The Delta Flyers - The Muse

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell & Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release, they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.This week’s episode, The Muse, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Terry Farrell.The Muse: Odo acts gallantly toward a pregnant Lwaxana Troi. Elsewhere on the station, a mysterious woman helps Jake with his writing.We would like to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers, Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts, Sandra Stengel, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, Roxane Ray, Tim Neumark, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Matt Norris, Jenny Cordina, Izzy Jaffer, Andrew Cano, Francesca Garibaldi, Jonathan Capps, Sean T, & Cindy WoodfordOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Cindy Ring, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, David Wei Liu, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Andrew Duncan, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Stephanie Lee, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Heath K., Ryan Mahieu, Kevin Harlow, Megan Doyle, Chris Garis, Jeff Allen, Tamara Evans, & Deb LahrAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Sab Ewell, Ann Harding, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carl Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Chad Awkerman, AJ Provance, Maxine Soloway, Heidi McLellan, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Renee Wiley, Maria Rosell, Michael Bucklin, Sarah, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, Heather Selig, Steph Davies, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, Annie Davey, Jeremy Gaskin, Sarah Dunnevant, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Eddie Dawson, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Robert Allen Stiffler, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, Karen Galleski, Jan Hanford, Katelynn Burmark, Timothy McMichens, Cassandra Girard, Robby Hill, Andrea Wilson, Slacktwaddle, Willow Whitcomb, Mo, Leslie Ford, Jim Poesl, Daniel Chu, Scott Bowling, Michael Jones, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Brian Heckathorne, Kilian Trapp, Nelson Silveira, Ming Xie, Kit Marie Rackley, Gordon Watson, & Andy BruceThank you for your support!This Podcast is recorded under a SAG-AFTRA agreement.“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, or distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail] Sponsors:* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/tdfSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers journey through the wormhole with Cork, Dax, and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we make our way through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Your host today are my fellow Trek actors Robert Duncan McNeil and Garrett Wong and myself, Derry Farrell. Yay. For the complete, incredible, amazing, extended, protracted bonus feature episode of this show, check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. Protracted? I haven't heard that in years. Protracted, right? That means extended.

Yeah. Love it. Good job. Thank you. I really like mixing up some vocabulary. In honor of Armin, who's not here with us today, my vocabulary is inspired. Territ, I have a question for you. What were your favorite commercials that you did?

I know you did commercials. I did a bunch. Oh, I want to say every single one because I was so grateful to get them. And, you know, it was just so exciting to hear your voice and run in the room and go, oh my gosh, I'm in a commercial. Yeah. My first one that I remember being big, because they hired me a, voice coach to try to break my it's so funny now how low my voice is but it was really high when

I was young yeah me too there's a bridge in New York and I can't remember I think it's in the 20s and they set me up on this bridge and I did this maybelene expert eyes commercial but I had to talk over the traffic oh wow it was so challenging was it near just below Grand Central Station. Was it that bridge? I think so, yes. Yeah, that's a great spot. So it looks beautiful.

Oh, it's a beautiful. Iconic spot there. Iconic spot. Are you screaming in the entire bit? Are you just at the top of your lungs? Oh, pretty much. I also got a Clare-all commercial because I was, it was me and Sharon Stone up for this. She got it, but then she did her layout for Playboy.

So that got pulled off the air, briefly to me, because then they hired me. need to do it. Oh, wow. So that's good. I do have a follow-up question for Terry. I want to ask about Terry's favorite print ad that she did, not a commercial, but something that's just in a magazine or a billboard. Was there one that stood out that you loved more than another? Virginia Slims. It was on a billboard in Japan. No, it was on the side of a building in Japan. I only got to see a picture. Someone showed me a personal, yeah, with me all like a skyscraper wearing this black, elegant gown, my hair up, you know, with the cigarette, but it was a very curvy, like the Tattinger champagne commercial kind of thing. And it was so, and it just. And the side of a building. It just blew

me away. Yeah. Yeah. Literally it's huge. And it was like kind of a shame that Virginia Slims were cigarettes, but the ads were so huge. As a kid, seeing them, the women look so beautiful that I got to be a Virginia Slims model. I know that's awful to sell cigarettes, but I did smoke some of the time. People were doing back then. It doesn't make it. Yeah, but it was one of the most fun experiences I ever had. And I think it's because I was 25 when it happened.

It was after my modeling career, after it already started acting. You know what I've been super cool, if you would have been able to try. travel to Japan to actually yeah but to stand in front of it like you're in the ad you're saying wearing a get beautiful dark a black dress or whatever you right if you stood in front of it just wearing sweats and totally the opposite dressed down right someone took a picture of you in front of it with sweats and then the beautiful you and in your gown that would have been so cool so cool what was your favorite commercial I think one of my first commercials I did was for a tuxedo company It was around prom season.

Oh. And it was for a tuxedo company called Lord Grey Tuxedos. Oh. And it was a whole story. The reason I liked it is because it was the kid, you know, it was this montage of all these things of having his dad help him and getting ready and going to pick up the girl and getting the, you know, putting on a tuxedo. Yeah, there was a whole story in this commercial. Yes, yes. And it was all about this character, the one, you know, the kid I was playing.

And it ran. It was the first commercial. I remember my grandmother seeing. Oh. Was so, you know, the first time she saw me on television was in this Lord Gray Tuxedo commercial. And she was so proud. And she told everyone, she video, you know, recorded it on her VHS recorder at home.

Oh, my God. And a copy of this little 36th and 30th of Hartville. It was very cute. Is this your mom's mom's mom? My mom or your dad's mom. My mom's mom. Yeah. Yeah.

That's so good. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That was a fun one. Can we see that, Robbie? This is an assignment for the listeners out there. Can anyone find? More great tuxedos.

From the early 80s. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I don't have copies. They came on VHS tapes that have been just obliterated from moving, the heat, the cold. Yeah. They're all grainy. It's time for birthdays.

October 21st. Amy Tudor. Happy birthday to Amy. Happy birthday, Amy. Happy birthday, Amy Tudor. And also on October 21st, Leslie Ford. So happy birthday, Leslie. Happy birthday, Leslie.

Happy birthday, Leslie. And Cindy Ring on October 25th. Happy birthday, Cindy Ring. Happy birthday, Cindy. Happy birthday, Cindy. Why don't we jump into this with our poetry synopsis with Robbie with his limerick, please? All right, here we go with my poem for The Muse, the episode The Muse. Luoxana shows up pregnant.

Odo's feeling unsteady. A mystery alien's effect on Jake is inspiring, but also quite heady. Odo proposes to be the hero. Jake's life sign. dropped to almost zero. They both learn everything you need is inside you already.

Oh, yeah. That was a heady limerick, actually. Did you like that? I did. Yeah, I liked it a lot. It was very good. Very good. Here we go.

My haiku for the muse. Loxana, preggers. Jake writes while Oneya drains. Odo gets married. Nice. You covered it. I covered it all. Bam, bam, bam. Bam, bam. It's all done. I was really, you know, when it started, I was kind of shocked how I saw, ooh, 42 minutes after the, you know, the teaser and the credits, like 42 minutes. And then I thought, oh, that's not that long. And then in the middle of it, I felt like, oh, my gosh, how did they jam all of this stuff into 42 minutes? it was kind of overwhelming it feels like two a stories to me yes was kind of that's why it felt like so much yes I wish that the balance had been a little more we'll get into it in my opinion yeah

but a little more on one a story and a lot less on another one would have been helpful me too I wonder if we're thinking the same way we'll see we shall see okay let us jump in to this. This story is by René Echeverria and Major Barrett Roddenberry. Wow. Yes. The teleplay is by Renee Eshavaria, directed

by our friend David Livingston, guest stars, Major Barrett, as Lwaxana Troy, Michael and Sarah, as Jayal. Every time they said J.L., because I was born, I mean, because I was alive

during the Dallas television era, I kept thinking they were going to say J.R. Like J.R. You win? I was happy to see my Klingon buddy. Exactly. Who played? Yes. As we know, Michael Ansara played the Kling on character of Kang in the original series episode, The Day of the Dove, and the DS9 episode Blood Oath, which Terry is referring to. And he would also later reprised the role of Kang in the Voyager episode, Flashback. What's interesting about Michael and Sarah is the fact that he married Barbara Eden did not know that he married Barbara Eden yeah I knew someone famous that we knew of in this in our childhood yeah there is a diamond pendant necklace that Michael and Sara gave to Barbara

Eden she wore it in every single episode of I Dream of Jeannie to keep really her heart yeah that's pretty is that rare though that you wear your own jewelry on a production for sure I had a necklace I wore all the time on deep space from a previous boyfriend. Yeah, but with the turtleneck, you never saw it. It was just, I just never had to take it off. Yeah. It was one of those Elsa Peretti diamonds, solitaire. Wow.

