The Delta Flyers - Whispers

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

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, Whispers, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, & Armin ShimermanWhispers: While aboard a runabout he has stolen from DS9, Chief O'Brien records a log recounting how he returned from a mission to find his wife and friends had inexplicably turned against him.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts, Tom Paynter, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Lisa Robinson, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Nicole Anne Toma, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Rob Traverse, Matt Norris, Stephanie Lee, Izzy Jaffer, Jan Hanford, Sam Mikelic, Thomas Irvin, & Jonathan CappsOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Luz R., Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Jenna Appleton, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Sandra Stengel, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Tim Neumark, Daniel O’Brien, Danie Crofoot, Steven Lugo, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, Penny Liu, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Kevin Harlow, & Hailey LugoAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Ann Harding, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carol Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Fillmon, Chad Awkerman, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Vikki Williams, Cindy Ring, Alicia Kulp, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Justin Weir, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, John Richardson, Heather Selig, Rachel Shapiro, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Annie Davey, Jeremy Gaskin, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Linda Daireaux, Mars DeVore, Jennifer Vaughn, Walkerius Logos, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, Ryan Mahieu, Andrew Cook-Feltz, Karen Galleski, Constance, Loretta Reyes, Timothy McMichens, Cassandra Girard, Francesca Garibaldi, Andrea Wilson, Carol Ramsey, Willow Whitcomb, Jadzia Mehari, Mo, Leslie Ford, Travis Campos, & Douglas Lawrence-PlantThank you for your support!“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 Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers. Journey through the wormhole with Quark Decks and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we journey through the episodes of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. Your hosts along this journey are Terry Farrell, our insightful science officer. Armin Shimmerman, our small business genius, Garrett Wong, our Forever Ensign, and myself, your favorite helmsman, Robert Duncan McNeil.

Today we've got Armin. Hello, Armin. Hello, hello, hello, hello. Small but genius. I like that, small business genius. Our small business, genius. Oh, I meant small business, not a small brandy. Yeah.

But it's a way I heard it. It's okay. It's all right. Genius. I focused on genius. I focused. Robbie, the way you word, it does sound like he's a diminutive business genius. Oh, that's funny.

You meant small business together and then genius comes afterwards. Oh, that's funny. Well, it's all right. My heart is broken, but it's all right. Well, if he said diminutive, Armand, you could take offense, but diminutive is not in there. So. Okay. How does you think you're more entrepreneurial, like small business owner?

Yes. But now. Well, then why don't you say entrepreneurial? genius you could say that before i want to change it up i will give it all up for the genius okay the genius is the good i know how to read reviews i know i know what works to look for that's right that's good that's right don't go anywhere we'll be right back let's talk about my my recent acting yes let's talk about that we can talk about that let's talk about that your trip to missouri uh yes i was in missouri to film a fit a feature film called

25 miles to normal. Josh Brandon is the writer-director, and Josh Brandon is the same individual that was on a tour of our set when he met Robbie McNeil at the tender age of 15, visiting from Australia. And he had that conversation with Robbie saying,

look, I love this industry. I want to work in it someday. If I come back, you know, as an adult, would you mentor me? Can I call you? And Robbie goes, sure, yeah, whatever, buddy. And then sure enough, that happened. 10 years later.

10 years later, I got to call. Robbie's actually pretty. producing Chuck at the time. His assistant calls him and says, yeah, there's a Josh Brandon said that you told him to call you. He left a message. Robbie goes online, types, thinking that this is another exec in the industry. He types his name into Google. He's like, there's nothing.

He's like, I don't know. There's nothing. Who is this guy? Yeah. I don't know any job. Continue the story. What happens then? Yeah.

So I felt like, well, if somebody's calling saying, I said, call me, I must have said it to someone. So I was like, sure, set up a lunch, you know, have him come. come down to Warner Brothers, you know, our meeting. So he comes over. And then he tells me this story. Yeah. And he tells me the whole thing. And I had vague memories.

I was like, maybe, because we had a lot of tours come through. You know what I mean? Right. And it wasn't a, it wasn't a normal Paramount tour, Robbie. You're wrong about that. It was a, this is a, he, he, his family or someone there knew somebody, right? No, they knew somebody that worked in the production. So he had a VIP tour.

That's why he was on the set. Oh. Yeah. Well, anyway, we had our little meeting and then he said, I've written a couple of, you know, spec scripts. I've got some samples. He had a writing partner at the time. And he said, me and my writing partner have this stuff. Would you, you know, be interested in reading it and handing it off to anybody that you think might be interested?

And I was like, sure. And I read the first one. I was like, wow, it was pretty good. I mean, it was a good script. So I gave it, I gave it to my agent. And he ended up signing with my agent and getting staffed on it and sold a pilot that first year. Wow. Yeah, I mean, it was crazy.

Can you imagine that? Yeah, he had a great first agent he meets with. Robbie sets it up with his agency. And they're like, yeah, we love him. We'll sign him. And then he sells a pilot immediately. Incredible. What?

Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's a, and he's a really nice human being. He's a good man because he learned to be a good human from Star Trek. He's a Star Trek fan. There you go. Of course, he's a good.

you. Yes. Yeah, he's a good guy. And also an entrepreneur. Yes, he is. Yes. Yes, he is very and not diminutive either. Okay. Yeah, great experience, super fun. I can't wait to see how they're going to put this or what platform this is going to go on. So I'm excited. Yeah. Awesome. So I play, I play the best friend of the lead. And lead is played by Lucas Bryant, who is a series regular on Haven and a bunch of other things. He's from Canada. Canada, super nice guy, but he's a doctor, I'm a doctor, and I'm his best friend. So he's sort of going back to Missouri to his home state, the character, and he's visiting with his mom and dad, and there's, you know, there's family issues, but he's calling me constantly

for advice, basically. So that's why my character exists, in essence. Yeah. Did Josh mention, I feel like he mentioned to me at one point about this movie that it was a bit autobiographical. Did he ever talk about that? No. No, he did not say that.

I mean, he's not a doctor, but I think he put some of his life story into it. Well, my character is Will, and Will is a real person in his life. Will is actually a personal trainer in California. My character has two children, and they're named Dutch and Onyx, and Dutch after Predator, the character and Predator, and Onyx after the League of, of, DC comic book character, basically. And this personal trainer in Los Angeles, this will, the real will, does have two kids. And they are named Dutch and Onyx after those characters.

Maybe that's the part. Maybe it's not like a cathartic childhood story. It might just be that he pulled from different parts of his life. He did say that. Yeah. So it was, yeah, it was a lot of fun. Awesome. Awesome.

And when will we see this? When does it come out? Oh, goodness. I have absolutely zero ideas. But I gave everyone the title. So you can look it up, I guess. It might be a while, but Josh has made a bunch of these movies as a director, writer, and also as a producer. He's produced some scripts by other people.

So he's got a pipeline. He's now become a. Well, for lifetime. This man. Yes, yes, yes. So what he's been doing is he's been filming these, he's been filming lifetime movies. And he says that it takes about, I said, but he's filming lifetime movies in order to get enough capital to do his own project. So this movie is one of his own projects.

So I said, oh, so you go one lifetime movie, then one of your own? He goes, oh, no, no, no, it takes easily. No, he said eight. He goes, eight lifetimes gives me enough to do one of my own. So I'm like, okay. So this is his own personal project that we filmed. And ladies and gentlemen, there's a lesson. Nobody really makes a lot of money in our business.

Yeah, definitely not doing lifetime movies. They don't have big budgets. No, no. All right. Well, good. All right. We've got some birthdays this month. Jenny B.

has a birthday on August 6th. Happy birthday, Jenny. Happy birthday, Jenny. Happy birthday, Jenny. And also we have Preston M. Preston M's birthday is on August 9th. Happy birthday to Preston. Happy birthday, Preston.

Happy birthday, Preston. M. M. is m4 and many more maybe it would be too big we have a new profit i think garris don't we yes we do i yes i totally forgot but here we go we have a brand new prophet so congratulations to carrie roberts on being our newest prophet congr thanks you carry thank you very much welcome carry you're going to have a blast yes and you're basically a god no no you are you are you're a pejorie You talk to gods.

You talk to gods. You're a pejoran god now. Okay. Let's start with our poetry synopsis. All right. I've done this a couple times where I write a haiku. I mean, I don't write a hyacu. I write a limerick, and then I don't like it.

And so I write another one. So I have two again. Oh, hey, double the fun. Let's go. So let's start with the first one. Yeah. So the first one I'm going to read is my second one. I think it captures the plot a little better.

And then I'll read the first one I wrote. Okay. Okay, here we go. A secure peace summit, O'Brien helps arrange. When he returns, everyone's acting strange. He can't trust anyone. So he goes on the run. The plan is head engineer, replicant exchange.

Oh. That's the plot that gets the plot. I like it. I like it. I'm going to read my other one. Okay. All right. Here's the other one. On the station, O'Brien's in a bit of a jam, so he decides to make a run for it and scram. Everyone was acting bizarre, so he records a personal memoir about an awkwardly long physical exam. That was my first. I like that. I like that one. I love bizarre and memoir. That's great. I know. I know. But when you said in a bit of a jam, Damn, I thought after Run for it, he's on the lamb is what I thought you were excited. Oh, that would work too. Yes. I like scram.

Scram works good. Scram works good. I like. And so that one was the original one or the second one? What's the one that you just? That's the first one. But I didn't feel like it really. You didn't think that was enough?

