Hi, everyone. This is Catherine Adams. And Elizabeth Wallace. And you're listening to Binary System Podcast number 450. Woo-hoo! A sort of milestone. A kind of a milestone. A half milestone. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We're going to do, for this episode, what we do every episode. Talk about a couple things that we like. Yes. Starting with Beastars. Yes, yes. And after that, we're going to get into Star Trek Lower Decks. Because for once, I actually, Catherine told me she watched an episode and I went back and watched it too. So I will have some intelligent things to say about it. Or reasonably intelligent. Whatever. Right. Before we get started, I'm going to see if I can open this. I've got one of those Ramune. I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing it wrong. We went to the Grand Asia grocery store this weekend. And I got myself one of those sodas that's in the bottle with them.
marble on top so let me see if i can punch this thing open come on yay got it and now i will see what peach flavored soda tastes like it's very nice oh that's good does it taste like peach knee high you know those peach sodas that we had here growing up a little bit more so i think this almost tastes a little bit like a like a soda water peach kind of thing rather than a knee high sort of thing but it says this particular bottle is called a cod neck bottle if y'all want to google that it's kind of cool and i don't know why more people don't use that because it's neat it is neat probably something about the fact it's probably more expensive to do i don't know yeah people hurting themselves trying to open it probably sure sure Okay, so we are on Beastars episode 10. And it starts with Louis is looking at a computer screen and it's giving him some information on the makeup of kinds. And this is his friend, the cat scientist who gave him some stuff. Long story short, they realized all the chemicals that you see. That's what you find in meat and bones. And he's talking with the scientist and he has this pain attack for some reason in his leg that isn't actually there. And he terrifies the doctor because he's wondering what the heck happened. And I was wondering, did he get shot? What the hell happened? But he says he's fine. And he signs off and he takes a look at his prosthetic leg. And it's obviously since it's the...
leg that was eaten by Legoshi, Rui thinks, maybe this is some connection to something that happened to Legoshi? He doesn't know. Yeah, he has no idea that Legoshi was shot and thrown off a balcony. So I guess we're getting metaphysical up in here. So we go from there and Cosmo and Luna are at the club, but they are chained to Cage and the Shishigumi are interrogating them. And they insist they don't know anything about the wolf boy. He was just supposed to be there to be like their bodyguard, whatever, you know, chaperone.
I never could figure out what the heck his role was supposed to be because he was a young kid and yet somehow he was supposed to protect them. I don't know. But it really looks like the Shishigumi are either going to kill Cosmo and Luna or interrogate them and then kill them. And I think it's on the orders of their boss, Melon. And then one of them tells them...
You were never here and you didn't meet us. And he cuts the ropes around their wrist free and lets them go. Yep. He says, we promised our former boss that we would keep you girls safe and we keep our promises. So we'll find another souvenir. So it's like, that's what Mellon was looking for was a souvenir. But yeah, they totally let him go. Yep. And they're outside and one of them spots a car that he recognizes. And he starts running and he finds Rui, who has been trying to find the scientist that's supposedly in the black market. And it's the civet cat, isn't it, that he's looking for? Because I think the scientist he was talking to suggested him and said that he was kind of weird. Yeah, I'm almost positive.
they mean it's the civet cat yeah so the lion one of the shishigumi looks really pissed off when he sees louis because he said when i last saw you i said that if you ever came near the black market again i'd kill you and louis just stands there and says don't go ahead and do it and it's like a hell of a face off and there is an actual gunshot there's a gunshot and then you see some blood dripping down but then you look up and it's louis his antlers have shed again and for some reason that always causes bleeding and his reaction is antlers shedding again is that time of year again And one of the lions, the one who had been pointing the gun at him, basically starts to laugh and says, man, you don't look anything like yourself like that. We would never be able to recognize you like this. So we never saw you. And then he gives him a big old hug and they take him back to the base and bandage him up. Yep. And then Melon shows up and he announces himself by whistling. And it's very creepy. And all of the Shishi Goomi are like, they jump to attention and they all start setting the table and standing in a line by the table. And it's really intimidating at the fact that all these gigantic lions are so scared of this new boss. And the boss comes in.
And he wants his snack. And they put it down in front of him. But he had been looking forward to stripper steak. And this was not what it was. And they said, nope, we had to kill the owner instead. I'm like, who was the owner? Oh, my God. Was that adorable little mouse or cat or whatever that was in charge of the strippers in season two? I don't know because I'm not entirely sure that they actually killed him. They just said we had to make the boss pay. They've put down this tiny little piece of meat in front of him. And I don't know what it's supposed to be. But, oh, God, I hope it's not a penis. I don't know. Because, I mean, Melon doesn't kid around. The first thing Melon does when he comes in the room is he tells all the lions he's got a souvenir for them, opens up a box, and it's the severed head of one of the lions.
