Vir gets engaged and exposed. Sheridan cooks flarn. Ivanova learns too much about everybody’s sex lives.

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jesus Trevino

At Least It's Not Knock-Knock Jokes

Q: What is more dangerous than a locked room full of angry Narns? A: One angry Narn with a key.

SHERIDAN: "Eat drink or be merry, for tomorrow we may die."    More Stories The Name of the Place: SPACE.com's Babylon 5 Nexus Babylon 5 - 'Ceremonies of Light and Dark' Babylon 5 - 'Severed Dreams' Babylon 5 - 'Point of No Return'    Related Links SPACE.com's television coverage Babylon 5 The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 DELENN: Humans can be a very depressing people. SHERIDAN: Only when we get turned down for dinner.

VIR: Every time I show my face around here lately somebody hits me.

GUEST STARS

Carmen Thomas – Lyndisty
Damian London – Centauri Official

Despite regular appearances over the last three seasons, Damian London’s befuddled Centauri minister was never named.

* Londo’s sword. The design reinforces the Roman Empire motif of the Centauri, since it resembles the gladius used by Roman legionnaires.

* The Pak’ma’ra passing by when the Narn attacks Vir and Lyndisty. Like any good innocent bystander witnessing a big-city mugging, he makes a quick exit.

ANALYSIS

This episode is completely over the top. Londo does epic battle with bugs and Lyndisty makes Lady Macbeth look well-balanced. Even the normally restrained Mira Furlan digs into her flarn scene with gay abandon.

Vir holds it all together. He doesn’t quite humanize the shenanigans, but he certainly Vir-izes them.

He’s not a straight man – in fact, this show features some of his best comic moments -- but he is the man in the middle, the one who reacts to the extremes. The one we identify with.

Vir can’t really comprehend Londo and Lyndisty’s hatred of the Narn, but he can believe in it. He always takes their feelings seriously, and that makes it much harder to write Lyndisty off as a caricature.

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Of course, Straczynski is still pushing the limits. Lyndisty’s overblown lines make sense – she’s obviously spent most of her life reading the Centauri equivalent of romance novels, and she's crazy – but they nearly bring the whole episode crashing down.

Carmen Thomas does the best she can with some difficult material, but it’s Stephen Furst who makes it all work.

Sheridan and Delenn get another dinner scene, and both Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan seem to be having a lot of fun with it. Maybe it’s because they enjoy stepping out of their usual commanding personas.

Straczynski can’t resist having a darker moment creep into this bit of fluff, though. After Sheridan rushes to Vir and Lyndisty’s rescue, Delenn warns him that if he keeps throwing himself into danger, he will get killed and they will have no more dinners together.

Humans don’t live long. Months before "Z’ha’dum", even before their first kiss, Delenn already seems acutely aware that she will outlive the man she is falling in love with.

COMING UP NEXT

"A Late Delivery from Avalon"

The sharp blade passes
Exchanged for her forgiveness
She understands guilt.