Questions about Sinclair and Garibaldi

[KoshFan]

Chewing through S1 on the DVDs, I've had a few questions about the whole Sinclair/Garibaldi relationship. Some of it doesn't quite add up in my head, so I'm looking for insights.

In "Infection" we get Garibaldi telling the end of a story, which upon reflection seems to be the tail end of a (massively abbreviated) version of the story of how he and Sinclair first met, parallel to the Syria Planum incident.

In "Babylon Squared" we have Garibaldi's flashback, in which Lise Hampton says that Garibaldi has met Sinclair twice.

On the other hand, it seems all through Season One that Garibaldi and Sinclair know each other very well -- much better than Ivanova knows either of them. They are on a first-name basis.

Perhaps the strangest incident is when Garibaldi sees Catherine come on board, in "Parliament of Dreams." He obviously recognizes her on sight, and says "never fails," implying he's aware of her every-few-years-one-night-of-passion relationship with Sinclair. Yet Catherine and Sinclair indicate they haven't seen each other for years. So how would Garibaldi know about them, if she hasn't been to B5 before and she hasn't seen Sinclair in years? How would Garibaldi know the pattern?

Garibaldi's recognition of her is not all that amazing -- he picked Morden out of a casual scan on the Icarus's records -- but the episode seems to imply that Garibaldi was around when Catherine and Sinclair hooked up last. But this doesn't seem to match.

So how long have Sinclair and Garibaldi known each other, and how well do they know each other?


Also, a tangentially related question -- when does Garibaldi talk to Sinclair about Sinclair take too many risks? I distinctly remember him chiding Sinclair for doing everything himself. Is this in the pilot? Because I've been watching for it, and I haven't seen it.

 

[MartinRoth]

In "Babylon Squared" we have Garibaldi's flashback, in which Lise Hampton says that Garibaldi has met Sinclair twice.

On the other hand, it seems all through Season One that Garibaldi and Sinclair know each other very well -- much better than Ivanova knows either of them. They are on a first-name basis.

This one's easy -- Sinclair and Garibaldi have both been on B5 from the beginning, even before the pilot. Ivanova, on the other hand, was a fairly recent arrival, replacing the original second-in-command, Laurel Takashima. Season 1 started about six months story-time after the pilot, giving Sinclair and Garibaldi lots of time to get to know each other.

Perhaps the strangest incident is when Garibaldi sees Catherine come on board, in "Parliament of Dreams." He obviously recognizes her on sight, and says "never fails," implying he's aware of her every-few-years-one-night-of-passion relationship with Sinclair. Yet Catherine and Sinclair indicate they haven't seen each other for years. So how would Garibaldi know about them, if she hasn't been to B5 before and she hasn't seen Sinclair in years? How would Garibaldi know the pattern?

This one's a little more difficult. Perhaps they had discussed Sinclair's romantic past at some point, like whenever Carolyn Sykes (Sinclair's Significant Other from the pilot) decided to leave. Or perhaps, by an amazing coincidence, one of Sinclair and Sakai's previous flings happened to coincide with one of Sinclair and Garibaldi's meetings. Or perhaps it's just one of those inevitable continuity errors that creep into every series no matter how hard they try to keep things straight...

Also, a tangentially related question -- when does Garibaldi talk to Sinclair about Sinclair take too many risks? I distinctly remember him chiding Sinclair for doing everything himself. Is this in the pilot?

I believe something like this was discussed in the pilot, before Sinclair went off to track down the Mysterious Entity With Changeling Net.

 

[LightNZ]

Also, a tangentially related question -- when does Garibaldi talk to Sinclair about Sinclair take too many risks? I distinctly remember him chiding Sinclair for doing everything himself. Is this in the pilot?

