The Laughing Vulcan and His Dog
The blog where Martha watches an episode of Star Trek and then talks about it with her Trekkie friend Cindee
Martha: Hi. We’ve been incredibly inconsistent with this prime directive stuff so here is an episode where we beat you about the head with it in order to further your understanding
Cindee: hahahahaha. I feel like their answer in this one actually made some sense though? It’s been a while admittedly…
Martha: Yeah, and there was some initial intrigue! I felt the plot was fairly obvious once it got going but it was interesting
Continue reading “Just Say No (AKA Symbiosis)”Martha: Cindee!! Wtf is this. Watch Picard’s face as he goes through the door.
Cindee: ok so. I noticed that too and thought I was imagining it
Martha: Ahahaha! Is he just being daft and they left it in?
Cindee: That is the only explanation I have.
Martha: I must say though that was the highlight of the episode.
Cindee: Yeah so I don’t know that there’s much to say about this episode other than “what exactly was that?” and, ableism.
Martha: The story was predictable due to the crappy make up
Cindee: You could tell he wasn’t an old dude from the start?
Martha: Like if he didn’t get younger OR have flashbacks then what on Earth. I had my suspicions, like Riker, who is always suspicious. I kept hoping his next ‘attack’ would end with him being a baby.
Cindee: Then have I got the Voyager episode for you!
Martha: DO YOU BELIEVE US NOW HOSTAGE MAN?And then when Picard is trying to prove his story to the bad guy he’s all‘Look at these medical photos we took!’ And it’s all fucking screen grabs of previous scenes!!
Cindee: it was the 80s!
Martha: Where was Crusher and her camera?! Surely this isn’t reliable medical evidence! And the handy scar, which he could have shown about 15 mins before he did.
Cindee: What would have been more reliable?
Martha: Like for medical progress photos they tend to keep people in the same room.The same pose.
Cindee: you know this from your days a a medical practitioner?
Martha: IVE USED GOOGLE.
Cindee: You googled “medical progress photos”?
Martha: Everyone needs a hobby
Cindee: Yours is googling medical progress photos?
Martha: Yes
Cindee: Alright then. They should have consulted you!
Martha: My only other thought on this episode is that I’m glad shit interpretations of the prime directive go back 45 years!
Cindee: Do I need an ableism rant, or is the ableism pretty obvious?
Martha: You’re better at it than me. I’m assuming you mean the ‘I can’t possible negotiate this unless I’m young!’ aspect?
Cindee: I mean the tropes, the tropes! Disabled man is bitter.
Disabled man is secretly bad. Disabled man wishes he wasn’t disabled
blah blah blah
Martha: I know what you mean BUT pretty much every other character is like ‘you are making terrible decisions’ His wife is very clear that she loved him as he was and she wasn’t bothered. I mean disabled man did make some shit decisions in the past and, I dunno I guess he wasn’t ‘bad’ as such? He just wanted to make amends
Cindee: Yeah but that actually makes it worse! All the non-disabled people see that the cure is worse than the disability but the guy with it!
Martha: Yes he didn’t want to be disabled anymore, BUT frankly I’m
disappointed that Crusher hasn’t bothered to fix that disease yet.
Cindee: And yeah it would be ok if some characters with disabilities were evil but disabled characters in TV shows are all basically: bitter, evil, or magic
Martha: British people are always evil in things. Evil or Hugh Grant.
Cindee; True. Like all the death star dudes.
From Memory Alpha:
An early story meeting about this episode was attended by Patrick Barry, Gene Roddenberry, and Herbert J. Wright. Wright was wary that the concept of a matriarchal society had been too overdone. “So one of the major issues that we didn’t want to do was an Amazon Women kind of thing where the women are six feet tall with steel D cups,” he recalled. “I said, ‘The hit I want to take on this is apartheid, so that the men are treated as though they are blacks of South Africa. Make it political. Sexual overtones, yes, but political.’ Well, that didn’t last very long. Everything that Gene got involved with had to have sex in it. It’s so perverse that it’s hard to believe. The places it was dragged into is absurd. We were talking about how women would react, and Gene was voicing all the right words again, saying, ‘Oh, yes, we’ve got to make sure that women are represented fairly, because, after all, women are probably the superior sex anyway, and it’s real important we don’t get letters from feminists, because we want to be fair and we don’t want to infer that women have to rule by force if they do rule, because men don’t have to rule by force.’ Very sensible stuff. All of a sudden something kicks in and he changes: ‘However, we also don’t want to infer that it would be a better society if women ruled.'” His voice becoming increasingly louder, Roddenberry continued that this was because women were untrustworthy, “vicious creatures,” which he angrily blurted out in a torrent of hateful verbiage. Concluded Wright, “Then he looks out the window, looks at the outline, and says, ‘Okay, on page eight…’ and continues like that didn’t even happen.” (The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, p. 83)
Martha: Jesus this man is insane!
