Episode 222 | Mystery Maniacs | The Brokenwood Mysteries | "Over Her Dead Body" | See Ya Later, Ginger Spleen!
I mean, there's fatigue and then there's being pooped.
Mark:Wow.
Sarah:Hey, Maniacs.
Mark:Hey, Mystery Maniacs. Mystery Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of the show including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love. This week, Broken Wood Mysteries over her dead body.
Sarah:Season 3 episode 2. I'm I'm Sarah.
Mark:Wow. We've been gone 110000000 years.
Sarah:The holidays are tough, man. They're busy. They're crazy. They're overwhelming, and it's end of semester.
Mark:It it's funny. There should be, like, there should be on the subreddit a prediction market for when they're gonna say they're too overwhelmed.
Sarah:It would be too easy to win.
Mark:It would be.
Sarah:I'm grateful to be in academia because it means that every few months, things kinda change, and you get kinda predictable breaks and all of that, but it does mean that there are times of year where it's just too much.
Mark:And we had we had a lot. November early December were really busy.
Sarah:We said that about October too, honey.
Mark:No. It the fall is
Sarah:our busy time. Tired of hearing of how busy we are.
Mark:Fall is our busy time.
Sarah:Thank you for understanding.
Mark:We
Sarah:were disappointed to not be able to put out an episode last week, but we are back.
Mark:Okay. So we've been watching some shows.
Sarah:We have been.
Mark:The new Shetland started, and boy, I think that first episode was the best Shetland first episode in a while.
Sarah:Yeah. I I like the new characters.
Mark:I'm I am happy with it. Eager for the next episode of Shetland, and that's on, BritBox. And then on Acorn, we have Adam Delglish looking down his nose at everybody.
Sarah:I love Delglish.
Mark:Well, my my the very first PD James book I read which was devices and desires is this week's Delglish and I've been waiting for this for since I lived in a house in Toronto in 1993. So
Sarah:I'm not gonna say that it's lighthearted fun. No. But it it is good. Along the lines of not lighthearted and fun, but I think worth a watch is black doves. Yep.
Sarah:It's got We're
Mark:about we have 2 more episodes of Black Doves to go. And
Sarah:What's what's the actress's name? What's her name?
Mark:Keira Knightley.
Sarah:Keira Knightley, who I wasn't really crazy about, but she's really good in this.
Mark:Yes. And m for, q
Sarah:Yeah. Q from
Mark:the from the Bond movies, who I call The Hobbit. The more
Sarah:recent James Bond movies.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:It's, espionage Yep. Assassins in London. Yep. At Christmas time. So it's it's holiday themed.
Mark:Easily, the slow horses could be running around in the background Yeah. Of that show.
Sarah:Absolutely. They could they could totally run into them. But it's it's fun. Yep. I it does have some some humor in it, some quirky characters, but there is a lot of shooting.
Mark:It is it is the genre of young woman tries to have family and be an assassin.
Sarah:And an assassin.
Mark:There there is a there's a genre.
Sarah:Yeah. There's also some really fun stuff coming out very soon, meaning this week.
Mark:Yes. So sister Boniface Christmas special is on December 17th, and I think that's probably the first thing that Jude worked on before her passing.
Sarah:So It's the first thing to be released that she was part of since she died.
Mark:So I would imagine there's pro gonna be a dedicated to at the beginning or the end of that episode. And then
Sarah:Chelsea detective. Starts really like Chelsea detective. Yep. Yeah. It's it will be, out the day that this podcast is out.
Mark:Yes. Also, BritBox released their whole 2025 schedule, which was impressive, including a new Lindley that will be in late, 2025.
Sarah:Yeah. If you haven't watched Lindley, there is an older version. Is it from the early nineties, something like that? That's well worth watching. But I'm excited about the cast for the new one.
Sarah:I think it looks like it's gonna be good.
Mark:I think the Lindley from the nineties did such a good job with his DCI Yeah. That it was groundbreaking for women's television. Like
Sarah:Women in television.
Mark:Women in television
Sarah:in Female characters and and crime shows.
Mark:They told a lot of her stories that were women centric. Yeah. Like taking care of her mom and and just that were new stories at that time.
Sarah:Yeah. I think so too.
Mark:Absolutely.
Sarah:So lots of things that are worth a watch that are out. Lots of things that are coming out this week that are worth a watch. If there's something that you've been checking out that you think other people would like, let us know or So our posted on the socials.