Come on, Robbie. Come on, Robbie. Get a life. Get a life. I know. I know. I'm just sitting there writing poems. Oh, my God.

Okay. Here's my hyacoo. And then after that, Do you have anything, Arben, today? Yes, I have a definition. He's very responsible, Gary. Much more responsible than us. Yes, agreed.

Here we go. Here's my haiku for whispers. Chief knows something's up. Coffee, double strong and sweet. Wrong chief the whole time. There you go. That's good. You got a lot of good stuff in there.

Thanks, man. You know, you said coffee, double strong, double sweet. I thought that was going to really play a, major role in the of the episode. It didn't. It didn't. I thought that was certainly leading to something. Yes. Because I don't think I ever remember him

being such an addict to that particular. No. Never. No. I don't think so. Not yet. He never says that. But so I thought that was the duplicates, you know, weird. Don't give anything away. All right. Yeah, we won't say anything. Well, so etymology. Etymology.

Ah, I guess that me, a cue for me. that's your kill yes so from the oxford english dictionary uh the word is whisper yes uh it is from the old english and i don't think i'm pronouncing this right because it starts with an h how whisperian who isprian uh and that by the way that original uh root of that word uh was originally only said in north armbuland so it was very regional kind of very regional and then it spread to to the rest of the English language. But the definition I have from the OED is a secret or slight utterance, mention or report,

a suggestion, insinuation, hint, light rumor, communicated in a whispering voice. And that is the definition from the OED. Hmm. I mean, there are elements of that definition that I can connect to this, but I'm not sure what the, like, what they entail.

with this title you mean the writers why did they name it this yeah yeah considering i i sort of can think about why they did it but it's not it's not an ideal uh title for this episode could it be everyone but o'brien are whispering amongst themselves behind his back maybe yes i think so i think so but then to know that yeah it is to know you know the ending of the episode yeah pretty much yeah yeah yeah it's it's not the ideal title to me it just never i never connected it anyway okay whispers maybe they're whispering behind his back okay maybe it's not a great it's a it's a yeah it's a vague reference to what happens in this episode it's very at best yeah at best yes let's talk about guest stars okay all right so we have good old rosalun

chow we have hana hatea of course keko o'brien mollie o'brien susan bay as admiral roman todd wearing is ensign de curtis and todd is a very good friend of mine but i didn't know him when he shot this episode oh how did you end up meeting good by the way yes he is uh and god he's gorgeous in this episode yeah he's very handsome i did not know him when he looked like that no offense todd no offense talk uh but uh todd and uh is a a member of Antias, the theater company that I helped run. Got it. And he's a wonderful, wonderful actor.

We did Macbeth together. We spent a lot of time together. So it's a wonderful actor and producer and writer. So but I know him as an older person, older than that really gorgeous person. Yeah, he's very handsome. I was thinking the whole time, you know, that he was on the second season of DS9. I have no doubt he was up for the role of Tom Paris. I don't know why he wouldn't have been.

It was right around the timing of our show. It's possible. Yeah. I would have cast him as Tom Paris. I'll ask him. I'll ask him. Yeah. I'd be curious.

Yeah. Because he was really good. I liked him a lot. Yeah. I thought it was great. We have another name here. We have Philip Lestrange as Kutu or Kutu. That was Phil Lestrange.

I did a play with Philip Lestranged. You know Phil Lestrange? Oh, my God. What play did you do with Phil Lestrade? I did Antigone at the Lincoln Center. When was that, Robbie? 1988. Oh, my God.

Probably. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, I knew Phil Ostrange, yeah. My goodness. What did he play in the play? What was Phil's role?

Do you remember? I can't remember. What did you play? Yeah, what was your role? I played the love interest for Antigone. Heyman. Heyman, yeah. Heyman.

Okay. Yeah, and Phil played one of the dads or something. I think, I can't remember. Okay. This was, Lincoln Center had an educational alarm, so they would mount these productions at Lincoln Center and run them very briefly in the summer. Which theater did they use?

They used. Vermont or the other one, the smaller one. They actually, we used, we performed at Juilliard in the big theater at Juilliard, which is crazy because I, I had gone to Juilliard, but I never got to perform in the big theater because I left early. So I came back a couple years later and did this for Lincoln Center Theater. But this was a, they'd run it briefly in the summer, and the schools would all come by from all over the tri-state area, really, other places too.

And then they would put in for if they wanted the show to come to their school system. It was meant to tour later on. So the New York cast, me and Philist Strange and some of those actors, not all of us were able to go on the tour or even wanted to go on the tour but doing that New York run was really fun so it was a brief run in the early summer I think it was like June or something

have you crossed paths with him since 1989 or whatever you haven't bumped into him anywhere no but no but I had no idea and I didn't look up the cast so that's crazy now I'm looking him up it's a small world but I wouldn't want to to paint it.

Sorry, that was great. Thank you for that, Armin. I love that. Can I use that? Can I please say that in the future? Absolutely, yeah. I've been using it for years. I love it.

It's because my father was a house painter, so that's why. Oh, that makes sense. Phil Estrange is still alive. He's 82 years old. Yeah, he was on Next Generation. He did a bunch of law, several law and orders. He didn't do Voyager. Did he? Was he on our show, too?

No. No. Okay. He was mostly a New York theater guy. All right. That's why a lot of a bunch of law and orders in there. Yeah. Okay.

Anyway, sorry to digress, but I didn't realize that I knew that actor. Well, it's always great when we find out names that are familiar to us. And Susan Nimoy is, of course, I'm assuming, is Leonard's wife. Susan Nimoy? Yeah. It says Susan Bay. Susan Bay is. Oh, that's his wife.

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. I didn't make that connection either. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm 93% sure. Wow. I bet you're right. I spent some time with Susan, but I didn't recognize that last name. And maybe I have it wrong, but maybe I've, I just made that assumption. No, no, no, hold on.

You're right. I just looked it up. Spouses, Leonard Nimoy from 1989 until he passed away. She was married to him. That's his widow. Yeah. So, Susan, I went to the theater with them a couple of times. With Leonard and Susan?

Leonard and Susan. I didn't make that connection either. Wow. Thank you, Armin. And of course, Terry's ex-mother-law. Right. Right. Oh, my goodness.

This cast has a lot of connections for us. Yeah, yeah. All right. Here's our episode. So we start in the runabout. Boom, the runabout comes out of the wormhole, flying super fast. Miles, O'Brien is inside. He's alone.

He seems off. in this first scene to me immediately I was like he's not funny usually Miles O'Brien's kind of got a you know that working man kind of vibe yeah something is that what you got from it because that's not what I got from it I got from it is I felt like this scene was shot before anything else was shot like this was like the it just seemed like there's supposed to be tension there's supposed to be a lot of tension but it seems so lack of days ago so like calm and so oh well you know it didn't seem yes to me that's what i got i was like why is he so i literally wrote very tense i know you wrote tense but there's a line in there robby where he says

like i don't know i i may not i may not live through this and it's so casual he said that i was like why is he not why the stakes not high enough why are they and he also says in his log in the middle of leaving the log he causes to say uh computer coffee jamaican blend double double see like he's literally ordering coffee in the middle of this so yes he is his tone was i totally bought it okay now forgive me speaking of the log i believe this is the first time that i've ever seen a log where you're actually witnessing the character making the recording so that's slightly bizarre that's slightly bizarre that that's being done uh which i think does sort of set the tone that there's something slightly off about this okay okay so you guys all

I bought it. I bought it. I bought it that he was off and something was wrong, but he didn't know exactly. I knew that was going on, but didn't, but didn't you guys feel like when you wrote, when you wrote in your notes tense, I didn't see tense at all. I just thought, okay, something's off. Yeah. And by the way, we skipped over writer.

Writer is Paul Robert Coyle and director is Uncle Les Landau. I just want to throw. Oh, yeah. I saw Les was doing it. Yeah, I bought the, I bought the, the tenseness of it mystery thriller of it like that it was in that sort of tone rather than a it wasn't you know red alert everything's it was it was a nice tense way to come into the story for me okay but we do know from what he says in the log that there's something slightly off

because he says uh i want to set the record straight for the last 52 hours so so something needs to be corrected something it we're being told that something's a jar something's a miss right it reminded me a bit of uh on voyager there was an episode where paris was in the brig for a month and um tom paris started leaving this diary talking to the computer and so you're sort of the whole story was framed around him telling recording this letter to his father or something like that right and that's how this one sets that when this one felt yeah it felt a little bit in that structurally, the dramatic structure of this felt sort of wrapped around this log that O'Brien was leaving.

And to add to the things being amiss is the fact that normally episodes start on the station. It's usually Cisco is doing the log, but usually it's on the station. Or we get a picture of the station and we know and the log is coming up. This all of a sudden we're in a runabout and and O'Brien's by himself. this sets this tone of there's something amiss there's something's not exactly normal yeah right yeah agreed okay so the log is going on at the end of this log at the end of this opening scene o'brien says i'm trying to remember the first time i noticed things were wrong it seems to me it was yeah it had to be the first morning after i got back to the station and that's when we kind of fade into so we go back in time

Flash back to him, waking up in his bedroom, and he reaches over for his wife, but Keiko's not there. And so he gets up, he comes in, goes in the dining area, Keiko and Mali are having breakfast, and we learn it's 5.30 in the morning. Yeah. Which, by the way, I got up at like 4.30 in the morning. So I can relate to what I just wake up early. Yeah. But it's 5.30 in the morning, and immediately, Roschow was, something was, she was tense.

