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.
Laura and Xhafer discuss the smaller things that make them who they are. Meanwhile, Londo and Vir finally move against Emperor Cartagia while the B5 crew prepares for a final showdown with the Vorlons and Shadows on Babylon 5 - Season 4 Episode 5: The Long Night
Hello and welcome to Who Are You?
Laura:It's a Babylon five watch cast by a couple of former strangers who are now
Laura:friends who are continuing to get to know each other over one of their favorite
Laura:shows from their childhood, Babylon.
Laura:Five.
Laura:I'm Laura,
Xhafer:And I'm Jair.
Laura:and today Jaire has a game for us.
Xhafer:Yeah, a new game we were talking about.
Xhafer:Not that we're out of things to talk about and getting to know each other, but we're
Xhafer:out of interesting things about ourselves.
Xhafer:So the who are you bit while a lot of fun is kind of run its course,
Xhafer:we feel and when, when I say that, I mean, I literally can't think
Xhafer:of anything else to talk about.
Laura:Yeah, I think we could argue that it outlived itself a
Laura:few who are you episodes back, but
Xhafer:That's fine.
Xhafer:That's why we make our guest host do it these days to keep the bid alive.
Xhafer:But between us, we've kind of ran that gamut.
Xhafer:We've talked about a lot of the big stuff in our lives and as people, but we
Xhafer:haven't talked a lot of the small stuff.
Xhafer:So the idea is when we do our season recap episodes, we do our, the one
Xhafer:segment where we're like, what is the one best guest star from this season?
Xhafer:And stuff.
Xhafer:Uh, this is a variation of that aimed at each other.
Xhafer:So we're each gonna ask each other questions and then all the one themed.
Xhafer:Uh, If you haven't heard that segment before because you skip our season
Xhafer:recap episode, no shame you'll.
Xhafer:You'll follow on quick and uh, yeah, and then we'll answer ourselves.
Xhafer:And we're just gonna go through that process and get to know each
Xhafer:other a little bit better on a smaller scale than we usually do.
Laura:Yeah,
Xhafer:So I'll start us off here.
Xhafer:Laura.
Xhafer:What is the one flavor of ice cream you could eat for the rest of your life?
Laura:This is tough because there are so many wonderful
Laura:flavors of ice cream, right.
Laura:And here in the Oklahoma area, and I think there's a few like parts of Texas
Laura:and and Arkansas that have them too.
Laura:We have Brahms um, it's a like fast food chain, but it's a ice cream store.
Laura:And the thing that About Brahms that they say they won't put any stores
Laura:that are out of a day's drive from the dairy farm, like from the Brahms
Laura:dairy farm, so that everything is the freshest it could possibly be.
Laura:Right?
Laura:So Brahms is some of the best ice cream around in Oklahoma.
Laura:If I had to choose one flavor of ice cream that I would eat for the rest
Laura:of my life, it would probably be Brahms' mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Xhafer:I love mint chocolate chip.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:If I am getting a untrusted brand of ice cream for whatever reason,
Xhafer:Or I'm stuck to generic choices.
Xhafer:Mint chocolate chip is always my go-to because even bad
Xhafer:mint chocolate chip is good.
Laura:And then you can kind of tell yourself like, okay, if this is their
Laura:mint chocolate chip, I don't know if I want to try the rest of it, you know?
Laura:Well, what, what flavor of ice cream would you eat for the rest of your life?
Xhafer:I have been on a, Peaches and cream kick lately.
Laura:Oh, interesting.
Xhafer:But it's gotta be high quality.
Xhafer:Like there's a couple dairies that have ice creams out in my area.
Xhafer:Jenny's is probably the best.
Xhafer:If I had to pick one, Jenny's is great.
Xhafer:They've got a strawberry.
Xhafer:That's fantastic as well.
Xhafer:If I'm going with a fruit ice cream, it's definitely like I need
Xhafer:the higher quality you can tell.
Xhafer:So it's so different.
Xhafer:It's so much better.
Xhafer:But low key, Kroger private label has a Mexican hot chocolate
Laura:Oh
Xhafer:cream right now.
Xhafer:That is fire.
Xhafer:It is fantastic.
Laura:That sounds amazing.
Laura:We don't have Kroger down here.
Laura:We have like Kroger delivery and that's it.
Xhafer:Yeah, they've, they're national though.
Xhafer:They're just about everywhere.
Xhafer:They've, they're another name out.
Xhafer:Is it Wegmans?
Xhafer:Wegmans or something.
Laura:I think that's, that sounds like something I saw in Louisiana, but they're
Laura:not in Oklahoma that I know about.
Xhafer:All right.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:is one of like eight states I haven't been in,
Laura:Yeah, someday we'll get you here
Xhafer:yeah,
Laura:probably just for this podcast, but
Xhafer:more than likely it'll be a visit.
