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Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

Sheridan tries to rally support for his cause as direct confrontations with the Shadows begin in earnest. Friction increases between Londo and Morden. Ed Wasser as Morden. Jonathan Chapman as Brakiri. Jennifer Balgobin as Dr. Hobbs.

P5 Rating: 9.31

Production number: 315
Original air week: May 6, 1996

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jesus Trevino

Backplot

• During the last war with the Shadows, a thousand years ago, they did roughly what they're doing this time, seemingly attacking at random in the form of quick strikes. The intent may be simply to keep the major powers off guard, so they never know when the next attack will occur.
• Vorlon ships are linked closely to their individual owners.

Unanswered Questions

• Who will replace Franklin as head of medlab?
• Why did the Shadows wait until the Vorlon attack to move against Kosh? They could presumably have done it at any time. (See Analysis)
• Do the Shadows know that the Vorlon attack was just a one-time thing, or do they now believe that the Vorlons are on the march? How will that affect their strategy, if at all?
• How did Delenn know there wouldn't be a body?
• What was the flash of energy that coursed through the station after the fight was over?
• Does Lyta know about Kosh? How will she react when she finds out?
• Was the data crystal on Talia Winters ("Deathwalker") placed on Kosh's ship?

Analysis

• Londo's new pact with Morden may foreshadow the loss of his second chance for redemption ("Point of No Return.") With Londo's poison coursing through his veins, Refa certainly qualifies as "the one who is already dead," and now Londo has vowed to kill him. Along similar lines, Kosh qualifies now too; Londo may attempt to kill Kosh's replacement, not realizing it's another Vorlon entirely.
• Londo played right into Morden's hands. Morden was obviously responsible for Adira's death (he paid off one of the ship's crew, and he found out about her arrival from the Zocalo vendor) and it's unlikely Refa even knew about her, much less participated in her poisoning. But any such protest on Refa's part will likely fall on deaf ears if Londo speaks to him.
• On the other hand, it's also possible that Londo is attempting to fool Morden. Certainly Londo knows that Morden is up to no good -- their conversation in the hallway, and Londo's glare when he talks about people who deserve to die -- are evidence of that. Maybe he's playing along with Morden in an attempt to trip up the Shadows' plans. The same hallway conversation offers evidence to the contrary, though; even then, Londo felt he had already been through worse than Morden's associates could dish out, and with Adira's death, that's probably only intensified.
• "The galaxy can burn. I no longer care," says Londo. This echoes the conversation between Emperor Turhan and Kosh in "The Coming of Shadows:" "How will this end?" "In fire."
• Londo's conversation with Morden -- putting an end to a previous pledge and going on the offensive due to the loss of a loved one -- is in some ways a parallel of Sheridan's conversation with Kosh at the end of "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum."
• Londo promised to pluck the Shadows' eye out if it turned toward the Centauri homeworld. Foreshadowing, perhaps, for whatever happens to G'Kar's eye in Londo's dream ("The Coming of Shadows.")
• What do the Shadows want? Delenn seems to know more than she's telling. Morden's keen interest in the Centauri's continued aggression may provide a clue, but it's ambiguous at best. If they simply want a constant state of chaos in the galaxy, their current strategy will eventually backfire; there won't be anyone left to carry on fighting.
• The fact that the Shadows attacked Kosh immediately after the Vorlon victory over the Shadow fleet smacks of the notion that there was a deal of some sort between the two races: the Vorlons stay out of the fighting, and the Shadows leave them alone. If that's true, one sobering interpretation is that both races consider the war something of a game. On the other hand, the truth could be just the opposite; the Shadows may not have wanted to touch Kosh for fear of causing Vorlon retribution.
• Along similar lines, Kosh told Sheridan that the Vorlons didn't want to attack because "it is not our time." What did he mean by that? What constitutes the Vorlons' time? Kosh also mentioned that the Vorlons were still few in number, and were still preparing. Are their preparations simply a matter of boosting their manpower?
• Even in his last moments, Kosh still chose to hide behind disguises and symbolism, appearing as Sheridan's father rather than himself. Or maybe it's not by choice after all; maybe all he can do is communicate with people in terms they already understand, though his recreation of the Icarus expedition in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" suggests otherwise.