Cindee: Yup
Martha: But yes he failed in literally all of his supposed aims. I mean failed and then doubled down on the fail
Cindee: It’s sad. there are later episodes where they kinda invert things and then make a point about the actual injustice in our culture and do it well. But NOT THIS TIME
Martha: No this was just ridiculous. The way the men were portrayed as very typically feminine and sexualized. As if that’s the only way one sex can be the ‘lower’
Cindee: It’s so ridiculous too because they’re ALWAYS encountering patriarchal societies and judging them but then being like whatevs. But here they’re like noooooo, this is sooooo wroooooong. And my husband was saying that the women on this planet are unusually strong and that’s why they’re in charge?
Martha: Unusually strong and aggressively dominant
Cindee: White people oppress black people, but not because white people are stronger.
Martha: Exactly. And all this ‘let’s not make them Amazonian, let’s just choose shorter men!’
Cindee: And then they’re like “Riker is so tall”?
Martha: If anything I thought Riker came out of this looking… okay?
Cindee: What did Riker do that was so okay?
Martha: He was asked to wear the outfit to meet the mistress. And he did, and he wasn’t a giggling dumbass about it like Troi and Yar. (Yes he then had sex with the lady but… )
Cindee: Well of course he did
Martha: But isn’t the whole point about respecting the cultures they come across. There was a lot of prime directive blathering. It seems the prime directive doesn’t ACTUALLY matter if someone is at risk of death
Cindee: Even though it did in Justice?
Martha: Exactly
Cindee: Well, that was Wesley, the golden child
Martha: It’s literally ‘Prime Directive unless something is happening that we wouldn’t do. So…. what’s the point!
Cindee: pretty much. Like I said, it gets more consistent, though I think it is on the whole dumb. I mean, ok, spoilers: There are times when a civilization is literally going to get DESTROYED. Like, WIPED OUT. And they’re like “Sorry! Can’t save you! PRIME DIRECTIVE!!!!”
Martha: BUT FOUR GUYS?! Well they didn’t even bother to cast four guys they cast one and the others were just implied guys
Cindee: Guys are expensive
Matha: So in the end Riker does an impassioned speech so they let this guy(s) stay on another species planet where they don’t want them. Success for the Prime Directive! Meanwhile Crusher is furious to realise she didn’t cure the common cold after all
Cindee: Good summary
Martha: Is it implied that the cold came from the holodeck?! Like is the holodeck trying to kill them again?!
Cindee: Oh I forgot that? I was so busy with the damn sexism I forgot about the B plot. That sounds about right, murderous holodeck
Martha: Ok, so here is Wesley and pals off to go play in the snow
Martha: They throw a snowball which hits Picard and Worf, who comment on an unusual smell. And him and Worf are the first two after Wesley and other boy to get the cold
Cindee: Oh is this the one where the snowball somehow doesn’t dematerialize off the holodeck?
Martha: YES! I didn’t know if that was allowed cos those guys sorta walked off it before briefly
Cindee: So, it’s an infected snowball
Martha: Well it never ever mentioned the holodeck or the snow. They just say it’s airborne through smell. Just implied?
Cindee: Ok then. Infected magical holodeck snowball
Martha: But the holodeck is a death trap. 100%.
Cindee: So, for the sake of our reader and completing sake, will you carry on? On, for the sake of your emotional well being, will you skip on to season 3?
Martha: I must carry on, the prime directive…
Cindee: Also . . . what if someone else says sense OARS and you miss it?
Martha: They almost certainly will
Cindee: All in all, I think I’m going to have rethink my ratings once we’re done with season 2. I stand by my higher ratings, but the lower ones need some reconsideration
Martha: I saw someone considered angel one the 4th worst
Cindee: I have it as 165 out of 176. That needs reconsideration
Martha: Have you decided to give a shit about our blog yet
Cindee: FFS woman, isn’t it late there?
