Mystery Maniacs

🎙️ Episode: https://share.transistor.fm/s/36fe943b
📓 Show Notes: https://midsomermaniacs.transistor.fm/263

Mystery Maniacs Episode! In Podcast 263, a killer uses a real weapon to kill someone who more than deserved it. We see you, Nugget!

Show Notes
Chubby Robert Plant

Nugget

Anne Atkins Interview - https://youtu.be/9cLdT71QLQs?si=m7hQ2UzceUnscz0R
Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking - https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Forged-Telegrams-Prison-Escape/dp/071487938X/ref=sr_1_1

Mark's Mystery Novels: Two cozy mystery series are live on Patreon now! Weekly chapters, behind-the-scenes posts, and a community shaping the stories as they unfold. $5 for one series, $8 for both. Join at https://patreon.com/markbellauthor.

Thanks again for listening!
 
Mark & Sarah

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Upcoming Tentative  Schedule
  • Week of April 6 - Brokenwoon S12E01 Mini - They’re Out There Alright
  • April 13 - Brokenwood S10E06 - “Three Gold Leaves of Jesus”

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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:

You know,

Sarah:

done the whole thing. Hey, maniacs.

Mark:

Hey, mystery maniacs. Mystery Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of a show including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love. This week,

Sarah:

season ten episode five of Brokenwood Mysteries. House

Mark:

House

Sarah:

of of Screams. Screams. Yes. The Halloween episode. Yeah.

Sarah:

A Halloween episode.

Mark:

Because the fourth of April's Halloween.

Sarah:

Halloween all year round, baby.

Mark:

Yep. Year As far as I'm

Sarah:

concerned. Yep. I actually have a t shirt that says every day is Halloween.

Mark:

If you let your kids go to House of Screams,

Sarah:

then The most poorly designed haunted house ever.

Mark:

They can listen to the podcast. Why would they have a hallway where people could congregate and drink clandestinely? No haunted house would ever have that.

Sarah:

It's not how they work. No. The idea is to get people through

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Not just let them wander around. Yep. That way lies trouble.

Mark:

One of the things we've been watching this week is Agents of Mystery.

Sarah:

I think we talked about this when we watched the first season. It's on Netflix. It's a

Mark:

It's Korean.

Sarah:

South Korean show that basically is watching a group of people do escape rooms. Really, really well designed sort of escape experiences, but it's a story. So there

Mark:

And there's puzzles.

Sarah:

Yeah. So it's a a reality show?

Mark:

It is a reality show because they're also celebrities. Yeah.

Sarah:

But we don't know that. We don't know We don't that. Celebrities. But they're really well designed. They're really funny.

Sarah:

Yep. They're scary.

Mark:

They're they're impressive that they do so much for, 10 people.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's called Agents of Mystery. The first season was really fun. We've watched the first

Mark:

Two thirds of Two

Sarah:

thirds of the second season, and it's just as fun. So, you know, if you want something different, give shot.

Mark:

To give you an indication, the last episode ended with an a extra actress standing in water in a large

Sarah:

reservoir. Looking like a character from The Ring or

Mark:

something. Yeah. Something like that as the actors as the the main characters see them.

Sarah:

Well, the first part of the season, they had to escape this, like, ultra secure compound where agents were after them, and they had to solve a different puzzle in every room in order to get the secret data to get out.

Mark:

Yeah. Now it's not devil's plan. Devil's plan

Sarah:

so much better.

Mark:

Is high level intelligent South Asian

Sarah:

South Korean.

Mark:

South Korean people who are doing puzzles that require you to take notes when they give instructions.

Sarah:

Yes. But it's really fun too.

Mark:

Yep. But

Sarah:

it's like one episode at a time because it makes your brain hurt.

Mark:

Oh my gosh. Those are way more intelligent.

Sarah:

It's also on Netflix. Yeah. If you haven't watched it, you should give it a shot. And this is Agents of Mystery we're talking about, season two just came out, and it's really fun. I started a thread on the subreddit about Deadlock season two.

Sarah:

There's some pretty divided opinions about that. You either love it or you don't,

Mark:

which And I thought

Sarah:

I'm not surprised by.

Mark:

I thought they really stuck the ending I did season two. I don't know if there will be a

Sarah:

season three. I don't think there will be. Don't think ended it. But But it was good. It was really good.

Sarah:

But if yeah. I mean, if it's not your cup of tea, then it's not.

Mark:

If it ends with those two seasons, those are two of the best seasons of comedic detective show ever. Absolutely.

Sarah:

Yep. Speaking of comedic detective show, what this episode of Brokenwood made me think of is Wellington Paranormal Yes. Which we've talked about before. Yes. But if you haven't seen Wellington Paranormal, you are missing out.

Mark:

First of all, if you watch Wellington Paranormal, you will see familiar faces.

Sarah:

Yes. Because there's only, like, 10 actors in New Zealand. Yes. There's four seasons of it. It aired from 2018 to '22.

Sarah:

It's absolutely brilliant. You can find it in various places.

Mark:

It's a mixture

Sarah:

of So funny.

Mark:

It's a comedic mixture of cops and x files. Yes. Which there's an X Files episode that is Cops because they did it so well. Yeah.

Sarah:

Right? It's that first person video kinda look.

Mark:

That first person video kinda Cops was owned by Fox too so they could do Cops. But obviously the person who created Wellington Paranormal loved that particular episode of X Files and said, let's put it in Wellington.

Sarah:

Which was it was written by one of the guys in Flight of the Concords

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Who also helped write What We Do in the Shadows. Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's but Wellington paranormal is so funny.

Mark:

It's incredibly funny.

Sarah:

Alright. Are you ready? Okay. House of Screams.

Mark:

Before we begin House of Screams, we need to tell you that the other thing that you're watching today is Brokenwood season 12 episode one.

Sarah:

If you have access to Acorn or some other Yes. Venue.

Mark:

They're out there

Sarah:

alright. And it's also it's an aliens episode.

Mark:

Right? The the blurb on IMDb is when a chef is found dead in a crop circle.

Sarah:

Oh, we've never had that.

Mark:

You have me already. Alien Is he naked? Alien abduction theories spark a UFO convention arrives in Brokenwood. But after the death occurs, Mike and Kristen investigate whether the truth is extraterrestrial or all too human.

Sarah:

I'm gonna guess that a human did it.

Mark:

I'm thinking probably, but

Sarah:

And I'm and I'm also gonna guess that it's not gonna be as good as the Midsummer Crop Circle.

Mark:

So the Midsummer Crop Circle is Electric Vandetta season four episode three.

Sarah:

Best dead body acting on TV film ever. Yep.

Mark:

Lloyd Kirby is fantastic. Kenneth Cauley plays him. And episode 16 of the Mystery Maniacs, the electric vendetta, naked in a crop circle, a bit of a goer, and bin man.

Sarah:

Bin man.

Mark:

Bin man. That's a callback.

Sarah:

Yep. Wow. What is that?

Mark:

300 episodes ago or something? That is 244 episodes ago. Well, the

Sarah:

first thing we learn in this House of Scream episode is that if you put on a letter jacket and some Chucks, you are a high school student. That's all you need.

Mark:

That is the costume

Sarah:

of a high school student.

Mark:

Now I do have a problem with this You could

Sarah:

be 80 and put on a letter jacket and some Chucks, and you're in high school. It's a tip for you.

Mark:

The problem I have with this costume, Chad, which is of course his name He's a total Chad. Is the problem I have with this costume is is he says he's Teen Wolf.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

So I went and looked at all the pictures of Teen Wolf.

Sarah:

Movie or TV series?

Mark:

Movie.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

And none of the costuming is the same.

Sarah:

No. But he wears a leather jacket.

Mark:

But he should have had the same colors or

Sarah:

like You're asking too much for a country that doesn't really celebrate Halloween.

