Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Conflicts of Interest” Garibaldi gets his first assignment from his new employer, while Ivanova makes preparations for her first broadcast… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on November 24, 2025 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Conflicts of Interest”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by David J. EagleSeason 4, Episode 12Production episode 412Original air date: May 5, 1997 It was the dawn of the third age… Garibaldi’s meeting with a client is interrupted by another client. Garibaldi excuses the former and talks to the latter, a man named Ben, who is apparently at the end of his rope with frustration over how long it’s taking Garibaldi to find his daughter. When Ben finishes ranting and raving, Garibaldi tells him to turn around, at which point he sees his daughter. As an added bonus, Garibaldi also gives the financially strapped Ben a reduced fee, one that barely covers his expenses, saying that seeing this reunion was payment enough. We see Wade watching this tableau, and he and a confederate decide that it’s about time Garibaldi got his first assignment, to see if he can handle this gig. If he can’t, well, he’s expendable… Sheridan summons Allan to his office. Despite his resignation, Garibaldi has yet to turn in his identicard, his link, or his weapon, all of which is required by station regulations. Allan hasn’t forced the issue because he assumes the chief is coming back to work eventually, but Sheridan is less sanguine about that, and also doesn’t like the company Garibaldi is keeping. Franklin and Cole have returned from Mars. While Cole is reporting to Sheridan, Franklin goes to the War Room to check out its conversion to a studio for the Voice of the Resistance. Ivanova says they’ve got everything they need but a power source. The station’s power can transmit to this sector, but to go properly interstellar they need a huge power source. Franklin reminds her of the planet they’re orbiting, which includes a Great Machine that is hugely powerful, and which they’ve used to transmit big-ass messages, and which Ivanova herself has already been plugged into once. Ivanova, rather than admit that she brain-farted and totally forgot about Epsilon III, instead suggests Epsilon III as if Franklin never said anything. Franklin, who values his life, agrees that it’s a brilliant idea and he wishes he thought of it. Allan asks Garibaldi for his stuff back. Garibaldi has no problem handing over the identicard—he’s already got a new one that reflects his status as a civilian—and the link—which always annoyed him, especially the way it ripped out the hairs on the back of his hand—but he refuses to turn over his PPG. Allan insists, especially since he is licensed to get one of his own, but that one is military issue—as is his backup weapon, which Allan also insists on taking. Garibaldi is incredibly snotty to Allan on the subject, especially when Allan says he couldn’t refuse the order. Garibaldi counters Allan could too have refused it, but Allan says then Sheridan just would’ve sent someone else. Garibaldi replies that at least then he wouldn’t have had to face Allan doing it, which is a cheap shot. Later, Garibaldi is eating dinner and watching the “Duck Amuck” episode of Looney Tunes when Wade stops by with a job for him—one that wouldn’t be appropriate for regular working hours. He wants to sneak someone onto the station without any record of his arrival or departure to pick up a sensitive package—which will involve pulling the wool over the eyes of his former staff. Garibaldi, still pissed at Allan for taking his stuff, agrees. Ivanova arrives on Epsilon III and is shocked to be greeted by Zathras. It turns out that, even though he looks, sounds, and talks the same as the Zathras she met previously, it isn’t the same one—as he went back in time with Sinclair/Valen. Turns out it’s his brother, Zathras. There are ten Zathrases (Zathri?)—well, nine now—and he offers, after many many digressions, including the rather disturbing revelation that he eats bugs, to hook Ivanova up. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Sheridan meets with Mollari and G’Kar. The latter is extremely reluctant to be in the same room as the former, but the captain insists. He tells them about the strikes along the borders of the non-aligned worlds, and he wants the Rangers to patrol those areas and provide humanitarian aid. It’ll be a much easier sell if the Narn and Centauri agree to the same support. They’re both reluctant, as it will be seen as a power play on Sheridan’s part, plus the Narn and Centauri don’t need the help. But Sheridan says it will make a huge symbolic difference. Wade and Garibaldi sneak the person on board, using a second identicard that Garibaldi has and didn’t give to Allan. However, it’s not Garibaldi’s would-be client, rather it’s his wife, as he himself was unable to make the trip. To Garibaldi’s abject shock, the wife in question is his old flame Lise, who is introduced by Wade as Lise Hampton-Edgars. They go to Garibaldi’s quarters to catch up. Lise divorced Franz after she found out he was cheating, but because judges always favor Earth natives like him over Mars natives like her, he got everything, including sole custody of their child, whom she anticipates she’ll never see again. She married her new husband, Bill, not long after. Garibaldi is appalled that she didn’t come to him when her marriage blew up, but she said he seemed happy on B5, happier than she’d ever seen him, and she didn’t want to mess that up for him with her miserable circumstances. Then Garibaldi puts two and two together, and realizes that husband Bill must be William Edgars, one of the richest people on Mars, at which point Garibaldi realizes she traded up. Allan gets a report on security, which includes an unauthorized entry made by “Security Chief Michael Garibaldi.” Allan is pissed and has the computer cut off any access to Garibaldi the security chief. Garibaldi, Wade, and Lise meet with the contact in downbelow, a guy named Mark. Mark has something in an isoblock, a high-tech container that’s damn near impossible to break into, and which is usually used to transport restricted biotech. Apparently there’s a genetic flaw in telepaths and the stuff in the isoblock is the starting point for research in how to fix that flaw. While Mark and Lise discuss the exchange, Garibaldi notices suspicious folks milling about. The suspicious folks turn out to be after Mark, and a firefight ensues. Mark is killed, but Garibaldi is able to get away with Wade and Lise. However, he accidentally traps them when he discovers that his clearances no longer work. He has them climb through the ductwork, sending them ahead while he stays behind to deal with the pursuers. However, it becomes clear to Garibaldi that their foes are telepaths, so he tells them that they’re going to Docking Bay 3, and to just keep that thought in their heads. He then leads them to a crowded corridor nowhere near Docking Bay 3, grabs a security guard, tells him to tell Allan to take a squad to Docking Bay 3. Then he tells Wade to get Lise to Brown 14, where there’s a guy who can whip up fake identicards for them. Allan and a squad arrive at Docking Bay 3 to find two very surprised telepaths. However, as they’re being arrested, they crack cyanide capsules in fake teeth and die, with “To the future!” being their last words. A very pissed-off Sheridan meets with a very cranky Garibaldi. Sheridan is not happy about the dead bodies and all the crimes Garibaldi has committed. Garibaldi—who unconvincingly insists he has no idea why his clients were fired upon—is not happy about having his clearance revoked just in time to be trapped. Sheridan makes it clear that if anything like this happens again, Sheridan will revoke his business license. Later, Garibaldi gets a personal message from Lise (identified as Lise Hampton, not Lise Hampton-Edgars). Garibaldi deletes it without listening to it. The next morning, he gets a direct voice call from William Edgars himself, who offers to put him on retainer, though it will mean eventually coming to Mars. Garibaldi accepts. Now having access to power from Epsilon III, the Voice of the Resistance has its first broadcast, with Ivanova declaring that the truth is back in business. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan is at the end of his rope with Garibaldi, and he’s trying very hard to keep the coalition of nations together in the wake of the Shadow War and in the shadow (ahem) of the Drakh threat. Ivanova is God. Ivanova rather dopily forgets about the possibility of using Epsilon III as a power source, and for her sins, has to put up with Zathras. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi obviously has a major blind spot against Sheridan, as he acts mostly reasonably except when dealing with Sheridan or his orders. In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari gets one of more bitterly amusing lines when he says, “As much as it may astonish everyone in this room, I agree with G’Kar.” Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar and Mollari both express concern that Sheridan’s using the Rangers to ostensibly maintain the peace along the borders of worlds being threatened by the Drakh and other Shadow allies could be interpreted as a grab for power—which is why Sheridan wants them on his side, of course… We live for the one, we die for the one. The Rangers’ purpose after the last Shadow War was to be on the lookout for the Shadows’ return. That ain’t happening now, but Sheridan needs them to have a new function. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. It’s obvious that Lise and Garibaldi still have feelings for each other, but it’s also obvious that Garibaldi is not going to let himself get sucked into that quagmire again, especially now that she’s married to a rich dude for whom Garibaldi is working. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Welcome aboard. Back from “Babylon Squared” is Denise Gentile as Lise, and back from “Racing Mars” is Mark Schneider as Wade. They’ll both be back in “The Exercise of Vital Powers.” Back from “War Without End, Part 2” is Tim Choate, this time as Zathras, as opposed to his prior appearance as Zathras; Choate will return in a different role in Crusade’s “The Rules of the Game.” Charles Walker plays Ben, Ebony Monique Solomon plays Ben’s daughter, and Richard S. Horvitz plays Mark. And we hear the (uncredited) voice of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Edgars. We’ll hear his voice again in “Moments of Transition” before he finally appears on camera (and is credited) in “The Exercise of Vital Powers.” Trivial matters. The Drakh attacks on border worlds was established in “Lines of Communication.” We don’t find out if the Narn and Centauri agree to Sheridan’s proposal in this episode—that answer won’t come until next time in “Rumors, Bargains, and Lies.” The serum that Lise is given is not what everyone here says it is, as we’ll learn in “The Face of the Enemy.” John Schuck was performing on Broadway, and so was unavailable to appear as Draal, as the script originally called for. Tim Choate was available however, so they brought Zathras back, kind of. The conversation between Ivanova and Zathras was done as one continuous four-and-a-half-minute shot with no breaks, and was nailed on the first take by Choate and Claudia Christian. The echoes of all of our conversations. “But only Zathras have no one to talk to. No one manages poor Zathras, you see. So Zathras talks to dirt, or to walls, or talks to ceilings. But dirt is closer. Dirt is used to everyone walking on it—just like Zathras. But we have come to like it—it is our role, it is our destiny in the universe. So, you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. And Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet.” —Zathras, rolling. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “If you’re going to wait for the universe to start making sense, you’ll have a long wait ahead of you.” Back when I started this rewatch with “The Gathering,” I described Garibaldi as, “a walking, talking cliché of the maverick cop,” and man, he embodies that in this episode, except now he’s the embittered ex-cop working as a PI. He’s pretty much a Dashiell Hammett character transported to the twenty-third century, and J. Michael Straczynski leaves no cliché unwritten as we follow Garibaldi’s little odyssey here. We’ve got it all! The opening bit to show he has a heart of gold. The pretty woman from the PI’s past who’s with another man now, who happens to be the client. The PI’s antagonistic relationship with his ex-colleagues in the police EarthForce. The big shootout. The unexpected complication. We’ve even got crawling around in unconvincingly clean and spacious ductwork! The one thing that might have mitigated this tired cliché-fest would’ve been some indication of the mind-control that Garibaldi is obviously under, but aside from his overinflated crankiness toward Sheridan, that doesn’t really play a role here. Indeed, we’re not even reminded of it, which means that we have nothing to mitigate Garibaldi being an asshole. His not turning in his weapon, link, or identicard is inexcusable. After all, the last time he resigned—in “In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum”—he turned in his link and weapon. For him to get mad at Allan for following procedure is, to say the least, dickish. Plus, allowing military-issue weapons to remain in the hands of a civilian is asking for trouble, which Garibaldi knows full well as the former chief of security. And yes, a lot of this is related to whatever was done to him between “Z’ha’dum” and “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” But it still makes it hard to sympathize with his troubles, and since those troubles take up the majority of the episode, it makes it hard to care about it overall. Next week: “Rumors, Bargains, and Lies”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Conflicts of Interest” appeared first on Reactor.