Why does Mr Morden appear to Lennier?

Question

I've just watched Babylon 5 Season 5 Episode 8, "Day of the Dead", in which a Brakiri festival causes a number of dead people to reappear and visit those inside the 'Brakiri zone' with whom they have some kind of unfinished business. Specifically:

• Captain Lochley is visited by a close friend from her young wild days, whom she found dead in their flat and never knew whether it was accident or suicide.
• Londo Mollari is visited by his lover Adira, who was murdered on her way to come and see him (sparking off a whole series of other significant events for the Centauri).
• Mr Garibaldi is visited by the marine Dodger, with whom he almost began a relationship before she went and got killed in action.
• Lennier is visited by the late Mr Slimy Bastard Morden, an agent of the Shadows whom, as far as I remember, he'd never actually met while he was alive.

Why did Mr Morden, of all people, appear to Lennier? All the other visits we saw were, to quote Captain Lochley, "intensely personal". Surely someone close to Lennier has died at some point? Why did he have the misfortune of being visited by one of the most unpleasant characters in the show?

Answer 1

It is because deep down, Lennier knows that he is acting against something he had himself uttered - that to do "the right thing for the wrong reasons" corrupts the work, which is exactly where he is headed. Mr. Morden is there to show him the price of chasing what you want, since that is how he had always opened up to those he thought could best serve the Shadows with: "What do you want?" He has no need for it to come from the mouth of a loved one. Lennier is standing at a precipice and looking exactly where he knows he is headed, but just doesn't want to admit. Mr. Morden, who met a bad end by chasing what he wanted, by focusing purely on "what do you want" instead of a higher calling and common sense and the greater good. In essence, Lennier needs to be confronted with his future, and the only way to see that is to see that he has become Mr. Morden, and as Morden himself noted in the episode, look where that led him? A severed head on a pike, with the skin rotted, infested by maggots, and the hair now serving as the nests for birds. Not a pretty picture, and Lennier likewise couldn't admit it to himself in time to avoid the train coming at him.

Answer 2

The choice of Morden makes sense when you consider the things he told Lennier.

1. Delenn doesn't return his love and never will
2. He is going to betray the rangers (by leaving Sheridan to die)
3. He also implies that Lennier is going to die soon when Lennier says that at least he now knows there's life after death and Morden says something like "not necessarily, but you'll find that out soon enough."

At this point in the story, Lennier is running from his problems. He refuses to face the fact that his love for Delenn is unrequited and that he is extremely jealous of Sheridan. His whole reason for joining the Rangers was to simultaneously run away from his problems and to somehow prove himself worthy of Delenn. Basically everything Lennier does during this part of his story is a bad idea.

If you were Lennier and a long lost loved one came back from the dead and told you that everything you're doing is wrong and will lead you to a bad end, you might be inclined to take the warning seriously. You would at least hear what they had to say. But, for the story to work out like Straczynski intended, Lennier had to ignore those warnings and keep running from his problems.

To that end, Morden is the perfect choice. He was a known traitor and liar and therefore, it's easy to simply say that he's lying or up to something bad and move on. Lennier, who is looking for any reason to deny the truth of what Morden is saying, does just that. Lennier wouldn't have such an easy time dismissing the message if the messenger were someone he loved and trusted.

Answer 3

"intensely personal" to the dead or to the alive ones? Who did the choice and who was chosen? The dead chose to visit these alive persons (see below about Dodger).

Both Captain Lochley & Londo Mollari are visited by important persons from their past. They were extremely frustrated by their death.

Lennier is experiencing his strongest feelings, frustration. Lennier couldn't be visited by Delenn, she's not dead. Probably Lennier has no dead friends, so they could want to visit him during the night.

Actually, Mr Garibaldi looks like even more of an exception, not Lennier. Mr Garibaldi has strong feeling to Lise (also alive), not to Dodger. If only it is Dodger who has chosen to pay a personal visit...

Lennier was frustrated and Mr Morden was attracted by it, he always hunted for strong feelings & itches.