####Overview

Sheridan discovers a connection between Morden and the death of his wife. The station is inundated by Narn refugees. A new Earth Alliance agency tries to recruit station personnel.
####Guest Stars

Ed Wasser as Morden.
####Lurk

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/synops/038.html
####Backplot

####Delenn and Kosh tell Sheridan about the Shadows and the Vorlons:

**D**: There are beings in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. Once, long ago, they walked among the stars like giants. Vast, timeless… they taught the younger races, explored beyond the Rim, created great empires. But to all things, there is an end. Slowly, over a million years, the First Ones went away. Some passed beyond the stars, never to return. Some simply disappeared.

**S**: I’m sure this is all very interesting, but what does any of this have to do with Morden?

**D**: Not all of the First Ones have gone away. A few stayed behind. Hidden or asleep, waiting for the day when they may be needed. When the Shadows come again.

**S**: Shadows?

**D**: We have no other name for them. The Shadows were old when even the ancients were young. They battled one another over and over across a million years. The last Great War against the Shadows was ten thousand years ago. It was the last time the ancients walked openly among us. The Shadows were only defeated, not destroyed. A thousand years ago, the Shadows returned to their places of power, rebuilt them, and began to stretch forth their hand. Before they could strike, they were defeated by an alliance of worlds, including the Minbari and the few remaining First Ones who had not yet passed beyond the veil. When they had finished, the First Ones went away. All but one.

**S**: There’s still one of them left. Where?

**D**: (indicates Kosh, to Sheridan’s great surprise) That is why Kosh cannot leave his encounter suit. He would be recognized.

**S**: Recognized? By who?

**K**: Everyone.

**D**: For centuries the Vorlons stood alone, the last remaining guardians. Watching and waiting.
####More

Delenn’s question to Kosh (cf. [[Chrysalis]]) was, “Have the Shadows returned to Z’ha’dum?”

The Icarus, an Earth exploration vessel carrying Anna Sheridan, arrived at Z’ha’dum in late 2256 (see Analysis.) A landing party, exploring a cave, inadvertently discovered the Shadows, awakening them. The Shadows destroyed the Icarus so its crew could not return to warn others, and killed the crewmembers who wouldn’t cooperate. Morden was one of the crew.

Delenn and Kosh knew about the reawakening of the Shadows immediately — maybe even witnessed it somehow as it was happening.

The Earth government has formed a new agency, the Ministry of Peace (nicknamed “Minipax” by its employees,) with the alleged goal of helping reduce internal tensions among the EA’s populace. Its first visible action was to establish a program called the Night Watch, paying people 50 credits a week to wear black armbands and report suspicious people to the authorities so that troublemakers can be reformed before they disrupt the peace.
####Unanswered Questions

Is Sheridan’s wife still alive?

What is the Ministry of Peace really up to?

Will Talia join?

Similarly, what significance is there in the fact that Delenn narrated Sheridan’s vision? Was she sharing it with him, or had she seen it before?

What kind of information did Morden bring for Londo?

What, if anything, happened to the ship that originally discovered the ruins on Z’ha’dum? Someone must have discovered them before the Icarus’ arrival, since the crew of the Icarus knew they were going to explore an ancient civilization.
####Analysis

Delenn’s opening remarks about the First Ones bear a striking similarity to G’Kar’s comments about the beings at Sigma 957 (cf. [[Mind War]].)

Could those beings also be First Ones? If so, are the Vorlons aware that they are still around in some form?

Her remarks also echo her comments about humans in [[Babylon Squared]] — suggesting that she believes humanity has the capacity to eventually rival the First Ones.

Delenn stated that all but one of the First Ones have gone away, and that the last one is Kosh. But does she mean that only one race remains, or only one individual? Or is there a difference where Vorlons are concerned? (See jms speaks)

If Kosh would be recognized by “everyone” because (as implied by Delenn) his race had once walked openly among lesser ones, it’s plausible that Kosh may resemble something from legends thousands of years old — an angel, perhaps, since the Shadows bear some resemblance to demons and Kosh’s suit seems to have room for wings. This would tie in with Kosh’s statement in [[Hunter, Prey]] that Sheridan must be ready “to fight legends” before Kosh will reveal himself — otherwise he’d be mistaken by some as a divine being rather than an alien. Of course, angels and demons are far from the only figures in the human pantheon, let alone alien mythology, and Kosh may be something else entirely.

Or the encounter suit may allow Kosh to control who gets visions like Sheridan’s; if he took it off, everyone who tried to look at him would see something different, something personal. (See jms speaks.) This brings up a potential connection to the flashes in [[Babylon Squared]]; perhaps the Vorlons were involved in Babylon 4’s time travel, and the flashes were a side effect of that.

