Ah, great post. You make some excellent points there.
I still have trouble with the whole Lorien "you have to die" bit. Possibly because I tend to have a hard time understanding symbolism
But, I like your suggestion that possibly Lorien needs Sheridan to meet him halfway, to really WANT to live. I dunno. That is a very good point about the same actor playing the part of Lorien and Sebastian. I never would have considered to think of that as part of the story.
Good point about Franklin, too. He definitely did exactly the right thing in this one.
I never noticed the skull cap on Londo in that light. I'm sure I'll be looking for it the next time I watch this episode, though. I've noticed it a few times on some of the other Centauri characters on the show. Particularly on the women wearing "bald caps". They're well done, but there are sometimes crinkles near the neck and such. The Centauri women in the background more often are actually bald, I think.