Episode 213 | Mystery Maniacs | The Brokenwood Mysteries | "Blood & Water" | Scruffy McDwayne’s T-Shirts & Mike’s Bad Parking
I am tired of your lone wolf corpse whispering crap.
Mark:Hey, maniacs. Hey, maniac.
Sarah:Mark's excited.
Mark:I am I hope you're excited.
Sarah:I'm saying you can tell you're excited. Welcome to Mystery Maniacs, a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we select an episode of a show, dig into it, and talk about the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love. I'm Sarah.
Mark:And I'm Mark.
Sarah:And if you're new, because we're talking about Broken Wood and you've not listened before
Mark:Welcome.
Sarah:We're so glad you're here. We
Mark:are super stoked that you're here.
Sarah:Yes. We've been doing this for a long time.
Mark:We have. This is our 5th year. We're this is episode 213, and we will be covering Broken Wood season 1, episode 1, Blood and Water today. We plan on covering at least the first two seasons of Broken Wood.
Sarah:Yes. But just before we dive into the normal stuff, if you are new, just a few things for you to know about Mystery Maniacs. We started out as Midsummer Maniacs talking about Midsummer Murders. And once we'd gone through a gazillion episodes of that show
Mark:no idea we were ever going to finish.
Sarah:And then we ran out of Midsummer. We started jumping around to other offices.
Mark:Murdock, Father Brown, Faroe, Marple. A couple of other one off episodes.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah.
Mark:We are a spoiler podcast.
Sarah:We are going to ruin it
Mark:and tell you who did it The show is
Sarah:this 11 year old episode.
Mark:Is a decade old television show. We're gonna ruin it for you.
Sarah:We have no sponsors. No ads. The only money that we make is off of merch in our merch store, and we donate all those proceeds. So to charity. If you don't like the ads, then you're in the right place.
Mark:We should look at a
Mark:NZ charity to support with this. Yeah. You're right. Absolutely.
Sarah:Now that we're talking about a New Zealand show.
Mark:And if you wanna contact us, you can do it here. If you wanna reach out to the maniacs, you can email us at mystery maniacspodcast@gmail.com. You can join our Facebook page, comment on our posts on Twitter or Instagram, or join our subreddit. You can also message us directly. We'd love to hear from you.
Sarah:We're easy to get in touch with.
Mark:I do. And we
Sarah:And we love to hear from people.
Mark:We got a message this week that that it made me cry right away.
Mark:Mhmm.
Mark:And I got another one this morning about my mom's passing. I'm like, wow. You people are awesome.
Sarah:So nice. Yes. Just a lot of, like, hey. I was having a tough day, and I listened to you guys, and it made me laugh, and it really helped. Like, that is enough right there because that's how I feel about making the show.
Mark:Yes. Absolutely.
Sarah:Like, it you know, no matter how tough the week has been, it's always a fun thing to do.
Mark:Yes. Oh. And finally, we are now covering the broken wood mystery.
Sarah:People have been asking for this for a long time. We did some Poirot for a while. We did a couple seasons of Poirot.
Mark:Did a couple seasons of Murdoch.
Sarah:Which people had also been asking for. Yeah. And I'm excited to be doing broken wood now.
Mark:Yes. This is our first no. Murdoch was our first non British show. But but it's all colonies all the time, baby.
Sarah:If you ain't been touched by the queen,
Mark:you don't count. King Charles the third.
Sarah:Don't even mention murder she wrote or some crap like that. We're not doing it. We're not doing it.
Mark:We're not doing it.
Sarah:Plus other people are already doing a really good job at that. You know, if you've never listened before, yeah, we're gonna recap it, but we're also gonna assume you've seen it.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So we're not trying to tell you the story. We we watch like maniacs.
Mark:That's the
Sarah:whole point.
Mark:Dig into the details that you
Sarah:like. Things that you didn't notice.
Mark:And we have, I have 2 I have at least one thing to talk about about that specific thing. Because in an interview, I watched a Fern Sutherland's this week. Fern plays Sims. Kristen Sims. She said, the production team actively tries to screw with them, especially with menus and posters.
Mark:I'm like Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, baby. We will be reading everything in the background.
Sarah:I'll give you an example. If you're new about how to watch like a maniac, for example, if you've just watched this episode, season 1 episode 1, did you notice Gary's giant bullhorn?
Mark:Yes. I did notice Gary. It's ginormous. Yes. A ginormous bullhorn.
Mark:And to
Mark:give you an, another indication to the extent that we we will go, I easily spent 2 hours trying to find Dwayne's T shirts this week.
Sarah:That's too far. Yep. Too far.
Mark:So Broken Wood is a murder mystery show set in New Zealand on the North Island somewhere about 2 and a half hours north of Auckland. I think it's Auckland.
Sarah:So the North Island has Auckland at one side and Wellington at the other. Right? And in the middle, it's country.
Mark:Yeah. It's north of Wellington. So and it it it's all country in between. It's beautiful. It's kind of in the middle of the North Island.
Mark:That's what Tim Baum said.
Sarah:And, like, 3 quarters of people who live in New Zealand live on the North Island Yes. Of New Zealand. Yes. I will admit, I don't know a lot about New Zealand. Not nearly as much as I know, like, about Britain.
Sarah:Like, I've got a lot to learn. So if we mispronounce something or if we're just wrong about something, let us know. We wanna know.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:We wanna get it right.
Mark:We've never been there unlike England.
Sarah:I'm we are not offended by being corrected.
Mark:For our American viewers, the North Island has about as many people in it and is about the same size as Ohio.
Sarah:Yes. And it's a country. It's
Mark:I mean, this one island, it's a country.
Sarah:So the it's it's interesting because and it may just be the algorithms aiming stuff at us, but or it could just be that New Zealand media is is really getting out there now in a way that it didn't used to. But Broken Wood is just one of, like, lots of, shows from New Zealand that we've seen in the last year and a half. I mean, there's New Zealand Taskmaster, which is hilarious.
Mark:Which is produced by the, not Taskmaster. New Zealand Survivor is produced by the same company that produces broken wood.
Sarah:Time Bandits, which we just talked about recently
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Is written and directed by Taika Waititi, who is from New Zealand and has done amazing, awesome things.
Mark:Well, for years years, it was Sam Neill is from New Zealand.
Sarah:Yeah. And then it was Lord of the Rings. It was all Peter Jackson. That was the only thing that ever happened in New Zealand, and that was not true even then.
Mark:We're gonna do a quick in-depth relation to all this in the
Sarah:same I know. There but there's a great show. This is Sarah Recommends Corner.
Mark:It's a
Sarah:great show, that most people probably have never even heard of called Wellington Paranormal.
Mark:We saw it on HBO Max.
Sarah:It is hilarious.
Mark:It is fantastic.
Sarah:It is about a really small group of police. There's, like, 4 officers in what in this, I don't know, suburb of Wellington, I guess. Yep. And paranormal crap happens there all the time, and they go back and forth between pretending it's not happening and having to deal with it.
Mark:And it's great. Incredibly funny.
Sarah:It's shot like cops. Yep. Like a like a documentary. So the the police officers talk to the camera quite a bit. Yes.
Sarah:And it is so funny. It's called Wellington Paranormal. You should check it out.
Mark:Very, very good.
Sarah:Really, really funny.
Mark:So Broken Wood is that detective show that what happened was New Zealand TV, the the main channel in New Zealand, talked to South Pacific Media and said, basically, give us a show like Midsummer. We want a show like Midsummer. And they had they had kinda done an idea for a show like this, but then had put it away. Tim Baum, who wrote 44 of the episodes, kinda put it away, but then he pulled it out again. He was like, oh, we can try this.
Mark:Now he had never written a detective show at this point in time. He'd written lots of other shows. What we have is a show with a senior detective who is played by Neil Rea, and his the character's name is Mike Shepherd.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And Mike Shepherd is, I would say, unlike any other main detective in a lot of shows.
Sarah:Yeah. For sure. Especially since he's supposed to be from the big city Yep. And comes to Brokenwood, which is kind of a country bumpkin place.
