Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Small Potatoes - S4-E20

Question: We know that the chameleon Eddie Van Blundht can manipulate his unique extra layer of muscles to mimic male faces and physiques, thus hijacking their identities. However, Eddie can't mimic clothing, so he must hastily seek new clothing to go with each new identity. But when Eddie is on the run from Mulder and Scully, he abruptly mimics Fox Mulder and is seen wearing exactly the same tailored suit and tie that Fox Mulder is wearing on the same day. In fact, they even cross paths in the hospital while they are wearing identical tailored suits and ties. Question: where and when could Eddie possibly acquire an exact tailored suit and tie to match Fox Mulder's on such short notice?

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: It might be a plot hole, but a possible explanation is that Eddie had previously met Mulder and seemed keen on getting him out of the picture so he could get closer to Scully. He may have carefully studied Mulder's clothing and obtained a suit of his own off-screen.

Phaneron

Answer: When Eddie enters the home of one of the couples whose baby he fathered and hides in the bathroom, he emerges looking like Mulder, fooling them. Later, they call Mulder asking if they can use their bathroom again and why Mulder needed to take the man's charcoal suit, which tells us that Eddie took the suit on the pretext of needing it for the investigation, but obviously wanted it to wear to better impersonate Mulder.

Purple_Girl

Question: When Darth Maul is revealed after the door opens in the final battle at Naboo, Qui-Gon says "we'll handle this", to which Padme replies back "we'll take the long way", and leaves with her royal guards. Why couldn't they just stay and help Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and just all fire at Darth Maul, killing him? This also seems to occur in Episode III, just before the droid army on Utapau fire at Obi-Wan, Grevious stops them and says "I'll deal with this Jedi side myself." Even in Episode VI, before Vader goes to fight Obi-Wan one last time, he could've just called in a squad of troopers to come help him, but decides to go do it alone. Why is it that throughout the course of the trilogy, Jedi and Sith always decide to fight their opponents alone, when they could just have an automatic kill with their backup?

Answer: Because Jedi usually want to avoid the risk of their allies/friends being injured in the course of a fight. Darth Maul and Grevious were both skilled fighters who could have easily dodged lightsaber swipes or blaster bolts, and might have taken out a few people before being defeated (or escaping). As for the incident between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, it was very personal. Vader wanted to destroy his former teacher, who he felt had betrayed him in the past.

Question: What reason would Enrique have to lie on the stand? Obviously he wasn't really interested in Brooke in a romantic way. Is it possible he was paid off by Chutney or her mother? And wouldn't he have been in committing perjury after Emmett caught him off guard and made him basically admit that he was gay?

Answer: The answer to your first question is your second question and the answer to your last question is yes.

Phixius

Question: I don't know if there is a definite answer to these two questions, but I would appreciate any guesses. 1. Why did Voldemort try to honor Snape's request to spare Lily's life? He gave her three chances to stand aside and let him kill Harry. But if she had actually taken the chance to live, Snape would have pursued her (Dumbledore later asked Snape "[James and Harry.] can die, so you can get what you want?"). Why would Voldemort try to help Snape get into a relationship with a Muggle-born woman? 2. On a similar note, why did Snape think that he had any chance of being with Lily - if she lived - after his master killed her husband and son?

Answer: James and Lily were targets of Voldemort as members of the Order of the Phoenix. Snape was willing to give Voldemort invaluable intel regarding the prophecy of Voldemort's potential defeat, which Snape had overheard, in exchange for Voldemort's promise to spare Lily when he went to destroy Harry. Voldemort agreed. He is a villain, cruel and murderous, but he doesn't appear at any point to be an arbitrary liar. The "want" Dumbledore referred to was Lily alive, not necessarily Lily with Snape. Though Snape undoubtedly did want that, he knew there was no hope for it.

Phixius

Question: What did Batman mean when he said to Bane "Then you have my permission to die"? I know he was repeating what Bane said to him earlier, but does that mean he was going to kill him?

MikeH

Chosen answer: It was probably on his mind. Not sure if he would have actually done it, but he needed Bane to tell him where the trigger was, after that maybe he guessed Bane would die anyway, having failed his mission. It could be either that Batman kills him indirectly, he commits suicide or he gets the death penalty. (Also, plausibly, he could have been hinting that Bane will inevitably die of natural causes after a long, dissatisfying life in prison, a reversal of how Bane attempted to defeat Batman in the same fashion).

lionhead

Chosen answer: They are extremely close friends. They regard their relationship as being as close as family.

