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Hi, this is a future echo of me, Salubrious Rex. When I started writing this one it was supposed to go over episodes 2 through 5 quickly giving a brief synopsis of the important things in the episode and highlighting the little morsels of Rimmer's character we get in them. Going back over my notes for the episode though I realised that there was a bit more of the content I wanted to cover than I first realised, and a few more unrelated events that are required context so this ballooned out larger than I planned. The 1.1, 1.2 numbering scheme wasn't supposed to be series 1 episode 1, 2, etc., it was supposed to be 1.1 for episode 1, 1.2 for 2-5 and then 2 for episode 6, Me². Fingers crossed I'll try to get episodes 3 through 5 into a tighter post!
So we've established the character of Arnold Rimmer and the premise of Red Dwarf, now it's time to brush over the next handful of episodes look at episode 2 and hopefully get a clearer picture of our guy and plant the seeds of military obsession, daddy issues, and a lack of bodily autonomy.
Episode 2: Future Echoes
This is one of my favourite episodes.
The episode opens with Lister struggling with a faulty AI vending machine when Rimmer interupts him mid-run by stopping to jog in place while delivering a maniacal rant to belittle Lister and call him a slob, running off before Lister can deliver any kind of reply. Rimmer stops to check his time.
6:47! Not a bad little time for the mile. ... Pity I was only doing the 300 metres.
He attempts to justify to himself that because he stopped to have a 'conversation' with Lister he can knock 4 minutes off, and he stopped to have a rest before he passed Lister so he wouldn't look too exhausted. Taking these two outrageous concessions into account, Rimmer congratulates himself for having broken the world record.
A spanking short haircut
Satisfied with himself, Rimmer then asks Holly to give him a clean uniform and a haircut and this is where we get into an occasional theme that comes up with Rimmer's hologramic life, which is bodily autonomy or the lack thereof. Being a hologram, Rimmer can't just change his clothes or get his hair cut, Holly has to do those things for him and Holly is at the moment quite busy and after 3 million years alone isn't quite the 6,000 IQ supercomputer he used to be. When Rimmer insults Holly for telling Rimmer that he's quite busy, rather than giving him the crew cut he asked for Holly gives Rimmer a ridiculous bee-hive hairdo, and believing his request has been satisfied remarks,
"As my father always said, shiny clean boots and a spanking short haircut and you can cope with anything! He said that just before that rather unfortunate suicide business."
Rimmer has father problems, and we'll get to those later.
Lister and The Cat both notice Rimer's new do. When Rimmer is trying to explain to Lister what he did with his hair he says,
"There's nothing wrong with short hair lister, gives a man a sense of discipline, a sense of dignity!"

As we'll learn more down the line, Rimmer has an obsession with not just officership, but military culture in general which is tied to his relationship with his father. When Rimmer finally sees himself in a mirror, after going on about how his haircut might be "a bit too severe, a bit too 'green beret'!" he's obviously horrified, but only gets Holly's voicemail when he demands that it is changed back.
Switch me on, switch me off
To get them back to earth, Holly is preparing to travel at light speed which is why he's been so busy - light speed travel has never been achieved before. Rimmer only finds out about this when he sees Lister packing his belongings. Lister tells Rimmer that Holly was supposed to tell him, and that at first he was going to go to stasis only while they went through light speed but has instead decided to stay in stasis until they reach Earth, which causes Rimmer to get slightly panicekd - Earth is 3 million years away after all, and he doesn't want to be left alone for 3 million years. Lister tries to calm him by saying that Holly will switch him off until he gets back to earth which only upsets him further,
"Even better, switch me on, switch me off! Like I’m some battery powered sex aid."
Lister is getting fed up with him, and Rimmer reminds Lister that he is in fact, dead and they get into the argument over whether or not death is such a big deal anymore.
"Look Rimmer, death isn’t the handicap it used to be in the olden days. It doesn’t screw your career up like it used to."
"That’s what they say, Lister, but if you had two people coming for a job and one of them was dead, which one would you pick?"
"... It depends which is better qualified."
"Bull pats! When was the last time you saw a dead newsreader?"
"Channel 27 have a hologram reading the news!"
"Oh, groovy, funky Channel 27. Big smegging deal! You livvies hate us deadies!"

