Twenty years have passed since the end of the Shadow War and John Sheridan’s (Bruce Boxleitner) death and transfiguration. He realizes that, as prophesied, he is approaching the end of his existence. Delenn (Mira Furlan) sends out Rangers with requests to all his friends to gather. Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) is head of Edgars Industries. Doctor Franklin (Richard Biggs) has been heading Xenobiological research on Earth for nineteen years. Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) is now a decorated general with Earthforce, and Vir (Stephen Furst) is Emperor of the Centauri Republic.
Franklin examines Sheridan but has never understood what happened to him. He has, perhaps, a week. The group arrives on Minbar and have a—well—last supper together. Garibaldi tells funny stories. Vir tells a story of Londo (Peter Jurasik) being moved to tears. Sheridan’s toast is to absent friends. Garibaldi remembers G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas). Delenn remembers Lennier (Bill Mumy). Franklin and Ivanova remember Marcus Cole (Jason Carter). Ivanova goes off to bed by herself and Delenn follows. Ivanova admits she feels like an old warhorse trotted out for a parade. Delenn offers her the Presidency of the Interstellar Alliance when Sheridan dies. After Sheridan and Delenn spend a last night together, he goes off into space, preferring to die there.
First, he goes to Babylon Five. There is only a skeleton crew, and the Earth Alliance is preparing to shut down and scuttle the station. He walks through, remembering. Zack Allan (Jeff Conaway) comes to him. He came out of retirement six months ago to be there when the lights went out. Sheridan leaves for the Coriana system, as Kosh predicted during the Day of the Dead. There, he shuts down the ship and the computer that is warning him that his life signs are fading. Lorien (Wayne Alexander) appears to tell him the First Ones have not forgotten him and are waiting at the Rim of the Galaxy (rather like the Elves waiting for Bilbo). The ship is found later, the airlocks sealed, no sign of Sheridan.
Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, Delenn, Vir, and Zack attend the decommissioning ceremony, along with an honor guard of ships from the Alliance worlds. The fusion reactors are set to overload and Babylon Five ends in fire, as always predicted. Garibaldi returns to Mars, Franklin to Earth, Zack becomes advisor to Vir on Centauri Prime, Ivanova accepts Delenn’s offer, and Delenn rises every morning to watch the sunrise with Sheridan’s spirit. And you thought the previous episode was a tearjerker! This one was created to end Season Four because Season Five was in doubt. The maintenance worker who shut down the lights was J. Michael Straczynski. Ivanova is shown with her old Starfury helmet and Marcus Cole’s fighting pike. She has the last beautiful word. Sheridan goes off to die alone, like a Big Cat. When the set dressers were putting together Sheridan’s bedroom, JMS walked past, looked in the mirror, and saw the back of the set—a cross hung with white linen. They left it there.
Straczynski’s word to composer Christopher Franke: Break my heart. In the closing credits, each character was shown in his or her first and last appearance. In my opinion, some of the characters had a less than stellar arc—Franklin was not often inspirational, Sheridan made stupid mistakes, Ivanova and Lyta were not always treated well, and what happened to Lennier was not what he deserved—but over the course of five years, most characters changed and grew, and we only learned to love them more. This does not happen that often on TV. The series was thirty years ahead of its time.