But no one saw it. I ran after her to meet her at a convention once. She's so tiny. Yeah, I went running after her. I went running out. It was like, you know, one of the big conventions where you have to go to the loading dock? to get the car, giant. I went running after her.

Good for you. And somewhere in my stuff, I have an I dream of Jeannie bottle that's signed by her. I can't think of the man's name who made it. But he works with her and he created this bottle. Such a nice man. And he gave it to me as a gift. He had her sign it.

But I know it's packed away somewhere because I was so afraid it would break. Oh, my God. But running after her. So kind. And I was like, can I hug you? And it was like hugging the tini, the tini, tall and she's this iny-bitty, like, I don't know, five feet nothing with, you know, stiletto heels. And she must have been in her 80s then.

But still, it was like, I want to be like that. Yes. Still moving. Still just a ball of life she was, just really sweet person. Yeah. Or is, a ball of life she is. It's a very person. Yeah.

Exactly. Wow, that's a great story. Thanks for sharing that. Special guest star Meg Foster as Oneya. Now, okay, everyone's always known. Meg Foster has the iciest blue eyes in Hollywood. Oh, yeah. And I'm going to read this little passage here.

Meg Foster's famously intense icy blue eyes once dubbed the eyes of 1979 by Mademoiselle magazine were so hypnotic. that during her early career, some producers and directors had her wear contact lenses to soften their effect. Can you imagine? I believe it. Oh, they are intense. She played scary people and she was scary. Yeah.

And a lot of it, I think, was how light her eyes were because it's disturbing. Yes. I think it was because she was in Masters of the Universe. Oh, that's right. Yeah, I knew her well back then. And she was lovely. she was kind of quiet and shy and lovely like the nicest person what a shame i know that she gets this reputation of being so you know sinister and she's not at all she was oh i think it's the character

she played it because yeah well you guys remember to have your to have a physical reaction though to somebody's appearance yeah yeah but i was going to add i just think those eyes added to her performance when she did the TV version of the scarlet letter, like you could really just I mean, that just added to the whole storyline, just seeing those eyes. All right. So this episode is Majel Barrett's last appearance as Luxona Troy in Star Trek and her final on-screen Star Trek appearance as well. So this is nothing else after this. She's done. But she continued to do the voice of our computer. The original title for this episode was Playing House. And that title was used before the Oneia plot became the A story. So there's a lot of stuff behind this. I just want to

read this passage. So the original idea for this episode came from Major Barrett Roddenberry, who pitched an idea to Iris Stephen Bear that Loxana Troy becomes pregnant and claims that the baby is odos. So that was the original storyline. So this late, holy cow. I know. This led Renee Escheria to write an episode with four primary storylines, all four. focusing on couples, Rahm and Lita, Cisco and Cassidy Yates, O'Brien and Keiko, and Odo and Loxana. However, nobody was happy with the concept. So according to Bear, the script meeting for a standard episode usually lasts two days. Three, if there are problems, the script meeting for The Muse lasted six days.

Oh. The longest script meeting in the entire seven-year run of Deep Space Nine because of all the issues and the problems. Because Escheravaria's story wasn't working out, the producers decided to try to pad it with a good B story. They wanted to do something involving Jake's creativity ever since the popular reception of the episode The Visitor. So Ronald D. Moore suggested that if Jake became involved with a woman who inspires his writing, it would fit into the overall design of the episode. That idea ultimately evolved into having him getting involved with a much older woman who was interested in him only because he is a writer. that in turn evolved into the character of Oneaia. The planned four romances were reduced to two,

and the Odo Loxana A story was switched with the Jake O'Naya B story, so the episode became more about Jake than Loxana, hence the change in the title. That's why it's the muse. Interesting. That's not how I felt. I didn't either. I felt like Luxvano was the A story. I did too.

Or there you go. It should have been. The reason that the Jake feels like the A story is because that's the climactic scene is when Cisco has to come save him and all that stuff. So it feels like the writers had that as the A story in mind. But to me, the Odo story was much more interesting. However, even with this all sorted out, the producers were unhappy. According to Moore, the notion of this exotic, beautiful older woman who comes to you and gets excited by watching you write is like the most ridiculous idea. Only a writer would come up with that.

Think of it. You're sitting there writing and she's just entrenched. We watched that scene in dailies and we thought, are we insane? What are we doing? How did we get here? I mean, so there's already like major issues. I'll just say, spoiler alert, that this is definitely one of my least favorite episodes for a lot of reasons. But I'm happy to hear that the writers, in hindsight, saw some problems with it because it's,

It's problematic in every story in every way. I'm intrigued by what that script was about the four couples. That sounds fun, actually. It does. I agree. Because some of the best moments in this episode are when the ensemble, the series regulars, have a couple of lines. Like when you're listening to La Oaxana's story and you guys are all depressed,

it's one of the most memorable scenes. It's so funny. It's so cute. It's so funny. Like that stuff, I wish there was. more of that kind of light comedy and the ensemble involved in the story more. Yeah. Anyway.

Or both of them being A-storylines, just adding a different kerfuffle that's going on in the station so that it highlights. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I could have done with a lot less of Jake's storyline personally. Okay. For a number of reasons.

But let's get into it. Let's jump into this. jump in. We start out in space and a beautiful CG shot, by the way, that is not the models. That is a CG shot as the camera wrapped around. It was beautiful. Like, DS9 was leading the charge on CGI technology back then. They were doing things before most people. It was cool.

Cool shot. Yay. We see a shuttle, the transport ship kind of docking, and we cut inside, and people are disembarking. We see them from up above where Jake is watching and making notes on story ideas and then this mystery woman appears and their eyes meet and it's a bit awkward and I wish that Jake was not aware of her because the very first moment he sees her he's like oh she's interesting yeah and so it feels like he's going after her and I feel like that story is more about her being the predator.

pursuing him. Pursuing him and tricking him and manipulating him. And he immediately, why Jake Sisko, the Jake that we know, would suddenly be intrigued by this much older woman, seemed awkward. Much older. Unless he's way older, but unless he's completely mesmerized by her icy blue eyes like other people have. That's not enough. Or if we had suggested that she had some alien, like if it was. wasn't his point of view. If we were down, the camera was down with all the people coming in and we

see this mystery woman looking around, looking around, and then she sees something. And then we cut to her POV of Jake and we see that she's found her target or something. I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just felt like the POV in that moment was kind of, it was Jake's POV. Then he was embarrassed. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I felt that her makeup and hair made her look so severe it reminded me of Alice Creek as the Borg and there was just sort of like this beautiful disturbingly beautiful like yeah beautiful but not kind of yeah it's a weird thing when that happens so I think that may her eyes are so intense maybe let her look a little more um what we consider sort of just feminine or alluring in a more human way.

Yeah. Because there was something off-putting about it that felt scary to me right away about her. And he never acknowledges like that she's scary. He just seems to be oddly drawn to this woman for no apparent reason. When I saw that makeup on Meg Foster, I thought to me it looked, it reminded me of when Gary Oldman played Dracula. Yes. 100%. Like way too much forehead. Oh my God. It was so much forehead. Yes.

