Mystery Maniacs

🎙️ Episode: https://share.transistor.fm/s/309490e6
📓 Show Notes: https://midsomermaniacs.transistor.fm/267

Mystery Maniacs Episode! In Podcast 267, Moose and Squirrel go to a séance and find unique murder weapons, a ghost dog, and Jesus’s girlfriend, all in a locked room! 

Show Notes
Jacaline Nairn’s IG Reel
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLe_kaERSgq/?igsh=NHV5Ymxlc2g2aTZp 

Oades Family Tree

Kickstarter info
S.P.I.R.I.T. Issue 4 Kickstarter is almost live. If you've been following Mary, Ada, Jane, and Ash, this is where it all comes together. Preorder the issue, grab the trade paperback, or just peek at what we're working on. Head to kickstarter.com/projects/1214207061/spirit-1-4-mothman-needs-us to check it out. 

 Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1214207061/spirit-1-4-mothman-needs-us 

Read Along With Us
If you've been listening to the show and want to dive into some actual fiction, this is your week.
Free preview chapters for both of Mark's serial novels are available right now. No credit card, no commitment. Just chapters. Go read them and tell us what you think.

And if you want to keep reading past the previews, the Patreon is open. Five dollars a month gets you one series. Eight gets you both. New chapters every week.
Free chapters - https://markbellauthor.substack.com/
Patreon link  - https://patreon.com/markbellauthor

Thanks again for listening!
 
Mark & Sarah

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Upcoming Tentative  Schedule
  • June 29 - Brokenwood S11E04 - “How the Other Half Dies” 
  • July 1 - July Newsletter

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Creators and Guests

Host
Mark Bell
Co-host of Mystery Maniacs
Host
Sarah Smith-Robbins
Co-host of Mystery Maniacs

What is Mystery Maniacs?

Mystery Maniacs Podcast is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to British Mystery Television. Formerly, Midsomer Maniacs podcast.

Mark:

In my frosted lucky chimes.

Sarah:

Hey, Maniacs.

Mark:

Hey, Mystery Maniacs. We missed you. Welcome to your World Cup Footy Podcast. Oh, no. No.

Mark:

No. We don't do that. No. No. I've I've been listening to far too much footy podcasts lately.

Sarah:

Footy. Who do you think you are now? It's football. Football. It's not soccer.

Mark:

No. Mystery Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of the show including the murders, the mane, him, the loonies, and everything else we love. This week, Brokenwood Mysteries, All Hallows Eve.

Sarah:

Season eleven episode three. We're almost caught up with ourself again.

Mark:

Yes. I'm Mark.

Sarah:

I'm Sarah. Sorry we've been away for a couple weeks. Life happened. Things are okay.

Mark:

It always happens.

Sarah:

Yep. They're okay for now. We'll see. But we're glad to be back. I've missed it.

Sarah:

I've missed my little microphone.

Mark:

Yes. We have so much to talk about.

Sarah:

Yes. This is because we're in season eleven, we did do many episodes on this. Yes. So if you remember way back when, what, six months ago?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Something like that.

Mark:

A year ago.

Sarah:

Is it year?

Mark:

A year. May 5.

Sarah:

We had a

Mark:

season in

Sarah:

mid summer

Mark:

in the middle.

Sarah:

Yep. We did the how to watch like a maniac questions for this episode. Yes. This is if you haven't watched it recent rewatched it recently, this is the seance episode where somebody dies. It's locked room, all that good stuff.

Sarah:

I'll just recap the questions real quick.

Mark:

And then

Sarah:

as we talk about the episode, we'll hit on the answers.

Mark:

Sounds like a plan.

Sarah:

So we asked you to look out for the super doily, Sorry. Super koozie, cozy, and the mega doily.

Mark:

The mega doily.

Sarah:

We asked which actor plays themself. Yes. We asked who has big equipment he shouldn't and what is it? Yes. And finally, what is Frodo's chalkboard saying this time?

Sarah:

Yes. As we go through, we'll answer those questions.

Mark:

Originally aired on the 05/05/2025. This episode was directed by Jacqueline Nairn, n a I r n, Nairn.

Sarah:

Is that air date the Acorn release date or the New Zealand release date?

Mark:

The Acorn release date.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

Now you probably don't know this, but we've done several episodes with Jacqueline, including one in which she is acting in

Sarah:

Oh.

Mark:

Which is season four episode two Stone Cold Dead, which is the episode about the old timey village. And she plays Charity, the the victim. Oh. And she is later

Sarah:

Isn't she like shot with an arrow through a window or something?

Mark:

Into her head. Oh, that's right. Right in the canoggin.

Sarah:

In her old timey canoggin.

Mark:

In her old timey canoggin. Well she has of course done so well as a director. She directs a ton of New Zealand TV now. She does not only this episode but she does the final episode of season twelve which we know is a barn burner.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Because Tracy told us it was and it is because we watched it already. But she has a really good Instagram feed with really good videos including one of all the behind the scenes stuff about this particular episode. I will put a link to that video in the show notes.

Sarah:

Cool. I I really like this episode. Yeah. It's a Halloween episode, though it's not Halloween y. It's just the night when the veil is at its finest.

Sarah:

Yes. And I like Morgana.

Mark:

Morgana is The palm reader. Fantastic. Did you see her picture that that is on the murder board? No. Oh, she's, like, behind the the crystal ball.

Sarah:

Unless they grabbed it from her website or

Mark:

something. That's what it looked Right? It it's clearly a fun picture.

Sarah:

Aileen's is her at a sewing machine, like somebody caught her by surprise, and she looks over her shoulder. It's it's very weird.

Mark:

I always wanna know where they get those pictures.

Sarah:

Sometimes they just look like headshots.

