And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central. This
is the show that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, JD. Sutter, and this is episode one hundred
and eighty three. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode.
We've got some audio drama updates to get to here very shortly, and then
I will be joined by ATC contributor Michael Schrader to review Adventures Not a C
album seventy three twenty eight hours. That is going to be a really fun
discussion, So that's coming up. But before that, I'm going to just
talk very briefly in a monologue segment about gratitude. So let's jump right into
the dates. We had er up this program to bring you a special report
and in other news tonight, a brief look at the headlines. Now they
want exciting, fast piece news it's relevant and entertaining like this. Well,
first off is just a brief clarification or correction. I mentioned in episode one
eighty one, the episode where we talked about audio drama and audiobook hybrids with
Kenney Sargent. In that episode, I had mentioned the new show that it'll
be coming from Chad Bennati, And as we were talking about that, I
referenced his work on Drake the Cosmic Copper for Adventures Odyssey and how he had
worked with them on the comics version of that character. And I don't remember
exactly how I phrased things, but Chad hit me up and said he wanted
to make it clear that he was not the creator of that character and he
didn't work on the audio show, and so I wasn't trying to misrepresent anything,
but I wanted to make sure that it was clear. Bob whose was
the one who originally came up with the idea of Drake, and he did
the audio episode. Chad was brought in to work on the comics version,
which he based on the original audio script, and then he fleshed out things
a little bit more to work in the medium of comics. But we just
wanted to make sure that was clear. So everybody's getting credit where or that
is due. If you have been listening to the show for any length of
time, you know that that is a big thing for us. We always
want to make sure that the proper people are getting credit for the work that
they do. So I just wanted to make sure that that was clear and
moving on another follow up, and this one from the last episode eighty two.
In the feedback segment, I addressed some feedback from a Thad and he
had talked about the change dot org petition that he had started to get Focused
on the Family to relaunch the radio theater series, and I thought that was
a great idea, and I pretty sure that I mentioned that it's probably a
good idea to also reach out to Focus directly in addition to signing the petition,
which I have done. I have signed that and so it's linked in
the show notes. If you missed that episode and you hadn't had a chance
to do that, definitely go do that. But Fad also reached out to
David Hildover at the AIO Update website, and now David has gotten involved in
this effort and they are really trying to encourage folks to not just sign the
petition, but also to write into Focus as well, and they're doing that
through postcards. And so we've got this campaign going of trying to encourage people
to just write a quick postcard and send it into Focus. And so I
just wanted to make sure to share this update encourage you to do that.
I'm planning to get my postcard out here in the mail very soon, so
all the details where to send it and who to address it to. All
of that information is in the article that is linked in the show notes here,
so definitely get involved. I don't know how many people have taken them
up on this challenge yet, but as I said in the last episode,
I really think it's going to take some tangible evidence that people really want this
and are willing to support the product for Focus to take some action. The
petition on change dot org is great. That does show that people are interested,
but sometimes you've got to actually take a little bit of an additional step
and get out from behind the computer or the phone and actually do something the
real world to make a difference. So hey, yeah, that could go
on a lot of different directions, not just for audio drama, but anyway,
that is. That is the update on this, and so again link
is in the show notes to find all the details on where to get your
postcard out too, but I would encourage you to do that all right now
into the news of upcoming audio drama releases. First up is Glenn haskell Man
This guy has been cranking out the content the last several months, and he
has just recently wrapped up the on demand series and now he's working on a
Dragnet parody. There will be multiple installments of this show as well, and
the first one is called Daniel, Darius and the Den. And I've got
a little teaser for you. This is a few minutes of this upcoming show
from Glenn Haskell. The story you're about to hear is true, well for
the most part. Dragnet Daniel, Darius and the Den. It was Tuesday,
August twelfth, one fifteen pm. It was a hot summer day in
Babylon. I had a lunch of astrami on rye and Frank had egg salad
on sourdough. We each had soda of an unnamed brand. We aren't being
paid for product placement. Thursday Bublicloure tucked him. What's your name, ma'am
Benise Clovis, And do you want Frank Frank an We'll see about thee.
But do you know his name? Whose name? The man who was recently
vacated from his home. Oh, his name is Daniel. No, not
the bagel vendor. No. This was a different Daniel. What happened?
Then? What happened? Maybe you missed the fact that Daniel was taken away,
so he broke the law. If you call Freya breaking the law,
then that effect Daniel broke the law. Am I in a canyon. We
checked the police blotter and discovered that Daniel, the second in command and not
the bagel proprietor, had indeed been arrested. So we went to the local
palace and spoke with a certain Nabu, head of human relations. Yeah,
what do your fellow's need? Wait, what department are you with? We're
police professionals. We have some questions, all right. Using open records laws,
we were able to obtain recordings of the government work session that included the
signing of the new law. Darius slab forever, that's highly unlikely. I
know, it's what you're expected to say, which, of course is why
we say it. What's on the agenda. There is a ribbon cutting at
a Hu's camel detailing and tent repairs. Then Daniel is my second Yunu always
king, benevolent King, honest and esteemed king. I know the sound of
groveling when I hear it, and I've heard it. What exactly do you
want? All we ever do? We seek your good, my king nature?
That's special to go on pray to King Darius. He means he this
time, those found in violation of this law will face punishment of what did
you used to sign on? By appealing to the King's ego, his advisors
got their law passed. All they had to do was wait for Daniel to,
in fact break the law they knew he would. Missus Clovis, what
brings you to headquarters? I came named? What bad animal? Heads at
temper? Sometimes he spits, what have I done? Excuse me? Huh?
You are not with the media, are you. I'm job Thursday and
I work in the Biblical Investigation Division, currently occupying space in the Babylon d
Row. Oh my goodness. That sounds like it's going to be so much
fun. As a Dragnet fan, I find it absolutely hilarious. The whole
vibe of Dragnet is, you know, the cop who's very straight laced and
you know, no nonsense, and so I'm just really excited to hear this
final production. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun.
And you probably heard some familiar voices in there. I didn't actually get a
chance to look at the full cast list on this one, but I definitely
heard Jonathan Cook in there, and Frank Yuley, and I think there was
Rebecca Bradford. The latter two there are from The Nick Guy Show. And
I also got to play a small role in this one. I get to
play one of the King's advisors. So that was a lot of fun and
new talent to the industry. Nathan Marlette is making his audio drama debut,
if I'm not mistaken, so this is gonna be a lot of fun.
Like I said, there will be multiple installments of this, and this first
one is a schedule to release on September first, so not too long to
wait for this one. Also coming in September is a brand new series from
the Mary Beggars, And if you're not familiar with them, they are the
ones who brought us at Christmas Carol, the advent Calendar adaptation of a Christmas
Carol a couple of years back, and then they did on the Night Train,
and now they are back with a new series called The Saints Adventures of
Faith and Courage, and that will be coming in September of twenty twenty three.
It will be a daily show week days, so five days a week
you'll get a brand new episode, and each week will be focusing on the
life of a different saint, so for five days you will get a biography
told over the course of that week. I don't know exactly how long this
series will be running, but they have mentioned several of the saints that they
will be covering, and there's quite a few, so interestingly enough, three
of the ones that they've mentioned are ones that Augustine Institute Radio Theater have covered
in their really in depth biographies Francis Patrick and most recently Joan, so they're
going to be covered in this series from the Mary Bakers. I do believe
though, that this series is going to be geared towards more of a younger
audience. I think the air theater productions, while there's certainly not anything in
them that is necessarily not great for children to hear, they I don't believe,
at least they don't get the feel to me that they are geared towards
children. It's more towards adults or something that families can listen to together.
And I think my understanding. My impression of this series from the Mary Bakers
is that it's going to be more geared towards children. I could be wrong
about that though, but in any case, those will be coming soon,
and I've heard some snippets of what they've got coming and it sounds fairly good.
So I'm excited and looking forward to hearing what they come up with on
this series. While speaking of another character that Air Theater has covered, LRT
Media and Eternal Future Productions has teamed up to bring a new show about Robin
Hood, So I'm really excited to hear what direction Craig Hart and Jonathan Cook
and Alicia Hanson take this character. I also want to let you know that
you need to stay tuned to this podcast because in the new next episode,
Craig Hart will be joining us and he's going to give us an exclusive about
what's coming up on this project and just some insider information that we can only
get from the source. So that's something to look forward to on this project.
Well, I've already referenced them a couple of times already, but The
Air Theater Augustine Institute Radio Theater recently released The Victory of Joan of Arc,
which we mentioned in the past, but just a couple of days ago,
the official soundtrack was released from composer Jared Dipasqual and I had a chance to
reach out to get some behind the scenes information from Jared about the composing of
this score and got some comments from director and writer Paul McCusker and sound designer
and producer Todd Bustide, as well as Kim flouch House, who was the
flutist that Jared worked with this production. If you haven't heard it yet,
the flute is an instrument that is used all throughout the score and it was
part of the character theme for Joan and so there's a link in the show
notes to check out this article. Then I wrote and just to share some
information about the behind the scenes, and it's really interesting to get to hear
some of that creative process and how Kim and Jared worked together, and how
Jared and Paul worked together, and how it was really a big collaboration between
all of these amazing, top notch creatives and Jared took all of these this
input and wrote an absolutely beautiful score. And so if you're a fan of
soundtracks like I am, or if you're a musician or composer yourself, you
don't want to miss this article. I think you'll really enjoy reading some of
that information about the whole creative process, so be sure to check that out.
And of course there are links to get yourself a copy of the soundtrack
as well. It is available on all the major streaming and digital download outlets.
All right, This next item is a little bit of here's something that's
coming but is also available as well, and that is the twelve thirty two
production an audio epic from Calli Sue. They just released the first nine episodes
to their crowdfunding campaign backers, so if you were one of those, you
will have gotten an email with the information on how you can hear those,
so it's already out there for you. For the public, it will be
coming soon. So they are working on some of the distribution options that they
have available to them right now, so there will be more information on that
coming soon, and of course we will let you know as soon as it
is available for the public, but that should be pretty soon, and so
keep an eye or an ear out for twelve thirty two. And lastly,
I just want to mention that in case you missed it. The nominees for
the sixth ATC Seneca Awards were announced on July twelfth, and the awards show
is coming up on August twenty fifth, so just a couple of weeks away.
Please join us for that. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Right on the Seneca's homepage at the senecas dot org, there will be
an audio player. You just click play and it will stream right there for
you. There will be a chat room so you can visit with other attendees
of the event and Chris Anthony Landsdown. Yes, Chris from Adventures in Odyssey
will be speaking at the event, and actor Nato Jacobson as well, so
it's going to be a great show. We're going to announce the winners of
course here from our guest presenters, and we'll have a few little entertainment segments
as well, so you don't want to miss that. That's August twenty fifth
at seven pm Pacific, ten pm Eastern. Be sure to join us right
there on the Seneca's website. Testing one, two three, Testing that.
Let's just me talking. I do that a lot. Where's my speech?
How long are you going to board with it? That's what I want to
talk about. Well, at the top of the show, I said that
my monologue was going to be about gratitude, and that was a little bit
misleading, and that's just because this segment is all about what I'm thinking right
now pertaining to the audio drama industry, and what I'm thinking now is I
just want to say thank you and share some gratitude. I don't want to
go into a whole lot of detail, but I've been going through some pretty
tough times in my personal life lately and recently the audio drama community stepped up
and blessed and encouraged me in a way that absolutely blew my mind. It
was one of the one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me
in my life. A whole bunch of people sent some very very kind notes
that were so so encouraging, and I couldn't think of anything else that I
would rather do with this monologue segment in this episode than to just say thank
you. And I know this isn't going to apply to the vast majority of
the audience here, but that's just what I'm feeling right now, so you're
going to hear it too. And I don't want to take the time to
name every single person, but I just want every one of you to know.
I know that many of you are listening to this show, and I
just want you to know that I am so very grateful for the kindness.
