as many telepaths as they need to find the right one to start breeding their own telepaths, in exchange for certain considerations. First off, money, a lot of it deposited into a private account on Mars. Second at least five deep-range starships, large enough for a couple hundred people. Third: absolute secrecy. That may be an issue, as members of the Alliance do have certain obligations. Lyta counters that each members' internal affairs are their own concerns, and this is an internal affair. She asks him to think it over then heads out.
- Lyta: Oh, and you mentioned wondering what my pleasure threshold is. I just recently found out, I don't have one. Have a very, very nice day, G'Kar.
That evening, Michael and Lise come to the Fresh Air Restaurant. He thinks back to the last time he was here, when Sinclair was getting engaged to Catherine Sakai, and then President Santiago was killed, and he got shot in the back. When he woke up everything was different. Sinclair's gone, Sakai vanished, Ivanova's been transferred and now Franklin's heading back to Earth at the end of the year. Michael's starting to feel like the last one left. Well, until he comes back to Mars. Lise has been trying to get up to speed on the company she now owns, but there's parts she doesn't understand and a lot of it worries her. She then asks how Sheridan reacted when he told them. Michael starts telling her about a particular sirloin, but Lise presses him on it, and he admits he hasn't told them yet.
Just then, the maître d' approaches, asking what they'd like to drink. Lise requests a red wine and Michael asks for coffee. No, really coffee. The maître d' walks off, and Garibaldi starts complaining about how he's getting all wound up when he's supposed to be relaxing. As their drinks arrive, he suggests they have a nice romantic evening, then go back to his quarters to make up for lost time. Lise agrees and Michael takes a sip of coffee, then makes a face. Apparently that's the worst coffee he's ever tasted and he goes off to take care of it...with some alcohol he smuggled in with a flask. The maître d' catches him, noting to bring the "special coffee" out from now on.
Sheridan and Delenn are in his quarters having dinner when a call from Montoya comes in. A full-scale search has turned up nothing, and by now Lennier would be at the very limits of his fighter's life support, if not already beyond them.
Lennier is in a deep meditative state when he gets an alert from the computer of an approaching ship which is following the tachyon stream he's been tracing. He engages stealth and orders the fighter to grapple the side of the ship as it passes. The fighter locks on and begins siphoning oxygen from the other ship. Moments later, it jumps back into normal space, revealing a fleet of Centauri ships clustered around a space station.
Sheridan and Delenn are in bed, Sheridan telling her she did the right thing sending him out. He was the right choice, the logical choice. Delenn insists he's not dead, not until she sees a body.
As morning breaks, Vir wakes Londo with an urgent message from home. Minister Cholini reports that Centauri sources have learned that there seems to be a plot to pin the blame for the attacks on the Centauri, perhaps even going as far as to manufacture evidence to that effect. Londo protests that Sheridan would never do that, but Cholini reminds him that there are others in the Alliance as well, such as the Narns, who would be more than happy to see the Centauri made a scapegoat. G'Kar would also not do this, but Cholini insists that many of his people think he's too close to the Centauri. Cholini promises that if they make moves against the Centauri, they will fight back, which could lead to a war. Londo and Vir can only look at each other.
G'Kar is in his quarters when Lyta comes back. He tells her he's spoken with his government, and they have agreed to her terms. They will offer support, money and ships in return for access to telepath DNA...on the condition that they listen in on the thoughts of the other ambassadors from time to time and report back what they find. Lyta says she'll have to decline. She's capable of a lot of things, but she's still got some decency left and she's not willing to do this. She turns to leave., but G'Kar stops her. That was not actually part of the deal. G'Kar wanted to see how desperate she was and if she had agreed he would have called it off. Since she did not cross that line, he agrees to let it proceed. Lyta gives him a relieved smile.
In hyperspace, the Centauri are about to jump into normal space and Lennier orders his fighter to engage all recorders. The ships jump out on a convoy of Brakiri ships. Ignoring calls of surrender and protests that there are children aboard, they proceed to destroy everything. As they prepare to jump back into hyperspace, Lennier detaches and moves into the debris field to escape notice. After the ships leave, he confirms that they got the recording, then activates a distress signal. Rather than enter another meditative state, he decides to watch and pray.
On Babylon 5, Delenn finds Sheridan getting a report from Montoya. He then tells her that they found Lennier, alive. And he's got the proof they need. Delenn says she knew he would then walks out, seemingly to break into laughter and tears at the same time. Londo passes by, seeing her like that and asks if she's alright. She goes over and gives him a hug.
- Delenn: I have never done that, in all the time you and I have been here, and, uh...I think very soon we will never have another chance.
Londo looks perplexed as Delenn walks off.