Mark:

Doing doing that. Before we begin, this was aired on the 05/27/2024, which is neither here nor there. Directed by David de la Tour. But did you notice who wrote this episode and it is relevant? Ginger Ranger.

Mark:

Ginger Ranger wrote this episode. Nick Sampson does a fantastic job here. I think both the comedy, the horror, and the emotional trauma that he deals with, he does it all very well.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Great job. Yep. Absolutely.

Sarah:

It's really good. Oh, Chad's such a dickhead. I'm sorry.

Mark:

Have a haunted I hate him

Sarah:

so much. When he dies, I'm like,

Mark:

good. So so Chad is killed at the beginning. This is the the cold open. And the thing that is interesting here to me is that the Chad

Sarah:

jacket's the wrong color?

Mark:

No. Oh. The scythe is shown in his neck. That's a pretty brutal, gruesome death. To show

Sarah:

Kinda cozy. But it's a Halloween episode, so it's not half as brutal or gory as the stuff in the haunted house.

Mark:

So it's okay. It's it's very weird.

Sarah:

It's a really good prosthetic because the handle is behind his head and the end of the blade is in the front and What it doesn't wobble around or

Mark:

they do, I noticed this, they do this and if you watch very closely they do it. I guess there's a rule that they cannot show the scythe through his neck.

Sarah:

Going through his neck.

Mark:

No. No. No. Like through it meaning both ends.

Sarah:

But they do.

Mark:

His hand is either in front of it or somebody else's hand is in the back of

Sarah:

his Not when he's leaning on the wall dead. It's just there. Yeah. I don't think they can show it go through, isn't it? They can't show gory.

Mark:

That's absolutely too gory.

Sarah:

And they so they don't show it happen ever, but the aftermath, they can show.

Mark:

Yeah. It is by far the goriest death we've seen in Brokenwood.

Sarah:

Especially when he's not dead yet. Yeah. That's a sucky time to get killed and need help because people are gonna be like, cool costume and walk right past you.

Mark:

Yep. And you're no, really, I'm dying.

Sarah:

How many times does that trope happened in some kind of scary movie set at Halloween? So many times.

Mark:

But luckily, amongst the people working at the Hounded House

Sarah:

Is Frodo.

Mark:

Is Frodo.

Sarah:

Looking awesome.

Mark:

Frodo's costume. Chef's kiss.

Sarah:

Because He speaks well around those teeth. Have you ever tried teeth like that?

Mark:

Bowser Hart. What I love is that you instantly recognize as Frodo. But nobody else does. But no one else does.

Sarah:

Even the cops are like, shut up, ma'am, or whatever, ma'am. Back up. Yep. And he's like, it's me, Frodo. They're like, oh.

Sarah:

It's like the the penguin in Wallace and Grommet

Mark:

with the rubber

Sarah:

glove on his head.

Mark:

Who's that mysterious chicken?

Sarah:

It's just Frodo.

Mark:

So Frodo is working there, I guess, to make extra money.

Sarah:

He's

Mark:

a I think he likes it.

Sarah:

Well, yeah. I mean, he's got he's got goals. He wants to move up from being a parking attendant to being a real screamer. Yes. He wants to graduate to being able to work in the haunted house.

Mark:

And we have this nighttime scene where the cops come because the cops and the paramedics come because there's been a death but also the proprietor of the haunted house. Mister Milgrove. Mister Milgrove comes out and faints right away. Oh, yeah. Now, Mike goes into the forest.

Sarah:

He has vasovagal syncope. Yes. It's when your blood pressure drops when you see blood or something else that frightens you.

Mark:

Oh, I can't imagine how bad that is.

Sarah:

Did your small hometown have a haunted house that somebody put on? Did like the Knights of Columbus or somebody put on a haunted house? No. No. So you've never worked in a haunted house or anything?

Mark:

No. There was the infamous Carleton Place Halloween riot, but that's it.

Sarah:

What?

Mark:

Yeah. There was a riot one year. So A real riot? Yeah. Okay.

Sarah:

Like a violent riot? We On Halloween?

Mark:

We were not in the mainstream of people in the high school. Okay? That's how I'm going to say it.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

My friends and my girlfriend and I. So that Halloween, we we stayed out of town generally on Halloween because we would get bullied or attacked.

Sarah:

Fairly TPs whatever, jerks. Fairly

Mark:

regularly. So we had gone to Ottawa.

Sarah:

And they rioted because you left town?

Mark:

No. It had to do with us.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

But apparently, a number of people, and I've checked this since, so because I didn't see these things. Right. Apparently, a number of people caused so much damage with fireworks on the main street and overturned cars and set them on fire.

Sarah:

How? How do people over turn cars? I I don't It must have been a big group.

Mark:

I I don't know. I wasn't I wasn't there, but boy, did we hear about it.

Sarah:

Picture didn't happen.

Mark:

Yeah. So I will try to find the newspaper article that I found about

Sarah:

The ambulance has Mel Grove. Yes. Because Chad doesn't need any help. No. They just leave him leaning against the wall so everybody can gulp at

Mark:

him His like a girlfriend is actually in the ambulance.

Sarah:

They don't even cover him up.

Mark:

No. They just let him lean there by the building.

Sarah:

He's a teenager, not an adult. Yeah. They don't put a sheet on him or or there's a spotlight. There's a light right about like

Mark:

And gawkers.

Sarah:

What if that was your kid? Oh. I mean, come on. It's right out. The reason why I asked you about the haunted house, though, along those lines, is that there's something about going to Haunted House where you know the people who are working there.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And you spend the whole time trying to figure out, is that Bob in that costume? It takes away from the scary and adds a level of fun to it that offsets the experience in some way. My dad frequently would volunteer with some kind of community organization or something who would put on a hayride or a haunted house or whatever. And so we would go through, and we knew dad was in there.

Mark:

And you were just waiting.

Sarah:

But he wouldn't tell us No. What he was doing. Reaching through And the just when you were almost past him, the bars at the front, he would bend them because they were rubber. He would bend them out of the way and jump out and chase And we go running, and he's chasing us. We don't know it's down.

Sarah:

It's head to toe costume, And I think I might have been eight.

Mark:

And your dad does?

Sarah:

Oh, he does gorilla.

Mark:

He does gorilla.

Sarah:

He doesn't even need a costume to do gorilla. He's very good at it. And we go running, my sister falls, he's standing over her, doing the whole thing, and she's just on the verge of crying, and he took the head off. Like she was clearly not enjoying it, and he took the head off. And we were like, dad.

Sarah:

And he's like, go, go, go before the next group.

Mark:

He had to run back

Sarah:

and get back in the cage. That's so fun. One of the things that's wrong with this haunted house is that because they don't have a flow, it's just everybody just going wherever they want, the actors would never know when to be ready. Would have to be ready all the time, and that would be so exhausting. Yeah.

Sarah:

It would be so exhausting. There was this other time when we went sorry, this is a good story. We went to the haunted house at the children's museum, right? Yes. So it's already not very scary,

Mark:

because

Sarah:

it's for kids.

Mark:

It's for kids.

Sarah:

But during the day, they would do lights on for really little kids so they could enjoy it. Yeah. And it wasn't scary at all. But this kid from down the block, and his sister came with us, and he was a jerk. Yeah.

Sarah:

He was a jerk kid, I don't know why we agreed to let them come with us.

Mark:

He was a Brokenwood teenager in training?

Sarah:

I guess. I might have been eight, nine, time. He's at the front, and all of a sudden we hear this woman who was a witch totally break character and go, hey, don't do it. You're out of here. And I'm like, uh-oh, what happened?

Sarah:

He had a length of chain in his pocket, and she startled him, and he whipped it out and was swinging it at her.

Mark:

God, what? Who did you hang out with?

