- Vir: You couldn't sleep either.Lennier: No. I heard about your...situation.Vir: And I heard about yours. As Mr. Garibaldi would say, it's been one hell of a day.Lennier: Yes, a hell of a day.Vir: And a hell of a year.Lennier: A hell of a 5 years.Vir: A hell of a life.Lennier: You win.
Delenn and Sheridan are asleep in her quarters when she gets a frantic call to arrange for her new aide. Why would she need a new aide? Because Lennier's leaving. First she's heard of it.
Londo is in an impound area arguing with Zack about some very old, very expensive brivari. He wants to taken out of there, but due to recent infestations all food items are to be impounded for three days. Vir takes Zack aside, while Londo decides to sneak a taste of the brivari. No sooner does he drink some, then he collapses on the deck.
Zack calls for an emergency team, and Londo is rushed to Medlab. Vir is convinced it's poison, and Franklin begins ordering a series of exams and toxicology tests. He promises to tell Vir as soon as he knows anything, then gets to work.
Delenn is waiting in her quarters as Lennier comes in. He begins outlining her schedule, but she wants to talk about why he's leaving. After some dodging, he finally admits that he feels out of place now that she's married to Sheridan. He can't really explain, but Delenn says she knows why. He intends to return to Minbar and join the Rangers. He will still be there whenever Delenn needs him, but he will not be dissuaded.
Garibaldi finds Vir in the Zocalo with news. Londo's in critical condition, and Vir starts going on a tirade against everyone who causes trouble in this place.
- Vir: What is wrong is you people? Don't you have anything else better to do? Why don't you get a hobby? Read a book or something?
Garibaldi interrupts him and says it wasn't poison; it was a heart attack. On the left heart. This is a problem; while the right heart, which is the primary pump, is basically a solid muscle, the left acts more as a filtration system, an intricate system of veins that makes it very hard to treat since Franklin can't get to the ones that are clogged without damaging the ones around them. In addition, they've contracted to nearly half their size from all the stress he's been under. Nothing Franklin's done has made a difference, and the artificial heart system the Centauri are sending won't get there for three days. Londo will be lucky to last the night.
Delenn is keeping vigil when Sheridan comes up. He thinks it's strange to see Londo so quiet, and Delenn muses that she has never felt sorry for him until now. She would miss him if they lose him.
Speaking of, Sheridan brings up Lennier. He asks if there's anything he can do. Not really. Is it because him him? Yeah...basically. Sheridan figured as much.
- Sheridan: Well, as we say back on Earth, "Three is a crowd".
Delenn: On Minbar three is sacred.
Delenn hasn't been able to talk him out of it, and says he must follow the calling of his heart. Sheridan is skeptical, thinking he might just be running away, in which case the universe will teach him what he needs to know.
In the meantime, they should get to bed, they have a busy day tomorrow. And Londo...if he makes it through the night he might have a chance. There's nothing more they can do right now.
- Delenn: Good luck, Mollari. Good luck.
As they turn to leave, Delenn's voice echoes through Londo's thoughts and he begins searching through a dream version of the station for her. Eventually he finds her in a dark corner, wearing a dark veil with some picture cards before her. He sits down and looks at them, which she says represent his past. She gathers them up and puts them on a small table where a trickle of blood begins running out of the deck. She tells him he's dying, which he already knows. She asks if he wants to live, and he asks if it makes a difference. It might be better this way, to die here rather than wait for the death he foresaw. She asks him again and again he asks what difference does it make?
- Londo: Is there anyone back home who truly cares?
Delenn: Almost certainly not.
She lifts her veil and asks more forcefully, "Do you want to live?" He finally says yes, he does. She says it's not enough then shows him a blood-stained card which he can't make out. He asks what more is required. A word?
What word?
Delenn veils her face again and refuses to say more, pointing behind him. Beneath a grate he finds his own heart.
- Londo: I don't understand.
Delenn: Yes you do.
He heads off into the darkened corridor as G'Kar suddenly appears.
Vir is sitting morosely at a bar where Lennier finds him. Neither of them could sleep so they come and have a little chat. Vir asks when he leaves, early, and Lennier promises to visit when he can. They bid farewell, then Vir heads into a tube
Londo finds himself in an empty Zocalo. Even worse, there are empty bottles. Sheridan's there as well, and they talk a little about death, and what it's like. Sheridan, wearing his old Earth Force uniform, says only that he didn't like it. Londo talks a bit about his first wife, the dancer, who his family made him divorce or he would be dead to them. He says he died again when he told her.