Mark:

Midsummer's Cops and like, they're they are sometimes headshots. We've we've seen that before, especially in midsummer. Yeah. Look at the IMDB page for the person.

Sarah:

That's the same photo they

Mark:

put on the murder board. Same photo. But real cops just take pictures with their phones of people.

Sarah:

Yeah. Hey. Look over here. Yep. Snap.

Sarah:

So let's go over the plot real quick. And refresh people's memory. So It's all Hallows. Moose and squirrel,

Mark:

which are in this instance Frodo and Todd, go to a seance with Boris Badnobb and Natasha.

Sarah:

You mean Viktor and Svetlana? Yes. Somebody on the IMDb page said they sound Russian, not Croatian. I don't know that I can tell the difference.

Mark:

I cannot tell the difference, and she is somewhere between I am denser from Russia and Natasha from

Sarah:

Rocky and Bullwinkle. And Bullwinkle. You'd think Gina would just recognize her and go, hey. Like, they would know each other.

Mark:

You would think. Didn't Gina have, like, a a Russian brides group at one point in time?

Sarah:

Yeah. The dumped Russian brides. Yeah. So anyway, so Morgana is having a seance at her home?

Mark:

I guess. It made me think when I saw this house, at first I was like, is this the same house as the librarian? It is not the same. I checked. Second of all

Sarah:

It's but it's a New Zealand bungalow. Yes. They're pretty similar.

Mark:

Second of all, why am I not a psychic? Yeah. Because she's doing really nice house.

Sarah:

Clearly, she's doing well. And there's our, you know, typical lineup. Missus Baker's there because she's always there.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Frodo and Todd are there. And then we have some new folks. We've got the Croatian siblings, Victor and Svetlana. Yes. And then we have Barry squirrel and moose.

Sarah:

Barry, who runs the tiny home building company. Yes. Cynthia, who we've met before, she was Jesus's girlfriend. Yes. Otherwise known as Rick.

Sarah:

And then Gerard, the saddest birdhouse maker. Yes. And then the lights go out, and Victor's dead.

Mark:

Victor is dead, and we don't know how he's dead.

Sarah:

Because the room

Mark:

is locked. It's a locked room.

Sarah:

The windows are painted closed, by the way. Yes. I hadn't noticed. They're painted closed.

Mark:

And there are no candles.

Sarah:

No. Because some old Aquanet lady went up in flames.

Mark:

Did you notice on the bottom of the sign up sheet, it says, no candles for your protection.

Sarah:

That that scene of her hair going poof was good. It was really good.

Mark:

And I wanna know who all those people were because it was all women in that second group. In the flashback scene? In flashback scene. And I want I like they don't say a word. It could easily be crew members.

Mark:

Yeah. I was like, who

Sarah:

are those people? The power goes out for a minute. Victor is stabbed in the back of the neck Yep. Severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly. And since it's a locked room, Gina is intrigued, obviously.

Sarah:

Yes. She doesn't have a whole lot of respect for the scene of crime unit.

Mark:

No. She does not.

Sarah:

She thinks they can't find a bear in a honey pot. Is

Mark:

that what

Sarah:

she says?

Mark:

A bear in a honey pot, which sounds euphemistic.

Sarah:

We'll get to the euphemisms later.

Mark:

Victor was not a nice guy.

Sarah:

No. He ripped everybody off.

Mark:

So he was he's one of the victims. He's not one of the, oh, everybody loved her. It's it's no. Everybody hated Victor.

Sarah:

Everybody had a motive.

Mark:

Stealing money from everybody and about to skip the country.

Sarah:

So he did have the best sideburns in town.

Mark:

He did have some fantastic

Sarah:

Those were some tight sideburns.

Mark:

They were. And he was not the best dresser, but he dressed well.

Sarah:

He dressed like a stereotypical Eastern European gangster.

Mark:

Yes. What I don't understand is Brokenwood is not a big place. Would like

Sarah:

He would stick out like a sore thumb.

Mark:

Sarah would know who it is. A new idea. I'm gonna start a psychic shop in Downtown Bloomington with Victor, the well known Croatian crime guy. Are you okay with that, Sarah?

Sarah:

Can you so he's also Morgana the psychic's ex husband. Can you imagine those two married? I can't.

Mark:

No. But he does an excellent job of barking like a dog.

Sarah:

Well, there's no love loss. When he's No. When he's dead, nobody's sad. But the Though Gerard does pick up his hedgehog and run out of the room. Yes.

Sarah:

Have you ever had pineapple and cheese together?

Mark:

Yes. On pizza.

Sarah:

Oh, that's true. I've had it on pizza. Yeah. But I've never I've never eaten it like that.

Mark:

No. No. That's a brand new thing for me.

Sarah:

I think it's from a seventies cookbook or something. Probably. So It stays on that cutting board. You'd think it would slide off but it doesn't.

Mark:

No. All the the business stuff is all red herrings.

Sarah:

Yes.

Mark:

The village, the artist retreat

Sarah:

The tiny house investment.

Mark:

The tiny house investment. The birdhouse investment.

Sarah:

That's just Victor taking people's money because he wants to go back to Croatia and get his great grandmother's gold.

Mark:

Which Svetlana already found. Already has.

Sarah:

And has given away to Barry to cover his expense because Victor ripped him off. Yes. Because she and Barry are

Mark:

in love. She loves the Barry.

Sarah:

But Victor won't let them get married. Motive.

Mark:

Yeah. There's lots of motive here.

Sarah:

Then the two that we haven't mentioned yet are Eileen and Ishbel. Ishbel. Is that like lazy Isabelle?

Mark:

I guess so. Or like, I guess maybe

Sarah:

Like if you've got bad dentures Bad.