Phixius

Answer: Jaguar Paw calls him father just before his throat is cut.

He calls Flint Sky Father because we know that relationship by the time he is killed.

Question: This question is more about the comic, but I didn't know where else to ask. At the end of vol. VII, "V" is stealing some sort of file about Valerie Page, what's the meaning of that? what did he needed it for? Also, right after that, the man in the entrance of the building holds the door open for him to escape. Is it because he knew about "V" and agreed whit his ideals, or is there another explanation?

Answer: Valerie was the woman in Room 4, so he wants to know more about her. The man at the entrance is simply caught off guard. He just saw someone coming and held the door. By the time he registered who it was, V was gone.

Captain Defenestrator

Show generally

Question: It's generally accepted that Warp Drive makes a bubble of space around the vessel and accelerates the outer bubble around the space surrounding the ship. Given the nature of the warp drive enveloping a pocket of space, can the warp drive be used offensively to capture part of another vessel in the space surrounding the Enterprise and use the acceleration to tear the enemy ship apart?

Answer: It's never been stated how far outside the ship the warp field can extend. Excessive use of warp technology can cause subspace rifts, which is why maximum speed in non-emergency situations is Warp 5. So, whether out of impracticability or potentially a criminal act, nobody uses warp fields offensively. Proton Torpedoes travel at warp, but they don't go past Warp 5 either.

Captain Defenestrator

This is a TOS thread. There was no Warp 5 speed limit then, and it would be pointless, since warp numbers are completely different speeds for TOS and TNG. In the Technical Manual, it suggests that Warp 9.99 in TOS equates to about 0.9999 in TNG. This would fit with Kirk's assertion that Warp 10 lets them travel back in time, which would be exactly Warp 1 or the speed of light in TNG terms.

Answer: There IS mention in TNG of warp used offensively, albeit not directly. The REAL "Picard Manoeuvre" is not Patrick Stewart tugging at his shirt, it is moving the ship at exactly the speed of light, at precise distances and angles, so that to the enemy, the ship appears to be in multiple places at the same time (since the light is arriving at the enemy's location at precisely the same time from all the different positions the ship was moved to).

Question: How does seeing Phelps on the train on his watch via Ethan's glasses camera make Kittridge reach the conclusion that Phelps is the mole and Job? He thought Ethan was the mole the whole time, and Ethan didn't really help his case by telling Kittridge on the phone at Liverpool Street station about how arresting his mother and his uncle was a huge mistake, when Ethan has been trying to clear his name the whole time.

Answer: Kittridge may still have suspected Ethan, but the point of the glasses and watch was to show him that Phelps was still alive, throwing the whole case open again. Ethan would have been cleared in the eventual investigation.

Sierra1

Question: After Jerry shuts off No Vaseline, MC Ren asks Eazy E "who work for who?" What did he mean by this?

Answer: The song is mostly about how Jerry and Eazy screwed the band over, with Jerry taking the lead. Ren is asking "Do we work for Jerry or does he work for us?"

Question: When R2D2 is stunned by the Jawas and falls over, did Kenny baker do the stunt? Me and my brother have argued about this for years.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Most likely, not. The 'costume' Kenny Baker wore had what look like hoses running from the center body to the feet of R2 (to conceal his legs). Looking at the scene in question, those hoses cannot be seen. On that note, it looks like a third leg (and not the center one shown elsewhere) is visible behind R2 and probably used to push him over.

Episode #3.6 - S3-E7

Question: The final episode of the third series sees a discussion between Ben and Jake with regards to the news on the telly. After Ben comes out with "That can't be the Pope, because the Pope wears barbed wire pants and kills anybody who knows that Jesus had children", Jake says that this is from a film. Does anybody know what film this is from please?

Neil Jones

Chosen answer: Angels and Demons.

Question: At the end of the movie, what does Chip mean when he says "Somebody has to kill the babysitter"?

Answer: Earlier in the movie during a flashback of the Cable Guy's childhood, when his Mom was going out she called the television "Mr. Babysitter". He means he's going to disrupt the television signal to give all the boys and girls whose parents use television as a babysitter a chance.

