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Babylon 5 Rewatch: “The Hour of the Wolf”
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Babylon 5 Rewatch
Babylon 5 Rewatch: “The Hour of the Wolf”
Delenn struggles to keep the alliance against the Shadows together, and Mollari is summoned back to Centauri Prime…
By Keith R.A. DeCandido
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Published on September 8, 2025
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“The Hour of the Wolf”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by David J. EagleSeason 4, Episode 1Production episode 401Original air date: November 4, 1996
It was the dawn of the third age… It has been a week since Sheridan went to Z’ha’dum and, according to a voiceover from G’Kar, who is writing this all in his book, the universe seems to have paused. There’s been no sign of any activity from the Shadows. Delenn and Ivanova are both particularly devastated, the former fasting and holding vigil, the latter sleepwalking through her duties, while not actually sleeping at all.
Mollari has returned to Centauri Prime to become part of the emperor’s court. G’Kar muses that, on the one hand, he has everything he ever wanted, but on the other, he’s probably the loneliest person in the universe.
There are two questions, according to G’Kar: What happened to Sheridan at Z’ha’dum? Where is Garibaldi?
A meeting with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds goes badly, as Delenn, Ivanova, Lennier, and G’Kar are unable to convince the assorted ambassadors that B5 still needs protection. The Drazi and Brakiri and Gaim and the rest are all convinced that the Shadow War is over. Ivanova wants to press that advantage and send a fleet to Z’ha’dum, but none of the League reps want any part of that, accusing them of just wanting to rescue Sheridan—who is almost definitely dead. Nobody returns from Z’ha’dum. (Delenn’s counterargument that Anna Sheridan did come back falls on deaf ears.)
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
After the meeting breaks, Lennier points out that the Vorlon ambassador has not shown, and Delenn expresses her desire to find out why.
Mollari has arrived on Centauri Prime and is being escorted to his audience with the emperor by a minister, who is carrying on like trash about what a great honor it is for Mollari to be granted this audience. Cartagia—who keeps his hair scandalously short—obsequiously welcomes Mollari. He said he brought Mollari home for two reasons. One is because Mollari has experience of offworlders, and Cartagia needs that, as too many of the royal court are too provincial and know very little of the galaxy outside the Centauri Republic. The other reason is quite an ominous one: he was requested.
Before long, Mollari learns who requested him: a very badly scarred and burned Morden, who is not entirely there mentally, either. (It seems he had at least some distance from Sheridan’s explosion.) Apparently, the Shadows wish to work more closely with the Centauri, through Mollari and through Cartagia. Mollari is not thrilled about this, and is even less thrilled to learn that Cartagia has granted the Shadows an island on which to stash some of their fleet. They’ve done this in the past, and it’s necessary now after the damage Sheridan did to Z’ha’dum. Mollari can’t believe the Centaurum allowed this, but apparently those who voted against it simply disappeared…
Vir, meanwhile, has some news for Ivanova. Some of the Shadows’ agents pass messages to Mollari and when the ambassador is away, Vir gets the messages. Vir shares the events of “Z’ha’dum”: Sheridan crashed the White Star onto the surface, setting off a massive explosion. Sheridan himself was last seen jumping into a massive cavern. So the captain is almost definitely dead, but he very definitely did some major damage to the Shadows.
Delenn meets with the Vorlon ambassador and Alexander. The Vorlon doesn’t seem to give a damn that the League is falling apart, nor that he’s lost Delenn’s respect. Indeed, he is generally an ass before flouncing off, an apologetic Alexander in tow.
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
Allan investigates a break-in to Garibaldi’s quarters, but it turns out to be G’Kar, who feels that all the concern about Sheridan means that Garibaldi’s been lost in the shuffle. Allan assures him that is not the case, but nonetheless, G’Kar has decided to make it his personal mission to find Garibaldi.
