#024 - Alien Nation 1.18 "Crossing the Line"
This week is the first of two Sikes-centric episodes, first with Sikes obsessing over a particular murder case right when he's supposed to start a vacation to Hawaii, in "Crossing the Line." Meanwhile, the Franciscos are preparing a special ceremony for newborn Vessna, and one family member isn't quite sure how to honor the baby.
- Does the new support character, Beatrice Zepeda, make a good first impression? What is her nickname for George, and is she a worthy replacement for Dobbs?
- How strange is it to have tabloid report Burns in this episode when the actor that plays him used to be in the opening credits, isn't any longer, and is finally given the most to do in this episode even as a guest star?
- Does anyone else think it's unusual that everyone at the police station gave Matt a going away part, including gifts, for just a vacation?
- Which of the co-hosts had an issue with the early banter between Matt, Zepeda, and Lois?
Listen now for the answer to these and other questions, as we take a look at "Crossing the Line."
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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 that
did you each choose? I think tradition.
I have chosen love, I've chosen spirituality, which leaves the
gift of honor to you in you will know.
Celine will tell you. I don't know.
They're not helping. I need more concrete
instructions than that. Well, it means what it means.
Takes a lot. Fuck, what did you do Emily?
If you get this wrong you can smell disaster dude.
You almost killed somebody. You don't have the high ground
here. I'll be killing somebody outside
the Lowe's at about 7:00 PM. My wife found it to be haunting.
Good, they should react badly and that should keep them away
from it because nobody should smoke.
I don't care about your subplot. You when you try to get Albert
to smoke. Oh, that's a choking hazard.
Oh, she doesn't choke on that. 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 the knees. Stay tuned listeners.
Of press kit. Yikes.
Sykes watching Alien Nation and we enjoy.
It I am one of your hosts, Todd. This is Nick.
This is the Alienating Ourselves podcast.
Greetings humans and newcomers and welcome back to Alienating
Ourselves, the podcast where we examine sci-fi entertainment
with a focus on aliens and the workaholic Co worker humans that
don't know when to go on vacation.
I am one of your hosts, Todd. I can somewhat understand Matt
Sykes postponing his vacation to Hawaii in this week's episode of
Alienation over something as important as catching a serial
killer. Because it would take a life or
death situation to keep me from Dragon Con, a yearly vacation I
take that can't be postponed. And joining me, as always, is a
guy who makes a great podcasting partner, despite the fact that
we've only met in person briefly on the last day of a Dragon Con
vacation. It's Nick.
Nick, how's it going? It's going so good.
And I mean, I got to know you online, just I had no idea how
like minded we were. In fact, y'all, this podcast, I
thought it was going to be different.
I thought Todd and I were going to argue all the time just based
on his review of the thing I got to tell you.
But yeah, a lot of unintentional, accidental like
mindedness. We're both the same age.
Oh my gosh. It seems planned, but it is not.
So yes, yeah, I think I'm guilty of working later than I should
and staying longer than I should.
And I work in education, so it's really easy to be like, if I
just stay on a little bit longer, I can help more people.
But yes, that work life division thing is not always easy.
But yeah, so tonight, let's get into it.
We're going to look at alien nations 18th episode crossing
the line, which originally aired Monday night, February 26th,
1990. This episode was directed by
Gwen arner, who directed the previous episode the night of
screams, which gets a pretty significant amount of shout outs
this week. So a lot of stuff they bring
over. And Stephen Long Mitchell and
Craig W Van Sickle are a writing duo who also wrote High and Low
episodes 15 with Wanda, The Red Room, and The Game.
So they have some some big wins and maybe some not so wins.
And they have more coming up. So in this episode, Sykes is
about to head out for a vacation to Hawaii like Todd was saying.
But George and temporary partner Beatrice Zepeda get a report of
a victim with sodium pentathol in their system.
And suddenly Matt won't leave town and won't sleep and won't
shave until he tracks the killer down.
Meanwhile, baby Vesna Francisco is coming up on her mookty booty
ceremony like a christening, and little Emily is the only one not
taking it seriously. So it turns out that killer was
a traumatic unsolved case from Matt's past, and his sleazeball
reporter Burns just doing his job or fanning the flames of a
killing spree. What was your first response to
this episode, Todd? Well, this is a good episode,
and it has an interesting and intense performance from Gary
Graham as Matt Sykes. But the police case of the week
is a little bit thin, or at least it was to me, and less
compelling than usual. And sometimes the police story
is already not super duper compelling in a in a usual
episode. And this one's maybe even a
little bit lower. But the alien culture that we
get this week is great, as usual.
Maybe feeling a little bit more shoehorned in, and I might be
able to elaborate on that a little bit later when we do our
good and bad stuff. How about you?
Yeah, I, I think I know where you're going to go with that,
and I think I'm going to be about on the same page.
I like this episode. It was pretty straightforward,
almost simple based on how much they try to pack into some of
the previous episodes. It's got a serial killer, it's
got one of our detectives traumatic pasts, and it's got a
Tanktonese ritual. So it's kind of a by the numbers
episode. Like if you have to check boxes
for an episode of Alien Nation, who's your killer?
What's your Tanktonese ritual? Which detective has a traumatic
past? It's like, all right, good,
let's let's do it. It's not the same thing as
saying it's bad. All the pieces are there and all
the pieces are done pretty well, so I enjoyed it, but it seemed
kind of simple compared to some of the others.
So we will move into our sour milk, the tasty, wonderful,
delicious, slightly spoiled bits.
So what's your first sour milk dad?
Well, so as you've already mentioned a few times, we get
our first appearance of Beatrice Cepeda.
I think she's in not all the episodes that are left this
season, but a couple of them at least.
And I think she might be in one or two or three of the TV movies
too. And I like her.
She's a nice addition. She's even, I'll even go so far
as to say she's a nice substitute for Dobbs.
I know we've kind of picked on Dobbs a little bit for not
always being a super developed character when he was still
around. I'm not sure they get super
developed was a pay to later either, but I just do like her
personality. And while it takes her about
halfway through the episode, she does finally use the nickname
Spaceman for George about three times.
And you can tell that when she says it, she means it as a
totally benevolent nickname and nothing derogatory.
And apparently George is OK with it because he doesn't seem
offended by it either. Hey, Spaceman, did you get Sykes
off? Oh yeah.
So I put him on the bullet. Plane about an hour ago.
We should be there by now, Selena.
Wow, you're still worried about Sykespace man?
Forget it by now. He's fancy free and wakey key.
They're still coming up empty on that.
It would be on the pickup, but listen to this space man.
Sid ran a check on the cellulose fibrous gun and I got into this
one bag. Same kind used a new Sprint back
in the 80s. So yeah, I'm glad Zepeda is
finally showing up. Well, I'm, I want to put words
in your mouth, but I am horrified and scandalized that
you would trade Dobbs for Zapato.
But she is. She's in all the TV movies, the
Internet says, except for The Enemy Within.
So I had no idea. I did not remember this woman at
all. But to be fair, I remembered
very few of the characters. And yeah, it turns out we're
going to see a lot more of her. So maybe Dobbs left on his own,
maybe Freddy, Boom, boom, Washington was kind of over the
show and they got her instead. Or maybe they wanted to mix it
up. There were a lot of dudes on the
show, you know, maybe get a few ladies to balance it out some.
But I could see that. My first positive is that the
thing that the thing that makes this episode really stand out
for me is what the slimeball reporter Burns does.
So he publishes a photo he underhandedly takes of a note
left at the scene of the crime, and he takes it off of
somebody's desk, like opening a folder when they're distracted.
And he gives the killer a cool nickname, the Doctor of Death,
and the killer likes it and strikes up this relationship
with Burns for mutual self promotion.
So in the process, Sykes and Burns kind of walk us through
some cool questions about where the line is between freedom of
speech and a reporter being an accessory to murder.
And Burns, in his defense, he just seems to be kind of a moron
about it. Like he has not asked any
ethical questions. He's so used to saying freedom
of the press, the Constitution, like those two things as a
complete sentence and not as a thought.