So maybe they were going for a vampire. She is a mind vampire. She's an energy. Yeah. She's a creativity vampire. So maybe that's what. Maybe they were going for that. For a minute, like, of course, watching Majel and then him in these first few moments of the show, in the first 15 minutes, I was like, but wait a minute, this is called the Muse. Right. What am I focusing on? yeah that's kind of the energy that bothered me right away yeah it's hard to know where the story was was putting its energy i guess major liz amuse for odo odo's an abuse for a it just yeah i didn't

feel it's not like she brought him a jungle gym and said hey slither around this for a while that would have been fun so right off the bat the first scene is already getting off on the wrong foot. No, it's not. It's not working. Let me get, let me add a little bit of trivia for this first scene. Oh, please. One of the aliens who boards DS9 in that very first scene was played by John Paul Lona, who won the walk-on role by designing the winning makeup for the alien in a competition run by playmate toys. Playmates, the one that did all of our little action figures, right? Yeah, yeah. That's so cool. Isn't that crazy? Rick Berman, Michael Westmore, Robert Blackman, and Dan Madsen served as judges.

Mr. Lona, he was able to name his character. Runeap was the character name. And the species was a resinian, Resinian, which actually looks like a raisin person. It sure does. That's what I see. And I was thinking about raisins last night. We go to the security office and Odo walks into security and there's Loxana with her back to us.

She's crying. And he says, what's wrong? and she turns around and she stands up and we see that she's pregnant. And she tells Odo, she's pregnant. So that's when we cut to credits, we come back. She explains that her husband wants to take the baby because he's Tivinian. Tovinians, there is a very strict separation of the sexes. So the men take the boy babies and the women take the girl babies.

And she says, you know what, he was wonderful until we got married. and then she just felt like a piece of property. She says she needs a friend and she needs a place to have this baby safely. And Odo suggests, well, what about the next transport to Betazoid? She's like, nope, nope. She has to hide here and she needs his help. And Odo suggests the next transport to Betazed.

But she says, no, that's where first place my husband will look for me. So I need to stay here and I need your help. And that's how we end that little. Exchange. Doesn't she play Marina Sertis' mother? And they're empaths. So they pick up on other people's feelings and other people pick up on their feelings. Correct. Yes. Yes. So they're naturally manipulative anyway. I mean, without intention. Without even trying. Yes. They might not intend to, but they can steer a course. That's true. Maybe she's, yeah. Maybe she's more innocently manipulating Odo than it appears with the dialogue

because it does feel like she's playing some games early. La Oaxana is there once Odo's help and he doesn't seem thrilled about this. No. He does not seem happy with it. From what you've said, the episode's building up to it, why would he be excited to see her? Yes. Why would he?

No. Again, in this story, I feel like there's a version of this story where if Odo was looking for something that was missing in his life before this started. And then this sort of accidentally filled that place of feeling like he could be himself. Yes. Yes. It would have felt complete. But it because it starts with Odo going, I'm not really interested in you, it doesn't feel as much of a payoff when he changes his perspective. It does kind of work its way towards

a payoff, a little bit, Robbie, because of the fact that she, even says like, you know, are you still hung up on her talking about Kira? I feel like there is a bit of a payoff in that that he has a void. The void is Kira. Kira is the void. He can't be with her. And they say that right away. Yeah, they do. And they start hanging out a little bit. And then they start playing that game of Find Me After I've, you know, they become friends. And they become, he realizes he enjoys her company in a way. So I do think the payoff is they slowly make their way towards it. But you're right. If they had set it up before this even clearer, I guess. The whole crew is in quarks and everybody's having fun. He tries to be with them and he tries to be with them and he's

just trying to be someone he's not, he's not fitting in. And then Lord Thomas shows up and he's not happy about it, but he learns, oh, I actually can be myself with this unexpected person in a way I couldn't. There would have been a complete arc. It doesn't feel like we know why he's, anyway. Okay. Well, we know that about him, but there's all, I know what you're saying. I agree. Because he's still going to have a little of protecting himself from her because she's a lot. Yeah. She's very intense and lacking in respect, sensitivity. Boundaries. Boundaries. Yes. For other people, she just bulldozes through. And that's something that's sort of painful to watch for a person. person do because there's a desperation for her to connect, but it comes off. It does the opposite of what she's trying to do. She's trying to connect, but she normally bulldozes through. And I like how this episode she is softer. Yes. She gets there. She gets there. She gets there. She's not there right now in the story, but she's going to get there. So everybody just hold on. We go to the

replemate next. Onyah, this is Meg Foster's character, some generic alien. We don't really know what kind of alien she is yet. She sits down by Jake, opens up her book. She comes on very hard out of the gate here. I didn't like that. Nope. Icky. Itchy.

Really creepy. Why are you making that face? Because it wasn't that creepy for me, guys. I don't know. He's a child. He's a child. He's a child. He's a child. And she sneaks around and quietly sits. That wasn't weird for you?

Because she's not saying, like, she's not looking him over, up and down, like, oh, I'm going to take, I'm going to take advantage of you, little boy. Yes, she does in the fact that the energy is being sapped out of him, his creativity. It was manipulative. It was very sex forward.

This whole tone of this. Gave me anxiety. Gave me anxiety, too. Does Sirrock play it? He does play it like he's getting anxiety from her. When he goes into that room, He looks like... Oh, yeah.

No, no, no, no. Later, he does. But not... We're talking about the first scene, though. I don't think she... Yes, no, no, no. Watch it again. There's a way that when it ends, there's a little...

There's a little moment. He clocks it as flirtation in this first scene. 100%. Okay. And he's a child. He's a child. He's a child. He's 17, 16, 17 in this?

1617 in our story. All right. So she says she knew to Vorkel, who was the Cardassian architect of this place. And, you know, how. creative and artistic he was. She does ask Jake in the scene if he wants to be remembered as a writer. And he says, no, he just likes to tell stories. And she says, you know what? You've got talent. Don't be ashamed of it. And he does admit in the scene he would like to be remembered for his writing. And she says, well, I can show you some techniques. Yeah. Ooh. Ew.

It was ooh, right? Okay. Come to my quarters. Come to my. That is the ooh moment for me. Come to my quarters tonight. I was like, no, you cannot say that. So I'm on your bandwagon there, but earlier I was not. Yeah, why not you? No, that's what's happening. That was 30 seconds ago. Okay.

Yes. Now you know where we are. Yes. Yes. It's interesting because when Jake first spotted her, again, I'm going to go back to that first scene. He seemed fascinated and intrigued. But in this scene, when she sits down, he's kind of nervous and hiding.

And so it didn't track for me. He didn't act like he even recognized that this is the same person. You see what I'm saying? So, yeah, I agree. Okay. He did to me, but when he saw her coming in, he was, you know, prior, he's looking at people for ideas for characters in future stories. He says, woman traveling alone.

And then what else does he say about him? She's come a long way. That's all he says, right? And then she looks at him and he averts his eyes for a moment, but in a gentle way. It wasn't like he looked away quick. Correct. And then kind of changed his gaze and looked at her one more time. So I can't imagine he didn't recognize her.

I know. All right. Yeah. They definitely made eye contact. And once you make eye contact with those eyes, you never forget it. Those moments that happen to me when that kind of eye contact happens, I don't not remember the person. Yeah. I feel embarrassed for looking at.

them in a way without having any filter right right because that's what he was doing he's using those people to give him ideas so he definitely knew who she was yes 150 percent yes okay all right we go to Cisco's quarters uh Jake is reading here he's reading the Commodore by C S. Forster in this uh on his little is that a big deal well he's read it before he's reading this this is basically the same book that he's read before it's the same prop that they printed with the same story on it we're going to say that jake cisco loves this story so much he can read it a thousand times it doesn't matter that's right say it okay well he's reading his story ben comes in to get him for this trip they're they're

taking to the bajorn outback and jake says no i want to stay i want to work on the story i'm working on. And Benjamin Sisko is very disappointed, but he says, I get it. Okay, good luck. I thought, what an amazing dad. Yeah. I'm just going to nitpick really quickly on this scene. Oh, yay. This whole trip is Jake's idea. He even says that. This Bajoran Alback was his son's idea. It's his idea to begin with. And so then Cisco at the end goes, look, I'm not trying to talk you into anything. And I thought, why did they write that? Because you're not talking to him into anything. the one that talked his dad into this trip to begin with. So that, that to me was a weird line of dialogue. So that's my like, why wouldn't they just say just like, you know what? This whole thing was your

idea. Yeah, this whole thing was your idea. But, you know, you know. And then throw his hands up. Yes. And then just say, okay, you do your thing. Son, teenagers. Mm-hmm. Go figure. Right. That's it. They have a nice hug. I did make a note that that hug felt very real. Again, you see Avery and Sirak and their chemistry, like, there's no acting required there. Those two really love each other. And you can feel it in something as simple as the way they hug. I thought it was great. Yeah. Does he kiss him on the cheek? Does he kiss his son on the cheek? Yeah, I think he does. Yeah, I think he does. It's a little, bye, bye, bye, bye, buddy. Yeah. Everyone's want to see a look that Avery, like when he says, you dig. He didn't say it, but you could tell he was thinking it.

