Babylon 5 4-09: Atonement

Episode:

75

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Tony Dow

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Air Date:

24-Feb-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about more Babylon 5! The episode Atonement to be specific, which was the 9th story in season 4.

This means I'm finally going to have to face one of the biggest mysteries in the entire Babylon 5 saga: where the hell does the movie Thirdspace fit in? Some people say watch it before Atonement, some people suggest watching it right after it. Some even suggest starting the episode, getting up to a certain point, then switching over to watch Thirdspace instead for a bit. And some people, perhaps more sensible people, suggest just watching it in the order it aired in.

I'm just going to put the episode on and see if I can spot any point where you could interrupt the action with an entire film without it being weird.

Oh by the way, BABYLON 5 FINALLY GOT REMASTERED! Holy crap, I can't believe it. Okay it's not a full Star Trek-style HD remaster where they rescanned the original film and replaced the effects, I think they've just gone back to the original 4:3 broadcast masters, but it looks a lot better. Unfortunately I don't have any of these remastered episodes so all my screencaps are going to be from the widescreen DVDs.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to assume you've seen all of Babylon 5 up to and including this episode, but I won't spoil anything that comes after. I won't even spoil Thirdspace, even though it apparently chronologically takes place here.

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The episode begins with Zack finally getting his proper security chief uniform! And he's pretty much complaining the whole time. Though he does take a break to mock Minbari fashion to an audience of only Minbari, which earns him a needle in the ass. Lennier says he'll talk to them, and then helps us confirm that Zack doesn't know a word of their language, or at least not the words: 'next', 'time', 'use', 'a', 'bigger', and 'needle'. I remember when Lennier was such a wide-eyed innocent. He technically didn't lie though!

Lennier takes Zack aside to suggest that his real problem with the uniform is the fact that he's not comfortable taking Garibaldi's job. Clearly Lennier wasn't around for Voices of Authority last season when Zack was bitching about his old uniform too.

The room looks like it's been constructed from a few familiar bits of wall, but the fabric for the costumes was apparently not cheap, so this might actually be one of their most expensive sets yet! By the way, the Minbari constructing his new uniform here were played by the humans who made it in real life.

Alright, this might be the point where the movie Thirdspace takes place, in between the first and second scene in the teaser. Seriously, there doesn't seem to be a better place to put it.

Meanwhile (or maybe a week or so later), Delenn is in a docking bay meeting with a mysterious obnoxious Minbari. The guy's so campy and over the top that he's reminding me of Orin Zento, the negotiator from way back in By Any Means Necessary. He's reminded me of him so much that I even remembered his name.

Delenn requests to have one more day to be with Sheridan before she departs with them. The guy tells her that she should really let Sheridan know about 'the dreaming', because if it doesn't go well they'll never have another day together again!

I know he had to say something dramatic to take us into the opening credits, but the guy comes off like a real dick. It's like he's trying to compete with Zack Allan to be the biggest asshole in the teaser, and I keep hoping someone's going to run in and jab him with a needle as well.

ACT ONE

Hey where'd this wall come from? I don't remember seeing it before. Never mind, not important.

It turns out that Ivanova still has the green leader sash she swiped in season 2's The Geometry of Shadows, which I guess means she's still the leader of all the green Drazi on the station! Except she made them dye all their sashes to turn them into purple Drazi, so she's the only green left.

The sash has gotten her an invite to a Drazi religious ceremony at least, and it sounds like it's going to be more like a Centauri festival (drinks, music) than a Minbari one (rituals, triangles). I like how, despite everything that's going on lately, the crew are still getting to know the other races and learning about their cultures.

Turns out she's walking right past Medlab, where Dr Franklin is currently inserting a prosthetic eye into G'Kar's empty socket. And we actually get to see him do it (probably because they had plenty of fake G'Kar heads lying around for makeup tests), it's gross!

