“In the Kingdom of the Blind” is episode nine of season five of Babylon 5.
Sheridan, Delenn and Garibaldi are going over some reports from the Rangers about increased attacks on the Alliance shipping lanes. Hit and run attacks, with no survivors and no warnings. Sheridan starts saying this is typical raider behaviour, then stops midsentence. Delenn doesn’t believe they are typical and Sheridan has just read in the report that the ships have been destroyed with the cargo still onboard. Raiders plunder ships, then destroy them. There’s no profit in not taking the cargo first. Garibaldi thinks it’s almost military, like search and destroy missions. No survivors, no witnesses, no evidence and no chance to fight back.
They are required to brief the council within 24 hours. Every member race has been hit equally. It’s utterly random and, with no-one to blame, the races will blame each other randomly. Sheridan wants the Rangers deploying along the shipping lines. He is concerned that they could soon have a real problem. Garibaldi thinks that they already have.
Londo is arriving at the palace on Centuari Prime, accompanied by G’Kar. Minister Vitari greets Londo as the prime minister, saying it’s good to have him back. He trusts Londo had a pleasant voyage. Not really. The minister replies that it’s good that Londo brought his own entertainment – G’Kar – and it’s brave to keep him so close without any chains. Perhaps they should add a few to make others more comfortable. Londo tells the minister that G’Kar is his bodyguard. Vitari thinks this is a joke. It isn’t. In “Strange Relations”, Delenn asked G’Kar if he would be Londo’s bodyguard, after someone had attempted to kill Londo by blowing up an entire ship he was supposed to be on.
Byron has gathered the telepaths. In “Secrets of the Soul”, he, and the others, discovered from Lyta, who is also present, that telepaths were created by the Vorlons to use against the Shadows. Some evolved naturally but the majority were created. To be used as weapons. Byron thinks they should hold their makers responsible. Even though, as Lyta points out, the Vorlons and the Shadows are both gone. Byron says that the purpose they serve is now over, so rather than be abandoned and alone, there is another way.
G’Kar lets a Lord Jano, a friend of Londo’s, into his quarters. Londo is asking about the Regent. No-one, bar his physician and aides, has officially seen the Regent in about two months. Unofficially, he has been discovered walking the palace at night. He even told a guard to kill him. Although he was quite drunk at the time. Which Londo finds odd; sobriety was his only vice. In “Epiphanies”, the Regent had awoken in the night to find something attached to him. This is doubtless connected.
Jano was looking into the status of their fleet but this, and many other reports, have been classified for as top secret. Jano feels a darkness has fallen over the palace. The Regent may be able to avoid seeing him, but avoiding his own prime minister should be more difficult. Lord Jano returns to his own quarters and finds the Regent there, waiting. The latter starts rambling on about Jano. The Regent wanted to see him and, if it was his decision, he would never let anyone harm Jano. If it was his decision. But it isn’t.
The next day, Londo asks Vitari about Jano, because he was supposed to meet him. Vitari promises to look into it, as some of the other Centauri start examining G’Kar. Another minister, Vole, objects to G’Kar’s presence. The palace guards are enough protection and the Narns are barbarians who would stab you with a knife when your back is turned. G’Kar corrects Vole; it is tradition to go for the chest. Then you can watch the light drain out of the Centauri’s eyes. Just being accurate.
Vole has a guard enter. He asks if G’Kar recognises him. Yes, it’s the guard who whipped G’Kar on Emperor Cartagia’s orders in “The Summoning”. Vole gives G’Kar a whip. The guard’s fate is in G’Kar’s hands. He will not be prosecuted for anything he might do. G’Kar takes the whip, but he asks – if you are struck, do you blame the hand that struck or the heart that issued the command? Vole agrees the heart. G’Kar says that the hand has no choice; it is the heart that carries the burden. And that heart is dead. But the true source of pain is the mouth. At this point Vitari returns, asking for Londo to come. Lord Jano is hanging in his quarters. G’Kar does not feel Jano was a man who sought death. Nor does Londo.
Byron has had his telepaths following members of the council, and seeks out Garibaldi. He wants to speak to the council but Garibaldi refuses unless Byron explains why. So, Byron pokes around inside Garibaldi’s head and claims it is to do with the recent attacks. When he gets in front of the council, Byron demands a homeworld for the telepaths. He also has a threat – one that would probably have been better used in private than stated to those threatened in public. Because it’s not the sort of threat people react well to. Byron says that telepaths are not violent – but that isn’t true of them all. The situation starts deteriorating rapidly.