Babylon 5, Season 5: The Wheel of Fire

Elizabeth Lochley:
As long as you're running an efficient operation and aren't looking for trouble, you are doing just fine.

David Corwin:
That's what I'm trying to tell you. Around here we don't have to go looking for trouble. On B5, trouble comes looking for us.

Londo Mollari:
On my world, we have learned that an inauguration is simply a signal to assassins that a new target has been set up on the firing range.

[A second attempt on Sheridan's life has been foiled.]

G'Kar:
Do you want to be President?

John Sheridan:
Yes.

G'Kar:
Put your hand on the book and say "I do."

Sheridan:
I do.

G'Kar:
Good. Done. Let's eat.

Lennier:
What kind of drink is that?

Vir Cotto:
I'm not sure. The bartender called it a "Shirley Temple."

Lennier:
Interesting. I've studied many Earth religions and I don't think I've ever heard of that particular temple.

Vir:
Me neither. But, it's real good.

Lennier:
Well then. I shall make a point to visit it on my next trip to Earth.

[Londo's Brivari has been impounded for health and safety reasons]

Londo Mollari:
Do you know what this is? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes that says, "Hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea."

[Londo is having a vision about his life, for part of which he is sitting at a bar]

Londo:
All of the bottles here are empty? The metaphor's getting a bit thick, don't you think?

Vir:
Prophecy is a guess that comes true. When it doesn't, it's a metaphor.

John Sheridan:
The Universe speaks in many languages but only one voice. A language which is not Narn or Human or Centauri or Gaim or Minbari. It speaks in the language of hope.

G'Kar:
It speaks in the language of trust. It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart and of the language of the soul; but always it is the same voice; it is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us, and the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born; it is the small still voice that says: "We are one." No matter the blood, no matter the skin, no matter the world, no matter the star. We are one. No matter the pain, no matter the darkness, no matter the loss, no matter the fear. We are one. Here, gathered together in common cause we agree to recognize this singular truth and this singular rule: that we must be kind to one another.

Sheridan:
Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us, and each voice lost diminishes us. We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future. We are one.

G'Kar:
We are one.

Byron:
That's why we're here. Because we're tired of being ordered around by those who cannot hear the song. Tired of being used as canon fodder, as inquisitors, as executioners, and as bloodhounds.

Lyta Alexander:
They forget we're human beings, too.

Byron:
No, not human beings. Better. That's why they're afraid of us. It's all ego, you know. "What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason. How infinite in faculties. In form and moving how express and admirable. In action how like an angel. In apprehension how like a god. The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals.…" The paragon of animals. 6,000 years of brutality, murder and slavery. An animal does not do this to its own kind, but they do it to each other. And they would do it to us! Unless we stop them. Unless we find a way to help each other. Unless we care for one another.

Mack:
Tastes like chicken!

Delenn:
What if the station falls?

Sheridan:
Then, as you said to me once, "I'll see you again in the place where no shadows fall."

Mack:
(sees Mack cross himself) When did you get religious?

Bo:
I'm not, just respect, that's all. Every time we get a red star born out there, somebody's life ends.

Bo:
' Sure looks pretty (referring to a White Star)

Mack:
You think?

Bo:
Hell yeah, what do you think?

Mack:
Me? I always thought they looked like plucked chickens. Hey, it's not my fault they were designed that way.

Byron (looking at an alien helmet) A fellow of infinite jest... I knew him Horatio.

Mack:
It's Mack, actually.

Byron:
At the moment of death there is a passing of energy, an explosion of consciousness. It permeates everything in close proximity... your clothes, jewelry... anything. We can still feel him - what he was, what he did, his hopes, and fears, and expectations. It's still there for a minutes, then it will disappear... joining him in silence.

Londo Mollari What, are you afraid I won't come back G'Kar?

G'Kar No, afraid you will.

Mack:
(to Bo) So... how long you figure they been married?

Mack:
Hey, did you see that smile? I mean it was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.

Bo:
I did indeed. Suddenly, I think I understand Sheridan a lot better.

Mack:
How do you mean?

Bo:
Well, dead or alive, I'd climb my way out of hell and through ten miles of solid rock to see that smile again.

