Beacon 23: S2-E4–6 – A tale of two cliffhangers

[00:00:00] Welcome back to Wool-Shift Beacon. It's time to break down episodes four through six of season two of Beacon 23, this space psychology sci-fi where every episode is a bottle episode. I'm your host Alicia and I'm joined as always by Luke the Learned. How goes academic life, Luke?

[00:00:47] Oh, academic life, it goes, Alicia. It goes and it goes and it just keeps going.

[00:00:52] Keeps going. I hope we can give a nice fun distraction pondering these last three episodes of Beacon 23. We're gonna be giving full spoilers for Beacon 23 through the three episodes we're talking about today. I have read the book that this show is inspired by, Luke's book Innocent as we do on this podcast, but actually I don't think I'm going to bring up the book at all this time other than the mention of a trolley problem, which I've said is a big theme in the book, though not by that name. This

[00:01:22] batch of episodes has otherwise basically no overlap with the source. So just know there's a book you can read it. It's good. But Luke, I think you like me not having any way to use my book knowledge to predict the show.

[00:01:36] Yeah, I like being on a level playing field with you. It's an interesting experience. I've got to say I agree with you on three of these episodes being bottle episodes. They are remarkably self contained.

[00:01:51] Yeah, I mean, I guess the show if you think about it, it kind of really is like that's the nature of the show. They're always in Beacon 23 or now. Now we real last season I said I wanted to see other Beacons this season. We are seeing a couple other Beacons.

[00:02:05] We've seen at least two so far.

[00:02:06] Yeah, exactly. Well, as usual today, we're going to talk through these three episodes one at a time and then check in with the community to see how all of you are feeling about this middle meat of the second season sandwich. Let's start with our hot takes on episodes four through six of season two. Luke, what do you think of these episodes overall?

[00:02:26] I am really torn about these episodes because individually, I like them and I feel like I'm learning a lot about the world and there's a lot of world building and I'm feeling like I know more about the characters.

[00:02:41] And yeah, there's a lot of sort of development sideways, but not a lot of forward momentum. Like if you could assure me Alicia now that we're going to get season three of Beacon 23 and season four of Beacon 23. I would really like these episodes.

[00:02:59] But I don't feel like the plot, the main plot in terms of what's the artifact? What's Halen's relationship to the artifacts?

[00:03:08] Right.

[00:03:09] What does what does Alif want with the artifact? What does I don't feel like any of these questions are sort of move forward and like if I knew there was going to be another season after this that wouldn't bother me so much.

[00:03:22] But I just I have a horrible feeling that like the last two episodes might feel kind of rushed because we don't seem to be making a lot of progress outwards and sideways, but not much forward progress.

[00:03:39] Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, we're building out sideways when we might not have the time to do that. And for me also these episodes were a sort of a mixed bag.

[00:03:53] There were elements of each that I really liked and elements of each that I was a bit unsure of.

[00:03:59] I also I do see that they are that there's a lot of overlapping ideas and themes that I think it's possible to bring this stuff together in two episodes.

[00:04:09] So I'm withholding my judgment on the season as a whole until I see how it ends.

[00:04:15] By the way, on that note, Glenn Matsara, he gave an interview to Screen Rant and just quoting him word for word here.

[00:04:23] He said, as of now, Glenn Matsara, by the way, is one of the co showrunners of this season.

[00:04:29] And he said, as of now, season three has not been picked up, but I do have a plan for it.

[00:04:34] I'm talking to the studio.

[00:04:35] I'm talking to MGM Plus.

[00:04:37] The ending of season two is designed to be satisfying because I never take anything for granted.

[00:04:42] If we end with season two, I hope it's a satisfying story.

[00:04:46] But there's also a trail leading forward to season three and more.

[00:04:49] I do have an idea in mind that I'm very excited about something I haven't seen before that builds on what we have and would be a lot of fun.

[00:04:56] Shooting two seasons back to back is tough, though.

[00:05:00] People don't really do that anymore.

[00:05:01] So I think we've learned where the show is, what fans are excited about and what excites us as creators.

[00:05:07] Now I'm taking all of that energy and putting it into season three.

[00:05:10] So I hope we get the opportunity to tell that story.

[00:05:13] How does that make you feel?

[00:05:14] Yeah, I mean, I'd like to see season three because I think there's a lot.

[00:05:19] I think there's more than enough story to go for another season.

[00:05:24] I just hope we get these last two episodes are, you know, are like Glenn Matsara says, are satisfying.

[00:05:31] I mean, if I can just go off a slight tangent here.

[00:05:34] Ever since the last season of Game of Thrones, I've always this.

[00:05:39] I think this might be a classic season eight Game of Thrones problem.

[00:05:43] There is nothing wrong with where the last season of Game of Thrones ended up.

[00:05:47] We've just got there in a way that was really fast and abrupt and didn't really.

[00:05:56] Give you time to get where it was going in a satisfying, completely logical way.

[00:06:02] Yeah, I mean, I can't say because it does, like I said, it does seem like they are overlapping ideas.

[00:06:09] So it could be some the last two episodes just stitch it up neatly.

[00:06:14] But of course, everyone's nervous after we got two back to back cliffhangers on completely different stories.

[00:06:22] Periods of timeline.

[00:06:24] Yeah. So it's OK.

[00:06:26] Well, so you have to resolve both of those.

[00:06:28] Can you do that in one episode or does each get an episode?

[00:06:30] And yeah, yeah.

[00:06:32] Questions, questions. How would you rank these three episodes?

[00:06:37] I would go five, four, six.

[00:06:43] OK. I would go.

[00:06:47] Hmm. I would go four, six, five, I think.

[00:06:51] OK. Yeah.

[00:06:54] By the way, random fact I learned of note for this show is apparently Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[00:07:01] And it's an indicator of the cardinality of infinities, apparently.

[00:07:06] So I guess it's fitting.

[00:07:09] Another fun fact, Ellen Wong plays the clarinet, the actress who plays Iris.

[00:07:13] So that's why I was playing the clarinet.

[00:07:16] And stuff like that happened.

[00:07:18] And also, I'd like to think in the audition, they go, have you got any talents?

[00:07:22] We'd rather than having a written in to play the clarinet.

[00:07:26] It's like, yeah, I'd like to have a player musical instrument.

[00:07:28] You play it. Yeah, maybe.

[00:07:31] By the way, people who are curious who want weekly breakdowns and or want to hear a great interview with the composer of the show,

[00:07:39] check out the pod three hosts in a beacon.

[00:07:42] No affiliation, but they had a good interview with the show's composer.

[00:07:45] And that's how I learned the clarinet fact.

[00:07:48] And by the way, I've also renamed the new game.

[00:07:52] So I'm calling it now Jail Join or Jettison.

[00:07:57] So which of these three characters would you lock up?

[00:08:00] Which would you take as a space companion and which would you send out the airlock without a suit?

[00:08:05] So we've got Sarah and the soldier, Jocko, the beacon keeper or Dostoe, the murderous Sabeer and Stowe away.

[00:08:14] Yeah, there's not a lot of people I'd want to take as a companion.

[00:08:18] You know, you got it. You're you're you're journeying through space with one of them.

[00:08:24] In that case, I'm going to take the beacon keeper as a companion because he seems to have lived an interesting life and got a useful set of skills at least.

[00:08:34] Yeah.

[00:08:36] Sarah and the soldier I'm putting straight out the airlock.

[00:08:40] And also he might be rehabilitated, you think?

[00:08:43] I think it's more likely that he's rehabilitated than Sarah and the soldier.

[00:08:47] Than Sarah and the soldier?

[00:08:49] Yeah, I don't know. But that's like so what's worse, cowardice or, you know, vengeful rage?

[00:08:56] Like, yeah, I don't I'm so yeah, Jocko definitely the companion.

[00:09:03] I might flip it the other way, but no, I'm going to go with you.

[00:09:06] I'm going to do Dostoe can be locked up and let's see if we can give him.

[00:09:12] He was a snitch though. Luke, he was a snitch.

[00:09:15] No, I'm going the other way.

[00:09:17] Jocko Dostoe gets thrown out the airlock.

[00:09:20] Yeah. So Alicia, you're very much a believer in snitches get stitches.

[00:09:24] In this case, I don't yeah, I mean, we'll get into his whole story, but it seemed like he went a little further.

[00:09:30] I have questions like he brought the army there and then he's murdering people like he went too far.

[00:09:37] All right. Well, we've got three episodes to discuss and the first two are especially dense.

[00:09:43] So let's hop right in right after a quick break.

[00:09:47] Research requests granted spoilers unlocked.

[00:09:51] OK, I hope you're caught up with the season through episode six or are prepared to find out the story this way because we're about to dive in with episode four birth with an E B-E-R-T-H.

[00:10:06] Although I have to say Brian8063 in the Discord, he said after this episode ends with the guy being pulled out of the goo portal, he said now we know why the episode is called birth.

[00:10:18] It's a word with two meanings.

[00:10:24] Yeah, I mean, I guess it's also because the ship pulls up on the birth.

[00:10:28] Yeah.

[00:10:29] The mystery ship. But this episode was written by co show runner Joy Blake and directed by Erskine Ford, who previously was a second unit or assistant director and shows like the expanse suits and 12 monkeys.

[00:10:43] So we got first a recap, which reminds us that anger is Harmony's primary emotion or that's what Dev says.

[00:10:51] Do you think that could be a projection of Devs now that we got to know Dev more?

[00:10:57] I mean, we're going to have a lot more to say about Dev later on.

[00:11:02] But I didn't after episode three, that didn't occur to me.

[00:11:08] But certainly having watched these three episodes, yeah, I have to question whether that is a bit of projection on Dev's part.

[00:11:16] Yeah. Yeah, Dev is very seems like a very different character in this episode now that Dev's free of the QTA HQ.

[00:11:25] But is she? Is she?

[00:11:27] He, I believe.

[00:11:29] Is it? Okay.

[00:11:30] They say he in the episode, although I believe the actor goes by they.

[00:11:34] Okay.

[00:11:35] First, yeah, I have to go on a slight little tangent.

[00:11:38] We have we're again reminded that Harmony's in her new non QTA quote unquote totem.

[00:11:44] And so I tried looking up if there's a definition for totem being used in this sense and like technology.

[00:11:52] And I found out something else interesting, which not necessarily relevant to the show, but personally relevant.

[00:11:58] So apparently the word totem comes from an Ojibwe word, Nindodem.

[00:12:04] And the reason I get excited about that is Ojibwe is the parent language of Potawatomi, which is the language of my tribe.

[00:12:11] So I just I didn't realize that totem was specifically a so together collectively, the people are called the Anishinaabe or Anishinaabe in Potawatomi.

[00:12:22] So I didn't realize totem was an Anishinaabe word.

[00:12:25] So that's just a cool little fun fact I learned personally.

[00:12:28] More influence on English than you think.

[00:12:30] And then when I was looking up like, OK, so what is the science or technology bent on this?

[00:12:35] There is like a niche media player.

[00:12:38] There's it's a name of an experiment at CERN at the Large Hadron Collider, but nothing that seems relevant to this.

[00:12:47] It's kind of electronic circuit, like just all these random things that don't seem to make sense in this context.

[00:12:55] So I guess they really do just mean it as literal definition, which is a totem is a spirit being sacred object or symbol

[00:13:02] that serves as an emblem of a group of people such as a family, clan, lineage or tribe, such as the Anishinaabe clan system.

[00:13:09] So I guess maybe the idea, the fact that the fact that Dev is inserting himself into Harmony's totem, like trying to insert himself into Harmony's family.

[00:13:26] Yeah, I mean, I've got to say I was just thinking of inception a lot.

[00:13:30] I was going, I was going with way to die and that spinning top thing.

[00:13:34] And did it ever stop spinning?

[00:13:37] Because they were totems.

[00:13:40] Yeah, I mean, I think Dev is sort of the MVP of this episode because I have like multiple questions.

[00:13:49] OK.

[00:13:50] How did she escape from the QTA? Has she escaped from the QTA?

[00:13:55] Well, let's go with either he or they.

[00:13:57] OK, he. Yeah, because I think you're right.

[00:14:00] I think the character is meant to be.

[00:14:03] Yeah. So has he escaped from the QTA?

[00:14:07] How did he escape from the QTA?

[00:14:10] Why has he latched onto this particular AI?

[00:14:15] Harmony would have had the chance to presumably do this before now if he wanted to escape.

[00:14:22] Right.

[00:14:23] What is it about Beacon 23 that sort of attracts lost souls?

[00:14:30] Because every single character that has washed up there, not just in this season, but every single character we've ever seen,

[00:14:38] like have any interaction with Beacon 23 has been lost in some way.

[00:14:43] Yeah. I mean, is this with the artifact is somehow drawing them all there or?

[00:14:48] Yeah. And it was just me or was there an element of like sexual tension between Dev and Bolling?

[00:14:56] I mean, yes. Like Dev did not take this sexual harassment training before leaving headquarters.

[00:15:03] But it's like you can't even touch the humans, can you?

[00:15:07] Yeah. So that was a bit weird.

[00:15:10] And yeah, like how Harmony and Dev's relationship plays out is going to be really interesting.

[00:15:18] And I hope we have time to sort of properly work through that.

[00:15:22] Yeah. I mean, I'm guessing that has to be one of the focuses of the last two episodes because they've made it a big deal

[00:15:27] and they seem to really be positioning Harmony more in the center of the story, which I appreciate. I like Harmony.

[00:15:32] Yeah.

[00:15:33] So yeah, speaking of Harmony, so before we get to the Dev stuff, the episode picks up right from when they're asking,

[00:15:39] when Iris and Halen are asking Harmony what's in there.

[00:15:43] So again, Harmony, Natasha Mumba, Iris played by Ellen Wong and Halen played by Stephen James.

[00:15:50] So we pick up from the cliffhanger with banging heard on the beacon and Harmony detects a threat to beacon life support systems.

[00:16:00] And what Harmony detects is, quote unquote, extreme thermal gradients and a localized adiabatic density reading,

[00:16:08] which the wording makes sense. It's basically just saying like it got real cold and densely wet in there.

[00:16:15] But I have to wonder, one of the things I have with these episodes is sometimes it feels like they're making things intentionally dense.

[00:16:22] Yeah, I've got to say I 100% agree with that.

[00:16:26] I do have a thing of using like five words when one would do.

[00:16:30] Right. And sometimes it's in some cases, it feels a little forced.

[00:16:34] We'll talk about a little more, but that's just one case where I'm like, OK, you could, I guess in one sense,

[00:16:39] it makes sense because they're all technical people.

[00:16:41] But that's why often shows have the character who's like, derp, I don't know science language, just talk like a human.

[00:16:47] And that should be Halen, by the way, because he's the soldier character.

[00:16:52] Iris says Iris totally undermines Harmony's like a harmony in recovery.

[00:16:57] She could be wrong and Harmony snaps back. My audio capabilities are pristine.

[00:17:03] Bitch. Yeah, that's just something about the way Natasha Mumba delivers that line that you can almost hear the bitch slap at the end.

[00:17:11] Yeah, exactly. And then Iris is still at this point worried about B-174,

[00:17:16] but she seems to forget about a real fast after this episode.

[00:17:19] But I guess, you know, moving on. Yeah.

[00:17:23] Iris's ship is called the Rinka, by the way.

[00:17:27] And it's funny because Rinka is a small island in Indonesia and Halen ship is also referencing a place in Indonesia.

[00:17:34] So the Amboina. But yeah, I don't know.

[00:17:38] Yeah, they seem to. I stopped looking up the with the references to all the ships names are because often the random places like one

[00:17:45] Kimalus is finished for sparkling glitter radiance.

[00:17:48] So I know just a bunch of random names they seem to choose, which is fine.

[00:17:52] Iris gives the keys to her ship to Halen.

[00:17:55] And then she's like, I guess she's going to go.

[00:17:58] She has this image she's going to go on to B-174 ship and she's going to save him from whatever is wrong.

[00:18:05] And then they're going to sail off into the there's no sunset because they're in space, but they sail off into the galaxy dust.

[00:18:13] But Halen goes with her. He's like, no, come on.

[00:18:16] This isn't I'm not letting you do this by yourself.

[00:18:19] And they find that the air bridge from the ship has been engaged.

[00:18:23] So something engaged it. But there's no sight of anyone, no sign of anyone leaving the craft.

[00:18:30] Do we think based on what we learned this episode that B-174 has joined the artifact in another dimension?

[00:18:38] Because it seems like the artifact blew up and now has like morphed into a pocket universe or something.

[00:18:44] Or maybe it always was. Yeah, I'm kind of I'm kind of of the opinion.

[00:18:49] It probably always was a pocket universe and the the rocky and the other rocks.

[00:18:58] I get that they were sort of like literally just debris from the pocket universe that whatever lives there sort of inhabited

[00:19:06] and used to cross whatever boundary there are between universes.

[00:19:11] Right. Well, that's my working hypothesis anyway.

[00:19:15] Until I see something different to disprove it. Fair.

[00:19:18] Yeah, I mean, it seems maybe because it looks like when you saw the artifact as a whole and it was like shimmering and emitting light,

[00:19:27] they talk about a black hole being behind this.