Xhafer:It'll be fun.
Laura:yeah, no, that sounds great.
Laura:I would totally eat the hell outta some Mexican hot chocolate ice cream.
Xhafer:Is real good.
Laura:Okay, so Jafer mine, I'll have a theme to them my the one questions
Laura:and that is Looking for comfort and ease as I'm still stuck at home
Xhafer:Yes.
Laura:in this postpartum time.
Laura:So I would like to know what is the one best comfort snack.
Xhafer:I, in the last two or three months have dramatically
Xhafer:changed my opinion on this.
Laura:Wow.
Laura:Well, that's the other thing I wanted to say.
Laura:These can all just be for right now.
Laura:They don't have to be like your one opinion that holds
Laura:true through all of time.
Xhafer:I used to not give a shit about my snack food, like if I'm eating a snack,
Xhafer:it's because I want something quick, and it was very much a matter of convenience.
Xhafer:And so I'd just grab some like saltines or something, just like
Xhafer:some crackers or beef jerky or whatever, whatever I had around right.
Xhafer:Some m and ms doesn't matter, but about.
Xhafer:And I'm gonna say before I get to this, I have never been
Xhafer:impressed by Cheez-Its in my life.
Xhafer:They were convenient, but I tried the extra toasty Cheez-Its for the
Xhafer:first time a couple of months ago, and it has been a revelation for me.
Xhafer:They are
Laura:know if I've seen extra toasty.
Xhafer:Aldi has them as well.
Xhafer:They have a variant that's like extra toasted.
Xhafer:100%.
Xhafer:Like, you're like, oh, they're just extra toasted crack, whatever, right?
Xhafer:They're already crackers.
Xhafer:What's trust?
Xhafer:They've got a little bit of like burnt, crisp to 'em, but they
Xhafer:don't taste char like it's perfect.
Xhafer:They're great.
Xhafer:Extra toasted, Cheez-its number one snack hands down right now.
Xhafer:It's to the point where I have to, I'm, I need to slow down.
Xhafer:It's becoming problematic.
Laura:I'm gonna have to find some of those because the boys have
Laura:been going hard on Cheez-Its lately they've gotten like the white
Laura:cheddar Cheez-it and like the.
Laura:The different flavors and the puffed and the snapped and all the other things,
Laura:but I haven't seen the extra toasted yet, so I'll have to get some of those.
Xhafer:Give it a go.
Xhafer:Let me know how it goes over with the
Laura:Okay.
Laura:Okay.
Xhafer:what's the one book you just keep going back and rereading Laura?
Laura:I mean, I think I've already said it on the podcast.
Laura:The one book I go back and reread all the time, at least once a year.
Laura:Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions.
Xhafer:Yeah, I think I do think we've actually talked about that.
Laura:Yeah, if I had to pick another one, cuz there are, there are other
Laura:books out there that I reread just not as much as Breakfast of Champions.
Laura:There's a, a young adult series this by Tamara Pierce.
Laura:It's the Song of the Lioness, and I read it like when I was the, the tween,
Laura:you know, like 12, maybe 12 or 13.
Laura:And it's one of those young adult series that you can still come
Laura:back and read it as an adult.
Laura:And it's not weird.
Laura:It's not totally weird.
Laura:It's one of those, you know, kind of like girl power stories that are more common
Laura:now, but, you know, it was a little more novel back in the nineties where it's
Laura:like a, a girl decides that she doesn't wanna go join the convent or whatever
Laura:and become a lady, and so she goes and becomes a knight by hiding her gender
Laura:and going to night school, basically.
Xhafer:On style.
Xhafer:I dig it.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Mulan style.
Laura:very good series four books.
Laura:I've read them in book form.
Laura:Sometimes I just get them from the library in audio book form.
Laura:It's just a story that never gets old for me.
Laura:what about you?
Xhafer:I think when you brought up Vonnegut, I
Xhafer:mentioned the name of the wind.
Xhafer:That's a book that I make a point of going back and rereading every couple of years.
Laura:Author on that?
Xhafer:Patrick Roth Ross.
Laura:Okay.
Xhafer:It theoretically will be a TV show produced by Linton
Xhafer:Manuel Miranda at some point.
Laura:Ooh, that'll be a good show.
Xhafer:the main character is a musician, so it kind of fits.
Xhafer:It's not a musical at all.
Xhafer:It's magical fantasy school stuff.
Xhafer:But.
Xhafer:That's when I go back to a lot.
Xhafer:It's got a very strong Mary Sue vibe, but also it's like told
Xhafer:through unreliable narrator.
Xhafer:So you never really know exactly how real the Mary suing is.
Laura:Okay.
Xhafer:Which is my defensive.
Xhafer:It is like, it is a dude who's boasting about himself, but it's
Xhafer:the main character's a bard.
Xhafer:So of course he's boasting about himself.
