Babylon 5 2-22: The Fall of Night

Episode:

44

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

01-Nov-1995

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, this is it, I've reached the epic season finale of Babylon 5 season two! Well I'm just assuming it's epic to be honest, I haven't seen it in ages. But if it's half as good as season one's finale, Chrysalis... then I'll be only two-thirds satisfied with it, so ideally it'll be a little better than that.

In the last few episodes we've gone from a Long, Twilight Struggle to The Fall of Night, so things seem to have been getting darker. It made me wonder if this theme had been running through other titles this year, so I looked through an episode list and found Geometry of Shadows and The Long Dark near the start, and All Alone in the Night sitting there in middle. So no, I can't say I saw any journey into darkness in the titles.

I didn't see Janet Greek's name in the 'directed by' column all that much either, but I guess she'd earned a rest after Signs and Portents, Chrysalis, Points of Departure and The Coming of Shadows. Actually she was apparently suffering from pneumonia, but she came back just in time for the end of the season, before vanishing again for the next two years. Anyway she's a good director and that makes me think this will be good.

If you've just gotten hold of some second hand DVDs and you're watching the series for the very first time you might be thinking about listening to the commentary by showrunner jms and maybe even checking out some of those special features. I wouldn't recommend it though, because there's SPOILERS in there for later seasons. You're safe reading this review though, provided you've watched the episode and all the ones leading up to it, as I won't say a thing about where it's all going. Nothing that Ivanova doesn't spoil herself anyway.

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The episode begins with Starfuries shooting Starfuries! But it's just Zeta Squadron practicing combat manoeuvres under the tutelage of Captain Sheridan. Which means that Warren Keffer's finally back in the series! But he immediately gets shot by another pilot and killed in one hit. RIP Keffer.

Fortunately if you die in combat training you don't die in real life, so they don't have to take Keffer out of the opening titles just yet. They probably should though, as the only character who's been around less than him this year is Na'Toth and that's because her actress was fired after her second episode and they didn't want to recast the character a second time.

They should also get him a new Starfury, as it looks like there's a chunk of the cockpit frame missing on the left of Keffer's head. Plus I'm bit concerned by the way it seems to be made out of wood. The Starfury I mean.

Apparently episode two of season two was the point where the network stopped giving jms notes and just left him to run his series. But that was after they'd told him to add a hot shot pilot to the cast for episode one (Points of Depature), which is a character type that jms doesn't appreciate much. He doesn't appreciate being told to add characters at all really. So that's the secret explanation for why Keffer has been in exactly six episodes this season, two less than Zack Allan, despite being in the opening credits: the producer didn't want him there to begin with. Doesn't explain what happened with Talia though.

Funnily enough I remember reading that the same thing happened with the spin-off series Crusade, as jms was asked to add a hot shot pilot to that as well (who appeared in precisely two episodes).

Down in the Zocalo, Lennier and Vir meet up for a drink and it seems like something they've been doing for a while, even though we've never seen it. Though Vir's the only one who actually has a drink in his hands, as alcohol sends Minbari into a homicidal rage. Lennier's frustrated that he's being shut out of the important things, Vir's bothered that Londo's changed so much that he even looks different (has he seen Delenn lately?), and no one ever listens to either of them!

The scene only lasts about 30 seconds, then Vir says "Same time tomorrow?" and they're gone. I can't remember these two ever saying a word to each other before, and I think it should've happened more often as they're a great match. They both started out so idealistic, naive and childlike, but now their bosses are working on either side of an ancient conflict between light and darkness spanning millennia and they've got no one to talk about it to. Not that they can share their secrets with each other.

Oh damn, now I'm imagining what how things would've turned out if Vir had been Delenn's attaché and Lennier had been working with Londo. Vir would be so happy Delenn is doing the right thing all the time, Lennier would be down the strip club every week, and Sheridan would be spared from eating his terrible flarn. That would've been the best timeline.

