S4E10 - Booty Call Ritual

Hello and welcome to Who Are You? This is a Babylon five watch cast hosted by two former strangers. Now, friends who've gotten to know each other while re-watching a favorite show from their childhood, Babylon. Five. I'm Jaire.

And I'm Laura.

And today, Laura, I'm gonna ask you who or what, or, or, or where, I guess is the one. So if this is your first time hearing this this is a bit we do in our season recap episodes where we'll ask each other what is the one thing right now uh, we do it for seasons of the show but you know, we ran outta big stuff to talk about, so we're getting to know each other through some of the smaller things now.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I gotta ask you, Laura what is a recent band or album? The one. Recent band or album that you've just been jamming to?

Well, I am famously a late bloomer when it comes to like popular music.

Okay.

I don't get into something until like years after. It's been well established. And uh, popular in the, in the zeitgeist. Stephen. Yeah. My husband makes fun of me cuz I'm like so behind I'll be like, oh, this is a cool song. It's the first time I heard it, it's really new. And he's like, no, this is from like 10 years ago. You know? So I'm always really behind. I think the most recent band that I've been consistently jamming to is Panic at the Disco.

Okay.

I really like Brendan Yuri's voice. Is it, it's Brendan, right?

Mm-hmm.

Uh, I really enjoy his voice. He seems very classically trained. Incredibly talented. I think I saw a video, maybe it was for Jimmy Fallon, the night show where he did, like, during the quarantine, he did a song. Of theirs maybe, and played all of the instruments

Mm-hmm.

in it and did all of the voice parts by himself and like recorded every single thing. It was amazing. He's just an incredibly talented person. Uh

Album that's really good. If you haven't listened to that yet.

oh. I don't think I have, I'll have to look that up now.

It's from like maybe five, six years ago, I wanna say.

I'm a little late to it, but better late than never. Right?

Yeah, for sure.

What about you? What's an album or band? That's your jam.

I've got two albums that I've been listening to a bunch lately. I've been listening to Rtj four. I run the Jules a ton lately. And then I've been listening to, we're all Gonna Live From Daws,

Yeah. Okay. Because I'm perpetually behind. I have no idea who these people are.

So Run the Jewels is a rap super group of Killer Mike and lp,

Okay.

Lp, I think it's lp, I forget if it's a capital L or not. Anyways they are incredible. Uh, If you listen to any kind of rap at all. They are very, very good. They are very clever and very funny, but also very political.

Yeah

Um,

go figure. Jaire liking someone who's very political.

And then Daws, I don't know that Daws has ever been a big band. Like I, I feel like you could say run the jewels and outside to a crowd of 10 people and you'll get four or five people who know who run the JUULs are. Das is, I don't think a band like that. They're not small by any means. I mean, they tour the country and do the thing and have a ton of albums. We're all gonna live is their live album that they did from their tour, from the album. We're all gonna die. So it's a fun little pun.

I like that. Yeah.

And it's got, it's kind of like a greatest hits for them from their first couple of albums. I do like their more recent stuff as well. It's just that album has always just been, I don't know. It's one of those albums that I will come back to every couple of years and listen to a ton for like a month,

Mm-hmm.

there right now.

Yeah, I do that too. Like I'll get just kind of stuck on an album for a while.

Mm-hmm.

Then I kind of associate it with like a time in my life sometimes about things that were happening.

I have a set of numerical playlists on Spotify that's just like playlist one, playlist two, playlist three, like, and I'm on 30 right now, and these go back 20 years.

dang

And so I have kind of like these capstones where it's like, this was my podcast at this time, or no, they're not in my podcast, but my playlist at this time.

Yeah.

Just instantly transport. I can throw one on from like, I have like playlists that I turned into burn CDs to listen to in the car in high school still and stuff. So I can like just put on, you know, some of that stuff and just be instantly transported back to riding shotgun in my best friend's car on the way to school. Or certain parts of college or travel, you know, like whenever I hear Youth without Youth by Metric.

Yeah, it's amazing the feelings that you'll have drugged back up

Yeah.

from, just from those songs or just from that album?

Mm-hmm.