She was guarded is what I thought. She's very sort of, I mean, you know, she just was, she had, to me, she had just kind of cut off all emotion towards her husband. It was just like, nope, I'm going to give you information and I'm not going to get anywhere close to you. And it was definitely odd. I had no idea what was going on. I was like, what is happening in this? I thought she was mad at it. him. It seemed angry to me. She did seem angry. But it is a tribute to Rosalind Chow's acting that

we knew something was amiss without her having to say anything. Yeah, she didn't say anything. Yeah. And even little Hannah. Even Molly is just like, no, I'm not going to give you a kiss, whatever. There's tension there too. There's something going on. Yeah. And he's very confused in all of this. He's like, what did I do to deserve that? And then Kako asks, how was your mission, what did you do? She seems to be sort of quizzing him a little bit. He says the piratas put him through this basic security training because they're about to have some really important peace talks. Yeah. And Miles was there helping. We'll learn later that I think Odo was on Bayjor during all this. So Miles was by himself, I guess, with the piratas.

Well, there would be no reason for Odo to go with O'Brien on the diplomatic mission. There'd be no reason for so so brian went by himself but yeah he caco asks him he says it was just basic security training and then caco decides to go to work and she's going to take molly at 5.30 in the morning right now i get up early but i don't wake up rebecca and drag her out to do things at five in the morning so that's probably good that you don't do that yeah probably but he does offer to drop molly off at daycare on his way to ops and immediately Keiko's like, no, no, no, I'm just taking her with me, which is very odd to

Chief because he's thinking of what, what? This makes no sense. Why would she go to the school with you? And she, Keiko comes up with this kind of a lame answer. There's a Vulcan program that teaches basic problem solving skills. I want to show her that. So again, Chief is completely

perplexed as to what is going on. This is so bizarre. That's all weird. By the way, Armin, we've been in the O'Brien's quarters a lot i i thought about this but we haven't been in other people's like we haven't been in quirks quarters maybe one rarely do yeah you rarely get into quarks quarters and and and and you do get into cures and and you do get into ciscoes yes ciscoes and but rarely daxes rarely quarks uh we i don't think you ever go into bishir maybe you do but i don't know well we go to quarks uh quarters when

the negus the negus is there you're You're entertaining the Nagas for dinner, so that we see it a little bit there. We saw a little bit, yeah. A little bit. But, but, you know, the quarters are all the same place. Yeah, it's just redressed, obviously. Change the lighting color. I just want to bring up one thing in this little scene.

Just the fact that O'Brien offers to drop Molly off at daycare, I didn't even know there was a daycare on the station. Where's the daycare? Where's the daycare? Has anyone ever talked about the daycare before? That's Morn's job. Morn runs the daycare. Morn runs the daycare.

Morn's Mighty Mites is the name of the daycare, actually. All right. It's good because, you know, at the beginning, in the first episode, they had to set up a school. So, you know, no one spoke about daycare at that time. And one doesn't see that many children, Molly's age on the show. You don't. Because the union reasons, you know, and California law,

conditions of reasons so yeah um yeah so the daycare center must either have one at or at the most two people in it and which would be okay for more which would be all right for that'd be fine for more can have a one or two all right well we go to the security office next work is underway on this wall panel and o'brien comes down he finds an engineer working on the panel and uh A gorgeous engineer. A gorgeous. A gorgeous. Very handsome.

Very handsome. Very handsome. Very charming. When my wife saw Todd in that shot, you would, oh, my God, I had no idea. They looked like that. I'm telling you, I felt like my role of Tom Paris was threatened by this actor from 30 years ago. I was like, wow, why didn't he get the role? Then that role would have been, it would have been Lieutenant Todd Paris is what it would have been.

Yes. Anyway, O'Brien walks up. He's very aware that everybody's starting early. He even comments and like, everybody's getting an early start. Keiko's getting an early start. You're already into this. Yeah. He's a little annoyed that DeCurtis jumped in.

And DeCurtis as well, Cisco, you know, the commander told me it was a direct order. Right. So you're going to have to talk to him. And Miles is annoyed, but he lets him continue. Yeah, because he's not being looped. in on anything. No one's telling him anything. And he's the chief. So, Brian, uh, is walking on the promenade when he spots Keiko and Cisco whispering or something. So he hides behind a, a pillar. So they're being sneaky. Kiko and Cisco are being sneaky and are they being sneaky.

They're talking in the public ever there's, they're not behind they're not in an alcove. They're right there sort of like how in each other leaning in there's a leaning in. There's nothing like, okay, fine, go ahead. I thought so. I did not see that. continue but you know it's another thing to point out this whole episode is from o'brien's perspective it's his p o'b and it should be yeah yeah the audience is feeling what this miles o'brien that we're following yeah what he's feeling we're in that pov that was well done yeah good job les lando well that that's also the writing you know it is the writing but even like the way that less kept having this kind of theme of steady

cam shots in the promenade that we're always picking up. We're not way back in the balcony with the camera looking down at Miles O'Brien from a distance. We're right up with him. The camera was always with Miles in his POV. I thought it was that those little things make a difference that where less put the camera. It does make you feel like the audience is wherever he puts the camera. And for this episode, the camera was right with Miles all the time. Yeah. We go. We go from there into the runabout we're back to the present back to our log entering yeah our story um miles is heading into the or heading towards the prada system he scans for any warp signatures ask the computer anything behind me anybody following me computer says yes the runabout

me kong is trailing him and a brian decides to wait until he uh he's going to stay at warp and he realizes they're going to wait until he drops out of warp um to come kind of grab him so he continues his personal log keeps telling the story doesn't even say why he's going to the prize there's no explanation whatsoever we're just no we're totally in the dark uh as we should be yeah and in his log he mentions maybe it's a surprise party although my birthday's not until september but that's what it feels like it feels like they're planning a surprise party and he doesn't like those parties either he can't stand surprise parties yes anyway he uh uh Over this log, he's arriving into ops for the first time in the episode.

When Bashir approaches him in ops, and he says, you know, O'Brien, you finally need to have this physical exam. You've been avoiding it. And O'Brien really doesn't want to have this. Do a physical. Bashir even says, I may have to pull rank and order you, which feels a little aggressive in that friendship. That's when Cisco arrives. and immediately, Bashir mentions the physical exam and Cisco orders O'Brien to do it.

That's an order. Stop everything, that's a priority. You need to go have this physical. And I think O'Brien even asked for a private word. He says at that point, you know what? Can we talk, Commander? Can I talk to you for a minute? And that's when they head in his office.

Cisco apologizes at first when they first arrive in his office. He's like, I'm sorry, I should have included you on the DeCurtis thing, Mr. Handsome guy down in the hallway. He was just so beautiful. I had to say yes, go do it. No, that's not what. Can you just say Ensign handsome? Just say Ensign handsome.

Ensign handsome. That's good. It's hard to say, though. I'll tell Todd. I'll tell Todd. He was ensign handsome. He's like, he's got a running thing in this podcast of being the most handsome man. Please tell Todd to listen to this episode of the podcast.

I think he'll get a. He will be tickled pink in hearing his name and ensign handsome at the same time. I will tell him. Good. Yeah, Cisco apologizes, says, you know, I just should have included you, but I wanted to get things going. But he goes, by the way, I want to know about these parotip. You know, the things you don't put in a report, the secret things or something. Which is weird also, right, coming out of his mouth.

Yes. yeah it makes him seem ominent like cisco's the bad guy because right now we think miles is good we don't think we don't know anything we don't know and that adds to to o'brien's point of view you know we have to see this because because lest did shoot it this way we must see everything from o'brien's point of view yeah yeah yeah yeah and cisco does seem a bit off off insincere or something yeah Yeah. Doesn't O'Brien

tells them about the odor that they have of some kind of... Which didn't play either. No, that is... Why mention this stuff if it doesn't even land on anything later, right? It's just so bizarre. Unless the scene was cut out.

Unless the scene was cut out. Right. Yeah. Okay. It would have been funny when O'Brien comes in later, opens the door and there's all the... The odor?

The aliens. If Cisco was like, where he had a gas mask on or something. It was an opportunity for that. It was an opportunity. But he says they have an odor from these secretions in their skin, and it gets stronger when they get really upset. I think Cisco says, well, I'll try not to upset them.

But Cisco tells them, I want you to go work on the pylons. Don't work on the security stuff. The upper pylons are down again. And O'Brien's really confused here because he said, I just fixed those. I rebuilt them all. they should be fine it makes no sense um but cisco says physical first go get your exam then go straight to the pylon so he's yeah he feels like he's um trying to keep him away from something

else that's happening yes you know it definitely yeah and if the other good sorry i was going to say the elephant in the room is we've never seen this from o'brien before why is he so upset about getting the physical. Why is he putting up such a fight about getting physical? It's not that he doesn't trust his doctor. He does. I'm sure every time O'Brien's been hurt, he has no problem getting fixed up. So what is the problem? And that, of course, plays into the other point of view. But from continuity standpoint, I didn't understand why he was so upset with this. Just from continuity. i understand but not from the continuity okay that's funny because it didn't bump me at all now that you bring it up i do question it but at the time i guess i bought it because i was like oh it's kind of a

caricature a stereotype of like the working class tough guy who just doesn't want to take care of himself right he's too busy i got to go fix the car i got to go yeah clean the garage i got whatever you know It's that every man sort of not doing good self-care. Yeah, so it seemed par for the course for you, Robbie. Yeah, I kind of bought it in a general way that, you know, culturally, that type of working guy. Yeah, they feel like they're in good shape. They don't need to prioritize. Yeah, I'm fine.

