[Theme song]
Barbie> Welcome Vagrants, to another episode discussion. We are talking a lot of death, destruction, and betrayal this week.
Christine> Dun dun DUN!
Barbie> Of course it’s episode 5, titled Temple of Doom
Christine> DOOOOM!
Barbie> The original air date was April 30, 2020. The directors were Natalie Haarhoff & Cindy Lee. The writer on this one was Jem Garrard and of course as always it’s based on the comic books by Magdalene Visaggio and Jason Smith. The IMDB Synopsis is: The team arrive on Wix to unexpected revelations. Betrayal leads to a bloody showdown.
Christine> And that’s certainly one way to put it.
Barbie> [laughs] Yeah, that is … a way.
Christine> If there were one phrase to sum up this episode, it’s EVERYTHING changes. Okay, so maybe that’s stretching it a little bit, but the basic point stands, there’s a lot happening in this episode. Of course, the massive death count is just par for the course at this point, but this episode is twistier than a pretzel! Whether it’s us finding out about Elida’s mother, us learning about Hath’s true intentions, Isaac’s betrayal, or Lazaro seizing the power of the Sterzaad, it’s just an absolute whirlwind of an hour.
Barbie> That’s an understatement.
Christine> But of course we have to start at the beginning here and damn that ship crash really did a number on the team, didn’t it?
Barbie> Oh yeah, it’s pieces flying everywhere.
Christine> And it’s no surprise that Isaac is just plain JADED by the time Dengar gets there to rescue him.
Barbie> Yeah. Well, I mean he put up a fight with that creature with the yellow, disgusting smelling pus stuff.
Christine> A small wonder he ended up passing out after all that.
Barbie> Yeah, he really sold the smelliness. The odor, I felt like I could almost smell it.
Christine> Oh, yeah.
Barbie> Let’s start off with the colors and visual effects for the episode. I am pretty sure I took all of my notes on colors in the flashback sections.
Christine> I mean, yeah -- the desert is, shocker, the desert, and even the temple is about what you’d expect from that sort of thing. Not really much in the way of that sort of thing to speak of there.
Barbie> Right. So I have the, I believe they’re like weather vanes? Or some kind of equipment to monitor Jupiter. But yeah, they just look really cool to see all these machines around the planet or at least in the monitor that we see of Jupiter. The black hole, later on, that swallows the ship was a beautiful shade of bright pink.
Christine> It was.
Barbie> And after the ship is yanked into another galaxy -
Christine> Not ours
Barbie> - the colors in the spacescape are gorgeous blends of pinks and magentas and teals.
Christine> Yeah, there’s just such a nice before-and-after sort of contrast, the oranges and reds of Jupiter and the general darkness of everything surrounding it, and then the bright pink as the ship gets sucked through the black hole. And then, of course, Isaac ends up in this new galaxy, and yes, it’s gorgeous, and beautiful, but it’s uncharted territory for Isaac all the same.
Barbie> Right, I mean that’s tough. It’s beautiful, but it’s tough!
Christine> Right.
Barbie> Obviously we are back to our usual of having flashbacks in the episode after a reprieve last time. We finally get to see Isaac’s story unfold. The first flashback of the episode starts off right away with “Jupiter, you know the one” which is great.
Christine> Yeah, I liked that.
Barbie> I loved it. We are so used to seeing that “Another galaxy, not yours” that the new line is refreshing and kind of tongue in cheek.
Christine> Right. Very much fits the tone of the show.
Barbie> So we see him on a call with his pregnant wife and she tries to engage in perhaps a risque thing, but it turns out to be … a hamburger! That scene is hilarious. When this episode aired I had no idea what to expect, much like Isaac. I think it really goes on to display what kind of love that Isaac had in his relationship. Just showing that it was was well-rounded and real. Much like the baby names, the first name he throws out I had to assume was the baby’s name, but then we get a “no” and he tosses another one, and another one. Did you have a favorite name? I think mine was Gertrude.
Christine> I mean, I’m a fan of Rachel, myself, but then I’m biased, because I *am* a Rachel by way of my middle name. What can I say?
Barbie> Well, it’s a good name! Solid.