Sarah:

He got escorted out of he was waiting for us at the ticket office when we were done because he got kicked out of the haunted house. Bad kid.

Mark:

Halloween stories of juvenile delinquency?

Sarah:

It was foretelling of the quality of the rest of his life, I must say. He never quite exceeded that.

Mark:

You know,

Sarah:

that's that was kind of indicative of who he was gonna be.

Mark:

Let's hope he found happiness.

Sarah:

He he didn't.

Mark:

But Okay.

Sarah:

But don't don't try to hurt actors in haunted houses just because they scared you.

Mark:

No. No. No.

Sarah:

Says the person who yelled at a guy with a chainsaw once. No. He stopped.

Mark:

He did indeed. He thought

Sarah:

he was gonna chase us to the cars and I just turned around and said, no, stop it. I just was I was done. I wasn't enjoying it. I was done.

Mark:

Well, there there are two people I wanna talk about at the haunted house when before we get into the the minutiae of the murder and the story and all the people and all that stuff.

Sarah:

Is one of them fat? Yes. You may have mentioned this to me already. Do tell.

Mark:

So when they're in the ambulance and the proprietor and his daughter are talking, there is a man that leans into the shot who can only be described as fat Robert Plant.

Sarah:

He looks like the lead singer of Led Zeppelin if he'd gained about 80 pounds. About that. Like an old rocker.

Mark:

He leans in, not in costume. No. Halloweenness. No. And he's gotta be in his fifties.

Sarah:

At least. I think probably sixties.

Mark:

Leans in and looks directly at the cam.

Sarah:

Bad extra. Bad.

Mark:

I'll put a picture of him in the show notes, but I was just like He's not

Sarah:

he's not an employee of the haunted house. He's not interacting with Mel Grove, like, trying to comfort him since he's passed out. He doesn't look like he belongs there. Nope. I think he's just wandered onto the set maybe.

Mark:

I don't I don't know.

Sarah:

Just some random guy.

Mark:

Now they do have

Sarah:

a He's probably like a grip or something who was caught on set. Maybe. And so he just stood there during the shot.

Mark:

Didn't know

Sarah:

what to do.

Mark:

They have a bunch of what they call screamers, which are people who work at the The

Sarah:

actors. Yeah.

Mark:

At the the haunted house. And the the costuming and makeup for those people is great.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's just on it's just on the edge of not so good that it's professional Yes. But good enough that it's not like, they're clearly supposed to have done it themselves, but they're good at it.

Mark:

And I want to point out one person in that group.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

Is a young man who has like a bat or cricket bat or something. He has a stripy shirt on.

Sarah:

So he's supposed to look like private school kid

Mark:

or something? Yeah. He's got zombie makeup on, the big eye shadow and the grin makeup. He's got a beard and he has a hat that has one of those propellers on top.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

So, he's meant to be kid like and written across the brim of the hat is the word nugget. Nugget? Nugget. N u g g What is hat supposed to mean? Nugget.

Mark:

I don't know

Sarah:

but Is that a New Zealand joke that we don't get?

Mark:

I wanna say that I appreciate Nugget.

Sarah:

If you're out there, Nugget, we see you. We see

Mark:

you, Nugget. The moment where it's supposed to be one of the kids who is dressed as a scarecrow in the forest and Mike catches a glimpse of him.

Sarah:

Okay. What is Mike doing? He's a cop. He's smarter than this.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Somebody has killed Chad. He's wandered in out of the forest. So theoretically, the killer was in the forest with There are plenty of uniforms, plenty of people around.

Mark:

Where is the Pokey Stick Brigade?

Sarah:

What does Mike do? Heads off into the dark forest alone.

Mark:

And he gets a jump scare from the person who is dressed as a scarecrow.

Sarah:

They know there's fake blood all over the place in the haunted house made of cochineal and maple syrup with a little bit of coffee for color according to Frodo. Yep. Perfectly good recipe for fake blood, except it would be very sticky and attract bugs, and there are some big ones in New Zealand.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

When Mike sees some on that rail and he touches it, you think he might taste it.

Mark:

No. He just smells it. He So just smells

Sarah:

that's not dumb. Doesn't lick his fingers like cops who test drugs in shows, they always lick it.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Don't lick it. Don't lick anything at

Mark:

a crime scene. Bad bad news.

Sarah:

Forensics people must hate crime scenes at Hong Kong. Oh, they do. Must be the worst case scenario.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

Like, worse than a murder at a hoarder's house would be a murder at a haunted house.

Mark:

We have three teenagers who are the people who are attacked, which is Frankie, Lena, and Chad. I don't know what Frankie's name

Sarah:

is. Finn.

Mark:

Finn. They're they're the three bullies in town. Mhmm. There's a weird thing about a trip to Las Vegas that is never touched upon again. Because it's stupid.

Sarah:

Yes. You win a trip if you don't scream. How on earth do they document that?

Mark:

I don't again, it's not it's never talked about again. It's just a really weird thing.

Sarah:

You'd have to, like, put a sound meter on everybody going in.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And it would have to be hooked up to their throats. Didn't pick up screams from actors or other people.

Mark:

It's just it's impossible.

Sarah:

It's the dumbest idea.

Mark:

Apparently, Chad's dad had the idea and Chad's dad is

Sarah:

Is dumb.

Mark:

Is an idiot. Wayne.

Sarah:

Now He of the crypto. No wonder his wife left.

Mark:

If you're out at a bar and you hear that your child has been involved in an accident at a haunted house, are you not gonna drive over there?

Sarah:

To the haunted house? Yeah. I don't know. Is your kid Chad, the jerk face? I have a feeling that Wayne probably gets quite a few calls about Chad.

Sarah:

That's true. And probably thinks, just get my lawyers on in the morning. Maybe. It's his MO to just threaten people with lawyers.

Mark:

That's true.

Sarah:

I mean his son is extorting him and blackmailing him. Maybe he doesn't care that his kid is hurt. It'd be like, good. Like I don't want him dead but maybe he'll learn a lesson.

Mark:

We learned that Mister Milgrove and his daughter Ariel, his name is John by the way.

Sarah:

Ariel is the only cool person in town.

Mark:

Yes. She's the other goth in town. Remember we saw the first goth in town? Yes. We now have two goths in town.

Mark:

They run the haunted house and it's used like Ariel is

Sarah:

a I think they live there.

Mark:

Tragic figure. Definitely. Because we learn over time that she was involved with the young woman who drowned. They were friends.

Sarah:

Yeah. And where's Ariel's mom?

Mark:

Yeah. Where We don't know. Ariel's mom is just not there.

Sarah:

And they're nice because they're like protecting Kyle and his little sister. Yes. You know? Like, they're not bad people.

Mark:

No. No. They're very nice people. And I think that

Sarah:

Oh, her dad's a bit dumb.

Mark:

I think John is easily swayed.

Sarah:

Yeah. But He's another person who's a victim of a bully.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

But it's Wayne.

Mark:

So we also have Minnie, and Minnie is we'll we'll get to her backstory, but she is the new girl in town.

Sarah:

Minnie, she of the epic hair in the haunted house.

Mark:

Yeah, she's dressed as the The mad scientist. Mad scientist.

Sarah:

And her hair is so awesome. I don't know how they did it. It's clearly not a wig. And she goes to But I was so disappointed when we see her in real life and her hair is just so flat and normal. Was like, she's gonna have awesome hair.

Sarah:

Yeah. No. She's just got a

Mark:

good It's crimping so iron or strange.

Sarah:

But I the costume. She has the goggles on, and the top half of her face has been sprayed with something black. Yes. Like something exploded in her face.

Mark:

While she had the goggles on.

Sarah:

Yeah. So when she takes the goggles off,

Mark:

it's There's like wider on circles her

Sarah:

around her eyes. I love that.

Mark:

Yeah. That's a good thing. The most unfollowed rule at this haunted house is don't touch the props or the performers.

