We continue on our run of episodes that are more interested in filling in the world of Babylon 5 than in advancing storylines meaningfully.  This one gives a more in depth look at the Rangers and their training, which is nice I suppose.  It misses a step in introducing new characters, when we know that Lennier is now involved in the Rangers, but it makes good use of them for the simple story of trainees that get in over their heads.  The rest of the episode continues to burn energy trying to make Lochley interesting or likeable which feels like a fool’s errand at this point.  

The episode starts off back on Minbar, where in a nice bit of background detail we see that some of the buildings appear to still be bombed out from the Minbari Civil War.  An elderly ranger is leading the trainees in meditation.  An aggressive prospective ranger questions the value, but is gently rebuked by the old man known as Turval. Another of the senior rangers, Durhan, comes in and they exchange some light hearted teasing with each other before heading to Babylon 5.

On the station a new gangster, complete with generic gangster dialogue, is taking power in Down Below.  He kills a guy, and orders the body dumped in public so that everyone can see it.  

Back from the credits, the rangers accompanied by two young students, Tannier from the religious caste and the aggressive warrior Rastenn, arrive on the station and are greeted by Delenn. She offers a tour of the facility to the guests and heads off with them.

In the mess hall Zack and Garibaldi share breakfast, and invite Lochey over to join them.  A conversation about replacement fighters from Earth quickly turns tense, to Zack’s discomfort.  Garibaldi pokes at Lochley a bit, mentioning that she was on the other side during the Civil War and she gives a kind of shitty response, likening the civil war to an argument and insisting that there were more than two sides. A reasonable point from someone who may have been a civilian but not from someone that had authority during the war.  She also claims that her lack of support was simply due to her believing that it is not the military’s role to set policy, just to blindly carry it out. She also ducks the question as to whether she took a stand.  She then goes on a soap box rant, and in a very cringey moment, the assembled crew applaud her for declaring that she took no side in a war.  

After Lochley storms out she bumps into Sheridan in the elevator, and they discuss Garibaldi briefly.  Sheridan questions whether she has second thoughts about taking the job, but she insists that she can handle it.

In the mob plot, Zack finds the dead body, and realizes that the person was put there as a message.  He appeals to the crowd for information and tries to inspire them.  Trace the new mobster watches the whole thing and concludes that Zack is too good, ordering his men to kill the security chief.  One of his men tries to talk him out of it, and he tells them a story of another place, where they killed enough security chiefs in a row until they got one that was willing to make a deal with them.   

Delenn meets with her senior rangers, to take a report on how the new recruitment policy is working, as all ISA worlds are now allowed to send recruits to the rangers.  Both of them decry having to have a Pak’ma’ra as a recruit.  They cite the recruit’s lack of physical or mental abilities and his horrifying smell.  In an impressive display of reasoning things out, Delenn hits on the idea of using the ubiquitous and repulsive aliens as the perfect secret couriers.  Delenn pulls Turval and they discuss Marcus, as well as Lennier.  He lets Delenn know that Lennier is pushing himself too hard in training, possibly to prove something to Delenn. 

Elsewhere Garibaldi meets with the first two of his telepath spies provided by Byron.  He gives them a reasonable briefing, which they meet with complete silence.  After they leave he tries to convince Zack to pull Lochley’s personnel file so that they can find out more about her.  Zack gets pulled to go meet with an informant which is obviously a trap on the part of Trace.  Trace and his goons openly discuss the best ways to murder Zack in front of the sucker they got to contact him upsetting her enough, that she ends up fighting them and screaming.  This attracts the attention of our two trainees,  who argue briefly about what to do before Tannier runs off to try and save the day, while Rathenn considers such antics beneath a ranger.  He manages to save the woman but catches a viscous beating from the thugs instead. 

In Medlab Delenn and the other rangers gather, and Franklin reports that Tannier nearly died. Durhan asks Franklin to make him well enough to stand and that the rangers will handle the rest.  He then says a Minbari word “Moradum” which the other Minbari react to.  Franklin asks what it means, and Delenn lets him know that it means the application of terror.  She meets with Lochley and asks that she leave the matter to the rangers.  Lochley is patronizing and condescending so Delenn simply pulls rank and orders her to do so.  Lochley also lets slip that she knows Sheridan quite well.  

Turval questions Rathenn on why he did not assist Tannier, and they discuss meaning and death.  The old ranger imparts that being a ranger simply means doing the right thing, and that meaning comes from elsewhere.  A Delenn voice over then explains more about the kind of terror that they are trying to help Tannier overcome and the process of this test.  

Zack dutifully clears his people out from the area around Trace’s hideout.  As the gang is celebrating the lights go out and the rangers start taking out the gang members one by one.  Eventually only Trace is left, and he ends up surrounded by the Minbari and forced to fight with Tannier while Turval and Durhan provide a calm lecture to the assembled rangers about bullies.  Eventually Tannier beats the man down, and he expresses that he feels pity for Trace, as Trace will never amount to anything.  Security are given the task of dragging Trace off.

 

Zack and Garibaldi discuss the Minbari approach to conflict before Zack has to leave, and Garibaldi manages a sneak peak at Lochley’s file.  While that happens, Delenn confronts Sheridan on his past relationship with Lochley.  It happens off screen but whatever the information Delenn is good and mad at him for it. 

Next week we get back to more of a plot heavy episode with our first appearance of Bester for the season.  We also get more time with Londo and G’Kar which is always a plus, in “Strange Relations”.

 

As a note, iTunes randomly let me do screenshots again, so hopefully that lasts. 

 

Where do I know them from?

• Turhan Bey is back as Turval, having previously played the Centauri Emperor Turhan. 
• Brian McDermott as Durhan, I have never seen in anything but IMDB lists him showing up ins some Doctor Who episodes in 1982.
• Trevor Goddard as Trace I remember as Kano in the original Mortal Kombat movie. 
• Brendan Ford as Tannier has bounced around TV a bunch including three episodes of Weeds playing Colm Mulcahey.
• Nathan Anderson as Rathenn is another TV frequent flyer, but I must have seen him in season 1 of Mad Men playing a character named Ronnie Gittridge in one episode. 

The Good

• I appreciate the inside look at the rangers, and seeing that despite the ideals of the alliance, there are speed bumps in realizing Delenn and Sheridan’s policies. 
• I really liked the relationship between Turval and Durhan.

The Bad

• We will never have to hear about any of these characters ever again, which is rough for a show that built its reputation and following on 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Durhan the teacher is the one that taught the fighting pike to both Marcus and Neroon, as discussed way back in season 3.  
• The rangers are adapting their methods and training to match their students which is a nice change.
• The rangers are allowed to supercede local law enforcement, which is something that is hard to believe that everyone signed on to.