Mystery Maniacs

🎙️ Episode: https://share.transistor.fm/s/8eed2975
📓 Show Notes: https://midsomermaniacs.transistor.fm/266

Mystery Maniacs Episode! In Podcast 266, the killer uses a bottomless bottle of hooch to sneak up on a guy. We know it’s Mathew Perry…NOW!

Show Notes
The Burroughs 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27557289/

"Counting the Beat" by The Swingers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMSB1prro_k

Late Night Big Breakfast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbyXYe1oR0
https://www.moonflix.co.nz/video-categories/late-night-big-breakfast

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 over at markbellauthor.substack.com. 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. Chapter 10 of Motte & Bailey drops Tuesday the 2nd of June, and Chapter 10 of Blackstone Mysteries drops Tuesday the 4th. 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

-----------------------------------
Upcoming Tentative  Schedule
  • June 8 - Brokenwood S11E03 - “All Hallows Eve”
  • June 22 - Brokenwood S11E04 - “How the Other Half Dies” 

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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.

Sarah:

That's one of those jokes you think and then you don't say it.

Mark:

No. You rule it out.

Sarah:

Yep. But not you? No. Not you.

Mark:

Hey, Maniacs. 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's

Sarah:

season eleven episode two of Brokenwood Mysteries Sudden Death Round. Death by trivia or death by high school.

Mark:

I always like I'm like

Sarah:

High school is deadlier than trivia.

Mark:

It should be sudden death round, But I always say sudden death round.

Sarah:

Like, it's a death round that's sudden?

Mark:

I guess.

Sarah:

Not sudden death as a round.

Mark:

Yeah. It should be sudden death. Like sudden death over time.

Sarah:

You put the infastis on the wrong syllable.

Mark:

Yes. We are a spoiler podcast.

Sarah:

We're gonna ruin it. We're gonna tell you who did it though. So if you don't know, stop right now.

Mark:

I was like, it's gotta be the librarian. And then the recap showed it wasn't the library. No. And I was like, oh, yeah.

Sarah:

It's not.

Mark:

I I watched this a whole entire year ago.

Sarah:

Yeah. Before we dive in, we have one recommendation for you from what we've been watching on our brand new 65 inch

Mark:

TV. Spectacular.

Sarah:

This is Mark's birthday Father's Day present that came early. Yes. People, I thought my eyes were going bad. Yes. It was not my eyes.

Sarah:

It was our old TV. It was so bad.

Mark:

It was definitely dead.

Sarah:

I had no idea how dark it had become until we got a new TV and watched some of the same stuff. And I'm like, wait a minute. There's a background in that scene? There's stuff going on back there? I've never seen any of that

Mark:

before. No. No. It's unbelievable how big it is.

Sarah:

It's not

Mark:

The people appear life-sized.

Sarah:

It's not necessarily the size of it. It's the the detail that we can see because it's like four ks

Mark:

or It's four ks and QLED, which means it is light reflective in the sense that

Sarah:

Our big windows don't Yep. Totally obscure the TV at all times.

Mark:

I can see what's happening in the dark now. We're complaining about

Sarah:

this. But the key point is that on this big TV that is now not nearly as dark as our old TV was

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

We watched The Burrows on Netflix. If you haven't seen it and you have Netflix, you gotta check it out. It's like all of those, like The Goonies, like those movies where the kids have an adventure together because the adults don't believe anything they're telling them, but the kids are telling the truth about this amazing thing that's happening.

Sarah:

Yes. But

Sarah:

in this case, it's all old people.

Mark:

It's Stranger Things cocoon

Sarah:

Mashed up.

Mark:

And the Goonies mashed up.

Sarah:

Abs that is really that's perfect. Yep. Stranger things cocoon and the Goonies.

Mark:

All mashed up.

Sarah:

All mashed up. It starts Alfred Molina and a bunch of other people who you will recognize. Bill Pullman's in it.

Mark:

Gina Davis.

Sarah:

The mom from ET. Yeah. Like, I forget her name, but it's super good. It's really fun. Yep.

Sarah:

There's sweet parts in it and scary parts.

Mark:

And they stick the ending. Yep. I don't know what they're gonna do next.

Sarah:

They can't do another season.

Mark:

I don't know.

Sarah:

It's perfect. Yep. Just as it is. It's like eight episodes done.

Mark:

Started watching Canadian Trader because it's been released on Paramount Plus. No. Peacock. Sorry. We've been waiting for Canadian Trader for a while.

Mark:

It dropped three seasons.

Sarah:

Mark has been waiting for Canadian

Mark:

All all at once. It's like I'm watching people I went to high school.

Sarah:

You're like, oh, I know. I'm I can guess where he's from. Yep. That's where he's

Mark:

from.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

And it's like the cheaper, try harder younger brother of traitors.

Sarah:

Yeah. But fun.

Mark:

But still fun. Yeah. Oh, and they go at each other right away. Yeah. There's no politeness here.

Sarah:

No. They're not they're not being Canadian

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

About it. Okay. You ready to talk about Sudden Death Round?

Mark:

Oh, boy. This is as we've mentioned way too many times, season eleven and twelve are fantastic. We started off with a bang and we're right into another bang here.

Sarah:

It's quiz night at the high school to raise money for the library. It is. Let's run through the plot real quick.

Mark:

So there's a quiz night that is being run by a former student

Sarah:

Who's now a radio host.

Mark:

There are a bunch of people at this quiz night.

Sarah:

We'll go over that. All the regulars are there.

Mark:

We'll go over that in detail later.

Sarah:

And Midway through the quiz, things get kinda carried away.

Mark:

Oh, boy. Do they ever.

Sarah:

Frodo's on a table. Yep. Which is not the first time Frodo's been on the table. No. And he always falls off the table.

Mark:

He does.

Sarah:

After the quiz night is over, the host, the former student Ryan, dies in an explosion in the pool house of the high school.

Mark:

A real explosion. I don't believe that CGI explosion.

Sarah:

I think it's a

Mark:

real explosion. I believe they blew something up.

Sarah:

And I think it's really well done. Yep. We dig back into the history of students at the school and a local counselor,

Mark:

and who's not likable, and bullies.

Sarah:

Building regulations. Yep. Come to find out, the principal did it. Yes. Because we always wanted the principal to do it, right?

Mark:

Yes, Absolutely.

Sarah:

Everybody thinks the principal's up to date.

Mark:

And it involves him giving bad information to a bullied student.

Sarah:

And having kind of covered it up and let the student take the rap for it instead of stepping forward and saying, hey, I gave him bad advice. Yes. I told him to fight back. He shouldn't have because that got him in trouble and got him expelled and affected his whole life.

Mark:

And it spirals. He tries to frame somebody for it.

Sarah:

Ultimately, though, principal's trying to protect the reputation of his dead father.