Mark:He has lots of ex wives, but he's not.
Sarah:He does, but they all like him.
Mark:They all like him,
Mark:and he's not jilted.
Sarah:Between, like, 45. Yep. It's like he just keeps trying marriage, and it doesn't work, but he's not bitter about it.
Mark:He's also not jilted about it.
Sarah:No. And he's not Neither are they.
Mark:He doesn't have a jilted view of the world either.
Sarah:No. He's not bitter.
Mark:He doesn't drink. He doesn't like like, he doesn't he's not that gruff, horrible detective. He's also not your typical leading man in a North American drama.
Sarah:No. He's not a pretty boy.
Mark:He's a little overweight. He wears jeans.
Mark:And corduroy. He
Mark:likes the corduroy.
Sarah:He does like corduroy. In later episodes, we've kinda run into some of his exes. And in every case, he really likes them, and they really like him. He's not this, like, tragic flawed detective.
Mark:No. But he is Which is sanely private about him.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. Like like, when his birthday is, that becomes an issue later.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:But in that way, he is kind of like Barnaby. He's a happy man
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:In general. He's a happy guy. Yep. He's good at his job. He likes it.
Sarah:He gets along with his boss.
Mark:Yes. He does. The boss is is a interesting character who we see in another couple episodes, but never gets too involved.
Sarah:No. And he is supportive. Yep. He's not nasty or bitter. Mike doesn't have to avoid him, you know, anything like that.
Mark:The next character who kind of is in that main group of 4 of the first season is Kristen Sims, paid played by mystery maniac's friend
Sarah:Fern Sutherland.
Mark:Fern Sutherland, who liked
Sarah:She liked to pose.
Mark:She liked to pose. Hi, Fern. Hi, Fern.
Mark:Hope you're listening. If you are listening, we know season 11 is being filmed now, and you'll probably wanna do some promotion for that. You
Sarah:you know?
Mark:Just saying. Saying. Just saying you're welcome on the podcast.
Sarah:Happy to hop around episodes that you'll come on.
Mark:Any old time.
Sarah:I love Sims. Yes. She's an independent woman. She she passes passes the what's it called? The Bechdel test.
Mark:Yes. Like She doesn't talk about men.
Sarah:She's not caught up in a relationship all the time.
Mark:She's she actively has worked to keep Sims single
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:In the show.
Sarah:Really? Yeah. Yeah. And that's not to say that she's, like, a really flat character. She's not just a cop.
Sarah:No. But she sticks up for herself, which we see in this very first episode. Yes. She's like, I know you're like 2 ranks above me, and you come from the big city, and you've got all this experience, but you're not gonna dick around with me. Thank you very much.
Mark:They did a good example of this is a conflict, which is resolved through communication. It's not easily resolved, but it is resolved.
Sarah:Because she says what she needs to say, and Mike actually listens.
Mark:Shock. And then, unfortunately, for this episode, we have Sam Breen who is a guy who brings papers. That's kinda what he does.
Sarah:Soon as Sam came on camera, I'm like, Sam.
Mark:And then he's gone. He's gone.
Sarah:We see more of him, and we also see more of
Mark:Gina. Gina who
Mark:is The coroner.
Mark:The most popular character based on the surveys
Mark:I did this week.
Sarah:She's amazing. We get a tiny taste
Mark:of her.
Mark:The littlest taste of Gina. She totally eats up the the crime scene right away.
Sarah:Yeah. And but if you've watched more of the show, you know, and you see her again in this first episode, you're like, and then she's just gone. You're like, wait. What? How?
Sarah:Jean? Gina. Why is she gone? I really hated her for a while. Yeah.
Sarah:I really didn't like her.
Mark:There was a lady on Twitter who mentioned her hate for Gina.
Sarah:And I'm looking forward to rewatching these episodes that I haven't watched in a while to see why I disliked her. Whether they tried to make her unlikable and then change the character a bit
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Or whether it was me.
Mark:She's so likable now.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. You, like, gotta love her now, in the more recent seasons anyway. But those are the 4, like, recurring main characters, but they're not all
Mark:And Brokenwood is a small town like Midsummer where all these murders happen.
Sarah:Yeah. Which would make it kind of an outlier, but not in this universe. And Jared, in these in this early at least in the first season, Jared's a pretty big character too.
Mark:Jared's a pretty big character.
Sarah:He's like the local guide, unofficial guide for Mike, kind of.
Mark:One thing I really like about Brokenwood that they do is they do not make this, we're going to tell an Aboriginal story in every episode. They, like, Jared and his family are completely integrated into
Sarah:They're just people who live there.
Mark:They're just people who live there. It's not to say there aren't Aboriginal issues that are addressed. They are. Absolutely.
Sarah:But when they do, it never feels like, and now a special episode of Broken Wood.
Mark:Yeah. It's never like that.
Sarah:It's their people who you care about, and they've got a problem. Yes. That's all there is to it, and I love it. It's it's hand but I've also learned a lot about the culture through this show that I would not have learned any other way.
Mark:I love Jared's boots. His his
Sarah:Jared's whole fashion sense is interesting. Sometimes his shorts are too short. Yes. He always has on shoes that are inappropriate with shorts.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And he's always dressed for different weather, north of his waist versus south of his waist. Like shorts and a lambskin lined denim jacket. Okay.
Mark:So I'll give you an example of how they deal with indigenous culture that relates to what we just talked about. In the Timbalm interview I listened to this morning, he said they made a conscious effort not to describe or put in subtitles the Maori words or say what it was. You are the
Sarah:Either you know or look it up.
Mark:Certainly, the first six seasons are meant for a New Zealand audience. They had no idea that it was gonna be seen in a 150 other countries. They they they were gonna build a little show with 4 episodes for New Zealand. It was funded by partially funded by the government. Mhmm.
Mark:The way it works in New Zealand is the government will help you fund a show for 6 years, and then you're on your own. Mhmm. So they they did that, and then broken wood is the number one television show in New Zealand. And by far, it's hugely popular there and is a huge success.
Sarah:So That's a lot of pressure.
Mark:I I think Neil Ray, you know, he can handle it. I think he's pretty from the interviews I watched with him, he's a pretty laid back guy. I like him. He's definitely he has an honors, history degree.
Sarah:I just I I like him as a main character.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:He's not overly polished. He's not pretentious. He's not flawed. Like, Mike Shepherd is is just like a guy you'd wanna know.
Mark:Yes. He he he says he tries
Sarah:incredibly sensitive.
Mark:He tries to exude older brother energy. And when he said that in the interview, I was like, that's exactly what Mike is. Yep. It works. He's older brother energy.
Sarah:Let's talk about blood and water.
Mark:Okay. Before we talk about blood and water, I wanna talk about how the Michigan State University and 2 zombie movies resulted in broken wood. Oh, okay.
Sarah:Tell us the story, Mark.
Mark:So now I do sound American, but I'm actually Canadian, and my wife is American. So if you're new to listening, you might not know. We're married.
Sarah:Yes. Just so you know.
Mark:Just so you know.
Sarah:You're not talking about some other lady?
Mark:So in in the late seventies, there was a young man named Rob who had a roommate named Ivan.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And they were going to Michigan State University, and Ivan's younger brother Sam and his friend Bruce had just arrived as freshmen.
Sarah:Okay. Wait a minute. This has gotta be Sam Ramey and Bruce Campbell.
Mark:Yes. And the Robert is Robert Tapert.
Sarah:If you've not heard of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, you've never seen Evil Dead the movie, which has gotta be the funniest horror movie ever made.
Mark:This is also really the beginning of the MCU. I kinda forgot that because MCU? Yeah. The Marvel movies because he does Spider Man and doctor Strange too in the future. The Marvel Comics universe?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Is that what MCU means? Yes. Okay. Thanks. Talk down to us nerds, will you?
Mark:So they start making movies together. And it's funny because Holly Hunter is with them too, but we forget. Yeah. They start making movies.
Sarah:Well, but they only hang out with her because she's got a car.
Mark:They only hang out with her because
Mark:she has a car.
Sarah:No. They like her. And then Don't they trash her car making Evil Dead?
