Babylon 5/Recap/S04/E12 Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts Of Interest
"If you're gonna wait for the universe to start making sense, you have a long wait ahead of you."

- Sheridan

-

Commander Ivanova has completed most of the preparations to begin broadcasting the Voice of the Resistance, but finds that their equipment is in serious need of more power if they hope to broadcast to anything beyond the local area. Micheal Garibaldi's freelance business ends up putting him back in touch with an old flame, and further strains his relationship with Zack Allen and Captain Sheridan when a covert meeting ends in a firefight in Downbelow.

Tropes used in Conflicts of Interest:

 * Air Vent Passageway: Subverted: The people chasing them turn out to be telepaths, and are able to hear their thoughts to determine where they are going next.
 * Call Back: Lise Hampton returns to Michael Garibaldi's life.
 * Also, Garibaldi once again watches a Looney Tunes cartoon...
 * Foreshadowing: ...and the cartoon he watches is Duck Amuck, in which Daffy Duck is manipulated by a unseen sadist.
 * Genre Savvy: Zack, having worked with Garibaldi for three years, is fairly wise to his various tricks, though it takes him time to clue in on one of them.
 * MacGuffin: Whatever is in that vial, encased in some gee-whiz material which is nearly impossible to open by force.
 * And of course, the guy who gives it to them is shot dead in the next scene. And then they have to prevent the bad guys from getting it. Though their primary objective of course is not getting killed by the bad guys who want to get it.
 * Psychic Static: Garibaldi tells his panicked clients to think about nothing except their destination, so that they will be able to meet up again if they get separated from him. He then proceeds to lead them to an entirely different part of the station and has a security guard report the location of the gunmen to Zack.
 * Spanner in The Works: Zack realizes that Garibaldi has  and has the system lock it out. Of course, this happens
 * Third Person Person: Zathras. But Zathras is Zathras, not Zathras. Zathras apologising for any confusions.
 * Turn in Your Badge: Sheridan decides that they need to press Garibaldi to turn in his Identicard and his issued sidearm, given that he resigned some time previously. Zack also demands that Garibaldi turn over his backup sidearm as well.
 * Zack had intentionally not invoked this trope, hoping that Garibaldi would come to his senses and come back to his old job, but Sheridan forced his hand on the issue.
 * We Used to Be Friends: Garibaldi and Sheridan, of course, but most particularly Garibaldi and his former protege-turned-replacement, Zack.