Mark:

You mean principal little mouth? Wow. He's

Sarah:

got a tiny little mouth. He's got a tiny mouth, and the librarian has a giant mouth.

Mark:

Giant mouth.

Sarah:

Do you think the photo of the principal's dad is a photoshopped photo of the same actor who's playing the principal?

Mark:

No. I think it's a photo of his dad. Oh. Could be. There's enough difference in the face that I think it's different.

Sarah:

Okay. I think it's a photoshopped image of him

Mark:

and I

Sarah:

think It it's done

Mark:

could be. I my dad's been gone a number of years now. I loved my dad. He was a fantastic man. Hundreds showed up at the funeral.

Mark:

Nobody's ever said a bad word about my dad. I would not want a giant picture of him in my office. Behind you

Sarah:

at all times at work? That's a lot.

Mark:

It's weird.

Sarah:

And it's not like it's a private school. Like, his dad started the school.

Mark:

No. But they have an outdoor pool. I'm, like, so jelly of that.

Sarah:

Okay. You've mentioned the pool. I was gonna talk about this later. But when I saw the outdoor pool, I was like, wow, that's weird for a high school to have an outdoor pool. Because here, pools are just for recreation.

Sarah:

Right?

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

A pool at a school is gonna be indoor. And I'm like, well, only in a country with nice weather like New Zealand could you have a school pool that is outside.

Mark:

Where they value swimming, especially No. Both Australia and New

Sarah:

count on the weather being clement enough to have school swimming events outside and not be canceled by weather.

Mark:

You can't do that in Canada.

Sarah:

Which made me think, this is a segment that we should have started when we started covering Brokenwood way back when called it's a Southern Hemisphere thing you wouldn't understand.

Mark:

Oh, that is totally a Southern Hemisphere thing.

Sarah:

Because not only do they have a school pool that is outside because they're in New Zealand and the weather is nice, we have never, until today, realized that Southern Hemisphere schools have school years that are flipped from ours.

Mark:

Yes. So they don't have a Christmas break.

Sarah:

The school year starts in January. No. Summer summer break is December and January.

Mark:

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Sarah:

That's their summer. Okay. Because that's when it's hottest there.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

So back to school is in February.

Mark:

No. Back to school. It's bad enough it's in August here.

Sarah:

I know. It's in February. And then, like, in June, they have, a mid semester break, mid school year break. Yep. Little break.

Sarah:

And then graduation is in, like, November.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Isn't that

Mark:

weird? That's so weird. We forget that they're Southern Hemisphere.

Sarah:

It's a Southern Hemisphere thing. You wouldn't understand. Yeah. That's why I think we should have had this segment

Mark:

all along. We have had that. Well, we will from now at this point on. If we see Southern Hemisphere stuff, we have a

Sarah:

whole, what, 12 episodes left to to do it

Mark:

in? Ten episodes left after this one.

Sarah:

Include yeah. Because of season twelve. Yeah. Yeah. It just blew my mind that I never I mean, we've talked about the seasons being flipped.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

But we've never talked about the school year being flipped, yet another implication of the seasons being flipped.

Mark:

But that's definitely why they have an outdoor pool. Because

Sarah:

Well, yeah. Why wouldn't they?

Mark:

No school I ever went to had an outdoor pool. In Canada?

Sarah:

Yeah. When swimming is a is a winter event? Yeah. Between football and basketball? Yeah.

Sarah:

Yeah. No. Alright. You wanna talk about quiz night?

Mark:

All of the quiz teams are based on names of that were relate to books.

Sarah:

Because it's a fundraiser for the library at the school. Yes.

Mark:

So there's a team with Todd and Frodo.

Sarah:

The losing team.

Mark:

Who are completely unaware that Hannah and the other guy are in bed with each other. Carl are in bed with each other. Right?

Sarah:

Well, at that point, they haven't.

Mark:

That's true.

Sarah:

All they do is kiss that night in the chemistry classroom. That is the totality of their affair.

Mark:

That's all that we know. Right.

Sarah:

It's all we know about.

Mark:

The spelling mistakes, which is two ladies, Reverend Green and Doctor Plummer. Shh. I didn't count the h's

Sarah:

but It's a lot. It's a lot. The blurbs, the

Mark:

late returns, and then our favorite, it's only on screen for a tiny second but we love the Brokenwood people for doing this. It is drag queen story time.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

Which is a direct reference to American politics.

Sarah:

Yeah. So this made me think of what our quiz team name would be, which would obviously be

Mark:

Be the Maniacs.

Sarah:

The Maniacs. Yeah. And we'd win Yeah. Because our Maniacs are incredibly smart. I'm not saying you and I are incredibly smart, but the people who listen to

Mark:

this show very draw on.

Sarah:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot of academics in various fields. I think we got it covered.

Mark:

Though my trivia on the Midsummer official podcast, didn't do very good.

Sarah:

They didn't prep us.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Okay? They fibbed to us about which episodes our questions were gonna be about.

Mark:

Someday, someday, we will do a Maniacs After Dark about Maniacs Unchained. About the official Midsummer Podcast.

Sarah:

About what that experience was.

Mark:

That was an adventure.

Sarah:

Actually, like. Anyhow, back to the show. I got to thinking about, well, we would be the Maniacs

Mark:

if we

Sarah:

Yes. Had a Of course

Mark:

we would.

Sarah:

But what if there were teams from the other shows we've covered? Like what if the characters from the other shows had teams? What would they call themselves?

Mark:

Oh. Also, our kids would be the Odd Squad because that's what we

Sarah:

call them. If we had a family team, it would be the Odd Squad. Yeah. Because that's what we've always called ourselves. We even have I even have a mug at work.

Mark:

Yep. And it says picture

Sarah:

of all us.

Mark:

Is calls us the odd squad all the time.

Sarah:

Yeah. Your friends do. Yep. Let's do we'll do five. Okay.

Sarah:

Okay? Okay. Early midsummer, I e, Tom midsummer. Okay. John midsummer.

Sarah:

Okay. Poirot, Murdoch, and the cop shop at Brokenwood.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Okay. We're talking, if these people had a quiz team, what would it be called?

Mark:

Okay. And it's not book related even though the other ones are all book related.

Sarah:

No. Because they're they're in our fictional quiz event

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Where these fabulous teams are appearing and is not a fundraiser for the library.

Mark:

No. It would be a fundraiser for something else.

Sarah:

Sure. Yes. Yeah. Murder victims.

Mark:

So okay. Okay. Let's do let's do maybe the least known first for our audience which would be Murdoch.

Sarah:

Okay. So what's your Murdoch?

Mark:

Who's on the Murdoch team first of all?

Sarah:

Well Murdoch, Julia, George, Henry, and Brackenried.

Mark:

So I have Murdoch, Crabtree, Henry, Brackenreid, and sometimes Julia.

Sarah:

Yeah. What's your team called?

Mark:

Is she on the team or not?

