S4E12 - The Most Specific Wig in History - podcast episode cover

S4E12 - The Most Specific Wig in History

Aug 16, 202350 minEp. 89
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Episode description

Join Laura and Xhafer, two internet strangers as they get to know each other while making jokes about one of their favorite TV shows from their childhood, Babylon 5.

Xhafer recounts his experience at the SDCC premiere of Babylon 5: The Road Home and gives his spoiler-free first impressions. Meanwhile, Garibaldi takes a job protecting an old flame and Zack has to actually do his job securing the station from his former boss in Babylon 5 - Season 4 Episode 12: Conflicts of Interest.

Transcript

Laura

dear listener, this episode was recorded during the Writer's Guild of America and SAG after a strike of 2023. While this podcast is a labor of love, shows like our Dear Babylon five should not be. We believe that the creators of artwork like our favorite shows, deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. Without their labor shows, like ours would not exist and Jair and I wouldn't have become friends. We stand with labor.

Hello and welcome to Who Are You, A Babylon five watch cast by a couple of strangers now friends who are continuing to get to know each other over one of their favorite shows from their childhood. I'm Laura,

Xhafer

And I'm Jair.

Laura

today I wanna ask you Fair. How is San Diego Comic-Con.

Xhafer

Oh my God. I don't know why I paused for a drop. Like we have one for San Diego Comic-Con, knowing we don't,

Laura

It's pause for effect.

Xhafer

oh, I can do one of those. Let me tell you all about it. I know, you know, my video didn't freeze because like there's lights on my headset that move,

Laura

Yeah, that's

Xhafer

that even better. The visual gag of course, does nothing for our listeners. But what might do something for our listeners is hearing about my experience at San Diego Comic-Con, which was a blast. So first off, I have to give a shout out to the question gentleman. Which is the board game company that paid for my trip.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

This is my college roommate and one of his friends started a board game company. When this episode airs, their board game is still live on Kickstarter for like another two or three days.

Laura

okay.

Xhafer

So I will give them the plug that they deserve for having. you know, they, they paid for my trip,

Laura

Yeah, sure. What is the game?

Xhafer

it's called Pocket Samurai. It is a two player drafting and dueling game that takes about 10 minutes. I did about 500 demos of this game over the course of the

Laura

wow.

Xhafer

And also if you go watch their How to Play video I am the voiceover on it. Uh,

Laura

Look at our voiceover artist, everybody.

Xhafer

you can see my hands. I'm a hand model in it. And then that was all put together by my lovely partner Beth uh, who did a fantastic job editing and filming and setting up a lighting rig and all the, the incredible stuff that goes into a actual video production there.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

so it's a real quick game. The target audience is kind of you're waiting for your next round at Friday Night Magic, or you're waiting for the rest of your friends to show up for d and d. Um, I personally have played it at the bar waiting for one of my other buddies from high school to show up when I was meeting two of them.

Laura

Fun.

Xhafer

It's real convenient. It's a 27. Set of cards, so it's like very small fits in your pocket and you can just kind of whip it out and play it anywhere.

Laura

Yeah. That's about half a deck, right? Yeah.

Xhafer

Yeah, I need to retake that. Sorry.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

And so you can just you know, take it outta your pocket and play it anywhere. That sounds worse somehow. You can just take it outta your pants whenever you want and play with it in front of people. God

Laura

it's not even weird at all.

Xhafer

This is all staying in now, isn't it? All right. No, it's a travel size game that's just kind of meant to be super convenient and you don't know when you're gonna have 15 minutes or you dunno how much time you have and you just know it's gonna be short. So the, it's really fun though. It's uh, very strategic. It's uh, very rock paper, scissors, but at a drafting level, so you kind of countering stuff. It's a lot of fun and I do actually enjoy the game despite.

Having played it for 13 hours a day for several days in a row. For the con

Laura

That's the real test I think.

Xhafer

Yeah, it, it wasn't bored and it didn't break. I haven't been able to thoroughly break it. There's definitely some combos I've found that are strong, but they are accountable in the draft phase before they become a problem in the gameplay phase. Especially if you know what you're doing. Uh, Which, and I would say it only takes people like four games to get to like, Past beginner level play, it tends to click pretty quickly. It's a very simple game. So that's their plug.

Thank you Questing Gentlemen. Thank you Pocket Samurai for giving me an all expense paid trip to San Diego to go see the road home,

Laura

Yes. That's what the listener is mostly here

Xhafer

I know let, this is why people are hitting their skips and maybe missing, I don't know. I'm one of those guys. I skip ads all the time, so I ain't gonna, I ain't gonna judge no one for it. But uh, yeah, the road home I got to do the premiere. I sat through three other panels to make sure I had a good seat.