Mark:Our 2 main shows, Midsummer Murders is going into production in the new year, and Broken Wood has just wrapped season 11. Nice. And I follow Fern, Fern Sutherland
Sarah:Who plays Kristen Sims.
Mark:On on Instagram and there was a nice picture of her and her man at a restaurant afterwards and I thought oh that's cute. You know it was kind of an interesting picture she posted And then there was, you know, on Instagram where it has the little butt the, dots at the bottom, so there's more. So I was like, oh, is there another picture of them being cute? No. No.
Mark:No. No. No. No. No.
Mark:And this is why I think Fearne Sutherland is our people. So either Fearne or her partner covered their bathroom in old Greg memes that they printed it.
Sarah:Old Greg.
Mark:Old Greg. If you don't know what old Greg is, it's from the mighty boosh, a
Sarah:comedy serial Fielding. In the 2000. British baking show.
Mark:Who plays this character named old Greg who has a mangina that produces light. Blinding light. There is a picture of old Greg using his mangina in Kristen Sims in in Fern Sutherland's bathroom. That's awesome. She is our kind of people.
Sarah:Yep. She's our kind
Mark:of people. Yeah. That's funny. And she tagged the post old Greg. So she
Sarah:is she is
Mark:an old Greg fan.
Sarah:Speaking of social media stuff, couple of new posts on the subreddit that you might wanna check out that, I've put up. 1 is photos of homemade gifts you're making for this year. I made a quote for a co worker's baby that's coming in February. I put a picture of that up there. And, I've also been making these singlada balls from Sweden that are very cool that I'm giving to a bunch of people.
Sarah:So I've got a photo up there. So if you're making some homemade gifts this year, post some photos. I also posted a thread about your holiday food favorites. What are you making that you're excited about? Share a recipe, share a photo.
Mark:Absolutely.
Sarah:We these are things that I think we all have in common. We all make stuff and we all eat stuff, so it's good stuff to share. You ready to talk about Pluto? Well,
Mark:there's lots to talk about in this episode, but we have to talk about before we get to Pluto, we have to talk about the first like like, this episode is 2 things stuck together. And sometimes with peanut butter and chocolate, that works magnificently.
Sarah:Peanut butter and dill pickles not so much.
Mark:Exactly. I think these two great ideas don't go well together. So the first idea is what we're presented with really in the cold open which is there's a funeral for this man named Declan. He's a poet. He plays a video at his funeral.
Mark:What do you what do you think of that?
Sarah:I think a certain kind of person can pull it off.
Mark:Can I do a video for my funeral?
Sarah:It depends what you're gonna say. Like, if it's, and I never liked any of you anyway, and you're
Mark:not taking my money. Why would you do that?
Sarah:There are jerky people who would do that.
Mark:No.
Sarah:But if it's, hey, you're here to celebrate me, and I appreciate you, and, you know, thank you for being in my life, and that's that's fine, I think.
Mark:I love you all. Well, not you. To me, it's kind of a way to get the last word too, which is kind of
Sarah:Funeral is not about you.
Mark:Yeah. Funeral is
Sarah:about the people.
Mark:Yeah. So it's definitely Missus m plays the funeral because, of course, she does.
Sarah:She's not good. No. She's as good at the organ as mister Bugle is at the sax, and that's saying something.
Mark:But that is Anglican church organ player to the max.
Sarah:Mister Bugle's name is Bugle. He should play a bugle.
Mark:That's true, and that's a goof.
Sarah:So Declan is a poet.
Mark:Yep. And He's got books for sale in the foyer. Yeah.
Sarah:The money's going to a a a charity. Yeah. That's not a charity.
Mark:I don't believe that's a charity.
Sarah:I have great sympathy for writers of episodes like this where there's either, like, music that's supposed to be, like, world changing, like, like, the midsummer, melody Yep. Kind of thing or a poet because the writer has to write the poems. Somebody has to write the poems and they're so bad.
Mark:I think he purposely makes bad poetry here because this is written by Tim Baum too. I think he doesn't like these people. Yeah. He doesn't like that archetype of the the Irish writer who's drunk all the time, who loves all women. I think he hates that trope.
Mark:Mhmm. So because he makes him look so pathetic throughout this whole episode.
Sarah:Yeah. I mean, he had sex with somebody who wasn't of age and ran away from the crime, and we're gonna spoil this episode. Yes. Forgot to say that.