Bishop73

Timeslides - S3-E5

Question: At The End of this episode we see Rimmer accidentally create a reality in which he is alive. He then kills himself by punching boxes full of explosives shortly after. So why, in future episodes, do the other guys still claim that Rimmer died in the explosion that killed all Red Dwarf staff? Wouldn't they remember it as Rimmer killing himself in this new way instead?

strikeand

Chosen answer: Although Rimmer is dying a different way in this episode, the crew were not paying attention to his death. When Lister, the Cat and Kryten are brought back due to Rimmer changing the timeline, they are too puzzled to pay attention to anything that is going, so they did not notice that Rimmer was alive. After the explosion that kills Rimmer, the Cat asks Lister "What was he saying?" to which Lister shrugs his shoulders, implying that he did not know. Assumedly, Holly would have brought Rimmer back as a hologram once again shortly afterwards and the crew probably wouldn't have known that he was alive after changing the timeline.

Casual Person

Question: When the DeLorean travels through time, it arrives in the same place it leaves from, only in a different time (eg. In BTTF, Marty leaves Twin pines mall in 1985 to arrive on the farmland it was built on in 1955. In BTTF3, Marty leaves 1885 on the train tracks above the ravine and arrives on the completed bridge in 1985) So, at the end of BTTF2 where Doc and the DeLorean are struck by lightning and sent back to the past, the DeLorean would be arriving mid-air. The problem is, Doc states in the letter that the lightning destroyed the flying circuits. So, the DeLorean would have plummeted 50 feet to the ground when it arrived in 1885? Why was it not damaged when Marty found it in mines 70 years later?

kaydee91

Answer: With cars being known to break down, the company that fitted hover conversions probably knew a breakdown would happen at some point. Rather than just letting the car fall out there air, there is probably some sort of emergency backup that will let the car land safely and then shut the entire system down.

Chosen answer: Doc had spent several months in 1885 before Marty came to rescue him, which would have given him quite some time to fix the damage the DeLorean received from the assumed fall and repair it before he went to place the DeLorean in the mines. It could have been a controlled descent rather than a catastrophic plummet.

Casual Person

Answer: To be fair, we don't know if the DeLorean quit working altogether. We just know the time circuits were fried. I would assume he could still at least land it as the hover tech was unaffected.

Question: What kind of car is the yellow one the two ladies drive after they ditch the Mercedes? The one where the top comes comes up to let people in.

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: It's called a "Nova" (but not as in the Chevy Nova). It's a kit car, in the U.S. and for the film, it was made by the Sterling Sports Car company. Although the Nova kit car originated with the English company Automotive Design and Development Ltd.

Bishop73

Na Triobloidi - S2-E13

Question: One thing I haven't ever been able to figure out is this: how does SAMCRO know exactly where Cameron is headed after he kidnapped Abel? They had no direct clues, and even after watching the series a second time, it still doesn't quite make sense to me.

Friso94

Chosen answer: They knew he owned the boat at the docks as that was how he brought the guns into the country. They assumed he would head there when he was needing to flee with Abel.

The_Iceman

Answer: They didn't know he was headed to Belfast until Maureen Ashby calls Gemma and tells her that Abel is in Belfast. Cameron is her cousin and he even brings Abel to her apartment.

Question: There are 2 doctors who don't inform the twins that their mother is alive, but the first one remains a friend and the other is the bad guy. Why the difference?

John Henry Spencer

Chosen answer: Although I wouldn't call one a bad guy, Professor Werner is the the one who raised Julius, and would remain a friend because of this bond. Mary Ann (the twins' mother) however, was told that Julius died at birth and was never told about Vincent. She blames Professor Traven for this (probably since he's the only one around to yell at). Vincent on the other hand was never told his mother died during childbirth and he grew up thinking his mother abandoned him. Until Julius showed up, he never knew he was part of an experiment and he had no knowledge of either doctors and probably no feelings regarding either of them.

Bishop73

Question: When Palpatine tells Anakin to kill Dooku, why doesn't Dooku just tell Anakin that Palpatine is really a Sith lord? He's just been betrayed by Palpatine, so what does he have to lose?

Andrew Barber

Chosen answer: It was a combination of him being (1) shocked at the betrayal, and (2) trapped. Anakin trusts the man who he believes Palpatine is, and Dooku knows this. After everything that Dooku has done during the Clone Wars, it's highly unlikely that he could suddenly convince Anakin of the truth.

Answer: Because Dooku's status as a Sith was secret and his Dooku identity was still useful. Same as how Darth Sidious continued to use his Palpatine identity until he was publicly revealed as a Sith Lord.

Phixius

Even Darth Sidious still goes by Emperor Palpatine. I took them considering Anakin to be dead as Anakin, the Jedi. Whereas Dooku had already left the order and Sidious never was a Jedi.

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