SDS9 – S3E13: "Life Support" (Audio + Transcript) (Patreon)

Note to Listeners:

Southpaw: Deep Space Nine is back from hiatus!

This episode was recorded months before the Hollywood Writer's Strike, which began in May 2023. But in solidarity with the writers, we stopped releasing new episodes of Southpaw: Deep Space Nine. However, since the increased genocide of Palestinians, Hollywood has lost all of the goodwill it garnered during the strikes. Palestine has been a lens we used for Deep Space Nine since episode one of our watch-along series, but now that it's in everyone's consciousness, it's a great time to bring this series back from hiatus and record new episodes with Palestine in mind. Keep thinking and talking about Palestine.

Episode Description:

On this episode of Southpaw: Deep Space Nine, Sam and Scott delve into "Life Support," where Vedek Bareil is dying, and Jake and Nog go on a date.

Find seasons 1 and 2 on the Southpaw podcast stream. Find the rest of season 3 on Patreon.

You can also listen to this episode directly from your favorite podcast player by following these instructions: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212055866-Subscribe-to-your-Audio-RSS-link-on-the-Patreon-app

(Note: Many phone plans come with Paramount+ for free. It can also come with your cable package, credit card, or in a bundle, so make sure to double check. There are also other ways to watch DS9 that we're sure you internet space explorers can figure out. Otherwise, since Scott does such a good job with the play-by-plays, you don't have to actually watch the episodes to enjoy our breakdowns.)

Transcript

[Note: Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain errors.]

SPEAKER 1: Sam

This episode was recorded months before the Hollywood writers' strike, which began in May 2023.

But in solidarity with the writers, we stopped releasing new episodes of Southpaw Deep Space Nine.

However, since the increased genocide of Palestinians, Hollywood has lost all of the goodwill it garnered during the strikes.

Palestine has been a lens we used for Deep Space Nine since Episode 1 of our Watch Along series.

But now that it's in everyone's consciousness, it's a great time to bring the series back from hiatus and record new episodes with Palestine in mind.

Keep thinking and talking about Palestine.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

This is Southpaw Deep Space Nine, Season 3, where we analyze Deep Space Nine and Star Trek from a political and historical lens, episode by episode.

I'm watching DS9 with fresh eyes, and Scott is our veteran Trek fan.

We are discussing Season 3 of DS9, Episode 13, Life Support.

Scott, tell us about this episode.

SPEAKER 2: Scott

There's nothing I would rather do today.

So Jake Sisko runs into an old friend, Leanne, who also happens to be played by Lark Voorhees, who, if you're of the age of Sam and I, played Lisa Turtle on Saved by the Bell, which again is a reference you understand depending on your age.

But they

They clearly sort of like each other, but she was seeing someone she's not anymore, so they plan a date.

Then we see Odo and some Bajoran security.

They go to an airlock where there has been a transportation malfunction.

Bashir is there to help.

Kai Nguyen is there, our favorite person, and she points out that Vedic Bural, Kira's lover, has been critically injured.

Kaiwen is fine, but she worries that the malfunction will sabotage what they are working to plan to do.

But she will not talk about what's going on except with Ben Sisko only, as, for all of you listening, is the emissary to the prophets whom the Bajorans base their faith.

Well, most Bajorans base their faith.

Bashir is doing his best, but Bural is not doing well.

Kywin and Baral, it turns out that they're working on some more peace talks and delegation with Legat Cardassian.

There's going to be, there's a lot going on, a lot was being worked out and Vedic Baral was spearheading it and was really working on the nitty gritty of the particulars and she worries

She doesn't worry about him dying because she cares about him, because, you know, Kaiwen doesn't care about people.

She cares about how him going will affect the peace talks.

And Beryl has died.

Beryl has died.

Kira says she's going to grieve in her own way, because she's already lost a lot.

However,

As Bashir and the medical team are doing an autopsy, they note that his nerves are sending small messages that the radiation that created this malady has done some science that shows that maybe he isn't dead, that he has some sort of activity, and Bashir believes that he can use some, he can spark some neurons and reinvigorate the body and see what happens.

And it is successful.

They believe that Vedic Barrel will be back to his feet in weeks.

And obviously Vedic One is like, all hail the prophets.

And Vishnu is like, all hail science.

And you know, Vedic Barrel is happy because he believes that his work is important.

