Case 1.11

#011 - Alien Nation 1.07 "Night of the Screams"

2025.12.21 1:31:48

Alienating Ourselves Podcast

0:00 1:31:48

Just in time for Christmas is our review of the "Alien Nation"...Halloween episode. Sorry, I guess we should have started the podcast a couple months earlier. Anyway, you will shriek with delight, uh, I mean, terror, at this week's episode, "Night of the Screams."

- Which co-host has a lot to say about the germy ickiness of bobbing for apples?

- What did the co-hosts feel about this episode's medical examiner gnawing on some beef or pork ribs while giving an autopsy report to cops?

- Which 1980s movie's score did one co-host think this episode's music sounded like?

- How did a simple dialogue scene in Cathy's apartment somehow feel cinematic?

- What questions, theories, and head-canon, did the co-hosts have about an Overseer character & his wife?

- How & why did a few other scenes in this episode feel cinematic?

- What did we learn this week about Tenctonese myths, folk lore, medical conditions, and the Kleezantsun (Overseers)?

- What did the co-hosts feel about the material given to Emily & her friend Jill?

- What did one character completely flip out over in this week's episode?

- And, what's up with Nick's new segment, "Yikes, Sikes"?

Listen now for the answers to these and other horrifying questions, as we we brave the "Night of the Screams."

Please rate or review us wherever you listen to podcasts. You can comment on episodes via the Spotify or GoodPods apps. Our e-mail address is [email protected].

Royalty-free music in this episode comes from Pixabay.com.

Humans and aliens working together I.

Really want to dig more into their culture.

It's a mirror up to humanity. Social commentary through

allegorical storytelling. Wild, angry old man opinions.

Yay, Moodri is back, and Kathy is too.

Whoa. Really.

Aw, you guys. She's adorable.

I am a connoisseur of holiday episodes.

Halloween, mom sharing each other's fluids.

Gross. Now it's their scar of

damnation. That boy is a pig.

Yeah. Pig from hell.

Yikes, Sykes George, you almost found a bullet right between

your spots. Gee whiz, Sykes, get a holster.

You don't believe in gleaming Celine and they call them so

civilized. George Francesco is one of my

all time favorite characters. The show is going to go to

places that I really enjoy. Sour milk is a good thing to the

tank to knees. Soft with a subtle finish.

This is a packed episode. Stay tuned, listeners.

We're both fans of Star Trek. Watching Alien Nation and we

enjoy. It I am one of your hosts, Todd,

this is Nick. This is the Alienating Ourselves

podcast. Greenies, humans, and newcomers,

and welcome back to Alienating Ourselves, the podcast where we

examine sci-fi entertainment with a focus on aliens and the

humans that interact with them. I am one of your hosts, Todd.

I don't know what's more frightening, the idea of an evil

madman cutting off hands, or the idea of bobbing my head in

contaminated communal face water just for fruits I wouldn't eat

in the first place. And joining me is a guy who has

much more positive attitude towards Halloween themes and

rituals than I do. It's Nick.

Nick, how's it going? It's going well, Todd.

I I came from a time when we all used to just share germs Willy

nilly, and I won't say we turned out fine, but back in those days

we knew to keep it to ourselves when we had to take our kid home

with a terrible infection. So good times.

Yes, there is bobbing for apples in this episode.

You also trigger warning on that it comes from a pre COVID time

when we would just go all Willy nilly with the the sharing each

other's fluids. Gross.

So there you are. Yeah.

Do people still do that anymore? Not in the United States.

And I I feel like it was on its way out pretty significantly

before COVID. Maybe swine flu might have done

it. Bird flu might have done it.

We had already. We had already started crossing

that off the Halloween list. So let's talk about tonight.

Tonight, as Todd and I continue alienating ourselves, we'll

explore Episode 7, The Night of Screams, which originally aired

on Devil's Night, October 30th, 1989.

As Halloween approaches, series of newcomer murders seem to

follow the pattern of a tank Deniz myth.

Todd and I have gone out of our way to set this podcast up to

match up with Halloween mostly. Oh, debatable.

So only now are y'all seeing the fruits of our laborers and

everything from here on out is just icing on the cake.

This episode was unique, at least with all of our procedural

cop stuff. What did you think of this

episode Todd? Just overall.

I think this was a really good episode.

I think this is the second best one since the pilot, and I like

how much of the Tanktonese culture we got.

And even though I'm not big on Halloween myself, I do like how

the episode integrates our human holiday into a greater theme of

horrors and myths and legends. How about you?

Well, I am a connoisseur of holiday episodes and as I go

through my holiday movie watch lists, a big long protracted

season for Halloween watching and then another one for

Christmas watching and any excuse I can do some shows nail

it. There's a really great

Thanksgiving episode of Cheers called, I think Thanksgiving

Orphans that y'all can check out if it's streaming at the time.

And you know, it's hard sometimes to stick the landing

and Halloween's a good example of that.

So we've got aliens. Is it going to be a good

Halloween episode? And it is.

I mean, I'm not sure I'd watch it again for Halloween, but this

episode has everything you could want in a holiday episode.

There's scary stories, a string of violent murders, atrocities,

trauma, and candy. You may think I'm kidding, but

George ultimately learns the true meaning of Halloween.

And Kathy, my personal favorite, actually has something to do.

So that was great. Yeah, yeah, I would agree.

In fact, that kind of dovetails into sour milk or a good stuff

section where for my first bullet point, I say yay, Moodri

is back and Kathy is too. And that's, Yeah.

In fact, I would say even though I enjoyed this episode, my

enjoyment for it was on kind of a very general, broad level.

So it was actually kind of hard to come up with bullet points,

you know, more specific good and bad points for this.

In fact, I didn't get up to five bad things this time.

I only got up to four. And the only way I got up to 5

was by moving one thing from my miscellaneous category into my

good stuff. But yeah, my my first good stuff

thing is that I'm glad that Mudri and Kathy are back.

I think I might be similar. I think there are things in my

list that are like, hey, I want to mention this because it was

interesting. So I'll start off with the fact

that so in our story, we've got victims and it's a serial killer

situation and the idea that it might match up to some ancient

mythology like the introduction says that might show up later.

But for the time being, our heroes find themselves in the

coroner's office. And I just, I have to claim this

is an awesome thing right out the bat because this coroner,

while they're looking at the body, this is a human coroner.

This time she is munching on some ribs in a way that you can

only do in the 80s. So they're looking at the body.

George is, of course, stoic, but Matt is grossed out.

And this woman is like, I hope you don't mind.

You know, I missed my lunch. And she's just going to town on

some some juicy ribs while she's talking about her findings.

So I hope you guys don't mind, but I missed lunch.

Now there were signs of struggle and several of the victims

fingernail scrapings and bio scans.

We'll throw every trick we got at those appendages if you find

them. Glad to give you a hand.

I loved that we we may come back to that actress, but that was

wonderful. Yeah, and George gives her a

look. And now I admit it's a quick,

subtle look, so I might have read too much into it, but it's

almost like he had this look on his face.

Like OK, I'm disturbed by the fact that it's cooked because my

people eat meat raw, but I'm still impressed at how she's

gnawing down on it. Is that how you interpreted

that? Yeah, yeah.

There are some subtle looks in the script, so I'm glad you

caught that. I did not catch that.

That's great. On the other hand, she is eating

it directly off the bone. And now that I think about it,

I'm not sure I have seen taintanis eat meat off the bone.

They do seem to filet it first because usually when they go for

their raw meat it is kind of wiggling.

So maybe it wasn't a look of being impressed.

Maybe he was actually confused because yes, he knows that

people eat that, that humans eat cooked meat, but maybe he was

confused about the off the bone part.

I don't know. So maybe I'll need to look at

that again. The the, the subtlety of looks

and how you interpret them in this show, Who knows?

I mean, I didn't see him make the face at all, but I'm not

surprised he did because they do have a theme of them being

grossed out that we cook our meat in general.

So he's probably thinking something.

You want me to do another one? Sure.

There are thousands upon thousands of bodies.

And this is the this is Moodri. I think he's like telling us the

story of the mythical character that's murdered all of these

people in their history. And he says thousands upon

thousands of bodies. And he cried.

He cried not for what he had done, but because there were no

more to destroy. And this sounds an awful lot

like Hans Gruber saying Alexander wept for there were no

more worlds to conquer in Die Hard, which sounds like he's

crediting a famous source. But the Internet just suggested

to me that it's not exactly a direct quote from Die Hard from

someone else. It's credited to Plutarch on

Tranquility of the Mind. But this, this no more worlds to

conquer thing. There were no more to destroy.

It was used very well in Community because the Dean keeps

misquoting it and As and Jesus wept for there were no more

worlds to conquer. But yes.

Oh, and I do want to say for this one, wow, Moodri is telling

this tale. And I swear, three more times in

this episode they are playing the theme from David Lynch's

1980s Dune movie. Maybe a rendition of it, but

this sweeping orchestral background music, I'm, I'm not,

I'm not positive, but it's just while you're watching the scene,

it's a little bit quiet behind the words, but I'm like, gosh,

that sounds a lot like Dune. And they do it like two more

times, Say something epic is going on in the background.