But he he he's never asked himself, you know, where is
there a line? Is there something I shouldn't
do? So we're watching him get deeper
and deeper. And by the end it's like, I
don't know, I'm, I'm exaggerating, but it feels like
the killer is ready to like, go see a movie with him and get ice
cream. And Burns is like looking left
and right, like there's something weird about this.
But yes, I thought that them bringing in those ethical
questions to me was the relief stand out of the whole show.
But they don't they don't dig too deep in it.
They just kind of point at it and be like, that's not cool.
So yes, that was my first positive.
Yeah. And I agree with you that that
is definitely an interesting moral concept about how much
freedom of press, speech, expression, all need to be
protected, and they're important.
But at the same time, you have to be careful because even
though you have freedom of speech and freedom of press,
that doesn't necessarily mean you have freedom from
consequences for saying anything you want or publishing anything
you want. And so it's an interesting
concept. And so I know we're in good
stuff, but technically, one of my bad things I'll be talking
about later is how I guess I didn't get that immersed in that
concept. So it's good that you got more
out of the episode than I did. Yeah, that's your.
Next positive. Yeah.
So my next one is that this is Matt at his most intense and
serious, and there's nothing silly or frustrating about the
performance. I know I've often picked on the
character, some of the past and maybe sometimes the actor for
Matt being either frustrating or over the top or maybe sometimes
even a bit silly. And in this episode, none of
that was there. He was definitely intense.
There were times that you could tell that he was losing sleep.
And I couldn't help but wonder how much of that was makeup and
how much was that the actor maybe getting into it?
Like maybe did he intentionally lose some sleep so he could look
like that naturally? This was definitely a very good
performance. So even if I didn't necessarily
like the subplot, I appreciate the performance that came out of
the subplot. 80s melodrama and police pushed to the edge and
crossing the line. And it's maybe it's sort of
hokey because I grew up with it. So it feels even more cliched
than it might be. So the more Matt doesn't say
things he should obviously say and doesn't share stuff he
should share. And I'm just kind of frustrated.
And when we prepared for this episode, we LED into it a couple
of weeks ago and the teaser is like, George thinks Matt might
be keeping a secret for why he's not going on vacation or
something. And I'm like, of course he's
keeping a secret. So we all knew before I even saw
the episode that he's like holding something back.
And it's a dark past, you know? And but he does.
I mean, you're right. He gets more and more sunken and
upset as he goes. My second sour milk is, like I
said, the director, Gwen Arner, she directed episode 7, The
Night of Screams, the Halloween episode, which it has a scene in
it where George, who already knows who the killer is at this
point and is not sharing it, just like Matt isn't sharing in
tonight's episode. He's brushing off and
disregarding every suspect that Matt brings up for the killer.
We don't. We know it's because he already
knows who it is. But Matt is confused.
Like, why do you just keep ignoring these suspects?
And one of them, a guy, he says, he says that guy is clearly
innocent. It's not him because he was
based on what Matt told him in his apartment, he was in the
middle of a mukti booty, which George kind of says is like a
dedication ceremony to celebrate a new baby.
So obviously that guy couldn't be a killer because he was knee
deep in mukti booty. And it's a throwaway line and
it's a weird detailed cultural reference for a background guy
non suspect in an episode. So I really liked that they not
only brought it up again, they would have gotten points for me
by bringing it up again. But essentially this episode is
at least 50% about the mooty booty ritual.
So it's it kind of feels like the writers already knew that
they were going to have to have a baby dedication ceremony and
they planted that seed early because that's the only reason I
can think of to like go out of your way and come up with a who
what writer thinks of a baby dedication Sarah.
But anyway, I like that she brought it up again.
I like that Gwen Arner, the director, that she fleshed it
out more. I think she likes her work on
the night of screams. And I'm a big fan of tying
things together in a fictional universe because it makes the
original episode better by giving it more credence and it
makes this new episode more real by connecting it to the past.
But we get to see the ceremony, which is we kind of mentioned in
the opener, is not that special compared to the other
ceremonies. It's something we could kind of
throw together and make up Todd and me pretty fast compared to
some of the stuff they've done. But it is still sweet.
So I did like that that call back and stuff.
Yeah, yeah. I would agree with that.
Also that book that I got for Christmas, Alien Nation, the
unofficial companion, it has a little bit of behind the scenes
information and Gary Graham talks about this episode and how
much he loved it and I might elaborate on that more later.
But at the end of his big quote he said additionally Gwen Arner
directed it. No wonder I love it.
So I admit I haven't really tracked the directors as well as
you have, but apparently he was a big fan of her directing.
And then also you talked about the Mukti booty ceremony that
was originally in my miscellaneous category, but
sometimes I move miscellaneous to positive.
So I do have some of the details of that where you want to cover
that or do you want me to go through it or go ahead take
turns or? OK, jump into the mukti booty.
OK, so you've already described it as being kind of their
version of a christening and they each pick a, a certain, I
guess you'll call it a virtue that they cover.
And I don't know if these are predetermined.
I don't know if they're the same all the time or if they, or if,
you know, they can truly pick anything out of a hat or
whatever. And then they elaborate a little
bit on this one word virtue later on when they actually have
the ceremony and kind of say a little bit more about it.
So Buck picked tradition as something that he wanted to
bless Vestna with and then later during the ceremony he says I'll
be responsible for teaching her of her past as a tinctonease.
George picked love and he will be teaching how to love others
as she loves her universe. Susan picked spirituality and so
she will be teaching Vestna about the journey and sacrifice
of Andarko and Celine. Emily was left with honor, and
that's why I'm wondering if these are predetermined because
when they were listing through these originally, somebody said,
well, I guess that leaves honor for Emily.
So these might be predetermined, I don't know.
But she said that she will be teaching Vesna the importance of
being honest. And that's kind of connected to
a little bit of a subplot that Emily has that maybe we might
talk about later. And then Matt is not around for
any of the original conversations, but he's kind of
shoehorned into the ceremony at the last minute.
And so he doesn't necessarily have like, a one word virtue,
but he does say that he that he will be teaching Vesna how
special her father is. And as usual, that's a very nice
touch at the end of an episode. Yeah.
So yeah, that's a little bit about the mukti booty.
Yeah. And OK, so Matt is going to go
on this vacation that he won, but he didn't really win it.
The guy who used to live in his apartment won it.
And so he's taking that guy's expenses paid trip to Hawaii.
He's got his Hawaiian shirt. And for some reason, police are
throwing him a going away to Hawaii on vacation party, which
is, I don't know, I don't think my my crew would do that.
But George gives him a present. He gives him this little jade
figurine that isn't supposed to be jade.
It's supposed to be something else and he explains that it's
this traditional tanktonese travel stone thing and I don't
think I even I barely noticed it and you don't get to see much of
it when he does that. And this is, I don't usually
watch the episodes twice. I might go back and try and
decipher some bit, but I did. I watched this one twice and
this the second time I saw that what Matt puts in the cradle
when the rest of them are putting stuff in is this little
Jade Figuri, which I guess is to say that it's an example of how
considerate George is and stuff. Yeah, that was really cool.
And I I agree with what you're saying.
I think it sounded like every family is going to have to teach
the baby about spirituality, love, tradition and honor.
So they maybe they said, you know, hey, do you have a
preference? And Emily did what kids do.
And it's just like, I don't care, man.
I don't know what's going on. So they they each picked and
they were excited about them. And of course, Buck is going to
teach about tradition because he loves it.
With Uncle Moodri, he got so into his history as a people.
And the other two, I have no reason to think that George has
dibs on love and Susan has dibs on spirituality.
They both seem pretty equally spiritual, but they seem to have
picked something. So yeah, she gets the default of
honor. Yeah.
And I'll come back to that. But I really like that.
It was that little Jade figurine thing that I don't know, they
didn't get into it a lot, but it was a cool touch.
My last positive that I have is it's about Albert.
So Albert is the phenom for the Francisco's and if you missed
our three to tango episode, you might want to go back and check
that out. But it takes 3 to tango.
If you're a newcomer, you need a third in your relationship for a
certain aspect, and that's his, interesting as it sounds.
So you might want to go back and listen to that episode.
But Albert is at the beginning of this, taking them through
preparation for the mukti booty. He's not there for the ceremony,
but he's reminding everybody of their roles as this sort of
hybrid spiritual leader that he's portrayed as in Three to
Tango. And it's possible that the
writers of the show are starting to realize that there's not that
much for a police station janitor to do in the narrative.
