511: Day of the Dead

The famous comedy duo Rebo and Zooty visit Babylon 5 during the Brakiri "Day of the Dead" ritual - during which they purchase a section of the station within which the festival is to take place that night.  Lennier even returns to the station to attend the ritual, although G'Kar wants nothing to do with it.  Londo Mollari is visited by his old lover Adira Tyree, and he mourns her loss, claiming that he would sacrifice his position as Emperor just to have her back.  Lennier is visited by the Shadow agent Mr Morden, who tells him that he will betray the anla'shock - but Lennier refuses to believe the prophecy.  Lochley is visited by Zoe, an old friend who overdosed on drugs.  Garibaldi gets to spend one final night with Dodger, the GROPOS he had a brief fling with three years previously.  Delenn assures Rebo and Zooty that they should remain in comedy instead of entering politics - and after the night is over and things on Babylon 5 appear to return to normal, Lochley passes on to Sheridan a message from Kosh: "When the long night comes, return to the End of the Beginning".

Notes: Rebo and Zooty were first mentioned in Rumours, Bargains and Lies.  Morden refers to his own death in Into the Fire, and Londo recalls Adira's murder in Interludes and Examinations (she was first seen in Born to the Purple).  Garibaldi met Dodger in GROPOS; he also mentions comets being a symbol of death and destruction to the Brakiri, a fact mentioned once before in A Day in the Strife.   This is the first glimpse of Lochley's troubled past - it is expanded upon in Wheel of Fire.   Lennier's prophecy comes to the fore in Objects at Rest.  Sheridan's message from Kosh plays out in Sleeping in Light.

Reebo quotes Blackadder ("Fifty thousand years of human evolution was something that happened to other people, wasn't it?") and Oscar Wilde ("I have nothing to declare, my dear man, except my genius.").

Writer Neil Gaiman is a prolific horror author, one of his best-known works being the Sandman comic (the Gaim were named after him).

Despite being broadcast in this position within the series, it obviously does not belong in this slot (Byron mentions "last night" in the next episode, referring to the events of the previous episode).  The script of this episode was published by Dreamhaven Books.

Guest Cast: Comedians Penn Jillette and Teller appear as Rebo and Zooty, with Harlan Ellison providing the voice of Zooty's machine (part of Penn and Teller's act is that Teller never speaks - the machine was a means of maintaining the silence).  Ed Wasser returns as Morden, Fabiana Udenio returns as Adira Tyree, and Marie Marshall returns as Dodger (PFC Derman).  Jonathan Chapman (Brakiri Ambassador); Bridget Flanery (Zoe).