As promised last week, this episode sees Commander Sinclair once again creatively interpreting rules and regulations to get the outcome he wants - in not one but both of the plot strands.
The plots are linked in that the same disaster causes both, that disaster happening only because of the plots' background happening in the same place at the same time in the first place. Confused yet? Fortunately it's pretty simple after it all kicks off. Faulty equipment leads to an accident in the docking bay which kills two dock workers, and a Narn ship is destroyed in the accident because the captain panics. Plot A is the dock workers going on strike because of the poor conditions that caused the accident, and the Narn ship is only there to deliver a sacred plant to Ambassador G'Kar for Plot B. Remove the poor working conditions or the Narn ship and there's no inciting incident. It's a clever piece of writing, that makes the threads feel unified even though they each go their separate ways from here.
Under the terms of their contract striking is illegal, and Sinclair tries to talk the dockers out of it before word can get back to Earth. However the government's new budget for Babylon 5 is leaked - and the dockers get nothing. They go on unofficial strike, all calling in sick, and Earth sends their best negotiator Orin Zento to step in. Sentator Hidoshi tells Sinclair "He has stopped this kind of thing before in other stations", succinctly letting the audience know that this is a widespread problem.
Unfortunately, Zento's skill as a negotiator appears to have nothing to do with negotiating and everything to do with talking loudly at people and threatening to invoke the Rush Act and have them arrested. Sinclair tries to persuade him to take a softer approach but then, not convinced they'll get the people and funding they need, the workers make the strike official. Zento invokes the Rush Act which has lead to arrests, rioting, and deaths on Europa and Matewan. As Garibaldi takes his security forces in, Sinclair tries and fails to get the senate to revoke their order. As a last resort he pulls a copy of the full text to find out exactly what it empowers him to do.
While this is going on, G'Kar's dealing with the repercussions of the destruction of the Narn ship, which was carrying a sacred G'Quan Eth plant which he needs for a religious observance. The only other plant on the ship is owned by Ambassador Mollari. Knowing full well Mollari won't give him the plant G'Kar breaks into his quarters and, knowing full well G'Kar will break in, Londo's hidden the plant elsewhere. He offers to sell it for an extortionate price although he'll be sad to lose it. In a nice touch of background (and putting a gun firmly in a drawer for later use) he states: "When you drop the seeds into a proper mixture of alcohol whole new universes open up. It's a shame you Narns waste them, burning them as incense!"
Of course when the time comes, having humiliated G'Kar, he refuses to sell.
Although he hates to do it G'Kar takes his grievance to Commander Sinclair, who's somewhat distracted by the strike and says he can't do anything as Mollari owns the plant. It's only at this point G'Kar dispatches Na'Toth to steal a statue of a Centauri deity (it's not specified which one) from the Centauri Cultural Centre. It's an interesting insight into his moral character that despite hating the Centauri an affront to their religious beliefs is his weapon of last resort and that, proud as he is, he's willing to humble himself by asking for help first. This episode, and the events of Mind War, show him to be much more spiritual than he generally lets on, and lays the groundwork for things that happen much, much later.
Things have got violent between Garibaldi's men and the dockers, and Sinclair withdraws the security forces to meet the dockers face to face, with Orin Zento at his side. He asks Zento for confirmation that the Rush Act means he's empowered to end the strike by any means necessary, which Zento confirms. But the thing is, while those means are generally interpreted to mean military action and arrests, that's not what it actually says. Sinclair can do what he likes, so what he does is reallocate some of the increased military budget to repair the equipment and hire new workers. Zento isn't happy with it, but the dockers are and the strike ends.
Next stop is to see Ambassadors Mollari and G'Kar, who are about ready to kill each other. Once again using rules and regulations to solve his troubles, he tells Mollari that he's discovered the G'Quan Eth is a controlled substance which can only be owned for medical or religious purposes. This may or may not be true, since Mollari protests it's no worse than whiskey and Sinclair tells him to file a protest, but it allows him to confiscate the plant and give it to G'Kar on the condition the Centauri statue is returned.
The only problem is, it's too late to perform the ceremony. It must be carried out in the first rays of the sun to shine past the Q'Guan mountain on a particular day, those not on Narn must do it at the same time which has already passed. Sinclair has an answer for this too: "The sunlight that touched the mountain 10 years ago will reach this station in 12 hours. It's been on a long journey, but it's still the same sunlight". G'Kar agrees that this is enough, "You are a far more spiritual man than I gave you credit for", and the episode ends with him performing the ritual for a group of his people.
The docker plot doesn't end quite so peacefully. Senator Hidoshi calls Sinclair with a warning: his creative interpretation of the Rush Act has made him new enemies. His response? "So, what else is new?" He's already made an enemy of Bester in Mind War, within the senate in Deathwalker, and there's also the shadowy group behind the events of And the Sky Full of Stars. He does what he does to protect the station and its people, and in that respect his politicking is no different that ramming a Minbari cruiser. Garibaldi complains in Infection that Sinclair's always putting himself "on the line". He's just not always doing it by chasing monsters with a gun.