Martha: It’s Saturday! And is it ever to late to talk about THIS NONSENSE
Cindee: Lol so… Justice
Martha: Okay firstly I haven’t managed to fully establish timelines from the star date log entries. I’m going to assume this is a while after the last episode?
Cindee: I have never once in my life thought to care about star dates.
Martha: I only care because to me, the loss of Singh weighs heavy on my heart. But no one else cares!
Cindee: Fair
Martha: So, my first and main issue comes fairly swiftly. They discuss what an ‘unusually lovely’ planet the find where everyone makes love at the drop of a hat ANY HAT! Smirks Yar the filthy bint. And what does Picard do immediately?!
Cindee: sends everyone down there to have sex?
Martha: ‘Wesley. Go see if that’s a nice place for young people to relax’
Cindee: Oh lol I forgot about that!
Martha: I’m going to suggest it’s a highly inappropriate place for young people Picard
Cindee: Well, to be fair, he doesn’t really understand children
Martha: And Riker is too busy thinking about his penis to intervene to stop you looking silly. (Riker you’re fired)
Cindee: I feel I should also point out it is a gross violation of the prime directive to have visited that planet at all
Martha: Oh Cindee you sweet summer child. The prime directive isn’t important until LATER! For now it’s sexy party episode 2: the entire planet
Cindee: Hence the irony
Martha: Now I’m not sure if it’s implied that Riker and Yar have already got their rocks off on their initial visit. I feel it’s heavily hinted at…
Cindee: you think so?
Martha: Are you being sarcastic? Am I being naive?
Cindee: No actually. I can’t tell… It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen it.
Martha: Well they’re both a little giggly. And they were the two in the initial party and they’re VERY happily received when they return…Troi gets some points back with her fantastic ‘shoulder pat’ when the guy nuzzles into her neck when she first meets him. Oh also Riker when they go down and they’re all about in their amazing outfits he goes. “They certainly are….. FIT” AND THEN THEY ALL RUN ABOUT
Cindee: Ok, so, yes, the episode is the super creepy sex episode. Established fact
Martha: Which bit in particular is creepy in Star Trek lore? Is it Wesley thinking he has to have sex?
Cindee: Lol you think he thinks he HAS to?
Martha: Is it Worf telling us he would DESTROY A HUMAN WOMAN and must restrain himself?
Cindee: He implies that several times throughout the franchise…
Martha: Oh so Wes, there’s an awkward moment when the girl is all ‘I want you to show me a game’ and poor Wesley is all ‘oh there are some games I don’t yet know about’ Then they all go for a lovely game of run and catch…
Cindee: Yeah that’s super super weird
Martha: I mean if Wesley had known he’d have chosen a better jumper as this jumper was terrible.
Cindee: hahaha, I’m not actually sure how old Wesley is supposed to be? 16?
Martha: How old do you have to be to go to Star Fleet academy? I realise he’s not there yet… or is he? Surely if he was the correct age he’d be there already. He has the smarts and connections.
Cindee: I dunno? 18? Like college? Point is, I have nothing against teenagers having sex, but I think it is creepy for an adult show to be making a thing of it.
Martha: Exactly! Even when he meets the lady she’s all ‘I don’t know your customs with young ones and love!’
Cindee: Okay s according to Memory Alpha he’s 15, so super creepy.
Martha: Definitely! Anyway, dialogue was generally a little hammy this episode, more than normal. Dr Crusher randomly interrupts people for seemingly no reason, she simply HAS to ask if everyone can go down to sexy planet.
Cindee: Right well, Picard wouldn’t have sex with her in the sexy party episode. Ok, so creepy sex show, but there’s also other things. Most of the episode isn’t about sex at all!
Martha: Oh so poor Worf, even tho he’s a creepy sexy destroyer. He got totally shot down this episode. He’s all ‘I reported that error’ And everyone’s all ‘ooooh what’s this error. What’s this?! Oooooh’
Martha: Oh I have more sex stuff. So when they first meet they’re basically dying to find a way to palm Wesley off on someone else so they can all go have creepy totally fine by the prime directive sexy time. Yar is anyone’s. She has fancied tonnes of people so far
Cindee: Sure, but same with Riker. It is also interesting we see absolutely no old people on this planet. It’s good Picard doesn’t go cause, since there’s no old people, that’d also be creepy
Martha: True. But he’s sexy Riker. Why didn’t Data get to go down. Surely as the sex robot he is he should have gone down. Though he’s busy having static alien balloons stuck to his head
Cindee: That does tend to occupy one’s time
Martha: Speaking of Picard, how old is he?