Sheridan, dressed in just a white shirt, asks about the dreams Londo's had about his own death. The funny thing is, Londo's always had the strange feeling Sheridan was there as well. He begins musing on the unique situation they find themselves in, both knowing they are dying, Sheridan in less than twenty years, Londo, maybe twenty hours, if he's lucky. Sheridan, in the Army of Light uniform, observes that everyone is dying. What matters is what we do with the time given us.
- Londo: Well, I have not done very well in that regard, have I?
Sheridan: No, you haven't.
Londo: People are not being very charitable around here.
Sheridan: There's a time for charity and a time for truth. You're almost out of both.
Londo admits to Sheridan, now dressed as a Ranger, that he doesn't want to die. Sheridan tells him to turn around. Seeming to sense G'kar there, Londo refuses. Sheridan tells him again, but Londo says he can't. Then he will die.
In a white robe, Sheridan bids him goodbye, then vanishes in a ball of light.
In Medlab, Londo suddenly starts to deteriorate. Franklin orders hydromorphozine, which could kill him, but he's dying anyway if they do nothing. It pays off, but Londo can't take much more. Since he can't sleep, Franklin decides to just stay there, Vir coming in shortly after.
In his dream, Londo lies on the floor pleading with the Great Maker not to let him die like this. Vir sits nearby and offers his usual practical advice, just don't die. In the waking world, Vir pleads with him not to die. Londo doesn't think he has a choice, and an alarm starts going off.
- Londo: What's wrong with me?
Dream!Vir: What's wrong with you is you. Your heart can no longer bear the weight of your conscience.
Londo There's nothing wrong with my conscience.
Dream!Vir: No? Then turn around.
G'Kar stares at him. Londo suddenly becomes defiant; after all he saw his death and it wasn't here. That's prophecy! But only if it comes true. If it doesn't it's a metaphor. Vir warns him that he's almost out of time and urges him again to turn around. G'Kar is there waiting, but Londo says he doesn't know what he wants. Vir says he does.
- Vir: The thing that has eaten away at your heart until it could not endure the pain a moment longer.
Vir says he needs to let it go or he'll die there and now. When Londo suggests that might be for the best, Vir says he'd miss him. Londo says he would miss Vir as well, then turns away.
Alarms become more intense as Franklin calls for a trauma team. G'Kar arrives right after.
- Dream!G'Kar: Now, Mollari, now we end this.
Londo's condition continues to deteriorate as he finds himself in the throne room on Centauri Prime. G'Kar sits in the throne, which Londo says he doesn't want. G'Kar counters that he doesn't deserve it. G'Kar tells him to look around, and he sees himself meeting Lord Refa just prior to the bombardment of Narn. G'Kar recounts what happened that day, how they lobbed asteroids down on Narn, killing thousands at a time. Londo protests that it wasn't his idea.
- Londo: It was not my fault. I said...
G'Kar: (deadly quiet) You said nothing.
Londo relives the moments witnessing the bombardment, then pleads with G'Kar to leave him alone. G'Kar demands Londo look at him.
As he does, Londo finds himself in the darkened whipping chamber. G'Kar reminds him of what happened here, how he was whipped until Emperor Cartagia got the scream he wanted to badly. But Londo was there too, and he said nothing! Londo protests that it wouldn't have changed anything, but G'Kar insists he had an obligation to speak. But he couldn't and that's why he doesn't deserve to be emperor. And why he doesn't deserve to live.
Londo says there must be something. G'kar says a word is required. Londo suddenly finds himself chained to the post while G'Kar, in Cartagia's imperial regalia, asks for one word. As the guard prepares the whip, Londo begins having a seizure. Franklin orders him secured and defibrillators standing by.
The whipping begins, and Londo goes into cardiac arrest. The med team hits him with the paddles again and again, as G'Kar keeps counting out strokes of the whip until the thirty-ninth stroke at which point Londo lets out a scream. His hearts begin beating again, crisis averted, for now.
Londo finds himself in the dark again.
- Londo: I don't want to die.
G'Kar: Then don't.
Londo: Who are you?
G'Kar: (laughs) Perhaps I am a delusion caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. Perhaps I am the piece of myself that telepathically joined with you once long ago and decided to stay. Perhaps I am your conscience, which can only get your attention by taking on a face other than your own. And striking you down in the one place where you are still vulnerable.