Mark:Yes. Okay. Then Rob Tapert goes to New Zealand because he can get funding to make a show called Hercules.
Sarah:Oh. Hercules.
Mark:Hercules. In this show, Hercules is a young actor named Neil Ray.
Sarah:He plays King
Mark:Arthur or something? Now, knowing that he has a history honors degree
Sarah:Makes sense.
Mark:May
Mark:he may have felt like he was selling his soul.
Sarah:Yeah. I bet. But Hercules is, like, from that, to me, it's like, Saturday afternoon bad TV. Like, it's like Xena Warrior Princess or whatever it's called.
Mark:Buffy Buffy led into Hercules led into Xena led into young Hercules. And we'll we'll touch on that a tiny bit too. So Hercules and Xena, those two shows filmed in New Zealand. Huge syndicated hits in North America and the rest of the world. Basically created Weta Workshop too.
Sarah:Which is Peter Jackson's place that did Lord of the Rings.
Mark:They did all of the effects for Lord of the Rings.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:And they also spawned young Hercules who had a young Canadian starring in the lead role. Do you know who that was?
Sarah:No.
Mark:Ryan Gosling with young Hercules.
Sarah:Okay. Now bring us to Brokenwood.
Mark:Okay. So they spawn Weta in Lord of the Rings, and Peter Jackson before Lord of the Rings was really into horror movies.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And so he created his own zombie movie, which was clearly influenced by Evil Dead. Okay. It's one of the most disgusting bloody movies I've ever seen. It's called brain dead or Don't watch it. Yep.
Mark:And Tim Baum who created broken wood stars in that
Sarah:movie. Oh.
Mark:And is a close personal friend of Peter Jackson's.
Sarah:Nice.
Mark:So then we get to the point where I think in in season 4 of broken wood, they have a whole Lord of the Rings episode.
Sarah:Well, because Lord of the Rings is a huge tourism thing for New Zealand. Thing there. Yeah. Yeah. So So if not for a party at Michigan State Yep.
Sarah:There would be no broken wood.
Mark:There'd be no broken wood. I'm gonna put in the show notes. And if you wanna know about the show notes, I list them in the releases all the time, or contact us if you wanna see the show notes. A young Nick Ray as, King Arthur, and he's hard to recognize. He is
Sarah:Neil Ray.
Mark:Neil Ray. Yeah. He has long curly hair.
Sarah:He has curly hair anyway. He's got nice hair.
Mark:He does, in fact, have nice hair. This was originally aired the 28th September 2014 in New Zealand, like I said.
Sarah:It doesn't feel like a 10 year old show.
Mark:Always always meant to be a New Zealand only show. Mike Smith directs it, and Tim Baum and Philip Dalkin write it. This is Tim Baum's first detective story. He does a great job.
Sarah:He's clearly watched and read a lot of detective stories.
Mark:His second detective story, the next ish episode
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Wins the award for single episode writing for New Zealand that year. Nice.
Sarah:Yeah. Well, but you're saying there weren't a lot of shows to compete with. I don't care. It's still really good.
Mark:Let's start off with country music.
Sarah:So That's the one thing I don't like about this show is the music. It suits it. It fits. It's fine. So this is It's better than the music that they make up for midsummer.
Sarah:When they don't license music and they create their own, it's always so bad.
Mark:This is all New Zealand artists.
Sarah:That's great.
Mark:This is all over the country.
Sarah:American style country music popular in New Zealand.
Mark:And old style American
Sarah:It's like honky tonk.
Mark:It's like dark country,
Sarah:not not like Patsy Cline era.
Mark:All that stuff. Not like, and there's a Patsy Cline reference.
Sarah:It's not post Malone country music.
Mark:No. It's not
Mark:about my pickup truck and my beer and all that stuff.
Sarah:About you broke my heart. I'm gonna kill
Mark:you Yeah.
Sarah:After I drink all that.
Mark:Beautiful shot off the top is just it's called a golden hour shot, the hour before dawn and the hour the hour before and after dawn and before and after sunset.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:It's just gorgeous.
Sarah:Well and right off the bat, we've got a pub with a brawl going on and a ute.
Mark:And and scruffy in the ute. So when they say ute, they mean pickup truck.
Sarah:It's utility vehicle. Yeah. That's what it's short for.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And they say it in Australia too, I think.
Mark:Yeah. I think so.
Sarah:But they're they're not like our big, like, diesel Dodge 6 wheel.
Mark:No. No. You know? It's like
Sarah:They're smaller trucks, and they call them Utes.
Mark:And like Canada, New Zealand is city, city, city where most people live and then suddenly country. Yeah. And, like, real country.
Sarah:But broken wood is beautiful. It is. Like, I don't know exactly what towns they use as sets to shoot, but they're all gorgeous.
Mark:And I love those false front beer garden areas
Mark:Mhmm.
Mark:That we've seen in a lot of these shows.
Sarah:So we get to meet the Dunns. Yes. The most dysfunctional father and son ever.
Mark:So Nate Dunn is the old drunk. Yes. And his son, Duane Dunn, is A jerk. A jerk.
Sarah:Even more of a jerk than we know at the at the beginning. Yep. And dad doesn't like the girlfriend, Sally.
Mark:Of course, he doesn't. And dad is saying the thing that you're like, oh, dad. Your mother would be wouldn't like that you're dating her. Worse than that, he goes, I'm gonna blow the lid off of everything here. Yeah.
Mark:I know the secret.
Sarah:As soon as somebody says that in a murder mystery show, you're like, you are marked for death now.
Mark:Good job. Now marked for death.
Sarah:You may as well say, oh, it's you. I know something, and I'm gonna let it out tomorrow. Well, then you're gonna die tonight. Yeah. That's how it is.
Sarah:Yes. If you've got a secret, keep it to yourself until you actually release it.
Mark:There's a little problem here I have. So he goes home with his his son, and his son smashes the wall and gets all upset.
Sarah:He punches the door.
Mark:Yep. And then he's at the bridge. Okay?
Sarah:He wanders out of the house.
Mark:You you think he wanders out of the house to the bridge, but the bridge is 3 kilometers away. I don't know about you, but walking 3 kilometers, which is almost 2 miles while drunk like that would be very difficult.
Sarah:I don't know if it's actually 3 kilometers.
Mark:That may be by the road.
Sarah:Maybe. He clearly walks through the woods
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:And knows his way. So he might have a shorter route.
Mark:And then he says the second thing that's gonna
Sarah:What are you doing here?
Mark:What are you doing here?
Sarah:Killing you. That's what I'm doing here. And we get to see Jared for the first time
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Looking totally sus Jared. Rifling their house.
Mark:The first 45 minutes of the episode, Jared
Sarah:Jared is a criminal.
Mark:Jared is super sus.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:He's sus man.
Sarah:And he always is. He's always right on the edge of Mike could probably arrest him for the stuff that he's into.
Mark:Well, he's like
Sarah:But he's just on the line, and he's a nice guy.
Mark:This gun's $800.
Sarah:He didn't pay, so, obviously, I needed it back.
Mark:And we have our first mom, mom, I I got a part, which is the fisherman. Right? They don't have a speaking role, but they find the body.
Sarah:They're they're fly fishing. Yes. And Neil Ray, who plays Mike, he is, part owner of a casting agency in New Zealand called Fly Casting.
Mark:Yes. So he I don't know if he's a fly fishing or what. He actually had kind of resolved to not be in anything anymore and just do casting because he was having success with it. And then they asked him to try out for this, and he was like, sure. And 44 episodes later
Sarah:I've done a lot of fishing. I've never done fly fishing. It looks so complicated.
Mark:It does.
Sarah:But, you know, Nate's dead
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Because if you're going fishing in this kind of movie, you are gonna catch a corpse. That's in this kind of show, you're gonna catch a corpse. That's just how it is.
Mark:If you're walking along the tracks, you know.
Sarah:Look don't look in a ditch. Don't go fishing. Yep. You know, these are like midsummer rules. Right?