OK, interesting. Let me see.

I'm not sure I have anything that dovetails really well off

of your last one, so I'll just say that there's something about

the lighting in Kathy's apartment that feels very

cinematic because, you know, we are talking about how we're glad

that she's back. She has several interactions

with Matt this time, and one of them is a really cool

conversation that they have in her apartment.

And there was just something about it.

There's something about the way it was lit.

I think there were some candles lit and some lamps, you know,

nothing overhead, nothing too bright, nothing that felt like

80s neon or or fluorescent lighting or anything.

And there was also something about the camera angle where I

like it looks like her bedroom doesn't have a complete wall

dividing it. It's kind of like a partial

wall. And so there's a lot of depth in

that. It was just really well done.

And especially since the copy of the episodes that I have

purchased on Apple TV, they're kind of low resolution, so I

can't help but wonder if they look even better on DVDs.

And I assume that Blu rays were never made of this, but there

might be better looking versions out there than what I'm looking

at. And I was still somehow

impressed with just the overall look for that scene.

And then of course, it was a very well acted scene too.

Yeah, so Kathy's back so she can give us her take on the myth.

And we get another flashback of the ship, and she kind of brings

Matt in and she's like, you better come in.

And we've already got the idea that Kathy might be a little bit

Eastern religion. She told us that in her words.

But so she kind of brings him into what looks like it might be

a sort of meditational space. In my mind.

It almost looked like beanbag chairs.

And she tells him kind of her take on this spooky story that's

being told about this tag dot mythical character from their

prehistory and how it was used by the overseers on the ship to

terrorize them. And then they would be like,

shown hands in a bowl. And I think they're suggestible

from the gas that they're breathing.

So it would give them these fits of fear and it would make them

more pliable. They'd sit back and inhale the

gas. So Kathy gets to tell us this

story very passionately on her beanbag chair in her room.

And it's always interesting to see the ship.

So, yeah. But I mean that just anything

that goes to adding to the dynamics of the story and the

world is a definite positive. And that scene, it is, it's

definite positive, let alone for delivery and everything.

And I think we'll come back to the ship probably.

But I've got another one here that Matt and George are

tracking a a suspect and then they figure out that the serial

killer is chasing down overseers, which we've been

curious about overseers the whole time.

So the person has found a way to track them and is taking them

out one by one in a brutal way. So they find a hit list and they

go to an overseers apartment and they don't spell it out a lot,

but we see them come into this apartment and it is horrible.

I think there's people sleeping in the stairs.

They're lined with maybe sleeping bags and trash to just

to give us some subtle clues that this is not a great area of

town. Matt asks about the lifestyle of

the overseers on board the ship and George says, yes, they, they

were living really, really well. And Matt's like, well, they're,

they're not all living well now. And we didn't know that.

We didn't know that they weren't all already part of some secret

crime syndicate or something, that some of them are just

slumming it like former Nazis hiding out or something and not

doing great themselves. But I added this to my positives

because Matt asked about the lifestyle on the ship and George

says they were rewarded well for delivering slaves around the

Nouveau bond range. Wrote it down because we have no

idea what that means. This is the first indication we

get that George knows anything about outer space locations or

how the ship was going or something.

So yeah, it's a a tiny hint back to maybe some of the stuff that

was going on before they crashed.

Yeah, and this is a like a very mild spoiler for future episodes

in or maybe one of the TV movies.

But we do see in other installments that some of the

overseers really are doing well. Well, in fact, I think didn't we

see that in the previous episode?

Yes, Yeah. So I think some of the overseers

might just be either luckier or smarter than others.

And yeah, somehow this guy just ended up not not doing well.

But one thing, I don't have this in my nose because I wasn't sure

I was going to bring it up unless you did.

But when we do go to his apartment, it's because the

police are actually needing to protect this guy, despite the

fact that he's an overseer. He's a target for these killings

that are going on. And so as police, they have to

protect him. He's not there, but his wife is.

And it's still not super clear whether she is also an overseer

or not. I almost get the feeling that

she's not. And if she's not, then is it a

consensual marriage or is her marriage like part of him being

an overseer and he got to pick a bride or something?

I'm not sure because they they never come around and say that

she is an overseer as well. But she is kind of surprised

that George is willing to protect her husband with him

being an over an overseer and and she even refers to George as

cargo. You want to protect him.

That's the plan, that he's here. Why do you want to protect him?

I am a police officer. You are cargo and your husband

is cleats and soon. I'm well aware of that Lady.

Tell us where it is or ID him later at the morgue.

He doesn't need your help. Fine, let's get out of here.

But again, she never says whether she or herself is also

cargo or she's like her husband. So there's a lot of ambiguity

there. But I like you.

I like that we're given more background on the overseers.

At the same time, it is a little bit contradictory with some of

the things we got in the pilot episode and maybe the episode

right after that where it seems like where it's implied that the

detectives didn't necessarily know that much about the

overseers. But now it's becoming much more

obvious that some, if not all of them did.

And yes, they might have been under control of the gas that

was pumped through the ship, but they still knew about the people

that were, you know, slave driving them.

Yes, yes. And I'm, I'm glad you brought

the lady up because I like the way the show will give us some

of these tidbits to chew on, but it may leave a little bit open.

So we can kind of be developing our knowledge of the, the

details as we go along. But this scene, it might be

written a little bit badly because they, they don't just

leave it open who she is. They kind of contradict

themselves. She, like you said, she says to

George, but you were cattle. She didn't say, but we were

cattle to him, so that must mean that she's an overseer.

But then George says I know what he is, not what you are.

So now it sounds like he doesn't think that she's an overseer.

So it's not written ambiguously. I think it's written

contradictory. But yes, she was an interesting

character. She was like A and she seemed, I

don't know, dismissive. She wanted him to just bug off

like we're here to try and save your husband.

No, get out of here. He doesn't even want your help

kind of thing. So I'd assume she's an overseer

or maybe she's a maybe like Nazism.

There are people who are not Nazis, but they have joined

after the fact. So she believes all of the crap

that her husband says. But I don't know they they

didn't really give us a lot there.

Yeah, and that's why my at least possible head cannon is that she

is like George and it was a non consensual marriage and that

she's kind of stuck and maybe she's OK if her husband were to

get killed so that she can get out of it and be free like

George's. I think that might be better

than I think they wrote it, but yeah, I like it.

That's a good head cannon. My next one.

So he essentially George pressures her to give them

something instead of filming what she says.

We get the idea that she told him the guy probably went to

this movie theater because they're walking down the street

and they come to the movie theater.

They find the lead suspects car out front.

I think I have a whole thing about this car later.

But they go to the movie theater and it has a great big tank

Deniz word on the marquee. It's got is a expensive scene

just to have like 20 people outside the movie theater on

like a third of them in the full newcomer makeup.

But you go into this movie theater and it's playing a

cowboy movie dubbed into Tank Deniz.

And I just love this. I wish I could tell you all what

movie it was, but they did not give us a lot to go on.

There's nobody famous in it that I could grab.

And there are 1,000,000 black and white cowboy movies with

these kind of looking characters.

So I'd assume it's a public domain one.

But you can see the words OK Corral in one shot.

So it's probably a gunfight at the OK Corral cowboy movie.

But I would love that the movie is dubbed in tanked and knees

and the guy who's done the tanked and knees dubbing, he is

making Western guy voices like he's doing tanked and knees in.

I'm not even going to try and copy it here just because it's

that hard. But he's definitely doing some

two different dudes old cow hands talking in this scene, but

they're speaking with a tanked and knees western accent.

Antagonist revoke. Dame Von Clanton.

It wasn't from there balcony. That was great.

Yeah, yeah, I thought that was cool.

Apparently not the type of thing that Garner is a big audience,

because it looked like they were literally only two people in the

theater. Yeah, yeah, that's a shame.

Well, and we are we're given lots of ideas that so we may be

in this episode sliding away from just calling this this area

slag town and it might be new tank done.

Those may be the same place, they may not.

But we do introduce the idea that a little tanked.

So instead of little China, there's a little tanked and and

that's where they go in this one.

I don't think people say slag town in this one.

So I was kind of wondering if it was supposed to be a formalized

name of the same thing. But we are given the impression

that it is not a great area and the theater mostly empty kind of

plays into that. Yeah.

And so I guess I'll mention this is a good thing because I'll be

honest, I didn't have this written down.

But the more we talked about, I think it's a good thing this

episode was kind of cinematic in some ways, because I already

mentioned the really well lit scene at Kathy's you were

talking about. It was actually kind of an

expensive thing to show, you know, the city street and then

walking around and the theater in the background, and then they

had to film inside the theater. And then there's also that scene

or actually two or three scenes at the Los Angeles River, which

isn't much of A river. And I look that up on Wikipedia.

It's, it's kind of weird. I think it's something that is

connected to aqueducts. And so the river really isn't

much of A river. It's kind of like it's just a

concrete basin that like a little bit of a puddle flows

through. But it's recognizable because

it's also in quite a bit of movies and TV shows.

