Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Into the Fire”
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Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Into the Fire”

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Into the Fire” Sheridan makes aims to deal with the Shadows (and the Vorlons) once and for all… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on October 14, 2025 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Into the Fire”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Kevin James DobsonSeason 4, Episode 6Production episode 406Original air date: February 3, 1997 It was the dawn of the third age… Ivanova is off trying to fetch First Ones, with Lorien’s help. Lorien preaches patience, a quality Ivanova is not overburdened with, but it pays off, as the First Ones that Lorien was expecting arrive. Sheridan leads a fleet of White Stars to attack and destroy a Vorlon outpost, which will give their gigunda fleet the opening they need to gather at Coriana VI. Cole and Alexander discuss their mission, wondering why Centauri Prime wasn’t chosen as the rendezvous point, as that planet is also in danger at roughly the same time. Cole points out that Coriana has a larger population and is less technologically advanced. The Centauri, at least, can prepare some kind of defense. Cut to Centauri Prime, where Prime Minister Mollari is trying to prepare some kind of defense. He is stymied by the period of mourning for Cartagia, but they only have twelve hours before the entire planet will need to be mourned after the Vorlons destroy it. Mollari also instructs that Morden be found. On the White Star flagship, Delenn reports to Sheridan that Ivanova and Lorien have returned to B5 with a mess of First Ones. Sheridan tells her to haul ass to join the fleet. On B5, Ivanova prepares to depart and has a conversation with Lorien on the subject of immortality, which prompts a lengthy infodump from Lorien about how his species were born immortal, but with a very low birth rate. Younger races had shorter lifespans. On Centauri Prime, Durano, the minister of intelligence, meets with Mollari. He carried out an investigation into the death of Adira on Cartagia’s order, and when he finished the investigation, was told by the emperor to never reveal the results to Mollari as long as he was alive. With Cartagia dead, Durano is now free to inform Mollari that it was not Refa who ordered Adira’s death, but rather Morden. Mollari is livid and kicks Durano out of his quarters, which he then trashes in anguish. Ivanova is hauling ass to Coriana, impatiently barking orders in broken Minbari before Lorien gets her to calm down. Morden is brought to Mollari in the throne room. He’s fully healed from his injuries sustained on Z’ha’dum. Mollari wishes this conversation to be private, so he tells Morden not to move, while his guards move away. Then two other guards shoot and kill the Shadows that, um, shadow Morden all the time. Mollari then orders Morden to have the Shadow vessels removed from Selini. Morden refuses, not believing that the Vorlons would destroy a world as populous as Centauri Prime (a belief not at all supported by reality). Morden also boasts that the Shadow ships can take on anything the Centauri can throw at them. Mollari counters that the ships are very impressive—in the air or in space. But right now they’re on the ground. Morden dismisses that, also. “What’re you gonna do, Mollari—blow up the island?” After a sufficiently dramatic pause, Mollari says, “Actually, now that you mention it…” and pulls out a detonator. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Morden screams as Mollari blows up the island. Most of the Centauri were evacuated in the night. A few remained behind to keep up appearances, knowing it was a suicide mission. Morden is taken away, screaming bloody murder. Everyone arrives at Coriana at about the same time: Shadows, Vorlons, and the Army of Light fleet. At first, the Vorlons and Shadows get into it, ignoring the Army of Light. So Sheridan orders a bunch of nukes set off on asteroids to get their attention, at which point the battle becomes a big mess. Sheridan tries to get the Vorlons to talk via comms and again via telepathy through Alexander. On Centauri Prime, Vir comes to the throne room to find a happy Mollari, as all Shadow influence has been removed. He also tells Vir to go into the garden, where there is a present for him. Vir goes out to the garden to see Morden’s severed head on a pike. After a flashback to remind viewers of what Vir’s answer was to Morden’s perpetual question, “What do you want?” Vir then gives a jaunty wave to the disembodied head. At Coriana, Sheridan is growing more frustrated, as the Vorlon planet-killer is approaching the sixth planet and the Vorlons are not talking. So Sheridan plays his trump card: calling in the First Ones, who make short work of the planet killer. On Centauri Prime, Mollari proudly says that he’s informed the Vorlons of all he’s done—but then the planet-killer shows up. It’s left to Vir to point out that there is one bit of Shadow influence still on the world: Mollari himself. The Vorlons call all their ships to Coriana in order to take on the First Ones. This turns out to be Centauri Prime’s salvation, as the planet killer buggers off before it has a chance to destroy the world—and before Mollari can convince Vir to kill him. Just as Lorien comes on board Sheridan’s ship, the Vorlons and Shadows both use Alexander as a conduit and imprison Sheridan and Delenn in energy fields. A Vorlon avatar confronts Sheridan in an astral plane, while the Shadows confront Delenn via images of people she knows (Franklin, Lennier, Ivanova, Delenn herself). Our heroes ask why they haven’t struck at