Christine> That it is. I do have to bring up how surreal it is to see Tim without a beard! We talked about that a bit during our interview with Tim a while back, and it’s honestly kind of amazing they were even able to pull that off for the flashbacks.
Barbie> Yeah, and I mean in that interview we had to talk, Tim had to really petition to have that happen so there was a lot of back room discussions on will this work out? How long do we need?
Christine> And then, of course, everything goes downhill… “no fear, you’re safe in here” has gotta be right up there as far as famous last words, and before we know it, Isaac is all alone in an unfamiliar galaxy, stuck for two weeks on this tiny little ship.
Barbie> Yeah, that’s gotta - I mean, the thoughts you must have. Two weeks is a long time to be alone in the middle of literally no where. After Isaac gets rescued, we have some more examples of that relatable “real”ness in the form of the ship worker. We first meet him, he really doesn’t know how to read the room and he’s just super excited about how Isaac arrived in this galaxy, but the later when we see him he talks about jobs, minimum wage, and health plans. How much more mundane can you get? In the end at least he was helpful and pointed Isaac towards the scav life.
Christine> I mean, you kind of have to admire Isaac in all this for being able to pick himself up after everything that happened to him. Even with the odds being so slim that he’ll get back to Earth, he refuses to back down so easily, and so he sets his mind toward that goal and he just gets down to work.
Barbie> Yeah, it’s very respectable, unlike what we see of him later.
Christine> Yep.
Barbie> But this episode is a very “hero-centric” episode, which sounds really dumb to say, because aren’t all episodes hero-centric, but we’ve split our main crew up a lot in the season so far, and this episode they all stay together for the most part, there’s a couple scenes where they’re apart, but there isn’t a whole lot in the way of the Republic -though we will talk about that later. We start with Isaac, in his ejector seat. The first watch I didn’t catch it directly, but Isaac and Elida blame each other for the horrible decision of having the ejector seat.
Christine> Horrible is an understatement.
Barbie> Right? Take a listen and decide for yourself who is responsible.
[Audio clip]
Isaac> I told you, Elida, an ejector seat was a stupid buy for a frickin’ spaceship.
Amae> The others?
Elida> Everyone is here except Isaac. His stupid ejector seat threw him further away. Dengar’s out searching for him now.
Christine> I mean, I just love that bit with the ejector seat. There’s just that whole feeling there of “why did we do that?” I mean, come on, what good is an ejector seat going to do if you just get ejected into the cold vacuum of space without any sort of protection?
Barbie> Well you never know, it could come in handy. And actually in the comics it does show Isaac floating around in the vacuum of space and he does get rescued.
Christine> Thank goodness for that.
Barbie> Moving on, once Isaac is reunited with the team, ejector seat faux pas in the past, he and Elida chat and here we are with another pop culture reference. Elida is SO PROUD that she remembered Indiana Jones, you could just see it on her face.
Christine> Yeah.
Barbie> Of course, the episode is called Temple of Doom, so we had to have an Indy joke, right?
Christine> It really was inevitable, wasn’t it?
Barbie> For sure.
Christine> I mean we do have to talk about the temple, because I think that’s one of the biggest twists of the episode. Not only are we not actually finding Elida’s mother here, which is a major blow to her, but also, Hath has essentially turned Elida and the Winnipeg gang into unwilling chess pieces in this greater game involving the Sterzaad, which, of course, ends up backfiring DRAMATICALLY, to say the least.
Barbie> To say the least. Yeah, let’s unpack that. This is, arguably, the biggest storyline of the episode is Hath’s betrayal, and also Isaac’s betrayal later on. Let’s start with Hath. I mean you have to remember, this guy was like a father to Elida growing up, and the fact that he lied to her about something so big was just huge. I hate that Dengar and Krob were complicit in that, and Ihred as well when we had Ihred, rest in peace.
Christine> Yep, RIP.
Barbie> The loyalty was less about Elida, or whoever was the ruler, and more about the idea of the monarchy.
Christine> I mean, we know how Elida feels about the monarchy, we know the Sterzaad, she would’ve wanted nothing to do with, so I do kind of get it, not that it’s good in any sense. The loyalists have to sort of slowly bring Elida to this point where she really has no choice but to go along with the plan, and while I do get it from the perspective of the loyalists, that DOES hurts for Elida!