It's the last priority for them. Yeah, maybe. But that's a good point, Armin. Yeah. Anyway, Miles asks about Cisco talking to Keiko. He said, is everything okay? I saw you talking to Keiko. And Cisco mentions, oh, yeah, it's about Jake.

His grades are really slipping. He's struggling in school. And O'Brien reassures him, you know, Keiko loves him. She likes him a lot. She'll help him. She'll get him through this. And then he leaves. And there's a long kind of evil look from Cisco.

as he leaves i don't know that seemed a little that one seemed a little over the top to me that after o'brien left i was that long look yeah it was kind of a long look and then a it felt a little arch in a way that didn't need to happen there and it's antithetical to what less has been doing with the program yeah that's seeing it from cisco's point of view and not this is not something brian sees yeah so that that is antithetical to the thrust of what less has been doing. Yeah, I hadn't put it in that framing, but you're absolutely,

that's why it bumped me. That's why it was weird. O'Brien's gone. Why is he acting so evil? And it wasn't, it was just a look. He didn't have any lines. I think he even pulled up the security report or something. But it was, it just felt arched to me.

Yes. Yeah. So the next thing that happens, even though. Yeah. O'Brien doesn't want it to happen, but no. It's happening. That's going to. happen we and it's taking a long time that that i can understand that he's got he doesn't want this

but it is taking a very long time longer at one would assume than most of the physicals that he's endured so this is this is taking a really long time i was impressed with sid's ability to use multiple devices he had two hands going like as far as i know bobicardo never always had one prop or if he had to it was the thing that came off of the medical tricorder that he's scanned and was holding the tricorder. So it became like that. But he had two completely separate devices. He's juggling multiple activities.

Wow. Yes. So here's the other activity that happened to see as the camera pushed in. And Sid reached his hand down below frame and said, cough. I was like, oh my God, they're doing this? And then he even goes, hmm, everything okay in that department? It made a whole, the doctor grabbing your privates joke that I thought was one of my favorite things in this. It was brief, but it was amazing.

Okay, my favorite thing was the actual half-hearted coughs that he had. It was like, he didn't even really, he didn't do a real cough, which was funny to be. Yeah. It's possible that Cullum wasn't interested in playing that particular beat. He's like, I'm going to show you how unenthused I am about this scene. by coughing like this like that yeah yeah he says he says uh he says uh he says well your sense of humor seems normal enough bishir says yeah brian says i don't have a sense of humor and when his hand goes down bishir goes cough he coughs he goes how's the sex life and he repeats i don't

have a sense of humor and he goes cough cough and he cough and he coughs again he goes everything all right in that department it's just i love that moment yeah i almost put it in my limerick it was so oh it almost made a debut in your limerick but you it's good comedy it is yeah uh yeah so um but he does but she does ask at one point how's your mother and father doing and miles is annoyed he says you know my mother died two years ago my father got remarried i told you all about this so there is an odd disconnect And you think, we think at this point, Bashir is the one that's lying or something. But I guess we'll see the perspective later that he was sort of testing him.

He was trying to. But again, from O'Brien's point of view, things are off. And we know things are off because we know from the log entry that for O'Brien, things are off. And now he's remembering these things that have promulgated this, this, response to him. So we're seeing that. Sisko has been a little off. Todd's character has been a little off. Kiko has been a little off. Everyone's been a little off. And we're just getting more and more information that validates that opinion. Yes. I have a remind me to ask this question later, because it's a spoiler, and I don't want to spoil this for people listening to podcasts, get ahead

of ourselves. But I want to remember to ask this question because, yeah, we're all from his point of view and there's a big i guess there wouldn't be an episode if if they did what i'm thinking but anyway um we'll get there so so yeah he asked him about his parents then miles thinks at one point that oh my god i'm sick that's why you're doing this that's why you're doing this very long i'm dying he basically starts getting paranoid happy birthday yes and when when he jumps up did you see all the ties in the back of his gown like the classic yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah, yeah. No.

Yeah, yeah. It's great. I like that a lot. I like the ties in the back, yeah. The ties in the back. It's just like nothing's changed, really. It's a little more tailored, I guess, than the open flaps. And a little tighter on the ties, too, for that matter.

Yes. Yes. But it was a nice homage to our classic hospital gown. Our current medical gowns, yes. Bashir, at this point, when O'Brien starts panicking, Bishir gives him a clean bill of health. He goes, no, no, no, you know what, you're fine. In fact, he's so.

healthy that he can walk fast through the promenade and jake has to run and catch up to him and jake catches uh oh brian yes and speaking of jake uh two things i'm looking at that scene i'm thinking oh my god he's sprouted up yeah it's i got the impression at that moment he's taller than a cullin miss wow i mean he will ultimately be taller yes he will ultimately but at this in that shot i I thought, oh, he's about a half an inch dollar than Colin was right there. Yeah, it was an earlier episode in my reaction videos, Armid, where I noticed that he had sprouted up like a beanstalk. I was like, my goodness. And the last time we saw him, it looks like he grew an extra six inches.

It really does. Do you know how old he was at this point in the series? I would venture and I don't know. So it's just a guess. I would say at this point, he's 15, maybe 16. Yeah. So he would be definitely well into puberty by that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. On the topic of his height, of his sprouting up, I think it's good that they have already established that he and Nog like to sit in that corner on the upper level. Because now, you know, when you're seated, that sort of is the equalizer in terms of height. Because at this point, he has left Aaron Eisenberg in the dust in terms of height, clearly. So them standing together is going to look awkward. He really, really have the luck of having already established this sitting thing that they do, which I'm

I'm guessing they continue to do, Armand. They always sit in that little upper... They don't always, but, yeah, they do. Yeah. And that relationship will begin to peter out. And maybe that's one of the reasons. There'll always be a friendship, but that the... The child...

They're happening. Them happening all the time, that's going to peter out. Okay. Okay. Well, in this scene, the first scene with Jake talking to O'Brien, he... ask for some help with a subspace transceiver project, which sort of makes Miles feel a little old because the way Jake talks about the transceiver. It's like vintage.

But Miles says, yeah, I'd be happy to help you get your grades back up. Yeah. And Jake says, what are you talking about? My grades are awesome. My grades are great. Right. I just want to keep them up. So now, Brian knows something's a miss here.

Yeah. Now, excuse me, I'm just looking at my notes. It is indeed this scene, Mark Shepard. It is. Okay. I'm looking at my nose is right there. He just plays a human. He plays a human on the promenade?

Is that what it is? Yeah. Yeah. Either that or a Bjoran. I couldn't, I didn't notice the nose, but he couldn't have a nose on. But yeah, he's just sitting there. He's just, you know. Wow.

I wonder how he felt. No more in makeup. He probably. I'm sure he was very happy about it. Yes. These two scenes. So this scene, the first scene where Jake asked for help. And then there's a late, a next scene coming up soon where Jake has the transceiver.

And they're again in the promenade. I paused at one point to make some notes and I got mixed up because they're shot very similarly they both start on two people in this first scene there's two background actors that are sitting there and then we find O'Brien in the next time we're the promenade the two people are Jake and this alien

starts on two people and then it goes to O'Brien so these two scenes sort of to me I got confused here because I paused I was like wait I've seen this scene no I haven't yeah they're very similar in their set up very similar i wonder if less shot them you know right after each other it would make sense to shoot them right after each other yeah and since it was already lit for once so you want to just keep the same lighting and yeah make your day a little bit quicker a little bit quicker yeah it

the only the the biggest reason it got me confused is there's only one scene between those two promenade scenes so they're walking the promenade in the same direction same shot and then one scene away and then we go back and do the same thing again so it was a little repetitive little bit to me so miles is working uh alone in this big round airlock which i i love this shot it was very cool and uh he he's back to his log he says cisco was telling the truth about one thing the upper pylones failed and it doesn't make any sense because the new pressure locks he installed installed seemed to be working fine so he's just confused and there is a lovely shot of the camera getting closer and closer to o'brien which i really enjoyed a great deal i thought oh that's

really nice, really nice shot. Well, it's a nice opportunity of these kind of scenes when there's a voiceover and the actor is just doing business. And so the camera has an opportunity to kind of move as that voiceover kind of carries the scene, the story. And therefore, you don't have to memorize any lines. Yes.

You don't have to worry about blocking. You just have to be involved in an activity. That's it. Great scenes. Yeah. And let us, before we go any further, let us acknowledge stuff I've acknowledged many times. before the superior acting talents of column meaning that you can leave a camera on him he doesn't

have to say anything it's fascinating to watch column act yeah yeah he's great in this episode he's really really good phenomenal actor phenomenal actor we'll be right back after this message from our sponsor hey garrett have you been traveling this summer oh my gosh so much already I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane. Trip after trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me. Yes. You know what doesn't belong in everyone's epic summer plans, though?

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Up front payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. After this voiceover, he leaves the airlock area where he's working. Goes to find DeCurdis wants to check his work. And DeCurdis says, we did a clean sweep of the Parada quarters.

