Original Airdate: February 2, 1994 Written by J. Michael Straczynski Directed by Jim Johnston Episode #: 2 Production #: 102
Guest stars: W. Morgan Sheppard as Soul Hunter #1. John Snyder as Soul Hunter #2.
A renegade soul hunter boards Babylon 5 in search of Delenn's soul. And he is willing to kill her to get it.
When an unidentified spacecraft hurtles toward Babylon 5 on a collision course, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova and their crew safely captures the craft.
The station's medical officer, Dr. Stephen Franklin, and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi inspect the injured alien pilot and its ship. Ambassador Delenn, representing the Minbari Empire, is horrified to see that it's the Soul Hunter (W. MORGAN SHEPPARD), a feared enemy who captures and collects the souls of dying aliens.
Delenn begs Sinclair to kill the evil stranger, but Sinclair doesn't agree with her religious fears--until he witnesses the Hunter's chilling behavior at the exact moment when a man dies elsewhere inside Babylon 5. The Hunter can literally see the man's soul leave it's body--and he reacts with ecstasy. To calm the intense fears of the aliens aboard the space station, Sinclair orders the Soul Hunter to leave Babylon 5.
Before he departs, Delenn confronts the Soul Hunter, demanding the location of his "collection" - the assortment of trapped souls he always carries. The Soul Hunter recognizes Delenn as being from the Minbari's highest ruling class. Why, he asks, is she posing as a mere diplomatic ambassador aboard Babylon 5? He escapes from Garibaldi's security guards, retrieves his collection pouch from his ship and hides in a deserted construction zone of the station.
Soul Hunter #2 (JOHN SNYDER) arrives in pursuit, revealing to Sinclair that his colleague is a fanatical renegade who murders aliens instead of waiting for them to die. As the Soul Hunter kidnaps Delenn and slowly drains her blood to preserve her soul without trauma, Sinclair and Garibaldi find his hiding place. Sinclair turns the Soul Hunter's soul-stealing machine against the Soul Hunter and encases him in one of the "soul stones."
Dr. Franklin nurses Delenn back to health, but after learning her true identity from the Soul Hunter, Sinclair is also suspicious of her reasons for posing as a Minbari ambassador.