G'Kar tells him he wants to think he's changed, he wants to feel good about himself, but he hasn't really. He's not sorry for what he did, just that he got caught, just that it came back to bite him. Londo protests that it isn't true, and G'Kar challenges him to prove it. A word.
- Londo: I've never apologized for anything in my life.
G'Kar urges him to make of his life what he will. Londo finds himself looking down at his heart again, and begins apologizing profusely, beating on a barrier covering it until it shatters.
Reading begin to show normal operation of the left heart again, and Franklin begins examines him as Londo begins to come around. The first one he sees is G'Kar and Londo whispers an apology with as much fervor as he can manage. G'Kar smiles then leaves.
Some time later, Londo has gotten strong enough to complain about hospital food. Vir reminds him that Dr. Franklin said he'd need to change his diet and cut down on the stress. But Babylon 5 is practically made of stress and Centauri Prime even more so, so not gonna happen. Vir is about to leave, but Londo brings up a folktale he discovered, that if a Centauri spirit finds itself in a body not worthy of it, it can choose to separate and find a more suitable host. Vir knows the legend, the attempted separate results in a titanic struggle that either leaves the person permanently changes or kills him. Vir's heard it all his life. Londo finds it interesting...he never has.
Lennier waits in the customs area where the Rangers come. Delenn comes to see him one more time. He hopes to become a better person. Delenn wishes him well, and he goes with the Rangers. Sheridan comes up behind her and puts his arm around her, and they walk off.
This episode contains examples of:
- Accomplice by Inaction: Londo's conscience, in the form of G'Kar, accuses Londo of this. He isn't exactly wrong.Dream!G'Kar: You. Said. NOTHING.
- Adventures in Comaland: Londo's dream.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Delenn asks Lennier when he was planning to tell her he was leaving, and he says that, not expecting Minbar to pass on the news so quickly, he'd intended to tell her after dinner. Her next question is "Why?", clearly meaning "Why are you leaving?", but he tries to stall for time by interpreting it as "Why after dinner?"
- The Atoner: Londo.
- Call-Back:
- Londo looks back on when he and Refa led the mass driver assault of Narn.
- The scene where G'Kar has Londo whipped 39 times echoes a scene where Cartagia had G'Kar whipped 39 times. Both times, the victim screams before the fortieth lash.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dream!Sheridan goes through the outfits he wore for each of the roles he filled up till now, and one that he will fill in the future.
- Londo also mentions he's had the strange feeling Sheridan would be present at his death, which has never made sense to him.
- Dream!G'kar muses that he may be a remnant of G'kar's consciousness from the time he telepathically assaulted Londo.
- Dramatic Drop: When Londo has his heart attack, he drops the bottle of very expensive brivari and it dramatically shatters at his feet.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The segment where Londo speaks with Dream!Sheridan ends with several forms we haven't seen Sheridan in yet, to include the robes to go with his future job as Entil'zha, a simple white robe, and finally a bright incorporeal light. This of course ties in with the long-established Centauri trait of prophecy.
- Dutch Angle: The beginning of Londo's dream sequence is filmed with a canted camera angle to contribute a sense of unease.
- Evil Is Hammy: When Dream!G'kar takes the place of Cartagia to reenact his own whipping, with Londo in G'kar's place.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Lennier can't bear to be around the newly-wed Delenn, so he leaves to join the Rangers.
- Heel Realization: "I've never apologized for anything in my life."
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Londo must confront his past to assuage his guilty conscience.
- Look Behind You: Dream!Sheridan tells Londo if he wants to live to turn around. As the camera pans around, we see Dream!G'Kar standing behind him. Londo seems to realize it, and refuses.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Sort of. Those flaps of skin on Londo's sides shown when he's going to be fibrillated are his genitals.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Was Londo almost killed by his own guilty conscience and spared by his decision to apologise to G'kar? Was it all just a feverish dream that coincided with his heart attack? No idea.
- Oh, My Gods!: Averted with Vir, who, despite playing this straight in the past, says "My God" while ranting about what he thinks is an attempt on Londo's life. This isn't that strange given that the "Great Maker" of past Centauri exclamations is singular.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Dream!G'Kar telling Londo, "You. Did. Nothing!"
- Those Two Guys: Vir and Lennier have another moment.
- The Unapologetic: Not literally, but Londo has never given a sincere apology in his life before—every time he apologized before (including "The Gathering" and "The Geometry of Shadows"), he wasn't sorry he'd done it; he was sorry he'd been caught.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The dream G'Kar calls Londo out for remaining silent through all G'Kar's torments.