• A more charitable explanation is that Kosh didn't want Sheridan to realize he was in trouble, since Sheridan would have been inclined to race to Kosh's quarters to try to save him -- something that would have meant certain doom.
• Kosh treated Sheridan like a child, calling him "impudent" and "disrespectful" before finally giving him what could be considered the Vorlon equivalent of a spanking. Then he appeared as Sheridan's father. That suggests a certain condescending attitude on the part of the Vorlons toward the other races. Is that attitude based on anything? Delenn said the First Ones guided the younger races; maybe to Kosh, humans are children, and the war against the Shadows is a test of maturity.
• How long has Kosh known what was going to happen to him? He implies here that Sheridan will die on Z'ha'dum because he won't have Kosh's help ("You said that if I went to Z'ha'dum I would die." "Yes, now.") Did he know why that would be when he first warned Sheridan in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum?" Were his lessons for Sheridan, teaching the latter to fight legends, meant to provide Sheridan with the confidence to disobey Kosh's wishes when the time was right?
• There is something of a thematic link between Kosh's expectation of death and the story of Jesus played out by Brother Edward in "Passing Through Gethsemane." Kosh knew what was coming, perhaps knew he could avoid it for a little while, but also believed it would be the wrong thing to do. So he waited in his quarters to face his executioners. Of course, Edward didn't try to fight his killers off, so the parallel isn't exact.
• Kosh's death was instantly known to the Vorlons, which suggests that all the Vorlons are linked together in some fundamental way. Perhaps the killing of Kosh, then, was less a blow against him personally than a slap in the face of the Vorlons as a whole.
• If Kosh knew what was going to happen, why did he remain in his quarters, easily found? Perhaps he believed that the Shadows would go after Delenn or Sheridan in that case, and he considers them more valuable than himself.
• Why can't Kosh's replacement continue Sheridan's education and assist him at Z'ha'dum as Kosh would have? Presumably there was nothing special about Kosh from the Vorlons' point of view. Or maybe the Vorlons are so few in number that Kosh was the only one among them who's able to provide whatever assistance he had in mind.
• The Vorlons still use conventional jump points rather than the faster hyperspace entry and exit technique employed by the Shadows. Is that a conscious decision on their part, or does it imply that the Shadows are more technologically advanced in at least some respects?
• The Vorlons' telepathy must be different than what humans are capable of; the Shadow ships were able to function as the Vorlons attacked, unlike the ship near the White Star when Bester was aboard ("Ship of Tears.") On the other hand, the small Vorlon fighters did seem to be doing a good job of confusing the Shadow warship they were attacking; it seemed to spin around randomly, and never fired back.
• This episode was full of power surges and drains: the one noted by the C&C tech when Kosh and Sheridan were arguing, the lights dimming when Morden confronted Londo, the battle between Kosh and the Shadows, and whatever happened when Kosh died. Perhaps someone will put two and two together and have security promptly investigate any odd power level changes.
• The C&C tech said that the power surge was "a non-localized phenomenon" -- exactly the phrase used by Delenn to describe the Minbari concept of the soul in "Passing Through Gethsemane."
• What is Earth's official reaction now that open hostilities with the Shadows have broken out? Has Sheridan usurped Earth's official relationships with all the alien governments he's recruited into his alliance? The Shadows certainly have their fingers in at least some aspects of the Earth Alliance, but they don't have total control yet; there must be some people in the Earth government advocating taking up arms against the Shadows.

Notes

• The masked alien is a Gaim, whose name is probably a reference to Neil Gaiman. The title character of Gaiman's "Sandman" -- one of JMS's favorite works -- has a mask of similar appearance.

• The character of Dr. Lilian Hobbs is named after a fan, Dr. Lilian Hobbs, who won the bidding at a charity auction at the Wolf 359 convention in Manchester in 1995.

jms speaks

• Script 15 is entitled "Interludes and Examinations," and has a plot turn I hadn't seen coming, but which fits perfectly into the arc; I think you're going to be stunned. (I was.)

