"Conflicts of Interest" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 4X12, "Conflicts of Interest". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
Garibaldi gets a new job working for William Edgars. The resistance begins their counter-propaganda broadcasts.

Extra reading:
The article for "Conflicts of Interest" at The Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The person I feel for most in this episode is Zack, caught in the crossfire between Sheridan and Garibaldi. Incidentally, why does Sheridan want the official PPG and link return? It's not like he knows about Garibadi's encounter with the Edgars minions, so "the company he keeps" must refer to the ISN interview, in which case it's a power demonstration/punishment.

Worthy of note: Zack points out that Garibaldi's behaviour is somewhat ooc, that there is something off and they should investigate that... and Sheridan dismisses it. It occurs to me this is one for the "this storyline works better with Sheridan than it would have with Sinclair" column because Sheridan doesn't actually know Garibaldi that well and so his reaction is entirely legitimate.

Ironically, Garibaldi in this particular episode doesn't act so differently than he would without Psi Corps interference, both in the positive sense (finding the missing girl and waiving his fee) and the negative (being so ticked off by Zack's following Sheridan's orders that he agrees to use his access). What is due to conditioning, imo, is his agreement to work for Edgars at the end right after deleting Lise's message unread, because investigating Edgars as we later find out was the primary reason for Bester reprogramming Garibaldi to begin with.

Speaking of: I don't think I bought the "William Edgars wants to save telepaths for philanthropic reasons from a virus" the first time around, either, but I had no idea what he would want.

Lise: got a lot of flak back in the day and still does. I'm Lise-neutral; the relationship with Garibaldi isn't that interesting to me, but neither is it objectionable. The problem is that Lise isn't that memorable a character on her own compared to others, at least not so far; otoh, I think she does come into her own in the s5 episode where she confronts Garibaldi about his drinking.

Zahtras (the other): gets a bit tiring as a running gag at this point.

Londo and G'Kar: back for the first time since Epiphanies and just for one scene, which is cruel. Sheridan's "do you want their blood on your hand" to Londo isn't half-bad as far as manipulation goes, and evidently works, though it's interesting that he assumes it will to begin with, instead of regarding Londo as a hopeless case.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I hate the whole Garibaldi storyline with a passion. But really, wanting the gun and link back? Garibaldi should have turned it in when he resigned. It's part of the B5 charter that no one is armed except Security, and (some) of the command staff. No guns allowed. No one outside EarthForce wears a link either.

As a total aside, I thought Sheridan having a second weapon (Z'ha'dum) was an interesting plot point.

And Lise has some interesting points. She's one of the characters I picked to write about for femgenficathon this year.

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

This was actually one episode where I thought Garibaldi DID act like Garibaldi even down to his tearing Sheridan a new one. Still not fond of the story line and never could really see Garibaldi and Lise as a couple. The whole Edgars thing stunk to high heaven from the start anyway.

It was good to see G'karr and Londo. I half expected G'Kar to comment when Sheridan mentioned they'd have all that blood on their hands if they did nothing. The wors were just waiting to be said that Londo already had so much bloob on his hands that a little more wouldn't even be noticed.

I loved the end, Ivanova as the voice of truth!

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Lise. They might as well have had a cardboard cut-out with "Plot Point and Something to Make Garibaldi More Sympathetic Because He's Kind of An Ass Right Now" written on it, and it would have worked just as well.

The telepath virus thing was a little bit too confusing and complicated to use as a MacGuffin, but it never really came into play other than to let Edgars do his whole Snidely Whiplash thing later on, so we'd know he was a Bad Guy.

(Can you tell this isn't my favorite episode?)

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Dare I suggest that the entire Garibaldi plot this season existed purely to provide an excuse to use “Duck Amuck” here to represent Garibaldi’s situation?

Going to agree with the general consensus on Lise – I don’t dislike her, but I don’t really care about her either. She’s rather dull and forgettable, and the show doesn’t do much with what little there is about her of interest. (Is her daughter ever mentioned again?) Throw in that Garibaldi isn’t that interesting a character either, and the fact that we haven’t actually seen what their relationship was like anyway and, well, it’s hard to care that much. And are we seriously meant to believe she didn’t marry Edgars purely for the money? Because, hell, I’d actually have more respect for her if that was the reason.

I am amused that the choice of flashbacks here doesn’t just restablish who Lise is, it also reminds us that Garibaldi left the woman he ‘was going to marry, once upon a time’ to be with Sinclair…

The Zathras scene goes on a little too long, I think, especially since he’s never mentioned again.

Kind of interesting that the Centauri have legends of the Drakh – I wonder if G’Kar and Londo ever got the chance to compare notes about what each of their cultures recorded about the last Shadow war…