Barbie> Yeah. So we have Elida, who saw her mom get shot, and then mourned for her, then was told she was alive, and now finding out not only that her mom was actually dead the whole time, but that one of her most trusted people that she had, failed her.
Christine> Right.
Barbie> The acting in this scene was amazing. I could literally SEE the emotions that the characters were going through.
Christine> Same.
Barbie> ALL Of the characters, but especially Elida was going through the most, one after another. I’ll run through it as I saw them: She starts off with Disbelief, shock, surprise, disappointment, bitter, sadness, betrayal, anger, mourning for her mother all over again, distrust, back to anger, and finally sadness because she feels like she really lost Hath.
Christine> You really do feel for Elida in this scene, because, jeez, talk about an absolute bombshell to drop. They used her, they used her as a pawn, and they sort of tossed aside her humanity in the process, and we see the consequences of that! I just think of Elida, going to Hath like, “You mean NOTHING to me.”
Barbie> Yeah, and her line, that she would shoot him without hesitation and she just deadpans it. That’s it. And he knows he effed up, he knows he fucked it up. This scene is also where we see Amae’s fierce loyalty show. She has proven to be a lover, not a fighter, but this exchange brought out some energy used to just berate Hath and put him in his place. Multiple times, too, just for good measure.
Christine> We do love to see it, and good on Amae -- it goes to show just how much she cares about Elida, and you have to imagine that’s a sort of caring that Elida’s not had much of in her life.
Barbie> Yeah, and it’s an Amida moment, but I think it’s more of an Amae moment and just showing her personality.
Christine> Absolutely.
Barbie> We see that, despite Amae sticking up for her, Elida is so upset she doesn’t even notice. She’s just dead, her emotions are just turned off.
Christine> And who can blame her?
Barbie> Yeah, no one can blame her. But we also see some Isaac moments and this is of course before we learn of his betrayal, which really stand out. He told Elida her mom was right to tell her to trust no one: everyone is looking out for themselves. Definite foreshadowing that we see before the episode is done. There must have been so many, an internal monologue with him, which again, you can see on his face when he learns through Hath that Xevelyn is, in fact, dead.
Christine> I mean, yeah -- we see in the flashbacks how a whole part of his deal is making sure Elida gets reunited with her mom, and without that, what’s really in it for her? Isaac did mean well, but under the circumstances, we can certainly understand why Elida would be livid with Isaac to say the least. He does his best to make amends beforehand, but even that’s not enough once Elida learns the truth. She’s just had her trust betrayed on so many levels! It’s that question of who can you really trust?
Barbie> Right and not only was she betrayed, but just the amunt of time that passes between betrayals is what, an hour? I mean, it’s crazy that she just gets these blows one after another. And you’re right, he tries to soften the blow, but how … there’s no reason or excuse. I mean, his excuse is his family and looking out for himself, but to throw Elida under the bus and sell her out to Lazaro really.
Christine> Right.
Barbie> I mean as it turns out, selling out the whole universe because we all know Lazaro ends up with what he wanted.
Christine> Yep, and it’s all downhill from there.
Barbie> Yeah. Changing gears, we get some BroTP moments between Isaac and Amae, love those two together.
Christine> Yep, same.
Barbie> She offers him a job. They’re kind of talking about what’s going to happen because they assume Elida will be with her mom of course. So she’s talking “oh yeah, come work at the shop with me” even though he is not the best choice for that kind of job
Christine> Right!
Barbie> And we hear Amae make this metaphor that their team is like an engine, it works when they’re all together. And it’s beautiful.
Christine> It is, it’s such an apt metaphor, and one that will really come to make sense over these next few episodes. We’ve seen it before, without one of the three, the whole team just sort of crumbles apart!
Barbie> Yeah, I mean everybody plays their part.
Christine> Exactly.
Barbie> Let’s move into the temple. Just Elida and the three betrayers. She is understandably grumpy, I mean, who wouldn’t be?
Christine> Exactly, I mean she just found out she lost her mom, for cripe’s sake.
Barbie> Again! It’s one thing losing your mom and dealing with it, and then to lose quote unquote lose her again, it’s, I can’t imagine how the second time must feel.