Laura

Uhhuh

Xhafer

But I did, I sat uh, I think ended up sitting sixth row, maybe fourth row center right in front of the great maker.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

and, uh, yeah, saw the movie. I have rated it on the Discord.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

I don't want to say too much. This episode airs. The day after it comes out. So I'm going to assume most of our listenership hasn't had a chance to watch it. I will say if it's something that you're curious about, but you are watching the show along with us and want to avoid spoilers, it is firmly post-season five.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

It, it, it takes place without getting into details about too much in between the. Second to last episode and the last episode in season five.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

the last episode is a time jump, as we all know. So that's part of the reason why it's, it's about a year after the events of season five, the game, the the movie takes place.

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

so I think that puts it pre crusade, but I should have researched that before making that statement.

Laura

It's fine.

Xhafer

but definitely a year after season five,

Laura

Now tell it.

Xhafer

set that timeline.

Laura

obviously there's a lot of recasted voices because we have lost a lot of our dear actors. Uh, How is that work? Does it, does it fit nicely?

Xhafer

Yeah. I would say out of all the recast actors the strongest was probably Phil Lamar Is Dr. Franklin.

Laura

Wow. Okay. He is a accomplished voice actor, so that makes

Xhafer

yes. He just really gets the cadence and the feel of Franklin while still doing his own thing.

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

And none of the actors, no one felt like a clone of the, the person who came before, but there was definitely enough in intonation and like speech patterns and maybe that some of that's JM S'S writing as well. But I would be shocked if I found out any of them didn't do their homework for the role.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

So I think they all brought the, their A game and they all sounded great.

Laura

How's the um, visual quality?

Xhafer

Good. If you want the closest comparison this is from the mouth of the director during the q and a at the, after the movie uh, he also did DC's Super Suns,

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

Where it's two D in front with three D rendered backgrounds, and it's the same. They were like, we want to do this exact same style again, and they did. I haven't seen Super Suns, but that's what he said and he made both movies, so I trust him on that opinion.

Laura

seems like the authority.

Xhafer

Yeah. I will say it was super cool because we get to see like a lot of detail that we missed in the shows. C g I like there is a shadow ship that is like one of the big ones that's a carrier and we get to like, see in detail all of the like, Buildings on it and stuff that are just kind of amorphous black blobs when we see it in space normally. And got to see some like life on it and got to see like where the little drone ships fly out of and things.

We got to see a lot more detailed versions of a lot of the locales on Babylon five itself,

Laura

Ooh.

Xhafer

When the hallways aren't restricted to being. T n g size to fit in a warehouse. They get to do a lot more room with stuff. The Olo felt massive in comparison. So that was all really cool. I have seen one review of it so far and I almost entirely agree with it. I don't want to voice too much, especially 'cause I know you haven't had a chance to see it

Laura

Right. Yeah.

Xhafer

So but it was enjoyable. I am not typically one for the nostalgia pop, the cheap nostalgia pop. And there was admittedly a lot of that in this movie. It was very much a, we haven't done Babylon five in 20 years, so we're doing Babylon five again, kind of a thing. The review that I watched online of it said it pretty succinctly though out of everything we've gotten since sleeping in light, it is the thing that has most felt like a j m S episode of Babylon five.

Laura

Oh good.

Xhafer

And that is a hundred percent true, mu much more so than any of the post movies or crusade or any of it. It felt like watching an episode of Babylon five, well, two episodes of Babylon, five stuck together.

Laura

Great. Great.

Xhafer

so I rated it a three and a half on the Discord. That is uh, that was like my initial thought walking out of it. My, my grumbles with it are still my grumbles with it, but I don't think they take away from it at all.

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

It's very reliant on. The one-liner style of humor that j m s had and during his Babylon five days. But if you read any of his comics, especially in the last 10 years or so, especially his run on Spider-Man, which is a very one-liner superhero uh, it felt more like a comic to me than an enacted piece. Because of the, the, the, the one-liner exchange is real heavy and the, the monologue is seldom. And that's kind of the reverse of how TV works normally, especially a show like Babylon five.

So that's my biggest gripe without getting into details.

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

And then the ending is just gonna blow your mind. I, I can't even like the fact that I haven't seen anyone ruin the ending of this thing. Is shocking,

Laura

Wow.

Xhafer

Because it was the thing I wanted to talk about the most and I haunted Twitter for like an hour after the movie was over and I didn't see it ruined there. I didn't see it ruined in the review. I read. I haven't seen it ruined in tweets or people asking about it afterwards or anything. So yeah.

Laura

Well after it comes out, that's our next open is, we'll talk about the ending.

Xhafer

Yeah, we'll talk about the movie for sure. We'll do, I think I did a, like look at our episode placement for it and I did put it towards the end. I think we'll actually do it as an episode of our show probably just after season five before we get into the other stuff.

Laura

Okay.

Xhafer

We had kind of as so, but we'll talk about that more. Later. I have a planned roadmap for basically everything post season five written out for us. And you've seen it uh, you know, it's in our shared drive that we use as a workspace for the podcast. But we'll go over all of that in the season four finale because it seems like inappropriate place to talk about the future. So,

Laura

I think so. One last question. Did you ask any questions of the great maker?