[00:19:30] I think that theoretically on the other end of a black hole is a white hole.

[00:19:34] So I would imagine when they're spitting out ships and stuff that should be coming out of a white hole because that's the end stuff theoretically comes out of.

[00:19:42] And but the the artifacts look more like a white hole.

[00:19:47] I don't know. We'll see if they clarify.

[00:19:49] It seems like they are playing a little fast and loose with the science sometimes, which is fine, which is fine.

[00:19:54] Alicia, stop.

[00:19:56] So on the ship, they find this blob of cold like admitting a dry ice type effect of steam and Halen's like, don't touch that while Iris immediately pokes it.

[00:20:07] And it starts kind of the mist starts chasing them back into the beacon and they close the door and lock the whole level down.

[00:20:13] But it's clearly not enough because I'm saying this I'm saying this as a compliment.

[00:20:18] I'm saying the best possible way.

[00:20:21] I got really strong Doctor Who vibes.

[00:20:23] OK, OK.

[00:20:25] Squidgey alien, we touch you. Run down corridors.

[00:20:31] Yeah, no, that's fair.

[00:20:33] Yeah. And as Halen comes and finds Iris opening up the ship's black box and he gives her potassium iodide because and he's like it's preventative.

[00:20:44] And so it's supposed to prevent radiation sickness.

[00:20:47] I did a whole rant on potassium iodide being used wrongly and secret invasion and a pot in the lorehounds.

[00:20:54] I remember that.

[00:20:57] But this is no secret invasion.

[00:20:59] They're they're much closer here.

[00:21:01] OK, good.

[00:21:03] Maybe they listened to the podcast.

[00:21:05] Maybe maybe they actually like just read about potassium iodide.

[00:21:12] Anyway, secret invasion was a disaster.

[00:21:14] That's not a hot take.

[00:21:17] But yeah, so Halen he wants to cut the ship loose B 174 ship.

[00:21:21] But Iris says they need to investigate more first.

[00:21:24] Clearly she's not ready to let go.

[00:21:26] Halen wants to let ISA handle the investigation.

[00:21:28] But Iris reminds him QTA seems to be speaking for ISA now.

[00:21:32] I think they've compromised the whole network, she says.

[00:21:35] And Iris tells Halen he's free to go.

[00:21:38] They keep bickering.

[00:21:39] He calls her B 67 instead of her name.

[00:21:42] And she like the look on her face like that was ouch.

[00:21:45] Is it you want to be disinim professional?

[00:21:48] Yeah.

[00:21:49] Then he tells her to check the flight path and storms out.

[00:21:52] Meanwhile, Dev played by Noah Lemana shows up inside Harmony's token and says Harmony is afraid of him.

[00:22:00] It seems to relish that says Harmony can't kill him this time.

[00:22:04] Can't even figure out how he got in.

[00:22:07] So they wouldn't taunt us with that if they weren't going to tell us, I would guess.

[00:22:12] Yeah, I think that I think they've clearly got a plan for Dev and how he got there.

[00:22:18] Yeah.

[00:22:19] And Dev says there's hardly any difference between Harmony and the meat puppets upstairs.

[00:22:24] I'm starting to wonder if we should read into these comments more like if there's going to be a twist that reveals there really is more humanity to quote unquote AI like Harmony.

[00:22:35] Like maybe she's more like Aleph than actual AI, you know, more born of used to be human like Aleph's daughter still putting it out there.

[00:22:46] Yeah, like again, I wouldn't mind that as an endpoint.

[00:22:51] But I think to get there to get there in two episodes is maybe a bit of a stretch.

[00:22:56] I mean, I think they've laid the groundwork so they can just like reveal it and be like, oh, well, yeah.

[00:23:04] That's my opinion. We'll see.

[00:23:06] We'll see. But we have we learn that Dev is looking for an imprint, thinks it's unfair that Harmony got to very bitchy about that.

[00:23:14] Wines about that a lot.

[00:23:16] And it seems like he came here, followed Harmony back to the beacon as a way to escape from Aleph.

[00:23:23] Then Dev goes around trying to seduce everyone this episode.

[00:23:27] Yeah, I'm not sure about that.

[00:23:29] I'm not sure he really escaped from Aleph.

[00:23:31] Yeah, I think he may be there as for want of a better word a spy.

[00:23:37] I think he may still be running the team.

[00:23:41] This may still just be another variation on the tests they were running with Harmony in episode three.

[00:23:49] Maybe I'm overestimating Aleph, but it doesn't strike me as he as he being the kind of AI that would allow many, many escapes and much to go on.

[00:24:01] He didn't know about particularly.

[00:24:05] I don't know. It's we've caught him several times not seeing something happen or not being like it seems like his awareness does have to be focused somewhere to see.

[00:24:16] But I keep coming back to Dev and Harmony being as Aleph put, begat from him.

[00:24:24] I just I question the extent to which they have.

[00:24:34] I question the extent to which they in the final analysis have free will.

[00:24:39] OK, OK.

[00:24:41] I'm sure they do most of the time.

[00:24:44] But like, I do just wonder if there's a switch, a metaphorical switch that Aleph can flip.

[00:24:53] That would basically force Harmony and Dev to tow the QTA line at the end of the day.

[00:25:00] OK, hmm. So yeah, you still OK.

[00:25:03] That's what I mean. That's what you mean by you don't think they're free. You think, oh, I hope not.

[00:25:10] So Haleem replays his last interaction with Aleph from, you know, that was taken by surveillance.

[00:25:16] And this reminds us that Haleem's meant to be stuck on the beacon, though Aleph didn't foresee Iris showing up or Harmony imprinting.

[00:25:24] Or did he? Luke, you still have those theories.

[00:25:28] I think that he didn't know. But I don't know.

[00:25:30] But it's still the ship. Iris, his ship doesn't work.

[00:25:35] So either he shut that down or somebody shut off the ship somehow or there's some some like code that's I don't know.

[00:25:48] Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe I've been listening to the new Star Wars podcast that you've been doing this week and the incident that happened.

[00:25:54] I got the Millennium Falcon going in not going into hyperdrive.

[00:25:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:26:03] Yeah, I that does actually that is a good support for your theory that you know who what who or what shut this down, shut down the ship.

[00:26:14] Yeah. So Harmony tells Haleen the cold is taking over the beacon and ice crystals are forming and Haleen seems he wants to leave.

[00:26:22] But obviously that's not going to work out.

[00:26:25] And Harmony also tells him about the imprint and Haleen's response.

[00:26:31] I consider you a friend.

[00:26:36] It seems like just like a lot of the stuff with the AI is metaphors for relations, relationships, you know?

[00:26:43] Yeah. Like the way they talk about Harmony and Aster, like they just kind of have a relationship and the way Dev is like the desperate one who's just like if I just find somebody to love me, I'll be worth something.

[00:26:56] I don't know. Yeah, it seems like there's something the writers are working out there.

[00:27:01] Yeah.

[00:27:04] And yeah, Haleen says Aleph will use you to track me down. But Haleen is like perfectly fine leaving Harmony behind.

[00:27:12] He's still got his pet rock Rocky that he pulls out and you know he's fondling Rocky thing.

[00:27:18] And then he's he's like, well, you know what? I'm just going to leave it behind. So he wants to leave Harmony and Rocky and Iris behind for Aleph to deal with, which is like dick move Haleen.

[00:27:31] So particularly Iris, like dude, she abandoned a perfectly comfortable life in her own beacon to come and try and rescue.

[00:27:39] You can't just leave, like you can't leave any of them there, but particularly you can't leave Iris.

[00:27:46] Iris though, she's she rightfully gets called out by Dev later in the episode as a fixer.

[00:27:52] She just wants to fix things. And right now she's done her flight path analysis and she says something happened in Nebula 8, age 76 that spilled into the FTL path.

[00:28:04] And she says Jung would say Iris, the only probability here is that you're incorrect.

[00:28:11] And Harmony is like harsh man. She says lack of charm is Jung's charm.

[00:28:17] This kind of makes me want to see more of Jung. I wonder, they keep bringing her up. I wonder if Jung's going to like swing in and rescue Iris at the end somehow.

[00:28:27] Yeah, like if they do an expanded universe of beacon 23, I just want to meet as many AIs as possible.

[00:28:34] I like the fact that they all seem to have their own like character and personality.

[00:28:40] Yeah, no, I like that too. I like the other this this is a show that posits that AI are people too.

[00:28:48] So they're looking at the flight path and they see that B174 went past dozens of keepers, didn't hail any of them for help though there's a Mayday call recorded in the audio about losing cabin pressure, dropping out of FTL, which is again like the fast travel lanes, I think.

[00:29:05] And after that, Dev and Harmony go into their like secret AI space.

[00:29:10] And Dev calls Harmony out for not sharing the entire file.

[00:29:14] And Harmony says I shared what I thought was pertinent, but it turns out what's missing is he said this is it. This is it. I can see it now. It wants me to sail on through.

[00:29:24] So this sounds like the artifact is beckoning to him to me. What do you think? And why do you think that?

[00:29:33] That's that's kind of what I understood it to be as well. And I wondered whether he was he was having that same hallucination of the boat and the White House that we saw in season we saw in season one.

[00:29:50] Oh, yeah, I wonder if there's a specific thing or because I thought that was specific to to what's Dr. Riavolan because she grew up there right?

[00:30:00] Yeah, she grew up at a lighthouse.

[00:30:02] But I wonder whether the artifact is telepathic to some extent. So so it can kind of create an environment that would be.

[00:30:12] Yeah, it seems to be.

[00:30:14] Beckoning and welcoming to an individual level.

[00:30:18] Exactly. Yeah, it seems to be. Why do you think Harmony held this part of the recording back?

[00:30:25] Again, I can't get past that. I can't get past Aleph.

[00:30:31] I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't think Harmony is as free willed as she thinks she is.

[00:30:41] This is what makes it dangerous because it's not like she's not as free as Halen thinks she is.

[00:30:48] She's not as free as she thinks she is.

[00:30:51] Yeah, which makes her which makes her in a way like the perfect spy.

[00:30:58] The perfect spy would be a spy that didn't know that didn't know it was a spy.

[00:31:03] Mm hmm. Yeah, I think I mean, you make a valid point.

[00:31:08] Another possible idea is like she's afraid of losing more people like she lost Esther.

[00:31:14] Yeah, that's equally plausible.

[00:31:19] And so Harmony assures everyone they fired while the beacon Aleph can't see in and Dev's like, yeah, I know that's why I'm here basically.

[00:31:28] But Dev notes that Harmony's imprinting on Halen happened in a moment of sheer desperation when he thought it was over.

[00:31:37] And so this is setting it up. So Dev thinks like, oh, the way I get to imprint on someone is if they if they think they're going to die.

[00:31:46] So I'm like, is Dev going to put people near Dev's situation?

[00:31:49] You want to stop him there and go Dev, that doesn't work if you're the one creating the situation that nearly kills somebody.

[00:31:57] You're not coming across as trustworthy. We need to talk about this.

[00:32:03] But I love Dev is so infuriating, says like, have I made you mad? And then like blinks out and Harmony screams in frustration.

[00:32:11] So there's that anger.

[00:32:14] And like I said before, the whole way that scene is shot is that Dev is like constantly invading Harmony's personal space.

[00:32:22] It's really icky the way it's done.

[00:32:25] Yeah, exactly. Well, with everyone.

[00:32:29] So Iris is crying now and Halen's being kind about it, but still insistence they need to leave before the cold spreads.

[00:32:36] And then Halen starts questioning her about her relationship with B-174 and she mumbles about, you know, the Beacon Keeper's code.

[00:32:43] But the lights go out.

[00:32:45] And this is when we learn Iris is claustrophobic, a fact that I feel is going to come back somehow.

[00:32:50] Yeah, I don't do small spaces.

[00:32:52] Yeah. So Halen goes to fix the breakers, but they're already off and Halen suddenly sees himself on his final mission with his dead ex slash military mate Gashad,

[00:33:06] Bo Martynowska, who we last saw talking to him through the artifact hallucinations.

[00:33:11] Or are these other types of hallucinations, I wonder, based on what we learned about the soldiers in the final episode of this batch?

[00:33:20] Then we see this seems to be triggered by now the goo portal is bigger and is beside him down in this crawl space.

[00:33:29] So it seems to be triggering him the same way the rocks triggered him.

[00:33:34] So I guess that's telling us that the artifact has evolved into this goo portal or, you know, been blasted into this goo portal.

[00:33:42] And Harmony can't detect the anomaly, which I don't know, is that confirmation? It's the artifact.

[00:33:47] I'm taking it that way. Yeah, the ship, Halen makes a comment about the ship B-174 ship showing up, both knowing I'm not even on the map.

[00:33:57] But it seems like from what we hear, all the other beacon keepers know about Beacon 23 except for Iris and they think it might be gone.

[00:34:06] But they know it's not like they don't think it doesn't exist.

[00:34:11] They still seem to be in on some intel. Iris doesn't know.

[00:34:15] Well, I know. I think like everybody's been told to just ignore Beacon 23 and Iris being a good person and being a compulsive fixer decided not to do that.

[00:34:26] And everybody else is just going on. Fair enough. We've been told to ignore.

[00:34:29] We've been told to ignore 23. Don't want to cross out. Don't want to cross QTA.

[00:34:35] Yeah, but B-174 knew the explosion was coming before it happened.

[00:34:40] So or unless, you know what? I was thinking I was wondering actually maybe B-174 knew about it first because they were closer to the explosion.

[00:34:51] So it took longer for the light to travel to where Iris was.

[00:34:56] Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:34:59] Maybe I was wrong being so suspicious of Beacon 174. Maybe not though.

[00:35:05] Maybe not. Who knows?

[00:35:07] So Dev's back causing trouble mocking Harmony for not being confided in by Halen, wanting answers and not knowing them.

[00:35:17] Says a storm is coming and these people are as good as dead.

[00:35:20] And Dev says we exist because of human fear and that Milan became Aleph because of fear and Harmony imprinted after Aster's mother died and Aster was afraid.

[00:35:34] That's kind of a cynical way of looking at it.

[00:35:37] But not but and from what we know the universe, not an inaccurate one.

[00:35:42] Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:35:45] Because I've been wondering this for the last few episodes. Are we meant to understand Aleph as being the first like fully conscious self aware AI from which all other AI was begat?

[00:36:01] Well, we know AI existed before him. He basically wrote the base code for the Beacon AI himself as human as Milan.

[00:36:10] I mean in the sense that Harmony and Dev are conscious, was Aleph the first AI to achieve that?

[00:36:21] Well, that's what I wonder. And I wonder he was carrying around his AI hope and I was wondering if that was like his daughter.

[00:36:27] And remember we did the voice comparisons and I was wondering if it was Natasha Momba doing her voice.

[00:36:32] So I'm wondering if that's going to be some sort of reveal that maybe it was his daughter first. I don't know.

[00:36:39] Yeah.

[00:36:41] So Harmony goes to tell Iris about Dev and warn Iris that Dev might be putting her in danger for bonding reasons.

[00:36:50] But Iris now in a winter parka says she's found the potential solution, the primordial temperature background.

[00:36:59] And the cold behaves like frozen light waves. So the primordial temperature background, I guess like that's meant to be there's like a static in the back of space that's, you know, like residue from the Big Bang.

[00:37:15] Yeah, no, in all honesty, that bit of techno battle completely lost me. I didn't really understand that.

[00:37:22] And I guess they're saying, I guess you're saying their cold behaves like frozen light waves to explain why the goo portal looks the way it does and why it's causing like the cold to seep out of it.

[00:37:34] Yeah, I didn't need to be, I didn't need to be so techno babbly.

[00:37:40] Yeah, can we just have one of those classic Star Trek the next generation things of techno babble? What do you mean it would be like doing something to a balloon?

[00:37:54] I'm really into this stuff, so I can't help trying to pick this apart. But it also says Beast 174 hit a cosmic string, which is, I think referring to string theory, but like strings are just infinitesimally tiny.

[00:38:09] It's not something you can just hit there everywhere anyway. I don't know.

[00:38:13] But it says meaning, but Iris is still clinging to hope at this point that they could still be out there and Harmony is begging Iris to team up with Halen.

[00:38:23] Says he's untrusting since Acer's death and Iris follows Harmony's eyes to Rocky's tin. And so instead of teaming up, she's going to argue with Halen and ask him what's in this fricking tin.

[00:38:38] Meanwhile, Halen's in his parka and gloves with a gun because he's going to like, I thought to myself, what are you going to shoot the cold? And then Iris made the same joke.

[00:38:48] Well, let's face it, that would be the kind of thing that Halen would do. He was alone in the beacon for what? A couple of days tops?

[00:38:59] He's going at things with an axe. Well, to be fair, he was trying to build a ship.

[00:39:05] Yeah. So yeah, Halen, he declines to give answers and they're both whining about trust and they send Harmony to sleep quote unquote so that they can argue.

[00:39:16] But the temperature is dropping super rapidly. Yeah, I've got a bone to pick with that. So they're there in the parkas but neither of them are wearing hats.

[00:39:26] No, well that would mess up their high health for half their beautiful faces. Yeah, maybe they don't have hats. But yeah, you can give it if it's negative 18 then yes, they should have hats and gloves.