It's very interesting. I'm sure there's a psychology paper about it or something.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, I would like to know what is the one best app that you've been using, like on your phone or a tablet or something to make your life easier or that you've been enjoying?

I recently set up my own Jelly Fin Media box.

Oh, tell me what this is.

It's basically my own in-house streaming service.

Oh, I think you were telling me about this last week. Off pod.

Yes, because I, right now it is closed network. It's only available in my house, but I do have the intention of putting it on a outside network at some point so that you can watch Third Space and in the beginning and crusade and all of these things that you just, you don't have access to anymore from Babylon five.

I think some of the movies might be available on iTunes, but I'm not sure about Crusade.

Lost Tales is available on Voodoo, but that's it. Some of this stuff's really hard to come by and uh, Honestly, it was uh, talking to yum yum about their DVD backups and stuff, and I'm just all like, I want that, but I hate physical me, like I hate moving physical media around. But I have digital backups of like every D V D that I owned for a very long time which ended up being fortuitous because my D V D collection got, went missing in college at some point.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I do have like backups of all these things that I've purchased that are shows that you just can't get anymore or at least couldn't get for a while. Clone High was like one of the things I would go back to and watch back before that was readily available again. so yeah, that's probably the top of my list right now because it's getting a ton of use and I'm watching random odds and ends that I have saved that just you can't get streaming anymore.

Sounds very useful. So,

Yeah. How about you?

Speaking of useful, I guess I probably get the most use out of the Notability app.

I'm not familiar.

with this one. Okay. It's, you know, it's just a notes taking app, but it has lots of like options for different templates. You know, you can have your ruled paper, you can have your grid paper, you can have a planner, or you can have recipe cards, like lots of different options for taking notes. You can either write it and have it transformed into type text, or you can just write if you prefer.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad you got something that works for you. I used I tab, I indent a lot in my notes,

Uhhuh? Yeah, me too.

like my default on my handwritten notes is tabbed in twice so that I could go back and do stuff and make notes in that margin space.

That's smart.

All right, so I mentioned Jelly Fin and having the media server set up at home. Part of that is I've set up a gym downstairs,

Ooh.

so I've got a little like cheapy projector and my old soundbar and it's in my basement and I've got some cardio down there set up. Got a rower and a bike and I've been spending time, I've been trying to get more exercise. I have not been able to throw disc off for a couple of weeks because I actually tore my bicep.

Aw,

Um,

I'm sorry to hear that.

I'm okay now. I could go throw now, but it's been thunderstorming for days. And also we have all of the smoke from the wildfires here in Michigan,

I have heard about that. I'm so sorry.

couldn't walk. Like I'd put a mask on to walk outside. I couldn't see down my street. It was so

Wild.

We had some of the worst air quality in the country here for several days, and so it healed up just in time for me to not be able to leave my house. So this next week probably, but yeah. So I've been trying to get workouts downstairs in that gym. And Do you have a, like, good TV or movie to just like get on the bike and just like watch while you're doing something?

That is a great question for me, and this was probably not a useful recommendation to you, but for that particular purpose, like whenever I'm on a treadmill or a bike or something exercising, I usually go with one of the nineties era star treks just because I can kind of. into my, like, feelings of nostalgia and dissociate from being exercising a little bit.

Okay.

And it is that, or, you know, if I need a shorter workout session, you know, I'm not gonna wanna go for the full like 45 minutes or whatever. I might do one of the, you know, humorous cartoons, like a lower decks or a, a Futurama or even just like the Simpsons, something I don't necessarily need to like pay attention to.

Okay.

But will like cheer me up enough that I'm not bummed about being exercising.

So Beth and I have been watching succession while working out,

Okay.

which is like the exact opposite of the thing you're talking about. This

cuz I hear that one's like intense, right?

it's intense. It's, yeah, it's an H B O drama about rich people and it just gets me very frustrated. So it's good for working out, I find.

Oh yeah. You like get your emotions up a little bit. Have a little like rage exercise.

For sure.

Okay. That's interesting. So is that your recommendation? Do you think I should try that out or

Yeah. I'm, it, it works for me.

Okay. Well, I wanna know, so after you've been working out and it, I don't know about in Michigan, but it is hot as hell here in Oklahoma. And it probably will be until October.

now.