Xhafer

I did, I did ask j m s A question. I got up in line, I sat right next to the microphone so I could get up in line very quickly. I had like, the second question and I asked him my question, and I'm gonna tell you right now, he did not have an answer for me.

Laura

Gasp.

Xhafer

so I got up and I'm like, hi, thanks for plon five, et cetera, et cetera. Community, important part of my life, really appreciate it. Uh, You know, the, the usual things. Um, and then I'm like one of the thir through lines of your career as a writer is not wanting to do the same thing over again. You go out of your way, you avoid it to not tell the same story twice.

Laura

Mm-hmm

Xhafer

With that in mind, knowing the nature of this movie of going through time, was there anything that you thought about revisiting and decided you couldn't because you did it right the first time and you didn't want to touch it,

Laura

And he did not have an answer.

Xhafer

and he did not have an answer for me. He's just like, Nope, there was nothing. No sacred cows. Bye.

Laura

Okay. I mean,

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

that's, that's a strong, strong answer, I guess.

Xhafer

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, hey I thought it was a good question, but apparently it isn't. Uh, that's fine though. But yeah, that was cool and I did hit up the autograph session as well, and I got a copy of becoming Superman signed, and I also got my v h s copy of the gathering signed.

Laura

Oh, nice.

Xhafer

Yeah,

Laura

What a nice blast from the past for

Xhafer

it is on a display stand in my living room now where it will

Laura

nice. Well, I am so glad you had a great time. I'm glad you got to be there. I'm glad one of us could. You know,

Xhafer

Yeah. I am so shocked it all happened. It still doesn't feel real to me.

Laura

it's amazing. I'm just so happy for you and you're about to have another amazing week, so just live it

Xhafer

About to head off to Star Trek, Las Vegas.

Laura

send me so many pictures.

Xhafer

Yeah, I have, I, it'll just be on Facebook. Probably. I've, I posted a ton of pictures from San Diego ComicCon on my Facebook which doesn't help anyone on our discord. I should probably post some pictures on our

Laura

Yeah. Pick the choices ones for the Discord.

Xhafer

Okay, I'll do that. And then, yeah, S T L V and the Pika Kabana. I'm gonna go have a drink with uh, Adam from last episode

Laura

yeah, buy him a drink for me. Okay.

Xhafer

will do, can make sure that happens.

Laura

Please do.

Xhafer

All right. Well, it's a shame you don't get to go. To the PRCA Cobana as well. Not that you'd have any conflicts of interest if you did.

Laura

There you go.

Xhafer

That is the worst segue. No, no. I've

Laura

It's fine. Yeah. We've done worse. The bar is pretty low on the show.

Xhafer

Yeah. All right. Well, we've got season four episode 12, conflicts of interest. We open on Garibaldi, reuniting a father and daughter at a discount as Wade watches on. I don't think we got this character's name. Last

Laura

no. He was just uh, Depeche mode

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

to us. Yeah.

Xhafer

Yeah, he was. So uh, I have to give a shout out because with the name, Wade actually has a little bit of significance to me. I have a reoccurring character in, oh, I've got only two reoccurring characters in all of my d and d games.

Laura

Oh, I see.

Xhafer

They are the brothers, Wade and Chillin's MCM Magic Shop. And they are the proprietors of a interdimensional magic stop, magic item, shop chain,

Laura

Nice.

Xhafer

Magic Shops. So yeah, shout out to Wade.

Laura

Yeah, this way doesn't seem that cool.

Xhafer

No Morrissey quickly tells us that Garibaldi is expendable to main theme here.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

We come back to Zach coming to Sheridan's office who is just standing in darkness.

Laura

yeah. Is he staring out a window or is he staring at a painting? Do we know what this is?

Xhafer

It, he's staring the human being. Bruce is staring at a painting,

Laura

Well, yeah. Yeah.

Xhafer

staring out a window.

Laura

I, I thought I was like, this is either a window or a very boring painting. Like, but it could be either.

Xhafer

Yeah, it's out to the Zen Gardens and stuff. Uh, We see it in the background when uh, Kosh saves him.

Laura

Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Sheridan has some very legitimate gripes, I think.

Xhafer

Yes.

Laura

He uh, wants Zach to go and visit Garibaldi and take his stuff back. We don't know how long Garibaldis been running around with his security access

Xhafer

Right.

Laura

gun.

Xhafer

This is shocking.

Laura

This is shocking. Like I would love to hear from it. Security Jafar this episode.

Xhafer

Oh my God. You have to disable that ad account like immediately what is going on? Just unauthorized access to the environment. I was, this is mind numbing to me

Laura

and, and the fact that we have to physically take the card back instead of remotely turning it off from our end is just bonkers.

Xhafer

and he does remotely turn it off halfway through the episode.

Laura

man, he did. That's right.

Xhafer

Why don't you just do that the first time? Just look 'em up. Search user, right click. Disable account. It ain't hard. I doubt the future's gonna make it much worse.