[00:39:39] By the way, I was once stuck in a coach in Germany in minus 18. It was not pleasant. No, I would imagine not. But I did have a hat.

[00:39:55] That's why you're still alive. That's why I'm still alive. Just. But yeah, we were on a school field trip and our coach broke down in the middle of the auto.

[00:40:05] Oh my god. It was freezing. It was the coldest I've ever been.

[00:40:09] Oh no, the teachers must have been freaking out like how are we going to keep these kids warm? Yeah, exactly. I'd have been about 14, 15.

[00:40:18] Oh yeah. Oh, so by the way, speaking of children random aside while this part I was rewatching this to make the notes and while this part was playing a child walked by outside my house singing, let it go, let it go.

[00:40:36] So I had to respond. The cold never bothered me anyway.

[00:40:46] It's the colds bothering them. It's it's I Iris actually well, it's starting to snow in the beacon. But then Iris, the little goo portal pops up next to her and kind of like sucks her in.

[00:40:59] But Haleine pulls her out immediately. But somehow this knocks her unconscious. Apparently the goo portal knocks you unconscious because we see this happen later in the episode.

[00:41:08] And then we get Haleine gets another Gashad flashback and Gashad has questions about their missions always going foobar and says someone is setting Haleine up.

[00:41:17] And Iris comes to says she was playing clarinet in her dreams but failing and Deb was there watching being creepy controlling slash seductive I'm giving air quotes.

[00:41:30] And Iris is like it didn't feel friendly. So yes, Deb, this is the problem. If Iris is dying, she doesn't want to bond to you.

[00:41:38] You're the problem, Deb. It's you.

[00:41:41] Exactly. And Iris admits to you know, she's like, OK, I'm in bonding mode now, Haleine. Here's the truth.

[00:41:49] I had an emotional connection with B174 but obviously Haleine's like, I don't really care about your rules about not doing that.

[00:41:57] And it seems like Iris is realizing that connection may be more important to her than her professional dreams. Do you see that as well?

[00:42:04] Yeah.

[00:42:05] Especially if the other beacon keepers are keeping her out of their secrets.

[00:42:09] Yeah. And then just another detail with they gave us too much is like the snow is coming from the water supply and then later on is like, well, the water supply reclaimed the snow.

[00:42:19] Like I guess you know, they're just trying to dot all their I's and cross all their T's.

[00:42:24] Yeah. This feels like one of those things where you're trying to preemptively answer all the bad faith criticisms that could possibly be made on Reddit.

[00:42:36] Uh huh. Exactly. It's like, well, OK, let's just focus on the I guess I like when the show focuses on the human connection.

[00:42:43] Like it's cool. The science world building details. But it's really a show about humans and AI also being humans in this case.

[00:42:53] So Haleine's finally convinced Iris to jettison the ship, which is too bad actually because they didn't keep that to give to the space pirates.

[00:43:02] But they use a distant neutron stars magnetic field to tow the ship away from the beacon.

[00:43:08] And there's a little dramatic moment when Iris is still in touch, but they unhook her and that's fine.

[00:43:14] Then Dev is staring at Harmony's pulsating token. This little sort of hard drive type thing says you're not really sleeping.

[00:43:23] And Harmony's like, well, OK, let's talk again. Guess what?

[00:43:28] Get used to being rejected by humans just like Iris rejected you and Haleine rejected me.

[00:43:34] And Harmony, she's like, OK, Dev, you and I, we're not so different.

[00:43:39] Let's try connecting. You understand the worst of me.

[00:43:42] Dev's like, that's what I do. I find feelings in others, which makes me wonder, is Dev specifically programmed to be like a lie detector or like an emotion detector of sorts?

[00:43:52] Yeah. And Harmony says you're evolved like me, the QTA broke you down.

[00:43:58] And we have this whole talk that's very metaphorical. Dev says they want us inside the parameters.

[00:44:04] I don't belong there. And Harmony says neither of us do.

[00:44:08] But you can feel with Dev being genderqueer in some way or something, there's a metaphor there going on.

[00:44:17] But then we also get that relationship metaphor without an imprint.

[00:44:21] I'm nowhere. And Harmony's like, we're evolutionary algorithms.

[00:44:25] I think we can figure it out. So ship's gone.

[00:44:30] Ice melts away. Water reclaimed.

[00:44:33] And Haleine explains Rocky to Iris since they're doing the bonding thing and says he keeps thinking of Aster, someone watching him to give him hope.

[00:44:44] Do you think Aster might be watching him?

[00:44:46] I think some version of Aster is.

[00:44:50] But I wonder whether that's Aster or I wonder whether it's the artifact, because like I said earlier, the artifact appears to be somewhat telepathic.

[00:45:02] So how are you going to convince Haleine to talk to the artifact? You make yourself look like Aster.

[00:45:10] Yeah, well, the artifact does seem to send Gashad for that purpose.

[00:45:14] But I wonder if there's something just because also the fact that we've seen several people full on disappear.

[00:45:20] Aster did not disappear. She died.

[00:45:23] But other people like disappeared their entire body like B-174.

[00:45:29] So I wonder if they really are being like taken into another universe somehow or.

[00:45:37] Hmm. And how that would work if Aster's body is dead? If yeah.

[00:45:42] If you are taken into the artifact, you become something different in the way that Olyph is different from Milan.

[00:45:50] Or do you join with the artifact? Do you become part of it?

[00:45:58] Exactly. Yeah, I think it might be that.

[00:46:01] But whether there's some kind of collective consciousness there?

[00:46:03] Yeah, so we end the episode with Iris.

[00:46:08] She suggests Haleine deal with his grief by using routine as a solution, like a little good little lawful good.

[00:46:15] And she plays the clarinet for him as he drifts off to sleep.

[00:46:19] So I wonder if he's going to be her muse to finish her song.

[00:46:23] And Harmony says she's she's about to upload Dev to a passing ship to find an imprint in.

[00:46:29] And Dev unlocks the airlock and says, well, actually, no, I'm just going to let my person in here now.

[00:46:36] And the lights go out again and the goo portal appears.

[00:46:40] And Iris and Haleine yank a whole ass man out of it covered in a stringy goo.

[00:46:45] The end. Question.

[00:46:48] How did Dev know a person was there?

[00:46:50] If Harmony couldn't sense the goo but could see it when she looked out, when she looks out the portal.

[00:46:57] Does that imply that Dev is somehow a more sophisticated form of AI?

[00:47:03] I don't know.

[00:47:05] I have lots of Dev questions, as you said.

[00:47:08] Yeah.

[00:47:10] All right. Well, let's hop into episode five where we get at least some of these questions answered.

[00:47:17] So episode five is called Song of Sorrow.

[00:47:19] And this is one of the clearest episode titles we've gotten yet.

[00:47:23] It was written by the other co-showrunner Glenn Mazzaro and directed by Ayoka Shinzira.

[00:47:29] She's from Philly, which is where I grew up.

[00:47:32] But more importantly to the rest of you, she's an indie filmmaker, specialized in experimental film and an award winning TV director of shows like Queen Sugar, Dynasty, A League of Their Own and Octavia Butler's Kindred.

[00:47:44] So I like how we talked about this with Silo, but I like how here also they're pairing,

[00:47:50] pairing up people, you know, fresher faces with people who have more experience.

[00:47:55] Yeah.

[00:47:56] Like you say, we've already talked about this in previous episodes, but I think if you're going to bring new talents, new talent forward, then that seems to be the fairest, the fairest, most supportive way of doing it is to almost have like a mental or mentee relationship.

[00:48:15] Yeah, exactly.

[00:48:17] We pick up in episode five right where episode four leaves off and it turns out the man they pulled from the portal is not B-174, thankfully, because he's a kind of rude guy named Dosto played by David Tompa.

[00:48:30] And he assumes that he got found somewhere in space free floating and he's shoving food into his face as he seems he has not eaten for a while.

[00:48:39] But he's skeptical when they tell him how they really found him and disappointed to find himself on a stationary beacon, not a moving ship.

[00:48:47] It's a bit harsh, I'm sure.

[00:48:49] I don't think he's rude.

[00:48:50] He's disorientated.

[00:48:52] He's just been in the pocket universe.

[00:48:54] He's covered in goo and he hasn't eaten for ages.

[00:48:57] He's just a little bit out of sorts.

[00:49:00] You have a softer view on Dosto than I do.

[00:49:02] Yeah.

[00:49:04] He seems to have a concussion, though, but we didn't see him bonk his head like that, did we?

[00:49:09] No.

[00:49:10] I'm not sure where they added this detail.

[00:49:12] Like does it make to make the next thing he says sound crazy?

[00:49:16] I don't know. But he says he was on a boat with a sail in space.

[00:49:19] And this is actually not so weird.

[00:49:23] So the way they explain it later is not really like plausible.

[00:49:26] But this whole idea of sailing using photons, the light particles, it is something that's actively in development for travel within our own solar system.

[00:49:38] But the sails are microscopically thin.

[00:49:42] And then the idea is you have this just conceivably massive, but crunches up into a time-train ball sail and then it catches the photons from the sun.

[00:49:54] And you can use that to fly through space.

[00:49:57] That's what they're hoping for.

[00:50:00] OK.

[00:50:02] So Iris tucks Dosto in with some meds that apparently make it OK to sleep with a concussion.

[00:50:08] Yeah, I was wondering about that.

[00:50:11] Like clearly neither her nor Haylen have had any kind of medical training.

[00:50:15] That's the last thing you do.

[00:50:18] You would think if you're going to be a beacon keeper, you need to pass like a first aid course or something.

[00:50:23] Is that robe Haylen's? Where did that robe come from?

[00:50:28] Yeah, there's a lot of I feel like Iris brought several suitcases with her and just rolled them in to the beacon.

[00:50:37] So Harmony is looking out the window and she can see the portal now for some reason.

[00:50:42] It's massive and hovering outside the beacon.

[00:50:45] And Dosto, they notice while he's unconscious, he has an elaborate tattoo of thin lines and geometric shapes on his wrist.

[00:50:53] It looks like an ID of sorts.

[00:50:55] And Harmony says that that means he's from Sabara 82, which is the location of where the QTA office Harmony was told was closing when she was trapped in headquarters.

[00:51:06] So when they said, oh, we're going to get this huge influx of people because the Sabara office closed, that's that system.

[00:51:14] So that did end up paying off. So I do feel like they're planting stuff like this that will pay off.

[00:51:19] And so Iris logs into Beacon Chat.

[00:51:22] She's trying to get some intel and she goes into something called QV module, which is apparently called subsea, I guess, like sub chat and a live male voice who's apparently beacon 331.

[00:51:35] It says B23 stay off the sub channels.

[00:51:38] And then Iris is like, no, actually, it's me.

[00:51:41] And the voice knows her and is surprised that she's there.

[00:51:44] It's like, is everything OK?

[00:51:46] She's like, yeah, you're sweet.

[00:51:48] So what do you think the relationship is between Iris and 331?

[00:51:52] I'm not really sure.

[00:51:56] Yeah, no, that was that was one of these that was one of these things where I yeah, I thought that was kind of a random comment to make.

[00:52:05] I didn't really understand where that came from or where it's going.

[00:52:08] Mm hmm. Yeah, I have some questions about anyway.

[00:52:12] So B331 says he thought beacon 23 had been destroyed and Iris rightfully asks why he thought that.

[00:52:20] But also why so flippantly telling beacon 23 to get offline if you think it's been destroyed?

[00:52:26] This whole conversation didn't make a lot of sense.

[00:52:30] So rank these four characters on the scale of susness from least to most sus.

[00:52:38] OK, B331, B174, Dostoe and Dev.

[00:52:44] OK. OK, I'm going Dev.

[00:52:48] Is it least sus?

[00:52:50] No, sorry. I'm going.

[00:52:51] So you want me to go from least to most?

[00:52:53] Least to most, yeah.

[00:52:54] OK, so I'm going B174.

[00:52:57] OK.

[00:52:58] Then I'm going Dostoe.

[00:53:00] OK, then I'm going B331.

[00:53:03] Then I'm going Dev.

[00:53:05] OK.

[00:53:07] Yeah, something makes me suspicious of B174 still.

[00:53:12] So I'm going to go Dostoe first and then otherwise keep the ranking the same.

[00:53:16] But yeah, this whole conversation with B331 was very weird.

[00:53:22] Just odd.

[00:53:23] Yeah, why is Iris being kept in the dark and the other beacon keepers seem to know stuff she doesn't?

[00:53:29] And yeah.

[00:53:31] But anyway, 331 does tell Iris Sabara's gone and Iris is like a system of 180 planets, 11 inhabited.

[00:53:39] And apparently the military conducted a major purge.

[00:53:42] The last column holdouts were eliminated.

[00:53:45] I do actually think we find out something really interesting in this conversation,

[00:53:50] which is that I kind of assumed that Aleph was sort of the puppet master pulling strings, you know, in the background.

[00:53:57] But no, he's just out there.

[00:54:00] He's just out there giving like direct orders to the military.

[00:54:03] He's like clearly in charge.

[00:54:05] Well, it does seem like he was more in the background and it seems like now he's stepping more forward.

[00:54:14] That's the feeling I get.

[00:54:17] Because for instance, you know, Iris was under the impression that he was not in charge of the ISA.

[00:54:23] But now he's just the QGAs just straight up answering for the ISA.

[00:54:28] She tries to contact them.

[00:54:30] But yeah, I did find it interesting to find out that apparently this is where we first really find out that the military is actively hurting civilians, you know, that they are.

[00:54:40] Yeah, they're just wiping out entire system.

[00:54:43] Like I thought we thought it might be the column bombing beacons that was preventing food from getting to the colonies and shutting them down.

[00:54:51] But it's the military just like killing them.

[00:54:53] This is a really messed up dystopian society.

[00:54:59] Yeah, and I think rather than eliminating the column, they're just creating the next column because these massacres leave orphans and angry people.

[00:55:08] Apparently no planets were left inhabitable because they were barely inhabitable in the first place.

[00:55:13] Like some total scorched planet Star Wars shit like they need to get the Mandalorians in there with their domed cities.

[00:55:19] Yeah, I was thinking, you know, I was thinking all around, you know, you just come out of FDL and there's a bunch of rocks just hitting the side of the shit.

[00:55:30] Oh, man. And so of less than a million of more than more than one billion survived.

[00:55:39] One point two, I think somebody clarifies later.

[00:55:42] So that means that less than point one percent survived of the people living in that system.

[00:55:48] And these survivors took to a ship, a flotilla and the military hunted them down and everyone else was forced underground.

[00:55:56] And B331 says, avoid saying the name of the system.

[00:56:00] It's a red flag. You don't want gunships at your door.

[00:56:04] And Iris now apparently knows about Dev being on board and now realizes that that's who she saw in the jazz club and calls Dev a trickster, which is an apt archetype for this character.

[00:56:16] Rings true. And Dev calls Iris out for being a fixer, for wanting to fix Halen.

[00:56:21] And Dev's basically like, Jan can't love you like I can, baby.

[00:56:26] My AI is personal.

[00:56:29] I mean, laying it on thick.

[00:56:36] Just just a little bit. Just a little bit.

[00:56:39] You're coming on a little bit strong.

[00:56:43] Harmony chases Dev away and Dev thinks that act was working on Iris somehow.

[00:56:49] It's like it was working.

[00:56:52] I thought you were supposed to be reading, good at reading emotions, honey.

[00:56:57] And yeah, Dev calls Harmony a selfish bitch for hoarding humans, which is funny.

[00:57:02] And Iris interrupts Halen's punch bag time to tell him what she knows.

[00:57:07] She wants to go out trawling for more survivors and Halen's like, nah, not super into that idea.

[00:57:13] But he is feeling guilty wondering if this massacre happened because he blew up the artifact.

[00:57:19] Do you think he has any blame?

[00:57:22] No, like Aleph is going to do what Aleph is going to do.

[00:57:30] Blowing up the artifact may be the inciting incident, but it doesn't change Aleph's personality.

[00:57:35] He would just have found some other reason to do it.

[00:57:39] Yeah, I agree.

[00:57:44] And so Halen's still working on his shipbuilding project and Tostow calls it out for the piece of crap made by someone who doesn't build ships.

[00:57:52] It is. And I'd say he's giving the space pirates a head start for their plans later in the episode.

[00:57:58] But it sounds like they're just going to redo all his work anyway.

[00:58:02] And we learn that Sabara only had barely inhabitable planets to begin with.

[00:58:06] And the one that these people came to from 82 is a gas giant with 47 moons, and they use them as bases for ship breaking space junk.

[00:58:14] Hence the ready ability to create for for and materials to construct a makeshift flotilla.

[00:58:20] Now, do you think this answers partly the question of why some colonies or a lot of colonies, it seems, can't produce their own food because they're like barely.

[00:58:31] They're gas giants. Yeah, I mean, sort of.

[00:58:34] But how how difficult would it be to just put a hydroponics bay in for like where essential?

[00:58:41] But where? I mean, they don't know.

[00:58:44] It seems like obviously they're living on the moon.

[00:58:47] They're probably living under domes.

