December 20, 2025 • 16 mins
Guest host Connie Willis and retired Air Force Sgt. James Penniston recount the alleged UFO sighting near a military base in England in 1980, his memories of strange energy as he approached the craft to touch it, and the symbols he saw on the spaceship.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeart.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Radio tonight though open lines, Merry Christmas, Hanika, stuff happening,
all sorts of things. We'll be talking about that throughout
the evening and right now though, we have Jim Peniston
with us talking about the biggest military document at UFO
event in history. As we ended during the break, you
had taken the pictures that didn't work, and now you're,
(00:27):
I guess heading a little closer to the object.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
As I was entering the forest, I was feeling things
that were odd, like an electric like static electricity on
my clothing and my face and hair. And I was
at first I wrote that off as being a door line, okay,
(00:53):
but it continued. As I entered the forest. The you know,
the men's white light had powered down, for lack of
better words, and I could well then I could just
see different color lights that were above it. And uh.
(01:15):
I was also as I entered, uh, I felt it
was cumbersome to walk. It felt like walking through a
pool of water that was waist high. I was my
my walk was labored at that point. I uh, in
(01:37):
this light, this.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Light was on the ground, you're walking toward it in
the forest.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yes, but you got to remember there's berms there, and
those berms stood about three four feet high, so you
couldn't get a direct I couldn't get a direct sighting
of it. And as I entered, I felt those physical effects,
and uh, that's when I terminated the uh uh down
(02:05):
aircraft security response option. I called it in. I wasn't
receiving anything from the crow center. I don't think they
could hear me. That's I I figured that. I thought
they could hear me. I just couldn't hear them, and uh,
Command Zach was back here to relay anything anyway. Excuse
(02:27):
me a second. I'm just getting over a cold.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
There's no coughing on this show. There's there's absolutely no
coughing on this show.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
There's a fine for that. That's pretty only write it
after Connie with us, I was working.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So hard not the cough and that's what it's gonna happen,
you know it. Then you got in there, and uh,
you know, I could see the other in the law
enforcement guy. He's about twenty feet to my right, and
(03:06):
I had Command Zac. I turned around. He was there,
but I noticed they weren't moving, And I said, that's
that's odd. You know, well why aren't they moving? I said,
maybe they're scared. Maybe they're so scared they're like frozen.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I don't know. So I try to think logically, you know.
And so I changed the response option, called it in
some initiate a helping hand situation, and helping hand the
situation is a is a telephoning up channel report to
our control centers all the way up to the Pentagon
if it's needed of a possible hostile event involving and
(03:47):
our base had prior to A B and C resources
which means nuclear and you know, and we have six
squads of A tens there. I mean, there was sensitive
resources there. So I initiated the healthy hand. And so
now I'm treating as a possible hospital hostile threat. Uh
(04:08):
and here I am unarmed. That was that was a
good idea to leave the guns at the inter control point.
I regreted that it would have. It would have made
no difference either.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know, I'm not saying anything, but I do agree
with you. I don't think it would have made a difference.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
No, it wouldn't. I mean, but I think it would
just made me feel better. I don't know. Yeah, because
this is now into even though I'm prying to stay grounded,
like running this checklist in my head, I'm I'm working
hard to stay grounded because everything is going on is
not normal everything. So as I come up over the
(04:51):
this this burm, his final burm, and I felt like
I could move a little better, and you know, and
and they it was the other thing was this. It
was no no sound, everything was quiet. Couldn't hear the
wind and the trees. They couldn't hear me walking on
(05:12):
the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It was really really you couldn't hear you walking. Oh
that's interesting. And you know you were on the ground
right you you know you were stepping on twigs and
branches or things.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, there's forrest, you know, forest debris on you know,
like you know, old pine needles and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So you felt that but you didn't hear it. Oh
my gosh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
As I as I got over the berm, there was
like glober colors of light running around this thing, and
there was a white light underneath it. And then the
glove lights started to slow down, and finally they just
JUSTI painted and all I had in front of me
(05:58):
was a a black craft with this white light underneath.
So I'm at the point that I didn't Actually I
was pretty concerned. I had a lot of emotions going on,
but I was concerned that I might not make it
through this, you know, so I need to go ahead
and do what I can do. I took as many
(06:20):
notes as I'm gonna, I said, I gotta start taking notes.