Mark:

Ishbel. Ishbel. Call me Ishbel.

Sarah:

You sounded like Bane.

Mark:

Oh my gosh. Bane doing call me Isbell is the name of the episode. Call me Isbell. Isbell. Batman.

Sarah:

Remember, this is a spoiler podcast. We're gonna give it away. If she's Ishmael, then Victor is her white whale. Wow. She stabs him in the neck.

Mark:

She does indeed stab him in the neck. With a Pycrete knife. With a Pycrete

Sarah:

knife. As soon as I knew her husband she's a widow, and she was there to contact Archie, her deceased husband at the seance. As soon as I knew that he was into World War two stuff, I'm like, ah, I know. I know who did it. Yeah.

Sarah:

And I know how they did it. All this I cut wood, I make birdhouses, red herring sawdust, All

Mark:

complete red herrings, and Mike figures it out and they confront her and she basically says, he caused the death of my husband.

Sarah:

Yep. Drunken Victor on the road. Archie swerved to miss him. They went in a ditch and he died.

Mark:

It wasn't a dog that they swerved to miss. Yep. It was Victor. You're so strange. The scenes with Morgana in the shop and Victor as a ghost are fantastic.

Sarah:

They're so funny.

Mark:

Because okay.

Sarah:

And I have no problem with them. People might say, well, this isn't a supernatural show. They they shouldn't do that. It's like, no. No.

Sarah:

Morgana is that crazy. I'm sure more. Seeing what she sees.

Mark:

I'm sure she imagines all sorts of things. Yes. Okay? Believe in ghosts or not. Do not believe this

Sarah:

is proof

Mark:

that they're supernatural in this world.

Sarah:

The show conceding that that's real. No. It's Morgana being tortured by her own imagination, and it's hilarious.

Mark:

What is upstairs at Morgana's shop?

Sarah:

Some place to sleep,

Mark:

I guess. She sleeps on the couch.

Sarah:

Oh, I don't know. Storage?

Mark:

I would go upstairs and sleep no matter what because you don't want there's windows there and plus the howling Victor.

Sarah:

But she knows what's going to happen in the future, so she knows she's safe.

Mark:

Yeah. She's a poor psychic because wouldn't she know that Victor was gonna die?

Sarah:

I don't I don't know. But the scene at the seance where she goes, someone is not going to live. It's it's so she does such a good job at that. I understand why they had to include it, like, four times.

Mark:

Yep. She is fan the the seance is fantastic.

Sarah:

Is Todd and she is Todd. Speaking about pretending an imagination.

Mark:

My gosh.

Sarah:

When when Victor's dead, Todd covers Hunter the dog's imaginary eyes like, don't look, boy. Don't look. Frodo's only there to get the lotto numbers. Yes.

Mark:

And to talk to Breen.

Sarah:

Yeah. Who's not dead.

Mark:

He's not dead. He's in the Solomon Islands.

Sarah:

So Morgana's table is this big round table that everybody can sit around, and she has the mega doily

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

With the crystal ball in the middle Yep. That big ring doily. But did you notice when when Mike is interviewing Barry on the night of the murder, they're in a completely different room that also has a big table with a bunch of chairs around

Mark:

Oh, no. She's got multiple salons. Apparently.

Sarah:

Or a dining room and a seance room. They're separate, I guess.

Mark:

I guess.

Sarah:

She's doing okay for herself. So the the idea is that Victor was killed by a ghost.

Mark:

Yes. Ghost to ghost.

Sarah:

Because everybody feels this breeze. Yes. Which is a flying tea towel?

Mark:

Yeah. Is that what we're supposed to believe? I guess so.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

I don't know why, like, a tea towel would cause that much air disturbance.

Sarah:

She must have really winged it.

Mark:

They must have. Sven Lions like, I noticed no disturbance.

Sarah:

No. She did. And she said it was her grandmother loving Oh, yeah. Loving her great grandmother who was a witch.

Mark:

There were more ghosts in that room than there were people.

Sarah:

It was pretty busy in there. Of course, they do the murder board and the locked room thing, they try to figure out where everybody was sitting. And Chalmers says that Morgana, who was sitting opposite the door at the table, was the furtherest away from the door.

Mark:

He says furtherest.

Sarah:

And then he says that somebody else was the furtherest away.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Furtherest is not a word. No. Why did they let him get away with

Mark:

like that word.

Sarah:

It's not a word.

Mark:

The it hackled me when he said furtherest, and then he Oh, says it

Sarah:

Frodo still has Maddy. Yes. The donkey.

Mark:

Yes. Who is?

Sarah:

Playing herself. Yes. She is the actor who is playing themselves in the episode.

Mark:

And from the Instagram video from the director, the the lady who directed the episode, everyone in this cast loves Maddie.

Sarah:

Well, she seems awfully sweet.

Mark:

They absolutely love her. Like, they they just all love that donkey.

Sarah:

So she's hanging out at the coffee cart because her donkey daycare is closed. Yeah. How many donkeys are there in Brokenwood that there is a donkey daycare?

Mark:

There is a donkey daycare.

Sarah:

Or does the donkey daycare also take care of other animals and what other animals are people

Mark:

Did dropping they go back to Frodo's house or something? Now we've been to Frodo's house once because the coffee cart was in the driveway. Remember? There was the girlfriend and they went to Frodo's house. Frodo was not there.

Mark:

We need to see inside Frodo's house.

Sarah:

Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if Todd lived with Frodo.

Mark:

I I think that that's a possibility because Frodo doesn't have a girlfriend right now.

Sarah:

Or does Todd live with his uncle? Well, maybe.

Mark:

He takes care of his uncle.

Sarah:

Yeah. So Oh, Frodo. Frodo. Speaking of Frodo.