Sarah:

That's the the team name?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Because you're talking about Julia? The issue on the team or not team?

Mark:

Yes. Okay. And the other name I have for them is yet another crazy invention.

Sarah:

George says, what? Henry is our handicap. That's what it should be.

Mark:

That's what it should be.

Sarah:

My my names were the fingermarks Yeah. Or Brackenreid's enforcers. Oh. Because I imagine if Brakenwood thought that they got the question right, but the quiz master said they were wrong, there would be some fighting. Yes.

Mark:

Okay. So that's Murdoch. Okay. Poirot. There's four people on this team and that's it.

Mark:

Yes. Is Poirot, Hastings, Miss Lemon, and Jap? Yes.

Sarah:

That's it.

Mark:

Yeah. That's it.

Sarah:

My ideas were the mustache waxers.

Mark:

No starchy bad teamy.

Sarah:

Why would they call themselves that?

Mark:

I don't know.

Sarah:

I have the I say radars.

Mark:

32 times right?

Sarah:

That goes along with my last one, which is miss Lemon's type right hers.

Mark:

Oh, and then my final one is the powder of weenings. What? Because remember in the first day episode, he talks about the powder of key tings?

Sarah:

No. For Keating's You've been rewatching Poirot. I wouldn't get that reference. Yeah. She would have wanted her thing.

Sarah:

That's from

Mark:

She would have wanted her team.

Sarah:

That's from the clap them cook, isn't it? God, we're nerdy. Okay. How about early midsummer with Tom?

Mark:

Tom, Cully, Joyce, and Troy.

Sarah:

And maybe George.

Mark:

Maybe George. Yes. The first name I have for that team is it's all her fault.

Sarah:

Joyce did it? Yeah. Is that it?

Mark:

Joyce did it. It's all her fault.

Sarah:

My first one was Scott's sick days.

Mark:

Nice. Nice. My other title is less problematic than the books.

Sarah:

My other one is the midsummer event planners.

Mark:

The right constables would be another one.

Sarah:

That would be a good one. Yeah. Everybody would get that. Yep. How about the later midsummer?

Mark:

So John, Sarah, Fleur, and Winter. Mhmm. My first one is Where's Betty?

Sarah:

That's the name

Mark:

of the team? Where's Betty? Where's Betty?

Sarah:

Mine is Psychology Experts.

Mark:

Nice. My other one is I'm the new guy.

Sarah:

Not that Barnaby.

Mark:

Not that Barnaby.

Sarah:

Okay. How about Brokenwood? If the Brokenwood cop shop so that would be Mike, Kristen, Chalmers, and Gina.

Mark:

Or Nigel. Nigel can be there too.

Sarah:

Yeah. But you wouldn't see him. He'd be under the table all the time. He'd be invisible. Invisible Nigel.

Sarah:

What's their team name?

Mark:

Bad Coffee and the Creamers.

Sarah:

Oh, I called it the Sims Pultons.

Mark:

The Sims Pultons. Mike's Marauders.

Sarah:

They're not really Marauders.

Mark:

No.

Sarah:

Gina's a plus Sims a minus. Chalmers, Pex, and that twirls. And Kristen's coffee?

Mark:

Yeah. I like bad coffee and the creamer.

Sarah:

I like that too. Okay. Okay. Now that we've goofed off long enough.

Mark:

So now let's get down to the weird and wonderful stuff in this episode. And we don't have to go in order or anything like that because we've covered the plot. Mhmm. And we've covered who the murderer is.

Sarah:

Let's talk about the victim and his burns.

Mark:

Oh my gosh. So the victim

Sarah:

is Ryan.

Mark:

His name is Ryan. And he is both smarmy and lovable in the same way, in that he's he's a victim of bullying. And

Sarah:

He clearly got away from Brokenwood and sort of reinvented himself.

Mark:

And I can totally understand that.

Sarah:

He's one of those handsome guys who was awkward as a kid or whatever. Yeah. But wow, I mean, Hugh just shoves them into there and into the pool and something starts spilling, which should not happen.

Mark:

Well, have a problem with the pool shack. Okay. The problem I have with Wait the pool shack

Sarah:

a minute. So Hugh shoves him. He's unconscious in there. Isn't that enough? No.

Sarah:

No. There's some kind of chemical pouring on him, and Hugh suddenly goes, chemistry.

Mark:

I've got a lighter. I got an A plus in chemistry.

Sarah:

My friend Gina gave me an idea. I heard that quiz question,

Mark:

and now I

Sarah:

know what to do. It's fizzing and burning him, and he's like, that's not enough. Let me light it on fire.

Mark:

The fact that one of the quiz questions rep links to the chemical makeup of the final

Sarah:

Of the murder and

Mark:

the murder.

Sarah:

Isn't actually a clue

Mark:

Is chef's It's absolute chef's kiss. Yeah. Because it makes everyone a suspect.

Sarah:

Yeah. So that that is fantastic. Which Tilly Morpeth, the librarian's like, was that a red herring? Was it just a way to cover it?

Mark:

Well, Tilly and her murder board.

Sarah:

She's got quite the murder board. Ryan's body on the slab, the prosthetics they've got

Mark:

on are impressive. Is burnt on half of his face and I think one of his arms like his shoulder and his chest.

Sarah:

All down one side and he's got the y incision on him.

Mark:

Yeah. And first of all, excellent dead body, doesn't move a stitch.

Sarah:

Because that's a lot of prosthetic.

Mark:

That is a lot of prosthetic to be on you. Doesn't move a stitch, excellent dead body, and I think the best makeup we've seen on Brokenwood.

Sarah:

We don't see a lot of it, and it doesn't have to move. That That helps. I'll give you a little bit of trivia here. When you're making a burn prosthetic like that so it has all that tissue that's kind of shriveled and pulled away and stuff. One of the ways that you make that part of the prosthetic is you paint liquid latex onto a plastic surface, like a cutting board or something.

Sarah:

And when it dries, you sort of half rub it off, and it comes off in a web kind of thing, and then And you stick it that's called a nurnie. A nurnie. It's making nurnies.

Mark:

Oh, well, these are

Sarah:

I have made many a nurnie.

Mark:

These are fantastic Nurnies.

Sarah:

There's a lot of Nurnies on that prosthetic. Yeah. A lot. In the alcohol that was spilled on him to combine with the chlorine and cause the chloroform gas. Yes.

Sarah:

As well as the explosive potential of it.

Mark:

I don't know

Sarah:

if As he plumbers hooch.

Mark:

I don't know if he's making it out of that shack even if it doesn't blow up.

Sarah:

No. He's not. He's got chemical burns on him. Yeah. And he's inhaling it and unconscious.

Sarah:

Yeah. He's done for. That's what I mean. Principal daily doesn't need to burn the shack down to kill him, but he does if he wants to hide the evidence.

