Hello, good evening, and welcome to Checkmate, Lincolnites! The program where we destroy the pernicious lies of Republicans, carpetbaggers, Yankees, scalawags, and … delineators of the sable character (uh uh!) using facts and logic. My guest, today, is the man who runs the lyin', thievin', Freedmen's Bureau-lovin' YouTube channel Atun-Shei Films. Here it is, the dollar-store Jaime Lannister hisself.
—Johnny Reb
The first episode of web edutainment series Checkmate, Lincolnites!. This episode was originally intended to be a standalone Dear Negative Reader skit responding to the backlash from Lost Causers toward Andrew Rakich's earlier video "Were the Confederate monuments of New Orleans racist?".
- Card-Carrying Villain: Unlike in later episodes, where he at least acknowledges that slavery was bad (even if he erroneously insists the Confederacy didn't fight to preserve that institution), Johnny Reb in his debut is proud of the fact that he was a slave-owner.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Atun-Shei here is in plainclothes As Himself, whereas subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank."
- The backdrop is just the Confederate battle flag, rather than the Union/Confederate flag hybrid seen from Episode 2 onward.
- Johnny doesn't do his Once an Episode Title Drop which causes the theme music to play after foisting a "gotcha!" argument on Andy/Billy like he usually does, instead just having the music play at the very start and spitting out the Title Drop before Andy can even say a word.
- Johnny Reb is dressed in the attire of a Confederate cavalry officer, whereas in all other episodes he wears the dress uniform of an infantryman.
- The episode is much, much shorter than any other in the series, barely clocking in at a little over 6 and a half minutes.Tthis is largely because subsequent episodes are historical deep dives which go very in-depth in regards to their subject matter, whereas here Andy is presented with a claim and simply answers it before moving on.
- The show's premise is noticeably much more mean-spirited and hostile, with Johnny Reb being a moustache-twirling slaveowner who doesn't respect Andy whatsoever and Andy rebutting several of Johnny's claims with what are essentially Ad Hominems. This is a far cry from the good-faith debates Johnny Reb and Billy Yank would have down the line where the baseline assumption is that belief in the Lost Cause emerges from a poor or misinformed understanding of history rather than disingenuous bias as is presented here.
- There is no Driving Question of the episode that ties all of the discussed points together; instead it is equal parts exploring several miscellaneous Lost Cause claims and Johnny slinging unconstructive insults at Andy.
- Johnny is revealed to be a White Supremacist at the end of the episode, which completely contradicts his characterization in other parts of the series where open racism and White Supremacy are some of the few things he won't defend under any circumstances, even if it means admitting the Confederacy was founded upon such things.
- Mood Whiplash: After bloodily shooting Johnny to death, Andrew reminds the audience to like, comment and subscribe in a typical enthusiastic YouTuber fashion as if he hadn't killed a man literal seconds ago.
- Too Dumb to Live: Johnny accepts Andy's request to inspect his revolver with no hesitation, allowing him to shoot Johnny dead using the "Road Agent Spin" maneuver.