Sarah:But this bridge, you know, initially, they think, oh, Nate may have committed suicide.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But the bridge is like, I'm 15 feet off the water, and the water's 2 feet deep. It'd be the dumbest place to try to commit suicide. You you would You break your legs
Mark:and sit there in a puddle. You didn't commit suicide.
Sarah:Yeah. That you didn't die. Yeah. That you just disabled yourself and got wet.
Mark:And the stranger's coming to town in his fancy car.
Sarah:I don't like Mike's car. I love classic cars. This car is from the seventies. It's from an era.
Mark:I do not like 71.
Sarah:I do not like. My first car was a 65. Yep. And it was sweet.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:They had style.
Mark:Yes. As soon as you
Sarah:get into the seventies, they're just ugly.
Mark:I don't like it that because it's the wrong color because cars only come in one color. Oh, wow.
Sarah:Yeah. And certain it's not white.
Mark:No. He has definitely
Sarah:He has crank windows.
Mark:Oh, I love his crank windows. Did you see what was hanging from the mirror? I hadn't noticed this. Uh-uh. It's a bolo tie hanging from the mirror.
Mark:Oh. That's so much.
Sarah:Something country western breaks out
Mark:And then
Sarah:and he needs an accessory all
Mark:of a sudden. The least technology person in the world says, oh, it's all over Facebook and Twitter. Yeah.
Mark:He is field crime inspector. So his job is
Sarah:to go places where there's been a crime.
Mark:Yep. I think the comms person here, the communication person that that Sims talks to is meant to be a character later on that we
Sarah:never see. Come to fruition.
Mark:Come to fruition. Then Mike stalks this woman And her kids.
Sarah:And you kinda wonder, like, is that his ex girlfriend or one of his ex wives? She's kind of a non thing. Tanya, she's in witness protection. He knows that she's there. So I think he kinda jumped at the chance to go because he
Mark:They deal with the story much better later on.
Sarah:Yeah. But it's like yeah.
Mark:But you're expected here to think that Gina is somehow involved with Tanya. To sorry. Tanya is somehow involved with him.
Sarah:I do really like that Sims is supposed to go back to the station and meet him, but she stops for a noise complaint, and it's him. Yes. And that's Blaring his honky tonk.
Mark:Their
Sarah:introduction. Somebody's complained about it.
Mark:Their introduction is really nice.
Sarah:Yeah. I like that.
Mark:Like, Sims is all business, and he knows who she is right away, but lets her dig a little bit.
Sarah:And he talks to the body. Yep. Because that's his thing.
Mark:That is his thing. It's a great device. I don't know how Tim Baum came up with it, but it's not been on any other show. No. And it's a great device for you to get into the thinking process of the detective.
Sarah:Well and you also get to see that he's not a macho cop. He solves crimes because he cares Yeah. That people who have been killed get justice.
Mark:Absolutely. And speaking of great devices, Gina shows up.
Mark:Have you finished? That's her first lie.
Sarah:I don't think in the first season we see her without her paper suit on. She's always got the paper suit on. She just basically shoves her way in and is like
Mark:Yep. And we find out that Scruffy for early on was named Dwayne. Now this is where I begin to become obsessed with Dwayne's T shirts. He has 2 T shirts on in this episode that are amazing. The first one is a giant demon with a sword on a pile of rocks.
Mark:It's fantastic. And, his second T shirt has it's like a crest with RX on it and their skulls. It's very strange.
Sarah:RX?
Mark:RX. Like prescription? Like prescription RX.
Sarah:Well, that's kind of a a hint, isn't it?
Mark:Like, they're meant to be heavy metal banding t shirts.
Sarah:But he's an oxy addict.
Mark:An oxy addict.
Sarah:So the RX demon kinda presages
Mark:Tails. This entire episode would be completely avoided if Dwayne had taken his impotent rage and opened a T shirt shop instead.
Mark:Dwayne's awesome T shirt.
Sarah:I don't know it's a big enough market for him to make a living from awesome T shirts.
Mark:I don't
Sarah:know. You have Jared in there buying one and that'd be about it. The you also have to acclimate to the gun culture Yes. Of the countryside and it's kind of similar to gun culture in England too that a long gun is not unexpected at all. Like, people have hunting guns and that's totally acceptable that you would have a rifle and a license for it and you'd have a good reason to have it, But pistols are never in, you know, a civilian's hand.
Sarah:That's really rare.
Mark:Very much like Canadian guns too. Yes. And we always make fun of British shows because they'll there'll be a criminal who does a bad thing and then runs, and the cops are
Sarah:like, stop.
Mark:Stop, or I'll say stop again.
Sarah:Yeah. Sims is armed.
Mark:But Sims is armed right away. She goes out armed. She's armed all the time. Mhmm. Now if you notice, at this point in time
Sarah:She keeps it tucked into the waistband of her skinny jeans. No. Like, can't be comfortable.
Mark:At this point in time, Mike doesn't have a gun. No. Because he's kinda not in his jurisdiction.
Sarah:And he's not he's never a gun person.
Mark:No. He's never a gun person. And Sims drops her gun, and this is a moment of first of all, she goes, do you think we need backup? Mhmm. And he oh, no.
Mark:That she doesn't drop her gun here. It's later that she drops her gun. But she goes, do you think we need backup? And he's like
Sarah:How embarrassing would that be?
Mark:You can't really call.
Mark:I don't have a radio in my car.
Sarah:But, like, Dwayne is shooting at cans. Yeah. And though Mike is from the city, he understands people in the countryside shoot guns for nonviolent purposes.
Mark:And I think it's it is a brilliant piece of writing here to show Mike because scruffy McDuane stops shooting and turns towards them, and and Mike immediately goes, oh. Yeah. Like, he is gun smart.
Sarah:Like, aim the gun away
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:But not diving for the ground or anything.
Mark:They talk
Sarah:to you. Assumes the best of people.
Mark:Yes. I think he does. Boy, he has a nice shirt on, and then I was off looking for that. So then and we haven't talked about this. There is an existing superior officer here named Gary.
Mark:He is the town head cop. Mhmm. He might as well be chief of police.
Sarah:He's a senior sergeant.
Mark:Yeah. He might as well be chief of police for
Sarah:would make him, like, a middle rank anywhere else, but here, he's the senior most policeman.
Mark:Now he seems disinterested in the first half of the episode. We learn later on he's battling bankruptcy and cancer.
Sarah:And guilt over an unsolved crime that he really cares about.
Mark:Yes. A bit of a lot
Sarah:of his time. Stuff going on. But, initially, it's like, oh, well, they sent a guy from the big city to come and usurp me and take over the case.
Mark:Again, really good writing because you're all on board about disliking Gary. Yeah. That at the end of the episode, you're like, oh, Gary. Poor Gary. At the start of the episode, you're like, dude, come on.
Mark:And he looks like he's harassing.
Sarah:Jacinta.
Mark:Jacinta. Mhmm. He looks like he's harassing her.
Sarah:No. That's not what I got. Okay? So he goes to see her, and we don't know who she is. We don't know that she's the sister.
Sarah:We don't know that she's Nate's sister-in-law. Yes. Right? That her sister is dead and was married to to Nate, who's now dead. Yes.
Sarah:We don't know that. All we know is that she has a giant beautiful house with a gardener.
Mark:I'm telling you, I need to go become a farmer in New Zealand because
Sarah:wow. You get to fly your own plane and do whatever. The other thing we know about her immediately is girl is brave with mix and patterns. She wow. Her shirt and her sweater, each of them on their own are a full party.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:And then she wears them together. And I am no fashion plate, but I know you don't mix paisley's like that. It is a brave combination she's got on.
Mark:And then another great thing out of the the the part of this episode is at no point does Mike go, these cases are connected. Yeah. He just assumes they're connected already.
Sarah:Because it's a little town.
Mark:Because it's a little town, and it's on 17th November. It's the same date. Like, there are things going on here.
Sarah:So Gary says to Jacinta, I'm glad he's dead because now it's over. Yep. Because in his mind, Nate is the one who killed her sister. And he could never prove it, but now he thinks the murderer of this 10 year old case is gone. So it's done.
