Like most shows, especially in the era of 22 episode seasons, not every episode can be a winner.  Babylon 5 is no exception and Born to the Purple S1E3 is the first that I would consider kind of a dud. It is not a bad episode at all, but it is the first that mostly ducks serialization for a very rote plot of the week. There is some good character stuff for one person, but everything else is pretty inessential. It will not be alone, the first season has some of the episodes considered the worst in the series, and it is far from the worst, but it is a let down from the first two episodes.  As a reminder Babylon 5 is free to stream on Tubi, and is currently also streaming on Prime, if you would like to follow along.

The first scene starts in a club where Mollari is enjoying some dancers instead of discussing an upcoming treaty that involves the Narn government.  Sinclair gets to call him on it while G’Kar keeps getting distracted by the dancers.  It eventually becomes something of a running joke that G’Kar is a bit of a libertine and so his frequent glances back to the stage are at least consistent with that characterization.  Londo interrupts to demand that everyone watch a Centauri dancer called Adira come to the stage, (played by Fabiana Udenio who would go on to more fame in the first Austin Powers film).  In a rare moment of détente between G’Kar and Londo they both agree that being a horn dog is the best. 

The moment gets ruined by Ko D’ath, the first of a rotating cast of aides for G’Kar. Played by Mary Woronov, she makes an impression by immediately tossing a drunken human that hits on her, and G’Kar ushers her out of the club.

Before credits Londo finds Adira in his quarters and apparently has never heard of the honey pot, but that lapse will lead to the A-plot of the episode so we all just kind of have to shrug and conclude that he is kind of dumb about this.  

Garibaldi gets the B-plot rolling when he finds a mysterious communication anomaly.  Sinclair does not seem concerned and goes back to get yelled at by G’Kar.  Vir doesn’t seem concerned that Londo is late, distracted as he is by a fancy space TIGER game.  Talia takes the opportunity for a break and a chance to explain that telepaths can be overwhelmed by strong emotions.  Sinclair is sympathetic but remains hopeful that she can help all parties reach a treaty. 

Londo and Adira engage in some pillow talk about titles, before she has to slip out and Londo gets to yell at Vir a bit.  We get a bit about Centauri culture from the exchange, concerning the importance of position and title, but that is about it. 

Garibaldi is still hunting down the B plot, and Ivanova is pretty much dismissive from the jump. Garibaldi gets a bit whiny talking about the breach of security and moves on. 

Londo apparently is in a great mood afterwards, even complimenting  Ko D’ath and Vir, before the scene shifts to show the other shoe dropping.  Adira is chasing after Londo’s “purple files”on behalf of her enslaver.  Trakis gets to threaten her with a scifi glove and explain a bit more about Centauri culture of competition between noble houses.  The show had earlier asked us to sympathize with the Centauri Republic as a nation in decline beset by the Narns, but now we learn that they are a Machiavellian society of nobles that also never outlawed slavery. 

Londo treats Adira to some cheap flower props, then gives her a priceless family relic as a gift. Whatever you can say about Londo, when he falls in love with a dancer he falls hard, even talking about how he is willing to throw away his prestige for her. 

Garibaldi reads the dumb version of a newspaper, assuming Universe Today took over from USA Today.  Funnily enough there is even a bit of a preview of a future episode in the headline. Garibaldi nearly catches the unauthorized communicator before some computer nonsense throws him off.   He ends up coming to C&C to use Ivanova’s computer and Claudia Christian plays very smug when this too does not work out for Garibaldi. 

Adira finally snaps into action, drugging Londo and using a brain scanning device to steal his passwords.  In this day and age she would have only had to send him an email with a suspicious link, but I guess the past future has people that work harder to steal information. This is also the first look we get at data crystals.  In the 90’s the future just had cooler looking disks to transfer information, and data crystals are B5’s approach.  In any case Adira gets the information but is guilty enough to leave the precious Mollari family heirloom behind.