And so there were lots of different scenes in this episode

that were kind of cinematic. And like I said, I didn't have

that written down South. I'll include one more bullet

point, and that is that we just get so many great George

Francisco movements or moments. He loses his temper in one

place. There's the moment of, and this

is a little bit of a spoiler, but once he finds out who Tagdot

is, he doesn't arrest Tagdot. At first being upset with Emily,

but then being upset with himself for being upset with

Emily and his threatening of John Paul Charter, just all

great scenes. And I think part of the reason I

want to bring that one up is because you kind of mentioned

that, that George had a great line, I think, when he was

threatening John Paul. So, yeah.

So lots of really good things going on in this episode with

both great lines, great acting, great cinematography.

Yeah, it is a good cinematic episode.

And so we we discover that they they have a list of suspects for

some reason when they're going in this, I don't know, maybe

it's a culvert, some sort of drainage system.

It does look a lot like where they have the elaborate chase

scene in the Terminator 2 movie, but almost as an afterthought

when they have all this evidence but no fingerprints that somehow

based on dirt and residue and stuff, they can figure out the

make and model of the car and and and the the shape, the size

of the newcomer that drove it. So while George gets more and

more into hunting down the mythological elements that seem

to be matching up, someone clues him into that.

I think his wife and daughter are talking Moodri.

Moodri got Francisco's spooked out on Tag dot and George is

like, what's all this? And then he realizes it's

connected. He gets into talking about that

and investigating that connection.

And Matt is literally walking across the police station

printing out a list of the newcomers that are £200 or more

that own this particular car. And I think he's got, like, 20

of them. So Matt wants to run the list.

He's doing the right thing. He's like narrowing down

suspects when we find out, yeah, the suspects on that list.

And George is like, I don't know, I want to try and find

hands, maybe in a bowl somewhere.

But it turns out both of them pay off.

But, yeah, we find out that one of the suspects they interview

is a guy who does research for a library system as a job, and he

turns out to be the guy behind it.

But it's a little telling in that there's only like 1 suspect

that they interview that we actually see on screen.

So that did kind of narrow it down.

Yeah. Yeah.

My, my last sour milk is that I really, really like a happy

ending. And if you all keep listening to

us, you're going to see that because most of the time, I

still prefer that. So George has to deal with some

heavy stuff in this episode. He doesn't turn the guy in

because the guy's hunting down overseers, which is a lot like

hunting down former Nazis that are brutalized people.

He's got issues with it. And I'm not sure.

I think I'm big on moral right and wrong.

So like that Star Trek Next Generation thing, I think I

would have gone to the chief and said, look, I'll be honest with

you, you're going to have to take me off this case because I

don't want to chase a guy who is killing overseers.

And they'd be like, you know what?

That makes total sense, but he doesn't do that.

And like Todd said, he essentially catches him.

They have the end of the Murder She Wrote episode scene where he

walks through the entire plot with the guy and then apparently

he just leaves. Which is it?

You're right, that did feel kind of weird for George, but he's

got a lot of hard feelings in this.

So it meant a lot to me. When you're dealing with this

trauma that the episode, how do you wrap this up?

He goes home. This kid is upstairs with a

stomach ache from a party she went to where she ate way too

much candy, and she had the best time of her life.

And he just sits on the couch with his wife, who's exhausted

from giving out candy. They talk a little bit about how

kooky Halloween is. We have another kid at the door.

They have this laughing thing while he gives them candy.

And I'm like, oh, you guys, Francisco's at home.

You know, they didn't solve the world's problems, but he at

least got to come home and decompress.

And then we have like, some joy before the credits.

So I really liked that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is nice.

Yeah. You want to cut into salt water.

Well, I've still got a little bit of sour milk left.

Oh, excellent. So similar to your last one, I

would say that it's also nice, even if a little a little bit

weird and abrupt, when Matt shows some sympathy for George

and even tells him Happy Halloween because they had just

been in a little bit of an argument and George was in a bad

mood. And of course, there's still

some moments in this episode where Matt is kind of annoying,

stuff like that. But as I've said in previous

episodes, I always love it when they do get along and work well

together. And so it's nice that Matt kind

of calm down at least, at least for a moment.

And it's kind of nice to George. So that kind of helped.

And then the only thing I have left is a list of things that we

learned about the Tanktonese culture, religion and language.

And this is something I usually leave for miscellaneous.

But like I said, I was a little bit short on good stuff, so I've

moved it to good stuff. But I know you kind of like this

section sometime too. So do you want me to still leave

it for a later so that we can kind of take?

Times with it. Take anything you can from me.

I got plenty left. OK, All right.

So some things that we learned this week about culture,

religion or language, about the tank to knees is about Tag dot.

That's the main kind of bad guy of the episode.

And the legend is that he is evilness consumed by madness.

He was a conqueror who expected adulation.

He killed many who did not, who did not exalt him.

And I think you already mentioned that he cried, only

that there were no more to destroy.

But when that was brought up, George also mentioned Klosny and

Glebny as some other Tanktonese myth, but they never do go into

details on what it was. It was basically just one of

those things. Oh, do you believe that?

I can't believe you believe in Klosny and Glebny.

Glebny. Oh, wait, wait, hold on, because

that is that's one of my I have to mention this.

That's make believe a myth, a story like Krosny and Glebny.

Glebny. He's he's smiling and waving

like, oh, forget it. And Susan is shocked.

You don't believe in gleaming. So this is not this is like some

hardcore childhood faith kind of things.

And yeah, that was she's adorable.

They're they're adorable. So yeah, that was great.

Good to do. And when we meet this old guy,

an old tick to knees, we found out that there's something

called Clotstolikian's disease. And supposedly it's a condition

that affects the bones. But at least one other side

effect seems to be kind of a weird misshaping and

miscoloration of fingernails too.

Because when when I first saw it, I thought maybe it was

something kind of like arthritis, but it might affect

them in or maybe multiple sclerosis or something like

that. I don't know if there's an exact

one to one comparison to a human condition, but yeah I noticed

the the old guy had some weird looking fingernails too.

If you are a writer, producer, director and you want a shortcut

to showing someone to be evil, give them really terrible

fingernails. Yeah, we use that trick in

animation as well. And yeah, Paul Revere is our

suspect who turns out to be evil.

And in this particular case, the really, really gross looking

person is actually the bad guy. But yes, clotsto leakins disease

we've never heard of. And he does have his hands kind

of clawed. So that's also where you're

getting the arthritis thing. Like when they acute say where

were you on the night of such and such.

He kind of like holds up his hands like, you know, I'm an old

man. What are you talking about?

It also another side effect is it looks a lot like his spots

are like leaking. Oh yeah, yeah.

It's like kind of listening to you.

That is a it is a unpleasant disorder.

So yeah, they made this guy, they made him look like all

kinds of victim. He's still suspicious from the

beginning if you're just watching the episode, but not to

not to our cops. And you don't think they're

stupid for disregarding him because he does look highly

disabled. But yeah, unsettling.

I had that in my miscellaneous so I'm glad you got it.

Yeah, and I'm playing the episode in the background now

and they're on a scene with him and it looks like he might have

some sores on the side of his face and maybe that's what you

were talking about. Also, I've never seen any tanked

and knees have any blank spots. And he has a blank spot not even

like on the center of his forehead.

Like like maybe their equivalent of balding or or anything.

It's on one side and it's like where there should be spots.

They're just gone. Yeah, yeah.

Whoever the makeup person was, they they were given a pretty

free hand to do some creative stuff with Claustolekian's

disease. So yes, unsettling.

Let me see. We get an interesting statistic

that the normal Tinktonese outnumber Kleeson Sun 10,000 to

1. So a lot of.

Info. A lot of info.

So then let me see 25. So if there were a quarter of a

million, then that means there might only be 25 Kleeson Sun if

I'm doing my math right. So that could be, it could be

kind of like me figuring out how many kids were in each

graduating class at Hogwarts, and you have a reasonable number

based on the information you've given, but the creatives can

just change that number whenever they want.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so your math is solid and

also no. And then let me see the

Tinktonese tattoos or I should be more specific, the Klees on

sun tattoos are not just symbols.

Kathy said that and and she doesn't say it with certainty.

So there might be some flexibility here, but it's

possible that they help neutralize the gas.

And so that's how. To drop.

Yeah, yeah. And so I wonder how a tattoo

would do that. It's.

Got chemicals in the tattoo, Todd?

Yeah, yeah. What do they call they had a

name for like the divine gas, magic gas, God gas?

What was it? Holy gas.

Holy gas. OK, so yeah, we're we're getting

these dribs and drabs. But yeah, that when she said

that, I was like, whoa, really? Yeah.

And and I, I know that like you said, it's probably just

chemicals in the tattoo. At the same time, the point of a

tattoo is it kind of rest at one spot in your skin.

So how would chemicals in the skin at one particular spot help

you with something that you would think it would have

something to do with the lungs since that's how you breathe in

the gas, but. It's like slowly going into your

blood and occasionally you're getting it redone and it does.

It solves another problem where we before we didn't even see the

overseers on the ship. And as we get more and more info

and see them now we see a guy walking around showing people

hands in a in a bowl. We have to ask, well, why isn't

that guy wearing a gas mask or something?