[after their last encounter with Delenn]

Mack:
Bo?

Bo:
Yeah?

Mack:
She remembered my name.

Bo:
Our names.

Mack:
I think I'm in love.

Bo:
She's married.

Mack:
Eh. We can work something out.

[after a Ranger trainee has been attacked, his teacher declares Mora'dum-the application of terror]

Delenn:
Captain, this is not about revenge.

Elizabeth Lochley:
[sarcastically] Oh? Then what is this about?

Delenn:
Terror.

. . .

Lochley:
So, what kind of terror are we talking about here, Delenn?

Delenn:
The kind that cripples…the kind that destroys. Not from without, but from within. As soon as he can stand, whether he is fully healed or not, Tennier will prepare to face his terror. Those who harmed him now have power over him. He must take back that power or he will never be whole again. We will go with him, and bring him to the point of his terror. And then, he will face it.

Lochley:
But if he isn't fully healed, he could die in the effort.

Delenn:
As Anla'shok, we choose to do that which frightens us, knowing that there are no guarantees. He may lose; we cannot help him.

Lochley:
Then he will stand alone.

Delenn:
At the end, Captain, we all stand alone.

John Sheridan:
I'm caught in a web of my own good intentions.

Elizabeth Lochley:
Well, the road to hell is paved with them, sir.

Sheridan:
I know. But why does it have to go through this office?

[Lyta demonstrates her telekinesis by "slapping" two of Bester's Psi Cops]

Alfred Bester:
Not bad. Tell me, is that really telekinesis, or are you just pushing the nerve endings, making them feel as if they've been slapped? Either way, it's taken a lot out of you, Lyta. You're sweating, flushed. How many times can you do that, Lyta? Can you do just one at a time? Maybe two? How about three? How about a half dozen of us?

Lyta Alexander:
I don't know. Like you said, I'm new at this. I could even make a mistake. Maybe even pop a blood vessel in someone's head by accident by pushing too hard. Feel like playing the odds, Mr. Bester?

Lochley:
What the hell is your problem?

Michael Garibaldi:
For starters, I don't know you, therefore I don't trust you.

Lochley:
The world's full of people you don't know.

Garibaldi:
I worry about that all the time.

Lochley:
Tough. Get over it.

[after realizing Garibaldi has accessed her personnel file, Lochley storms out of her office]

Zack Allan:
Where you going?

Lochley:
To pound someone, Mr. Allan. You win. I just decided if you can't join 'em, beat 'em.

Lyta Alexander:
Byron, the Vorlons changed me. More than you could possibly know. I don't know what it'll do once you get past my barriers and I get past yours. It could burn you.

Byron:
Then let it burn.

Customs Guard:
Anything to declare?

Rebo:
I have nothing to declare, my dear man, except my genius!

Zooty:
[through his machine] And I have nothing to declare but Rebo's genius either. Zooty-zoot, zoot, zoot!

[Londo talks to a portrait of the first Centauri emperor.]

Londo Mollari:
So. When you were emperor, it meant something. Subduer of the Xon and the Shoggren. Now-pffft-anyone can be emperor. I can be emperor. Vir can be emperor. If Vir can be emperor…a small Earth cat can be emperor!

[The Brakiri Day of the Dead has begun, and part of the station is…off-limits.]

Lt. David Corwin:
There seems to be a slight problem, sir. It's kind of hard to explain. We seem to be missing a piece of the station. We can't reach it. We can't communicate with it.

John Sheridan:
That piece is almost a square mile across. You can't just lose something that big.

Lt. Corwin:
I agree, but it's still missing.

[Lennier is visited by Morden.]

Lennier:
I came for wisdom.

Morden:
You don't come to the dead for wisdom, Lennier. My head was cut from my body. Even now, it rots on a pole outside the Imperial Palace. Birds have taken the hair for their nests. Maggots ate my flesh. And you want wisdom?

Lennier:
Yes, I do.

. . .

Lennier:
Why did you help me? I know what kind of a man you were.

Morden:
Give a dog a bad name, and you can hang him with it. You shouldn't listen to everything Sheridan tells you. Actually, I'm surprised he's not here tonight, since he died at Z'ha'dum. Is there any coffee here or not?