Mark:

I guess if he wants to hide the evidence. So yes it's Doctor. Plumbers hooch because Doctor. Plummer has a new new hobby.

Sarah:

Because all he needs is hobbies.

Mark:

Yes and that the bottle is has a label on it and that's the one of our questions of watch like a maniac.

Sarah:

Yeah. The first one was the team names.

Mark:

Of the Aquavida.

Sarah:

And it is? Doctor's drop. I think it's drop makes it sound so light and Everyone who drinks it is like Except Gina.

Mark:

Yeah. Who's like Gina's the

Sarah:

that's all you got?

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

I looked up

Mark:

Is this the first scene with Doctor. Plummer and Gina alone?

Sarah:

Maybe.

Mark:

I think Think it's the first one.

Sarah:

I looked up, and this is another reason why I'm gonna get flagged somewhere for looking things up I shouldn't, in a long history of that. If the alcohol would need to be of a certain proof in order to interact with the

Mark:

chlorine Mike asked that question.

Sarah:

Kind of. Yeah. Yeah, like would liquor be enough, or would it have to be like ethanol, pure ethanol, or something like that? And it doesn't. Like any liquor, not like beer or something, but like a spirit

Mark:

A spirit.

Sarah:

Would be high enough proof. It just means that because of the water content, because that's what else is in there

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

That would just kind of prevent it from being as quickly reactive. But it's being compressed that would really make it explode. So even if you put like a low proof alcohol and bleach in a Mason jar and close the lid, it would explode eventually. But the higher the proof, the quicker it would happen.

Mark:

The quicker it would happen.

Sarah:

Yeah. Because I wondered what proof plumbers booze is. And I thought, oh, maybe it's like you know, 90% alcoholism thing.

Mark:

I'm sure it is. Probably. He's a big fan of the guy too, the host.

Sarah:

Oh, of Ryan? Yeah. Yeah. He's quite the fanboy.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Maybe in season twelve when we see that weird crap in their garage in Green and Plumbers garage, maybe that's Plumbers booze. Maybe it's his still. We may have to rewatch that.

Mark:

On our giant TV.

Sarah:

We just did that. Just the same moment. We didn't even plan that.

Mark:

Okay. This shack is no way going to be beside a high school and not be either the sex shack or the smoke shack. The pool shed? Yes.

Sarah:

I think have you ever been in a pool shed for a pool that big? I I have, but The chemical smell is so strong.

Mark:

Okay. So you go behind it for the sex shed.

Sarah:

Behind it maybe, but not in it. No way would you go in

Mark:

You just don't have something like that in a high school.

Sarah:

But it has

Mark:

It's like it would be like a high school putting the water tower of the town in that parking lot of the high school like mine did.

Sarah:

Nobody ever climbs that. Right?

Mark:

Once a year. Yeah. They put the the water tower for the town was in the high school parking lot.

Sarah:

What? Anybody ever die?

Mark:

No one ever died, But at least once a year, somebody either tried or went up.

Sarah:

Well, the pool shed is safely secured by a padlock Yes. That Gary, the groundskeeper, leaves unlocked. Gary is Doing his best.

Mark:

He's doing his best. And he's the groundskeeper. He obviously doesn't have any family that we know about. No. He's living with the guy selling drugs.

Sarah:

He's living at a boarding house.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

And then camping out at the school. Yes. He's got it rough.

Mark:

He's he's got it rough, but he comes through with a key piece of evidence

Sarah:

when it's needed. But wouldn't the principal's fingerprints have been on the padlock?

Mark:

I would think

Sarah:

there there are some problems tough to explain.

Mark:

Yeah. There are some problems with fingerprints.

Sarah:

On the liquor bottle, he can explain, but not that padlock.

Mark:

Yeah. Bless. That's Gary didn't

Sarah:

explosion melted them off.

Mark:

Gary didn't leave that shack in a good state.

Sarah:

Not if something could just fall over and start spilling out.

Mark:

Well,

Sarah:

Put had to the lids on.

Mark:

It had to be pretty bad because he wasn't like he was choosing to live away from the school. Like think about it, he obviously has keys to the entire school. Mhmm. So he could be like, oh don't worry principal killer guy, I'm gonna finish up this painting before tomorrow morning. Oh well, I got here first thing.

Mark:

Like, you have a giant school.

Sarah:

You He's could groundskeeper. He's not the maintenance man. Maybe he doesn't have keys to the inside of the

Mark:

he would have keys to the whole school.

Sarah:

Because if he did, he could just stay in the boiler room.

Mark:

I would think that's where he would stay. But

Sarah:

It's a Southern Hemisphere thing. Wouldn't understand.

Mark:

Ran through to find another body in this in this episode. That's two for two Yeah. In this series. But we have to talk about Frodo dancing.

Sarah:

Ryan, the victim Spikes. Spikes the punch.

Mark:

And everyone

Sarah:

This is a bottomless liquor bottle. Plummer makes magical liquor Yes. Because he takes a big swig, he pours a whole bunch in into the punch, he keeps drinking it. Ryan's carrying it around drinking it.

Mark:

When he's with counselor cocaine later on and the builder He's still drinking it. He's drinking it in the principal's office.

Sarah:

And there's still enough to pour a trail to splash it on his body and create a trail like 10 feet away from the shack.

Mark:

It is the bottle that never empties.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's magic.

Mark:

They start to sing a song.

Sarah:

Mhmm. So this Because it's the answer to one of the trivia questions. It's the only one Frodo knows.

Mark:

It's the only one Frodo knows. And it is counting the beat by the New Zealand band, The Swingers.

Sarah:

Okay. I've never heard this

Mark:

song. 81 song. It is exactly well, they play it in the episode. They play parts of it in the episode and they're singing. It was it was named the fourth best New Zealand pop song of all time.

Sarah:

I don't wanna say that that's not a big accomplishment but I'll say it's not a big accomplishment.

Mark:

And Sarah, what do we know about all these shows? We know this about Midsommar, we know this about Brokenwood, we know this, we were just remarking about this today about New Zealand, it is a small place.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Formed from the revenant remnants of Suburban Reptiles, which is a band I should have put in my quiz from last week.

Sarah:

Suburban Reptiles?

Mark:

Yes. The founding members were all in split ends. So they are a band of people that were in split ends, then split ends became crowded house.

Sarah:

Split Ends, one of the two bands that we mentioned last week in the Psychedelic Furs episode along with not me sex apparently, it's my sex.

Mark:

Yes. We were incorrectly said

Sarah:

Even worse, it's m I dash s e x.

Mark:

Yep. We were

Sarah:

Barely, that's my

Mark:

son. Updated. There was a reference to a song by Ultravox.

Sarah:

Excuse me. So

Mark:

split ends became Crowded House. And are now once again touring New Zealand on a huge tour right now as split ends again. And I wonder if the dude from this band is playing with

Sarah:

them. I wonder if they play that song.