Meanwhile, Sheridan's in the co-ed locker room getting his uniform back on and telling Ivanova how much they suck. The Centauri are becoming more of a threat all of the time and their pilots need to raise their game. Ivanova reassures him that if they don't improve she'll issue live ammo to inspire them to try harder.

The other pilots getting changed in the background seem visibly concerned about this, especially the one whose head immediately whips around in shock. Good acting from the extras there.

Speaking of the Centauri, Sheridan goes off to a meeting with the Drazi and pak'ma'ra ambassadors, who reveal that they've invaded both of their territories and are preparing to attack the other races as well.

It's starting to become obvious why the Centauri get to sit at the big table with the Minbari and the Vorlons, as they seem to have the power to take the entire League of Non-Aligned Worlds on at once and righ now they're giving it a try. Plus they can always ask a favour of Mr Morden if they need a bit of help. It's like if Nazi Germany was working with Cthulhu.

Also this is the end of the teaser so the Drazi ambassador mentions that the Centauri might attack Babylon 5 as well, just to add a bit of a hook and encourage people to stick around and watch the season two titles one last time. 

ACT ONE

Act one begins with Londo being summoned to Sheridan's office like he was lowly season one Londo. He feels like he deserves a lot more respect these days, but what he gets from Sheridan is shouting. Seems that the Centauri invading other races' territory has pissed him off a little. We know from last episode that Londo's not overly happy about it either, but he doesn't give any of that away here, explaining that they're creating a buffer zone to lessen tensions!

Sheridan asks him to show him on the map where this is going to end, because it doesn't seem like it will. Londo tells him that his authority ends at Babylon 5 and not to get delusions of grandeur because he won't survive them. So that went well. I'm not sure what Sheridan was expecting really. Maybe he just wanted to start the episode off with a scene that establishes what's going on and why people are concerned.

Though it could've gone worse. Sheridan could've blurted out "Actually I'm one of the leaders of a secret Army of Light so I do have authority away from the station, and I was tested for delusions of grandeur by Jack the Ripper last episode and I passed! So shut up!"

Cut to Sheridan and Garibaldi chatting in a completely different set that just happens to look the same. I thought they were still in his office at first, until I realised the view out of the window was a little different and noticed the tables. Garibaldi reveals Londo's secret: the guy's scared of where this is all going the same as they are, but he's scared of getting thrown off so he's holding on even harder. We've definitely been getting different Londos depending on who he's with. He's a very different person alone with Vir than he is with Refa, or with Sheridan.

Sheridan feels like Earth Dome won't be ignoring the problem for much longer though, not now other races are involved. And just then he gets a call saying that Frederick Lantz from the Ministry of Peace is here! For a guy running the Conspiracy of Light against his own government he seems surprisingly optimistic about someone from the Minister of Peace turning up. You know, the people giving out Nightwatch arm bands.

At least it means that Earth's taking the Centauri situation seriously and they've sent someone who's going to do something about it.

Then the episode cuts to more pilots getting changed! Actually I think some of them might be the same pilots getting changed.

Keffer wonders what's got Sheridan so rattled, and another pilot suggests that it might be the ghost that's in hyperspace. Keffer's ears prick right up at that. He got told to stop chasing it four episodes back in Confessions and Lamentations, but he's clearly still plenty obsessed.

He goes off to the Zocalo to chat with a veteran pilot from one of the older squadrons who wear red scarves, but he seems to have a chip on his shoulder about Zeta Squadron being considered hot shit. So there's apparently a rivalry between squadrons that the show hasn't even hinted at until now. Keffer eventually gets him to talk, but all he says is that he'd be crazy to go after the thing.

Meanwhile someone's getting slapped in the customs area. They're not even characters, it was just a thing to start the scene with, as the camera pans over to reveal Frederick Lantz coming off a ship, along with a guy called Mr Welles, who's in charge of the Nightwatch program!

