s4e3: The Summoning
I'll never leave you, Delenn
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The show channels the desperation and loss of hope from ‘Hour of the Wolf’ in this episode, before flipping it on its head with Sheridan’s sudden return. It’s an effective combo, even if his arrival from Z’ha’dum raises more questions than it answers…
This is a solid episode that has a lot to do, with a handful of really standout moments.
First up, the banter between Ivanova and Marcus is lovely. Fun, but laced with regret and sadness: Marcus is maintaining his cheery veneer from season 3, but the camera always lingers on Ivanova, reminding us of all that she’s lost, and how desperate the situation is. This builds to a creepy climax as they discover the hyperspace fold: the visuals and music work together very effectively.
It’s a bit of a stretch that they’d stumble upon a hyperspace fold, given the scale of hyperspace, the difficulty of navigating it, and the fact it’s unknown tech. Presumably only a White Star could have spotted it. The reveal of the Vorlon fleet is a cool shot, though they cut away to commercial break earlier than I’d like. The final shot of the episode is similar: it really needed another second or two to properly sell the immense scale.
I remember being entirely sideswiped by the Vorlons becoming aggressors. It wasn’t something I’d seen coming at all.
The next moment is the whipping of G’Kar. The Centauri plotline is grim from start to finish, but it’s the ‘count o 40’ scene that creates real horror. That the scene doesn’t cut away, or cheat the count somehow, feels deeply uncomfortable. We don’t want to be there, a spectator to G’Kar’s torture, but we have nowhere to go. In that, we as viewers are aligned with Londo and Vir.
G’Kar saving his scream for the final moment is delicious. Even in this moment of despair and pain, where he is a prisoner with no hope of escape, where you’d think he’d have no way to assert himself: even then, G’Kar finds a way to seize his own agency. Cartagia isn’t clever enough to see that he’s being played. Ever the proud Narn, G’Kar manages to give the mad emperor what he wants in order to stay alive, while asserting his authority over the situation.
It’s a bit of a shame they went with VFX for the whip cracks: practical lighting would have been more effective, I think.
The final moment to look at is, of course, Sheridan’s arrival. Throughout he episode there’s been growing despair, culminating in the gathering in the Zocalo and the fraying of the alliance. The crowd begins to turn on Delenn and Lennier. We have the simultaneous building of tension as Zack and Garibaldi intercept the new arrival on the station. The docking bay VFX of the crane lowering from the ship are strong, incidentally.
It’s the feet on the stairs that gets me every time. The Drazi is mid-flow, rubbishing Delenn’s efforts and arguing for appeasement, and the camera cuts to the stairs as Sheridan nears. The music builds. The crowd shifts their attention. And then Sheridan moves out onto the walkway.
“I thought you died?”
“I did. I’m better now.”
It’s exciting, fist-pumping stuff, and Delenn’s expression of disbelief and wonder reflects our own. Lennier’s reaction is more complex: seeming initially to be disappointed as Delenn rushes off to greet John, but then smiling begrudgingly as the troops are rallied.
The glue that holds this episode together is Garibaldi. His return to the station brings with it a cynicism, even as Sheridan comes back from the dead. It’s Garibaldi who stares at Lorien with suspicion, and who raises the awkward questions. It’s Garibaldi who immediately clocks an odd relationship between Sheridan and Lorien, and questions the power dynamic.
Something that occurred to me while watching this is how the pace in season 4 feels massively ramped up. There are behind-the-scenes production reasons for that, but it works. It’s curious to compare to modern shows, which tend to come in around 6 or 12 episodes and yet can often feel quite flabby. Disney+ and Netflix shows have a tendency to feel both too slow and too rushed, at the same time. And then I look at the sheer amount of story that a 90s show like Babylon 5 got through in 22 episodes. There’s a particular style of television serial storytelling that is almost extinct in 2025.
Next up is ‘Falling Toward Apotheosis’.
‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️
The bit that really jumped out at me here is Sheridan’s promise to Delenn: “I’ll never leave you, Delenn.” It’s romantic, and he means it, but he’ll be forced to break that promise. Come ‘Sleeping in Light’ that is precisely what he’ll do: say goodbye and leave to join the First Ones. That’s not his fault, and he’s yet to receive the injury that will shorten his life, but even amidst the joy of his return there’s looming tragedy.
Sheridan’s miraculous and somewhat magical survival on Z’ha’dum will not be without consequence. There are obvious shades of Gandalf’s fall from the bridge of Kazad-dum, and his death and resurrection as Gandalf the White, but in Lord of the Rings that always felt like a consequence-less power up. Gandalf is absent for a while, but returns stronger and with seemingly no downsides. It makes you wonder why all the wizards don’t rush through their lives to get to White Mode faster.
Anyway, we also get G’Kar’s torture, and I couldn’t remember the order of events so was on high alert throughout about whether he was going to lose an eye here.
Garibaldi returns, and something is off. There were hints of programming aboard the escape pod, and that will of course turn very bad indeed before it gets better.
The Vorlons go bad, although we still don’t quite grasp how bad. The scaling up of the war is intense.
We see in this episode Lennier’s struggle: of loving Delenn, but wanting to do the right thing. Of being disappointed that Sheridan lives, but knowing it’s their best chance of survival.
Good stuff.