Laura

Zach has way too many emotions wrapped up in this too. Like, he's so uncomfortable with going to his former boss and asking for very legitimate thing that he needs. Like I, I don't understand, like, I guess Zach was also raised on Aldi's homeschool security force, but,

Xhafer

Yes. A fellow graduate.

Laura

Yeah. I just was like, this is not how your security people should feel about taking access away from anyone,

Xhafer

Mm-hmm.

Laura

even their former boss.

Xhafer

For sure. Sheridan's, right? He's like, he knows the regulations. He's had to do this, like this should not be a problem.

Laura

Sheridan also here should not feel the way he feels when Alan asks, why is this a rush? And Sheridan doesn't have to give him an answer. It's just Because

Xhafer

been termed for a month.

Laura

he's, he's no longer with us and this is how it goes.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

You don't have to say, I don't like his company. Like you're the commander of the station, sir.

Xhafer

Do you think the only reason this happens is because they're not Earth force? Like Earth Force would've automatically termed when the paycheck stopped,

Laura

Like surely. Yeah.

Xhafer

off everything badge and gone on the desk?

Laura

we've let our internal controls slip because we're not part of the larger organization anymore. Is that it?

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

Maybe so. So maybe some of that earth Force admin cost was worth the worth. The money.

Xhafer

Speaking of admin cost, Ivana's raking her brain, trying to figure out how to get the signal out from Babylon. Five. As Franklin comes in back from Mars,

Laura

Yeah. He just came back. He didn't get to see any more of that. That was kind of a shame.

Xhafer

really. He really downplays his experience here and keeps it professional. Thank fuck.

Laura

Yeah. This is like the first time we get a nice glimpse of professional Franklin again.

Xhafer

Right? It's been so long. How was Mars? Great. Had a ton of sex finger guns. Not, not completely out of the question,

Laura

Right, right. Mr. Sleeps with patience. Yeah.

Xhafer

right?

Laura

Sorry, doctor sleeps with patients.

Xhafer

But yeah they have their conversation and Ivanova totally thinks of co-opting Epsilon. Three. She has this brilliant idea. She totally came up with it, and definitely nobody else.

Laura

Yeah, definitely. Probably not.

Xhafer

I'm not gonna argue with her.

Laura

Oh, no. Heaven forbid.

Xhafer

After this, Zach goes to Alfredo, gets his I deta card in com. Badge easy, but the gun is a point of contention. Come and take it. He says, standing on his lawn in St. Louis holding an AR 15, completely missing the point.

Laura

That's not gonna be a dated reference at all, ever.

Xhafer

It's already a dated reference and I don't care.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah. Google it guys. If you're listening to this in the future.

Xhafer

Google it now. If you don't remember. I don't blame you.

Laura

yeah, that's

Xhafer

A lot's happened. It's been a crazy three years.

Laura

It has yeah. This is wild that he thinks he can just keep his government gun n.

Xhafer

mm-hmm.

Laura

Also wild that we can't also just shut down the gun. Like we've, we've established on this show that maybe they're like fingerprint locked or something. Like there should be a remote shutoff too. I don't know. But

Xhafer

That makes sense to me.

Laura

not only, is it the one gun, there's a second gun.

Xhafer

Yep. Zach knows

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

the worst part of this is after he gives them over, he gives Zach shit for doing it personally rather than sending a rando.

Laura

See, this is the type of person that Garibaldi is that I totally believe that if it had been a rando, he would've gone to Zach and been like, why didn't you come do this yourself?

Xhafer

Exactly, a hundred percent.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

He has to have a reason to complain.

Laura

There's no right way to do this with this type of person.

Xhafer

Ugh,

Laura

Yeah,

Xhafer

what a snowflake. He's so easily offended.

Laura

indeed. Indeed.

Xhafer

The Vva heads down to the planet as Garibaldi watches the Looney Tunes episode where bugs is the animator and uh, is basically God coming down and making Duffy's life miserable. Not a coincidence.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

Uh, in the use nets, there's an a note about really fighting to get this specific clip approved.

Laura

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

It's such a classic too. Like I think if you know a handful of Looney Tunes, this is one of them that you know, right.

Xhafer

Yeah,

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

It makes sense though, because you could definitely see, I mean, Garibaldi clearly identifies as Daffy Duck already anyways.

Laura

Right

Xhafer

And

Laura

with the poster over his bed.

Xhafer

yeah, right. The episode where someone who is playing God and tormenting him

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

definitely plays into his psyche.

Laura

Hmm. What a victim mentality. Anyway.

Xhafer

Just as dinner's ready and the cartoon finishes, a knock on the door asks him why he gives time to the people who don't care if he lives or dies.

Laura

Hmm.

Xhafer

And Wade offers him a job, bodyguarding someone doing some secret business on the station, and then he takes the job. Heaven knows he's miserable to commercial.

Laura

Yeah. You know, one thing that disappointed me about the uh, ride down to Epsilon three is the lack of fancy flying. Nobody's drive, nobody's driving like a madman down

Xhafer

yeah. yeah. Apparently you can just drive down. There is what we're learning, and Alando was doing fancy flying for no reason other than show boating.