Christine> Same.
Barbie> But yeah, so she’s grumpy, but her snide remark of “Royal blood. So stupid.” got to me. I feel that attitude completely. At least Hath was smart enough to inform her the temple would crumble once the Sterzaad was removed. But he kind of forgot to pass along the info about the control device you need to use the Sterzaad and that may have come in handy a little bit, huh?
Christine> Yeah, I’ll certainly say! He certainly at least tried to let her know, but of course the temple is crumbling and they’re just trying to get the hell out of there and she’s just like “not now” and it’s this small thing that ends up having massive consequences. Like, hmm, maybe I should have done that before the temple started crumbling.
Barbie> Right? Yeah, definitely. So, before we get to the Sterzaad. Dengar, WHY did you volunteer?? The whole temple is all about royal blood. We just had her use her blood to oppen the pathway to lead them to the Sterzaad, why would any of them assume the result would be the same for Elida as opposed to one of them?
Christine> I mean, on one hand, I kind of get it, there’s just that whole awkwardness of “oh, wait, your mom;s not here. Sorry we led you along this whole time!” And I do kind of get it, there’s just this feeling that they want to do everything they can to protect Elida, especially given what’s happened, even when it’s misguided, and even when it’s at the cost of their own lives. I think of Elida right after that, like, oh now’s the moment you decide to grow a backbone??
Barbie> Yeah.
Christine> It’s still a heroic sacrifice, that’s for sure.
Barbie> Yep. Dengar, we loved you.
Christine> Rest in peace.
Barbie> Rest in peace. May you rest with Ihred and Nim. And, we’ll get to Krob in a minute, but he was incredibly upset. My headcannon is he, Dengar, and Ihred maybe had a polyamorous situation going on there
Christine> And you know I can see it.
Barbie> Like, last episode you can see that Dengar was just ripped apart when Ihred walked through and sacrificed herself. And Krob just has that same kind of devastation when Dengar falls - gets dismembered and falls out of the contraption.
Christine> Right.
Barbie> Which, sidenote: If you haven’t listened to our interview with Leon Clingman, who plays Dengar, he spoke about how that death scene he actually cracked some ribs shooting that when he fell out. So go and listen if you haven’t because he was absolutely amazing to talk to. You definitely learned stuff about the show.
Christine> Oh you definitely do, but I guess you could say we’ve got a plot twist here: this discussion is just a way for us to unsubtly plug all the interviews we’ve done so far!
Barbie> For real! And there may or may not be one more reference.
Christine> Yeah, we’ll get there, we’ll get there.
Barbie> So you see Elida was scared when she saw what happened to Dengar, but she was so mad at Hath, that she makes a show of saying this is what you wanted, so this is all on you, just to make him feel bad. Like, yeah, I’m just gonna go and die, see how that makes you feel.
Christine> I mean, I can’t blame her, not one bit -- in the heat of the moment, she’s already gone through SO MUCH, and this just adds to that.
Barbie> Yeah. Caption time!! Yay!
Christine> Yay!
Barbie> There’s a whole story in the captions that play out when Elida gets into the machine, so here we go, I’ll break it down for you. It starts off with [Climactic drumming], then [clattering] as the stones start moving. Then [music cuts out] [gasping] and finally [stirring, epic music] as the Sterzaad makes its appearance, but that whole underground complex was just all for a tiny marble.
Christine> Talk about anticlimactic.
Barbie> So, we get the Sterzaad and here’s we get the real action scene. I mean, we has the mannequin challenge early on, the vine, which we didn’t really mention, but Lazaro and army are ready to take the Sterzaad, much to Isaac’s dismay since he was then found out to have betrayed Elida. At least, at the VERY least, he has the good sense to feel bad.
Christine> I mean, this whole episode, we see how everybody’s just sort of using the team, whether it’s Hath using Elida, Lazaro using Isaac, you get the idea.
Barbie> Right. And I’m just gonna say, even Lazaro can see there’s sparks between Elida and Amae, because when he wants Elida to hand over the Sterzaad, he doesn’t point the gun at her, he points it at Amae. We just see that Lazaro is tuned into this tactic, because a couple minutes later he uses it on Hath by pointing the gun at Elida to get Hath to comply.