And there, there was a moment. He has this moment with Jake. one of those unspoken kind of ways of agreeing or see i told you so kind of and i'm like he's looked at me that way yeah i know exactly what yeah and so it's kind of fun because he's like oh i miss that that's great he was great to work with i love terry's story because he does say that he does he does he does yeah he'll just say something you dig you he'll throw that in Yeah, it's just such an Avery. Okay. Yeah.

Well, we go to Quarks next for one of my favorite bits in this whole episode. La Waxana is telling Worf, Kira Daxx, about her sham marriage and in this very sad story. Kira and Dax are there dressed for the King Arthur Holodeck, and they are totally depressed. And Worf is just in shock. He's so sad and depressed about this Laoxana story. And we cut over to the bar. And Quirk tells Odo that La Waxona is. ruining his business that soon as she came in the energy just it got too quiet and the energy

changed and he does mention here he says uh something about betazoids right she's a you know maybe her mood is contagious she's a bett is which i thought was was a funny bit it's a funny bit especially because the way wharf plays the being affected by the depression he he looks so shell shock to me sitting there it's hilarious it's very funny he's very funny even his his his one line. Odo says, actually, I have some free time. I was wondering if you wanted to take a walk. He says to La Waxana. And Warf goes, I would. He wants to take a long game. I just had so good. That was great. It was so good. But so Odo is talking to Cork. He goes over. Quark says, get her out of here. I'm going to kick her out. Yeah. Quirk goes over, invites her to take a walk. And then they leave.

And Dax has the blow at the end of the scene or the button at the end of the scene where she goes, I'm so depressed. It's so funny. This is the best scene in the episode for me. Hands down. So if the episode ended here, Robbie, you'd be okay. I'd be fine. It's very funny.

It's very funny. You guys nailed it. It's a great comic premise, and you guys nailed it. Yay. Thank you. Yeah, it was great. Okay, next we're in the corridor. We learned from Laxana.

Her daughter, Kestra, died at six years old, and that she lost her whole family. So a very sad story. Odo's very quiet. Her mood, Betozoid's moods, they just depress everybody. And Odo says, he understands why she wants to keep this new baby so badly. He gets it now. And then they stop their quarters are right next to each other.

And she says, oh, my replicator's broken. Can I come into yours and get some tea? Very smooth move. Very manipulative. Yeah, she had an answer for everything. She had an answer for everything. Even Odo knows that this is probably a ruse, but sure. Yeah.

She can go in. They go inside. She looks around. And she asks him straight up, are you know, are you over Kira? Or if you still have feelings for her. And she says, don't worry. Even if you are over her, I'm not going to jump you. I'm not going to attack you, you know, which I thought was honest and fair.

And that was a reasonable thing. I liked that her character said that. it helped me relax some yeah exactly because i didn't feel relaxed about her presence yeah invading his space and and that helped me feel more misleading him and and manipulating that felt honest and it was really helpful but he says she and chakar are involved now he's sad he's very sad then the baby kicks in laoxana she feels it um she asks if she can sit down she sits on the floor because he doesn't I mean, furniture. They both sit down.

Oda feels the baby kick. And he's very moved by it. You can see that Renee did such a good job in this whole episode, actually. He's really good. I think they both did a really good job with the talking about the baby. Because she's a betazoid, she can feel the thoughts of the baby. Yeah. And the piece.

Did she say something about being? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, she says someone's. once said life is a search to find the peace that you once had when you were safe inside your mother. I'm so glad you said that, yeah. That's a nice piece of dialogue.

Great piece of dialogue. And Oda responds, I didn't have a mother. Very sad moment. And she says, and then she says, don't worry, it's all right. You'll find your peace just the same. Yes. I think that was great exchange. Great exchange.

I would say along with the other one that you loved this moment meant so much to me to see. Odo. I mean, how often, other than seeing him uncomfortable and trying to get over a challenge like that, but to relax and feel something so beautiful and serene, when do we see him have that? That was amazing. Yeah. He was very vulnerable and very at ease in this whole episode as an actor and the character was that way. But it was nice to see, yeah. When I was watching this scene with Megan and Laxana says, may I sit down for a minute? And Odo says, I don't have any furniture. Megan was like, why don't you morph into a bench for her?

You can do anything. You could be a love seat. You could be a lazy boy recliner for her, anything. Well, she falls asleep in his lap, and then he morphs into a pillow and a blanket for her. Yeah, that was cute. That was kind of. That was very, yeah. But he could have been a chair as well.

There's a compassion. Yeah, but it was kind of remember. I was like, oh, how was she going to slide down that? Yeah. He's not exactly young. It's not easy to sit down. A lot of people, one of the most important things to do every day is get down on the floor and get back up.

There's a point when people stop doing it and then they stop being able to do it. Yeah. Wow. Interesting. You're talking about in general or when you're pregnant? What do you trust? In general. In general.

In general. As you age. Well, she falls asleep. He morphs into a blanket and a pillow. And then we cut to the corridor, Jake, rings a doorbell. he arrives at Oneya's quarters

her love den shall we say it goes inside what's going on in there I mean what look at all the freaking drapes and the candles

and the mood lighting I did not like that either I said it should be just stark and normal don't do that to us don't or where's the trunk she had with all that

yeah she came on a station with nothing and also not a bag not even a bag yeah well the writers wrote a line in here because he comes in he's nervous she asks him you know are you nervous yeah a little and she says that's natural but whatever you're thinking put it out of your mind yeah to work yeah but she was so already kind of moving around like you know like a vampire like a snake like it just oh it was so What else would he be thinking when you're touching him like that? And I couldn't believe that he didn't seem more uncomfortable when she was with his shoulders. Yeah.

Oh, it gets very physical in a very uncomfortable way for me. If I was 17 in that situation, I would have said I had to go to the bathroom and I would have left. You would have high-tailed it out of there. Me watching him in this scene made me so uncomfortable. I wanted him to just leave. Please just leave. This feels very inappropriate. this storyline because of the age difference and because the way it sort of plays out, it feels

like very unhealthy boundaries, like really, you know, it feels like grooming. There's a high cringe factor for Robbie in this. High cringe factor. And not that this issue shouldn't be, we shouldn't shine light on it. I just don't know that this was responsible. I don't think this took the gravity of what was going on seriously. I don't think the characters did. I don't think the writing did and it made me very uncomfortable. This is where this story goes for me and I wish it was handled very differently. She gives him a fancy pen. She says it was Ravalas's pen and that she admits she has a thing for artist. I wrote clearly. Clearly you have a thing. She gives him some paper. He says, I've never worked on paper before. So he's very intrigued about

that. He starts writing. How about his handwriting? Does he even have able to have really good? It's really his handwriting. Is it? Sir Rock has beautiful. Not only beautiful hands, but beautiful handwriting. I was like, wow. But is that something they would have practiced three centuries later from now? Like, did people still do handwritten? Because he even says, I've never even used papers. So everything would be on a laptop or an iPad, right? So no one even writes. He has a pad and is a thing that looks like a pen. He may have done it on a pad, but not on paper. Sometimes you see him. Yeah, maybe. that thing that he uses on his pad doesn't even have it as i don't even know what the thing it almost looks like a spell checker thing you know it was weird looking but yeah it's like a paint brush

yeah it does she sits down beside behind him sorry as as he's writing and she starts rubbing the back of his neck and rubbing his temples he starts writing a lot he gets into sort of this rhythm and she's sort of rhythmically rocking with him and pulling this energy out of his head at the end of the scene. The energy looked cool. Yeah. The little gold dust stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It looked like Tinkerbell. Yeah. Ferry dust. Do it really bothered me too? Who is she? What is she taking from him?

