Babylon 5, Season 1: Signs and Portents

[Opening credits voiceover.]

Jeffrey Sinclair:
It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.

Londo Mollari:
[arguing with Garibaldi] We made a mistake, I'm sorry. Here, open my wrists. [offers Garibaldi his wrists]

Michael Garibaldi:
Centauri don't have major arteries in their wrists.

Londo:
Of course not! What, do you think I am stupid?

Susan Ivanova:
I'm in the middle of fifteen things, all of them annoying.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
The best way to understand someone is to fight him, make him angry. That's when you see the real person.

Ivanova:
I do not like Santiago. I've always thought that a leader should have a strong chin. He has no chin, and his vice president has several. This to me is not a good combination.

Londo:
My people…we have a way, you see. We know how, and sometimes even when, we are going to die. Comes in a dream. In my dream, I am an old man, it's twenty years from now, and I am dying. My hands wrapped around someone's throat, and his around mine. We have squeezed the life out of each other. The first time I saw G'Kar, I recognized him as the one from the dream. It will happen. Twenty years from now, we'll die with our hands around each other's throats.[N]

Londo:
What reasonable explanation is there for the slaughter of unarmed civilians?

G'Kar:
Curious. We wondered the same thing when you invaded our world. The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?

Londo:
We should have wiped out your kind when we had the chance.

G'Kar:
What happened? Run out of small children to butcher?

Kosh:
They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass.

Sinclair:
The Narn or the Centauri?

Kosh:
Yes.

Ivanova:
Mr. Garibaldi, you're sitting at my station, using my equipment. Is there a reason for this, or to save time should I just snap your hand off at the wrist?

Londo:
The Council can go to hell! And the emergency session can go to hell! And you, Vir, you can go to hell too-I would not want you to feel left out.

Garibaldi:
Afterwards, if you like, you can stop by my quarters and I can show you my most favorite thing in the universe. Okay, okay, my second most favorite thing in the universe.

Londo:
Blood calls out for blood.

Londo:
Just now, would you really have killed me?

Garibaldi:
Yes. Yes, I would have. But I'm just as glad I didn't have to. The paperwork's a pain in the butt.

[An unknown ship on collision course with the station.]

Susan Ivanova:
This is not a clear and present danger? I must read the rule book again.

Soul Hunter:
The soul we save: not all, only the special ones. Leaders, thinkers, poets, dreamers, blessed lunatics.

Stephen Franklin:
It's all so brief, isn't it? Typical human lifespan is almost a hundred years, but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. It wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then…it's over.

Ivanova:
Doesn't matter. If we lived 200 years we'd still be human, we'd still make the same mistakes.

Franklin:
You're a pessimist.

Ivanova:
I'm Russian, doctor. We understand these things.

Delenn:
They will join with the souls of all our people. Melt one into another until they are born into the next generation of Minbari. Remove those souls and the whole suffers. We are diminished, each generation becomes less than the one before.

Soul Hunter:
A quaint lie, pretty fantasy. The soul ends with death, unless we act to preserve it.

Michael Garibaldi:
I really hate it when you get heroic. Cuts into my business. A man's got to earn a living, you know.

Soul Hunter:
I have come for you, Satai Delenn, to save your soul at any cost.

Soul Hunter:
I will be careful. You will hardly feel it when your body dies.

Soul Hunter:
You will feel as if you are falling. Do not be afraid. I will be here to catch you.

Soul Hunter:
You would plan such a thing? You would do such a thing? Incredible!

Soul Hunter:
Why do you fight for her? Don't you understand? She is Satai. She is Satai! I've seen her soul. They're using you. They're using you!

Franklin:
So, I hear you saw something.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Yes…something.

[Sinclair walks away, smiling.]

Franklin:
Well, uh, you think you can be a little more specific?

[Franklin chases after Sinclair.]

Sinclair:
I'm not sure. I don't know if I'll ever be sure.

Franklin:
Well, I still don't believe it. And I'd be careful if I were you, Commander. That sort of talk will get you sent off on a very long vacation.

Soul Hunter #2:
If I may ask, what happened to my brother's collection?

Sinclair:
[with a sly smile] Life's full of mysteries. Consider this one of them.

Londo Mollari:
Gentlemen, of all things in life, are females not the finest?

G'Kar:
On that, Mollari, we can at least agree. [takes a drink from Londo's bottle]

Londo:
What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?

Londo:
[to Adira] We Centauri live our lives for appearances, position, status, title. These are the things by which we define ourselves. But when I look beneath the mask I am forced to wear, I see only emptiness. And then I think of you, and then I say…to Hell with appearances.

[Ivanova talks to her father for the last time]

Andrei Ivanov:
Is that you, Susan?

Susan Ivanova:
Yes.