Mark:And Jacinta is But
Sarah:but you sort of think that he has a reason to want Nate dead personally. Like Yes. Like, maybe Nate was blackmailing him or something. Something. And now it's just over.
Mark:Meanwhile, Jacinta is thinking, oh, I got away with 2 murders. Uh-huh. Mhmm.
Sarah:And this outfit.
Mark:Yes. In my plane.
Sarah:She's like power business lady farmer.
Mark:And she is all over Mike, like white on rice. Like, she is, like, flirting up with
Sarah:because she doesn't wanna get caught. Yeah. She's insinuating herself so that she can have conversations with him to know whether he's on to her or not. Because she's, spoiler, a killer.
Mark:Yes. She's she is she's not only a killer. She's a bad killer? She accidentally kills her sister. Yeah.
Sarah:Which you're laughing about,
Mark:you bad person. After 10 years, when her husband, her sister's husband has figured it out, she's like, okay.
Mark:You gotta go do it.
Sarah:You're the one who I wanted to kill in the 1st place. So guess what, brother? You're out of here. She does think he's a bad person, though.
Mark:She does.
Sarah:She thinks she's got a good motive.
Mark:And later on
Sarah:She's wrong.
Mark:When get. She's accidental and wrong.
Sarah:Sloppy McDwanerson is the one who's the bad guy.
Mark:If only I opened a t shirt shop.
Sarah:I would have had to beat up my mom and bring my
Mark:dad back. My dad. I gotta beat up everybody. These t shirts
Sarah:are breaking, breaking, breaking.
Mark:There's a shades of gray reference here, which makes it it dates it.
Sarah:Okay. Shades of gray was the term before the stupid books and movie.
Mark:I know, but
Sarah:She doesn't say 50. No. So it's not a reference to that. I think it's fine. Meanwhile, there's also the neighbor, Philip Henderson.
Mark:Philip Henderson.
Sarah:Who Dwayne's like, well, it's probably him because
Mark:Philip Henderson who was like, I've been on several soap operas.
Sarah:Yes. I have good hair, nice sweaters, and a fancy camera.
Mark:And eyebrows.
Sarah:And a fully organic farm Yes. Which makes him Poncey.
Mark:His picture on IMDB is, him in a zombie movie. It's really good picture.
Sarah:It's not a pretty picture? No. That's good. But he's definitely like like Nate and Dwayne are country bumpkins, and he is sophisticated.
Mark:And, again, they do a really good job of you hate him. Yeah. And then at the end of the episode, you're like, oh. He was kind
Sarah:of a nice guy.
Mark:He should've walked her home, but other than She said no. She said no. And he, even though he clearly wanted to be with Nate's wife, didn't cross that line.
Mark:No. Now he's stupid everything else in town. Him and Jared have an agency or something.
Sarah:To be fair, it's just one woman.
Mark:So we we find out later on that Jared's Jared's a bit of a bull cat
Sarah:around town. You see the town bicycle? Is that it? He's the town. Happy about it.
Sarah:He's fine with that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Philip is clearly a fancy man. Right?
Sarah:His farm is organic and special and fancy and he's fancy and but he's also kind of a nice guy. He's also single and unattached. So
Mark:Yep. And he tells Mike that he found Evelyn.
Sarah:Oh, that's wait a minute. I'm sorry. It's not just Tanya. He also sleeps with Sally
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Who is Twain's girlfriend. Slappy McDuane's girlfriend. So she's not a very good girlfriend. No. I mean, he's a horrible boyfriend.
Mark:She's still in the oxycodone.
Sarah:Yeah. I mean, that's the only reason why they're together, I think so.
Mark:When they do the crime reenactment of Evelyn's murder and him finding the body Mhmm. They give us a big clue because
Sarah:She doesn't have the
Mark:coat on. Doesn't have the coat on. If you're paying attention, you're like, where is that coat?
Sarah:The big coat's kind of a character. When she walks away from his house into the rain and
Mark:she She's going off to kill people. She looks like a serial killer.
Sarah:Well, the coat's wearing her, that big oil
Mark:And there's there's a midsummer dark harvest where
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Where the killer walks around in an oilskin coat.
Sarah:Evelyn borrowed the coat from that guy?
Mark:I think so. How much is an oilskin coat? I don't know. About $500. They're really expensive.
Sarah:Well, they last, though.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:So Nate's wife was killed in a purposeful hit and run. It's been 10 years. Nate has never stopped trying to figure out what happened. He genuinely loved his wife and wants to know what happened. Right?
Mark:Absolutely.
Sarah:When they go to his house, they find drawers full of copies of letters that he has sent trying to run down leads.
Mark:And rocks on the mantle piece.
Sarah:Those are meteors we find out later. Yeah.
Mark:But but Mike takes them because they're not there later on.
Sarah:Yeah. Well, he's got them in a bag of heat. Yeah. Mike asks Sims, and I wanna know what you think about this, to go through all of those letters. Yes.
Sarah:They're clearly important Yes. To know what Nate was up to, but she thinks that he's giving her busy work. Is he?
Mark:Part of all crime procedural is busy work. Part of it. You you have to do it. The reason why Sims does it here is to create that conflict. In later episodes, this is a brain job.
Mark:Like, this is a Sam job.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:So I think he's finding out what she'll take and what she won't take as well as he knows there's something in there, and he trusts her to find it.
Sarah:Well, when he asked her to go through the file from Evelyn's death, he's doing it because he wants her to see that Gary screwed up
Mark:Yes. I did so. On her own.
Sarah:Right? And he says that Yeah. You wouldn't have believed me if I told you. But if you realized it on your own, you'd believe it.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:So he's doing that on purpose. But the letters, he could have just as easily said, let's sit down. We'll split this stack in half. Yeah. We'll each read half.
Sarah:He could do that.
Mark:He could have done that.
Sarah:But he doesn't.
Mark:The coffee subplot is introduced here.
Sarah:It's an ongoing thing.
Mark:So what happens is he brings a coffee, and he doesn't bring one for Sims. So he gives Sims his coffee. That's a character trait.
Sarah:Because he owes her an apology.
Mark:He owes her an apology, and he realizes he needs to help out.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:The next day, he comes with 2 coffees.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And she makes a joke about it, and he doesn't get offended. No. He doesn't take it personal. And then every time, every morning after that, they give each other coffee.
Sarah:Yeah. Until later When when she starts
Mark:making starts making coffee. And that
Sarah:becomes a thing.
Mark:And that becomes a thing.
Mark:My biggest problem with this episode, the the single solitary biggest problem I have with this episode is the airplane hangar scene, the first one.
Sarah:Oh, okay.
Mark:Mike parks on the grass, first of all, which I'm like, don't park on the grass. You have
Sarah:a problem
Mark:with that. My Canadianness.
Mark:Then there is she goes up she goes to the side door and opens up the big hangar door and the side door, and then goes about starting the prep for her plane. All of that is completely right and completely valid. Okay. What problem I have is there is no way that she could have got the plane outside of the hangar onto the tarmac with Mike's car where it is. Oh,
Sarah:I was waiting, like, what is the problem? What is the problem? That's the problem? You think his car is in the way?
Mark:His car is in the way, and then she has man hands when she's flying away the first time. You don't think they're
Mark:her hands?
Mark:It's not her hands. It's definitely not her hands.
Sarah:You think there's, like, a guy sitting at her feet pretending to fly the plane?
Mark:I have. It's a little thing, but she couldn't have got the plane out of position with this car. And she says she's going to Hogs Bay. You know where Hogs Bay is? No.
Mark:Nowhere because it's actually Hawks Bay. Oh. H a w k e s, not Hogs Bay, but boy, it sounds like Hogs Bay. Yeah. And, so she flies off and and he gets to say to Sims, I was seeing a woman in a bad place.
Sarah:Yeah. Because she's like, where the heck are you? Yep. My next note says, Gary has a vineyard and a bad cough.
Mark:He does. He's got cancer. Yeah. Well, we don't know that yet. Know that yet.
Sarah:Because, you know, Sally hasn't broken all the HIPAA laws yet.