Laura

Well, I think he was being shot at too. I don't remember exactly, but uh, yeah, it's too bad we know Avan A has got fancy flying in her right.

Xhafer

vava runs into sad zaris. Thinking that it's Zaris, but she's never met Zaris. She's met Zaris, not Zaris.

Laura

Right. It's very subtle. Zaris, not zaris. Yeah.

Xhafer

favorite Zaris line of all time is right here, which is Zaris. Never listened to Zaris.

Laura

Yeah. Laura never listens to Laura either.

Xhafer

Comedy Gold, and I will say because it's announced RIS is in road

Laura

Yeah. Yeah, he was in the trailer. I think it's fair to,

Xhafer

it's, it's good.

Laura

okay. That's a recast actor, isn't it? Tim? Timothy's dead. Yeah. Yeah. Well

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

that's one. You have to do the homework if you're gonna nail it, so I'm sure they did.

Xhafer

Z Plenty.

Laura

Yay.

Xhafer

Garibaldi takes the back door through space t s a to find a lease and a flashback waiting for him.

Laura

These flashbacks get me every time. I mean, you could tell that they were recorded at the right time because his hair is in the right kind of way. Oh

Xhafer

It'd be a big makeup job to have him have that hair right now.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah. You'd have to have a like an expert wig maker, right?

Xhafer

Oh, there's so much scalp. It'd be, it'd be insane.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

It'd have to be the most specific wig in history.

Laura

Yes. Hard agree.

Xhafer

Mm-hmm.

Laura

But yeah, he's still got those feels. They come back in a flashback.

Xhafer

After commercial lease catches Mike up on the last few years and she says he was finally happy, so she didn't wanna ruin that for him. Fucking win.

Laura

yeah, interesting interpretation. I mean,

Xhafer

I did the homework on this.

Laura

okay.

Xhafer

So the ti last time they talked right when she was in the hospital and stuff was late season one. So in a couple episodes, he gets shot in the back, goes through the recovery splits from earth shadow, war starts, all the shadow war shit. At what point during any of this is he happy?

Laura

Well, she saw him before all that. So I guess if she didn't talk to him in between, she could be a little forgiven perhaps.

Xhafer

Ugh.

Laura

But yeah, I uh, Garibaldi is not a character on the show that I would describe as happy. But uh, he is really unreasonable here.

Xhafer

Oh, for sure. He's a real shitbag,

Laura

yeah, he's

Xhafer

not great, but he is fucking miserable.

Laura

yes. And. He's the kind of person that he wants to badger her, but the second it doesn't go the way he wants, he doesn't wanna talk about it anymore. And he is like, this is over. And it's like, okay.

Xhafer

Right.

Laura

I have definitely had this conversation with a certain type of man. And uh,

Xhafer

I'm sorry.

Laura

yeah, they're, they're, they're everywhere. Jair did you know?

Xhafer

No.

Laura

Yeah. They, they could be at your workplace.

Xhafer

I am sure they are.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

These type of guys are everywhere. I've got no idea. Apparently I, I mean, I believe you. I'm just privileged.

Laura

he's a real piece of work and it's, the other thing that I really dislike about this conversation is him badgering her, that she has the audacity to be happy.

Xhafer

Right? Fuck off, dude.

Laura

Like she, she tells him that her marriage that she was in when she talked to him at the end of season one Fell apart, that man had an affair and took her daughter away from her because the courts are apparently biased towards Earthborn citizens. and, you know, she met another man and had the gall to just try to be happy again. And uh, Garibaldi puts it together that this man that she's with is very, very rich, filthy rich and immediately goes for the gold digger jab.

Xhafer

fucking just how hard is it to be happy for your ex? Like, truly like, you know, she didn't do anything terrible to you. You know, she didn't cheat on you or do something so unc that you can't stand the sight of her. Like,

Laura

She just didn't wanna move. That's why she didn't go with

Xhafer

yeah. She didn't wanna uproot her entire fucking life.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

That's, that's her crime against you. And you're gonna be this rude to her. Come on. Just let people be happy. Who fucking doesn't deserve happiness? Like Mitch McConnell. That's about it, right? A couple other people. Anyone? Anyone who actively committing genocide?

Laura

right. Right.

Xhafer

else though?

Laura

She just literally didn't wanna move. She didn't wanna go be

Xhafer

more people that don't deserve to be happy. Actually, it's too much to list, but the average decent person. Deserves to be happy and just fucking let him.

Laura

Yeah. So not a good look for Garibaldi, pretty much this whole episode, in my opinion.

Xhafer

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I, I will reiterate, he's a real shit bag.

Laura

Yeah. But of note, Lisa is now Lisa Hampton Edgars. So the man that she's married to is William Edgars, which is apparently a magnate of some sort.

Xhafer

Very famous, rich dude from pharmaceuticals, big pharma rep. just, just what we love, a hero from big pharma.

