Smith says God is willing to offer proof of his involvement - Jeremiah, Kurdy, Markus and himself may each ask for a miracle. However, Markus and Kurdy have more worldly concerns as they set about assembling and training the Army of the Western Alliance.

Thunder Mountain is finding it difficult to stretch its resources far enough to protect and help all the Alliance's new members, mainly due to a lack of personnel: Markus says there are a couple of thousand residents of Thunder Mountain. He tells the regional leaders that they have to provide recruits for a new army, and Thunder Mountain will provide the equipment and training. Then they will reside at Milhaven until given an assignment.

According to the nearest thing Thunder Mountain has to a doctor, Smith's gunshot wound from "Crossing Jordan" has left his arm permanently paralysed, "barring a miracle". He gets his miracle.

Kurdy is asked by Markus to train the new recruits. He doubts that he will be good at it, but agrees.

Kent was a new recruit from Colorado who signed up because he believed in the ideals of the Alliance. He is killed covering the retreat of other recruits during a skirmish with Daniel's forces. Other new recruits include Gina from Nebraska and Ed from Kansas.

Smith's reaction to being told his arm may be paralysed: "It's alright, I've got a spare", and "as long as I have one good hand, my love life's intact."

After telling the others about the miracles, Smith adds a proviso: "…course, it's got to be a present miracle, because creating time took some serious ass work and I don't think he wants to mess with it."

The whole scene of Kurdy practising his opening speech to the recruits, but especially "suck in that gut!… miss."

"OK, here it is. You want to know what I want? I want to see God. I want to see him face to face. Him. Her. It. Whatever. I want to look him right in the eye and ask him, 'why d'you screw things up?' And then I'll tell him, face to face, that he's a thug. A monster. A hypocrite. He's a killer. And I'll spit right in his eye."

When Jeremiah says "you want to know what I want?" it becomes clear that this episode is a parallel of Babylon 5's "Signs and Portents", in which each alien ambassador is asked what they want by an emissary for an unknown power, and only one gets his wish.

The posted recruiting bill is the first time the Alliance has identified itself as the "Western Alliance", a title previously used by Daniel to refer to it.

Kurdy implies that it's about six months since the events of "Letters From the Other Side Part Two". Given other events (see the Notes section of "Voices in the Dark", and the fact that there is unlikely to be a gap between "Crossing Jordan" and "Running on Empty"), a large proportion of that period must take place between "The Mysterious Mister Smith" and "Voices in the Dark", between "Voices in the Dark" and "Crossing Jordan" or between "Running on Empty" and this episode.

The miracles that each character selects, however seriously or not they take the situation, reveals a lot about their characters. Kurdy doesn't choose to bring Elizabeth back as we might expect: in fact, Kurdy is an empathic character who wants to make the whole world a better place to live in; and while he is prepared to "take care of business", he often sees violence as a last resort. In that light, Markus' choice may seem more selfish, but he specifically wants Meaghan "alive, whole and uninfected" - he wants her to be able to live the life denied to her, presumably healed of her mental as well as physical illness. It's also clear that despite his dismissive tone with Smith, Markus has given the question serious analysis, showing that his instinct is to think his way out of problems; and that the seeming selfishness of his own decision troubles him. Nevertheless, the process allows him to come to terms with the fact that Meaghan will never come back, thus providing him with some catharsis. Jeremiah's reluctance to even discuss this issue highlights not so much his attitude towards Smith as towards God - he resents God having abandoned the world and wants nothing more to do with him, a theme introduced in "Man of Iron, Woman Under Glass" and deepened in "Journeys End in Lovers Meeting". When we final hear his "miracle", (see Quotations) it only serves to underscore this. Smith on the other, er, hand, wants something very personal and individual, which suits his personality. This too may seem selfish, but Smith is an outsider, not always trusted, and having to rely on his own resources. It also underlines his very personal, if ambivalent, relationship with God.

The conclusion, in which a miracle appears to have happened but there's a plausible alternative, is similar to that of "Journey's End in Lovers Meeting".

There's a clumsy sound edit during Markus's "good idea!" rant - when the shot changes his words briefly overlap.

An entertaining episode brimming with character and energy. The fact that the plot is mostly rather predictable is the only thing that stops this being up there with the best.