Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Secrets of the Soul” Tensions build as more telepaths arrive at the station… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on April 13, 2026 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Secrets of the Soul”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Tony DowSeason 5, Episode 7Production episode 508Original air date: March 4, 1998 It was the dawn of the third age… Franklin records a log entry discussing his new role as assembler of medical data on all the members of the IA. We also see him talking with a pak’ma’ra, at one point giving him a Barium swallow to track how their digestion works. The pak’ma’ra drinks it very reluctantly and throws it up a few minutes later. (Having done a Barium swallow myself a while back, I sympathize with the pak’ma’ra.) Allan is summoned to customs to deal with a bunch of telepaths who have no ID, no money, no papers, no nothin’, but were told this was the place to join Byron. Byron then shows up with Alexander saying he will provide paperwork for all of them. Allan reluctantly lets them come on board and go off with Byron. One of them is a stuttering young man named Peter, who is apparently a telekinetic. Allan asks to speak to Alexander in private, and he expresses his very loud disapproval of Byron and of Alexander being with him. Alexander tartly points out that she’s helped the crew of B5 on several occasions and got bupkuss for her assistance, forcing her to get into bed with Psi Corps again. Nobody has any right to lecture her on the subject of her life choices at this point. In downbelow, Byron, Peter, and the gang are harassed by Carl and his goons. They, presumably, are trying to fill the vacuum left by Trace’s ouster by the Rangers. They also hate that the telepaths are getting a free ride. Byron then urges Carl to hit him several times, which Carl does, though it becomes less fun for him with each punch to the jaw. (We’ll leave aside that hitting someone in the face that often should have broken Carl’s hand. Skulls are hard. He should’ve punched him in the solar plexus.) Credit: Warner Bros. Television Franklin meets with Ambassador Tal of the Hayach, who reports that the elders have agreed to supply Franklin with the Hayach’s medical data. Tal’s aide, Kirrin, is reluctant and asks some very direct questions regarding confidentiality. Franklin makes it clear that he will respect the Hayachs’ privacy absolutely. After Franklin leaves, Kirrin expresses worry that the doctor will find out things he shouldn’t, but Tal points out that the elders have already made their decision. And if Franklin violates their trust, then they’ll kill him. Alexander goes to see Byron, who looks like someone has used him for a punching bag. For some stupid reason, he has refused to get any kind of rudimentary first aid, never mind proper medical attention, and Alexander at least provides the former. Byron asks her to stay the night with the telepaths, which she has yet to do. She agrees, and is embraced by the whole group of them. Franklin is confused to see that the Hayach’s medical records only go back 800 years, even though the Hayach have been around for more than 7000 years. Kirrin is evasive on the subject of why, and Franklin also realizes that all records they have on the Hayach are no older than eight centuries old. Peter is wandering off on his own, and gets lost. He’s found by Carl and his goons, who start to hassle him. Peter telekinetically throws a pipe at Carl. Carl and the gang retaliate by kicking the shit out of him. Peter is brought to medlab and treated. Byron and Alexander show up and the former is fairly certain he knows who’s responsible. Peter telekinetically throws stuff around the lab and Byron goes off to find the bad guys. Byron comes across some of his fellow telepaths tormenting one of Carl’s goons, making him think he’s on fire. Byron gets them to stop and checks on the goon to see if he’s okay. Allan shows up right at that moment and assumes that Byron assaulted the goon and arrests him. While Byron is stuck in detention, the other telepaths seek out Carl and his other goons and torment them. Byron can feel this happening telepathically, but his pleas to be let out to talk to his people fall on deaf ears. Franklin does more research, and comes across a communiqué from a Drazi captain who reported a rare sighting of a Hyach-do, who asked for a lift, but the Drazi refused. Franklin does further research into the Hyach-do, and then goes to confront Tal—only to be attacked and kidnapped by Kirrin. Credit: Warner Bros. Television When he regains consciousness, Franklin confronts Kirrin: the Haych-do are another sapient species that evolved on their world, but they’re gone now. Tal admits that the Haych hunted the Hyach-do to extinction. But it turned out that the Hyach-do’s genetics were necessary to intermingle with the Hyach for them to survive. Their birthrate is plummeting, and has been for some time. Tal begs Franklin (a) for help, and (b) to keep their secret. But he can’t do A by himself, and B is only possible with the resources of many worlds working on it. Tal agrees to let the secret