I continued to make radio checks in on my IVR
interface radio, and then I said, I'm gonna get as
much information as I can. So I'm thinking, how the
(06:40):
hell is I think, is that thing on the ground
or is it just off the ground.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
How's it doing that?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And as I approached it, I looked underneath there's just
like white light coming down three of them, and I says, well,
it's holding I think it's holding it, you know, fixed.
So the only way to find that out I took
(07:08):
my hands and I pushed on it.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
See if you see it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Well, I thought if it was, you know, it'd be
like a car, like you had a Caillac out there
and you pushed it, it should move right, And it
didn't move. It was solid, And I have no give
it at all. So I said, Well, I said, I
started feeling better because I felt a little safer. I says,
(07:37):
it looks like it's a little bit inert. It's not
doing anything like I'm going to continue my investigation. I
didn't have anything to measure it with. I mean, I stood,
I'm six foot two, and I say this thing based
on that, it was like, you know, maybe six and
a half seven feet tall. I couldn't really tell because
(07:58):
of the berms. The ground was uneven. Uh. So I
decided to pace it off. Uh And.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
As you do all this, as you do all this, Jim,
you said, the other men are just frozen. They're just
standing there.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yes they were. They were Yeah yeah interesting. Okay, well
I rationalized somebody thinking that they're probably scared. Yeah, uh yeah,
you know, I'm just frozen.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's normally what happens. Yeah, they we always rationalize it exactly.
But but that's they're helping you. But but the thing is,
to me, that's crazy is that crazy error is Okay,
these other ones are frozen. To me, they are under
some other control at this point. They're frozen like that.
(08:54):
But man, they allowed you to do all this there
you were to do this.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Jim, Oh, yes, I completely agree with you. Okay, I
believe me. I believe one hundred They allowed me to
do that. And so I started pasting it off. My
gate's pretty big, so you know, my gig I can get.
I paste it off like at nine feet. And then
(09:25):
I'm looking for things that all aircraft have to make
them fly, like you know, arions, flaps, intake, exhaust, crew compartment.
It had none of that. As matter of fact, the
fabric of the craft, the outside of it was, was seamless,
(09:45):
and it had no rivets like aircraft has and.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
So.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And then the other strange thing was this dwarf. This
I guess it's a rear I'm going by my orientation
to it. The rear of it had this higher like
dorsal fin type thing, you know, like what our aircraft have,
(10:14):
you know, in there in the rear end, you know,
for controlling, but there was nothing under the control. My
assessment right at that point was like, it's this thing
kind of fluid here. Because I'm looking around, the trees
aren't like five feet apart. I said, you know, I'm
thinking I just paste it off. It's nine feet. There's
(10:35):
no way it can go through those trees, and as
I as you know, I just so let's you know,
when when I touched, I didn't have no bloves on
it or nothing either in it. I know the air temperature,
I know, especially after about the radiation, I was thinking
(10:55):
that was stupid.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Anyway, I when I touched their temperature we later find
out was like thirty one thirty two degrees that night,
but it felt really warm to touch and war meaning
fifty to fifty five degrees. So I'm thinking, well, maybe this, yeah,
this is probably if it was traveling, you know, and
(11:19):
it might be warm. Turns out later on I found
out that's the beta radiation. Yeah, I know, I would
never touched it if I know about I lucky it
was beta. That's what Minue told me. Said, You're lucky
it was beta and that gamma. He says, we won't
(11:39):
be talking about it today, and I said, oh really,
He goes, yeah, that's bad stuff. Anyway, as I as
I walked around, yeah, I had a mix of emotions
that this Kanye, it was.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Can't believe.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I just think it's amazing at what you were allowed
to do. Because you you're definitely allowed to do this.
This is great, So carry on. I've got some popcorn
over here. I'm enjoyed. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Well, it wasn't. I didn't think it was big enough
for you know, a manned air aircraft or a man craft.
