A genocidal alien war criminal comes to Babylon 5, and everyone's just dying to show her around and gain access to her Mad Science.

Written by Lawrence G. DiTillio
Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Sarah Douglas - Jha'Dur
Robin Curtis - Ambassador Kalika
Cosie Costa - Abbut

Sarah Douglas and Robin Curtis are both familiar faces to science fiction addicts; Douglas is best known as the deadly Ursa, sartorial forerunner of Carrie-Anne Moss, in Superman II. Curtis, of course, is the second Lieutenant Saavik.

Despite rumors at the time, "Cosie Costa" is not an alias for Harlan Ellison. Ellison would not appear on B5 for another three years.

* various ships from members of the League of Nonaligned Worlds. We will later see similar vessels help defend Babylon 5 when Sheridan breaks from the Earth Alliance.

Garibaldi is right: Ambassador Kosh is a busy boy. He manipulates the station's commercial telepath. He brings the main plot of the episode to a thunderous close. Kosh is everywhere.

In this episode, Kosh proves that the Vorlons are powerful indeed. They do not negotiate. They do not consult the Council. They do not vote. They act, and they act with deadly force.

Since his arrival, everyone has wondered about Kosh. But make no mistake, there is no Man Behind the Curtain here. No stunts with an empty encounter suit. There is simply Kosh, and he can be Great and Terrible when he needs to be.

When we discover what the Shadow War is all about in "Z'ha'dum" and "Into the Night," we learn that the Vorlons are the self-appointed guardians of humanity and other younger races.

Seeing humanity chase immortality, Kosh acts on our behalf. He makes the necessary decision: killing Jha'Dur to eliminate her offer of life without aging.

Having bitten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

humanity cannot be permitted to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. Kosh must destroy the temptation to which Earth Central will later succumb.

Throughout the episode, Kosh spends time toying with Talia Winters, using Abbut to record some of her most personal emotions "for the future."

Garibaldi chalks the odd behavior to the Vorlons' reputed leeriness of

telepaths, but the fifth season episode "Secrets of the Soul" will tell us just what Kosh wants here.

The telepaths were created by the Vorlons to be weapons against the Shadows. With this in mind, perhaps Kosh's encounter with Talia is something like a medical check-up, a chance to inspect his race's craftsmanship.

Knowing that the telepaths may be his line of defense against the Shadows, he wants to be certain of the individual assigned to Babylon 5 -- he wants some insurance against the possibility that Talia Winters may not be friendly.

If he only knew then what we know now.

"Belivers" equals dying alien kid plus Hippocratic Oath. You do the math.