Episode 512: Unusual Alliances, Special Features

DIALOGUE TO REWIND FOR

Part 1:
The Operative: Put down your weapons and I will release them.
Kiera: Or we could just shoot you and get this over with.
The Operative: Then they will not be released.
Kiera: I don’t know. If you’re dead, they oughta be released from something.
The Operative: This isn’t magic.

The Operative: Then you came here. Where is the Director?
Rina: Six feet under, I hope.

Joshua: Oh, no. We would all be dancing in glee if we managed to kill her. And I say that from the standpoint of someone who is against killing.
Rina: (to Joshua) You need to revise your list, dear.

The Operative: Pain can be useful.
Joshua: (grim) I understand pain can be useful. I am not short of experiencing that. She goes beyond pain being useful. Pain is pleasurable to her.

The Operative: Well, traditionally a locked door says do not open.
Rina: Depends on what side of it you’re on.
The Operative: If there was any confusion about what side of a locked door you were supposed to be on, I’m sorry. When you were locked in, the thought was that you would realize you were meant to stay there.
Rina: It wasn’t a matter of confusion. It was a matter of consent.

The Operative: Suffice to say, while I am confident in the power of words and negotiation over the mere power of violence, I am not opposed to using violence if necessary to solve a problem. So! If as a last resort our negotiations fail here and you take it upon yourselves to act in violence to solve this situation, let it be known that should something happen to me, the ship in orbit above this thing is ordered to bombard this area with enough ordnance to ensure that there are no survivors. And that would include your ship.
Rina: (natch!) That would also include you, would it not?

The Operative: That’s the spirit, Miss Sullivan. Keep up your emotional strength. You may need it later.

Joshua: (to Kiera) Next time, just shoot her. I wish I could have told you to just shoot her.
Kiera: I wanted to. The only reason I didn’t kill her was you.

Joshua: The problem with the bombardment is that it happens when we take her out.
Nika: We don’t know that. She’s claiming that. But how the hell are they gonna know she’s been taken out?
Kiera: That and she doesn’t have to die.
Rina: Yet.

Nika: Okay, so … (points past our door) … If that guy is Malcolm Reynolds, then who the hell did we pick up in space?
Rina: It could be another man named Malcolm Reynolds.
Nika: Okay. That’s bizarre. There are things such as coincidences, but that’s just bizarre.
Rina: (eyeroll) So? It’s not like his name is copyrighted.

Joshua: Aughnnn … (recovers) … I do not know what’s going on but this is not comfortable.

Joshua: Kappa.
Nika: Is crying?
Arden: Well … Kinda. It looked like she was trying to resist the urge.
Rina: To do what?
Arden: To cry.

Joshua: If it got you guys free …
Rina: I’m not leaving you.
Nika: Okay, you can leave that trailing right there or you can finish it and I can smack you.
Rina: Get in line.

Nika: When have we ever taken up that option?
Joshua: I know. I know you’ve never taken that option. I’m giving you the option.
Rina: Joshua, were you not here when I offered myself up and she slapped me into next week for even considering—
Joshua: I know, I know. I knew that when I said it.
Kiera: (to Nika) They keep throwin’ themselves on the altar like we appreciate it.

Kiera: Yeah. So, like, get off. You’re not getting any gold stars. It just makes us mad! It just makes us mad. Right, Captain?
Nika: That’s right.

Rina: Ow!
Joshua: She didn’t do anything.
Kiera: Because. She will. And you’ll do something just as dumb. Just give you a few minutes.

Beglan: If you’re so smart about this, what do you think we should do?
Kiera: (bitterly) I shoulda shot her when I had the chance.
'Beglan: That’s probably what we should have done. What should we do now?

Nika: She doesn’t like messes. I wonder how loud and messy we can get?
Rina: I don’t know. Quite a bit.

Kiera: We need to talk to her to find out what she wants from us. She said ‘I’ll come back and negotiate’. So we gotta figure out what it is she wants. Maybe what we need to do is ask. As Captain, you need to ask what we can do to make her life easier, that she’ll want to let us go. Cuz obviously we’re not going to stay here. And we’re gonna cause her trouble.
Nika: And we’re messy. And loud.
Kiera: That means she’ll kill us so she won’t have to deal with us anymore.

Part 2:
Nika: (hard) As an example: I don’t like leaving a lady with a kid in here.

Kiera: I’m trying to do it your way where people don’t die but talk. And that’s a thing I’m not accustomed to.
Joshua: I’m listening. I’m not going to argue with that.
Nika(to Kiera) You bargain all the time. What are you talkin’ about?
Kiera: (eyeroll) All right, fine. I do it a lot. I prefer to do it behind a gun.

Kiera: Right. I mean, if all else fails, bend over and seem like … not that we’ve given up, but we’ve accepted.
Nika: They are not going to believe that from us.
Kiera: I don’t know. Giving up and talking with them—
Nika: They are not going to believe that from us.
Joshua: I love her to death, but …
(He doesn’t even have to say it. He just tips his head at Rina. Kiera’s not inclined to give up.)
Kiera: I’ll sit on her.
Nika: And for Arden, it’s next to impossible to keep his mouth shut.
Arden: Heyyy ….
Kiera: We can just tape his mouth shut. Kiss him. It’ll keep him shut up for a while.