Are you serious? There are places in the world where it's like that right now.

It's, I mean, it's raining, but Yes

I'd take it. My man. I'm ready.

it was the lowest 68 and the highest 77 here today.

Okay. All right. Well, we'll put a pin in that. But if you've been working out, you and you're are hot and sweaty and it's summertime, maybe it's hot outside. I don't know. Um, What is the one best summer drink that you want right now?

right now I've been going for a gin and tonic,

Okay

splash of lime. Nice floral gin, not just like a. Tan Ray or a Bombay or something, but something that's got a little bit more of a complex flavor profile.

Yeah.

But when it gets hotter, mojito.

Oh yes. I love a mojito.

Yeah. A mojito on a hot day. Mm. The lime and mint. Yeah. That's perfect.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I would say that, you know, I'm obviously not drinking alcohol for a while

Yes.

at this moment. Uh, Gut reasons for that. But. I really enjoy like an infused water right now, like cucumber or lemon. I actually for most of my life have not been a person who prefers ice in my drinks, but since I was pregnant last year, I really, really want my drink to be cold. So a nice ice cold, like infused water or maybe a lemonade, like uh, but I don't like plain lemonade. I want you to put something in it, like gimme some.

Yeah.

peach

All right. Well it's nice to uh, get to know you a little bit better. Uh, we have to figure out and enter the segment at some

What's the, I'm trying to segue the one into this episode, and it's so hard.

Yeah, you can't uh,

We'll figure it out one day next time. Stay tuned.

well, yeah, we'll get there eventually. But for right now, we're just gonna go right into season four, episode 10, racing Mars. We opened in Sheridan's office with supply shortage being the issue. Ivana tells uh, John, she's gonna handle dealing with the smugglers and then relieves him of duty.

Yeah. That's cute.

He hasn't had a day off in nine months uh, the whole war dying, and she's like, you're gonna take a few days while it's quiet. He then asks about Steven and Marcus and how, if we've heard from them before walking out. We go to a cargo freighter where the worst game of ice spy is happening.

Yeah, Marcus is still trying to make this trip interesting.

M for more boxes was pretty good.

E E for even more boxes was quite, quite cute,

Yeah. And Marcus grabs a dude to theme. We get a short introduction to Captain Jack. This is Donovan Scott. Donovan. Scott has had a very successful career playing one person in particular.

really?

Yeah. One character in many different forms can

Oh yes. Okay. This a type of person. Got it. Okay. Okay. Tell me which person this is.

Santa Claus. He's got like 19 I M D B credits for playing Santa Claus or Santa or Chris Cringle or Mr. Winter.

How funny. How many of these are on lifetime? I wonder.

I'm guessing a hand. A handful of them looked like made for TV movies. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. I mean, he's, he's a very fun bit part in this episode.

He knows the key to Franklin's heart food.

Yeah. Franklin is a simple man.

Marcus tries to put it into this, but yeah, it's like potatoes.

To be fair, I would probably have the same reaction to potatoes if I had been eating protein bars for who knows how long.

So I recently found a YouTube channel. Called like Ration swap that takes active military people from different allied countries and has them trade rations.

Oh, interesting.

And I can see why like, you know, they're traveling with like protein bars and like survival food that they could take a ton of. And then he's got like these big old bags and stuff. And it reminds me a lot of like the American rations compared to the Italian rations.

Yeah, I bet European militaries have some significantly better rations than Americans.

Yeah, the Italian rations are like, here's your can of ravioli and stuff, and

Uhhuh and your little juice box of wine.

yeah. Right. Well, yes, there's a lot of stuff like that. Chocolates with every meal. Little stuff like that. It's just like, but it's also four times the size of an American ration,

Yeah,

so.

I could see that. Yeah. Captain Jack has the good stuff.

Mm-hmm.

Um, But Marcus is not gonna be swayed by food. He's, he's not gonna potentially give up the whole game just because this guy has the good snacks.

Yep. We see Sheridan in his quarters attempting a staycation, so, So he's gonna watch some tv, but he only gets one channel and it's Issn and they're just repeating their Babylon five broadcast. They make a note of it there that it's like for our friends in this sector. Another repeat of this broadcast?

