Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: I'm not sure if anyone has an answer for this, but is it likely that Darth Sidious was always planning to make Anakin his apprentice, even when Darth Tyranus served him?

Answer: From his comment at the end of Episode One, where he mentions watching Anakin "with great interest" and his subsequent dealings with Anakin, it does seem likely that he has something like that in mind.

Tailkinker

I think that Sidious/Palpatine had always plans and some back-up plans. As a scheming, plotting individual, he needed to be prepared. My guess is that he was using Darth Maul until Anakin was older. Then Maul was killed by Obi-wan Kenobi, so Tyranus/Dooku was used as a replacement for Maul.

Question: I don't get how the 'baby' or the 'dire mother' died, all you can see is the mum feeding the overgrown baby.

Answer: These are from the Ghost files from the DVD: The Great Child; One of the strangest ghosts I caught had to be Harold Shelburne, The Great Child. His 3-foot tall mother, Margaret Shelburne, was wildly overprotective of her son, smothering and spoiling him from infancy, and never stopping as he grew. Harold could barely care for himself and as a result, remained in diapers his entire life. Mocked at every term, they sought refuge with a traveling freakshow runned by a man named Jimbo. But even the life in the circus was no escape, as they were continuely taunted and tormented by their own twisted kind. One night, some of the freaks kidnapped Margaret as a cruel joke. In a panic-fueled rage, Harold destroyed the entire carnival in search of his mother. When he finally found her, she had died of suffocation. Filled with hatred, Harold grabbed an axe and had his revenge on the freaks. Displaying what was left of them in the carnival for every paying customer to see. When Jimbo found out what had happened, he had Harold mutilated beyond what you and I can comprehend. Well, maybe you. And you thought your family was weird! The Dire Mother Margaret Shelburne, The Dire Mother, was a shy woman who could never stand up for herself, partly because she rose to only a mere three feet in height. Since childhood, she was stared at for her pint size. Her own mother would even sometimes dress her like a doll. Margaret didn't care, aslong as she found some perverse form of acceptance. A carnival barker named Jimbo put her on display in his freakshow. Life was horrible, being an attraction for people to gawk at. One night while sweeping up a donkey pen, she was raped by the "Tall Man". She spawned a beastily offspring of her own. Oh, she loved her dear son Harold, more than life itself, never letting him out of her sight. The circus workers teased and tormented them relentlessly, a conflict that played itself out with a bloody resolve that left nearly the entire circus free of life.. including poor Margaret and Harold. Well, as they say, "there's no business like show business."

Hamster

Answer: The 'baby' was an abused mentally disabled man named Harold Shelburne who was abused so much at an old timey circus that when his mother the Dire Mother, who raised him poorly, was kidnapped and killed, he slaughtered the circus. With an axe. Soon after a mob torn him to shreds.

Question: After they search Leary's hotel room, they find a piece of paper that says "SW SKELLUM LA." We learn that the SW stands for Southwest (a bank he was using) and SKELLUM is a phone number. What does the LA mean?

Paul Pepiton

Chosen answer: LA is short for Los Angeles, which refers to the city Leary attempts to assassinate the president in.

Jason Riley

Question: Near the end of the film, why did Vincent arrange to murder Archbishop Gilday?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: He'd been stealing from the Family.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: After Robert and Sophie read the clue that was in the cryptex, Robert says he thinks he knows where she's gone. He says, "I think the Grail has gone home." Why would Rosslyn Chapel be the Grail's home?

Sheri Hartman

Chosen answer: Meaning the grail has been carted all over Europe and never got to rest in one place. Now it has a final resting place surrounded by information on her.

shortdanzr

Question: Wouldn't Burt and his wife get in trouble for having all the weapons in their house? Even in later movies, there is no sign they got in trouble and Burt continued to have all these big weapons on hand.

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: No, there's nothing illegal about any of the weapons they owned. Some of them may have required a Class 3 firearms license, but even this is not difficult (just expensive) for a law-abiding citizen to obtain.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: In some parts of the US, especially in far-out desert towns, home arsenals like this are the norm. There is really no limit on how many firearms or ammo American's can own. Machine guns are illegal, but can be permitted. If you have any semi-auto firearm, it's not hard to convert to a machine gun. Albeit, the firearm will fail apart fairly quickly from the abuse.

Question: Before Burt and Heather are attacked in their basement by the graboid, she puts some bullets and dirt in a machine and turns it on. The machine makes noise and attracts the graboids. What is that machine doing to the bullets and dirt?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: The machine is a vibrating case cleaner, which is used to polish the brass casings of pistol and rifle ammo. The "dirt" is actually an abrasive polishing compound.

BGraz

Chosen answer: Did they? They are both still voiced by the same actors, so either A. you are imagining it, or B. they changed the voices slightly to make performing them every day easier.