Mark:Yes. But
Sarah:he should know that
Mark:by now. You should know that
Sarah:by now. Yeah. He's not like well, really nobody's likable in this except Jared and his aunt. Yeah. And his aunt is questionable.
Mark:Well and I I kinda like Bugle because he's so goofy.
Sarah:But Well, he's fun, but he's not likable.
Mark:He's all tatted up. Did you know that? His IMDb picture, he's got chest and arm tattoos and nose and earrings and also he's all
Sarah:tatted up. Good for him. Yep. So yeah. So the the dead poet, Declan, and his body not being in his casket, that's one story.
Sarah:Right? And then the other story is the story of this murder mystery game that is based on Clue or Cluedo, depending on where you live, that happened the night before he died.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And those are 2 fun plots, but together, I don't I don't know. I mean, they work okay, but it just makes one of them feel shoehorned, I think. Neither one of them gets enough enough, but it's still a fun episode.
Mark:I do. And I I think where it falls apart is, like, who owns the house and things like that.
Sarah:Oh, the Wadsworths?
Mark:Yeah. The Wadsworths and stuff like that.
Sarah:So I have a question about the initial scene. The casket falls out falls open even though it's screwed shut. Yes. Like, airtight screwed shut. That.
Sarah:Yep. It
Mark:can get a bit whiffy.
Sarah:Yeah. But then Bugle is obsessed with putting this piece of black fabric over the passenger side door of the hearse, and I don't know why he's doing that.
Mark:I don't know why he's doing that at all. It's so weird.
Sarah:Like, to block the view of what? The driver's seat? I I don't I don't understand why he's doing that.
Mark:I don't know. And now the dead body here does a pretty good job.
Sarah:Yeah. She does.
Mark:Of course, they're not in the casket when it comes out of the car or anything, but but this is this is the joke that you always think about at a funeral. You know? What if what if it opens at the wrong time?
Sarah:Or what if they drop it?
Mark:Yeah. What if
Sarah:they drop it? Worried that call bearers are gonna drop it. Yep. I also don't know why the killer strips her naked. Yeah.
Sarah:That's weird. Why can't she still have her dress on?
Mark:Also yeah. It's the the the person who comes out the worst in this episode is this poor woman who came from San Francisco to play a board game in real life with these people, which again, I'm like, that's a big trip.
Sarah:I don't even know how she knew about it. It's not like if they're posted on the Internet about it, then the cops should have found out about it real fast.
Mark:You think you would drive across town to do
Sarah:this? No. No. And Kushla, the she demon of the local newspaper, takes a photo of the corpse in the casket Yep. And then puts it on the front of the newspaper.
Mark:Puts it on the front of the newspaper with some interesting headlines.
Sarah:That is not okay. This poor woman has been stabbed. Her body has been desecrated, and you're snapping photos of her and putting them on the news. Page. That's not right.
Mark:But the boss the boss calls Breen wrong names all the time, and I have Ginger spleen in my
Sarah:nose. Keep up the good work, spleen. Hughes is great in this episode. Hughes is fantastic. Bugle Funeral's Where Life and Death Shake Hands.
Sarah:This is Warren.
Mark:Warren's Warren is everything wrong about trying to market your business.
Sarah:I love that he can't remember the gender of anyone. No. But he does remember the first letter of their first name
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And calls them, like, if the body is Alex, he says Andrea.
Mark:And the thing is he does such a good job of adding that Yeah. That you think it's going to be a clue.
Sarah:Yeah. And it's not. Then he's wrong. Yep. Did you notice his phone ring?
Sarah:No. Mister Bugle's phone.
Mark:It it it's that, like, funeral march. The dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
Sarah:Do you know what that is? No. What that song is? No. So it's, Chopin's funeral march, which makes sense.
Sarah:It sounds like a funeral march.
Mark:It does.
Sarah:It was written in the 18 forties.
Mark:It's a dirge. You know.
Sarah:Can you guess the first funeral that it was known to be played at?
Mark:Okay. Chopin. Right? Mhmm. So this is 19th century.
Sarah:He wrote it in the 18 forties. Yes.
Mark:18 forties. Let's go crazy and say Abraham Lincoln.
Sarah:No. Okay. Chopin's funeral.
Mark:Oh, his own funeral? Yeah. He wrote it. Did he write it for his own? Oh.