Because Melon said he was a crappy security guard. I'm like, Jesus, what? Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. Melon's really kind of ticked off at them for not having his stripper snack. And one of the lions kind of starts talking back to him and says, you know, we're not so desperate. We're going to, like, kill people on our own turf and everything. Melon's not too cool about that. No, no. He dismisses that as, like, the most childish excuse. I mean, I think it's pretty clear he knows that the lions didn't kill the strippers because they didn't like the idea of killing beautiful strippers. But he smells something. And he smells deer. And he says, you've got somebody.
here and he stabs one of the lions in the hand with his fork like driving it down into the table and tells him look you're gonna have to bring him out it's either them or him right here it's somebody's gonna die and one of the lines is like and he jumps up and he goes to where Rui is hiding and Rui thinks that he's about to reveal him but then the guy pushes him aside and then grabs the antlers which Louis had told him we keep jumping back is it Louis is it Rui is it Louis I don't know I guess Louis is what I'm saying okay whatever but When Louis had been, when they were bandaging him up, they were looking at his antlers and thinking it was awfully cool. And they're like, are you going to do anything with them? He's like, no, you can keep them. And they're thrilled. So the lion goes in and he grabs the antlers. And it just, they're thinking on their feet so damn fast in this crew, in this episode. Yeah. He tells Mellon that he, you know, because they're only allowed to eat meat twice a month working for Mellon.
He said that he just couldn't stand it. And so he went to the black market and he ate deer. But then he does this whole speech about like, I am just a poor carnivore. I'm not a complete being like you are because Mellon is both herbivore and carnivore. And he's just, you know, if you give me another chance, I promise I'll try and be as strong as you.
totally works. It totally works. Melon buys it. And he just, he groveled expertly. And it feels like they're, even more than season two, they are trying to like redeem the Shishigumi here. And the fact that they're, they must have learned something from Louis in season two. I mean, in season one, they were the kind of crew that would go out and kidnap a school girl to feed to their boss. And now they seem to have some moral standards and the ability to protect them. Yep, yep, yep. And Melon says that, well, it doesn't matter anyway. The Beastar knows that he's been working with them. So there's no reason for him to hang around. And I'm thinking, does that mean he's not going to be the Shishigumi's boss anymore? Was he leaving for the day or leaving?
I don't know. It wasn't very clear. It did sound kind of final, except for the fact that I'm sure the lions would have been a lot more relieved if he was leaving for good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when he leaves, Louis comes out to talk to them and they immediately tell him, no, no, don't apologize. We were just trying to keep our pride as lions. And I'm like, you know, play on words is pride. Aw, that's cool and everything. But yeah, they ask him if he's really going to go and see that guy that...
He said to scientists, because that shocked them when he told them he was going to go see that scientist. So they asked him if he really is. And he says, yeah, he's looking into kinds. And they all look very startled. And Louis had seen the box of kinds in the back. So everybody knows that everybody knows everything at this point, right? Except Mellon did see the note that Louis had written down the scientist's name. It had fallen to the floor. But before Mellon could pick it up, one of the other lions jumped forward and said, oh, I'm getting so forgetful in my old age. And Mellon tells him, you have the weak handwriting of an herbivore. So yeah, I think that's the civet cat, because that was why they recognized it when Louis said it. And Mellon didn't think there was anything weird about that doctor's name.
being on a note on the floor. So yeah, I think everybody does now know everything. Yep. But that's where we end that part of the story because next we pick up in the hospital with Legoshi and... I got in my notes on that. Oh, of course Legoshi just wakes up in the hospital like he's fine. Ha ha ha, they fooled me. Yep, yep. He wakes up and he looks down at his own body that is still with a respirator on and unconscious and hooked up to a bunch of machines. And he's wondering, oh great, am I going to die now? Yeah. I like how he says he wonders if Haru would cry if he died and figures actually she'd probably be mad. And I'm like, yeah, she really would. That's a safe bet. Yeah, yeah, it really is. But he hears someone say that it's too early to give up. And he turns around and it's a female wolf. And it turns out it's his mother, who obviously he hasn't seen since he was 12 years old because she killed herself.
honestly I didn't realize it was that recent somehow I thought it was when he was like a little little kid but no it was only six years ago yeah and she like manages to sort of morph them into them sitting at a table looking at photo albums, and she's showing him pictures of herself. And she's a beautiful little wolf girl, perfectly fine, absolutely no problems whatsoever. And she used to be a model. She was like a very young, beautiful wolf model, obviously doing really well, until at some point, you know, she's standing in front of the bathroom mirror and posing, and she looks at her shoulder, and there are scales poking through. Yeah, and at first it's just a little bit, but when we see her a little bit later, I mean, there's some on her face, there's some on her arms, just basically just coming through patchwork all over the place. And she's just imagining what everybody's going to say to her, because people are not cool to the...