Cindee: well he was born in 2305, and it is now 2364, so 59.
Martha: He looks younger
Cindee: Well maybe he runs everywhere, too
Martha: Omg the running, ok, so Wesley runs off to play catch, and shows off his cartwheeling
Cindee: Meanwhile, Yar finds out that the peace and love people like capital punishment for ALL CRIMES!
Martha: And we see a suspicious white wall…. AND WHAT DOES A WHITE WALL MEAN
Cindee: I dunno, what does it mean?
Martha: That’s a forbidden area! Were told about it as Wesley hurtles over it
Cindee: oh right, cause you might disturb the flowers, Martha! I mean, you want flowers to grow, don’t you?
Martha: And the incredibly stiff mediators come over, running, naturally, to protect the flowers. Because Wesley is in a ‘punishment zone!’
Cindee: I mean, we have to discuss this capital punishment thing a minute more here.
Martha: What discussion is there to be had Cindee? Earth has decided that it’s bad therefore our rules are the best
Cindee: The show implies that Capital Punishment is totally effective! Hahahah if you want to live in a sexy world
Martha: And…I do. I truly do. Everyone is so fit. They all have sexy outfits. They run everywhere. There’s no crime… the plants are FINE
Cindee: But the show acts all liberal and then endorses a super conservative idea!
Martha: I mean it tries to turn tables on that by having them about to poison Wes for crimes against saplings But really that just enforced the idea that ‘it’s a bad idea for silly crimes’
Cindee: Yeah I know the show is overall anti-capital punishment, but I think they didn’t think it through very well, because its heavily implied that capital punishment is totally effective, when it so isn’t
Martha: Okay well Picard suddenly gets VERY bothered about the prime directive once he realises Wesley is in trouble.
Cindee: Even though he was totally cool with super duper breaking it just a few minutes ago. They get a little better at being more consistent with the prime directive over time…
Martha: Exactly. Like the sex is fine, them beaming down is fine, them beaming one of them UP is fine, but removing Wesley through beaming is NOT fine?
Cindee: Hahaha, well even if it was, god won’t allow it!
Martha: Well exactly, God didn’t allow it until a frankly crap speech
Cindee: You know there have been other episodes where they have said that they have to follow the laws of wherever they are, but they haven’t framed it as the prime directive in those.
Martha: And then the God was all ‘okay fine, I’ll sacrifice years of work with my children, I’ll leave them feeling quite upset and possibly go back to their previous violent lives, all cos this bald dude wants his kid back’ It didn’t make sense. He said something along the lines of ‘there is no justice if laws are absolute’ Well, why?
Cindee: I also wonder why god let them beam down in the first place. God has the power to stop beaming.
Martha: How many people on that planet have had people killed for breaking such rules in the past? But now God says ‘for him, for lovely Wesley Crusher, it’s fine’
Cindee: I thought it was implied that basically no one ever breaks rules, cause capital punishment is so fucking effective.
Martha: Anymore! But they had a transition period which made them ‘sad’ Though it’s not stated how long ago…
Cindee: Warning: this is definitely not the last time aliens worship other aliens as gods
Martha: Also in another example of Picard has no empathy, Wesley’s been imprisoned, Picard comes back with a sexy lady, and Dr Crusher is all ‘what’s happening with my son?’ and Picard doesn’t explain or give her any info AT ALL. He just leaves her hanging. Whilst he shows the alien the God ship. TAKE THAT PRIME DIRECTIVE!
Cindee: Well he didn’t want her to worry her pretty little head! Why DOES he show her the God ship anyways?
Martha: Cos HE wants to know what it is, Because it’s physical yet not, and there yet not etc
Cindee: Oh well, good reason…
Martha: It’s a purely selfish ‘what’s this eh?’ and she is really distressed by it, and the god nearly attacks them for messing with their children!
Cindee: Doesn’t she go up to the ship as a hostage anyways?
