“The Illusion of Truth” is episode eight of season four of Babylon 5.
Sheridan is in the, empty, War Room looking at a model of a Starfury. Ivanova enters and tells the captain she knew she would find him here. Sheridan says that it’s strange to have the room empty. Ivanova replies that it’s the War Room, and the war is over. Sheridan agrees that the war with the Shadows is over, yes, but there are still problems back home. He asks what things are like up to; Ivanova tells him that there have been a couple of scavengers from Earth but they have no loyalty to anyone. Alien traffic is still the same but traffic from Earth has pretty much shut down since Clarke’s quarantine.
Sheridan thinks that this is trouble and Ivanova agrees. They have lost the commercial transport fees and, without that money, things will be tough. Sheridan believes they will get by, they always do. The station has been declared dead more times than Lazarus but they keep coming back. Ivanova wants to know what has the captain so worried then. He tells her that he isn’t worried; she suggests he tells his face that. What bothers Sheridan is his family. His last letter from his father said that there were strangers in town asking about Sheridan and the farm. Sheridan told his father to get out, and supplied some contacts, but he doesn’t know what’s going on. Ivanova says that the captain’s father can take care of himself and, as a former diplomat, he’s too visible to disappear. The commander is glad that they picked Zack to take over Garibaldi’s job after the chief quit in the previous episode, “Epiphanies”. They haven’t had a major incident yet.
Of course there is currently some sort of incident going on. When Zack arrives, the guards tell him that the scanners picked up something suspicious in a crate, but the owner got in the way when they tried to investigate. The scanners didn’t pick up any explosives though. Zack tells the man whose crate it is to open it, but he replies that it’s private property and he has rights. So Zack shoots open the crate. The man wants to file a report with Zack’s superior. Then something flies out of the crate. A camera. The man tells Zack that he is a reporter and those with him are his crew, and that Zack just made the evening news.
Dr Franklin bumps into Sheridan; he wanted to inform him about some problems with the cryofreezers holding the telepaths found in “Ship of Tears”. There are mechanical problems, so the telepaths are being moved. Sheridan doesn’t like keeping the telepaths frozen; nor does Franklin, but there is no choice. With the Shadow technology inside them, the telepaths are a menace to themselves and to everyone else. Sheridan’s link goes with a message telling him someone is here. Sheridan tells the doctor that he saw the worst, with the Shadows, the Vorlons, the war. Now he has to deal with something far worse than the Shadows – reporters.
When Sheridan arrives the reporter is unhappy with Ivanova. Apparently she threatened to throw him out an airlock. The captain tells Ivanova he’s shocked and dismayed. They are short of supplies and can’t afford to throw perfectly good clothing into space. Always take the jacket of first, he’s told her that before. Sheridan apologises to the reporter and tells him that what Ivanova meant was that he would be stripped, then thrown into space. The reporter, Dan Randall, suggests they start over again.
Randall says they changed the cargo manifest because he knew they wouldn’t have been allowed on the station. Sheridan tells Randall that was his first mistake; they have an open door policy. And an open airlock policy, according to Ivanova. The captain does not view this as a helpful comment; he may change his mind by the end. Sheridan tells Randall that it was Clarke who put the embargo on them. Yes, they would have let Randall and his crew on, but not his equipment. Everyone knows that ISN is the propaganda arm of President Clark. Randall replies that Sheridan is right about ISN. Most quite, but a few remained to try and slip small bits of the truth in. If Randall does his story, he says he won’t tell the whole truth, only as much as he can without getting into trouble. And he’s here and will go back with a story, whether or not Sheridan helps put his side across.
Garibaldi is speaking to someone in his new role as a finder of lost things. The man is claiming he lost a statue of great sentimental value when scavengers raided his colony during the time it was evacuated. It has been in his family for generations and has no intrinsic value. Garibaldi wishes that people would sit in that chair and not assume he is an idiot. Sure, the statue is worthless, but it’s big enough to hid a lot of stuff in it. Which the man did. So negotiations proceed from there. After the customer leaves, Lennier joins and speaks to the former chief. Who doesn’t want to talk about Sheridan or why he resigned. Then Sheridan appears with Randall; he wants Lennier to show the reporter around the station so that Randall can be sure that everything he is being shown is the truth and not made up for his benefit. When everyone leaves, Garibaldi has another flashback, this time of someone telling Garibaldi he works for no-one but them.
Randall asks Lennier about the alien ship being repaired and Lennier explains. Lennier has taken the reporter to Down Below, and explains what it is. Dr Franklin rushes by at this point with someone on a stretcher and gets a call about the cryo units being ready for restart as he does. Londo is filmed ranting at Sheridan about his quarters being cold. Not chilly, but cold. Randall also conducts an interview with Sheridan and Delenn. Sheridan tells him that they never intended to break away and will return as soon as martial law is lifted and Clarke steps down. And yes, Clarke was responsible for President Santiago’s death; he was an impediment to Clarke’s plans and anything that gets in Clarke’s way disappears. Sheridan gives no comment – for now – on whether he and Delenn are planning marriage.
The first half of the episode is the interviews; the second half is the news piece that was put together from them. Which includes an interview with Mr Garibaldi. Sheridan asks what can they do to them with the news. Well, as it turns out, a lot. Before Randall’s piece there are first a couple of clearly biased reports on other matters. Then Randall rips the station apart. Audio is removed so that scenes look bad, quotes are edited so that they are answering different questions and, no surprise, the whole piece has not one shred of truth in it; as the episode’s title states, it’s merely the illusion of truth. And there’s definitely something very wrong with Mr Garibaldi.
It is recommended to watch “Thirdspace” next, rather than “Atonement”.