Sarah:

How about don't have real weapons? Yeah. Oh. The fact that the the scythe, the sickle, sorry, is a real sickle is right out. Right.

Sarah:

Like Right out. Like rusty and stuff. It should be a rubber sickle. Yeah. Plastic something.

Sarah:

So the fact that it's real is just the first rule of haunted house. No real weapons.

Mark:

So everyone blames Kyle and then everyone comes down to the chat, the cop shop. Now Lena is a Lena. Lena is a complex character in that she's Another jerk? She's a jerk and she tries to do nice stuff and she's scared and all sorts of things. But I love how when she tastes Sims' coffee, she's immediately put off.

Mark:

But it

Sarah:

it's because it's cow's milk.

Mark:

I think she's lying there. I think she's like

Sarah:

excuse not to drink it.

Mark:

I think her excuse is, is this cow's milk? Because she does not wanna drink that coffee.

Sarah:

Doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would care. Yeah. She's gonna say, this is gross. You can't make coffee. Like, all the girls in this episode are fully willing to say that a dead guy was hot.

Sarah:

Yes. They're broken.

Mark:

They're all just

Sarah:

Lena is dating an absolute jerk who is mean, who contributed to the death of another girl Yeah. Who is lying to get into college.

Mark:

And she

Sarah:

knows all out with him anyway. So she is right out.

Mark:

Yep. She knows all

Sarah:

of it. I don't care if she's nice enough not to say the coffee's bad.

Mark:

How appropriate, Sarah, is it to have Halloween decorations in the morgue?

Sarah:

It's not, Gina. Of all places not to decorate. I love Halloween. I will decorate everywhere and I wouldn't decorate the mortuary

Mark:

We have

Sarah:

at the coroner's office We

Mark:

seen visitors house every day. Like, you know how you have that mat in front of your house? The welcome mat? The welcome mat.

Sarah:

Ours is a pumpkin.

Mark:

Ours is a pumpkin.

Sarah:

Year round.

Mark:

Year round. I understand that.

Sarah:

And I would not decorate the mortuary.

Mark:

But the mortuary should be a scientific place.

Sarah:

I wouldn't offer the parent of a dead child toffee. No. Though I did find the recipe for Russian toffee, and it looks pretty good.

Mark:

What is what is the difference between Russian toffee and

Sarah:

I mean, it's just caramel, really. Okay. It's like a fudgy kind of caramel. It's like condensed milk, brown sugar, and butter.

Mark:

Oh, okay.

Sarah:

Cooked to almost hardball. You can't have it? No. Because it's condensed milk. I can't have it because it'd pull out all my fillings.

Mark:

It would pull out every single one of our fillings. But it looks good.

Sarah:

Yes. But it doesn't look anything like what Gina has in a bowl

Mark:

No.

Sarah:

At all?

Mark:

No. They're little wrapped ones maybe but Yeah.

Sarah:

But I'm glad Gina's into Halloween.

Mark:

Gina fulfills the role of I'm in this episode and I give information but I also have personality.

Sarah:

Gina says that she goes trick or treating alone. Yes. What do you think about grown ups trick or treating?

Mark:

Okay. First of all, anyone who gets dressed up in a costume and comes to my door gets gets treats. Yes. Okay? I don't care if you're alone or you're with a bunch of people.

Mark:

Yes. If you're in a costume, you get a treat. Yes. Absolutely. Because you

Sarah:

you went you went to the effort.

Mark:

You got the spirit. Mhmm. Okay? If you're alone, I might say something to my wife when you go away.

Sarah:

Alone is Yes. An Alone A is an kid on their own is just sad.

Mark:

So what's the cutoff age then?

Sarah:

I don't think there is one.

Mark:

Okay. So

Sarah:

The more I think about it, the more I think if we didn't do Halloween so big at our house, we should get some friends together and go trick or treating because I

Mark:

think it would be fun. I totally think it would

Sarah:

be fun. A bunch of grown ups really, really dressed up coming up for candy. I think anybody would like that if you're having fun.

Mark:

Okay. So what's the cutoff age for you're alone? If you're a 16 year old boy and you're in costume Yeah. Say you're dressed as SpongeBob SquarePants.

Sarah:

You're it's sad that you're on your own, but okay.

Mark:

Okay. About a 20 year old?

Sarah:

You're in costume? Yeah. And you're on your own? Yeah. I don't know.

Sarah:

I mean, it depends on the costume. Can I tell how old you are? I don't know. If you're in a good mood, you seem to be enjoying yourself. I don't think there is an age.

Mark:

And I think the cutoff works in a weird way where it's a range where it's not okay, and then like after 45, go crazy man.

Sarah:

Go crazy. What would make it bad really at any age, but mostly at the age you're talking about with like 18 to 30

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Is to go all out costume wise and then not speak Yeah. When you come up.

Mark:

You gotta talk, man.

Sarah:

If you don't speak, it's really creepy. We've had a few of those.

Mark:

Yep, we have.

Sarah:

Where we go, hey, nice costume, happy Halloween. And they just turn around and walk away and you're like, yeah, you're just scoping out who to kill tonight, aren't you? It's just bad.

Mark:

That's we when when you have a a big display like we do, you get all kinds.

Sarah:

Oh, yeah. Remember the year where that lady just Took notes on everything. Took notes. Yeah. It's so strange.

Sarah:

I love when Milgrove and Ariel are painting babies. Yes. They're dipping baby dolls. Yep. They were gorgeous painting babies.

Sarah:

Come on in.

Mark:

Milgrove can't even look at that.

Sarah:

No. He doesn't do it with his back door. But I think Ariel and I could hang.

Mark:

Yeah. I think so. Also think Sims is big cop in this episode. Like, she is largely in charge and, like, has no problem going, we're gonna look now, and you're gonna stay right here. Like

Sarah:

But when she and Chalmers come through that door and and Ariel's just standing there for the first time and she scares them both

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Because Ariel's kinda tall.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Plus, I think she's got on some, you know Big boots. Some boots. What's the name of that store in oh, Hot Topic.

Mark:

Think she's got some Hot Topic boots on. Hot Topic. Is there Hot Topics in New Zealand? Nah. No.

Sarah:

Don't think But I'm sure they got some version of

Mark:

it. We got

Sarah:

something. Punk chain

Mark:

store. Something. Yeah.

Sarah:

Chad is, I keep saying he's such a jerk, but he's a jerk in every way. He's a bad boyfriend, he's extorting his parents, he plants drugs on Kyle, he's a bully to other kids, he peer pressures that girl into going swimming and she dies. There's nothing redeeming about him at all.

Mark:

I wanna talk to the young people who listen to this podcast. I know there's two, maybe. One. Maybe. One.

Mark:

We know one for sure. If someone throws food at you, don't go to a party with them. Especially if it's a beach party by the ocean.

Sarah:

Yeah. An unsupervised beach party.

Mark:

What are you doing? I had enough sense as a teenager to go, no. We're not going to that.

Sarah:

Yeah. Nope. Nope. It's a certain kind of invitation that you you learn to identify. Yes.

Sarah:

That is, you don't really want me to come to the party to have fun. You want me to come to the party to be a victim at the party.

Mark:

Oh, I'm well aware of that.

Sarah:

So I'm not gonna come.

Mark:

And you only make that mistake once. Unfortunately, for the poor girl who drowned, yes.

Sarah:

I don't know why she and Ariel

Mark:

They should

Sarah:

go to that beach party.

Mark:

Yeah. They should

Sarah:

not be there. Is a jerk. Yeah. I mean, they know that they're off to the side.

Mark:

One shot of them walking down the beach changes the whole thing. They've come across the party and didn't realize they were there.

Sarah:

Right.

Mark:

The the whole thing.

Sarah:

And then it's well, you you came across these this group of kids that you know and Yeah. So you just decided to stop for a few minutes.

