History Recap / BabylonFiveS02E05TheLongDark

!The Long Dark

* {{Irony}}: An example that only becomes apparent when you watch the show through for the second time. Likely not deliberate, but there's something wonderfully ironic in having the Markab ambassador, of all people, speak out about the dangers of ignoring the truth because you don't want to confront it (See the episode "Confessions and Lamentations").

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Note which ambassador of the League who is the one to point out how the Shadows operate. At this point nobody actually know much about them, and they are hardly named, except as the "forces of darkness". Yes, it is the ''Markab'' ambassador. At the end of this season, the Markab have gone extinct.
** At the end of the episode, G'Kar is shown reading the Book of G'Quan which has an entry for the Soldier of Darkness. The Book of G'Quan and the apparent Shadow presence on Narn millennia ago, will play an important part later on in the show.

* NothingIsScarier: The Dark Soldier is able to turn himself completely invisible and can go through solid walls, so there is no easy way to figure out where he is going to attack from.

* POVCam: First seen inside the Copernicus while Ivanova is inspecting the vintage computer system. Something very tall and unseen is watching Ivanova....and she can sense it. Later the Soldier of Darkness later kills a Lurker alien again from only its POV.

A small ship emerges from deep space and head for Babylon 5, emitting a signal they don't recognize. It didn't use the jumpgate and it's broadcasting a message, "This is the ''Copernicus''. We come in peace." Aboard the station, a lurker named Amis suddenly awakes yelling, "Through the walls!" He then clutches at his head, as though in pain, then crawls to a viewport, saying "I see you!" Later he is in the Zocalo acting like a some kind of crazed doomsday preacher. G'Kar walks by and Amis begins getting in his face. Londo is nearby and finds it highly amusing, until Amis turns to him. As the ambassador tries to get away, Garibaldi comes by and nabs Amis.

Amis is at it again, telling the crowds that doom is upon them. Garibaldi grabs him and marches him out, but Amis protests that it's real, and that is came from the ''Copernicus''. He knows, because he saw it during the war.

-->'''Amis''': We were an intelligence-gathering unit, not set up for heavy combat. We'd heard the Minbari were setting up a command and control post, so we slipped onto a small moon before they finished the perimeter scans. We set up camp in old ruins of some kind. As far as we knew, it was a dead world. It came in the night, during a storm. We heard nothing, saw nothing...It came right through the walls, like a hot wind. The first man died, just meters from me -- never even screamed. We ran... we ran. For a second, I thought I lost it, and then I saw it. Standing in the middle of a ball of lightning. It looked like it had come straight from hell.

-->'''Garibaldi''': How did you survive?

-->'''Amis''': I didn't! It kept me alive. As a snack. It becomes part of you, feeding on you. The lucky ones were the men who died on the moon. What it took from me I can never get back. When the rescue party showed up, I weighed 85 pounds. That's how I knew it was on this station. A part of me's still inside that thing. I can feel it. But nobody ever believed me...until now.

* CryonicsFailure: Averted. The cryo tube didn't fail, its occupant died of something far more sinister.

* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Franklin and Mariah come close to romance, but ultimately avert it. Franklin expresses interest if she ever comes back but she quickly shoots the idea down.

* POVCam: First seen inside the Copernicus while Ivanova is inspecting the vintage computer system. Something very tall and unseen is watching Ivanova....and she can sense it. Later the Soldier of Darkness later kills a Lurker alien again from only its POV.

In C&C, Ivanova comes to give Sheridan a report. The ''Copernicus'' suffered a heavy oxygen loss as it passed the moon Amis was stationed on, but afterwards, it had a new course. [[HellSeeker The creature had reprogrammed it to fly to Z'Ha'Dum]]. Something is going on there, and neither of them like it.

* HellSeeker: The Dark Soldier had reprogrammed the ''Copernicus'' to take it to Z'Ha'Dum.

** At the end of the episode, G'kar is shown reading the Book of G'Quan which has an entry for the Soldier of Darkness. The Book of G'Quan and the apparent Shadow presence on Narn millennia ago, will play an important part later on in the show.

* NothingIsScarier: The Dark Soldier is able to turn himself completely invisible and can go through solid walls, so there is [[ParanoiaFuel no easy way to figure out where he is going to attack from.]]

* PreInsanityReveal: crazy homeless doomsayer Amis (played by Creator/DwightSchultz) is arrested early in the episode for disturbing the peace. When Amis starts saying "Incoming! Incoming!" in his sleep, Garibaldi realizes he's a [[GreatOffscreenWar Minbari War]] veteran.

->''The usual. The good times, and the bad times, the revelations, the revolutions. Outbreaks of hysteria, the parade of scandals, promises, constitutions, and the occasional war. The last big ones were against the Dilgar, which we won, and against the Minbari, which...well, [[Recap/BabylonFiveFilm01InTheBeginning that's a long story]].''

* SillyPrayer: In the cold open, Amis senses the approach of the same "Soldier of Darkness" that had mutilated him years ago. He begins praying the Lord's Prayer but mixes up parts of it, and replaces the word "Heaven" with "Space".

* NoodleIncident: Garibaldi tells Amis about a GROPOS in his unit back in the Earth-Minbari war who warned the rest of their unit who warned them about their weak perimeter. Everyone ignored him because they thought he was nuts. Turns out he was right. And that's why Garibaldi believes Amis.