So I like that they are giving him more of the spiritual job
because I like him in this aspect.
He's he's more like a, a monk, like Brother Albert.
And he, he's not very competent in a lot of other circumstances.
But in this, I think all of his training is in ceremonies and
stuff because of his role in that milieu.
So he has it. He brings this sort of.
Youth pastor enthusiasm like wide eyed you are going to do
this and you must remember this and he's all smiles and excited
for them. So I I like seeing him in that
role. I like it when they write that
in. That does it for me for sour
milk. Yeah.
And I'll definitely agree with you about Albert, because I
pointed that out before too, that he seems to be in his
element when he does the the spiritual ceremonies because,
yeah, he is kind of weird and awkward other times.
But but yeah, he that's where he shines and he where he seems to
be most comfortable. So, yeah, that's a good point.
And so you said you're totally done.
So should I just speed through the rest of mine?
Sure. OK, so you mentioned Emily a
little bit, Emily's friend that comes by to pick her up to go to
the mall. And it's a very brief
appearance, but it's by somebody named Cindy.
And of course, we no longer had the actress that played Jill and
we really barely had her in the 1st place.
And so it's kind of a shame this isn't Jill, especially since
Burns shows back up and they're both out of the opening credits,
but Burns comes back anyway. So it would have been nice to
see Jill. But on the other hand, it's also
nice to see that Jill is not Emily's only friend.
And then a little bit more about Emily.
Were you going to cover what she put in the vessel?
Her gift? The physical manifestation?
You go ahead. OK.
So you talked a little bit about the travel stone that Matt puts
in the crib. Well, Emily puts in the
friendship bracelet that she got because when Sandy comes by,
they're going to the mall to get these special friendship
bracelets. I don't, I can't remember if
they're on sale or if they're free or if they're being given
away. But for whatever reason, they're
going for these friendship bracelets.
It makes Emily kind of late and distracted, and so she never
comes up for what her gift to Vista is supposed to be.
So when it comes time to put the the gifts in the crib, she puts
the friendship bracelet in there, realizing that, you know,
she kind of messed up. And so she would rather give up
the friendship bracelet and have that be symbolic for Vesna than
to keep the friendship bracelet knowing that, you know, it's the
thing that kept her from from doing her duty as a big sister.
So I thought that was a neat touch.
You talked about Albert. I have here under biology and
culture, Taintanis apparently sometimes, if not always, react
badly to nicotine and in a way good.
They should react badly and that should keep them away from it
because nobody should smoke. But Albert almost seizes up when
he is trying a cigarette and it is Burns who gives him a
cigarette and encourages him to smoke.
And maybe that's another reason why I'm not much into Burn
subplot. It's like you're trying to
encourage Albert to smoke, you know?
It's not a nice. You're forfeit to me now.
I don't. I don't care about your subplot.
You when you try to get Albert to smoke.
And then last little thing, The Tinctonies have trouble fitting
hard hats meant for humans, and that makes for a neat little
scene where they're going to interview somebody, I can't
remember who, but it's somebody at some kind of construction
site. It has something to do with the
mystery, the plot of the week, whatever.
And George is along, and they're having to wear hard hats.
And the hard head doesn't quite fit George at first.
It's just kind of resting up on top of his head.
And then he keeps loosening it, losing Lucy, and he's gradually
able to get it down somewhat over his head, but not
completely. So yeah, that was a little bit
of background comedy while something else was going on.
They traced the van that the killer was using to this
construction company where the killer worked, probably under as
an assumed name or his real name.
It really doesn't matter in this plot.
So they talked to the foreman to get vital information.
But yeah, it's a comedic thing in the background.
You just hear. When I watched it again, I
realized the foreman just says something like, sorry about the
hard hats. You know, it's a rule, but that
he says that before we're all on the screen.
And I thought he was just saying, you know, like you would
to any of us. I'm sorry to make you wear these
things like, but we have to for legal reasons.
But no, it's because George comes in and it's like sitting
on top of his very, very big head.
So yeah, I did. I guess I don't know the thing
about they really lose points with me for using Cindy instead
of Jill. I mean like Speaking of Albert
not having much to do, like little Jill hasn't had a lot of
things to do as Emily's friend. And this episode is about Emily
and her friend going to the mall and they're like oh we got a new
one. Dang it.
So Molly Morgan has been hanging out this whole time and finally
they have a role for her and she but y'all can not feel too bad
for Molly Morgan. She did not like I thought I
looked. I thought maybe she just like
dropped out of acting and some people do.
No, she has worked steadily since the Alien Nation.
She's doing fine. So good.
This was just something else. But yes, I will say I agree with
you about a lot of that, but I wish they would keep using these
actors. Oh, did I cut you off?
Do you have some more positives? No, that's all.
All right, well, looking at salt water, the negative things that
I'll start this off simply just by saying y'all, I mean, I want
to break it to you straight out. Kathy is not in this episode.
You know, I mean, I know you're just you're switching off the
podcast, you're turning off the episode, but no tarry trees to
be had. And maybe this was a kindness
they were doing to Matt because he he does not look his best in
this episode. He's probably not bathing for a
few days. So I don't want his hot neighbor
to see him while he's like this. So maybe it's maybe it's for the
best but she didn't have anything to do in this one.
She would have just had a scene where she looked concerned or
something. So go in wide eyed y'all knowing
there's no Terry trees? Yeah, and you know, I've
mentioned before that I've kind of skimmed ahead a little bit.
One episode that I meant I skimmed the least, so I'm still
not sure what it's about. But I did catch a few images of
it. And honestly, I think it might
also be one of the episodes I remember the least, if at all,
from any previous watches. But it is the next to last
episode of the season and it is Kathy centric.
But I just don't remember how or why.
And whether it's in a good way or bad way, I don't know.
But yeah, she will feature heavily in that episode.
So I've already implied that the case of the week is not that
compelling this week. So let me go ahead and elaborate
on that a little bit. I'm not sure it's the episodes
fault. It might be totally my fault
because I mean, I've already talked before in the past about
how I'm not always super into the the police drama and I think
it's even worse this week. But I think I also kind of
figured out why it's the first case that we've gotten in a
while, if not in the whole show, where the case, the weak is not
connected to the tanked knees. The victims are humans, the
perpetrator is human, the reasons for killing are totally
non alien related. I mean, this is a purely human
centric plot. And so I think that is the
reason, because that was always the redeeming quality in past
police subplots, is that even if I wasn't totally into the
mystery and the details of the investigation, it was still
related to the Tanktonese. And I'm watching for the
cultural and biological aspects of the Tanktonese.
And this time everything is just totally separate.
So I think that might have been what hurt it a little bit, yeah.
Like you said, it being almost entirely human is one thing and
I think it's fairly simple just because the the plot is supposed
to be the drama about Matt's feelings and maybe the drama
about Emily's feelings. So the killer is not he's not a
complicated conspiracy Klee song sung terrorist killer.
He's just ass serial killer. He's just like going around
murdering people in a row all over the country and finding him
is largely a matter of course for just plodding along until
you get to the end. So yes, if you're coming for the
intrigue and the twists and turns of a police episode, is it
will let you down a little bit there.
But there are other things that are benefits to that.
But yeah. Do you have a Yikes sites to add
to the end of our saltwater section?
You're already at the police spot.
Let me see. Nope.
No, not really. OK, then we may skip that
section and I'll just subsume it all here.
But so my thing, we've already mentioned Detective Zapeda when
Matt's old partner Miles showed up back in episode 16.
It's called partners. I like their playful banter.
I think I liked it more than Todd did.
I believed that these two characters had an emotional
connection. I don't know if the actors hung
out and like practiced acting like long time brothers and you
old son of a gun talk, but I bought all of it.
Like I just I really felt like they cared about each other and
stuff. So in this episode when Zapata
shows up and Matt tells us she's just made detective, she's
supposed to fill in for Matt while he flies to Hawaii.
The first half of her dialogue is just her and Matt roasting
each other. And unlike Miles, this whole
banter landed so flat with me. It's all on a par with like, dad
jokes. Like, I guess they'll let
anybody in here, you know? And it's not.