• Re: titles...yeah, you got to watch out with this show, sometimes I put on deliberately dull titles when I want to sneak up behind you quietly. The more innocuous sounding, the more you should worry....

• "Just wondering if we would see the First Ones from Sigma 957 this season, since there are supposed to be some direct confrontations between the Army of Light and the Shadows?"

  No. It isn't their time yet.

• Let me answer this way...whenever I'm going to unveil something on the show, I begin to point to it in upcoming episodes. I've begun pointing to the question of what the shadows want, and why they're doing it. So, logically, I'm now going to have to follow up on that....

• In general, you always know when I'm going to start answering a question, because I begin to point at it in episodes; I'm now beginning to point to the shadows and ask, "What do THEY want?"

  The answer is coming.

• Do YOU agree with the Shadows' motives?
  Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Motives are one thing; the means to achieving that motive, however, are a different issue. And those means I do not agree with. But on some level, their motives can make sense... as can the Vorlons' motives....

• It wasn't my idea. It was Kosh's idea. It was his pulling me that way that led to it. "Trust me," he said. I followed.

  And yeah, it does hurt. Pat Tallman was devastated at the screening. Even my own crew wouldn't talk to me for a day or so after the script came out.

  Which is when I knew it was the right thing to do.

• It's funny, out of all the awful terrible things I've done to our characters over these 3 years, the one that honked off the whole crew was the Kosh development. On one level, they loved it...loved how it tightened the screws...but they still didn't want to know from me for a day or two.

• Yeah, that's [Kosh's death] the story turn that surprised even me. (And, of course, I can't wait for the folks who'll say it was over a contract dispute with the actor....)

• I'm just waiting for some nit to come out of the woodwork and announce that the real reason for what happened to Kosh was that Kosh had a contract dispute over money or walked off the show....

• The mentor always dies in heroic sagas.
  I think Kosh sort of "hit the wall" when he saw that Sheridan wasn't going to go away; I think finally he was ashamed, and recognized his fear, and in a sense the air went out of him, and he reconciled himself to what had to be.

  You're right about the mentor; sooner or later, the mentor has to step aside (or fall by the wayside) for the others to grow into the hero's journey. Originally this was slated to happen a bit later...I think, on some level, I was reluctant to do it, because to write this kind of stuff you have to *feel* it yourself, and I think I was avoiding that as much as Kosh was avoiding his fate. I didn't want to go through writing that. So I kept putting it off. I knew it *had* to be done...but not yet....

  And that's when, for lack of a better explanation, Kosh stepped up and began to pull me in that direction in the script. It was time. His passing shouldn't be frittered away or minimized; it should happen at the right moment, and this was that moment. It's almost impossible to describe this to a non-writer, but the character, this fictional construct, was simply determined to have his way, and that was the end of it. I kept trying to dance away in the script, to go back into safer waters...but each time was pulled back in this direction, until finally I had to admit that yes, this was the right time, and the right way, to do this.

  And Kosh fell.

  But what finally convinced me was the realization that this was not only right for now, but right for *later*...though you won't know what that means for a while yet.

• Mainly, I think I was just trying to avoid it...put it off as long as possible...but the character knew, even more than I did, that this was the right time to do this. It's a very hard thing to do this to a character; the only way to get that kind of emotion into a script is to feel it yourself as you're writing it, and that's a painful thing to do. So I was avoiding it. But he outfoxed me...as usual.

  That's Vorlons for you.

• The Kosh stuff, his scene with Sheridan, and his passing, is very moving. I showed it at Marcon this weekend in Ohio, and many folks, including Patricia Talman -- who hadn't seen it yet -- were in tears at that. That, to me, is the moment when you know you've done something, when you can make people *feel* something. Not just a plot exercise, but you hit down deep where it hurts, or can make someone laugh. It's all about touching emotion...or what's the point?

