The Dreaming

Story: Atonement

Written By: J. Michael Straczynski

Season: 4

Delenn is called back to Minbar because they pretty much hate that she wants to marry Sheridan.  So they call her back and force her to take part in “The Dreaming” which is some kind of machine that shows you stuff about yourself, and you can have some kind of epiphany.  If Delenn sees stuff and the Minbari decide she shouldn’t marry Sheridan, she says she will abide their decision.  

She goes in and we get a bit of background with her and the Earth-Minbari War, in that it turns out Dukhat, her mentor, was killed when the humans shot first (because they viewed the Minbari showing off their big fucking guns not as a sign of respect, but as a prelude to war), and SHE gave the order to kill every damn human possible.  She regrets this decision obviously, but she feels there is more, that she is not dating Sheridan out of some guilt complex.  Then she thinks about it and heads back into the Dreaming...and thats where it is revealed.  Something she was told by Dukhat but couldn’t hear at the time...he tells her that she is a descendant of Valen.  Valen is of course Jeffrey Sinclair...she has always been part human.  Therefore she wouldn’t be diluting the Minbari bloodline or whatever and she can marry him.  

The Minbari come up with a compromise, she can do whatever the hell she wants, but they’d love to keep that “Valen is part-human and many of us might be” thing a secret.  Delenn agrees and leaves Minbar. 

There is also a very small subplot (super small) in which Sheridan sends Franklin and Marcus to Mars to gather support and show them where Babylon 5 really stands in order to counterbalance the ISN propaganda machine.  This is literally just a scene at the beginning sending them off and a scene at the end of them on their way.  It is clear set-up for future episodes. 

NEXT TIME: Sheridan vs. Garibaldi