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Episode: WAKE UP: A Slingshot Story - Episode 2: System Critical

Author: Los Angeles Times | Wondery
Duration: 00:15:26

Episode Shownotes

After a tragic accident during a training simulation, Ezra attempts to throw himself back into the mission. But he has questions about what happened, and about his own increasingly unreliable state of mind that no one will answer. With nowhere else to turn, he begins his own investigation but isn’t

prepared for what he uncovers - or must do as a result. WAKE UP: A Slingshot Story is a branded podcast from LA Times Studios and paid for by Bleecker Street and Bluestone Entertainment in support of the film SLINGSHOT only in theaters August 30th.

Summary

In Episode 2, "System Critical," Ezra is confronted with the emotional aftermath of a tragic training accident that claimed the life of his best friend, Virginia. As he strives to reclaim focus on the ongoing mission, he battles grief and survivor's guilt, reflecting on haunting memories from previous missions. The episode emphasizes Ezra's deteriorating mental state as he seeks answers surrounding another friend's suicide, uncovering underlying issues of mental health and potential cover-ups within the team, ultimately enhancing the themes of deception and survival that permeate the series.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (WAKE UP: A Slingshot Story - Episode 2: System Critical) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_02
previously on Wake Up, the Slingshot Story.

00:00:03 Speaker_03
Ezra, Virginia, and Paul, you are emerging from deep hibernation inside the Odyssey Project simulation facility.

00:00:12 Speaker_00
We all know what's at stake. We're trying to save the world. Figuring out how to tap Titan's methane reserves can change everything.

00:00:19 Speaker_05
Voices? What would they say? I don't know, Doc. I couldn't make it out. I think it's possible you had a nightmare, Ezra. We'll be simulating the single most difficult maneuver the journey to Titan requires.

00:00:30 Speaker_06
The slingshot around Jupiter.

00:00:32 Speaker_08
Wake up. Wake up.

00:00:37 Speaker_06
This is just a dream. Hey, hey, hey. What are you doing? Jyn, leave your harness alone. Jyn, stop! We've got to shut down. Jyn is trying to unbuckle herself.

00:00:49 Speaker_02
This is Wake Up, a Slingshot Story, a three-part podcast event from L.A. Times Studios, paid for by Bleecker Street and Bluestone Entertainment, in support of the film Slingshot, only in theaters August 30th.

00:01:05 Speaker_04
It's been two weeks since the death of Odyssey Project candidate Virginia Jyn Carpenter.

00:01:10 Speaker_04
Work on the ambitious program that will send a team of astronauts in search of a solution to the world's energy crisis to Saturn's moon Titan resumes tomorrow morning. An effort to replace Carpenter, who died during a training exercise, continues.

00:01:23 Speaker_04
Phoebe Weathers, a public relations specialist with the project, spoke to reporters earlier this morning.

00:01:29 Speaker_07
How are the other team members coping with the loss?

00:01:33 Speaker_01
We are still mourning her loss, but we know Jyn would have wanted the mission to continue. Odyssey has always maintained a roster of candidates ready to step up in the event of an emergency.

00:01:42 Speaker_01
We have to evaluate them relative to the rest of the team, which takes time. When will the coroner's report be released?

00:01:48 Speaker_04
We'll have more for you soon. Can you, uh, shut that off?

00:01:54 Speaker_08
Sorry, Ezra.

00:01:58 Speaker_07
Hey, kid. Cap, what are you doing here? Didn't come for the ambiance. Just figured I'd find you. Whiskey! We'll take the bottle. How are you feeling about tomorrow?

00:02:16 Speaker_06
Uh, I don't know. You know that we were at Annapolis together? Me and Jen? I introduced her and Sasha. Honestly, Cap, she's my best friend. It just doesn't feel right being there without her.

00:02:32 Speaker_07
Ever lose anybody on a mission, Ezra? No. Well, when we lost Captain Foster on Mars, I was there. Saw it happen.

00:02:42 Speaker_06
You know, I never... I mean, I heard about it, but I didn't want to ask.

00:02:48 Speaker_07
Not something you bring up at parties. We'd been on the surface a month. You know, we were scrapping all the unmanned probes lying around just to keep the lander online. Piece of shit. There was this Chinese satellite that crashed at Noctis Labyrinthus.

00:03:03 Speaker_07
Since it had been sitting down in the valley, the dust storms hadn't torn it up as bad.

00:03:13 Speaker_08
Ready to roll?