Joshua: Kappa thinks I’m a ... (breathes a laugh) … If I had to hazard a guess, Kappa looks at me like I’m a broken toy, that can be fixed and put to use. But I will say that Kappa’s a product of the Academy too which means Kappa has the exact same flaws in relation of the Operative as I do and that River does.
Kiera: So she may be under more control than we’re thinking and she doesn’t like it either.
Joshua: That’s possible.
Nika: Now, there’s an angle we can exploit.

Joshua: Technically I’d remember the phrases if I didn’t put myself in horrible pain while I’m at it.

Nika: I’m pretty sure that’s a safety mechanism.
Joshua: That’s really too bad. That was Icelandic.

Nika: We don’t know what either of them want.
Kiera: That’s the thing of the deal—finding out their soft spots.
Rina: Yeah, and then gutting them.

Joshua: Okay, so what else do we have, folks? Do we have anything else at all? Love?
Rina: My two fists.
Joshua: (checking it off) Love.
Arden: That’s all we need.
Kiera: Really?
Arden: I’ve heard that love is all you need.
Kiera: Oh? Then love the door.
Rina: You go hump the doorknob and unlock it.

Joshua: I’m thinking here and nobody is helping me out here. More resources?
Rina: My two fists.
Joshua: We’ve got that covered under ‘twenty people’.

Kiera:How are you guys useful again? No wonder this project’s failing.
Joshua: I did offer to be given up if you would prefer that. The Give-Up-Joshua routine.
Rina: No.
Nika: (eyeroll) Sure. Let’s give you up, Joshua.
Rina: No.
Kiera: (wicked grin) Yeah, if we really thought about how useful you were—
Nika: (catching on) We’d already be dead.
Kiera: Yeah. ‘We got the one that’s a dud. We keep whacking it and we can’t get any channels or anything. We can’t listen to good radio’.
Nika: ‘Every time I put my boot up his ass, something else goes wrong’.
Kiera: ‘Percussive maintenance has not worked on him’.
Joshua: For the sake of my sanity, I’d like to emphasize love. (points to his imaginary list) Like, several times. Just to remind myself.

Nika: Can you lie with a straight brain?
Kiera: Sure.

Kiera: All you do is commit to it. It’s reality until it’s not. It’s just a commitment issue.

Arden: You don’t want her to be too obvious. You want her to think that you think that she doesn’t know what you think that she knows that you know.
Nika: (clutching head) Uhhnnn! My brain just exploded.

Joshua: Wait until they get closer.
Kiera: They might be closer than you think they are. Cuz we kinda left a mess of the other two floors. And I just kinda think it doesn’t matter what we do, that’s gonna be it. Cuz we ain’t got nothin’. Just standin’ down here like hamsters in a hole. Just waitin’ for the snake to come.

Rina: It’s a suitably Russian ending. I can get behind it.

Joshua: So … Air ducts?

Voice: Now, now. That’s not part of the deal.

Part 3:

SNIPPETS FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

Back in our cell, Joshua and Rina are standing under the vent, stretching their ears to listen to Nika’s progress. They hear her slither through the vent and the sounds fade as their captain crawls too far away to hear. The sound of metal against metal, however, carries to them and Joshua eyes his fiancée with worry.

Joshua: I can’t ask someone to shoot someone else. It’s just not my thing.
Rina: You can always ask me anything, dear.

HOW TO SPEAK BASQUE

Egizu beti on = Ee-geh-zoo bet-ty on = Always do the right thing.

HOW TO SPEAK RUSSIAN

Part 3:
maskirovka = маскировка = mahss-skee-rove-kah = a term for a concept that encompasses many elements simultaneously, including disguise, camouflage, and disinformation.
Sound clip Read more here.
Bozhe moi = Боже мой = boh - zhuh moy = Oh, my God! -or- My God Sound clip

Part 4:
Bozhe moi = Боже мой = boh - zhuh moy = Oh, my God! -or- My God! Sound clip

Part 5:
Bozhe moi = Боже мой = boh - zhuh moy = Oh, my God! -or- My God! Sound clip

HOW TO SPEAK CHINESE

Part 1:
Mǔgǒu = 母狗 = moo gow = bitch Sound clip

Part 2:
gǒu shǐ = 狗屎 = gow shih = dog shit Sound clip

Part 4:
Dong le mah =懂了嗎 = dong leh mah = Understand you Sound clip
Dong le mah? =懂了嗎? = dong leh mah? = Got it? Sound clip
xīnlǐ mǔgǒu = 心理母狗 = shin-lee moo-gow = psycho bitch Sound clip

Part 5:
tā mā de = 他媽的 = tah mah duh = fucking Sound clip
cào nĭ mā = 操你妈 = tsow nee mah = fuck your mother Sound clip (click in individual characters, then the arrow button to hear them)
'sāncì de zǔzhòu = 三次的詛咒 = sahn-sih duh zoo-zchow = thrice-cursed Sound clip

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