This is not healthy, right? He needs to go get out Dale or something. This is not a good use of his time.

He's got a fucking fleet. He's got white stars. Grab to land, get on a ship, go literally anywhere.

Yeah, do not rewatch this. Do not like hate. Watch the Garibaldi interview over and over.

Yeah, go check out the Rolon home world now that it's empty or some shit, I don't know. You got options.

Yeah, this is a bad choice. Um, and it leads to more bad choices because he goes looking for Mr. Guaraldi.

Yeah, he Garibaldi makes him look like a real asshole here.

Yeah, he played right into his hands. It's kind of unfortunate.

Sheridan basically tells him his oath never ends. And Garibaldis like, fuck you. This is the exact kind of reason thing that made me leave. They Get into a, a yelling match and uh, after it's over, the camera pans up and we see the kiro looking on from a distance.

Yeah, I, all of this stuff with Garibaldi really kind of hits a. Really uncomfortable note for me. I'm sure it does for you too, because how much of it are you wondering is sort of like Jerry Doyle's points that he makes later, maybe in some of his uh, work after this.

I mean, the fact that our one character becomes a conservative talk host is also brainwashed, is not lost on me.

Yeah. Uh, The whole, like in this scene, I think he brings up the freedom of speech. I'm so aren't you fighting for freedom of speech? Like,

yeah,

okay, my dude,

yeah. It seems a little, a little much to be perfectly honest.

Yeah. Garibaldi doth protest too much.

yep. Captain Jack reveals himself as the resistance contact. What the hell is this? Passphrase?

I know, right?

Lita had a little vlan. This is fucking weird and rude. This is incredibly rude to Lita. This was upsetting.

Yeah. Haven't we used Mary had a little lamb in, in something with Telepaths before?

Did we? I don't remember.

think we did. I think there was that a scene we're dealing with the resistance, the underground,

Oh, with Talia forever ago.

the, the underground that's trying to escape. I think in there, like repeating, Mary had a little lamb, I think to keep themselves from giving away secrets if they're pressed, like they're gonna just. Use that as their mantra. So maybe, maybe this is kind of calling back to that, cuz we're mentioning Lita. But yeah, this is a weird thing.

Yeah. I, Ugh, I was kind of just squeaked out by this.

Yeah. And anytime you like, use a nursery rhyme in these sort of contexts, it's a little squeaky, right?

And then like this is your friend

Mm-hmm. She helped you. She was like instrumental.

Yeah. Right. You do not win this war without her.

Right, right.

Anyways, captain Jack tells them all their cover story. They're a co young married couple on their honeymoon, and Marcus is just fucking delighted about this.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is, I, I like that we're not playing this, cuz this was the nineties, right? This could have been played as ew gross.

Someone actually asked JMS about this. I talk, I remind me to not talk about this again later cuz it's in my notes later. But he's just like, once humanity found aliens, something as trivial as sexual orientation, as a way to other just stopped being a concern. It's just not an issue for humanity in the future. And I'm all like, cool. I'm glad it's not an issue for humanity in the future.

Yeah. This is a real big huh moment. Considering some of the recent events revolving the Supreme Court.

The uh,

Huh?

I don't want to talk about it.

I'm just gonna use your classic affair.

fair. Go for it, huh?

Yeah, this is real cute. I was, couldn't decide if I was disappointed or impressed that we didn't get the, like obligatory scene you probably would've gotten in the nineties media at this point of them, like trying to sell it to someone like at the hotel or, you know security somewhere on Mars. These identities as married people. I was like, am I disappointed that I don't get to see it?

It's not a thing because it's not a thing.

Yeah, no, I mean, trying to sell themselves as someone else, like as these married people, not that, yeah. That they had to sell, like

Yeah, I

being gay as unusual. The two of them being a couple, when they have their past that we know all about,

They have a lot of fun with it. I'm sure. I'm sure. the actors had a lot of fun with it too. I'm sure that was a lot of fun on set. After this Gar Baldy, can't remember if it's Monday, so he can fall apart Tuesday. Wednesday breakers are actually, now that we get a better look at these guys, they really have a whole Smith's thing going on.

