Product placement is one of those crappy parts of television and film.  It was something that greatly offended me as a young show watcher.  When I got older I learned to live with it if it meant a show I liked could limp on for a bit longer (looking at you Fringe).  This is the most egregious example of it in Babylon 5, one that its cited by all the fans as terrible. Though JMS insists that they were not paid, they just needed any newish motorcycle that they could tear apart and Kawasaki had a relationship with the network. 

The product placement in question is the first thing we see, even if we dont quite know it yet.  Garibaldi is putting together a motorcycle when Lennier interrupts to request a stronger security detail for Shal Mayan when she returns to the station, and I appreciate the call back to the earlier episode.  Once Garibaldi explains what he is building, through a clunky sales pitch, Lennier is entranced and asks to help build it.  

From that light hearted scene we shift to sinister music and a pair of men looking at Ivanova’s file.  One of the men is the great Jeffrey Combs himself, while the other is played by Gregory Martin.  They reference beginning something, and it is all very mysterious. 

Back from the credits, and the command staff are in the middle of a briefing about terrorist attacks on Phobos.  Garibaldi mentions a group called Free Mars, and Sinclair mentions that there are other terrorist groups operating to secure Martian independence.  The government is concerned that Babylon 5 might be used as a way station in weapons smuggling to those movements, and they want arms sales to be more tightly watched. 

The sinister man with the scar meanwhile is pestering a security officer with questions about the station and its officers.  He is suspicious enough that Officer Lou Welch (a great recurring security officer) decides to call it in.  Garibaldi responds to the casino and starts investigating the man, going by the name Aaron Franks. Franks quickly gives up the game and instead introduces himself as Colonel Ari Ben Zayn from Earthforce Intelligence(EI) known as “Eyes”.  He and his associate, a telepath who didnt get a cover name, are on the station to do an internal investigation of the station and its command staff. 

Sinclair is irritated by the colonel’s snooping around and Ivanova is enraged when the the colonel mentions that new regulations let him use his telepath associate as part of loyalty checks.  Sinclair cools things down by promising to examine the new regulations personally.  Ben Zayn then decides to be more of an asshole by stealing Garibaldi and adding him to his investigation staff.  

Garibaldi leads the colonel and Gray to quarters and insists that this investigation is a waste of time, and gets sent on an errand.  Lennier intercepts him to talk about the motorcycle, and Garibaldi lets him have access to his quarters to work on the bike.  

Gray decides to reach out to Ivanova, and she rebuffs him very hard.  Gray tries to relate to her by telling her of his own frustrated military service ambitions, thought Ivanova does not give a shit and dismisses him.

The colonel is being his usual irritating self while reviewing the security files with Garibaldi who is pretty much done with all of it. He seems pretty focused on Sinclair.  Garibaldi goes to inform Sinclair, and in another nod to continuity mentions nearly every crisis that the station has encountered in the past few months.  He also mentions a litany of domestic problems affecting the Earth Alliance.  

Ivanova gets treated to a creepy dream about her mother, which prompts her to go to Sinclair to resign from Earthforce.  She lets him know that she cannot allow herself to be scanned by the Psi-Corps.  Sinclair rejects her resignation and lets her know that he has studied the regulations and has found a loophole.  

Before Sinclair comes into the interview room, Ben Zayn name drops Bester in order to goad Gray into doing an illegal scan.  Sinclair interrupts and uses the rules to get out of telepathic scans.  Even Gray agrees with Sinclair’s interpretation, and it is clear that the colonel is pretty pissed off. 

Gray, having been dismissed from the interview, goes and decides to bother Ivanova again.  He mentions that enjoyed seeing the colonel get out maneuvered by Sinclair.  Gray accidentally scans Ivanova and is surprised that she can feel it.  He makes the brilliant move of bringing up her dead telepath mother, and Ivanova explodes on him. 

Ivanova tries to reach the commander during the interview, and is given the brush off by Ben Zayn.  Sinclair decides to end things and Ben Zayn relieves him of command and takes over Babylon 5.  Now that he is in charge he lets everyone know that he plans on bringing the telepath back into the investigation. Ben Zayn also lets Ivanova that she will be scanned and she leaves the command deck in a rage.

Sinclair reaches out to his chain of command for help and they meekly tell him that they wont be able to help him until much later.  Garibaldi swings by to let Sinclair know that the situation is a setup.  Ben Zayn was also considered for command of Babylon 5, and was a top finalist before he was passed over in favor of Sinclair. Bester and Ben Zayn are good friends, and he pulled some strings to get the investigation going as revenge.  Before they can finish discussing it, Garibaldi has to run off to get control of Ivanova who is busily beating the shit out of half of the casino.  

Sinclair shows up early and plants some ideas into Gray’s head about the nature of Ben Zayn’s investigation, before Ben Zayn shows up to start things off.  Sinclair then easily baits Ben Zayn into a raged filled confession that culminates with him pulling a gun on everyone.  With a little help from Gray’s powers they are able to knock him out and send him packing. 

Lennier meanwhile has used the crisis as an opportunity to completely finish constructing the motorcycle to Garibaldi’s dismay, as he has now lost his hobby project.  Lennier is apologetic but he shows off that he has made the motorcycle rideable with an alien power source in place of gasoline.  They take it for a joyride in one of Babylon 5’s weirder episode endings.

As always, a reminder that you can watch the episodes on Tubi with ads.  

Next week we get an episode written by the great DC Fontana, “Legacies”.  A pretty good episode that fleshes out how telepaths are treated on other worlds, and introduces a great recurring character in Neroon. 

The Good

• JEFFREY COMBS! For once in scifi he is playing a pretty normal and pleasant character as well, which feels like a missed opportunity given how good he is at smarmy and megalomaniacal in other roles.
• For what amounts nearly to a bottle episode the plot isnt half bad and it does a good job of reinforcing continuity by having the investigation be because of previous episodes even as it references them. 
• Nice to see the continued expansion of Ivanova’s character. 

The Bad

• Martin is a little over the top, but I suppose you could argue that fits his character who is supposed to be dangerously unstable.   
• The whole motorcycle plot was bad enough, but the ending with the badly CGed bike racing down the corridor is just the worst. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Lots of stuff big and small here that will show up later.  Telepaths mostly avoiding military service, “peekaboo”, as a password, even the allegation that interpreting regulations for a superior officer can count as insubordination. 
• Pretty depressing that Ben Zayn name drops Israel and New Jerusalem as some of the places he has had to fight in his career. JMS indicated that New Jerusalem is a colony world that apparently also has problems with violence.
• I think this is the first indication that telepaths have more abilities than simply reading thoughts, when Gray uses his ability to make Ben Zayn feel pain with a thought.
• Free Mars and tensions on Mars are brought up in this episode. That will become more important in a few weeks and will even pop up in the next season as well.
• Famously Bill Mumy is chanting the name of one of his group’s albums, much to the eventual irritation of JMS.