Mark:The thing about Sally that I really like is her ID on her lanyard is really well done. It's got a picture of her and everything. I'd like to see that because I bet you there's goof on there. You think so? I bet you there is.
Mark:Poor Gary. He's got cancer. The grapes aren't growing the way they were. They're not selling the way they were. His house is in foreclosure.
Sarah:He's He's not married as far as we know. He's not in the housewife. The murderer. He's dying.
Mark:The woman who he likes, because he obviously likes her, has nothing to do with him. Jacinta? Yeah. Yeah. And is a killer.
Mark:Well, there
Sarah:is that. She can't like him be even if she did like him because she's the one who's making him miserable by not admitting that she's the killer.
Mark:It's
Mark:like It's really well done.
Sarah:If she did love him let's just imagine that for a second. Let's say she does love him. Every day, she would look at him and and think, I'm the one who's making me
Mark:miserable. That much problem.
Sarah:I probably gave you that cancer by not admitting that I'm the one. Because if I admitted it and you love me, that would make it even worse. You know? Like, that's a bad that's a bad relationship.
Mark:Well, it's about time that Dwayne goes off the reservation.
Sarah:Like, he hasn't already. I'm gonna shoot at Phillips tires. Like, the dude needs to get locked up long before this.
Mark:He has a limp. Okay?
Sarah:Because he's got multiple fractures in his leg, which is why he's on Oxy all the time.
Mark:Could what's his name have not chased after him?
Sarah:Yeah. Really. He's probably pretty easy to catch.
Mark:Like, he kinda looks at him like, come on.
Sarah:Run. Okay. This is a podcast. Nobody saw you pretending to limp run-in your chair.
Mark:So we find out that shots have been fired and that it's at the Henderson place, and it's definitely Dwayne, which they should have like, this is small town because he gets out of the car. Henderson should have said, go get Dwayne. He just took a shot at me, but it's television. So it's, like, 3 or 4 sentences into the scene. Yeah.
Mark:So this is where Sims drops her gun.
Sarah:Yeah. Because she gets scared.
Mark:And they have all the police. Right? This is a big thing for them. Yeah. Like, they didn't they don't know that when Mike comes to town, their murder rate's gonna skyrocket.
Sarah:Well, and this is the first time we get to see the magical, it happens in lots of shows that are set in small places. It happens in Midsummer all the time. The magically appearing from nowhere uniform police Yes.
Mark:Who you met.
Sarah:Who never see in any other contacts until they need backup, and then they just teleport in.
Mark:Unless they need to give a piece of paper to the senior.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. There are the people who do that. I love that Sims accuses him of lone wolf corpse whispering crap. I am tired of your lone wolf corpse whispering crap.
Mark:He was waiting to use
Mark:that line.
Sarah:And it's that it's a trope, right, of the detective who doesn't give anything away, who doesn't share anything with anybody. He does it on his own, and it is annoying. It's really annoying.
Mark:At first, yeah.
Sarah:Like, where are you going? What are you doing? What do you know? Yep. You should share.
Sarah:We could work better together.
Mark:Yep. Like, for example, he goes off and investigates the house by himself.
Sarah:Yeah. Which is dangerous.
Mark:He's it's dangerous, and he's doing the I'm a detective thing. Yeah. He's detecting. He finds a secret box. Did you notice anything about that box?
Mark:It's a cigar box. Yes. It's a Pentagast series p number 2 cigar box. Nerd. Wanna know how much that box is worth?
Mark:That box. An empty box?
Sarah:Yeah. How much?
Mark:Probably a $150. For a box
Sarah:There that he's got shoved up the fireplace?
Mark:To fill that box of cigars is over $800. Wow.
Sarah:It is So we're supposed to think that Nate liked good cigars, fancy cigars?
Mark:That is the wrong box to have.
Sarah:Yeah. It should be some, like, old farm junk box.
Mark:Yeah. I don't believe that's an actual pentagas box.
Sarah:But they made it look
Mark:like 1. Made it look like 1, and they used they just went to the the prop house and said give us a cigar box.
Sarah:Yeah. It yeah. It really should be like an old tackle box or something.
Mark:Yeah. Old sheep feed box or something. I don't know. Gary's speaking to an Asian man. Wait a minute.
Mark:He has cancer. What? There's a scene cut. There has to be
Sarah:Was he supposed to be talking to a banker or his doctor?
Mark:I think his doctor
Sarah:because otherwise, the banker is at the hospital. Right? Yeah. Like, I'm foreclosing on you. I thought I would come see you at the hospital.
Mark:Mike magically figures out about the cancer. Like, he no one tells him about it.
Sarah:Yeah? Sally does.
Mark:No. She tells him after he knows.
Sarah:No. He fishes for it.
Mark:Well, I think he confirms it.
Sarah:See. I think he has no idea. He thinks Gary's sick because of the cough, and he sees him at the hospital, puts 2 and 2 together, and Sally, being a bad health care professional, spills
Mark:the bees. There's no input here.
Sarah:No. She's like, well, you'd be sad if you were terminal too. He's like, Now I know.
Mark:Now we need to have a scene where Mike and Jared get together because we know Jared's gonna be in more episodes, and we need to introduce Jared as an actual character.
Sarah:And Jared is like the Joyce Barnaby Yes. Of Brokenwood. He knows everybody. He knows everything.
Mark:And everything he's involved in involves murder eventually.
Sarah:And yet, he only gives up the information you need when it's least useful or, like, when you don't expect it, when you're not asking him
Mark:for it.
Mark:Recognizes Mike's car right away. Yeah. And then Mike refuses the beer. I went through this conversation in detail.
Sarah:You're refusing my kai.
Mark:You're refusing my kai.
Sarah:Which is Maori hospitality. Hospitality. Yeah.
Mark:And then Mike says something. Did you catch what Mike said? No. Mike says, technically, I'm due a smoko.
Mark:Oh. And immediately, I'm like, I'm on smoko.
Sarah:You can't say that. People don't know what you're talking about. So Okay. Don't pause us right now and just don't even tell him. Just Google for a video called I'm on Smoke O.
Sarah:Smoke O. Okay? It's slang for a smoke break.
Mark:Yep. Give You'll find
Sarah:an Australian band. Give the song a chance.
Mark:It is fantastic.
Sarah:It will grow on you, and then you will be infected. With, I'm on smokers. I love that you jump back from your mic to yell that.
Mark:I will put the video in the show notes if you don't wanna find it, but it is a fantastic video by an Australian punk band that makes me feel good about the world of music.
Sarah:Yeah. It's fun.
Mark:They are ugly kids Oh gosh. They're ugly. That play the fastest, loudest, angriest punk music that you can imagine and still are incredibly fun and happy.
Sarah:And sing about, I'm on break, so leave me alone. And they Because I'm on break.
Mark:Yeah. I'm on smoke out. Gary shows up, and everyone is sad.
Sarah:He's lying. He's covering.
Mark:Oh, I did it.
Sarah:He he confesses to cover up for who? Who does he think did it?
Mark:Yeah. I think he thinks maybe Dwayne did it. Maybe? Killed his own mother? Maybe.
Sarah:Wait a minute. How old is Dwayne? 25? Yep. He would have been 14, 15 when his mom died.
Sarah:He's out towing around in the car Yeah. Running her down.
Mark:I don't think so. I don't think so. This is the point where, Mike brings the 2 coffees, and I have in my notes, I have now wrote reached my guitar Tromolo limit
Sarah:for this episode. Somebody has to explain this to me who knows about TV shows. It really irritates me when characters in a show have a drink that is so obviously empty Yeah. And pretend to drink. When Sims puts her cup down, you can hear it's empty.
Sarah:Yeah. Now when Mike goes to Philip's house and they have the non organic coffee, he's drinking something because he he slurps it. But those paper cups are empty every time. They don't even pretend they have any weight, and it irritates just put some water in it. So It just irritates me.
Mark:Food in general in television shows is a consistency, and it's a nightmare because you can't
Sarah:You don't wanna eat something over and over and over. I understand that,
Mark:but it's a cup. It doesn't it grows and shrinks on the plate.
