Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) officially launched an effort seeking to ban the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, according to The Berliner on Monday. SPD delegates voted unanimously on Sunday to establish a “federal working group” commissioned to collect and present evidence of AfD’s extremism—“evidence they say is already ‘overwhelming,’” The Berliner reported. The resolution, adopted […]

Officers found a 16-year-old girl suffered a gunshot wound to the head

'Not welcome visitors to our country'

't was like we were carrying a dead body'

"The Caitlin Clark Effect" strikes yet again

'And what does it mean for the country?'

'The most surprising'

Senate Democrats went nuclear Monday morning in an effort to prevent Republicans from enacting a permanent extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Senate Democrats moved to overrule the presiding chair’s ruling that Senate Republicans can use a contentious accounting tactic to score a permanent tax cut extension as deficit-neutral and thus not add […]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it is charging hundreds of individuals in the largest national healthcare fraud case in history during a press conference on Monday. The DOJ criminally charged 324 individuals, including 96 healthcare professionals, for their alleged activity in $14.6 billion in Medicare and Medicaid fraud as a part of its […]

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Interludes and Examinations” Sheridan’s first victory against the Shadows comes at a price… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on June 30, 2025 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Interludes and Examinations”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Jesus TreviñoSeason 3, Episode 15Production episode 315Original air date: May 6, 1996 It was the dawn of the third age… We get voiceover narration from Ivanova bringing us up to speed: the Shadows are now fighting overtly, attacking worlds on the rim; they’ve hired more security, but without Earth’s resources, it’s harder to vet them (to prove that point, we see one security guard sneaking Morden onto the station in exchange for gemstones; said guard winds up dead shortly thereafter); the senior staff is handling things well, at least (to prove her wrong, we see Franklin taking stims); there’s been no sign of Kosh (which worries Ivanova greatly); and Mollari is still Mollari. We see Mollari being fitted for a new suit and informing Vir that he wants to rent the largest suite on the station: Adira is returning! Mollari is happy for the first time in forever because the woman he loves is coming back to him as promised. Sheridan meets with representatives of the Brakiri—who have been badly damaged by the Shadows—and the Gaim—who haven’t. Sheridan can’t promise protection from Earth, as B5 has broken away. The Gaim refuse to provide assistance to the Brakiri because the Shadows have ignored them until now and they have no wish to draw attention to themselves. However, the Gaim might change their mind if they know that the Army of Light has a chance against the Shadows. Later, Sheridan is brooding in the war room, telling Delenn that they need some kind of serious victory against the Shadows to prove that there’s at least a chance of victory. Without that, everyone’s going to be like the Brakiri (victims) or the Gaim (staying the hell out of it until the Shadows inevitably target them). Delenn says that in that case, they need a victory, and she’s sure he’ll think of something. After she leaves him to it, Sheridan grumbles that everyone’s starting to sound like Kosh, which then prompts an idea… Credit: Warner Bros. Television There’s chaos in medlab, as Franklin and Dr. Lillian Hobbs disagree on a diagnosis. Franklin gives the wrong instructions to the medtechs working on an alien, nearly killing the patient, then snaps at Garibaldi, who brings in one of his people to be worked on. Franklin explodes in near-hysterical anger. Morden confronts Mollari regarding the fact that Refa isn’t returning his calls. Mollari accepts credit for convincing Refa to do so. Morden reminds the ambassador that they carved up the galaxy together, but Mollari doesn’t see that it’s any of Morden’s concern how the Centauri handle their portion, and Mollari would prefer not to overtax their military on multi-front wars. Morden’s counter that they need those multi-front wars fall on uninterested ears, as do Morden’s threats, as Mollari doesn’t see that there’s anything Morden can threaten him with at this point. After the ambassador leaves in a huff, Morden tells the Shadows that they shouldn’t kill him yet, they can still use him. Garibaldi confronts Franklin in his quarters, expressing concern that he’s overextended himself and that maybe he’s back on stims. Franklin tells him to fuck off, and Garibaldi reminds him that he went to him as a friend first. Garibaldi’s next stop is the Zocalo to talk to Hobbs. He wants access to the regular blood tests that all medical personnel undergo regularly due to constant exposure to alien biologies. Hobbs refuses on