Christine> Right, and you realize that for all we’ve made fun of him, to a point Lazaro does know damn well what he’s doing, and he uses that to his advantage.
Barbie> For sure. So, now we’re back to Krob.
Christine> Yes we are.
Barbie> A hero in his last moments. You know, he and Isaac were buddies. I mean we saw that in episode 3.
Christine> They were.
Barbie> They kind of had a BroTP situation.
Christine> Mm-hmm.
Barbie> But his last moments were protecting Amae, and that I think really says something.
Christine> It does.
Barbie> And I love that Amae honors him by covering his face, and she wants to stay with him, but obviously everything is crumbling around them the ceiling’s caving in.
Christine> Yeah, and time is of the essence.
Barbie> Right. So we’ve got, rest in peace Krob, we’ve got Hath coming up just a few minutes later, rest in peace. We had very mixed emotions about Hath, but Elida, as angry as she was with him for lying, and his betrayal, you could tell that she was sad when he was trapped under the rocks and eventually his demise. His last act was also heroic, as he was saving Elida from the rubble.
Christine> I mean, sure his intentions here were not the best, but on the whole I don’t think he’s THAT bad of a person in the end.
Barbie> Yeah.
Christine> But damn this episode is something of a turning point, or at least the last 3 episodes the team has sort of expanded significantly in the end, everybody is, except our regular gang of three, is pretty much dead.
Barbie> Yeah, I mean we doubled our death count. We more than doubled it if you include the dunkrum.
Christine> Yeah.
Barbie> Which I do, by the way.
Christine> Yeah. Rest in peace to everybody we lost this episode -- we’ll miss all of you.
Barbie> Moment of silence.
[Silence]
Christine> One person we DIDN’T lose was Lazaro, and I rhino, as I said earlier, this is the episode where EVERYTHING changes, and that’s especially the case for Lazaro, thanks in massive part to the Sterzaad. We’ve talked before about how he hasn’t been much of a threat to Elida and the team up to this point, but we see, as Lazaro is leaving the temple, just how much this is a game-changer for him.
Barbie> Yeah, this episode was a turning point, for sure. We don’t really see much of the sterzaad’s effects other than the troops all falling in line at the very end of the episode, but it shows the potential and it really sets up the next episode as having the potential for Lazaro to cause a lot of damage.
Christine> Right, the cards are finally falling the right way for him, he has massive amounts of power now, and we’ll see now in the second half of the season not only how he uses that power, but how having that power changes him. Now I’m getting flashbacks to our interview with Paul Du Toit earlier this year now!
Barbie> Yeah, well we did sneak a peek, saying that we would talk about Paul’s interview. He was amazing to talk to, and also I definitely thought about his description of Lazaro just wanting to help the people and thinking he was going to be a good leader by becoming leader, and of course going back to the famous quote by John Edward Acton “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Christine> Right.
Barbie> One more thing, it’s a quote from the 1800s, which actually he was quoted in the 1800s but I believe the quote is actually from the 1700s, just not that exact quote.
Christine> Right.
Barbie> ANYWAY, I digress. One more thing I’ve got to bring up isn’t necessarily Lazaro-related, but the whole scene with Admiral Rykal and Admiral Kavar is fun, you have Admiral Rykal throwing her napkin and saying “He was YOUR hire.” Robyn Scott, as usual, on point.
Christine> Truth. Yeah, this is the first time we really get to see what’s going on in the present on Arriopa, and yeah, the chemistry among the group is just fantastic. It really gives you a good sort of idea of the absolute disarray the leadership is in at the time, especially with Lazaro on the run. No wonder they’re doing everything they can to get him back and punish him for all the shit he’s done!
Barbie> Yeah, they’re at the end of their rope.
Christine> Who can blame them?
Barbie> Yeah. So, let’s move on to a more happy topic …
Christine> Lets, please
Barbie> Our Amida moments this episode weren’t as prevalent as the last episode, which was a gold mine, but we do get some sweet moments.
Christine> We do.
Barbie> Like the first scene with them, Elida made sure Amae is okay, she does that with the vine creatures too! Once Isaac saves Elida, Elida rushes over to Amae and spends the entire time to make sure she’s all set while Isaac is having his hero moment and cutting everybody else free.