And I will mention one person in particular, Alicia Hanson of Eternal Future Productions,
and that's because I found out that I'm pretty sure that she was the
reading leader of this whole effort. And Alicia, thank you, You and
everyone else totally made my day and it is very, very appreciated and it
meant a world to me what you all did and how this can pertain to
everybody else who is listening. I just want to point out that it is
so important to invest in relationships, regardless of what you are doing, whether
that's in your personal life, in just friendships, or in your career or
even family members. Invest in people. Don't burn bridges unnecessarily because you never
know when you're going to need somebody to lean on. And in terms of
career trajectories and networking for business, people like to work with people they know
and like people who are pleasant, and so I just thought I would tag
this onto my little audio thank you note and say that it is so important
to invest in people and don't squander relationships and be pleasant, be easy to
work with. And that is one of my favorite things about this industry is
the people are just so great, so friendly. The vast majority of my
conversations, whether that's via email or phone call or in person, these interactions
that I've had with the professionals in this space and other fans, vast majority
of them have been so positive, and I don't think that's something that every
industry can say. So bottom line is, I'm just very grateful for the
people in this space and the relationships that I've been able to have with so
many of them. And i just want to say thank you and thank you
listener for indulging me and allowing me to share something a little bit more personal
in this episode, even though you didn't really have much of a choice.
All Right, let's move on. I remember from that radio program, what
was it? A Western musical melodrama you helped out with the kids radio program.
I mean, you are great another important tool of acting the oct of
becoming. Should we hunting for what? All right? Twenty eight hours Album
seventy three of Adventures in Odyssey. Michael, thank you for joining me on
the show to talk about Odyssey. It's so much fun too. Well,
first of all, it's fun to talk about Odyssey, and it's always fun
to do it with you, So thank you. Yeah, this is my
first Odyssey review on the show, and to do this album. Wow,
what an honor. I'm humbled, I am I'm grateful. Yes, yes,
thank you for clarifying that. Yeah, we talk about Odyssey in a
text to each other often or whenever we do see each other in person.
But yes, this is your first as we did with this album, right,
I remember talking having conversations with you as the episodes were dropping. Yep,
but this, yes, this is their first official Odyssey review on ATC.
But this is an interesting album. It's a it's a pivotal one.
I guess. It is one of the shorter arcs in the series as a
whole, but it is one of the most fast paced, like adrenaline pumping
kind of arcs we've had in the show's history. Yeah, one of the
most jam packed definitely, with bombs and hospitals and kidnappings and the Chairman coming
back what so. Yeah, pretty awesome. Yeah, so maybe now now
it's a good time to say. As with all of our Adventures Odyssey reviews,
they are spoiler filled. So yes, we're gonna a little late tell
you spoiler warning if you didn't know there was a bomb in the hospital or
that the chairman came back, I'm sorry. Yeah. So you know,
in our other reviews we typic try to not spoil anything, but because Odyssey
is so ubiquitous, most of our listeners are very avid fans and they're all
up to date on this stuff, so we do go into spoil errific details.
So let's do that with album seventy three, which was released in October
and November of twenty twenty two, so been out for a little while,
aired on the radio already, and we've had lots of time to let people
get caught up on it, and it is I think it might be one
of the shorter albums. Even in the sixth episode era, it's a two
hours and fifteen minutes run time. And again, I think it is one
of the shorter ones because we had a couple of episodes that were like twenty
minutes or something like that. So oh wow, yeah, I didn't realize
that, but it did when I was listening to it this week, it
did feel shorter. I felt like I got through it pretty quickly. I
I feel like there's been a several albums lately that have had some really powerful
episodes, and like the Lost One, the Olivia arc, the way that
that ended, that was really one of the most emotional ones that I like,
the most moving ones that I've heard in a long time. Absolutely,
and then this one filled that itch I had for, you know, wanting
the epic storylines, you know, where you're on the edge of your seed
and you're excited for what's coming next and just counting the minutes down until you
keep refreshing the page on Thursday or whatever whatever day it came out right to
see if it's if it's out, And so I was I was hoping for
one of these kind of longer arc epic storylines, and so I was excited
when I heard that that whole album was going to be devoted to that.
Yeah, and interesting that the last time I think the last time we had
a self contained arc in one album was The Green Rink Conspiracy, right or
no. I guess it would have been The Ties to Bind, But that's
not necessarily like an action adventure kind of story there. Yeah, the Ties
that Bind was like similar in that it was one storyline. Well, I
mean, I get the Ties that Bind was really unique in that way because
it was they all had a bunch of different storylines and they were just going
along the same theme, playing different parts of the same theme, but they
didn't all necessarily tie together, like yeah, expecting them too, but they
had the commonality GRC and Ties That Bind, and that they were just all
called part one, Part two, etc. Right, And and then this
album, I think I wasn't alone in thinking or assuming that they were going
to do the same thing here because of the way they were kind of hyping
it up and saying what was going to happen, Like when the summary was
released, it was just like one thing instead of like you usually have a
little mini summaries for all the different threads that are going to be happening in
an album, whereas this one was just one thing and like, oh okay.
And then they announced the episode titles on the official podcast, They're like,
oh okay, so they're not going to do that this time. They
each have individual titles, Yeah, which I liked. I thought that was
creative except for evening ended at like it was four thirty am at the end
of evening, and then the next one was called dead of night. So
I think that tells us something about Kathy Buchanan's a sleeping schedule that she considers
after four or thirty am to be the dead of night, or whoever named
it. I don't know if she's letter named it. But well, speaking
of times of day, I think it's time for the summary. Will you
do us the honors? I certainly will ospend so much time in the future,
Miss and Rott. Now think that the junior. Every second and minute,
each hour, I can heal you a little blow start to find all
the time they was stolen. John, I make mass. The clock is
ticking toward an explosive confrontation as your friends from Odyssey race to solve the mystery
and save the world in this special six part adventure twenty eight Hours. To
Jason Whittaker, it was just another morning in Odyssey. Birds were chirping,
sunshine warmed his back. The only urgent item on his agenda was helping Connie
Kendall get her car started again. But then Jason's phone rings, alerting him
to a crime at J and J Antiques that will set in motion a day
that the Odyssey Gang will never forget. Over the next several hours, Jason,
Connie, Wit, and Jillian become entangled in a mystery that threatens the
future of their beloved town and even the entire world. Could such a nice
day really end in the start of war? Will Jason really have to sacrifice
themselves to prevent the death of thousands? Is anyone going to make it out
of this day alive? And as Connie asks with frustration, is anyone in
this town really who they say they are? Oh? My goodness. You
know what it is so funny about this is I didn't actually read through this
whole summary, and I just I always do this. I'll go grab some
one from the aio wiki or one of the digital retailers. I guess I
haven't really been consistent with where I got them from. But this one doesn't
sound like it's very official, Like it's the way it's worded. It just
sounds funny. And it also says J and J Antiques when we know now
that it's triple J. Yeah. So yeah, I'm wondering if somebody edited
the wiki and just put something in there. And here's a question for the
fans to rile them up. If Jason and Jillian get together, is it
gonna be quadruple Jay or they going back to Jay and Jay like you know,
that's why she has a Jay name. Hey, just kidding, guys,
don't get mad. Oh goodness, Yeah, no, I enjoyed that
summary. I enjoyed that. Yeah. You don't usually get the description of
how Jason's backfields. So yeah, and they also, I mean it gives
away stuff like Jason sacrificing himself, Like come on, like, I mean,
we knew he was going to have to do that, you know,
we were all expecting that. I do. I do like the crescendo there.
It starts off, you know, and I guess that's the whole point
that it starts off real gentle and then and then and then the whole world
is at stake and the start of war and the death of thousands, like
that's that is intense. It just escalates very much. Yes. So this
album, ask we already alluded to, has six episodes. We have morning,
afternoon, evening, dead of night, daybreak, and final Minutes.
Because this is such a unique album in that it's one storyline. We'll try
to keep things in chronological order, but we may not necessarily, you know,
split them up episode by episode. We're just gonna try to go through
this and hopefully it'll all make sense, and we'll talk about our favorite moments
and stand out performances and all that kind of stuff like we usually do,
but we may not specify precisely which episode the particular thing happened in. So
hopefully you're okay with that, me or the audience. I'm talking to the
audience. Okay, I'm glad you are too. Well you already mentioned.
This was written by Kathy Buchanan, who also directed it, and Dave Arnold,
as always is our executive producer. Post Production was done by Luca no
and Zach Schneider and music by John Campbell. So we have the regular crew
here with Adventures and Odyssey of course, Nathan Hoobler producer, and you know,
I had heard they've been kind of dripping out little teasers over the months
leading up to this. I was very hyped for this one, especially after
I first saw the cover art. It just looked like it was going to
be an epic, epic story, and I have to say it did not
disappoint. Yeah, definitely this reached Novocom level excitements in my mind, even
though I obviously Novocom was much longer and more intense, you know, But
the Green Ring Conspiracy, I think it's a good consparison too. It felt
like, I feel like Paul McCusker did a lot of stuff like this,
like the long arcs and so, and I really enjoy that kind of story
for Odyssey, So I was also very excited about it. Well, let's
go ahead and take a quick listen to the official promo just to give you
a little primer in case you haven't listened to these episodes in a while.
It's very short, so it isn't going to give you very much. But
hey, it's kind of the protocol around here, so let's do it anyway.
And Adventures in Odyssey's seventy third album, twenty eight Hours, Odyssey's favorite
son is missing, Jan and lives are at stake. If we move him,
he died, and if you stay here, you all die. Above
all else, everyone wants to know what's going what's going on? What's going
on? It's a jam pack. Twenty eight hours an album seventy three,
but Adventures in Odyssey available now on the Club CD and download. Learn more
at Adventures in Odyssey dot com. Quick shout out to whoever cut together that
promo, because I love how they isolated those lines what's going on? You
know, I didn't even pick up on that that that was repeated multiple times
throughout this this show from different characters, but I was like, Oh,
that's that's great. Yeah, neither did I. That's that's really fun.
Well, and in terms of our cast, you know, these are all
familiar characters. Well, I shouldn't say all generally, for the most part,
they are. They're all familiar characters or at least some that have been
on the show for a while, some who are familiar in name but not
necessarily in personality. We have are you talking You're talking about Jillian or Officer
Burke both, of course, Jason Whittaker voiced by Townsend Coleman. Katie Lee
is the wonderful Connie Kindle, Andre Stoika is mister Whittaker, Monica Padilla as
Jillian Marshall, Phil Proctor as Don pole House, and we'll get into the
others as we come across them. But so this thing kicks off with episode
ninety six morning, and you know, I had no idea how of course,
you know, I'm not. I don't have an inside scoop on what's
going on at Focus, but I was wondering how they're going to set off
this epic story. And it has a very mundane beginning. You know,
it's just Connie being Connie again, having an issue with her car and needing
help, needing a jump start, and also trying to push Jason or push
Jillian on Jason. And you know, that's Connie always trying to be the
matchmaker. But it's interesting to me that she is doing this. I guess
this is probably not the best thing to start off with, being slightly negative,
but it's just like, it was very interesting to me that it has
never been addressed until this album whether or not Jillian was a Christian right and
this entire time, if not so overtly as in this opening scene, but
throughout the previous appearances of this character, Connie has been pushing that Jason and
Jillian thing. And it's like she should know, out of anybody in Odyssey,
what that situation is like, because she had to go through that herself
with Jeff all those years ago. Right, having to break off a relationship
and then the person that she's talking to, Jason, also went through the
same thing with Tasha, So it's like, why are you pushing this on
when you don't know if Jillian is a Christian or not. So I thought
that was a little bit interesting that she's been doing that well, and even
if Jillian's been going to church with Connie off screen or whatever, like and
she does know. What I thought was interesting is after everything Connie went through
with Mitch about how two people can be Christians but not necessarily be right for
each other, right, Kathy and Jillian's personality, like ever since they introduced
Gillian and I heard on the podcast she said that she intentionally tried to make
her obnoxious and she did a fantastic job. Because I despised Gillian's character,
I was like, who is this? And obviously she was doing that on
purpose, but with Connie not knowing, like how could Like when I when
Jason was protesting, I was like, yeah, duh, come on,
Connie, you know, obviously she's not a good match for Jason. But
and I don't know if somebody said this in one of the podcasts or something,
but I did have the impression that Gillian was being brought in as a
love interest for Jason early on, and something dramatic would have had to happen
with her character, you know, to make that make any sense at all.