Xhafer:You know, he introduces himself with this like ridiculous set of titles
Xhafer:and accomplishments and stuff.
Xhafer:You know, it's on the back jacket of the book, and it's just like,
Xhafer:you never really trust him though.
Xhafer:And so, I think most of it's bullshit and the, like, handful of things we
Xhafer:found out, like how it actually happened, how he got the title is a lot more like
Xhafer:happenstance or things he was around for.
Xhafer:Not necessarily like, oh, I'm the king killer.
Xhafer:I killed this dude, you know, this stuff.
Xhafer:So I like it a lot and it reads very melodically, like just, it's, it's not
Xhafer:written in prose, but it might as well be.
Laura:Okay.
Xhafer:So that's when I go back to a ton.
Xhafer:But I think I've already said all that on pod.
Xhafer:So I'm gonna pick a different book, which is Catch 22.
Xhafer:I know it's kind of a cliche, favorite book.
Laura:It okay?
Laura:I've
Xhafer:I don't, I don't know.
Xhafer:It's one I read in high school.
Xhafer:I don't know if everyone had to read it in high school or if I picked it out.
Xhafer:But of every book that I've reread multiple times, It's one
Xhafer:that I continually find something new that's hilarious in that I
Xhafer:missed completely the first time.
Laura:Well, what is, speaking of media, the one best binge show right now?
Laura:What?
Laura:What could you binge right now?
Xhafer:So I was just kind of like on a gap between shows for a couple of
Xhafer:weeks because Ted Lasso just wrapped up.
Xhafer:Something succession just wrapped up.
Xhafer:Barry just wrapped up a handful of things that I was watching in some variety.
Xhafer:All kind of ended around the same time.
Xhafer:And then I had a couple of weeks before Strange New Worlds just started.
Xhafer:So in that couple week break in between having regular TV and having nothing I've
Xhafer:been watching I guess binge would be.
Xhafer:Ted Lasso, I would say is a good binge show.
Xhafer:Lower Decks has been a rewatch continually.
Xhafer:I Rewatched Strange New Worlds over the last month and a half to prep for
Xhafer:the new season, which just dropped.
Xhafer:I dunno if you've seen the first episode yet.
Xhafer:It was good.
Laura:Now that Aaron's back at work and he's back in the office too, so I
Laura:can't even like show, put out a show in the background for him or something.
Laura:I've, I've been wanting to watch a show that like I could watch but
Laura:he wouldn't be upset that I was watching it without him, you know?
Xhafer:I, I understand.
Laura:yeah.
Laura:Ted Lasso might be one I'll pick up too.
Laura:Cuz I don't know that he'll have any feelings towards that.
Laura:But I've been watching Call the Midwife on Netflix.
Laura:It's a British show, bbc.
Xhafer:I feel like this is one.
Xhafer:That I've heard either Ben or his wife Glo talk about,
Laura:yeah, I, I've heard a lot of people talk about it and loved
Laura:it, and I was like, I don't know.
Laura:Is this the best show for me to be watching in kind of
Laura:a tenuous postpartum state?
Laura:Like, I feel like there's gonna be bad things that happen.
Laura:And there are, you know, it's about midwives in the 1950s
Laura:and the east end of London.
Laura:So in a poor area.
Laura:There's some tough stuff that happens, but I haven't felt like it
Laura:was bad for my mental health yet.
Laura:I feel like it's actually kind of comforting.
Laura:So I'm, there's a, it's a long running British show, you know, they
Laura:only do like maximum 10 episodes in a series, usually on these things.
Laura:There's like 12 series of this show,
Xhafer:Okay.
Xhafer:That's a lot.
Xhafer:Yeah,
Laura:over a hundred episodes, so I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm making
Laura:my way through that right now.
Laura:Find myself dropping British words into conversations just because I've
Laura:been absorbing too many of them.
Xhafer:Oh, and I should probably, before we move on to the next question real
Xhafer:quick, shout out Breaking Bad for being a great show to watch seven episodes of
Xhafer:Check out last time on my new podcast.
Xhafer:All right.
Xhafer:Well, Laura, my next question for you.
Laura:Mm-hmm.
Xhafer:could have dinner with one celebrity, who would it be and why?
Laura:This is fun.
Laura:It's very hard to pick just one.
Laura:I'm going to say, and this is totally silly, that I would want to have dinner
Laura:with Robert Picardo because I feel like he would be down to do some duets
Laura:afterwards, and I would just be really delighted to get to duet with the doctor.
Xhafer:Okay.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:that's my choice.
Xhafer:Good call.
Xhafer:I recently started following Anson Mount on Instagram
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:he's not making strange new worlds, he's been getting into pottery
Xhafer:and making his own pottery and stuff,
Laura:That's cute.