So this kind of solves for that. Like they can just stroll

through and try and control those questions.

You can't guess the overseers. And then the last one is there's

something called Mukti booty. I think that is a spiritual

centering for those that have recently been blessed with child

and, and I I'm still a little bit unclear whether it is a, a

ritual or a process or a place or maybe all the above.

It wasn't super clear on what it what it was.

It was it was a quick mention and then that's it.

And that's a scene where George already knows who the guy is, so

Matt is telling him his other suspects.

And George has this attitude and is just dismissive of all of

Matt's subjects suspects. Which is reasonable since he's

like, no, it's not him. So Matt is essentially saying

this guy had a kid and George. Oh, no, this guy, he gave George

enough to say, oh, mutti booty, OK.

He's been blessed with a child. He has a kid.

So it's clearly not him. And Matt is like, well, wait,

maybe it's. No, it's not him.

Yeah. Oh, and that's that scene.

Well, you brought that up. I can say they have some new

turns of phrase in this one. And instead of saying, you know,

I was there, I, I was looking in his eyes or I saw his face or

something and you weren't there, he says.

I was there. I was looking at his spots.

You weren't. There are a few things they do

like that in this episode. OK, but that's it for my sour

milk. All right.

Let's check out some. Salt water.

OK, let me give a first one here.

I think I've got plenty. I have decided with this

episode, because Emily Francisco has a lot to do, and she does it

all very well. I've decided that the writers do

not know how to write for Buck. They can write for every

Francisco except Buck. You just don't know what to do

with him. So we've seen Buck go through

some highs and lows. I think he's doing his best,

Dang it. But yeah, he's not in this

episode at all. And every Francisco that's

present, including Mudri, is on point, every scene knocking out

of the park. But they're just like, I'm not

even going to write buck a scene because I don't know what to do

that guy. Yeah, I, I would agree.

Yeah, I, I noticed the the absence of Buck and I was

totally OK with it. And, and you're right, Emily, I,

I can't remember that actress's name, but she is very good.

She was very good for for being that age.

She does knock out of the park anytime she's in an episode.

And they finally bring back her little friend in this one.

Yep, Yep. You were talking about that, I

think. Jill, maybe or yes, but what's

your salt water? So the big thing is Tag dot is

not a very scary name for a scary creature.

You know, it sounds like something you would do with a

magic marker, putting a dot on a on a like a price tag or

something. It just doesn't sound very

scary. And like I said, I don't have a

whole lot for salt water. And my next one's actually very

similar. I just said that in fact, lots

of the Tennessee words for things this week sounded either

awkward rather than scary or cool.

So going back to some of the things I mentioned, Klozni and

Gleeby, that that sounds weird. Klostolikian.

That sounds weird. Mukti booty.

That sounds weird. All of these words just sound

weird. And Grant, I know it's a foreign

language, but please on sun, I mean, I know it's a bad thing.

They're evil people, but that's a cool name for evil people.

And some of the other words in this episode, they could they

could have worked a little bit harder in translations because

they're just not cool words this week.

Well, and you, you remembered a few things better than I did.

But I watched this show in 1989, and I think I might have had a

couple of episodes where they replayed some.

And then I think I watched the first TV movie and I remembered

Klee Sunsoon years later. I remembered Newcomers and I

remember Tanktonese. I don't think I remembered any

other terminology, but it did. It stuck with me.

But I did not remember Tagdot. And I'm not sure this episode

has been replayed anywhere since October 30, 1989.

So yeah. But I mean, you know, I don't

know. I mean, maybe they're told to

make stuff up and they really didn't overthink it because I

had the same reaction. Like Tag dot, you went with Tag

dot, But it worked for the narrative.

I mean, by the end it was just a weird foreign language name, so

it didn't keep holding me up. It definitely wasn't menacing in

English, but it wasn't, I don't know.

I'm glad they didn't name him Mukti Booty.

Oh, true. Yeah, Yeah, that would be worse.

My next one is also pretty short, and it's just that.

So like I said, Matt is chasing down legitimate leads.

He's doing better police work than he's done probably in any

episode. And George wants to look into

this whole mythology angle and he is being teased relentlessly

for it by Sykes and Dobbs. Dobbs gets a little bit here.

You'll come back to him, but just that they they really are

on him about it. At one point they're saying

like, I don't know a few different things about

mythology, like, you know, why don't you look up this or hey, I

hear you're looking into this. Like they're just teasing him

about the mythology angle. But there is like a scene where

these guys are just laying into him about it.

And I'm like, guys, geez. I mean, he's not, you know, he's

allowed to talk about these other things.

Tag dogs. It's what you humans call a

boogerman. I don't know what a boogerman

is, George. You mean boogie man?

Oh yes, that's it. Well, that's just hunky Dory,

George. I reread the myth last night.

It's deeply rooted in fact. Listen to this.

Severed hands with a symbol of tag dots throughout the ages on

the third equinox. That's now heroes taking

sometimes a few, sometimes thousands.

They're pretty spooky stuff. Hey Sykes, that book it got

pictures and everything there is an.

Ancient drawing of tag dots. Sykes, I got an idea.

Why don't you get your partner here to check the mug shots to

see if he can get a match? Grow wings.

Fly away. The presentation of severed

hands and mental basis became a tradition by Tag dot followers

at ceremonial gatherings. George, kill your spots didn't

say nothing. They went crazy with the

teasing. That was weird.

I don't know if I paid that much attention to that well.

Good, good. I'm glad it didn't stand out and

bother you because I was like, they're really running into the

ground. Well, and also because I like

this episode, I was really in the mood to watch more.

So I had to admit I took sneak peeks of the next two episodes

and and mild spoiler, they're good too.

And so I think I might be getting certain details mixed up

in my head. In fact, I kind of had to skim

through this episode again the day to make sure that if I made

any points that weren't in my notes that I really would be

talking about this episode and not a different one.

Let me see. So my next saltwater thing is

about a couple of Emily scenes. Since we talked about her.

She did great in her scenes, but there's one scene at her school

where some kids are making fun of her.

They're they put on a tank Deniz mask and they're making clicking

noises. And then it's it's not the very

next scene, but the next time we see her in a scene, it's when

George is getting home. Susan is, is kind of concerned

and she says something happened at at school today or something

like that. And you would think that it was

about her getting teased. And instead it's that Emily has

put one of the Klees on sun tattoos on and you know, just

with ink. But she's trying to do some kind

of scary costume and George loses it.

I mean he flips out and granted he realizes a minute or two

later that he flipped out, He apologizes and hugs her and and

so but because of his trauma he just has an instant reaction to

it. Emily, are you all right?

I just want to scare people. This is the costume she decided

to wear to the Halloween party. You're hurting.

Her. She doesn't understand George.

George, she doesn't remember. What they were, but they did

I'm. Sorry, I'm so sorry.

And those are good scenes. But the reason it's in my salt

water is it seems kind of abrupt because it's like we don't get

any kind of transition. Like why she had this idea to do

the Clison Sun tattoo and does she even understand what it is?

And because she's a kid, would she even know that there were

Clees on Sun or that they had tattoos?

And so the fact that that, like I said, I expected that scene to

be about her getting teased and it said it was about her doing

something wrong. I don't know.

It's almost like it was done for shock value or something.

And so that was a little bit abrupt for me.

Well, and it the whole show it seemed at first like it was

going to be a lot of racial analogies and the 1st 2 episodes

are but that's eased off a little bit.

So I think connecting the tattoo and the Cleese on soon to Nazism

isn't as clear A123 like connection.

So I think the writers thought they were making a more obvious

thing where George is coming home and finding his daughter,

her scary costumes to dress as a Nazi officer, and he's freaking

out. But it doesn't.

The analogy does not come through necessarily.

I am glad that they did not show us, like, the horror on Emily's

face as he's dragging her into the kitchen and scrubbing her

hand and freaking out because it was intense enough as it was.

And luckily, it's also over very, very quickly when he goes

off on Buck and the pilot movie he'd like, lifts him up against

the wall and calls him racist names.

So this was at least a little bit more chill than that.

Yeah, it was an intense scene. My next one is salt water.

Is that a big part of this plot is that George has put on the

task force. It's hunting down the serial

killer and part, you know, probably because he's a newcomer

detective and there just aren't any of those.

And this is a crime against the newcomer community.

So it's good visually for the community.

I don't like saying the word optics, but here it is.

And Matt is brought along because he's his partner.

But you see these scenes with the the task force, and it

occurred to me after it was over and I was trying to think of my

negatives, that the task force serves no purpose.

In the entire episode. It is casting a guy, Macy, as

the leader of the task force. He doesn't really have a

personality. I think as a fan of TV, I'm

waiting for him to be a jerk toward Matt or maybe on Matt's

side and a jerk toward George or maybe on George's side.

But he isn't he's largely good work.

All right, let's go. All right.

Like he's he's very adequate. If the actor is listening to

this, you did fine, man. They didn't give you a lot to

do. So if you rewrote the episode

and saved a few 1000 bucks and completely took out the task

force and you just had Matt and George investigating, it looked

very similar. Yeah, and whether you agree with

him, not whether it's good or bad.

