Season Two: "The coming of Shadows"
2.13 “Hunter, prey”
Sheridan, frustrated by how very little they know about the Vorlons despite Kosh being on the station for two years now, decides to make the ambassador his personal project, but before he can do anything he gets a coded alert from Earth: the president’s chief physician, a Dr. Everett Jacobs, is on the run with stolen information vital to planetary security, and has been tracked to Babylon 5. They are under orders to take him in, dead or alive. An Earthforce Special Agent and his team arrive to coordinate the search with B5 security, but Franklin can’t believe that Jacobs could be a traitor. He knows him, studied under him, looked up to him as a role model. Meanwhile Jacobs has arrived on the station and is trying to buy false papers, without success. He is being shadowed though he does not know it. Sheridan is contacted by a representative of General Hague, who tells him that the story being put around about Jacobs is a lie: the information the doctor has is that President Clarke’s claim that he had a virus just before the assassination of his predecessor was a complete fabrication. If this information becomes common knowledge then, or falls into the wrong hands (ie Clarke's enemies) it will be very damaging to the president, therefore Jacobs has become a target, an inconvenient would-be whistleblower who must be stopped before he can deliver his information into the hands of those who oppose the new regime back on Earth.
Hague’s people had meant for him to meet his contact off Io but that didn’t pan out so he came here on the first ship he could catch. Garibaldi and Franklin try to find him before the security forces can. The man shadowing him though has already taken him, with his gang: they’re after whatever they can sell. Sheridan manages to misdirect Agent Cranston and his team, buying some time for his two friends to locate the doctor, then gets a request for an audience with one of the ambassadors. Irritated, he asks can it wait, until he hears the request comes from Ambassador Kosh!
Having traced a fob watch Jacobs was carrying Franklin and Garibaldi find the place where he is being held, while Max, their leader, has gone to sell him out to Cranston. Garibaldi gets stabbed but then they are told by Jacobs that Max has taken the all-important data crystal which can help prove Clarke was lying about being sick, and complicit in, or responsible for the death of Santiago. Garibaldi hunts Max down and retrieves it, while Franklin conveys Jacobs to safety. Sheridan has his meeting with Kosh, who is very enigmatic but agrees to teach him, though not about him, but about Sheridan himself. Somewhat nonplussed, Sheridan is still delighted to have been able to get through to the Vorlon.
When Cranston realises that they can use Babylon 5’s internal scanners to locate Jacobs Sheridan hides him onboard Kosh’s ship. The highly sophisticated technology allows the ship to shield his lifesigns by absorbing him into its own form, so that the computer detects only one life form: the ship itself. Jacobs, in an induced coma (the only way Kosh would allow a human onboard his ship) is revived and turned over to Hague’s people, who smuggle him to safety, while Sheridan hands over the data crystal, one weapon in the war to indict and remove Clarke.
QUOTES
Garibaldi: “Stephen, the last time you vouched for a doctor friend of yours we had three dead bodies, half the station was trashed and an Ikaran war machine was burning its way through decks and shooting at everything!”
Agent: “Find Jacobs before they do, get him to dictate a sworn statement and get him off the station. Alive.”
Sheridan: “Fine. No problem. You want mayo with that?”
Trader: “I don’t give out names. It’s bad for business.”
Garibaldi: “So is having your eyeballs spooned out and served on toast! Now make with the name, cos it is getting awfully close to my breakfast!”
Kosh: “They are not ready. They would not understand.”
Sheridan: “Am I ready?”
Kosh: “No. You do not even understand who you are.”
Sheridan: "Can you help me to understand who you are?”
Kosh: "Can you help me to understand who you are?”
Sheridan: “Well I can try. Is that what you want? An exchange of information? I tell you something about me and you tell me something about you?”
Kosh: “No. You do not understand. Go.”
Sheridan: “Damn it! What do you want? What do you want from me? You know, ever since I got here I’ve had the feeling that you’ve been watching me. The record shows that you hardly ever went to council meetings until I showed up. When I was captured it was you who reached out and touched my mind. Now you call me here. Why? Just to throw me out? Are we just toys to you? Huh? What do you want?”
Kosh: “
Never ask that question!”
Sheridan: “At least I got a response out of you. So what will it be, Ambassador?”
Kosh: “I will teach you.”
Sheridan: “About yourself?”
Kosh: “About you. Until you are ready.”
Sheridan: “For what?”
Kosh: “To fight legends.”
Cranston: “Perhaps you can answer my question. I want to know why we were not told about the internal scanners before and how long it will take to interface with our systems, now that we do know?”