Mark:

Speaking of Frodo. So I get a message on the FaceyBook and it is

Sarah:

Facebook is sus to start with. Is already sus.

Mark:

I don't trust anything on Facebook.

Sarah:

Except your posts of course.

Mark:

Of course. And this post supposedly came from Carl Willett who is Frodo.

Sarah:

Frodo. The actor who plays Frodo.

Mark:

And boy did this post love our show. It basically said that they were listening to the episode about the Jesus and we mentioned in that episode that there should be a Odes family tree. That we wish there

Sarah:

was an Odes family tree.

Mark:

And along with this message was a production document of the Odes family tree. Now With handwritten notes. Handwritten notes on it.

Sarah:

And I was like, are you sure that's like because the account only had like 30 friends or something. It was it was kinda new. Didn't have a lot of posts. We're

Mark:

like It was a very not busy account publicly.

Sarah:

Yeah. And I mean, don't get me wrong. We were like, oh my god. Frodo just messaged Mark. Wait a minute.

Sarah:

Maybe it's not real.

Mark:

And so we said, quite rightly, thank you and that is it okay if we tell people and post this? And the person said yes because it's been posted on a couple of Facebook groups. Anyway, was like, okay, well then I could be talking to anybody.

Sarah:

Because maybe they got it from one of those groups and are now pretending to be Carl Willits.

Mark:

Yes. And then I talked to my other friend Tracy.

Sarah:

Tracy Gray who plays Trudy.

Mark:

Who is a good friend of ours. Friend of the show.

Sarah:

We've never met her but she's great. She's been very helpful.

Mark:

Good friend of the podcast.

Sarah:

And she confirmed that that wasn't facts. Frodo's account.

Mark:

That we were speaking to Frodo who says, and I quote, the podcast is great. Farwell, it's friend of the show.

Sarah:

I wish you guys could see Mark right now. He's so pleased with him.

Mark:

I cannot believe we got the Oates family tree from the production from Frodo.

Sarah:

Saying that they're they've they've updated it a few times. Sorry for the handwritten notes or whatever.

Mark:

It was the weirdest day. That day, I got a message from Tracy. I got a message from Frodo, and I got a message from a comic book guy who is like a huge star too. And I'm like, what is going on? The

Sarah:

moons have aligned.

Mark:

The moons have aligned. So, welcome Carl.

Sarah:

So, have you posted the family tree?

Mark:

No. I'll post it in the notes for this show. Great. So I

Sarah:

did it explain anything?

Mark:

No. The

Sarah:

odes are still a mystery.

Mark:

And somebody on the subreddit which is now running correctly and all that good stuff. The new administrator is a

Sarah:

fantastic fan. For Brokenwood.

Mark:

Yep. And somebody posted a family tree that they made with a family tree maker.

Sarah:

Oh. And

Mark:

it stock has images in it.

Sarah:

Uh-huh.

Mark:

And I messaged the person saying, would you like the real veg? Because I happen to have it.

Sarah:

And they're like, are you who you say you are?

Mark:

It's getting to the point

Sarah:

where it's like surreal. Okay.

Mark:

In this weirdness that is this world, let's imagine if we go to New Zealand. Well, first of all, getting there is horrendous and all that stuff. We now have a list of people to go see. Yeah. That's absolutely fantastic.

Sarah:

If they would see us. You're you're assuming No. That somebody who messages you online would be like, why are you on my car? I'm going to stalk

Mark:

going to stalk them.

Sarah:

Okay. Let's get back to the episode.

Mark:

Frodo responded and Carl responded. He was super nice guy. Yes. And and I think that it's fantastic that these people make a great show and then listen to our show.

Sarah:

I'm glad they do. That's great. I know. Tell us more. We'd we'd love to know more.

Sarah:

Gerard is so sad.

Mark:

He is.

Sarah:

Not only because his birds his birdhouse is shit.

Mark:

He's not the best birdhouse.

Sarah:

Did you see the one he's working on? It's so wonky.

Mark:

But he's the the the person who plays him is such a good actor.

Sarah:

He does a very

Mark:

good it look like he not only created that, but loves it.

Sarah:

Yeah. And he's making them because his wife died.

Mark:

Yeah. He's really good.

Sarah:

And the birds birds make him happy. Yep. But in his gigantic work barn shed Plates. Which I'm jealous of having too much room to build stuff, there is a very large piece of equipment right in the middle of the room.

Mark:

I knew what it was immediately.

Sarah:

You did?

Mark:

Yeah. How? Because it's a printing thing. No. Oh, it's not?

Mark:

No. What is

Sarah:

it? It is now you're gonna ask me. It's a mechanical power press for metalworking.

Mark:

You don't need that for bird making. No. Birdhouse making.

Sarah:

It's like if you had a piece of sheet metal and you wanted to make a curve on it

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

You it it goes like bang bang bang and and you turn it underneath it. Yeah. Oh. So I guess if you move into a house that's got a barn that's already got one of those in it, it's not like an easy thing

Mark:

I to guess you're getting it.

Sarah:

You're just going to work around it, I suppose.

Mark:

And if you sell it, it's like

Sarah:

That goes with it.

Mark:

You have to come pick it up.

Sarah:

Yeah. So he is the one Gerard is the one who has the big equipment that he shouldn't have, and that's what it is, a mechanical power press.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

I can see why you thought it was a printing press because mechanically the motion

Mark:

is pretty very similar to a

Sarah:

printing press. The big wheel on the belt and all that stuff.

Mark:

So this is a locked room murder that is solved with a technology from the Second World War. Now this episode was written by Tanya Clowens who does the costuming and has written several other episodes. Mhmm. And I asked her about this episode because you know she's also a friend of the show. This is under the section aren't we special?