Gila monsters? Komodo dragons. Komodo dragons. There we go. They're not cool with them. Everybody's like, oh, stay away. You're venomous and everything. And I guess she was, I don't know. It sounds like obviously this would be a traumatic thing to go through. But I think this is one of those things where she just couldn't handle not being beautiful anymore and not being loved. And so she decided to kill herself. And there's this beautiful bit where she's remembering crawling into bed with Legoshi the night before she killed herself and just spooning with him and hugging him. And just she wanted to hold him one more time. And she said she wished that she'd woken him up. And he said, you don't have anything to apologize for because he was awake.
And he had wanted to hold her too, but he didn't let her know that she was, that he was awake. And I have read the manga about this bit and her condition lasted a lot longer than it's portrayed here. I mean, it was like months, maybe years of her isolating herself in a locked room, not letting anybody see her. And I think that was one of the reasons why he didn't let her know that he was awake because it was just this whole thing about she didn't want anybody to look at her or touch her or see her. And that just kind of created this divide in his head as this young boy who loves his mother, but he knows she doesn't want to be touched or interacted with. So it's just so.
damaging but he tells her he thought she was beautiful he thought her fur and her scales were so beautiful and she thinks that this is something that he can do for people that he can reach out and tell them that they're They're people, that they're worthwhile, that they're beautiful. And it's just something he's got a purpose now. Oh, it's just, it's really, really sweet. Also, really nicely animated. Again, I mean, if it's the main, main characters, they always give it to the A-team. I thought Louis was really animated very well in this episode. Oh, yeah, yeah. But I like how they animated his mom. And I like that she looks completely distinct from like another female wolf like Juno. I mean, she looks like her own character, which I think is really hard to do sometimes with the furry characters. But yeah, that was just really, really wonderful. And yeah, this whole time, the Beastar has been out in the waiting room with Legoshi's grandfather, who's just sitting there with his hands folded and not acknowledging Yaya at this point. And then they go into...
of the room and it's empty and Legoshi has gotten himself up out of the hospital bed and then you see him and he is putting flowers by his mother's grave in the moonlight and then he gives a wolf howl and it's just oh my god okay so years ago this is like tangent here um the wolf pack the women's basketball team was coached by Kay Yao very famous coach she coached them for like 34 years and then she passed away from breast cancer and they did a tribute to her at a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game with the whole montage of her life and highlights and everything with a very sad song playing and they finished up with the wolf pack howl and I'm getting choked up telling it right now And I don't even follow women's basketball. So yeah, just extremely well done. Extremely well done. Anything with a wolf howling. I'll start thinking about that. I'm not crying. You're crying. It was quite cool. And that's where we end the episode. That's it. That's all. So we've got two more episodes to wrap everything up. App everything up. I don't know how they're going to do that. So we didn't see anything of any of the other characters. Not the drama club. Not Haru. Not Juno. Nothing. Nothing. Not at all. Gracious.
Okay, from there, we're going to jump into Lower Decks. And like I said, you told me which episode you watched, and it's the one called Reflections in season three. And I hadn't watched it in a while. And you're right, it is awfully fun. And it is such a great callback because it's obviously playing on the classic Star Trek story, Mirror, Mirror, where the characters go to the evil version of their universe and meet the evil Spock and meet the evil Sulu. But in this case, Rutherford is seeing or is taken over by a version of himself that's 10 years younger because something's gone wrong with his implant. And apparently there was this divide when his younger version lost all his memories.