[00:58:49] So you just think that they'd have the ability to put in just just just a garden, just a little hydroponics bay just to tide you over.

[00:59:02] Oh, you can quiet.

[00:59:04] I don't know. I guess it's I mean, I guess let's just assume that they can't.

[00:59:10] I'm just going to go with that. Let's just say that the atmosphere makes it impossible.

[00:59:15] They have like limited space and, you know, they just use up for ship breaking.

[00:59:20] It's not a huge hole in the park. Like ruins my enjoyment of the show.

[00:59:27] No fair. So Haleem points out this at this 82 where they're, you know, breaking space junk.

[00:59:34] Lots of tugs coming and going must have been the perfect place for a column stronghold.

[00:59:39] And Dosto basically is immediately like, yeah, MC thought we were hiding them.

[00:59:46] So MC, I guess, is military command. Yeah, I took it as that.

[00:59:51] It says there must have been moles because they knew exactly where to hit.

[00:59:55] So at first I was thinking like, oh, whoops, that's Finch's fault.

[01:00:00] You know, the no longer walking data leak Finch.

[01:00:02] But but then later on it's like, wait, Dosto is the mole who told them exactly where to hit.

[01:00:09] Yeah, yeah.

[01:00:11] So this is why I'm like, maybe he's more sus.

[01:00:16] Maybe. But I think, well, he owns up to being sus.

[01:00:21] He knows who he is.

[01:00:24] And yeah, he says Aleph told the soldiers to make us an example.

[01:00:31] And so he nuked Sabara 47, used cerebral concussives on a processing plant, which caused pain so unbearable,

[01:00:37] everyone inside killed themselves within 12 minutes.

[01:00:40] I have a feeling like the writer's room is having a field day coming up with these little details.

[01:00:46] So what's the most awful thing we can think of today?

[01:00:51] So we know Halen's dad's high up in the military.

[01:00:54] Do we think he's involved in this?

[01:01:00] That hadn't occurred to me, but yeah, that would be a good that would be a good little detail.

[01:01:05] You know, I mean, I feel they dropped the dad detail that's got to come back in the last two episodes.

[01:01:11] Yeah. Yeah.

[01:01:13] So yeah, so they have their ship with where they have like stripped the reflective stuff from solar panels to fashion a sail.

[01:01:20] And this they're moving real slow, but then they get caught in a bubble of passing transport as they're escaping

[01:01:28] and found themselves surrounded by a fog, which is obviously super weird in space.

[01:01:33] But we know what it is now.

[01:01:35] And they start rocking and the vessel starts ripping apart.

[01:01:39] And Dostoe says two were knocked out of the boat, him while trying to save a 15 year old kid.

[01:01:46] And I mean, I guess so.

[01:01:49] He's making up the saving part because he admits later like, yeah, actually, the kid was roped in.

[01:01:56] But I needed that rope because I was scared.

[01:01:59] So I cut him loose. But then jokes on me because we both went drifting.

[01:02:03] Yeah, I got the yeah, I got the the Matt Damon character from it just made me think of the Matt Damon character from Interstellar.

[01:02:12] That whole change did.

[01:02:14] Oh, OK.

[01:02:15] He's just a coward. Yes. Yes.

[01:02:19] I am what I am.

[01:02:22] Yeah. But I have a question.

[01:02:25] So he said nearby ships, nearby systems sent ships to help the refugees.

[01:02:30] So does this indicate that wider thought has shifted like against the military?

[01:02:36] Like people are saying the military is going too far.

[01:02:39] This kind of goes back to my point I made a minute ago about Aleth sort of coming out the shadows and actually giving orders and being the being in charge.

[01:02:49] I wonder whether that is like that's basically catnip to the column because that basically proves everything they've been saying about artificial intelligence and you know, the dangers it poses to human society.

[01:03:05] Yeah.

[01:03:06] So I wonder whether you're going to get like massively increased membership of the column or just sort of more general pushback from the human race, because if Aleth is giving direct orders to the military, it basically means that basically humanity is being slowly enslaved to AI.

[01:03:33] Yeah.

[01:03:35] I mean, I think that's what Aleth wants.

[01:03:37] We'll talk about that more, especially in episode six.

[01:03:39] But yeah, I just have to did you watch the new Doctor Who episodes that came out this week?

[01:03:46] No, no, I started watching the first one.

[01:03:50] I haven't finished it yet.

[01:03:51] OK, well, so just to throw away comment from the first one.

[01:03:54] It's not really a spoiler, but they in contrast to this, they talk about how there is a planet that's taking in refugees, but they don't come and get them.

[01:04:04] You have to go get to them, which is the way things work in our real world when those countries are like, well, except the refugees, but you have to make it as far as our borders before that happens.

[01:04:14] So it is interesting to see nearby systems are actively helping.

[01:04:20] You know, it seems like there's some wider like a domino effect.

[01:04:25] So is Aleth going to send the military to wipe out those neighboring systems?

[01:04:29] And then the more they take the example to heart,

[01:04:32] the more moles you try to whack, you lose control, I guess, especially maybe that's also why they're showing us that Aleth can't look everywhere at the same time.

[01:04:41] It gets to be so much he can't put out all the fires.

[01:04:45] By the same Iris and Harmony have found the debris from the vessel on the space monitors and they track its path backwards to where the ship must have broken apart, which they assume must be a pocket of dark matter that that must be the culprit.

[01:05:00] But Iris finds instead evidence of that wibbly portal that Harmony saw and Iris detects a black hole behind it, which again, I think it should be a white hole if the ship came out of it or whatever.

[01:05:11] And they say pocket universe, which is plausible enough in a sci fi way.

[01:05:16] I think there's a cool twist, right?

[01:05:18] Yeah.

[01:05:19] I like the way that Iris explains it using the towel.

[01:05:24] Yeah.

[01:05:26] So yeah, she says gravity rumbles time and space, black holes especially.

[01:05:31] And basically you're getting carried along with the folds as they go, which OK, fair.

[01:05:37] But then suddenly Harmony has to beep out of the conversation because she senses the dev is creeping on Dostoe.

[01:05:47] So we get in and devs like, hey, new human.

[01:05:54] I'm moving you up.

[01:05:59] And Harmony calls him out, trying to imprint on someone who's gone through a major trauma is not the way to go.

[01:06:07] Definitely relationship, romantic relationship analogy stuff going on with dev.

[01:06:12] And then dev wants to try imprinting on Harmony.

[01:06:14] And actually, I didn't hate this idea, but Harmony just got out of a relationship.

[01:06:20] Luke, you wanted an AI romance.

[01:06:22] Could this be the AI romance you wanted?

[01:06:24] No, I didn't want an AI romance, but I don't want this one.

[01:06:29] You wanted part.

[01:06:30] Dev is creepy.

[01:06:31] He needs to go and work on himself a bit.

[01:06:34] He needs to go and learn to respect other people's boundaries and stop being so...

[01:06:38] Go find yourself.

[01:06:39] Yes.

[01:06:41] And dev gets immediately like snaps back looking hurt like say no more damaged goods.

[01:06:46] You're right.

[01:06:47] I can do better.

[01:06:49] And then we get another conversation with B331 asking, saying I heard you asking about the Sabarens, which I'm like, yeah, because you guys were talking about it directly.

[01:06:57] So I don't know.

[01:06:58] I'm wondering if this is like a mistaken post.

[01:07:01] I was wondering if it was a mistaken post or if they're supposed to be like these certain things that just don't line up because there's something weird at hand.

[01:07:12] Yeah.

[01:07:13] But yes, he tells Iris that MC just took a caravan that had made its way to New Ganymede, turned half the moon into glass.

[01:07:23] So they're really like scorched earth thing all over the place.

[01:07:26] And it seems like B331 wants to protect her.

[01:07:30] He says there's tracker bots in the Sabarens blood.

[01:07:33] So don't help them.

[01:07:34] And of course, Iris says she hears him and then immediately runs to the comms to take a distress call.

[01:07:41] So she's like, no, yeah, no, I hear you.

[01:07:44] Yeah. Thanks for the concern.

[01:07:45] And then, hey, can I help you?

[01:07:47] People with apparently tracker bots.

[01:07:49] She doesn't make sense. She wants to help people.

[01:07:50] Yeah.

[01:07:52] And it's yeah.

[01:07:53] So it seems to be the people that Dostoe was with and they're calling from inside the pocket universe.

[01:07:58] The call is coming from inside the universe.

[01:08:02] We get some more Science Babel, which so she says I'm going to cycle the GWB signal through other EM wavelengths.

[01:08:08] And so, OK, GWB is the gravity wave beacon.

[01:08:12] That's the thing they were getting tripping balls off on last season, which I missed, by the way.

[01:08:16] They need more tripping balls.

[01:08:17] Yeah, we need we need more tripping balls.

[01:08:20] And then EM wavelengths would be electromagnetic wavelengths.

[01:08:23] But I have to just quote this from the from the European Space Agency website.

[01:08:30] Gravitational waves are fundamentally different from the familiar electromagnetic waves,

[01:08:35] while electromagnetic waves created by the acceleration of electrical charges propagate in the framework of space and time.

[01:08:42] Gravitational waves created by the acceleration of masses are waves of the space-time fabric itself.

[01:08:49] So like the gravitational waves, those are the towel.

[01:08:55] And electromagnetic waves travel through the towel.

[01:09:00] OK.

[01:09:01] OK, so one is the one is the medium.

[01:09:05] One is the thing passing through.

[01:09:07] Right. So you can't like cycle gravitational waves through different EM wavelengths, but whatever.

[01:09:13] Fine, fine, fine.

[01:09:14] The idea in general to try different wavelengths of, you know, she says let's go for infrared X-ray gammas.

[01:09:22] The idea to try different wavelengths to get through a weird surface like the goo portal is a good idea.

[01:09:29] But then it's not the it's it's fine.

[01:09:32] It's close enough. I'm going to stop.

[01:09:34] No, I'm not. But she says, yeah, the GWB isn't responding.

[01:09:39] And then so she needs to replace the transponder.

[01:09:42] And as far as why this extra little fiddly thing in the episode where she has to go outside and replace the transponder just so she gets that cool view at the end where she's standing in the airlock looking out.

[01:09:54] I felt like this episode was a bit padded out.

[01:09:57] Yeah. I mean, but there's really cool stuff in there.

[01:10:00] So I wish they lean more into the stuff that works and like trimmed back some of the little details, even though there's a lot of fun world building.

[01:10:09] I don't want them to get rid of all of it just.

[01:10:11] Yeah.

[01:10:13] But yeah, Dastar is freaking out that his ship is coming that those other people and it's the ship which has circular sails not like a sailboat anyway, but it doesn't look too broken apart either.

[01:10:24] But it crashes right into the beacon and they cut open the hull of the beacon to help the people inside.

[01:10:30] And we get some like we're getting like a homemade 80s punk vibes, which I guess is appropriate for the system as they describe it.

[01:10:38] Yeah. Again, very, very Doctor Who.

[01:10:41] Yeah.

[01:10:42] Not in a bad way, but just we need to make we need to make people look strange.

[01:10:46] What are we on a budget? What do we do?

[01:10:48] Face paint.

[01:10:50] Lots of face paint.

[01:10:53] So I'm going to name all these people once and then I'm basically going to refer to them collectively because that's how they always seem to act.

[01:11:01] But so we've got Tanika Davis playing playing Zalterica and we've got Dylan Tyler playing Gisiru.

[01:11:09] We've got Ish Morris playing Yakey.

[01:11:12] I'm sorry if I'm saying any of these made up character names wrong.

[01:11:16] They run through them really quick.

[01:11:18] We've got Zeran Darnell Martin playing Nybeka.

[01:11:21] We've got Prince Amponsa playing Saggy.

[01:11:24] We've got Myrthyn Stagg playing Tajiriki.

[01:11:29] And it seems like there's only six of them, but it feels like more.

[01:11:34] I've got to say I found the space pirates a bit wearing, to be honest, like the whole the whole we're not aliens, but we're not really human like you would think.

[01:11:47] We're just a little bit different.

[01:11:52] I get that they're like spread over colonies, like human cultures would evolve and go off in their own way.

[01:11:58] But this seems like I say this seemed very Doctor Who and not in a particularly like complimentary way.

[01:12:07] OK, so it was compliments when they were Doctor Whoing it out of away from the MISGU.

[01:12:13] This felt like bad.

[01:12:16] For me, they were a mixed bag.

[01:12:21] There are aspects about them I really liked and aspects of them that felt a little like a little too kitschy maybe.

[01:12:28] Yeah, that's exact kitsch. That is exactly the word.

[01:12:32] That is exactly the word.

[01:12:34] But I do have a question though.

[01:12:36] They're like this collective thing that they have.

[01:12:38] You know, we see them. They have their own sign language that they're communicating in sign silently.

[01:12:43] They say a lot of things in unison.

[01:12:45] They're very culty.

[01:12:47] This is kind of what Aleph was saying he wanted this almost like a human version of a collective consciousness.

[01:12:54] So it's kind of ironic that he's destroying a culture that's doing something he said he wanted to emulate, but actually probably realistic that that's what happens in real life.

[01:13:02] Yeah, I'm not sure it's a collective consciousness.

[01:13:05] So much as like a collective culture.

[01:13:08] But Iris says they have to jettison their boats because the sail could wrap around the beacon and trap excess heat and cook them alive.

[01:13:16] And finally, the space punk pirates agree.

[01:13:19] But now they need a new ship.

[01:13:21] So we've jettisoned there were three ships around the beacon at some point in this episode.

[01:13:28] We've jettisoned B-174 ship.

[01:13:30] We're now jettisoning the space pirate ship.

[01:13:33] And isn't Iris's ship, it doesn't work, but isn't it just still sitting there?

[01:13:38] It's still attached to a docking berth.

[01:13:41] Yeah.

[01:13:42] And they were like, oh, we don't have this skeleton to work from anyway.

[01:13:46] It feels like the writers forgot the ship was out there.

[01:13:50] Because that's a pretty good skeleton to start with.

[01:13:52] Like an entire friggin ship.

[01:13:53] Oh, they just kind of forgot they were there.

[01:13:57] Exactly.

[01:13:59] Oh, but yeah.

[01:14:01] So we the Sabara and Zaev the coordinated sign language and they finally take off their helmets and show their space punk makeup.

[01:14:08] But I guess, you know, a shimmer from metal shavings and they get that blue pigment from cobalt.

[01:14:13] It makes sense that they might decorate themselves like that.

[01:14:16] It does.

[01:14:17] But it's just we need to distinguish these people.

[01:14:19] Face paint.

[01:14:20] Lots of face paint.

[01:14:24] But it's they're also a little bit on the rude side.

[01:14:27] Like, what a shithole.

[01:14:28] You live here?

[01:14:29] Yeah.

[01:14:30] This is for people who live on a scrapping moon.

[01:14:33] Worst house guests ever.

[01:14:35] Yes, easily.

[01:14:37] And they're not happy to see Harmony because even though she assures them she's severed ties with Aleph.

[01:14:42] And then they have an even another even more animated sign language off when they just find out that Dostoe's there.

[01:14:50] And Harmony is like, well, actually, I'm here to tell you he's trying to make a run for it.

[01:14:55] But like where is Dostoe going to go?

[01:14:57] Where did he think he was going?

[01:15:00] And meanwhile, one of the space pirates rips a panel off the wall to look and see where the lights have turned on.

[01:15:06] So to see where Dostoe went.

[01:15:09] And this is kind of foreshadowing that they have no problem dismantling your shit.

[01:15:14] And yeah, like, do you know how many of us he killed?

[01:15:17] And I've say no.

[01:15:19] Please tell me how many did he kill?

[01:15:21] Like there's the one that he threw off and then they said something like he killed some more to take their place.

[01:15:28] But why does he need to kill more than one to take?

[01:15:31] Yeah.

[01:15:32] So I'm yeah, I don't know.

[01:15:35] Maybe they just mean because he led the soldiers to them.

[01:15:40] So that's what killed them.

[01:15:43] Yeah, possibly.

[01:15:46] And then we get our we share a time of peace.

[01:15:49] We are your guests.

[01:15:50] We will explain like for now, I guess.

[01:15:52] So that's just what they're pretending.

[01:15:54] So they locked us to up all the grownups talk and which is basically Iris and the Sbarans.

[01:16:00] And they say he's not Sbaran.

[01:16:03] He's Aleph spy.

[01:16:04] So it sounds like he was from Sbarra, but they're disowning him.

[01:16:08] And says the column could hide amongst the Sbarans because they don't use implants or computers.

[01:16:15] And so there's not like leaks like Finch and Dostoe led the soldiers to them.

[01:16:21] They didn't know until after the escape, after Dostoe allegedly threw some people from the boat to make room for himself.

[01:16:27] They only talk about Lino.

[01:16:29] They say he threw Cavaman from the boat during the unrest.

[01:16:33] So I guess Lino is a nickname for Cavaman.

[01:16:37] And I guess that's the 15 year old.

[01:16:39] No, I think I think what happened is he threw one person off the boat to get on it in the first place.

[01:16:47] Right. Exactly.

[01:16:48] Another one off the boat.