Mark:

Yeah. The other thing with minor characters in this episode that we really need to discuss is our misunderstanding of Trudy's past. So the dad

Sarah:

It's not our misunderstanding. The courts, you know Really, everyone's misunderstanding. Just a big misunderstanding that she went to prison. Because Wayne implies that, you know, she's been in the pokey, so she probably knows where to get some clean money or whatever.

Mark:

So Chad's and and I wanna ask you this seriously, Sarah. So Chad's dad Wayne goes to the bar and he's looking for $10,000 in cash. Why is he looking for $10,000?

Sarah:

Because he needs to pay back people over his crypto screen scheme. Or

Mark:

Why does he need it in cash?

Sarah:

Or his child is extorting him. I think that's Maybe.

Mark:

But it's

Sarah:

Like Chad doesn't mess around. Yeah. If you're blackmailing your dad for $10 at a time Yeah. It's not messing around.

Mark:

So he speaks to Trudy because he sees Trudy as a previous felon. Because Trudy is a previous felon. She Let us remind you.

Sarah:

She did kill someone and string them up like a scarecrow.

Mark:

She poisoned someone, strung him up like a scarecrow.

Sarah:

With wire wrapped around

Mark:

his face. Splade him. Yes. In front of children.

Sarah:

Yes. Birds could peck at his corpse. Yes. But it was it was a misunderstanding, Mark.

Mark:

But we learned in this episode that no, no, she did not do that. It was all a big misunderstanding.

Sarah:

No. She did do that.

Mark:

Yeah. She did. But this is like we mentioned in last week's episode, this is the redemption arc of Trudy. Mhmm. And part of the redemption arc of Trudy is to honestly deal with the fact that she murdered and tortured and killed somebody and displayed his body as just a misunderstanding.

Sarah:

It was postmortem torture, body mutilation. Totally. She didn't torture him while I was alive. I mean, come on.

Mark:

And she sends a Don't get that to Frodo with a threat. Did you notice the threat to Frodo? Yeah. Frodo's got loose lips. Frodo, you better watch out.

Mark:

But when we go

Sarah:

She also says that he's a nice guy.

Mark:

When we go to the coffee cart, we see the first instance of the chalkboard. So normally the chalkboard says the same thing on it.

Sarah:

Right? The flavor of the muffins.

Mark:

The flavor of the muffins and and that is all it said and that is all it is said in season I think nine and ten. Yep. We noticed a change in 11.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

This is the first change. So this is the first episode with a change.

Sarah:

Where the chalkboard has a message.

Mark:

It says, happy Halloween week.

Sarah:

That's not the same.

Mark:

It's not the I mean it's

Sarah:

not muffins but it's not what it's gonna be.

Mark:

Well Frodo has a necklace of eyeballs. I love how Frodo is totally into

Sarah:

Halloween. He gets into everything.

Mark:

Yep. He does.

Sarah:

He's a joiner. He's a He likes to be part.

Mark:

Yep. He he's got like an old rag for an apron. You know, he's going whole hog.

Sarah:

And his eyeball necklace.

Mark:

Yeah. His eyeball necklace.

Sarah:

I may need one of those. Happy Halloween week. So there's something about this episode that I don't understand the logistics of.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

We find out that Ariel and Celine, the girl who died on the beach Yes. Were into witchcraft, probably because they saw the craft or something

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And got a book from the library. And because Chad is a dickhead and bullies Ariel even at the haunted house, she curses him. She curses the three of them

Mark:

Yes. For death. Yes.

Sarah:

Then Chad dies and she thinks she needs to lift that curse off the other two, or something bad will happen to them. Yes. So she has Chad's werewolf mask and jacket Yes. And wears those. I don't know why.

Sarah:

To And stand outside the homes of Lena and Finn and chant the curse lifting chant

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

While wearing them. Okay. Here are my questions. Okay. One, why does she wear that costume to do it?

Sarah:

She could wear anything.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Two, how does she know when they just happen to be outside or looking out the window? I think it's Lena takes the trash out. How long has Ariel been standing out there hoping that that Lena would come outside for some random reason?

Mark:

I have thought about this. Okay? The curse that she is is lifting needs only happen by going to the house of the person and pointing at the house. The fact that Lena is outside putting the trash out and that Finn is actually looking out the window is pure coinky dink. Twice?

Mark:

No. That's what I'm going with.

Sarah:

No. I think Ariel's standing out there for hours. Finn, maybe she threw a rock at his window and he didn't notice the rock, but it did wake him. Maybe. And that made him look.

Sarah:

But Lena, hours, she's standing out there just hoping that Lena comes outside

Mark:

With for some the trash.

Sarah:

Okay. So what's your explanation for the costume? I can see wanting them not to know who she was, but why that?

Mark:

Okay. The explanation of the costume is clear. Because she is the only other goth in town, she is a a fan of horror movies, particularly

Sarah:

Oh, I thought you were gonna say she'd be recognizable in whatever she wears. No. Because it would be gothy and they would know that it's her.

Mark:

She's a fan of horror movies and especially likes eighties horror movies.

Sarah:

And she doesn't want them to die, but she does want to scare the shit out of them.

Mark:

So she is dressed as Teen Wolf.

Sarah:

Just because?

Mark:

Which is not a horror movie.

Sarah:

And she just happened to get the costume from Chad?

Mark:

Just happened.

Sarah:

And it was handy? Yes. Maybe she had a bad zit and wanted to hide it.

Mark:

What I love about that whole explanation is so when she explains that, she's explaining to it to Sims. Mhmm. And Sims is trying to be accepting and not judgmental about witchcraft.

Sarah:

Yes.

Mark:

But she is pushing that story. And there's a great moment where Sims is like, alright.

Sarah:

Okay. Enough of that.

Mark:

Enough of that crap.

Sarah:

I do like when Sims is talking to Lena and Lena's telling not telling but not telling Sims about seeing the the wolf Yeah. Wolf man. And Sims says about her relationship with Chad, you deserve to be treated better than that.

Mark:

Yes. And

Sarah:

I I think Lena actually hears her. I think so. There's a moment.

Mark:

Did you notice

Sarah:

Why does she open the window in Lina's room? Is there, like, teenage funk in there? Does she need some air?

Mark:

I think so.

Sarah:

Or is it just to freak Lina out? Just by coincidence, Kristen does something that will scare Lina by opening the window.

Mark:

Did you know okay. So Lina's room is typical teenage girl room except for

Sarah:

I am into horror movies. I have horror movie posters.

Mark:

A dangerous call. Don't answer the phone.

Sarah:

Finn has Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's not a reference to any actual movie. It just says Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Mark:

It just says Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Sarah:

Ariel is a good kid, but she's dumb because when they come to talk to her, she runs. Yeah. Where does she think she's going to go? I hate that so much. Like, oh, you're going to run now inside this building and then run out the back door and run for the rest of your life.

Sarah:

They will never catch you ever.

Mark:

And I love how Sims looks at Chalmers like

Sarah:

She says go. She says good luck.

Mark:

Good luck. And she knows what to do. She goes around the back

Sarah:

and Well, he's gonna chase her

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Two Sims.

Mark:

Yeah. And we get some action Kristen there too.

Sarah:

Do you blame Chad for Celine's death?

Mark:

Okay. So all we know about Celine's death is Celine was enticed into the water by Chad. Celine was loved by

Sarah:

Ariel.

Mark:

Ariel and

Sarah:

Finn. Finn. And Celine knew that she could not swim. I don't know that Chad knew that though.

Mark:

I don't I don't know either. They go into the water, and then they come out, and they assume that everyone is behind them. But she's not. I don't think that he is directly responsible for drowning her, but he is directly responsible for enticing her into the water.