Everything's fine. And Miles says, well, I want to see. And he says, no, no, no, the security seal has already been activated. We can't open this door. only kira can open it so miles calls kira then cisco immediately interrupt says he wants the pylons to be o'brien's top priority that's an order so o'brien leaves but he stops around a corner looks back and there's de kirtis thinks the coast is clear and de kirtis goes in to the door he said was just sealed that couldn't be opened can we not call him to kirtis can we just say ensign handsome

please yes yes yes the most handsome man on the station opens the door and goes inside. Okay. And there's a lot of handsome people. One of them is with us today. Oh, you're very kind. But I'm no Todd Waring.

You are not a young Todd Waring. No, you are. Who is? Very few are. And I'm grateful for that. Normously grateful for that. So he sees, O'Brien sees this. And then we go back to the promenade.

This is the scene where I got confused. I was like, didn't I just see the scene? uh again jake jake and o'brien jake has the transceiver though that he talked about in the earlier scene yeah ask o'brien if it's the right one miles says yes and he he says he'll come by later to help and he starts to ask jake did anything odd happen while i was away when suddenly kira appears up above and calls jake hey jake your dad's looking for you um you need to go see him right now and jake leaves Very odd.

Again, from the POV of Miles, this is just insane. Yeah. You'd be very paranoid if all this was happening. Back to this beautiful airlock. O'Brien's working alone again. He finally found a crack in the RF power conduit, he says. And I can't imagine how that would have happened so deep in the system unless someone broke it deliberately.

So he's starting to see sabotage. He's starting to see all these lies and secrets. Yeah. He comes home really tired at this point. Kako says that Jake is not going to be coming over for tutoring or help with his project. That he got sick. And Miles was like, I just saw him. He wasn't sick a minute ago. So more lies. More weird stuff. But the good news is Molly's having a sleepover. And it's going to be the love shack for for Mr. O'Brien, Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien. Or so he thinks it's going to be the love shack. Which I thought actually was excellent for this episode, considering what the situation is. And again, wonderful work by Rosal Chow maneuvering through that sticky situation. And keeping her eyes open during the kiss. Good job, Roslyn Chow. That's how you show uncomfortability. You never close your eyes. You're just wide open while you're smooching. like mm-hmm yeah

and he picks up on it and she goes sorry I'm just not in the mood but she makes him a big dinner freaking dough stew I think it's fricken dow or freaking dough stew lots of meat I remember looking at the lots of lot of meat in there and he says he says that's strange

yeah I like it but you don't like it at all and he just finds that strange this combination of food it's a weird dinner she made him. If we know what the ending is, I don't want to give anything away, but if we know, that's just the test, I suppose. She's testing. More testing, yeah. Okay, so what's another test? But Robbie, you didn't like the look at this, too. I thought it looked very appetizing, to be honest. I thought it had like grubs or worm on it. It was me. It looked like it was moving. No, Robbie. When he like forked it? No, no, no. Moving stuff. I, well, I mean,

the way that he's looking at is looking at you're vegetarian you should be disgusted by I should be disgusted but I still thought it looked good it looked it looked like something that people that ate that eat meat would like to eat basically so I was like oh that looks good but but it to me in this scene it looked like he was thinking it was poisoned that she had put something in there yeah yeah yeah he wasn't sure whether to take a bite or not yeah he was insisting that he eat it and and he's already got suspicions again yeah wonderful a look from Column O'Brien.

So maybe he doesn't... Excuse me. Did you say Column O'Brien? I did. I did. All right. That's all right. But I do think it's interesting.

I almost feel like maybe as, you know, maybe the only thing he needs for sustenance is Jamaican blend, double sweet, double, double strength. Yeah. Double strength, double sweet, double sweet, double sweet, double sweet, Jamaican blend. I thought maybe that's all he needs to keep running or something. Sounds good to me.

Yeah. I love a good cup of coffee. As does Armin in his ember mug. Will you stop advertising for free? Until you email those people, you are not allowed to talk about that ember mug. I just said it. It's an ember mug, but it doesn't have coffee.

Oh, tea? What do you have in there? Tea. Look at that. Why didn't you send me an ember mug, Robbie? My gosh. He didn't send it to me. I didn't send it to me.

I just saw him drinking out of it and went, oh, that looks really a good idea. You copied. Okay. I emulated him. Yes, I still expect Robbie to send me one anyway. That's going to be my Christmas gift.

That'll be your Christmas gift. All right. Oh, there you have it. Well, O'Brien is paranoid about the food. He decides he's not hungry, doesn't eat anything, and leaves another personal log. This is the Miles O'Brien memoir episode. He says he doesn't know if anything was wrong with the stew or not.

And he went back to check later, but Kiko had already put it in the disposal. She already cleaned it in it. Yeah. But he is absolutely certain that this is not his wife. This is not Mike Ako. Right. And then we go back to the present for a moment.

And he, I think there's a break. There was a commercial break there. So we came back and he says, computer, play back that last sentence. So it was a way of bridging the commercial break probably. Yes, yes. It was like, end on a log and then come back and do a little recap of the log. I like it. We were a little short that week.

play my whole memoir one more time we're two minutes short what can we do we can replay the log okay yeah but yes yeah and then he listens to a sentence of his own log which I thought was he says you're right she wasn't so he's talking to himself yeah he's talked to himself

um yes so he says continue log and he says he didn't get much sleep he waited for caco Basically, he goes to his computer and he's going to check every, have the computer check every possible foreign item or poison or anything that could have infiltrated the ship. He's checking chemical agents with bioactive properties. He's accessing the EM sensor grid. He's trying to figure out something happened to this station because everybody's weird. But nothing's coming up on any of the computer.

So then he decides to listen to all of the officer's logs, starting before he left. And this is, this is very funny to me. He's just, it just, you see this montage of him listening to everybody. You hear Dax's voice, you hear Cisco's voice. And it's just the most mundane, most boring stuff. But he has to go through all of this because he's trying to figure it out. Do you remember Kira's logged out? They are all mundane, except Kira goes, what was her?

I'm so mad about, she's the only one. Yeah, she's only with emotion. That's right. That's right. Yeah, these people are. driving me crazy and you're just getting snippets of them. Hers just popped out. I thought it was funny. So he's going through time. He went back before he left for this mission. But once it gets up to the day he returned, the computer stops and says, sorry, you're locked out. You don't have

permission to listen to no access. Access denied. Access denied. So everything worked up until the day he returned from his mission. But after that, even his level one security clearance doesn't play. He can't play those logs yeah this is just getting more and more suspicious and we haven't seen odo this whole time yeah it's just kind of strange to me ren was with his grandchildren probably but it is kind of strange especially doing the backwards math that if they got the information we ultimately learned they got why wouldn't they want their security officer there's a couple of holes holes for well certainly odo was away on a mission himself in Bayshore, but it's relatively easy to get from Bayshore to the station.

That's right. Yeah, you would think that they won't want that, or perhaps without giving anything away, they thought this was a Starfleet matter and not a majorant matter. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. So his level, his security clearance doesn't work to listen to any of the newer logs. And so he goes to ops and he walks all the way through ops.

kind of goes past everybody acting very innocent and uh climbs down into the pit which i love the pit yeah um he opens up a console starts working immediately de curtis is there and to hansom yes he hansom hansom hansen to hansson to hansom suddenly appears it's like they're constantly watching like every time he's just begins to like have a conversation to do something it's they're definitely watching him yeah yeah and my mom says he's working on the upper pylons got to do something in here down the pit you're an inspiration to us all yes yes that was very funny what did you make of that line though was it's just him sort of like throwing him off this off the path he didn't want him to catch on that they all know that you know something's up with him that so he's like

you know what you're an inspiration it just what how did you take that well i i i i don't know what how did you take that I know it's funny, but I'm just curious how you... It just felt like one of his, one of Miles' minions that works in engineering is just kissing up to the boss. It felt a little bit like kissing up to the boss to me. And I thought something other. I thought it was just reassuring him that everything is fine. Okay.

Yeah, that's, yes. All right. I like that. Something just in passing that anyone would say to somebody else. Just a nice thing. when there's no worries or you're just saying something nice. Right. Well, Miles says, he says he wasn't exposed by the traps that were set for him,

that he released the protected five. So he's not really working on the pylons down there. He's releasing, he's bypassing this lock that's been put on his security clearance to release those logs that he wasn't able to hear. Right. So he does see that. they laid some traps in the computer subroutine, but he didn't get detected and was able to penetrate

the security lockout. So here's a question I have, just listening to what you were just talking about. Miles is the expert at this system. And yes, he's seeing things that only an expert would see. But my question is, I suppose the answer is ends in handsome. But it's always, that's always the answer. Who put these things in there?

because Kira can't do it, Cisco can't do it, Dax can't do it, I suppose, you know, Enson Hansen Handsome can do it. So that answers my question. I'm pretty sure, yeah. Did he ever come back on the show, Ensign Hansen Hansen? No, that's why I don't. This was such a surprise when I saw Todd standing there in his glory. I went, oh my God, you know, why didn't they bring Todd back for more stuff?

