Babylon 5: Ship of Tears
December 1, 2018 8:21 AM - Season 3, Episode 14 - Subscribe

Bester comes with confidential news of a Shadow weapons shipment... Meanwhile, G'Kar continues his campaign to be part of the anti-Shadow war council. "I suspect you'd rather walk out that door and wall me up inside! Do a little re-creation of The Cask of Amontillado. 'For the love of God, Montresor!'"

-Bester parks his ship near B5 and sends out a distress signal while Sheridan is testing the new Starfury models. Sheridan investigates, finds Bester (to his surprise), and Bester reveals he has information about a 'weapons shipment' from the Shadows.
-Bester confirms that EarthGov and PsiCorps are infiltrated with pro-Shadow agents, and that's why he needs Sheridan. He does not know what the Shadows are, but is pretty sure the B5 command staff does...
-The convoy is intercepted by the White Star (with Bester locating the convoy with his psi powers), and the cargo is... human telepaths, in stasis. (Stasis was previously seen in 'The Long Dark'.)
-A Shadow ship jumps in and approaches the White Star, but mysteriously choses to flee instead.
-Bester reveals the truth: he fell in love with a woman outside his arranged-by-PsiCorps marriage. She was a telepath who went missing, and she -- Carolyn -- is one of the telepaths Sheridan found. She is pregnant with Bester's child.
-Carolyn awakes and causes chaos in medlab. She even merges with the tech there, and uses it to attack Bester. Franklin sedates her.
-Everyone's conclusion: these are telepaths who have been altered to merge with Shadow technology, probably to serve as pilots.
-Bester truly loves Carolyn and promises an alliance with Sheridan in return for an attempt to remove the Shadow implants they discovered in all the implants.
-G'Kar wants to join the council. Delenn and Sheridan's main opposition is that they would have to reveal that they knew the Centauri were backed by the Shadows before the war began in earnest, but chose to sacrifice Narn in order to protect the advantage of the Shadows thinking no one knew. They finally decide to tell G'Kar, with Delenn being the bearer of bad news. G'Kar is shook, and admits he will not forgive this easily.
-G'Kar reveals something from the Book of G'Quan after being admitted to the war council: when the Shadows attacked Narn a thousand years ago, they targeted the telepaths first (which is a large part of the reaosn there are no Narn telepaths now). Between this, and the Shadow ship fleeing the White Star after getting close when Bester was on board, tells the command staff something: telepaths can be used as weapons against the Shadows.
-Ivanova informs the council that the Shadows are now openly moving against the Brakira.
posted by flibbertigibbet (4 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Walter Koenig plays such a delightful (loveable?) slimeball. Surprisingly so.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:42 PM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


You can tell Koenig was enjoying the hell out of this role, after being known mostly for the hapless Ensign Checkov.
posted by happyroach at 2:51 PM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


I kind of feel like this episode happened just so we could see Bester more because he’s so delightful.

Also:

“Perhaps, but not today.”
posted by corb at 5:43 PM on March 26, 2019


One of my all-time favorite G'Kar lines in this. "Do not thump the Book of G'Quan. It is... disrespectful."
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:36 PM on February 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


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