Andrei Ivanov:
Oh dear God! I never thought I'd see your face again. It makes this easier. Susan, I know I haven't been the best of fathers to you. But when your mother passed on and your brother was killed in the war I was too wrapped up in my own grief to pay attention to your needs. And when you joined EarthForce against my wishes…

Ivanova:
You don't have to say this, Father.

Andrei Ivanov:
Yes, Yes I must. There's no more time. I want you to know how proud I am of you, Susan. I always have been. But a father should give his daughter love as well as respect, and in that I failed you. I'm sorry, I'm ashamed. Forgive me.

[she nods her head]

Andrei Ivanov:
Thank you, dushenka moya.

Ivanova:
"Little soul." You haven't called me that for…Papa!

Jeffrey Sinclair:
The last time I gave an interview, they told me to just relax and say what I really felt. Ten minutes after the broadcast I got transferred to an outpost so far off the star maps you couldn't find it with a hunting dog and a Ouija board.

Michael Garibaldi:
[smiling] Don't sweat it. Just be that charming, effervescent Commander we've all come to know and love. What's the worst that could happen? They fire you, ship you off to the Rim, and I get promoted to Commander. I don't see a problem here.

Sinclair:
How sharper than a serpent's tooth.

Vance Hendricks:
Stephen, there's a Martian war machine parked outside. They'd like a word with you about the common cold.

Stephen Franklin:
Tell them to make an appointment.

[ISN reporter Mary Ann Cramer tries to press Sinclair for information, but Ivanova steps in front of her.]

Susan Ivanova:
Don't. You're too young to experience that much pain.

Sinclair:
You forgot the first rule of the fanatic: when you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy!

Mary Ann Cramer:
Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home.

Sinclair:
No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes…[and] all of this…all of this…was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.

G'Kar:
[singing] So many fishies, left in the sea So many fishies, but no one for me! I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love Soon after supper is done.

So many fishies, left in the sea

So many fishies, but no one for me!

I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love

Soon after supper is done.

Narn Courier:
Are you Ambassador G'Kar?

G'Kar:
This is Ambassador G'Kar's quarters. This is Ambassador G'Kar's table! This is Ambassador G'Kar's dinner! Which part of this progression escapes you?!

Londo Mollari:
Do you know what the last Xon said just before he died? [clutches chest] AAAAGGGHHHH!

. . .

[A drunken Londo climbs across a dinner table as he describes a collection of Centauri statues.]

Londo:
This is Ben-Zed, god of food! And…Li, goddess of passion! And Mo-goth, god of the underworld, and protector of front doors. Gods by the bushel! Gods by the pound! Gods for all occasions!!

[He leans toward a discomfited Delenn.]

Londo:
Have I ever told you that you are very cute for a Minbari?

[He crawls over to Garibaldi.]

Londo:
Oh! And you are cute, too, in an annoying sort of way. Everybody's cute. Everybody's cute! Even me. But in purple, I'm stunning!

[He passes out on the table.]

Vir Cotto:
Ah! He has become one with his inner self!

Michael Garibaldi:
He's passed out.

Vir:
That too.

G'Kar:
And you have no idea how that [a black flower sent to G'Kar as a sign that he is about to be assassinated] got into my bed?

Na'Toth:
Ambassador, it is not my place to speculate on how anything gets into your bed. Your reputed fascination with Earth women, for instance.

. . .

G'Kar:
The Earthers have a phrase: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. I believe they stole it from us.

[Delenn meets her new aide at customs]

Delenn:
You can look up, Lennier of the Third Fane of Chu'Domo.

Lennier:
It is forbidden.

Delenn:
I cannot have an aide who will not look up. You will be forever walking into things.[N]

[Sinclair's pocketed link beeps, interrupting Catherine.]

Catherine Sakai:
I don't mean to alarm you, but your pants are talking to you.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
I know.

[Sinclair is listening to an audio recording of Tennyson's Ulysses in his quarters]

Catherine:
Tennyson? Jeff, you've been caught on that one since the Academy! What's it take to drag you into the 23rd century?

Sinclair:
We find meaning where we can.

Catherine:
Ah, and which are you? "An idle king…doling unequal laws unto a savage race that hoard and sleep and feed and know not you"? Or, "this gray spirit, yearning in desire to follow knowledge like a sinking star"?

Sinclair:
I didn't know you'd memorized it!

Catherine:
I lived with you for a year. I didn't have much choice.

[Sinclair grabs Catherine's wrist as she moves to leave his quarters.]

Catherine:
Don't touch me unless you mean it.

G'Kar:
That hurt.

Na'Toth:
Ambassador, it was the only way to disable the paingivers. I had to hit them as hard as possible, as often as possible, and still make it appear as though I were beating you into another incarnation.

G'Kar:
And you didn't enjoy it in the least?

Na'Toth:
I didn't say that.