See, I think of them as Depeche mode. They certainly have a look though, don't they? They are not inconspicuous on this station. They should really work on that. They've got a strong brand.

yeah. Night Watch 2.0 here tries to get Garibaldi to sign up and he might be pissed at John, but he's not about to sell him out.

Yet?

After this Captain Jack relays some rumors about Babylon five to Marcus and Franklin. Including them simultaneously being conquerors of Mars. And also, fuck it. We're just leaving the resistance alone.

I like that. I got my confirmation that yes. Pretty much the solar system, our solar system does not know about the shadow war. we had, I think two episodes ago maybe I had asked, do they know, and it's confirmed canon here that no, they do not.

Captain Jack's like, what war? We don't get P 10 on Mars. We do get some good fun between Marcus and Franklin here. back on the station. Ivanova meets with smugglers in an attempt to get them to go legit. She offers them fighter escorts, maintenance fuel, fuel costs, repairs, and also not getting blown up by Babylon. Five.

Mm-hmm. Speaking of good fun, Ivo is good fun in this scene. I love that she specifically lists their crimes and touches each of them when discussing their crimes and their like. What they're wanted for specifically by earth gov. She's very good at making it clear that they really should consider this opportunity very seriously.

Yeah. When they're going through stuff, one of them asks when they're talking about the clean slate, one of them's all like, does that include for that shipment that made Garibaldi lose his hair?

I, I'm a little disappointed that we had to like, give an explanation for why Garibaldi went bald. I mean, can't a man just go bald?

I mean, he was clearly on his way there, but it, this is

Yes.

Captain Jack takes Franklin and Marcus through some old minds to meet with the resistance leaders when they get got to commercial. Uh, When we come back, we find out that these people are the resistance and are checking them out. We find out the Texas Rangers are still culturally relevant somehow.

Of course, if anyone's going to be standing the test of time, it's gonna be those Texas Rangers, right?

for sure. Uh, We get number two here, played by Clayton Landy. He's real that guy. And he gives Marcus shit for his Mumbai war Pike. He says there's two types of people, the suspicious and the dead. I initially read this as the only people that survive. Are the people who cast suspicion not are suspicious themselves.

Oh yeah. Okay.

And I'm just all like, wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. You, those are the people that would get, wait, wait. No. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Like my brain, like had to go on a whole trip for that

it's kind of a, a survival of the fittest thing. He, he's point that he's making.

I got there. It just took time.

Yeah.

Transmissions are being jammed all over the place. So it's going to be a long time to verify their IDs and make sure that they're not assassins.

Yeah, because they've had rumors that there might be assassins on their way.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Delin goes to John and talks him through his encounter with Garibaldi. She notes he's got the day, so, hey, maybe one of these memoir recording rituals we can get through. He's like, how many are there?

well, now it's time for the sex ritual.

Yeah. Yes. The ritual of discovering each other's pleasure centers.

Maybe the threshold even.

yeah. Yeah. Once he finds out it's the booty call ritual, he's in,

Yeah, he's down.

Back on Mars. Captain Jack shows Franklin a picture of his daughter. Creep Fest McGee here is just like, she's gorgeous. Just turned 18 two days ago. Uh,

I wouldn't be handing this to Franklin.

right. It's like,

Here's her address.

Yeah.

Oh boy.

captain Jack mentioned it's come again from Dana four. When number two marches in there, I de cards are bunk and he thinks they're assassins. Number one jumps in. As Jack starts pulling at his shoulder and backs off Franklin notices something going is going on. He saves number one as Marcus shoots the keeper off of Captain Jack's shoulder.

Yeah, he's got one of them little aliens. Like poor, poor Regent Verini.

Franklin does get a chance to perform an autopsy on the keeper, and due to its biology is able to determine its basic function controlling the host. Franklin notes some of his erratic behaviors along with Jack trying to warn them without being able to tell them directly. Jack escaped and has taken a grenade with him. Number one calls him and Jack explains that they always grow back and he blows himself up rather than give himself up to its control again.

That. Is a very key point, isn't it? That They always grow back. Hmm. Seems like it could be a problem.

Over on the station Garibaldi finishes a deal with Anthony Keis as Sheridan comes back in to apologize as a preki, comes up and asks for a blessing.

Mm-hmm.