And this is, he believes that he is a vessel for

Peace.

And Wynn just wants to continue the peace talks and Kier and Bra have a sweet moment.

They really do care about each other.

Then we see Nog and Jake.

They're about to have a game night, but Jake's like, you know,

I'm canceling our game night because I'm going on a date.

And Naga's like, yo, double date.

And Jake's like, wait, no, that's not what's going on.

And Naga's like, no, no, you set up a double date.

This is what's happened because I have all the moves.

And, you know, we see Beryl and Wynn, they're talking, they're in disagreement about how to make the talks happen.

You know,

Kai Nguyen, her whole personality and her needs, she just, she doesn't know how to play the game.

She gets very nervous.

She's not, her sort of machinations of, of, of politic are different.

And Nguyen, Nguyen really just wants to make sure that she gets these orbs that the Cardassians have and, you know, basically stolen stuff.

There are

concepts, which I know we'll be talking about later.

And Beryl is like, well, like Beryl is like, look, you're, you're going to go in without me.

You got to go slow, play the game, get the work going.

And then Bashir realizes that the miracle has messed up his circulation and his body and Vedic Beryl's body is sort of going, going bad.

And

This podcast is

Bashir agrees to use an experimental drug.

Obviously, using experimental drugs has never been a mistake in any life, ever, whatsoever.

It's called Vasican, but there's a non-zero chance that in making the organs work, it could also damage his organs.

And it's a gambit that Vedic Barrel is willing to make.

Again, he's really on some, you know,

This is my life.

Bashir and Beryl hope that they won't regret this.

At the peace talks, you know, Kai and Ben and the Cardassian representative, they start talking about giving property back and the Cardassian dude, he's clearly up to something, he's playing a game.

The Cardassians are very good at this sort of politic of

of language control and power and power plays.

And Ben and Kai Nguyen are both aware that this is going on.

And Nguyen is just like, I am in over my head.

I can't do this.

I need Burrell to be there in person.

And that's going to be an issue.

So then we go to Nog, Jake, Leanne, and Riska.

They're on a date.

Nog is being really rude and chauvinistic and making jokes and views about women and putting it on his culture as being Ferengi.

The dates leave and Nog and Jake, they break up as friends.

And The Infirmary Barrel is explaining all of the treaties and the reparations that they have already agreed with to win.

And

It's like very clear she's not, she does not care how sick this guy is.

She's not giving him, all she cares about is getting this thing done.

She's, she's, she's Kaiwen.

What are you going to do?

But then Bashir and Kira threaten to escort her out if she does not leave Vedic Barrel alone.

The Vasikin has damaged Barrel's organs as

was foreshadowed.

And Bashir's like, look, please, let me put you in stasis.

This is going against my whole doctor thing.

And Braille's like, no, I need to do this.

This is the will of the prophets.

So then Bashir goes to meet Kai Wen in person and says, look, please, free him of his obligation.

Tell him that you don't need him.

Tell him that you will be okay.

Let him go to stasis.

Please.

Help him change his mind.

And she won't.

She won't.

She is fine with him dying.

Bashir tries to appeal to Kai Wynn's best parts, but it doesn't really work because he realizes that

She needs him there because if they fail, she'll scapegoat him.

So as again, in some ways of the politic, she is very good.

And in some ways, in the nitty gritty, she has some blind spots.

And they're both like, I'm going to remember everything you said here.

Jake and Ben are talking about Nog and Ben tells Jake to remember cultural relativity.

And like,

to S3E13

Raise some interesting questions, but there's more at stake than just Vedic Barrel's life because part of his brain will be an implant.

He could wake up a different person.

Bashir is incredibly upset.

This is not working for him.

And then in the B-plot, Jake has a ploy to get knocked back.

He has Odo arrest him.

and Nog and have them put in the same cell where they have to talk it out.

The new barrel feels different and it says that when he touches Kira it feels like a distant memory of a touch.

And then we see Jake and Nog.

He admits that he set him up to get arrested just so he could talk to him.

They apologize.

They agree to not double date and they agree to

learn a little bit more about each other's cultures and not lose sight of their friendship.

And then we find out that the peace treaties were a success, and Kai Win gets all the credit at the infirmary.

Vedic Barrow is dying.

Win says to let him go.