G'Kar hopes it's not in backwards, as he's looked into his own soul enough recently, but he's soon more concerned about the colour. It's blue! Not red! It's nice to see G'Kar back to his old self again after his time suffering in captivity. Well, his late season 3 self anyway. He's able to properly complain again is what I'm saying, after all the torture he had to endure in silence.

Speaking of enduring torture, the new eye is apparently still not Andreas Katsulas' natural colour so the actor still had to wear a contact lens.

But G'Kar soon forgets about the colour when he discovers he can take it out and it's Wi-Fi. Katsulas gets to do a bit of magic as he pretends to pull the thing back out of its socket and then holds it in his hand.

Then we get fuzzy handheld G-Kar cam!

Man that low image quality has to be distracting when he uses both eyes at once. I like the handheld shots of Medlab though. It looks more real somehow when a camera swings around wildly and catches people doing their jobs that didn’t expect to be filmed.

Damn, Ivanova's B plot's over already? It's only been two and a half minutes!

Seems like things have gone more or less the same as the last time she had business with the Drazi, and she's even hurt her foot again. So did she bring the cane to the party? Or did they have a few on hand just in case?

Anyway, she shoves a Drazi to the ground, steps over him to get out, and then tells Sheridan not to ask. I'm glad they've both gotten over ISN doing a hatchet job on them last episode at least. They're not staring out of windows in the dark anymore. In fact no one's even mentioned it yet, as they've all been too busy with all their short comedy vignettes.

Sheridan should be working right now, but Delenn called so he's taken five minutes to drop by her quarters before he gets back to his important station business.

Actually, turns out that Sheridan doesn't have to be anywhere else right now after all!

Now that she's got his full attention, Delenn says that she wants to go out for dinner again and reminds him he still owes her a third night of her watching him sleep. The internet thought it was a bit weird that the Minbari feel that someone's true face is revealed when it's mashed up against a pillow and drooling, so writer jms decided to give Sheridan a line here expressing the same confusion. Though he's not going to be judgemental of alien cultures when they're dressed like that, and I hope rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated were similarly enlightened.

Sheridan soon catches on that something's up and she has to admit that she's going back to Minbar soon. Though she lies about it not being serious and underplays the duration of her absence. Man, the comedy's all drained out of the episode now. Anna disappeared on him forever and if the same thing happens to her he's not going to take it well.

Sheridan's suddenly remembered how angry he was about the news report last episode and now he's slamming down classified files for Marcus and Franklin in his office. He's decided that B5 is going to have to make a move against President Clark sooner than they thought.

Franklin points out that the ISN report was intended, in part, to piss Sheridan off and make him act before he's ready. I guess Clark wasn't paying attention to what happened to the Shadows when they sent Anna to manipulate his emotions and push him into making a reckless move.

Sheridan counters that they can't wait too long or else they'll have no credibility left. But first they need to get some lines of communication set up, so he's telling the each of them to get their ass to Mars. The B5 crew need to get in touch with their allies in the Mars resistance and he needs two people for this mission: a secret agent well trained in information gathering, combat, and sneaking into places he shouldn't be, and a doctor who hasn't got a story arc going on at the moment.

For the last three and a half years Franklin has been stuck on Babylon 5, and most of that time was spent in Medlab, but he's finally getting a chance to leave the station! It's going to take him a bloody long time to get there though, as they're going to have to go the long way around, switching ships along the way. It'll be something like two and half weeks for what would usually be a two day trip.

Franklin offers to try to find out about Sheridan's dad while he's there, seeing as ISN report said his farm burned down, but Sheridan says no. He's not going to fall for that bait. If they had his dad they would've used him against him, so he's probably fine. Last time they spoke (in Severed Dreams) his dad told him to do what he had to do and not worry about them, so that's what he's doing.

The episode takes a moment to hang around outside the station and watch all the lights come on, then we see Delenn slip out on Sheridan while he's asleep. Fortunately she doesn't linger to pick up a snow globe this time; she's learned that lesson.