Because the first I remember the first episode, I heard Jillian and I
thought, because I think she came in because Jewels and Connie were looking for
another roommate or something like that, right, And I totally thought it was
just a gag of character that just shows up and obviously she's not going to
be the roommate. And then she ended up being the roommate and there it's
like, and you're supposed to like her now, and I was like,
oh, man, okay, yes, I felt the same way. And
it was one of those like she's like Harlow Doyle levels of intelligence here.
And for some reason I didn't mind it with Harlow Doyle, like maybe because
I was a kid when I first listened to Harlow Doyle, but it was
Jillian. I was like, this seems very unbelievable that she would be this
did see you know well? And I think part of it was because everybody
knew that Harlow was a goofy character like, yeah, the people in Odyssey
know, you know, they don't take him seriously. But based on the
way the other people in Odyssey reacted to her, as the audience is supposed
to are supposed to take her seriously, right, right, right, Obviously,
they pick up on her quirks and how she said literally wrong and that
kind of stuff. Yeah, but they still presented her as a character that
we were supposed to care about, right, And I felt the same way.
I found her so so annoying. Yes, there were some funny moments
with her, and you know, there were some lines that where she delivered
them and I still laughed at them. But I just she just was annoying
to me. Yeah, And I really identified with Detective Polehouse and Jason when
they would point out how annoying she was, and I strove in my heart
to be like Connie and just love her. That's funny. But I mentioned
this to you earlier before we started recording, and I cannot remember all the
specifics, but I have a memory of Roy and Andrew and I talking about
Jillian in the past in one of our reviews. I think he was in
one of our reviews that what if she was actually an Agent two and I
remember that happening, and I'm fairly certain it was on an actual podcast,
So if anybody listening can remember that moment, let me know if that was
in an episode. But if it wasn't, I do know that we did
talk about it at some point, and it would have been, you know,
before we recorded or something. But I remember that coming up, and
I can't remember if it was a serious thing that we were positing as an
option or if we were just joking around because how dizzy and dumb she was
being. Maybe it was in the whole the whole case of the wedding thing
where she actually nightmares, yeah night yeah, where she was somewhat competent in
some ways, But I can't remember, but I do remember we did talk
about that, and those were Jillian episodes that I really enjoyed because because of
how it was played off. If I had to choose any of the like
whole Jillian episodes like that, I really did enjoy those ones. But and
it's funny because so I was completely ready for the switch when and when I
first heard it, and I was wondering if if they had this plan from
the beginning, or if they were like, man, this character is annoying.
We are just gonna do something to completely completely change her personality. So
I was ready for the switch, but my wife was. She she felt
betrayed. She was like, this is like a bait and switch, and
she's like, it's not that I liked Jillian's character, but I knew what
to expect from her, and this is just complete, you know, one
eighties. She did not like it at all, and she's one of the
like she wants Jason and Connie to get together, so she didn't like Jillian
for that reason either. But I am here for the Jillian being a secret
agent. I really and I was so surprised, not surprised, but like
it was cool to learn that they had that planned from the beginning. Which
it's funny. I told my wife that a few minutes ago before we started
recording. I was like, they had that plan from the beginning, and
she said, I don't believe it. I was like, well, they
said they did. Yeah. I remember bringing up in my initial reaction for
ATC backstage, wondering because I, you know, there was just so much
that had to have been leading up to this. I'm like, either they
totally went back and like reread a whole bunch of scripts to try to figure
out how they could fit it together, or she had this plan from the
beginning and then they talked about it on the official podcast. Kathy said that
she did, and that she even talked with Monica Padilla about the art of
the character and where things were headed. But I, if I remember correctly,
the other cast didn't know, right, Like she didn't tell everybody.
Yeah, that's what Townsend Coleman said, he didn't know until this, uh,
this album. That's genius. Like, I think that is so cool
that she had this little nugget that she knew that nobody else knew, just
like the character did. And I'm like, oh, that's that's that's great.
That is really fun. I like that we had a ton of great
Pullhouse lines in this album, Oh my goodness. And one of the first,
like right after we get introduced to this doctor Rusk, who we have
no idea who this guy is, but you know, Wit finds him in
the alley behind the antique store, and then you know, of course the
police get involved in everything, and Polehouse one of his first lines nothing like
a good assault investigation to get my mind off my personal life. I love
Detective Polehouse. He is one of my favorite characters. They Phil Proctor plays
him so well. I don't know, I just love him. Yes,
And we've been getting you know, we're not here to talk about them now,
but we've been getting a little bit more about him in the club episodes,
which is always interesting to hear more about him. And I liked its
character a lot too. Yeah. Yeah, another great line that he had
there towards the beginning is I'm fine with vegetarians as long as they keep their
opinions in their own gardens. Yeah. I really enjoyed all of his jokes
about like her electric car and her vegetarianism, and like two more opposite people
could not be found, like and I that was I did enjoy all that
banter back and forth. Yeah. I know she had to like insert a
bunch of age jokes because she had different ages in mind, and then they
have like a club episode where he's a grandpa and stuff like that. But
the age jokes were very fun. Yeah. Did you think at all about
who the date might be until it was revealed. I didn't. I just
assumed it was just gonna be, like it's it's not even going to be
a character. We know, it's just something that happened. I don't know
why. I didn't think that it would be a character that we've heard from
before, but I was. I was a little surprised whenever it was finally
revealed that it was Skyfeldstein. Yes, I was too, I was too.
I didn't. Yeah, and she's not a character I would have thought
of anyway, you know, because even though she's a ben a hurrying character,
she just popped up now and then like as a as a device,
yea more than a character. And so the use of her I thought was
really cool in this album. Yeah, there was a really cool sound design
moment in this first episode, and I loved how they had the We have
this scene of Wit and Jason and Pullhouse. They're they're watching this security cam
video over Jason's phone, but then you know, the the perpetrator, you
know, sprays paint on the camera. So all we have is the audio,
and it's like, that's a really cool thing because we as the audience,
are in the same boat as they are trying to figure out what's happening
just from the audio, and so that's a cool thing that that Kathy did
in writing that scene, but also in the way that that Luke and Zach
also did the sound design that they just fitted so well and just you know,
even though you know, him turning up the volume a little bit so
they can actually focus a little bit more on what they're hearing, and it
was just really cool how that played out, just you know, playing up
to the fact of audio drama is you know, you're blind essentially, you
know. Yeah, it gave me perfect witness vibe. Yeah, you know,
that was Paul McCusker's whole idea with that one, and even in uh,
which one was it in sounds like a mystery where the little statue of
Liberty gets stolen and apparently has like hidden microphones around the shop because like the
camera's got disabled, but he still had these little audio things that you could
listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I liked the device that she used
there with you know, it starts off as the security camera and then it
gets brayed and so then it's just not you Yeah, it's cool. And
another pull house line, and this one I saw quite a few people were
pretty well, I guess, I don't know exactly how what their level of
irritation was but there were people that were offended by this and a couple of
his lines about sandwich line, right, yeah, yeah, so pull House
says women can't live with him, can't get a d sandwich without him.
I felt uncomfortable with that line until I remembered that a woman wrote it,
right yeah, So, I mean I saw several people in some of the
fan groups. They were offended, and it's like, come on, like,
not every line in the show is something to emulate or a position that
focus or the writers themselves as spouse right now, well, especially from Detected
exactly exactly, consider this horse. You know, you have to separate a
fictional character from the organization that's producing this thing, or the writer themselves.
You know, the line made sense for the character of Don pole House,
and it's totally something he would say. Yeah, and it's like, come
on, like just just calm down. That's funny. I didn't know people
got upset about it. There was something else that he said later on about
her too, and I remember, I don't remember which line it was,
but they also some people were mentioning that as well, and it's just to
come on, people, just just calm down. Yeah, one of the
lines that I thought was I enjoyed it was I think it was. It
was pole House and Officer Burke and Jillian, you know, when she finds
the sweatshirt or whatever and then they find the This was in the first episode,
right where they find the watch and they realized he didn't break in to
get the watch, I think because it was just thrown away in the dumpster
and he's like, I guess he didn't want it anymore or something like that,
and Jillian says that happens to me with every new pair of Pordu roy.
Oh. Yeah, that was a Jillian line that I really enjoyed.
Yeah. Yeah, So you mentioned Officer Burke earlier. So we have Marshall
Younger returning as this character, and you know, they did a whole bonus
clip on the album release for this talking about the you know, how that
character came to be in a little bit about why they decided to bring him
back for this. But yeah, this is the most we've ever heard from
him being played by Marshall Younger and it's fun. I like it whenever they
use the crew members to do stuff. Obviously, we've had Glossman and of
course Phil Lawler as as Dale Jacobs for years. But Chuck Bolt is George
Barkley, right, yeah, yeah, so it's not new for them to
have the crew members play major characters, but like a small side character that
pops up. You know, Bob Smithouser has done, you know, those
characters Jesse on the podcast has done, you know, bit parts of stuff.
But this is different because it's somewhere in between like a George Barkley and
a Captain of the Coast Guard cutter in Hawaii kind of character. You know
that Bob Smithouser is is kind of famous. That's his claim to fame or
for voicing that character. You know, so he actually, you know,
he has a name any of has appeared in multiple episodes, but he's not
a major character either, you know, not even like a supporting character,
like you know, he's not even to that level, right, He's a
stock character. Yeah, And I like it when they reuse stock characters rather
than continuing to come up with new like when they reuse the same doctors and
they use the same police officers, you know, rather than like it's like
how big is the Honesty Police Force? Like there's so many police officers that
because they just, you know, anytime they just need a random police officer
if they come up with a different name every single time, and then uh,
you're like, well, I don't know, I loses some believability that
it's a small town. But so I like it when and I felt like
this whole album there was a lot of so like Sky Feldstein, who is
also kind of a stock character that's just popped up in a couple episodes,
and Officer Burke and uh, you know, doctor Calhoun and doctor Graham and
you know, all these people that they I felt like there was a really
good use of characters in this. Yeah. And Sky Feldstine is played by
Lana McKissick, and she's she's a great characters. I'm kind kind of sad
to see her go away because I should say she's a great actor. I
mean, I loved hearing her in the few episodes that we have. I
felt bitter sweet about it too. Yeah, so that's a little bit of
a bummer. I liked her character when she was used before. I thought
that there was a lot that they could do with that character of you know,
running the TV station and having these kind of I don't know, just
the way she thought was different. It's like very familiar in our culture,
but different than a lot of people in Odyssey, and so, you know,
I kind of felt like, oh man, I feel like they could
have done some more things with that character, and I would be more upset
about it if if she wasn't used so well in this album, because I
really enjoyed the way, yeah, the way that they so it was worth
it. It was worth the cost of losing the character to have it play
out the way it did. Another thing that stood out to me in this
episode. I can't believe we're still in the first episode, but is a
kind of very forgiving about Jillian's total perceived flippancy towards her job. You know,
it's like, obviously we found out later that it wasn't that that she
was doing stuff behind the scenes and nobody knew, but at the time it
looked like she just was, you know, she didn't care, she didn't
take things seriously. And he's like telling Jason, you don't talk to her,
give her more chances. And I'm like this from the guy who once
immediately fired Eugene and Connie for disobeying one directive from him. It's like,
bro bro, you're not being consistent here, or maybe he's just getting more
relaxed the older that he gets. Yeah, and his old age, wait,
has really mellowed out. I've noticed that over the year. He's like
one hundred and twenty now, and so he's really no. Yeah. I
felt that way too about his advice towards Jason was I thought that was very
very gentle of him, very yeah, very soft. That kind of surprised
me as well. So one thing that I did want to make sure to
point out in this one also is something that we talk about in the audio
drama Alliance and amongst other creatives. I don't know if we've talked about it
a whole lot here on the show, but subtext in storytelling is so important,
and in audio drama, of course, it's not just in the way
lines are written, but also in the way that they're delivered. And there
was a really, really good moment of that towards the end of this episode
where we have this exchange between Jillian and Connie. Now she's, of course
she still hasn't revealed herself to who she really is to Connie, but she
says to her, Jason, he means a lot to me, he's not
just a boss, you know. And Connie or Katie delivers the line I
know, and just the way that she says those two little words, like
she just nailed the delivery of that line. It's a perfect example of saying
a whole lot with just a couple of words, and way more than just
the words themselves are saying. That's good. You can pick up on a
whole previous conversations that they've had just from those two words because of how they
were delivered. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really great point. I like
that. In fact, let's let's take a listen to that. I got
a clip of it here. Jason's pretty good about taking care of himself and
if anyone can find him, it's wet. Jason. He means a lot
to me. He's not just a boss, you know. I know.
