Season Four

Lore & Background

Garibaldi returns to Babylon 5 with no explanation for his disappearance, showing unexplained changes in behavior and distancing himself from the command staff. He resigns and relocates to Mars to work with tycoon William Edgars, later subduing Sheridan and allowing him to be kidnapped. It is revealed that Garibaldi was co-opted by the Psi-Corps to spy on Edgars, who is found to be developing a virus to destroy telepaths. With the Vorlons and Shadows gone, Earth's totalitarian government attempts to use the captured Sheridan as a propaganda tool, but Garibaldi—now free from Psi-Corps influence—rescues him.

A brief civil war breaks out on Earth, culminating in President Clark's suicide and Sheridan's surrender to Earth forces. Ivanova is critically injured in the war and leaves the station to take command of her own vessel. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds are reorganized into an Interstellar Alliance with Earth, Minbar, Narn, and Centauri acting as a United Nations across the galaxy, with the Rangers as their enforcers. Sheridan is made president of the Alliance, and he and Delenn marry.

Reader's Guide

Key events include Sheridan's return from Z'ha'dum with Lorien, the Vorlons' planet-destroying campaign, Mollari's destruction of the Shadow base on Centauri Prime and execution of Mr. Morden, and the revelation of the Vorlons and Shadows as ancient caretakers. Garibaldi's betrayal and rescue arc, the Earth civil war, Clark's suicide, and the formation of the Interstellar Alliance with Sheridan as president are central. Ivanova's departure and Sheridan and Delenn's marriage conclude the season.