out. She asks for forgiveness, as no currently living Hyach was involved in this genocide that happened centuries ago. Franklin angrily says that only the Hyach-do can forgive them. Allan lets Byron go. The goon gives a statement that Byron tried to help him. The goon worked for Carl, whose body Allan just found. Byron testily points out that he could have stopped it if he wasn’t imprisoned. Returning to his bunk in downbelow, Byron rants to Alexander about how his people still haven’t embraced his teachings and let go of their anger. Alexander points out that the people they assaulted weren’t exactly innocent, but Byron thinks they need to be better than that. He and Alexander start smooching, and before it can get any hotter and heavier, Alexander warns him that the Vorlons did some shit to her, and it may have an effect on the intensity of the sex. Sure enough, as they’re making whoopee, Alexander’s eyes go black and Byron gets the full story of how she—and many other species—were altered by the Vorlons. This telepathic sex-bonding bleeds out into the rest of Byron’s gaggle, and now they all know about how Vorlons created telepaths. Byron is livid. He can’t ask the Vorlons for any kind of reparation, as they’re long gone, but now he wants telepaths to have their own homeworld, and he will demand it of the IA, or else. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Don’t go stomping on a telepath when he has friends. It will end badly for you. The Shadowy Vorlons. We get a flashback to Alexander’s time on the Vorlon homeworld being altered, and we also see infants from different species, all in big tanks. Byron and his people learn that telepaths only exist because the Vorlons created them to help fight the Shadows. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. As first established in “Mind War,” telepathic sex is very intense, as the minds intermingle even more than the bodies do. We see that for the first time here, as Byron gets deep inside Alexander, mind and body, and learns all about what the Vorlons did to her. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Looking ahead. Byron’s inability to entirely influence the various telepaths toward peace will come to a head in “A Tragedy of Telepaths” and “Phoenix Rising.” Welcome aboard. Jack Hannibal makes the first of two appearances as Peter; he’ll be back in “Phoenix Rising.” Stuart McLean plays Carl, Jana Robbins plays Tal, and Fiona Dwyer plays Kirrin. And back from “Strange Relations” is Robin Atkin Downes as Byron, who will be back in “In the Kingdom of the Blind.” Trivial matters. While this isn’t the episode with the fewest opening-credits regulars appearing—“Intersections in Real Time” has that honor—this is the only episode in which none of the “main” stars (the ones either billed as “Starring” at the top of the credits or “with” or “and” at the end of them) appear. Only Richard Biggs, Patricia Tallman, and Jeff Conaway among the billed stars are in this one. Franklin agreed to compile medical data on all IA species in “Strange Relations.” It was established that the Vorlons engineered several species to develop telepaths in “Z’ha’dum.” Alexander was altered by the Vorlons some time between “Divided Loyalties” and “Passing Through Gethsemane.” She helped our heroes on numerous occasions; she was forced to accept smaller quarters and get back into bed with the Psi Corps in “Moments of Transition.” Apparently, pak’ma’ra won’t eat fish of any kind. The echoes of all of our conversations. “Byron, the Vorlons changed me—more than you could possibly know. I don’t know what it’ll do once you get past my barriers and I get past yours. It could burn you.” “Then let it burn.” —Alexander giving a pre-coital warning, and Byron saying, “Wah-HEY!” Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “We’ll make sure they have no other choice.” This is a perfectly good script, and it says something good about the show that an entire episode can be supported by only three of the opening-credits regulars, two of whom are among the least interesting of those so billed (Franklin and Allan). However, the episode doesn’t work as well as it should, though not because it focuses only on those three. For starters, it has a big role for the ever-bland Robin Atkin Downes. I will give him credit: he’s better in this episode than he has been in any other, specifically his frustrated ranting at Alexander that his people haven’t let go of their anger, which is only the second time his facial expression has changed since he was introduced (the other being the pouty face he had in Bester’s presence in “Strange Relations”). That scene is also scary as hell, because the telepaths are simply brutal here, and it becomes painfully clear that they’d be even more brutal without his influence. My favorite scene in the whole thing is the discussion Allan and Alexander have on the subject of her growing affection for Byron and his gaggle. Allan’s protective big brother act is sweet, but also horrendously misplaced and tone-deaf, something Alexander points out to him in a lengthy, beautifully delivered rant by Patricia Tallman on the subject of the shit Alexander has gone