Mark:

I don't know. But

Sarah:

Just for fun. Yeah. It's such a big hit.

Mark:

So you can find online Frodo doing there's pictures. I think it's on Tracy's Instagram.

Sarah:

Tracy Gray. Plays Trudy.

Mark:

Of because Frodo did his own stunt here. He jumps on a bag.

Sarah:

Like You just say on Tracy's Instagram, like, you know, everybody is best friends with Tracy Gray, who's like an actress in in a big show and stuff.

Mark:

She's fantastic. But you

Sarah:

just throw it

Mark:

out and say,

Sarah:

you know, Tracy. Yep. You and all your star friends. Yeah. So he did his own stunt.

Sarah:

He he he falls on a big inflated stuffed bag when he falls off the table. Right?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Carl Willett is his own stunt.

Mark:

Yep. Frodo. He does fantastic work as

Sarah:

I just love all the grown ups throwing stuff at each other, and I love that The librarians When Trudy blocks something with the door of the bar of the, like, the hatch and then opens it up again. But the only thing that stops it is the librarian going, that's a no. Yes. And everybody's like, uh-oh. The librarian yelled at us.

Mark:

Ray says he wants to be a host of one of these things. And there's a reference right at the end there. He's doing a trivia night.

Sarah:

Well, Trudy says, well, you don't have a big radio show. Yes. But actually the actor who plays Ray does have a big radio show, doesn't he?

Mark:

He it's not a radio show. It's a sketch comedy show on a streaming service in New Zealand. There are there are, I think full episodes on YouTube. If not, I will link to it. I'll also It's

Sarah:

called like the late night breakfast hour or something like that?

Mark:

I'll also link to the band in the video that we were just talking about. It's called late night big breakfast and it's like a goof on a morning show.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

And it's got But

Sarah:

it's not a real morning show?

Mark:

No. Okay. It's got

Sarah:

Ray It's like a parody of a morning show.

Mark:

Yes. It's got Ray. He is so good in

Sarah:

it. The actor who plays Ray.

Mark:

Yes. And a guy who puts me in mind of Al Murray, pub landlord. You know who

Sarah:

Al Murray is. The the British comedian.

Mark:

And Jeremy Wells from Taskmaster is in it.

Sarah:

From New Zealand Taskmaster.

Mark:

But but it is like it's like a morning show mixed with Al Murray pub landlord that's shot in a furniture store. So, like, there there are there are customers behind them.

Sarah:

Oh my gosh. Like, actual people, real people.

Mark:

Yeah. It's it's very funny. And

Sarah:

We'll have to check it out.

Mark:

One of the people they have had on that show is Neil Finn from Split Ends in Crowder House.

Sarah:

It's a small world

Mark:

in New Zealand. It's very small world.

Sarah:

Everybody knows everybody.

Mark:

Everybody. Well, you watch five minutes of that show, you're like, oh, Brokenwood. Brokenwood. Brokenwood. Broken or deadlock.

Mark:

Like, everybody. And I forgot I forgot that Ray was in Young Hercules. Do you remember who else was in Young Hercules?

Sarah:

I can't say that I do.

Mark:

Ryan Gosling. Oh. He was the star of Young Hercules.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

So all of these people are one degree separated from from Ryan Gosling.

Sarah:

Oh, it's a weird world. It's also weird

Mark:

It is exceptionally weird world.

Sarah:

That Kristen's bragging about getting an A minus in chemistry, and Gina's like, I got an A plus.

Mark:

Like So what do you think of are

Sarah:

you that you're bragging about your high school chemistry grade? Gina would have a PhD. Yes. I think that has way more sway than Kristen's high school chemistry class. They're not even comparable.

Sarah:

Like, they're not even in the same school.

Mark:

No. They're not. I I hate to break it to Kristen, but it's not the same.

Sarah:

No. Why did the chairs

Mark:

I love how Chalmers just stayed.

Sarah:

He just he's like, I'm a bystander. I'm just gonna watch this train wreck happen. Yep. Why did the chairs in the chemistry classroom need to be put away?

Mark:

Why wouldn't they be put away at the end of the day? Well, it was a place for them to have kissy kissy.

Sarah:

Yeah. But unless the chairs in the gym came from the chemistry classroom

Mark:

Maybe. But you would have chairs in the gym anyway.

Sarah:

Yeah. Most schools who use their gym as an auditorium have chairs there, like, in racks.

Mark:

What I noticed

Sarah:

They don't scour the school looking for chairs every time they have an event.

Mark:

I went back and looked at this. The weirdness of the gym is that so this is obviously a small school. Most small schools have like a stage area associated with their gym. Yeah. Right?

Mark:

That's where I grew up. That's how it was.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

Right? There's no basketball court. There's no basketball nets. Sorry.

Sarah:

What's the gym for then? Pickle? Field hockey? Field hockey is outside. Indoor rugby because it's not hard enough outside.

Sarah:

Gosh. There's not enough injuries. We need to play it inside on a wood floor.

Mark:

If you're not watching New Zealand women's rugby women an Australia women's rugby, you're missing out.

Sarah:

Oh, man. They are badasses.

Mark:

They're it is it is absolutely fantastic.

Sarah:

Just all they have to do is just stand there and they scare me.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Don't make her mad. Yeah. I guess they just have gym class in

Mark:

there. I guess. They do calisthenics or or something. What do you do in New Zealand gym class?

Sarah:

Run back and

Mark:

forth. I will have to ask our New Zealand friend source what you do in gym

Sarah:

class. Play play dodgeball.

Mark:

The poor woman has to answer the weirdest questions we have.

Sarah:

In the cop shop, we've got some new posters.

Mark:

Yes. So one of our questions for watch like a maniac and this was a deep cut. Thankfully

Sarah:

Only the most maniacal would get this question.

Mark:

Some smarty pants wrote down the answers of these a year ago because wow, I wouldn't know I was like, I have no idea. Who are Panzer and Marcel, Sarah?

Sarah:

They are pets who are missing. Yes.

Mark:

So there is a spot of of pet missings that has happened in Brokenwood. There are more posters in this episode than anything else and we definitely alluded to in the mini that maybe there's something going on with pets that we're supposed to notice.

Sarah:

I really expected an episode later in this season to be about somebody stealing pets. Yep. And it never happened.

Mark:

It never did.

Sarah:

Maybe they were playing around with the idea or something.

Mark:

Something. This is definitely the first episode though where Frodo's board is used for comedic

Sarah:

The chalkboard on the front of his coffee stand. So

Mark:

the chalkboard on the front of his stand for a long time was just specials then they put a couple of things on it and now they're goofing on it. Yeah. And this is really the first episode in which the goofs come into play. So the first goof is

Sarah:

Do as I say, not as I Frodo.

Mark:

As I Frodo, which is why I named the mini our sweet boy Frodo or something.