What kind of alien is she? Yeah. Right. She's a predator. Mm-hmm. She is a predator. She's stealing something from him. And what is it?

This bothers me that I don't know the answers to these and I still do not. no we don't know if you talk about a farmer milking a cow she is an alien that basically milks creativity out of artists is what she's doing but how is it out of him because he's writing it down right so he's still being creative so what is it exactly the dust from that creation it's almost like his life force in a way because if that's you remember because her whole thing is yes because she has already killed a bunch of people when they were they all all the people that she names just then we haven't figured that out. Correct. Because she names those artists later when Cisco finally confronts her in that

Jeffers Tube. And she goes, these are all the people I've dealt with. And the people that she named all died young because she sucked all their life force out of them while they were being creative. And Jake is the youngest. He's the youngest of all. Yeah. But we should be knowing tidbits of this so that we feel like, oh, no, no, no, no. I mean, we do feel that. But there's, there's a lot of info we don't have. We don't know. Yes. Hey, Robbie, the holidays are approaching. Yes, they are at warp speed. But not at trans warp speed.

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We go to Odo's quarters next, and Odo and Loxana are playing hide and seek on the little jungle gym in there. I love this. This is a cute scene. It's cute. He peers up on top balancing. I thought, good for you, Renee, balancing up there. On top of the sculpture, they're really having a lot of fun.

Yeah. And then security calls Odo and they say, we've got the man that you were looking for. He just arrived by shuttle. It walks on his husband and Odo says, you stay here. I'll go handle this. I was worried for René Oberschenois when he jumped down from that thing because it seems like a really innocent, easy thing to do. But he's fairly high up there. And I was like, oh, my gosh.

Don't jump. He did it. He jumped down. He was very fit, though. Back in the day. like extreme hiking yoga every day oh so that was no problem

every day okay no he was a very strong man good to hear he really was yeah I mean physically you hug him and he was solid you know what I like to this playful scene took me to the next step of just completely relaxing that there were no

ulterior motives from her that she was going to try to take advantage of him right it made me feel like oh okay the playing fields, even whatever happens, at least they're friends now. It's a different level of trust that's happening. Yeah. Yes. Which is a big deal for him, too.

It's a big deal. Yeah, I think this scene, this whole storyline is much less offensive to me than the other story. That's why I think this should have been the A story. Yes. They should have done a lot more with Odo and this whole story could have opened. up a lot more well we go to the security office to otto's office jail arrives he knows all about odo um how he broke luaxana's heart and he says uh i just am here for the baby boy that's all i want and i like the way that david livingstone shot the scene it was these profiles in conflict

back and forth with the two of them it was it was really a very subtle detail but i thought David Livingston did a great job of playing out the conflict and the sort of, you know, the back and forth between those two. Odo says that he has studied Tavnian laws and that the baby is property of the husband, not the biological father, but the husband. And Odo says by the time she has this baby, you're not going to be your husband anymore. What? I know. Love that. Look at that. Well, off of that, J-all scene with Odo and when Odo says you're not going to be her husband anymore, we cut to Lwaxana saying, we're getting married and a whip pan over to Odo,

which was very, again, David Livingston nailed the comedy there. We're getting married, whip pan. Odo wants them to get married. If they get married, then her current marriage will be annulled. And Odo says, J-all insists on witnessing this wedding. And that's when La Oaxana is like, oh, no. oh boy well that's part of the wedding procedure right yes yes she says according to law the groom must confess his love before witnesses and if anyone doubts his sincerity then they can object not only to profess

but he has to convince everyone that he is truly in love with this and especially jall jall yes yeah that's why jail wants to be there so he can go i don't buy it this is a sham give me my baby Give him a baby We're back in Oneya's quarters And Jake is writing like a madman All these ideas are coming onto the page And he's you know This is amazing for him

As a writer to have this much creativity coming out of him And of course Anaya is behind him And just pulling this energy out And she's just bathing in it And she loves this thing And all of a sudden a little drop of blood drops onto his This piece of paper

And he's like, oh Oh my gosh. Okay. It's a nosebleed. Just just a nosebleed. But clearly, this nosebleed is because of the energy being sapped out of him. And he doesn't even care. He's just like, I'm going to keep on writing. But Oneia realizes that maybe she's feeding too much. She's vampiring too much from him. And she says, you should rest. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'll be okay. It's already stopped bleeding. I'm going to keep going. I have a question. It's never clear what this alien is, what her power. are does she have creative powers that she energy that she gives people and then they produce and then she sucks out the energy of the production like you're saying the life force whatever the life creative life force is that he needs so it's a synergistic relationship that's that's what i'm getting that it's like she must be giving him something for him to write like he's never written before well she talks about how she's chakras and different things. So I think she's stimulating his chakras. She's not giving him. She said that. Am I right? So she's like a spark. She's not giving him the story. Any creativity or any type of energy to make him creative. She's stimulating his own energy centers so that now it's just coming out. Okay. So that's what it is. She's an energy manipulator. And also taking out the blocks that you have for yourself. Right. So she's removing all. insecurities, lack of self-esteem. Inhibition. Let it flow. Let it fall out.

If we could all move through our world with that much freedom for creativity, the people that can, you see what amazing things they can create. There are some people that are fearless. So that's what I got out of it. What was missing for me, too, was seeing Jake, a close up on, seeing seeing what, seeing what's going through his head as he's writing it or just it was just all of that there's so much of the shot of her having the energy and her writhing in this which was uncomfortable but not she was literally rocking undulating back and forth as if it was simulated sex honestly it was it was not nothing about like his journey through discovery of ideas he's saying it but we're

not seeing it on his face. The reason I ask the question is, is she giving him something? Because she says later on, and I guess we'll get there when we get there, but she says later on, like, they created this one thing to be remembered for it, and then they all died. So whatever she contributes, it has to be something so special that consistently these people have created their best thing ever. But it's too much for them. Yes.

So she must be doing something. But she must be doing something. their life force. But what is that meat? Like a Dementor. Yeah, but what Terry said earlier was the key. She said she's removing all the blocks they have because she talks about that in the very beginning, how she removed the Cardassian architect's blocks.

Like all his designs were so timid. Yeah. He's so timid. All his designs were timid. And then he let loose and went bonkers. So that's, I don't know if he's, if she's really giving them. them anything other than removing all the blocks. That's it.

Like removing, like, almost like liquid drain-o for their, for their, for their, for their soul and like too much. Is she, is she just doing it by rubbing their temples? Because he can do that to himself. No, she doesn't need her sitting behind him. It's a talent she has. It's a gift. Right.

But she's pretty much pure energy as it is. She's using her energy. Her energy. Okay. Her energy is going to be pure energy because of how she leaves the station. She turns into a, a, starship at the end and goes to warp. Yes, exactly. She is pure energy. Exactly. This should have been an A storyline explaining these things, giving us more to go on so it felt rich and, you know, approachable, attainable for us to understand what the hell is going on, to want to protect him and to also equally maybe have a struggle about her where you're like, well, I don't want her to disappear either. Isn't there some way we, you know,

know, just something, I guess, a bit bigger-minded than how it popped out. It feels one note a bit to me. This whole story feels one note. It doesn't go with the other storyline, which is really our A storyline, even though it's called The Muse and it's about Jake, it's not fair. It's not really about Jake's journey. It should have had, if Jake's story was the A storyline, there should have been B storyline. to support about creativity, about getting rid of your blocks and how we do that in another way,

healthy way. Yes. All of that, but not within this story. That does not feel like an A story. It does not feel like it was written to be supported as an A story. It feels like it was written to be a B story because that's how it came across to me watching it. And it shouldn't have been called The Muse. Also, I think she shouldn't have been directed to be so spider-es.

in the fly the whole way. There should have been a character arc. And also, what did she get out of it? Does she live longer? Yeah, that's what it seemed like to me. That's how she survives. Like, she's an energy vampire. But I do feel like...