Xhafer:and I would've loved to just like sit down with him, have him like
Xhafer:wear a Star Trek t-shirt, have him expect something, and then just ask him
Xhafer:about his pottery and let him nerd out about that for like an hour over dinner.
Xhafer:I feel like that would be a really fun experience.
Laura:I love that we both really want Trek people.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:That's it.
Laura:That's all.
Laura:Give us Trek.
Laura:Okay.
Laura:So rapid fire, tell me what is the one best kitchen tool
Laura:that's making your life easier?
Laura:I need my life to be easier.
Xhafer:blender.
Xhafer:They're so
Xhafer:nice.
Xhafer:They're so good for making sauces
Laura:yeah.
Laura:I'm using my electric kettle a lot cuz I'm having a lot of cups of tea with my snacks
Xhafer:I live off my electric kettle.
Laura:yeah, I just need a cup of tea with my snacks right now.
Laura:Just trying to maximize that
Laura:comfort.
Laura:Maybe I'm just absorbing too much.
Laura:Call the midwife.
Laura:But yeah, I, I definitely am using my electric kettle,
Xhafer:All right.
Xhafer:Well, we actually have Babylon five to talk about.
Laura:Yeah, and like a big episode of Babylon five to talk
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:We've got season four, episode five.
Xhafer:The long night.
Laura:I actually had to Google this, sorry to interrupt, but I was like,
Laura:I could have sworn that it was the long night of Sari Prime was the name,
Laura:but it's not
Xhafer:So, yeah, that is a season five episode and I think it's like the very
Xhafer:long night of Lando Malari or something
Laura:no, there.
Laura:There's also a book that is the Long Night of Centara Prime in the Wado series.
Xhafer:The long Night itself, I believe this is the episode
Xhafer:that ends with Tennyson, right?
Xhafer:Am I remembering that
Laura:I know that we get the Tennyson
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:Charge of the Lip Brigade.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:It's a line from that.
Xhafer:So it's, it's, it's another line from the poem that's quoted at the end.
Xhafer:But yeah.
Xhafer:This is a big episode.
Xhafer:So is the next one, they're kind of, they go hand in hand and I know we both.
Xhafer:Watched both already, so I'm sorry if we get anything next messed up.
Xhafer:Our recording schedule's necessitating us to do this this time.
Xhafer:But we start at B five.
Xhafer:The fleet is gathering and it's almost time for the big attack.
Xhafer:We learned.
Xhafer:The Shadow Planet Killer is now also running around.
Xhafer:They have a thing and we learn more about it later in the episode, but they have.
Xhafer:Also escalated to Open Combat on vlan, allied Worlds.
Laura:Yeah, we get a cool sequence of like the ships strafing some.
Laura:Lon outpost of some kind.
Xhafer:Yep.
Xhafer:So the shadows are attacking anyone who's lied with the VLANs.
Xhafer:The VLANs are attacking anyone who's allied with the shadows, but they
Xhafer:are still not attacking each other.
Laura:Mm-hmm.
Xhafer:Londo meets with a shadow council on Narn.
Xhafer:We had talked about this last episode about more people wanting to be
Xhafer:involved in the plot to kill cartage.
Laura:Apparently there are some
Xhafer:We get a recap of the entire Scent Prime plot.
Xhafer:Thus far cartage must die and the shadow sh vessels must be removed
Xhafer:in order to save scent Prime from the oncoming rolon planet killer.
Laura:So at this point, it looks like we have two big death
Laura:weapons, right from the LANs.
Laura:We have the LANs death star.
Laura:And then we have the shadows like Death Cloud, right?
Laura:Which would you choose if you have to be destroyed by something?
Laura:Do you want Death Star or Death Cloud?
Xhafer:Well, we know how they both work,
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:so the VLAN is a like giant beam that covers the planet
Xhafer:and kills everything on it.
Xhafer:That
Laura:Uhhuh
Xhafer:quick, the shadows.
Xhafer:Surround a planet in nukes that burrow into the core and then
Xhafer:explode, causing the planet to break apart, that seems less quick.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Yeah,
Xhafer:choose between those two, like either option, like that's
Xhafer:what those, those are the choices I'm probably gonna opt for.
Xhafer:The one that doesn't involve a.
Xhafer:Volcanoes and hunks of my planet floating in space as air slowly dissipates.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:The air is gonna get vaporized by the death star, whereas it's
Laura:going to kind of break up when you break up the atmosphere with the
Laura:planet, with the death cloud, right?
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:As the planet starts to drift apart in pieces in space, then you know, Air's
Xhafer:only around the planet because of gravity.
Xhafer:You know, it's a whole mess.
Xhafer:So
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Okay.
Laura:I, I take that.
Laura:Let's go nice and quick
Xhafer:preferably if I have to have to choose.
Xhafer:Anyways, after theme, Ivana and Sheridan discussed the status of the
Xhafer:fleet Sheridan asked Siva to go look for more allies before the battle.
