A hopeful crowd has gathered in the Zocalo, eager to see the first ISN broadcast since their Geneva premises were raided by President Clark's soldiers. However, hopes for a better situation back on Earth are dashed when a nauseatingly pedantic reporter announces that ISN was not attacked by Clark's forces, but were taken over by alien-backed saboteurs. News at 11: a sugary piece on Clark's domestic policy, proving that ISN has now become just a propaganda tool for the President. Ivanova, Garibaldi and Dr. Franklin are indignant, but there is nothing they can do except wait for Sheridan to return from his test run of one of the Starfuries recovered from the Churchill, a new model that can fly inside an atmosphere.
During the exercise, Sheridan receives a distress signal coming from a nearby sector. It is from a lone black Star Fury, painted with an ominous Black Omega symbol, and bearing the station's favorite Psi Cop, Mr. Bester. Keeping carefully out of telepathic scanning range the Captain asks Bester why he shouldn't just blast him to hell. Curiosity?, Bester suggests. When there's no reply, Bester gets impatient and calls out from the Captain, but receives a taciturn reply: "I'm thinking it over." Hah!
Ivanova is on her way to greet Sheridan at the docking bay when she is intercepted by an angry G'Kar, who wants to know why Sheridan hasn't acted on his promise. G'Kar has fulfilled his part of the bargain by having his Narns assist with station security, and he demands that he now be allowed to join the war council. Ivanova blows him off, saying she'll talk to Sheridan.
Meanwhile, Bester arrives and is escorted by heavily armed guards to a cell, as usual. He has demanded a meeting without telepath-suppressive drugs; in return, Bester promises not to scan anyone. Privately, Sheridan manages to convince a reluctant Ivanova to be the one to grill Bester, since her latent ability will allow her to detect a scan. She greets the Psi Cop in his cell with icy demeanor. Predictably, Bester idly needles Ivanova about her hatred for the Corps and her mother's suicide, earning himself a resounding slap in his face. Point taken, Bester explains that President Clark is being guided and influenced by the Shadows, whom he suspects have infiltrated Psi Corps as well. An anti-telepath conspiracy is brewing on Earth, one which is interfering with Bester's own designs; a future where "mundanes" are governed by telepaths. He has come to Babylon 5 to find someone who hates Shadows as much as he, because he thinks he knows a way to damage them.
In Delenn's quarters, she and Captain Sheridan hash over G'Kar's demand. They both realize that bringing G'Kar into their circle means owning up to the fact that they allowed the Narn homeworld to be invaded rather than divulge their knowledge of the Shadows. Delenn feels it is her responsibility to talk to G'Kar personally, but Sheridan fears for her if she does.
Bester tells the gathered officers that a ship bearing weapons components for the Shadows is en route to the Rim and needs to be seized. He explains that he can pinpoint the ship's location in hyperspace by homing in on the thought waves of the occupants.
The White Star sets course sector 500 in hyperspace, piloted by Sheridan, Ivanova, Lennier, with Bester guiding them to the location of the convoy. Bester strolls around the bridge of the ship, examining all the cool toys. "Try not to drool on the controls," Sheridan mutters under his breath. The instant the Captain leaves his seat, Bester hops on, only to be booted out an instant later. When Bester detects the ship's coordinates, Lennier refuses to budge until Sheridan parrots Bester's orders. Even Lennier hates him!
Delenn, her head bowed, reveals to G'Kar that the Grey Council knew that the Shadows were puppeteering the Centauri, yet they kept silent because it was necessary to let the Shadows believe they were operating under the radar. Under the heel of the Centauri, there is still hope of survival for the Narns, but had the Shadows had been alerted, they would have exterminated the lot of them. G'Kar confesses that had he possessed this knowledge beforehand, he would have killed Delenn on the spot. With all that's happened, however, G'kar knows that if it were not for the Grey Council's inaction, his people would be a dead race. A tearful Delenn finally welcomes him into the War Council, and expresses hope that he can forgive her someday. Perhaps, he replies, but not today.
Back in hyperspace, the White Star has destroyed the small fighters and is using a magnetic discharge to grab the transport ship, when they detect another Shadow vessel, this time a mothership, moving towards them. They brace themselves for an imminent attack...which never comes. The thing leaves! Sheridan doesn't take time to dwell on their good fortune, he just orders them home, double time.