So good. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I really like that.
So as soon as she walked out the door and started calling on her phone,
I picked up a difference in her persona like, I'm like, oh,
I knew there was going to be a reveal at that moment. I'm
like, I had no idea where it was going. I wasn't sure if
she was going to be a good guy or a bad guy or what.
But I knew there was something was going to be happening. And then of
course we get her side of the phone call. We don't know who she
talked to, but I was like, I wasn't like super super shocked by
that. Yeah, the way that everything had been built up and you knew
Jillian was going to be a major character and all that, But I did
like the that I liked how every the end of almost every episode had some
kind of a reveal for Cliffhang, you know, And I thought that was
a cool way to structure the album. And see, it's been a while
since I first listened to it, but there was that twinge of down.
I was like, maybe she was working on the bad side, but I
was my gut told me that she was an agent. But it was fun
the way that they the way that Kathy wrote the line so that it could
go either way. You don't really know who you just know that she's not
who you thought she was. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to remember,
but I think I was like, you could tell because it's following Jillian that
something is about to be revealed. But you know, it still wasn't surprise
that something was going to be revealed that she wasn't who I thought she was
because I didn't have any inkling of her being an agent before this album.
I will admit that you fooled me, Kathy. But something that I did
realize is that you know, because when you go back and you listen to
older episodes with this in mind, you pick up on little things, and
even through this episode, like just listening to it again, I realized that
Jillian's trying to go with Jason on the delivery, and you don't really think
too much about that at first, and I was like, oh, of
course, as as an agent trying to protect Jason, she wants to go
with him on the delivery. And then when Wytt is talking to him on
the phone when the crash happens, and he's wondering if he should go out
there, and Jason says, no, you don't need to go out there,
and Jillian's like, you should definitely go out there. You know she's
trying to but she's still but she's doing it in her person, so you
don't think anything about it. But I thought that was really good. And
then there was a line that was in the Right Dell Revelations where Tasha makes
some like just it's just a side comment about there being other agents in Odyssey
or something like that. And at the time I was like okay. But
then then after I listened to it again, after having listened to this album,
I was like, oh, they were setting up Jillian there, you
know, that's what was going on. And I was like, oh,
that's so good. Wow. You know what, I didn't pick up on
either of those things. Those are good points. Yeah, I mean I
remember that line from right El, but I did not make the connection to
this. That's that's interesting. And yeah I did. I didn't put those
two in together, either that she was trying to get go with him on
the delivery or encouraging wit. Yeah. Wow, good, good observation.
Yeah, And that's that's just good writing, because like, if if something's
written well with a plan in mind, then there should be those little things
that you pick up on afterwards once you know the full story. Yeah,
that fits in with what's going on, so kudos. Yeah. Well that
moves us on to the second episode, Afternoon, And one thing that that
kind of stood out to me about this one is how is this this mastermind
guy who we don't know who he is, But how is he able to
speak to Jason in this cabin? Like later on I was wondering that.
You know, later on Jason says, the guy talk to me over as
speaker. He said, he just kind of drops that in like two episodes
later or something like that. But at the time, we just suddenly hear
this book and we're like, wait a minute, this is a cabin out
in the middle of a forest. It seems unlikely that it's wired up with
this elaborate intercom system or whatever. It's just that seemed like a little bit
of a stretch to me, a little bit odd. But I was all
in. I was totally willing to suspend disbelief for that, Like I was
there for it. Yeah. Well, I will say the first listen through,
I didn't pick up on it at all. It was only in the
relistening to him, like, wait a minute, that's not fitting. Well,
yeah, I know, I but I did have that thought or when
I was relistening to it, I was like, how is he talking to
him right now? Yeah? I did love the Henchman. All of the
Henchmen had so much like such quirky personality, and you know, usually they're
just like, I don't know, there's stock characters. But I loved that
these guys, like the one guy that was talking to him that was like
kind of nerdy and just talked a lot, and he was so funny.
And then and even one of the lines that I still laugh out loud is
when the guy crashes into Jason and he's talking to Win on the phone and
then you hear him on He's like, I called the ambulance and it goes
who is that? And he goes, oh, Oscar. Yeah. I
don't know why that makes me laugh, but the way he delivered that,
yeah same here and mona syllabic mo yes, yeah, so yeah he had
mo and Eddie I think is from the credits, who that what the other
guy's name was, because I don't think Jason ever says or or the guy
ever says his name. But he was played by Grayson Smith, who was
to get in the show Winner and you and I met him, remember,
Yes, yeah I did. That was when I met you. I think
too, I met you and Grayson at the same time. Yeah. I
haven't kept up with Grayson, but I've kept up with but yeah, yeah,
that's cool because they mentioned that he played the other NSA agent at the
end, But I didn't realize he played this hen, Well, that's that's
what I heard somewhere. So maybe I'm wrong. I thought that's that I
had heard that somewhere. Yeah, maybe I misunderstood or or I made that
entirely up in my brain. Maybe I'm wrong. I see, I knew
he was in it, but I I thought it was Barren, the guy
on the phone walking them through the bombs. Oh really, No, I
don't think that was him because that voice sounded too different to me. I
know that it's been a few years since we've heard him, but I don't
think his voice would be that deep. You don't think that was him,
No, I don't. I don't think that was Okay, Well, who
knows either way, he did a great job. What if he played both
and he just changed his voice and that's that would be great. That's yeah,
that's the case, because that those were very different characters. Somebody will
let us know. And yeah, one of his lines, I'm climbing the
ladder of crime lord one kidnapping it. Yeah, that was great. You
had a lot of funny lines. One thing that I picked up on,
which I'm sure you did as well, and that is they mentioned a Letchworth
forest and in a state park. That definitely picked up. Yeah, so
I'm like, oh, there's Kathy given a shout out to the Lamplighter Guild
because yeah, I've been Yeah, I was gonna say you've been there.
It's called the Grand Canyon of the East and uh, Mark Hanby will deny
this, but it is true. He made me give him a piggyback right
up the side of the canyon because he was tired when we were at the
bottom visiting one time. And so he says he doesn't remember it, but
I was the one who had to carry him, so I remember it very
well. Just jumped on my back and I had to carry him up.
That's funny. Yeah. So if you just google Letchworth State Park, it's
in New York and it is. It is absolutely gorgeous. I would love
to go there sometime, but um, yeah, it's that was that was
a cool little easter rig that she dropped in there. Yeah, it's beautiful.
There's a big waterfall and it's pretty neat. So and then it was
around this point where we finally get to reveal that the blind date was with
Sky and that that was quite a shocker to me. I definitely remember laughing
about that, but I was like, did not say that one coming?
Yeah, me neither. So I know that I've already mentioned a couple of
little nitpickie things, and I have a few more that I'll bring up,
But it's just because overall this album was so good and so engrossing, especially
on your first listen, that you know, you don't pick up on a
lot of these things, So on re listens, I definitely picked up on
a few little things that kind of felt a little out of place or didn't
quite make sense. So you know, you gotta kind of nitpick when the
scripts are this good. But one thing was so the sweatshirt right, like
they found it in the in the dumpster or Jillian found it right, and
they find out that Channel ten gave out these sweatshirts at an employee picnic.
The first thing that popped in my head was, Okay, picnics are typically
in the summer. Why are we giving out sweatshirts in the summer. Whole
house should have known it was a lie, right then? He is losing
his touched. Well, maybe that's the exact answer, is that it was
all alive anyway. So maybe the picnic was up above Trickle Lake on you
know, Forest Mountain, and it was just a particularly cold day that summer,
and they had to hand out some sweatshirts very well. No, and
I was because she had some very specific things that she told Connie about.
You know, it was Maurice Glendale. Yeah, and I thought, oh,
was that short for Mos like Mo Maurice? Oh, but it was.
But but it was doctor Rusk that was wearing the sweatshirt, right.
I got a little confused when I was trying to reconstruct it. So what
I don't know why he was wearing that sweatshirt? Like why why did he
need to be Was it disguise? I guess I don't know. Yeah,
it seems like a yeah, they wouldn't want to link the station. Yeah,
and and was because they also said that he was like five ten.
So is doctor rush really tall or or was it Mo, like it was
it Mo that had broken into the show or no, it wasn't, It
was doctor Rusk. And then he hands off the hands off the envelope too,
Mo. Yeah, So because he got cut on the glass or something.
Yeah, so it had to be doctor rusts to apparently. So yeah,
yeah, but yeah, why would they use that sweatshirt that had they
stationed logo on it? Now that we're thinking about it, Yeah, yeah,
that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And that name
though, it was such a distinct name, Maurice Glendale. I thought for
sure that that was gonna come up again, like this, this character is
gonna show up, you know. Yeah, I guess she's just a television
person who's really good at line fairly go figure. Now, I have to
say that I totally called the fuel line had been cut in the patrol car.
As soon as Wit said he smelled gas, I'm like, oh,
I knew it. I knew that that's what had happened. I was wondering
about the sound effect. Do you think Luke ran out of He'd like,
drove his car until it was almost out of gas, and then he got
well the links that those guys go to to get sounds, it wouldn't put
I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Like, for some reason, I
was really listening to that sound effect, and I was like, is that
how a car sounds when runs out of games, Like I was trying to
remember, I'll be honest, that's happened to me, I should know what
that's And apparently it's happened a wig because he knew right away. He's like,
it sounds like I ran out of gain. Then then we get the
Jillian busting in to save the day in the cabin, and that was such
a cool scene, like when she busts in through the door and Jason's like,
yeah, he's kind of surprised, but not really like he doesn't like
freak out it Like he's not like super like, Okay, he's dealt with
so many spies over the years, as like nothing really flusters him right right,
And he was probably like sort of expecting somebody from the agency to come
through, you know, once they knew he was kidnapped. So yeah,
he did seem pretty calm under under the circumstances. Yeah, I mean,
like but appropriately calm. I'm not saying that was a flaw. I think
that made sense, right. Yeah, Yeah, I didn't notice my first
couple of times listening through, but then I was I don't know if I
had it turned up in my earbud, But I was listening to the two
henchmen talking outside, like you can hear their conversation, and the one guy's
like Eddie, He's like, you know, I don't like this, and
Mogo's dope and he's like, uh, you know, it's probably just some
higher yep. And their conversation was making me laugh. Yes, and then
she comes in. He's like hey, then you know, and never once
does he say more than a single syllable. He deals out words like their
bars of gold or whatever. Yeah, yeah, And Jillian and Jason's back
and forth was really good and it was important, like exposition, and important
for the audience to be able to like hear the answers to Jason's question.
I really enjoyed a lot of the lines in there about like the mannequin was
her partner and he says, oh, I can't get it. It's hard
to get a real live person to work with her, yeah, or something
like that, and then later on he's like who taught you how to drive?
And she's like, now I see why you have so many enemies,
like little little things like yeah. I thought was really good, and then
we also find out that her obsession with shoes was real, it wasn't actually
part of the wacky Jillian character, right, yeah. And there was a
couple of things like that where they you know, like the Agilian that we've
come to know isn't all completely in act, Like like he says, why
did you have to destroy that antique basse or whatever? She goes, Oh,
I just tripped over that one, right, yes, yeah, I
know I had that written down too, that Yeah, that one was definitely
one that I was going to bring up to Yeah, it's just there's there's
little bits and I think, what I think you have a note later on
where there was other examples of it too, but yeah, and then also
we find out that Jason is a gummy worm addict, Like when where did
that come from? Like we've never heard that. Apparently he eats a lot
of candy because Connie said it looked like he mugged a trigger treater and she
got into his car and I had no idea Jason was, you know,
so addicted to sugar. Yeah. Yeah. And also with the same exchange
there, Jason says something about having a headache and she's like, oh,
can't handle a blow to the head like you used to huh. Yeah.
I actually wrote that line down too. That really and that was a good
setup for later. Also, you don't catch at the time because it sounds
like just banter back and forth, you know, And it was funny.
