Babylon 5 Rewatch: “The Ragged Edge” - Reactor

“The Ragged Edge”
Written by J. Michael Staczynski
Directed by John Copeland
Season 5, Episode 12
Production episode 513
Original air date: April 8, 1998

It was the dawn of the third age… Sheridan is furiously signing copies of treaties for the member worlds of the IA. Unfortunately, the conference room is empty: the representatives of the IA member worlds are boycotting all meetings until their shipping lines’ security can be guaranteed.

We cut to an Earth ship, Red Star 9, which is being attacked and destroyed, but a lifepod ejects with the pilot.

Mollari and G’Kar return from Centauri Prime. G’Kar is confused as to why he’s receiving so much positive attention from his fellow Narns. They are bowing to him and treating him with an impressive reverence. Ta’Lon is awaiting him at his cabin, and he explains what’s going on as they catch up: concern over his traveling to Centauri Prime led to Narns on the station breaking into his quarters and taking possession of his (unfinished) book. And then someone—Ta’Lon isn’t sure who—had it printed. The Book of G’Kar has become a major bestseller on Narn, outstripping even The Book of G’Quan. G’Kar is mortified, both because it was done without his permission and because the book isn’t even finished yet.

Garibaldi is awakened out of a sound sleep by Allan, who wants to know why he hasn’t shown up for their meeting. Garibaldi says he slept through his alarm, though the empty booze bottle next to his bed indicates another reason.

The Rangers found the wreckage of Red Star 9, including that a lifepod is missing, which means the possibility of a witness to these attacks for the first time. However, the ship is believed to have been smuggling illegal goods for the Drazi, so neither Earth nor Drazi are likely to help with the investigation. Garibaldi, however, has a contact on the Drazi homeworld who can probably help. Sheridan authorizes him to head there, and says to take Franklin with him as backup. Garibaldi, however, says that his contact only knows Garibaldi—if someone he doesn’t know is with him, the whole thing will go sideways. So Garibaldi goes alone, after reassuring Franklin that this isn’t personal, they’re both still good friends, it’s purely a professional issue with the contact.

G’Kar, accompanied by an unwelcome entourage of Narn fangoobers, meets with Mollari in the Zocalo. The latter is highly amused by G’Kar’s new status as a celebrity.

Garibaldi arrives on Drazi and meets his contact, Tafiq Azir, at his hotel room. They seem to be old friends, and there is absolutely nothing in his demeanor that indicates that he’d have a problem with Franklin coming along for the ride. Azir says the pilot is in hiding and being sought out by the Drazi government, but Azir can set up a meet. He and Garibaldi share a drink or twelve. Garibaldi passes out, and Azir goes off to set up the meet. However, he’s shot right outside the door to Garibaldi’s room. Garibaldi wakes up slowly, and wonders where Azir is. He goes out into the hall to see a Drazi standing over Azir. They get into a fight, and Garibaldi tosses the Drazi over the balcony to fall to his death on the street. He then checks on Azir, who dies in Garibaldi’s arms. Going downstairs to meet with the pilot, Garibaldi is instead attacked by a group of hooded people, who have already killed the pilot. The Drazi authorities show up and the hooded figures beat a hasty retreat—as does a badly bruised Garibaldi, who manages to get a signal to B5 and asks Delenn to send a White Star to pick him up.

Ta’Lon talks G’Kar into speaking to the fangoobers who are assembled outside his quarters. G’Kar himself has no desire to lead or to teach, but Ta’Lon believes he has important things to convey to his fellow Narns. G’Kar reluctantly agrees and invites the fangoobers into his quarters. One of the things G’Kar says is that Narn must move past their distrust of other species. A fangoober points out that, early in the book, G’Kar says that the Centauri can’t be trusted and that Narns can only trust themselves. G’Kar points out that that was early in the book, and time has changed that particular occasion. (This is what happens when people publish first drafts…) G’Kar demonstrates why fundamentalism toward his text is a bad idea, as he tells the fangoober to put his face directly into the book—and then G’Kar closes the book violently on his nose, by way of demonstrating that implicitly trusting all Narns isn’t what should be read from that text.

Garibaldi reports to Sheridan, Delenn, Franklin, and G’Kar about what happened on Drazi. He got a small gold disc off one of his attackers, but he doesn’t recognize it. He does know that the ones who attacked him weren’t Drazi, and they were waiting for Garibaldi specifically. They have a leak.