The next morning, the White Star arrives and is greeted by Sheridan and Delenn. Delenn says she should be very upset with him, but has decided to overlook it. Sheridan asks about the recording, and Lennier hands it over. Sheridan thanks him and sends him off to get some rest. He leaves and Sheridan stares at the data crystal he left.
- Sheridan: We have worked months to get this information, and n ow that I have it a part of me wants to throw it through an airlock. I was hoping we were wrong, Delenn. Damn it, but I was hoping we were wrong.
Delenn: So was I. But now that we know the truth, we have an obligation to follow where it leads.
She says she will call for a closed session of the Alliance tomorrow morning to present the evidence. Garibaldi shows up a moment later and Sheridan orders him to find Franklin and G'Kar for a meeting in one hour. They're shortly going to need Garibaldi like never before.
Franklin is currently with Londo talking about the catalog he's trying to put together for the Alliance when Vir comes up with an urgent matter for Londo. He excuses himself from the doctor and goes to see what Vir wants. Vir tells him about the council meeting, meaning there must have been a break in the investigation. Londo is still holding out hope they won't try to pin it on them, but Vir tells him everyone's been invited except him. Londo looks over where Franklin has just spoken to Garibaldi, and is looking back in their direction.
- Londo: Oh, I don't like this. I don't like this at all. This is going to be bad.
Lise is getting dinner ready in Michael's quarters when he comes back. He abruptly tells her to leave. Get on the first transport back to Mar, the sooner the better. Lise is confused and Michael is babbling on about how bad everything is, until she asks what he's talking about.
- Michael: I want you to get out of this part of space and back home just as fast as you can, because barring an act of God, and since I don't believe in God, that kind of narrows the odds a bit, by this time tomorrow we're going to be at war with the Centauri.
This episode contains examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Response: Delenn agreeing with his accusations puts Sheridan completely off balance.
- Call-Back:
- Garibaldi recalls the people around him who are already gone, or are about to leave. He specifically mentions the time Sinclair brought him and Ivanova to the Fresh Air Restaurant to announce his engagement to Catherine Sakai, and notes that both of them have disappeared.
- To survive Lennier enters a meditative state.
- Lyta and G'Kar talk about the proposal he made when she was first there.
- Lennier said he joined the Rangers partly to fill the gap left by Marcus, and here he takes the exact kind of action Marcus would have. In fact, this more or less is what Marcus' final act was.
- Catapult Nightmare: Garibaldi, at the beginning of the episode.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When Lise asks if Michael's told the others he's going back to Mars, he starts talking about steaks.
- Character Development: When we first met Londo, seemingly his default location was in the casino. Now, it's barely worth mentioning to him.
- Chekhov's Skill: The meditatve state we saw last episode becomes vital here.
- Continuity Nod:
- Commercial insurance policies only cover telepaths in the Corps.
- Sheridan mentions the deaths of Marcus and Neroon.
- Franklin talks to Londo about his interspecies catalog.
- Garibaldi's Pillow Pistol makes a reappearance
- Determinator: Lennier, part of the reason Delenn sent him on this mission, though he takes it a little further than even she expects.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Garibaldi's relating everything he's been through, Lise says she's sorry, and he barks, "I don't want you to be sorry".
- First-Name Basis: When meeting with him, Lyta asks G'Kar to use her first name.
- Hug and Comment: After receiving word that Lennier is alive, and has the proof they need, Delenn runs into Londo and hugs him. When he asks what that was for, she tells him she has never done it before, and now fears she will never get another chance.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Garibaldi's dream fits the events of the previous season.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Londo notes that the royal court has never been interested in trade timetables before.
- Personal Horror: Garibaldi's dream features his version of this.
- Plausible Deniability: Part of Delenn's reasoning not to tell Sheridan about Lennier's mission.
- Rule of Symbolism: When Garibaldi puts his hand on the bar in his dream, it starts to completely engulf him.
- Secret Test of Character: G'Kar gives one of these to Lyta by telling her that to get support for the rouge human telepaths from the Narn government, she and her comrades would have to telepathically spy on the other ambassadors. This is one line Lyta is unwilling to cross and she tells G'Kar the deal is off as she prepares to leave his quarters. G'Kar stops her and tells her that spying on others was never part of the deal, but that he did it to test her and make sure he could trust her, and that if she had agreed to spy for him the deal would have been off since he wouldn't be able to trust her.
- Watering Down: Garibaldi sneaks off to make some "special" coffee with the flask he has with him.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Lise is not happy to find a bottle of alcohol in Michael's quarters.
- Sheridan was also pretty mad over Delenn sending out Lennier behind his back. She admits her mistake and apologises before he gets to finish though.
