Lennier
| Lennier of the Third Fane of Chu'domo | |
|---|---|
| Babylon 5 character | |
| First appearance | "The Parliament of Dreams" |
| Last appearance | "Objects at Rest" |
| Portrayed by | Bill Mumy |
| Information | |
| Species | Minbari |
| Home planet | Minbar |
| Affiliated with |
Babylon 5 Minbari Federation Rangers |
Lennier is a character in the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Bill Mumy. He is Minbari and acts as ambassadorial aide to Delenn throughout most of the series.
Character description
Background and career
Just as Delenn was an acolyte of Dukhat, Lennier was the faithful acolyte of Minbari Ambassador Delenn for five years. A member of the Third Fane of Chu'Domo of the religious caste and a fierce fighter, he later joined the Rangers. He had family aboard the Minbari flagship Black Star when it was destroyed by Babylon 5 commander John Sheridan. Though other Minbari felt much animosity towards Sheridan, as they felt he'd acted dishonorably in destroying it, Lennier held no hard feelings, apparently understanding why Sheridan had done it.
In the episode "Day of the Dead," Lennier is confronted by the ghost of Morden, the human who worked with the Shadows. Lennier, who had returned from training hoping to speak to a spirit as part of an alien religious observance, makes the mistake of asking Morden for wisdom. Morden predicts that Lennier will one day betray the Rangers. This encounter presages several later events in the series.
Among Lennier's friends are Vir Cotto and Marcus Cole.
Eventually it was revealed that Lennier was secretly in love with Delenn. However he explained to Marcus Cole that it was "not romantic love as you would understand it, something nobler."
Lennier did not act on his feelings due to her involvement with John Sheridan. Lennier did confess his feelings to her when he and Delenn were both trapped in hyperspace facing death, but Delenn, who had long known of his feelings for her, feigned that she hadn't heard his confession in order to spare him embarrassment.
Lennier's feelings later caused his downfall. When Sheridan suffered an accident aboard a White Star ("Objects at Rest"), Lennier, seeing for a moment the opportunity to remove his 'competition', refused to help him and fled, leaving him for dead. He did come back however but by then Sheridan had managed to rescue himself. Lennier ran away, deeply ashamed of what he had done, and was never heard from again, except for a final, untraceable call to Delenn in which he asked her and Sheridan for forgiveness. This would likely constitute his "Betrayal of the Rangers" as predicted by Morden.
The series left Lennier's final fate unknown, although most of Morden's prophecies came true and there are hints in the series finale "Sleeping in Light" (during a sequence when the guests were remembering their fallen friends), that Lennier was killed in the Telepath War. This has been confirmed by J. Michael Straczynski in The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski TV Movies, in which he writes that both Lennier and Lyta Alexander were killed in the explosion of Psi Corps Headquarters in a major battle of the Telepath War. Straczynski had previously said of Lennier's death (in his commentary for "Sleeping in Light"): "That's a very sad story, and maybe I'll tell it some day."