Xhafer:Again, she is not optimistic.
Xhafer:But Lorianne is gonna help this time, and he's all like, no.
Xhafer:He knows where they're all at.
Xhafer:He'll, he'll just take you there.
Xhafer:He'll be fine.
Laura:Mm-hmm.
Laura:And presumably Lori like knows these guys, right?
Laura:So he could probably talk to them, whereas they might not want to talk to Ivanova.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:You showed up in a Roan looking ass ship.
Xhafer:I'm not interested.
Xhafer:I don't blame them.
Laura:Yeah, Ivana has some big feels though.
Laura:She remembers that her mother, sort of as she was fading away, wanted
Laura:to spend some time with her, but then told her like, go next door.
Laura:I'll come get you later.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:And uh, she went away.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:Big feels.
Laura:she died by suicide at that time, so she doesn't really
Laura:want Sheridan to go without her
Xhafer:Exactly.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:in this circumstance.
Xhafer:She needs to, she needs him to not protect her and let
Xhafer:her become the goddess of death.
Xhafer:She knows she can become,
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:This conversation has some real Ivan gonna die vibes.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:The way they send off and everything.
Xhafer:This definitely felt like foreshadowing in a very interesting way because
Xhafer:if this conversation had happened in a movie, Ivanova would be
Xhafer:dead at the end of that movie.
Xhafer:But
Xhafer:this is Babylon five, so
Laura:Just put a pin in it maybe?
Xhafer:Over on Narn Cartage remarks, how similar the sets are.
Xhafer:Good work crew,
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Cartage tells Zalando that he'll be his high priest and the first
Xhafer:in his temple, and he's not going to be on Centura Prime when it blows up.
Xhafer:Oh.
Laura:Yeah, big reveal.
Laura:Cuz it sure seemed heavily implied a couple episodes back
Laura:that Cartage was gonna be there
Xhafer:Yes.
Xhafer:Yeah, no.
Xhafer:Now
Laura:now he's decided not
Xhafer:to be the living God instead of the eternal God or something.
Xhafer:He can figure that bit out later.
Laura:We've got a, a whole thing with a jester in this scene.
Laura:The gesture's kind of like just mocking people, right?
Laura:He's like standing behind them and doing the like mocking faces
Laura:and, and hand gestures and stuff.
Laura:That doesn't play well with Cartage eventually.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:Ugh.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:Everyone here freezes when Cartage looks a little upset and they're just
Xhafer:like, oh, are we about to be liquified?
Xhafer:Big vibe.
Xhafer:Londo leaves to go check on Jaar.
Xhafer:He's honestly not as upset about the whole losing an eye thing as I was expecting.
Laura:Yeah,
Xhafer:be more upset.
Laura:and you would think, okay, so we had that scene in the last episode where
Laura:cartage is telling Wado that he doesn't like the way Jaar is looking at him.
Laura:And Londo, just thoughtlessly says, well, you'll do something about it.
Laura:It'll be fine.
Laura:Uh, Rondo's had visions of a one-eyed jaar choking him to death.
Xhafer:Yes.
Laura:Did he not see this baby as a possibility?
Laura:He seems very surprised, but he shouldn't be so surprised.
Xhafer:I think Londo is just an asshole.
Laura:Yeah, he's very self-absorbed as we've discussed in alignments,
Xhafer:Yep.
Xhafer:Londo lays down the plan weaken the chains, bribes the cards.
Xhafer:Shakar makes a diversion so Lao's people can handle the rest.
Xhafer:Lando reminds Shakar that a s has to be the one to kill Cartage.
Xhafer:Otherwise thenar will be made to suffer even more, and that
Xhafer:is a fate Lando cannot prevent
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:If they, if they let Jaar kill Cartia, then the wars
Laura:are just gonna keep on going.
Xhafer:for forever, just in perpetuity.
Xhafer:This is
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Yes.
Laura:This is actually pretty wise.
Xhafer:In a, a rare moment of clarity, he understands how the universe works.
Laura:Mm-hmm.
Xhafer:After this, cartage like kills his JE because humor
Xhafer:is subjective to commercial.
Laura:A very good commercial break spot.
Xhafer:When we come back, vere got a weapon because Londo knows that
Xhafer:Vere will be allowed to just go do whatever because he's so harmless.
Xhafer:No one is going to watch him.
Laura:he's just a teddy bear.
Laura:Everybody's gonna go, no, I couldn't be beer.
Xhafer:Vere's gonna go get a weapon with poison on darn
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:So is this anar weapon or a sari weapon?
Laura:It seems Sari, right?
Xhafer:poison
Laura:Uhhuh.
Xhafer:and it's very decorative.
Laura:Uhhuh,
Xhafer:I feel like most NAR weapons would probably be a little bit more utilitarian
Laura:yes.
Xhafer:and a little less hidden,
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:but.