Laura

I wonder if this is gonna go all fugitive on us.

Xhafer

Uh,

Laura

Uh, and Adam will never know.

Xhafer

they were together for six. months when they got married. How long have they been married is my question, because if it's like a month and he's sitting here to do business deals for her on, like, on rebel stations, I have more questions.

Laura

I.

Xhafer

timeframe here is a little confusing, but I think if. The divorce and the cheating and the baby happens all very quickly After, we last year, if she was already pregnant in that,

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

then we can kind of wiggle almost a year of them being married into it. By just kind of pushing things and really, they, like, she, they met immediately. They got married after six months. We could make it like a year where okay, there is, there, there is a reality where this isn't super awkward or trying to offer her for some reason.

'cause that is the vibe I got is all like if they've been married for like a couple months and he's sending her to what is regarded as one of the most dangerous places.

Laura

right. Did he just

Xhafer

take out a huge life insurance? policy?

Laura

Damn it. We went for the same joke at the same time.

Xhafer

It's the right joke,

Laura

Yeah, that's how he became so wealthy. He is just marrying women and sending them into dangerous situations after he gets their life insurance policy established. It's a good investment.

Xhafer

Oh, over in Sheridan's office. He's talking Tolando. As Kar comes in and they were both invited to discuss shared borders and the repurposing of the Rangers. The ambassadors agreed that this could be seen as an act of aggression, and he's hoping that if the Sari and Narn can both publicly agree to the same thing, it will dismiss any fears of such in the league of non-aligned worlds

Laura

Yeah. That's Smart Hard to do.

Xhafer

owe him.

Laura

Yeah. I noticed that Dakkar does not sit down in this scene. He will not sit at the same table with Mr. Malari. Shocker.

Xhafer

Too soon.

Laura

Yep, yep, yep. But yeah, Londo puts up a little resistance here. He's uh, not super convinced about the drop It feels like.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

And uh, he's a little reluctant to, to take this offer. Well, back in security, Mr. Allen, he's going through the uh, the daily rundown from the security computer. Finding about all the crimes and it notes that there was an unauthorized entry into an area. There's a missing passenger from a shuttle that came in, and Mr. Garibaldi was somewhere he shouldn't have been, and somehow he made a copy of his identity card.

Xhafer

He's probably got the, like the badge machine in his office.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

You know that checks out.

Laura

Just printed a second badge. That makes sense. Yeah. So now finally, Mr. Allen decides to uh, override that clearance that Mr. Garibaldi had. It only took him half the episode.

Xhafer

Yep.

Laura

So here's the thought.

Xhafer

All right.

Laura

If this physical security, this identity card is the way we get in and out of places, and we finally took it back from Mr. Garibaldi, could somebody just go to like the loose bin of identity cards, you know, that's sitting around in the office and just pick one up and go and get into Garibaldis places with his card, because we didn't shut it off.

Xhafer

God, Zach is, I hope he, like, I hope this is a one time thing and not a consistent fuck up for him, because I have seen, I have seen people get fired for less when it comes to security, stuff like this. When

Laura

For sure. For sure.

Xhafer

Garal and crew uh, meet and get the package. It is an antigen for a virus that only impacts telepaths.

Laura

Hmm.

Xhafer

And they go into so much detail for a big secret. They're like, let me tell you about our super specific McGuffin. Oh, it's so secret. We can't tell anyone. If anyone were to find out all of the details, I'm about to tell you in an open bar, it would be just a public execution. Oh, it'd be terrible. The people that want this thing, if they knew that it was right here, this exact specific thing that these exact groups of people want. So dumb, so fucking dumb.

Laura

Yeah. And where is this thing coming from? Is that clear at any point?

Xhafer

world is the only answer we get. Quote, the boys back home couldn't figure it out.

Laura

So do the boys back home have it or, or is it, has it already? Maybe has the virus like gotten into the population or anything?

Xhafer

We find out more later.

Laura

Later. Okay.

Xhafer

I will not say anything else lest I ruin twists coming down the line.

Laura

I love your restraint. Congratulations.

Xhafer

It's, it's difficult. It

Laura

Yeah. So this comes from off world somewhere.

Xhafer

I don't remember if we find out exactly where, if they don't, if they tell us like, oh, the VLANs did it or something. I, I have guesses knowing a couple little bits, more information.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

And I mean, if you think about who

Laura

Jair is dancing in his seat. Everybody.

Xhafer

it's, it's my

Laura

so hard.

Xhafer

It is the physical signs of my restraint. I, I will lead you down a rabbit hole of information you already know. Listener. If you think about who would, who would want to get rid of Telepaths, but maybe not all telepaths in the

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

there's a couple of answers and some of them might have recently been removed from the galactic table as it were.

Laura

Right.

Xhafer

The timing of this is a little coincidental for that one. Might even say

Laura

yeah. yeah,

Xhafer

so. If I had to wager

Laura

Right.

Xhafer

with what I know at the current juncture.

