Finally we get to the last of my “always skip” trilogy, Survivors.  On paper this episode would not be too bad. Getting an episode to focus on the backstory of one of our main cast is essential in Season 1, and so far we have managed to get bits and pieces about Ivanova, Sinclair, and Franklin.  This is Garibaldi’s time to shine, and frankly Jerry Doyle is just not really up to the challenge as an actor.  I like the character of Garibaldi, but Doyle really only excels when he plays him as an asshole cop.  He doesn’t have the chops to show vulnerability and this episode suffers for it.

We drop into the episode with some helpful newscaster exposition about an upcoming presidential visit.  Despite how conservative and shady Earth is, the president is apparently pushing for Earth to be more open, even as he delivers more weapons to a diplomatic station.  As a quick aside I really like that out of all the bit players one of the ones that was able to recur almost every season is the newscaster, played by Maggie Egan.  Just a bit of background flavor that they were able to make consistent.

Ivanova and Garibaldi are making their way through the low gravity area in the center of the station and complaining about the visit and the secrecy surrounding it.  Garibaldi continues his complaints, whereas Ivanova accepts the situation for what it is with Russian stoicism.  As they get closer to the bay undergoing renovation there is an explosion felt all across the station.

Franklin busily treats one of the survivors of the explosion as Sinclair looks on. Garibaldi leans toward an accident.  They are interrupted by a request from the President’s security detail for a briefing.  Garibaldi is shocked to find that the head of the detail is someone he used to know when she was a child, and he does not look all that eager to meet up with her again.  When they walk in it is clear that Major Lianna Kemmer, played by Elaine Thomas, is also not thrilled at the reunion.  She quickly demands that Garibaldi be taken off the investigation and that her people take over. 

Garibaldi agrees but leaves in a huff.  Sinclair tries to calm him down but he is interrupted by G’Kar complaining about the seating arrangements.  While he distracts Sinclair, Garibaldi catches a pickpocket and gets extra rough with him during the arrest.  I guess police are police no matter the century or location. Sinclair breaks it up and calms him down.  They sit at a bar, and Garibaldi lays it all out.  He had been working security in an incredibly corrupt colony, where he became friends with Kemmer’s father.  Apparently Lianna used to call him Uncle Mike.  Organized crime in the colony decided to kill her father, and arranged for the blame to fall on Garibaldi.  

Sinclair and Garibaldi get interrupted by Kemmer and her creepy sidekick Cutter, played by Tom Donaldson, basically committing murder by reviving the lone survivor of the explosion.  The man indicates that Garibaldi planted the bomb before he dies.  Kemmer takes this as absolute proof and demands that Garibaldi be suspended immediately.  Kemmer piles on after the suspension and seizes and searches Garibaldi’s quarters.  As he tries to have a heart to heart with her about her father, Cutter comes bounding up with schematics of the launch bays and a bag of Centauri currency that they found in Garibaldi’s quarters.  Instead of waiting around to see how things can get worse, Garibaldi decides to make them worse himself, kicking Cutter and running off.  

Kemmer puts out a fugitive alert for Garibaldi, but Ivanova and Sinclair force her to back down for the moment.  Both of them realize that it is only a matter of time before she goes over their heads.  

Garibaldi, despite not having quarters, manages to change into civvies and go find Londo.  Since Centauri currency was planted in his quarters he goes right to the source.  Londo is unimpressed by the accusation, and blames G’Kar.  Londo even goes out of his way to help Garibaldi.  Londo claims that this is simply from his sympathy for Garibaldi’s dire straits.  

G’kar receives Garibaldi calmly, having already guessed he would be the next stop based on the reports of his own spies around the station.  He claims that every ambassador is always spying on every other ambassador but that may just be a bit of paranoid projection on his part.  G’Kar then segues into attempting to recruit Garibaldi as an agent for his government.  I forgot that one of my favorite G’Kar quotes is in such a lackluster episode “The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter and enlightened self-interest”.  Garibaldi turns him down and runs back out into the hall.

I thought for sure he was done for, but this episode features the return of N’Grath! Garibaldi comes to him for some fake documents, and the big bug is smart enough to flatly refuse to provide the head of security with illegal documents.  Presidential Security catches sight of him in the hallway and starts shooting, before he gives them the slip.  

This leads to the scene that kind of lays out some of my problems with the whole first season.  This episode aired May 4, 1994, but the action, the music and the sets still scream 1980’s.  It makes the whole show feel a decade older than it should, and scenes like this absurd fight between Garibaldi, the alien pickpocket and friends, feels like it got ripped straight out of a Cannon film.  For some reason he finds himself in a room with chains, and bad guys use the chains to enter the scene.  I guess it gives Sinclair a way to come in as the hero.  They talk briefly before Garibaldi gives him the slip as he has to go deal with an angry general. 

Garibaldi washes up in a dingy bar somewhere in the bowels of the station. All of the significant looks at drinks, and all of the long pauses before he refuses drinks finally reach a pay off.  Garibaldi gets completely drunk, staggers out of the bar and is captured by Kemmer and her people. As he is dragged away Cutter, in a completely not suspicious way at all, requests permission to go inspect the bays again.  Gee I wonder if he is up to something.

Kemmer starts interrogating Garibaldi, before getting interrupted by Lou Welch, one of Babylon 5’s recurring security officers played by David L. Crowley.  Sinclair ordered him to search the dead man’s quarters and they found Home Guard literature and blasting caps. Both of them quickly come to the realization that Nelson had been planting a bomb that had prematurely detonated.  Turns out that Home Guard wants to kill the President because he is looking to reform immigration to Earth and make it easier.  

Kemmer and Garibaldi go to search the bays for bombs themselves and Cutter reveals himself as a Home Guard agent that took advantage of the confusion after the first bombing to frame Garibaldi for the second bombing.  After a short tussle Garibaldi manages to warn Ivanova in the nick of time.  

Garibaldi gets patched up, but rejects any congratulations for his work.  He explains to Sinclair that he is ashamed that the situation and the stress caused him to start drinking again.  Sinclair reassures him that he came through in the end.  Garibaldi meets up with Lianna who is wearing her hair down now that she is no longer angry.  They forgive each other and she walks off into the sunset.  

Next week the streak is broken with a union episode! As a bonus the B plot features Londo and G’Kar squaring off over the import of exotic plants.  You do not want to miss S1E12 “By Any Means Necessary”.

As always, a reminder that you can watch the episodes on Amazon Prime, and on Tubi which has the same amount of ads but is subscription free.

The Good

• Ivanova gets to do a few badass things this episode that are also petty which is fun.
• We do get some more exploration of Garibaldi’s alcoholism, something that is a strong theme for him throughout the show.
• I always like when they show the core shuttle, even if they never really had the budget to do it properly. A fun reminder that if you are in the middle of the spinning station there is no gravity. 

The Bad

• Weak performances from Doyle and the guest stars.
• No real plot arc significance in this episode, and no real B plot to at least salvage something from the episode.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Garibaldi’s alcoholism is brought up explicitly here, and it will keep getting referenced before becoming a major part of the dire Season 5.  
• The President is trying his best to create an open Earth society that cooperates with their neighbors.  This runs against most of what we can glean about Earth society in most of the episodes, and this conflict will spell big trouble for poor President Santiago.