They're doing their job. But in my imagination, if Gary
Graham rehearsed with the actor that played Miles, I don't think
he and this actress practiced at all.
I think they brought their B game.
Like, show up, do your job, say your lines.
But it was all, you know, hey, come on.
You know, this loser over here and it's just, I don't know, is
very by the numbers, but it keeps going.
There's a lot of it. And it bleeds over, too.
So when Matt sees Lois, the lovely coroner that I've talked
about so much in last episodes, I'll try not to talk about too
much in this one. But she's this very pretty lady
who this time is outside at the crime scene.
He makes a comment about the ghouls aren't out in the daytime
to the coroner. He's teasing her because
apparently now they're all burning each other.
And it was this weird thing with the writers of the beginning.
They were just going for it. And I guess maybe it's to show
that Matt is more playful now, so that later on when he's got
the sunken cheeks and he's depressed and distraught and
obsessed, it balances or contrasts.
But I got him just being this weird cartoonist version of Matt
where he's just making fun of everybody and ribbing everybody.
And I swear, if you go back, he has never said a joke around
this corner once. Like not even a, you know, I
guess this guy who got lit on fire got a really bad sun tan or
something. He makes no jokes.
So yes, this was weird. I do think what we said before
that Zepeda could have been like, if she if it wasn't her,
it could have all of these parts.
This role could have been a stepping up moment for Lawrence
Hilton Jacobs if he was still around, You know, like he
disappears for a few episodes and it's like George is going to
leave. Matt's going to leave town.
Guess who's here? It's our old friend Dobbs.
You know, where have you been? They could have said he was like
transferred and we just never mentioned it.
And he's he's coming back over from this other station.
It would have been great. Now she does fine.
Once the ribbing stops, everybody calms down.
I just I missed Dobbs and I know he would have answered the phone
if you guys had called him at the production.
So if you hear this Freddy boom boom, Washington, I would have
fought to get you back. I just want you to.
Yeah, I don't know if that register as a negative with me.
I I mean, I guess it didn't because I didn't write it down
as a problem, but I do kind of see what you're saying because
when I think back to that scene, maybe it did just barely crossed
my mind. And like I said, not enough to
actually write it down as negative, but maybe I did
recognize it. And it's one of those things
where you could almost see the words on the page where, yeah,
somebody is trying to just fill time.
You know, it's like, OK, they need to walk from this end of
the roof to this other end of the roof, and we need to
introduce this new character. It made this new character
instant, instantly likable. Let's have the characters rib
each other a little bit for fun. So yeah, I can.
I can see what you mean. So let me see my last nitpick.
And whilst my last nitpick, it has a few little subparts to it
and I've kind of already implied it a little bit extremely minor
nitpick because I technically don't mind it.
But Matt is kind of shoehorned into that mukti booty ceremony
because there is not one discussion between him and
George about it. You know, it's not like George
ever says, oh, it's a shame you're you're going to Hawaii,
you're going to miss the mukti booty or I wish you could have
made it or, or we'll be thinking about you when we have it
without you or something like that.
So apparently there were either no plans to include him or there
would have been. But obviously Matt was
originally intended to be out in Hawaii, so he had an excuse for
not being there. And then all of a sudden when we
get to the end of the episode, he is there.
And if there was any discussion off screen about, you know,
George inviting him, well, like I said, it happened on screen,
which is fine. Again, I don't mind it because
it does make for a nice cap of the episode where Matt says I
will teach you about how special your father is.
And like you said, he gives the, the travel stone that George
gave to him. So that thing kind of comes full
circle and everything. And so it's very symbolic.
It's, it's touching. And so I, I technically don't
mind it, but at the same time it is kind of weird.
It's like, hey, he didn't have anything to do with this, and
now he does. And then the other little
nitpick that comes out of this is that of course, you know, the
way my mind works, when Matt does put this little stone in
the crib beside Avestna, the thought does cross my mind.
Oh, that's a choking hazard. And of course, there are three
adults standing around. 4 if you count Buck, who's pretty close.
And Emily's pretty responsible too.
There are five people who are standing right there, you know,
supervising this whole situation.
He does put it at the, like, head of the crib.
So Vestin would have to like reach behind her to get it.
And I'm sure even if she did mess with it and put it in her
mouth, you know, there are people who would be there to
take it out. And I'm sure they're not going
to just going to leave all this crap in her crib.
You know, they do it for the ceremony, then they're going to
take it out and put in, you know, a case or a bag or
something like that. And so it's not like they're
going to these objects are going to stay around to be choking
hazards. But you know, the, the way my
nitpicky mind works, I was like, oh, I hope she doesn't choke on
that. So.
That's a very good reaction, Todd.
I'm I'm proud of you for like looking out and being like,
that's wonderful. That's so sweet.
Matt, thank you so much. We're just going to take that
out of there and set it right over here.
That's good. It's good instincts.
I think about how many things he must do when he gets to join in
these things that are terribly rude, inappropriate, awkward,
not right, and they overlook it and don't tell him because
they're appreciative in general. So like, I was in a friend's
wedding and it was a Catholic ceremony and I got to go up and
do a reading, but I'm a Protestant, so I'm an outsider.
And there's a certain way that you have to walk up and a
certain way you have to approach and this thing you have to go
through and it's a wedding. So I'm I didn't do it right.
And I love these people. They're hilarious.
So I mentioned it, I think at the reception afterward, like I
forgot this part. And they were like, we all know
Nick, we all saw it practically ruins.
So it's it is, it's just when you feel loved, you can.
So what you're saying where it's like it's tacked on and Matt
kind of wanders in when he's like, you know, I'm going to put
something in here and I'm going to say something.
And they're all smiling like that.
So sweet. And I was thinking at the time,
it's like, you know, there's four things to say you are not
supposed to do, but the the Earther just wanders in and
thinks you just Chuck stuff in the crib and say something nice.
That's not what we're doing. Yeah.
But at the same time, I think this was, out of all the
examples of him being included in this stuff, I think this was
a time that it was the least awkward, the most poignant, the
most touching. He screwed up the least.
I mean, really, the only thing he did wrong is after they put
the stuff in the crib, they're supposed to cross their hands
one over the other. And he had it backwards.
Who cares? George kind of, like, did this
little nod to him. He's like, oh, yeah.
Then he flipped his hand the other way, and it was, it was no
big deal. So his hands were backwards.
Yeah. I doubt it was, you know,
offensive at all. And surely the Franciscos know
him well enough to know by now that they shouldn't invite him
if they don't want him to mess something up.
So even if he had done something wrong, you know, hey, don't
invite him then. But yeah, I think he did find
this time. I thought it was good.
I think, I think it they, they adore their silly little human
friend who comes into the rituals and stuff and he means
well. So yes, of course he just puts
things in the crib and says nice, I get it.
So one of mine is I like this version of Buck as being not
just a good Big Brother, which he was when they first found out
they were pregnant and he was kind of excited for the baby.
And he's been helping with a lot of these things along the way,
the conception ceremonies and stuff.
He just seemed to be a great supporter of the family.
I like all that and it's showing him having a positive
personality because the writers were not nice to Buck for the
1st 6 episodes. But in this episode, I found him
way too intense. So in my day job, I deal with
kids and trying to give them clear expectations and when they
don't know what to do, like help them and guide them, give them a
chance. No one seems to help Emily.
She's sort of the messing up in this episode, the flawed
character. But as someone who works with
kids, I'm watching them kind of let her down and set her up for
failure. Now, the gifts that you give her
are symbolic of what you are responsible for teaching her.
I should have the vessel of Celine ready for the gift
offerings. Did you each choose?
I picked tradition. I have chosen love.
I've chosen spirituality, which leaves the gift of honor to you.
Anne. Emily, do you understand your
responsibility? Yes.
Anne, this is tradition. Don't guess, no.
If you follow what the writings of Celine tell us to do, Vesna
will enjoy a good health. Don't worry, ABBA, we'll all
follow the rules. Remember, by sundown, on the
days leading up to the ceremony, everyone takes a turn putting a
gift of their love into the vessel of Celine.