Absolutely. I think it's because he was just too handsome. They really couldn't have. you know aside from his yeah aside from his handsomeness though he was really good yeah he's a good he was great he felt like a legitimate a regular guy regular series regular dex dude working yes yeah for sure i would have brought him back for great job todd he bypasses the security lockout we go back to his quarters just before he goes he two innocent crewman pass him in the hallway and he's so paranoid at this point he's like watching everybody which i love that detail yeah he runs inside his

quarters. He does confirm that they were obsessed with his security reports when he got back, that they even broke into his private log. So he's picking up on what happened behind the scenes what he wasn't aware of through these logs. He even discovers that Cisco was exchanging private, secure messages from the pirata system. So this makes him even more suspicious. What did these guys do? They've gotten to Cisco. Right. So from his point of view, there's this possibility that Cisco is collaborating with piratas about something nefarious. That's what I got watching. I'm sure that's what I'm supposed to feel.

Yeah. Yeah. I did, did you notice when he talks about, he says, they even broke into my personal logs to see what they could find in there. I hope they enjoyed reading the sexy letters to my wife. Yeah. It's like, ew, gross. I laughed, but I was like, yeah. Yeah, we tend to break protocol.

often on our show, to go places that nobody dares to go to. Definitely. He's essentially saying that they broke into his sexting. He was texting as, you know, and we would never talk about that on Voyager, but you guys just, you know, you say it's so nonchalant how these things come up on your show on DS& just like, this is what happened. You're like, wow. Yeah, wait until we get into bathroom habits.

Oh, what? Are you being serious? Yes, I am. Oh, no. Okay, don't spoil it. Don't spoil it. Okay. All right. So we go to the airlock again where he's been working. A transport has arrived at this airlock and Miles is waiting for Odo to exit. Odo comes out. Ma says, I need to talk to you. There's a problem.

We cut around a corner. Miles fills Odo in. He suspects they're doing something really bad. He can't call Starfleet or else it'll blow his cover. He wants to figure out what's going on before he loops in Starfleet. or else they'll know that he's on to them so odo says just act normal keep doing what you're doing i'll do some investigating so it does feel like oh good a brand's an ally he's now an ally yes yeah i mean as an as an audience member as you're watching this you're now assuming that everyone but odo is compromised you think that ever it's just go even jake there everybody is a secret agent or something's going on And then Odo is like that lighthouse in the dark night, like, ah, he's the one that's going to help me. I will differ with you on just a small matter.

Yeah. At this point, I don't think I, as a watcher, didn't think that Jake was in on it. Okay. I will a little later. Absolutely. But not at this point. Not yet. Not at this point.

Right. Okay. I agree with you. I didn't think Jake was in on it. He seemed the most normal. And I will differ a little bit on Odo's end. here. I felt like Odo was acting. René was playing it a little different than the normal Odo. Oh. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. Nope. I felt like he was playing it just like normally

he's a little gruff. He seems often impatient with people or very formal. And there was something a little more open and warm about this than the usual Oda. To me, it was he was so open and and interested and warm about it. I was like, that doesn't feel like Odo's usually like, what's going on? I'll take care of this. It's very ego driven. It's very sometimes combative. Yes, you're used to Archie Bunker Odo,

and this is not Archie Bunker Odo. And I wonder if that's possible, like if they contacted Odo down in Bejorn said, hey, we're not getting anywhere. We need you back up here to help us out. Like if he was aware of some of it or... That's a possibility. Absolutely.

absolutely it's a possibility i i would hope that that's not what happened but but it is very much a possibility yeah i either way it works either way if photo was innocent like jake things have to happen for a little while longer before uh their clue is up to speed got it yeah either way for me that would work it would work both ways yeah so we go back to o'brien's quarters he's alone again he's got another log he's working on that some tiny device um he says just in case um because he's he feels better having otto on the ship he's got an ally now but to cover his bets he's going to have this trick up his sleeve whatever this little devices we don't know what i thought that was the device that jake handed him i did too and sorry i was so i'm so confused it's not it's not robby

it's not the no no okay this is this is his ace up the sleeve thing to keep them from catching him and detecting him or something, right? Yeah, something like that. We don't know what it is now. Later on, we're going to see what it is because it helps him get out of a jam, but yeah, but we don't know what it is. We go to quarks, finally, finally we go to quarks. Yeah, listen, I had a week off.

I'm happy. I get it. We get you. We understand. Well, O'Brien's up in the balcony. Yeah. And Quark approaches, says he looks tired. He's, you know, the odd.

He mentions the odds are against you, O'Brien. Right. O'Brien says, why? Well, you look tired. You know, have you been getting enough sleep? And O'Brien's triggered. He grabs quark, which I don't. What else is new?

Everybody grabs quarks. I know, but for Robbie and I to watch this manhandling of you, Armand, our friend, is something that we don't like to watch. So we didn't like it. I literally put in, I put in my notes, another quark grab. Of, yeah, U-G-H all the way. No, it was annoying. Like, you can still make the point without literally shaking you so hard.

You could break your collarbone. I mean, what is going on? I would love to, I don't have this script. I would love to see if that's in the script or not. I have it. So go ahead and look, Robbie, go. I got to get there. That's all right.

I'm very curious, too. I want to hear if the grab is. is part of the script as well. I think everybody but Jake at one time another grabs quark. Yeah. Or nog. Robin dog have never grabbed you, right?

Dax. I don't think Dax will ever grab me. Okay. So we reveal quark says the odds are against you, O'Brien. Moving camera moves to include quark. O'Brien reacts. O'Brien, against me. What are you talking about?

Quark sits down. Quark says, you know what I'm talking about. You look tired. Have you been getting? enough sleep a beat o'brien grabs him with a fist to the shirt and pulls him over the table oh yeah it's which he didn't do which which he didn't do so let's give him the benefit that he didn't pull me over the table he pulled me but not over the table correct yeah that would have been a major stone to show you across we have done that we have done that but but it didn't happen this time am i

correct to say you hadn't sat down yet weren't you kind of kind of kind of kind of next to him in a way I think he grabbed you standing and then you sat down. Then you sat down afterwards. So the blocking changed a little bit from the script. Right, right. But the grab is still there. Armand, do you recall, this brings up a good question, we had to call the office for line changes.

Do you recall if something was scripted like pulls them over the table or something? That wasn't de rigueur. We didn't have to do that. And I would venture to say, I don't remember exactly at all, in fact. but the changing of what was in the script as far as blocking we never that was not written in stone we could do whatever we wanted whatever the director wanted whatever the actors wanted we could do that that's what the rehearsal before the lighting was about so um i may have known that it said uh he sits down but remembering my work ethics and my work habits i probably pay no attention to the stage direction i did whatever what seemed right at the time so you know No, we didn't have to change that. Yes, every syllable had to be checked with... Exactly.

Every letter of the alphabet that changed. Right. That had to be checked and double-checked. Yeah, that's my memory of Voyager, too. We had flexibility on the stage directions to change those up a bit, but not the words. Not the words. No. Well, Quirk does sit down at some point.

He wants to know about the piratas. O'Brien asks why, and he says, well, it's good business to know about new customers. And then doesn't O'Brien say what rule of acquisition is that? And Quark says, one of the higher ones. Now I'm reading into everything. I was like, wait, is this the real quark? Because he would know every rule of acquisition. Is there a test there?

Or is this is fake cork? Everything was a, yeah, suspect to me. Yeah, that's good. That's what the episode wants you to believe. Absolutely. Yeah. But I watched it and thought, was I a, or not aware of what the reality was and i came up with the decision no i was not aware

okay that's that plays too i'll go yeah i would guess that would be more you know high level officer information they wouldn't let the public know that because right yeah exactly why would they tell quark that they wouldn't now he might have found out it's possible but really i think he actually is saying what he means yeah yeah wants them to be ready for the for the next racket ball man yeah yeah i think in hindsight it's all sincere but there's enough just slight variations on what you expect quirk to say or do that you kind of i was suspicious of cork like as you should be and as again it's o'brien's suspicion we're from o'brien's point of view yeah it looks suspicious considering everything else that has come before but if if you took

all of that away this is just regular quirk behavior yes exactly if you took all that away none of this would would jump out to anybody. Yeah, O'Brien will not tell him anything about the piratas. He said, I'm not talking about that. And then Odo calls and says, I need you in my office right away. We go up to Odo's office. He says, basically, he's a little vague. I thought he confirmed, like, yeah, O'Brien, you're right, all the things you said.

But he doesn't really say that. He says, I see what you mean, which is also. It's so vague. What does that mean? Yeah. Yeah, I see what you mean. And O'Brien goes, good, what did you find out? And Oda says, sit down.

How much do you know about the Paraden rebels? So he doesn't, you know, he's not giving him anything. Right. O'Brien starts to tell him what he knows, but he sees pretty quickly that they've gotten to Oda. Whatever this behavior he sees and everybody else, he's like, wait a minute, they got to you two. And so he gets up, starts to leave.

That's when Cisco, Kira and Bashir cut him off. And the two scenes abut each other in that way. Quark asks, what do you know about the parada? And then the next scene is, what do you know about the parada rebels? So that same question now, in its own way, is being repeated, which should be an alarm bell and is an alarm bell. Yes. O'Brien.

Yes. Yeah, good point. Good point. Yeah, that's good. That's good writing to give him the motivation to be even more paranoid here. Now I almost wonder, Armand, if I almost feel like, cork did know now that's your prerogative that's your prerogative yeah and that's what an audience should be asking yeah yeah yeah well as o'brien tries to make a run for it Cisco uh kira

bashear come in guns are drawn phaser the promenade which is supposed to be a taboo and in otto's own office they have guns yeah i'm really sure you're not supposed to have guns in the promenade and certainly not in otto's office i would think so But there they are. There they are with guns drawn. And Bashir starts to tranquilize him. Bashir says, I'm going to give you a sedative or something, starts to give him. That's when that little device comes out.