Xhafer:The occupation and everything.
Xhafer:I'm sure there's been so much intermingling at this point with some of
Xhafer:this stuff that it could very well be anar weapon made to hide and kill a and Tori.
Laura:Yeah, it's, they're all too entangled now.
Laura:Who knows?
Xhafer:They take the weapon out and discuss the instructions for use.
Xhafer:Lando is worried the poison won't work fast enough.
Xhafer:It's all fun until veer makes a joke that Cartage must kill Lando.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Look, I gotta get these drops in while I can.
Xhafer:Jaar gets paraded around.
Xhafer:By the way, this isn't specifically a Jesus fit, a Jesus thing.
Xhafer:This was
Laura:but it sure looks like one
Xhafer:j jms in the Usenet notes.
Xhafer:It is a Roman thing, and that just happens to be a very overlapping Venn diagram
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Between the Sari and the Romans and, yeah.
Xhafer:and, and Jesus and Roman methods of execution.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:So it wasn't intended to be a Jesus thing.
Xhafer:It's more Rome cent stuff.
Xhafer:Just th those happened to be.
Xhafer:Inescapably linked in history and
Laura:I definitely, when I saw this I don't know how familiar you are with the
Laura:Messiah, but there's a portion of handle's Messiah that's not often done cuz you
Laura:see the Christmas portion all the time.
Laura:People do.
Laura:Christmas Messiah all the time, but they don't do Easter Messiah all the time.
Laura:And there's a portion in the Easter Messiah that's his yoke is easy
Laura:and his burden is light and it's a very peppy little handle piece.
Laura:And so like as Jaar is coming out with this, you know, big yoke on, and he's
Laura:been beaten, that's what I'm hearing in my head is this peppy little, his
Laura:yoke is easy and his burden is light.
Xhafer:Cartha tells Lando he had the weak chains replaced.
Xhafer:He's like, oh, the chains looked weak.
Xhafer:I had them replaced with this ultra strong material that no one could ever break.
Xhafer:No worries.
Xhafer:And then Shakar breaks those chains faster than cocaine and
Xhafer:Mick Fleetwood's in Fidelity, like he just rips through that shit
Laura:Yeah, we didn't need to weaken his chains.
Laura:He had this.
Laura:I thought that Jaar didn't even need to break those chains, to
Laura:be honest with that huge yoke he could have just started spinning.
Xhafer:It's, it's a ridiculous yoke.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:it is ni a weapon onto itself.
Xhafer:Jaar breaks those chains and uses it to take out a bunch of guards.
Xhafer:And you're right, he probably didn't need the extra couple feet of reach.
Xhafer:These guards look like fucking MOOCs.
Xhafer:He just makes quick work
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Lendo grabs cartage to the other room who then disarms him for
Xhafer:insulins before he has a chance to act
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Yep.
Xhafer:Vere goes to check on him.
Xhafer:Sees Lambo getting choked out.
Xhafer:And then veer uses the injector to finally kill Cartage.
Laura:Oh, cartage.
Laura:We hardly knew Ye.
Xhafer:Londo makes good on his word after this and builds a case
Xhafer:for the cent to leave Narn forever.
Xhafer:It's like two emperors have died because of these.
Xhafer:We're we're done here for forever.
Xhafer:Guys.
Xhafer:We have to leave.
Xhafer:Good call.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:The court grants Lando, the role of Prime Minister and he will be
Xhafer:in charge until a new emperor is chosen.
Laura:That sounds like the worst place to be.
Laura:Good luck.
Xhafer:the war room, Lanier gets shit on a few times.
Xhafer:When the man who knocks knocks I'm assuming I got that reference right.
Xhafer:Go listen to last time on.
Xhafer:We haven't, that hasn't happened yet, or it hasn't, we missed it.
Xhafer:But that, that's a breaking bad thing, right?
Xhafer:The man who I am, the man who knocks, I'm the one who knocks Walter White.
Xhafer:It's Brian Cranston.
Laura:Yeah
Laura:big, big guest star.
Laura:I mean, he guess he wasn't super big yet
Xhafer:he was unknown at this point.
Laura:Wow.
Xhafer:his show he was working on before this Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Laura:Nice.
Xhafer:Um, So
Laura:This is pre Malcolm in the middle.
Laura:This is pre breaking bad.
Xhafer:yeah.
Xhafer:Fun fact.
Xhafer:If you didn't know the character Billy in Power Rangers is named Billy
Xhafer:Cranston after Brian Cranston the actor.
Laura:That's cute.
Xhafer:Anyways yeah, so.
Xhafer:Linear knows the next war on Target.
Xhafer:It's a world with 6 billion people living on it.
Xhafer:It is, things are not good, and Sheridan's like, Hey, I'm gonna call you back.
Xhafer:Billy c Lando gathers ve who is just drunk as fuck.