Sarah:

Look what we do for you maniacs.

Mark:

Yep. We get the good information.

Sarah:

We tried to.

Mark:

So Tanya said that first of all she says it's her favorite episode that she's ever written. I think that shows. I think it does so well. And she said her original idea was to have a fun locked room murder with a disappearing weapon. I love Morgana, we all do.

Mark:

I hope we see Morgana again. So seance made sense. Originally I was thinking of an ice knife but when I researched them I realized they weren't strong enough to penetrate the body. So that's how I ended up with Pykrete and I enjoyed researching and weaving some of Pykrete's real life history into the story. Which obviously is where then it becomes World War II.

Mark:

Who would know that but a World War II widow Ish bell. Ish bell. And I think that that that is exactly the kind of incredible fun details that I love.

Sarah:

And if you didn't know about Pykrete before, it's a real thing. So during World War II, the the allies were low on ships. They were trying to find ways to manufacture ships, especially aircraft carriers, quicker and cheaper. And so an inventor whose name was Jeffrey Pike came up with this he was also a journalist, came up with this idea. And Churchill was like, I don't know.

Sarah:

Give it a try. Try it. And they did, and they built it in the Great Lakes. I don't remember which one.

Mark:

Yeah. It failed Majorably. Dramatically.

Sarah:

I mean, they didn't have planes going off of it or It was really expensive to make, if you can imagine trying to freeze that much stuff and move it. And so it was kind of a failed idea. But the reason why it's called Pycrete is it's a mashup of pike and the man who invented it and concrete. Yep. And if you made it, it would be Bell Crete.

Mark:

Yes. They did a myth they did a myth busters episode on it as well. But did you get all that information from Englopedia, Sarah? No. Which is where Mike gets all the information on Pykrete.

Sarah:

No. And I also didn't get it from that book that he finds in his Bell's living room.

Mark:

Yes. The book that he finds is project Habakkuk. Habakkuk. Which is exactly what you were talking about. They tried to make it Why

Sarah:

didn't they just call it project Pykrete? I I don't know. What's Habakkuk?

Mark:

That book doesn't exist. The project exists, but the book doesn't exist. Ishbow. Ishbow.

Sarah:

We're having too much fun with that. She's also the one that has the most fantastic tea cozy

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

On her teapot. She does. One of our maniac questions. I understand the purpose of a tea cozy. I get it.

Sarah:

It keeps the the pot warm so you could, you know, have hot tea for longer. But they

Mark:

are Doesn't the pot do that already?

Sarah:

Well, yeah. But this does even more. And but they are in New Zealand. Yeah. The peak of summer Yeah.

Sarah:

For New Zealand, which I don't get why Kristen has like a scarf and stuff on.

Mark:

Because, Sarah

Sarah:

If it's October in New Zealand, it's gonna be warm.

Mark:

Sometimes shows are filmed not when they take place.

Sarah:

I know, but costuming is costuming. Costuming. There are daffodils

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

And a big woolly scarf.

Mark:

Tanya had a lot on her plate in this episode. Yeah.

Sarah:

So Gina insists that she's going to solve this. Yes. It's a locked room mystery. She's gonna solve it. Lock me in.

Sarah:

Yep. Leave me here. Don't let me out until I solve it. And then she has solved it.

Mark:

And and that's like totally playing on the typical locked room mystery.

Sarah:

Yeah. That the detective is like lock me in.

Mark:

I which is why I love the the Poirot take on this because the Poirot take on this is he is in his apartment. He's ill. And he says, I'm not going to leave. Yeah. He's saying, well, go and investigate for me.

Mark:

I'm gonna solve it from here.

Sarah:

I think Jonathan Creek has some really, really good locked room mysteries. People get upset about them, but I think they're really good. Have you read any of John Dixon Carr's locked room mysteries? No. He's kind of the originator of them.

Mark:

Oh, okay.

Sarah:

And as the first, he's not the best, right? Because everybody improves on him. But they are really interesting. They're really fun. But this Frozen knife reminds me of the two sentence mystery of Gladys and Bill are dead on the floor in a puddle of water.

Sarah:

How did they die? They're goldfish, or the frozen bullet kind of I still don't know, even if it was Pycrete, that it would work. I don't think it would be sharp enough. I think it would be hard enough, but you could not keep an edge on that Yeah. Even if you put it in your chili bin.

Mark:

It would it would be difficult to keep

Sarah:

it in. What they call a cooler?

Mark:

Yes. I kept going, did he bring chili?

Sarah:

It's so cute, though. It's like

Mark:

So we eat chili bean.

Sarah:

Let's go on a picnic, and we'll bring the chili bin.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Do you know what they call flip flops in New Zealand?

Mark:

What?

Sarah:

Jandals. What? They're Japanese sandals. They call them jandals. Don't and chili bins.

Mark:

They don't really do.

Sarah:

They do. I'm not kidding. They do.

Mark:

Okay. We need to we need that explained to us. Chandles.

Sarah:

Chandles. I just explained it to you.

Mark:

Do they have a jazzled pajandles?

Sarah:

Can you feel it in your lagoon where the devils dwell?

Mark:

What the

Sarah:

hell is Gina talking about?

Mark:

Oh, Gina is so on they they have

Sarah:

I couldn't I'm sorry. I could not not think of the reflecting pool in Washington DC when she said, I can feel it in my lagoon where the devil's dwelling.

Mark:

My lagoon.

Sarah:

I just thought of this like green

Mark:

It's like she's turned from the unrequited love of Mike into just plain weirdness, which I love.

Sarah:

I love it. But being locked in that room for a while has done something to her. Like, is that a euphemism for something? Because that would explain why she's single.

Mark:

I don't wanna know about her lagoon.