G'kar:
(To Tu'Pari) That's your flight. I suggest you board quickly. With luck, they may never find you, but if they do, you will know pain-

Na'toth:
-and you will know fear-

G'Kar:
-and then you will die. Have a pleasant flight.

[In a transport tube, Talia explains the finer points of telepathy to a client while Garibaldi looks her over.]

Talia Winters:
Casual thoughts are very easy to block, but strong emotions have a way of slipping through sometimes, whether you want them to or not.

[she suddenly becomes aware of Garibaldi's thoughts and elbows him in the stomach]

Michael Garibaldi:
[as she and her client exit the tube] Ooh! I think I'm in love.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
No, now's a fine time…

[he looks up and spots the two Psi Cops, Bester and Kelsey-instantly realizing that they've been communicating telepathically with him]

Sinclair:
Get out…of my head! You want to talk to me, talk to me!

Alfred Bester:
Apologies, Commander. It saves considerable time.

[G'Kar tries to dissuade a skeptical Catherine from her flight to Sigma 957.]

G'Kar:
Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair, and not me.

[Garibaldi harbors a very rude thought towards Bester]

Bester:
Anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi. But you're welcome to try.

Catherine Sakai:
Just one question: why?

G'Kar:
Why not?

Catherine Sakai:
That's not an answer.

G'Kar:
Oh, yes it is. It's simply not an answer you like, or the answer you expected. There's a difference. Narns, Humans, Centauri, we all do what we do for the same reason: because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Talia:
Do you know what it's like when telepaths make love, Commander? You drop every defense, and it's all mirrors: reflecting each other's feelings deeper and deeper…until, somewhere along the line, your souls mix. And it's a feeling so profound it makes you hurt. It's the only moment in a telepath's life when you no longer hear the voices.

[Bester has explained the details of the Psi Corps program that made Jason Ironheart what he is]

Bester:
It was a calculated risk!

Susan Ivanova:
Good old Psi Corps. You guys never cease to amaze me. All the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper! What do you do in your spare time, juggle babies over a fire pit? Oops, there goes another calculated risk!

Psi Cop Kelsey:
You're not helping the situation.

Ivanova:
Lady, you are the situation!

Catherine Sakai:
While I was out there, I saw something. What was it?

G'Kar:
[pointing to a nearby flower] What is this? [upon closer inspection, an insect is visible]

Catherine:
An ant.

G'Kar:
"Ant"!

Catherine:
So much gets shipped up from Earth on commercial transports, it's hard to keep them out.

[As Catherine is talking, G'Kar carefully picks up the ant.]

G'Kar:
I have just picked it up on the tip of my glove. If I put it down again [replacing the ant on the flower] and it asks another ant, "What was that?" …how would it explain? There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless. And if they are aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants…and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know. We've tried. And we've learned we can either stay out from underfoot, or be stepped on.

Catherine:
That's it? That's all you know?

G'Kar:
Yes. They are a mystery. And I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe…that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Ms. Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957. They must walk there alone.

Susan Ivanova:
You're a vicious man.

Michael Garibaldi:
I'm Head of Security. It's in the job description.

[Vir pleads with Londo for a young star-crossed Centauri couple.]

Vir Cotto:
But they love each other!

Londo Mollari:
Love. Pah! Overrated.

[Londo fetches a set of three pictures of Centauri women.]

Londo:
Here. Look. These are my three wives: Pestilence, Famine, and Death. Do you think I married them for their personalities? Their personalities could shatter entire planets![N]

Londo:
Arranged marriages. Every one. But they worked out, they inspired me! Knowing that they were waiting at home for me is what keeps me here - 75 light-years away!

Londo:
Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.

Delenn:
Human ways are often unfathomable. But in time, one learns to live with them.

G'Kar:
If one has an exceedingly strong constitution.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do, and the guilty lie because they don't have any other choice.

[A mysterious man accuses Sinclair of selling out to the Minbari at the Battle of the Line.]

Sinclair:
We never had a chance. You say we could have won, but you weren't there, you didn't see them! When I looked at those ships, I…I didn't just see my death - I saw the death of the whole damn human race!

Knight Two:
Then why did they surrender?!

Sinclair:
I don't know! Maybe the universe blinked. Maybe God changed His mind. All I know is that we got a second chance!

[Ambassador Kosh hires commercial telepath Talia for an mysterious job.]

Kosh:
We will meet in Red 3 at the hour of scampering.

[Later, after the first meeting]

Kosh:
We shall commence again tomorrow at the hour of longing.

Talia Winters:
All the clearances seem to be in order, and the pay is very generous. However, there's something I still don't understand.

Kosh:
Understanding is a three-edged sword.

Kosh:
Ahh. You seek meaning.

Talia:
Yes.

Kosh:
Then listen to the music, not the song.