• Actually, there wasn't much about Kosh I disliked...except his cryptic ways...they're all annoying that way.

• When they shot the scene itself...no, not a lot of emotion in the Kosh sequence in his quarters, because it was all very technical, bits and pieces. But in the hallway scene with Sheridan, and the later scene with Delenn and the others...yes, very much so.

  It was *extremely* difficult to write. As a writer, the only way to evoke a feeling in your audience is to feel it yourself and communicate that honestly in the text. It was just awful.

• "1. presumably Adira was actually poisoned by Mordens cronies, since he was looking for a way to hurt Londo, and we saw him finding out information about her?"

  Correct.

  "2. In the final credits, a ranger is mentioned. I don't remember seeing any rangers in this episode - where did he come in?"

  His scene was snipped for time, it was a small one, didn't add much to the story, but you have to keep those credits in under SAG rules.

  "3. Will we ever find out why Kosh allowed himself to be "poisoned" in the pilot episode now?"

  You're assuming he allowed it.

  "4. What was the flash of light running across B5 when Kosh died?"

  A non-localized phenomenon.

  "5. Early on, when Sheriden was talking to Delenn, he wants to know "what the Shadows are really after". Delenn looks like she is resolutely not saying anything and hoping that the conversation moves on before Sheriden presses for an answer... which it does. Does Delenn know what the shadows are after (considering the war from a 1000 years ago, I would have thought that the star faring Minbari would have had pretty good records)?"

  They do, and she does, and she's making a few mistakes that may come back to haunt her in the not too distant future.

  "6. Will you tell us? (answer = cryptic "YES" no doubt!)"

  In the fullness of time.

• "JMS, why did you edit out the scene where the Ranger follows Morden and ends up being killed by the Shadows? Don't you think fans of the show would rather see that than the scene in the bar where Garibaldi asks for info on Franklin's blood from the other doctor? When you edit the show please keep in mind what the fans would what to see. Rangers and Shadows fighting is much more exciting than a unimportant scene that could have been left out easily."

  Because it was important to set up what Garibaldi wanted, where it was, and how he was going to gain access. It had to show his concern for Franklin, the moral ambiguity in asking for this, the betrayal we see on Franklin's face, the difficulty in Dr. Hobbs dealing with his request. The ranger scene was a brief piece that was really unconnected to the rest of the story, had no setup elsewhere or payoff, was only a brief piece of action. I needed the time to establish the character and plot information in the Garibaldi scene.

  And when you cite what "the fans" want to see, bear in mind that there ain't no such critter. There's what *you* like, but *you're* not the entirety of the fans. Some fans thought "Avalon" was one of the best of the series to date; others thought it was just a character piece and wanted more action and arc and called it a "waste." Some people when they read a novel read for the action, then when they come to a few pages that establish the look of the forest, or some character background, jump ahead a few pages to where the action starts up again. Some do just the opposite.

  My obligation, first and foremost, is to the story, and to tell that story as best I can. If I start trying to second guess what *The Fans* want, when there is no ready concensus, when there ain't no such thing, when different fans want different things, it'll just get watered down and wander around lost.

• The voice-over is something I mentioned here a few months ago as a tool I was adding to my toolbox to use as counterpoint, or segue, in ways I hadn't tried before. I use it again here and there, though the key with any new tool is not to go nuts and use it all over the place when a better one, maybe the one you already had, is better suited to the task.

• Just a quickie aside...the background/depiction of Brakiri space was taken right from a Hubble deep-space shot. We use them a lot, as provided to us by the folks who keep track of it all and keep it running.

• One can certainly argue that Franklin's actions were hasty, that he is basically running away from the *consequences* of the problem he has, as much as from the problem itself. This will, of course, have to be dealt with.

• Is Franklin still on the war council?
  Franklin would be off the council for a while; he has to go and figure his life out first.

• You'll see more of Franklin, as he tries to deal with his problem. At first it's not too bad, but with time....