Well, she doesn't need him anymore, and Kira wants to have him do a full brain positronic transplant.

Okay.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

First off, there does seem to be a sea change of sorts.

Kai Wen went from wanting to kill Burrell to respecting and needing him.

They've become colleagues.

There is the explicit commentary from Bashir that is solely to use him as a pawn, but that doesn't mean he's necessarily right.

That tells us just as much about his different perspective as the station's main medical officer.

Because even with Kira at the beginning of the show, he tells her to put her duties aside for her own health.

And she says no.

And that's been a theme.

Not just with Kira, but with Bashir not seeing eye to eye with a lot of the other Starfleet officers and officers on the station.

So it's not just Wynn.

It's Kira and Burrell and probably even Cisco who wants Burrell to finish those negotiations.

Burrell is the linchpin.

SPEAKER 2: Scott

Yeah, because the thing about Wynn is, you know, she is going to be a character in the show and she is very mischievous and smart and methodical, but she's not good at

Seeing this non-black and white relationship between Nguyen and Burau and Kira and everyone else was a nice evolution of the dynamic.

Nothing is straightforward.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

Scott, what do you think about the growth of these relationships and dynamics so far between Burrell and everyone else?

SPEAKER 2: Scott

I think you're really, if a show gets to the third season, you can sort of really

show off the furniture and the you can have episodes dedicated to side characters of side characters you can you can really sort of flesh things out so a guy like that at barrel who who at first may have seemed one note you understand is is a very complex character who

has lots of sides to him and the actor does a great job because even in the episode a few weeks ago where the you know Lwaxana Troy had everyone being kind of weird he he could play fun too but his character isn't fun his character is is a man of faith who is doing his best to find a way to get his people back to abundance

and willing to work with someone like Kai Nguyen, who was his political enemy, using politics and principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations.

So that's what he's willing to do to get to what they need, where Kai Nguyen is like

And to add more complexity, right, she is the problematic character we don't want to like, but she wasn't involved in that, in the cover up of the killing of Bajorans and even children.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

Whereas we do want to like Burrell but he was part of that cover-up so it's not straightforward.

Then you got Nog as a proxy to discuss sexism and Ferengi culture as a proxy for patriarchal culture.

There's also the question even if you are not being sexist directly but your friend is and you're not doing anything about it then are you enabling that behavior?

Are you tacitly condoning it?

Yes.

And the two dates also answered yes.

Scott, how did you take these scenes?

SPEAKER 2: Scott

I thought it was just a little bit lazy, especially because they're trying to... In the next episode, you're going to learn a lot more about Nog.

So it just feels like some of his characterizations, his cosplaying is what he thinks

And I just I thought they were more using it for for comedic value than really.

I think they were just like, look at these look at Nog being a chauvinist.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

What did you think?

I agree with you.

And even though the two dates answered no, I think the comedy, how the audience at the time was supposed to read it was to see them as being unreasonable.

And that's why the scene was supposed to be funny.

That's why it had a comedic ending, rather than seeing that the two women had a point, right?

The two girls actually had a point.

So,

On paper, the way I described it can sound a lot better than the way it was played out, which the way it was played out was not that serious.

Yeah.

But as far as Jake and Nog's friendship, again, it's not so straightforward because Nog is not a fixed point in time.

And it seems like their friendship isn't just about their current bond, but also about who Nog may or can become.

What's interesting to me as a first time viewer of DS9 is even though Jake comes out more than Nog, his character is so far pretty established and flat.

He's a good kid and so I haven't seen any growth from him.

And also his dating life went through some writing changes to make him more age appropriate.

Yes.

But that's less about character development and more about the writers going a different way with their writing or thinking better of it.

Nog, on the other hand, is a more minor character, yet I feel like I've already seen more character growth from his character, which is nice to see.

He's not just a caricature.

He can change, and he has his own wants and desires and personhood, which isn't the same as his dad or uncle.

And that's the thing about kids and young people.

They are still becoming.

Yes, adults can change.

Operative word, can.

While kids do change.

That's the thing about being young.

Even without effort, you are constantly changing.

So I hate this categorizing of kids as if they're a finished product.

Let them define themselves.

Don't constrain them more than the natural constraints built into capitalism.

No one on the station knows Nog.

Even Nog doesn't know Nog.

Childhood is the time for you to mess up and grow up.