Sarah:

It's like his carpe diem. That was one of our questions. But then later it says better latte than never.

Mark:

Yep. So that board from this point on is free range to the point where in the latest episode, the last episode, so season twelve episode six, it is there are jokes on that board.

Sarah:

You kind of thought, are they messing with us? Like us, specifically messing with us? Yeah. I don't know, Mark. I can't hear you.

Sarah:

Remember, I'm deaf in one ear. By the way, I'm deaf in one ear. Yep. What? I'm deaf in one ear.

Sarah:

Okay, Bevan. We know.

Mark:

So Bevan Bevan is the builder. Build Bevan the builder.

Sarah:

Building the biggest house ever

Mark:

for No one. A wife and children who he doesn't see enough.

Sarah:

Who have left him because he's a jerk.

Mark:

Now their house in Wellington's on Exeter Street. Now I thought, I checked this to make sure, but I think they say 14 Exeter is where he's at.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

But my Spidey sense went off with Exeter.

Sarah:

Did you nerd out and look at Google Maps to find out if there's a house there?

Mark:

No. Because I think it may be a secret X Files reference. What? Because Toombs, the guy who eats people's livers every thirty years and comes back to life and eats people's livers again Lives

Sarah:

lives in Mark's Nerd Corner.

Mark:

Lives at 66 Exeter Street. Okay.

Sarah:

But is there an Exeter Street in New Zealand?

Mark:

I would say that there probably is.

Sarah:

But you didn't check that?

Mark:

No. I

Sarah:

didn't. You just assumed it was a deep cut X Files reference? It's Exeter. What if like the studio is at 14 Exeter Street Maybe. Or That would have been the obvious thing to look up, but not you.

Sarah:

No. No. Not Mark. It's probably a reference to the liver eater in X Files. It's the same street.

Sarah:

The numbers are completely different. Yes. And you and one other person know that that guy lives on Exeter Street and X Files.

Mark:

Okay. Any X Files fan knows he lives on Xers.

Sarah:

No. They don't. You and the guy who wrote it. Nerd.

Mark:

James Wong.

Sarah:

Oh, you're such a nerd. I love you for it, but you're a nerd. Is missus Morpeth like the librarian at your high school?

Mark:

No. She's way involved. So the librarian in my high school, I I had a fraught relationship with her, missus Reed. First of all, you'll be completely amazed the fact that she loved Terry, So my much though

Sarah:

Who probably never got a book out of the library the whole time he was in high school.

Mark:

So much so that a sculpture my brother made of a spray painted log with tent pole legs and a hobby horse head on it, which he called horse, was predominantly featured in the library the entire time I went there.

Sarah:

I don't even know who the librarian was when I was in high school. Okay? Like, did not play a part in my life. The fact that Mrs. Morpeth is like, well, I couldn't tell you about Ryan because he's been victim enough.

Sarah:

Oh, Ryan. Yeah. Like, Okay, weird connection to a student. Weird. I love it when the weird ones find each other.

Sarah:

Okay. You're like shipping students

Mark:

It's Weird. Bad. It's It's bad. It's bad.

Sarah:

Never mind that her entire house is paneling. It's just wood wood wood.

Mark:

Her house is weird, but then she has a murder board. And Okay.

Sarah:

You and I would have a murder board.

Mark:

You know we would.

Sarah:

Of course, we would. It would be digital. Yes. It would be like on a Google Doc that we would share with each other, and it would be on a Pinterest board or something. But we would absolutely have one.

Sarah:

Yes. Her house is a front door and a hallway with doors leading off the hallway, and every room is full of wood.

Mark:

Yeah. It's a weird house.

Sarah:

It's very strange.

Mark:

And the school records are just willy nilly handed out to everyone.

Sarah:

So are medical records. Yep. And not for the victim Nope. Who doesn't have the privacy anymore. Chalmers just calls the hospital and is like, yo, this guy Bevins getting an accident.

Sarah:

Can you check? And they're like, sure.

Mark:

I was there just a minute ago with GingerDoc. Oh, yeah. We love GingerDoc.

Sarah:

I mean, the hospital is two rooms in a hallway, so the records must be, like, right there. But Everyone heard No. They're off -site.

Mark:

Everyone heard in Brokenwood does not go to emergency. The A and E is one room and one hallway.

Sarah:

With one doctor

Mark:

With one ginger doc. Who is so

Sarah:

unbusy that she can tell the principal that he can see you now. Yeah. Like, she also serves as like Concierge. Concierge to to Gary who was stabbed by his drug dealer roommate because she's not busy.

Mark:

You know? Do you think drug dealer room roommate knows the only goth in town? Yeah. You think so?

Sarah:

He also knows that they're all lizard people. All

Mark:

the

Sarah:

politicians are lizard people.

Mark:

He is fantastic.

Sarah:

The drug He's he's been drinking the punch.

Mark:

They took a hard hardened criminal. He sells cocaine to politicians. And stabs people. And stabs people and made him funny and cozy.

Sarah:

Yeah. Because the bankers are lizard people.

Mark:

Yes. Well, know all about those people.

Sarah:

Yeah. Like like Sims isn't the man. Like, she would be a lizard too. Yeah. She's a cop.

Sarah:

Come on.

Mark:

Sims is totally lizard.

Sarah:

Absolutely. So let's talk about Fiona since you mentioned the coke. Okay. Fiona is like Politician real estate broker? Politician Or just real just count city councilor.

Mark:

City councilor does cocaine, has a daughter.

Sarah:

See, where we live, city councilors don't make enough from doing that to support themselves. It's a side job.

Mark:

We know one city councilor and he is the oh, no.

Sarah:

We know two. We know two.

Mark:

And they're both the nicest human beings on the planet.

Sarah:

Yeah. But both of them have full time jobs. Yeah. Being on city council is not their full time job. No.

Sarah:

But she and her daughter have a beautiful home.

Mark:

Well, and they're lizard people.

Sarah:

Well, Ella, her daughter is definitely lizard people.

Mark:

No. They're counselors we know.

Sarah:

Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Now that I had to think about it, like, is that one? Yeah.

Sarah:

That one? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. They're both a little bit. But apparently, it's her full time job, and she makes enough edit to have an office with a receptionist in a giant house.

Mark:

And she hides stuff really badly.

Sarah:

She locked the drawer, Mark. It doesn't exist anymore. Uniformed cop goes pop with his little crowbar.

Mark:

Anyway Nigel opens up that drawer in two seconds.

Sarah:

Not even that.

Mark:

He's just

Sarah:

He's got it right handed.

Mark:

They didn't even go, is there a key? No. No. Pop. Pop.

Sarah:

Fancy flip phone. Yeah. Is that a fancy phone?

Mark:

It's one of those one screen phones.

Sarah:

Okay. So it is fancy.

Mark:

It's a fancy phone.