Martha: No. She does say that Basically Wesley is in prison. Picard’s like ‘he’s safe until sundown okay’ right so can someone come up with me? And she’s all I’ll go as a hostage to secure Wesley’s life. And Picard’s all ‘no I didn’t mean like that!’ I just want you to look at this god ship thing!!
Cindee: Lmao
Martha: So they go to the observation cupboard and she has a look.
Cindee: It is a really shitty god though, don’t you think? It could have intervened way earlier… and attack Data with bubbles
Martha: Well. It doesn’t do much You’re right in that it could stop them beaming. However it prefers to hide until they say ‘oi, thing off our starboard bow, what are you?!’ And then it’s all ‘heyyyyyyyyyyyy’
‘You’re not leaving any humans here are you like that other planet?’
And Picard’s like ‘nah not on this one, we just left some people on another one. That’s our mission!’ And then he kinda gets cross that this alien ship beat them to it
Cindee: Another reason the god is shitty in my opinion is that the people are terrified of it. What kind of a shitty god wants to scare the fuck out its worshippers. Random thought: so, they dropped some colonists off at a nearby planet, but didn’t know about this planet… implying that no one surveyed the area before deciding to colonize the other planet? That hardly seems like a good way of doing things
Martha: They seem fairly haphazard with what they do! And that’s an understatement
Cindee: Yeah, anywho, creepy sex planet, shitty god, prime directive bs
Martha: They still haven’t properly explained the prime directive to the audience. Probably because they don’t know what it is themselves…
Cindee: Maybe they assume it is known from TOS? Though it is inconsistent in that, too. There’s an episode in season 3 where they explain it a bit more in detail
Martha: Do they abide by it better afterwards
Cindee: They get pretty consistent with the part where you don’t mess with pre-warp cultures, they are still somewhat inconsistent beyond that.
Martha: Why is warp the benchmark?
Cindee: It is later implied that the Vulcans taught them not to bug pre warp people. MUCH later. Ok, but really good news, you’re almost a third of the way through the shitty first season! and then just make it through season 2 . . .
which is shorter cause of a writer’s strike!
Martha: Hooray!
Martha: FERENGIS ARE FUCKING ANNOYING. I HOPE THEY ARE NEVER IN ANOTHER EPISODE. But I know they will be. URGH!
Cindee: Did you watch the whole thing yet?
Martha: Yes!
Cindee: So, yes the Ferengi are in lots more episodes, but they change a lot
Martha: They best do. They literally jumped around doing jazz hands for the last five minutes
Cindee: They were supposed to be the “big” enemy for TNG, but that didn’t work out cause they’re silly. Really, the only consistent thing from this episode to the rest is that they like valuables and they’re sexist and don’t let women wear clothes. In the future, instead of being menacing, they basically just become Republicans
Martha: Oh god. Third/fourth episode now where someone is shocked there’s a woman in the party.
Cindee: Like I said, aliens in Star Trek are sexist, and humans act like we are not. Kinda like how in the U.S. people complain about sexism elsewhere and act like it’s not a thing here.
Martha: So, Worf’s sash, what is this? No one else has one.
Cindee: It’s him being Klingon-y. It has his family crest or whatever on it I think.
Martha: I see! Data continues to be delightful, I enjoyed the Chinese finger traps as bizarre as the inclusion was
Cindee: Really? I thought that was pretty stupid
Martha: It was stupid in that it made no sense in the context, they’re paralysed by an unknown entity, their life support is going to fail but LOL Data’s fingers are stuck. But in isolation I enjoyed it.
Cindee: Well in the grand tradition of our friendship, we are on opposite ends here. I dislike Data.
Martha: Well I’m only 4 episodes in and currently he’s a good foil to Picard who is too aggressive and serious currently.
Cindee: Touche. I just find some things about Data make no sense. Like him not knowing any idioms. I mean there are idiom books now, so there must be some in the future right? Unless they were all lost in WWIII?
Martha: I guess he needs a ‘thing’ if he’s perfect AI then, other than being a walking plot device (aka encyclopaedia) what purpose does he have (except sex robot…)
Cindee: I get him not getting human behavior . . but idioms?
Martha: I feel the prime directive was thrown out of the window this episode, despite it being a constant theme of it with Riker using it to show the humans worthiness to the Guardian of the (something) empire.
Cindee: The prime directive is WILDLY inconsistently applied in general.
