Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place” Sheridan struggles with figuring out the Shadows’ tactics while Mollari plots to kill G’Kar… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on August 4, 2025 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by David J. EagleSeason 3, Episode 20Production episode 320Original air date: October 14, 1996 It was the dawn of the third age… We open with a literal countdown to the season finale, as a caption reads, “Z Minus 14 Days.” So it’s two weeks to that finale, which is entitled “Z’ha’dum”… Over a log by Ivanova, we catch up on things: Garibaldi is sending telepaths to various ships to fight the Shadows. Franklin is still on walkabout. (Richard Biggs justifies his place in the opening credits this week by walking down a corridor and having no dialogue. Nice work if you can get it.) Sheridan is spending all his time in the War Room, and he looks absolutely fried. Ivanova also sings the praises of Brother Theo and his monks, who have had a calming influence on the station. The log entry ends in G’Kar’s quarters, with G’Kar urging Ivanova to let each of the telepaths being sent off to fight the Shadows have a Narn bodyguard. (Whether or not that request is fulfilled is unknown, which is kind of annoying…) Mollari and Vir and share a meal, and Mollari announces that they need to do something about G’Kar. Vir thinks this is a bad idea, as (a) G’Kar is safe as long as he stays on B5 where Sheridan has offered him sanctuary, and (b) they have bigger problems. Mollari insists, however, and he says Vir is going to help him, which makes Vir even more apprehensive than usual. Ivanova and Theo greet four new arrivals on B5: four religious folks from Earth, a Baptist minister (William Dexter), a Jewish rabbi (Leo Meyers), a Buddhist monk (Mr. Chong), and a Muslim imam (Rashid Abdul). Dexter and Theo are each full of friendly abuse for the other. Delenn comes to the War Room, at Ivanova’s request, to pry Sheridan out of there. Sheridan is struggling to figure out the logic behind the Shadows’ rather illogical attack patterns. Delenn says that the religious folks he was waiting for have arrived and Delenn has agreed on Sheridan’s behalf for him to have dinner with them. Sheridan says he can’t, he’s got too much work to do, but Delenn says she already said he’d be there, and it would dishonor her if he forced her to lie. Sheridan reluctantly agrees, saying that Delenn fights dirty. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Refa arrives on the station with Minister Virini. Refa has brought the minister to B5 in order to show him how far Mollari has fallen. Virini says that Emperor Cartagia doesn’t care who’s right and who’s wrong, all he cares about is that the feud between House Mollari and House Refa must come to some kind of end, by whatever means are necessary. Vir comes to tell Mollari that Virini is on the station, which Mollari already knows, as he’s on his way to greet the minister. Vir will meet him there: first he must go to G’Kar with a message. His former aide Na’Toth has, he says, been found on the Narn homeworld—where she happened to be when the world was conquered—and captured. Vir is to tell G’Kar that she is being kept in the catacombs beneath the Kha’Ri’s former headquarters. As the last surviving member of the Kha’Ri, G’Kar knows his way around those tunnels like no one else, and Mollari is sure that G’Kar will go to rescue her. He’ll believe it coming from Vir, who helped so many Narns in his role as Centauri Ambassador to Minbar. When Vir refuses to send G’Kar to his death like this, Mollari says that if he doesn’t, Mollari will reveal what Vir did on Minbar, which will viciously disgrace his entire family. Vir goes to share this “intelligence” with G’Kar, while Virini tells Mollari the same thing he told Refa: the feud must end by whatever means necessary. Mollari assures him that he will do so in a manner that will be final. Sheridan, Ivanova, Delenn, and Theo share a meal with Dexter and Meyer. (Chong and Abdul don’t join them because they’re played by extras who would have to get paid more if they had dialogue.) Dexter hands to Sheridan a collection of data chips that were gathered by all four of them, coordinated by Theo. (When Dexter gives Theo credit for this, Theo is mock-stunned. “He said something nice about me! I must write this day down in my diary…”) It provides some real information about Earth—as opposed to what ISN is providing in their new role as propaganda arm for the Clark Administration. Dexter and Meyer assure Sheridan and Ivanova that the resistance is alive and well on Earth, despite what Clark would prefer. They also say that the B5 crew is being painted as pirates and renegades collaborating with aliens to destroy Earth’s way of life. After dinner, Dexter offers to hold a service on the station, as he feels the more energetic style of a Southern Baptist ceremony might be more enjoyable to the station’s personnel than the more staid services offered by Theo. Sheridan agrees, to Theo’s annoyance. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Vir is kidnapped by some Centauri and put in a room with Refa and a telepath. The telepath is able to find out what Mollari is planning, to Vir’s shame and regret. Dexter is having trouble sleeping and he wanders the station. Passing Sheridan’s office, he sees the captain there, also unable to sleep. The pair talk over tea, with Dexter discussing his time as a chaplain during the Earth-Minbari War. He says that the good officers were the ones who had someone to talk to. The ones who kept it all to themselves were the ones who lost themselves—and people stopped coming to them, because they could see that the officer’s worry tank was full, as it were. Dexter specifically recommends that Sheridan use Delenn as a confidant, at which point Sheridan shuts down the conversation, as Delenn has enough shit in her life right now without him adding to it. After apologizing and getting up to leave, Dexter tells one final story: when he and his future wife were dating, she would come and help him clean his home. He asked her why she did that when her own place was a mess, too, and she said cleaning her home was just doing something for herself, but helping clean his house gave her more satisfaction, because she was helping him. For his part, he really did enjoy the company… A caption says, “Z Minus 13 Days” as we head to the Narn homeworld. With the aid of Garibaldi, G’Kar has made it onto Narn and meets with G’Dan. He is appalled at how hard it is to breathe; according to G’Dan, it’ll be ages before the particulate matter all returns to the ground, and it’s always cold. (In a nice touch, G’Kar keeps a kerchief in front of his face, but G’Dan, who’s used to this by now, doesn’t.) Refa meets with Drigo in a room on Narn that has been redecorated to look like the throne room on Centauri Prime, so Cartagia will feel like he’s home when he visits, and so the production staff doesn’t have to pay to build a new set. Refa asks for seven guards to accompany him to the catacombs, where he will capture G’Kar and bring him in chains to the emperor, along with Mollari’s head on a silver platter (a bit of imagery that comes from the human Bible, but what the hell). This is followed by a cackle from Refa, and I’m hugely disappointed that the captions didn’t read, “[DIABOLICAL LAUGHTER].” Sheridan invites Delenn to join him in the War Room, and they discuss the Shadows’ weird strategy. But then they realize that the Shadows are leaving one area completely untouched—in fact, they’re going out of their way to leave it untouched. Delenn says that refugees are going to that system precisely because it’s been untouched. Sheridan fears that the Shadows are doing that on purpose: in essence, herding people there for a big strike later. Mollari rescues Vir from his imprisonment, and seems unconcerned about Vir’s admission that they telepathically scanned him to find out Mollari’s plan. G’Kar leads some Narn through the catacombs beneath the Kha’Ri headquarters, and are confronted by Refa and the seven Centauri guards. Refa orders the guards to arrest G’Kar; when they don’t move, Refa asks what they’re waiting for. G’Kar pulls out a holographic projector and says they’re waiting for this… Credit: Warner Bros. Television Once activated, the projector plays a prerecorded message from Mollari. He explains that he set Refa up, including bribing Drigo ahead of time to lead Refa on. Back on B5, Dexter gives a powerful sermon, talking about how the enemy isn’t the alien, because we’re all aliens to each other—rather, it’s fear and ignorance and the people who tell you that you must hate what’s different, because that hate will turn on you and destroy you. On Narn, the guards wander off, while G’Kar places a data crystal in Refa’s pocket and says to leave the head intact for identification purposes. We then intercut the Narns chasing a frightened Refa through the catacombs with the folks at Dexter’s services singing “There’s No Hiding Place Down Here.” Refa does not survive. Mollari later reports to Virini that, according to the data crystal found on his dead body, Refa was playing both ends against the middle, trying to recruit G’Kar to commit terrorist attacks that Refa would use for his own propaganda purposes, and to enable him to move his own people into positions of power—and Virini was one of his targets. Refa is now disgraced, his House ruined. The feud is, as the emperor hoped, over. Vir is livid that Mollari used him this way, and stomps off in a huff, somehow not comforted by Mollari’s assurance that he’s not important enough to have been killed by Refa. (Besides, unimportant people are often the easiest for awful people to kill.) Sheridan and Delenn take a ride in the White Star through hyperspace to a system that is full of White Stars. Delenn explains that the White Star was never intended to be a single ship, but rather the vanguard of a fleet. Sheridan rewards this revelation with a passionate kiss. A caption reads, “Z Minus 10 Days.” Credit: Warner Bros. Television Get the hell out of our galaxy! Ever since Kosh’s death in “Interludes and Examinations,” Sheridan hasn’t been sleeping well. This is probably related to what Alexander saw in his mind in “Walkabout.” Ivanova is God. As with “The Fall of Night” and “Interludes and Examinations” (and, indeed, the opening credits of each episode this season), an Ivanova voiceover helps set the stage for what’s to come. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi is who G’Kar goes to in order to facilitate his return to Narn. Because he’s just that awesome. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Part of Delenn’s attempt to get Sheridan out of his funk is to discuss her search of the meaning of cranky, which led her to grouchy, which led her to crotchety. She expresses frustration with how words in English seem to just mean other words, plus she’s skeptical that “crotchety” even is a word. At one point, Sheridan shoots her a look, and she says, “Never mind—your face just broke the language barrier.” In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari skillfully orchestrates Refa’s downfall, creating a scenario that he would be unable to resist and manipulating events and people via canny work and lots of money and a forged data crystal to get revenge on Refa for a crime he didn’t actually commit. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. We see the first stirrings of the semi-détente between Mollari and G’Kar that we saw in the future of “War Without End, Part 2,” as Mollari and G’Kar work together to achieve a goal they share: destroying Refa. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Apparently Allan’s interviews from last week have borne fruit, as the episode opens with Garibaldi sending a mess of telepaths out to ships belonging to the tattered remains of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to fight the Shadows. We live for the one, we die for the one. Delenn and the Rangers have been working ’round the clock to build an entire fleet of White Star ships. For reasons the script never bothers to provide, Delenn keeps this from Sheridan until they’re all ready to go. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Sheridan and Delenn smooch at last! Well, okay, they smooched in “War Without End, Part 2,” but this is their first kiss from Delenn’s perspective, and also their chronologically first one… Welcome aboard. Two great actors play the two visiting religious folks with speaking parts: Erick Avari as Meyers and Mel Winkler as Dexter. (A couple of extras play the Muslim and the Buddhist.) Recurring regulars Louis Turenne (Theo, back from “Passing Through Gethsemane”) and William Forward (Refa, back from “Ceremonies of Light and Dark”) make their final appearances. Wayne Alexander, last seen as Sebastian in “Comes the Inquisitor,” returns in his second of half a dozen roles as G’Dan; he’ll be back in “Hour of the Wolf” in his most prominent of those roles, Lorien. We’ve also got Marva Hicks as the gospel singer, Francois Giroday as Virini, and Paul Keith as Drigo. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Trivial matters. Adira was killed, and Mollari was fooled into thinking Refa was responsible for it, in “Interludes and Examinations.” G’Kar was granted sanctuary on B5 by Sheridan in “The Long Twilight Struggle.” Vir was assigned to be Centauri Ambassador to Minbar in “A Day in the Strife,” and used that position to help imprisoned Narns until he was found out in “Sic Transit Vir.” This is the first indication of what happened to Na’Toth, who hasn’t been seen since “Acts of Sacrifice,” though we won’t learn her true fate until “A Tragedy of Telepaths.” The episode’s title comes from the gospel song sung at the episode’s climax, “There’s No Hiding Place Down Here,” which is an old spiritual of indeterminate origin. The song was popularized by the Carter Family in 1934. Interestingly, the line quoted in the episode title is also used in the Les Baxter/William Holt song “Sinnerman,” which was popularized by Nina Simone in 1965. Louis Turenne and Mel Winkler are old friends, and they both apparently thoroughly enjoyed the caustic banter their characters exchanged throughout the episode. Reportedly, after getting the script and seeing that his character was being killed, William Forward was worried that he’d done something wrong. J. Michael Straczynski had to assure him that it was for important story reasons that Refa was being killed, and if Forward had done a bad job, he wouldn’t have bothered to kill him off, he just wouldn’t have brought him back. The echoes of all of our conversations. “I tell you, in fifty years of living and forty years of serving the Lord, I have never met a sorrier soul than Brother Theo here.” “Well, I wouldn’t say—” “Thank you, but I’d prefer to leave judgments as to the state of my soul to someone better qualified—and perhaps a bit less loud.” “But it says in the Bible to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” “I’ve heard you sing, Will, and take my word for it—that is not what the good Lord meant when he said ‘a joyful noise’.” “Hello?” “Neither is that.” —Theo and Dexter doing their Groucho-and-Chico act, while Ivanova plays Margaret Dumont. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “The enemy is the one who tells you that you must hate that which is different.” From one of B5’s lesser episodes to one of its best. This is a superlative thrill-ride of an episode. For one thing, this has some of J. Michael Straczynski’s best dialogue. Straczynski’s ear for conversation sometimes fails him, but it’s on the nose here, from Mollari’s line to Vir about how small problems become big problems (“You plant them, water them with tears, fertilize them with unconcern—if you ignore them, they grow”) to Theo and Dexter snarking at each other to Delenn’s colloquy on the meanings of cranky, grouchy, and crotchety to Dexter’s conversation with Sheridan to Mollari’s epic prerecorded speech to Refa to Dexter’s sermon. Truthfully, this episode is owned by guest Mel Winkler. Straczynski shows an excellent understanding of how to write religious characters (something the show has been excellent at generally, notably with Rabbi Koslov in “TKO” and Theo), and Dexter is magnificent here. It’s hard to say which bit of his is best, his declaration that it’s better to do something instead of nothing at dinner; or his excellent sermon (that applies to the U.S. of 2025 as much as it does the Earth Alliance of 2260) about how fear, hate, and ignorance are the enemy, not the other; or his great late-night conversation with Sheridan. It’s probably the latter, just because Dexter so perfectly reads Sheridan. And when he crosses a line by telling Sheridan that Delenn loves him (which is blindingly obvious to everyone, truly), he backs off and finds a different approach. I especially like that, when Sheridan—more than a little snidely—asks if Dexter is saying that Sheridan should turn his problems over to God, Dexter’s dry reply is: “When God comes knocking at your door, you won’t need me, or anyone else, to tell you what that sound is.” He’s not proselytizing. The best religious leaders are also communityleaders, and you get to be that way in part by being able to read people, and in part by understanding people. Dexter gets what Sheridan is going through, partly because of his experience as a chaplain in a war. Though it takes an anecdote about his relationship with his wife, rather than his time on the front lines, to get through to Sheridan. And then there’s the barn-burner of a service, with not just that great sermon, but the energetic singing. Seeing Sheridan, Delenn, Lennier, Theo, and Meyers all singing along, even though none of them are of the faith in question is a joyous moment. And, truly, one of the most compelling visuals in B5’s history is the alternate scenes of people singing “There’s No Hiding Place Down Here” and a mess of Narns playing Brutus to Refa’s Julius Caesar. The Mollari-G’Kar dance continues in entertaining ways. In particular I love the way we see Mollari in this episode. At first we, like Vir, think that he’s setting G’Kar up for a fall. Then we find out that he’s set Refa up for a fall instead, and the instinct is to cheer—partly because we like G’Kar more than Refa, partly because it’s actually quite clever. But that cheer catches in the throat because in order to accomplish this, he had to lie to Vir, threaten Vir, and set Vir up to be telepathically interrogated, which is pretty icky, especially because we like Vir more than we like G’Kar (or Refa or Mollari, for that matter). Plus, while Refa is undeniably a piece of shit, Mollari isn’t doing this because Refa spearheaded the horrific bombing of Narn, he’s doing this because he’s too stupid to realize that Refa had nothing to do with Adira’s death. (Sorry, it still bugs me that Mollari jumped straight to Refa as a suspect in Adria’s death when Morden was right there, even threatening him earlier in the episode…) My only issue with the episode is the very last scene. Not the kiss—that’s long overdue, as the superlative chemistry that Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan share make that kiss mostly just inevitable—but the lead-in to it. Sheridan is the main tactician for the Army of Light. His job is to figure out military strategies for fighting the Shadows. Yet Delenn never once tells him that she’s building an entire fleet of White Stars for him to use. This completely changes his entire mode of thinking in how to fight this war, and makes several strategies he’s worked on useless because he didn’t have this rather important piece of information. One of the tired hallmarks of this show has been the withholding of information until long past when it should’ve been revealed, and while sometimes it’s to good effect (e.g., the reasons for Delenn, Kosh, et al keeping the Shadows’ return under wraps until they were prepared so the Shadows themselves wouldn’t know that they knew), oftentimes it isn’t, and this is perhaps the most egregious example, as Sheridan should have known about this from the moment Delenn brought him to the White Star (or White Star 1, really) back in “Matters of Honor” at the top of the season. Next week: “Shadow Dancing.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place” appeared first on Reactor.