[Garibaldi is visited by Dodger.]

Dodger:
It's some guy's fantasy. A love hungry red-head who will disappear in the morning never to be seen again!

Michael Garibaldi:
I'm sorry Dodger, what were you saying?

Dodger:
[frustrated] It's a good thing I'm only here another hour or so, cupcake. Two weeks of this, I'd kill you.

Minister Vatelli:
(referring to G'Kar) And I see you brought your own entertainment with you! An excellent idea... and quite brave of you to let him so close without keeping him in chains. Perhaps we should change that. Just a few chains to make the others more comfortable before we put him in a cell.

Londo Mollari He is my bodyguard.

Vatelli:
Well it's good to know that his excellency's sense of humor is intact after such a long voyage.

Regent:
You do understand, Jano, that if it were my decision, that I would never let anyone harm you, I would never let anyone hurt you. If it were my decision... But it's not my decision, you see (Jano is killed by the Drakh). Not my decision at all!

G'Kar Tell me, Minister. If I were to strike you, which would you be angry at? The hand that struck you, or the heart that commanded it?... The hand has no choice but to do as it is told. It is the heart that carries the burden. And that heart is dead in both of us, Minister. It died with Cartagia, and it died in me soon after. Besides, everyone knows that the true source of pain is neither the hand nor the heart... it is the mouth. Is it not, Minister?

[after Byron essentially blackmails the Alliance council]

Michael Garibaldi:
Never, ever, ever trust a telepath. I swear to you, I'm gonna have that tattooed inside my eyelids.

John Sheridan But they did it in the wrong way, the inconvenient way.

Delenn I seem to recall the Earth president saying the same thing to you, after your civil war (leaves).

Sheridan:
I hate that she has a memory, don't you?

Michael Garibaldi Damned inconvenient!

G'Kar:
It's bad luck to die on an empty stomach.

[Londo Mollari and G'Kar are discussing the inexplicable rise in Centauri military spending.]

G'Kar:
Well, with everyone now on the same side, perhaps you're planning to invade yourselves for a change. I find the idea curiously appealing. Once you've finished killing each other, we can plow under all the buildings and plant rows of flowers that spell out the words "too annoying to live" in letters big enough to be seen from space.

[Londo muses about the task of breaking Na'Toth out of her cell.]

Londo:
We have to do it without killing a guard, without raising any alarms, and without anyone noticing that she is gone. For my next trick, I shall fly around the room under my own power.

Bester:
My people are in there. And several others just tried to kill me, but then, what family doesn't have its difficulties?

Drazi Ambassador:
Every great fall begins with a single mistake.

Bester:
Every race to develop telepaths has had to find some way to control them, through laws, religion, drugs, or extermination. We may not be pretty, but we're a hell of a lot better than the alternatives.

Lyta Alexander:
You can't change human nature, Byron.

Byron:
Then there's not much point in living, is there? If you can't hope for something better, something nobler, at least something kinder?

[Byron reveals his past to Lyta.]

Byron:
I'm a strong P-12.

Lyta Alexander:
But all P-12s are automatically designated Psi Cops. You were a Psi Cop?

Byron:
Not just a Psi Cop. Bester's protege.

Byron:
We are no longer who we were. We are what we have become. What you made us!

John Sheridan:
Who knew that the presidency was 50% panic and 50% paperwork?

Sheridan:
Can you stall [the Alliance council] a bit?

Delenn:
Not a problem. I'll tell them we're declaring war on Earth. That'll give them something positive to think about.

Sheridan:
[distracted] Good. Good. Give me the paperwork and I'll sign it.

Londo Mollari:
He [a Narn] seems very glad to see you.

G'Kar:
Yes, but we weren't gone that long. Less than a month.

Londo Mollari:
Well, there you have the key to your popularity: your absence. Go away for a month and they bow. Go away for six months and they'll tear the place apart when you come back. Perhaps you should go away and never come back again. Then your popularity will be so overwhelming it would blacken the stars.

G'Kar:
Mollari-

Londo Mollari:
I have always said this about you: nothing so improves your company like the lack of it. ... Perhaps you can make some money from this: ten credits for you not to be there for an hour, a hundred credits for you not to be there for the day. And for you not to be there for the rest of your life, well, they could never afford it.