But we didn't get to see her have no energy and need him. There was no... It's not a flushed out story, to be honest. That's how it feels. Not flushed out. Yeah. I also feel like, you're right. What you said about, she didn't have to be...

so spider and the fly-ish in terms of her line delivery, because it's already kind of the topic matter, the subject matter. She could have spoke normally without being really creepy speaking in a way. Yeah. I think it would have been more powerful when he first got to her quarters if it were more kind of matter of fact and, hey, it's no big deal. And then it got to when she's starting to have the gold dust come out of his head. Yeah.

Then she gets heady and high from it. Right. But not like the whole time. That's like it ruins it. There's, it's just all one note. It's giving it away too quickly in the beginning. Yeah.

And it stays one note. For you and I'm going to take advantage of you. And I'm basically going to suck you dry and kill you. Yeah. There are no levels. I know. I know. Sorry.

We go to Otis Quarters where there's a ceremony about to happen. The whole gang is there waiting and watching. I love this first couple. Every time our ensemble shows up, which is only a couple times the whole episode, it's my favorite moments. Like when Bashir says, he's so confused.

Did I miss something? No, he was getting married until this morning. Kira says, I'm sure he, I'm not sure he knew either. I know. That was so great, wasn't it? And then O'Brien says, who's that? And Kira says, oh, I think that's the look, Loxana's husband.

And O'Brien takes a long pause. silence silence and good of him to come yeah it was so funny it's so funny so bizarre my favorite parts of this whole episode anyway otto appears he looks good in his little in that blue yes he does i thought they both look spectacular actually even the netting like around yes yes her veil or whatever it was elegant beautiful we agree tabnian wedding clothes looks great. That's one thing we like about this episode. Very stylish. It's better than her baby outfits where the first one, it looked like she was in some Western back in the old days. It was like, didn't she kind of like the okay corral? Here

she comes. I forgot to mention this earlier, but, you know, Luaxana as a character wears wigs. So Majel had a brown wig when she started. And then in that scene where she was blonde Odo says, Odo says, I want to marry you. She goes to a blonde wig, which is kind of his color. And then she stays in the blonde wig, which was a nice little detail. I was like, oh, she didn't think of that. She's gone to Team Odo for a while. And at the end, she goes back to her brown wig when she's like, I got to leave.

I'm done with the charade. Yes. The charade. The charade. Yeah. But a nice little detail from the hair department I thought. Very much. Yes.

I did not even, I didn't track that. at all i didn't clock it at all the good good good on you and the wedding looks more like an otto vibe too because it's more sleek and he's very sleek and um simple about his dress jall tells odo that he knows this whole thing is a charade and he doesn't have to go through with it otto doesn't have to do this it's it's all fake anyway but otto says absolutely not and then waksona comes in and matching outfit we talked about super cute um and it's starts and Odo's first speech is kind of stiff, classic Odo. J.L. comes over as like, this is a joke. Come on. Am I the only one that sees this is, this is ridiculous, this is all fake?

If he really loves it. Brilliant. Brilliant acting by René Aubergen-Wa. It's just such a subtle change, but just gorgeous in its simplicity in such a subtle. That second speech especially. That second speech was some of the best work I've seen Renee. doing this whole series was really good very heartfelt love the speech whoever wrote it bravo agreed she says yes jall doesn't object the second time they're really everyone's moved including us listen to yes and don't you feel like wow when he was finished i thought well i if that happened to me and i was saying that i couldn't help but feel there is a i felt like Like he was in love with her.

Yeah. And so everything that happens after this was kind of heartbreaking for me because I think he was absolutely genuine. Yeah. I think he was. He surprised himself, right? And that's part of what bugs me about this episode is there's a lot of manipulation going on. And La Waxana, whether she intended to or not, she manipulated him into a very vulnerable place. I agree with you.

He really did feel vulnerable and in love with her. And then for her to leave and go. You just want company. I know I'm jumping ahead, but later on, she's like... Well, not that far. Not that far. But later on, she flips it and it was all in manipulation. Yeah, I'm in love with you.

You're not in love with me. You never will be. I need to manipulate you so that I could keep my baby and you could help me out. There's manipulation going on in the whole... But I don't even think she realizes she's doing it. That's the thing. I think she's... I don't think she's evolved enough in that way to understand.

that's what she's doing. I don't think it's like a really unhealthy person because she's boundaryless. Yes. Yes. It continues in her need to move on because she can't control what's going to happen. I think that's what it is. She has to go somewhere where she can control everything for this child. Yeah, that makes sense. Jail comes over to La Waxana at the end to say goodbye. When he says you were my most treasured possession, I was like, ew, ew. Yeah, that was gross. I mean, I get that that was his point of view, but it just in the context of this episode where people are manipulating each other and using them as objects, I didn't like it. What I didn't like was the next line that J.L. says, after that treasure possession line, he says, take care of our son.

And remember, this whole thing was about the fact that the man. in this society don't agree about sons being raised by the mothers and he's now so like yeah have fun take care of her yeah it's cool it's like that is so bizarre you just flipped like that immediately because he's married to you're married to odo now what it doesn't i don't get it so now you don't care about your son your son being raised by a woman yeah it's just to me he gave that up too quickly or that line shouldn't have been in there at all he should have just said when our when my son asked of me speak well of me should have been all he should have said in that line that's it not take care of our son it just that was weird that's my nitpick there that's about it yeah yeah no i get it i would have loved

jall to turn to dax and in his kang voice he would have said see you on the cling on home world and then leaves like that it just throws at it's a little random yeah random cling on if he didn't die with the albino that would have worked out great oh that's right he did die okay so that wouldn't have worked. Quark at the end of the scene invites everybody to go back to his bar to celebrate and La Oaxana has a moment with Odo at the end where she says, you know, for a second there, I almost believed he loved me. That seemed off too, didn't it? Not loved, but marry me. What did he married? That you really wanted to marry me. Yeah. That like kind of it was a little stab when she said that. It was like, oh my God, that's so mean. Are you not?

How did you not take his... You're a Betozoid and you didn't get what he's dealing? I'm dumbfounded. Is it still more manipulation by Luxana? Is that what it is? More headgames to the very, very end? I think it's just self-absorbed. You know, she's in her own world and not for a second

trying to think about how this experience is for Odo. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like her narrative is, I'm in love with you. but the truth is no she's not because if she was she would hear him she would have heard his speech differently because we heard it we yeah and that was massively revealing and yeah one of the most important things he would ever share and to share it out let out in front of all of us and everybody yeah that is just like imagine your grandfather who was in world war two doing that something that's supposed to be private.

All right. So we're back in Anaya's quarters. Jake is still writing furiously. But it's now Anaya who's like, look, you really need to rest at this point. Taking this pen away from you. You're pushing too hard. And he's like, no. My mind has never been so clear.

I can keep on going. But she sort of says, look, just go, you know, go rest. But come back later. And Jake says, of course. That bothered me. Oh, my God. Come back later. No, you should say tomorrow, let him sleep.

Oh, my God. But then when Jake says, of course, and he goes, I need you. And that line bothered me. I'm like, oh, boy, don't go there. Please don't. Another thing that happened in the beginning of the scene, she says, your dad's going to be back soon. You should be there. So it's hiding.

That tells us he's been with her this whole time. Yes. This whole weekend? The whole weekend. And she's trying to keep it a secret, which is a red flag. Yes. So go. go back because your dad's we don't want him to catch us doing what we're doing red flag huge red flag it should be a red flag for Jake though Jake should already know that but he's too out of it no he's so out of it by now and he's too young like that's why they needed some adults in the room for the story our brains aren't developed till we're 25 yes well he does leave right yeah he does take off he gets in the turbo lift what I'd like about this is the lighting is is a certain way in the turbo lift it's sort of a

decreased amount of lighting in there. It's a little more shade and shadow. And clearly, makeup department did something with his makeup because the minute he gets out into the promenade, you can see his face. It looks like there's like some of the colors gone from his face.

