In the marketplace, Ambassador Kosh (voice of Ardwight Chamberlin) approaches Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson). He asks for her telepathic services without giving her details. She is willing to help. When she begins to mention her fee and the paperwork involved, he says it is all arranged. He asks her to meet him in Red Sector in the hour of scampering and leaves. A Minbari flyer docks. Narn minder Na’Toth (Caitlin Brown) recognizes a debarking passenger as Deathwalker (Sarah Douglas) and brutally assaults her. Security hauls her away.
Commander Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) asks Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) about the victim. Her name is Gyla Lobos, a free trader from the Minbari Federation. They interrogate N’Toth. who calls the victim of her assault Jha’Dur or Deathwalker. a notorious mass-murderer who experimented on her grandfather and many other Narn. The Dilgar War she speaks of was 30 years ago and Sinclair believes Lobos is too young. G’Kar arrives to smooth things over and puts Na’Toth under house arrest.
Talia Winters meets Kosh and a strange man named Abbut (Cosie Costa). Kosh asks her to scan him but she can find no thoughts. Kosh then begins negotiations with Abbut which make no sense to her. In Medlab, Doctor Franklin (Richard Biggs) tells Sinclair the victim is healing remarkably. Sinclair recognizes her as a Dilgar, despite the common belief that the Dilgar all died in a nova. The research suggests that she is indeed Jha’Dur. G’Kar tells Na’Toth that Jha’Dur was at the station to meet a counselor on an important matter and he must get her to Narn, though Na’Toth might fulfill her blood oath later.
Senator Hidoshi (Akia Leong) of Earth wants the same woman sent to Earth, for reasons that are classified. The woman awakes in Medlab and demands to meet Sinclair. She confirms her identity as Deathwalker and says she has been sheltered by the Wind Swords, a Minbari Warrior Caste. She has an elixir that keeps her young. She wants to bring it to all the galaxy with the help of Earth Alliance. Kosh’s negotiations end and Talia Winters is still confused. Kosh responds in his usual bewildering way and says the negotiations will resume tomorrow. There is just a flash of a strange vision for Winters.
Sinclair tracks down Delenn’s aide Lennier (Bill Mumy) as Ambassador Delenn is away. He is familiar with the Deathwalker story. He doubts the Wind Swords would shelter such a being but will inquire about it. G’Kar meets with Jha’Dur, offering to purchase her drug at three times the Earth price. She will accept the offer if he brings her the head of Na’Toth. G’Kar storms out. Sinclair meets with his staff. Garibaldi is sceptical, but Franklin believes her, considering her physical condition. Garibadi is angry about Earth’s move. But Ivanova thinks they’re equipped to handle her. Garibaldi feels that if the aliens find out about possible immortality in Terran hands, they will tear the station to pieces.
G’Kar learns Sinclair plans to move Jha’Dur off the station. In Blue Sector, they are confronted by League Ambassadors. They demand a meeting or Sinclair will have to kill them all. Sinclair yields and calls a meeting. Winters arrives for the next meeting with Kosh but begs off since Kosh doesn’t need her. He insists and she encounters another strange vision. Sinclair thinks there are enough votes to put Jha’Dur on trial. The motion fails when Lennier votes no under Minbari orders.
A Drazi Sun-Hawk arrives, and the pilot demands Jha-Dur be extradited or he’ll attack. Ivanova orders the defense grid activated and challenges the Drazi ship with a few choice words. Then a task force of ships shows up. Sinclair promises to share the formula with the League and still hold Jha’Dur for trial. During the Kosh negotiations. Talia is overwhelmed by a terrifying memory. Kosh announces that the deal is complete. Abbut removes his hat, revealing that he is a cyborg, and hands over a data crystal to Kosh, who leaves without explanation.
Jha’Dur prepares to leave the station. She explains that the key ingredient of her formula must be taken from a living being. To live forever, someone else must die. She thinks this will cause sentient races to fall on one another like wolves, and the resulting genocide will be the true testament to her work. As Sinclair and the others watch her ship leave, Kosh enters the room. A Vorlon ship emerges through the gate and obliterates the Deathwalker’s ship. Kosh says, “You are not ready for immortality.” Sinclair and Garibaldi meet in the marketplace and wonder if anything will ever change. Talia Winters appears and tells them about her meetings with Kosh. During the negotiations, she had memories of a scan she did years ago on a serial killer. Garibaldi recognizes Abbut as Vicker, a modified being with cybernetic devices in the brain which can record telepathic communication.
The story arose out of Straczynski’s pondering what Hitler, if he survived the bunker, could offer to stave off prosecution for mass murder, like the Nazi scientists smuggled into the US for space exploration in Operation Paperclip. The only thing he could come up with was an immortality serum. Deathwalker is seriously evil, but virtually every representative of every species in the League, though horrified, votes for political expediency. Kosh is mysterious but not evil; Jha’Dur is evil but not mysterious. The subplot was about Kosh collecting psychic data on Talia Winters. In later episodes, revelations concerning Talia and Psi Corps were to be involved, but when Andrea Thompson decided to leave the series, these plotlines were dropped. Jha’Dur tells Sinclair the Wind Swords had studied him intently and said he has a hole in his mind. Sinclair was taught by Jesuits.
Vicars is short for VCR. He was originally supposed to be played by Gilbert Gottfried. I don’t know if he would have sounded like a parrot. Kosh said, “Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, my side, and the truth.” There were several cool spaceships introduced. The Iksha Warglobe is a spherical spoked vessel with a glowing green core. The Vree Saucer is blue and rotates. It appears like the flying saucers reported in the 20th Century because the Vree visited Earth at that time. They look like the aliens reported in those incidents but deny making crop-circles. The Drazi Sunhawk has a bright red exposed energy core. The Vorlon ships are very organic-looking, like a cross between a spider and an octopus. Kosh’s personal ship was inspired by a garlic bud.