privacy grounds. Garibaldi points out that he can do it through channels as security chief, but that brings a lot more people in on it, and he wants to spare Franklin that. Hobbs does at least tell him where in the system the blood tests can be found. Unbeknownst to either, Franklin sees the two of them talking. Vir is going over all the stuff that’s to go in Adira’s suite. After taking his leave, he bumps into Morden. After Vir tells him to screw off and die, Morden goes back to the merchant and pretends to be a friend of Vir’s in order to find out what Vir and the merchant were talking about. Garibaldi goes to medlab and starts the process of retrieving Franklin’s blood samples, but then decides against it at the last minute. Franklin walks in, surprised that Garibaldi chickened out. However, Franklin did his own blood test, to prove Garibaldi wrong. Except he didn’t—the levels of stims in his blood is way too high, past the addictive stage. Garibaldi leaves it to Franklin to decide what to do next. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Sheridan asks Kosh for help. If the Vorlons can just make one big strike against the Shadows, show that there’s a chance, it’ll help. Kosh refuses, as the Vorlons are too few in number, at which point Sheridan loses it. Kosh has been great at manipulating things and staying behind the scenes, but now the Shadows are destroying entire worlds, plus Sheridan’s own government is out to kill him. He’s got nothing to lose, and no way to fight this war without Kosh’s more overt help. Kosh gets sufficiently angry, calling Sheridan “impudent,” and telekinetically knocking him around. But eventually he accedes, with the caution that he will not be with Sheridan when he goes to Z’ha’dum. Sheridan already has been told that if he goes to Z’ha’dum, he’ll die, and if that’s the price he has to pay, so be it. Another Shadow attack in Brakiri space is thwarted by a Vorlon fleet that wipes them out. Mollari and Vir wait for Adira to disembark, but the final passenger comes out saying there’s no one behind him. (That same passenger meets with Morden and is given a bag of gems.) Then Hobbs wheels out a corpse, which turns out to be Adira. There’s no sign of trauma on the body, and Mollari—remembering his poisoning of Refa—tells her to search for poison in the autopsy. Ivanova informs Sheridan that the various worlds in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds are backing him now. Sheridan wants to thank Kosh in person, but it’s two a.m., and he gets some sleep, planning to thank Kosh in the morning. Morden breaks into Kosh’s quarters and watches as the Shadows tear Kosh apart. Meantime, Sheridan has a very vivid dream of his father, but it soon becomes obvious that this is Kosh communicating with him. He apologizes for getting angry, but he knew what the inevitable result of this attack would be, and he didn’t want to face it. He agrees that it’s time for Sheridan to fight the war his way. Kosh/David’s final words to him: “As long as you’re here, I’ll always be here.” Thus Kosh ends his life the way he lived it: cryptically. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Garibaldi reports that Kosh’s quarters look like it’s been through a war. But there’s no sign of a body, just a very badly damaged encounter suit. Delenn says there won’t be a body. The Vorlons do not wish to reveal Kosh’s death publicly; they will send another ambassador, who will pretend to be Kosh. Delenn requests that Kosh’s encounter suit and belongings be placed on his ship, which is alive and bonded to Kosh, so it too must die. It flies into the sun. Franklin resigns his position as chief of staff of medlab. He needs to get his shit together. Sheridan is stunned, but accepts the resignation. Mollari meets with Morden. He wishes to renew his association with Morden. The rest of the galaxy can burn for all he cares. But he wants his revenge on Refa for killing the only thing he loved. Morden says he is the ambassador’s humble servant. Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan confronts Kosh once and for all, speaking one of his iconic lines (quoted at the top of the review segment). Ivanova is God. Ivanova provides exposition, and probably saves Sheridan’s life by telling him to wait until morning to talk to Kosh, since if he’d gone before going to bed, he probably would’ve been there when Morden and the Shadows showed up and been collateral damage. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi does everything he can to get Franklin to confront his stim addiction without actually doing any paperwork on it. Luckily, Franklin realizes that he’s an addict before Garibaldi gets to the point where he has to make it an official report. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn plays the role of helpmeet to Sheridan, encouraging him and supporting him while he tries to figure out how the hell to fight this war… In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari’s threat to Refa apparently worked. Luckily for Morden, he had a way to get Mollari back into the Shadows’ thrall…. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The Shadowy Vorlons. We get our first Vorlon-Shadow confrontation, as the Vorlons make short work of the Shadows invading Brakiri space. Looking ahead. Kosh says that he won’t be with Sheridan when he goes to Z’ha’dum. This will turn out to not entirely be the case… No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. It’s obvious that Mollari plans a great deal of debauchery with Adira, as most of what he requests for her suite consists of booze and lingerie. Welcome aboard. Jennifer Balgobin debuts the recurring role of Hobbs; she’ll be back in “Walkabout.” Rance Howard officially becomes recurring, returning as the image of David Sheridan from “Severed Dreams” (though, truly, he’s playing Kosh cosplaying as Sheridan’s Dad); he’ll return as the real David in “Rising Star.” Meanwhile, we have other recurring regulars Ed Wasser as Morden, back from “Ceremonies of Light and Dark,” to return in “Z’ha’dum”; and Ardwight Chamberlain as the voice of Kosh, back from “Dust to Dust.” He’ll return as the voice of another Vorlon, Ulkesh, in the very next episode, “War Without End, Part I,” and return as Kosh in “Walkabout.” Trivial matters. Kosh is killed in this episode, though “Walkabout” will establish that he’s only mostly dead, not all dead. Franklin resigns his position, and will remain a civilian doctor until he’s reinstated in “Shadow Dancing.” Mollari blackmailed Refa via poison to cut off communication with Morden and the Shadows in “Ceremonies of Light and Dark,” as we see in flashbacks to that episode. The Gaim, whose encounter suit design is similar to the helmet worn by Dream of the Endless in The Sandman comic book, are named after that comic’s writer, Neil Gaiman. Gaiman will later write an episode of the show in season five, “Day of the Dead.” (One suspects that J. Michael Straczynski regrets that particular bit of nomenclature these days…) While Adria plays a large role in the episode, Fabiana Udenio only appears in flashbacks to “Born to the Purple.” The actor will return in the aforementioned “Day of the Dead.” The echoes of all of our conversations. “I’m sorry, I can’t talk—I have things to do.” “Well, apparently so. Anything I can do to help?” “Short of dying? No, I can’t think of a thing.” —Vir and Morden bantering. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Unless your people get off their encounter-suited butts and do something, I’ve got nothing to lose!” Something that bothered me about this episode when I first watched it in 1996 and which bothered me even more in 2025: why does Mollari go to Morden in the end? Yes, Refa is definitely a suspect in Adira’s murder, but he’s hardly the only one. What about Morden himself? Mollari knows as well as anyone how devious Morden is and how powerful the Shadows are and how much Morden wants Mollari back in his thrall. Yes, Refa has a powerful motive and the means, but so does Morden. The fact that Mollari never even suspects Morden of committing this crime doesn’t make any kind of sense, and it makes even less sense because the viewer is shown quite clearly that Morden is the one who had Adira killed. It’d be different if Morden did something—anything—to more aggressively frame Refa. The use of poison by itself isn’t enough. And it’s too bad, because in the grand scheme of things, this is an important moment for Mollari. He’s lost the only thing that brings him joy, which makes him far more dangerous. And I love the way Morden is written in his interactions with Mollari, in particular how he addresses him. When he confronts him in the corridor about Refa’s sudden silence, he calls him “Mollari” with the same dismissive tone that G’Kar uses. When Morden “learns” of Adira’s death, he refers to him as “Londo,” acting the sympathetic friend. And once Mollari reengages in his deal with the devil, Morden respectfully refers to him as “Ambassador,” pretending to be his humble servant when he is, in fact, neither. It’s also an important moment for Franklin and for Sheridan. The former finally confronts his addiction, which he’ll continue to deal with going forward. And Sheridan finally gets to put his coalition together, using the Vorlons to carry a big stick. For all that the yell-at-the-person-until-they-beat-you-up-and-then-do-what-you-wanted-in-the-first-place scene is a tired cliché, it’s sold by Bruce Boxleitner’s desperation and Ardwight Chamberlain’s ability to put a great deal of feeling into just a few words. (Just saying, “Impudent,” at Sheridan is pretty devastating.) Franklin’s storyline is less compelling, partly because Franklin himself is just not a very good or nice character, and partly, with all due respect to the memory of Richard Biggs (who was an absolute sweetheart in real life), because the character isn’t very well acted. His breakdown in medlab is incredibly mannered and not very convincing, ditto his screaming at Garibaldi in his quarters. To his credit, he does sell the character’s quiet self-revelation to Garibaldi and his resignation speech to Sheridan. Next week: “War Without End, Part I.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Interludes and Examinations” appeared first on Reactor.