It's very important. So she's essentially saying, how
do I do this thing? And they all keep telling her
things like listen to your heart.
I need more concrete instructions than this.
I I I, I, I get you. I get you.
But but specifically what? Do what?
And it's like you will know. Celine will tell you.
I don't know. They're not helping.
I can't even think of a gift to point the vessel for vessel and
smoky booty. Well, according to the writings
of Celine hem, listen to your hearts.
Then physicalize that emotion with something symbolic.
What does that? Mean.
Well, it means what it means. Thanks a lot, Buck.
Just remember, M sundown is your deadline.
But Buck, Buck is the worst because Buck is like, his face
falls, he gets deadly serious. He's like Emily, if you get this
wrong, it can spell disaster. So it's just.
Sucks. Like dude, you almost killed
somebody in the first episode. Yes.
So yeah, yeah, Buck is Buck is shot a man.
You don't have the high ground here.
He's like Emily. Don't think no, you know, and
it's just so so yes, that was I felt like they kind of let her
down on that. But yeah, the the good news is
there when she comes clean, they're very forgiving.
But if y'all don't know, like they're Albert is saying at the
beginning that giving these gifts in the right way at the
right time of day, day by day and order helps Celine to look
after the baby and give it health.
And then maybe Vesna gets really, really sick after Emily
doesn't do hers. So she's like, I'm killing the
baby when she tells them. Of course, George is like, you
know, it was really great of you to step up and be honest.
And Susan is like, you know, Emily, it's good to do the right
thing. And Buck is like, what did you
do? So yes, yes, that that struck A
chord with me. But it's all made right when she
gives away her leather promotional items from the mall.
But yes, that was. Good.
You only have one kind of going about.
Police work. OK, well, real quick before you
do that kind of dipping back into good stuff, when Vestna was
sick, they were trying to do some kind of weird home remedy
thing for her and they were boiling something and I don't
even remember what the ingredients were, but it was a
type of thing that is odd compared to what a humans would
would do, you know, homeopathically.
Well, there again, maybe homeopathy.
It is kind of odd. But anyway, I can't remember if
it was. I don't think it was wood chips
because I know that was like a element of pregnancy or
something. But they were either boiling
something or or trying to extract, you know, wax or syrup
or something out of something. I can't remember the details of
that. But it was another one of those
things that sounded very alien that they were trying to do to
help Vista out. I might have that written down
in the must bring it up at some point thing, but no, I don't
think I do. But yes, there are lots of
little throwaway lines where they will mention a substance or
something that is going to not do a human baby good at all or
it's just a completely foreign substance.
But yeah, they were definitely. She went out of her way to say
it was a home remedy, you know, like these herbs really should
do the trick. But yeah, Buck is in a panic.
He's just like he's the most. Buck is the most concerned
babysitter ever. And I don't know if I mention it
later, y'all, but this is the second time we've gotten a
really good look at the Vesna puppet.
And the Vesna puppet. It is a robot baby.
And I say that I mean, my wife found it to be haunting.
I'm looking at it appreciative as a fan of Howard the Duck or
the technology that they put into making a robot baby back in
1989. Ninety, because we did not have
the circuitry that was that good at that kind of thing.
So they made a robot babyface that could kind of do this cry
squint thing and it's good, but I wondered if it was like just a
puppet with strings inside you could pull.
So when Buck hands baby Vesna to Susan, I followed Susan's hands.
I just assumed. And the camera does kind of cut
away, but it cuts back and you can see Susan is holding it with
both hands visible for moments, and her little face still does
move. So this is a robot Vesna.
She's, she's a kooky little critter, but yeah, she's, she's
a robot face. I'm, I'm a big fan of at least
the technology. They do say lots of strange
stuff. You have any more negatives?
Nope, Nope. That's all for me.
Well, the last thing I want to mention is just And this could
fall under shoddy police work, but I can't really blame Sykes
for this. So in this episode, after it is
established that the killer is essentially coordinating murders
with the reporter to get better news coverage, telling the
reporter I'll be killing somebody outside the Lowe's at
about 7:00 PM. Matt, you know, hollowed eyes,
sunken cheeks is like, we need a trail.
Burns and Francisco and Captain Grazer are both, like, looking
at each other like, hey, man, no way.
That's not right. This was really hard for me
because police following everybody in these shows is like
standard operating procedure. They follow a person without
evidence or, or just cause. Like that's just their default.
I know off the top of my head of the the one with the dad taking
the boys to the terrible violent movies and stuff.
You've got them following people around, but they love following
people. So it's just like, yeah,
obviously follow Burns in a car 20 feet away.
I'm not sure that is illegal. I mean, you can say harassment,
but is there anything stopping me from getting in my car and
just spending the next three days following Todd half a block
away? You know, if he calls the cops,
I think they can knock on my window and say, hey, what are
you doing? And I can say I'm just driving,
what's the big deal? But until I like, I don't know,
leave a dead chicken outside his house or something, I don't
think they have anything on me. So yes, he does eventually
follow Burns and it leads him right to the killer.
So I'm like, yeah, guys, I got to say Matt had a point on this
one. Yes, that's it for me for the
saltwater. So now connecting the spot, I'll
be honest, I really only have one thing here and we've kind of
already mentioned it. And that is that Michelle Lamar
Richards makes her third of seven appearances as Doctor Lois
Allen. There are 6 from the series.
One of those is uncredited. And then there's also one TV
movie. I think it's the first TV movie.
Yeah, yeah. And, and I like her.
I know we, you've kind of described how we bounced around
from one corner to another. It's it's nice that we have a
little bit of consistency with her.
And I think she might be one of the nicest ones.
Yeah, she Jenny Gago, she was in we have a a David E Kelley
running theme in this show and she's been in Boston Public and
Ally Mcbeal. She was in West Wing, which Todd
likes the sci-fi series, The Invisible Man, Quantum Leap
X-Files, Inner Space, Max Headroom.
She's got a really good pedigree for fun fringe sci-fi shows.
And this is yeah, this is her first appearance, but like you
said, she returns quite a bit. The only real world analogies I
had or analogies to other shows is I've never seen the Jake
Gyllenhaal movie Nightcrawler where a slimeball reporter is
like out there filming horrible horrible things to just make his
career better. I'd assume that there are some
similarities, but I will say in the book Red Dragon, which is
really the first Hannibal Lecter story and it came out about 10
years before this, there is a similar slimeball reporter who
likewise is eventually taken prisoner by the serial killer
and Burns almost ends up the same way.
I don't want to spoil it. The movie, there's two movies
and I haven't seen the first one, but the movie I saw the
second one with Ed Norton is pretty good.
If you guys haven't seen it, Red Dragon.
But yeah, there were some very stark similarities where a
reporter is chasing down leads for a serial killer with no
interest in catching them and the serial killers like, hey,
something I like about you, buddy.
Well, it goes very differently in Red Dragon.
There is a big, big star in this episode with a pretty cool
credit. Do you know who I'm talking
about? Is it Tobin Bell?
It is Tobin Bell. Our our serial killer Brian
Knotts is Tobin Bell. And you guys, I mean, maybe you
know him from The West Wing, Stargate, The Flash Man and
Machine, but this is the guy from Saw.
He's in every Saw movie except Spiral.
He is the killer from the OG. So yeah, Tobin Bell.
And honestly, he has had a long career playing killers more
often than is healthy. He's got a creepy look about
him. Tobin Bell, a pretty cool name,
but yes. And, and fun fact listeners, he
also is an uncredited waiter in the background in Tootsie.
You can look it up. It's bizarre, like the scene at
the end of the movie where you realize the killer was there all
along. Tobin Bell, that was really
cool. When I saw his name come up on
the screen, I was like, really? I'm not a huge fan of horror
films but I like to know like my classics like it's literature.
Am I right that he's the kind of actor that often plays villains?
He he's played the serial killer.
I'm going to guess if even if you ignore saw 5 or 6 times,
like I think casting directors will see him come in and be
like, oh, that guy unsettles me. We'll yeah, we'll totally cast
him like Billy Drago or there's a few other actors that just
they have a sort of unsavory look about them.
Like, yeah, yeah, that that guy could take a man's life.
Yeah. So Tobin, that's his career.
He's done some other stuff, but that's the big one.