Ivanova:
[to a Drazi ship threatening to fire on the station] Vakar Ashok, our gun arrays are now fixed on your ship. They will fire the instant you come into range. You will find their power most impressive…for a few seconds.

[Sinclair returns to C&C to see how Ivanova is handling the armed vessels from many outraged non-aligned worlds.]

Susan Ivanova:
Well, I've managed to get the ship captains engaged in a debate over who has the best claim to Jha'dur. The winner will be the first to attack.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Creative.

[A distressed Talia presses Kosh for the meaning of his "business deal" with Abbut.]

Talia:
What is he? And what was on that data crystal he gave you?

Kosh:
Reflection. Surprise. Terror. For the future.

[A gloating "Deathwalker" Jha'dur reveals the secret of her immortality drug.]

Jha'dur:
You and the rest of your kind take blind comfort in the belief that we are monsters, that you could never do what we did. The key ingredient in the anti-agapic cannot be synthesized. It must be taken from living beings. For one to live forever, another one must die. You will fall upon one another like wolves. It will make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who live forever will be a testimony to my work. And the billions who are murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us.

[Sinclair and Garibaldi are discussing the actions of Kosh during this episode]

Sinclair:
They say God works in mysterious ways.

Michael Garibaldi:
Maybe so. But He's a con man compared to the Vorlon.

M'Ola:
No one knows what is written in the stream [of Time] until the waters surround him.

Susan Ivanova:
After that [pacing to and fro], maybe I'll try pacing fro and to, just for the kick of it.

Ivanova:
Don't worry about me. I'll just sit here and knit something.

Kosh:
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Michael Garibaldi:
Sure is for people with nothing on the line. You and me? We just get on with it.

Stephen Franklin:
May God save us from false religion.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Who asked you to play God?

Franklin:
Every damn patient who comes through that door, that's who. People come to doctors because they want us to be gods. They want us to make it better…or make it not so. They want to be healed and they come to me when their prayers aren't enough. Well, if I have to take the responsibility, then I claim the authority too. I did good. And we both know it. And no one is going to take that away.

Franklin:
I'm waiting. For an apology.

Sinclair:
You'd better check the temperature in Hell first.

Sinclair:
Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't change anything.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Lieutenant Commander Ivanova, escort Major Kemmer off the Observation Dome.

Susan Ivanova:
With pleasure. [to Kemmer] You are going to resist, I hope.

Major Lianna Kemmer:
I demand you open a channel to Earth at once!

Ivanova:
I am a Lieutenant Commander in Earthforce, Major. I do not take demands. If you have a request, I'll consider it.

Maj. Kemmer:
Very well, then. I request that you open a channel to Earthdome!

Ivanova:
Request denied. Have a nice day.

G'Kar:
The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

Sinclair:
You're more trouble than a toilet full of snakes, but I couldn't run this station without you.

Michael Garibaldi:
Commander, I sense a huge pay raise coming my way.

Sinclair:
Hah. Dream on.

[G'Kar is informed that Londo Mollari is the only person on the station that has a flower he needs for a religious ceremony]

G'Kar:
Why does the universe hate me?

[Londo Mollari returns to his quarters to find the door open and G'Kar sitting at his table]

G'Kar:
You left your door unlocked, Ambassador. Careless of you. I thought it best to sit here and guard your room until you returned.

Londo:
And did you find anything of interest in my humble quarters while you were 'guarding it'?

G'Kar:
[obviously disappointed] No.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
You should never hand someone a gun unless you're sure where they'll point it.

Senator Hidoshi:
You are not the most popular person in government circles right now.

[After the call ends]

Sinclair:
[unhappily] So what else is new?

Susan Ivanova:
I've always had a hard time getting up when it's dark outside.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
But in space, it's always dark.

Ivanova:
[morosely] I know. I know.

[Lord Kiro dismisses his aunt's vision of Babylon 5's destruction.]

Lord Kiro:
She's been wrong before. On my first birthday, she said that someday I would be killed by…shadows. [N]

Morden:
What do you want?

Londo Mollari:
To be left alone!

[Londo leaves the lift and quickly walks away.]

Morden:
Is that it? Is that really all, Ambassador?

[Londo sighs, then turns around.]

Londo:
All right. Fine! You really want to know what I want? You really want to know the truth? I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. I want to see the Centauri stretch forth their hand again, and command the stars! I-I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power. I want to stop running through my life like a man late for an appointment, afraid to- to look back, or to look forward. I want us to be what we used to BE! I want…I want it all back, the way that it was! Does that answer your question?

[He turns and walks off.]

Morden:
[smiling] Yes. Yes, it does.

Kosh:
[meeting Morden in a corridor] Leave this place. They are not for you. Go. Leave. NOW.

[Boxer Walker Smith decks a man trying to knife a distracted Garibaldi from behind.]