Sarah:

Or the devils that dwell there. That's why Mike's not into her. No. Does macrocarpa sound like some kind of scientific thing to you and not just cypress? It's just a cypress tree.

Mark:

Yeah. It's just a cypress tree. Macrocarpa.

Sarah:

Where do you think Svetlana and Victor's great grandmother got the gold?

Mark:

Well, they're Croatian.

Sarah:

So What does that mean?

Mark:

I would say

Sarah:

Oh, you know those Croatians and their gold.

Mark:

No. But They're like leprechauns. No. Croatian leprechauns.

Sarah:

Great grandma. She's after me gold. We're very slap happy today.

Mark:

And my frosted lucky charms. Croatia, like most of Eastern Europe during the second world war, was a bit of a free space.

Sarah:

Right? It was chaotic.

Mark:

For sure. Chaotic.

Sarah:

And deadly.

Mark:

And and gold was seen as a currency that wouldn't be

Sarah:

It was a universal currency.

Mark:

It was

Sarah:

universal its value. So I would assume that People tried to turn things into gold.

Mark:

Knowing Svetlana.

Sarah:

Convert them.

Mark:

And liking Svetlana. I don't want I don't want it to come across that like I do.

Sarah:

Svetlana should not be painted with Victor's brush.

Mark:

No. I like her. She's doing the right thing for her man, though she's a little up early in the morning drinking the vodka with her night clothes on in front of Chalmers.

Sarah:

She's sad. Her brother's

Mark:

She's sad. She's sad.

Sarah:

She does the night after eye makeup really well.

Mark:

Yeah. She does. Think that probably because Svetlana is her granddaughter, that the grandmother probably killed some Nazis and stole their gold. Yeah. Let's go with that.

Mark:

Let's go with that.

Sarah:

That they'd probably stolen from somebody else. Yeah. Absolutely. Put it in her sewing machine.

Mark:

Yeah. It wasn't the Nazis gold originally.

Sarah:

Maybe that's why she was so the great grandmother was so ticked that Sveitlana's parents moved to New Zealand and took the song machine because she's like, wait. Exactly. I know what's in there.

Mark:

Hold on.

Sarah:

And they're like, bye grandma.

Mark:

It's ooky spooky.

Sarah:

But she figures it out. Gina figures it out Yep. Because of the water and the sawdust. Yep. And I think I think that's a very good it's a sound clue for an unlikely murder weapon.

Sarah:

Like, it it's not a far reach. You know what I mean? It's not like she saw one grain of sawdust and went, or just the wet tea towel and went, I know what happened. It works. It works.

Mark:

It works. And it

Sarah:

And it's a clue that I'm not surprised that the crime scene unit didn't notice.

Mark:

And when given it, we have all the information. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't break the rules at all. No.

Mark:

So I have a couple of questions for you, Sarah. First of all, what famous person would you like to speak to at a seance? Oh.

Sarah:

Well, I say somebody who would have some information that we all wanna know, but I don't think you could trust it. No. Because you don't know if it's really them.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

It could be a devil's

Mark:

in the lagoon. We're imagining a world where supernatural things actually exist.

Sarah:

And are trustworthy?

Mark:

Yes. I

Sarah:

don't know. What's your answer?

Mark:

I don't

Sarah:

like If you don't have an answer either, how can you ask me that question?

Mark:

I would say, like, first of all, there are there are great questions that I would like to know the answer to.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Who killed Kennedy and all that stuff. So there's there's those

Sarah:

Not that he would know.

Mark:

No. No. He wouldn't know, but other people would know. So so you could ask them. Certainly, talking to great people like Newton or Who who wouldn't

Sarah:

under I mean, Newton would understand you, I suppose.

Mark:

But I'd like to to have talked to Claude Shannon, but I would have liked to talk to Claude Shannon for hours, not five seconds to get an answer. Claude Shannon is a technology researcher.

Sarah:

Yeah. Who What a nerdy answer. Yeah. Is there also universal translation in this seance? Is it like Yes.

Sarah:

Like the universal overlay language?

Mark:

Talk to Genghis Khan, who would be another guy to talk to?

Sarah:

They would understand me? Okay. That helps a

Mark:

little bit. Well, you know when you die, you learn all languages.

Sarah:

Yeah. Oh, okay. Sure, Morgana. Okay. I think I'm overthinking it.

Sarah:

Like, Elizabeth I Yeah. Would be really fun to talk to. Yeah. Especially assuming if you assume this is so stupid. If you assume that since they've died, they've paid attention.

Mark:

Yeah. Right?

Sarah:

So you're not talking to their consciousness at the moment they died, but like

Mark:

What do you mean there's an Elizabeth saying? Yeah.

Sarah:

But like I'm here too. They know everything that's happened since then. Yep. I would have been like, what what were you thinking with the not getting married thing? Yeah.

Sarah:

You know? Like, how how do you think that worked out for you?

Mark:

Right. What's Doctor. Henry VIII? Do you know how much of a git you are?

Sarah:

Yeah. Or or Anne Boleyn. Yeah.

Mark:

Wow. Shakespeare would be fun to talk to.

Sarah:

Stuff really got flipped on you, didn't it? Yeah. Like, that's not fair.

Mark:

Especially if they have some understanding of what's going on since they passed.

Sarah:

That's what I mean.

Mark:

It'd be interesting to talk to Shakespeare about

Sarah:

how big think he would

Mark:

be this popular? Your head now, dude. Because wow, you've had an influence.

Sarah:

He he would be so angry. He'd be like, do you know how many royalties I've missed out on all this time? He would. Well, sorry, dude.

Mark:

It'll all be bridgedness with him.

Sarah:

That's yeah. That's who I would wanna talk to.