00:03:17 Speaker_07
Winds are picking up. Maybe we should wait.

00:03:20 Speaker_08
We have to fix the array if we're going to re-establish contact with the orbiter. Let's just get out there, find what we need, and get it done. Aye-aye, Cap.

00:03:34 Speaker_01
There it is.

00:03:40 Speaker_08
Shall do. Let's pull the boards and break down the array, then get the hell out of here.

00:03:44 Speaker_07
Copy that. Storm's getting bad. It's gonna kill comms between here and the rover.

00:03:55 Speaker_08
Copy. I'll send the winch back down once I'm up. Send a scrap next.

00:03:59 Speaker_07
Copy. Why wouldn't I want to wait by myself in a canyon? and a storm on Mars.

00:04:17 Speaker_03
Environmental damage sustained.

00:04:19 Speaker_07
Captain Foster?

00:04:20 Speaker_03
Puncture in suit.

00:04:21 Speaker_07
Captain Foster, are you alright?

00:04:23 Speaker_03
Oxygen at 60%. Stay down there, it's not safe up here! Oxygen at 40%. Captain! Oxygen at zero percent.

00:04:54 Speaker_07
By the time I got her back to the lander, she was gone. Yeah, it never leaves you. And you can't run away from it. You just gotta find a way to make it count. The gin. To foster.

00:05:13 Speaker_06
And you had a third on the lander, right? Shire.

00:05:17 Speaker_07
Yeah, he's what happens when you don't deal with shit. He lost it, washed out before we got off Mars. He went crazy. Couldn't take the stress. Soon as we landed, he left. Dropped all the way out, you know?

00:05:29 Speaker_07
Moved to the desert or the swamp or the mountains, calming of some kind, I honestly don't know.

00:05:34 Speaker_06
Did Jin seem suicidal to you, Cap? No. What about Shire? Did you, did he seem like the type who would just snap? Go home, kid. See you in the pool.

00:05:51 Speaker_08
All right.

00:05:55 Speaker_04
OK, check this.

00:05:55 Speaker_08
There you go. Got it.

00:06:00 Speaker_04
Let's hit it. Have fun in there. All right, folks.

00:06:06 Speaker_07
We'll be losing this morning. It'll be time to get you back this week. Just walk to the far end to start. Copy that, Marco. Come on, kid. How's it feeling? Lots of memory kicking in? Sure, just like riding a bike. A shitty, slow bike.

00:06:27 Speaker_06
Alright, I got a little surprise for you down there. See that patch bay? I need it re-cabled. Your vitals look a little elevated, Ezra. Guess I lost a step sitting on my ass the last few weeks.

00:06:42 Speaker_07
Come on, kid. You got 15 years on you. Keep up. Hey, don't listen to much of man over there. Face yourself.

00:06:53 Speaker_06
Is anyone else picking up interference?

00:06:56 Speaker_07
Negative. You're both loud and clear.

00:07:01 Speaker_06
Who's on headset? What is that? We'll run a comms check. It'll be dark for a few seconds. Hang on.

00:07:16 Speaker_05
What's going on?

00:07:38 Speaker_06
Let's get him out, now. I don't, I don't, I don't know what it was. I mean, it was, like I heard Jin's voice, but that, I know that it's not, it's... Ezra, it's all right. I know this is difficult. I just feel like it doesn't make any sense.

00:08:04 Speaker_06
I still don't understand why Jin would kill herself.

00:08:08 Speaker_05
I know you two were friends, so I'm telling you this in confidence. Virginia was being treated for depression. Her post-mortem revealed an extremely high concentration of MAOIs, much stronger than anything I had her on. Gin was depressed? No one knew.

00:08:28 Speaker_06
She said she didn't want to seem weak. With everything we're on here, the hibernation cycles, all the boosters, you'd think there's a... No, no.

00:08:37 Speaker_05
There would have been red flags if the antidepressants were reacting with the hibernation drug. No, she was troubled. Have you been taking the anti-anxiety medication I prescribed? Ezra, I'm trying to help you, but you have to let me.

00:08:57 Speaker_05
I'm going to recommend we keep you here, under observation, for 24 hours.

00:09:02 Speaker_06
Sorry, I have to... Doc, I was wondering if you know anything about Bennett Shire. I know he was with Hawks and Foster on Mars. I was just looking for someone else I could talk to about losing a crew member.