The White Star returns safety to the station. The ship's cargo is comprised of over a hundred cryogenic tubes with the Psi Corps logo, each containing a telepath whose face is contorted in pain. Sheridan confronts Bester with earlier claims of the ship carrying "weapons components". Bester says he lied because he could not trust that they would help him if they knew the cargo wasn't weaponry, but telepaths.
Dr. Franklin has taken one of the cryo tubes to Medlab and is examining it. The telepath, a woman, has no other identification but a Psi Corps bracelet, and she also has two cybernetic implants on either side of the head. She wakes up screaming and needs to be sedated. Dr. Franklin brings the bracelet to Sheridan and Bester identifies it as one worn by a "blip", a telepath on the run from Psi Corps who was captured and imprisoned in a re-education camp. Bester then examines the bracelet closer and, looking disturbed, asks to see her immediately.
In Medlab 1, the telepath woman is having a nightmare where three unknown aliens are examining her and probably putting the implants on her head. She also hears a hideous scream and sees a Shadow vessel. She wakes up screaming and touches the medical equipment by her bed.
Alarms sound and a troop of security guards with Garibaldi, Bester and Dr. Franklin arrive at the evacuated Medlab. Inside, the woman is suspended in mid-air inside an intricate cocoon of wiring and is interfacing with the station's computers. She calls out to Bester for help, but when he approaches she suddenly attacks them with electricity from the cables at her fingers. Dr. Franklin prepares a sedative injection and tries to reason with her, but can't get close. Bester is confused and tells Garibaldi that there is no reason for her to attack him. That makes Garibaldi realises that the reason for the attack might have been the sight of the Psi Corps insignia. He takes it from Bester and throws it to the floor, where she blasts it. She then speaks to them while Dr. Franklin approaches her slowly with the sedative: "Al, what have they done to me?" and sends him images of her ordeal: alien brain surgery and Shadow vessels.
Back in Sheridan's office, Bester confesses that the woman, Carolyn, is his lover and that she is also pregnant with their child. His marriage to his wife is just a genetic pairing arranged by Psi Corps. He met Carolyn at the re-education centre and tried help her, but she would not compromise by taking the sleepers or joining Psi Corps. Ivanova remembers what Delenn told them, that Shadow ships are made of organic technology and use living beings as their central operating system. The Shadows were intending to plug these telepaths into their newborn ships. If Bester hated the Shadows before, now he wants to destroy them. He asks Sheridan to help Carolyn, but Sheridan is not so sure if they have the know-how to remove the implants. Bester asks that they at least try, and pledges his support to B5's war before departing on his Starfury, leaving Carolyn in the care of Dr. Franklin.
Garibaldi, meanwhile, remembers something he read from the Book of G'Quan, and re-reads the relevant section. Once he confirms it, he calls for a meeting of the War Council. There, he asks G'Kar to read aloud a passage concerning the presence of the Shadows in Narn a thousand years ago, when they used the Narn homeworld as a base for their ships. The passage explains that the darkness moved across Narn killing the "mindwalkers" and their families, and that G'Quan led the remaining "mindwalkers" in an effort to drive the Shadows off Narn. If "mindwalkers" is the term that the ancient Narns used for telepaths, that means that the Shadows can be driven away by using telepaths. This explains why the Shadow vessel did not attack the White Star when Bester was on board, as well as why Carolyn attacked the Psi Corps insignia. It seems that telepaths can block the Shadow's systems somehow and that the Shadows are trying to compensate for this weakness by using telepaths in their own ships. That means they might have found a weapon at last. None too soon, as they receive a report stating that the Shadows are attacking Rim worlds openly.
In Brakiri space, the Shadows are easily carving up the Brakiri ships.
- Ivanova: It's started.
Tropes:
- Achilles' Heel: We have already seen Shadows have difficulty concealing their presence from telepaths. This episode shows that they are vulnerable to telepaths on a tactical level, as well.
- Actor Allusion: Walter Koenig was one of the few Star Trek cast members who never got to sit in the captain's chair. Here he takes great pleasure in swiping Sheridan's chair, and the crew actually had a hard time getting him out of it after the scene was finished.
- Alien Abduction: Carolyn's memories include an image of her being poked and prodded by an alien race that serves the Shadows.
- Arranged Marriage: Psi Corps also controls the privates lives of its telepaths, selecting unions based on genetic compatibility.
- The Assimilator: Shadows abducting telepaths to use as a countermeasure against other telepaths. Also invoked with Carolyn's attempted assimilation of B5's systems.
- As You Know: Does Sheridan really need to explain to Bester who the Black Omega squadron is and that telepaths must have line of sight to scan you?