Laura

But they put this thing in like a block of resin and we get, we get a bunch of stuff about, oh, there's a molecular code you have to know to open it.

Xhafer

yeah. No, I could, I could make one of these in 10 minutes with a reir.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

I. Speaking of which, there's a whole set of YouTube channels of people encasing shit in resin that shouldn't be encased in resin, and then just time lapse of what happens. Like I've seen whole pumpkins encased in resonant

Laura

Oh, oh, oh.

Xhafer

It lasts longer than you'd think, but not as long

Laura

a Gord. Sure, sure. I love how YouTube became just this thing where we were like, let's do this stupid thing that no one would ever do because you're going to ruin your stuff. But we can do it

Xhafer

Will it blend? Will

Laura

Yes. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about. Anyway. The things in the bar don't go super great.

Xhafer

No, no. Gunfire starts a blazen. He grabs a P P G and returns fire. And Garibaldi finds out his old codes are now no good. He gets Lisa and Wade into the air vents before getting his own McLean moment. As they blast through the blast doors. They peek in, make eye contact. Garibaldi realizes their plan and just barely saves Lease and Morrissey. He reminds Wade that he shouldn't say that. He goes about things the wrong way when they pop out of events, not at Docking Bay. Three as he had insisted.

They think about

Laura

Yeah,

Xhafer

all part of the plan.

Laura

yeah, he, he had the feeling when he had this person staring at him up in the vents. That these people were not just normal people,

Xhafer

Nope,

Laura

not mundane.

Xhafer

nope. It's fucking John Edwards in here reading his mind.

Laura

Yep. Yep. So he, he did the old misdirect, got the uh, terrified lady to think about docking bay three over and over again and sent those telepaths somewhere else. He, he doesn't have his link anymore. I thought it was funny, by the way, I forgot to mention this, when we were in that scene and all his stuff was being taken away that he always hated his link, but it was still on his wrist. Like he kept that shit on even though he hated it and he didn't need it anymore.

Xhafer

It's like a cell phone, right? It's just like his government. It's his work phone.

Laura

Yeah, yeah.

Xhafer

get a private number.

Laura

Yeah. But he doesn't have that anymore. So he manages to flag down a security person

Xhafer

Mm-hmm.

Laura

and uh, sends them to talking Bay three, where they're going to find a nice surprise.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

and he, he does warn Zach. He says, tell Zach that these people have killed people.

Xhafer

Yep. He sends Lease and Morrissey on their way. But he has to go stand on his own. He has to leave on his own. And he makes his way to Bay three.

Laura

Yeah. At least he goes for backup. That's nice.

Xhafer

Yeah, well they do everything too. He shows up late 'cause the goons show up and get ambushed and they suicide pill themselves just like instantly. Just like for the future, huh? Done the old tooth suicide pill.

Laura

yeah. Dunno what these telepaths are up to. Very interesting. Very mysterious. I do like a little mystery from my Babylon five.

Xhafer

Well it's a good season for that.

Laura

Yeah,

Xhafer

In Sheridan's office, he's reading down Garibaldi for the pile of bodies. Who returns it by saying if he had just kept his military issue weaponry, I. The key to every lock. Maybe people wouldn't have died.

Laura

Uhhuh,

Xhafer

And then he has the nerve to say he hasn't done anything illegal, like firing a gun in a public place on a space station, a pressurized environment like destroying doors and air ducts in a pressurized environment. you know

Laura

unauthorized access into special areas of a space station,

Xhafer

Sneaking someone on the station, literal human trafficking.

Laura

right?

Xhafer

But Sheridan comes up with trespassing and unauthorized use of an id. Like he hasn't done these terrible things at best. Vigilantism hem,

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

Ugh.

Laura

Oh, and then he threatens him that uh, if there's any more like this, he'll take away his business license.

Xhafer

I am sure that means so much. The tax purposes. Oh, no.

Laura

Yeah, revoke his business license over these things. He probably should be in jail for

Xhafer

Oh,

Laura

Oh, to be a white man.

Xhafer

oh, oh. You're right.

Laura

Oh.

Xhafer

Oh, anyways, he gets a message from lease before the shower, which he's just all like not interested. Delete.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

Rude. God forbid she say thank you or it was nice to see you or anything, a decent human being might do. You shitbag? I don't. I wish I had a better word. I don't. I'm not a thesaurus. I'm sorry.

Laura

Yeah. He won't talk to her, but the next morning when he gets a new message and it's her husband, he'll take the call.

Xhafer

Ugh. God, just a bat made off of misogyny, just hitting me in the head.

Laura

Yeah, rich husband is very happy to have his wife safely home. And he's impressed with Mr. Garibaldis

Xhafer

Mm-hmm. He offers him a job on Mars, so he's gonna skip town. Getting off the B five.

Laura

That's not exactly a homecoming, I don't think he's originally from Mars. I think we had some lip service to like Boston or something earlier in the series. But he has certainly lived on Mars. That's where they met after all. And so he's decided that there's nothing keeping him on the station, like his security access, he wasn't even supposed to have anymore.