We expect kids to grow up so fast and that's just not healthy.

A lot of that is a natural byproduct of the capitalist society we live in.

So, Jake, staying friends with Nog makes sense to me because it's different from an adult staying friends with somebody because it's like they're established that they're a piece of shit.

Like you not wanting to be friends with, let's say, Quark.

That makes sense, but that's not the same as choosing to stay friends or not stay friends with Nog because we don't know who Nog will become.

I know you're not a parent, Scott, but from a social worker's perspective, does society empathize enough with kids?

No.

SPEAKER 2: Scott

No, we don't, especially if you're going to go further and look at the intersections of it.

I mean, the way in hospitals, especially think about how young black women are treated in hospitals versus young white women or

Children in general, you know, there's so many studies have shown that the pain of certain people are not taken seriously in a medical profession.

And what we're willing to afford to white children are often, and particularly white boys, is not offered to.

And this is systemic.

And I can give examples.

You know, the thing of

Oh, boys will be boys.

He's just figuring himself out is something that's often given to young white men, but that is not afforded to young black men, young, young trans people, young people, non binary, that just afforded different empathy and compassion.

I see it implicitly all the time.

And and with with young

trans and non-binary comrades and family in this country explicitly.

And I was actually having a conversation with a cousin of mine recently about implicit bias because he's a good kid but he's naive and he's young and he really is one of those people who believes that racism is just not using the bad words.

You know, like the other stuff is confusing for him.

And there was this confusion like last week, two weeks ago, because the, you know, if we keep this, you know, the President's wife invited the losing

basketball team, women's college basketball, invited them to the White House, and they never invite the losing team.

And the losing team happened to be primarily white, and the winning team was primarily black.

And I was talking to my cousin, and he was like, I don't see it.

I don't see it.

And I was like, do you think that Jill Biden would have invited the team, the other team, if the roles were reversed?

He's like, I don't know.

And I said, well, I don't think she would have.

And I said, that comes from an implicit thing.

So a lot of it is implicit.

And the power of the work is to let people understand our implicit biases, and the way that we don't give

any sort of grace to children, children, you know, sometimes when I used to work at a high school for what you'd call what they would call troubled teenagers, I'd have to remind people sometimes that like they're talking to children, you know, when you're yelling at a 13 year old, you know, the 13 year old, these are children, even 18 year olds, pretty much children.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

I mean we recently had that in our other community right in MMA where people were like when a six-year-old made a joke to an adult fighter he should have thought about that right because when the adult fighter kept that insult in his mind for several years and then used it to attack the boy again when he viciously knocked out his father and while his father was still out

Who's mocking him?

Started mocking the child that his father was dead, right?

And was pretending to be like a dead person on the ground.

And everybody in our community, even, unfortunately, a lot of the leftist men in MMA were like, yeah, the kid deserved it.

He should have thought about that.

Fuck around and find out.

And it was like, he did it when he was like five or like six.

And so to your point, right?

We don't give them any grace.

We refuse to acknowledge that they're children and we want to put them on trial, like figuratively and literally as adults.

SPEAKER 2: Scott

Right.

And sometimes they don't even get trials.

I mean, you know, Trayvon Martin was a child, right?

But some people when they talk about like, oh, well, he was he was old.

No, he was a child.

And he was killed.

because he wasn't afforded the right to be a kid.

I'm sorry.

I'm willing to I don't care like so the way that we treat children as a culture is very pick and choose.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

I mean, when we say don't punch down, right, literally, explicitly talking also about children, because they are the little ones, the small ones, right?

Like, literally, you are attacking down, right?

Because they are physically also smaller, they are lower in power, like in every way, they don't have the same powers and rights afforded to adults.

And even all adults don't have the same rights, right?

So it's like, then for

racialized, marginalized children, they are the lowest on the power scale.

SPEAKER 2: Scott

Right.

And also Nog, where Nog is, he's not necessarily in a place of privilege.

And what I'm going to say is, allow Nog room to grow.

just allow him to go allow people room to grow especially children if we if we say that we believe in the redemptive power of the world if we believe in redemption and and you know restorative justice and healing then you know give this kid a chance because he is he was he was shitty but like yeah I don't know I feel very strongly that

to give children some grace.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

Now, Scott, what did you think about Burrell's death scene?

SPEAKER 2: Scott

Oh, it actually brought some tears to my eyes.