through. You feel for Allan, as he’s pretty much the only one on the station who has treated Alexander like a person instead of a commodity, and he doesn’t deserve her opprobrium. But her rant is 100% justified as well. As for Franklin’s plot with the Hyach, the biggest problem with it is that, well, it’s the Hyach, and who the heck are they? Why couldn’t this plotline have been given to the Brakiri or the Drazi or the Gaim or the Abbai? We’ve had so many species that we’ve seen bits and pieces of, but not given any depth to. Of those I listed, the Drazi are the only ones who’ve had any details provided about their history and culture, but that’s not incompatible with this storyline. Creating a new IA member out of the blue makes it harder to invest in the Hyach when there are so many others floating around we’d love to learn about. Having said that, Jana Robbins and Fiona Dwyer are both quite good, the former as the calm politician navigating difficult waters, the latter as the pain-in-the-ass aide asking the more nasty questions . Next week: “Day of the Dead.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Secrets of the Soul” appeared first on Reactor.

Signs that read, “Don’t Fairfax Me” and “Vote No,” are reportedly prevalent in rural Virginia for good reason. Virginia Democrats’ redistricting campaign aims to disenfranchise rural Virginians. The referendum, which would split heavily populated Fairfax County across five congressional districts, is a deceptive power grab. The April 21 election will decide the fate of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. Under its current map, there are six Democratic and five Republican representatives. Experts forecast that if the partisan gerrymandering passes, there will be 10 Democrats and one Republican representing Virginia. That would be strange in a state where 47% of voters supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Democrats are using duplicitous tactics to dupe low-information voters into voting in favor of redistricting. The language on the redistricting referendum ballot states, “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections.” That’s a strange lead-in question. Everyone should want “fairness,” particularly in elections and on our ballots. Perhaps the better question for the ballot should be whether Virginians would like to “adopt new congressional districts to disenfranchise neighbors who are independents and/or vote for Republican candidates.” Equally biased and more honest, but somehow not allowed. Democratic leaders aren’t even trying to hide their motivations. President pro tempore of Virginia’s Senate, Louise Lucas, posted a telling response on X to criticism from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said  that the Virginia redistricting referendum is a “brazen abuse of power & an insult to democracy.” Lucas didn’t deny the accusation. Instead, she wrote, “You all started it, and we f**king finished it.” Classy. Virgina Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, did a complete turnaround on redistricting. In February, she smiled and cackled as she signed the Virginia General Assembly’s redistricting bill. In 2020, however, when she supported bipartisan legislation to prevent gerrymandering, she said, “Virginians should choose their representatives—not the other way around.” But like other radical leftists in Virginia, Gov. Spanberger now seems to believe that Northern Virginians have the duty to colonize the rest of Virginia. In fact, a Fairfax liberal said the quiet part out loud: We’re better than you. In response to what a media report suggests is “Fairfaxphobia,”—in which other Virginians fear being governed by Fairfax County’s policies and norms—a Fairfax resident said, “I guess they’re saying ‘Don’t Fairfax’ Virginia, because obviously we are a much more educated, classy, professional, employed area, and we, of course, are going to vote ‘yes’ on this.” This colonial push is really a strange perspective for liberals, who tend to pay so much lip service to inclusivity, diversity, fairness, and local control. It seems their “Be Kind” and “Coexist” car magnets, and “Hate Has No Home Here” yard signs don’t extend to ideologically diverse neighbors. What Democrats have right with their deceptive ballot language is that “fairness” in elections and representation is important. They’re just lying that redistricting would do anything to make the state’s elections fairer. Virginians should vote ‘no’ on the redistricting referendum. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Liberal Colonialism in Virginia: Fairfax Liberals Think They’re Better Than Their Fellow Virginians appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Read the original post "Einkorn Hawaiian Rolls" on A Modern Homestead. Sweet einkorn Hawaiian rolls are the perfect addition to any meal. Serve them as a side, or turn them into sliders for a ready-made meal. These freeze well, so make them in bulk and enjoy them any time! Use einkorn flour or any all-purpose flour for the best homemade Hawaiian rolls you’ll ever try! We... Read More The post "Einkorn Hawaiian Rolls" appeared first on A Modern Homestead.

