Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Movements of Fire and Shadow” By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on June 22, 2026 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Movements of Fire and Shadow”Written by J. Michael StaczynskiDirected by John C. Flinn IIISeason 5, Episode 17Production episode 518Original air date: June 17, 1998 It was the dawn of the third age… Lochley records a log entry bringing everyone up to speed on how ugly the IA-Centauri war is going. Of note is that Centauri citizens on B5 are being targeted for retaliatory assault by, basically, everyone. Sheridan arrives to bring her up to speed: the Centauri are targeting jumpgates. This is an insane strategy, as it’ll hurt the Centauri also, but here we are. Sheridan also tells her that he’s mobilizing the White Star fleet to supplement the IA forces, which means that B5 will now be a target. Sheridan and Delenn discuss the White Star fleet, which has been diminished by three conflicts in two years. They need to build more. President Luchenko has agreed to the possibility of a joint Earth-Minbari venture to construct Destroyer-class White Stars, but only if the Minbari are agreeable. Delenn agrees to travel to the Grey Council to discuss it. Vir meets with Franklin and Alexander in his temporary quarters, as his real quarters aren’t safe. The Drazi haven’t returned the bodies of Centauri who’ve been killed in action. He’s concerned that they’re not actually dead and being held prisoner, or that maybe something else is going on. Franklin agrees to go in his capacity as a doctor; Alexander agrees to go as telepathic backup for 500,000 credits. Vir blanches, but agrees to her higher-than-usual fee. On Centauri Prime, G’Kar urges Mollari to leave the cell, but Mollari thinks that him being in the cell is more useful as a propaganda tool. Once the people learn that he’s been imprisoned, there will be outrage. Credit: Warner Bros. Television A bright light renders them both unconscious, and Mollari is wheeled to a lab where he’s operated on by aliens. Then he wakes up—apparently, it was a dream. However, Centauri often have prophetic dreams, and now he feels he does need to get out of the cell—but he can’t just demand it, he needs to save face. G’Kar helps him out by inducing vomiting, thus creating an intolerable nasal situation in the cell. On B5, Sheridan, Lochley, and Garibaldi meet with generals from the Brakiri, Drazi, and Narn. They are all grateful for the White Star support. However, they all reject the notion Lochley proposes of them consolidating their forces. When Sheridan asks about the Centauri’s tactics, with Garibaldi adding that they seem to have a two-pronged strategy: one set of ships on offense, one set of ships on defense, and the two fleets don’t seem to be coordinating or even communicating. Na’Tok, the Narn general, says that this is very atypical of the Centauri, and further admits that the goal of their strategy is not at all clear. Sheridan then rejects Na’Tok’s suggestion of striking Centauri Prime, as that’s a civilian target, not a military one. Lochley is summoned to CnC, and is told by Corwin that there’s a lone Centauri cruiser in hyperspace with no life signs, and no weapons active. Lochley orders the Starfuries they have parked in hyperspace to destroy the ship, which happens right before the Centauri ship was going to self-destruct, destroying B5’s jumpgate. Observing this, Daro, the Drazi general, approaches Na’Tok about ignoring Sheridan’s directive and attacking Centauri Prime. Na’Tok agrees. On Centauri Prime, Mollari meets with several ministers, Cholini among them, insisting that the Regent is unreliable and endangering Centauri lives. Cholini, however, continues to toe the party line that the Centauri are not responsible for the attacks, and they have only been defending themselves. On B5, Garibaldi learns of the planned Drazi-Narn invasion of Centauri Prime. When he informs Sheridan of this, the president hops into a White Star to try to stop them. On Zhabar, the Drazi homeworld, Franklin and Alexander meet with a doctor who insists there are no Centauri bodies. They’re then jumped by two other Drazi, but Franklin takes down one, and Alexander rather nastily takes down the other. She then gets a location from the now-frightened doctor’s mind and demands that they be taken there. They find a room full of pods that Alexander recognizes as being Shadow tech that can remotely control a ship—you wouldn’t even need a crew. They report this to Sheridan, who realizes that there may be a third party involved here, one that is setting up the Centauri for a fall. Credit: Warner Bros. Television In hyperspace, Delenn’s White Star is ambushed by four Centauri warships. The ship is badly damaged, with all of the crew killed save for Delenn and Lennier, because they’re opening-credits regulars. They’re drifting, Lennier isn’t sure if the distress call is working, and eventually they’ll drift off the beacon and be lost in hyperspace. On Centauri Prime, Mollari finds the Regent waiting for him in his quarters. He confirms that he ordered the attacks “after a fashion,” without informing the Centaurum, which is why Cholini believes that they’re being framed. Cholini is only partly right. The Regent says that he is looking forward to death, saying that it’ll be Mollari’s time soon. Mollari insists that the Regent has a long life ahead, but the Regent says he’ll be dead the following day. And one of his final acts has been to send the fleet defending Centauri Prime off on a fake emergency and shutting down the planetary defenses—just in time for the Narn/Drazi fleet to start firing on Centauri Prime… Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan finally is able to put together what’s happening, and also proves to be completely ineffectual as the leader of the IA, as the Drazi and Narn ignore his orders with impunity and malice aforethought. Never work with your ex. Lochley has been conspicuous by her absence the last few episodes, so it’s good to see the actual commander of the fershlugginer station here. If nothing else, she should’ve been part of the council meetings as representing Earth, which Sheridan can’t do, as he’s president of the whole alliance—besides which, B5’s structure has had its CO also be Earth’s rep on the council from day one. But that would’ve required paying for another actor these past few episodes… The household god of frustration. Garibaldi manages to stay awake for the whole episode. Bully for him. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn apparently got a gift from Sheridan that she refuses to wear, as we’re informed in one of those patented hey-look-it’s-funny! attempts at humor that J. Michael Straczynski occasionally tortures us with. Credit: Warner Bros. Television In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… The Drakh are setting up Centauri Prime for a fall, in part by making them think that they’re not responsible for the attacks when they totally are (kind of). Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. Apparently, G’Kar can induce vomiting and said vomit is very stinky. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Alexander isn’t screwing around—she needs capital to help her fellow telepaths out, so she’s charging a lot more for her services. She does, however, try to soften the blow with Vir by saying he can view it as a charitable donation. The Shadowy Vorlons. The Drakh are using Shadow tech to manipulate the Centauri, which is also a classic Shadow strategy of divide and conquer. Welcome aboard. We’ve got recurring regulars! Damian London is back from “In the Kingdom of the Blind” as the Regent, next (and last) to appear next time in “The Fall of Centauri Prime.” Joshua Cox is back from “Day of the Dead” as Corwin, next to appear in “Objects at Rest.” And Thomas MacGreevy is back from “And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder” for his last appearance as Cholini. We’ve got actors in one of their many roles! Wayne Alexander plays his fifth role as the Drakh, a role he’ll return to next time in “The Fall of Centauri Prime.” He previously played Sebastian in “Comes the Inquisitor,” G’Dan in “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place,” the Drazi “prisoner” in “Intersections in Real Time,” and the recurring role of Lorien in the first half of season four. Robin Sachs plays his third role as Na’Tok, a role he will also return to next episode. He previously played Hedronn in “Points of Departure” and “All Alone in the Night” and Na’Kal in “The Fall of Night” and “Walkabout.” Bart McCarthy plays his second role as Daro, having played Shakiri in “Moments of Transition.” Josh Clark plays his first of two roles as Kulomani; he’ll play Kendarr in Crusade’s “Visitors from Down the Street.” Trivial matters. The Regent had promised Mollari that they’d talk once more before the end in “In the Kingdom of the Blind.” This episode establishes that Luchenko—who was made acting president in “Rising Star” after Clark’s suicide in “Endgame”—is now the really-o-truly-o president of Earth. Just as in prior seasons, the final four episodes were held until the fall. This episode ended on the rather nasty visual of Centauri Prime being bombarded, with what was happening next not to be shown for four months. However, to tide viewers over, the movie Thirdspace—which takes place during the fourth season—was aired in July. (We’ll cover all four of TNT’s B5 films after season five is complete, and before we start with Crusade.) The echoes of all of our conversations. “You picked a terrible moment in your social evolution to develop principles. Perhaps you can start with something simpler—the moral equivalent of the opposable thumb, for instance?” —G’Kar on Mollari insisting on staying in the cell with him Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “The last thing I will ever have to do for them.” It’s been fascinating going through season five of the show, because while I have pretty clear memories of what happened in the first four seasons, I recall damn little of season five. (Amusingly, two things I have kept in my head clearly are Byron’s singalong at the end of “Strange Relations” and Garibaldi drunkenly singing “Show Me the Way to Go Home” at the end of “Meditations on the Abyss.”) So I was genuinely caught off-guard when I realized that Cholini’s outrage at the Centauri being accused of attacking defenseless cargo ships wasn’t manufactured. He genuinely believed that his people were being framed and that this was all propaganda—which it was, but from inside rather than outside. Cholini’s still a slimy piece of work, but the revelation that the ships that have been attacking have been remote-controlled by the Drakh hits beautifully. It explains why those ships never communicated with their victims, and also why they seem to have independent offensive and defensive strategies. (It doesn’t explain how there’s no record of what happened during those attacks, as apparently black-box technology has disappeared from the entire galaxy over the centuries between the present and B5’s future. Also, why didn’t Lennier notice that there were no people on board the ship he attached himself to like a leech in “Darkness Ascending”?) Sheridan continues to suck at his job, as it’s obvious that none of the three generals he meets with have any respect for him as a leader—they just humor him because he controls the White Stars, and they need those. While there is sometimes a tendency on this show to insist to us that characters are competent when they’re not, I think that Sheridan’s impotence as president of the IA is a deliberate—and impressive, given that this is our lead we’re talking about—choice on the part of J. Michael Straczynski. Bruce Boxleitner also sells the character’s annoyance and frustration, both with his allies and his enemies. The stuff on Centauri Prime continues to be the show’s best material, due in part to the usual brilliance of Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik, but mainly this time around because of how Damian London absolutely kills it. London’s Virini has had to be many things on this show, generally being whatever flavor of obdurate bureaucrat and/or aristocratic toady is required of him. But his talk with Mollari at the end of the episode is devastating. It’s the same high-pitched squeal that London has been using for the character all along, but it’s slower, more intense, more monotone, and scary as hell. London perfectly shows the character’s helplessness and awareness of how pathetic and broken he is. Plus, if you need a character who can show tremendous emotion and nastiness just by tilting his head, you can always count on Wayne Alexander, who quietly imbues the Drakh with total menace. Next week: “The Fall of Centauri Prime.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Movements of Fire and Shadow” appeared first on Reactor.