Londo wakes up to his hangover and puts two and two together, while Adira has second thoughts.  Londo decides to send Vir into the lion’s den of the negotiations while he looks into the Adira situation.  Adira decides to flee Trakis, and it seems like the same guy that was hitting on Ko D’ath gets zapped and thrown by Trakis when he gets in the way, hitting on alien women can be a tough gig.

Trakis decides to dupe Londo into helping him look for Adira. Londo falls for it for a bit, not even asking how Trakis knows about the files.  Trakis gets to lurks long enough to plant a tracking device before Londo kicks him out.  

Vir gets to strut into the negotiation very proud of himself before G’Kar has to go and ruin it by considering Vir’s presence an insult, and storming off in a petty rage.  Sinclair leaves in a foul mood of his own before Londo begs him for unofficial help in finding Adira.  After a spot of diplomatic blackmail, they are off, Londo in a Centauri cloak, and Sinclair in what looks like an American Civil War costume for some reason. 

Things move pretty briskly with Sinclair and Londo getting an easy lead on Adira’s whereabouts, before getting waylaid by some very 90’s looking scifi mercenaries who loudly announce that Adira has been captured by Trakis before leaving.  

We check in on Garibaldi and Ivanova long enough to get a scene from a very different plot, as Garibaldi manages to catch his gremlin.  Turns out it was Ivanova all along, abusing her authority and access to communicate with her dying father.  This is a pretty heavy scene for episode three, but Claudia Christian does a good job of selling it, even though we as the audience don’t really know her that well, and it reveals a bit more about her character, to us and to Garibaldi who looks suitably uncomfortable about listening in. 

Londo and Sinclair rope Talia Winters into their unofficial sting operation even though she is clear that there are rules for telepaths. They also use G’Kar as a front so that they can get Talia and Trakis at the same table where she manages to very easily bait him into thinking of where he is holding Adira. Londo takes great pleasure in rubbing it in to G’Kar.  

Garibaldi does the decent thing for Ivanova, playing dumb but also managing to warn her off abusing the communications system, and offering to buy her a drink.  She rebuffs him almost reflexively before softening somewhat and asking for a rain check. 

Londo gives Adira her freedom, the family heirloom and lets her leave.  I guess that’s love, or as close as Londo can get to it.  

The Good

• The Ivanova scene with her father is touching and gives us a peek into one of the more reserved characters on the show, one that we have not gotten to spend much time with yet.
• Vir and Ko D’ath both getting immediately undercut by their bosses with “Don’t give away the homeworld” is silly but I always liked it. G’Kar and Londo don’t seem like particularly cool dudes to work for.
• We get to learn a little bit more about the mess that is the Centauri Republic, which extends to the weird fact that men have massive hair and women shave theirs.  

The Bad

• N’Grath makes another appearance, the crew is clearly trying to find a way to shoot him that does not make him look like something you could pick up at Lowes for Halloween, but they are unsuccessful.
• Much of the main plot centers around a pretty classic but still sexist plot of the woman spy falling for the mark.  
• Michael O’Hare’s acting is a little all over the place in this episode.  I don’t know the filming order but I do know that he started to crack under the strain of being the lead pretty quickly. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Another thing that sours this episode for me is the knowledge that Adira is dropped as a character until they need to bring her back just to fridge her.  They could have just as easily brought her back to be disgusted by Londo and his choices. 
• G’Kar is almost a comic relief character in this episode, something that Katsulas manages to sell pretty well, but a far cry from where the character ends up.  
• The constant shifting of houses in the Centauri Republic will come up again.
• Vir gets a nice confidence boost in this episode.  Londo probably does not realize that with a few positive comments he has accidentally set Vir on a path that will one day lead to Emperor Vir. 
• This also brings Ivanova and Garibaldi closer which is a fun pairing.  The gold channel thing is not brought up again until several seasons later, where Ivanova of all people makes an announcement to the EarthForce staff that the Gold Channel is not to be abused for personal business, a fun tiny call back to this episode. 
• As much as I mock Londo for falling for Adira, it is part of his character even in later episodes and something he has done before as a much younger man, even though that relationship also ended with regrets for poor old Londo.