Sarah:

So flip phones went from being old and Busted. Busted to now being new again?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

To being fancy again. Okay. I thought maybe Gary is so out of touch that he thinks that old flip phone is fancy.

Mark:

No. And remember it's the rest of the world so they all have cheap Chinese phones.

Sarah:

Yeah. That's

Mark:

true. That are super cool and have you know lizard government stuff on them. Name of the episode is lizard government flip flops. One

Sarah:

of our questions in the Maniacs was referring to Ella's Rolling Stones t shirt because it is the voodoo lounge tour. Yep. And our question was who's been to the Voodoo Lounge? The answer is no one. Ella probably has no idea who the Rolling Stones are.

Sarah:

No. Because she is of that generation who buys cool band T shirts for bands they don't know anything about.

Mark:

Which is okay.

Sarah:

There goes that was my old person rant.

Mark:

Looks good. I like how it looks cool.

Sarah:

She wears it with cool plaid pants.

Mark:

Maybe she listens to their music or it's a gateway into listening to

Sarah:

their music. She has to put up with Fiona as a mother.

Mark:

She does. And she gets kidnapped by the She

Sarah:

does get kidnapped by Bevan of the bad attitude. Yes. Oh, he's deaf in one ear. Did you know that?

Mark:

Oh, wait a minute. Is he deaf?

Sarah:

Just in one ear.

Mark:

I love, absolutely love the takedown that Ryan does a bevin of, I came to terms with it, you should have came to terms with it. Yeah. Like that was excellent, so good, well written, and it made me like Ryan.

Sarah:

Yeah. And then he just turns his back and walks away.

Mark:

Yeah. It that Like you beat me

Sarah:

up because you secretly loved me and couldn't admit it. Yeah. You could admit it now. Kevin's like, I'm deaf in one ear, I'm going.

Mark:

I'm gonna kidnap a teen girl. Why? How? Against Chalmers? He's gonna crack your head like a like a knot between his bicep.

Sarah:

And you won't even hear him coming. Yep. By the way, this is not to make fun of anybody who has any kind of

Mark:

hearing deficit. We're making fun of his constant references

Sarah:

As to him not being able to many times as he references that you think, okay, there's gonna be some key scene in this episode later where somebody's gonna sneak up from him, you know, on him from that direction, and he won't know they're there because he can't hear them. And it never happens.

Mark:

And and they have the perfect spot for it. He's in the house, kidnapped the young girl, and Chalmers is coming in the house. And Chalmers is, like, kinda sneaking. He can't really ninja because he's

Sarah:

But Bevins is just facing him.

Mark:

But no, the girl screams.

Sarah:

Yes.

Mark:

And he can't hear it because he has a bad hearing in one ear.

Sarah:

He turned his head away, and that was it. Because, you know, you only hear whatever happens right on that side of your head. Yes. Missus Morpitz's cat's name is Pushkin. Pushkin.

Sarah:

Famous Russian playwright. Yeah. Vladimir Pushkin. Gina would like that cat.

Mark:

Yes. She would.

Sarah:

That cat's handy because it shoves open doors and reveals murder boards. So Mike just happens to see them because missus Morpeth is the worst liar.

Mark:

Pushkin pushed in the door.

Sarah:

That's one of those jokes you think and then you don't say it.

Mark:

No. You rule it out.

Sarah:

Yep. But not you?

Sarah:

Nope. Not you. It takes a special level of acting ability to pretend to be a bad liar as a to play a character who is a bad liar.

Mark:

Well, she she does it well. She does that well. And she also does when Do you need my assistance? The when the cleaner is being interviewed by Chalmers and Chalmers notices her, she totally does the, oh, I wasn't here doing anything. Yeah.

Mark:

Like, that is good acting.

Sarah:

Yeah. Carl the cleaner? Yeah. Clean genius. He's not a cleaner.

Sarah:

He sells cleaning supplies.

Mark:

They they do so well with that location because if you notice, and I think this happens when they appear again, no one actually goes in the house. No. So they do all those scenes outside the house, and you you totally believe he lives in that house, but they never go in

Sarah:

the house. It's full of bodies. Yep. His wife and daughter.

Mark:

Wife and daughter.

Sarah:

They're not away.

Mark:

Carl the killer.

Sarah:

He has great hair.

Mark:

Carl the cleaner killer. He's a good looking guy. I could see what she sees in him.

Sarah:

He's got a really nice sweater on Yeah. The night of the trivia game, and he has great hair.

Mark:

She's a science teacher in a high school and single. She's looking

Sarah:

She gets carry out from the panther

Mark:

and

Sarah:

Yeah. Cheetah crocodile

Mark:

Crockin cheetah Frog.

Sarah:

Yeah. She's a lonely single lady getting carry out from Trudy.

Mark:

Who's the cook there? Because Trudy runs the bar, Ray runs any of a number of things.

Sarah:

Chad the zombie. No.

Mark:

Todd's back there.

Sarah:

Todd cooks all the food like the day before and they serve it the next day. It's not good.

Mark:

Doing yard work and cleaning out gutters other times.

Sarah:

While he's doing it. Yeah I don't know why Bevan kidnaps Ella. I don't know when he thinks he's gonna accomplish doing that.

Mark:

He really, really, really screws up his entire life for no reason at all in a number of ways and a number of times.

Sarah:

It's because he can't hear Ah. Out of that one ear.

Mark:

He's got the lizard ear.

Sarah:

And he's got the bum shoulder.

Mark:

He's got the bum shoulder.

Sarah:

Those make you make bad decisions.

Mark:

He was gonna be on the all blacks.

Sarah:

I bet his wife left him because he couldn't hear.

Mark:

I bet you that.

Sarah:

I mean, really, it's wrecked his life.

Mark:

Yep. That was gonna be the answer to the question about the All Blacks, not who the last time they won, but who was gonna play Why can't Bevan be a Black?

Sarah:

He'd sit there and go, what?

Mark:

Did you catch the secret Canadian reference? No. There's a Justin Trudeau question.

Sarah:

That question about where he went to school? Yeah. Where did he go to school?

Mark:

He went to Dalhousie University.

Sarah:

Where's that?

Mark:

It's in Montreal, strangely enough. Never heard of Dalhousie. Yep. So the fact that I hung around in Ottawa roughly at the same time as Justin Trudeau and

Sarah:

Talking about good hair.

Mark:

Yes. And the guy from Friends, what's his name?

Sarah:

Matt LeBlanc.

Mark:

No. Chandler from Friends.

Sarah:

Oh. He was David?

Mark:

Not David Schwimmer. The other one. The him and Justin Trudeau were big friends in Ottawa.

Sarah:

They went to There's three guys. There's Joey. There's Chandler. Chandler, and there's the one who dates Monica.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Okay. Chandler is Matt LeBlanc.

Mark:

No. No. Joey is Matt LeBlanc.