- Bastardly Speech: The ISN anchorwoman's bald-faced lie that the previous broadcast was the work of anti-government terrorists.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: In the station, Dr. Franklin examines what is left of the transport ship's alien pilot, who looks like it committed suicide and tried to melt its own body at the same time.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Carolyn.
- Break Them by Talking: Bester immediately begins needling Ivanova about her mother's suicide.
- Call-Back:
- G'Kar finally understands what Kosh (under the guise of his father) told him in his drug-induced vision: "Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved."
- G'kar stated in a previous episode that the Narn telepaths had died out. The lack of Narn telepaths have been established since season one. Garibaldi's research digs up evidence that those Narns were exterminated by occupying Shadow forces.
- The first indication that Shadows had a weakness against telepaths was when Talia was able to sense them around Morden.
- Chekhov's Army: We'll be seeing the telepaths in the cryo tubes again...much later.
- Continuity Nod: When Garibaldi has his "Eureka!" Moment, and confirms it by rereading the Book of G'Quan, he calls the senior staff to a council of war with a Code 7-R.
- Contrived Coincidence: There were 100 telepaths on the ship. The crew select one at random for examination... and that one just happens to be Bester's lover (whom he didn't even know was on board), the only thing he cares about more than his plans for telepath domination, resulting in him fully committing to allying with B5.
- Cyborg: Cybernetic devices were grafted into the nervous systems of Carolyn and the rest of the 99 telepaths. As with all Shadow tech, these devices are highly adaptive, allowing their hosts to merge with almost any system. These are mainly used to convert living beings to serve as CPUs on Shadow vessels.
- Distress Call:
- Enemy Civil War: According to Bester, the Psi Corps official we saw colluding with the Shadows on Earth did not speak for the entire agency. Bester is managing to keep his rank at the Corps by keeping his investigation under wraps.
- Enemy Mine: Directly quoted by Bester. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
- "Eureka!" Moment: Garibaldi has been studying the Book of G'Quan, just as G'kar encouraged him to. He stumbles upon a veiled reference to telepaths in the chapter dedicated to G'Quan's overthrow of the Shadows.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Carolyn, one of the altered telepaths, is Bester's lover.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Eugenics and world domination? Awesome. But an anti-telepath conspiracy brewing within his own government is too much even for Bester.
- Evil Virtues: Bester is telling it straight for once: he does place value on Carolyn and his unborn baby.
- Exposition Beam: Unable to fight her programming, Carolyn sends images of her ordeal to Bester via telepathic link.
- Fantastic Racism: Bester's disdain for "mundanes" is on full display.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas: Garibaldi gives the Book of G'Quan a sharp rap with his hand for emphasis. G'kar grips his head as though it were a deafening noise.G'kar: Do not thump the Book of G'Quan. It is disrespectful.
- Freudian Excuse: Bester is but a stooge and a victim of Psi Corps and its policies, although perhaps a more willing participant than others. This might also explain why he hates non-telepaths, since he considers himself superior to them but has to do their bidding, even at the cost of his own happiness.
- From a Certain Point of View: Bester was told that the shipment in question was of "weapons supplies". He later learned that they were fellow telepaths, which prompted him to approach Sheridan & co. to help rescue them. It wasn't until after Bester and Sheridan rescued the telepaths that they learn they were going to be plugged into Shadow vessels to become their main operating system—weapons components, indeed.
- The Greys: This episode marks the first appearance of the so-called "shadow surgeons", who resemble the most villainous version of the trope.
- Human Popsicle: Certain elements in Psi Corps have been cooperating with the Shadows by smuggling captured "blips" (rogue telepaths) in cryogenic chambers to their ships.
- Hypocrisy Nod: G'kar's "infinite patience" whilst harassing Ivanova for his war council membership.Ivanova: I thought your patience was "infinite like the universe".
G'Kar Yes, but since space and time are curved, the infinite sooner or later bends back upon itself and ends up where it began. And so have I. - I Gave My Word: Bester promised to protect Carolyn and his unborn child. "It's the only promise I ever made that means a damn to me."
- I'm Thinking It Over!: Between the momentary pleasure of blowing Bester out of the sky and finding out what's so important he came all the way out here to see them, Sheridan has to take a few moments to think about it.
- Infinite Supplies: Averted.
- It's Personal: At first, Bester was merely opposing the Shadows because he felt that their plans would conflict with his. After their abduction of Carolyn and his unborn child, he makes it clear that its become far more personal in nature.Bester: Your war is now my war.