Sarah:

See, I don't even hold him for that because, a, I don't think he knew she couldn't swim. Yeah. And, b, she could

Mark:

have said no. She easily could have said no. He didn't force her.

Sarah:

He didn't, like, grab her and drag her into the water as, like, a mean joke. Yeah. She voluntarily went knowing she couldn't swim.

Mark:

I wish they had made it more It's

Sarah:

sad budget. Yeah. But he didn't do it. I mean, he's guilty of everything else in the universe but he

Mark:

did that. Sure he said some crap about it.

Sarah:

I mean, I'm sure he wasn't sorry No. That he talked her into it.

Mark:

No. And they totally lawyer up and try to solve the situation like that.

Sarah:

Well, that's Wayne's solution for everything.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

I'll call the city. Mike's like, okay.

Mark:

Frodo, you don't need to get into crypto. It's a bad thing for you.

Sarah:

Or try to buy a Corvette for $200. No. He was $9,800 short. It's funny.

Mark:

Buy and sell crypto. Crypto mining. Crypto crypto.

Sarah:

The brochure is very funny.

Mark:

Yeah. The brochure is crypto y crypto town. There's all sorts of clubs at school. Mhmm. And one of the things that they discover at the senior dance because Chalmers

Sarah:

Is that all these kids were in chess club?

Mark:

Chess, including Finn.

Sarah:

The ultimate cool kids club. Finn doesn't strike me as a chess master.

Mark:

Finn, Kyle, Selena, and Ariel are all in the picture for the

Sarah:

Maybe that explains why Ariel would be willing to go to the beach party because they're in chess club together.

Mark:

Maybe. But Finn doesn't really take me as a chess player. No. I think maybe like they maybe missed a scene where he could have joined chess club even though he loses all the time because he wants to be close to seal Selena.

Sarah:

Or he's a secret chess savant. I'm dumb at everything except chess.

Mark:

Maybe. You gotta you gotta admire some bravado, the the fact that he hits on Kristen even though he's supposedly

Sarah:

He's totally doped up.

Mark:

He's totally doped up. He's like, ah.

Sarah:

I love the extortion note that's cut out of the newspaper letters and how poorly spelled it is? Yes. Friday, f r y d a y. Friday.

Mark:

Yeah. We couldn't find all the letters.

Sarah:

There wasn't an I in the newspaper. We had already used it for night, n I t e. It's like it's spelled out like like text language. Yeah. This whole thing about Chad going to Yale is just kind of dumb.

Mark:

So the idea is that Chad has got a scholarship to go to Yale because he's a lacrosse player who's Chinese.

Sarah:

Yale doesn't have athletic scholarships of any kind.

Mark:

No. It's it is a misunderstanding of how American universities work. Though But you

Sarah:

know, if you've read the news, not recently, but Yes. Five years ago or so, you would think, yeah, you could buy your way into Yale.

Mark:

This totally makes sense because of that. I don't think he actually got a Yale scholarship. Like, oh no no, Kristen calls them. That's right, I forgot. Yeah.

Mark:

Kristen calls them.

Sarah:

But it's kind of like that. I have a girlfriend, but she's she's in Canada. So Yeah. He's gonna go to The US. Yeah.

Sarah:

His mom lives in LA and then he's gonna go to Yale. Do they know where Yale is?

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Not in

Mark:

LA. I don't think they know where it is. And also he says the most horrible things to Lena then. He says he's gonna upgrade the tier of his girlfriend.

Sarah:

A new tier of females.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Okay. If any man refers to women as females Yes. Get away from him.

Mark:

Also, do not go to a party with him.

Sarah:

Female is an adjective, not a noun.

Mark:

Nope. It's an adjective, not a noun.

Sarah:

Any man who uses it as a noun is right out. Yes. Now you know. That's my that's my PSA for today. Excellent.

Sarah:

My piece of my piece of wisdom. What do you think Gina's having done to her house? What renovation do you think she's having? She says she's having work done. What do you think she's having done?

Sarah:

So What what improvements would Gina wanna make?

Mark:

This I think I think Gina is probably pretty particular about her bathroom. So I think that maybe her bathroom needs a little spruce up.

Sarah:

You don't think she's having a vodka bar installed? No. No. I need this door to be bigger to fit in the the giant grizzly sculpture I have.

Mark:

Do do you think maybe an entertainment an entertainment center?

Sarah:

A honky tonk karaoke bar.

Mark:

There we go. A honky tonk bar. I was thinking her bathroom would have like the big sinks like the morgue.

Sarah:

Oh. Like her like her kitchen island is a table from the morgue.

Mark:

Yeah. Or something.

Sarah:

Yeah. Or maybe she's having onion spires installed on her roof to make it look more like Russia.

Mark:

I tell you what, when Chalmers finds out that Gina is moving in with Sims, boy, the face he makes is I

Sarah:

hope that Kristen labels the shelves in the fridge. Yes. This is the Gina shelf because one of them is gonna be containers of borscht and body parts in jars. Yes. And that's Gina's.

Mark:

And we know that Gina lives with her for quite a while. Couple of episodes. Think a couple of episodes. By the end of next season, she has another house guest. Yes.

Mark:

But but until then, I think it's Gina. Wow.

Sarah:

Gina could not be fun to live with.

Mark:

No. But I think she would she would be one of those people who tried

Sarah:

to Oh, yeah.

Mark:

To to make it as best as possible and then like did all sorts

Sarah:

aware of of your space.

Mark:

Yes. Like I did the dishes and put all the dishes away in the wrong spot.

Sarah:

I off habitized them. Yes. Or I washed them in the Russian way. I put them outside for dogs to lick.

Mark:

Yes. Now they're clean.

Sarah:

I put them back in the cabinets now. Yes. Yeah.

Mark:

We don't vacuum. We just tear up carpet and

Sarah:

Yes. Eat Start over again. So they they go to the dance, the senior dance.

Mark:

Okay. First of all,

Sarah:

none of these people are sad at all that somebody in their class has died.

Mark:

Okay. So this At all. The senior

Sarah:

I wouldn't be sad about Chad either. But

Mark:

I don't know if you noticed this, but the senior dance is fantastically underwhelming.

Sarah:

It's five feet inside the door.

Mark:

It's five feet

Sarah:

inside And that's the depth of the party.

Mark:

And, like, five people are standing there.

Sarah:

Yes.

Mark:

And that is it.

Sarah:

Yes.

Mark:

Like, they they obviously like, okay. Dressing an entire gymnasium takes a day at very

Sarah:

least. Right. And you need a lot of extras

Mark:

to a lot extras and you gotta find that gymnasium. Yeah. Think about it. Think about the town you live in and how many actual gymnasiums there are. Right?

Mark:

We live in a college town so it's slightly different. You could probably get a gymnasium pretty easily.

Sarah:

But if you live in a town with one high school, you know.

Mark:

It's it's going to be difficult. Yeah. And so it's filmed through the door

Sarah:

and Well that's except when they walk, they walk mini through the perp walk.

Mark:

Yeah. They

Sarah:

do. And in that case, it's everybody crowd in Yep. To like a 10 foot wide area, turn the disco ball on.

Mark:

It's one of those great movie magic things where if you don't know to look for it, you think, oh, there's a giant room there.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's whole gym.

Mark:

No. No. No.

Sarah:

It's it's like five actors pressed against the windows of a door pretending to dance. Like, who goes to a high school dance and stays right inside the door? No. You know? Unless you think you're

Mark:

gonna try

Sarah:

to slip out. Sends Kristen says she's off to find the the toilets for grown ups.

Mark:

Yes. What what is that? Well, you gotta so did your your school had a staff room, clearly? I'm old enough that our school had a staff room and a smoking room

Sarah:

for the teachers, right? And there are teacher only bathrooms.

Mark:

Those would be the grown up bathrooms.