JMS noted on using that, that he got a little flack for the he's not the pope. He looks nothing like her line.

My husband immediately said, that'll never happen. He's like, they'll never let that happen. I was like, okay,

Maybe in

you're probably not wrong. Right, right.

He ends up punching Sheridan in the apology Does not work out.

Important question for you.

Yeah.

Do you think Depeche Mode set this up?

Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah.

They paid this

yeah. this is Morris's work. Hands down.

Yeah.

Okay. So Sheridan is all worked up now and goes to Delen quarters

Uhhuh

to find a, a bunch of mumbar there. Yeah.

you're all worked up. You just had a fight with your best buddy. It's all over. Need to need to get some feelings out. Go see your girlfriend and she's got a bunch of people over,

Yep. They're there for the sex show. Yep.

a bunch of relatives.

Oh, no thanks.

Mumbar. Just know how to kill the fun outta anything, don't they?

Just like to watch, right? It's their

I mean, maybe it is more fun for them. I don't know.

After the sex Sheridan shares an elevator with Lanier who gives him shit for exclaiming. Woo-hoo. At some point,

I would say this is some very deserved shit.

Sheridan Canonically has the worst pillow talk of Eddie character in Babylon. Five.

For real. Woohoo.

Woohoo.

No, that'd be, and inside I'd be like, and this is over.

It was a good run. It's done now. Back on Mars Marcus Bros. Out and dips out. So, Franklin and number one can have dinner together Over on the station, there's a light that never goes out as the Smiths roll up on Garibaldi. Who hopes that a Doubledecker bus hits Sheridan. He signs up to credits.

Uh, yep.

All right. Or how do you feel about this one?

You know, I had a little more fun with this one than the last one. I love Mars. I love anytime we're doing something on Mars. I don't know why. It's just, Intriguing to me. I love that we got some more lore about the keeper. Very, very interested in those keepers. Ratcheting the stakes up a little bit too with them in that we've been told they always grow back. Seems problematic.

Seems like an issue.

I don't love where we're going with sending Franklin off with number one. I feel like I. That could get a little more Franklin Romancey not into it. But I think overall, you know, whereas last episode I was, you know, ready to give it a two until I was charmed into it. For me, this is a solid episode of Babylon five. Like it's a, it's definitely a solid three for me, just that it's kind of on that average. But it's doing all the things that I love from Babylon five.

For sure.

What about you? What do you think?

I'm right there. I put this as a uh, four out of five. And

Yeah. Maybe I should bump this to three and a half. I don't know,

It's a really good episode, but it is not an episode that I would ever watch outside of a full series rewatch.

Oh yeah. There's so much that's continuous,

Yeah.

It's, you've gotta use it in the context of everything that's around

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it, yeah, it definitely exists where it's supposed to exist and. Couldn't do anything else, and I didn't, like I said, it's not one that I'd ever just like, oh, I'm gonna throw that episode on, but it is a very good episode.

Yeah. Even the stuff with uh, Sheridan and Garibaldi that I don't love the conflict between Sheridan and Garibaldi cause I don't wanna see my friends fighting. But it is very well done and it does what it's supposed to do. It makes you

Mm-hmm. All right, well next time we've got season four, episode 11, lines of Communication. Delen meets the DRS for the first time.

Hmm.

Earth continues to report propaganda about Babylon five, but Sheridan prepares a counter attack. Franklin and Marcus rallies support on Mars. Delen gives sad news to Sheridan.

That's a lot of things again.

Ah, it's a lot. The DRock are a big deal, so.

Yeah. I didn't know we were going to encounter them so soon.

Yeah. All right, well, we'll go over all of that next time, but in the meantime, thank you Jeremy Siegel for our theme music. You can find more at Jeremy's work at jeremy Siegel two bandcamp.com and also on streaming platforms. Has nuclear Jaguar.

And thank you to angry Duck time machine on Instagram for our podcast artwork.

Thank you, Aaron for editing our podcast and making sure that it is listenable. Really appreciate you.

And thank you to you, the listener, for being here with us. We really enjoy having you. We'd love to talk to you on the Discord, or if you're not a Discord person, you can always email us at who are you, b five gmail.com, and hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

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Bye.