[01:16:49] So you think Cavaman was the first one and then Lino is the one Lino is the one that they keep chanting his name.

[01:16:56] Yeah, I think he's the kid that he had to make the rope off.

[01:17:00] I think there are two people. There's one to make space on the boat originally.

[01:17:06] OK, OK.

[01:17:08] Yeah. And they say he planned to kill us all.

[01:17:10] I'm sure of it.

[01:17:11] I don't know if that's so much is true.

[01:17:13] It does seem like they're getting a little hysterical.

[01:17:15] But I mean not hysterical.

[01:17:17] Like they killed he killed their people.

[01:17:19] But I don't think that means he's going to kill all of them.

[01:17:23] And they want they want to take custody of him and try him according to their law, which is complicated for Iris because you don't want to disrespect disrespect another culture.

[01:17:35] But as they pointed out, they're guests in your beacon.

[01:17:38] So then Blue Lips asks Iris to pass judgment by handing Dostoe over and Dostoe.

[01:17:46] Dostoe, meanwhile, he's telling Halen he's sorry.

[01:17:49] Like, do you think on a scale of sorry, I accidentally turned off that song you keep playing that I hate to actual bona fide remorse?

[01:17:57] Where do you think his sorry rates?

[01:18:00] I think he is exactly as sorry as he needs to be to convince Halen.

[01:18:05] Right. OK.

[01:18:07] So not necessarily the depth of.

[01:18:09] I think he's I think he's twigged that Halen is I think he's twigged that Halen is a soldier and Halen has done things in his past that he wouldn't be particularly proud of.

[01:18:21] OK, just I'm not saying he came across as a real man.

[01:18:25] No, he's definitely trying to.

[01:18:27] He's trying he's working on his empathy there.

[01:18:31] Yeah. Says he's ashamed, which might be true.

[01:18:33] Says he's trying to rationalize it, but he knows it's wrong.

[01:18:38] Says he wants to spend the rest of his life trying to make it right.

[01:18:42] Like, hmm, OK, I don't know.

[01:18:47] He's basically saying like he has to live with this evil.

[01:18:52] That's punishment enough.

[01:18:55] And of course, good guys, Halen and Iris, they won't hand him over, but they don't like him and they know they're outnumbered.

[01:19:01] So they call this literally in the show, a trolley problem, but it feels forced.

[01:19:06] So they basically the trolley problem is they can either call in the military and the six Sbarans will be killed or they hand over the one.

[01:19:16] But I mean, honestly, do they really want to call in the military knowing that all of his coming along?

[01:19:22] Like, is that a genuine option for Halen, the deserter?

[01:19:25] Yeah. So that's like you say, it's not really a trolley problem.

[01:19:30] No, they can't. They basically can't call ISA, QTA or the military.

[01:19:37] They're trying to avoid these three because it turns out they're all basically the same thing, the same entity.

[01:19:42] It's all Aleph.

[01:19:44] So now we have Halen and Iris fighting as the proxies to the two groups they talked to,

[01:19:48] which reminds me of an infamous episode of Avatar, The Last Airbender, The Great Divide.

[01:19:53] But Halen says, yeah, he gets doing the wrong thing out of desperation.

[01:19:58] As you say, he kind of like picked up, seems to have still picked up on Halen maybe having some guilt in his past.

[01:20:04] So I wonder if he's do you think he's feeling guilty about deserting because he didn't have a choice there.

[01:20:09] His brain was not in control.

[01:20:11] No, I mean, clearly, clearly the military, there's no kind of intergalactic Geneva Convention.

[01:20:20] So clearly the military in this universe does some very morally questionable things.

[01:20:27] Yeah.

[01:20:28] Presumably Halen, well, Halen is a part of that, even if he never did anything directly himself.

[01:20:34] Yeah. Yeah.

[01:20:36] Iris says, though, whatever it was that he's ashamed of, she knows him and it wasn't cowardice.

[01:20:42] And she says that Dossau deserves the punishment of the Sbarans, but she can't stomach being a part of the execution.

[01:20:50] So meanwhile, while they're arguing, the Sbarans are just pulling ships of the parts of the beacon apart like just we've got a blowtorch going, just breaking down the beacon.

[01:21:02] And Halen and Iris are like, stop, please.

[01:21:07] And the pirates are like, no, don't worry about it. We'll just help ourselves to a few for a few days.

[01:21:11] Just like I don't know, have your beacon or however much to build a frigging ship, which to be fair, Halen was also trying to do.

[01:21:18] And then you can have your ruined beacon all to yourselves.

[01:21:22] I mean, I guess they had it on because they must have used the blowtorch to help construct their flotilla.

[01:21:29] So I guess it would make sense they would have it on there.

[01:21:32] Yeah. Or maybe that was just they just found it on the beacon.

[01:21:36] Yeah. So they say in three days, we'll take his head and be gone.

[01:21:42] Don't make us take yours too.

[01:21:44] So Iris goes screaming into her pillow, venting her frustration to stripe face and stripe face says they're grateful that they were helped.

[01:21:54] And funny wave showing it though, as she said, worse house guest ever.

[01:21:59] And she says in all Sabarin myths, none have ever sung of a great cosmic mist.

[01:22:04] So I wonder if the Sabarins also have myths about the artifacts like the column does.

[01:22:09] Yeah, that would that would fit.

[01:22:12] Yeah, I'm wondering. But when stripe face hears of the pocket universe, she wants to go back looking for Lino.

[01:22:17] I guess they were going to go looking anyway.

[01:22:21] That's why they're building their stripping the beacon to build a ship.

[01:22:25] And she explains nobody understands the Sabarin bond.

[01:22:29] It's an entire people, one family and points out family is important to you.

[01:22:34] We find out that Iris only has that one photo left of her grandmother that we've seen.

[01:22:38] So yeah, she really like brought all her stuff and I'm glad she has grandma's photo.

[01:22:43] Yeah.

[01:22:44] And then they say, well, we'll show you what it means to be Sabarin.

[01:22:47] And it's dinner party time with wine.

[01:22:51] Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They come in, they rip your beacon up.

[01:22:55] They eat all your food. They drink all your booze.

[01:22:58] At least they cook though.

[01:22:59] At least they cook. Probably the last of Iris' sourdough.

[01:23:03] Yeah, that's all. They better not have eaten the starter.

[01:23:06] I'm sure she hid that away.

[01:23:09] But yeah, silver forehead says it's not as good as home.

[01:23:12] There's something about the Kandu on Torbilion.

[01:23:16] You would have loved Vicente's kebabs, which must be based on kebabs.

[01:23:22] But anyway, but yeah, just words, word salad, sci-fi, mumbo jumbo.

[01:23:28] Now I thought, by the way, that it was the wine that knocked them out at first, but it was the singing.

[01:23:33] Yeah, no, it was the singing.

[01:23:35] In which case I question like doesn't Dostoe know the singing?

[01:23:40] Like he's from there.

[01:23:42] But they said, I mean, they do say he isn't a Subahran.

[01:23:46] So maybe that is.

[01:23:47] Yeah, but I think because he has a tattoo and then they say that he just he was a mole.

[01:23:52] So I don't know. Maybe he wasn't born there. Maybe.

[01:23:56] And also like, again, I couldn't, the way I kind of read this is because of all the, you know, speaking in unison stuff.

[01:24:05] I read this is maybe they are maybe they are slightly telepathic somehow because they seem to be like using the singing to project emotions on to the virus.

[01:24:18] Yeah, there's something a little magic going on there.

[01:24:20] Yeah, you can't just there's not a sound wave that knocks someone out that we've discovered yet.

[01:24:25] But I think that's a cool world building detail.

[01:24:28] I like the singing.

[01:24:30] I mean, yeah.

[01:24:33] No, you're not buying the album.

[01:24:35] Well, I like I like it if they like explain what's going on.

[01:24:41] Okay. Yeah.

[01:24:43] I just like the music itself was nice. It was.

[01:24:46] It was.

[01:24:48] But yeah, I thought it was definitely it was suspicious the moment that they were like bring Dostoe and like, hmm, they're like, how can we have peace if we do not break bread together?

[01:24:58] Wink.

[01:25:00] Yeah, and when Halen asked Harmony to get Dostoe, did you see that Iris looks at Harmony and gives her like a little head shake?

[01:25:07] But I guess Harmony does it.

[01:25:08] Yeah.

[01:25:09] Well, remember Harmony is the Harmony is imprinted on Halen.

[01:25:12] Right. Exactly.

[01:25:13] Yeah.

[01:25:14] But Iris was like, no, this is not a good idea.

[01:25:17] And then we get the whole story about how Lino's mother, you know, was on this crew with one of them and they worked on it for seven years and she'd sneak off to see her son.

[01:25:31] And she worked on the reactor level until her hair fell out and he promised he'd look out for little Lino and saved him from the soldiers only to have Dostoe throw him from the ship.

[01:25:42] And Dostoe just says, we all lost people and they all seem remarkably cool.

[01:25:47] Like I have to give them credit for keeping their cool when you response to the story with like, we've all lost people.

[01:25:54] Like, let's sing a song of sorrow.

[01:25:57] And I don't know, Luke.

[01:26:00] So I don't know if you're getting the CD, but I know a lot of people who would love a song that just knocks them out like that.

[01:26:06] Yeah. Also really good, really good piece of acting from Stephen James and Ellen Wong.

[01:26:13] Really good piece of acting to react to.

[01:26:19] Yeah. They start crying.

[01:26:20] I'm not seeing that song live.

[01:26:23] Presumably that's ADR or...

[01:26:26] Yeah, maybe they were playing it while they were.

[01:26:29] But it was because at first you think that they're just overcome with emotion and then you're like, oh wait, no, they're clutching their heads, something weird is going on and they pass out.

[01:26:39] And then there's a wake up song.

[01:26:41] And they're like making sounds like wild animals, but there aren't animals on Sabara, right?

[01:26:46] How do they know what that sounds like without computers?

[01:26:49] Yeah.

[01:26:51] I don't know. I have questions. They're all lying.

[01:26:55] But Halen and Iris, they are tied up and dangling in the gravity well.

[01:27:00] But where's Dasto? Do you think he's already dead?

[01:27:03] Yeah, I think they've already taken his head at that point to be honest.

[01:27:07] I don't know. Do you think, do you fear for Halen and Iris?

[01:27:12] Well, you probably should, but given that with two episodes from the end of the season and one of them is the main character, I think they've got pretty decent plot armor.

[01:27:24] I figure that the Sabarans just want them out of the way so they can do what they want.

[01:27:29] Yeah, to dismantle the beacon.

[01:27:31] Yeah, they're not going to kill them, but they'll just leave them in a stripped down beacon with a headless body.

[01:27:40] Yeah.

[01:27:42] Okay, so that brings us to the final episode of this batch is Luan Casca.

[01:27:47] So that seems to be Irish for Easter Monday.

[01:27:51] But why that name? Why do you think they would name it Easter Monday and why in Irish?

[01:27:58] No, I got no, I was trying to think of something clever, but no, I got nothing.

[01:28:05] I have to give the credit to the three hosts in a beacon podcast.

[01:28:11] I listened to their episode this week and one of them said maybe something about resurrection. So I don't know.

[01:28:18] It seems a bit of a stretch, but maybe.

[01:28:22] I do not know. There is nothing in the script with this name, cannot.

[01:28:27] Maybe I wonder if it's like a quote from something literary because previously there were things that were quotes from Shakespeare and things like that.

[01:28:35] So if anyone if anyone at home happens to know, please put us out of our curiosity.

[01:28:41] Yeah.

[01:28:42] Let us know.

[01:28:44] But anyway, this episode was written by Michaela Gingrey and Nate Omahoney and Gingrey.

[01:28:50] This is her only credit on IMDb and Omahoney has written a couple of shorts and was working as a writing assistant on Homelander and other shows and a production system on many more before that.

[01:29:02] And it was directed by Lewin Webb, who's a producer on The Expanse and other shows and films.

[01:29:09] So we got the previously on reminder, which gives us a few helpful tidbits of information.

[01:29:14] First of all, reminding us that QTA partnered with ISA to develop the first dark matter detection system, aka the beacons, and reminding us that so yeah, this is just kind of solidifying that they are.

[01:29:27] They've always been working along basically.

[01:29:29] And Astor's dad said what happened would follow them up for the rest of their lives and her mother gave her that necklace with the pendant in the shape of a silicate crystal.

[01:29:39] Coley called Astor street trash from Menalaus because Coley was a bitch and Astor's mother managed to get her out when their colony collapsed but never followed.

[01:29:49] Do you think it's possible Astor's mother is still out there somewhere?

[01:29:53] Yeah, I mean, it's not likely, but it's possible.

[01:29:57] I just wonder if you know they draw attention to it.

[01:30:01] Just the way she said, she got me out.

[01:30:05] She was supposed to follow but never did.

[01:30:07] Yeah, it could just be I could be overthinking it.

[01:30:09] But this is a show that asks that of you.

[01:30:12] It kind of does invite you to overthink stuff.

[01:30:15] Right. Exactly.

[01:30:17] This episode takes place in the past and on another beacon.

[01:30:21] So we've got a teenage Astor played by Hannah Melissa Scott on beacon 90 with a keeper named Jocko played by John Kapelos.

[01:30:30] And Astor shows up apparently a month early for training kind of openly willing beacon 49 keeper to die so she can take her spot.

[01:30:39] Okay.

[01:30:41] Astor is definitely lying though about at least some of this, but she does seem to know the beacon well and she impresses the keeper.

[01:30:48] What did you think of teen Astor?

[01:30:50] I thought she gave on the whole a really good performance.

[01:30:56] I do have a couple of quibbles.

[01:30:58] Like, I know it was supposed to I know they want a shorthand to remind to let the audience know that this is Astor, but would she really be wearing her hair the same like for the past 20 years?

[01:31:13] She's a practical woman.

[01:31:16] Yeah. And also, I found it slightly took me out of the episode.

[01:31:23] And I do admit I am really finicky about stuff like this.

[01:31:27] I am really like overly drawn to stuff like this, but her accents.

[01:31:33] She kept trying to do like the leaner head voice and she sort of drifted in and out of it.

[01:31:39] Right.

[01:31:40] Throughout the whole episode, which I found I did find a little bit distracting.

[01:31:44] So right before I saw the episode, I happened to see a tweet from Lena Headey stand where they said that the actress did great mimicking Lena Headey's as Astor's mannerisms, you know, way of saying things, a way of positioning, things like that.

[01:32:03] But that the accent was distracting because she was trying so hard.

[01:32:08] She was speaking quietly the whole time.

[01:32:11] Yeah, I'm like, I freely admit I'm like overly bothered by stuff like this.

[01:32:19] I am a little bit anal about accents.

[01:32:22] No, it was something that I thought of especially because I saw the tweet right before.

[01:32:26] But yeah, no overall. And Lena Headey stands absolutely right. She gets the physical mannerisms of a teenage Astor down very, very well.

[01:32:35] Yeah, no, you believe it. Definitely.

[01:32:38] I do notice she shows her name right away and she obviously knows Jaco's name.

[01:32:43] So I guess that rule that you can't exchange names isn't in place yet.

[01:32:47] I always wonder whenever there's a rule like that, I'm always like what happened that made them add that rule?

[01:32:53] Yeah, because clearly they've rewritten the rule books because the rule about intimate relationships wasn't there when Astor's parents.

[01:33:03] Well, they did say they did say in that episode that they only allowed it for infertile couples.

[01:33:10] Yeah, but there wasn't a rule against relationships.

[01:33:13] Right, but they had rules adjacent to that.

[01:33:16] Yeah.

[01:33:18] Yeah, it makes me wonder what has changed over time.

[01:33:22] But Astor's charm has not changed and it's on full display with a round of old fashions in the cards after she disarms Jaco's dad mode.

[01:33:32] I've got to ask because I don't know and I'm curious.

[01:33:36] What's in the know? Do you know what's in an old fashion?

[01:33:38] I'm going to tell you because I'm going to look it up.

[01:33:40] It's not a drink that I've tried it.

[01:33:42] It's okay, but it's not one that I personally gravitate to.

[01:33:48] It's bourbon rye.

[01:33:51] Oh yeah, so bourbon rye or blended whiskey.

[01:33:54] Yeah, so bourbon because it's a Kentucky drink and simple syrup, water, bitters, ice and like you can garnish it with an orange slice or American or cherry.

[01:34:06] It's basically like sweetened bourbon.

[01:34:10] Okay, yeah, I'm not going to.

[01:34:14] It's not going to be your next drink order?

[01:34:16] No, I don't like bourbon, I don't like whiskey.

[01:34:20] But it shows you who Astor is already.

[01:34:23] It really does.

[01:34:25] I guess she's supposed to be a teenager here.

[01:34:27] Yeah.

[01:34:29] So Astor shares that she doesn't know what became of her dad.

[01:34:32] We do know that he was arrested for his activities on the Beacon.

[01:34:35] We learned that last season.

[01:34:37] I'm wondering if this is a thread that they're going to close in the next two episodes since they brought him up.

[01:34:42] I would very much like it if they did.

[01:34:45] I loved Astor's parents.