No, it's not in the Pilot, it happens on an episode of season one. Garibaldi says "I think the're looking for something worth dieing for because it's easier than finding something worth living for". and then sinclair said something about not having an answer for Garibaldi but that he thought maybe he should have

It was a great seen. Actually I think it might have been Infection, but i really can't remember, someone will have to go look. It was in Sinclair's quarters, and it was very tense

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

In "Babylon Squared" we have Garibaldi's flashback, in which Lise Hampton says that Garibaldi has met Sinclair twice.

Yes, but one of those two meetings left them stranded in the middle of the Martian nowhere and dependent on one another to survive. Even apart from what they saw out by the Psi-Corps facility, that's something of a bonding experience. It took them some time to reach safety, and they would have had nothing much to do with their time except talk.

And early in S1 they celebrate the one-year anniversary of the station's going on-line. Both Garibaldi and Sinclair have been aboard since the beginning, so that's a full year of working closely together, probably with a lot of 18 and 20 hour days for the first few months, to build on their existing relationship from the Mars days.

Garibaldi recognizing Catherine: Once Carolyn Sykes left I'm pretty sure that Sinclair would have taken his photos of Catherine out and put them around his quarters again. And he probably had some "home movies" of the two of them. So between hearing Sinclair's stories and seeing her image for six months or a year, there's every reason to expect that Garibaldi would know her on sight. He's chief of security, so he's used to memorizing faces, it's probably a habit. And given Catherine's profession, the likelihood that she'd eventually turn up on B5 and Garibaldi's protective attitude towards Sinclair, it makes sense that he make a point of memorizing her appearance. In fact, I'm willing to be that if he hadn't happened to walk through customs just as she arrived that he would have been automatically notified by the computer system that she had boarded the station a few minutes later anyway. She was probably on his own personal watch-list.

And let me just say "Welcome back" to our old friend Marty Roth.

Regards,

Joe

 

[MartinRoth]

Yes, but one of those two meetings left them stranded in the middle of the Martian nowhere and dependent on one another to survive. Even apart from what they saw out by the Psi-Corps facility, that's something of a bonding experience.

Good point. Lise mentioned the "two meetings" in a dismissive fashion, as if they were only brief and fleeting, but her aim was to convince Garibaldi to stay, not to give viewers an accurate portrayal of the encounters.

And let me just say "Welcome back" to our old friend Marty Roth.

Gee, wow. A personal greeting, and from the moderator, no less.

(Hi, Joe. How are things?)

 

[KoshFan]

All excellent points.

Also, something I thought of is that after their first meeting they kept in touch with messages and the like, but didn't actually meet face to face. It's possible Catherine was there at the time and so Garibaldi "met" her long-distance. Then Sinclair came to Garibaldi in person for a bigger issue: security on B5.

Finally, this: was Sinclair in charge of the construction of B5? Because if he was, and Garibaldi was on duty with him, a) we now know why B5 escaped sabotage, due to Garibaldi's eagle eye, and b) they would have worked together even longer.

I thought the scene was in season 1 myself, but I've now watched all but two recently with it in mind, and I haven't seen it.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

I thought the scene was in season 1 myself, but I've now watched all but two recently with it in mind, and I haven't seen it.

Lise Hampton appears in "A Voive in the Wildernes - Part 2" and "Babylon Squared". Flash backs appear in Season 4 episode "Conflicts of Interest", although she does appear in other season 4 episodes.

 

[KoshFan]

I meant Garibaldi chiding Sinclair. Sorry if I was unclear.

 

[Loadhan]

And he probably had some "home movies" of the two of them.

Home videos of Cathrine Sakai? Hmm ... but I think this is the wrong forum for that conversation. Though I'm guessing Sol would be interested.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Home videos of Cathrine Sakai? Hmm ...

Down, boy.

Joe

 

[Cmdr_Gabe_E]

wait til you guys see the B5 bloopers with the "extended" version of sinclair and sakai's "kissing in bed" scene O.O!!! (no wonder sinclair and ivanova were going "OoOoohh...AAaaaah" off the set while they were watching the video O.O)