G'Kar:
Where is my book? It is my only copy!

Ta'Lon:
Yes, that is precisely the point. The Kha'Ri felt that if anything happened to you [on Centauri Prime] the book of G'Kar would never see the light of day, so we "liberated" it [from G'Kar's quarters].

G'Kar:
Liberated it?

Ta'Lon:
We took it home. Those that read it were very moved by it and they made some copies.

G'Kar:
[aghast] Copies?!

Ta'Lon:
Just a few…for their friends. A few more…later a few more copies.

G'Kar:
How many?!

Ta'Lon:
That's hard to say, exactly. There was some confusion when it went to the printers.

G'Kar:
Printers?! I've only been gone for a month, Ta'Lon, there can't be that many copies floating around this quickly. How many?

Ta'Lon:
Five or six…hundred…thousand.

G'Kar:
What?!

Ta'Lon:
I've been told that it will out-sell the book of G'Quan. [G'Kar stares at him in shock] Congratulations, citizen G'Kar. You are now a religious icon.

[Garibaldi and Tafiq are discussing Drazi cities]

Michael Garibaldi:
What's with the streets? They're so narrow, you can hardly get by.

Tafiq:
Tradition. Goes back centuries. To prevent invaders from taking their city, they built their streets too narrow for armies or engines of war. When you have to go by two or three at a time, you are most vulnerable.

Michael Garibaldi:
See, now you can fly over and drop these things called "bombs".

G'Kar:
All my life, I have been responsible only for myself. When I risk, I risked alone to avoid making others pay the price for my mistakes. They want me to show them another way. What if I show them the wrong way? What if they come to me not because of the lesson, but because of the teacher? I worry, Ta'Lon, that my shadow may become greater than the message.

Ta'Lon:
If that happens, I give you my word that I will personally kill you.

G'Kar:
And this is supposed to put my mind at ease?

Psi Cop Lauren Ashley:
We don't often see a sense of humor in Psi Cops.

Alfred Bester:
Reports of our depression are vastly exaggerated.

[Zack greets Bester in pretty much the same fashion as his predecessor.]

Zack Allan:
Don't you ever go away? Haven't you caused enough trouble for one lifetime?

Bester:
It's a pleasure to see you too, Mr. Allan. Where can I find Captain Lochley? I should check in with her.

Zack:
She's busy, you can check in with me. Card. [Bester hands over his identicard.] So what is it this time, Mr. Bester? Hunting out freedom fighters? Pulling wings off flies? Annexing the Sudetenland?

[Zack implies Bester had something to do with a dead body being dead.]

Bester:
He was dead before we got here.

Zack:
[to Bester] Yeah, they told me. But I never let the facts get in the way of a good grudge.

Bartender in Downbelow:
I've seen all kinds, kid. Seen an alien come through here last week with eight compound eyes and a glass stomach. Two fingers of gin, he's down. Completely unconscious for two full hours, and he wants to do it again. I've seen a naked Pak'ma'ra once. You know that hump on their back? It's not a hump at all, it's a…

Bester:
Of all the things in life I could drown in-love, music, the eyes of another-crocodile tears are the least appealing.

Bester:
Oh, come on, doctor, we have a history here. Tell the truth. You don't want me here a second more than I want to be here.

Stephen Franklin:
Personally, no. But as a doctor I have to treat all of my patients equally. Even the annoying, self-righteous ones with self-important delusions of godhood.

Bester:
Thank you. I feel far more at home now.

Bester [to Franklin]:
You're an optimist. Thank you. I had almost forgotten what one of your kind looked like.

[Lennier is concerned he has offended Captain Montoya with his curiosity.]

Findell:
No, the captain does not believe in indiscreet questions. He believes the only way to get pertinent information is to ask impertinent questions.

G'Kar:
If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often we assume that the light on the wall is God. But the light is not the goal of the search; it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it! Similarly, someone who does not search, who does not bring a lantern with him, sees nothing. What we perceive as God, is the byproduct of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light, pure and unblemished, not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe. God looks astonishingly like we do! Or we turn to look at our shadow, and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose; which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty…and in all its flaws. And in so doing better understand the world around us.