So that was really well done. And one line that I liked where she
says, what do I have to do for you to trust me? And
he said consistency is what I need. And I thought that was a really
good line about trust actually, like if you know, you can't expect to
people like you you change, and then you expect people to just automatically change
their opinion of you, but they have to see that over time. Yeah,
and uh. And that was like a theme throughout, you know,
about the you know, the character has built one block at a time or
whatever, like some of the stuff that we said. But this was one
of those lines in this conversation that I picked up on and I thought that's
a good a good line about trust. Absolutely, Yeah, we're we're like
going one for one here, because I had that as well. I in
my notes, I just put that was a nice little discussion about trust.
Oh nice. Yeah, and then wet um these allusions to other I started
to say agents but they're they call him agents for the bad side. You
know, we have these little snippets of conversation between these other people, and
you know, we were like, oh, so we have this cobra orange
that that was the first mention of that, Like, oh, what does
that even mean? And then we get the big reveal, as you already
said, at the end of the episodes, we find out that this is
the Chairman or like, oh my goodness, I remember that moment because I
was just like me too blown away. Such a great way to bring his
character back is we've all been wanting it for twenty years, you know,
wanting to another storyline, and you can't just bring a character like that back
without an epic storyline or like even Richard Maxwell. You know, you can't
just have Richard Maxwell pop in randomly, you know, like there has to
be some big reason why he's back. And for the Chairman, who's this
like epic villain of the most epic storyline in Odyssey. Like I thought this
was a great way to reintroduce his character. Yeah, although Kathy did that
with with Mitch just so he just randomly shows up in that one episode of
you know, well that was just so she could put to rest all the
emails about Connie. Right, yeah, this is tired of that. That
is true, Mitch. Mitch did just pomp in out of the right.
I mean, but the Chairman can't just call into candid conversation. That feels
different to me. But I was so shocked that, uh, it's the
same actor that they used for the Chairman in Exit, you know, the
one time he because was he only in that one episode? Like I know,
he got mentioned a lot, but as a voice, he was only
in the last Novacom episode, right, you know what, I can't remember
for sure, It's been so long since I've heard those because I'm pretty sure
we only got a couple lines from him, like up in the helicopter.
But I love that they used the same actor. Brian Cummings is what I
saw somewhere. Yes, I did remember hearing that name in the credits.
That was another interesting thing that they at least on the album. I didn't
listen to the radio version. It might be different, but in the album,
Chris only gives the actor's credits at the end of the last episode and
not in each one. Yeah, yeah, that was interesting. I thought
it was hilarious that Connie forgot to remove the last bit of that message that
she had written down from Sky that she was supposed to give to Pull House
where she starts calling him names and stuff, and she forgot to tell him
he's a weak minded coward and as sorry excuse for a man or whatever.
Yeah, and so she gives him the note and he's like, wait,
what is this part? He's a oh, you're not you don't need that
part or whatever she says, and that was a oh yeah totally. And
there was another little moment of great sound effects details right there, like you
hear her grab the note back and she scribbles that part of it out,
Like just those little details like maybe Cathy actually wrote direction for that in the
script, but we don't hear anything about that in the dialogue. So right,
that's all the sound there, you know, and you can hear that
happening and you can just fill in the pictures yes in your mind. Yeah,
little things like that really flesh it out, think it feel feel real.
Yeah, that was really well done. And this is where we find
that Pullhouse is actually fifty five years old. Yeah, and uh yeah,
Burke's lying about that rule about half the age plus seven, which so does
that mean Sky is like in her twenties? Is that? Was that the
implication? Because if she's thirty four were older than Burke's rule works, she
sounds like she should be in her thirties. But I don't Yeah, I
don't think they ever said for sure he said. I think he may have
said something about her barely being thirty or something like that. Oh okay,
so I can't remember. But yeah, that whole exchange between him and Burke
was hilarious. It doesn't Burke seem a little uh dopier than he used to
be? Does that? Is that just me this album? Yeah? Maybe?
Or maybe it's just that we've we hear more from him now we're really
getting the full character. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong. Yeah,
and I enjoy any anytime Polehouses with somebody who's I don't know that is
a little bit goofy. I really enjoy it because he's so cunning. Yeah.
Now, that calendar trick that Gillian pulled to let Wit know what was
going on, bro, that was so genius. I would never figured that
out. No, Okay, get this, I think I told you this
at the time, But I would have been like, okay, how would
Wit ever even know to put those things together? But Alison, my wife,
when we first listened to it after it was given the calendar by Connie,
she goes pause the episode and I was like, what, okay,
I paused the episode and she figured it out. She knew as soon as
she yes, and I was like, I'm married a genius, Like who
are you. I was like, you're on Wit levels? Wow, because
I never would have figured that out. But I couldn't believe she was like
she and she went through you know, July, August, September, octobernever
she goes that supposed Jason, and I was like, what, Wow,
how in the world. So I'm so impressed, shout out to my brilliant
wife. Yeah, because I mean Wit has it for like two seconds and
then he like sits it down and he can make some kind of like a
just a you know, a sound like m or you know, okay or
something like that. Like he totally you could tell that he had figured it
out, but he wasn't gonna say anything to Connie, I know at the
moment, And I would have thought that was unrealistic. If my wife hadn't
figured it out that mast Like I would have been like, come on,
there's no way, you know, but no, there is a way.
Yeah. Well in the moment, you don't know either as the listener that
he's just figured this thing out until later. But listening back, I was
like, man, that was awfully quick for him to pick her up on
that. But then I also thought, you know, of course he has
a huge background in intelligence and so he's trained to look up. Yeah,
I look for that kind of stuff. So yeah, that was that was
genius though. Yeah, this is mister search for Yeah. Oh yeah.
So here's here's what I was alluding to earlier when we were talking about Jillian's
character when she actually starts talking with Connie and stuff about actually liking spoonfuls of
mayo or whatever and stuff that sounds disgusting to me, but you know,
it makes this character more believable, and it's and you know, they used
or Jillian in the world. She used these quirks or things about her own
personality and just to kind of exaggerated those parts of her to create this persona
and it was just so so well done. Yeah, and I loved Connie's
questions when she was figuring out that Jillian was it. She's like, Jillian,
why do you know the correct meaning of compromise? Later on she's like,
you mean the word intelligence is in your actual title. I loved those
lines. Yes, I was like, And another line I don't know if
we're to this part yet, but I wrote it down is when they're talking
about her jewelry business and why those cufflings gave me nightmares. It seemed like
an uncharacteristic wit thing did name, but it was so funny. Yeah,
yeah, that totally Oh goodness. One thing though, it was interesting to
hear a little bit more about the layout of the town because they said that
Hal's Diner is two lots down from Triple J because you know, they were
looking at security camera footage from hals Diner from the alley and yeah, I
don't know if that has ever been said before on the show. I think
I talked about this in my initial reaction, but that was something that I
picked up on. But have we ever heard anything about that was being so
close to each other before on the show? No, No, not that
I remember. I think it was just another case of like pulling you know,
a business that we would know or recognize from Odyssey. I don't know
how insistent it is. Another question that I had was Jason says something about
Dervishi didn't have the same accent and that it wasn't Dervici that he spoke to
in the cabin. But how did he know what Dervishi's accent sounded like?
Did I miss something or Jason? Yeah, Jason had been investigating Dr Vici
when he was still with the agency, Okay, And Okay, that's the
whole reason, because they were like, I think it was Jillian that said
that Jason had been tracing things back to Drvici, but they couldn't find anything
solid on him, but they kept monitoring him, and so then they realized
that there was something going on. Jason's name started popping up, and that's
why they knew there was something going on in Odyssey with or something was about
to go on. So I think Jason had some prior experience with him past.
Okay, I guess that explains it. I just wasn't listening closely enough
apparently. Yeah, because there's a lot of little threads. You know,
we have the Colette bland Shire and the Blandshire Foundation, and then they suddenly
Lily Grahmas involved, and there's all these things I know, well, and
here's one thing that I didn't understand. Maybe you can help me with this.
And maybe this is jumping ahead a little too much, because it seems
like like there was people in the NSA that had one half of the codes
for the like the launch codes for the submarines, and the people in the
Pentagon that had the other half, Like he needed both, and so they
needed Jason's codes, and then they needed somebody from the Pentagons. And so
at first I was like, Okay, well that makes sense why the chairman
is asking for his contact at the Pentagon when he's in the cabin at the
beginning. But then it sounded like the Chairman is actually the one at the
Pentagon who is the link. So why was he asking for Jason's contact at
the Pentagon? Yeah, that is a good point. Maybe it was just
because he wanted to try to turn them or something. Who knows, Maybe
he has some other ulterior motive for knowing who Jason's contact is. Maybe it
wasn't that he was trying to get the codes because he knew that he could
get those from Jason. No, because yeah, because they said later on
that he is in the Pentagon. Yeah right, right, So maybe because
he doesn't have access to the codes himself and he needed to know who did
have them so that he could get them. Well, and since the device
was in Jason's brain, maybe just by asking him that question, Jason thought
the answer and he found out Oh yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, that could be too, because yeah, because if he's if he
is embedded in the Pentagon himself, then because they were able to launch one
of the subs, so he did get some of the codes from somebody,
Yeah, so he wouldn't have needed that other person to get Yeah. So
so maybe that's all it was. He was him trying to get Jason to
start thinking about the subs in general. Yeah, I don't know, Yeah,
yeah, exactly, just by bringing them to Pentagon. I don't know.
There's another another thing for the listeners to weigh in on if if you
have some theories or if we missed something, let us know, Yeah,
because I don't know if it was ever explicitly said that the chairman was the
other one who gave the code. I think I was assuming that based on
stuff that was said at the end. But and I think we've passed this,
but I wrote down when when they were calling Sky when it was revealed
that Sky was Cobra Orange, or they're calling the number for Cobra Orange and
it turned out to be the Sky, and Connie's the one calling for some
reason, and she's like, what do I say if they pick up Hi,
I'm taking a poll? Are you a terrorist? Yeah? Yeah?
And then that's when we first hear about this other person called Agent one.
Right, it's like, yeah, we have Cobra Orange, Like that's a
cool name. Couldn't come up with a more creative name. They're Cathy Agent
one? Like how boring is that? Yeah? The names for different things,
like the names of two of the subs are of fair play in Oraton.
I don't even know what Oraton means. It was gonna look it up
and I forgot. Do you know what I mean? No? I don't,
And I don't know what Helsinki means. Helsinki is a city in Finland.
Oh, okay, is that where That's where Davici was from? Finland?
Oh? Maybe it was. It was somewhere over there in Europe,
right, it was something Scandinavian. I thought, I thought it was Norway,
but maybe I, oh, no, I think it was Norway.
I think they said Norway. So yeah, it doesn't matter because it was
just a password event. I didn't know what that was. So there were
a lot of cool names, is my point, Like a lot of random
words being thrown around there. And then Agent one, Oh goodness, you
know that's good. That's good. She's like, I spent all of my
brain power thinking of all this other cool stuff. I don't I don't want
to do one more. My last name was Helsinki and I was done up.
So and then right after that, we you know, we get to
reveal that it is actually Sky is involved because she Connie calls her phone and
gets her voicemail and or like what so again that's the end of the episode,
another reveal. So just just great writing. There's so many good little
yeah story beats throughout this thing that was It was paced out really well.
Yes, each episode ending reveal I really enjoyed. Yeah, Jillian the chairman
Sky, you know, like that was definitely great cliffhangers. Another cool sound
design thing is I love when they anytime they do those perspective shifts, and
they did that here with a Pollhouse is talking to Wit over his car's Bluetooth
connection and then suddenly towards the end of the call, it switches over to
witt side and just those little things. I love it when they do that,
and just was really cool. Well yeah, and they did. They
had done that earlier too, with when he was talking to Jason and we
were with Jason and then it switched over to Wit and then the call ended.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're doing good, good job. Although
I do have one sound design thing that I was wondering about, like when
she when Detective Pullhouse is talking to her and then she leaves Sky Sky.
She's in an electric car, right, but like when she skidded away,
I was like, do electric cars like peel out like that? Yes,
that was shocking to me, Like if they really do? You know,
Wow, I probably should apologize about the jokes I made about electric cars,
but that is so funny. I had that in my notes too. I
said, did you the effect for Sky's electric car sounded a little weird.