Christine> Right. You see just how much they’re coming to trust one another here, and we love to see it!
Barbie> Yeah and sidenote: That healing spray would be amazing in our household.
Christine> Truth.
Barbie> My favorite scene though, was just watching Elida’s face fall when Amae said she wouldn’t join them.
Christine> Yeah, you can just see the pain she goes through for a moment there. Being away from the girl you love sucks!
Barbie> Yeah, you definitely, how do you let someone down gently? Like, yeah, phew, I’m so glad you said that, but turned it into a joke and ended with “Moms love me!” and it’s a great scene, it really showcases Amae’s personality, which, she can be playful, of course always caring, and flirtatious.
Christine> Yeah.
Barbie> Which, we’ve seen it, but it’s all out in your face flirtation.
Christine> Right, I mean you see, really see how much Amae especially cares for Elida, and I think of the line “One of us falls, we all fall.” It’s just such a tender moment!
Barbie> Yeah, and there’s also that adorable hand hold after Elida learns that Hath (and the loyalists) have tricked her into coming to Wix.
Christine> Right.
Barbie> So just that supportive gesture of taking her hand
Christine> Yeah.
Barbie> So let’s start wrapping this up. We’ve got Amae is disappointed that Isaac betrayed Elida, but we end with Elida saying they’re done “for good.”
Christine> Well, guess that’s it, that’s the season, so much for those five episodes we still have to go.
Barbie> Yeah, we’ll just wrap it up, we’re done.
Christine> Yep, that’s it, it’s all over. But, joking aside, after everything that’s happened this episode, you have to really have to wonder where things are going to go from here, and I think it’s safe to say, speaking from the future where we’ve seen all 10 episodes, that the results are the precise opposite of disappointing.
Barbie> As great as the first 5 episodes have been, the next 5 episodes are absolutely pieces of art.
Christine> Yeah, a whole new level of greatness.
Barbie> I cannot wait to discuss those episodes.
Christine> Same.
Barbie> Alright, favorite Lines: I love when Amae interprets Isaac’s “Stop moving you little shit.” speaking to the dunkrum, and Amae just goes, “What he means is we don't want you to get eaten, friend.”
Christine> Yeah. Amae really is good with the words there. But me, personally, I’m a fan of Winnibot’s “by my interpretation around the parameters of OK, meaning satisfactory, not good.” I just love Winnibot so much!
Barbie> We really did not give her a lot of credit this episode.
Christine> Right, she was only in the one scene but she stole it.
Barbie> She stole it. I mean, that is true. That is true. There are also a fair amount of things going on.
Christine> Truth.
Barbie> I think the episode highlight for me was just the whole scene with Amae chewing Hath out. She REALLY digs into him! And not only just chewing him out directly, but then she kind if is still ready to go with Isaac, and like, did I do it right? Should I have said more? Like, you know it’s just amazing, that loyalty we talked about earlier.
Christine> Right, and I would agree completely with you as far as it being my favorite scene of the episode. It’s just great to see how much Amae cares for Elida. I keep mentioning that, but it bears repeating.
Barbie> Mm-hmm, yep.
Christine> How would we rate this? For me, this is just it’s such a pivotal game-changing episodes, and they handle all these reveals so well, I would give it 9.5 Sterzaads.
Barbie> Fair point. I will say I’ll give it an 8 poor innocent dunkrums
Christine> Those poor dunkrums.
Barbie> I mean, to have your eyeball pop from its socket…
Christine> So much for no animals harmed in the making. Well, fictional animals, no real animals of course were harmed.
Barbie> CGI animals.
Christine> But we feel for those computer animals.
Barbie> Of course. So, as we mentioned, we’ve more than doubled our death count. So we’ve got Ihred, Clive, Nim the dunkrum, Dengar, Krob, Hath for a grand total of 7 deaths.
Christine> And we’re only halfway through the season folks.
Barbie> Yeah, let’s see where those numbers go to.
Christine> Yes. Speaking of numbers, let’s go ahead and do the numbers on the ratings.
Barbie> Sounds good.
Christine> Let’s turn this into NPR marketplace.