Grumpy Scot

It's true. You can simply tell SpongeBob's voice from season 4 and onwards (in my opinion, downgradingly) changed to a higher pitch tone.

Answer: Also their voices might've changed due to their actors getting older.

Show generally

Question: Does anybody know of a website that will allow me to watch all the episodes of "Are You Afraid of the Dark"? I've found my favorite episode on some websites, but it's not an episode that is viewable. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Danelle Williams

Chosen answer: www.tv-links.co.uk has almost every one of them.

Phixius

Question: I am a little puzzled by one of Mr. Finch's last investigations towards the end of the movie. As he meets with Dominic to ask him "the question" about the release of the viruses, the two of them also research files of the final three missing involved members, one of whom was Rokewood. Yet after they leave the meeting in the dark with "Rokewood" and are again in the office, Finch states to the man on the phone that Rokewood has indeed been dead twenty years. If Rokewood had been dead already, wouldn't Finch have known that he was being stood up by V (playing the part of "Rokewood") earlier as they met?

Answer: Finch isn't telling the man on the phone that Rokewood is dead, he's simply repeating what the man on the other end of the phone is saying.

Matt Lynch

Question: Why was Daisy keeping the old chicken dinners under her bed?

Answer: It is very common for bulimics, as Daisy was, to be embarrassed by the food they eat. It's only natural for her to want to hide her eating habits. She states that when she gets 5, she has to throw them away. You can imagine the smell of 5 rotting chicken carcasses under your bed after 2 weeks. Her father seemed to be a very powerful man so therefore she has some special treatment and is allowed to indulge a little. As long as she's eating, they'll let her have the chicken.

Jennifer30

Question: When Bill and Ted are captured by King Henry and his men, King Henry tells his men to put them in the "iron maiden" (or something to that fact). Bill and Ted get excited before King Henry tell his guards to execute them. What was the joke I missed? What is an iron maiden and what did Bill and Ted think it meant in order for them to get excited about it?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: In the time of King Henry, "iron maiden" was a torture device. To Bill and Ted "Iron Maiden" was a heavy metal band.

papajim

Question: Why would Gabriella even audition for a musical if she knew from the start that she is afraid to sing with people staring at her? Doesn't she realize if she gets the part an entire audience will be watching?

Answer: Well at the start she was just doing it for fun and because Troy was doing it. But as they went on she just wanted to get the role because it would have showed the school that she wasn't the freaky geeky nerd girl. So she put out all the thoughts of the audience till they actually had to be there.

Movieman123

Question: At the beginning, when Lincoln and the others are in the elevator, the computer voice says the date. I remember it saying July 2019, but on what day exactly? I keep thinking it was the 18th, but I just want to be sure.

Answer: The date is July 18th, 2019.

ChiChi

Answer: She did not see herself reprising that role unless Rebecca had made a huge change like becoming a psychiatrist.

Paul Pepiton

Answer: I read somewhere that it was because she was a Scientologist, and they don't believe in psychiatry. So joining a show that was so much based around that profession she considered it was somehow going against her beliefs.

Question: The mistakes page says that a fly lands on Wolverine's shoulder. What scene is this?

Answer: This is when he is visiting the Professor's grave.

Paul Pepiton

Show generally

Question: I've read that the shows creators are friends with Mike Judge, the creator of King Of The Hill. Is this one reason why, in the "Cartoon Wars" episode, the boys walk through the King Of The Hill studio without anything happening or any insults being made?

Answer: This is more likely because they mean to imply that nothing ever happens on that show.

It's a reference to all the scenes in which Hank Hill stands around with his friends, drinking beer and sometimes not saying much.

My Old Friend's New Friend - S4-E1

Question: Why would Carla and Turk come straight back from holiday with their luggage and in their normal clothes? Wouldn't they drop that off first? Carla still has her suitcase while Turn and JD are trying to get together?

Answer: I don't think there is really anything mysterious to them not going straight home and dropping off their clothes. Turk was pretty keen to see JD again and perhaps decided it was easier to catch up with him right then, then go home and come back to the hospital. Maybe going to the hospital was on their way to going back home, no real definite answer.

Lummie

Show generally

Question: Can anyone tell me the episode where, Arnold and all of his friends go to get ice cream. And then, at the end they find the lady that lost her head by her scarf?

Movieman123

Chosen answer: The episode you are thinking of is Headless Cabbie.

Lummie

Question: Why does Boba Fett have a braid of blonde hair on one of his shoulders?

Answer: Those are Wookiee scalps he has collected in his years as a bounty hunter. He wears them as a "badge of honor", to prove that he is capable of taking down even very dangerous opponents in single combat.

Twotall

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