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2005-01-25 Entry: "Without End..."

ISN News is back online, but the propaganda has taken over in "Ship Of Tears." Oh, and Bester's back, floating in space in a Black Omega Star Fury, and broadcasting a distress signal that the Captain responds to.

G'Kar forces the issue over his joining the War Council. And Bester insists that he can't help them if they drug him to supress his abilities again.

Bester knows of a convoy carrying weapons and supplies to the Shadows, and only he can pinpoint the ships in Hyperspace. They take the White Star, which seems a little incautious considering Bester is along. The succeed in capturing the ship, and discover that it was carrying telepaths in stasis. Why they're described as weapon system components is the big mystery...

Delenn has to tell G'Kar that they knew about the Shadows before they were employed to take the Narn homeworld.

They defrost one of the passengers, but she reacts badly, forming some sort of interface with the computer. She and Bester appear to know each other, and she seems docile until she sees the Psi-Corps logo, at which time she reacts with electrical force.

Before Stephen manages to put her back to sleep, she manages to transmit images to Bester. And then they get the rest of the story... Bester is in love with her, and she's carrying his child. Oh, and the Shadows were planning to use the telepaths as pilots of their living ships.

Oh, and somehow they've managed to construct a whole new command center for running the war on the station. And Garibaldi finally finds something useful in the book of G'Quan. They're apparently afraid of telepaths... and it's come at just the right time, as the Shadows are openly attacking the Brakiri.

Mr Morden makes it back onto the station, and Londo is arranging things for Adira's return... "Interludes And Examinations" sees Sheridan needing a victory against the Shadows to get the League worlds to join together. And Franklin is losing it, what with the Stim addiction, and the stress of the job.

There are a lot of flashbacks to Londo's original meeting with Adira... presumably to cut a few costs considering the crazy space battles coming up.

Morden learns of Adira when he runs into Vir by the marketplace. Garibaldi confronts Franklin about his stim abuse... and Franlin has to make a decision about his future.

Sheridan asks Kosh to help in one fight - to give them one victory - and Kosh's reply? Well, there's a bit of petty squabbling between him and Kosh first... and then? "I will not be there to help you when you go to Z'ha'dum." "You always said I'd die if I went to Z'ha'dum" "Yes, now."

So the Vorlons intervene in a Shadow attack on Brakiri space... now, I'm sure there's some significance to the enemy being triangles on the display and the good guys being stars, but they really should have put it the other way around as the stars look like spidery Shadow ships...

Adira doesn't make it to the station - dying en route. Londo jumps to the conclusion that she was poisoned, and it was Refa's doing in revenge for Londo's poisoning of him a few episodes ago... and he does the stupid thing and falls back in with Mr. Morden (who obviously arranged the death).

All the ambassadors sign on to the alliance. And the price of the Vorlon intervention - the Shadows attack Kosh, killing him. Of course, Kosh visits Sheridan one last time in his sleep, appearing as his father... but he doesn't say anything substantial...

And Franklin takes a leave of absence.

And then we get to see Ranger headquarters on Minbar... well, briefly, when Ranger One gets a cryptic message - a letter addressed to him, to be opened on that date, from Valen. Oh, and B5 gets a distress call from B5 - made by Susan Ivanova - being transmitted from the site of B4's disappearance. Everything is a little strange at first in the two part "War Without End"... which is really a three part episode, but part 1 was in season 1 (Babylon Squared).

But we gets hints from the mysterious Vorlon about Sinclair's future - "He is the closed circle, he is returning to the beginning."

Garibaldi goes to investigate B5 - and finds that the rift is bigger than before, being opened by a beam emitted from Epsilon 3. He gets to witness the destruction of Babylon 5 at the hands of the Shadows.

We get some back story, about the war against the Shadows 1000 years ago... and they were losing, with their starbase destroyed. Amazingly, a replacement base appeared - Babylon 4 - sent back in time 1000 years to save the war effort. But first, there's it's initial disappearance to deal with - the Shadows attempted to destroy it when its construction was finished. And the records show the White Star was there to save, and then steal the station...

Yes, this is very, very silly... but it's such an elegant set of time travel sequences. And Ivanova's reaction sums up how this all sounds. "I'll be in the car."

Sinclair gives his goodbyes to Garibaldi, while the White Star fights the Shadow attempts to destroy the station with a fusion bomb. And in destroying the bomb, Sheridan's time stabiliser is damaged and he becomes unstuck in time.

Sheridan's first reappearance - Centauri Prime, 20 years in the future, and Londo is Emperor - old and grey, and clearly near the end. Apparently, Sheridan didn't do a very good cleanup job after the war, and a few of the Shadows' minions came to Centauri Prime, and the planet isn't in very good shape - fires burn everywhere, and buildings appear in disrepair.

Meanwhile, everyone else manages to sneak on board Babylon 4, and start setting up the homing device so they can move the station through time.

And then on to part 2... and Sheridan gets a very friendly reunion with Delenn on Centauri Prime - and she tells him their son is safe. And she tries to save him some of the pain and grief that is coming in the future - and tries to warn him off going to Z'ha'dum.

Londo is drunk enough to put his keeper to sleep, so that he may let Sheridan and Delenn escape. But he's not going to make it, which is when G'Kar steps in, and we get the death scene that was fortold many years previous... and Vir's taking of the throne as Emperor.

Delenn gets a flash forward to her being in Sheridan's quarters, handling a snow globe, that she drops in shock after some woman arrives at the door.

Sinclair is mysteriously aged by the time shift - to match his appearance at the end of Babylon Squared when talking to Delenn... apparently due to his previous exposure to the tachyon field without protection.

Finally, after Sinclair puts his foot down about taking the station back in time, Zathras explains about The One... how all is three... as Sinclair, Delenn, and Sheridan are three, as they are one, as they are The One. Sinclair is The One Who Was. Delenn is The One Who Is. And Sheridan is The One Who Will Be. And then Sinclair and Zathras take the station back 1000 years to fight the last Shadow war... and we finally find out how Valen can be Minbari not born of Minbari.