Xhafer:He asked Londo how much more he needs to drink before he
Xhafer:can't see himself in the mirror.
Laura:Poor ve por.
Laura:I mean, yeah, he was, he took this really hard, it was objectively necessary,
Xhafer:Yes.
Laura:but yeah.
Laura:Por,
Xhafer:yeah.
Xhafer:Vere's got some real trauma from killing the Emperor.
Xhafer:Steven First nails this fucking scene.
Laura:mm-hmm.
Xhafer:Londo regrets treating veer poorly, but also regrets that he has now
Xhafer:effectively taken away veer innocence,
Laura:Yep.
Xhafer:which is, I mean, you can just apologize for making
Xhafer:him do something traumatic.
Xhafer:Maybe instead of weirdly wording that innocence thing, like that's,
Xhafer:that's a bizarre way of go.
Xhafer:I don't know.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:felt weird to me, but.
Xhafer:Lando does regret what he has done to veer as a person, which is nice.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:I mean, he should.
Xhafer:It's a bare fucking minimum.
Laura:Yes.
Laura:Yes.
Xhafer:Lando drops the real talk.
Xhafer:No cap.
Xhafer:It's always gonna hurt.
Xhafer:But it was necessary.
Xhafer:Caring about doing something terrible means you still have a heart.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Small comfort.
Xhafer:The narn begin to celebrate the satori occupation ending as Lando
Xhafer:reminds us, much like Garibaldi last step, that this is not the end of the
Xhafer:story and that there's more to happen.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Vere wonders what it was all for.
Xhafer:Had Turin not died.
Xhafer:Likely they would be exactly where they are now, but with countless lives left,
Xhafer:alive and the shadows off of Centri Prime,
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Whoops.
Xhafer:started this whole plan, it would be exactly the same except a
Xhafer:ton of people would still be alive.
Laura:It would be exactly the same except a lot better.
Xhafer:The League of Nine Online Worlds reviews the footage of the
Xhafer:Shadow Planet Killer Dela and Sheridan.
Xhafer:Go over the plan phase one, slow the V on advance to give the fleet time to
Xhafer:arrive at COR six, phase two, engage the fleet at COR six with the first ones
Xhafer:phase three or zero or one and a half.
Xhafer:They don't really say.
Xhafer:Get the shadows there as well for to force a direct confrontation,
Xhafer:Hal is given the files about a phony base to bait a shadow attack.
Xhafer:Um, And Erickson knows what he has to do.
Xhafer:He says farewell to Delan, and Ivanova listens in thinking it's weird.
Xhafer:He told her mac and cheese Ranger one.
Xhafer:So there was a lot of comments about the character of Ericsson on the use nets.
Laura:Okay.
Xhafer:it's just like, who the fuck is this guy?
Xhafer:He's great.
Xhafer:It sucks you killed him.
Xhafer:And jms never even says Brian Cranston's name.
Xhafer:He only refers to him as Ericsson's actor.
Xhafer:And he's all like, oh yeah, he was great.
Xhafer:He really did a great job of selling it, you know?
Xhafer:Great, great guy we got for that bit part.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Yes, yes.
Xhafer:He is a great actor.
Laura:The rest of the world got to know that in some other series.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Very soon they'd be aware.
Xhafer:Over at Narn Jaar is ready to put a boot in.
Xhafer:Jalo, Jaar is like, look, I didn't overthrow a dictator to become one.
Laura:Yeah.
Laura:Jaar is very enlightened these days.
Laura:He's got that big uh, George Washington vibes, you know,
Laura:At
Laura:least
Laura:George Washington from Hamilton.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:The, the idealized version of George Washington that we like to think existed
Xhafer:compared to, to the real life one.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:correct.
Xhafer:I cannot tell a lie.
Xhafer:Everyone who's been president was a piece of shit in some regard.
Laura:Yeah, yeah
Xhafer:the Centura are gonna destroy themselves without us.
Xhafer:We don't need to attack them.
Xhafer:There to be
Laura:yeah.
Xhafer:not hated.
Xhafer:And then he gets questioned about how much he suffered
Laura:Oh man.
Xhafer:and he
Laura:We're in a suffering contest here.
Laura:Suffering measuring contest.
Xhafer:who's got the bigger suffering.
Xhafer:Dick Jor and Jaar and Jaar just laughs and walks away
Laura:Yeah,
Xhafer:big suffering.
Xhafer:Dick energy.
Xhafer:Don't make that the
Laura:there's the title Ding.
Xhafer:Our last one was literally, we Ate Jesus.
Xhafer:People are gonna think this podcast has gone off the rails based off these titles.
Laura:I mean, but maybe it has.
Xhafer:Over in Sheridan's office, he listens to White Star fourteens last log.
Xhafer:The plan is set in motion.