It's hard to know how genuine the friendly handshakes are, but Sheridan and Ivanova do seem pleased to see the two of them. They may just be relieved that neither of them are anyone's old friend or mentor, which typically leads to a some kind of catastrophe hitting the station. They get Lantz set up in an office that looks suspiciously like the ambassadors' quarters, and then Ivanova helps him find his pen.

Lantz mentions that it's Christmas soon, which indicates that this is almost, but not quite, exactly 12 months after the last season finale, Chrysalis, which took place around New Year's. Ivanova deduces that he has grandchildren, and he reveals that he's out here doing this because he wants to give them a better world. Wow, against all odds he actually seems like a genuinely nice guy. To the point where even Ivanova likes him.

Meanwhile in C&C they're detecting a jump point forming on the other side of Epsilon III where "nobody else but us can see it." I guess they're counting Draal as 'us' now. And it's a Narn heavy cruiser that's survived the war! Warleader Na'Kal of the star cruiser G'Tok hails them and explains that Babylon 5 is their only hope and they're requesting sanctuary. He doesn't tell them that he's played by Robin Sachs from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Box Office America, but I could totally tell even with him under the Narn makeup.

ACT TWO

After the break, Mr Welles drops by Ivanova's quarters for no tea and an informal chat. Oh damn, I only just remembered that Welles is the same actor who plays Neroon! He's playing the role so differently I didn't even realise.

He asks Ivanova if she's happy where she is right now, and she is. Though in five years time she can see herself running the station herself, or maybe even her own ship. That's the good thing about the series only having a five year arc: characters can be ambitious without the risk of writing themselves out of the series, unlike poor Will Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Welles reveals that if she helps the Nightwatch by passing along certain information they could maybe shave a couple of years off that. I guess she's already earning too much money for him to offer her 50 credits a week like the others.

She admits she does have access to lots of information and he's just confirmed what she's heard about Nightwatch. So that's a 'no'. She's not even going to consider joining up to pass along fake intel as a double agent.

I read somewhere that this scene had to be added later as padding because of a problem with the guest actors being too good. They delivered their lines so fast that the episode was running three minutes short. I don't know how true that is, but they are pretty good.

Speaking of good actors, Sheridan's basically given G'Kar his Christmas present early this year by showing him the renegade Narn ship. Wait, it's not early at all, this is Christmas!

Sheridan explains that he's giving them equipment to make repairs and after that's done he'll notify Lantz. So either Lantz is staying for a while or they're planning on getting the cruiser fixed in an afternoon. G'Kar seems even more excited to learn that someone from Earth is finally going to get involved in the Centauri situation and rushes off to talk to Lantz himself.

Mr Welles has made it down to the Nightwatch clubhouse by this point and is giving Zack a hard time for not reporting dockworkers sabotaging efficiency (being late for work), lurkers speaking to reporters about their poor conditions, and shop owners criticising presidential decisions. Zack explains that he figured they'd be able to exercise their own discretion on who the troublemakers are, but Welles tells him that's not how this works.

But Nightwatch is a nice friendly organisation who just wants everyone to come around to their vision of a fascist society where no one has the freedom to criticise the government, so he decides to help Zack out rather than punish him. He tells him that they've already gotten a report about a store owner someone else has handed in, and they just need him to confirm it. He won't be informing on anyone, they already have the information, they just want him to corroborate it and make himself complicit. What a dick.

Zack really hesitates, but this could be the end of his job (or worse), plus everyone is staring at him, so he confirms it. I'm sure Ivanova would've still told Welles no even while surrounded by coworkers who were already on board and with no one to back her up, but I feel for poor Zack.

Meanwhile G'Kar meets Lantz in the corridor, who quickly makes his exit once he realises who he is. So that's a bit of a concern. Lantz is the guy they're counting on to get Earth to take a stand again the Centauri to stop their expansion and protect races like the Narns, but he doesn't want to speak to G'Kar and he doesn't seem to even recognise that he's a Narn!

Also Keffer's new friend from the other squadron gets him the info he needs to track down a Shadow ship. Though he does warn him that if he uses it then he'll be heading for certain death.