About the only interesting thing he did was come up with a plan

to use two people for bait. That's true.

That's true. That was his baby.

Everything else seemed like something that they would have,

like they didn't need him to be standing in the room with the

coroner to come to those conclusions.

So as it was, Matt would have been the one to say, this is

what we're doing to like, uniformed officers.

And then George would have questioned him.

But instead we had a third party saying here's what we're going

to do. And he's like running a group of

guys. And then Matt goes along and

George is like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Are you going to use people as bait?

So at least there's a little bit of separation there.

But yeah, that was his big moment of authority, I think, in

the whole episode. And then he disappears.

Yeah, yeah. And then and then my last bullet

point in salt water is also about maybe not just the task

force, but just in general. There doesn't seem to be any

consequences for George, at least not on camera, for the

fact that he did not arrest Tagdot when he should have.

It's just kind of swept under the rug.

Now. He does kind of say later that

maybe he should bring it up or say something or or, you know,

fall on a sword for it. And Matt just says, hey, you

know, you've been through some stuff, it's OK, everybody will

understand. Don't worry about it.

But there's still, there's still a missing scene where we have

George come to somebody and say, I know who Tagdot is, we've got

to go get him. And then somebody asked him why

and him either tell him the truth or coming up with some

kind of excuse. It's just like he gets a

conscience and they go and arrest the guy and that's it.

So there's no real justification there as to there's no

communication between him and the task force.

So there's something missing there.

They skip a moment and I'd like to tell you you're imagining it,

but it's kind of obvious. Like there's a because he's

walking around knowing who the bad guy is, knowing the serial

killer and just hanging out at the station.

And then later on after he has a realization and he's come

around, you know, and I think Mudri's talked to him and he's

thought about us being the best person we can and what Tag dot

really is about. Then he decides to get the task

force and go get the guy. But yeah, Todd and I were both

like, wait, but now you've got a are you lying to them and

saying, hey, guys, I've got a crazy idea or you're saying,

hey, my bad on that, y'all, I already found out who it is.

We can pick him up now. Sorry.

And they definitely skipped that scene.

I was fine with them skipping that scene, but it's it's

obvious they skipped that scene, guys.

Oh, yeah, this just came to me. It's crazy.

George isn't big for acting, but yeah, that's I got an anonymous

tip, you guys. So my next salt water is that

it's the retcons. And I think when the show

started, the newcomers knew nothing about nothing.

They didn't know why the ship crashed.

They didn't know where the ship was going.

They didn't know who was running the ship.

They didn't know they didn't know anything.

And I'm glad they're changing it.

I'm glad they're adding detail. But if you ask them questions,

they didn't remember anything like, and that was part of the

written out plot, like, hey, who's in charge on the ship?

I don't know if there was somebody.

I never saw them. Like those things were said.

We weren't just imagining them. But that makes the show not as

interesting. So it seems to be the nature of

the show now. And Kathy has served this

purpose twice, where you go to her or someone else and you ask

pointed questions and they have to, like, look within

themselves, confront things they wish they had forgotten and give

us new information that everybody on Earth should have

heard, like when the ship first landed.

There are many legends, stories about Tag dot.

Our myths were deeply woven into our culture.

On the slave ship, the Klee's on soon overseers.

They used the stories against us.

The overseers were charged with maintaining order.

They pumped gas to keep us submissive.

But submission was not easy for some.

Since we landed, I've heard that there was a group that

acclimated themselves to the gas and trying to organize a revolt

on the ship. Well, yes, you had to have had

them outnumbered what, 1000 to 110 times that?

That's why they had to strike at our weakest line of defence, our

minds already vulnerable from the gas.

They twisted our history. Overseers became demons.

Fear became more painful than that.

The overseers or the tattoos? I was told that it neutralized

the gas on the ship. It was a symbol they wore

righteously. Now it's their scar of but it

does make the show better. I'm just saying it's, I think

retcons are going to be a constant in the writing moving

forward in order for us to know more about the ship and the

overseers. So like no one knows about the

overseers. Then some people know, then

everybody knows. Then the, the, you know, the

God, the divine gas, the holy gas.

It's like maybe there was some kind of gas, you know.

Oh, we all remember the gas. Oh, we have a name for the gas,

you know, but it does it it makes the thing more rich.

So yes, I think that's just sort of a they knew less about the

ship originally. They were clueless like cattle.

And in order to humanize, the more we're kind of growing in

what they've known the whole time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is becoming an interesting

ongoing subplot. So yeah, even if it contradicts

a little bit from the first one or two episodes, I'm.

I'm OK with it. I kind of prefer what they're

doing now. Yeah.

Yeah, you just have to roll with that because it's going to keep

changing a little. Bit do you have anything left in

saltwater? I've got a couple of things, but

you know how you have a couple of segments that you've tried

out and I want to do a new segment called Yikes, Sykes,

Yikes, Yikes, Yikes, mad Sykes. I hate these know it all muffin

heads who come from outer space, A Russian and a sponge head.

They're a boat in the middle of the ocean.

Why stop with running them back to slag town?

Why don't we just kill them? Are emotionally involved.

It makes for bad police work. What's that guy doing over

there? What was that name again?

Makes for bad police work. Bad police work.

Yikes. Yikes, Yikes.

I'm Kathy Frankel. Matt Sykes.

Yeah, I know. In your language, Sykes means

excrement and cranium. Yikes, Yikes, Yikes, Yikes,

Yikes. Sykes.

Sykes, Sykes where we talk about how many innocent people Sykes

almost shoots in this episode. He almost shoots the intended

victim in the theater. He almost shoots the intended

victim's wife when she opens the door.

He almost shoots George. George, you almost found a

bullet right between your spots. And he almost shoots himself the

two times he tucks his gun cocked into his armpit.

He doesn't point the gun at Kathy when she opens the door,

but he does cock it again. Gee whiz, Sykes, that's a lot

for one episode. Like, if you're watching this

and he puts it in his armpit and you're like, what is he doing?

Even if you do not handle firearms, you're wondering.

And then he does it a second time.

I'm pretty sure that's not right.

I have one more negative The kids in the Newcomer Halloween

mask are teasing Emily at the school.

They're up to something and they turn around and she and Jill

turn around and other little kids have a newcomer Halloween

mask. And she and Jill were just

talking about how whatever you dress as needs to be really

scary for the party. So it kind of plays off of that,

that these kids are joking and laughing that the scariest thing

to look at is like a newcomer mask.

And it does. It looks like a proper like

Halloween mask someone has made out of like the stretchy rubber

that we would have. But this goes nowhere.

Like, maybe there was going to be something there, but.

And if there was like a plot line about or like you said, she

comes home and George comes home and she was embarrassed or

something and they were going to talk about it.

But no, she just kind of storms off.

The kids are doing that. And you're like, no, it wasn't a

thing at all. Like, I was just, school sucks.

Yeah. Yeah.

And that is it for me for salt water.

OK. And I do like your new segment.

Yikes, Sykes. Yikes Sykes.

Yikes. Sykes.

Sykes. And I can give you a little

preview for, like I said, I've already looked ahead at the next

two episodes. And you know how there's certain

things about Sykes that it's almost like either the writers

of the wardrobe department will try on Sykes for one episode and

then not do it again. So I don't know if he's if he

did it in this episode or if he's been doing it the whole

time or if it's just one of the next two episodes, but at some

point he puts his gun inside his jeans, like just the waistband

of his jeans a lot in one episode.

And it's like this once. OK, it.

Yeah, it's like get a holster. You're a cop, surely they've got

to have a, a holster, a a department registered holster

that you can put that in instead of putting it in your pants.

And I don't care how experienced you are with firearms and I

don't care if there's a safety setting.

That gun is still pointed where you don't want a gun to be

pointed. He, it's not like he has it off

to the side. I mean, it's, it's the centre of

his pants, right? Front centre, yeah.

Yeah, and it's like, I, I'm sorry you could not pay me to

put a gun in my pants pointed that direction.

So, yeah, it that that kind of triggered me quite a bit.

So yeah, I, I, I do like your, your new segment on that

because, yeah, because I think he himself is going to be on

your list in at least one episode where he might have

almost shot himself. Also, I can't remember if it's

this episode or another one, but there's one where he and George

actually fire their weapons quite a bit and then he, like,

handles a part of the gun that should still be hot.

So even if he doesn't almost shoot himself, he probably

almost burns himself a few times.

Yeah, he he needs to go back to, to firearm school in the Academy

or something. I don't know.

We are only listing the most egregious offenses of You've got

to be kidding me with that listeners.

So yes, it is so over the top that you're like, wow, really?

That's what y'all went with? But yeah, yeah, Sykes is.

I think I'm OK with him being a nut a lot more often than Todd

is, but but even some of these things, it's like, wow, I don't

handle firearms and I'm like, that's not great, y'all?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

Well, with salt water out of the way, we can move on to

connecting the spots. And this is where we make

connections with either other movies, TV shows, franchises,

other episodes of this franchise.

I will have the Dobbs watch section earlier or later and

then let me see. We also cover guest and

recurring cast. And for that I do have just a

little bit on two people. And even if you have them too, I

wouldn't be surprised if you have more.