Mollari is summoned to the sand garden. He, Cartagia, and a bunch of others watch as many Shadow vessels fly overhead, just like the vision Mollari had of his future. Mollari is appalled, and tries to convince Cartagia that this is a terrible idea, which will endanger the Centauri people. Cartagia, however, doesn’t care about that, he only cares about what the Shadows have promised him: to make him a god, like the emperors of old, many of whom are still worshipped.
To his dismay, Mollari realizes that Cartagia is completely insane. The minister admits that this is so, but anyone who has been foolish enough to say so out loud has subsequently disappeared without a trace. Rumor has it that Cartagia keeps all their heads on a desk in a private room. (Soon thereafter we see that rumor is true, as Cartagia visits his room of disembodied heads and tells them what a great day he’s had.)
After sucking his essence out of Alexander—and also ignoring her observation that this new guy’s essence is way darker than Kosh’s—the Vorlon ambassador lets her go bugger off on her own for a while. She immediately goes to Ivanova’s quarters. She thinks that her shared connection with Kosh means that she might be able to sense Sheridan, since Kosh left a piece of himself in Sheridan. Ivanova is willing to give it a shot.
Mollari summons Vir to Centauri Prime. Mollari needs allies he can trust for the conspiracy to commit regicide that he’s just formed, and Vir is pretty much it.
Ivanova, Delenn, Lennier, and Alexander take the White Star to Z’ha’dum. Alexander is able to fend off the Shadows while she searches for Sheridan telepathically. Lennier also tries to raise him by more traditional means. None of them are successful.
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
Then suddenly they all feel compelled to go to the surface—at least until the ship suddenly goes to hyperspace. Lennier—concerned that something untoward might happen to them—had set up a program whereby he had to touch a control at a regular interval, and if he didn’t, the ship would jump into hyperspace. Whatever it was that compelled them to go to Z’ha’dum kept Lennier from touching the control, so they’ve escaped.
But there’s no sign of Sheridan.
Back at B5, Ivanova still can’t sleep, but now she’s finally accepted that Sheridan’s dead and that her duty is to continue his work.
And then we cut to a cavern, presumably on Z’ha’dum, where we see a cloaked Sheridan, who is joined at a fire by an alien named Lorien.
Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan survived his leap into a chasm because he’s the lead in a TV show. Pity the rest of the crew didn’t know that…
Ivanova is God. Ivanova tells Alexander about the titular hour of the wolf: between three and four in the morning, when you can’t sleep and all the troubles of the universe are weighing down on you. Her father used to take a big drink of vodka during these times, “to keep the wolf away.” Then he’d take two or three small drinks, in case she had cubs. After slugging down a lot of vodka, Ivanova informs Alexander that it doesn’t work.
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
The household god of frustration. G’Kar asks if the picture of Daffy Duck over Garibaldi’s bed represents one of his household gods, and Allan allows as how that’s close enough for jazz.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn is pretty much rebuffed at every turn. The League disregards her warnings, the Vorlons no longer seem to want anything to do with her, and their mission to locate Sheridan fails.
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… We finally meet Cartagia, and he’s completely bugnuts, cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man’s a mushroom, etc. He’s succeeded in cowing the royal court, leaving it to Mollari and Vir to start the revolution, as it were.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar feels indebted to Garibaldi because the security chief treated him with respect.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Alexander is only able to hold off the Shadows for about half a second when in orbit of their homeworld. And wherever Sheridan is, he’s beyond her ability to locate him from orbit…
The Shadowy Vorlons. The Vorlons apparently were thrown off by Sheridan’s trip to Z’ha’dum (even though Kosh, at least, seemed to know it was coming). They are planning something, but neither Delenn nor Alexander have the first clue as to what that might be.
Meantime, the Shadows are setting up a base on Centauri Prime, which is bad news for the Centauri people.