Robert Allen Brown is the foreman we mentioned who said
sorry about the the hard hats. He's in Misfits of Science,
various American hero Incredible Hulk which shares a lot of
production staff, and the quickly forgotten very short run
show Wizards and Warriors which I love for the 5 minutes it was
on when I was a kid. There's a character listed as
Dutchman who I'm guessing is just the booking desk officer
Ivory Ocean. He was in Sliders in the mask I
had already mentioned. Yeah I won't go back into the
corner but y'all need to look her up, she's great.
Emily's friend Cindy was in The X-Files, the weird science
series. Her name's Heather McComb.
She's in. Stay tuned to the John Ritter,
Pam Dauber jumping channels in Hell movie that I like very much
but is a largely forgotten thing.
And for you comic book fans, they tried to make an X-Men live
action TV show in 1996 called Generation X with the sort of B
team that they would do. And The CW years later.
And Heather McComb, Cindy, that little girl just a handful of
years later, played Jubilee, live action Jubilee.
That's, yeah, just some fun kooky trivia.
And that is it for connecting the spots.
Except unless the IMDIMDB is wrong, I think this is Jeff
Doucette's last appearance as slimeball reporter Burns.
So he got to kind of go out with a bang.
Yeah, because I'm pretty sure we've already mentioned how he's
no longer the opening credits, which makes it really unusual
that he's back for his most significant role, but he has to
come back as a guest star rather than as a Maine cast member.
Maine. Ish.
And in that book I mentioned every once while Alienation, the
unofficial companion, the writer of that book, points that help
to you were also talking about the movie.
What was it Red Dragon that is also mentioned in here?
So they also point out that connection and they mentioned
Manhunter. Did you, did you mention that?
That's that's the first version of Red Dragon that came out.
OK, yeah, so that was pointed out here too.
Yeah, I've heard that it's better, but yes, I won't go into
that. I think I can kind of skip ahead
here because our next section is the Albert Einstein Award and
we've mentioned a couple times this is a human centric episode.
I tried so hard, y'all. I mean, there were previous
episodes we've done where I got you the names of blood donors
that were never seen on screen. They just said their newcomer
names. I got nothing.
Nothing in this episode. Did you find anything?
No. And I'll be honest, I didn't try
that hard. It's just, I mean, when you
think about the content of the episode, it would be hard not
granted you have done pretty well finding like you said
things on computer screens and just drive by mentions of
somebody. But I didn't even think there
was that. So I confess I didn't try that
hard. But I mean I still come up
empty. Well, since I didn't find
anything, you were wise to not try too hard.
So that takes us to, well, I have to talk about this.
There's a few things that I've just got to bring up and I'm I'm
confident I have more of these than you do.
Burns, the slimeball reporter. I I just introduce him that way
every time He has an editor. And in this episode, apparently
he has a whole team of lawyers. But to save time and money, we
never actually see any of them. Even his office is empty.
He like that when they knock on his door, he yells at the door,
hey, tell him take a message. I'm bit.
We never see. So these are all.
This is a huge cast that is just off screen, just off camera by a
little bit, but yeah. So when when Matt went to his
place, I thought that that was an apartment.
So you're saying it was an office inside of a newspaper
building? Well, whoever knocks on the
door, he tells them to take a message.
So yeah, it's, I don't know. I feel like when he's being held
captive by the killer, he says he needs to go to his office.
And we know he has an editor. He writes, I have this.
He writes for the Los Angeles Tribune.
That's where his doctor death article is published.
Fun fact for y'all TV heads, Lou Grant for Mary Tyler Moore, when
he had his own show, he wrote for the fictional Los Angeles
Tribune. But I think it's just made-up.
They like to use that. It's made.
But yeah, he's got a paper. He's I think it was an office.
But you're right, it's hard to tell.
But again, I really was not paying super attention.
I was not exactly enthralled in that particular subplot.
So yeah, I think that I may have just missed it.
The thing that they're hanging Vestna in for her ceremony, we
see them assembling it at the beginning and we mentioned them
using words that are odd when they're asking if it's strong
enough for it to hold Vestna. And Buck, who's helping his dad
assemble it, says, I think this, Spore wrote, could hold a dozen
Zepno players carrying full knee Lexia.
Now. I did.
I'm sorry y'all, I wanted to but I did not go back and look at
the game episode and see if the weird instrument almost looking
gift that Thomas Edison gave George and Susan was a knee
Lexia. But I'm going to guess it wasn't
or a Zepno. It might have been.
I can't verify or deny that, but it would have been cool if it
was. But yeah, a spore rote is a
hanging cradle for this one ceremony that they have to rig
up. Buck, you better take her off
the oscillator. She's had plenty today.
So Vesta is in a bassinet that just gently jiggles you.
And we used to. We used to, I swear, not just
rockers. We used to have these things in
the States that he'd put a baby in and it would just kind of bop
them slowly, like just. But the oscillator was.
That was funny. Buck goes over to quickly take
her off the oscillator, but his dad's already getting Vesna out
of the oscillator. So Albert says that the Mukti
Booty is like a christening, except Mukti Booty not only
embraces the new life into the arms of Antarco and Celine, but
into the hearts of the family, too.
And he gestures, fists over his two hearts.
So when he says into the hearts of the family, too, it's double
plural. It's not like the family has
hearts amongst them, but each of the family members has hearts.
And he gestures toward his two hearts, which is just like this.
I don't know. Makes my brain itch.
But it's like you're their hearts.
Buck wears a peace symbol on his weird little vest thing he's
wearing. I don't know.
I don't know what that's about. I know that Uncle Moodri struck
me as a hippie, but it could just be a coincidence.
Ornamentation, Albert says. Now the gifts you give her are
symbolic of what you are responsible for teaching her.
Oh, and you already went through some of this.
But Buck said excitedly. I should have the vessel for
Celine ready for the gift offerings.
And, and he walks them through it all.
Albert does, but Buck is just super stoked about, I don't
know, I guess it's he's the one who's making the vessel, which
is a big weird Pier 21 vase, but like way too fat with a small
hole at the top. I mean, according to this, they
don't name it. George just says it's a
Tanktonese travel stone. Did you say?
I know you mentioned the idea of Burns giving Albert a cigarette
and being a jerk, but did you mention what happens to Albert?
He basically seizes up. Yeah, it's like he's it's like
he gets a horrible case of the shivers or shakes or he's having
a fit. He's like, I don't think I'm
going to have anymore hands it back to him, which is a great
way to get out of that conversation.
But yes, he does not does not deal well with that, which is
interesting. I mean, if, if you are menaced
by a newcomer, you could hypothetically blow smoke in
their face if you were a smoker and it might really mess with
them. And we found out earlier they've
never brought it up again, but they switched out all of their
fire extinguishers because the Tanktonese react badly to them.
So in a pinch, you could spray a newcomer with fire extinguisher
that hasn't been upgraded and they will probably pass right
out. Matt references other serial
killers with names in the media because Burns has named this
serial killer Doctor Death, and he mentions even one of yours,
George, you know, which I assume is the killer from the Night of
Screams. But I don't think they said this
name in the Night of Screams, but he said it's the the slag
town slaughterer. Do you remember that?
And George is like, I'll never forget.
And it occurred to me that they haven't really been using the
phrase slag town for several episodes.
A while ago, they started using the phrase little tanked on for
one area of town that I thought might be the same area, but
they've kind of stepped away from using the phrase slag town.
And even in this, it's like a they brought it in for the
catchy name of a killer. But yeah, I think the show has
kind of moved away from that. Yeah, yeah.
And I've definitely seen a progression of Matt.
In fact, this isn't necessarily directly related to this
episode, but just something I've noticed as we've watched the
series. We've got some of his back story
now, and so I can't help but wonder if Matt is technically
not racist exactly as much as maybe he is whenever he has had
a lack of sensitivity. Maybe it is coming from his
upbringing through either his father, his uncle, or both.
He did not have a good relationship with his dad and I
think his dad was an alcoholic. If I remember correctly, he
stayed with his uncle a whole lot and looked up to his uncle.
But nobody's perfect, so maybe this might have been a fault of
his uncle too. And so I think because really
Matt has gotten along with people of other ethnicities as
long as they were human. His mentor was black, his former
partner was black, he's gotten along with with Asians, Latinos.
