Babylon 4’s Fate

Story: War Without End, Part II

Written By: J. Michael Straczynski

Season: 3

Woah...weird stuff is afoot on Babylon 4.  So, Sheridan ends up on a future Centauri Prime, where Londo wants some revenge.  He locks up Sheridan, and he lets Delenn and Sheridan see each other one last time...except this is the younger Sheridan and the older Delenn...so he is a bit taken back when she kisses him and mentions their son.  Well they are going to get pretty busy in the future, huh? Londo turns out to be the Emperor, but he is controlled by some parasite thing, and he makes it pass out by drinking, giving him a moment of freedom to have Delenn and Sheridan try to save his world from those who have taken over his world.  Older one-eyed G’Kar then shows up to kill Londo and his Parasite, and the Parasite wakes up just in time so the two men can kill each other...and Vir can come in to become Emperor.  

Then Sheridan is sucked back to the past, where things start to coincide with the events of Babylon 4, having a lot of bits filled in in these episodes make the Zathra stuff make a little more sense (they literally just drop in scenes from that episode in order to balance it all out).  Oh and at some point Sinclair’s time thing malfunctions and he ages when they jump times.  This is the explanation of his aged appearance at the end of “Babylon Squared”.  

He can’t go back to the future, because he will die, he must take Babylon 4 back in time so it can be the base of operations for the Mibari in the last Shadow War.  Zathra makes it clear that “The One” is Sinclair, Delenn, and Sheridan...all three make up “The One”.  Sinclair is the beginning, Delenn the middle, and Sheridan the end...of a story.  It kind of nicely ties in to how the show has moved and progressed. 

The question still kind of remained...how could a Space Station really turn the war around and help defeat the Shadows?  The answer is that Sinclair’s destiny is to do the exact procedure that Delenn made in “Chrysalis”...he transforms into a Minbari, and when the Minbari arrive on the station Zathra takes them to Sinclair, who is surrounded by angels (clearly Vorlons like they appeared in the Season 2 finale), and he announces himself as Valen. 

It’s crazy stuff but it kind of works, and it wraps up a major issue the show has had since O’Hare left at the end of the first season.  There was all this build up that his character was important, that he has a destiny, that he was meant for something bigger, and yet he left and it seemed like being the head of the Rangers was nice, but not really as huge as it was built up to be.  This gives more weight to the character’s destiny, and wraps up Sinclair’s dangling threads as best as possible.  I understand there are some inconsistencies with the “Babylon Squared” episode, but quite frankly they did they best they could, and I think it works as a exit to this major character that bowed out a little early because of the actor’s personal issues.  

Crazy stuff is invented here and threads were finally tied up, giving this show a little more leeway to venture forward, and not worry about some dangling threads from the first season which could’ve never been tied up without O’Hare agreeing to come back as he did.  

NEXT TIME: The New Ambassador