Walker Smith:
One of these days, Garibaldi…you're gonna learn to watch your back. [N]

Rabbi Yossel Koslov:
Without forgiveness, you cannot mourn. And without mourning, you can never let go of the pain.

Walker Smith:
Any ideas on how I should fight this guy?

Michael Garibaldi:
From inside a Main Battle Tank would be nice.

[during the memorial service for Ivanova's father]

Susan Ivanova:
When I was thirteen, I developed a passion for Kasharev, one of the radical neocommunist authors.

Rabbi Koslov:
Oy! Your father felt that Kasharev would be personally responsible for the destruction of Russian culture!

Ivanova:
Exactly! But he was invited to a reading by Kasharev, and I begged him to take me. Of course, he had no intention of going, but I whined and pouted as only a thirteen-year-old can, and eventually, he was forced to surrender. So, after the reading there was a question and answer session, and for days I had been formulating the perfect question with which to impress my idol. So the time comes, and I stand up, I'm trembling, and I ask my question.

Rabbi Koslov:
And?

Ivanova:
He promptly said that it was the most foolish thing that he had ever heard, and that he had no intention of bandying words with a bourgeois little twit who was barely out of diapers. [Laughs] I was crushed. But then Papa stood up. And he said that his daughter was neither bourgeois, nor a little twit, and had been out of diapers for many, many years, while Kasharev's writings had yet to rise above the contents of those garments!

Rabbi Koslov:
That sounds exactly like Andrei!

Ivanova:
He then added that were he not a man of peace, he would have horsewhipped Kasharev through the streets of St. Petersburg, as his own father should have done many years ago!

Rabbi Koslov:
Bravo, bravo!

Ivanova:
Well, of course I was mortified. But then Papa took my hand and he turned, and as we walked out, he said to me: "It was a good question, dushenka."

[Sinclair watches Garibaldi wolf down his food.]

Jeffrey Sinclair:
They say food tastes better if you chew it first.

Michael Garibaldi:
Don't talk, I've seen you eat. Does the term "Doppler effect" ring a bell?

[A silver-suited grey alien stands before a Babylon 5 ombudsman, who listens to a plaintiff.]

Plaintiff Flinn:
We went through their archives, and we found proof…that his great-grandfather abducted my great-grandfather, and just took him away in a spaceship! Frankly, Your Honor, we want damages!

Ombuds Wellington:
[to alien] How do you plead?

[The alien holds up a card with curious image on it.]

Ombuds Wellington:
Could I please have a translation team in here?! [to himself] Why is it Ombuds Zimmermann never gets these cases? Only me?

[Thomas "Jinxo" Jordan tells his story, and the story of the "Babylon Curse," to Aldous Gajic.]

Jinxo:
I was too young to fight in the Minbari War, so when I got the chance to work space construction, I jumped for it. The day I went to work on the Babylon Station-we didn't number them at first, you know-I thought that was the best day of my life! I worked a few months, had some leave, so I took it. And the station's infrastructure collapsed. Sabotaged. They never found out who.

Aldous Gajic:
I remember.

Jinxo:
So I went to work on the second one. The firm still owned my contract until the station was finished. I took leave a second time, and that station was sabotaged. And then when B3 blew up, well, that's when I got the name Jinxo. When I went to work on B4, I didn't take any leave! I was there every minute until we finished it. I thought the Curse was gone. But as I was leaving on the shuttle, I looked back…and the station just sort of…wrinkled, twisted like putty, and then just disappeared. The minute I left. So then when they decided to build B5, I had to work on it. And I have to stay. I have to!

Aldous:
I'd say that you have the wrong nickname. They should have called you Lucky!

Jinxo:
How do you figure?

Aldous:
To have escaped the worst each time, that's a blessing. You're a very lucky man. Perhaps each time, you were exactly where you were meant to be.

Jinxo:
[slowly smiling] I never thought of it like that.

Aldous:
We never do.

[Delenn has offered to help Aldous in his search for the Holy Grail]

Jinxo:
That's really nice! I mean, with the war and all, I figured you folks would…well, you know.

Lennier:
There are two castes of Minbari, the warrior caste and the religious caste. The warrior caste would not understand. It is not their way.

Delenn:
[slyly] So we will not tell them, and spare them the confusion.

Aldous:
These two sides of your culture, do they ever agree on anything?

Delenn:
[soberly] Yes. And when they do, it is a terrible thing. A terrible power, as recent events have shown us. Let us hope it never again happens in our lifetime.

Sinclair:
We've confiscated the fake encounter suit. It's a pretty close match to your own, at least from the outside.

Kosh:
Why?

Sinclair:
Deuce wanted to make people think he had the Vorlons working for him. He figured it would add to his image and intimidate people.

Kosh:
Why?