Xhafer

Yeah. Then uh, we get ivanova. The voice of the resistance broadcast hits the truth is back in business, baby

Laura

Mm-hmm. I love their little background where they've got like the bar through President Clark's face on their little testing screen. I don't know if you caught that, but

Xhafer

Boo Clark.

Laura

extremely mature here on Babylon five. Yeah, the truth is back in business to theme.

Xhafer

All right, well, that's our episode. Laura, I have to ask, on a scale of Babylon's one to five, where do you put this one?

Laura

So I like this episode on the podcast level and that it's fun to make fun of it.

Xhafer

Yes.

Laura

I must say that, but for me, this is not an average episode of Babylon five. This is down there in the two territory. Because there are such gaping holes around that security access.

Xhafer

Yeah.

Laura

it's not unreasonable in the nineties for these things to have bothered the audience that we didn't even take away the keys. When he quit,

Xhafer

Right. It's absurd. To me,

Laura

and the gun. The gun, the thing that kills people,

Xhafer

it's,

Laura

take it back,

Xhafer

and it's not even like, I mean, obviously killing a person is a bad use of a gun, but on a space station, I.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

You can depressurize a whole chunk. You can, you can kill many, many people very, very quickly. It is a real problem to have a projectile weapon on a space station.

Laura

Right,

Xhafer

I just read a book that made a whole point of it actually.

Laura

Oh, really?

Xhafer

Oh, oh, you you'd love this book. It's a great book. It's called A Memory called Empire.

Laura

Oh, I've heard of it, yes.

Xhafer

Yeah. Um, And the main character is an ambassador from a space station to this big galactic empire. And there's a point where uh, a projectile weapon is used and she's just aghast because they're basically outlawed at every level there because it's a fucking space station.

Laura

Right. Go figure. Yeah. So I, I gotta get this episode at two because it's a little bit holy for me.

Xhafer

Ugh. Yeah. I, I was gonna give it a two and a half, and I don't even know why

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

it's, it's not terrible. We get professional Franklin, which is nice, but Garibaldis just an asshole the whole entire time.

Laura

Yes.

Xhafer

We the a bit with Iava and ris. There we go.

Laura

We needed more of that though. We get one scene of Ivan Van Zaris and then she's headed home and it's like, Come on. It's our boy. It's our boy's actress.

Xhafer

right? J m s I know you're listening. I know you're not listening actually. But more zaris, right? You've got the assets, you've got the voice actor Now.

Laura

Mm-hmm.

Xhafer

It's animation. How hard can it be to, you know, obviously strike notwithstanding and everything else, all the, all the decent reasons you have to not do it immediately. But once, once those are resolved, ideally, knock on wood in a positive manner just pump out like twenties, zhara shorts. It can't be that difficult.

Laura

Yeah, all the one-liners, just stack them up.

Xhafer

I need to do a super cut from road home of all the Zaris one liners. You guys don't even know

Laura

Yeah. We'll start a YouTube channel just for that.

Xhafer

All right, well next week we've got season four, episode 13, rumors, bargains, and the Lies.

Laura

Mm

Xhafer

Sheridan manipulates planetary leaders to band against ruthless Raiders. Ghislaine works with her rival to stop a devastating civil war on Mumbar.

Laura

mm Getting heavy again. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to that.

Xhafer

Yeah, just like I'm looking forward to Jeremy Siegel's July album, which should be dropping any day now for us.

Laura

Hopefully. Yeah.

Xhafer

You can find more of Jeremy's work, like our theme song at Jeremy Siegel 40 two.bandcamp.com, or on your favorite streaming service as Jaguar. That was completely incomprehensible. It's nuclear Jaguar.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate your commitment to the bit to try to pronounce it a different way

Xhafer

I might have broke the marshmallow on that one.

Laura

Yeah.

Xhafer

Just stretched it too far.

Laura

Yeah, that's fine. And also thank you to Angry Deck Time Machine on Instagram for our podcast artwork.

Xhafer

Hey Aaron, thanks for writing our podcast. We really appreciate it. All the time you put in on making us sound like we don't stammer or through our sentences and have 500 ums and making drops so that our jokes land better than we could possibly have with human comedic timing. It's really appreciated. Thank you

Laura

Very much. All right, and thank you to you, the listener, for being here with us. We

Xhafer

Yeah, we do community. Thank you so much for joining us. If you're a new listener, we've seen a handful of you come in recently. Uh, we really appreciate you spending some time with us and talking about Babylon. Five. Thank you so much. You can join us on our Discord. Uh, You can find the link to that on all of our socials. Uh, we are technically on. X. Now, I don't think that's gonna last. Twitter, I'm just gonna call it Twitter 'cause I refuse to call them Zts.

Laura

feels gross.

Xhafer

And then also on the Facebook where we'll probably be more active because we've been doing a lot of cross posting with our friends at Dominion Media Television. So We do and yeah, we'll uh, we'll catch you later. Internet.

Laura

Bye.

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