You know, the teaser gave me the impression that this was going to be a Minbari episode about Minbari things, but I'm 13 minutes in and they haven't even said why she has to leave and do the dreaming yet. All we know is that Lennier's been sitting down here in the customs area all night wondering if she was going to let him know before she left.

She teases all kinds of dramatic reveals going on later in the episode, warning him that if he goes with her he'll learn things about her that'll change his opinion of her. And Lennier finally gives up, deciding not to follow her into danger! He then goes home, grabs a non-alcoholic beer, and starts working on the Kawasaki Ninja he's been building in his quarters these last few seasons.

Actually no, Lennier follows her like he always does, obviously.

ACT TWO

Hey it's a new establishing shot of Minbar!

This is the third time we've been here, after War Without End and Grey 17 is Missing, and the first time we've been somewhere other than the Ranger temple.

Inside we find they've got a new set, and obnoxious Minbari guy is lurking around inside.

I'm gonna keep showing screencaps where he's standing way off in the distance and you can't see his face, just because the episode keeps giving me that option.

Turns out that these are the leaders of Delenn's clan, so they're pretty much the only Minbari left who have any authority over her. Obnoxious Minbari guy explains that she has been called here because no Minbari has ever taken an offworlder as lover. This isn't an 'not in a thousand years' situation like usual, this is straight up 'never'. Bloody elves, man.

Delenn has to take them seriously though. I mean they've put so much effort into getting all these extras into full Minbari makeup that it'd be rude not to. She claims that she loves Sheridan, therefore it must be the calling of her heart and totally okay, but they want her to convince them on other grounds. They need to really examine her motivations and find out why she really wants to be with him, by making her take part in... the dreaming.

They're going to need some triangles with bells on for this.

Writer jms occasionally pulled from his own experiences while making the series, and somehow having to make the case for a relationship before the elders of a clan was one of them. It apparently happened to him when he was in a cult, and the elders gave them their blessing. Unfortunately when he wanted to leave the cult she wasn't allowed to come with him.

Delenn and Lennier both take a sip from a silver goblet and then step into the smokey dreaming chamber, where we learn that she's done this once before. She was in Lennier's place back then; an acolyte working as protector and guide to the person she was an apprentice to... Dukhat! He who was the greatest of them.

Then the camera pans over to reveal the two of them during their dreaming. So they're in the dreaming, dreaming of the last time she was in the dreaming. It's getting a bit Inception.

Hey they've put Mira Furlan back in her old makeup again!

Soul Hunter established that Dukhat was their leader, Legacies revealed that his death started the Earth-Minbari War, and Severed Dreams told us that Delenn held him when he died, but this is the first time we've seen the guy. Turns out that he was one of the rare Minbari with facial hair.

Delenn's over ten years younger here and very nervous, similar to how Lennier was nervous when they first met. But Dukhat tells her not to worry, as this sauna functions a lot like the cave in Empire Strikes Back, and you only have to fear that which you bring with you. He also reveals some new information here: Delenn is of the family of Mir, which is Russian for 'peace' and also 75% of Mira Furlan's first name. Plus she's apparently got a proud heritage, more than she knows.

We don't get to see what Dukhat's dreaming about, but we do get a glimpse of some of the things that Present Day Delenn's brought into the dreaming with her.

They seem to be mostly explosions and pain as an Earth Alliance fleet blasts away at her ship, killing Duhkat. We already saw a glimpse of this attack in A Late Delivery from Avalon, from the perspective of the gunner who fired the first shot.

Delenn yells a bit after reliving the death of Dukhat and that that's the end of act two.

Wait a minute, this is going to be Delenn's version of And the Sky Full of Stars isn't it? Where she's forced to relive her memories of the Earth-Minbari War to find a secret that will satisfy her interrogators.

ACT THREE

Act three begins aboard the Grey Council's warcruiser, with Dukhat dragging Young Delenn into the council chamber. This is at least the fifth time we've been here in the series and Delenn has been paying them a visit every season, but at this point it was all new to her.