• Why is Londo still on the station? Why do they let him stay?
  B5 is still a place of considerable commerce, access to lots and lots of other races and diplomats...it serves Londo's purposes for now, and there are probably lots of Centauri back home who would prefer he stay here. As for the rest...better the devil you know than the devil you don't. At least on B5 they can keep somewhat of an eye on him.

• Why didn't Londo mention Adira periodically?
  Basically because it's hard in an episode to just bring up something out of the blue unless you're going to use it. You're stuck with, "Boy, I wish Adira were here...so what's for dinner?" Which will mean nothing to the folks who didn't see the first season unless you then talk more about her, show her...and then suddenly you REALLY have to deal with it or it's intrusive.

• Will Londo discover Morden's role in Adira's death?
  Anything's possible.

• One theme of the show is how we each deal with the traumas that beset us, and the choices we make. The difference is in how we handle them. In "Shadow" and "Interludes" both Londo and Sheridan have to confront somewhat similar losses: the death of a loved one. But Sheridan, at the last, was willing to suck in the pain and do what was right, however much it grieved him, and forego revenge...Londo, on the other hand, has embraced revenge.

• Why doesn't Londo just have Refa killed?
  Refa is a powerful guy now, with powerful allies; he [Londo] needs money, in large amounts, and more influence, so when and if Refa would get it, there wouldn't be the kinds of repercussions that might otherwise come, as with a mafia hit, for instance.

• Why don't they keep Morden off the station?
  They would do so, but since the fall from Earth, as Susan mentioned, they've had to hire guards who may not be above bribes, as we saw in the teaser. And Morden is good at covering his footsteps.

• Did Morden eliminate Adira's killer to cover his tracks?
  No, Adira's killer is still alive...can be useful, those folks.

• The "crystals" were diamonds, he was bribing various people to let him in and otherwise do things for him. And yes, Delenn's holding back some information still, and Kosh was outnumbered.

• Sheridan has doubtless noticed by now that Delenn is holding stuff back from time to time...may even mention this in a few episodes.

• The shadows looked for Morden's opinion; he's an advisor, in a sense, on lower-species politics.

• Have the Shadows been getting bigger?
  No, they're about the same height consistently; it's probably an artifact of the camera angles and lighting.

• How did the Shadows get aboard?
  They physically come aboard. There's no beaming-in tech in the B5 universe.

• About Sheridan's confrontation with Kosh
  I don't think Sinclair would've handled that scene in the same way; it needed someone who'd go toe to toe with something very old and dark and dangerous in his way. He had to get under Kosh's "skin," as it were. Needle and outrage and upset him until he got through...whatever the cost.

• There was a bit edited out of the Sheridan/Kosh conversation, but nothing of real importance. It was at the beginning, as he catches up with Kosh, and discusses his meeting with the League worlds and how important it would be for the Vorlons to get involved.

• Bruce did a great job in that scene; there's a touch of madness in it, which is quite understandable. As for the Rangers, they get a new, added role later this season.

• Bruce is a hell of a lot better than some folks were willing to give him credit for in the beginning. I think that's coming out now as his role becomes more deep and more serious.

• "The "arc" is fully alive for you now, I think. Without these characters living and breathing inside your mind I don't see how one man could write as much as you have over the past two seasons. What I *have* noticed is that all the actors now seem to be responding to the story you're telling."

  Yeah, it's kind of a funny thing...the deeper we got into the season, as the actors saw only one name on script after script, and they began to understand what was coming, and it's all *very* consistent...the sense of this being a novel really came through for everyone in a very profound way. You could really feel a change in everyone's attitude, though it'd be hard to put into words. A sense of, "This is it, this is the story, we're moving now, we're doing something nobody's ever done." They know how hard it is for anyone to write this many scripts, which is why it's never been done before, and I think they not only respected that, but felt they had to rise to the challenge and give just as much at that end of it. Usually you tend to hit a slump energy-wise in your third year; not here. Everyone's just hitting all cylinders.

• Sheridan has almost certainly not learned all he needed to know.