Mollari finally shows up, apologizing for being late, and also recognizes the disc as being a button that is worn by Centauri palace guards. When Mollari asks where Garibaldi got it, he lies and says he got it from a vendor in the Zocalo. Mollari says he got ripped off, as it’s not actually worth anything. Everyone else plays along, and once Mollari is no longer in the room, G’Kar informs them of the attempt on Mollari’s life back on Centauri Prime. If he knows that his people have betrayed the IA, it could endanger his life.

Franklin meets with Sheridan saying he’s been given a job offer. Dr. Kyle—who had Franklin’s job on B5 before he was transferred to Earth—is retiring as head of Xenobiological Research and wishes Franklin to replace him. Franklin has agreed, especially this will make it easier for him to catalogue the medical data for all IA worlds.

We close with Garibaldi passed out drunk in bed.

Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan laments that nobody told him how much of the job of president would involve paperwork.

The household god of frustration. Garibaldi’s alcoholism is directly responsible for his friend’s death.

If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn works primarily as Ranger One here, collecting their report on the destruction of Red Star 9 and rescuing Garibaldi from Drazi.

In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari laments that he used to look forward to returning home to Centauri Prime and dread going to B5, and now it’s the other way around.

Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar is now a bestselling author and unwilling celebrity authority figure, complete with devoted fan base.

We live for the one, we die for the one. The Rangers are the ones who find Red Star 9’s wreckage, thus setting the entire plot in motion.

Welcome aboard. Back from “Point of No Return” is Marshall Teague as Ta’Lon; he’ll be back in “Objects at Rest.” John Castellanos plays Azir while Mirron E. Willis plays the pilot.

Trivial matters. Kyle appeared in “The Gathering,” and was transferred to Earth some time between then and “Midnight on the Firing Line.” While the pilot movie was his only appearance, he’s been mentioned a few times since.

Ta’Lon references the speech he gave to G’Kar to convince him to stay on B5 in “A Day in the Strife.” Mollari was almost assassinated on Centauri Prime in “In the Kingdom of the Blind.”

G’Kar started writing his book in “Messages from Earth” when he was in the brig after assaulting Vir and Mollari in “Dust to Dust” and learning that Mollari has been working with Morden and his “associates.” Not surprising, therefore, that the early part of the book includes passages about not trusting the Centauri…

The echoes of all of our conversations.

“I worry, Ta’Lon, that my shadow may become greater than the message.”

“If that happens, I give you my word that I will personally kill you.”

“And this is supposed to put my mind at ease?”

—G’Kar worried about the future, and Ta’Lon not helping.

The name of the place is Babylon 5. “As Mr. Garibaldi says, I think I’ll wait for the movie.” It’s weird, there’s nothing I can point to in this episode and say, “This is bad.” Indeed, there’s a lot of good here, from the serious damage being done by Garibaldi’s alcoholism to G’Kar dealing with his newly acquired fan base. But I’m also having a hard time dredging up any enthusiasm for the episode.

Having said that, the episode is definitely well written. I particularly like the way Garibaldi is handling his alcoholism—or, rather, not handling it, but ignoring it and hoping it will go away. He also very carefully keeps Franklin at arm’s length. His excuse that Azir would balk at a person he doesn’t know being there sounds completely convincing, but it’s also total bullshit. (Credit to John Castellanos, by the way, who does an excellent job as Azir.) Garibaldi doesn’t want Franklin, a fellow addict and also a physician, to get too close for fear that Franklin will recognize that he’s fallen off the wagon the way Garibaldi saw that Franklin had succumbed to stim addiction in the past.

Watching G’Kar get groupies is a delight. It’s also good to see Marshall Teague back as Ta’Lon and dispensing wisdom as he has in prior appearances. Ta’Lon’s one of those characters I wish we’d seen more of, but what we have seen has been excellent.

And the Centauri plot moves forward, as our heroes finally learn who’s responsible for the attacks on IA ships.

Still, the episode feels like inconsequential filler, even though it’s nothing like that at all. I had high hopes that things would feel better once the Byron story had come to a merciful end and stopped sucking all the air out of the show. Maybe it’s the direction from John Copeland; it’s only his second time ever in the director’s chair, following the similarly lackluster “Endgame.”

Next week: “The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father.”