For two days the council has been debating an issue: whether they should make first contact with a race known as humans. It doesn't seem like it could've been much of a debate though as everyone but him said no, for various reasons.

Mira Furlan puts on a great performance here of someone who's absolutely terrified of saying the wrong thing, and just being in this room at all, and it's not helped by Dukhat putting her on the spot and continually telling her she's said the wrong thing.
 

But he asks her what she thinks. Should they meet the primitive, passionate, dangerous, violent humans?

Delenn replies that Valen said that the greatest enemy is the one they do not know. (We know now that Commander Sinclair was Valen, so he was probably talking about reporters.) She continues by saying that you can predict those you are familiar with, and the one you cannot predict is the one who can harm you. It's a pretty good answer I reckon, but Dukhat would prefer her to express some wisdom and opinions of her own.

Is there a bit of stage equipment on the sides of the frame? Whatever it is it's distracting.

Delenn basically tells them that she's curious about the humans and this turns out to be exactly what Dukhat's after! Then he gives his friends a lecture on how they're too jaded to want to open a closed box just to see what's inside. This might remind you of the myth of Pandora's box, which makes the argument that not every closed container should be opened, but Dukhat would've never heard of that one. This is exactly why the Minbari should meet the humans: we've got all the best stories!

Dukhat's awesome by the way; he's like the exact opposite to Dukat on Deep Space Nine, but his performance is just as good. Plus he's got that stick that Delenn snapped back in Severed Dreams, so it's nice to see that back again.

Outside, Dukhat reveals that he's not going to override the Grey Council, as authority shouldn't be used as a club. He just wanted them to understand why they were completely wrong.

Delenn doesn't want to look up at him as it's disrespectful, but he tells her that he cannot have an aide that will not look up, she will be forever walking into things. Hey that's exactly what she said to Lennier when they first met back in Parliament of Dreams! The difference is that Delenn isn't his aide... or at least she wasn't until now!

This scene comes off as really creepy, as it's a powerful charismatic guy alone with a timid young woman, but it turns out that he only wanted to give her a promotion.

Cut to presumably a few years later, where Delenn is becoming one of the Grey Council, with the sacred Triluminary held up before her as part of the ceremony. I've heard suggestions that this was made out of a bit of Sinclair's link that he used to wear on his wrist, but I think it's more likely to just be a slightly rubbish looking prop built by Zathras from the advanced equipment left on Epsilon 3.

When she puts her hand up to it, the device glows, shocking some of the other members of the council... though not Dukhat. We've seen this happen before, almost exactly three seasons ago...

1-08 - And the Sky Full of Stars

 ... when Sinclair was captured during the Battle of the Line. Man, this episode really is Delenn's version of And the Sky Full of Stars.

We were told (in Points of Departure) that the glowing Triluminary indicated that Sinclair had a Minbari soul, and that Minbari souls were being reborn in human bodies. So why are they surprised that it reacts to Delenn? I mean she doesn't come across as soulless to me.

Hey, Delenn's got a Triluminary shrine on her wall like Marcus does.

Dukhat reveals that the Triluminary confirmed something for him, and that he chose her for the council because of her heritage, but he's interrupted by an alarm before he can explain. Turns out that mysterious alien ships are approaching their space!

Uh-oh, it's the humans. I'm not sure we ever got a clear look at their fleet in A Late Delivery from Avalon, but we're seeing it now. They've got a bunch of those old Hyperion class ships there (with the blue stripes) and a Nova class ship too (it's like the Agamemnon except without the rotating section in the middle).

The Minbari can't communicate with them because they don't speak their language, but one of the council members reveals that they've decided to open their warcruiser's gun ports. He continues by telling Dukhat, the leader of the Minbari, that opening gun ports is a Minbari custom. Just in case he forgot, I guess.

We already know what's going to happen next from A Late Delivery From Avalon and it seems like the Soul Hunters do too! It's been a long while by they're back in the series... well, a few of their ships anyway.