Captain Montoya:
To be Anla'Shok means understanding that there is nothing to fear in death except the failure to complete our assigned mission. Death is not the enemy. Death simply is.

[Vir walks into Londo's quarters]

Londo Mollari:
Something I can do for you, Vir?

[Vir walks past Londo and grabs a sword off of the wall without slowing down]

Vir Cotto:
No, I just need to borrow this for a minute. I'll be right back.

[Vir is attacking a Drazi merchant/spy in public]

Zack Allan:
What happened to Vir?

Londo:
I promoted him. Now, now he is ready to be the ambassador for the Centauri.

[Zack relates the incident with Vir in the Zocalo to Sheridan, Franklin, and Delenn, all laughing]

Franklin:
And Londo?

Zack:
Oh, he was just standing there, watching as Vir tore the place apart! [more laughter; Zack puts on self-important tone] "Today he is a man!"

[A very drunk Garibaldi stumbles into his quarters.]

Michael Garibaldi:
Sh…Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I want to go to bed. I had a little…oh, that's a big drink…about an hour ago and it went right to my head. [pauses] What did I do…with that link? You here, Linky, Linky, Linky? Here, Linky? [finds his link] Oh, the missing link!

John Sheridan:
Damn it Delenn, I have been working up a good mad all day and I am not about to let you undercut it by agreeing with me.

Michael Garibaldi:
Barring an act of God - and since I don't believe in God, that kind of narrows the odds a bit - by this time tomorrow, we're gonna be at war with the Centauri.

Centauri Minister:
Is that why you brought it [G'Kar] along?

Londo Mollari:
No, he is still here as my bodyguard, that's all. Where I go, he goes.

Centauri Minister:
My condolences.

G'Kar:
Thank you. It's a burden, but I've come to accept it.

Centauri Minister:
I'm sure you would like to freshen up. Both of you.

G'Kar:
It's a natural musk. I rather enjoy it.

Londo:
Careful minister, we don't want my companion to get the wrong idea. We don't normally treat our guests so badly.

G'Kar:
Yes you do.

Londo:
Shut up.

[A Centauri official comes to arrest G'Kar]

Londo:
Where he goes, I go.

Londo [to G'Kar]:
Don't worry. Even one as arrogant as this would not take it upon himself to imprison his own prime minister.

[Cut to the next scene, Londo and G'Kar are in a prison cell]

Londo:
[to G'Kar]: Shut up.

G'Kar:
I didn't say anything.

Delenn:
We are all born as molecules in the hearts of a billion stars. Molecules that do not understand politics or policies or differences. Over a billion years, we foolish molecules forget who we are and where we came from. In desperate acts of ego, we give ourselves names, fight over lines on maps, and pretend that our light is better than everyone else's.

Londo Mollari:
No. I said where you go, I go. It's become a matter of principle.

G'Kar:
You picked a terrible moment in your social evolution to develop principles. Perhaps you can start with something simpler. The moral equivalent of the opposable thumb, for instance.

Regent:
I have been many things in my life, Mollari. I have been silly. I have been quiet when I should have spoken. I have been foolish. And I have wasted far too much time. But I am still Centauri, and I am not afraid.

[the Drakh keeper leaves his body, and he dies in Londo's arms]

Londo Mollari:
Isn't it strange, G'Kar? When we first met I had no power and all the choices I could ever want. And now I have all the power I could ever want and no choices at all. No choice at all.

G'Kar:
Mollari. Understand that I can never forgive your people for what they did to my world. My people can never forgive your people. But I can forgive you.

Stephen Franklin:
Can God make a rock so big, that even he can't lift it?

G'Kar:
Yes, I've heard it, but ...

Franklin:
What if that is the wrong question? I wonder if the right question is, can God create a puzzle so difficult, a riddle so complex, that even he can't solve it? What if that's us? Maybe a problem like this is God's way of doing to us a little of what we do to him?

John Sheridan:
I tell ya, the next person who acts irrationally, I swear I'm gonna shoot myself in the head.

[Delenn bursts into the room in a rage]

Delenn:
BASTARDS!