each other directly, and postulate that it’s because they want to show the opposing species that they were right. Can’t gloat if you’ve wiped out the person you’re arguing with… Lorien is protecting Sheridan and Delenn and also broadcasting the stuff on the astral plane to everyone in the Army of Light. When the Vorlons and Shadows realize this, they free Sheridan and Delenn and send the Death Cloud at their White Star. However, other ships intercept the Death Cloud. The fleet is united with them and against both the Vorlons and the Shadows. Sheridan throws their usual questions of “Who are you?” and “What do you want?” back at them, and when they can’t answer Delenn says that they’ve become so consumed by their conflict they’ve lost their way. The younger races are tired of being manipulated by them. It’s time for them to go. Lorien speaks for the First Ones and says that it’s time for them all to move on beyond the rim and let the younger races fend for themselves. The Vorlons and Shadows agree, given the reassurance that all the remaining First Ones will go with them. On Centauri Prime, Mollari is reluctant to celebrate, simply because every time he’s been happy, the universe has conspired to defecate in his trousers. Vir convinces him that the gods can’t begrudge Londo Mollari at least one night of celebration. And so Mollari celebrates. The White Stars return to B5. Sheridan and Delenn ruminate on how this is the third age of humanity. The first age was when they were primitive and limited to a single planet. The second was when they explored the galaxy under the watchful eyes of the First Ones. Now they’re on their own… Credit: Warner Bros. Television Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan and Delenn shout at the Vorlons and Shadows, and it makes them go away. Just in general, Sheridan is incredibly arrogant and high-handed in this episode, which is probably necessary to get the job done, but it ain’t a great look. Ivanova is God. Ivanova is extremely skeptical of Lorien’s claims to be immortal and as old as he is, which prompts Lorien to speak in exposition for several minutes. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. In the latest edition of “Delenn thinks English is stupid,” she gives Sheridan a hard time regarding the phrase “haul ass.” In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari brings a very emotionally satisfying and cathartic end to his relationship with Morden. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Alexander is the key to getting the Vorlons and the Shadows to talk to them. She also has a great delivery of a line right after Sheridan orders some asteroids blown. “Captain? They’re pissed.” The Shadowy Vorlons. The Shadows and Vorlons both go from incredibly powerful and manipulative forces to children being rebuked in the course of an episode. Sure. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Cole says there was only room for two people on the shuttle that took Lorien from Ivanova’s ship to Sheridan’s, so he came back, which makes absolutely no sense, so it’s obvious that Cole just wanted to be near Ivanova. Looking ahead. Morden’s final words in the throne room are threatening Centauri Prime in general and Mollari in particular with retribution from the Shadows’ allies; we’ve gotten hints of that in the flash-forward in the “War Without End” two-parter, and we’ll see more starting in the very next episode, “Epiphanies,” and going all the way to “The Fall of Centauri Prime” in season five. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Welcome aboard. Several recurring regulars in this one. Ed Wasser plays Morden and also voices the Shadow representative; he’ll be back as Morden in “Day of the Dead.” Wayne Alexander makes his penultimate appearance as Lorien, returning to the role in the series finale “Sleeping in Light”; he’ll be back sooner as a Drazi in “Intersections in Real Time.” Damian London returns from “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” as the Centauri Minister; he’ll be back next time in “Epiphanies.” And Ardwight Chamberlain makes his final appearance on the series as the voice of the Vorlon representative; he’ll be back in the movie In the Beginning as Kosh. In addition, Julian Barnes is simply superb as Minister Durano. Trivial matters. Adira was killed by Morden’s machinations, with Mollari believing it was Refa, in “Interludes and Examinations.” Morden was caught in the backwash of an explosion in “Z’ha’dum,” but survived, as established in “The Hour of the Wolf,” albeit badly injured. Vir expressed his wish for Morden’s head to be put on a pike in “In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum.” After Selini is blown up, Morden is seen clutching the necklace he wears. The significance of that necklace is explained in the novel The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos which, among other things, details the journey of the Icarus, the crew of which included Morden and Anna Sheridan. The echoes of all of our conversations. “You’re insane.” “On any other day, Mr. Morden, you would be wrong. Today? Today is a very different day. One last time, remove your ships.” “No. You don’t frighten me, Mollari. If you try to attack our forces, you’ll lose.” “Yes, your ships are very impressive in the air or in space—but at this moment, they are on the ground.” “Fine, they’re on the ground. But they can sense an approaching ship miles away. So what’re you gonna do, Mollari, huh? Blow up the island?” —The conversation Morden and Mollari have right before Mollari blows up the island. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Consider it a gift.” I have generally avoided comparisons between this show and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as the absolute last thing I want to do is revive the dumbshit “war” that segments of fandom (and the creator of B5) kept trying to manufacture between B5 and DS9 in the late 1990s. I similarly avoided it in my DS9 Rewatch from a decade ago. The exception was for DS9’s “Sacrifice of Angels,” which I mentioned in relation to this very episode, and I mention it again here for the purposes of symmetry, because both “Into the Fire” and “Sacrifice of Angels” have similar climaxes that signal the end of a major conflict: lead character(s) shouts self-righteously at powerful alien beings for several minutes, which convinces them to take actions that will put an end to the conflict in question. In DS9’s case, it was Sisko yelling at the Prophets to take action against the Jem’Hadar fleet coming through the wormhole. In B5’s it’s Sheridan and Delenn telling the Shadows and Vorlons off, saying we don’t need your help and go away, please. And I don’t buy it. Not for a nanosecond. Look, these are incredibly powerful aliens who have manipulated events and civilizations, and who also have the technological means to wreak tremendous havoc. While I like the revelation that they aren’t going all-out against each other because they ultimately each want to prove to the other they they’re right, so there, nyah, nyah, the fact that they accept Sheridan and Delenn’s self-righteous rebuke with anything other than destroying them with the flick of a metaphorical finger beggars belief. In particular, the contrite, humble, I’m-sorry-Mom-and-Dad-I’ll-be-good-from-now-on tones that Ardwight Chamberlain and Ed Wasser give the Vorlon and Shadow representatives at the very end is so wildly out of character from how both species have been portrayed up until now. Now to be fair, I’m not sure there was a better way to do this. My first instinct would be to have the First Ones play a much larger role, have them come in and say, “What is wrong with you twerps?” Another thought is to have the Vorlons and Shadows finally go at each other and wipe each other out, leaving our heroes to pick up the pieces. Or maybe after Sheridan and Delenn basically reject both sides, we get a smile from both and they say, “Okay, now you get it,” and they leave on their own feeling accomplished instead of slinking away with the other First Ones. Are these better? Well, as with everything it depends on the execution. Maybe with a different execution, this solution would have worked for me. And this particular execution might work just fine for others, but man, it just hit me the wrong way. It feels anticlimactic and weak. Luckily, the episode itself is greatly redeemed by every single scene on Centauri Prime, which collectively form an absolute masterpiece. Seriously, I can watch the Centauri Prime scenes in this episode over and over and over again, as they’re some of the absolute best work in the series, paying off three years of storylines involving the dance between the Centauri and the Shadows in general and between Mollari (and Vir) and Morden in particular. There’s the payoff to Vir’s delightful answer to Morden’s question way back in season two. There’s the horror on Mollari’s face when he realizes that his presence on Centauri Prime means it remains a target, that horror matched by Vir when told he must kill Mollari. Vir is only just beginning the process of getting over killing Cartagia, to pile this on top of that is a burden he is absolutely not prepared for. Mollari being so very reluctant to celebrate, given how his life has gone. And then there are the two best scenes, arguably two of the best scenes in the entire franchise. In every prior scene with Mollari and Morden going back to the latter’s first appearance in “Signs and Portents,” Morden is playing the ambassador like a two-dollar banjo. Morden always has the upper hand, always is in charge of everything that’s happening. When the prime minister brings the Shadows’ proxy to him in “Into the Fire,” however, for the first time, the positions are reversed. Peter Jurasik cranks up Mollari’s tropism for theatricality up to eleven, repeatedly and bombastically showing that he has the upper hand no matter how many times Morden tries to counter it. Then the crowning moment of the scene, which is also the simplest: removing a small remote from his pocket and pushing the button, with Morden having very generously provided a rhetorical opening. After that, Morden is carried off, the character showing true emotion for the first time ever, and Mollari very quietly promises far worse to be done to him. As absolutely fabulous a scene as that is, it’s my second-favorite in the episode. The earlier scene when Minister Durano very calmly and professionally lays out the details of the investigation into Adira’s murder is a tour de force. Julian Barnes plays this magnificently, his cool, detail-oriented presentation in direct contrast to Mollari’s typical histrionics. I’m really sorry that this was Barnes’ only appearance as Durano, as he was superbly written and spectacularly performed. He exposes Mollari’s weakness without at any point diminishing or threatening the prime minister, instead simply presenting the evidence. Jurasik follows this with a beautifully anguished trashing of his quarters as he realized what a spectacular idiot he’s been—and also setting up his takedown of Morden shortly thereafter. I used to do out-of-ten rankings of episodes in rewatches, which I hated, and this episode is a perfect example of why. The Centauri parts are among the show’s best, while the main plot disappoints on almost every level. It’s really hard to put a number on that, and I’m glad I don’t have to… Next week: “Epiphanies”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Into the Fire” appeared first on Reactor.