Dukhat and Delenn put two and two together, but the council member gets as far as replying "If we do not provoke them..." before energy weapons start pummelling their hull. Earth Alliance ships didn't have the technology to lock on to Minbari ships but I guess at this range it doesn't matter.

The Minbari fire back and they've soon got a proper battle going on.

Hey this is the Hyperion! We know this is a ship that survives the battle (and the war) as it turned up at Babylon 5 in A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II... and then nearly got the station blown up during first contact with an advanced alien. Maybe Earthforce should leave the Hyperion at home next time they're going off to meet new people.

Dukhat has been injured in the attack and lies dying on the floor as bits of advanced alien tubing fall from the ceiling around them. We were told that the Minbari put up a wall of bodies to prevent the Soul Hunters getting to his soul, but I suppose that must be happening in some other hallway.

The Earth Alliance ships make a run for it and the Grey Council is divided about what to do next. Do they strike back at their base or do they wait and try to figure out what happened? Delenn's is the deciding vote.

Unfortunately Delenn is currently freaking out in rage at the death of her mentor, so she votes to follow them to their base and strike them down with no mercy.

So Delenn started the Earth-Minbari War. But in her defence, she just wanted one little base wiped out; she didn't order the complete annihilation of their entire species.

A Late Delivery from Avalon was all about the gunner who fired the first shot trying to give a sword to Delenn as a way to help his mind heal from the incredible guilt of starting such an epic pointless war. He had no idea that Delenn was carrying the same guilt from the other side. No wonder she ducked out on telling Franklin what she did during the war back in Soul Hunter.

ACT FOUR

Lennier's been seeing all of this, somehow (unless she's been narrating her dreams), so now he knows everything. This is exactly what she didn't want him to learn about her.

He doesn't give a damn though, because he worships her (like she worshipped Dukhat) and nothing's going to change that.

Well they sure took care of that Earth Alliance base off screen.

Unfortunately it's not going to be enough for the Minbari. Word has spread and people are going mad with grief and rage, like Delenn had. She's calmed down a bit at this point and would like to call it a day, or at least try communicating, but her friend on the Grey Council says that it's too late; it's apparently become a holy war now!

I mean the humans even broke their special black room with all the spotlights in it! This is just going to keep going and going until they've got no more rage left or there are no more humans left.

In hindsight they really should've made contact with the humans on their own terms back when Dukhat suggested it.

This is Robin Atkin Downes playing the council member by the way. He's more famous these days as a voice actor in games like... well, pretty much all of them (He's Kaz in The Phantom Pain, Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes, The Boss in the Saints Row games, Rico Rodriguez in Just Cause...). But he does play another role in Babylon 5: a human called Byron. He'll turn up later.

Anyway, Lennier's figured it all out: her subconscious is showing her that she's with Sheridan out of guilt for starting the war! She's trying to atone, that's the real reason for her relationship. Then he does a 180 and says he doesn't believe that at all, but that's what it's going to look like to her clan.

Delenn has until morning to think about what she's going to tell the others, so she lies in her sloping bed, flanked by CD ranks, going over what she saw. The dreaming must have given her what she needs to convince the others to let her stay with Sheridan, she just needs to figure out what it was.

We see flashbacks to the clues and they're in colour for a change. Usually B5's flashbacks are in black and white. I guess Minbari must just think differently to humans. She's also able to remember dialogue that wasn't audible in the original footage!

Once she figures it out, she strides right back to the dreaming room, aggravating Obnoxious Minbari who is adamant that a second visit cannot be allowed! That works out for her though, as he can have a sip of the magic vision goblet as well, and get a first hand look at what she's figured out. Unless the three of them accidentally end up in his dreaming instead, I don't know how this works.

Does the drink contain something like Dust, which gives people temporary telepathy? Their trip into Delenn's memories does seem a lot like G'Kar's trip into Londo's memories back in Dust to Dust. Except no one's assaulted Vir yet.

Inside the dreaming they see something incredible that could make any of them question their whole reality: they haven't bothered to put Minbari makeup on that actor's head because he wasn't meant to be in the frame.