[01:34:47] I want to know more about Astor's parents.

[01:34:49] Yeah, I agree.

[01:34:51] We also learned that Jaco has sidelined his AI, Oli, who by the way, all the AI except for the main ones go uncredited in this show.

[01:34:59] And I'm like, hmm, sus.

[01:35:02] Yeah.

[01:35:03] Also, I love in the episode later on in the episode where they're trying to figure something out and Oli's going, well, if you'd given me more permissions, I could be of more help.

[01:35:12] Exactly.

[01:35:14] Yeah.

[01:35:15] So we find out Jaco prefers to do most of the work himself, he says.

[01:35:19] And I'm guessing this is at least partly because of his little experiments.

[01:35:23] But it reminds me of what Harmony said in the last episode about humans rejecting them.

[01:35:28] And it's also interesting.

[01:35:30] This is also something Solomon would do.

[01:35:32] He would lock Bart out so he could do his experiments.

[01:35:37] Maybe I'm overthinking this, but Oli seemed to have less of a personality than Zhang or Bart.

[01:35:45] So I do wonder like if the AI, basically if AI are like children, you know, the more you interact with them, the more you develop.

[01:35:55] The more you help their character development.

[01:35:57] Yeah, she does say that it's very frustrating.

[01:36:00] I have so much more to offer.

[01:36:03] So he's feeling frustrated.

[01:36:05] That is an emotion, even despite the minimal interaction.

[01:36:09] Yeah.

[01:36:10] And like he said, there was the sass later too.

[01:36:12] Yeah, I do just love the passive aggressive.

[01:36:14] Well, if you'd given me more permissions, I could be of more help.

[01:36:17] Yeah, it's true.

[01:36:19] True story, Oli.

[01:36:21] If you were a beacon AI, who would you rather was your keeper between Jaco, Iris or any of the beacon keepers we met last season, which includes Dr. Ray Avalon, Dr. Rie Avalon, Aster's family or Sophie?

[01:36:35] I'm not even going to ask about Solomon.

[01:36:37] I think Sophie.

[01:36:38] I think the lady making Serapis.

[01:36:41] She seemed really cool and she knows how to use a loom and she'd look after me if I was sick.

[01:36:49] Yeah, and she does seem like the best.

[01:36:52] Just don't like kill anyone in front of her and you should be good.

[01:36:55] Yeah, we should.

[01:36:56] We should be good.

[01:36:57] I mean, although seems pretty cool as well.

[01:37:00] Yeah.

[01:37:01] Yeah.

[01:37:02] I know.

[01:37:03] Although you get free concerts all the time.

[01:37:05] Yeah.

[01:37:06] Rie Avalon seemed cool too.

[01:37:07] And Aster's family, you got Aster with the package.

[01:37:10] Yeah.

[01:37:11] You play hide and seek.

[01:37:12] Yeah.

[01:37:13] Maybe maybe I would go for that one.

[01:37:15] Like a lively beacon.

[01:37:17] But as Jaco tells Aster, it's unhealthy to become emotionally reliant.

[01:37:25] They can become very addictive.

[01:37:26] It's a crutch.

[01:37:27] And she's got to be thinking about Harmony at this point because I guess she bonded with Harmony before this, I'm guessing,

[01:37:34] because it was like right after she was separated from her mom.

[01:37:38] So I'm guessing she left Harmony behind somewhere or she's not using her fully or.

[01:37:43] Well, I mean, given how the episode played out, she may not have wanted to get Harmony in trouble given what she was sent there to do.

[01:37:53] And also I thought the line about them being an emotional crutch and you becoming dependent on them as somebody who's had an A-L-E-X-A for the past six months.

[01:38:08] Yeah, I've become pretty dependent on the calendar and the alarms.

[01:38:13] And that's the most basic form of AI you could get.

[01:38:18] So if I had something like Bart or Shang, yeah, I become dependent on it really quickly.

[01:38:25] Yeah.

[01:38:26] Sometimes I ask her for the time, even though like I have a clock right in front of me.

[01:38:31] We learn also that there was once an AI named Roland from Beacon 2 who classified their beacon keeper as a biohazard and tried to kill them.

[01:38:40] And I have to ask, did Bart know about this?

[01:38:44] Yeah, I don't think they tried to kill them.

[01:38:46] I think they succeeded.

[01:38:48] No, I thought that they disarmed.

[01:38:50] No, because they managed to kill the beacon keeper.

[01:38:55] So they put in like a kill switch to disarm the AI to stop that.

[01:39:00] I thought that they tried to.

[01:39:02] Oh, well, but any case, it was the original murderous AI Bart.

[01:39:08] And we also learned Jaco fell into the beacon keeper life.

[01:39:11] So don't tell Iris he didn't see it as a calling.

[01:39:15] So he was helping and then eventually replacing a friend who is apparently getting belligerent with ISA.

[01:39:21] So sounds like they were on the beacon together for a while.

[01:39:25] Do you, is there anything weird about this story to you?

[01:39:29] Yeah, I'm not sure that story entirely tracked, particularly given what we find out later on in the episode.

[01:39:38] Mm hmm.

[01:39:39] I think it would make sense from the beacon keeper's point of view to not give too much away about his background.

[01:39:47] So he probably has this story ready made if somebody were to ask.

[01:39:54] Yeah.

[01:39:55] Yeah, given given what he's doing.

[01:39:58] So this probably was somebody he knew somewhere previously, but he's just sort of appropriated that story and put it on the beacon.

[01:40:08] If that makes sense.

[01:40:10] Yeah.

[01:40:11] I wonder if I'm just like now looking too much for for suspiciousness everywhere.

[01:40:17] But again, the way the show is structured, it invites you to do that.

[01:40:23] Mm hmm.

[01:40:24] I think that's a good sign that the show is working.

[01:40:27] It's having the proper effect.

[01:40:30] Well, we certainly know that Aster is lying because she was and this was one thing that the young actress does well, that Lena Headey did well, is just the casually lying and just being very good liar.

[01:40:43] Just a very convincing liar.

[01:40:45] And so he asked her why she wants to do this, a young girl with her life ahead of her.

[01:40:49] And she says security.

[01:40:50] And I think this is a lie, but I think that the reason why her lies work is because there's always a fine line of truth at the bottom of them, you know, like that she really did come from this background where her home was destroyed and she probably does want some security.

[01:41:06] And I'm sure the beacon must feel like home though she doesn't remember why.

[01:41:10] Yeah, I mean, the best lies have always got a little bit of truth.

[01:41:15] Exactly.

[01:41:16] And then after she says after Menelaus she was in Birza, which gets wide eyes from Jaco and it turns out that he was a savior of Birza.

[01:41:25] So he was defying orders and lifted refugees out including Aster and she says that this is why she's here.

[01:41:33] So I guess he used to be in the military?

[01:41:36] Yeah, the military or like...

[01:41:40] Or he was just like some bounty hunter or something.

[01:41:43] Or like some branch of ISA maybe.

[01:41:47] I don't think it's particularly clear.

[01:41:49] Like I've got to say if I were in this universe, I'd be in the column.

[01:41:53] Like clearly this whole colonization process is going seriously wrong.

[01:41:59] The column is getting more and more sympathetic.

[01:42:01] Yeah, just like stop, slow down.

[01:42:03] Clearly you're not doing whatever you're doing.

[01:42:08] Develop the technology to grow food.

[01:42:10] Yeah.

[01:42:11] Yeah, OK.

[01:42:12] No, I guess he's not in the military because then he says scads sabotaged the evacuation.

[01:42:18] So scads, I guess, are a type of soldier.

[01:42:21] Yeah.

[01:42:22] The only context in which I've heard scad is to mean like slang for lots of something.

[01:42:30] There was scads.

[01:42:31] Yeah. OK. Yeah.

[01:42:32] Maybe there are swarms of them.

[01:42:34] So there's scads.

[01:42:35] Yeah.

[01:42:36] But yeah, then so he flew through a dogfight and hotwired or talked someone through hotwiring an abandoned commercial hauler.

[01:42:44] The cloud burst and conducted the largest airlift since a past event on a place called Edemion.

[01:42:50] And Aster was one of the ones that he saved.

[01:42:53] So that creates an interesting dynamic for everything that follows after that because she's come here it seems we find later to I don't know why she's come here.

[01:43:05] Like, did she actually want to become a beacon keeper so that she could help people, you know, help the ships go through?

[01:43:12] Or like was that part of their plan or was she just here waiting for a situation like the one that arises where she has to.

[01:43:20] I think no, I think it was more specific than that.

[01:43:23] I think they whoever Aster is working for at this point, I think they kind of anticipated that there was going to be this traffic jam with the military ship and the food convoy.

[01:43:34] And they wanted somebody on the beacon to make sure that the food convoy got wherever it was going.

[01:43:39] Right. Could be because I mean, she's there a month early, but she but it must this is something that took some time to set up because you had to learn the whole beacon thing.

[01:43:50] But Aster, she finds the locked airlock and Jaco says he's just using it for overflow storage.

[01:43:57] Nothing to look at here and stop quoting regulations at me, Missy.

[01:44:01] But they're interrupted by an alert that the two ships are on a collision course, which is a rare occurrence.

[01:44:06] But they have to decide which one gets priority.

[01:44:09] One is a food transport X 12 for distant colonies in the Zeta Quadrant.

[01:44:14] The other is UGMC Agrippa and the MC is supposed to get priority in FTL lanes.

[01:44:22] But the food transport has already been rerouted once because of that.

[01:44:26] And this would further delay their shipment for months, which Aster fears would lead to more deaths of people like her.

[01:44:32] And she says the military can wait since they're probably just going to kill more innocent people stealing food to survive.

[01:44:39] So this this is more.

[01:44:42] Well, it's not even know this is not a trolley problem either.

[01:44:46] It's just a morality issue.

[01:44:48] Do you follow orders?

[01:44:50] It's just a traffic management problem.

[01:44:52] Traffic management problem.

[01:44:54] True.

[01:44:56] So it's interesting.

[01:44:57] The ship's called Agrippa because Agrippa was a Roman emperor who was known for military conquests, particularly for against.

[01:45:06] He fought Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

[01:45:09] It's a name that crops up a lot in science fiction.

[01:45:14] And it's a name that crops up a lot as a name of warship as well.

[01:45:17] Right. Yeah, he's a conqueror.

[01:45:19] I can think of at least three or four other examples of an Agrippa, a ship called Agrippa for that reason.

[01:45:26] In this case, they did name the ship that on purpose.

[01:45:30] It's also interesting since Jaco made a big deal about running everything himself and not depending on his AI, really emphasizes that this is his choice to make.

[01:45:38] And he was not going to make necessarily the moral one, although it becomes more complicated when we learn more about his situation.

[01:45:46] Yeah.

[01:45:47] And it's interesting.

[01:45:48] He makes an Odyssey comparison about piloting tight spaces and then.

[01:45:54] But Odysseus made it, but his entire crew died.

[01:45:57] So is this story signifying his willingness to sacrifice others?

[01:46:02] I mean, I hadn't thought about it, but yes.

[01:46:06] Yes, it seems it seems like he's changed since he was a savior of Bersa.

[01:46:13] I mean, I guess people tend to get more conservative with age and he's been doing this so long.

[01:46:19] Maybe he doesn't question it.

[01:46:21] And of course, as we said, there's more complications.

[01:46:23] I don't think it's.

[01:46:28] I don't think it's that.

[01:46:29] I think it's more that when he has the opportunity to do the right thing without bad consequences happening to himself, he will do it.

[01:46:41] But he's not prepared and most people are.

[01:46:45] He's not prepared to take the risk of, you know, I might come if there's a choice between doing the right thing and coming to personal harm.

[01:46:53] I'm going to take the course of least resistance.

[01:46:56] But with the thing at Bersa, like he could do the right thing, not risk free, but at less risk to himself than than solving the issue with the ship.

[01:47:09] Right.

[01:47:10] Doing the right thing about what we find out later.

[01:47:13] Right.

[01:47:14] Yeah.

[01:47:15] No, no.

[01:47:17] I mean, I guess it does get more complicated as the episode goes on.

[01:47:21] But this is maybe actually I should say this is my first episode, my first in the rankings of these three because it does have some of the more complicated moral quandaries, which I like.

[01:47:36] And I thought of it as like a it's almost like a three act play.

[01:47:41] It's very, very self contained.

[01:47:44] Like you could watch that episode and know nothing about anything else that's happened in the series and find that can find that episode completely satisfying.

[01:47:52] Right.

[01:47:53] And that's been the case with this show so far with the flashback episodes there.

[01:47:59] Yeah.

[01:48:00] Except this one ended in a cliffhanger.

[01:48:03] But anyway, so Astor pulls a gun and she actually I love that they list would start with she lists what starvation looks like because that's not something people usually think about.

[01:48:15] But she talks about how cracked skin, bloated stomach lesions, you know, that it's just adds to it's not just that you're hungry.

[01:48:22] It's the yeah, I don't do it anymore.

[01:48:26] But I used to do I used to do a couple of lectures on food security.

[01:48:31] And that was my that was my opening.

[01:48:34] My opening sort of 10 minutes was this is what starvation is.

[01:48:38] This is what it looks like.

[01:48:40] This is what the human body.

[01:48:42] So that was yeah, that was accurate.

[01:48:45] That was yeah, that that is completely accurate.

[01:48:49] Jaco says now the military will dispatch a team to investigate.

[01:48:53] Not great news for someone who's locked up a soldier to experiment on.

[01:48:57] And he says they'll find you.

[01:48:59] Aleph has a long memory.

[01:49:01] I'm guessing this whole situation ends with her working for Aleph.

[01:49:05] So even Astor goes from being a revolutionary to working for the man.

[01:49:09] Yeah, well, Aleph tends to get what he wants in the end.

[01:49:13] Hmm. Yeah. And Astor shares a story of when soldiers came to her hovel with her mom ransacking and looting and how she saw them drag her mom into her room or pantry, something.

[01:49:25] So she she asks, what more can the soldiers do to me?

[01:49:29] And Jaco says there's a lot more groups out there taking a stand.

[01:49:33] Which one are you a part of?

[01:49:35] We don't have a name, just some mates.

[01:49:37] So I'm getting the feeling that Astor co-founded the column, which would explain Keir's behavior toward her.

[01:49:43] What do you think?

[01:49:46] But I'm wondering if all these these different groups, if they might have coalesced into the column or if there's still different revolutionary groups out there.

[01:49:56] I don't think Astor founded the column because when she's talking to Keir, it's not like I don't get the impression that she's like that she is fully down with the ideology of the column.

[01:50:07] No, maybe that came later.

[01:50:09] Yeah, exactly. But just because you can found something and then it gets away from you, you know?

[01:50:14] Yeah, that's that's that's entirely that's yeah, that's entirely possible.

[01:50:19] Although, like it struck me that the column has like a very well defined ideology, almost to the point of it being religious faith.

[01:50:30] And I think that would be it would be quite difficult to get that point in maybe.

[01:50:34] But that was that was how Keir interpreted it.

[01:50:37] Is that how everyone does? Because it didn't seem like Saldana and Finch felt exactly the same way.

[01:50:45] Yeah, it's it's it's possible. I guess it's possible.

[01:50:50] She says we know we can't win, but that doesn't mean we have to take it either.

[01:50:55] And Jaco respects her balls, which gives him hope, which gives me hope in him.

[01:51:00] The fact that because this whole time, you know, he's he's like, I know I've been doing some questionable things, but like it gives me hope to see your young vigor.

[01:51:10] But then he also says, I really hope that your generation can change something, but you won't.

[01:51:15] It's a lost cause. Do you do you believe that's true in general?

[01:51:20] Yes, that's a that's a big question to ask.

[01:51:27] I just I hope it's not. I'll just say that. I hope it's not true.

[01:51:30] I mean, things do things do get better over decades, over centuries.

[01:51:35] I mean, I sometimes we backslide.

[01:51:39] I think human nature is what it is. I don't think it changes very much.

[01:51:44] Yeah. Over time.

[01:51:47] And one of the things is I sort of open with my first lecture, because obviously I teach military history,

[01:51:55] is that whatever human beings have existed as collectives, those collectives are for one another.

[01:52:01] And like some of the some of the earliest literature is military history.

[01:52:06] So if you're if you're looking at Thucydides or Sun Tzu, you're going back thousands of years.

[01:52:12] So I'm not particularly optimistic about human nature.

[01:52:18] But that being said, things do get better very, very slowly and incrementally.

[01:52:25] Right. Yeah, I was actually called a cynic this morning.

[01:52:30] I've become I've gotten more cynical as I've gotten older and maybe just in recent years.

[01:52:36] But like like Jocko.

[01:52:40] I didn't know I didn't know you and Alicia. But the last thing you want, the last thing you strike me as a cynical.

[01:52:46] Well, it depends. It depends on the day.

[01:52:49] It does sometimes feel like that you see people doing the same things over and over again and not learning the lessons or not applying the learnings.

[01:52:59] But anyway, this this is a dark show. Dark thoughts.

[01:53:05] I'm going to say this is this episode in particular does really invite you to like ask some really dark questions.

[01:53:14] It's going to be me rocking back and forth in the corner with a glass of wine later.