It sounded a little like she was gunning the gas. Yeah, yeah,
maybe it was a hybrid. Maybe it was you know, I meant it
was a funny sound effect. Like. It made me laugh at the time,
but then I was like, it was not an electric car. Yeah,
I mean he even comments on her being in a hurry and so apparently
it was supposed to be her taking off quickly, but it just sound it
didn't sound like an electric car. But I don't really know. I don't
I mean, I know people who have a Tesla, but I've never driven
one or been close by. I don't really know how they sound. This
is what it sounds like when they peel out. It's like click click.
That's not just that's just not gonna sound good on an audio job. Yeah,
apparently. I also loved Connie mentioning taking a Nancy Drew Solve on Mystery
class. That was so funny. I think I've mentioned this before, but
I've actually played several of the Nancy Drew computer games, which are are quite
quite fun. You know, you actually play her go through solving the mystery,
and the Hardy Boys show up in some of them, and so it's
it's pretty cool. But it's been a it's been a while. In the
same universe. Yeah, well, they they're even in some of the books.
They they show up together to you. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Yeah, but yeah, so her little reference there, it kind of made
me think of the Nancy Drew computer games, even though it wasn't explicitly stated.
But that's great. So what were you thinking the O MHO one four
was standing for on the notepad? I was like, I have no idea.
I'm not even gonna try to figure out out. I had no idea
either, like with like, I didn't even come up with wiscas of a
license play And then I was like, oh that is that does sound like
a license plate? You know? Yeah, I had no idea what that
was. And this is where we find out that Jillian is actually a Christian
and that she's a missionary kid and her parents were missionaries to Zimbabwe for what
you say, fifteen years or something like that. Yeah, I don't know.
I didn't write done how long? But has there been other references to
Zimbabwe in the show? I know that's random, but it sounds like it
was just a random African country pulled out of the air. But where Oh
no, Eugene's parents were in Zaire, which is the Congo Oh okay,
I think that was the z name I was thinking of. Yeah, I
don't I don't recall any other previous mention, but you know, there's nine
hundred and fifty episodes, so I maybe missing It did feel very convenient to
like quickly established like no, no, she's actually very godly and like loves
the look, you know, when there hasn't been any endom any kind of
spiritual depth of well. I mean, I don't know, maybe her like
a cupcake analogy to jewels or whoever. It was too you know, maybe
that was like something she learned on the mission field, but it didn't feel
very abrupt. I was like, oh, okay, well good, we
can check that off of Connie's list of what's necessary in a suitor for Jason.
Yeah. Yeah, maybe as part of her dizzy Jillian persona she wasn't
supposed to let people know. I don't know. Yeah, I loved Connie
saying though I thought you grew up in a circus, and she's like,
I never told you that. She's like, well, that was the only
thing that made sense. I love that line, too. Correct me up.
Okay, so I'm going to broach a subject and I'm gonna bring it
up a little more and as we get further down the chronology, but so
because there's things going on in Jason's mind. I think they focused on the
theme of like trust and sacrifice, but this seems like it would have been
a great opportunity to talk about like spiritual warfare and in your mind and like
resisting temptation, resisting things. And what was really interesting to me is they
started talking about nudges from God and Jillian says, it was a nudge from
God that you know, made me join the agency, and Jason's like,
yeah, I've experienced that too, And they were kind of implying, or
she was asking or somebody was asking if the fact that Jason was thinking about
these subs was a nudge from God, and he says, I don't know,
um, but I just thought it was interesting that what they were considering
could be a nudge from God was actually the enemy working in his brain.
And I was like, man, there's like there's and you find that out
later, But confusing a nudge from God with the enemy like working like suggesting
thoughts, you know, like that's really interesting. There's like a lot of
spiritual warfare kind of stuff going on in this kind of a I don't know,
there was I feel like once once he started talking, and I'm probably
jumping ahead, huh, because we didn't get that revelation yet about Jason's brain,
But just just this conversation about the nudges from God that made me start
thinking about it. And then later on, of course there's a whole lot
that has to do with the brain. Which yeah, as we as we
talked more about it, I can bring up more stuff about Yeah, no,
that that's definitely a good point. And I hadn't actually thought about that
angle, but yeah, that's that's really interesting. And I just feel like
they missed an opportunity to delve a little deeper into that, to be honest,
Like I wish they would have given some because I have people that like
maybe they're watching YouTube late at night or whatever, but they get scared about
this kind of stuff, you know, like this is like to think if
this was actually possible, Like what's going on in these episodes that is really
scary, you know, and that that it's like uncomfortable scary, you know,
like from a spiritual point of view, And I would have really loved
them to dive a little deeper into we have power from the Holy Spirit too,
Like there is a battle being waged in our minds, and we have
power from God to resist things that are are being suggested to us, you
know. Yeah, So anyways, but yeah, that is I thought that
was interesting. That is very interesting, and you're right, they definitely could
have gone that direction, and maybe it was just a time thing, although
again, these were shorter episodes a lot of them, so maybe they could
have. But yeah, it did seem like some of this stuff, like
I don't know when the Novacom connection was first right around out Oh, I
thought you were talking about Connie mentioned. I mean just like like I'm talking
about like in the writing stages, Like this might have been an element that
was introduced later on in the drafting process, which would make sense why they
didn't go more in depth into it. But I just think this is such
a good opportunity to talk about some of these things. So and then we'll
get into that a little bit more. But before before we do that,
I just wanted to mention that there was a couple of funny things that happen
in the interim right before we get to this deeper discussion again about trustworthiness.
Well, first we actually hear Jason's agent number, which we haven't heard in
a long time. She said, she calls him so Agent one one.
Oh I didn't even catch that. How did I not catch that? That's
great? Yeah, so that was a cool another cool callback which also kind
of you know that she actually knows his number. It kind of lends a
little more credibility to I think by this time he already trusted her. But
that was just a little detail that she dropped in. But then right after
that, we have this hilarious thing with the Pullhouse and Burke again. And
so Burke is agreeing with pull House about him being an idiot for carrying her
or suitcase, and he's like, he's like yeah, Like he's like,
well, you're not supposed to agree with me. Yeah. Yeah, He's
like, I am such an idiot. I know you carried a criminal suitcase
through a car and help through. Yeah. I've definitely been on like the
Pullhouse side of that, where I've I've been self deprecating and somebody's agreed with
me and it's like, hey, yeah, I wanted you to make me
feel better, right. Yeah, that exchange it was just so great.
And then we go right back into this, you know, more of a
serious thing, and so Jilly and but it was interesting. So now Jillian
is kind of questioning Jason's trustworthiness, whereas earlier it was the other way around.
And so she's asking Wit about Jason being turned, is there a possibility?
And and so It's like, yes, with of course it's his son.
He's going to stick out for him, right. I know when she
said, I want you to answer this as an agent, not as a
father, and I'm like, there is no way, Wit whatever answer that
as an agent, not as a father, like that was not even an
option for him. And at first I thought, well, come on,
she's just she's being too hard. But then I thought, on the other
hand, maybe she is being practical. This is the world that she knows.
And that's funny because I actually thought Wit was being a little naive about
human nature to be so adamant that Jason could never turn, like I was
like, and I know, like he's a father. And the relationship between
Wit and Jason makes me think of some people that I know, a dad
and a son that I know, and they have a very similar like a
lot of the lines and stuff. And I was thinking about this guy there,
it's a guy in our church and his son, and I was thinking,
this is exactly how he would respond if anybody asked him anything about his
son, Like you would just adamantly defend him to the death, you know.
So it didn't seem out of character of Wit for me. But I
was like, and I understand. I really liked what Wit said about character
is built one block at a time, and you and it's based on his
his character over like that again back to the accumulation of these acts. Yeah,
yeah, but we have seen times where like even them when Jason was
in London and the episode titles are called the Labyrinth and he talks about getting
trapped in the Labyrinth and suddenly you're not sure what's true and what's a lie?
So like and obviously in this case, we as the audience, we're
on Jason's side, and we know that he hasn't turned, we know he's
not going to turn, and we we react like Wit. But I did.
I did think it was interesting. I was like, with human nature
being what it is, people can turn, you know, like they can
you know, Sky for example, has she has left her father's motto of
quality but cheap and has gone after money. Sorry that was dumb. Anyways,
I just it's funny that you you thought Jillian was being hard and I
was like, wait, come on, well, I think both can be
true. I did think that he was very, very adamant, and I
was like, come on, you have to at least consider the possibility.
And later on in the conversation he does. He says that's true. He
does. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, it is an interesting dynamic that
was going on there. Yeah. Yeah. What what was the line at
the end where he does kind of concede. I can't yeah, I can't
remember exactly what he says, but he does say I can see what you're
saying or something along those lines, right, Yeah, that was what it
was like. She was saying, put yourself in my shoes and what would
you think? You know? And so, and then he kind of conceded.
But I did really love his line about a person's character being built one
block at a time. I think that's so true. So even though I'm
saying Wit was a little naive and nature, I also really loved that line
and I love the point that was being made. Yeah, because it doesn't
it doesn't just happen overnight, but we don't always see what's going on.
In a person's mind and heart and life is my point, right, But
it is true that that we can see people buy their fruits, especially for
livingally, you know, in close proximity with them. And anyway, Yeah,
well, and even Chris in the wrap up, because we're right near
the end of this episode, she talks about these there's a really great lesson
about ethics, and she says there will be times in our lives when we
need to reevaluate and decide if what we're doing is right. Yeah, And
I liked that she. I actually had a note about that wrap up because
I was when they called doctor Graham to find out about this Blanchire foundation and
all that. I don't know what you thought about the conversation, but I
remember when I was first listening and I was like, doctor Graham is like
very calm about this like earth shattering technology that is totally unethical, you know,
like yeah, And she's like and I was like, huh, you
know this really could be used the wrong people. I'm like, are you
on the evil side? Doctor? Like who are you? I don't know
you anymore? Lily. That's how I felt, and the I just I
thought she was so calm and just explaining this to them, you know,
and just I mean secretive about it or whatever. And I'm glad that she
was having doubts, but she stick stuck with it until the funding was pulled,
you know. And I thought that was very strange that she's just like,
yeah, we were working on some like mind all training technology, but
we you know, funding ran out, budget cuts, you know, how
to I was like, well, that seems like pretty significant. Yeah,
that's true. She was pretty whole humb about the whole thing, and it
seemed like it had been quite a while or at least a few writers since
then, so maybe you kind of wore off, you know, in her
mind. But still, do you think this was like connected somehow with this
is just like in universe theory, but like was the chairman ending a lot
of these different like mind control research things, and he ended up going with
because of armitage things going with Eugene's research and pulled the funding for this other
one that doctor Graham was a part of. Like it is that connected do
you think? Or is it? Am I like reading way too much into
that? Who knows? It could be. I think they've alluded to it
on the podcast that you know, the chairman is coming back, right right,
So, and Connie does say, wow, this sounds like novacom,
you know. So it's like this, this stuff has been happening before in
this world of Odyssey, so who knows it could be all tied together somewhere,
or at least so they could make it all tied together, even if
it wasn't originally planned that way, right right. So, then as as
we have all of these episodes, we have this major reveal at the end,
and I'm gonna play a clip of this too. It's a great moment
too. But what really stuck out to me was this is, in my
opinion, the best music queue in this entire album, like the last music
ce It's just amazing if you listen closely, how it just starts off real
subdued, just underscoring this this moment of Jason and everybody coming to this realization
that they're reading his brain, you know, and then it builds up and
just and it just it's it's John Campbell at his best. All right,
you were talking and your sleep It was saying a series of numbers and letters.
I was twenty seven, Deka, stop dad, don't go on.
Well that's all you said. I thought it was gibberish. That was the
beginning of the code to the Oroton missile, and something was triggering you to
see it out loud. I thought the subs were coming to mind because something
was wrong, but they Dervishi was making them come to mind. I'm the
leak. They're reading my brain. Someone is reading Jason's brain. So good.
That was really good. I didn't pay attention to the music, but
it's it's like a little bit creepy. And the way it drops right before
the revelation. Yeah, they're reading my brain, you know, and then
its beats up again and like it's all that is a great music cue.
