After the absolute emotional body blows of “Confessions and Lamentations” and “The Long Twilight Struggle” you would think we would be in for a bit of a break, but “Divided Loyalties” piles on.  The stakes are lowered somewhat from entire planets being destroyed to some cloak and dagger stuff with the command staff, but the emotional hit is still a sizable one. 

The episode opens with a cutesy scene that dates the show hard.  Sheridan and Delenn chat a bit while they exchange their paper newspapers for new copies at a kiosk.  You can even tell the computer to customize your newspaper, futuristic!  Delenn complains about the intrusiveness of the press, and then the machine embarrasses her by letting her know it cant put her standard “Eye on Minbari” section.  This bit of light hearted fun is quickly followed by a desperate chase through the sewers of Mars, as a dying informant lets a ranger know that the people on Babylon 5 are in danger.  

Back from the credits and Garibaldi and Sheridan are having an awkward conversation in the men’s room.  Garibaldi sweeps for bugs, and the two have a conversation about bringing Talia Winters into their conspiracy against President Clark.  

Meanwhile Talia and Ivanova’s relationship is continuing to deepen, as they have a friendly breakfast, and Ivanova invites Talia to stay with her while her quarters are fixed.  Ivanova gets pulled to an errand when a beat up ship comes through the gate.  She has the ship pulled into the station, and met by Garibaldi and Franklin.  Garibaldi is astonished to see that the unconscious pilot is Lyta Alexander, the station’s previous telepath.  

Garibaldi fills Sheridan in on Lyta’s history with Kosh, and with Earth.  While he is doing that Lyta wakes up in MedLab with Franklin and starts ranting about there being a traitor among the station’s personnel.  She explains that there is a Psi-Corps sleeper agent known as “Control” that is buried within the mind of someone on the staff.  Lyta also lets them know that she can trigger the spy with a telepathic command.  Ivanova in particular thinks that the whole situation is bullshit, and she also refuses to let anyone connect with her telepathically. 

Delenn and Sheridan get another nice little scene, where they have a small misunderstanding concerning the English language and it also appears that their relationship is also continuing to develop.  And speaking of relationships, Ivanova and Talia have a sit down with each other in Ivanova’s quarters.  Ivanova gently probes Talia for information on Lyta Alexander, but does not really get anything useful.  

Garibaldi decides to have Zack transfer Lyta to a better cell, and while that happens we get a quick shot of Lyta waking up in the middle of the night to find Ivanova missing from bed.  However Zack hands off the job to two other security officers, and they get ambushed in the dark and Lyta makes a run for it.  Other security officers start looking for her, but Lyta gives them the slip and keeps hiding.  Sheridan is appropriately furious about the attack, mostly because the attack proves that Lyta was telling the truth. Ivanova objects once again to Lyta sending something into her mind. Later she runs into Talia, and they talk about the night before, and Ivanova confesses that she has hidden things from everyone.  

Lyta reaches out to Delenn as one of the few other people on the station that she feels she can trust.  Delenn runs off to Sheridan and lets him know that she has information on Lyta and she agrees to act as a go between.  Sheridan then moves straight to encountering Ivanova waiting in his quarters.  Ivanova explains that her objection to Lyta’s plan centers on her past with her mother, and the fact that Ivanova is technically a latent telepath.  It was drilled into her as a child to never tell anyone, and her mother kept her moving around to avoid the Psi-Corps.  There are elements of racial “passing” here, right down to Ivanova having a hard time telling even people she trusts.  There is a brief moment as well when Ivanova’s confession triggers Sheridan’s memory of a dream he had way back in “All Alone in the Night”. 

Everyone gathers for Lyta to administer the code word.  Ivanova refuses, and Sheridan allows it, saying they have plenty of other people to test. Garibaldi cant resist messing with anyone when it his turn.  What follows is a montage of people coming into Sheridan’s office and then getting dismissed (including Zack and Corwin).  As they whittle down the list of people, suspicion mounts against Ivanova.  Everyone starts to argue as Ivanova keeps refusing, and she eventually relents and allows Lyta in.  When she is clear, everyone relaxes until Talia comes in hoping to speak to Sheridan.  Lyta sends the password and Talia quickly goes for Garibaldi’s gun and tries to kill Lyta.  She gets pulled out of the room ranting about how the Corps will find and kill Lyta.  

The command staff debrief later in Sheridan’s quarters.  They discuss how shocked they are, and then Garibaldi remembers that Kosh may have been on to Talia the whole time, from when he had someone take imprints of her mind.  Ivanova goes to Talia to try and reach her normal self, but Control taunts her that Talia is gone forever.  Ivanova is clearly devastated by the loss of someone she was becoming close to, and she leaves.  

Lyta makes a quick visit to Kosh before she leaves the station.  She lets Kosh know that she kept his secrets, and she begs to be able to see his true self again, and he relents though we dong get to see it ourselves, all we get is light and the sound of beating wings. 

Next week we get another smaller stakes episode that is also rough to watch, in “Comes the Inquisitor”.  Babylon 5 was ahead of the 00’s curve, having a whole episode devoted to torture all the way back in 1995.

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

Where do I know them from?

• Patricia Tallman has had a long career in stunt work and showing up in the background of shows(including ST:TNG). For me the biggest thing I remember her doing aside from Babylon 5, was Tom Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead, where she played Barbara.

The Good

• The lower galactic stakes in this one dovetail nicely with the very personal plot of having a traitor in their midst, especially for Ivanova.
• Patricia Tallman got a chance to come back after being in the pilot and she does a fine job.

The Bad

• This probably would have been a more impactful episode if Andrea Thompson had been in more episodes this season.
• A very Earth centric episode means that we do not get any more from Londo and G’Kar who have been having an outstanding run of episodes. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Talia never comes back, even though there was a plan for it.  According to JMS the information Kosh collected was essentially a backup of her mind, and they were going to be able to use that, combined with the technology that lets them do the death of personality to bring her back.  However Andrea Thompson wanted nothing more to do with the show so he moved elements of her plot onto Lyta Alexander.
• Even more crazy is that the whole traitor plot was originally meant for the character that Ivanova took the place of.  Lt.Cmdr Takashima would have been the one to shoot Garibaldi, and then been eventually revealed as Control.  As it stands it feels like we got a very watered down version of how shocking that would have been. 
• In a nod to continuity Delenn is dictating that she does not want to enter into an agreement with the Lumati, the hyper-racist race that uses sex to seal contracts.  Wonder why?
• This episode on Tubi is episode 20, and originally it was episode 19.  This is the only time where the switch leads to some errors.  Delenn talks with Sheridan about getting food to Narn, but Narn has fallen and is completely blockaded by the Centauri at this point.  Also in this episode they have the “butt” conversation and she appears to reference that conversation in the previous episode before she starts swearing.