s2e21: Comes the Inquisitor

For one person, in the dark, where nobody will ever know, or see

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The penultimate episode of the season isn’t quite as daring a mix-up as ‘And Now for a Word’, but it does present an unusual structure by confining the lead story to a single room and leaning in to opaque Vorlon mythology. It’s a stripped-down, talky episode that relies heavily on a guest performance from Wayne Alexander. After the bombast of ‘The Long, Twilight Struggle’, it could seem a little small, but it’s anything but.

This is the clearest view we’ve had of Vorlon motivations and tactics. Previously we’ve seen them execute Deathwalker, denying immortality to the newer races. Kosh messed with Talia. More recently he was revealed as working with Delenn (and Sinclair) to build the Rangers and the Army of Light against the growing Shadow threat. Other than that, he’s been enigmatic but mostly absent.

Here, for the firs time, we have Kosh driving the A plot, even if we don’t see much of him. Instead we get his inquisitor, Sebastian, a herald of sorts. A self-righteous, arrogant and clearly pained figure. Sebastian is immediately fascinating, presented in an anachronistic fashion that raises questions even aside from trying to work out Kosh’s angle. I find it interesting that Straczynski doesn’t hold back Sebastian’s 19th century origin — it’s stated up front. The mystery isn’t when or where this man came from, but why the Vorlons took him.

This might be my favourite guest performance in the entire show.

We might have presumed that the Minbari (or Delenn, at least) was a partner with Kosh, and that they were working together with mutual respect. Here we realise that’s definitely not the case, and that Kosh is the one with all the power: and that the relationship is…not entirely healthy. Kosh is not the best kind of boss. Also, Delenn is surprisingly submissive — or perhaps not, considering she considers this a matter of prophecy, and of galactic importance.

Sebastian’s motivations are the crux of the episode, around which Delenn and Sheridan (and Kosh) orbit. The idea of a serial killer being extracted from the 19th century and forced to sense check other True Believers is an entirely mad story idea, but it somehow works. Sebastian’s disgust know no bounds: with himself, with Delenn, with society, with the past, with the present, with his contract with the Vorlons. His vague atonement/punishment bemuses him, and he’s perhaps more annoyed by not being remembered properly than he is by his own past deeds. It’s good stuff, and the episode doesn’t try to provide too many answers.

Around the edges of the main story there are a bunch of Narn vignettes, all of them good. Vir and G’Kar in the lift. Garibaldi and G’Kar. G’Kar winning the support of the Narn survivors. Each scene is excellent, and we see new sides to G’Kar: very different to the combat test he had to pass earlier in the season.

The episode is put together with precision by returning director Mike Vejar, the absolute perfect choice. It’s an episode that could have felt small, but Vejar elevates every scene with imaginative construction, angles, editing, sound, lighting…there’s a level of effort in every scene that TV schedules don’t tend to allow.

Next up is the season 2 finale, ‘Fall of Night’. Woo!

‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️

There’s a lot of setup here for G’Kar’s future. We’re really seeing a cleverer G’Kar, one who is seeing the bigger picture for the first time. There’s a connection forming between G’Kar and Garibaldi which will play out in season 3 and 4.

Sheridan and Delenn move closer: I think their slowly deepening relationship is one of the successes of the season. On first viewing it’s not immediately obvious, but in retrospect you can see them drawn to each other over the season arc.

What we really get here is a truer glimpse of the Vorlons. It’s framed here as testing Delenn and Sheridan to see if they’re worthy, but the tactics used are torture, psychological and physical. They’re using a serial killer! There are signs. I don’t know whether the Vorlons would pass Sebastian’s little morality test.

There’s been an ambiguity to the Vorlons’ actions up until now: and while ‘Comes the Inquisitor’ is framed as a heroic moment for Delenn and Sheridan (and G’Kar), it’s actually the first clear sign of what we’ll get from the Vorlons in season 4. This is a strong signal that they are not ‘the good guys’, or benevolent gods here to help the younger races. The are manipulators. I didn’t spot any of this when I was a teenager watching this for the first time, but the warnings signs are all there as I rewatch as an adult.

It’s an unnerving penultimate chapter to season 2, and ‘Fall of Night’ is going to double down on that discomfort.