Sarah:I know.
Mark:They should
Sarah:have water in those They
Mark:should have
Mark:water in those cups.
Sarah:They wouldn't matter with the cups. They are so obviously empty. Yeah. They're not fooling anybody.
Mark:I it's a it's a little peeve of mine. Anyhow.
Sarah:Then the magical tech gurus somewhere find the password for the CD. Yes. The CD, which has a single PDF on it.
Mark:Yes. PDF.
Sarah:It is 10 years ago
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But a a disc could hold more than a PDF.
Mark:More than 1 Even
Sarah:if it was a whole magazine.
Mark:I have a note that says, boy, that's a big PDF. Yeah.
Sarah:And I don't expect a lot from this farming magazine, but I would expect that the photographer would find more interesting things to take photographs of at the farming convention than a lady next to her rental car.
Mark:But that it's believable, but not believable.
Sarah:If she was posing with other people and they just happen to be next to the car, okay, but she's talking to somebody whose back is to the camera. It is the least interesting picture to include in a magazine story ever.
Mark:Bad picture for the magazine.
Sarah:Here is a random woman at a distance talking to someone you can't recognize next to her rental car.
Mark:Meanwhile, Breen delivers a message from the front desk, and we never see him again. No. At the same time, basically, could so this is before Mike kills Gary, and we need to talk about that.
Sarah:He's in a coma.
Mark:So before Mike kills Gary He's in a coma. We go to Jacinta's house, and this is where Dwayne doesn't show his T shirt, checked. And he explains that he was the one beating his mom and I think beating his dad too.
Sarah:Because Jacinta bailed him out. Yeah. Because he's the only living family member she has, And she's kinda trying killed. That's true. That she hasn't killed yet.
Sarah:And she's kinda trying to be nice to him and mend some bridges like, I killed your mom and your dad, but, maybe we can get along now.
Mark:Speaking of bridges, did you notice the gigantic table that she has? She has a dinner table
Sarah:that would seat 12.
Mark:12 people.
Mark:Yeah. She's a woman who lives by herself in the farmhouse.
Sarah:Awesome house. Her house is awesome.
Mark:It is, but that table is huge.
Sarah:But she's like, you're my nephew. Let's make up and we can be a family again. And he's like, I'm bad. Don't you understand?
Mark:I'm on Slocco.
Sarah:I'm bad. Look at my t shirt. Didn't this give anything away? I'm an angry druggie who's been beating my parents since I was 15. Like Oh.
Sarah:So then, snap. She realizes I killed my sister because I thought it was my brother-in-law who I blamed for beating up my sister. I killed her on accident because she's wearing the big coat, and he wasn't even bad because the person beating my sister was actually her son. And now, I've killed his dad because I thought he was bad, and he was gonna reveal that I killed his wife on accident. It was also my sister.
Sarah:Next.
Mark:Tanya, you're sleeping with too many guys, and they'll know that you're in witness protection. End scene. Yes.
Mark:Like, it's just stuck in there.
Sarah:It's just a public service announcement.
Mark:Just Speaking of being stuck in, we have a character who we haven't talked about yet because she doesn't show up until later on in the episode, and that is Meredith.
Sarah:Will not.
Mark:And Meredith Media relations. Comes in, eats scenery, says she was married to Mike, leaves, and is never seen again.
Sarah:It makes sense that central would send her because if a local policeman turns out to be a killer, they need to control the story. Yep. It's gonna be crazy. Right?
Mark:But I think she was gonna be a much bigger character, and they showed audiences, and all the audiences went, I don't like her. We should have more Gina and Sam.
Sarah:I think we see her again. I think we do? Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Sarah:But and small. Like, I think she shows up in another episode. I could be wrong, but I think she does. But she's also not evil. Like, she's like anybody but Wilmot.
Sarah:Anybody it's got does it have to be Wilmot? And you don't even know if it's a man or a woman at that point.
Mark:She's in 3 episodes.
Sarah:She shows up, and the the worst thing she does is say we need to get on this. And he's like, but wait. I don't think it's true. And she's like, okay. Well, I'll hold it off for 12 hours.
Sarah:So it's And, like, she doesn't do anything bad.
Mark:And so it's okay that she's introduced here in a small part because she's in episode 2 and episode 4. But then, obviously, either she's busy or got a different gig.
Sarah:Or they just don't need her anymore. Need her anymore. And he's got
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:4 other ex wives
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:To get to. He's a hopeless romantic.
Mark:So But that's also Kristen going, oh, wait a minute. There's more to Mike than I realize.
Sarah:Oh, and Kristen loves
Mark:gossip. She is a hot gossip lady.
Sarah:She wants to know everything. She loves the tea. It's her thing. It's her weakness.
Mark:Not in well, not in a weakness kind of way.
Sarah:No. It is her weakness. In the most recent season, she practically breaks into Mike's office.
Mark:That that's true.
Sarah:Because she can't control herself because she needs to know everything. Yes. So she's like, oh, wait a minute. This is intriguing. And she I think given a little bit more time, she probably would have asked Wilmot a few more questions about Mike.
Sarah:Yeah. She doesn't get a chance to.
Mark:No. Because we have this the final scene.
Sarah:Then Mike kills Gary in the cell.
Mark:I'm gonna keep asking you questions until you die.
Sarah:You're innocent. Admit it. You're innocent.
Mark:You're innocent.
Mark:I know you didn't do it. I know you tell me you didn't
Mark:do it. Tell me. Tell me.
Sarah:Tell me. Tell me. Don't make me beat you.
Mark:You did
Sarah:yeah. His eyes become little x's. He's in a coma. Again. Now he'll never know you solved the case.
Mark:The start of the episode, you're like, oh, Gary. And then we don't like you. At the end of the episode, you're like, oh, poor Gary.
Sarah:Poor Gary. And what's worse, the bank's foreclosing on his house. And guess what? Mike's gonna buy it.
Mark:For the cheap. He's gonna get
Sarah:a good deal on the house in the vineyard and move in to dead Gary's house. Even if he's not dead, he's in the city, and he's gonna end up in a home until he's dead. He's hospice bound. That's the best case.
Mark:Okay. So Jocasta's in the plane.
Sarah:Her name is not Jocasta. It's Jacinta.
Mark:Josephine is in the plane.
Sarah:Just call her evil sister.
Mark:Jojo Rabbit is in the plane.
Sarah:Making a break for it. Making a break. She's gonna fly away and never be seen again and get away with double murder. Right? Like, that's what she's gonna do.
Sarah:Right?
Mark:And they're kinda in the stop or I'll say stop again situation, but then they realize she has to turn around.
Sarah:Because since Jalopy can't catch up to her plane, and then, yeah, and then she has to turn around, and they're like, oh, well, here's a chance. And then Sims is brave.
Mark:Sims gets her moment with her gun where she's brave.
Sarah:And Jacinta's smart enough to go, I can't just mutilate a police officer or with the blades of my
Mark:my endgame here? I don't have one.
Sarah:I live in a small country, and I didn't pack anything.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I can't just fly away and
Mark:live in obscurity. She's not suicidal. She's not gonna kill herself or anything like that.
Sarah:And she knows she messed up.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:She knows now she messed up. Yep. I understand the impulse to run away to get to try to get away, and then to talk yourself down and realize this isn't gonna work. I gotta come clean. She basically confesses everything to Mike, and then Sims says you have the right to remain silent and she says, well, it's a little late now.
Sarah:Like, whose fault's that Jacinta? You're the one who just spilled the beans. Jocasta just confessed on the runway.
Mark:Well, Mike just needed to ask
Mark:her questions until she died. Yeah. You did it. You did it. Mike's gonna way, Dwayne hits me.
Sarah:Mike's gonna move to Brokenwood. The end.
Mark:Yes. I'm resigning. I'm quitting the big spoke. And he talks about the vibe. They had no idea that vibe was gonna be such a big word in 2024.
Mark:Yeah. They they think of it as an archaic word here.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:But but it makes back, baby.
Mark:It makes it sound cool.
Sarah:It sounds like he's from the future.