Sinclair:
Well, after all, no one knows exactly what you look like. That makes some people a little nervous.

Kosh:
Good.

Garibaldi:
There he goes-Jinx-…Thomas.

Sinclair:
Mm-hmm.

Susan Ivanova:
You never did tell me what you think about that curse.

Sinclair:
What curse?

Garibaldi:
You know. That bit about if he leaves Babylon 5, the same thing that happened to Babylons 1, 2, 3 and 4 would happen to us.

Sinclair:
Oh, that curse. You're not taking it seriously, are you?

Garibaldi:
Me? No, of course not. You?

Sinclair:
No.

Garibaldi:
So, how long until he hits jump?

Ivanova:
[working her console] Oh, right about…now!

[the ship goes through the jump gate without incident]

Garibaldi:
No boom?

Sinclair:
No boom.

Ivanova:
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

[Sinclair and Garibaldi exchange an exasperated look and wander off.]

Ivanova:
What?! Look, somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here. Boom. Sooner or later. BOOM! [N]

Michael Garibaldi:
Protests are as much use with the Vorlons as fairy wings on a cement truck.

[Ivanova confronts Psi Corps specialist Harriman Gray.]

Susan Ivanova:
Mr. Gray. I'm grateful the Psi Corps has given you a purpose in life. [She looks him directly in the eye] But when that purpose includes scanning my mind to prove my loyalty, it's not only an invasion of my privacy, but my honor! As for fear, if you enter my mind for any reason, I will twist your head off and use it for a chamberpot!

Garibaldi [to himself]:
If I kill Lennier, I would start a war.

Lennier:
I am about to embark on the mysteries of the "fuel injection system."

Computer:
And the last gasoline-powered motorcycle was built in 2035.

Garibaldi:
If I knew who God was, I'd thank her.

[Garibaldi enters the casino to find an angry, inebriated Ivanova mopping the floor with the patrons.]

Ivanova:
Are you gonna arrest me, Garibaldi?

Garibaldi:
No way! I wanna live to see the future.

[A vengeful Earthforce colonel has a PPG pistol pointed at Sinclair, Ivanova, and Garibaldi]

Ivanova:
He can't get all of us.

Col. Ari Ben Zayn:
Famous last words from a trio of mutineers!

Harriman Gray:
Colonel…pain…

[Gray telepathically tweaks the colonel, causing him to double up in pain; Sinclair grabs the colonel's gun and drops him with a single punch]

Ivanova:
I assume the investigation is concluded?

[Sinclair and Ivanova see Garibaldi and Lennier ride through the corridor on a motorcycle.]

Ivanova:
It's good to have things back to normal.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Branmer's life was more significant than his battles. Let the warrior caste praise his courage in war, and let the rest praise him for what he truly was-a man of peace.

Neroon:
You talk like a Minbari, Commander. Perhaps there was some small wisdom in letting your species survive.

Sinclair:
We like to think so.

Susan Ivanova:
There's nothing more annoying than Mr. Garibaldi when he's right.

[Sinclair comes upon Talia waiting for a tube car.]

Talia Winters:
It seems like every time I get into the tube, Mr. Garibaldi's there! It's like he knows!

Jeffrey Sinclair:
Talia, Mr. Garibaldi is many things, but he's not omniscient.

[The tube opens, revealing a grinning Garibaldi, then closes again.]

Talia:
I think I'll take the stairs.

Sinclair:
I think I'll join you.

Draal:
Quickly, what is the third principle of sentient life?

[Delenn turns around and sees Draal.]

Delenn:
Draal!

Draal:
Incorrect answer! The third principle of sentient life is the capacity for self-sacrifice: the conscious ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one. It has been too long, Delenn. You have forgotten your training. Soon you will have forgotten all about your old friend Draal.

Delenn:
Not if I live to be a thousand and one.

[A survey shuttle limps back to Babylon 5 after its second, near-fatal disaster.]

Dr. Tasaki:
Survey 1 to Babylon Control, we're clear. Returning to base.

Susan Ivanova:
Confirmed, Survey 1. Upon arrival, you will report for debriefing. [pauses] And just one more thing. On your trip back, I'd like you to take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra: "Ivanova…is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova…is God. And, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out!" Babylon Control out. [sighs to herself] Civilians. [looks up] Just kidding about that God part. No offense.

[Londo is cheering up Garibaldi with a tale.]

Londo Mollari:
The next day, I woke up, I saw her in the light of day, sleeping against my arm, and I decided I would rather chew off my arm than wake her up.

Michael Garibaldi:
Aw, that's sweet.

Londo:
No, no! She had a voice that could curdle fresh milk.

[Londo to Garibaldi.]

Londo Mollari:
Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it.

[upon seeing the Great Machine on Epsilon 3 for the first time]

Ivanova:
Commander?