Why did Delenn demand to see Kosh in [[Chrysalis]] before she was willing to undergo her change? She seems to know enough about Vorlons that she would have had some idea what he looked like. Did she simply want to verify that Kosh was one of the First Ones mentioned in the Minbari history books? Or does his appearance have something more directly to do with her wanting to become partially human? That’s assuming he was showing himself to her at all, rather than sending her a dream sequence.

How did Kosh know what happened on Z’ha’dum? Or was he just inventing the scene he showed Sheridan based on what he figured must have happened? Perhaps he gleaned it from his meeting with Morden in [[Signs and Portents]], though Delenn claims she and Kosh have known about it for the past three years.

The Icarus expedition seems to have set forth in late 2256. In [[Revelations]], which is set in early 2259, Sheridan’s sister says that it’s been two years since Anna’s death. In this episode, Delenn implies that the Shadows were awakened three years earlier. Late 2256 makes sense if both of them were rounding.

The Shadows on Z’ha’dum may have been awakened in 2256, but they weren’t the first. The creature in [[The Long Dark]] awoke during the Earth-Minbari War and was headed for Z’ha’dum. What caused it to wake up before its masters did, assuming its masters are the beings the Icarus discovered?

Delenn’s question was, “Have the Shadows returned to Z’ha’dum?” That implies they were elsewhere; if so, where? Perhaps the same thing that drew the abovementioned creature to Z’ha’dum also drew the Shadows there. In that case, they may have already been awake before the Icarus arrived.

Sheridan let Morden go so he wouldn’t suspect that his true nature is known. But the damage may already be done; Morden and his associates are likely to be suspicious of his sudden release. The reason given to Morden — “it was all a mistake” — is going to seem especially suspicious; “the Centauri asked for your release” or “you’re right; we can’t hold you without charges” seem like they would have been better excuses. Of course, the latter may be what Zack told Morden.

The Night Watch armbands seem more a tool of terror than of peace, reminiscent of the armbands worn by Nazis and other tyrannical regimes, a constant reminder to everyone that they’re under observation. The program seems designed to cause people to turn in their neighbors, and it’s probably naive to believe that people accused of suspicious behavior (or worse, suspicious “attitudes”) will simply be put into therapy and released shortly thereafter. Combined with the Ministry of Public Morale (cf. [[And Now For a Word]]) it suggests the Clark government is more interested in keeping the citizenry under its thumb than anything noble.

If it’s true that the Night Watch considers thoughts dangerous, they may well be involved with Psi Corps somehow; certainly it would make sense for them to try to involve telepaths in rooting out undesirables. Or, perhaps more likely, they’re simply another of Psi Corps’ machinations.

The Shadows aren’t the only ones inhabiting places of power. Londo observed that the technomages (cf. [[The Geometry of Shadows]]) were usually cloistered in their places of power. And now the technomages are headed for the Rim, or beyond it, because of a great darkness approaching; what do they hope to achieve?

Unless the holding cell cameras are very advanced, the Shadows’ invisibility is not all that good. Presumably there are aliens on the station who can see well into the infrared or ultraviolet; the Shadows would be easily detected by such beings in any public area. Perhaps that’s how Kosh knew who Morden was in [[Signs and Portents]]. On the other hand, it may simply be that some aliens have seen the Shadows with Morden, but didn’t think them remarkable enough to be worth mentioning; they’re probably far from the weirdest-looking creatures walking around the station.

Talia was able to detect the Shadows without even trying. That suggests that telepaths will be a valuable weapon against the Shadows — which leads to the suspicion that the Shadows are working to co-opt Psi-Corps behind the scenes so human telepaths will be less likely to work against them. It’s not clear whether her ability to sense the Shadows was typical for a P5 telepath, or a result of her enhanced abilities (cf. [[Mind War]].)

It’s also worth noting that Talia saw Morden darken the same way Delenn did in [[Signs and Portents]] — does this mean Delenn has some telepathic ability?

In [[Infection]], Franklin says the Ikarans built their war machines to fend off invasions, the last of which was 1000 years ago. Could they have been participants in the last conflict with the Shadows? Will the technology obtained by Earth in that episode be used in the upcoming war?

Morden’s triangular hand placement while he was in his cell is reminiscent of Lennier’s meditation posture. Perhaps there’s no connection, or perhaps there is.
####Notes

The name “Ministry of Peace” and its abbreviation Minipax are from George Orwell’s “1984.”

The convention mentioned by Talia is probably not the one described in the novel “Voices” because the novel takes place before [[The Coming of Shadows]].

Delenn’s narrative bears some resemblance to Gandalf’s description of the coming of Sauron near the beginning of the first book of “The Lord of the Rings.” In particular, this passage:

“The rumours that you have heard are true: he has indeed arisen again and left his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor. That name even you hobbits have heard of, like a shadow on the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.”