Over in C&C, Sheridan tells the Narn cruiser that they can take their jump engines offline as the station will protect them while the repairs take place.

Just then Lantz and Welles show up after hearing troubling reports... about Sheridan conducting fighter exercises using Centauri combat models. Sheridan's a bit concerned that this information leaked out, but has to admit it's true.

Lantz wants it stopped immediately as it jeopardises his mission. Turns out that he's actually here to make a non-aggression treaty with the Centauri! An Earth-Centauri Alliance even! A bit of appeasement should keep Earth Alliance safe and out of the fighting, as the Centauri trample over everyone else's territory. Then just to beat us over the head about what's happening here, he even drops the famous "peace in our time" line! I was half-expecting Sheridan to pull a Star Trek VI and say "Earth, Chamberlain, 1938."

I've decided that the scene works best if Lantz is misquoting a phrase he's heard before but isn't too sure of what the context is, because then it shows that this is a guy who doesn't know his history and is about to doom them all to repeat it. Sheridan definitely recognises the line though, as he was talking with Zack about the bombing of Coventry just the other day. (The actor, Roy Doltrice would've recognised it too as he was in World War II, and spent years as a prisoner of war).

Anyway, it's beginning to seem like it's probably best not to tell them about the Narn ship after all.

ACT THREE

Act three begins with one of the officers from C&C telling Welles about the Narn ship. She's part of Nightwatch too! Shame Lyta couldn't have scanned for that when they brought everyone into Sheridan's office to see if they were sleeper agents, but sadly scanning people for disloyal thoughts kind of makes you into the Orwellian villains you're trying to fight.

Meanwhile Sheridan and Ivanova share their frustration in his office, talking about how Earth wants peace and is going to sacrifice everyone else to get it, which will put the Centauri in a stronger position when they finally decide that we're next. Sheridan's so disgusted by his government that he isn't even that keen on his uniform jacket anymore. It used to mean something to him, but now it's just cloth.

It's a shame Ivanova doesn't know about the Shadows, because then the two of them could've brought up how Earth remaining at peace with the Centauri during their conquest is totally different to the Army of Light remaining at peace with the Shadows while they secretly help the Centauri. They could've mentioned that the Rangers and Vorlons are still preparing for their fight, but Earth is good to go right now and is choosing to allow the Centauri to go unchecked, or something.

But they do at least mention that it's Christmas, and Ivanova's gotten him a present!

It's a scrap of metal, just what he always wanted!

She explains that it's a piece of the Black Star, the Minbari ship he destroyed in the Earth-Minbari War (mentioned way back at the start of the season). It's a reminder that he's done the impossible before and can do it again. The last episode, Comes the Inquisitor, was all about someone trying to make people believe that they couldn't achieve their dreams. This is the opposite of that in a box! And now he has to find a place for it where Delenn will never find it.

Just then Londo gets on the screen behind them, which is apparently a thing he can do. I don't know why he bothered to bug the office that one time when he has a button on his video phone that gives him an instant feed of everything that's going on in there. Sheridan has to come up with a bullshit excuse and start a diagnostic just to get rid of him.

They realise that someone from the Ministry of Peace must have found out about the Narn cruiser and leaked it to Londo, who no doubt informed his government first before calling them, so now they need to race to C&C to prepare for the Centauri vessel they know is on its way. Sheridan gave his word that he'd protect the Narn ship, so he feels he's got to do it, even though it's clearly not what Earth wants.

Anyway, here's a shot of the back of our heroes' heads. I was going to point out the obvious boom mic above them but then I noticed something even better. There are crew members just hanging out on the left side of the frame! Studio crew I mean, not station crew.

Lantz is pretty flustered about Sheridan launching Zeta Squadron at a Centauri ship, but he explains that they don't have a treaty yet so he has to protect the ship he offered sanctuary to. Then he has Lantz escorted out and tells Londo that if anyone fires on his fighters they'll respond with deadly force. I feel like I've seen this scene already in And Now for a Word.