• Why didn't Kosh leave?
  Because I think, on some level, Kosh knew it was inevitable; a price had to be paid. In a way, Lincoln had the same feelings...why was he to live when so many had died? In a way, he knew he wouldn't live much longer. Also, it would mean running...and the Vorlons don't run. If he fled, another would pay the price...and that also wouldn't be right.

• He knew a price had to be paid, and if it wasn't him, it'd be someone else. Because he knew there was no getting around it. He's too prideful to run.

  Remember Gethsemane....

• Kosh fought and fought hard. And he did not go down easily...and one might say that yes, he did not go down alone...but not entirely in the way you're thinking.

• How could you kill Kosh before explaining Sheridan's dream in "All Alone in the Night?" The problem is we're telling different stories. What makes it interesting for me is that Sheridan *isn't* prepared, Kosh *didn't* finish his training. It isn't nice and tidy. And to stop and explain the dream in "Interludes" would've meant taking, oh, about 3-5 minutes OUT of that episode, and it's very tight as it is. And it would've just been a case of, "Here, here's this bit of exposition relating to something you've seen before."

  No, the dream *does* get explained...and it gets explained *this season*, in the course of the final five. In detail. But at the right time, and in the right place. To have explained it sooner wouldn't work, it has to come at the right moment, with the last bits of information our characters need to *use* that interpretation.

• Did Delenn's certainty that there wouldn't be a body stem from her knowledge of the Vorlons, or of the Shadows?
  More about the Vorlons than the shadows.

• "Why didn't the Shadows get on the horn and start screaming that they just made sushi out of Kosh. The alliance is new, shaky, unsure of Sheridan. What a great time to screw over everyone by announcing we killed Kosh."

  Because for starters, it's bad form. If you kill somebody else's ambassador, that's not the sort of thing you proclaim proudly, it tends to bounce badly back onto you. Also, this was primarily a personal situation. There's more, but it's a bit further down the road story-wise that might help clarify this further.

• Why wasn't a Soul Hunter present at Kosh's death?
  Because it was very sudden, and they learned the hard way to leave Vorlons alone.

• Could the Soul Hunters sense Kosh's death?
  It's not that easy a question, or that straightforward a situation, as you'll see soon enough.

• Why didn't you show the fight between Kosh and the Shadows?
  I thought about that long and hard when writing the script, and I finally came to the conclusion that there was literally *nothing* we could show that wouldn't be disappointing...it's a conflict on another whole plane, and should have an almost cosmic or ethereal feel to it. If we showed Kosh shooting a defensive field, or a shadow opening his suit with a can opener, or anything else obvious and physical, it would've diminished the scene. The vorlons are mythic, indirect, you see them out of the corner of your eye, so it fit that the proper metaphor would be to handle the battle that way.

  Even if we'd had ten million bucks to do that sequence...I would've made the same choice.

• Did Sebastian know about Kosh's fate when he asked Delenn about dying alone?
  Actually, Sebastian said that bit about dying alone to both Sheridan and Delenn. Who knows, he may have known something....

  If Kosh had run, which wasn't in his character in the first place, someone else would've paid that price.

  Londo still has chances, if he doesn't blow them. You'll see a bit more about this in the two-parter.

  Yes, some Vorlons do appear to us as female versions.

• Did the Shadows only realize what Kosh was when they fought him?
  Oh, no, the Shadows and the Vorlons know each other from way, way back.

• There is something thematically present about growing up, and parents, and coming of age that threads through the story.

  And yes, there's the deliberate irony...that just as we finally start to really hear from Kosh...he's gone. Snatched away just as we got close. Which would add to the feelings.

• Kosh also appeared as G'Kar's father ("Dust to Dust.")
  That's what Kosh tends to play into, the whole father aspect, though others might take the other approach in this.

• It's likely a matter of both, choosing an element which is strongest in the other person, which for Sheridan and G'Kar would be their respective fathers, who would also be authority figures to them...so it's both manipulation and emotion.

• What happens to Lyta now?
  She'll now have to work with the incoming replacement Vorlon, who might be just a bit miffed....

• As for Kosh's ship...it headed for the nearest star, the local one, and basically dived into it....