Do you want to start with the guest and recurring cast?

Let me give a couple of really stupid real world connections.

So just off the top, Sykes uses 2 police codes in this episode.

If you are a viewer and you care, it was interesting to me.

So he calls in a code 3. No, the task force does.

So Macy at the task force, ask them to get to the coroner's

office. Code 3 and code 3 means use your

sirens and speed. It's an emergency.

You need to run some red lights, which is helpful because a code

4 for police is it's nice that it comes right after three.

A code 4 means no additional assistance required.

Which is to say, I just called Todd and said code 3, get over

here and he starts speeding. Then I call him and I'm like,

code 4, code 4, you can hit the brakes.

Nevermind. So when they do resolve the

issue at the very end and they're asking for backup, which

is ironic if you've seen the original movie where they really

should have asked for backup. When the whole situation is

resolved and the serial killer is no longer a threat, Sykes

wanders off and says I'm going to call in a code for.

And that's him saying, you know what?

Nobody rush, everything's fine. We're good.

Those are just some general real world connections there.

But in terms of characters and actors, I wouldn't mind if you

stole some of mine because I have, I guess I don't have that

many. I think I've got like. 6 All

right, so I'll go for one of the obvious ones.

Like I said, you'll you might have more on this one, but Mitch

Pileggi, I think that's the way you pronounce Mitch Pileggi,

that is. Pileggi.

Pileggi. Yeah, actually, it's pronounced

with a soft G after all. Mitch Pileggi.

So he is, of course, best known for playing director Walter

Skinner in 91 episodes of The X-Files, but I just want to make

sure it was brought up that he also played Air Force Colonel

Stephen Caldwell, commander of the Earth battle cruiser

Daedalus, in 22 episodes of Stargate Atlantis.

His episodes were spread out over seasons 2 to five, with 11

of his 22 appearances being in just Season 2.

So that was literally over half of that season.

And then they kind of spread him out a little bit more for the

next three seasons. I think he only makes like one

or two appearances in Season 5. It was really cool to see Mitch

Pilegi, but I say that ironically because as I've

mentioned in previous episodes, I seem to not be able to see

actors through the makeup. And it's like a consistent thing

for me. So Mitch Pileggi is playing our

jerk at the end who was a target of the serial killer who goes

out of his way to let us know when he survives that.

Gosh, it would have been nice if he had not survived.

He's just a just a terrible person.

I watched the scene. I finished the episode and I had

seen his name already in the opening credits.

And I'm like, wait, I missed Mitch Pilegi?

That was him, wasn't it? And I go back and I watch the

scene and I'm like, Oh my gosh, it is him.

I was looking for Mitch Pilegi and I didn't see Mitch Pilegi.

So yes, it's good to see him, but it was terrible to see him.

So I couldn't put that in my happy things because he's a

horrible character. He's just a stinker all the way

through so. Yeah, and it was definitely

harder to tell this time. The makeup really did make him

look different because with some of the guest stars that we've

had in the past, I can still tell, even if it's just the

center of their face. And also it's their voice that

usually gives it away. And so I was looking for him

that whole time, too, because I did notice him in the opening

credits. So I was like, where is he?

I haven't seen. And even when it got to him, I

was like, well, that's got to be him because it's near the end of

the episode. Surely he's the only one left.

And I swear it did not look like him.

But of course, that was his voice, and that made it

unmistakable. But yeah, it was definitely

harder to tell this time. And he is also.

I will say you mentioned Skinner, but if you watch all of

X-Files, Skinner becomes like sort of a folk hero for me.

I like the episodes more when he shows up.

He didn't even have to do much. He'll come in and we'll be like,

what are y'all doing now? I don't know about that.

And then he'll leave and I'm like Skinner.

So yes, a big fan of Mitch Pilegi just for that role, but

he's done several other things, including the ones you

mentioned, Supernatural. He's a big deal with the

Winchester boys. Supergirl.

We've mentioned a David E Kelly connection for a few different

actors on this show, and he's in Boston Legal, so yeah, you

mentioned one. Let me mention David Opatoshu.

He plays Paul Revere, the killer.

He also has done some David E Kelly stuff, but he is a famous

dude. Actually, he there is an episode

of Star Trek the original Series called A Taste of Armageddon,

which is a great episode. And this guy gets an evil goatee

in it. If you see him, you might even

recognize him if you know to look for him in this episode of

Alien Nation. But he's the guy on the planet

where they wage war on computers and the computers tell them that

the Enterprise has been blown up.

So he wants everybody to beam down so he can disintegrate

them. And Kirk says, Nah, man, Nah.

But he's also, he's also in an episode of Buck Rogers, which I

don't know, down the road, we'll see if I talk Todd into watching

some of those. But yes, a very interesting

character. David Opitashi.

Yeah, I was wondering if you were going to get any Star Trek

people in there this week, because I admit I didn't skim

through IMDb too much. I did just a little bit and I

did it kind of last minute. And I don't remember seeing

anything that stood out from Star Trek.

So I was like, oh, is that number going to be low this

week? But so I'm glad that you you

found at least one person. So the next one I'll bring up is

Megan Faye. She played corner Barkley, and

she also played boarding house owner Miriam Frye in 4 episodes

of Agent Carter and Holly, the mother of Becky who dated Fozzie

Bear in two episodes of The Muppets from 2015.

And she's one of those actresses where I don't even this, I don't

even necessarily remember her specifically from these two

examples, but she's one of those actresses that you can just tell

she's been in everything. And sure enough, when you look

at her IMDb page, it's 1 of this, one of that.

And so I knew I'd seen her somewhere.

And so I just picked these two out because it was places where

she was in more than just one episode.

I like this lady and she's been in Ghosts and Supernatural.

She's Bernadette's mom on Big Bang Theory, which sounds like a

big part, but that might have only been one episode.

Malcolm in the Middle, Carol Burnett.

But what? I knew her from this weird

little red headed lady, and I say it that way because she was

on Mad About You for several episodes and she was one of the

characters. I don't remember if it was Paul,

it might have been, but is she's a secretary and she was kind of

Spacey like she her. She didn't have clear mental

function in a very humorous way. And it stuck with me all these

years later. I'm like, I know that red headed

lady. And if any of you are horror

fans, she was in Halloween 2 that came out in 09.

She's been around. I will say for my next one,

Wayne Powers, Teddy Roosevelt, I pointed out to Todd that he's a

used car salesman at the beginning and that he was on a

show called 13 E the same year that this episode came out with

the actress that played Betsy Ross in our last episode.

And it's sort of like, ah, it's very small part in this episode,

but it's a small world. They both got this gig and

another gig. Oh, so I totally missed that.

I forgot about the used car salesman.

So that was his name, Teddy Roosevelt.

Yeah, there's a big sign behind him that was like Teddy

Roosevelt's used cars. Oh, OK.

Yeah. Do you have any other connecting

the spots? I do.

I don't for the cast, but I I am kind of tracking who the writers

and directors are. More so the writers, the writer.

This one was Tom Shahek or Chihek, and he was the same

writer as the takeover. He's getting better.

Yes, definitely getting better because this is a better

episode. I know that one of my complaints

about the takeover was that yes, we got the siege of the police

station, but that seemed kind of pointless other than leading us

to the whole thing about the ship gas.

And it seemed like it kind of a dragged out episode for just

that one purpose. And this one was almost similar

in that we get some Halloween stuff, but it's really about

just bringing down this 11 old guy who's pretending to be a a

legendary killer. And there is a little bit more

meat along the way and a little bit less fluff.

So yes, you're right. It it is improving.

But I guess I am seeing a little bit of a, I mean, Grant, it's

only two episodes, but I did kind of recognize the style.

It's definitely different from, I think it's Diane Froloff who

has written several other episodes.

It's a little bit different where she does do a little bit

better job of diving into the culture.

In fact, we when she writes an episode, it seems like we get

more about the culture. And when Tom writes an episode,

it's kind of like we just get mentions of stuff, as I've

already, you know, said earlier. I'm glad you did a little bit of

a dive into that. And I was saying to Todd before

this episode that I'm curious about the connections between

like writer director across episodes, but I'm not doing the

homework on like researching those connections yet.

So that stuff is interesting. My last connecting the spots.

I believe there's, I looked, I, I dug deep on all of these

actors and there's a lot more in here, but not a lot to say.

And that isn't to say they haven't done a bunch of stuff.

It it means to say that they didn't do anything that I was

interested in. So it may have been in a bunch

of dramas that y'all are interested in, but not a lot of

sci-fi fantasy, escapism, fun stuff.

Brad Bradford English is the one who plays Macy running the task

force and he's just a big white dude with curly hair.

He might stand out a little bit or he might blend in, but he's

been in four David E Kelly shows, continuing that theme of

David E Kelly stealing from alien nation.

A lot of his actors, he's in an episode of X-Files, one of the

dogged episodes I've watched in the last couple of years after

Mulder left. He's killed by the bat creature,

just to throw that out there, which would be kind of fun if

you were, you know, doing the shows.