Then they activate the defence grid.

1-13: Signs and Portents

But it's not the rubbish old defence grid we saw in Signs and Portents.

It's the brand new upgraded defence grid they got in GROPOS!

These new guns were activated once in And Now for a Word, but this is the first time we've seen them.

Wow, that Narn ship really has a chunk taken out of it. It's a good thing they're moving to the jumpgate instead of trying to jump using their own engines because I feel like they'd probably explode the same way that the Narn cruiser in And Now for a Word did.

The Centauri cruiser moves to intercept, targeting the Narn vessel and Zeta Squadron... and Babylon 5. It's getting so serious that they close the C&C blast doors. You'd think this would be a good time to give Draal a call, but then they they wouldn't get to show off their new guns.

And the cruiser opens fire on both the Narn ship and the station! I was waiting for it to fade out for the act break, but the act's still going.

I don't know what the Centauri plan is here, dissuade Babylon 5 from shooting them by shooting first? Maybe they're just that arrogant, that they think attacking and possibly destroying an Earth station with a Minbari and a Vorlon ambassador on board won't bite them in the ass. But they've given Sheridan no choice, so he opens fire... with his interceptors, to block the incoming shots before they impact the hull.

But after all that training that Zeta Squadron has been going through to teach them how to take on Centauri fighters, it seems that the cruiser can't actually launch any, so they're free to fly over for a strafing run.

In GROPOS, General Franklin said that the upgraded defence grid would be able to take on a warship and it's doing a pretty good job so far, but the interceptors are only blocking most of the incoming fire, not all of it, and a few stray shots tear through one of the tines at the front of the station.

That... seems fairly bad. Also, woo lens flare!

Apparently those two prongs are only there to help secure ships that are offloading cargo into the zero-g bay behind them, so it's not actually a huge disaster to lose one. If those shots had penetrated the cylinder section though they'd be needing to find themselves a whole lot of replacement air, so it's a good thing they were only attacked by one ship really.

Sheridan's not playing around now though. He throws everything they have against the Centauri vessel, obliterating it, while the Narn ship escapes to the jumpgate. And Babylon 5 station survives yet another year. Sooner or later boom, but not quite yet. Now it's time for the act break.

ACT FOUR

So now Sheridan has to somehow justify the fact that he aided a Narn vessel and blew up a Centauri warship. He doesn't exactly help his case by saying "You can't reason with them!" as he sounds like season one G'Kar. Fortunately it turns out that the treaty hadn't been signed yet and he was following regulations every step of the way, so it was morally and legally the right choice! It was Lantz and Welles' fault really for tipping off the Centauri and escalating the situation. And he's not about to apologise for defending the station.

Except he has to, as the Centauri are willing to drop the whole matter in exchange for an apology from Sheridan, and he's been given a direct order from the joint chiefs and the president. If he doesn't go along with it he loses his job. So much for Babylon 5 giving notice to the parliaments of conquerors.

Meanwhile Zeta squadron has been escorting the Narn ship through hyperspace, but Keffer decides to break off to go check out neutrino emission from a Shadow vessel.

Sheridan's in full dress uniform now practicing the apology speech he's written in the mirror. Honestly if the goal is to keep his job after this I think he could've come up with something better:

"I apologise. I'm sorry. I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell."

Dude, you're supposed to be leading an Army of Light and a Conspiracy of Light and you can't do that if you're fired from the Fortress of Light. This is not the time to find a loophole, you need to be smarter about this, think about it tactically! I could absolutely respect Ivanova sticking to her principles earlier, but this seems like a needless risk. Unless he feels that his own image is important to the cause, which is probably true to be fair.

Speaking of dumb ideas, Keffer finally finds his Shadow vessel in hyperspace and begins following it.

They've extended the Zen Garden set! It used to stop at the sloping blue wall so its considerably bigger now. Also the train is in a different place. I'm starting to think this may actually be a different Zen Garden.