I didn't think it was big enough. You know. It's
just it was that had been cramped, I mean, all
pretty cramped. But my impressions, and I had a lot
of impressions while I was walking around that the impressions
(12:26):
of the craft. I I this was a pileless craft,
and drones were not a thing then, okay they didn't, Yeah,
just trying to craft weren't a thing then. I mean,
so as I walked around, you know, I was taking
(12:48):
notes and then I see on the far side. As
I came around, I see there's writing on it, and
I go, oh, thank God, about time. I mean, I'm
like I said, you know, I'll probably say the United
States there for his experimental a Soviet you know, sickle
(13:10):
something like that. And as I got closer to the
to these etchings, a glyphs, that's what they were as well,
describing you know that if I stretched my arms out
there about five or six feet you know, long that
long and maybe not that long, maybe five feet, And
(13:35):
then I used my hands because I was trying to
figure out how big the symbols were. And there was
a row of symbols on the bottom, and there's a
larger one on top with a triangle and a big
cigar around it, and two little smaller circles. And but
(14:00):
I was only at that point I had touched the
craft again. It was smooth, but when I went over
the glyph area, it was like touching sandpaper. Okay, that
would be the comparison. And so I recorded those walk
back around and I'm thinking, well, I'm waiting for my
(14:22):
response teams to come out there, you know, the first responders.
And I said, you know, I'm gonna take it another
look at those glyphs. This thing isn't going anywhere, because
it didn't look it looked like it was that it
was going to stay there, Okay, And as I walked
back around.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I says, it's odd.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It was odd that the circular one with the triangle
was a bigger one and above the other ones. And
so I touched it, you know, the just to feel it.
But once when I touched it, I had this brilliant
white light that I couldn't see anything, uh, and all
(15:04):
kinds of visions, Oh my god, it was horrifying visions
one zero's and stuff like that. It made no sense.
Once in Zeros, I don't it's like there's flashing.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So that was terrifying to you, And.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
It was in my mind's eye, I was like, what
the well? And then I started gaming my witsund about
me and I just removed my hand and all of
a sudden, everything's back to normal. And I know it
wasn't light. I'm calling it light, but it wasn't light
(15:46):
because I had my night vision back, and I had
never lost my night vision while I was out there,
So I mean I could still see and you know,
around the craft and anything that bright would actually blind
to me for about what a half hour or some
out there, And so after that point, I decide I'm
(16:10):
not going to touch that craft again.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern, and go to Coast to coastam dot
com for more
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeart.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Radio tonight though open lines, Merry Christmas, Hanika, stuff happening,
all sorts of things. We'll be talking about that throughout
the evening and right now though, we have Jim Peniston
with us talking about the biggest military document at UFO
event in history. As we ended during the break, you
had taken the pictures that didn't work, and now you're,
(00:27):
I guess heading a little closer to the object.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
As I was entering the forest, I was feeling things
that were odd, like an electric like static electricity on
my clothing and my face and hair. And I was
at first I wrote that off as being a door line, okay,
(00:53):
but it continued. As I entered the forest. The you know,
the men's white light had powered down, for lack of
better words, and I could well then I could just
see different color lights that were above it. And uh.
(01:15):
I was also as I entered, uh, I felt it
was cumbersome to walk. It felt like walking through a
pool of water that was waist high. I was my
my walk was labored at that point. I uh, in
(01:37):
this light, this.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Light was on the ground, you're walking toward it in
the forest.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yes, but you got to remember there's berms there, and
those berms stood about three four feet high, so you
couldn't get a direct I couldn't get a direct sighting
of it. And as I entered, I felt those physical effects,
and uh, that's when I terminated the uh uh down
(02:05):
aircraft security response option. I called it in. I wasn't
receiving anything from the crow center. I don't think they
could hear me. That's I I figured that. I thought
they could hear me. I just couldn't hear them, and uh,
Command Zach was back here to relay anything anyway. Excuse
(02:27):
me a second. I'm just getting over a cold.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
There's no coughing on this show. There's there's absolutely no
coughing on this show.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
There's a fine for that. That's pretty only write it
after Connie with us, I was working.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So hard not the cough and that's what it's gonna happen,
you know it. Then you got in there, and uh,
you know, I could see the other in the law
enforcement guy. He's about twenty feet to my right, and
(03:06):
I had Command Zac. I turned around. He was there,
but I noticed they weren't moving, And I said, that's
that's odd. You know, well why aren't they moving? I said,
maybe they're scared. Maybe they're so scared they're like frozen.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I don't know. So I try to think logically, you know.