Franklin:
Did she just…?

Sheridan:
She did.

Franklin:
I'll get the gun.

Sheridan:
What could make her [Lyta] turn like this?

Franklin:
Well, let's see. She was…"adjusted" by the Vorlons, dumped by the Vorlons, used as a weapon. Quit the Corps. Lost the only man she ever loved and dedicated herself to finishing his work. Pick one or all of the above. Let's face it, she's pissed.

Sheridan:
Massively.

G'Kar:
We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away.

Number One:
So it really couldn't-

Stephen Franklin:
No, you're right. It couldn't-

Number One:
So there we are.

Franklin:
There you go, yeah.

Franklin:
You know, I do have about an hour before my next shift starts, in case you wanted to…celebrate your new job.

Number One:
More than an hour or less than an hour?

Franklin:
About an hour and ten minutes.

Number One:
You go on ahead. You know how I like the lights.

G'Kar:
I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in the station when it is quiet, and just listen. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains. But I will admit that the part of me that is going will very much miss the part of you that is staying.

Delenn:
It occurs to me I have never walked the length of this place, end to end.

John Sheridan:
Well, Delenn, it's 5 miles long.

Delenn:
I know. Coming?

Sheridan:
Now?

Delenn:
Now is all we have.

[G'Kar gives a "pep talk" to his successor, Ta'Lon.]

G'Kar:
I believe there is a time for enlightenment and a time for things to get done. I have become a distraction for our people. They require patience, direction, determination, and strength. I have provided a little of the first two. Now, you must provide the rest. You have always been sensible and level-headed. A rock that will never shift or break beneath the demands of our people. And you have been my friend. In my absence, we will need someone to focus on helping our world rebuild and strengthening ties with the Alliance. In order to serve our people here and at home, one must be both priest and warrior in equal measure. In recent months, I have become more priest than warrior. Perhaps, now it is time for someone who is more warrior than priest. You may believe you are not ready, but you are as ready as I was when I first came to Babylon 5. Check the records, I think you'll be amused. When this message has finished, a copy will automatically be sent to Sheridan and the others. They will receive you as they would receive me. Good luck, Ta'Lon. Serve our people-reasonably, fairly, and with honor. The rest will attend to itself.

John Sheridan:
It's good to know that at least one of the old gang will be sticking around for a while.

Zack Allan:
Who, me? Absolutely. Hell, I'll probably still be here when they turn off the lights.[N]

Delenn:
There are moments when we all become someone else, something other than what we are. It takes only a moment. But we spend the rest of our lives looking back at that moment in shame.

Vir Cotto:
One time, we were walking through the Alien sector, and we heard this beautiful singing coming from the Pak'Ma'Ra's quarters.

John Sheridan:
They sing?

Stephen Franklin:
There's nothing in the literature about that.

Vir:
Apparently they only ever do it once a year, during their religious period. And we were listening to this singing and I saw a tear run down Londo's face, and I said, "We should go, this is upsetting you." But he said no, and we stayed. After the singing was over he turned to me and said, "There are 49 Gods in our Pantheon, Vir. To tell you the truth I've never really believed in any of them. But if just one of them exists…then God sings with that voice."

Sheridan:
A toast. To…absent friends. In memory still bright.

Michael Garibaldi:
G'Kar.

Vir:
Londo.

Delenn:
Lennier.

Franklin:
Mar--

Susan Ivanova:
Marcus.

[While Sheridan takes a last walk though the station.]

Zack Allan:
So you hear 'em too, huh?

Sheridan:
Zack. Ha ha! What the hell are you doing here? I thought you went back to Earth.

Allan:
Yeah, I did. Got bored. Re-upped about six months ago. I figured I'd be here 'til they turn the lights out.[N]

Sheridan:
[whispering] Well…look at that…the sun's coming up…

[last lines of the series]

Ivanova:
Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future…and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future, or others would do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we don't, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most…unlikely places. Mostly though, I think it gave us hope-that there can always be new beginnings…even for people like us.

Ivanova:
As for Delenn, every morning for as long as she lived, Delenn got up before dawn and watched the sun come up.

. . .