Incidentally they had to take the Medlab set apart to make room for this. They were going to put it all right back afterwards for next season, but they decided that they never liked filming in there so they used this as an excuse to build a new Medlab for season 3.

I've noticed that everyone's talking amongst themselves, even Kosh has a chat with Delenn, but Londo stands completely alone. Delenn's aide Lennier is there and Vir was in the episode earlier, so they could've put him in the scene, but they apparently chose not to in order to make Londo seem more isolated. I've also noticed that the scene is strangely tense, as it's intercut with scenes of Sheridan walking through the Zocalo to catch a train.

But then we get a surprise comedy moment as Ivanova finds G'Kar in the Zen Garden hiding behind a plant! He thought that it'd maybe it'd help if he said a few words on Sheridan's behalf. I guess to convince the League of Non-Aligned worlds that he's not on team Centauri now. It's nice to see him pay back some of the support Sheridan's given to him.

Cut to Keffer realising that the Shadow vessel has seen him, then quickly ejecting his flight recorder.

And Keffer's incinerated inside his helmet. RIP Keffer.

Though the script doesn't actually say that he dies, only that he's hit by a white light and considered to be missing (jms was trying to avoid having to tell the actor he wouldn't be back next season).

So that's the second of the main cast to die (after Talia), if you can count a guy who showed up in six episodes to be part of the main cast. It's hard to feel sorry for him though, as everyone told him not to do this. He disobeyed a direct order from Ivanova, he ignored the guy from the other squadron, and then he flew right at the ship that killed the previous Zeta Leader and nearly killed him once before. I feel like there had to be steps he could've taken to investigate this ship before going straight to a suicide run.

Meanwhile Sheridan's still riding his train.

The station interior got a new 3D model in this episode and they've redesigned the light strip so the core shuttle tracks won't cast huge shadows across the ground anymore. Now there are three of them, arranged to shine directly into the shuttle's windows, blinding the occupants. It's not quite at its final design yet (which we've seen already in the Special Edition of The Gathering), but it's 95% of the way there and looks a lot better.

Though the first time I watched this I had no idea it had been changed. Probably because the last time I'd seen anyone on a core shuttle was probably in Chrysalis back in season one. The characters must be riding them every time they go to somewhere like the Zen Garden or the baseball field but we never see get to see it anymore. Well except for now, obviously.

We also get to the interior of the core shuttle, where all colours except yellow and red are forbidden. Even Sheridan's hair looks grey for some reason. 

Though I suppose there's a bit of purple on that bomb left there on the seat by a Centauri. I still miss the roller coaster seats from the pilot movie.

You've got three options when you're sitting opposite a bomb on the train: you can either do nothing, you can try to disarm it, or you could throw yourself out the door, and Sheridan decides to go with option three. Actually there's a fourth option: he could've tried to throw the bomb out of the door, but that's not very nice for the people below.

Though if he could've gotten the bomb off that seat and out the door in time this would've actually worked out a lot better for him, and the train. At least it got to go out in a pretty explosion, showing off how good Foundation Imaging had gotten with compositing by this point. I have no idea why its so dark though; those light strips should be as bright as a floodlight.

It's hard to get a feeling for how fast Sheridan's moving right now, as there's no wind, but the good news is that the station doesn't have real gravity, it just spins really fast, so he won't be accelerating to terminal velocity. The bad news is the ground spins really fast, 60 miles an hour according to Ivanova, and he's also moving sideways at the same speed as the train. So he's got just 30 seconds to be grateful that he doesn't have to give that apology anymore.

The rescue jetpacks won't make it in time, so Delenn tells Kosh he needs to make a move now or they'll lose him. So he sneaks out of his encounter suit while everyone's distracted and after three years we finally get to see what he looks like under there!

And it's multiple choice. Every ambassador in the Zen Garden sees him as a different angelic figure the same race as them (except with weird looking wings). So now we know what Lyta didn't want to tell everyone back on Earth after she'd seen inside his suit. This also explains how he could extend his hand to Sheridan in greeting back in The Gathering.

