Babylon 5/Recap/S03/E16 War Without End, Part 2
Minbar homeworld. A bright morning sun shines over a great avenue with delicate blue crystal towers and magnificent waterfalls forming a semi-circle with a temple in the middle. Inside, a Minbari and a Human Ranger bow to a hooded figure. A Minbari priest, Rathenn, is carrying a box and calls to the hooded figure using the name of Entil'Zha. He shows him the box, explaining that he and his fellow priests are obeying the instructions written by Valen nine hundred years before, to open it exactly today. The figure reaches and looks inside and we can see an envelope addressed to Jeffrey David Sinclair. Then he takes away the hood and he is revealed as Ambassador Sinclair, and also as the Entil'Zha, or leader of the Rangers. Rathenn wonders out loud how did he Valen know who Sinclair was and where he would be in 900 years.
In Babylon 5, C&C is picking up a distress call from the quarantined Sector 14, the place where Babylon 4 disappeared. Ivanova asks to put it through and, to their amazement, her own voice is heard, with explosions in the background, calling for help. It is dated eight days into the future.
In the temple in Minbar, Sinclair, with the letter still in his hand, is waiting for his ship to Babylon 5. Rathenn announces that it is ready and offers his help if Sinclair would confide in him, but Sinclair tells him that this was meant for him alone. He then thanks Rathenn for being the first to trust him when he came to Minbar, and for his help in preparing the Rangers for the tasks ahead. Rathenn watches Sinclair leave, fearing he will not see him again. The Vorlon Ambassador to Minbar rejoins Rathenn and tells him that Sinclair "is the closed circle" and "is returning to the beginning". But when Rathenn asks the beginning of what, the Vorlon does not answer.
In the War Room Sheridan, Ivanova and Garibaldi are listening to the phantom message. Garibaldi suggests the possibility that, because time does not work properly in Sector 14 since Babylon 4 disappeared, the message could be coming from the future. When Garibaldi boarded Babylon 4 with Sinclair two years earlier to evacuate the crew before it disappeared again, he experienced several time flashes of a battle inside Babylon 5, and they were losing it. He asks Sheridan's permission to go to Sector 14 to investigate, in case the message is really from the future and they need to prepare.
Zack Allen is having quite a time trying to process the identicards of those in the station's docking bay, but while he is processing them, he comes across a very interesting one -- that of Ambassador Sinclair. Zack welcomes Sinclair back to the station, and asks him if he plans to be staying long. Sinclair says that is a more interesting question than Zack probably knows, and disappears into the crowd.
Lennier enters Delenn's quarters and finds her troubled and praying. "He is here", she tells Lennier, and also almost crying she says "He is my friend". Lennier replies that it must be done or the dream will die, together with many others. On the table by the candle there is another envelope with the name of Delenn written by the same hand as the other one.
Marcus and Sheridan are in the War Room discussing the latest reports. It seems that the Shadows have stopped their attacks now that the Vorlons are actively involved, but this will not last for long. Delenn interrupts and asks Sheridan and Marcus to go with her to the White Star immediately. Ivanova and one other should also join them. When Sheridan inquires about the identity of the fourth passenger, Sinclair enters through the back door. They all greet one another and, as Sheridan was going to ask Delenn how did she know that Sinclair was on the station, a communication comes in from Garibaldi, who has detected in his long range scanners that the temporal rift in Sector 14 is twice as big as usual, and that this is caused by a powerful tachyon field generated by the Great Machine on Epsilon 3.
Inside the Great Machine, Zathras is complaining to one of his caretaker colleagues that something is not working right and that it is up to him to fix it, according to Draal's instructions, because Draal himself is too busy trying to control the Great Machine.
Back inside the station, Sheridan argues with Delenn that they should be going to Epsilon 3 to find out what is happening there, but Delenn tells him that there is not time for that, as they are supposed to leave for Sector 14 right now and that she would explain everything once onboard the White Star.
Two ships depart from Babylon 5, carrying those going to the White Star. Sheridan tells Sinclair that he was very surprised to see him in the war room, but Sinclair says that he was just as surprised to be there. Sheridan mentions that Sinclair's timing seems to be more than a coincidence, to which Sinclair replies that there are no coincidences. Marcus tells Sheridan to quit while he's ahead, since Sinclair has a reputation, back on Minbar, for seldom giving straight answers to questions.