Sarah:

But in my mind, the teachers' bathrooms, because you never get to see them, right, They're for only the teachers. So you imagine they must be so much better than the bathrooms that students have to use, and they probably weren't. They probably were exactly the same. Yeah. It just meant that there weren't a bunch of girls in there spraying hairspray and doing their makeup and hogging all the sinks.

Mark:

Yeah. Or guys walking through on the way to the shower.

Sarah:

There wasn't, like, you know, somebody in there, like a a a butler who handed you a towel No. To dry your hands on or so. It's actually quiet in there. You can just sit. Though, in the union at IU, are the men's bathrooms like this?

Sarah:

The women's bathrooms have a lounge that is before the bathroom. You go in the bathroom door, and there's a lounge room, and then there's the

Mark:

There's one of them that's like

Sarah:

Tiled area. I imagine it's like that. In the women's, there's a counter

Mark:

A place where you can sit.

Sarah:

Yeah. The counter goes around three walls, and there's like a mirror, and there's like little poofy stools that you can sit at, and there's like a chaise over in the corner.

Mark:

And a detergent.

Sarah:

You just imagine ladies from the fifties Yep. You know, and they're touching up their lipstick before they go back out again

Mark:

or something.

Sarah:

I guess. Maybe that's what

Mark:

the toilet for clothes It's not a thing anymore.

Sarah:

It's like. They spray you with perfume before you leave.

Mark:

I don't think I've ever been in a bathroom that had an attendant. I wouldn't want to.

Sarah:

Yeah. I don't know that ladies rooms ever do. It's mostly a guy thing, I

Mark:

think. Gentleman's club.

Sarah:

Minnie and Chad have had some kind of moment at some point. Yes. And she wants him to break up with his girlfriend. Now we know at this point why, right? Because she's Celine's half sister, and she holds Chad responsible for Celine's death.

Sarah:

And so she wants revenge. So she's pretended to like him so she can get

Mark:

back This is at a long, long game.

Sarah:

Yeah, it's a really long game. I don't know what her exact intention is. If she were to get him to date her, what she was going to do, dump him and hurt his feelings,

Mark:

I I don't think that even would

Sarah:

don't think

Mark:

he would have been like that.

Sarah:

But then she knows he's leaving for Yale, so now her time is limited. She's gotta get him Yep. Whatever she's gonna do. So she

Mark:

kind So of with a real weapon at the haunted house, she stabs him.

Sarah:

She slices his leg. Which could easily kill him. Yeah. She hit his artery. Yep.

Sarah:

Then chases him out to the woods with every intent of actually killing him, but she misses and the sickle gets stuck on a log.

Mark:

His actions to kind of assault her are right on.

Sarah:

He wrestles her to the ground and he's reaching for a rock

Mark:

to smash her

Sarah:

head in.

Mark:

Smash her head on.

Sarah:

And then Finn grabs the the sickle and kills him.

Mark:

So that is the killer. So Finn is the killer.

Sarah:

Frankenfin. Frankenfin.

Mark:

Yes. That's the name of the episode now. Frankenfin's the killer. Is this self defense?

Sarah:

Not self defense, but he is saving the life of somebody else.

Mark:

So how does that work?

Sarah:

But I think in court they would have said, couldn't you have stopped him some other way? Like you're his kind of bodyguard friend, couldn't you have grabbed him and got him off of her and stop the attack without putting a sickle through his neck?

Mark:

Now is he inebriated or not?

Sarah:

Yes. So there's circumstances. But underage drinking defense isn't a very good defense.

Mark:

No, but it is a defense.

Sarah:

It's an explanation. It's a mitigation. Yeah. But it's not really a defense. No.

Sarah:

You might get a little bit cut off your sentence.

Mark:

And is Finn gonna just let her go down the pogie if they don't do the poor perp walk?

Sarah:

I don't think so. I think as soon as he were to hear that she'd been arrested, he would have spoken up.

Mark:

Oh, okay. And Mike knows everything.

Sarah:

Yeah. He at least suspects it Yep. And thinks walking her through the gym will make Finn speak up.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Yeah, he's already said, oh, it's just karma for the girl. Yeah. The girl that he had the big thing for, he just calls her the girl. Yeah. He could have said, oh, it's just karma first.

Sarah:

Yeah. And fell asleep.

Mark:

You It seems weird.

Sarah:

But no, I think he's fundamentally kind of he's got some kind of goodness in him. I mean, he's Chad's friend, so he's not all good.

Mark:

He plays chess.

Sarah:

He drunk dry, you know. He's not he's not all good. But in He's Frankenfin.

Mark:

He's a complex individual. When it matters,

Sarah:

he's he's just gonna talk to you guys. Yeah. And confesses. But she still slashed him. Yeah.

Sarah:

Many did.

Mark:

She is GBH at the very least.

Sarah:

Yeah I think so. So. And Wayne's not gonna let that go. No. He's got lawyers and stuff.

Mark:

Dennis Buchanan is on speed dial Oh out

Sarah:

no, he is not good enough for Wayne. Big city lawyer is what he's got Probably. Of course he can't afford any of them so

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

He's totally broke.

Mark:

He's one of these guys who's

Sarah:

I don't think he's getting his money back from Yale. No. His big donation.

Mark:

I don't think so either.

Sarah:

They don't give refunds for that

Mark:

kind That's of our money now.

Sarah:

The crypto guys are gonna be coming after him soon anyway. Probably Russian oligarchs. Maybe Gina can help.

Mark:

Maybe.

Sarah:

He Trudy. I'm no narc. I know. That's what Mike said.

Mark:

Yeah. Mike goes, I know. I know.

Sarah:

But you're gonna tell me anyway. I don't buy Finn's motive really. I think it's I buy that he's preventing Chad from killing Minnie. Yes. But I don't buy that it's revenge for Celine because he should have done that a long time ago.

Mark:

He's underdeveloped. Because he's underdeveloped

Sarah:

You mean as a character.

Mark:

As a character. Person. Because he's underdeveloped as a character, his motivation seemed a little tactical. Frankenfin confused. Frankenfin confused.

Mark:

Frankenfin kinda drunk and now on drugs with broken foot. Comma for girlfriend, Frankenfin.

Sarah:

In a conflict. And then

Mark:

in the end Me going up the river. And

Sarah:

then in the end, Kyle and his little sister, wow, are they tragic?

Mark:

So Kyle got thrown out of school because Chad planted drugs on him.

Sarah:

His mother just walked out on them. Two underage children Yep. With no fathers, like no adult. He hasn't told social services because he doesn't want his little sister to get taken away. Yep.

Sarah:

So they've been living in a camper van.

Mark:

Hiding out basically.

Sarah:

But then Lena gives them the cash, a shoebox full of cash. That That is the result of them extorting Wayne. Yes. Which don't think that means that Lena has a heart. I think it's Lena going, crap, this is dirty money that could get me in trouble.

Sarah:

I don't want to be caught with it. I'm just going to give it away.

Mark:

Yeah. I think Lena understands that she is a good thing going. She doesn't wanna screw it up.

Sarah:

Mhmm. I mean, you know, after that kind of dance, I mean, obviously she's got a huge future ahead of her. Exactly. In small town full of jerks.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So does Kyle have to give the money back?

Mark:

Well, okay. Personally, I don't really care what Kyle does with the money. Yeah. But Kyle's a good guy.

Sarah:

Yeah, he

Mark:

is. He's in the chess club.

Sarah:

He's fundamentally a good person. What teenage boy does all of that to keep their little sister safe? Yes. You know? Like he's a good person.

Mark:

I think he would probably go to Chalmers. Maybe not at the station, maybe at Chalmers' house. Because they have his sister and Chalmers have that moment, you know, where they're drawing.

Sarah:

Because she draws that beautiful portrait of him.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

That's right. Mhmm.

Mark:

And he goes to Chalmers and says, this happened. Mhmm. What what what should we do? But he's also really independent.