Sinclair:
Yeah?

Ivanova:
I think I've got to go to the bathroom.

Sinclair:
Tell me about it!

[Londo vents his frustrations over trying to understand humans to Delenn and Draal.]

Londo:
These Earthers! I try to find out as much as I can about them to try to make some sense of them, but it never seems to come together.

Delenn:
They do seem to be a mass of contradictions.

Londo:
Exactly my point! Here-six thousand years of recorded history, a history that includes remarkable composers, astonishing symphonies! But what is the one song that half of them sing to their children generation after generation?

You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out. You put your whole self in, And you turn yourself about. You do the hokey-pokey, You give a little shout. That's what it's all about!

You put your right hand in,

You put your right hand out.

You put your whole self in,

And you turn yourself about.

You do the hokey-pokey,

You give a little shout.

That's what it's all about!

It doesn't mean anything! I have been studying it for seven days! I had the computer analyze it! I swear to you, it does not mean a thing!

Delenn:
We've come at a bad time, haven't we?

[Sinclair and Ivanova try to retrieve the machine-ensconced alien while the planet quakes around them.]

Ivanova:
Commander, we don't have a lot of time. We're cut off from the way we came in, we don't know if we can find another way back to the ship before we run out of air…

Sinclair:
We can't leave him like this!

Ivanova:
I know, I know. It's a Russian thing. When we're about to do something stupid, we like to catalog the full extent of our stupidity for future reference.

Delenn:
The third principle of sentient life is its capacity for self-sacrifice, for a cause…a loved one…for a friend.

Susan Ivanova:
Ambassador, do you really want to know what's going on down there right now?

Londo Mollari:
Yes, absolutely.

Ivanova:
Boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom. BOOM! Have a nice day.

[She walks away with a smile, leaving Londo to stew.]

Londo:
Faugh! You can never get a straight answer from anyone around here!

[after Captain Pierce of the EAS Hyperion and an alien ship trade ultimatums]

Ivanova:
Worst case of testosterone poisoning I've ever seen.

Susan Ivanova:
God, I hate mornings.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
We noticed. Personally, I find it the best part of the day.

Michael Garibaldi:
Ah, me too.

Ivanova:
[sighs] We all have our cross to bear.

Sinclair:
The time I really learned to appreciate mornings was during the three years I spent being taught by Jesuits. [His voice drops to a near-whisper, and Ivanova starts to nod off.] We used to get up at five o'clock every morning for sunrise mass. Then an hour of meditation before class. We would sit, quiet, at peace. [Her eyelids are getting heavier.] Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out. [She's out cold.] Breathing in, breathing out. [Sinclair winks at Garibaldi, and the chief swaps their just-started breakfasts with dirty, empty dishes, but leaves Ivanova's untouched.]

Garibaldi:
Well!

Ivanova:
[snapping awake] What?

Garibaldi:
Oh, that was great! Boy, just hit the spot! [to Sinclair] I see you cleaned your plate too! Guess I'd better get going.

Sinclair:
Me too, it's nearly seven-thirty.

Ivanova:
Sev-seven-thirty? I…I didn't even…I slept through breakfast? This isn't fair! It's n…

Sinclair:
Something, Lieutenant Commander?

Ivanova:
No! Nothing, I'm fine! I'm fine, you'll have to excuse me. [into her link] C&C, this is Ivanova! I realize I'm late, but I'm on my way! [She runs out, and Garibaldi swaps the dishes back.]

Sinclair:
I'll notify your next of kin. [picks up his tray and leaves]

Garibaldi:
Four…three…two…one…

Ivanova:
[out in the corridor, shouting] AUGH! GARIBALDI, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!

Delenn:
Summoned, I come. In Valen's name, I take the place that has been prepared for me. I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light.

Major Krantz:
What if we take you with us? Put you on trial?

Zathras:
Zathras not of this time. You take, Zathras die. You leave, Zathras die. Either way, it is bad for Zathras.

Garibaldi:
This is the part I hate most: the waiting.

Sinclair:
Hmm. (There's a moment of silence.)

Garibaldi:
Mind if I ask you a question?

Sinclair:
Sure.

Garibaldi:
Okay, it's morning, you're getting ready for work, you pull on your pants --do you fasten and zip, or zip and then fasten?

Sinclair:
What kind of question is that?

Garibaldi:
Well, look, we've got two hours to kill --

Sinclair:
Forget it.

Garibaldi:
Just a question.

Sinclair:
Why do you want to know?

Garibaldi:
Why do I want to know? Because I think about these things sometimes. I was getting dressed this morning, I couldn't remember how I did it, and I started thinking about it. Does everyone do it the same way? Is it a left-handed/right-handed thing --?

Sinclair:
(incredulous) You think about this stuff a lot?