ISN newscaster:
And now, for those of you that have been archiving this ISN Special Documentary, the people responsible.

[single frame stills of department-crews; then a shot of the whole crowd]

Funding for this program was made possible by grants from the Anla'shok Memorial Fund.

[Londo sees Vir in his vision, discussing his dream of dying sixteen years in the future.]

Londo:
The dream is prophecy.

Vir:
Prophecy is a guess that comes true. When it doesn't, it's a metaphor. You could put a gun to your head tomorrow and pull the trigger, and then the dream is just a dream, and the prophecy is just a metaphor, and so are you. You're out of time, Londo. Turn around.

[After getting the members of the Alliance to sign the Declaration of Principles, Sheridan and Delenn sit in the conference room, admiring the table full of signed scrolls. G'Kar bursts in.]

G'Kar:
Ah, Mr. President. [sees the documents] Oh, good, good, good. I was looking for these. [begins gathering them up and shoving them in his bag]

Sheridan:
What are you doing?

G'Kar:
Well, we need to get everyone to sign them again!

Sheridan:
What? [stands, flabbergasted] We… Do you understand what we went through to get them signed even once?

G'Kar:
I revised it again. It's better.

Sheridan:
G'Kar!

G'Kar:
But look.

[He offers another scroll to Sheridan, who snatches it angrily out of his hands. He and Delenn start to read. His anger fades, replaced by awe.]

Sheridan:
[surprised] It's better.

[Having gathered the old, signed copies, G'Kar retakes the new version from Sheridan, snatching it from his grasp. He dashes out of the council chamber, leaving a stunned Sheridan and Delenn in his wake.]

Sheridan:
Some days, it's like living in a madhouse.

[Sech Durhan asks fellow Ranger trainer Sech Turval to join him on a trip to Babylon 5.]

Durhan:
[good-natured] You are a source of constant annoyance to me, Turval, but only because you're right more often than you're wrong. And why should I keep this joy to myself? I choose to share you with the universe! [deadpan] Valen help them all.

[Sech Turval comforts Ranger trainee Rastenn, who abandoned his fellow trainee to fight an enemy alone in a moment off uncharacteristic fear.]

Turval:
We create the meaning in our lives. It does not exist independently. Being Anla-shok [Ranger] does not mean worrying about what others will think about us. It does not mean deciding what to do based upon whether or not it serves our sense of ego or destiny. It means living each moment as if it were your last one. It means doing each right thing because it is the right thing. The scale doesn't matter. The where, the when, the how, or in what cause… none of those things matter. In my life, I've discovered very few truths. Here is the greatest truth I know: Your death, Rastenn, will have a meaning if it comes while you're in fullest pursuit of your heart.

[The Ranger trainees encircle Tannier and the human who attacked him, watching the Mora'dum play out, but not interfering.]

Sech Turval:
Attend, students, this is a classic archetype in action. The strong man—or 'bully', as the humans call it—essentially a coward whose only skill is convincing others to do what he's afraid to do himself.

Sech Durhan:
Notice the lack of technique, no follow through. Another flaw in this particular personality type…all muscle, no brain.

Lyta Alexander:
Byron, the Vorlons changed me. More than you could possibly know. I don't know what it'll do once you get past my barriers and I get past yours. It could burn you.

Byron:
Then let it burn.

[After they make love, Lyta's barriers go down, and they both witness the full measure of what the Vorlons did:
not only to her, but to all telepaths. They meet with the rest of Byron's people.]

Byron:
It was the Vorlons.

Lyta:
Yes.

Byron:
They created telepaths on a hundred worlds. Interfered with their genetic development. Took people from their homeworlds and adjusted them over the course of the centuries.

Lyta:
Yes.

Byron:
Because they needed telepaths in their war against the Shadows. Needed us as cannon fodder.

Lyta:
Yes.

Byron:
We would be normal. We would have lives. We would be able to walk and live and work among normals without fear of persecution if the Vorlons had not interfered with our normal development. We were made for their benefit, to save them. We were told that our abilities were our gift and our curse, and that we were somehow responsible for it. But we're not. We're not.

[Sheridan and Delenn greet Rebo and Zooty in their quarters, where they have all gathered for dinner. As Delenn and Zooty walk off, Sheridan leans in to talk to Rebo.]

