Endgame | For the Second Time

] The year is: 2026

[1:37] Now, that being said, this is Jeff and mine's second time through the show. We have watched it once all the way through. We were able to do that spoiler-free thanks to the incredible community out there, put us in a bubble and kept us safe from everything. And really, Jeff, that's the preferred way to do a first watch. So if this is your first watch going through Babylon 5, Jeff and I, we plead with you. We beg you. We implore you. Stop this right now. You don't want to go any further because this is your one and only spoiler warning. Jeff and I are at liberty to talk about anything from any point in the franchise, in canon, out of Canon in universe, extra universe, whatever it is, we can talk about it all. And we will be talking about it all. So this is your one and only spoiler warning. My warning is sincere. Ignore it at your own peril. This week, Brent, it's the end of the earth civil war. As we watch end game, when we watch this the first time we played a game where we would predict what each episode is about based on the title alone. What did you predict end game was going to be about? I said, this is going to be the end of the liberation of earth battle front thing. It's the big battle. It's the climax. It has to be that, that, that end game title of the episode tells you exactly what it's going to be. And it can't be anything different. How about you? I really saw two things. I, the, you know, it's going to, it could be something different. I get right. It's possible.

[3:05] End of the civil war. Right. And I was really specific. And then I thought we were going to have Clark on one of the shadow destroyers. It was going to be positioned behind the other destroyers. Like we had Naroon behind his people before the end of the Minbari civil war. There'd be this back and forth. Like the real battle would be a battle of words between Sheridan and Clark that would result in the Clark forces being like, Hey, turns out this guy's a nutcase and help fuel the defection of people over to, the true earth side. And I also thought that we would get, I stole a phrase from you, And I thought we were going to get the redemption of Dr. Franklin. Oh, he was going to rush back to Babylon five, hook himself up to the quality of mercy machine and save Ivanova. Whoa, dude. You were so close on that one. I did just swap out a name, right? So close. I mean, it's the buddy cop, the other half of the buddy cop show, man. It's really what it was. The only way you get closer is to be Ivanova. Right, right. Well, Jeff, that's what we predicted. this show is about? You want to take a look at what we actually thought about the show once we had a chance to watch it? Oh, man. I'm not going to look good in this. Just heads up. You know what? We've been watching some of these old videos of you and me back then. We didn't look that great. Well, I'm not talking about how I look. I mean, how I'm going to come across. No, I'm talking about. Yeah. It's not that we looked bad back then. I just. Dude, I think we're aging well, Jeff. We look good now.

[4:34] Still got faces for radio, though, man. 100%. Let's watch this. Previously on Babylon 5 for the first time, Endgame. It's the first finale of the season. Do you remember the Shadow Vorlon thing? This is like the second finale of the season. Maybe the third. It's the 20th game. Yeah, we had the Minbari thing. Every episode, right? This was a great episode, but I was pretty disappointed in quite a few things in this episode. So I thought last week of the Quality of Mercy thing. How come no one else thought of that? as soldiers they accept that this is the, this is the lot and we're not going to use that even on a soldier hey let's go to earth, and we're going to take this down and sheridan gets on you know the on the communicator and starts talking out and then literally like four seconds later clark shoots himself i felt rushed and honestly i feel kind of cheated, i'm simply just going to say What is wrong with you, Jeff? This was a fantastic, fantastic finale to this whole deal. I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated, hated the idea that Marcus deserted his people. That was so out of character for him. But I understood. I got it. I was so mad. If he makes it through this, Sheridan needs to kill him. Wow.

[6:04] That is irredeemable. No one does a good hurrah speech like Bruce Boxlight. Oh, my gosh. We've heard a handful of these from him over the course of his time here in Babylon 5. These are your sons. These are your daughters. Their loyalty has never wavered. We are coming home. I'm just like, yeah, I'll follow you to the moon and back. You have one last thought. And this is a thought and a message directly to JMS. Don't you dare kill Marcus. You do not harm a hair on his beautiful head. Dare kill him. Either one could die. Or both could die. Both could be leaving the show. That'd be big. So in order for this war to actually have teeth, somebody on the DVD cover has to die. God, and it's got to be between Marcus and Ivanova? And it could be either one at this point. God, can it be Franklin?

[7:04] I mean, I'm on the Franklin train. I'm good with him. But like, if I got to pick one of them, it's going to be him. Oh, man. I'm really, really super curious how you're going to respond to this show this time around. This is one. We've talked about those episodes that we're looking forward to, both excited and apprehensive for the second time. TKO, Avalon, you know, a few others. This is one of the big ones for me. I had very strong feelings. Dylan who puts those recaps together for us. And she just does such an amazing job. Music was from the episode itself. She even like got the Sheridan music, but as so well done, she was very kind to me. I know for a fact, I was a lot harder on this episode than I came across in that recap. So, uh, let's see what it looks like this time. Yeah. Dylan made you look not that big of a jerk. Yeah.

[7:58] I was a huge jerk. Also, maybe I was justified. We'll find out because we're going to do that right now. We're going to bring up the episode. We're going to watch it in real time with you. Talk about it. Pull out the messages. Do all that stuff as we're watching the episode. We're going to edit that for YouTube. So if you're watching us on YouTube, it's that reaction style cut that you get on so many things. If you want the full and unedited version where you can see Jeff be as much of a jerk or not jerk as he is throughout the whole thing, we post that on our Patreon page at patreon.com slash Bad Nerds. And if you're listening to us on an audio podcasting app, you're going to hear that reaction, and then we're going to meet you on the other side where we will share our final thoughts and talk a little bit more about the messages. One of us is going to rank the episode in our 100% completely accurate ranking, which really is what everybody's here for. If we're being honest. Yes, yes, if we're being honest. And then, I don't know, maybe there'll be some funny stuff at the end. Maybe not. We'll see. But first things first, Jeff, let's watch this episode. Let's go.

[9:19] He hasn't left that spot. Whole time. Holding her hand. He says, Susan, you must be an angel. What do you mean, Marcus? Look at that halo. Probably not the best pickup line. No. He's a broken, broken man. Mm-hmm. His makeup's fantastic. He looks so pale, her makeup's great.

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