Original Airdate: October 7, 1996 Written by J. Michael Straczynski Directed by John Flinn III Episode #: 63 Production #: 319
Guest stars: Robert Englund as Jeremiah. John Vickery as Neroon. Time Winters as Rathenn.
Delenn is selected to become En'til'zha: the leader of the Rangers. However, Neroon, a Warrior Caste fanatic, challenges her right to lead.
Zack is in the throes of conducting interviews with telepaths to recruit for the fight against the Shadows, but he's receiving less than positive results. Remembering that Dr. Franklin runs an underground railroad for telepaths escaping Psi Corps, Sheridan instructs Ivanova to track him down and get the details. Ivanova eventually locates Franklin, who is on walkabout, at a bar in DownBelow. He gives her the code to his computer where the information is located, but only after she promises not to allow anybody, herself included, to come looking for him until he has finished his journey.
With the loss of Ranger One, Rathenn asks Delenn to be the replacement in leading the Rangers. Delenn accepts, and decides to hold her initiation ceremony on Babylon 5 in public so the Rangers could finally get some of the recognition they deserve. Hearing the news, Neroon, a warrior caste Minbari and former member of the Grey Council, challenges her right to lead the Rangers. Neroon threatens Delenn - turn over control of the Rangers to the warrior caste or he will kill her. Lennier witnesses the threat but is instructed by Delenn not to tell Sheridan. . Fearing for Delenn's life, Lennier approaches Marcus, believing a non-Minbari should stop Neroon - to avoid a possible civil war among the Minbari. Marcus agrees to help and finding Neroon, challenges him to a fight, invoking denn-shah - a fight to the death. The battle is brutal, and Neroon proves to be too strong and powerful with his fighting pike. With Marcus bloody and exposed for the kill, the sight of a human willing to give up his life for a Minbari, while Neroon was willing to kill one of his own, is enough to make him reconsider his stance.
Meanwhile, a maintenance worker gets mysteriously sucked into a hole in the floor in the Grey 16 sector and disappears. Taking the transport tube to the area, Garibaldi begins to poke around and discovers and entire level hidden between Grey 16 and 17. Investigating this mysterious area, he crosses paths with a cult, led by Jeremiah (ROBERT ENGLUND), who has reprogrammed the transport tube, welded the pressure doors shut and adjusted the power grids so that nobody would be aware of their presence.
Garibaldi learns that Jeremiah and the others isolated themselves to obtain purity of thought so they can achieve their goal: a perfect and spiritual death. Not wanting to let their secret location be made public, the cult hold Garibaldi hostage. Pretending to be sick, Garibaldi eventually overpowers his captors and threatens Jeremiah to get him to take him to the only door leading out of the area. With Jeremiah's help, Garibaldi is led to the exit, only to discover it blocked by a Zarg, a perfect predator and one of the most dangerous of aliens. The Zarg had killed the maintenance worker and is revered by the cult for its sheer power of destruction. Using bullets and a little creativity, Garibaldi subdues the creature and escapes.
