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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
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<blockquote><cite>
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Two Minbari Rangers-in-training come to the station and learn a difficult
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lesson. A new underworld boss tries to take control of DownBelow.
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</cite>
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Nathan Anderson as Rastenn.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bey,+Turhan">Turhan Bey</a> as Turval.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Ford,+Brendan">Brendan Ford</a> as Tannier.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Goddard,+Trevor">Trevor Goddard</a> as Trace.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?McDermott,+Brian+(III)">Brian McDermott</a> as Durhan.
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</blockquote>
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<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/093">7.65</a>
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Production number: 506
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Original air date: February 18, 1998
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00019071C/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 13, 2004
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Written by J. Michael Straczynski
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Directed by David Eagle
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</pre>
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<p>
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<hr size=3>
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<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>@@@888197814 Lochley wasn't on Sheridan's side in the civil war,
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though she may not have been on Clark's side either. She
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feels her role as a soldier is to follow orders until she's given a
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specific order she finds immoral. As a soldier, she says, the most
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important words in her vocabulary are loyalty, duty, and honor,
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and turning against the chain of command would mean sacrificing one
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of the three, rendering the other two meaningless.
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<li>@@@887871957 Sheridan and Lochley appear to have had a relationship of
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some sort in the past.
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<li>@@@887871957 Several races are now represented in the ranks of Ranger
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trainees, including the Pak'ma'ra, who will specialize as couriers
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and infiltrators since they're so unpleasant to most other races
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that everyone goes to great lengths to ignore them.
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<li>@@@887871957 The two telepaths supplied by Byron to Garibaldi
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(<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals"</a>)
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have begun their training.
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<li>@@@888197896 Lennier, according to one of his instructors, is pushing
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himself too hard in his Ranger training, most likely in an attempt to
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impress Delenn.
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>@@@887927755 Did Lochley disobey any of Clark's orders during the
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war, as Garibaldi tried to discover?
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<li>@@@887871157 What history do Sheridan and Lochley share?
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<li>@@@888197814 Lochley said Garibaldi was the second man she'd met who
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was as stubborn as she was; who was the first? Sheridan?
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<li>@@@888197896 Did Garibaldi read Lochley's file after Zack left?
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>@@@887871957 One aspect of Ranger training is Mora'Dum, the application
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of terror. Marcus referred to that aspect during his conversation
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with Franklin in
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<a href="057.html">"A Late Delivery from Avalon."</a>
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<p>
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<li>@@@887927344 The friction between the Minbari castes hasn't gone away
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completely, but does seem to have been reduced to the level of
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conversational sarcasm, at least within the ranks of the Rangers.
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<p>
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<li>@@@887927344 Durhan has been mentioned once before, during the
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fight between Marcus and Neroon in
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<a href="063.html">"Grey 17 is Missing."</a>
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Marcus was given personal training in pike combat by Durhan.
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<p>
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<li>@@@888481178 Turval's philosophy about meaningful deaths isn't shared
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by Delenn: in
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<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals,"</a>
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she told Franklin that the Ranger's death would be meaningless if he
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took his information to the grave with him. Turval wouldn't consider
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it meaningless, since the Ranger was pursuing a noble cause when he
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died.
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<p>
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<li>@@@887927543 This episode marks the second time Lochley has been
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overruled on something she considered a station matter (the first was
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Sheridan's decision to allow the telepath colony in
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<a href="089.html">"No Compromises."</a>)
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Given her insistence to Sheridan that she be allowed the authority to
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run the station her way, this incident probably isn't sitting well with
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her. At what point will she decide she's had enough and begin to
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confront Sheridan on the subject?
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<p>
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<li>@@@888197814 It's not clear whether Lochley actually fought for
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Clark or not. By her own admission she didn't support the rebellion,
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but as she pointed out to Garibaldi, not every conflict has only
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two sides. Her comment about making a decision that affects only
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oneself suggests she might have deserted or otherwise refused to
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cooperate. Perhaps she was even punished for it.
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>@@@887871957 The station's underworld has had a hole in its power
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structure since the departure of n'grath
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(<a href="002.html">"Soul Hunter,"</a>
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among other episodes.) It wasn't explicitly stated, but the implication
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was that n'grath was assassinated.
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<li>@@@887871957 Turhan Bey played the Centauri Emperor in
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<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>
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<li>@@@889480981 A conceptual error on Trace's part: Trace's right-hand man
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told him that "everybody in security went up two levels or down one."
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Moments later, Trace posited that whatever was going on was "just
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these three levels." But if security went up two levels or down one,
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it'd only leave two levels empty: if, for illustration's sake, Trace
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were on level 5, the security people would have gone down to level 6 or
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up to level 3, leaving levels 4 and 5.
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>@@@888197289 <em>Lochley would never get away with chewing out a
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superior like she did Garibaldi.</em><br>
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That might apply in a straight hierarchical organization, but
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Garibaldi is not her superior; they are on parallel lines of command,
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not vertical, he doesn't answer to her, she doesn't answer to him. She
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has total and complete authority over the station and is answerable
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only to Earthdome and, in political matters, to Sheridan.
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<p>
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You may not think this sort of thing happens, but it does, and
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it would. You're talking to the only producer to go out and berate
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Angela Lansbury's son who was then directing an episode of Murder, She
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Wrote, in front of his whole crew, and still remain employed afterward.
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</ul>
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