He doesn't seem to mind anybody even when it comes with the
tanked knees. I mean, we saw in the very first
episode that he went out of his way to defend Emily, but that
was also the same episode where he was trying to tell take the
knees jokes, newcomer jokes and in using racial slurs and stuff
like that. And so I think deep down, it's
not so much that he has anything against anybody, it's just that
I think he's a little bit dumb at times when it comes to topics
of sensitivity and things you're not supposed to say.
Yeah. I mean, maybe some people might
disagree, but if there are such things as Shades of Grey to
racism or prejudice, I think he's somewhere in the middle.
And we've also had along the way an episode where, and if I
remember correctly, this is one of your favorite things about
that particular episode, if not the whole season, where George
kind of implies Matt, you're worth it.
So Matt or George kind of puts up with some of the stuff that
Matt says because he knows that Matt has the ability to change.
And we've definitely seen some of that progression.
So and, and I think the rest of the series has kind of followed
suit along with Matt. Yeah, Yeah, there is.
And I mean, we when, when it first started, I was like, oh,
my gosh, this is so much more about race than I even thought
it was. And it was for, I think, 5 or 6
episodes. And then it started to try a few
other things while still being heavily about, like, alien
culture. But occasionally, it'll dip its
toe back in. Yeah.
When George confirms to Zepeda that he put Sykes on the plane
for Hawaii. And this was when she was
calling him Spaceman. One of those times when he says,
yeah, I put him on the plane myself just an hour ago or
something. Before she goes to the door, she
says, Slima, you should be there by now, Slima.
And we first heard Slima in the episode of Little Lost Lamb.
George uses it with a lascivious tone in that episode to mean
like an easy woman. But I guess it could mean like
easy peasy or like cooperative or something.
Yeah. So the pain is interesting.
She's like, but she's turning into a cool word like that was a
breeze. Put him on the plane slim.
We see the we see our white gold sour milk billboard again in a
new spot for I think the third time.
So I really thought there was going to be a lot more
advertising in this show and there is not.
I was wrong. It's mostly mostly that same
billboard being moved around in a couple of jugs.
After Matt bugs the phone in Burns office, we listen in on a
call where Burns orders hit the usual.
You remember what his usual was taught.
No. It was a tuna sandwich and 1/5
of Scotch. Oh, OK, so. 1/5 of Scotch
listeners is a fair amount of Scotch if you don't know.
I know a fifth sounds small, but it's it is a large bottle.
Not the largest, but a large 1. So this actor is not playing
Burns as though he's drunk. Burns has problems if his usual
order is like a sandwich and 1/5 of Scotch.
Like he orders those in equal quantity.
Wow, that's that's staggering. Buck is casually sewing on the
stools for the ceremony. I thought that was really cool.
Matt stops George when they're about to go into the building
for the final showdown because he's been having flashbacks to
how he screwed up as a rookie years ago in his little beat top
outfit. And he had a standoff with the
very same killer. And the guy got away after
shooting Matt as he put his gun down in the standoff.
Well, one of the things he didn't do is he didn't call for
backup and he just rushes in to try and save the lady's life and
it all goes terribly wrong. So in this one, George is about
to get out of the car and Matt like, puts a hand on him.
Wait. And he picks up the radio and he
calls for backup. Let's go.
Wait, this is one way in 152 request backup the Old Harbor
Gazette building, 3275 Dock Point Rd. possible 155 P in
progress. Now let's go.
So it tells us the viewer at least he's learning his lesson
since last. Time.
And I mean, he wasn't calling for backup in the pilot movie.
He wasn't calling for backup. Oh, when they're going through
the dark building, we found out that tanked knees have better
vision in the dark and Matt can't see and George says take
my hand. And these two guys, they hold
hands for a while and it was adorable.
Yeah, and the more you list these things, the more it makes
me realize that even though I kind of had a problem with the
subplot this week, this is one of those episodes that really
brings together a lot of elements from previous episodes.
And, you know, the episode that came right before this, if I
remember correctly, was called Real Men.
And that was the one that had to do with bodybuilders and George
being pregnant and what really defines a real man and stuff
like that. And it ends with these two
completely straight men kind of having to hug with one of them
shirtless but but and not out of any, you know, sexual way.
It was because they were trying to keep the newborn baby warm.
And then we kind of continue in this episode with him holding
hands. But again, it's not in any kind
of affectionate way. It's basically one person
guiding the other. And so we're starting to see a
little bit of the breakdown of the, is it machismo or machismo?
But basically Matt is not acting as much of A caveman as he used
to either. He's he's starting to calm down
in those ways too. So not only is he shedding some
of his racism, prejudice, whatever you want to call it,
insensitivity, but he's also able to patch in a little bit to
a sensitive side or is female side or sensitive side, or at
the very least not not feel like every single thing has to be
masculine. Well, it is the way that it is
done in this shot, y'all. It's not a thing at all.
Like Matt doesn't look at the camera.
He doesn't like, shrug or roll his eyes or seem exasperated or
pause. It's nothing.
It is literally like, put your hand on my shoulder or
something. It means nothing.
It was just, I thought it was kind of adorable.
But we are American men are very, very trained to be
terrified of the hint of a lack of masculinity.
So it's it's just, it's sweet. But it's just, Yeah.
Like the show is doing these things that our modern culture
in the 20 twenties would just. A lot of people would be fanning
themselves at how. Ha, you're pushing some
narrative. But yes, it was just no, no, let
me get you through the dark because I can see and you can't.
Which brings me to them looking out for Jingle wire.
So it's like he says it as though that's a thing we all
know and there are. Sure enough, there was wire in
the place that was rigged to Jingle if you walk into it.
But I've never heard anybody say Jingle wire that was that's kind
of a big deal. I guess maybe it's a thing, or
maybe the writers just thought it was tripwires.
I've heard tripwires but. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm the same way. Because I was like, what does
Jingle wire mean? And I thought maybe it was like
they were worried it was rigged for a bomb or something.
But I guess the Jingle part of it means that it's something
that just makes noise to alert somebody that that somebody's
nearby. Yeah.
I think in most of the stories I've heard it, whether it sets
off a bomb or trips you or trips an alarm that jingles, it's
still just tripwire. But yeah, Jingle wire.
There you go. When Matt says he'll teach best
now, how great. Oh, yeah, I already said he puts
the stone in. So that I think that brings us
to the score. Oh no.
Oh, you got one? Oh yeah, you want to do the
thing? Yeah, So let me see, from the
Unofficial Companion to Alien Nation, there's a little bit of
behind the scenes information and two of these paragraphs I'll
just read straight from the book.
Coast Story editor Stephen Mitchell says it could have been
on any show. You didn't need the aliens
there, but it was something the network asked for.
Basically, they had just gotten a fresh batch of audience
research. And what usually happens then is
that they throw themselves into a panic and say our research
shows that Matt Sykes is underdeveloped and we need to
give him more emotional impact. That's basically what the whole
thing was about. It turned out very well, but it
would have been nice to have a little bit more alien aspects to
it. So even the Co story editor kind
of agrees with with my complaint.
But it's interesting to hear that it was that they did
audience research in the 1st place and that people were
saying they didn't get enough of Matt Sykes.
I'm like, I'm getting a little too much of Matt Sykes.
So. So it's interesting.
And they call him underdeveloped.
I thought he he was getting a pretty decent back story.
Yeah, we've had. Tons of Sykes development.
I think you could. It's recently occurred to me
that it's really the George Francisco Show, and Sykes is his
bumbling sidekick. But you could totally see the
whole show as Sykes is the slowly evolving hero over time
and George is a straight man, patiently dealing with him as he
comes to terms with stuff. But yeah, I mean, lots of
character development. I don't know.
Yeah, maybe they're the opposite of us and they don't like
cultural development and they're like, hey, one more story is
about the the cop. You make sense.
And then one more paragraph. This is shorter.
Eric Pierpoint's only comment regarding the segment is how
effectively Gary Graham portrays Sykes obsession quote.
He was just so raw in that episode.
I think it's one of his best episodes.