Sheridan:
You know, I was really hoping to talk to Zooty. You know, without the machine.

Rebo:
Yeah. He never breaks character, not even around me. In ten years, I've only heard him say one word without the machine.

Sheridan:
Oh. Oh. What's the word?

Rebo:
Why.

Sheridan:
Oh, just curious.

Rebo:
No, no. That was the word. "Why". In ten years, I haven't figured it out myself.

...

[Later, in the Zocalo, Zooty gestures for Sheridan to lean close. He takes off his hat, puts it over the machine hanging from his pocket, and whispers conspiratorially to Sheridan. Sheridan's eyes go wide, and Zooty nods in confirmation. He dons his hat and walks off. G'Kar runs up to him.]

G'Kar:
What did he say?!

Sheridan:
[astonished] "Because it tells me to…"

[After Lise confronts Garibaldi about his drinking.]

Lise:
I'm sorry.

Michael Garibaldi:
I don't want you to be sorry. I don't need your pity. I don't need anybody's pity. All I know is that I'm tired of being controlled. Controlled by others, by fear, by my past, by what everybody else expects of me and it's enough. Enough. And this? [points at the bottle] This is my own private little act of rebellion, yeah. I may not be able to control what other people do to me, but I can at least be in control what I do to myself.

Regent Virini:
They say: the Shadows were our masters. We served them, believed in them, loved them. Then they went away and left us behind to escape on our own. But without our masters… who are we? In the end… what are we but…

Shiv'kala:
A shadow… of a shadow. An echo… of what was. Our home, Z'ha'dum, destroyed. We… wandered. Then we remembered… this place. We remembered… you.

[Lochley and Zack go to the Zocalo to arrest Lyta on suspicion of terrorism. She displays how she has the entire Zocalo under her mental control.]

Lyta Alexander:
I'm tired of being pushed around, Captain. I do not choose to be arrested. I've done a lot for this place…and just once I think a little gratitude would be in order, don't you?

Elizabeth Lochley:
Lyta, don't force us to-

Lyta:
To what?

Lochley:
[gestures to Zack] Zack…

[He doesn't move. He, the deputies, and the rest of the crowd appear to be catatonic.]

Lochley:
Zack!

Lyta:
You cannot harm me. You cannot stop someone who's been touched by Vorlons.

[A PPG appears and lines up with the side of Lyta's head. Sheridan steps out of the crowd.]

John Sheridan:
You're not the only one that's been touched by the Vorlons. [gestures to the crowd] Let them go.

[Lyta stands resolute. Sheridan presses the gun into the side of her head.]

Sheridan:
Let 'em go or I'll blow the back of your skull off!

[Lyta relaxes her mental control, and the crowd begins moving again.]

[Garibaldi confronts Lyta in her cell.]

Michael Garibaldi:
I need to know, Lyta. Something's happened to your abilities. You're not a P-5 anymore, hell, you're not even a P-12. You're the strongest telepath I've ever seen. What did the Vorlons do to you, Lyta? Who…what are you?

Lyta:
I've only recently begun to understand it myself. You know the Vorlons used telepaths as weapons during the Shadow War, but what no one stopped to consider was that in a war, you have a certain number of small weapons, a certain number of medium-size weapons, and one or two big ones. The kind of weapons you drop when you're out of small weapons and the medium weapons and you've got nothing left to use.

Garibaldi:
Someone like that would be the telepathic equivalent of a thermonuclear device. A doomsday weapon.

[Lyta turns to face him, smiling, and her eyes start glowing white.]

Lyta:
Pleased to meet you, Mr. Garibaldi.

[G'Kar comes face to face with one of his more-devout "followers".]

Narn:
We put you in this position, G'Kar. Our reverence is our gift to you, and you are responsible to us. You owe us. Without us… you are nothing.

G'Kar:
Then I am nothing. Goodbye.

Delenn:
When I had to learn English, one of the most difficult words for me was "goodbye." There is no corresponding word for "goodbye" in Minbari. All our partings contain within them the possibility of meeting again: in other places, in other times, in other lives. So you will excuse me if I do not say "goodbye."