Mark:

Yep. Ugh. We haven't even talked about bingo.

Sarah:

Eileen is Trudy and Ray's mom.

Mark:

And Eileen.

Sarah:

Yes. So Eileen Once you know, you can see it. Yep. She is Trudy. I swear that actress has studied Tracy Gray's eyebrow.

Mark:

I think so. So Eileen Spencer is played by Elizabeth Hawthorne who's a famous actress in New Zealand. Like I'm sure when she came on set everybody was like oh my gosh. I So was like, there's that. And she's worked a long time in New Zealand TV.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Which is amazing that you do anything a long time. And then she certainly studied Trudy's mannerisms. And then I I just love how that's introduced at the very end of the episode. And what I love is that dropped in the episode and they don't pick it up again No. In the next episode.

Sarah:

They just let it sit there for a while.

Mark:

They just let it sit there for a while so that the maniacs could be like,

Sarah:

what? But I'm confused about this. Yeah. So Eileen and Ishbal have been friends for, like, fifty years.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Where has Eileen been?

Mark:

On the other side of town where there's no restaurants or pubs.

Sarah:

The other side of Brokenwood? Maybe she's been in Riverstone.

Mark:

She should have said my friend from Riverstone. That's what she should have said because that solves the whole problem.

Sarah:

Or I came back to Brokenwood when my old friend's husband died to support her. Yep. Because clearly she's been out of Trudy and Ray's life for a long time.

Mark:

For a long time.

Sarah:

And I don't think she's just been sitting on the other side of town.

Mark:

Now how much okay. So Frodo does this episode, season one episode four. Frodo hits a home run.

Sarah:

Yep.

Mark:

That's a fine performance. A fine initial performance.

Sarah:

That's the bachelor party hunting episode?

Mark:

The bachelor party hunting that gets him invited back several times Yep. As it should to the point where he's a permanent character

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

And friend of the show. Now do you think they have season twelve episode six in mind? Like, what do you think is in Tom Tim Baum's head? Because he writes both these episodes. Right?

Sarah:

So Yeah.

Mark:

Time So

Sarah:

he's introducing Aileen here knowing that he's gonna use her again later.

Mark:

Do you what do you think is in his brain as to how he's gonna use her? First of all, and I gotta say, there's gotta be another family tree because

Sarah:

It's pretty easy.

Mark:

Well, no. Because you

Sarah:

I mean, in season twelve, we find out a little bit more about their parents, but I think he's thinking Trudy has been has had quite an arc. Yeah. And she has become a very beloved character. Rey has always been a buffoon. Yep.

Sarah:

But but they fit well.

Mark:

But Rey does the right thing in season twelve episode six. Which we can't talk about.

Sarah:

Talk about. But the two of them, as brother and sister, have kind of run their plots out. Yep. And so but they but they're totally worth keeping. So they need to introduce something new for them, and their mother suddenly appearing, I think, is a good twist.

Mark:

And I think I think because

Sarah:

you gotta wonder, where did these two totally different people come from?

Mark:

And I think it pushes those characters in new directions, which is great for sub characters because like there's very few, there's very little you can do with your main characters in television to push them into new directions. Mhmm. Right?

Sarah:

That doesn't end up, like, breaking things and Yeah. Ruining things.

Mark:

Like Mike getting married or Mike leaving. Yeah. They hint at it, but they can't do anything.

Sarah:

Chalmers suddenly having a love child.

Mark:

Something like that. Right? So they can't do those things, but they can with minor characters. Yeah. And we know Tim Baum has the Trudy rule.

Mark:

And the Trudy rule is this minor character could have committed a crime.

Sarah:

Yep.

Mark:

And we've seen it before.

Sarah:

A recurring character

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

Can be the killer. Yep. Which is so crazy. Abs It's underappreciated how crazy that is.

Mark:

Because because, like, people seem to forget that Trudy wasn't introduced in the episode where she's the killer. She's later on she's the killer.

Sarah:

Yeah. We already knew her as a recurring character and then

Mark:

Yep. Surprise. Just fantastic.

Sarah:

It's like if Frodo became a killer.

Mark:

What? It's a different model for reoccurring serial television that we haven't seen before.

Sarah:

There's a future episode in which Mandy is the killer. Mandy. She stabs somebody with a carrot.

Mark:

Mandy, no. With Frodo riding her going, I killed them all.

Sarah:

Mandy's all bloody. Yep. But still so sweet.

Mark:

But she would be.

Sarah:

She would be. Nobody wouldn't wanna get her in trouble. Where did Ishbel get that knife mold? That very nice silicone knife mold.

Mark:

So that silicone knife mold, which is extremely nice, came from what is called the prop department where they would have used that mold to make fake knives for other productions.

Sarah:

Yeah. I can't I looked at it, and it's like, it's too hefty to be like a chocolate mold. And I mean, she ordered that on Amazon. Right? So they're they're gonna know who ordered it.

Sarah:

Like I

Mark:

totally forgot this because it was weeks ago. I looked up on Amazon for a knife mold like that and there wasn't anything as nice. That's a handmade professional knife mold.

Sarah:

It's it's so I know how to make that. Yeah. It's got keys in it and everything. Yep. She uses it wrong.

Mark:

Well, yeah.

Sarah:

Freezing it in two parts like that. Yep. Kinda defeats the purpose, but I think I could get one.

Mark:

You think you could?

Sarah:

Yeah. I know three or four places I could order one online.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

It wouldn't be as nice

Mark:

as But Amazon didn't have one.

Sarah:

But not Amazon? No. That's kinda good to know.

Mark:

Yeah. That's probably a good idea.

Sarah:

It's thick.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

It's not knife shaped. Yeah. If it was actually as thin as a blade is, it never would work. Yeah. But because it's so girthy, it can't hold an edge.