Mark:He's a trendsetter, man. Groovy.
Sarah:Yeah. He's pretty sure he's gonna get the job that's gonna be open now that he's killed Gary in the south. It's real convenient. You you've opened that position for yourself there, Mike. That's alright.
Mark:Okay. At the end of the episode, we have a number of things that we'd like to do.
Sarah:The first one is best corpse because we think that corpse acting is a hard thing to do. It's a specialized skill as an actor to pretend to be a dead body.
Mark:It's incredibly difficult. First of all, Gary's in water. Always levels up the dick difficulty. Yes. But Evelyn's in a ditch.
Mark:Yes. So we got 2 contenders here.
Sarah:I'm going with Evelyn.
Mark:Finally, we have murder. The last
Sarah:Couple there were no bodies.
Mark:Couple there were no bodies.
Sarah:I'm going with Evelyn for best corpse. Yeah. She's she's only in a ditch. She's not in water, but she's got a lot of blood and prosthetics. And Philip rolls her over like a sack of potatoes to look at her, and she's gotta let him do that in the grass with all that prosthetic on and stuff.
Sarah:I'm giving it to her.
Mark:I am 100% giving it to Evelyn because also, she barely like, she has a, like, a sundress on. Yeah. She doesn't have a lot of clothing on.
Sarah:Wet. Because
Mark:she had that oil can
Sarah:Coat on.
Mark:Coat on.
Sarah:And somebody took it.
Mark:And someone took it. So she Josinta has the coat. She Josinta has the coat.
Sarah:What has she done with the coat? Do you think she wears it around over her paisley?
Mark:Well, okay. Nobody's looking? So next, we have something called after the credits where we
Sarah:Talk about what happens after the credits.
Mark:And this is where I just realized Dwayne is gonna make out like a bandit here because he's gonna inherit his father's farm. Yeah. Okay. So that
Sarah:Do you think he's Jacinta's heir?
Mark:I think he's probably Jacinta's heir too.
Sarah:No. She's not dead. She's just gone to prison. Dead? But if he's smart, he's gonna sweet talk her in prison and send her care packages and stuff.
Mark:Who's gonna look after her farm? Dwayne. And now you'll finally have enough money for the t shirt shop.
Sarah:I don't know. He might end up doing a little jail since he punched up Sally.
Mark:Yeah. I think he he he may be in a little trouble there.
Sarah:He and Sally are definitely done as a couple. I think Sally can do better.
Mark:Think so.
Sarah:Who knows? She might go see Philip. Not like he's gonna settle.
Mark:Turn one more adventures that are less involved and then resolved peacefully.
Sarah:Yes. We know that. Yes. Wilmont goes back to the smoke.
Mark:Wilmont goes back to the smoke and comes later episodes, but and Sam and Gina show up more.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Now the interesting one is Philip? Philip. Because Philip has a secret.
Sarah:He's the neighbor
Mark:Yes. With the organic farm. Philip's secret is he has a twin brother.
Sarah:Who we get to meet later?
Mark:We get to meet him later. And I think, I'm not a 100% sure Philip doesn't make it out of that episode. We shall see. We shall see. That's a season 4 episode, so I'm not sure we'll get there right away.
Mark:But Mhmm. We might eventually get there.
Sarah:Mhmm. And that is coat? Jacinta must have destroyed it.
Mark:Yeah. She must have destroyed it or she could have made a couch with it or something. It's a
Sarah:very expensive coat. It is expensive. It's that big coat. Yeah. What would be great is if when Dwayne is at her giant table, we see over in the wall the coat hanging on the wall like a decoration.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. Or the cushion of the chair is made from the coat.
Mark:This table is just too big.
Sarah:I made a table cloth out of the giant oilskin coat.
Mark:And that is blood and water. There's not a lot of water in the episode.
Sarah:It's that's kind of the point is that it's very little water. It's about 2 feet of water.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:And then you don't even need waders, really. You just need boots to go fly fish in there. We sometimes also do a a segment called mom, mom, I got a part Yes. Where we get to point out somebody who has a very small part in the episode that is unusual or notable.
Mark:That would be super excited by this and call his mom.
Sarah:And say, I got a part.
Mark:Mom and say, I got a part.
Sarah:And then when their parents actually watch the part, they go, oh, why did I tell my
Mark:friends they say fishermen are definitely in this part.
Sarah:Not as good as some other mom mom I got a part. So we had like, I'm the naked guy in that scene. You know, kind of mom mom I got a part.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:But we sometimes do that too.
Mark:Yes. So our next episode, which will be released on September 23rd is Sour Grapes. This is the award winning episode.
Sarah:Season 1 episode.
Mark:This is really a Jared episode.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:We learned a lot about Jared.
Sarah:Because Mike will have control of the vineyard and he
Mark:somehow Mike begins to drink the wine. I love that Mike drinks wine and is not an alcoholic. Yep. Like, I'm so burnt out from those detective shows. Yeah.
Mark:So and then on the 30th September, we'll be covering playing the lie, which I actually think is my favorite episode from the first season because they're it so this is one thing we haven't talked about, but we can talk about a little here. When they made this first episode, Neil and Fern thought they were in a much more serious show than they were. Mhmm. And they didn't understand the tone. Mhmm.
Mark:They saw a cut of the episode about halfway through and understood it a lot better.
Sarah:Yeah. It's not a police procedural.
Mark:Sour grapes is a little bonkers. If you remember playing the lie, the first five minutes is full on bonkers town Yeah. Where she's storming across the the the, golf course, and the guy jumps out and sprays her in the face with the insecticide. Like, it it is full on midsummer bonkers at that point in time. You're like, oh, okay.
Mark:Okay. We're going
Sarah:bonkers. We got loony's. Alright. Check. Check.
Sarah:Check. Check then.
Mark:This first episode's a little serious for where the show is.
Sarah:So if you've never watched broken wood, stick with it. We promise the tone, it gets there.
Mark:And then episode 4, we get our beloved boy, our our wonderful boy, Frode's.
Mark:Frode Frode.
Mark:Frode appears, and we just wanna give him a kiss as soon as we see him.
Sarah:It gets better. It gets better.
Mark:So he's just
Sarah:They have so much to do in this first episode. And the fact that they've got such a a complex mystery too, they and they achieve both is incredible.
Mark:A main character that doesn't appear again in Gary. Yeah. Right? Right. So that's why, to me, that's why Sims and Gina don't get as much space because Gary takes up their space.
Sarah:Right. And then he's gone.
Mark:He's gone.
Sarah:So they get to fill in
Mark:that Fill in that space.
Sarah:Yeah. So yeah. And and Stick with it if you're not sure.
Mark:Listening to that Tim Baum interview really kind of enlightened me as to they really thought this was foreign done. They really thought they were
Sarah:They didn't expect to
Mark:make another statement. Not expect. Tim Baum was like, what am I doing writing detective stories?
Sarah:And now they're filming season 11.
Mark:Now they're filming season 11. And speaking of that, if anybody is listening from the production company or the production, please contact us, and we will gladly have you on the show to either talk about these episodes or season 11.
Sarah:Whatever. Absolutely. Whatever you want to.
Mark:Really Yeah. It's nice to hear that it's being filmed right now.
Sarah:Yeah. Absolutely.
Mark:And my my now Instagram friend, Fern
Sarah:Oh, is your best friend now? Because she liked one post.
Mark:Because she's
Sarah:my friend
Mark:now. So Okay.
Sarah:You probably just scared her off now. She thinks she's not.
Mark:Well, she lives in Toronto now, so I wanna talk about that.
Sarah:So you know where she lives too?
Mark:Well, her and her husband.
Sarah:Okay. You're getting real creepy now.
Mark:Yep. So
Sarah:anyway. Until next week. Bye, maniacs.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:Had to cut you off before you got too creepy on Fern.
Mark:Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks.
Mark:Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word. Bye, Maniacs.
Sarah:Side note. No. Oh, I just answered my own question. I was thinking later, isn't there that older uniform in the office who's, like, always there? But that's not this show.
Mark:No. That's, Shetland. Shetland. Yeah.
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