Ivanova: “A, you didn’t ask. B, we don’t know that the systems are compatible but assuming they are, C, about two point three hours. D, at a very early stage in your life, someone should have told you that you can attract a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar. Sir.”
Sheridan: “Maybe we can call it back, escort Ambassador Kosh off his own ship and search it, even if it does mean violating Vorlon territory, but I’m up for it if you are. I’m sure it would cause a major diplomatic incident without cause, probably be all over the news, with everyone wanting to know why we did it, but…”
Agent: “Until the next time then Captain.”
Sheridan: “There’s always a next time, isn’t there?”
Agent: “You’d better pray it stays that way Captain, because as long as there is a next time there’s at least a chance we can win. Because in this war, we need all the chances we can get.”
IMPORTANT PLOT ARC POINTS
Death of a president
Arc level: Red
Here we have the first major proof that Santiago was assassinated, when Dr Jacobs’ evidence shows that the current president was fit as a fiddle, despite crying off Earth Force One with a supposed virus one day before it exploded, taking the then-president with it. General Hague is aware of the importance of such testimony and evidence, and has detailed his agents to track Jacobs to Babylon 5 and ensure Sheridan’s people find him before Earthforce Security do. A false story concocted about Jacobs intending to sell government secrets is used to paint him as a traitor, and truth to tell, until the Oval Office (or whatever equivalent serves as the office of the president of Earth) is back in the right hands he will probably remain tarnished as so. But at least he is alive.
Also it should be noted that the cover story was not entirely inaccurate; Jacobs has government secrets, some of the most important in Clarke’s administration, but rather than sell them he is trying to hand them over to the forces who will hopefully bring the usurper and his allies to book. Sheridan now sees that Hague’s intention to stand against Clarke was not just bluster: he obviously took a big risk getting involved in this, but surely felt it was worth it.
Vorlons
Arc Level: Orange
We have learned and know very little about these enigmatic aliens. Unlike the likes of the Narn, Centauri and others, they do not seem to concern themselves with the political or military goings-on in the galaxy, and seldom if ever get involved in the petty wars that are breaking out. The war between the Narns and the Centauri would probably elicit a comment from Kosh similar to that he made in “Believers” in season one: “The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.” But Sheridan is annoyed by how aloof the Vorlon is and he wants to know more about him. This is the beginning of his journey, a journey which will lead him down dark sidepaths and into ancient history and to the very precipice of evil itself. Quite literally, as we will see later. His association with Kosh will test him to his limits, and demand everything he has.
It’s also evident that the Vorlon is testing the human, to see if he is worthy. For what, we are not told, but it’s obviously very important. He seems disappointed in Sheridan, telling him he does not understand. To a degree, this mirrors Sheridan’s own tale of the Dalai Lama, which he related upon taking command of Babylon 5. Kosh does however seem stung by the phrase “what do you want?” perhaps because it is what Mr. Morden asks, and is indicative to the Vorlon of darker desires and designs.
We find out in this episode for the first time a) that Kosh has his own ship and b) that it is a living organism. Maintenance crews who attend it in Hangar 13 (hah!) claim it talks to them in their sleep, Jacobs says while onboard the ship it sang to him. Its outer skin changes and ripples like that of a chameleon, and parts of it can stretch, elongate and form into other shapes. Even when Kosh is not onboard, scanners register one alien life-form, the ship itself. Kosh can I guess be seen almost as an Obi-Wan Kenobi figure: a teacher, a swami, a mentor, and like Kenobi in “Star Wars”, he will be as enigmatic and as unclear about everything he says as he can be. Must be a teacher thing. Sheridan, he tells the captain, must prepare himself to fight legends. Delenn has spoken of an ancient enemy who has returned to the planet known as Zha’dum, where they once had their powerbase. Can these two be the same entity? With the great darkness approaching, has Sheridan been chosen to fight on the side of light, as Zathras put it in season one’s “Babylon squared”? Will he be equal to the task? Time will tell.
ABSENT FRIENDS
No G’Kar or Londo this episode, after the former’s star turn and the latter’s smaller but no less full of pathos performance last, and no Delenn or Lennier either. Interestingly, there seems to be an increasing role for Zack Allan, who has been in both of the last episodes, and Joshua Cox’s Lt Corwin, who will go on to become a major character with opening title credits, is here merely called “1st technician” (what is this: Red Dwarf?)
at the end. No Vir or Lennier either, in fact the only alien in the entire episode, for once, is Kosh. A very human episode, with the four main leads driving the story, and the whole thing focussed on Earth’s planetary security and the assassination of President Santiago.