Sarah:

Oh. Are you sure?

Mark:

I'm absolutely sure.

Sarah:

Chandler's dead. Yes. Wow. We are really off.

Mark:

There are some friends, people who are like screaming.

Sarah:

They're strangling their headphones right now. These people are too stupid to live.

Mark:

Anyway, I existed in Ottawa at the same time as they were teenagers. They were a little bit older than us, but we obviously it wouldn't be weird for me to think that we had been to a concert together.

Sarah:

That you'd been at the same concert at the same time. Yeah. There's a lot of

Mark:

other Like David Bowie when he came to town or Peter Gabriel when he came to town and stuff.

Sarah:

You really are just thirsty to be associated with famous people today,

Mark:

aren't you? Today? Yeah. It well, not really thirsty. It's just kinda drinking from the fire hose.

Sarah:

It's been a weird day.

Mark:

It's been a weird day.

Sarah:

We can't tell you about it right now, but we will. So it all boils down to the letter. Yes. Because, you know, it goes in your permanent file.

Mark:

It does.

Sarah:

Do you remember thinking in your that your permanent file was like something that followed you your whole life

Mark:

No. In high school? No. Because I was like, there is no way these people have any clue of how to do this.

Sarah:

There's a

Mark:

They barely keep records.

Sarah:

There's a folder somewhere in a filing cabinet, maybe that's got my vaccination records in it, and that's, like, it or whatever. But I'm not missus Morpitt. She she keeps she keeps the records. She keeps the records. Except when the principal slips a letter out of the file.

Mark:

Okay. So the principal is willing to give 25 k to to Gary. To keep him quiet. To keep him quiet. And he's willing to pay for the library.

Mark:

They're paying this principal way too much money.

Sarah:

I don't think Gary was ever gonna see that money.

Mark:

No, don't think so either.

Sarah:

I think that was a bribe that was never gonna be paid. I think Gary would have found his shanty ablaze at some point. Cause once you've killed one person

Mark:

Well, yeah, except on Brokenwood where you only kill one person per episode.

Sarah:

Well, You could kill somebody in another episode. Yes. Trudy could totally kill again at some point if driven to it. And it would not be pretty.

Mark:

It would involve lots of blood.

Sarah:

You think that scarecrow was bad, that's got nothing. Yep. So the letter proves that Ryan's parents knew that Hugh told him to fight back against Bevins, who was his bully, And when he did

Mark:

They expelled him.

Sarah:

Hugh didn't step up and say, I'm sorry, I told him to do that. That was bad advice, and that's my fault. So Ryan gets expelled, and his family has to move and leave town and everything else.

Mark:

The thing that all teachers tell you about taking responsibility, this guy doesn't.

Sarah:

No. Because daddy might have been upset.

Mark:

I'm surprised he hadn't killed before.

Sarah:

I'm surprised he doesn't have his dad stuffed in a back room in a rocking chair like in psycho.

Mark:

It's a bit psycho.

Sarah:

But in the end, he just, yeah, admits it. And Yeah. It is He's got principal hair.

Mark:

It is British cozy of

Sarah:

You got me.

Mark:

You got me.

Sarah:

Don't you think he has principal hair?

Mark:

Totally has principal hair. Do you think it's a rug?

Sarah:

No. Okay. I think that actor has principal hair.

Mark:

Yeah. That guy walked in. They were

Sarah:

like, him. He's the principal. Yep. He looks like one. Yep.

Sarah:

He's got that

Mark:

They saw his headshot.

Sarah:

Puckered face. Yep. Then we're back at the Croc And Panther for quiz night. There's gotta be

Mark:

a I'm quiz gonna tell my wife about

Sarah:

this. Not

Mark:

until later episode. Oh, okay.

Sarah:

Okay. He walks up and he's like, hi, How how are you my wife's gonna be home soon. Mike's like, we have no reason to talk to your wife. Oh, okay. Bye.

Mark:

Yep. I think this is the height Awkward. Of awkwardness with Gina that they back away from now.

Sarah:

Yeah. Because she looks desperate and stupid. And she's neither.

Mark:

She's not she's neither.

Sarah:

Yeah. But this is it later now? Can we have a drink? Like Yeah. He never said you were gonna have a drink.

Sarah:

You misunderstood from the very beginning. You're smart enough to be a doctor, you're smart enough to understand that. But they're gonna order food, so Todd better get busy in the kitchen.

Mark:

So the final question I have for you Todd, I'm gonna ask

Sarah:

you get the kitchen.

Mark:

Yes. The final the final and the donkey. The question I have for you about this episode is who will be winning quiz time with Ray Nielsen?

Sarah:

Missus Baker.

Mark:

See, I think Rev Green and Doctor Plummer win. They're smart cookies.

Sarah:

Oh, if they're a team? Yeah. Yeah. The two of them. Yeah.

Sarah:

If well, you know what? It depends who writes the questions. That's true. If Trudy writes the questions, all the questions are, who's the biggest jerk around? Who's the biggest narc around?

Sarah:

Who gets on my nerves more than anybody? And they still might win. They could probably do a pretty good job at them.

Mark:

Yes. Sarah, after the credits, the principal goes up the pokey.

Sarah:

Yep. He's definitely going to prison.

Mark:

Bribery, all sorts of things.

Sarah:

Missus GBA's gonna retire. She should have retired a long time ago. Yep. Gary's gonna move on. They're really gonna have to like start over at the school.

Mark:

Bevins is in trouble, he kidnapped somebody.

Sarah:

I think that's one of those cases where they have to decide to press charges if Fiona doesn't press charges.

Mark:

Well, he's on their radar though. I I was surprised we haven't seen him again.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

When they saw that house for the location spotters, were like, oh, this one.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's a it's a big beautiful house.

Mark:

Yeah. But they totally are not finished yet. No. No. No.

Mark:

It doesn't have a giant door though.

Sarah:

Not like in the real estate episode. No. So that is Sudden Death Round. What is season eleven episode three, Mark?

Mark:

Season eleven episode three is the fantastic All Hallows Eve. It's a Halloween episode. It has phony psychics and it is a Tanya written episode. It has everything that we love.

Sarah:

It's Brokenwood. Of course, we love it.

Mark:

It's it is and that is the first appearance of Trudy's mom.

Sarah:

I get so screwed up because we watched season twelve and now we're back in eleven. I get so mixed.

Mark:

The first appearance of Trudy's mom, and I I think we learned that it's Trudy's mom.

Sarah:

And the psychic from the The shop. De Los Muertos

Mark:

Yes. Episode comes back. Which is another Tanya episode. Yes. So

Sarah:

Well, until then, Maniacs.

Mark:

Bye. 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, exclusive sneak peeks.

Mark:

Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word. Bye, Maniacs.

Sarah:

I'm like, I'm going to work. Goodbye. Y'all figure it out.