Then we find out what Delenn couldn't consciously hear all those years ago, what Dukhat's last words were. He said "You a child of Valen."

She's Commander Sinclair's great great great granddaughter!

That's a nice virtual background. They've also added a lot of echo to the voices here to make it sound like they're in a cavernous room. At least, I think it's there deliberately.

The Grey Council is still disbanded, but Lennier beat up a few guards up off screen and manage to get the documents they need anyway. The scrolls he's swiped prove that Delenn is descended from a human. She always had some human DNA in her, even before the change. Though they have to go through a bit of quick exposition to explain why this is for the sake of people who either haven't seen War Without End or just can't remember all of it.

We learn that the reason the Triluminary reacted to her was because it was programmed to respond to Sinclair's DNA, human DNA. Not a Minbari soul. So their theory that Minbari souls were being reborn in human bodies... well, that was kind of bullshit. But it did end the war at least!

Delenn continues to tell us the hidden history of Jeff 'Valen' Sinclair, telling us that he had children and then left Minbar to escape persecution. But his children should've looked as Minbari as he did, so why would they be persecuted? There's a big clue to why if you read To Dream in the City of Sorrows and the In Valen's Name comic book, as they're actually both canon, but the answer is never revealed in the series itself.

> Click to to spoil the book and comic <

The last words on the last page of the comic are a short message to the B5 crew left by Valen a thousand years in the past, basically saying that he's tormented by not being able to change the future and avert the Earth-Minbari War, but he is happy in his new life... because he's found her, at long last... he's found her.

The novel tells the story of Jeffrey Sinclair's time with the Rangers and ends with him on a mission at the time rift at Sector 14, where he once found Babylon 4. Turns out that his fiancee from season 1, Catherine Sakai, had also joined the Rangers, but he loses her in the time portal during the mission.

Putting the two stories together seems to reveal that the two of them were eventually reunited a thousand years in the past and got a happy ending! This also implies that Catherine is Delenn's great great great great grandmother and that's where she's got her human DNA from. It's easy to make the leap to assuming that the few rare male Minbari with facial hair must all be human descendants too, but that's apparently not the case, according to jms.

Here, have a proper picture of Obnoxious Minbari where you can see his face (and he's actually wearing his face).

He begs Delenn and Lennier not to reveal the truth they've learned, that so many Minbari are not racially pure, but she's holding all of the cards now and she doesn't really give a damn if the secret gets out. He wanted her to find a reason she can be with Sheridan and she did. If he wants to present an alternative reason that's more convenient for him then that's his problem!

Obnoxious Minbari quickly comes up an idea: it used to be tradition that after a war, each side would give one of its own to the other in marriage. He'll explain that this is what's going on here and it'll all be good. But Delenn likely still doesn't give a damn; she's won either way.

ACT FIVE

Well the Minbari will carry on living in blissful ignorance of their lack of racial purity and Lennier still has to suffer every time a moment like this happens, but Delenn's happy at least! The poor guy, he went through a lot here to keep Sheridan and Delenn together, including assault and theft, and this is his reward. He looks awkward for a bit and then finds an excuse to go off and leave them.

Sheridan mentions that not much happened while she was gone and I believe him... so I guess Thirdspace didn't take place while she was on Minbari. (I'd already suspected as much, seeing as she's in it).

Meanwhile, Marcus and Franklin are suffering in the cargo hold of a freighter. Well, Franklin's suffering and Marcus is tormenting him by playing with his pike.

They're both strapped in because of the lack of gravity, but the rest of the cargo doesn't seem so firmly tied down as it's floating everywhere. That seems like a real risk, to both them and anything fragile in the boxes.

I thought the floating cargo was clever back when I first watched the series, because of course there'd be no gravity on the ship, nothing's rotating!

But anyone who's seen The Expanse knows that when a ship's engines are firing there's acceleration, so everything not tied down is going to be making its way to the back of the ship as if there was gravity.