Garibaldi:
Yeah. Look, okay, I'm sorry I asked. You're always so serious all the time. Not every conversation has to be the end of the world as we know it.

Sinclair:
I didn't mean to --

Garibaldi:
Never mind. It's okay. I'll just -- watch my console. Don't worry about it. (After a long pause, Sinclair sighs.)

Sinclair:
Fasten, then zip. You?

Garibaldi:
Fasten zip. (Sinclair chuckles.)

Sinclair:
How much longer?

Garibaldi:
One hour, fifty seven minutes. (pause) Want to talk socks?

Sinclair:
No.

Garibaldi:
Just a question.

Sinclair:
I'm not having this conversation.

[Ivanova barges into Dr. Franklin's illicit free clinic. He is bent over a notepad, distracted.]

Stephen Franklin:
[not paying attention] You can start by removing your clothes.

Susan Ivanova:
Not without dinner and flowers.

Jeffrey Sinclair:
I'm still waiting for an explanation, gentlemen.

Londo Mollari:
Yes. And I'm prepared to give you one, Commander, as soon as the room stops spinning.

Sinclair:
This station creates gravity by rotation. It never stops spinning.

Londo:
Well, you begin to see my problem.

Londo Mollari:
But this…this, this, this is like… being nibbled to death by, uh…Pah! What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet…go "quack".

Vir Cotto:
Cats.

Londo:
Cats! I'm being nibbled to death by cats.

[Londo chats with Morden in the garden.]

Londo:
There comes a time when you look into the mirror, and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors.

[in a bar on the Zocalo, after EarthForce 1's destruction]

Kosh:
And so it begins.

[speaking to his "associates"]

Morden:
Yes. I think he's ready.…Perfect for our needs.…No.…No. He suspects nothing.…When the time is right, Ambassador Mollari will do exactly as we wish.…Destiny is on our side.

[last lines of the season]

Sinclair:
Nothing's the same anymore.

Sinclair:
We've had plenty of experience with sneak attacks - Pearl Harbor, the terrorist nuking of San Diego, the destruction of our first Mars colony, it's a long and bloody history... Do you know what we learned from it? That the sneak attack is the first resort of a coward.

G'Kar:
Just a minute-

Sinclair:
You didn't even have the decency to pick a military target! A poorly armed civilian colony... [in sarcasm] What a challenge that must've been for the great Narn military...

[G'Kar makes the suddenly fugitive Garibaldi an offer.]

G'Kar:
What if I told you a ship is ready to spirit you away to Narn space?

Michael Garibaldi:
I'd say "Why?"

G'Kar:
You could serve us in various ways. Analyst, security, cryptographer. If you grow homesick we could arrange for your return to human space with proper genetic alterations. That, too, might serve our needs.

Garibaldi:
You want me to betray my own world?

G'Kar:
Stop seeing things in such absolute terms. The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest. Unless you comprehend that fact and soon, you will be cornered and caged.

[one question, asked multiple times to different characters]

Morden:
What do you want?

[As Londo tries to present a facade of effort, Vir suddenly presents Aldous Gajic with the information he requested]

Londo:
Vir, what are you doing?

Vir:
Ah. Being efficient, sir.

Londo:
A few more like you, Vir, and the entire Centauri Republic will efficient itself to extinction!

[A conflict between Earth and Mars has Garibaldi, who grew up on Mars, at odds with an Earther barfly.]

Barfly:
Like my granddad used to say: "Nuke 'em till they glow, and shoot 'em in the dark!" That'll take care of them. Just like magic.

Michael Garibaldi:
Magic? Want to see magic? I got a little magic trick for ya. I got a little magic that'll make you pass through the top of the bar! [grabs the barfly]

Barfly:
Hey! Leggo!

Garibaldi:
I'll need complete silence or I'll have to ask for another volunteer from the audience. Let's see, what was that magic word again? Shazam? [slams the barfly into the bar] No, that's not it. I'll tell you what, I'll go home and look at my books, then I'll come back. If you're still talking trash about killing Marsies, we'll try it again and again [slams him again] until we get it right, huh?

[Talia has been recruited to scan a convicted murderer before he undergoes his sentence of death of personality]

Talia Winters:
I don't want to do this again. I was inside a killer's mind before, on the Mars Colony. There's got to be another way.

. . .

Karl Edward Mueller:
So you're going to walk around in my head, eh? I'd think twice if I were you. Something might just jump out of the shadows and bite you.

. . .

[during the scan, Talia is horrified by Mueller's memories of his victims]

Talia:
How many? …How many?

Mueller:
How many worlds are there? How many banquets? How many flowers waiting to be harvested? How many new voices, waiting to be recruited into my choir? […] The overture is just beginning…

[Talia tells Garibaldi what she saw in Mueller's mind]

Talia:
You once said you'd bet good money he'd killed before? You would not have lost.