He looks gaunt in a way. And he's dizzy. Circles. Yes, circles. He just doesn't look good. He goes to the reprimat, order some OJ. As he sits down on the table to drink it, he falls right under the ground. and he's unconscious. He's done.

We cut inside the infirmary. Bashir's there, says that his brain is firing off the charts. That's why I asked, did she have a power that, like, something? Yeah. Because this doesn't seem like a natural thing the body would do without some alien fuel. Well, it's the alien energy. Her energy is causing him to, you know, fire. He's opening him up.

She opened him up, so he's going full throttle. That's all of this. Yeah. And Bashir says he could have died from all this. And Jake sort of kind of wakes up, you know, delirious. And he calls for Onyah. And this is when Cisco says he's going to go talk to Odo. And Bashir will monitor him.

Then there's a little time cut. And Patricia Tallman as the nurse in the room. Patty Tallman. Patty's there. Patty's there. Tending to him. She approaches when suddenly we see a little. Tinkerbell twinkle in the background, and it's Anaya appearing.

She knocks the nurse out. She basically slaps Patty upside the head, is what happens. That was a tricky effect to do, a split screen there. They probably shot them as separate elements. So Patty probably looked at nothing. Right. And then they reacted to nothing. And then Meg Foster came in and slapped nothing.

So it looked great. Got separately. But together, it looks seamless. I thought it was a really, really good job. And I like that they kept that energy going on Anaya as she talked to Jake here, you know, when she says we have to finish what we started. Very creepy. Very creepy.

Yeah. And I think, what's the hurry? What the hell? We should know that she has some time limit or some. There has to be without knowing her journey. Well, just a minute ago, she said. It takes away from what's happening. And a minute ago, she just said, your dad's going to be home.

You should go back. rest, come back tomorrow. But now suddenly, we got to go. Why? Because they're busted. I think it's because this whole thing was done in secret. You shouldn't even have to be wondering that. There should have been. Should have been explained somehow. Yes. That's where I feel bad. This is where I have so much empathy for the writers and the creative staff because there is no time to get these things ironed out quickly. Especially this time in the season. You're near the last handful of episodes. They're probably way behind. They're exhausted. Focused on the finale.

And creeping into the next season. Already, sure. Because it has so much to do. How are we ending this season to start the next season? So it's not like it's far off in the distance. They have a lot on their mind, all of the writers. They do. Just know that this is definitely an anomaly.

We do think these writers are fantastic. And every now and then, everyone trips up. everyone messes up with one little writing assignment that just is like what the heck did we just do and this is pretty much well they know it they already know as you read yeah you know they know yeah we'll read more yeah it's like we all have takes or scenes or episodes where we weren't at our best or we had the flu or whatever else could have been going on with us yeah some episodes I'm like oh I only did it yeah I fold that one I get to do it tomorrow Yeah, because the series is the best practice for having to show up to be creative,

whether you are physically, mentally ready to or not. You just have to. They do. The writers did. We did make up hair. Every single person, the crew, it's a great lesson. And you just, you have to look at your mistakes, correct them or learn from them as quickly as possible. move on and drop it. Well, okay. So later on, O'Brien is scanning the bulkhead where the

Tinkerbell fairy appeared from. He picks up some psionic energy in the bulkhead and Bashir says that's the same energy that I saw in his brain scans. Maybe she's telepathic. Maybe it's telepathic energy or something. So they go to scan for more psionic energy and Bashir says, well, you better hurry up because psionic energy disappears very fast within minutes. So they head out quickly, Cisco and O'Brien. Now in a junction of the conduits, Jake is writing and laying in her lap again in that position. He's writing furiously. That was weird. Yeah. So gross. And he's not even really writing anymore. No, he's losing it. Yeah. How would you have blocked that, Robbie, as a director, to not make it look cringy? How can you have, how could you have blocked, you know, to have Onara

next to him but not look cringy. Is there a way or maybe Terry could have had him sitting opposite sides of the room and she's just focused on him. And then you see this energy coming out of him and she's just sort of taking it in or something. I would have stayed away from- Maybe a little less sexual, even if he's sitting in her lap, if that's part of it because she's holding him up, have more of a director to be, well, I'm not saying that just

sensing that maybe she toned down the whole sexual thing that's going on. Okay. Maybe have a more maternal vibe instead of a sense. Yes. I mean, you can change a lot just by that.

There you go. Go maternal. Not sexual. Team maternal. He's writing furiously, but he's losing energy and she's pulling more energy out, putting it in her own body and his nose starts to bleed again. He says he can't anymore. Yeah. And so she puts

her hand over his hand and help her strike for him. Yeah. She holds the pen, helps him right. Sisco arrives from up above. We see the light come on. He jumps down like a superhero, points his phaser at her. She moves away. And Cisco tries to get Jake beamed out, but they're too close to the reactor. They can't get a clear signal.

So Cisco says to her, what are you? And she says, it's not what I am, but what I do that matters. And she explains that she's touched by great minds. And yes, they die in the end, but she gets what she needs to keep going on to the next great mind and the next one. Say more than that. That was like a nothing speech. Yeah.

It was not much explanation. Who are you? And how does it? More explanation. Yeah. It makes it so much more interesting. Yeah. And the audience want to know.

I want to know something crazy and weird and I want to hear your creative idea of why she's doing this. One of the names that she throws out there is Keats, who Keats died at the age of 25. So one of the most amazing poets, most creative people, but died very young. Prolific, excuse me.

That's what I'm looking for. But died at 25. And that's the point that she saps all this energy from these creatives and they die. before their time. Keats was 100 years ago. Keats was almost 100 years ago, I think. So that means that she's timeless.

She's timeless. She goes through time. But that if that's the case, if you talk about vampires, they're timeless as well, but they must have blood to survive, correct? So for them to keep living, they have to have that blood. And just like, O'Nara, she has to have

that creative energy. That life force. Yeah, that life force. So she's been alive for thousands of years because she mentions Catulus, which is a Roman from the Roman times, a Roman artist. Like what? Cisco tries to shoot her and she just

flies through the bulkhead, turns into Tinkerbell and flies away into space. No, you don't see her be a spaceship though. No, no, no, no. It looks like light. Like you're saying pure energy. Isn't that what you said? Yes, I did say that. But first of all, when he shoots her, she just looked down at the phaser going into

her and it's almost like, what are you doing? That doesn't even, that doesn't even tickle. And then she just, she disappears. But when she comes out of the station, the energy moves up. And then it, then it does that little bloop, like whenever the, any starship goes to warp. That's what she does. She goes to warp herself. Her energy does.

It does the same thing. Yeah. So back in the security office, La Waxana's there. She says she's going to Betazette to have the baby. And Odo says he wants her to stay. And this is where she says, you just, you've gotten. used to me. You just want company and someone to take care of, but you're never going to love me. And she does say to him that our friendship is far too important for me to ruin it and to

stay here because you'll be angry and you'll resent me and I'll resent you. And so it is a nice thing she says here, but in my mind, it doesn't excuse the manipulation that she used him and sort took him to this vulnerable place. So I'm not a fan of this story either. Well, I mean, we all feel bad for Odo in this scene. We do. Yes. God. Really? Loxana? Really? And then you kiss him at the end? Oh my gosh. In a tender kiss where you go, see, you're not even trying. Yeah, he's so vulnerable. If you're so in love with him, that kiss should have been like, okay, wait, I need to rethink that. It should have been shake hands. Yes, or just a hug. Well, our last scene is in Cisco's quarters. Um, Cisco comes in, Jake's recovering. comes in with his manuscript, all the pages, the papers.

And he said he's read the story, tells him that it's sharp, that it's real, gives him a little crap for the bad spelling. And Jake says he really wishes it was his and not her story. And Cisco says, no, you wrote this. If it's inside you, you just have to find it for yourself. But you need time to rest. And he's going to do that. Cisco heads off to work. And then the last thing we see is Jake signing his name by Jake Sisko.

