Babylon 5 Episode 11 Season 2
The chickens come home to roost in All Alone in the Night, and the way the story moves forward highlights what a waste of an episode Gropos really was.
Sheridan goes to check out a report of attacks on merchant ships nearby, he says to Ivanova that it’s just routine and he needs to keep his flight hours up. There’s shades of the time Ivanova and Sinclair did a similar mission using pretty much the same excuse. The real reason is prior to becoming captain of Babylon 5 Sheridan was an active fighter and he misses it. Ivanova is the same, and I think that’s why she gives Sheridan a dirty look when he goes off to get suited up and leaves her in command, it also means she’ll probably have to welcome the visiting General Hague on board, and she’s never been comfortable with duties like that. Hague’s name is interesting, I’m pretty sure that there was a British politician by that name, but he spelled it Haig, the way the Babylon 5 general spells it is the same as the place in the Netherlands, and I do wonder if there’s a reference there, it being the home of the international criminal court where all the war criminals are tried.
I’ve always found it odd that they allow someone like Sheridan, who is vital on the station, to go off on a mission like this, where there is the possibility, however slight, of genuine danger. I thought it strange when Sinclair did it, and I think it’s odd again in this episode when Ivanova later on heads the mission to go looking for Sheridan. You’ve lost the captain, why would you send the 2IC off to possibly lose her as well?
As I’ve just given away above Sheridan and his group are attacked by a hostile ship, they don’t know who it belongs to, but the reaction suggests that it isn’t any of the races they are aware of. All, but one of Sheridan’s crew is destroyed; a Lt Ramirez, makes it back to the Babylon 5, although he is badly wounded. Ramirez was one of those characters that are introduced to be killed off later, just so they can establish him. I believe in fan parlance he is what is known as a ‘redshirt’, although he wasn’t wearing a red shirt. We’ve never seen or heard of him before, but he’s apparently friendly with Franklin and Garibaldi, we see him in the bar making a bet with Franklin on the result of a baseball game. They still play baseball in the 23rd century apparently. It’s a Mars team playing an Earth team. Franklin backed the Earth team and Ramirez, being from Mars (does that make them Martians?) put his money on the Mars team. I’m sure they only did this so that Franklin could get extra annoyed when Ramirez died from his injuries. I don’t know that it was needed. Franklin, like Hawkeye Pearce from M*A*S*H, hates anyone dying that he couldn’t save.
Sheridan is captured and winds up on the mystery ship, they seem to be studying him, and he has a hallucination in which he encounters Ambassador Kosh, who says something cryptic, and then Sheridan’s dream ends and he’s back in the bowels of this ship. He teams up with a captured Narn, and they attempt to escape.
While all this is going on Delenn has been summoned by the Grey Council. She thinks that she’ll be able to take her place back on the council, even in her altered form. They disabuse her of this, and to her shock elect another member of the warrior caste to the council. This causes a problem for Delenn, not just because her position has been taken, but because it throws out the balance of the council. It’s always been 3 members from each caste (warrior, worker and religious). Having 4 of any one caste is unheard of and Delenn thinks it will cause a problem, as she has always been suspicious of the warrior caste and believes they want to take control of the Minbari government and resume the war with Earth. Delenn will be allowed to return to Babylon 5 as ambassador, but is left in no doubt that she will not be taken seriously by the council, and is there for appearances sake only.
On her way back to the Babylon 5 Delenn hears about Sheridan’s capture, and reveals that she knows who has taken him. The Minbari have dealt with them before, they’re called the Streib. Hague has called in Sheridan’s old ship; The Agamemnon, to aid Babylon 5 pilots in getting their captain back from the Streib. The Streib space most of the captives, but Sheridan and his Narn friend escape, and the Agamemnon blows up the Streib ship.
There are two significant events at the end of the episode. Sheridan bumps into Kosh on Babylon 5 and the Vorlon ambassador uses the same phrase that he uttered during Sheridan’s fever dream on the Streib ship. What does it mean? Why are you so maddeningly vague and cryptic, Kosh? The other is Sheridan’s meeting with Hague. The two men are friends, and like Sinclair before him, Sheridan was not the first considered for the post on Babylon 5, he’s also opposed by many, but Hague looks to have engineered it. Hague has planted Sheridan on Babylon 5 to assess the loyalty of the human crew (Garibaldi, Ivanova and Franklin) to Earth, but not to President Clark. Hague believes that the assassination of Santiago was planned by Psi-Corps and Clark and he needs people he can trust to work against the government. Sheridan has a meeting with his three trusted and senior staff members and they’re all in. I can’t help think that in a way they just declared war. The season is going to get real interesting from here on in.