Tony Stark’s demons have found a new outlet in Garibaldi, nativism rears its ugly head again, and our favorite head of security must go on the run from his past. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. Foster the People
With episode 11, we’ve reached the midpoint of season one and there seems to be no slowing down for this high octane, intense, action-packed, thrill-ride of a show based on . . . slow diplomacy and bureaucratic maneuvering. Okay, this isn’t that kind of a show, where things kick up a notch midway through, but it is the kind where small bits from earlier in the season begin to become important for longer term stories and character arcs.
Back in “Infection,” we got a hint as to Garibaldi’s troubled past. It’s a throwaway scene, meant to show his discomfort in talking with the reporter, but here it gains new meaning. Garibaldi was the one good cop on a planet of cops who were either crooked or apathetic to the corruption going on around them. Because of this, he loses his only friend on Europa, gets blacklisted across the sector and falls hard into alcoholism.
It’s a tough story, one which certainly gets to the core of his character and also makes that older encounter more somber. The reporter essentially threatened him with his past, something he’s neither proud of nor entirely at fault for, which is something he knows that most of the sector doesn’t. This knowledge deepens him to us, expands the universe of B5, and helps the show feel more coherent, allowing the episodic format to work for the overall narrative instead of against it.
2. Home Front the Holidays
The other returning piece from previous episodes, other than the President of Earth, is Homefront, the nativist group from “The War Prayer.” It seems that Malcom’s promise that “they have friends everywhere” wasn’t too far off. Both the second in command of the Presidential guard and one of the members of the dock working crew were members. If that doesn’t send a terrifying message, I don’t know what else to tell you. It also seeds another plot into the show, the antagonism between Homefront and not just Garibaldi and the Babylon 5 crew but with the Earth president as well.
Possibly the best part of this plot thread is that now that they’ve appeared a second time, they can’t be written off as a one-time threat and it shows the insidiousness of their organization. By using the format of the show, they can convey a sense of time that’s more accurate to the way we experience it as opposed to the weird truncated TV time that can happen. This allows the writers to show just how patient this kind of hate is and how much can happen right under our noses.
3. Demon in a Bottle
Garibaldi is a flawed person and I appreciate that the show makes that readily apparent. When Garibaldi falls back into the bottle, he’s back out by episode’s end, not because he suddenly is less tempted by it, but because of shame. Shame in letting down the Major once again. Shame in having succumbed to his greatest vice when things were tough. Shame in being exactly the kind of person the Major believed him to be. He admits as much by the episode’s end and it doesn’t wrap up neatly. He has to live with that knowledge and with those decisions. He learns from his mistakes to a certain extent but whether or not he’s fully changed is left ambiguous and therefore he has room to grow and falter.
4. Pumped Up Kicks
I always love when Babylon 5 allows Garibaldi and Londo/G’kar to interact in situations where the power dynamic is always shifting. Here, with Garibaldi on the run, he no longer has the same power he once did, providing interesting insight into the minds of Londo and G’kar. Londo is more sympathetic to his plight, obviously having something in his past that connects him to Garibaldi’s plight while G’kar is smug as always but this time less worried about what Garibaldi thinks of him. Yet he’s not trying to play him. I love these bits of character work.
Continued below5. Set Com Channels to Stall
Every week, some variation on this phrase appears in my thoughts but it’s still true: the strategic managing of bureaucracy and diplomacy in this show provides its best content in this season. Be it for dramatic purposes, as in previous episodes, or comedic ones, as it is here. Ivanova and Garibaldi get the best lines in this regard, both containing a dry wit and a sharp tongue. More of this is always welcomed and when it offsets the action and changes the rules of the episode, all the better.
That about does it for now. Join me again next week for the start to the back half of the season, G’kar’s special plant, and Londo scheming to get it all to himself on the station that wraps humans and aliens in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal . . . all alone in the night. This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Lt. Commander Ivonova: “I am a Lieutenant Commander in Earthforce. I do not take demands. I consider requests.”
Major Kesser: “Very well, then. I request you to open a channel to Earth Dome.”
Ivonova: “Request denied. Have a nice day.