Sarah:

Yeah. So And knows the system from the wrong side.

Mark:

I don't think they are going to, if they keep the money, I think they're going to use it to make a good life for themselves.

Sarah:

Yeah. He's not gonna blow it. No. No. He wouldn't do that.

Sarah:

No. And I wouldn't put it past him to take what he thinks they need and send the rest anonymously back to the police station with a note that says where it came from.

Mark:

And I think that Chalmers

Sarah:

probably Because they would be like $50 in that box.

Mark:

Yeah. I think Chalmers would have no problem with that.

Sarah:

Yeah. I mean, if they're blackmailing Wayne for $10 at a time, that's it's a lot of money in there. They can't have spent all of it.

Mark:

I don't think Wayne's gonna, like, put it on his taxes or anything. So the exact amount is gonna be

Sarah:

a Chad little and Lena have blown in the meantime. Yeah. So, you know, you can't say anything.

Mark:

Drinking energy drinks and Sitting in that stupid chair. Behind like, I like how it's casual that Chad is a drug dealer and then it's just completely forgot.

Sarah:

Yeah. Never mind. He's dead anyway. Yep. Kyle's not gonna go to jail.

Sarah:

No. Finn is definitely gonna go to jail.

Mark:

Minnie? Franken Finn is going up the pokey. Minnie is probably gonna get off time off for good behavior.

Sarah:

Yeah. I think Minnie's gonna get away with it because ultimately, she didn't kill him, and that's much more important. Her And then she got attacked, so I think that kind of balances out.

Mark:

Her real crime is using the adults only bathroom when she's not an adult.

Sarah:

Her her real crime is saying way too many times that Chad was hot even though he's dead.

Mark:

She goes on

Sarah:

and on. She's not redeemable.

Mark:

He was not as hot. Though The dentist was way hotter.

Sarah:

Though she has a level of patience that should serve her well

Mark:

later Absolutely. In And Trudy because remember, she works at the bar. Mhmm. And Trudy has got her back and knows that she's a smart girl.

Sarah:

Trudy might be impressed of the long tail crime that she's been

Mark:

I I think she's on team Trudy now for sure. I love how Trudy sticks up for her employees and doesn't let anybody touch them and No. It's just great. Yep. The the redemption of Trudy is fantastic.

Mark:

What's really

Sarah:

great is Gina's nose when she's dressed like a witch. It's awesome.

Mark:

So kids come to the house and Gina scares them away.

Sarah:

The end. That's one of like, she doesn't mean to, but that's a classic Halloween thing to do. Yeah. My dad used to do that with a tube through the window. Kids would go screaming and run off.

Sarah:

My sister and I go out and get their candy from the yard. It was great.

Mark:

You didn't take other kids' candy?

Sarah:

We totally did. If they dropped it when they were running, we totally went out there and got it. My Are you kidding? My dad would scare the bejesus out of little kids, and they would take off running down the hill that we lived on, drop their candy bags, we'd go out there and

Mark:

grab poor kid has no candy.

Sarah:

They start over at the next house.

Mark:

Okay. They

Sarah:

get their pillowcase out and start over. It's fine. So we've already talked about after the credits. Yep. We've only got one corpse.

Mark:

And the corpse is fend

Sarah:

He does a great job.

Mark:

It may be the best makeup of the show.

Sarah:

Pre pre dead, he's legitimately struggling with the blood Yeah. Gurgling out and slumps against that wall and stays very still, that would be a hard position to hold. Does a good job.

Mark:

Excellent dead body actor.

Sarah:

Mark, what's your recommendation for this week? We're we're through the winter doldrums in most of the world, but still, people seem to like the recommendations.

Mark:

So let's keep doing them. I have one recommendation. It's a video of an interview with a woman named Annie Atkins. Now I think we might have mentioned her before.

Sarah:

You're gonna put the link in the show notes.

Mark:

I'm gonna put the link in the show notes. She is the woman who created a book with the fantastic title, fake love letters, forged telegrams and prison escape maps, designing graphic props for filmmaking. I'll put a link to that book in the show notes as well. It is a fantastic book that goes through all of the work she has done creating props.

Sarah:

If you'd like to become a forger, this book is for you.

Mark:

Yes. She has done work on some of the best and most interesting films of all time. If you remember the Grand Budapest Hotel

Sarah:

The Wes Anderson movie?

Mark:

Yes. There is a box that is for chocolates. She designed that box.

Sarah:

No.

Mark:

She she's done some amazing things and this interview goes through her her entire work process.

Sarah:

It's like all the little newspaper clippings and documents and passports and things like that that you see in a movie. She designs those.

Mark:

Maniacs know that I love that stuff and she's a great interview.

Sarah:

You might think those are little things, but if they don't look right, they stick out. Yep. Yeah. That sounds like fun.

Mark:

She talks about that how her work is to not be noticed.

Sarah:

And it's a YouTube video? Yep. Great. My recommendation is also related to YouTube, but it's not a specific video. It's an activity.

Sarah:

Oh. If you've got five minutes and you need a little distraction and you also want to make somebody happy, here's what you can do on YouTube. Search for anything, a topic, vaguer is better Yep. And use the search filters to do two things. One, set the number of views you're looking for to a very low number.

Sarah:

Like zero. Like zero views Yep. Or less than a 100. And then maybe set the timeline, the time frame that the video was uploaded to something, you know, in the past, like a year ago or something. Mhmm.

Sarah:

And watch some videos that some poor soul posted Yep. That nobody has watched.

Mark:

No one has ever seen.

Sarah:

And if you find one that you actually enjoy, like it and leave them a nice comment. Yes. They'll never expect it. Yep. They didn't think anybody was ever gonna watch it.

Sarah:

And to know that somebody watched it and liked it is gonna touch some stranger's heart.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And you get to watch a fun video.

Mark:

I agree. That's a fantastic recommendation. There's also

Sarah:

a tool called astronaut.io. It's spelled exactly the way that I said it. That does something similar, but it just looks it just serves you up a recent YouTube upload that has very, very few views. Yes. So if you don't want to do a search on your own and you're up for something random, you can use astronaut.io.

Sarah:

But I recommend that you use the YouTube search so you can search for something you might actually be interested in watching, Like puppies with only five views from a year ago or something. I don't know.

Mark:

Leave them a like, comment, or subscribe.

Sarah:

Or you can, instead of putting in a topic, you can just put in a video type. Right?

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Dot m p four or dot m o v.

Mark:

Because usually when people that's the default that's in the default name when you upload.

Sarah:

Yeah. So if you if they don't know enough to give it a proper name, that'll be it. And you're about you're bound to find something that Yep. Somebody who hasn't made a lot of videos put up there.

Mark:

Excellent.

Sarah:

And maybe they worked really hard on it. And just by leaving a comment, you can make them happy. And see some really funny stuff too, really random stuff. Like school plays and things like that.

Mark:

Absolutely. That's

Sarah:

my recommendation for this week. What's our next episode?

Mark:

Three gold leaves of Jesus. Jesus. Maybe it's Jesus. April 13. It's it's a weird religious episode as far as I remember and there is a callback to it in season twelve, I'm sure.

Sarah:

Well, I'm sure we'll have fun

Mark:

with it. So we should have fun with it, and that

Sarah:

will be on the April 13. If you take my recommendation for watching one of these unwatched videos and you find one that you think is fun, post to the subreddit or send it to us in a comment

Mark:

or something. Absolutely.

Sarah:

Maybe we can put together a collection of funny maniac found videos.

Mark:

The mini for season twelve episode one, The X Files done by Brokenwood Yeah. Will come out sometime this week too. Until then, bye Maniacs. Bye Maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs Podcast.

Mark:

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. Bye, Maniacs.

Sarah:

So I say so too much.

Mark:

We both do. Everybody does.