I'm glad you pointed that out. Yeah, it's my favorite one in the
whole album, and I think it's it's probably the best. It's it's just
so good. Yeah. Yeah, that's still that gives me, Like that
line gives me chills too, probably partially because of the music cue. Definitely.
Yeah. Well so that brings us to episode nine, fifty Daybreak.
Now. I think this was the shortest one, so we had these recaps
on most of the episodes, so we actually when we had seventeen about seventeen
and a half minutes of actual new content in this one, once you take
out the recap and the credits. Oh wow, so it was a really
short one. But speaking of short, we also find out that Odyssey is
only a ninety minute flight away from DC. I know. That surprised me.
I was like, yeah, Connie and Joanna took the long way around
to get Then. I was thinking about it, and I was like,
if Odyssey is in like somewhere around Ohio or whatever, I could see that
only being it like, you could get a lot of places in ninety minutes
from DC. Probably, I don't really know. It's far for you and
me to get, right. But so, but we already knew Odyssey wasn't
in Colorado or Arizona. That's already been confirmed. Yeah, that's true illusions
or delusions. Yeah, but that, Yeah, that did strike me weird.
Also, I don't know why. Yeah. So yeah, so they're
thinking that, or at least Jillian's proposing the idea that it's possible that Jason
hopped a plane went to the Pentagon without even really knowing it. You know,
this this thing is controlling his brain so much that he could do that
without knowing it or even possibly even know about it, and that he really
is working for the wrong side or something. Yeah, it's interesting. Well,
and she's just basing it all off of plausibility rather than probability. You
know. It's like, no, well you could have you know, there
was there was this chunk of time. Yeah, you you left the shop
early on Monday and then come back until Tuesday afternoon or evening or whatever it
was that she said that, you know, yeah, but he was just
an odinton not even ninety minutes away by car. I like, Connie's lying
about can we knock him out, hit him with a chair or something?
And Jason says, thanks, love you too, Connie. Yeah. I
also wondered if that was a very intentional thing from Kathy two to have him
say I love you to Connie in such a flippant way, another kind of
nod to the people who want them to to get together. It's like,
this is never gonna happen. This is a almost like a brother sister kind
of relationship that they have there. Yeah, yeah, it was. It
was kind of conspicuous. And then her trying to distract him from thinking about
the subs and she keeps saying all these sub related words, you know,
sub shop and substitute teacher and all this subconscious. Yeah, the way she
paused after each time she said sub even if it was in the middle of
before. Yeah, but this is another one of those points, like what
I was bringing up earlier, This was actually where I was thinking about it
the most. Like this is where I feel like they really like they played
it for laughs, but like this could have been a really powerful teaching moment
about resisting temptation because and just to give that hope that yes, you can
overcome even what's like because you know, our brains are so funny, because
when you tell somebody not to think about something, you know, don't think
about pink elephants, and immediately pink elephants popping in your head. You know,
Like that is how our brains work. And I've heard teaching on this,
and I've taught on this, like with our youth group about we have
to And so Wit did say this, but I just wish it would have
been a little bit more, because it's like, can't you just sing some
songs or recite some poetry or something. But I was hoping for a little
more from Wit about like, no, you we can get control of our
thinking, Like our thinking isn't just completely outside of our control. And even
with this chip in his brain, I wish they would have given some strategies
for this is how you can re focus your brain, because we do get
in this place as humans, like when we're struggling with and maybe we're struggling
with a particular sin or whatever, right, and when we're in the moment
of temptation, it feels overwhelming and it feels like you can't think about anything
else sometimes. But if you can just flee that temptation, if you can
just get a something else in your mind, if you can fill it with
scripture, if you can fill it with worship, if you can write,
you can restructure your brains so that you can cast down imaginations, you can,
you know, and take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.
I wish they would have had some of that in there in that conversation,
Like, like, I enjoyed the conversation. It was funny, but
I was like, this is such a good opportunity that's been passed over to
have some of that kind of conversation. And if it's the shortest one,
Caffy. It was the shortest one, so I don't know, and I
wrote down come on with in my notes. It was like because I was
waiting for more, Yeah, yeah, you're right, Yeah, that is
a very very good point that I hadn't considered. Overall, the theme was
about trust basically, and and sacrifice and stuff, but trust is when they
kept popping up over and over and over and that, yeah, that that
definitely would have applied here too. And actually, speaking of trust, it
is it was around this point, you know, we have another scene with
doctor Rusk, and even at this point in my initial reaction, I had
written this down, I don't trust this guy, like I we. I
hadn't really had any reason not to it at this point. But it's like
he just turns up in Odyssey all of a sudden, when all this stuff
happens there, you know, there's there's got to be something going on.
And then of course we have the whole thing with Jason and just being absolutely
totally willing to sacrifice himself and and it made me think of Ted Decker's Circle
series because we have a similar kind of thing happened with the main character in
those books. And it was like oh that It immediately brought that to mind
for me. But I liked that Jason was so doctor Rusk is proposing this
alternative where it's still in your brain, but we can like send other we
can neutralize. I can't remember exactly what a suggestion was, but and and
we you know, short circuiting and listened to it. Yeah, we know
that he's just trying to keep it in the brain because they're still trying to
access information. But the other characters like Connie and Jillian and Wit are all
like, yeah, I mean like, let's go with that because this surgery
is really dangerous. And Jason's like, no, I want this out of
my brain. I want it completely removed. And that felt like I'm getting
all like maybe I'm getting over spiritual over here. I'm always looking for youth
the lessons. But I just I thought that was another good analogy that that
feels like something the devil tries to offer us, like you don't have to
remove this from your life, from your brain, from your heart. You
just have to short circuit it, you know, but you can still keep
it in there. But there's an ulterior motive there, right, and we
have to be willing to like, Nope, I want it completely out.
I want to even if it kills me. It's more important that this is
completely out of my life than for the risk that this surgery involves. And
I like that Jason took that firm stand. Yeah. Yeah, And I
was like, surely they're not going to let Jason die, right, But
on the other hand, I thought it would make a really really interesting storyline
if they had, or at least let him be severely disabled or something happened
because of this. I mean that I could have seen so many different storylines
and lessons that they could have brought out because of that, you know.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not sad or mad that they didn't go that
direction, but I definitely could see the potential in doing that, right.
Yeah, I didn't expect them to either, but I'm with you on like
the power of that. They could have made him as did he as Jillian,
Like, that's what could have been the result of I'm just kidding,
but we had that scene with them all praying that. That's one of my
favorites too. Oh so good. That was really good. That almost made
up for my disappointment about the conversation in the car. You know, and
again this theme of trust. They've been talking all along about trusting each other.
How can we trust your character and all this stuff? But then Gillian
kind of turns it in her prayer. She says, God, we trust
you, we know that this is you have control here. Yeah. Yeah,
And I thought that was an interesting way to look at the other facet
of trust. It's not always just about can we trust each other, but
knowing that we also always can trust God, you know, yeah, the
most important aspect of trust. So then we have, you know, the
bomb scare and everything, and Wit calls WIT's end and he says, Renee,
I need you to get all the kids out of here, or get
all the kids out of the shop or whatever. So is this the first
mention of Renee in a mainstream album. It is not, because there was
one episode where I can't remember who it was, if it was Eugene or
somebody, but they were they were. It was like they were listing a
bunch of names and they mentioned Renee. It's just like a like in a
list of other names. Okay, I couldn't remember. Obviously, she's been
in the club since season three, and she actually appears in a mainstream album
for the first time in the next one, Buckle Up. But I could
not remember if this was the first time she was mentioned, So okay,
yeah, I remember them mentioning her one other time, or like she walks
by the window and they're waiting for somebody and and like, no, that's
Renee Carter or something like that. Something like that happens. Okay, but
I did like that they mentioned her. Yeah, yeah, that was cool.
And I think I've said this before. I think she should have been
in the mainstream albums from the beginning. I think it was kind of a
weird decision for them to have an employee of Wits End that was a club
exclusive. She's an interesting character. She's done some questionable things in the past,
and I've not always agreed with her thought processes, but overall, I
think she's an interesting character, and I think somebody so pivotal to Wits End
and Odyssey and wit wits Life should have been part of the mainstream albums.
But anyway, that's a that's a neither here nor there kind of thing.
But so um. The other other thing that I wanted to mention was at
the end of this episode. That's when I had. I was starting to
see all the stuff that had been leading up to Jillian and all those job
interviews that she'd had in that past episode and all this stuff, Like,
so Kathy had to have been planning this out for a while. The only
thing that I thought was a little bit of a stretch was that she would
have swiped that hospital access card back then, Like, Okay, it makes
sense that she did that, but at the time, why would she have
ever thought that she would have needed an employee access card to the hospital.
I guess, knowing her mission like being there in Odyssey because of Jason,
there could have been a thought of at some point, Jason might be in
the hospital and I might need something. But that one just seemed like a
little bit of a stretch. Obviously, casing out different locations and having interviews
at different places, Okay, that one was a little bit more believable,
but swiping the card that that would have felt a little bit more of a
stretch to me. I was a little convenient, Yeah, but I'm okay
with it because they had to get to the basement. Yeah, And I
just had a note here. I really noticed the music and this one,
the fast pace of music and how much it was setting the mood and like
I thought the music it stood out for me in this episode for some reason.
Yes, yeah, it's definitely building because as things get more tense.
Yeah, you know the music does as well. Right, good stuff.
And another thing, because they were recording these during like when there was COVID
restrictions still January these, Yeah, and apparently a lot of the actors were
they had to do him these out of order and so the mix, the
mix scene was really good. I wanted to congratulate Luke and Zach on that
because you know, you can't even tell that they were recorded out of order
or anything, but um. And then also I guess Andre Stoika was in
his home studio when these were being recorded, and but he had great energy
through these whole all these episodes. And there was one line in particular where
Connie went and Jillian they're all in that basement where the bomb's at and wits
telling Connie to go upstairs, and she's resisting a little bit, and then
he like roars at her, yeah, get upstairs in a vacuum the hospital.
I was like WHOA, but I was. I was impressed with that
delivery, Like Andre roared, Yeah, we don't hear that kind of tone
from that much anymore. Right, and then right after that, that's when
she runs into Sky and uh and the doctor and you know, stay away
from him, she said, or stay away from her doctor. You know,
she's she's bad or whatever whatever it is she says. And then then
she says to Sky, just go and stop being evil for a while.
Classic Connie line. I loved it. So you mentioned Baron this uh nsa
guy earlier, thinking that that might have been Grayson. But what it was
interesting to me, and I had a note that Grayson's voice got much deeper.
I wrote that down. Well, see, maybe it wasn't him.
I don't know. I think I mentioned this also in my initial reaction too.
He sounded a lot like Charles Robinson to me, the voice of Nagel
in Someone to Watch Over Me, especially in the over the phone part when
he was in person there at the hospital. It was a little bit less
so, but OK, just the quality of his voice sounded very much like
I know it's not but he sounded similar to him to me. Yeah,
I didn't pick up on that. Well, I had heard I thought that
that Grayson was the orderly in this in the hospital, so Grayson played everybody
that we don't know. I think he played doctor Rusk. I'm just kidding,
you know what. I was gonna mention this, But doctor Rusks and
also doctor Trask, which those names sound very similar, but they both sounded
like Andre to me. Really. I know that doctor Trask was a different
actor, and I'm sure doctor Rusko was too, but there's something about their
vocal quality that sounded really similar to me. Yeah, I could see that.
I guess. I was wondering where doctor Rusk was from. What was
supposed to be from? Like what is he had like a vaguely like British
accent, I guess, but I wasn't sure what that was supposed to be
exactly. Yeah, I wasn't sure too. Maybe it was supposed to be
ambiguous because he's like a, you know, a globe trotter kind of guy,
and he's maybe travels a lot, you know, who knows. Yeah.
I thought it was interesting again that we have this theme of sacrifice because
we have doctor Graham, Connie, Jillian Witt, all of them, and
doctor Calhoun. They're not willing to leave until every main characters, yeah,
are willing to leave, and I do feel for a Detective poll House,
but it's so funny. I love him trying to get everybody out and he's
like, usually when there's a bomb scare, people want to get out,
right. Yeah. For I was trying to do his job and he has
a hard time of it, and they're like, wait, you're out now
right, goodbye, Detective. Yeah, I'm going to clear out the people
who actually value their lives. He says, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I loved all the scenes with Detective Fullhouse trying to get people out. Those
were so great. You know what I missed? Sound design wise though?
