The resistance in Daniel's territory have been courting a member of Daniel's inner circle, but when they arrange a meeting, he goes missing. Rachel decides to call on the Western Alliance for help in finding him.

When it became clear Valhalla Sector wanted to build a new world order based on military power, Dr Monash began meeting with Devon and a few others in secret to discuss alternatives. Meanwhile he was one of the few allowed outside to collect data, perhaps because he was seen as a weaker figure who could be controlled. However all the time he was working on "Project Backfire", a plan to establish an opposing power away from Valhalla. Devon assisted him, but Monash didn't trust him with more than a small part of the overall project, which included analyses of such historical powers as Stalin and the Nazis. It turns out his plan was to "fast track" a new power using techniques of mass manipulation - in essence, designing his own perfect government. He left Valhalla Sector five years ago with a small team and created "Daniel", a false personality amalgamated from trustworthy and strong characteristics such as those of former presidents, and allied him to imagery used by totalitarian regimes. Monash believed the emerging power could be controlled, but his colleagues became corrupted by their own desires and pushed him aside.

Monash escapes to safety with the Western Alliance; the former Valhalla Sector inhabitants who control Daniel decide that they can put off a direct conflict with the Alliance no longer.

Dr Frederick Monash, now aged 57, was one of about a hundred scientists taken to Valhalla Sector during the Big Death. His area of expertise was psychological warfare - brain washing, social programming. He was "part of Daniel's inner circle", according to Rachel, leader of the Resistance. He also has an ID card in the name of James Fitzgerald. He arranged to meet with Rachel but never showed up; in fact he lost control of his car after shooting his driver and was injured. He sends a morse code SOS and is picked up by Jeremiah and Kurdy.

Jeremiah has started writing letters to Libby in the way he wrote them to his father. We don't see if he's burned any.

Rachel travels to Milhaven to solicit Jeremiah's help in approaching Thunder Mountain.

Crystal is a new recruit for the Alliance army. She shares Kurdy's interest in history.

"Dear Libby," writes Jeremiah, "I miss you."

Jeremiah to Devon: "Every time I turn around I'm finding something new about you."

"I guess we're gonna have to do it the only way you can find a needle in a haystack - sit on it until something stick us in the ass." - Kurdy

Crystal gives a pretty neat biography of President Grant, but if you're after more, here's what the White House has to say about him, and a more detailed account from Wikipedia.

Interestingly, the above article suggests Crystal was wrong to say no one but Twain would publish his memoirs - rather Twain was the only one to make him a decent offer - and the memoirs were rather more successful that Crystal implies, though Grant died shortly after finished them and thus never benefited directly from their publication.

And if you too want to win Kurdy's heart with your knowledge of the book (who wouldn't?) you can pick it up from Amazon. Probably cheaper than a trip to Denver.

This storyline, in which an elderly man flees from the controlling power to deliver secret information to the good guys, is similar to that of Babylon 5's "Hunter, Prey", also scripted by Straczynski.

Rachel says Daniel has people patrolling the borders every six hours.

Attempts to create a communications network are progressing, with Devon able to speak to Jeremiah from Valhalla Sector via a radio in the Rover, and to log onto the Valhalla computer systems from a terminal in Thunder Mountain. The plan is to connect all Alliance towns in a single network.

This episode is directed by Mister Smith himself, Sean Astin.

Kurdy's bibliophilia and interest in history continues with a reading of the memoirs of Ulysses S Grant. When he says he found it in a old library in Denver, he's probably talking about the events of "Out of the Ashes".

Daniel has introduced currency in his territory, "Daniel dollars", colloquially known as D-bucks.

At the time of their first secret meetings, there was no formal opposition to the rulers of Valhalla Sector, suggesting that the return of presidential elections came later.

Rachel's intelligence is pretty advanced - she knows that the other figure in the photograph is Jeremiah's father, and that he's still alive.

Mister Smith saves Devon days of work by selecting a computer file at random that happens to contain Dr Monash's plans for Project Backfire. And still gives no explanation as to how he's doing it.

Why does everyone find Devon's story suspicious? His explanation for having met Monash is straightforward enough. Their distrust would be more plausible if they already knew his assistant Libby had really been on Daniel's side, but they don't. Or do they?

And why did Devon not suspect that Daniel is connected to Project Backfire? It seems fairly intuitive even without knowing that Monash is still alive.

Isn't it a bit risky for Monash to broadcast a signal that could be just as easily picked up by Daniel's forces? In fact, given that he doesn't know Thunder Mountain are helping Rachel look for him, wouldn't he think it more likely that Daniel's group would pick up the message? Come to that, why is he sure the Rover he waves to isn't a vehicle of Daniel's?

The Thunder Mountain gang's escape from Sims seems a bit sudden. How did they do it?

It's solidly put together, and the steady stream of answers is satisfying, but what it tells us isn't particularly surprising and there isn't much else on offer.