Xhafer:John and Delen leave B five to join the fleet at Corian six we find Sinclair left
Xhafer:a note for Sheridan on his desk with some tenon, and we get some Ulysses to credits.
Xhafer:I have always been a fan of charge of the Light Brigade personally.
Xhafer:Uh,
Laura:Uh huh
Xhafer:know, but that's me.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Xhafer:So how do you feel about this episode?
Laura:I like this episode.
Laura:I mean, we're, we're reaching the climax of the shadow war, right.
Laura:Um, I'm gonna give it.
Laura:Four and a half.
Laura:I, I like everything about the whole cartage demise.
Laura:The only thing I wish is that we'd had more cartage, like really?
Laura:How many episodes did we actually have him in?
Xhafer:Not many.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:I think he
Laura:And that's disappointing for
Laura:me.
Xhafer:show up until the first episode of this season, right?
Xhafer:He's not in season three at all.
Xhafer:So five episodes of Cartage.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:I originally had four and a half written, and then I'm like, what
Xhafer:would I possibly change in this episode?
Xhafer:What's something I can say bad about this episode?
Xhafer:And I couldn't think of a fucking thing.
Xhafer:So I crossed it out and I wrote five.
Laura:that's, that's a good metric.
Laura:If you can't think of anything to change, what, what is it
Xhafer:couldn't think of a single thing I didn't like about it, like not even
Xhafer:like I could come up with a better idea.
Xhafer:It's just like, There was nothing about this episode that didn't
Xhafer:hit on all cylinders for me.
Xhafer:It's a fantastic app.
Xhafer:It gets a five out of five for me.
Laura:I, I uh, just wish everything wasn't so rushed.
Laura:I am feeling the speed this point.
Xhafer:The speed has not started yet, actually.
Xhafer:Um,
Laura:It feels like It to me.
Xhafer:like it for sure.
Xhafer:And even my last rewatch, I felt the same thing, but in reading, use Net
Xhafer:Notes specifically for next episode.
Xhafer:This was always the plan,
Laura:Hmm.
Xhafer:ending here.
Xhafer:The only thing was next episode would've been a two-parter instead of just a
Xhafer:solo, and it kind of felt like it was anyways, to be perfectly honest with
Xhafer:this one, maybe it would've been one of those three parter things that he does
Xhafer:sometimes around this point of the season.
Laura:Mm-hmm.
Xhafer:the plan was always to do what's happening next episode next week.
Xhafer:So
Laura:That's crazy to
Laura:me.
Xhafer:may as well talk about it while we're right here, cuz we got
Xhafer:Season four episode six into the Fire.
Xhafer:Ivanova and Lorianne.
Xhafer:Look for the first ones has Sheridan Readies to meet the shadows and the VLANs.
Xhafer:Londo Decisively ends the Cent's Alliance with the shadows.
Xhafer:That's one way to put it.
Laura:Yeah, sure.
Laura:Sure.
Xhafer:The shadows and VLANs finally clash with Sheridan's
Xhafer:fleet trapped between them.
Laura:Yeah, that's a big, that's a big description.
Xhafer:Yeah, and I'm looking forward to talking about that episode next week.
Xhafer:But before we do, We of course must say thank you to Jeremy Siegel.
Xhafer:Jeremy, thank you for our lovely theme music.
Xhafer:We truly appreciate it.
Xhafer:You can find more of Jeremy's work at Jeremy Siegel 40 two.bandcamp.com
Xhafer:and on Spotify as nuclear Jaguar.
Xhafer:He's hard at work on the June album right now for his album a Month Challenge, so
Xhafer:go and give him a couple listens support.
Xhafer:It's good stuff.
Xhafer:We appreciate it.
Laura:And thank you to angry Duck time machine on Instagram
Laura:for our podcast artwork.
Xhafer:Thank you, Aaron for editing our podcast and making
Xhafer:sure it comes out on time.
Xhafer:Really appreciate all the work you put into the podcast and
Xhafer:saving me from having to do it.
Xhafer:Having been doing a bit of editing recently I can really testify.
Xhafer:I truly appreciate all the work you put in.
Xhafer:It's a ton of work.
Xhafer:It's not unnoticed.
Xhafer:Thank you so much and thank you listener for tuning in and deciding
Xhafer:to spend an hour with Laura and I talking about a nineties sci-fi show.
Xhafer:We really appreciate it.
Xhafer:You enjoyed our community on Discord and we talk about all kinds of stuff on there.
Xhafer:People are talking about the trailer that just dropped for
Xhafer:uh, road Home on there right now.
Xhafer:And yeah join our community.
Xhafer:We'd love to have you there.
Xhafer:We'll see you next
Laura:And feel free to send us an email sometimes.
Xhafer:yeah, we have an email address.
Laura:Who are you?
Laura:BFI gmail.com.
Xhafer:All right, well, thank you so much.
Xhafer:We'll see you next week.