- Man in the Machine: Carolyn's cyberweb implants allow her to merge with almost any circuitry, including Babylon 5's system.
- Mutant Draft Board: Telepaths who refuse to take sleeper drugs to suppress their abilities, or to join the Psi Corps, are sent to reeducation camps, one of which is on Mars. The Corps refers to them informally as "blips."
- The Needs of the Many: Delenn points out to G'Kar that by letting the Centauri conquer the Narn, millions may have been killed, but billions more survive and may one day be freed. Had the Shadows been exposed, they would have attacked openly instead of using the Centauri as proxies, and they would have left none of his people alive. G'Kar understands this logic and accepts it, but it's still a very bitter pill to swallow.G'kar: "Some of us must be sacrificed, if all are to be saved." Now I understand that is as much about how we got here, as where we are going. I think that one sentence is the greatest burden I have ever known.
- New Old Flame: Bester has been hiding a mistress on Mars. Of his previously-avowed marriage, he explains that it was an arranged pairing by the Corps. "There's no love there."
- In the canon Psi Corps novels, this is made clear, adding the insult to injury that his wife is carrying on an affair and admits she only married him because the Corps was worried about his stability. It's even implied it's not certain their child is his. Between the novels and his bad luck regarding Carolyn, Bester's love life pushes him almost into Chew Toy territory. His luck is almost as bad as Ivanova's.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Bester can locate the convoy for them using his telepathic abilities that, he reveals, are amplified in hyperspace. This is a secret that telepaths keep to themselves to avoid being sent to the front lines in a battle.Bester: Mundanes are expendable. Telepaths are not.
- Pet the Dog: Bester's emotional relationship with Carolyn. Also, the fact that he was willing to go to such lengths to rescue fellow psis, even before he realized Carolyn was with them.
- Propaganda Machine: ISN has come back on air, but now is this for President Clark.
- Psycho Electro: How Carolyn fends off Dr. Franklin and his trusty syringe. She wants to be free of the agony she's in, but is no longer in control of her actions.
- Red Alert:
- Restricted Rescue Operation: Delenn's conversation with G'Kar touches on this as the Minbari couldn't reveal that they knew the Shadows had returned.
- Shout-Out: Bester's name was already a reference to the highly revered science fiction writer Alfred Bester, and this episode reveals his first name is also the same. The Psi-Corps novels reveal he actually was named after the writer in-universe, who was a favorite of the man who brought him to the Corps.
- Bester quotes from Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado.
Bester: I suspect you'd rather walk out that door and wall me up inside! Do a little re-creation of "The Cask of Amontillado". "For the love of God, Montresor!". - Spring-Loaded Corpse: Franklin leans in close to inspect Carolyn's cryo-tube, a centimeter separating his nose from the window. The newly-thawed Carolyn picks this moment to slam her face into the glass while shrieking to be let out. Ghuh!!
- Spy Speak: Garibaldi calls a code 7-R, the secret code for a war council meeting, and joins the others in the council facilities.
- Tears of Remorse: Tears slide down Delenn's face as she listens to G'kar swallow his pride and admit the occupation of Narn was a necessity.
- Third-Person Person: Carolyn's speech has shades of this.
- This Is My Chair: Sheridan and Bester squabbling over the captain's chair on the White Star.
- Tranquil Fury: G'Kar manages to remain fairly composed when Delenn reveals that the Minbari already knew that his warnings about the return of the Shadows were true, and that the Narn were essentially sacrificed to keep the secret. From a logical standpoint, G'Kar even understands that it was most likely the correct action in order to save everyone else. He still makes it clear to Delenn that he would have killed her instantly if he'd been told about this as his homeworld was being bombed and millions of his people were being killed.Delenn: And someday, when all this is over, perhaps you will find it in your heart to forgive me.
G'Kar: Perhaps... but not today. - Villains Never Lie: Bester told the command staff that they were after weapons components ("That's what I was told"), though even he seems surprised at just how accurate that statement was.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In-series, we never learn the final fate of Carolyn, nor those telepaths that were not used against Earth's destroyers in Season 4. Carolyn's fate is addressed in the B5 novel Final Reckoning, in which she perishes in a bombing by renegade "blips" during the Telepath Wars.
- What Have I Become?: "Al, what have they done to me?"
- Why Isn't It Attacking?: Right after the White Star intercepts the transport, they detect a Shadow mother ship, but to their astonishment, it turns and leaves. Turns out they have a weakness against telepaths and it realized Bester was on board.