eventually became the Rutherford we know but you see them interacting with each other because the evil Rutherford has control of the body and he's talking to our version of Rutherford in reflections in the window so it's like and it's his own story but it's a callback to the original and it's a great play on words oh it's just complete it's just wonderful it's just so good it's so good yeah and of course I think that the entire episode is going to be evil Rutherford taking over his body and creating havoc across the ship fairly quickly our Rutherford realizes how to distract him by like punching his own implant I suppose which sort of shocks him but he does sort of manage to let mostly it's Tendi I think like obviously evil Rutherford manages to piss off one of the co-workers at Trill by being totally inappropriate to her but he says something to Tendi manages to freak her out and she calls for security and it's I love the fact that we didn't have to have an entire episode of nobody knowing that it was actually evil Rutherford it was Very, very early on, he ends up getting knocked unconscious and is in sickbay. Yep. And he's in a coma. And that means the rest of his story is interactions between the evil version and our version in his own mind. And the evil version tells him, look, only one of us is getting out of here. And he shows him the ship that he had been working on building back when he was in, you know, first year in Starfleet. And he says, what we need to do is we will have a race in the neutral zone in this, you know, illegal racetrack. And we can each build our own ships with whatever we want in it. And he's very dismissive of our Rutherford because our Rutherford just builds a really cool standard Starfleet shuttle. I think it's based on what Tom Paris.
I think it's Tom Harris is the Delta flyer. Yeah. And, and they get into the race and it looks like evil Rutherford is winning. But then suddenly a Romulan warbird decloaks off to one side and starts shooting at him. And let me tell you, they made it damn intimidating. Oh, it was great. Very effective. Yeah. I have in my notes, I'm just like, oh, is it a warbird or is it a bird of prey? I can never remember. I was just asking Nathan yesterday. Romulan warbird, Klingon bird of prey. Got it. Got it. I had a feeling it was one or the other. So anyway, I put my notes in the Romulan ship just warps in out of cloaking. And I'm just like, oh, my God, that looks so cool. So they're trying to complete this race and get away from the Romulan warbird. And then you see what Rutherford has done when he was told that he could have anything.
you know, it's in his mind. What he did, he has Boimler and Mariner and Tendi as his crew on the ship. He's like, you told me I put everything I want. I'm like, yes, this is so triumphant. It was just really, really great. Obviously, well, they, okay, so evil Rutherford probably would, if the tables of attorney would have just left him to get destroyed, but the Romulans are closing in on evil Rutherford's ship and almost destroys it.
Rutherford gets Tendi. He's like, Tendi, now! And she hits the controls. They manage to transport him out of the ship at the very last second. And they fade back into the white void that was, you know, when they were talking inside his head. And his crew fades out as well. So it's just the two of them. And the evil Rutherford is dying. And he tells him, no, you won. And then suddenly, he starts remembering what happened. Because we had seen before that Rutherford had this weird memory of somebody saying, what'll we tell him if he asks why he has it? And he's like, oh, I think I remembered something I'm not supposed to. He remembers more. It was the evil Rutherford. Sorry, we should probably say the young Rutherford, who was just kind of brash and hadn't...
learned to care about people and that he's working on a ship that explodes and then you see somebody say this is going to set us back years and it's somebody in starfleet and they hook on his you know implants and he's like what do we tell him if he asks why he has it and they said we've taken care of that we're going to make him think that he asked for it and like what do we do about this erase all of that are you sure that could completely change his personality yes everything so now we know somebody in starfleet when he was a first year, was having him do something illicit and it got him damaged pretty badly. Because you see him when he gets flung away from the explosion and like half of his face is gone and it's like half of his body is kind of like raw and everything. Yeah, big time. But once that flashback is done, Evil Rutherford sort of slowly...
fades away I can't remember what his last words were because I know he said something about when he was younger he was just angry at everything he's now look at you you know all that rage is gone all that rage is gone and he's actually got I mean you know Rutherford is like come on we can figure something out we can both get out and he's like no you have to keep your friends and then he says thank you for one last race I'm like oh that's perfect and he finally fades out and Rutherford sits there for a second and there's this light and it was the light that they both been fighting to get towards it was sort of the way out to whoever was going to win and he just quietly walks over to it and stands in the light and gently is pulled into the air and then you see him waking up in sickbay and tendy wants to know are you are you and he's like i'm okie dokie and she just starts to cry and gives him a hug i'm like oh it's so good So that was the A storyline. The B storyline is the comedy bit. And that is, okay, so Mariner and Boimler are assigned to the recruitment tent on board a planet. And Ransom has told Mariner if she steps one foot outside of that tent, he's going to send her to like, what is it, Starbase 80 or something? I don't even know if that might be a callback to a classic episode or something. But anytime somebody says they're like, not Starbase 80. I mean, even Mariner is like, oh, okay, I'll be good. I'll be good. And she's not kidding. She definitely wants to avoid this. And they're on the planet. And it's like every other tent is filled with people that like the standard tropes of a Star Trek story. And they're all being really.