It's like a flashbang. That's what he was working on before. Yeah, he was working on. He pulls out that thing, hits a button, and a light blinds everybody. Was there smoke? Yeah, there was smoke. There was smoke. I got the feeling there was some sort of gas that the incapacity.

And he somehow he was able to get out, maybe he had filters in his nose, who knows. Yeah, I love it. Exactly. Yeah, but whatever it was, it distracted them long enough for him to make a run for it. But when he runs out, there's two security crewmen outside with guns drawn on the promenade. And he, Miles has grabbed one of those phasers after his flashbang grenade. So he shoots the two crewmen. He's very good. He dodges a phaser, by the way, which is not easy to do.

Or maybe that Bajoran is a horrible aim and unable to. Because it was almost point blank and he misses him. But also what's weird is that you don't ever see one Bajoran security and one Starfleet security together. It's usually two Bajoran guys that will run up, right? And I never see the mix of the two, which was interesting. Right. On the promenade, it should be the Bajoran security.

Correct, right? Yeah. But it was a mix of, yeah, yeah, I noticed that too. And then the whole promenade is set with sensors that would have been going, because they have their guns. They have, they have phasers on them. They're not supposed to have any of that there, right? O'Brien runs through the airlock after he shoots the Bajoran and Starfleet security.

And he dodges, I just can't get over the dodging a phaser. Like, literally, they shoot the phaser. and then you see Miles like lean and it just misses them. Like the Matrix kind of? Yes, yes. He would do with that? I don't know if that's possible. This is the timing of the edit to me.

It felt like, oh, that's not possible. You could see the phaser start heading towards him. And move out of the way. Yeah. Yeah, and he's able to move out of the way before it reaches him. That's why I say that it was a bad aim. I'm not going to go with him dodging it. Okay, good.

And he's still tired from the racquetball, right? Exactly. Exactly. We go into some corridor. He's on the run. O'Brien calls a computer to beam him to the runabout, but the computer says, no, can't do that, locked out of that. So he tosses his com badge, makes a run for it. Which he should have done 20 minutes before. I mean, all of his movements are monitored by that com badge. Yep. So no wonder they can show up at any moment and stop in, because he's got the combat. on they know exactly where he is that's true you're absolutely right i didn't think i didn't think about that they're tracking him constantly there's eyes on him because yeah there's a different way they attach that com badge than our com badges on voyager we had velcro on the back right and like yeah he rips that thing off it almost looks like there was a button or there was like a little snap like a silver

snap thing on maybe if i don't know if you notice that robbie but if on his after he tears it off you can see where the con badge used to be, and for Voyager, it would be black Velcro and you wouldn't see, but it was a little light-colored dot almost. It could have been metallic or whatever it was. So maybe Bob Blackman had a different way of fixing the con badges on DS9. Maybe. Well, O'Brien runs around a corner after he tossed his comb badge. He stopped by a force field. And we think he's, he looks on a monitor, he sees people heading towards him. And so he decides to create hundreds of force fields. He's like, all right, you want to stop me with a force field. I'll create all the force fields I can. Yeah. Um, and they have to turn them all

off so that they can move. And I like how he says, thank you. And then he runs. Yeah. It's nice. We go into another quarter and as O'Brien's running, he passes Jake. This is when Jake accidentally steps out. And now you can tell Jake knows what's out. Yes, that's what I, I think. I think Jake knows now. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when he says, Cisco to, Jake, Cisco to secure. now you know he's part of it. When he calls, when he calls. And he goes, he's here. Now you know he knows.

Well, O'Brien thinks he's still unaware. And so he starts to tell him something very wrong is happening. And you see Jake is terrified. And then Jake goes and calls security. Right. And gives the location. Jake even says, you know, surrender. Just surrender.

It'll be fine. So he's really. Yeah. That was a sad moment to me when the kid is saying, like, when the kid's gone to the other side. Right. Because now there's no Odo on, there's no Odo ally, there's no Jake ally, there's no family, Kako's gone. He's alone. He is a lone man.

The plants have body snatched everyone. Yes. I love it. He jumps inside a security conduit. I thought that was pretty clever. He runs, you know, he pulls a panel, goes inside, and there's like holes in it. So you see Odo, you hear Odo. and feet passing.

That was very good. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah, that was great. Otis says check all the corners, advise people to stay where they are, and he starts climbing. Miles starts climbing through these cool tubes.

There's a nice sequence. He's even going up a ladder that seems like it's hundreds of feet up in the air. Well, if he's going to access one of the runabouts, it wouldn't be on the problem. It wouldn't be on the habitat level. So he has to go to an upper pylon in order to get to a ship. Got it.

So he has to climb up. Okay. Well, do you remember that shot? There was actually an upshot and a down shot. But it made that ladder seem enormous to me. It's a long way. As you can see behind me, it's a long way from the habitat to the pilot. Yeah.

Well, very well done, Les. As he's climbing up the ladder, though, he drops that weapon. So now he's, now he's weaponless. He has nothing to protect himself. He gets into a cargo bay, it looks like. or something. There's like boxes and things stacked around. And then he steps on a transporter pad on the side, beams himself over to the runabout at this point. And then he's in the runabout, which is where we started this episode. That's right. So now we see how he got there. We're starting

to catch up to the beginning of the episode. He starts it up. Cisco calls him, says shut down the engines. But Miles says he's already released the docking clamps. He's turned the tractor beams off. So he's out of here. They take a couple shots, but they don't get him. And this is where Susan Bay is going to show up. Um, because O'Brien calls Starfleet. He opens a subspace channel to Starbase 401. Priority one, Admiral Roman, aka Mrs. Spock. Yeah. Admiral Roman appears, tells him to return to D.S. She seems very sincere here. So he, he's like, whatever. whatever's going on, it's not just DS9, it's all of Starfleet. Yeah.

This is where, you know, like, paranoia can grow until you actually believe the craziest thing. It's like, that's what's happening for him. Conspiracy theory, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, there's no reason to suspect this admiral, but he's built, he's, he's taken all these steps of paranoia. So now it's not a, it's not a big leap to go from what he believed. to admirals and Starfleet and everyone's part of this. Yeah.

Wow. Anyway, he hangs up on her. He thinks she's crazy too. He even says, it seems almost unbelievable to me. Had someone or something started to infiltrate all of Starfleet? So he's gone to the big, the big conspiracy. He heads into the wormhole, and in the old days, that's where we would have a commercial, our very last commercial break.

But on the streaming services, we don't. Keeps on going. We keep going. So we're back to the present. I think he is ordering some more coffee. Jamaican blend, double strong, double sweet. Jamaica and blend. He's had a lot of coffee.

Is this the same coffee order that he made earlier maybe? Yeah, yeah. And now we're back. Yeah. Okay. But I mean, is it literally like in the timeline, have we come back, caught back up to that very first scene? Oh, that's a possibility.

Yeah, that's a possibility. Yeah. Otherwise, he's drinking a lot. He's ordering a lot of coffee. I mean, how many cups can you drink? on a runaway mission to the parada system? One cup? Maybe two cups of coffee?

Is that a two cup trip? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they had turbulence in the first cup spilled and... Yes. It's a three-cup trip. It's a three-cuff. Maybe it's...

Now, with one of these, it's a one-cup trip. Do not say the name. Do not say the name. I will not. Maybe Jamaican blend is like a little shot of espresso kind of size. So maybe that's why he orders so many of them. Oh, but that makes sense. Yeah.

Maybe. Okay. Anyway, he's almost to the parada system at this point, still ahead of the Mekong. He realizes once he drops out a warp, he's not going to have much time. He talks to the computer, find him a planet. He finds a planet. It's got seven moons. He does mention Lucky Seven, so I think Quark would appreciate that kind of, you know,

the gambling reference that he makes, Lucky Seven. Why don't we have a river? Because we know all the runabouts are named after rivers. Why don't we have an American river represented? Why is it always other countries? Is there a reason? Do we have a, do we have a USS Mississippi? Do we have a?

Neo-Grand. Yeah, that's Grand. That's the North American continent. I get it. That goes through Rio Grande. They go to the United States. Yeah. What else?

Yeah, but when you think of American rivers, you're not going to say Rio Grande first. You're going to say Mississippi, aren't you? I'm going to say the Chattahoochee, because that's in Georgia. You don't go Chattahoochee, all right. The Chattahoochee. I'm trying to remember. I don't think there are. I don't think there are.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't be the expert, but I don't think there are. I like the Chattahoochee. The Starfleet Chattahoochie. Or maybe that's someone trying to say our charcutory plate, they're like a Chattahoochie plate, please. You know, okay. Okay. Anyway, he drops to impulse. which now he doesn't he was ahead by like seven minutes or more yes but as soon as he drops to

impulse he's going to that's going to he's going to lose the time that's right so now he's down to like two minutes um he lets the mokong catch him though just as he's entering these magnetic fields yep he's got to even go to manual navigation and i see him lean call him sort of lean to one side the camera dutched it was very nice very nice manual navigation but it works he loses him. And he asked the computer to track them. They're headed to Parada 2. He says, any, any transport signatures? Yes, they beam down. The thing, their, their ship is empty now. So he has to Parada 2 into synchronous orbit right over there. And that didn't make sense to me. If he's trying to avoid them, why does he beam down to them? Maybe he's, now he thinks he's, he's following.

them secretly but I mean he left the station he's trying to get away from them he's he's gone into the wormhole is trying to get away for them he gets it why does he beam down to them I that I didn't didn't make any sense to me whatsoever it needed he needed to spend a little more time switching gears after he lost them because he lost him behind this moon the magnetic field and then yeah maybe he should have had more of a log of wait minute what are they doing are they going to meet some bad guys yeah i need to trail them now or never i'm going to confront them i'm going to see that sounds right then that's it but but it's not in the

script and and i and i went why is he meeting them you know i i want some explanation for that his logic completely shifted but there was no script justification for no explanation well he does beam down into our classic cave set although it was painted kind of gray or white for this scene they change the color of the rocks. Yeah, yeah. Sound stage eight. Yes. He uses a tricorder to find his way to them,

gets to a big door, there's a chamber door in the rock face, flings it open, goes inside the chamber. There's Kira and Cisco. He's got his weapon. Wait, how did he get his weapon, by the way? Didn't he drop that on the ladder?