Martha: So, my issue here, as soon as they find out that they are not in fact outgunned by the Ferengi, they immediately manipulate them and lie to them. (Which makes Picard’s little speech about trust pretty hypocritical). He forces them to break their cultural desire not to give visual communications.
Cindee. Hahaha. That’s not a thing in future episodes.
Martha: I mean even if it is a lie, they don’t know that. They claim to know nothing about the Ferengi
Cindee: Touche
Martha: They were happy for Yar to fight to the death to respect a culture last episode! I just found it a bit strange that they lie and manipulate, only back down on the lie when the Ferengi find out they are lying, and then say ‘wooooah don’t you trust us?!’ And then have Riker bang on about the prime directive in the same episode.
Cindee: Well, supposedly the prime directive applies differently to warp-capable species and non-warp-capable species. I always wondered if the people in Code of Honor were warp capable. It’s not clear.
Martha: Is that to do with the ‘don’t expose them to tech’ idea (from the movie don’t shoot me…)
Cindee: One of those shitty new movies? Unlike SOME people I can handle new movies that I don’t like being created in a favorite franchise without FREAKING OUT
Martha: Oh are you Star Wars shaming me?! ARE YOU?
Cindee: I sure am.
Martha: I found the insertion of ‘earth history that’s not a thing really’ a bit confusing. Maybe I wasn’t listening. We had ‘Yankee traders’ who were like, space pirates with a bit more honour. An Uncle Sam reference and then a random Picard soliloquy on the colours of the French flag…
Cindee: What? I don’t remember ANY of that. So, what’s not a thing? Uncle Sam is a thing and France does have a flag that has colors
Martha: Hahahah! Okay so they described the Ferengis as Yankee traders, which they explain as a sort of space merchant sailor who roamed around space in history looking for stuff to trade (but dodgy trade). Riker calls them his forbearers. And then someone mentions red white and blue and Picard is all ‘ahhhh, but in France we have it the right way, blue, white, red…’
Cindee: In his British accent?
Martha: Yes, all dreamily to himself. And then Data starts listing other red white and blue flags and RUINS THE MOMENT
Cindee: Fun fact: in Star Trek, all French people have British accents
Martha: Well that’s bizarre.
Cindee: Maybe in the future, you all will conquer France
Martha: It’s on my to do list
Cindee: Apparently though, you’ll let them keep their flag
Martha: On the subject of accents, does the ship have ‘sense oars’ or does Picard just say sensors weirdly..
Cindee: So, that’s not how you say it?
Martha: Well obviously…
Cindee: You’re probably unaware of this, not being an expert like me, but some British people pronounce words differently than other British people
Marth: I agree, and whilst I am no expert, no British person says ‘sensOARS’ with so much emphasis on the second syllable. I’ve checked with them all. Lastly, I think the only thing I really have to add was them ‘going to have a conference evaluation. Which is basically ‘let’s have a chat in this cupboard’
Cindee: wait wut
Martha: and you call yourself a trekkie… Picard said ‘lets have a conference evaluation’ and all of the characters that had names went into this little side cupboard to discuss what to do!’
Cindee: I mean they have conferences all the time, but not in a cupboard
Martha: Okay it was a tiny room, off the bridge. And considering he took 90% of the people on the bridge it made no sense
Cindee: It wasn’t this room?
Martha: Yes. It just didn’t seem necessary, unless they didn’t want those pesky no name computer guys to hear
Cindee: Well that room is not a cupboard. It’s plenty big.
Martha: But is it necessary.
Cindee: You don’t like to sit down around a table to discuss things at work? You prefer to have all conversations haphazardly wherever you happen to be? I mean Yar doesn’t even have a chair. All the other chairs on the bridge are facing the same direction.
Martha: Okay I see your point. But they didn’t sit down, they just stood around in the not-a-cupboard.
Cindee: I see.
Martha: Troi was useless this episode.
Cindee: Well that’s nothing new. Was Troi able to read their minds? In later episodes they claim Betazoids can’t read Ferengis.
Martha: Well in this episode her sense were blocked entirely by something, either the Ferengis or the force field. I don’t want more Ferengis.
Cindee: Well, sucks to be you. Like I said, they do change. They become Republicans.
Martha: Less jazz hands, more paying off porn stars?
Cindee: They are republicans in the sense that they are obsessed with capitalism
Martha: Money and naked ladies – checks out