shitty to them like you've got the rogue archaeologists you've got the scientists that are not starfleet scientists you've got the conspiracy theorists you've got the collectors you've got the i guess the games master or something and they're all pointing out about you know starfleet oh well they say they're not a navy but they've all got uniforms and weapons and everything why do they have to have that and we know that there's this no no conspiracy theory whatever and boimler is just trying to keep mariner from losing her cool because she's getting all kinds of pissed off all the time and then somebody disrespects starfleet and pulls off boimler's uh rank pip from his collar and throws it aside where it gets stepped on and boimler loses his mind and it's just It is eternally funny because he's just screaming at everybody. But we don't want to protect you from the Romulans or the Klingons. We just want to explore space and study quasars. But it's the right thing to do. And it's just getting in everybody's face like the collectors. Like, collecting is stupid. It won't make you happy. Your ships smell like ass. Just running around screaming at people. I mean, anytime something else is going on, you still hear him in the background. What the hell is the matter with you? But it works out so well for Mariner because all these people are like, wow, if he's got that kind of passion and confidence in Starfleet, sign me up. So it's just Ransom comes down to the planet expecting to see that.
you know, Mariner's failed. And she sees her just friendly and talking with a bunch of people and helping them fill out forms. And meanwhile, in the background, Boylor is literally hopping up and down in fury on top of somebody's stand going, I failed the Kobayashi Maroon 17 times, motherfucker! I tried to sit back and rewind that and watch it again. So good. Oh my God. It's Jack Quaid again. We keep saying that, but he does such a good job. He worked himself up into such a state in this episode. I mean, you can feel the rage, but it actually works out okay because later on you see Ransom taking him back to the ship and Boimler's feeling all embarrassed now and everything. And Ransom's saying, I don't know, it's just...
And he starts by dressing him down and Boimler is saying something like, I guess you're disappointed in me. He's like, no, actually, he thought it was really great. It's just wonderful to watch Boimler go to town and all these people who are being so crappy to Starfleet. It just made him really happy. And all he's going to do to him is he has to spend a night in the brig, which is the only time this has happened to Boimler. And he just, it ends the episode with him sitting with his friends who are keeping him company outside of the brig, except for the fact that Mariner gets a call from that rogue archaeologist who had used all of that distraction to go steal something from a museum that she had needed to get from somebody else. And she tells Mariner, save my number and maybe give me a call if you get tired of this whole story.
Starfleet thing. And you can see Mariners actually tempted. Yep. Yep. But she starts to delete the contact and then she thinks about it and then she saves the contact and then she goes to look out the window and looks pensive. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not a spoiler to say that we will be seeing that archaeologist lady again. I figured. Yes. So yeah, that was just, that's my new favorite of the season, I think, is this episode. The A story was intriguing and the B story was fucking hilarious. So funny. Oh God, they do such a good job. But I guess that will wrap us up for the week. So make sure to check out pixelatedgeek.com for all the book reviews, the movie reviews, the comic book reviews, the photo galleries. This Friday is a WonderCon.
Oh, my goodness. Can't wait to see all the cosplay photos. All the cosplay photos. Yep. We've got myself and Jada and Lauren and Ariana, all people who have put photos on the site before, will all be there with press passes. Leland will also be there on Saturday, though he's going with his own pass, so hopefully he'll get us a few photos as well. I haven't seen any of the panels that I absolutely must attend. I'm just realizing more and more that I'm just not really a panel person most of the time. You know, I want to see all the cosplay, and I want to walk all over the sales floor, and then I want to walk all over the sales floor again so I can figure out what I actually want to buy. So it's just that's fun. I think I got lucky the first few conventions I went to in that they had panels that had a lot of how-to tips for cosplay, and that's the sort of thing I'm looking for.
tell me how to do this thing that I like to do. Yeah, I'm going to keep my eye out for stuff like that. I mean, there's a lot of stuff we've been giving things from various TV companies. I haven't watched the new Penguin series, but I guess they're doing a thing on the making of the Penguin, and I'm like, I know I need to watch it, but the panel's not going to be very interesting if I haven't seen any of the shows. I know, right? Yeah. But there will definitely be other fun things to see and take photos of. All that and more, pixelatedgeek.com. So next week, I don't... Oh, no. Will we? This is so weird. Will we have an iPhone?
The next Night Vale episode drops on next Tuesday, and I think that's probably a little late for us to be waiting to record something and then trying to get the edit done in time for our usual episode drop date. So, yeah, maybe just more Beastar and Star Trek Lower Decks. I'd be cool with that. Or we could do a catch-up on WonderCon. Yes. Or we could do all of that. Why choose? Yes. So, one way or the other, we will talk to everybody in one week. Talk to y'all later.