What Viktor Orbán's Concession Reveals

Measuring acceleration due to gravity at the site, researchers found it was a surprising 9.7639 meters per second squared.

When we use the word today, we probably don't use it in conjunction with crawling parasites.

Why spill blood when you can share whisky?

It’s time to find out who had the Worst Media Quote of the Week. This interactive series is where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media quote of the week.   Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).   The results of the Worst Media Quote of the Week are in and the winner is… Bruce Springsteen! “The Boss” barely won in a squeaker with just 36 percent of the vote. The leftist singer took first place for his on-stage rant against the “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous” Trump administration. Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che came in a close second place with 35 percent. Finishing last was former NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd at 29 percent.  Check out the following clip (via the MRC Video team) to see the nominees in action:     Watch the Worst Quotes presented by @Schineman pic.twitter.com/zkYKwhhqSD — Media Research Center (@theMRC) April 9, 2026   WINNER (36 percent of the vote)   Bruce Springsteen Rants Against “Corrupt, Incompetent, Racist, Reckless and Treasonous” Trump Administration “The America that I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years. That’s been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration! Tonight, we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear. Democracy over authoritarianism. The rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption. Resistance over complacency, unity over division, and peace over war.”— Singer/activist Bruce Springsteen from the stage at the Target Center in Minneapolis, March 31.   SECOND PLACE (35 percent of the vote)   Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che Makes Trump Assassination Joke  “President Trump attended the opening night of Chicago at the Kennedy Center, and I think that’s cool that the President is going to the theater. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”— Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che on Saturday Night Live, April 4.   THIRD PLACE (10 percent of the vote)   Chuck Todd: We’re Worried About Iran with a Nuke, But What About Trump?! “You got to ask the question, we’re worried about a radical in Iran getting their hands on a nuclear weapon. What about what’s going on in our country?...I can see him [Donald Trump] talking himself into the ultimate weapon here in his head. I do. I could see him being that crazy.”— Former NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Chris Cillizza’s So What podcast, April 7.   Thanks again to all who participated!    Sponsored by James P. Jimirro

Amanpour & Co., airing on PBS and CNN International, bashed President Trump's color-blind government policies by dishonestly conflating equality and DEI-style “equity” in Friday’s interview with Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson. The show opener from Trump-loathing host Christiane Amanpour commenced the sleight of hand: “As Trump and company wage war on DEI inside America -- elevating those who first fought for equality. Civil rights leader Bryan Stevenson tells me about the legacy of Montgomery in the 1950s.” But DEI doesn’t stand for equality, as Amanpour implied. It’s an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” a more radical and far-reaching concept. While striving for equality means providing each individual equal opportunities to achieve a desired outcome, an “equity” system allocates more opportunity to certain groups, engineering unequal treatment based on group identity in a doomed attempt to achieve equal outcomes for all. HOST CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: We turn now to the culture war raging in America. Since taking office, President Trump and his cabinet have had DEIs squarely in their sights, attacking equal rights protections at home and bullying other countries to do the same as the price of doing business with the United States. As a civil rights lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson has been fighting back. In Montgomery, Alabama in 2018, he opened a national memorial dedicated to victims of lynching. Now, he's been telling me about his fourth project, focused on Montgomery's 1955-65 decade, when black residents launched the historic bus boycott and with it a movement to help transform the country…. So, let's just recap a little bit. President Trump signed an executive order called Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History and basically ordering a purge of what he called divisive race-centered ideology from a lot of American public spaces, parks, historic sites and museums. And right in the middle of this, you're opening a new, I might say, challenge to that ideology and putting the legacy of racism and civil rights right front and center.... BRYAN STEVENSON, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EQUAL JUSTICE: Yes. Well, we are deeply committed to pushing our country to recognize and address the harms of our history in a more