00:09:16 Speaker_05
Oh, well, I don't think Shire would be much help. He was predisposed to conditions that made coping with the loss of life on Mars impossible. He can't do anything for you. I'll have a room set up, just for the night.

00:09:39 Speaker_06
Bennett Shire. S-H-I-R-E. What the fuck?

00:09:51 Speaker_01
You know, we've been in the planning stages for over a decade. Every single Odyssey mission has been designed to feed talent and intel into Titan. We have more than enough qualified... Ezra, sit.

00:10:05 Speaker_01
When we announce the new candidate, you'll get the first call. Okay. Oh my God. Are you okay?

00:10:14 Speaker_06
I'm not locked in my room. There's that.

00:10:17 Speaker_01
I'm sorry. I haven't come to see you. Everything is still a mess.

00:10:22 Speaker_06
Can I talk to you about something? Just not in here.

00:10:31 Speaker_01
Okay. One question. Why?

00:10:34 Speaker_06
I don't want them listening.

00:10:37 Speaker_01
want them with the project?

00:10:40 Speaker_06
Ezra, what are you- I've been trying to find Bennett Shire. You remember him from- Mars.

00:10:44 Speaker_01
Yeah, I don't think he wants to be found.

00:10:47 Speaker_06
I know. Sard left me alone in the exam room this morning, so I used the computer to search for his records.

00:10:52 Speaker_01
You did what?

00:10:54 Speaker_06
There's something else. Sard tried putting me on anti-anxiety meds a few weeks back. I didn't take them. I flushed them. But they're in my blood work. How? What?

00:11:02 Speaker_06
Sard told me Jin was depressed, so I looked, and her work-ups showed that she was on antidepressants. But I talked to Sasha. She didn't know anything about it. Medication, diagnosis, nothing.

00:11:10 Speaker_01
Ezra, that is not okay. None of that is, and it doesn't... You aren't making sense.

00:11:18 Speaker_06
Listen, they're doctoring our records.

00:11:20 Speaker_01
Ezra.

00:11:20 Speaker_06
Sard's the top of the food chain. If he's not doing it, he knows who is. I can't talk to him.

00:11:25 Speaker_01
Babe, you're having a hard time.

00:11:27 Speaker_06
No.

00:11:28 Speaker_01
Whatever you're doing or thinking, you need to stop. Ezra, you need to face what happened with Jin.

00:11:34 Speaker_06
That's not what this is.

00:11:36 Speaker_01
Then what is it? When you're ready to talk, we'll talk. But I can't. I have to go. I'm sorry.

00:11:50 Speaker_06
Centrifuge lights on.

00:11:53 Speaker_03
Lights on.

00:11:56 Speaker_06
I feel a little weird about this. I thought maybe coming back here where it happened might... I don't know. Maybe this is... You are in my head, so... Get the fuck out. Which is what you'd say to me, so... There.

00:12:16 Speaker_06
I don't know what is happening to me, Jen. Whatever it is, it started before you were gone.

00:12:20 Speaker_03
I'm afraid of what I'm... Centrifuge activated. Whoa, whoa, wait, what?

00:12:30 Speaker_06
Emergency shutdown now!

00:12:32 Speaker_03
Only authorized personnel can shut down a simulation.

00:12:38 Speaker_06
Authorize me! If someone is in the control room, shut this down! This isn't a sim! I need to shut this down, I need to... Which one of these am I supposed to pull? I just need to... Fuck! What's important? Nope! Ow! God!

00:13:12 Speaker_03
Get... um...

00:13:27 Speaker_06
Hey, hey, hey! Stop! Stop, goddammit! Son of a bitch.

00:13:38 Speaker_05
Ezra... I... I... I... You tried to kill me. Ezra, this is some kind of mistake. Now, please, let me... Let what? Let you what? Help!

00:13:55 Speaker_06
Don't! Listen, I want to talk to Bennett Shire. You know where he is.

00:14:02 Speaker_03
Yes! Yes! Yes, Bennett!

00:14:06 Speaker_06
Good. You're gonna take me, and you're gonna tell me everything. Or I'm gonna kill you, Doc.

00:14:19 Speaker_05
next on wake up a slingshot story urgent science does not allow for perfection you get as close as you can and live with the difference put the tire iron down what did you do to shire nothing stop

00:14:47 Speaker_02
This is Wake Up, a Slingshot Story, a three-part podcast event from L.A. Times Studios, paid for by Bleecker Street and Bluestone Entertainment, in support of the film Slingshot, only in theaters August 30th.