Fed up with the argument, Lister tells Rimmer that he has to go into stasis if he wants to get back to earth and adds that this close to light speed it will take them 4,000 years just to turn around, which Rimmer says that he knows because he's taken the astro-navigation exam 9 times, or 10 if you count the time he had his 'spasm', which could be referring to the one we see in Episode 1 but I like to think it was a separate occasion.
Lister again reminds Rimmer that he'll only be switched off until they get back to Earth but Rimmer doesn't buy it, saying that once they reach earth he won't be needed anymore and thus won't be switched back on.
The Light Barrier
While Lister's shaving (to catastrophic results, mixing up his deodorant and shaving cream) there's a massive flash that rocks the ship. Holly has accidentally breached the light barrier 22 hours ahead of schedule. Lister's reflection begins doing things that he isn't currently doing and he calls for Rimmer, who doesn't see anything wrong and dismisses the whole thing.
Later, after arguing with The Cat over how many suits he can bring into stasis, Lister runs into Rimmer in the drive room, but as they begin to talk it's clear Rimmer is responding to different things than what Lister is saying, and acting like Lister is insane before walking out the door. Immediately after he's gone, he appears again in a different doorway behind Lister and begins saying exactly the same things, although now they're in response to the things that Lister is saying. Exactly the same as before, Rimmer shakes his head and walks out. It's a great scene. But what Rimmer was trying to explain to Lister, but couldn't because of whatever shenanigans were going on, was that when Lister goes into stasis he wants to be left on, alone for 3 million years. Spending the length of countless lifetimes on his own is apparently a preferable alternative to Rimmer than being switched off - essentially, dying and returning to nothing and, as a hologram, this choice of whether to exist or not is the only autonomy that Rimmer really has.
After The Cat runs past the two saying he's broken his tooth, only to find The Cat in their room with unbroken teeth, they ask Holly what's going on. Holly explains they're seeing 'future echoes', that since they're travelling faster than light speed they're catching up with things that haven't actually happening yet and seeing bits of the future. An example shows up mid conversation, a polaroid of Lister holding two babies.
Now, weary traveller, rest your head, for just like me, you’re utterly dead
Hearing an explosion in the drive room, Lister comes running. Rimmer's already there and immediately tells Lister that he just saw him die when fiddling with the navicomp. Lister is obviously shocked, but doesn't want to know how it happened. Rimmer, who obviously has experience in dying, is surprised by this, but when Lister caves a little and asks if it was quick, Rimmer gets a bit of sadistic glee when he brings up the agonised squealing and thrashing about. Despite this, when Lister accuses him of 'really loving this', Rimmer acts as if he's offended by the suggestion but immediately returns to his smug sadism when Lister begins asking for more details to confirm that it was actually him that Rimmer saw die and Rimmer tries to convince him that he can't change what's happened because it has already happened, or in his own words,
It will be happened; it shall be going to be happening; it will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future. Simple as that. Your bucket’s been kicked, baby.
Lister somehow convinces himself that if he can stop The Cat from breaking his tooth (by eating Lister's robot goldfish) then he can stop himself from dying. Instead, he manages to break The Cat's tooth by tackling him while he's eating the robot goldfish and Rimmer uses this despair to mock Lister, reminding him of his own words that "Death isn't the handicap it used to be in the olden days, it doesn't screw your career up the way it used to!".
Lister's called to the drive room to mend the navicomp and Rimmer follow to watch, standing around a corner with a delighted grin in his face and fingers in his ears. Lister doesn't die (but is attacked by The Cat).

What about me?
Back in their room, they see a future echo of Lister now aged 171 who explains that it was his second son, Bexley (after Jim Bexley Speed) who Rimmer saw die. Rimmer doesn't care, he wants to know what happens to himself in the future and the idiot's first question (he asks Lister to remember it so when he's 171 he can reply) is "Do I become an officer?". it's the only thing he cares about, even while there is no crew and possibly no human race, he still obsesses over promotion and being an officer. The future Lister ushers him closer only to laugh in his face and vanish.

At Future Lister's earlier instructions they hurry to the medical unit, Rimmer showing up now with a black bowl-cut after he called Holly a goit, and Lister takes the photo they saw earlier as another Lister steps out carrying two babies and announces "I can't see you, but I know you can see me" and introduces his future sons, Jim (after Jim Bexley Speed) and Bexley and the credits play over the undeveloped polaroid.
This was supposed to cover several episodes
Like I said, Future Echoes is one of my favourite episodes of Red Dwarf and it demonstrates what the show is going to be like for the next series and a half until the beginning of Series 3. It sets up Rimmer's military obsession and suggests problems with his father which will rear their head later, as well as demonstrates his complete lack of autonomy as a hologram.
When I started writing this one it was supposed to go over episodes 2 through 5 quickly giving a brief synopsis of the important things in the episode and highlighting the little morsels of Rimmer's character we get in them. Going back over my notes for the episode though I realised that there was a bit more of the content I wanted to cover than I first realised, and a few more unrelated events that are required context so this ballooned out larger than I planned. The 1.1, 1.2 numbering scheme wasn't supposed to be series 1 episode 1, 2, etc., it was supposed to be 1.1 for episode 1, 1.2 for 2-5 and then 2 for episode 6, Me². Fingers crossed I'll try to get episodes 3 through 5 into a tighter post!