Incidentally, the Narn version (G'Lan) was spoiled on the cover of the VHS, though I suppose they didn't write "This is Kosh by the way." underneath it.

And now everyone watching this has suddenly turned very religious I guess, as they've just seen an actual angel with their own eyes. Though hang on, if he looks like an angelic figure from everyone's own religion, then what did the atheists see? Did they see someone the same species as them with wings or did they see something else?

Sheridan sees him as a bald human, but he quickly figures out that he's Kosh. His Vorlon friend has finally done something, risking everything to save one person; Sebastian from the last episode would be impressed.

This sequence looks kind of laughable these days to be honest, but it took a ridiculous amount of work to pull off with 1995 technology on a TV budget, plus months of planning and trial and error. That's part of the reason they saved it for the very end of the season. They also ended up having to add an extra day onto the shooting schedule due to this one scene, which is a lot considering how fast television is filmed. It didn't help that the episode has more visual effects shots than the two-hour pilot movie, so the CGI artists had a lot on their plate.

And really it's the reveal that he's the angel that's the important bit here, not how flashy the effects are. Though it would've been nice to see some jetpacks.

ACT FIVE

It's funny that Delenn was entirely absent from the first three acts, but now the Ministry of Peace folks have gone she's swooped in to take their screen time, dropping by Sheridan's quarters to discuss Kosh for a bit (like everyone else on the station is probably doing). Kosh mentioned in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum that if he left his encounter suit he would be recognised by everyone and now they know what he meant by that. This is an incredible occasion as it means someone finally understands something the guy's said!

Delenn begins talk about how for centuries the Vorlons have visited other worlds and guided people, but Sheridan wonders if its really manipulation and programming. Dude, he just saved your life! Cynicism's definitely called for when you're talking about an alien who wears a disguise inside his disguise, but couldn't you put it on pause until season three? Though it would be nice to know if the Vorlons are responsible for our angel myths or if they're just taking advantage of them.

Then the episode cuts to Garibaldi tearing the station apart to search for the Centauri bomber who wrecked their core shuttle rail and nearly assassinated his boss... actually the episode's not going to bother with that. Everyone's getting let off the hook for blowing things up today. Instead it checks in on some people chatting in the Zocalo.

Not the best job I've done of stitching together a panning shot but that's their fault for not keeping the camera level!

The people here are so cheerful right now that a Narn is happily chatting with a Drazi right next to a Centauri. Right next to Londo himself in fact. Instead of arguing about whose deity it was, they've decided to agree that the station is blessed and that's generally a good sign.

The Drazi asks Londo what he saw, but he just says 'nothing'. Possibly because he's on Team Evil, possibly because his world was never visited by the Vorlons and his mythology has no angels. Either way he's taking it like it's an anti-blessing and he walks off, miserable. I've never liked his reply though as I feel like he needed to add something like 'I saw Sheridan floating to the ground on his own' or 'I saw a blob of light' to clarify what 'nothing' means. He definitely saw something as he was standing there with the rest of them. He hadn't sneaked off to take a piss and missed the whole thing. I'm also wondering what the security cameras saw. What's going to end up on the news after this?

Then Ivanova brings the episode to an end with a voiceover from the future, talking about what happened next over a montage of clips.

We see Zack not looking very keen about the shop keeper he helped inform on being arrested for sedition. We see Londo ranting in the council chambers, as the Centauri continue to attack the Non-Aligned Worlds. And we see Ivanova lighting the candles on her Hanukkah menorah and looking really miserable about it.

"We came to this place because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259 we knew that it had failed. But in so doing it because something greater. As the war expanded, it became our last, best hope for victory. Because sometimes peace is another word for surrender and because secrets have a way of getting out."

The last, best hope for peace failed? But now they're going to have to change the narration on the opening titles!