For Kira, because Kira's gone.

Kira's just lost so much.

And how can you not?

You're supposed to like Kira.

She's one of the, you know,

So, one of the themes DS9 promotes, whether the show realizes it or not, is duty to work above everything else.

And we saw that even with how Brau died.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

It's a very Protestant work ethic concept.

But for listeners and everyone else, this is a show, but it's no way to model your life.

When someone you care about is sick or in need, or you yourself are ill, fuck duty to work.

I literally spent years in cancer wards and hospice because of family members.

And so I also met a lot of people there who were dying.

I made friends with them.

And literally none of them were like, damn, I wish I worked more or damn, I wish I was more dutiful to my job.

They all had regrets about not spending enough time with friends or family or cultivating those relationships more.

Wealth disparity matters insofar as keeping you alive, but when it's terminal, all that matters is kinship networks.

And do you have support?

Fuck honoring your job,

honor your family, your friends, your community, and yourself.

And going back to that scene, right?

Burrell was dutiful and he died with just one person there.

So you could like Burrell, you could like what he did, but don't die like Burrell.

Don't live like that.

SPEAKER 2: Scott

Yeah, I mean, I, I really do love my job.

And, and again, I'm not, I don't think I've gone into specific detail of what my job is here.

And I'm, and I probably won't, but it's not, I still like, love days off, and I will take days off whenever I need them, sometimes even when I don't need them.

Because, because what is need?

Sometimes I just need to not work, because I don't believe that

We should kill ourselves to work.

Granted, what he was doing was for a greater good, but the truth of the matter is that there are other people that could have helped him do it.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

And it's also a show, right?

And that's the thing.

We model our lives unconsciously off of the context of the media we absorb, right?

That is how hegemony works.

That is how culture works.

That is how even the mind virus of the Protestant work ethic spreads.

And so it's not just about this episode or the series, it's just all the things you've consumed in your life will have you killing yourself for work.

And part of that is built in because capitalism needs you to do that.

But part of that is also thinking there is honor and productivity, the grind, right?

We talked about this grind culture.

All of that is bullshit.

All of that won't matter, right?

When you see those situations, when you're in hospice, when you're in the cancer ward, like you really see all that shit does not matter.

Nobody there is like, damn, I wish I grinded more, right?

A lot of them, when I said wish they spent more time developing more relationships or the ones they already had, what I mean by that is at that point,

When it's terminal, the disparity you see is no longer about wealth or income.

The disparity you see are the people who are being visited by a lot of people and the people who are not being visited at all.

And oftentimes, having a lot of money does not shield you from that.

And often, the people I saw who didn't have a lot of visitors were the people

Welcome to

WALT is not going to be an indicator of living a satisfied life and when you have a lot of time to yourself to think about what it was all for, WALT really doesn't do anything for you.

So I feel like as shitty as capitalism is, it also has even rich people doing shit out of default and living a life without any meaning and you don't realize that until it's about to end.

I guess this leads me to my final question for you, Scott.

This episode felt like an important episode for plot as far as what's on the page.

But in the viewing, it just seemed like another middle episode.

Even a lot of the things we talked about is more just our own observations and thoughts we have related to some of the things we saw, but it wasn't really acted out, right?

Some of the things we said are more meaningful and deeper than this episode.

How did you rate this episode?

SPEAKER 2: Scott

As far as like a mythology episode it's like a three and a half it's not nothing special uh it's just like it's it's it's expository and it's it's getting us places where it's placing things on the board you know though there's something like that that's really important in the episode I feel like that is really interesting that's barely talked about is the idea of like

when you're dealing with a peace treaty and they're like, oh, let's do a trade for your stuff.

It's like when you think about like museums of like stolen art and things from occupancy.

Like when there's a joke by Hari Kandibolu about the, you know, like that gigantic Indian diamond.

He's like,

Give me back my shit.

So you just, you know, like the reparations of destruction, like that they have to have a peace treaty just to get their religious items back.

So that was like a moment when you're like, like, ah, Kaiwing got a point.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

Yeah, I'm glad you brought up those last points.

Scott, can you tell us about the next episode?

SPEAKER 2: Scott

It's called Heart of Stone.

And you won't have a heart of stone after watching this Kira Enodo episode.

SPEAKER 1: Sam

Until then…