John SheridanYou know, back at the station, I was pretty surprised to see you walk into the War Room. When an ambassador comes to visit, we usually have some advance warning.
There wasn't time. And believe me, my being here is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.
Sheridan
Is it? [pause] Delenn either knew you were here or knew you were coming. Your timing seems like more than just a coincidence.
There are no coincidences, Captain.
Sheridan
That's not much of an answer.
Captain, if I were you, I'd quit while I was ahead. Back on Minbar, there was a saying among the other Rangers: "The only way to get a straight answer out of Ranger One was to look at every reply in a mirror while hanging upside down from the ceiling."
Sheridan
[laughs] Did it work?
Oddly enough, yes. Or after a while you passed out and had a vision. Either way, the result was pretty much the same.
Zathras, this is very important. When you meet me again, it will be me, but it won't be me now. So you're not to say anything to me that might change the past. Do you understand?
Zathras understand. [pauses] No. Zathras not understand. But Zathras do! Zathras good at doings, not understandings.
. . .
[Zathras is confused about what he's not supposed to say.]
Sheridan
W-what else is on this list of things you're not supposed to mention?
Zathras... does not remember. But if Zathras remember later, Zathras tells you.
[Sheridan and Ivanova meet the new Vorlon ambassador, Kosh's replacement]
John Sheridan
Your government neglected to tell me your name. How should I refer to you when we're alone?
Sheridan
Ah, yes, I understand that's how we're to refer to you publicly, but privately?
KIKosh II
We are all Kosh. [he leaves]
Sheridan
Well, he's a Vorlon, all right.
[Delenn finds Sheridan in the War Room, going over reports]
Ivanova sent me to find you. She said you haven't been sleeping, you have hardly been eating; she said that you have been, in her words, "carrying on cranky." I looked up the word "cranky." It said "grouchy." I looked up "grouchy," it said "crotchety." No wonder you have such an eccentric culture: none of your words have their own meaning! You have to look up one word to understand another. It never ends.
John Sheridan
[not paying attention] Something here doesn't make sense.
That is what I thought when I came across "crotchety." This cannot be a real word, I said.
Sheridan
The Shadows keep attacking random targets! Very illogical! On the other hand, once engaged, their tactics are very successful! Very logical! It's–it's a contradiction!
Unless the random attacks are logical in some way we haven't yet determined.
Sheridan
Exactly.
[grinning] So you have been sitting here trying to think illogically about logical possibilities, or logically about illogical possibilities.
Sheridan
Hm? Yes, yes.
Well, no wonder you are cranky! [he looks at her in confusion, oblivious to everything she's just said] Grouchy? [still nothing] Never mind. Your face just broke the language barrier.
Sheridan
Ah...I haven't had a good night's sleep since Kosh died. I'm having the kind of nightmares that make your hair stand on end.
Well, that would explain the Centauri. You need food...and rest!
Sheridan
[annoyed] Aah.
The humans who you've been waiting for have arrived and would like to have dinner with us.
Sheridan
No, no, I don't have time! If they want to come here...
Sheridan
Delenn!
Since Minbari do not lie, except to save another, my reputation is now at stake. If you say no, I will be publicly dishonored.
Sheridan
[realizing he's been beaten] You don't fight fair!
True! Dinner is in two standard hours. I will see you there! [heads to the door]
Sheridan
[muttering] Pain in the butt.
[over her shoulder] Grouch.
[last lines: Delenn shows Sheridan a fleet of White Stars]
White Star was never intended to be one of a kind. It was only the first. We've been working around the clock to construct them. I said we needed time to prepare. This is why. The first wave of ships is finished at last. The Rangers will pilot them under our shared command. We are as ready for them as we will ever be. We finally have, as you say, a fighting chance.
Sheridan
I don't know what to say.
[they kiss]
[Opening credits voiceover.]
It was the year of fire...
...the year of destruction...
...the year we took back what was ours.
It was the year of rebirth...
...the year of great sadness...
It was the end of history.
It was the year everything changed.
John Sheridan
The place, Babylon 5.
[Sheridan, back from Z'ha'dum, interrupts the rabble rousers on the Zocalo.]
DDrazi
Captain...we're sorry...We thought you were dead.
John Sheridan
[deadpan] I was. I'm better now.
[After being treated with reverence by a group in the docking bay, John Sheridan walks with Lorien down the corridor. As they leave, they overhear one woman asking about the captain's so-called resurrection.]
John Sheridan
I heard.
Sheridan
Not in me.
Sheridan
I'll try.
Sheridan
We'll see.
[Delenn and Sheridan "negotiate" an end to the Vorlon-Shadow War]
The others have rejected you! How do you have a war when no one will fight for either of you?
Sheridan
We refuse to take sides in this anymore! And we refuse to let you turn us against one another! We know who we are now. We can find our own way between order and chaos!
You can kill us one by one, and those who follow us, and those who follow them, on and on, every race, every planet. Until there's no one left to kill. You will have failed as guardians. And you will be alone.
Sheridan
It's over because we've decided it's over. Now get the hell out of our galaxy! Both of you!
[The Vorlons and Shadows hesitate, but Lorien steps in]
As I taught you and stepped aside, now you must do the same. Our age is past. This...belongs to the younger races now. They have learned to stand on their own. They have learned...to understand. Time to let them go.
SShadow
Will you...come...with us?
I have been here since the beginning. I will not leave you now. I will go with you beyond the Rim, and we will see again all those who went ahead of us, all those who we have missed for so long.
VVorlon
Then...we will not be alone?
[The Vorlons and Shadows disappear, and their respective fleets leave the system]
[Lorien turns to address Sheridan and Delenn]
I waited a long time for someone to find me. Now, like the others, I find I hate to leave. But none of us can stay behind this time. That was why it was necessary to find all the remaining First Ones. This...is yours now. And you have an obligation...to do as we have done. To teach the races that will follow you and, when your time comes, as ours has, to step aside and allow them to grow into their own destiny. If your races survive, if you do not kill yourselves, I look forward to the day when your people join us...beyond the Rim.
[he starts dissolving into a ball of light]
Sheridan
We are all alone now, just the younger races. We can't blame anyone else from now on. It's a new age, Delenn. A third age!
Sheridan
We began in chaos, too primitive to make our own decisions. Then we were manipulated from outside by forces that thought they knew what was best for us. And now? Now we are finally standing on our own. Lorien was right, it's a great responsibility. This is ours now.
Strange. The galaxy seems somehow smaller now that the First Ones are gone forever.
Sheridan
It feels like the magic's gone now.
No, not gone. Now we make our own magic. Now we create our own legends. Now we build the future. Now we stop…
Sheridan …being afraid of shadows.
Ms. Alexander has no business being here. She's a blip! By all rights, I should arrest her and take her back with me.
John Sheridan
Oh, you could do that. And I could nail your head to the table, set fire to it, and feed your charred remains to the Pak'ma'ra. But...it's an imperfect world, and we never get exactly what we want. So get used to it!
Babylon 5 · 626 quotes