And he is in Halloween 6, The Curse of Michael Myers, he plays

a Strode. So this guy has done some stuff.

But yeah, that's it for me for connecting the spots.

OK, all right, so that leads me to the weekly Dobbs Watch Dobbs.

Watch. So Dobbs was actually in this

episode, and unlike, I can't remember his last one, the one

before he actually is given some stuff to do.

And I was actually starting to type out my notes as he was

being introduced in the episode. I was like, OK, he shows up,

he's reading a paper. The camera gets a close up of

what's on the newspaper. He gets to react to Matt and

George what what they're discussing.

He gets to drink coffee, and I'm like, is that going to be it?

And then he actually does have a few lines, but he's still in

only two scenes. And even though he and two other

actors are in the opening credits, Dobbs is in only two

scenes. Jill is in only two scenes.

One of those scenes, she's on the phone with Emily, so she's

not even in the same space with another actor.

Burns is in two scenes, but Moodri, who is just a recurring

character in only 5 four episodes, he actually gets 3

scenes. And then I did a few more stats.

This is our fifth episode for Emily, Kathy and Captain Grazer.

It's our 6th episode for Dobbs, but only the fifth one for him

having a speaking role. It's our third episode to not

have Albert, though. His most recent appearance was a

non speaking blinking you misic cameo that barely counts, so

that was from the previous episode.

This is our third episode for Burns, our second episode for

Jill, and it's only our second episode to not have Buck in it.

And as we already discussed earlier, that might have been at

least part of what made this episode a little bit better.

They had a whole Buck plot line, and they're like, please cut

this, It'll be so much better. And they did.

Yeah. And I, I will say, like Dobbs, I

don't like all the things he contributed in this episode, but

I still liked a lot that they gave him some talking lines

because it was so conspicuous in the last episode where he's in

the scene kind of smiling and shrugging, and then he's in the

background talking where we can't hear him.

And it's like, come on, guys, he got dressed up.

He came down here today. That that, that is a little

conspicuous. I'm glad you're charting some of

that. There is a character, an actor

listed as Lost Child in this episode.

And I have no idea who Lost Child is.

If you think of who it is, Todd, let me know.

But Lost child is played by Gabe Witcher.

And Gabe Witcher, he became a featured violinist and composer,

writing for the new Are You Afraid of the Dark?

And participating in music production process for Princess

and the Frog, Hunger Games 4, Red Dead Redemption Yes, the

game and this year's How to Train Your Dragon.

So whoever the lost child actor is in this episode, he's a

pretty busy boy with the music. Yeah, I don't remember there

being a lost child, and when you first mentioned a child I

thought maybe it was the trick or treater at the very end, but

I think that was a girl. There is there is someone listed

as tag dot child, so I think that's somebody else.

Yeah, maybe lost child. Gabe Witcher was cut.

Maybe he was only there because his dad was working on the music

in the background. They threw makeup on him and

then I don't. Know, Oh, actually I think I

might know who lost child is referring to.

And I'll, I actually have a question about that in the

miscellaneous section. Excellent.

We'll come back. But first, we have our Albert

Einstein award and our contenders this week are the

aforementioned Teddy Roosevelt. So I'm glad you caught that

because that wasn't in my list at first.

We've of course, got Paul Revere, which is the the guy

who, you know, I think we've already mentioned it, but just

in case you missed it, spoiler, he is tagged not.

There's also an Officer Miller who is on the task force.

We're not given a first name, but in my head cannon, his first

name is Barney. And then we also have Edward G

Robinson and John Paul Starter. And I'll be honest, I don't know

if those are significant names or not.

I've mentioned before that I'm not the history buff.

So Nick, you might know if those are references or not.

I, I kind of have a rule for myself that I'm intentionally

not looking them up because I feel like if I have to look them

up, then they're not obvious enough to contend for the award.

So for me, my only contenders are Teddy Roosevelt and Paul

Revere, and I didn't know about Teddy Roosevelt until you

mention it. So did you have any more or do

you have a preference? Yeah, John Paul Sartre is a

philosopher, famous philosopher, Although I I wish I knew more

about philosophy and I could quote you one of his crazy

ideas. But Edward G Robinson is a

famous actor from back in the day.

Like WC Fields, he has a very distinctive gangster look, some

very some very distinctive lips. He's got an odd face, like he's

kind of been smashed down a little bit.

The things I know him from our Double Indemnity with Fred

McMurray and he's great in that. And Key Largo with Bogey and

Bacall. But yes, he's an institution.

But they don't mention Edward G Robinson enough in the episode,

So I didn't really. I think I'm leaning toward Paul

Revere. I think we're going to give it

to Paul Revere. That's definitely got my vote

too, because that was the most obvious and.

Serial killer wins after. All.

Yeah, yeah, all. Right.

So we're ready for I have to talk about this.

Yeah. So this is our miscellaneous

slash last chance section. Do you have anything you want to

start with? Well, Teddy Roosevelt in his

used car lot showing people around, he's coming across as an

oily used car salesman, which I really think was the original

thesis statement of Alien Nation, where we're not just

going to show aliens trying to make a go of it in our country,

but rather them flourishing, being just as bizarre and

terrible as humans are. And Teddy Roosevelt is an oily

used car salesman. And when he's telling these

people that they're going to get a great deal on a car, he says,

from the bottom of my hearts, because the newcomers have

hearts, plural. And he also says, you know,

there, he says, this is the car you want.

The Coco is the car of the future.

This isn't the near future. And one of the couple says,

well, why'd they stop making it in 92?

And he says, why'd they stop making the Ensel, the Tucker,

the DeLorean. And one of them says there's

nobody was buying them. But yes, I think it's I think

they picked the three cars that they named very deliberately.

And anytime you mention a DeLorean, I'm going to lie.

So yeah, it's a very short scene, but it was cool.

Yeah, and since you're bringing up cars, there was also the

truck called the Yankee. Yes.

Which is a bizarre name. Who would name their?

Who would name anything like a car, truck, a Yankee?

That just seems like a a weird name.

I think I have more on that because it fascinated me and I

know so little about cars that I was curious if I was like nuts

and and it was like real on some level, but it is not.

So yeah, yeah, I did not copy that over, but it is a

particular kind to there's a there's details they're given

with the car, but it's just a weird truck from the very, very

near future. So yeah, the whole time they're

looking for a red Yankee. Yeah, yeah.

I will say another one is that Emily is explaining Halloween to

her family and she gives a shockingly good rundown of

Salon. I grew up watching the Real

Ghostbusters cartoon so I still want to call it Samhain, but she

actually runs her parents through Pagan festival

description of ritual and I'm listening to it.

I'm like this little girl does her homework.

Man, that was a really nice summary.

What is this disgusting tradition?

It's Halloween mom, the Pagan festival celebrating Samhain,

the Celtic ruler of death. On the day of the celebration

that people would light hearth fires, often sacrificing small

animals or other humans to welcome the return of the dead,

according to the encyclopedia Celine.

And they call themselves civilized.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was pretty good.

Uncle Moodri watches football with binoculars.

That was weird. I mean I like Moodri but why?

But. They don't tell you.

He's just that's his thing. Do you have a?

You haven't got to mention it. Yeah.

So I'll go ahead and mention the the child thing.

I was going to bring this up. So we see some of George's

memories from the ship, and I don't know if they've been

blocked before and all this talk of Tagdot is what unblocks them.

But they kind of imply that there was a child taken away

from George and Susan at some point.

And I'm wondering, was that supposed to be Buck when he got

to be 10 years old? Or are they implying that they

might have had a third child on the ship and we still don't know

more details about it? Yeah, I read that scene as

George has another child. And I read it that way because

when Tagdot, when Paul Revere is talking to him and he's trying

to tell him that his cause is just to murder overseers, and he

says things like, what have you forgotten?

What have they tried to make you forget?

And when he says, you know, try to make you forget, I felt like

they were trying to tell us. These are things that George

hasn't mentioned because he himself has blocked them out.

And that would imply that, yeah, a kid was taken from him and

Susan. And he doesn't even, he didn't

even remember that, which would also account for how rabid he

gets as he gets crazier and crazier about overseers in this

episode. But yes, they don't spell it out

for us at all. And the kid is yelling, help me,

daddy. I mean, that was extreme.

Yeah yeah, and and I I remember a lot of the things about the

series, but not everything, so I can't help but wonder if that's

going to get brought up later. I I would like to see that

explored more, but there again it might just be love let.

Me see. Oh, when George is blowing up to

kind of connect it because he gets a shorter and shorter

temper and Matt tells him, hey, why don't you take off early,

head home and then wishes him a happy Halloween, like you said,

when he says something to George before that.

And George, like, goes off on it, like yells back.

Yeah. You don't think I don't know

that or something? We've talked before about how

George is the only newcomer detective, or at least he was

when the series started. But when he goes off and yells,

the two police behind him that are shocked and turn around in

silent shock are both newcomer cops.

And I just thought that was interesting.

They aren't. There are some more newcomers.

And both the police, surprised by him, were newcomers.

Yeah, yeah. Let me see.

The only thing I have left is not necessarily about the

episode itself. So there's a scene of Emily

practicing bobbing for apples. And we already talked about that

a little bit at the beginning of the episode.