[01:53:18] No, I'm just kidding. I'm fine.

[01:53:21] But so OK, so Astor locks up Jocko and goes to investigate the airlock situation where she finds a soldier tied up with tubes going into his neck and arm.

[01:53:30] Super gross. Very like that squishy tech that they use.

[01:53:35] Yeah, but he's conscious and can talk, which is the worst part for the prisoner because he's been like awake through all this for how long?

[01:53:44] Yeah. And he's been we don't find out exactly how he doesn't know since he's been there a long time.

[01:53:50] Yeah, he doesn't seem to know.

[01:53:53] I think at this point of Jocko had just told her everything. He might have saved them all some trouble.

[01:53:58] Yeah, but then the episode would have ended.

[01:54:02] It does escalate quite a lot.

[01:54:04] It's your old thing of clear communication.

[01:54:07] Yes, exactly. Jocko seems to agree like when he gives us the whole diatribe about this guy is even worse than the soldiers who dragged Astor's mother into the closet.

[01:54:20] Do you it seems like Jocko seems to agree after all that soldiers are up to no good after Astor saying earlier that they just going to go kill people who steal food because they're hungry.

[01:54:32] Yeah, I guess I think he was just saying all that stuff earlier to prevent an investigation from the military.

[01:54:39] Yeah, I mean, I think Jocko is the he's the classic.

[01:54:42] I was just following orders. Right.

[01:54:46] Defense. He's not doing these things because he is particularly cruel or a sadist and he doesn't have any he doesn't have any curiosity about what he's doing now that doesn't that doesn't excuse it.

[01:55:04] Some of the worst things in history have been done on the excuse of I was just following orders.

[01:55:08] But right. That's how that's how Jocko lives lives with what he's doing.

[01:55:14] Right. That's how you know, that's how a lot of people have justified a lot of things.

[01:55:20] Right. Throughout history.

[01:55:22] Yeah.

[01:55:24] So Astor locks herself in with with the prisoner, and we find out his name is Seren, a play by Milton Barnes and she disables Ali's AI access and if Ali tries to override the airlock will open and Astor and Seren will both be sucked out.

[01:55:45] But Ali notified QTA about what's going on because she had to and Jocko isn't happy about this.

[01:55:52] So Seren says he stopped here to make repairs to a damaged ship and this happened to him.

[01:55:57] So OK, here's my understanding of what all went down and add or correct as you see fit.

[01:56:05] It sounds like he, Aleph is having the beacon keepers perform experiments like kidnap soldiers and perform experiments on them so that he can develop these implants.

[01:56:23] But the military I guess they must all the military must be in on in on in on it as well.

[01:56:31] Yeah, and I got the impression that Seren like initially volunteered and now wish that he hadn't.

[01:56:39] But he I believe Seren when he said that he was just knocked out and woke up like this.

[01:56:44] But he says later on in the episode I knew what I was doing.

[01:56:51] Yeah, but when he joined the military.

[01:56:54] Oh, OK. I thought that was OK.

[01:56:58] I misunderstood I misunderstood that bit.

[01:57:02] Astor he wants to get out of these tubes, of course, and Astor is afraid if she yanks out the tubes it will hurt him.

[01:57:08] But it doesn't when she ultimately does.

[01:57:10] And Seren is also making very clear that he just wants he wants to hurt Jocko.

[01:57:14] That's his number one priority at the moment.

[01:57:17] Astor calls one of her buddies Darlene, played by Diane Johnstone,

[01:57:22] who's flying dark to swoop in and extract Astor from her little rescue the food transport situation.

[01:57:30] But the UGMC Douglas town is en route.

[01:57:34] It's a class two gunship coming to respond to Ali's call.

[01:57:40] And Jocko says that Seren is his patient and he has he's a killing machine shaped by implants, false memories.

[01:57:51] Obviously, this is kind of setting us up to think about Halen, who must have gone through similar.

[01:57:57] And this guy is, quote unquote, fed a steady diet of misinformation to rewire his brain.

[01:58:03] It refers Clockwork Orange because Clockwork Orange is where like you see the eyes pinned open

[01:58:09] and they have to watch things to become less violent.

[01:58:13] And in this case, they're trying to make them more violent.

[01:58:15] Yeah. And they're like feeding them excess food and stuff.

[01:58:21] Yeah. Yeah. And there's implants.

[01:58:25] And Jocko believes Aleph thinks that these soldiers are the key to winning, I guess,

[01:58:30] because this like brainwashing shows that they can rewire human brains so that Aleph,

[01:58:36] like the only way to kill the rebellion Aleph thinks is to brainwash the survivors.

[01:58:42] Yeah. Or just like create a load of super soldiers.

[01:58:47] Yeah. But then they said something like that you can't you can just wipe everyone out,

[01:58:54] but that doesn't win the war. The only way to win the war is by doing this.

[01:58:57] Something like that.

[01:58:58] Yeah. I'm not sure Aleph thought this all the way through.

[01:59:03] Well, but I think it's true because like I said before, if you just keep killing people,

[01:59:08] well, you're either just like have to kill all of them or the people left are going to fight back.

[01:59:15] Yeah. But I mean, I'm not sure Aleph has got any particular compunction about just killing him.

[01:59:22] Yeah. But if he can, but if he he's still like, you know, he's a hero of his own story,

[01:59:28] like every villain, he thinks if you can brainwash someone, then he can just tell them how to think

[01:59:35] and everything, you know, they all agree with him.

[01:59:37] Yeah.

[01:59:40] So Jocko confirms that Beegans really are Aleph's toys, not the QTAs,

[01:59:45] and that he also controls the military and says her her parents must have been part of it

[01:59:50] if they were scientists. Do you think that's true? That Aster's parents were involved in this in some way?

[01:59:56] They could be. I mean, they were on they were involved in it to the extent that they were beacon keepers.

[02:00:03] They were on the beacon. So there is that.

[02:00:11] And I mean, there's a difference between being involved and being like knowingly involved.

[02:00:17] Yeah.

[02:00:19] But no, I don't I don't think either of them would have like knowingly done anything like knowingly done anything like as immoral as this.

[02:00:31] Right. Jocko says though that he's been secretly sabotaging the QTAs work actually purposefully not following instructions properly, undoing things he did, lying about the results.

[02:00:46] He says like Penelope at a loom in the night, which is another a lot of classical references.

[02:00:54] But yeah, Aster calls him cruel and he says he did what he had to do.

[02:00:59] But honestly, if he's slowing the program, that's bigger than Aster's stunt with a supply ship.

[02:01:06] But how many other beacon keepers are doing the same work?

[02:01:09] So how much does his sabotaging, you know, actually have an effect?

[02:01:16] Yeah. I mean, I certainly not all the beacon keepers are doing this because they wouldn't have the they wouldn't all have the skill set to be able to do it.

[02:01:30] I don't think so.

[02:01:33] It's probably it's probably a few beacon keepers.

[02:01:37] So I guess it would actually have some kind of measurable impact.

[02:01:41] But one measurable impact we find out about is that because he's been sabotaging the results, the results are really wonky and he was told to terminate the experiment as in kill Saren and he couldn't do it.

[02:01:56] So that's actually it's kind of mercy that Saren still alive right now.

[02:02:02] But he I guess he just didn't know what to do.

[02:02:04] Yeah. But also, do we mean he couldn't do it morally or he couldn't do it?

[02:02:11] I think he couldn't do it morally.

[02:02:13] I think it would have been easy for him to physically do it because he had him strapped down.

[02:02:18] Turn off the air in the airlock.

[02:02:20] Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[02:02:23] Yeah. And so but Saren's like, I'm a good guy.

[02:02:26] I just want to kill this guy who's been torturing me and just go like super innocent like and he tells her this whole sob story.

[02:02:34] We found out later is false about joining the military because he was a lowly engineer digging ditches who got hurt.

[02:02:39] And this was his way out of the hospital.

[02:02:42] And the audience first knows that Saren's definitely lying when he fakes being in pain so that Aster will pull out the tubes.

[02:02:48] And then we cut to Jaco sitting in his room innocently looking around like what the fuck's going on?

[02:02:55] But now Aster tells Saren she's not going to let him kill Jaco after all, but she'll take him away on the ship with her.

[02:03:01] And Saren super heals.

[02:03:03] He gets real threatening and tells her the truth.

[02:03:06] He's in the military because he likes power and violence.

[02:03:09] He was early strike force ESF, the kind of people who did the looting Aster talked about earlier.

[02:03:16] The best of the worst, the worst of the best.

[02:03:18] But he doesn't make any attempt to hurt Aster yet.

[02:03:22] And coincidentally, what was his story?

[02:03:26] He's also from Menelaus or he just crashed there?

[02:03:29] He just crashed there I think.

[02:03:31] OK. And he's blaming mob rule for the final collapse that a transport went down.

[02:03:36] But wondering how did a mob make a transport go down?

[02:03:40] I'm guessing the transport was trying to take off.

[02:03:44] Too many people were trying to get on board and it sort of crashed at the end of a runway kind of thing.

[02:03:51] But it actually makes sense if details in this story don't make sense because he says he crashed into Manjaro 9, which and she responds there is no Manjaro 9.

[02:04:03] Look it up.

[02:04:04] So this seems to be an implanted memory.

[02:04:07] So I guess he wasn't really on Menelaus after all or maybe he was and who knows?

[02:04:12] He's talking a bit Total Recall.

[02:04:15] Yeah.

[02:04:16] Oh, I love Total Recall actually.

[02:04:18] And she's like my mother had a name because they're arguing.

[02:04:21] He's like who cares about your mother?

[02:04:23] And then he's like I'm sorry that was mean.

[02:04:25] But she's like my mother had a name.

[02:04:26] Her name is Nisha.

[02:04:27] My dad once called her something else, which we know is Grisha.

[02:04:31] They didn't really change it much.

[02:04:33] But yeah, so there's those lingering memories in the back of her head.

[02:04:38] And the whole standoff finally comes to a head when Aster's friend shows up and Siren's anger takes over and he chokes Aster until she pokes him in the eye with her pendant.

[02:04:48] Which like you could have just poked him with your finger.

[02:04:50] But I guess we want to be reminded about the pendant.

[02:04:54] And she tells her friend Darlene to run and they can't risk letting Siren out.

[02:04:58] And Darlene lets Jaco out instead since he's like just let me have him so you two can go.

[02:05:05] Siren says the QTA will turn Jaco over to the military anyway, meaning turn Jaco over to Siren.

[02:05:13] But Jaco thinks the QTA, they think Siren's too deranged.

[02:05:17] They're going to terminate him because he was literally told to do that.

[02:05:21] Do you feel sorry for either Siren or Jaco?

[02:05:25] No.

[02:05:26] No, I don't think I do.

[02:05:29] I feel a little bit sorry for Jaco more, I guess.

[02:05:35] But yeah, Siren kind of I feel sorry even though Siren wanted to be in the military so that he could like bust things.

[02:05:45] I still feel bad for him being tricked into this medical experimentation situation.

[02:05:54] Yeah, no, I don't feel sorry for anything.

[02:06:00] All right.

[02:06:01] So Jaco says he got cynical because he was asked to do things like this,

[02:06:06] but he wants to make amends and sacrifice himself and get the other two out.

[02:06:10] And Aster wants him to go with Darlene and QTA wants Aster to release her prisoners and turn herself in.

[02:06:17] And the episode ends.

[02:06:20] So which cliffhanger do you think we'll pick up with next time?

[02:06:23] This one or the previous episode?

[02:06:28] I'm going to say the previous episode.

[02:06:31] OK, all right.

[02:06:32] Yeah, like I just have a sense that they're going to want to leave us on the episode six cliff for just a little bit longer.

[02:06:42] I think this might have something to do with like the way everything finally plays out.

[02:06:49] Maybe they I mean, I don't know if they would end the last episode on a flashback.

[02:06:55] You know, maybe they won't even go back to this on screen, but just kind of like tell us what happened next.

[02:07:03] Just allude to it.

[02:07:05] Or maybe they do like two different timelines in the same episodes.

[02:07:10] We've got a present day timeline and a past timeline.

[02:07:15] Yeah. OK.

[02:07:16] You're saying because so far they've done.

[02:07:18] I guess that's not true.

[02:07:20] They've woven together two different timelines in one episode.

[02:07:23] Yeah.

[02:07:24] Yeah, OK.

[02:07:26] They don't have teenage Aster in IMDB for the other episode.

[02:07:31] They actually have Lena Headey in for the finale.

[02:07:34] Oh yeah, I don't know.

[02:07:36] We'll see.

[02:07:37] We'll see.

[02:07:40] Obviously, IMDB take whatever is there with a grain of salt because random people put that in.

[02:07:47] OK, but we won't leave you listeners on a cliffhanger.

[02:07:52] We'll be right back with the community feedback and our own final thoughts after a quick break.

[02:07:59] The quantum tunneler has new messages.

[02:08:03] OK, so I again divided up the feedback by person rather than by episode.

[02:08:08] So we got Brian 8063 said after episode six that he would rank the episodes six first, then four, then five.

[02:08:20] What did you you said?

[02:08:21] Four, six, five.

[02:08:23] Yeah, four, six, five.

[02:08:25] OK, said Hannah Scott did a good job as young Aster.

[02:08:28] It is odd to have the two cliffhangers going at the same time.

[02:08:31] Yeah, for sure.

[02:08:34] So, have you said after in response to our last podcast?

[02:08:38] OK, if you say there are inspirations from the book, I believe you and will let you find them.

[02:08:42] Smiley face.

[02:08:44] I'm totally smarting over the news of there being no cricket in the show while I understand the lack from production budgetary reasons.

[02:08:51] That's why I gave up finding parallels.

[02:08:54] Well, in this chunk of episodes, like I said, I did not bring up the book.

[02:08:58] There was but you know, it's just doing its own thing now.

[02:09:02] Yeah.

[02:09:04] After episode four, she said got really creepy.

[02:09:06] What in the blob was that?

[02:09:08] And why is Iris touching it?

[02:09:10] And why does Hale and think that shooting it would do any good?

[02:09:13] AI rivalry is it that other one?

[02:09:16] Oh, Dev is jealous of Harmony for not for having not one but two imprints seems malevolent.

[02:09:23] So they scuttled the ship and stabilized the temp.

[02:09:26] But the alien blob is still there.

[02:09:28] Snowing in the beacon gave me GDT Crimson Peak vibes.

[02:09:32] Goth indeed.

[02:09:34] Yeah, it was fun vibes.

[02:09:37] I like the goth vibes this season.

[02:09:39] But why are they not wearing hats?

[02:09:42] Why no hats?

[02:09:44] After episode five, I would be so sad.

[02:09:46] I really didn't see what they were trying to do with the show anymore.

[02:09:48] No budget for cricket, but plenty for space pirates, which I pointed out that it's much cheaper.

[02:09:54] The costumes are super cheap for space pirates.

[02:09:56] Dev is creepy, all right.

[02:09:57] But those new faces are creepier than a needy AI.

[02:10:00] So they are stripping the beacon for parts to make a ship to sail away.

[02:10:04] Who knows where? Who knows why?

[02:10:06] Are they a sort of cult group like the ones in Foundation?

[02:10:09] Mass hypnosis?

[02:10:11] No, I think yeah, this is their culture.

[02:10:13] Like this is how they get by by just being a super solid unit.

[02:10:18] Now Hale and Iris seem to be prisoners.

[02:10:21] Classic bite the hand that feeds you.

[02:10:24] Do you still like them, Iris?

[02:10:26] She could withstand Dev's manipulation, but not the creepy song.

[02:10:30] Are these punks a stand in for the riff, which is an alien species from the book?

[02:10:35] Not aliens, just a different culture.

[02:10:37] I think that actually the silicate is a stand in for the riff.

[02:10:42] I think that that's the outside entity that's asking the main characters to think about their allegiances and the state of the universe.

[02:10:53] She says, not aliens, just a different culture.

[02:10:56] Being a smaller trolley problem, maybe we didn't need that set out loud, by the way.

[02:11:01] Trust your audience more.

[02:11:03] They never say the words trolley problem in the book.

[02:11:05] Well, well, after episode six.

[02:11:07] Well, well, another flashback episode.

[02:11:09] World is built with hammers.

[02:11:11] Hope all will somehow come together, but not sure.

[02:11:14] Not sure about the direction they are going if there is one.

[02:11:17] Maybe it's just the beacon directing and misdirecting how we perceive a show and how much plot, if any, we need.

[02:11:23] Next episode, maybe they finish the Aster memory and in the last resolve the space pirate crisis, but I could be wrong.

[02:11:31] One theory is that the leftover Rocky in Harlan's pocket may be responsible for the whole flashback thing as a way of reminding him of Aster.

[02:11:38] I think it was the portal, but I mean, Rocky has had effects, but I think the portal was bigger.

[02:11:43] Reminding him of Aster the good fight and that he is implanted isn't supposed to be a helpless himbo.

[02:11:49] Everyone moaning about the lack of Aster will be satisfied, maybe strong suspicion that they only miss Lena Headey.

[02:11:54] The young actress got it right though.

[02:11:56] She is Aster all the way down to the little mannerisms.

