“The Face of the Enemy” is episode seventeen of season four of Babylon 5.
The episode opens with Ivanova narrating her personal log about how the war to liberate the Earth colonies is continuing, as the resistance forces are fighting a battle against those still loyal to Earth. Sheridan’s White Star is hit but, from what Marcus says, it sounds fairly minor. Two of the enemy ships are retreating but the rest are moving in. Sheridan wants to know why they aren’t surrendering, as they are outnumbered and their jump engines are down. Ivanova continues, saying that Dr Franklin and Lyta Alexander should be on Mars by now – and they are, in a transit tube – before finishing by saying that they should be okay. As long as nothing goes wrong. Thereby guaranteeing that something will go wrong.
On Mars, Garibaldi enters Edgars’ room and Edgars asks if it’s done. For, in the previous episode, “The Exercise of Vital Powers”, Garibaldi had told Edgars that the way to get to Sheridan was through his father, and his father could be traced through a rare medication it needed. Garibaldi assents that yes, it’s done, and Sheridan’s father is in custody. He’s being shipped to a temporary staging point on Mars. Now they need to contact Sheridan and yes, Garibaldi is sure he will come. Edgars reassures Garibaldi that it is for Sheridan’s, for everyone’s, good. With Sheridan out of the picture, Clark will lower his guard and they can deal with him and the Psi Corps. Edgars thinks that Sheridan may even thank them. Garibaldi doubts that. Edgars assures Garibaldi that he will tell him the rest when it is done. Garibaldi doesn’t seem entirely happy with what he is doing.
Back on Sheridan’s White Star he is asking why the opposing ships are not surrendering. They know they can’t win and they can’t want to die for Clark. He contacts them again and asks for their surrender. One of the captains, Frank, responds and asks what point is there in surrendering, as they have been briefed on Sheridan’s campaign. They are dead either way. Any Earth ships that ships that surrender have their crews removed and executed, then replaced with Minbari. Captain Frank believes this. And Captain MacDougan – who surrendered in “No Surrender, No Retreat” and should therefore be dead – tells Frank he is even dumber than he was at the academy. He assures Frank that he is alive, and so is his crew. They can stand down and they will not be harmed. The opposing ships are finally convinced to surrender, then a jump point opens and the Agamemnon, Sheridan’s old command, comes out. They want to join up.
Franklin and Lyta meet up with the resistance on Mars and Number One. Number One recognises Lyta, as she passed through a couple of years ago, and is informed she is a telepath. Number One is not happy that she wasn’t warned about this. Franklin tells her that Lyta could be needed to deal with their cargo at a moment’s notice. Which is the telepaths taken from the Shadows in “Ship of Tears”.
Sheridan is on the Agamemnon, being briefed on what’s happened by her captain, James. Including a crewmember that was injured in a fire fight with raiders off Io. Said raider actually being Sheridan, in “Messages from Earth”. Marcus contacts them, and says that there is a signal coming in from Garibaldi. Garibaldi informs Sheridan that his father has been captured. If Sheridan doesn’t surrender, his father will be killed. Garibaldi needs to meet with Sheridan, alone, but he needs an answer now. Sheridan says he needs to verify this, but yes.
Ivanova doesn’t like it, and thinks it’s a setup. She’s right. Sheridan won’t take Marcus with him either, as Ivanova will need him as a liaison. She will take over Sheridan’s place; they need to have a human in charge of the fleet. The Agamemnon agrees to drop Sheridan off at Mars.
Lyta is not proving too popular on Mars. Franklin appears to be the only one who doesn’t know why. Number One says Lyta can tell Franklin, as she has to deal with several dozen cryonic freezers someone has just dumped on her. Lyta tells him that the corps has assigned telepaths to military units, who are deep scanning anyone suspected of being a member of the resistance. There have been deaths. This sort of thing has happened before, when Lyta was interning with the Psi Cops. And it was the reason why she switched to being a commercial telepath.
Delenn and Lennier arrive back on the station as Ivanova is getting ready to leave. The commander fills them in on what’s happened. On Mars, Sheridan meets Garibaldi in a bar. Who tranquilises him. Evidently not with something very fast-acting. But Sheridan is captured and Edgars finally reveals the truth to Garibaldi. As an indirect consequence of which it is finally revealed what did happen to Mr Garibaldi after the Shadows abducted him during the battle in “Z’ha’dum”. It’s not a huge surprise.