Garibaldi, after increasing power to the scanners, picks up the distress message from Ivanova, which he records. Ivanova reports that the captain is dead, and their defenses are down. She says that the enemy is boarding from all over, and that Garibaldi is rigging the fusion reactors. She switches to external cameras, and the enemies attacking the station are indeed Shadows. It is not long before they deliver their final blow, and Ivanova's message is terminated. The timestamp on the recording is eight days into the future.
. On the White Star, Delenn shows to Sheridan and the others an old recording from the time of the last great war against the Shadows, a thousand years ago. The Minbari War Station that had been used as base for long range operations was destroyed by the Shadows but, just as all hope seemed to have been lost, a new station appeared out of nowhere: Babylon 4. With it, the Shadow fleet was destroyed and the Shadows were driven away from Z'ha'dum. Draal sent two additional records to Delenn from the Great Machine. The first one was from two years ago, when Sinclair and Garibaldi went to rescue the crew of Babylon 4. The second was from the time when Babylon 4 first disappeared four years earlier. This one showed Shadow fighters on their way to destroy the station and the White Star itself preventing it. This is why they should go to the temporal rift now and, with the help of Draal and the Great Machine, travel six years back in time to save Babylon 4 and send it back in time one thousand years. Without this, the Shadows would win the war against the Minbari one thousand years ago, or at least force a stalemate, and therefore much of their military forces would still be intact in the present. This would enable them to destroy Babylon 5 in eight days. Just as the recording of Ivanova shows in the alternate-future.
Sheridan orders Garibaldi to return and the White Star docks with a small vessel from Epsilon 3 carrying equipment to control the time field and a homing device that must be placed on the central power core of Babylon 4 before they can begin moving it through time. It also carries Zathras. Sinclair recognises him as the strange alien that they found in Babylon 4 last time, and Zathras greets him as The One. Sinclair warns him that, when they meet again inside Babylon 4, he will not recognise him because it would be Sinclair-from-the-past. Zathras does not understand, but since he is good at doing, not understanding, it is alright. He also greets Sheridan as if he knew a lot about him as well. Before they proceed, Sinclair asks Sheridan to order Garibaldi to go directly to Babylon 5 and not to dock with them, and also not to mention that he is here, but refuses to explain why.
The White Star arrives in sector 14, and Zathras hands out small devices to everyone, saying that without them, they may become unstuck in time. These devices, time stabilizers, will protect them and keep them from drifting. After everyone has put on their time stabilizers, the White Star moves into the temporal rift.
Garibaldi returns to Babylon 5 and Sgt. Allan tells him of Sinclair's visit, to Garibaldi's utter shock. He goes to his quarters and checks his messages, discovering one from Sinclair, but it is password-encoded. Garibaldi is trying to find the password unsuccessfully until it hits him: "Hello, old friend". The message from Sinclair is a Goodbye, as he will not be coming back from Babylon 4, and if Garibaldi had gone there as well, he would not return either.
Though the weapons are outside optimum firing range, Ivanova is able to fire at the ships manually, destroying the fusion bomb. A huge blast is created, and the White Star is caught in it. Sheridan's time stablizer is hit by a blast of energy, and he vanishes. Zathras runs up to the damaged stabilizer, and explains that Sheridan has become unstuck in time, and could be in either the past or the future. Delenn wantx to try to find him, but Sinclair insists that their best chance is to board Babylon 4 now that their scanners are temporarily blinded by the blast and complete their mission, so that the future is back to what it should be.
Meanwhile, an older looking Sheridan is handcuffed and facing an unhappy-looking Londo Mollari in full imperial regalia in the Centauri Throne Room. Sheridan is confused while Mollari announces that he is about to kill him. Sheridan is thrown down onto the floor and kicked. He is picked up by several guards, who say that he is awake again. Sheridan looks at the figure on the throne, and recognizes it as Londo, who looks quite a bit older than Sheridan is used to him.
The White Star moves to grapple onto a stable area of Babylon 4. Delenn has been deeply disturbed by Sheridan's disappearance. Sinclair insists that he will be all right, and, to her stunned surprise, tells her in Minbari that he knows what is coming. He asks if she is all right, and she says she isn't. She says she is sorry, but he doesn't want her to be. Sinclair tells her that he never knew before now where he belonged in life, but that now, his path is clear.
Mollari faces Sheridan and rants about how Sheridan and his allies drove the Shadows away,, but that the Shadows' servants came to Centauri Prime, and Sheridan allowed it to happen. Sheridan is taken to a window, where he looks out upon the burning, smoking city around him.