And I, you know, implied some stuff about it in the intro.

But to me, bobbing for apples sounds absolutely disgusting

because it involves people sticking their faces and open

mouths into water. To partially bite into apples,

sometimes failing to bring up the apple just for someone else

to stick their face into contaminated water.

To use their own open mouth to fish for pre bitten apples.

Rinse and repeat. One kid after another is just

nasty. Not to mention I don't like

apples. Maybe you were just born to be a

bitter, angry old man. So if there was a way of bobbing

for Chipotle burrito bowls, the thought might cross my mind.

Luckily, however, Chipotle burrito bowls aren't conducive

to floating in water, so I can enjoy Chipotle with having to

get my head wet or without risking drowning in communal

face water. I'm a big proponent of

traditions and trying to incorporate fun holiday

traditions, but I'm not fighting for bobbing for apples.

Maybe because I know I would not be good at it.

I have gotten a chance to Bob for apples in my life, so maybe

that's why I'm not as jaded as Utah.

Yes, it is. If you lived in a time in our

country where germs largely didn't exist, where you got to

pretend in the 80s that that was someone else's problem and you

could go to events where kids would dunk their faces in water

and giggle and try and pull something up.

Yeah, I do have good news for our listeners.

If you would like to update it, there is a modern thing you can

do that is far more hygienic. You take a yarn, I think, and

you tie it around Donuts, Donuts, and the kids.

The Donuts hang from the ceiling and the kids each have their own

and they try and bite the donut and eat it off of the string

without making it fall. And you have a similar bobbing

for apple effect where when they try and bite it they're knocking

it away from themselves. So very fun.

Far more hygienic. I've seen it in action and it's

silly fun, but yes. OK, that's a little, that's a

little bit better. And I have only the vaguest

memory of maybe bobbing for apples once as a kid, and I

think even as a kid. I was just wondering what am I

doing? You're all tricking me into

this. No one actually believes this is

a good idea. This is a joke.

I'm being punked right now. Let me see.

I've got a couple more here. We found out in the last episode

that Matt got this translator that he just loved.

And he was jamming it in every newcomer's face, even when they

were hostile and verbally abusive.

And they would say something and it would translate horribly.

And he just grin ear to ear, not sarcastically, like, thrilled

that his little translator worked, Like me walking through

Paris and saying, hey, where's the Eiffel Tower?

And I hold it up, and they say something and my translator

says, get away from me, English fool.

And I just, like, smile. Like, did you hear that?

It worked? Isn't this great?

And Matt was like that, Well, this episode, you might wonder

where his translator is. And he actually says as they go

into interview, Paul Revere. No, the wife.

No, Paul Revere is speaking in Tanktonese.

And he's saying, George, do you mind?

Can you, you know, can you speak in English?

And then he says something like, my translator is in pieces in

the hallway. So they've been interviewing

suspects all day. And I'm guessing someone didn't

like him putting it in their face.

But I really like that they put that in there.

No, no. OK.

Did you miss it? It sounds like a kid.

Somebody break it. On screen, yeah, yeah.

So when they are going to that apartment, he's sticking the

thing in somebody's face. I I guess to say, do you know

what apartment this is or, or something like that.

So he's trying to use it on others.

He gets frustrated and throws it down.

Oh, I did miss that. Yeah, yeah.

And since you bring it up, I didn't have it in my notes.

But yeah, that's another one of those frustrating Matt moments

where it's like, just put it in your pocket.

And if it's if it's issued by the police station, you really

need to just turn it back in. If it's something you bought on

your own, take it back to the store.

But of course, this is Matt Sykes.

He doesn't do anything normal. He's got to throw it down on the

floor. I, I, I connect with his

adolescent behavior. It resonates with me.

But yeah. So George, while they're in

Little Tankton, George says, you want to grab some food down

here? And Matt says, come on, George,

you know, I don't eat down here. George says too rich for the

blood. And Matt says too alive for the

fork. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was a good line. Emily's friend is going to a

Halloween party and is bringing Emily and and she tells her the

mask has to be scary. I already said all that, but she

but Emily's like, aren't you going as a pig?

And the sweet little cherub faced actress playing Jill goes.

Yeah, but a pig from hell? Yeah, which is just weird.

Aren't you going as a pig? Yeah, a pig from hell.

It's thick, big, huge, ugly teeth.

This nose, it's all screwed up. It's gross.

We never get to see the pig from hell.

But I just. I loved that the little girl was

going as a pig from George calls tag dot what you humans would

call a booger man. That was adorable.

Matt, when Matt and Dobbs are teasing George, I think is this

this moment? Like I said, they're peppering

in more of these cultural expressions and in this one,

instead of get lost or something, Matt says count your

spots. And it's just it's this phrase

he throws out there like I think it's a common thing to say.

The newspaper he's reading says ghost killer claims 4th victim,

but another story on the back says imported fruit riddled with

Z4 O 2A. So I guess they're worried about

contamination and proper FDA regulations in their fictional

near future, just like we are today.

So George is going to go get the coffee and Matt is going to do

the paper. No, Matt is going to go get the

coffee so George can do the paperwork.

And George said, he says, what do you want in your coffee,

George? And George says honey, sugar.

And if there are any of those bug pellets left, I'll take

three of them. Just float them on top.

They have to soften. And Matt says, you know what,

why don't I do the paperwork and you couldn't go get the coffee.

The killer, like I said, we figure out what what he's

driving. He's driving a red Takia Yankee

truck, but he's wearing a 10 1/2 shoe to 200 lbs.

And he has an inward toe. And then, and then one of them

says, I think one of them says a newcomer, and the other one

says, yeah, I would think that would be obvious.

So apparently they have something called an inward toe.

That is it for I have to get this in.

OK. All right.

So that's all for me too. So now we can move on to

ratings. Do you want to go first or you

want me to go first? Or I'll go first.

So I always give a Star Trek alumni score or an STA.

And this episode, it has three alums in the main cast.

That's George, Matt and Susan for a base score of three.

And Uncle Moodri returns, giving us another one.

He's not in every episode, unfortunately, for my score.

And finally, we have our killer, played by Paul Revere, David

Opitashu from the original series.

This has a ASTA score of five, which is respectable, just

definitely not a home run. I write these episodes pretty

much on a pass fail. Watch it, skip it basis and

you've got to watch this episode.

I like this episode very much. There's just an orgy of new

culture, mythology, and background details.

I don't think I'm going to add it to the Halloween viewing

rotation because it's half about atrocities and trauma.

There's enough other stuff and like I said before, a happy

ending, so I left it with a positive attitude.

I definitely think you should watch this one for world

building, character development and to see the actors doing a

really good job. What did you think?

All right for me, I've already mentioned that this is the

second best episode, second only after the pilot.

So I give this AB plus this was a really good overall enjoyable

episode. No one thing about it really

knocked out of the park for me. That's why I'm not giving

anything in the A range. But I would say this is

definitely a step up. Also, I think we've kind of been

a little bit of a bad patch with last two or three episodes, but

I think we're out of that bad patch now because let me see.

Like I said, I've watched the next two episodes and if I

remember correctly, they're both good.

And the one after that I'm hoping is good because I think I

remember what it's about, but I intentionally did not go that

far as to watch that one. But I think that one is good

too. So I'm hoping that we're out of

that bad patch and hopefully the only bad patch.

So I think we're on the upswing. So yeah, it it was good to to

get this episode and for it to be kind of the the start of

better things. Well, and I mean, it is, we have

different natures. So Todd is a peeker.

He will peek ahead and that's good because I balance that

because I go into everything completely shocked and I haven't

seen any of these in the one here 35 years.

So a lot of surprises around the corner for Nick, but we will

look ahead. Brave listeners join us coming

up next time on alienating ourselves as we explore season 1

episode 8, contact. The murder of an astronomer

leads Sykes and Francisco to this the discovery of an

extraterrestrial probe passing through the solar system.

But is it friend or foe? Sykes relations with his

newcomer newcomer neighbor Kathy Develop.

I'm making air quotes. You can't see them.

They develop. George and Susan discuss having

another baby bully Molly Love is in the air next week.

Now I'm really curious what's happening with Matt and Kathy.

And As for the Franciscos, obviously they should figure out

Buck before they have another kid.

He's all like, you're never there, dad.

And they're like, maybe if we start fresh.

Didn't Susan, like, just finish school and start a new career?

Usually a show waits for the ratings to dip in the third or

fourth season to do the add a kid.

Join us next week to see if it all works out for them.

As Todd and I continue alienating ourselves, I continue

to be Nick Frutiger. And I'm Todd, thank you very

much for joining us. Our e-mail address is

[email protected]. Please give us a like a review

wherever you listen to podcasts. If you love us, like us, or can

barely tolerate us, please give us five stars.

If you really hate us, please give us four stars.

If you give us three stars or lower, an evil madman will force

you to Bob for apples in a barrel full of hands.

As always, may all your milk be as fresh or as sour as you

prefer it to be. And remember, the only lucky

person in a Bobbing for Apples game is the first person.

Good night everybody. Have a great week.