Did you notice there were no wheelchairs? I was really missing the wheelchairs.
I'm just kidding. I'm just joking because in the in one of the podcasts,
like Kathy said she had written down a bunch of stuff about people in
wheelchairs, like in the notes and the and Zach said something like, well
we had gurneys, but we didn't have wheelchairs or yeah, something like that.
Those all those, all these scenes were like so well done, very
intense. Yeah. And Phil Morris says doctor Calhoun, he's great too.
Unfortunately we don't know who voiced doctor rusk Um, but it was Grayson.
That's that's the story we're sticking with. I guess, yeah, yeah.
If I don't know, I'm going to just assume. Another question I had
was, so rusk says that he was the one who implanted the device,
but I thought he was taken to the hospital after Witch found him in the
alley because he had supposedly been hit over the head or whatever. Of course
he was faking that whole thing, but I thought that Witch said that he
did take him to the hospital. So how did he get out of town
and to that ambulance to go an ambulance? That's how he got the ambulance.
I'm just kidding. Yeah, I don't know. I thought that too,
but I mean that it makes sense that's why they had him there in
the first place, Like that's why they had the brains. I don't know
why they had the brain surgeon breaking into the antique shop to get the fingerprints
like that. That does seem more of a mo job, like yeah,
one chairman, but or an eddie job even Yeah, So I don't know
why they had him doing that, but it makes sense that that, like
that would be why they would want him there. You know, to plant
that device. When Jason flatline, I did get a little nervous. I
thought maybe maybe they are gonna go there because the score speaking of John Campbell
again, the score under that moment it was so good and it's like,
oh man, I could feel the tension. Yeah, that was really good.
And then doctor Graham saves the day, comes through there with a syringe.
I love that moment. It was so great. Oh me too.
Yeah, doctor Graham was redeemed in my mind, you know all that,
all the stuff I said about her from the last phone call, Like,
I was like, ah, she's great. Yea. So one of the
first things that popped into my mind was that scene of doctor Blackhard and the
Rukou virus syringe thing. You remember that when Yeah, first time doctor Graham's
been compared to doctor black excellent. I didn't think of that, but you're
right like there that that is a great parallel. You know. I don't
know if that was intentional or not, but of course we know it was.
Mustafa. You also stabbed me with a syringe, so he was about
to stab Jason, and then doctor Blackhart started fighting with him. He's like,
what are you doing? And then European security burst in and then Mustafa
broke away from them and he's like, dirry, traitor die, and then
he stabs him with the syringe, right, he stabs stabs blackerd right,
yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I was saying,
That's what I was thinking of. And it turned out to be just
a vitamin thing. But we thought it was the virus, but um,
yeah, or was it because he was exposed to rupu? Yeah yeah,
but of course in this case, you know, she she stabs him with
a you know, a sedative. But um, so it's it's very loose
parallel, but it just kind of popped into my head. No, that's
a really good parallel. You should probably take out my replay of that earlier
scene, but I really like that parallel actually, And so we talked about
how kind of the action started picking up in the last couple episodes and this
one. There's some very very short quick scenes just like some of them are
only like thirty seconds. It's just bouncing from perspective to perspective. And I
thought it was really well paced even though we were getting this short. It's
because everything is starting to come to a head, all these different plot lines,
you know, Jason and then the bomb and then Pullhouse trying to track
down Sky and all the stuff is so we're bouncing around from different perspectives,
but I thought it was just done so well. Yes, yes, absolutely,
And then we have Pullhouses crack about Sky being able to get a senior
discount when she gets out of prison. And I also like when Connie said
that Jillian and Witt were down with the bomb and she, you know,
she forgets that Pullhouse doesn't know she's a secret agent and he's like, Jillian,
what's she done now or when did she mess up? From Fallhouses the
personative hearing that Jillian's down there with the bomb, like that's fantas Yeah,
so it's at this point, you know that we hear that the Chairman,
or at least we think the Chairman is in the Pentagon. And I don't
usually listen to other people's reviews before I record a review, just because I
don't want anything to color my opinions. I want to make sure that i'm
you know, But in this case, I actually did listen to a new
podcast that I talked about on the show last episode, Clint Brahm's new podcast
about Odyssey, and when he was reviewing these episodes, he mentioned something about,
so if the Chairman is at it's the Pentagon, we don't know exactly
what he is the Chairman of He's just like it's like his villain name,
he's the Chairman. But he made the point of have you ever heard of
this position called the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? If he's at
the Pentagon? And I thought that was a really interesting point. It might
be a little too on the nose, but who knows, maybe maybe that
is where things are headed. But I thought that was a pretty interesting idea.
Yeah, hey, I believe it. I believe he's there in real
life. And then we have the bad guys, you know, proofing once
again that there is no honor among thieves, right the Chairman that line at
the end when he's like I'll tell them everything I know and he's like,
you know nothing. Yeah. Oh, one more thing about that last conversation
with the Chairman. Of course, there was that call back to his scene
in the end of the Novacom saga, and he even had the same delivery
when he's like I can't remember what he says. He's like, they've won
for now he said it the exact same way he said it before. That
was fun. And then everything just comes full circle back to where we begin
with Connie pushing Jay Aason to go after Jillian. Now, yeah, and
another dead car battery. She needs a new battery, Like this is ridiculous.
I don't know why Jason hasn't changed out the battery. And I did
think that was interesting using those conversations as a framing device for the whole thing.
I don't know what they're planning to do with the characters, but it
is it's interesting that that was the framing device, you know. Yeah,
yeah, I mean, now that I know that she's not a complete dits,
I think I would be okay. I mean, because people have been
talking about Jason Gillian for a long time since she was first you know,
introduced, and I'm like, no, she's she's an idiot. Why would
he want to go with her? Well, now that we know that's not
really the case, then I'm not quite as opposed to the idea. But
yeah, and I yeah, who else could Jason b with except for a
secret agent? You know, like that's it does feel like that's why your
character is intributed but yeah, yeah, like I said, Allison is she's
she's opposed. I'm I'm plus minus. I do wish that they would get
Connie with somebody. And I know that Phil Lawler has very strong opinions.
I just um, I'm with Andrew, and I don't really understand the reasons.
Yeah, Like I've heard him talk about it, but I don't really
get it. It seems like that her character should progress in that way,
that her character should change a little bit in that way. Yeah, I
think it's about time. It's been long enough. Yeah, And it's just
and I you know, just like you know, before I got married and
like growing up, I was like, you know, I had already graduated
college and everything, and I'm like, man, I'm gonna be like Connie,
I'm just gonna be working at wits end single for the rest of my
life, you know, like give some hope to the single people who grew
up. Wasn't an honestly fun Yeah, yeah, you can strike you can
strike that from the record, JD. I don't know that got off in
the weeds. On another note, what does it mean that Officer Burke has
George Washington style hair? Oh my goodness, that was my last note too,
No, it was that is crazy, That is hilarious, and that's
happened so many times today. Yeah, we have very similar notes here.
Yeah, I'm like, what does that even mean? What does he has
a white ponytail going down in the back of his I'm like, what,
he's wearing a wig? Yeah? Yeah, that completely changed the way I
picture Officer Burke. I don't even know how to That is not how I
pictured him. I don't know how I pictured his hair cut. But look
here it is jad I have a dollar I'm showing you. Oh yeah,
Officer Burke put officers a Burke face on. Why is the police station allowing
this? And don't most cops wear a hat of some kind anyway? So
yeah, yeah, that's got to look like a clown wig sticking out from
under his police head, like a wooden kind of look with all the curls
sticking out of the side of his mailman cap. Yeah, George Washington hair
as long as he doesn't have George Washington teeth, I guess. Oh my
goodness, but yeah, what a what a great album. Like I remember
listening to the episodes as they were dropping and getting that same kind of feeling
from back in the day when you had to wait for the next episode to
air on the radio and you're just like wanting to know what happens next.
And again with the way that she had written the script, with those great
cliffhangers at the end of every episode, it was just it was just a
fun ride. Yeah, yeah, I haven't had that feeling of that anticipation,
you know, for wanting to know what happens next for a while,
and this definitely scratched that itch. Yeah. And final note is the whole
thing is interesting, Like the timing of this. You alluded to this earlier,
but we have this very serious, deep arc with Olivia and some just
amazing episodes there, and then we have the whole thing with the Eugene and
and Buck and all that, so some heavier, more serious stuff. There
are moments of humor throughout all of that stuff too, But and then we
go into this like breakneck speed kind of adventure for six episodes straight, and
so it was just like a total change of pace from what we've had.
And then it's going into this next era of the show where we're dealing with
the Meltzner question, you know, and so it's just an interesting kind of
I don't know, just a change of pace and is it like designating a
new new era of the show or Yeah, it's just it's just interesting.
M Yeah. I like it. These last the last couple of albums like
surrounding this event, like this one and then the one that came before this
with Olivy. I've just really enjoyed both of those. Yeah, storylines and
kind of a little teaser for the next one. I also quite enjoyed Buckle
Up. There were a few things that I wasn't super crazy about, but
overall I thought it was a pretty decent album. Yeah, I agree.
Yeah, not quite at the level of the last two, which you know,
we're intense obviously, and so maybe you know, they needed some more
Slice of Life one, but there were some really great episodes. So yeah,
I'm enjoying this era of Odyssey. Yeah, you know, the over
the last eighteen months or so, there's just been some really, really solid
episodes and I'm enjoying it. Yes, definitely. Yeah, good job Odyssey
team. Well that's that's perfect. I think that's the place to end it.
Michael, Thank you so much for joining me. This has been a
long discussion, but I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, get
us talking about Odyssey. I guess that's the results that it's going to be
a long discussion. Thank you for inviting me on. I've I have thoroughly
enjoyed it, and it was fun talking with you about it since we were
talking about them these episodes as they were coming out, so that felt like
a fun full circle thing. And yeah, I'm excited about what's coming next.
The sixth annual Audio Theater Central Seneca Awards broadcast is coming soon. The
Seneca Awards recognize excellence in the world of family friendly audio drama, and we're
inviting you to tune into the show. Join us on Friday, August twenty
five, twenty twenty three, at seven pm Pacific ten pm Eastern as we
announced the winners in twelve different categories from productions released in the year of twenty
twenty two. In addition to announcing the winners, we'll hear presentations from right
Now host of Adventures in Odyssey, Chris Anthony Lansdowne, and actor and writer
Nato Jacobson. There will also be short audio drama features and more. The
broadcast will be streamed at the Senecas dot org, where you'll be able to
chat live with other listeners. We'll see you on Friday August twenty fifth,
twenty twenty three, at seven pm Pacific ten pm Eastern. For more information,
head over to the senecas dot org. That's the Senecas dot Org.
Well, thank you once again to Michael Schrader for joining me to talk about
Adventures in Odyssey. It is always so much fun to talk about AIO,
and especially to talk about it with someone who is a huge fan as well,
so thank you, Michael. Also want to mention that the song at
the top of the review segment is called One Day at a Time by Dan
Bremnis and it's from his two twenty two album called Into the Wild link in
the show notes. If you want to check out that song, be sure
to join the ATC Insiders, which is our mailing list, and we'll email
you about the cool stuff that we're up to very occasionally. We are not
going to fill up your email inbox, but it is just a good way
to stay in touch with us. And speaking of getting in touch with us,
head over to Audio Theater Central dot com slash contact for all of the
ways you can reach out, and hopefully we will get back to the feedback
segment very soon. Well. The show notes with links to all that we've
talked about today is at audio theater Central dot com slash one eighty three.
I'll see you next time and maybe hopefully you'll be at the Seneca's on August
twenty fifth. Thank you for listening. Audio Theater Central is a production of
Porchnite Family Media. Our theme music was composed by Sam Avandagno. The show
is produced and it by yours truly JD. Cutter, and her website is
audio theater Central dot com. So I heard this story the other day about
a Mexican magician who was performing for this crowd, and he said to the
audience that he would disappear on the count of three, and so he began
uno dos and then poof, he was gone. He vanished without a trace.
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