Barbie> Hey, man, I did the transitions a couple episodes ago, you got it down this time.
Christine> So, episode 5 clocked in at 168,000 viewers. That’s down 14,000 regretfully from episode 4 -- and it came 139nd among new cable broadcasts that Thursday. And as far as the rating among viewers 18-49 go the show ticked down 100th of a point to .04 And I think this was when the panic really, truly set in for the fandom, as far as the show’s fate goes. And really, it’s a damn shame that such a good, pivotal episode had it so rough in the ratings.
Barbie> Yeah, I think a lot of people gave up after the first episode or two, and then after the 3rd episode they moved the time slot, the day and the time, and so they really should have stuck it out a bit, I mean SyFy shouldn’t have moved it in the first place,
Christine> Given the damn thing a chance.
Barbie> Right. But I mean, you have - the episodes just kept getting better and better and some of the best episodes are yet to come!
Christine> Right, if SyFy had just given the show a bit of a chance I think the show really would have given the chance to shine.
Barbie> Definitely. On a little happier note, we have numbers. Our charity drive has ended, and I have some totals to share with you guys.
Christine> Ohh [claps in drumroll fashion]
Barbie> We had a total of 6 charities. [laughs] I wish we had a drum roll.
Christine> We can always insert one in the end.
Barbie> [laughs] I suppose that’s true. We raised a total of $112 for the N double A CP, $163.50 for Black Lives Matter, $100 for Color of Change, $42.50 for I Run With Maud, $121.50 for George Floyd Memorial Fund, and $61 for Breonna Taylor. So, if you weren’t tallying up as I read, our grand total raised was [bad drumroll sound, laughs] That was terrible. $600.50!
Christine> Yay!
Barbie> It’s amazing! I want to thank Adriyan for giving us the charities, I want to thank everybody that donated prizes for the giveaway that we held, and last but certainly not least, all of you guys that donated. Thank you all so so so much, it really meant a lot.
Christine> Right, go Vagrants. Speaking of which, you know the fight to Save Vagrant Queen is still going on. No major updates happening on that front at the moment, but keep supporting the show however you can! If you haven’t already listened to it there’s our #SaveVagrantQueen episode and we’ll tell you what you need to know to help out. If you have listened, just take some of those things into account and keep this show alive.
Barbie> Yeah, I mean literally the biggest thing that we can do is talk about it. Be loud of social media, keep that momentum going, that’s what they’re looking for.
Christine> Yep, that momentum is key.
Barbie> Yes, it is definitely, because if we want to get networks to pick it up they look to see, is it worth it. That’s their question: Is this going to make me money? And if there are 5 of us shouting into the void, but if there’s 50 that’s a different number aspect, so the more of us talking about it the better.
Christine> Right, so the fight continues on Vagrants.
Barbie> And speaking of Vagrants, we have a comment from Kristin on Twitter. She says “I love Isaac’s ‘could be worse’ moment just after they crash on Wix, when the alien pops its head up through the ground, and then reappears close, bigger, and scarier - it feels kind of like the UK and USA’s initial reaction to Covid now that I think about it.”
Christine> I can definitely see it. I mean it just keeps going on, that game of just how relatable this show is!
Barbie> Yeah. It’s insane! They say history repeats itself, but usually there’s a little bit of time in between repetitions.
Christine> Right, I think of the old line history doesn’t quite repeat itself, but it does rhyme. We’re seeing it rhyme right now.
Barbie> Ah, I haven’t heard that. It’s beautiful. Love it.
Christine> Of course we love hearing from you Vagrants, so you know where to go if you want to talk about the show, or the podcast, what have you, but if you’ve forgotten how to get ahold of us, we’ll remind you how to get ahold of us in just a few moments here.
Barbie> Yep, that will wrap things up for the episode, thank you for listening. Next week we’re talking episode 6, Requiem for Republic. We’re looking forward to that one, and we hope you will too!
Christine> As always.
Barbie> For now though, until the next dispatch, this has been a podcast from another galaxy…
Both> ...Not yours.
[End theme]
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Barbie> We are a fan-driven podcast, which means you help us do what we do, so we appreciate any way you can show your support for our work.
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Til next time, Xija Station, over and out.