• Why was one of the Vorlon ships red?
  Not special per se, just to establish that they have more than one design.

• Lyta was off-station running an errand for Kosh.

• The red ship was simply another variation on the standard; nothing too major about it...and yes, when Lyta returns from her errand, she'll definitely get into this, and there will have to be some explanations made, though not to her....

• The different color just goes to show some measure of individuality in design, and there are some hierarchies implied here.

• Are there lots of Vorlons in the big mother ship?
  There's a bunch in the big ship.

• Why didn't the mother ship attack?
  I think we just didn't see those shots; it was used in the attack.

• Vorlon/Shadow tech is more or less at the same level; the Vorlons had the benefit of surprise.

• What were the ambassadors doing in the war room?
  Usually you only get the main war council and the support staff who monitor the progress of the war; the ambassadors were called in on Sheridan's hunch that now the vorlons would get involved.

• About the flash of light on Morden's mask, as compared to the end of "Divided Loyalties"
  Certainly the flash of light was an echo of Lyta's mask. As for Delenn, I think she was just stunned, just emotionallly worn out over this.

• Delenn mentions in the tag that the Vorlons will be sending someone to quietly replace Kosh. It's a bit darker character.

• Will we be able to tell the difference between Kosh and the replacement?
  You'll know the difference. Believe me.

• The two aliens in the start of the episode were a Brakiri and a Gaim.

  "Interludes" for me marks a slight transition in the story, from one "shape" to the next up...the demarkation between the hero-cycle and the myth-cycle in the arc.

• Answers to a few reader questions
  1. Kosh died fighting, I guess, and I'm also guessing that he took some Shadows with him. How was this fight different than the one we didn't see in "Signs and Portents"? Were there more Shadows this time or are they getting stronger?

  They were not initially prepared to kill him. That was a territorial or jurisdictional squabble. This was retribution.

  2. If Kosh did take out some Shadows, will more be sent to Morden as replacements?

  He didn't. Hurt 'em good, but didn't take them out.

  3. Did Kosh project to Delenn, G'Kar, or anyone else besides Sheridan during the fight?

  No.

  4. Did Garibaldi ever get a chance to speak with Kosh about the Talia/Abbut data crystal as hinted at in "Divided Loyalties"?

  Yes.

  5. Besides being extremely old, was Kosh an average Vorlon or particularly special in terms of strength, skill, or status? No other ambassador on the station has demonstrated the clout back home to sortie an entire fleet at a moments notice. Delenn and Londo have only called on forces from a particular faction in their polities.

  He was certainly well regarded...one of the older of the vorlons.

• I'll put it to you this way...Kosh was old enough to have had a first hand familiarity with Valen. Vorlons live a REAL long time.

• Valen led the prior shadow war and formed the grey council roughly 1000 years before B5's current time.

• Won't anyone notice Kosh's ship leaving?
  For Kosh himself, yes, very few had direct contact with him; so that's workable. As for the ship...this objection assumes omniscience on the part of the outside characters.

  Consider: the quarter million people aboard B5 get their information about what happens outside second-hand, filtered through B5 itself. If the staff manning C&C decide to not show that information, or give access to it, it doesn't exist. As for the ships outside, they move to and from the jump gate, and are only interested in what's happening in this small area of space to avoid running into anything. They don't generally keep track of where all the other traffic is going; that's C&C's job.

  And it isn't as simple as looking out your window. The distance from Epsilon 3 to its local star is more or less equal to the distance from Earth to our sun. That's a LOT of space and a very small ship. You are not going to be able to track it visually, and who'd want to keep an eye on it all the way to the local star?

• About Kosh's ship
  It was made for Kosh, as Delenn points out, was almost a part of him; it wouldn't function as well, if at all, for anyone else. There was nothing else to be done.

• A personal transport is assigned to one vorlon for life, changing and evolving over time. Little fighters have a more primitive system. It's not the same thing as a shadow-vessel merge. A big Vorlon cruiser has a full crew.

Last update: January 2, 1997