And so I changed the response option, called it in
some initiate a helping hand situation, and helping hand the
situation is a is a telephoning up channel report to
our control centers all the way up to the Pentagon
if it's needed of a possible hostile event involving and
(03:47):
our base had prior to A B and C resources
which means nuclear and you know, and we have six
squads of A tens there. I mean, there was sensitive
resources there. So I initiated the healthy hand. And so
now I'm treating as a possible hospital hostile threat. Uh
(04:08):
and here I am unarmed. That was that was a
good idea to leave the guns at the inter control point.
I regreted that it would have. It would have made
no difference either.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know, I'm not saying anything, but I do agree
with you. I don't think it would have made a difference.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
No, it wouldn't. I mean, but I think it would
just made me feel better. I don't know. Yeah, because
this is now into even though I'm prying to stay grounded,
like running this checklist in my head, I'm I'm working
hard to stay grounded because everything is going on is
not normal everything. So as I come up over the
(04:51):
this this burm, his final burm, and I felt like
I could move a little better, and you know, and
and they it was the other thing was this. It
was no no sound, everything was quiet. Couldn't hear the
wind and the trees. They couldn't hear me walking on
(05:12):
the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It was really really you couldn't hear you walking. Oh
that's interesting. And you know you were on the ground
right you you know you were stepping on twigs and
branches or things.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, there's forrest, you know, forest debris on you know,
like you know, old pine needles and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So you felt that but you didn't hear it. Oh
my gosh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
As I as I got over the berm, there was
like glober colors of light running around this thing, and
there was a white light underneath it. And then the
glove lights started to slow down, and finally they just
JUSTI painted and all I had in front of me
(05:58):
was a a black craft with this white light underneath.
So I'm at the point that I didn't Actually I
was pretty concerned. I had a lot of emotions going on,
but I was concerned that I might not make it
through this, you know, so I need to go ahead
and do what I can do. I took as many
(06:20):
notes as I'm gonna, I said, I gotta start taking notes.
I continued to make radio checks in on my IVR
interface radio, and then I said, I'm gonna get as
much information as I can. So I'm thinking, how the
(06:40):
hell is I think, is that thing on the ground
or is it just off the ground.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
How's it doing that?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And as I approached it, I looked underneath there's just
like white light coming down three of them, and I says, well,
it's holding I think it's holding it, you know, fixed.
So the only way to find that out I took
(07:08):
my hands and I pushed on it.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
See if you see it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Well, I thought if it was, you know, it'd be
like a car, like you had a Caillac out there
and you pushed it, it should move right, And it
didn't move. It was solid, And I have no give
it at all. So I said, Well, I said, I
started feeling better because I felt a little safer. I says,
(07:37):
it looks like it's a little bit inert. It's not
doing anything like I'm going to continue my investigation. I
didn't have anything to measure it with. I mean, I stood,
I'm six foot two, and I say this thing based
on that, it was like, you know, maybe six and
a half seven feet tall. I couldn't really tell because
(07:58):
of the berms. The ground was uneven. Uh. So I
decided to pace it off. Uh And.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
As you do all this, as you do all this, Jim,
you said, the other men are just frozen. They're just
standing there.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yes they were. They were Yeah yeah interesting. Okay, well
I rationalized somebody thinking that they're probably scared. Yeah, uh yeah,
you know, I'm just frozen.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's normally what happens. Yeah, they we always rationalize it exactly.
But but that's they're helping you. But but the thing is,
to me, that's crazy is that crazy error is Okay,
these other ones are frozen. To me, they are under
some other control at this point. They're frozen like that.
(08:54):
But man, they allowed you to do all this there
you were to do this.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Jim, Oh, yes, I completely agree with you. Okay, I
believe me. I believe one hundred They allowed me to
do that. And so I started pasting it off. My
gate's pretty big, so you know, my gig I can get.
I paste it off like at nine feet. And then
(09:25):
I'm looking for things that all aircraft have to make
them fly, like you know, arions, flaps, intake, exhaust, crew compartment.