Franklin points out that they've having the kind of conversation that can only end in a gunshot, so Marcus decides to push his luck and start singing "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" instead! Fortunately it fades out after a couple of lines as the end credits come on.

Then it starts over again in place of the end music! Jason Carter gets quite far into the song before Richard Biggs starts screaming and director Tony Dow says "Cut!" So this is arguably the first and only episode of Babylon 5 that straight up breaks the fourth wall! Though seeing as it's showing the end credits at the time I think the fourth wall had already been taken down by then.


CONCLUSION

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We've had Babylon 5 episodes split into two distinct parts before, like Dust to Dust, and The Illusion of Truth, but this really feels like it's just hanging out and killing time with comedy skits until the real story can start. Once we're in Delenn's plot all the other characters aside from Lennier disappear.

The title Atonement is a bit of a red herring though really, as the episode isn't actually about Delenn atoning for anything. Sure it shows what Delenn had to atone for, but her atonement turns out to be entirely irrelevant, and I don't remember anyone else in the story atoning for anything.

What they should've called it is And the Sky Full of Stars II: Delenn's Quest, as she goes back through her memories of the Earth-Minbari War to find the big secret buried in her mind that she wasn't consciously aware of. Again it involves the Triluminary, but the new information we have turns the old revelations on their head, as now we know that it doesn't detect Minbari souls, it detects human DNA, which Delenn has had all along. It's probably doesn't reassure her much to know this, but she's the child of a time loop, so she had to make the choice to start the Earth-Minbari War or else Valen wouldn't have been discovered, she would've never been born, and the Shadow War wouldn't have been won. We learned in Grey 17 is Missing that her father died heartbroken because of the war she started, but without it he may have never existed in the first place.

The rules of TV clearly state that any secret must be a drama bomb primed to explode in a later episode, but Delenn's likely not going to be sharing this one with Sheridan any time soon. If anything's going to drive a wedge between them it'd be her saying "Oh you know the near genocide of your race a while back? Well funny story, that was actually my fault."

Last episode, in The Illusion of Truth, Delenn said a lot of forceful things about the people who wouldn't accept her relationship with Sheridan, saying that she would make them understand. I wasn't expecting her to have to do it in the very next episode! In fact the two episodes are surprisingly connected in their themes, as ISN's special bullshit report on Babylon 5 claimed that Sheridan had a plan to convert people on Earth into a human-Minbari hybrids, which was one of the most horrifying things the xenophobic Clark regime could think of. Then this episode reveals that Sinclair had already done that to the Minbari! Not that anyone's really pure, I mean just ask the Ikarrans from Infection. But Obnoxious Minbari is terrified of anyone finding out and keeps a lid on it, so Sheridan and Delenn's son can probably look forward to being persecuted just like Sinclair's children were. Incidentally this means that their future son will be the descendant of all three The Ones, giving them immense protagonist powers.

It was nice to see Delenn take charge of her story at the end by the way, as she'd on the back foot for most of it. In fact we see Delenn at three distinct stages of her life in this story: timid acolyte, young Grey Council member, and her present day self, and Mira Furlan did a great job making them all feel very different. It also hints that Lennier's on a similar path, though he's still very tied to his mentor and Dukhat had to die before Delenn became the independent and driven person we know.

It seemed a little weird that the series was dragging the Earth-Minbari War back up again last season in A Late Delivery from Avalon, so doing it again a year later when there's so many other plots in motion could be considered a waste of precious episode time. But I liked this story! It was nice to finally get the Minbari perspective on the start of the war and Delenn's part in it, and I liked that it actually gave Delenn a proper win all of her own. Episode 9 in season 2 was The Coming of Shadows and episode 9 in season 3 was Point of No Return, so as episode 9s go this isn't the best, I can see why they didn't name the whole season after it this time around, but it's pretty decent.

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COMING SOON

Babylon 5 will return with Racing Mars!

What did you think about Atonement? You can share your own opinions in the comments if you want.