And then let me see, there was one other paragraph from Gary
Graham's comments, but it's longer, so I'm paraphrasing it.
Gary Graham said that the actors were asked about any scenarios
they wanted covered. They were asked us by the
writers and Gary Graham had an idea for Sykes to go deep
undercover and to become a renegade cop to catch a killer.
And while the details turned out different, this the in this
episode, the scenario was basically the gist of crossing
the line. So he wasn't exactly undercover,
but it was Gary Graham or Sykes kind of having his own side
obsession. And then lastly, he just simply
said that he loved this episode. Yeah.
And then I've got the weekly wheel of press kit and usually I
spin the wheel twice, but since this is our last appearance of
Jeff Doucette, I figured I would only do one roll at random.
And Jeff Doucette's his actor profile in the press kit is is
pretty short. It just says that as burns and
over anxious tabloid photographer Jeff Doucet adds a
splash of unscrupulous. Yeah, I think that's, I think
that's misspelled, unscrupulous humor to a storyline that
conveys a very serious message to viewers.
He'll do just about whatever it takes to get the the day's big
story. Although Jeff is usually
recognized for his talent as a comedian, he is also an
accomplished dramatic theatre actor.
He is performing over 50 productions nationwide,
including major roles in Gulls, Burren in the Trees and Getting
Out. He started his professional
career in comedy as a member of Chicago's well known Second City
Improvisation Theater touring company.
Jeff is best known as Harley Estrin, the unemployed,
eternally optimistic friend of Tom Poston and Bob Newhart in
Newhart, but he is familiar to TV audiences throughout dozens
of guest appearances. Honestly, there was a time in my
life when Newhart was like one of the greatest things that
existed, and I have a feeling when I go back and revisit that
again, again, it's just going to be great.
Yes, there are people like do set that we're just always solid
and fun to see everything. But yeah, I wouldn't have known
if you hadn't pointed it out. Most of the background
characters in New Heart, I've completely forgotten their names
or what they did. Yeah.
Yeah, I think I used to watch with a kid, but it's it's been a
long time. All right, so that was my
targeted one. Now just do the random one.
So this is from Michelle Scarabelli's profile in the
press kit as Susan Francisco. My hope, says Michelle, is to
develop and explore basic assumptions we have about gender
roles by seeing Earthlings through the eyes of someone
completely different. Susan Francisco is
compassionate, warm, and intellectually diverse.
Even though she's an alien, Susan possesses the same
maternal characteristics and instincts that any caring and
dedicated mother has. She cooperates and respects the
wishes of her husband George, says Michelle.
Susan feels strongly about integration and assimilation
within her new community, but her allegiance is first and
foremost with her children, Buck and Emily.
And then we see one paragraph second page as alien newcomer
Susan Francisco. Michelle surprisingly admits,
even though Susan has her problems, her large spotted
head, for example. I've never played such a normal
character before. Yeah.
So, yeah, that was that was a neat little entry there.
Yeah, she is definitely a really good mother.
And it's, it's, it's interesting to to hear her say that this is
her most normal role. Well, she this is the most I
guess Florence Henderson Brady Bunch mom episode for her.
Like I she's gotten to do some pretty kooky things and she's
been sitting on the couch eating wood chips and in this she is
there largely to smile and say that's OK and you know, your
father's right. That's just this was a very,
very middle of the road would for her.
But yeah, I love Michelle Scarabelli and I think this
show, just before we started doing the podcast, when we first
started, I just talked about that at its core, I remembered
from being a kid that I just love the Francisco's like even
Buck a little bit, I guess more so now.
But they're just an adorable family.
So she's she's just very pretty, but sweet as punch.
Are we ready to rate? Oh well, one other thing.
So without going into into any spoilery details, like I said,
I've kind of skimmed ahead and in fact, I play the episode
while we're discussing and it's autumn.
We've already passed this episode, it's on to the next
episode. But this reminds me that next
week's episode is also going to be very matte centric.
So I can't help but wonder if this is another result of those
audience surveys saying that they weren't getting enough of
Matt because he's basically got 2 back-to-back episodes that
focus on him. Yeah, yeah.
Well, Eric Pierpoint could act his way out of a box.
So, you know, they can give him whatever they want to give him.
He'll still shine, but yeah. Yeah, yeah.
We will see that's I'm going into all of these cold even if I
have some time and I'm like, I'll go ahead.
I'm prepped on this week. I'll take a look at next week.
I want to be able to come to you guys and talk about an episode
balancing Todd by having no clue what happened.
So I am going in completely blind.
And when I read you guys the the summary for the next week, I'm
sort of like, gosh, I wonder what that means.
I'm slow too, so it took me a long time to figure out why 3 to
tango is called 3 to tango. I really thought it was just
about dancing. Most.
Yeah, Good, good, good. Looking forward to next week.
So you want to go 1st 04 scores? Sure.
Yeah, So mine might be kind of obvious.
I'm giving this one AB minus and part of me almost wonders if I
should bump it up to AB after our discussion because like like
I said, this does have a lot of elements of past episodes.
Our first appearance is to pay that.
There is a lot of good stuff in here.
I think the thing that does drag it down is the the serial killer
subplot, which like I said isn't necessarily done badly.
It's just I'm not interested. So it might be my own fault, but
I feel like I've seen this episode a couple times.
Like I think I watched it a few weeks ago, had to watch it again
for this recording, and I feel like I'm feeling the same way
about that subplot both times that I'm kind of going into it
not caring, but then at the same time the episode doesn't do a
great job of making me care. So for now I'm going to keep my
B minus. Yeah, I always give a Star Trek
alumni score or an STA. This episode had a base for with
Sykes, Mr. and Misses Francisco and Grazer.
Like most of the episodes. This is our second four in two
weeks in a row. Listeners, the network may shut
us down. Y'all, we better have some
serious alums next week to keep the lights on.
So remember, your likes and follows are what makes the
difference. We are.
We're at a rock bottom here with Star Trek alumni showing up in
the show. Also, I rate these episodes on a
watch skip basis because I tend to want to see something
straight through every episode. I'm a purist, I don't want to
miss anything but I know that in modern times y'all have a lot to
watch so you may want to see. I know I even really need to see
this one. You do not have to watch this
episode. There's nothing wrong with it.
I enjoyed it but it's more of what we've already seen.
I like that it connected to previously established lore like
A Night of screams, Little Lost Lamb 15 with Wanda.
And this is the first time you're seeing Zepeda, which they
literally introduce her like she's not just at the station
now, but she has an intro and everything.
So that's that's valuable because she's going to be around
a lot. But if you are jumping around, I
think you can jump this one. Interesting.
Yeah, I don't obviously skip very often, but yeah, this was,
I don't think anything crucial happened.
I mean, they started with Vesna, they ended with Vesna.
Everybody loves each other, Everybody still loves each
other. Zepeda is the big difference.
So I think now that brings us about to the end of our show.
Join us next time coming up on alienating ourselves as we
explore episode 19, Rebirth. When Sykes comes back after
being pronounced dead, what? He becomes obsessed with finding
the newcomer he believes healed him.
I mean, I would be, too. I think everybody would be
looking for the dude that resurrected somebody.
Yeah. So TuneIn.
To not only find out about Matt's apparent near death
experience, which I didn't know about, but also to find out why
George and the others don't think it's a big deal.
To track down the person. And I guess TuneIn.
To see if Matt finds out who the mysterious alien is.
But we all know he'll find out. So spoiler alert, he finds out
all that and more. Next time on alienating
ourselves, I continue to be Nick.
I'm Todd. Thank you for listening to us,
especially if you're on vacation or busy trying to heal your baby
with homeopathic medicine. We'd love to see some reviews
wherever you listen to podcasts. If you love us, like us, or find
us slightly less annoying than an incessant photojournalist who
never goes away, please give us five stars.
If you'd rather listen to the crazed, dogmatic manifesto of a
serial killer than listen to us, please give us four stars.
If you give us three stars or lower, you will never go on
vacation again. Ever, as always, may all your
milk be as fresh or as sour as you prefer it to be.
And whether you're an adult, a teen, a child or a newborn, may
you also be blessed with special people in your life helping you
with tradition, love, spirituality and or honor.
Have a great week. And good night, everybody.
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