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
Welcome aboard. We get two new recurring regulars in Lorien, played by Wayne Alexander, and Cartagia, played by Wortham Krimmer. We also get three old recurring characters in Ed Wasser as Morden, back from “Z’ha’dum,” Damian London as the still-not-yet-named Centauri minister, back from “Sic Transit Vir,” and Ardwight Chamberlain as the voice of Ulkesh or Kosh 2.0 or whatever the hell the Vorlon ambassador is now, also back from “Z’ha’dum.” All will return next time in “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” except for Wasser, who won’t be back until “Falling Toward Apotheosis.”
Trivial matters. After being mentioned several times, we finally meet Cartagia. In both name and portrayal, he’s obviously inspired by the legends surrounding the Roman Emperor Caligula, particularly John Hurt’s portrayal of the mad emperor in I, Claudius.
One of Mollari’s flash-forwards in “The Coming of Shadows” comes to pass here: he stands on sand, watching Shadows fly overhead. It appeared to be a desert in the second-season episode, but it’s established here as a sand garden. Also there’s an entire scene just before it with Mollari being unable to locate his coat, at which point the minister tells him that it’s being cleaned, and Mollari is forced to wear his old purple coat—which is what he was wearing in the flash-forward, as that was his current costume at the time. Just one of the unintended consequences of doing flash-forwards…
Rather than a single person doing the opening-credits voiceover, for this season, the entire cast gets in on the act, with everyone in the opening credits speaking a line discussing the year we’re about to watch.
By the time this season aired, the Prime Time Entertainment Network was on its last legs. Warner Bros. had formed its own network—the WB—which launched in 1995, as did the United Paramount Network. Chris-Craft Industries, which had been a partner with PTEN, instead became affiliated with UPN, thus leaving PTEN in the lurch on two fronts. By late 1996, all they had left was B5 and Kung-Fu: The Legend Continues, with no new programming on the horizon. The syndicated network would cease production after the fourth season of both those shows.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“I have met Cartagia three times before. Twice when he was an infant—he drooled most of the time. I wonder if he has continued the habit. And again when he was fifteen trying to peek up the dresses of some young women. I promise you, I will be just as impressed by him now as I was then, yes?”
“Ah, Mollari! Wonderful to see you again!”
“And you, Majesty. I could swear you have not changed since the last few times I saw you.”
—Mollari preparing to meet Cartagia and then doing so.
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Initiating ‘getting the hell out of here’ maneuver.” For all that I enjoyed watching this episode again, I find I don’t have much to say about it, mostly because the episode is entirely setup, with a dollop of misdirection. The latter is getting the characters to a place where they finally accept Sheridan’s death and then revealing that Sheridan is still alive. I mean, we know he’s alive—if nothing else, Bruce Boxleitner’s face is still there in the opening credits. But still, the characters need to move on so they can be properly surprised when he returns to civilization, as it were.
We still don’t know what happened to Garibaldi, but G’Kar, at least, is on the case. And we’re all wondering what will happen with the Shadows, now that they’re regrouping, and what the Vorlons have planned.
The big plot here, of course, is the introduction of Emperor Cartagia. Wortham Krimmer does an excellent job of channeling 1976 John Hurt, which only makes sense, as this particular plotline follows pretty much all the non-gross beats of Caligula’s arc in I, Claudius five decades ago. (Also, if you’ve never watched that BBC miniseries, I enthusiastically and heartily recommend it. Absolutely great stuff.) What’s compelling about the storyline is Mollari’s attempt at redemption by ridding his homeworld of this particular cancerous emperor, with the aid of Vir. The exchanges between Mollari and Vir are priceless as always, with the usual mix of affection and abuse on Mollari’s part, with Vir’s continued goodness of heart and seemingly endless reserve of forgiveness for Mollari’s crimes.
It’s kind of funny, really. The fourth season was the most balls-to-the-wall of all the seasons of B5, at least in part because J. Michael Straczynski feared he wouldn’t get a fifth season with the collapse of PTEN, so he jammed a lot of the storyline intended for season five into season four. So I had kind of forgotten that this roller-coaster of a season had such a sedate and somber opening.
Next week: “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?”[end-mark]
The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “The Hour of the Wolf” appeared first on Reactor.
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