So it's his, yeah. And it's the same novel that we hear about in The Visitor, Anselm, that novel that he wrote, that the one fan came over played by Andrew Robinson's daughter, Rachel Robinson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's Anselm. But what I didn't like about my nitpick about this scene is when you have both father, Sisko and son, Cisco, sitting next to each other, come back a little bit further. Because they went really tight on the two of them.

And at one point, Cisco does this thing where he straightens the paper. I didn't realize that until afterwards. And there's this weird jerk in his body. I'm like, what's happening? Did he have a, is he about the burp? But what he was doing was shaking the paper, like making it, you know, flat. Getting it even. Yeah, getting it even, exactly.

But because they're so tight, you can't tell that. It looks like he's doing this little weird little shake. It's like, what's he, is that an acting move? I mean, what's happening? Here's the thing I didn't like. If this magical alien, the whole story is about she's coming to help this creative person create their greatest art that they could possibly create and they're going to be known forever by this art if his dad has the papers of the whole thing and just read it he should say either

this is incredible i've never read anything in my life that's moved me like this jake you It should either be that or something should happen and the alien should take this story with her and there should maybe just be one page left and, you know, and that's all that's left. And then Benjamin Sisko, dad walks in and says, I only read this one page, but it's incredible, Jake. Jake's like, yeah, that was my greatest writing I'll ever do and it's gone. And then Ben can say, no, it's still there inside. You don't need her. there could like to say that this was all about this great work of art and then he's got it in

his hands and says well the spelling's not great and you know needs some work what the heck the whole story was built on yeah helping me to make the greatest piece of art ever the great gaps be and the only note I can give you the only note is there's spelling errors who cares because you already wrote a masterpiece it should be a masterpiece it doesn't feel like it's a masterpiece. It seemed like it should have been acknowledged. Yes. I agree with both of you. And also the line when he asked, you know, Jake says, well, what did you think, Dad? And Cisco says, he says, you've got a good start on a novel here, Jake. Good start. He wrote almost the entire thing in the last 42 hours. So that to me was a little, what are you saying? Yeah, because the two of them made

it clear he was nearly finished. Yes. It was nearly finished. He should have, you're right, Robbie. He just said this is amazing son not good start all right that sounds like he just wrote the pro the prolog you know it's like what what do you know so there's some issues there too yeah they undercut their own concept they literally took their whole concept and went yeah that's okay it's a good start it's almost like what whatever salmon page was supposed to be here got tossed out and they forgot about it or something weird it's like right and so she was a magical muse for all of these other, for Keats, but not for Cisco? I wrote down two things. The first thing, my knee-jerk response to this whole episode is

inappropriate behavior. Stalking is bad. Like, don't manipulate people, have healthy boundaries, and don't stalk people. Like, it's not good. It's bad. My other last, um, I guess is kind of for Jake at the end with his dad that he's got what he he needs inside of himself. He didn't need this woman to come. You don't need someone else to love yourself and to be yourself. Odo doesn't need Loxana to be himself. You know, he already had that in himself. He didn't need her and Jake didn't need any of this. And to me, that would have been a better lesson if it had been written that way. I don't know that this episode was written that way. but that's my takeaway is that both those characters, Odo and Jake,

had everything they need inside of them already. They don't need another person to bring that out of them. There, I'm done. You saying that? No, I love it. What you just said, it makes me, it just makes me realize that maybe the writers,

because of trying to just get the episode out, lost the vision of the same moral of the story for the entire episode. I think they did. Yeah. I don't think they, if they had it at one point, they lost it. And it's buried in there somewhere, but. Yeah, and they're all so talented.

It's just, I think it's really hard when you have an episode like this where you can see mistakes that they even feel like they're living with too, that you just, hindsight is 20-20. It's really awful, but knowing what that engine is like and how hard they're working, nonstop and how things overlap because they have to, it's just a really difficult medium to stay on top of be rested and clear. It's a lot. Okay. Before we go to Terry's lesson, can I just read a little bit of the reception? The muse proved to not be a popular episode among some members of the crew. For example, director David Livingston confesses, I think it's one of my poorer efforts. I let the material down because I just didn't know what to

do with it. Similarly, executive producer Iris Stephen Bear admits the script had problems. Ronald D. Moore concurs. We always start with good ideas, and there's always a reason why we try something, but they just don't always come out right. Renee Eschervaria simply says, I had no feeling for either story. Iris Stephen Bear commented, when we came up with the story, it was such a wacky idea, the danger of creation. History is filled with self-destructive writers. It would be nice to find out why writers can be so self-destructive, and we did. It was kind of a demented yet interesting attempt. It's a weird show. It's a show that we enjoyed. I haven't heard much reaction from the fans. I do think we gave Majo some good stuff to play, and I think Odo helps. René,

Opejean-Rois, really helps sell those scenes. So, and a 2012 interview with David Livingston, he stated, he wished that the muse had never been produced, remarking that was not good. So even David just crushed it. Poor David. But the one thing that the crew did love about the episode, however, was the performance of actress Meg Foster. According to Renee Eschervaria, Meg Foster was perfection. Indeed, Iris Stephen Baer specifically saw Foster out to play the role. Bear says of her performance, she's so seductive and interesting.

You know, you can fall inside those eyes. So there you go. That's the final two sense word. So we were not off on taking that impression of. No, no. I still think there's a lot of information missing. There is. There is.

Yes. So if you were to say that there is a lesson from this episode, what would that be tear fare? Beware of people that want to jump in your life so quickly. Great. That's a good lesson. Slow down. Slow down and get to know them.

We all get excited when we feel connected. But if it's a true connection, you can slow down because it will be there tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. and if it is just a blast of excitement because your energy's bumped into each other at that particular moment, be aware that it's not something that's grounded. Yeah. In both situations. Mine is a combination of both of yours.

So basically with Terry's, yeah, be aware of red flags because we all have a gut. We all have a gut that tells us something. It's just, it's like, hey, this isn't the right situation. Something's off here. But sometimes we get so enthusiastic. when we hear about something, it's like, oh, that's great. Yeah. Okay, yeah, I'll definitely do this. And you just jump into it with both feet. And you don't even realize red flags are everywhere. Well, you see them, but you don't pay attention to them. So pay attention to the red flags to

further what Terry was saying. And with Robbie, yeah, that one whole line about everything that you need to get something done is inside of you. You don't need someone else to pull that out of you. You can find it yourself. It's there. So. Yeah. And can I add, if you work, on what Robbie talked about, your self-esteem, loving yourself, forgiving yourself, trusting yourself. Can you count on you? If you work on all of those elements, then you can see the red flags. Then you can see the unstable, boundaryless people hurling at you. And it's interesting, there won't be as attracted to you the more grounded and with self-respect and love for yourself and honoring your own boundaries with grace because it was a hard road to learn that they're grace

and they're my responsibility. But when you have all of that, then you can, those rose-gallard glasses come off. And yeah, you might get excited for a moment, but you just handle it. a lot differently. I like that. Right, because you don't need the outside validation as much. It feels good, but not as good as you feeling your autonomy. Well, perfect. So instead of TLC, tender loving care, Terry, you've come up with LTF.

Love yourself, trust yourself, and forgive yourself, a little LTF action. Oh, thank you. Nice. I need to market me. Terry, what is the Patreon poll winner for a theme? slash lesson slash moral of this episode. Well, I'm so happy you asked me that, Gawa. It is submitted by my friend Rebecca Leary.

Oh, yes. She's fabulous. She's gorgeous and she's a really kind person and I can't believe I'm reading her name right now. Oh, so you know this person. Super cool. Okay. Yeah. Got it.

Yes. Hey, Rebecca. I know. True love and creativity shouldn't come at the cost of exploitation or self-destruction. agreed. All right, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to our recap and discussion of The Muse. We also want to thank Terry again for co-hosting with us. Thank you, Terry. Thank you. Yes, you're welcome. And please join us next time when we will be reviewing and recapping and discussing the episode for The Cause with Armand Shimmerman. For all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for bonus material with more Terry Farrell. Everyone else, see you next time.

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