Future Ivanova doesn't mention anything about how the Shadows reacted to Kosh showing off his angel wings in public, so I guess that isn't an issue at least. As long as they don't know that we know that they're awake and flying around in spiky spider ships then it's not a problem.

Then it cuts to an ISN news report showing the footage of Keffer's fighter getting destroyed by a Shadow vessel.

I suppose that pod he launched from his Starfury must have recieved this footage over wi-fi, because he'd already launched it before the Shadow vessel fired at him. It also must have flown over to a jumpgate by itself as only one ship lost in hyperspace has ever been found again and that was a giant explorer ship not a tiny pod.

So it took a lot of courage and technical ingenuity to out the space Cthulhus. Nice work Keffer, you sacrificed yourself just to reveal an enemy that your boss already knew about in a way that could doom everyone.


CONCLUSION

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Babylon 5's managed to find some decent directors this season, but it's nice to have Janet Greek back. This might not be quite as dramatic as her last season finale, and it takes a while to build up intensity, but it's still top tier mid-90s sci-fi television.

The Fall of Night isn't the final confrontation against the season's villain, or a major turning point in the plot, or even much of a cliffhanger, but it does draw a line between the first two years and what happens next. Somehow it manages to create the impression that everything's falling apart, before swerving at the end and giving us a surprisingly hopeful conclusion... followed by a montage of everything falling apart. Now the increasingly fascist Earth government has formed an alliance with the increasingly expansionist Centauri, Nightwatch has infiltrated the station all the way up to C&C, the Shadows are aware that we're aware of them, and Babylon 5 has failed as the last, best hope for peace. It's enough to ruin Christmas.

The episode brings a number of running plot lines together into one story, with Earth Gov, the Narn-Centauri War, Kosh's interest in Sheridan, and Keffer's obsession with the Shadows all coming into play, in a way that left no room for it to get sidetracked with a dull B plot. Well there was Keffer's plot, but even that worked for me because of how it subverted the 'one man risking everything to find the truth' trope, as we know the whole time that he's going to get himself killed just to make a terrible mistake. He basically went down the same road as Sheridan in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, except no one stopped him from carrying on all the way down to the end of it.

The story's not let down by its guest actors either. It was nice to see John Vickery again in an even more sinister role, and Robin Sachs as a Narn on a screen. I found what jms did with his visitors from the Ministry of Peace interesting, as one's driven by a genuine desire to do the right thing and make peace, the other's a sneaky bastard there to check on his informants, and they're both comfortably on the same side. Sure Lantz doesn't know the full picture of what Nightwatch is up to but he's clearly eager to compromise with evil in order to avoid conflict. Zack's not exactly eager, but like Londo he feels like he's gotten in too deep to say no. Then you have Ivanova and Sheridan on the other side of the spectrum, who aren't even interested in pretending to go along with them to keep up appearances. Which seems like a bit of a flaw perhaps when they're supposed to be secretly opposing Clark.

Like the season premiere Points of Departure, the episode's all about the arrival of a lone warship that ignored the order to surrender at the end of a war, but this time around everything plays out the opposite way. The ship is here for Sheridan's help, the station is attacked, the warship escapes. Though one thing is a constant, and that's that Sheridan did the right thing and managed to piss everyone off in the process. Same as ever.

But that was just the first three acts, as the Minister of Peace/Narn cruiser story ended early so they could fit a second big CGI scene into the next act, making this the second season finale in a row to feature an attempt to blow up an important human leader. But unlike President Santiago, Sheridan was able to jump out of his vehicle and survive, with a little help from a friendly Vorlon. So we got the long-awaited reveal of what Kosh looks like under his encounter suit, and... it's another disguise. Still, at least now we know what Delenn and Lyta saw that made them so eager to trust him; I think that makes the revelation satisfying enough. In fact the whole episode was pretty satisfying I thought.

Though the heroes really have to stop preparing and start doing something soon.

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COMING SOON

Sci-Fi Adventures is going to be taking a two-month break soon, but you've got one more article coming up before then and that's my Babylon 5 Season 2 Review!

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