He did. I guess one was stored, stored in the ship maybe in the shuttle maybe yeah or in the runabout yeah that makes okay so doesn't this look like it's a secret hideout in a way right so are the so are these the rebels is this the parada and rebel hideout i don't i don't know what the hell's got and i and i that i went i was happy with because we don't know it didn't look like the pirata rebels it did yeah we don't know for sure and that's good I think that's good that's good okay okay I think you know again they've got the skin that has the secretions that stink I wish there had been something about

the stinky people here maybe that's why they live in caves and what forgive me what was where was Michael Westmore on that makeup really that looked like a plastic mask to me I mean oh no Michael you could do a lot better oh no especially since that's the only a well there was some background on aliens, but that's the only alien we're looking at. Really, you give me a plastic mask? I don't know if it was plastic, but it looked like a plastic mask. It didn't move, like the actor was not capable of any movement of it.

So yeah, it just looked like a, like a. It was glued here and that was it, you know? Yeah. I'm going to give Michael a pass. I'm going to say he was under the weather with the stomach flu, and he could not approve anything better than that. So I'm going to say he would designed a great makeup, but it was actually a practical, stinky makeup, just like these aliens.

And it was so stinky, he just couldn't spend much time near the makeup. Yes. So he just said, no. It's too stinky. I got to get away. There isn't a lot of Dax in this episode. So he thought, well, I don't. Yeah.

Don't get to hang out with Terry. I don't get to Terry. Then what's the point of being on to say? What's the point of being on the set? I love it. Okay. But he goes inside. He's got this gun, which I guess.

Armin, you're right, probably got it on the runabout. Yeah. Demands that they drop their weapons, Cisco and Kira do. Kutu, this alien, says that he'll understand everything. Miles will understand everything if he just looks behind this door. It'll all make sense. And Miles doesn't want to do it. Kutu makes a move, like to open the door or something.

Yeah. And that distracts Miles. The other alien fires at him. Yeah. knocks him down with their weapon. That's when the door opens. This is the guy that jumped over the last Starfleet attack on the station. Yeah.

He got rid of Cisco, Kira, Bashir, two security guys. But a guy in a plastic mask, he can't have watched. Exactly. He literally dodged a laser beam. Stop it, guys. That's how good he is. But the guy with the... Yeah, the guy with the plastic mask,

We're getting really close to the end now, guys. So we are. So the door opens. The door opens. There's Bashir. Yeah. Bashir's in there, and there's somebody in a chair where they're back to us. Suddenly, suddenly that person turns, it's O'Brien.

It's another O'Brien. Yeah. And at this point, you're still wondering, is that who's the real O'Brien? Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I want to know how they did it. I understand the cuts, I understand that.

But there is a shot where we get the side of O'Brien's head, and it sure looks like Cullum. Did they recreate his hair and made a wig so that they could do that? I want to know how they did it. I think that was a double. I think it was a good double. But I know the shot you're talking about because it was so complex. There were people behind the 50, or the 6040 of. of the two O'Brien's in the foreground.

There was too much for them to do a green screen there. I don't think they would have done that. Yeah. So I think it was a double. They just featured more of the real column. And then the double was kind of over the side. Right. I'm really impressed by that.

Really impressed by that. Very well done. So the O'Brien we've been following this whole episode, we realize is a replicant. Yeah. that the rebels had had created this replicant to activate it during the peace talks. Maybe he was going to be an assassin. We don't really know.

It feels a very Manchurian candidate here to me. But also unsatisfying because we don't know what his mission was. We have no clue what it was. We're just surmising it was something possibly an assassination. Possibly an assassin. I love these moments of column looking at himself. he played these really beautifully uh before we get to the last line i do want to say all right this is where i was like okay if that was the circumstances cisco was told this guy on the ship is a

replicant possibly an assassin no no no no forgive me he they don't know which is which and so everyone on the ship that's why they played it as casually as they have because they don't know if it's the real o'brien or the replicant o'brien right okay so yes msisco has been told that there's a replicant yes absolutely but no one knows for that's what the physical was all about uh the no one knows for sure which is which i'm right okay but even so so let's say they had one on on pirata and one on the ship why not just put them both in the brig and do the tests and figure it out why risk letting a potential replicant assassin god knows what skills this replicant has why let him want to

or around with your son Jake or every like it just right once I got to this I was like that would have been like why put everybody at risk just throw them in the brig is it possible they only captured well that they only found the real O'Brien at the last moment that's that makes more sense and that's why they've gone to this cave yes that makes more sense I guess but even if they hadn't only found this one on the ship throw them in the brig and say, hey, we think you're Miles O'Brien, but we're not sure. So we're going to keep you here. We're going to need to run some tests.

We're going to have to find this other one. But they have run tests, you see. The physical. They have run the physical. They have, they've, he's encountered all these people that he knows. So, and no one that can tell the difference. No, no one, Kiko can't tell the difference. No one can tell the difference.

Yeah. So you think that when we see other, real O'Brien, in the cave, when they, The cave door opens up. He's also being tested to see if he is the real O'Brien. Is that what you guys here? Is that what you guys here? I think that's why I Bishir's in there. I think that's why Bishir's in.

Yeah. Okay. But I still think it's reckless not to lock him down. Right. Even if you've only got one. Yeah. They tried to lock him down. They've tried to arrest him in Odo's office.

That's right. He got away. Yeah, that's true. All right. That was my only hole in this. Once I found out the ending, I was like, boy, that seemed reckless to me. that they just let a potential assassin run around. Yeah.

And then there's the question of why he came back. Even Koto asked that. So I wonder why he came back. And O'Brien's like, well, if it was me, I would be trying to warn somebody that there was something wrong, you know. And it's just, I don't know, there's so many more questions. It's a very sweet sentiment because it's basically suggesting that this replicant at its essence is still the hero that Miles O'Brien is, even though it's not the real

Miles it's got the same as hard as they want to make him an assassin he's still going to be miles and and they give him a you know to that end they give him a wonderful last line oh yeah yeah yeah about caco telling her that he loves her yeah that's good tell caco i love her yeah he was a hero oh yeah very sweet okay very sweet stick around there's lots more after this message from our sponsor What's your lesson, Robbie McNeil, from this overall? My lesson, I wrote down, A person's true character will always come through.

Even though this replicant was meant to be a bad guy, Miles' true character was always part of him. It always showed. Okay. Armin? Do you have a lesson? I have two. I found it very difficult to find a moral in this episode.

a real difficulty. So I eventually went to my computer and inputted several words that I thought were themes for the show. And I came up with two different themes. One is a moral from Joseph Campbell, which I don't think works as well. And Joseph Campbell wrote,

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging. I'm not sure I like that. The other one was from an older philosopher, Ovid, who said, first appearances deceive many. So there's that. But it was very difficult for me to find a moral in this episode. It was for me film noir. Yeah.

And the point of the episode is to keep us guessing. So we're not really learning anything. We're just trying to solve the riddle. Yeah. Yeah. for me i i had the same feeling with most of the episode it wasn't until that final reveal that i thought all right well what were they trying to say with this reveal like what are they trying to say about that's that's where i had to grasp from because there 99 percent of the

episode is a is a psychological thriller or film noir kind of thing garret what's your wise wise insightful theme the only thing i could come up with was if your special spouse is, if the, the assumption is that your spouse is an evil replicant, close your eyes while you're kissing him so you don't throw him off the trail. So you throw him off that, yeah, you know what I'm saying. Yes, basically, cover more, try to cover your, try to play, try to act like you're really his wife. Close your darn eyes while you're kissing your husband. Okay, that's all.

I think that's excellent, excellent. Thank you for that deep insightful. I think of the three of us you have hit the nail on the head. You're welcome. Well, our Patreon poll for lesson, theme, or moral of this episode submitted by Jenny is, if you have problems with literally everyone, consider that you're the common denominator. I like that one. That's good.

That's really good. That could hold true for, I think, all three of us know people in our lives that need to take this advice. And that applies to my character as well. Yes. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, we've come to the end of our recap

and discussion of the episode Whispers. Thank you to all of you who have tuned in for that. And for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material for everyone else. We will see you next time when we review, recap the episode Paradise

with once again, the beloved Armand Schumerman that we love so much. The small business, The small business genius, not the diminutive small business genius. Exactly. All right. Thanks, everybody. See you next time.