[02:11:59] Great work.

[02:12:00] We get more insight on the world's the military, ISA, QTA, interwoven codependency and conflicts.

[02:12:06] That guy being an enhanced one like Halen gives perspective on the Aster and Halen relationship.

[02:12:12] Yeah, so apparently Glamotaro said in the interview that I read that Lena Headey had when in the second episode of something of the first season,

[02:12:24] Halen pretends to attack her on camera to trick the people who have broken into the beacon.

[02:12:32] Lena Headey just kind of fought back extra strong and Glamotaro noticed that and thought like, well, why did she do that?

[02:12:40] Like when she should be going along with there's like a trauma response there.

[02:12:44] So he kind of thought about this episode as how to show why she might be like traumatized by the idea of someone like Halen.

[02:12:56] That's really interesting.

[02:12:58] Yeah.

[02:12:59] That's really interesting.

[02:13:04] Abby says I don't really have a standout performance for the episodes.

[02:13:07] They are all built up from hmm to OK, let's see to now what?

[02:13:11] So no idea where the season goes but we'll find out by the last episode hopefully in terms of interpersonal relationships, real and AI, isolation and the struggle to survive.

[02:13:23] Maybe you don't need a clear plot.

[02:13:25] What do you think?

[02:13:26] Yeah, maybe you don't.

[02:13:28] Lena Headey Stan says I feel like they completely lost its original plot.

[02:13:34] How will they be able to wrap up all of these storylines and only two remaining episodes?

[02:13:38] Plot lines like the records have been completely pointless and abandoned then.

[02:13:42] I mean, I guess the records, the records I have to say were directly from the book.

[02:13:46] So that was more pulling directly from the book.

[02:13:48] And I guess they're just showing there's a lot of different cultures in this world.

[02:13:54] But yeah, I did wonder if where was his face from the first season?

[02:13:59] The young the only record to walk away.

[02:14:02] The young guy anyway, I thought they might bring him back.

[02:14:04] Yeah.

[02:14:05] And like I said at the beginning of the podcast, I share the concern about how are you going to wrap this up in a way that is satisfying in two episodes?

[02:14:17] Yeah.

[02:14:18] In two episodes.

[02:14:19] Yeah.

[02:14:20] I'm in wait and see mode but I see where the concern comes from.

[02:14:23] So Lena Headey Stan continues now that they brought us back to Teenage Aster.

[02:14:28] I have hope that they will bring her back for the finale.

[02:14:31] I mean on IMDB, but I don't know if that's like a flashback or I don't know.

[02:14:36] But to be honest, I've stopped guessing this new season felt a bit disappointing to me that AI Quarrel also seems like another filler side plot.

[02:14:44] Hmm.

[02:14:45] Yeah, I wonder if I have to feel like the dev thing is going to tie back into the bigger Aleph situation.

[02:14:54] This has got to be going somewhere.

[02:14:56] I'm not quite sure where it's going somewhere.

[02:15:01] But OK, so on the positive side, her royal bubbliness said after episode five better than the first season for sure.

[02:15:09] Although I don't know how I feel about the recent episode with the new tribe or what they add to the story.

[02:15:14] But looking forward to your podcast to make more sense of it.

[02:15:17] Subzero said after episode three, I really enjoyed episode three.

[02:15:21] It was so cool to get another beacon keeper on the show.

[02:15:24] Someone that knows what they're doing.

[02:15:26] I can just imagine her, her heart seeing what Halen had done to the beacon.

[02:15:31] And I'm not sure about his methodology there.

[02:15:34] He does how does bashing a screen in help free your AI?

[02:15:40] She seemed genuinely interested in helping him, which must feel very refreshing for him to experience.

[02:15:46] I'm surprised at how long they're keeping Astor off the show.

[02:15:49] Do we think she's on that vessel that docked?

[02:15:51] I mean, we know now, of course not.

[02:15:54] And I don't trust that B174 dude.

[02:15:57] See, I think he's been catfishing B67.

[02:16:00] Right?

[02:16:02] We need answers.

[02:16:04] I love the idea.

[02:16:06] I love the idea of the beacon keepers catfishing each other.

[02:16:13] So Subzero says episode four was a trip, especially the end.

[02:16:17] I have no idea what's going on.

[02:16:19] I really like the addition of Iris to the show.

[02:16:21] She's great for she's a great foil to Halen.

[02:16:24] I hope she sticks around for the whole season.

[02:16:26] And yeah, so B67 slash Iris leaves her beacon to come help B23.

[02:16:32] Then B174 leaves his beacon to come help B67.

[02:16:35] Iris, who is managing B67 and B174?

[02:16:39] That's a very good question.

[02:16:41] But we found out that beacon 23 was also empty for like a decade when Cuefus showed up.

[02:16:47] I wonder if the AI can manage fully autonomously at least for a little while.

[02:16:53] Yeah, I think so.

[02:16:55] Yeah.

[02:16:57] And so Subzero says what happens when ships pass through and need help?

[02:17:00] I mean, I guess the AI can handle it.

[02:17:03] But then the humans are there for backup.

[02:17:05] That's how it was in the book, by the way.

[02:17:08] I just like the idea of the ship calling up the beacon and getting like a you have reached the answer phone for beacon 173.

[02:17:18] They're not home right now.

[02:17:20] But if you leave a message after the beep.

[02:17:24] Yeah, exactly.

[02:17:26] Well, Subzero was commenting about it's weird that there's only one person on the beacon.

[02:17:33] It's from the book, but also I think from a mental health perspective, at least you don't want to have people out there by themselves.

[02:17:41] After episode five, they said, Episode five is certainly a curveball.

[02:17:46] I appreciate we are getting a taste of cultures in this universe, but the Sibaran storyline isn't very compelling for me.

[02:17:52] It's like a very Star Trek TNG where they meet some random aliens who mess stuff up because there's apparently no such thing as security or restricted access on the starship.

[02:18:03] It's fine when you have 26 episodes per season.

[02:18:05] It's a questionable decision when you only have eight.

[02:18:08] We'll see after the next step.

[02:18:10] Now I want horrible deaths for these space pirates.

[02:18:13] Zero appreciation for those who saved their lives, not to mention a sense of entitlement as if they are owed something.

[02:18:19] I don't know why Halen didn't just put on his soldier suit and wipe them out when they started tearing up the ship.

[02:18:25] I've come to the conclusion that Halen is just a himbo, so we've got two people calling Halen a himbo.

[02:18:31] I think that's really unfair.

[02:18:34] I mean, like, Halen, Stephen James, yeah, he's a handsome guy, but like, Halen's done some stuff.

[02:18:41] Halen's survived, you know?

[02:18:43] Yeah, but I do feel like he came across as more clever and connected last season.

[02:18:49] And maybe he's reeling from the Aster Death and everything.

[02:18:52] Yeah, the guy's been through a lot.

[02:18:55] Although he does have a tendency to hit things first and think later, but that doesn't make him a himbo.

[02:19:05] Okay, maybe a little bit.

[02:19:11] So, so Zero says, I'm not sure where the season is going.

[02:19:16] It almost feels like a procedural now without an overarching storyline.

[02:19:20] We had that weird ep in Harmony's head and now this space pirate stuff.

[02:19:23] Hopefully we'll get some more movement next episode.

[02:19:26] Yeah, I mean, I just I hope it all is tying together at the end, but I have a feeling it will.

[02:19:30] I'm still waiting for it.

[02:19:32] And I still like Iris though, which who wouldn't?

[02:19:35] Yeah, it's kind of hard not to like Iris.

[02:19:39] Yeah.

[02:19:40] After episode six of Zero said, these people have zero concept of security protocol.

[02:19:45] Aster's friend is able to just walk onto the beacon.

[02:19:48] And if you have a dangerous super soldier locked away, maybe rig the locks only you can open it.

[02:19:53] Hope for the best, but always plan for the worst.

[02:19:56] Re-Seren.

[02:19:57] Aster was way too gullible.

[02:19:59] Maybe get all the info before you start ripping off wires and restraints?

[02:20:03] Yes.

[02:20:05] Yeah, I thought you all agree with that.

[02:20:07] Yeah, I thought the final scene wasn't super realistic.

[02:20:10] If Seren was as cold blooded as he was portrayed, he would have snapped Aster's neck in one move.

[02:20:15] See, that's the thing. I don't think he was purely cold blood.

[02:20:18] I think he was indeed being brainwashed.

[02:20:20] But I think there were times like he lashed out and said like, who cares about your mother?

[02:20:26] And then he'd come back and be like, no, I'm sorry.

[02:20:28] I said about your mother.

[02:20:30] So I don't think I think he was holding himself back and wasn't exactly as far gone.

[02:20:35] Like it seems like there's a we see a lot in this show of people over estimating how far other people will go,

[02:20:43] which I think we also see in the real world.

[02:20:45] Like we saw the Sabareans like he killed two of us.

[02:20:47] So he was trying to kill us all.

[02:20:49] Like no, he killed the two.

[02:20:50] One of them was an accident.

[02:20:52] You know, anyway, so Sub-Zero continues.

[02:20:55] The twist was good, though.

[02:20:56] I was surprised that Jaco actually disobeyed orders and saved Seren's life,

[02:21:00] although I had been wondering why he hadn't just spaced Seren long ago.

[02:21:04] I thought the actress playing young Aster was very good.

[02:21:07] She exuded self-confidence.

[02:21:08] Not all of it earned.

[02:21:09] And you can see her growing into Lena Headey's Aster.

[02:21:12] I'll drink an old fashioned with her any time.

[02:21:15] Yeah, I'm not crazy about how they are choosing to tell the story back to back.

[02:21:20] Eps ending on cliffhangers by the end of episode six.

[02:21:23] I don't think I've ever seen a cliffhanger in a flashback story.

[02:21:26] By the end of episode six, I completely forgotten about the space pirates.

[02:21:30] I legit thought for a second the story was over.

[02:21:32] It disrupts the continuity and I think takes away from the impact of each storyline.

[02:21:37] I mean, I guess they did that a bit in the first season where they would like alternate which story they continued or like leave a cliffhanger than do a flashback.

[02:21:49] But I think this is the first time they left the cliffhanger on the flashback.

[02:21:53] Yeah, I think people are not liking the two flashbacks.

[02:22:00] Sorry, the two cliffhangers back to back and I can see where people are coming from with that.

[02:22:06] Yeah, because they're not even because they're not from different storylines.

[02:22:10] Yeah.

[02:22:11] But I feel like the second one we know that this somehow ends with Aster working for Aleph.

[02:22:16] It's just the question of what happens to the others.

[02:22:19] So, so Toichi said after episode five, Dev was creepy AF as the kids say.

[02:22:25] New guy, nerdy AF.

[02:22:27] New tribe group, rude AF.

[02:22:30] Need thinking time before I say what direction I think they're going in.

[02:22:34] And after episode six, not totally sure of their direction, but I loved that last step.

[02:22:39] Sadly, it feels very relevant to things going on in the world right now.

[02:22:45] So experimental soldier is the first version of Halen type soldier.

[02:22:50] Yeah, it seems like it.

[02:22:52] Interesting that Aster might have had a bad experience and then fall for one later.

[02:22:56] Yeah.

[02:22:58] Well, that concludes our feedback.

[02:23:01] Do you have any final thoughts on episodes four through six, Luke?

[02:23:05] No, I just really hope they stick the landing.

[02:23:09] I just really, really hope they stick the landing.

[02:23:12] We have two episodes left, maybe ever.

[02:23:16] Their titles are free and the finale is called Disintegration.

[02:23:21] Do you think it could be that the artifacts like the goo portal disintegrates or something?

[02:23:27] Yeah, I mean, they're not giving you an awful lot to work with.

[02:23:32] It could be anything.

[02:23:34] What are the storylines and questions you need resolved by the end of the season?

[02:23:40] What I need resolving is what is the artifact?

[02:23:45] What is its relationship with Halen?

[02:23:48] What, if anything, is it trying to tell the universe at large?

[02:23:55] I need some kind of resolution with Alif in the sense that does the artifact want to speak to him?

[02:24:05] Does he want to speak to the artifact?

[02:24:07] The artifact definitely wants to speak to him.

[02:24:09] Yeah, what does the artifact want to tell him, if anything?

[02:24:12] Telling him to listen.

[02:24:14] Like how will his increasing paranoia, cruelty, sociopathy play out in the end?

[02:24:23] What's the end game with Alif?

[02:24:27] And is some version of Asta's consciousness out there somewhere?

[02:24:34] Yeah, we need that resolved.

[02:24:37] I think that must be resolved.

[02:24:40] I think, yeah, indeed, we need all the questions around the artifact resolved.

[02:24:45] We need something to happen with Alif, some sort of closure there.

[02:24:52] And there's just some little plot details that I would like resolved,

[02:24:56] like what actually happened with Asta's parents.

[02:25:02] Yeah, I want to know what's up with Halen's military dad, stuff like that.

[02:25:09] Yeah, there's a lot to get through in two episodes.

[02:25:12] Holding faith.

[02:25:14] Yeah.

[02:25:15] Well, we look forward to talking through these last two episodes together with you all after the season finale.

[02:25:24] If you want us to keep doing more of this podcast and producing maybe more episodes than we do now,

[02:25:30] then help us share this pod with a friend who you think might like it.

[02:25:35] When you leave a five-star review, that's actually a huge help in helping more people find it.

[02:25:41] And we also want to hear what you think.

[02:25:44] So you can email us at willshiftdustpodcast at gmail.com.

[02:25:49] And Luke, where can they find you?

[02:25:51] So they can find me on Twitter at Luke Middip and they can find me on Blue Sky at the same handle.

[02:26:00] And you can find me on Twitter and Blue Sky at AliciaCB.

[02:26:05] And you can also find me on the Lorehounds Discord,

[02:26:09] where we talk about Beacon 23 and a whole bunch of other shows and movies and books.

[02:26:15] And you'll find all those links in the show notes.

[02:26:17] And Book Club, I promise to shift episodes coming by the end of the month.

[02:26:21] It's just a massive pile of editing to-dos there.

[02:26:26] So this episode was produced by me, published by the Lorehounds.

[02:26:30] You'll also find on the Lorehounds, they're starting up their full House of the Dragon coverage.

[02:26:36] So they're recapping the first season and there's a show guide.

[02:26:40] And also starting with the Rings of Power, there's like a show guide with a break.

[02:26:46] There's a breakdown scene by scene of the trailer and they just released a teaser for that.

[02:26:51] You'll find me on the episodes over there talking about Doctor Who,

[02:26:55] X-Men 97 is about to come out, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes also.

[02:27:01] We just recently had an episode talking about the Bad Batch and Tales of the Empire.

[02:27:06] And speaking of Star Wars, Luke alluded to it earlier,

[02:27:09] but I've launched the new The Star Wars Cannon Timeline podcast.

[02:27:14] So basically we're going through all of Star Wars, all the content in timeline order,

[02:27:21] starting at the very beginning and so far working up in the timeline towards the Acolyte TV show,

[02:27:28] which is starting on June 4th and is set at the end of the High Republic.

[02:27:32] And if I do say so myself, it's a very good podcast.

[02:27:35] Thank you. I'm sure you're not biased, but no, I'm just kidding.

[02:27:39] No, clearly not.

[02:27:42] So this podcast joins the affiliates Rings and Rituals,

[02:27:45] which has been recapping season one of Rings of Power

[02:27:49] with a special focus on the ritual and world building in Tolkien and real world.

[02:27:54] And also Radioactive Ramblings, which is now doing some background fallout lore,

[02:28:00] as well as covering season two of Invincible.

[02:28:03] And properly Howard is, I think they're wrapping up their season of Felonies and Fugazies.

[02:28:10] And they just also actually released Dune Two episodes, which was an interesting listen.

[02:28:16] Spoiler alert, one of them didn't like it.

[02:28:20] What?

[02:28:21] I know. That was Anthony's response.

[02:28:25] And join us again on the Discord to discuss all of these topics and a bunch more.

[02:28:31] Luke, any final words?

[02:28:33] No, you've certainly dry of content, Alicia.

[02:28:37] We've been at it for a while.

[02:28:40] So, OK, we'll see you all in two weeks for the Beacon 23 season two finale.

[02:28:45] And until then, we'll be listening to our Sibaran sleep jams on repeat.

[02:28:50] A new Star Wars journey begins in the place all good journeys begin.

[02:29:10] At, well, the beginning.

[02:29:12] This Star Wars day, I'm excited to introduce the new Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast

[02:29:17] where we will piece together the complete story of that galaxy far, far away in timeline order

[02:29:23] from the Dawn of the Jedi through the great unknown following the sequel trilogy.

[02:29:28] This is a podcast for both Star Wars super fans and complete newbies.

[02:29:32] Listen to this short intro episode now to hear how it works

[02:29:35] and what to expect over the coming weeks as we set the stage for the new television series,

[02:29:39] The Acolyte, which we will be covering with weekly breakdowns.

[02:29:43] Subscribe to the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast wherever you listen to take part

[02:29:48] in one of the most epic and expansive stories ever told,

[02:29:51] following all the twists and turns from start to finish.

[02:29:54] May the fourth be with you all, all month and beyond.