honest way. We've never really created cultural institutions in this country that deal honestly with the harms and legacy of slavery. We haven't dealt with the challenges created by a hundred years of lynching and terror violence…. Again, the host mischaracterized what DEI really means -- it's more radical than what people mean by "leveling the playing field." AMANPOUR: ….I mean, you've got prominent white administration people hitting back at decades of trying to level the playing field. You know, Trump, his administration, as I said, their attacks on DEI. You've got Hegseth, the current secretary of defense. Basically, he's like obsessed by it.... Christiane Amanpour on her eponymous show, airing on PBS: ...President Trump and his cabinet have had DEIs squarely in their sights, attacking equal rights protections at home and bullying other countries to do the same as the price of doing business with the United States." pic.twitter.com/rJ06jBA7mG — Clay Waters (@claywaters44) April 12, 2026   Then Amanpour ran a clip of Hegseth promising President Trump a "colorblind and merit-based" military and assuring him he "The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department." The host reacted to Hegseth’s statement about colorblind standards with accusations of racism. AMANPOUR: I mean, honestly, you know, for you and me to hear that, you as a black man, me as a woman, you know, to see that he did that, the first firing was the highly decorated General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and then many female officers as well, purging records of a Medal of Honor winner with a Hispanic-sounding surname. I mean, honestly. And that's now. Making promotions at least somewhat contingent on race and gender will tempt some to game that ethnic and gender-based spoils system. STEVENSON: The administration has basically restored a presumption of incompetence, a presumption of unworthiness, a presumption of incompetence, a presumption of incompetence, a presumption and they've applied it to black and brown people…. Presuming incompetence…isn’t that what affirmative action-type systems like DEI actually do? Amanpour, the purported journalist host, concluded the interview with a radicalized hippie moment, quoting the previously referenced civil rights legend, John Lewis. AMANPOUR: As the great John Lewis said, make "good trouble."

NASA's Victor Glover showed once again why he represents some of the best of what the United States has to offer.After Glover and the Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, the pilot almost broke down in tears while delivering his first remarks since returning to dry land.'It's too big to just be in one body.'The crew members were in Houston, Texas, following their successful lunar orbit when Glover was asked by Commander Reid Wiseman to give a few words. Glover, who has been revered for providing on-the-spot wisdom before and during the mission, was at first at a loss for words."I have not processed what we just did, and I'm afraid to start even trying," Glover began.Fighting back tears, he powered through."When this started on April 3, I wanted to thank God in public, and I want to thank God again," he said, as he became visibly emotional. "Because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with — it's too big to just be in one body."The audience at NASA's Johnson Space Center erupted in applause as the pilot then thanked his wife and four daughters, whom he referred to as "those five beautiful cocoa-skinned ladies."RELATED: NASA astronaut gives very American response to DEI questioning "I love you ... all of you," Glover continued. He then turned his attention to NASA staff and leadership.While the leadership has changed since 2023, he remarked, "the qualities haven't. And we are fortunate to be in this agency at this time together."Wiseman wasn't short on wisdom, either. The crew leader fought back tears of his own when he had the microphone, mostly talking about the worry and anxiety the astronauts' families had ahead of mission launch."This was not easy being 200,000+ miles away from home. Like, before you launch, it feels like it's the greatest dream on Earth. And when you're out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends."Wiseman concluded by noting how special it is to be human and how grateful he feels to be on planet Earth.RELATED: NASA's Victor Glover shares gospel as he circles dark side of the moon: 'Love God with all that you are' Danielle Villasana/Getty ImagesRep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) took the podium soon after to thank the Artemis II crew on behalf of America. The congressman stated that the United States, as well as the world, "desperately needed this."Cloud said the mission reminded him of Psalm 8, affirming that "even as we look to the night sky and as we look at creation, and behold the stars and the moon, we begin to think about what is mankind from God's perspective."The Artemis II crew reached a point 252,756 miles from Earth and set a new human record for the maximum distance away from the planet.Artemis III is set for mid-2027, while Artemis IV is targeted for early 2028 and is expected to land humans on the moon.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!