Mark:

It's kinda like a stiletto wound caused by a piece of ice.

Sarah:

By like a wooden stake Yeah. Sort of shaped thing. Yeah. But again It's still fun. I don't care.

Mark:

It's so fun. And the whole idea of locked room mystery is a whole conceit anyway. So if we're gonna have a conceit, we're gonna have that conceit.

Sarah:

With my luck, if I tried to do that, it would snap in half in the wound and I would leave half a Pycrete knife in the guy's neck.

Mark:

Well, and okay. Let's go one further. We've done experimentation for this podcast.

Sarah:

But not this.

Mark:

So if we made a pykrete knife

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

I know 100% I would hurt myself.

Sarah:

I've got some silicone out in the garage. We could I mean, we've got knives. We could mold

Mark:

It has to be explained that Sarah, at least on a weekly basis, hears, oh, I'm bleeding. How did that happen?

Sarah:

Yeah. Like it's a surprise.

Mark:

I I I managed to hurt myself fairly easily. The first day of industrial arts, which is like shop Mhmm. In Canada, I had to go to the hospital because I slipped my finger open.

Sarah:

And they never let you back in wood shop.

Mark:

Well, luckily, so this is the most Mark thing ever. Our grade for shop and home ec was averaged between the two so I passed.

Sarah:

You did so well in home ec. So when Aileen does confront Trudy Yes. She says I kinda wanna come to bingo. Yeah. And Trudy says, well, it's a, you know, it's a free world, guess.

Sarah:

Free country.

Mark:

Free country. I'm no narc.

Sarah:

To me, that's like in Trudy language going, I'd like that. And I think Aileen understands that.

Mark:

I we we learn more about Aileen, but I think that Trudy understands that it's time to be a little more adult. Maybe her and Ray were at younger at when they were younger.

Sarah:

Meanwhile, Ray's got a porky pigeon costume on going, mama.

Mark:

Must have been an interesting text message from Trudy to Ray after that. So mom was by.

Sarah:

Yeah. She's gonna play bingo. Mhmm. At the end of the episode, the detectives show up at the bar. Yes.

Sarah:

And Kristen says that Chalmers should have a pink chihuahua. Yes. Do you know what that is?

Mark:

No. What is that?

Sarah:

It's like a margarita, but it's got pomegranate syrup in it. Oh. It sounds kinda good.

Mark:

Sounds kinda good.

Sarah:

Even if I had to order a pink chihuahua, I think it would be worth it. It sounds nice.

Mark:

I like pomegranate. I like slushy drinks.

Sarah:

Yeah. And you like margaritas.

Mark:

What kind of alcohol

Sarah:

Tequila because

Mark:

it's margarita. Margarita. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm taking one.

Sarah:

I'm down for a pink chihuahua. Yeah. So that is All Hallows' Eve season 11 episode three. What do we have for the next episode?

Mark:

The next episode, which is season eleven episode four is How the Other Half Dies which is the episode where certain individuals do weird things.

Sarah:

It's the origin of the naked accountant.

Mark:

It's the origin of the naked accountant which also fits like it all fits together so that and I'm not saying they're doing this. If they were to end at season twelve episode six, I would go

Sarah:

Good job. Good job.

Mark:

But they're not going to. Yeah. We know they're not.

Sarah:

By the way, don't worry. Befrape. Befrape.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

You forgot to answer that question.

Mark:

We did.

Sarah:

That's the chalkboard on Frodo's coffee cart. I think we're not gonna answer a Maniac question.

Mark:

I'm gonna ask Frodo's.

Sarah:

Who comes up with the sayings for

Mark:

the chalkboard? I'm not gonna ask Frodo's any questions, our friend Carl, until until we get to the the Odds family Christmas episode. Yeah. Because he's got he's gotta give us, he he will want to talk about that episode in my mind.

Sarah:

Yeah. There's gonna be some inside skinny on that one. Yep. Yeah. You've you got a new project going you should tell people about.

Mark:

Yes. So, yeah, along with doing a podcast, I also make comic books which is why I was away last weekend and the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival which I will be going to again because it was fantastic. But I am doing a new issue of my comic Spirit which is a comic about a group of teen girl ghost hunters who use the internet and science to prove ghosts don't exist and then ghosts and other supernatural things show up. Mhmm. Episode issue number four is about them going to West Virginia to help Mothman save a busload of children from a doomsday cult of old people.

Sarah:

It's great. It's so great.

Mark:

So I have the prelaunch page up now. I'll put the link in the show notes and if you could are interested at all, please click that notify me on launch button. Those are super helpful on launch day and then over the month of July, I will mention it again. But we're going to do all sorts of cool stuff like we have a trade paperback now of some of the issues that you can get together. I have a cover by a local artist who is a huge comic book person nationally, did a very nice cover for us and there's gonna be Mothman and Animal Pins.

Mark:

Oh. So

Sarah:

I like Mothman. Yes. Even if he does make bridges fall down?

Mark:

Is very helpful Mothman.

Sarah:

This is a different kind of Mothman.

Mark:

He's very low key, relaxed Mothman, but he knows he's needed and he needs that

Sarah:

help. Certainly not the Mothman from the Richard Gere movie.

Mark:

No. Oh my gosh. We could not even finish that piece of crap. I was like, I should watch this because, you know, I'm doing a Mothman comic. Oh,

Sarah:

no. We got halfway to it.

Mark:

I was like, oh,

Sarah:

this is horrible. This is so bad. Anyway, that being said, until next time. Bye, Maniacs.

Mark:

Bye, Maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs Podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.

Mark:

Bye, Maniacs. Candle free for your safety. Candle free for your safety. Candle free for your safety.