It’s the Nightwatch ascendent, until an interpretation of an illegal order sends in the Narns as replacements. Meanwhile, Londo faces the future, and it ain’t pretty.
(Originally aired on February 26, 1996)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
| Prophecy and Lies |
| LADY MORELLA: There's always choice. We say there is no choice only tocomfort ourselves with the decision we have already made. Now if you understand, there is hope. If not.... |
SHERIDAN: Always plant a lie inside the truth. Makes it easier to swallow. |
LADY MORELLA: We do not joke in the face of prophecy, Vir. |
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GUEST STARS
Majel Barrett - Lady Morella
Marshall Teague - Ta’Lon
Vaughn Armstrong - Nightwatch Officer
Majel Barrett is the widow of Star Trek, Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda creator Gene Roddenberry. An accomplished actress herself, she played Nurse Chapel in the original series and Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Barrett also provides the voice of Federation computers everywhere.
WATCH OUT FOR
* The faces of production. Many of the Nightwatch extras are members of the show’s production crew.
* Immediate foreshadowing. The two people last mentioned in this episode, Delenn and General Hague, are the center of the next episode, which makes special sense since "Point of No Return" is the middle installment in a three-episode story arc.
* The slo-mo shot. Eventually, every adventure series shows its heroes walking toward their destinies, all together and walking in slow motion. B5 does it here as the senior staff approach their confrontation with the Nightwatch.
ANALYSIS
In literature, the dramatic climax of a work can also be described by this episode’s title: "Point of No Return". And while this is not the series’ climax per se, a great deal changes here. Nothing, as we hear in the season four credits, is the same.
The declaration of martial law on Babylon 5 sets the stage for next episode’s declaration of independence. Captain Sheridan does what is right, not what he is ordered to do. Nightwatch was given charge of Security through illegal orders, ones Sheridan will not honor.
But he knows that this move is only a temporary one. He’s buying time for things to work out politically back home, or for General Hague to move in and unseat President Clark.
Neither happens, setting the stage for the anti-Shadow conspiracy to take even more dramatic action down the road. But for now, Sheridan trusts things to work out. It's the only future he can imagine, even if other options exist.
Narns and Centauri
G’Kar offers Sheridan one such option by mobilizing the local Narns to help with station security -- beginning the inter-world cooperation necessary to defend Babylon 5.
This also earns G’Kar the right to join the new war council. Londo, on the other hand, is still very much out of the loop, even though he's brought Lady Morella to the station to see whether the fate he’s been shown in his dreams is avoidable.
In the end, Lady Morella warns him that his fate is the result of the choices he makes. She outlines the circumstances by which he might save himself, cryptic references that are the stuff of prophecy.
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But she also offers a new bit of information: not only will Londo become Emperor, but Vir will also become Emperor some day, one succeeding when the other dies.
Decisions made, many have reached the point of no return.
COMING UP NEXT
"Severed Dreams"
Grey Council broken--
Renegade station declares
its independence.
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