It had none of that. As matter of fact, the
fabric of the craft, the outside of it was, was seamless,
(09:45):
and it had no rivets like aircraft has and.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
So.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And then the other strange thing was this dwarf. This
I guess it's a rear I'm going by my orientation
to it. The rear of it had this higher like
dorsal fin type thing, you know, like what our aircraft have,
(10:14):
you know, in there in the rear end, you know,
for controlling, but there was nothing under the control. My
assessment right at that point was like, it's this thing
kind of fluid here. Because I'm looking around, the trees
aren't like five feet apart. I said, you know, I'm
thinking I just paste it off. It's nine feet. There's
(10:35):
no way it can go through those trees, and as
I as you know, I just so let's you know,
when when I touched, I didn't have no bloves on
it or nothing either in it. I know the air temperature,
I know, especially after about the radiation, I was thinking
(10:55):
that was stupid.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Anyway, I when I touched their temperature we later find
out was like thirty one thirty two degrees that night,
but it felt really warm to touch and war meaning
fifty to fifty five degrees. So I'm thinking, well, maybe this, yeah,
this is probably if it was traveling, you know, and
(11:19):
it might be warm. Turns out later on I found
out that's the beta radiation. Yeah, I know, I would
never touched it if I know about I lucky it
was beta. That's what Minue told me. Said, You're lucky
it was beta and that gamma. He says, we won't
(11:39):
be talking about it today, and I said, oh really,
He goes, yeah, that's bad stuff. Anyway, as I as
I walked around, yeah, I had a mix of emotions
that this Kanye, it was.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Can't believe.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I just think it's amazing at what you were allowed
to do. Because you you're definitely allowed to do this.
This is great, So carry on. I've got some popcorn
over here. I'm enjoyed. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Well, it wasn't. I didn't think it was big enough
for you know, a manned air aircraft or a man craft.
I didn't think it was big enough. You know. It's
just it was that had been cramped, I mean, all
pretty cramped. But my impressions, and I had a lot
of impressions while I was walking around that the impressions
(12:26):
of the craft. I I this was a pileless craft,
and drones were not a thing then, okay they didn't, Yeah,
just trying to craft weren't a thing then. I mean,
so as I walked around, you know, I was taking
(12:48):
notes and then I see on the far side. As
I came around, I see there's writing on it, and
I go, oh, thank God, about time. I mean, I'm
like I said, you know, I'll probably say the United
States there for his experimental a Soviet you know, sickle
(13:10):
something like that. And as I got closer to the
to these etchings, a glyphs, that's what they were as well,
describing you know that if I stretched my arms out
there about five or six feet you know, long that
long and maybe not that long, maybe five feet, And
(13:35):
then I used my hands because I was trying to
figure out how big the symbols were. And there was
a row of symbols on the bottom, and there's a
larger one on top with a triangle and a big
cigar around it, and two little smaller circles. And but
(14:00):
I was only at that point I had touched the
craft again. It was smooth, but when I went over
the glyph area, it was like touching sandpaper. Okay, that
would be the comparison. And so I recorded those walk
back around and I'm thinking, well, I'm waiting for my
(14:22):
response teams to come out there, you know, the first responders.
And I said, you know, I'm gonna take it another
look at those glyphs. This thing isn't going anywhere, because
it didn't look it looked like it was that it
was going to stay there, Okay, And as I walked
back around.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I says, it's odd.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It was odd that the circular one with the triangle
was a bigger one and above the other ones. And
so I touched it, you know, the just to feel it.
But once when I touched it, I had this brilliant
white light that I couldn't see anything, uh, and all
(15:04):
kinds of visions, Oh my god, it was horrifying visions
one zero's and stuff like that. It made no sense.
Once in Zeros, I don't it's like there's flashing.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So that was terrifying to you, And.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
It was in my mind's eye, I was like, what
the well? And then I started gaming my witsund about
me and I just removed my hand and all of
a sudden, everything's back to normal. And I know it
wasn't light. I'm calling it light, but it wasn't light
(15:46):
because I had my night vision back, and I had
never lost my night vision while I was out there,
So I mean I could still see and you know,
around the craft and anything that bright would actually blind
to me for about what a half hour or some
out there, And so after that point, I decide I'm
(16:10):
not going to touch that craft again.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern, and go to Coast to coastam dot
com for more
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George Noory
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.