Sarah:No. That's so weird. But it's been it was played at Kennedy's funeral, at JFK's funeral.
Mark:It's a sad little number there. I think it's in d minor. So
Sarah:I think by the 19 sixties, it was already kind of a parody of itself. It's weird that they played it
Mark:in the studio. Because I think that probably the Addams Family ripped on it, like the, the original black and white TV show. And Yeah. And, you know, they would have been riffing on it all over. And I know that they used it in bad horror movies in the fifties and sixties.
Sarah:Yeah. That's what I mean. I think it was already a parody of itself. It really it probably was during Chopin's lifetime. Probably.
Sarah:Kind of a parody of itself. But, yeah, the first recording recorded playing of it at a funeral is at Chopin Funeral.
Mark:I know. I'm sure it's used in Looney Tunes, which was forties.
Sarah:So yeah. Well, before JFK. Yeah. I hadn't noticed until rewatching this episode that the church that reverend Green work at works at is Saint Judas. Saint Judas.
Sarah:Like, why would they call a church Saint Judas? Yep. But it's not Judas Iscariot. No. It's The the the apostle who betrayed Jesus.
Mark:It's Judas the
Sarah:saint. It's Saint Jude. Yeah. But another version of his name is Judas. If it was Judas Iscariot, that'd be a different kind of church.
Mark:That's a different kind of church. The priest is so pale in this episode.
Sarah:He is very notice that? Does he have a mustache lighter or something? He's he's enormously pale. Or his eyebrows are darker in
Mark:this or
Sarah:something. There's something different about his face that changes later. He softens his face a bit.
Mark:Much like Bugle, I forget my own first name constantly, so I have it tattooed to my body. Yeah. Why would you tattoo your own name to your body?
Sarah:Scarlett has Scarlett tattooed on her hip, and it is her actual name. It's not just her favorite character. Yeah. I love that Breen knows what font it's in.
Mark:Well
Sarah:Probably because it's in a stupid font.
Mark:Okay. Did you notice the the little Easter egg they dropped in about the fonts? I guess not. Later in that scene, Breen walks in front of his computer and open on his computer is this huge document with the word scarlet, scarlet,
Sarah:scarlet, scarlet, scarlet, scarlet. Looking for it.
Mark:He he was using his computer to see all the fawns.
Sarah:That's smart. Yeah. Right? You just copy it over and over again and change the font on every line. There it's.
Mark:Now Bugle has a worksheet. I wanna see his worksheet.
Sarah:Okay. I wanna know about the painting that's in the room where the display caskets are. Did you see it?
Mark:No. What was that?
Sarah:I've got a screenshot of it. It's a it's a big painting. It's a big canvas, maybe 4 feet by 4 feet, something like that. And it's kind of quartered.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:And the top two quarters look like jellyfish. And then one of the bottom quarters is apples. And then the other one has a basket. Okay. Like, 4 completely incongruous objects
Mark:Oh.
Sarah:Painted in a naive way, I'll say. I'll say it's naive.
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:It's weird. It's certainly weird for a funeral home.
Mark:Why is missus Marlowe at the at the unturning?
Sarah:Oh, when they disinter the body? Because she's the she's the only one who can recognize me. He has no family.
Mark:That's right. That's right.
Sarah:Yeah. She has to identify horrible toupee. She has to
Mark:identify Arthur. He is the dead body of the episode.
Sarah:Absolutely. Yep. He's super good, and that's not that's not a, a manufactured body. That is a person in very good makeup. Yep.
Sarah:He looks not quite rotten, but getting there.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:And I love that missus Marlowe is so practical. And I think a lot of people of that age get to that point where a lot of people you know have died. You just kinda get matter of fact about it.
Mark:Yeah. Even, like, when my mom passed this summer and we were at the at the graveyard, my brother was, like, walking around talk talking about people Yeah. That he recognized.
Sarah:Pointing at graves and talking about people.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:But I also think that you're just maybe less squeamish about a body
Mark:Yeah. When
Sarah:you get to a certain age. I think my grandmother was like that because she lived in a an old folks home for a while, and people died there all the time. Yeah. You just got used to it.
Mark:You get you definitely get used to it.
Sarah:Miss people who are your friends, but their body didn't bother you. Missus Marlow is perfectly happy to be in the middle of everything.
Mark:She was Oh, she
Sarah:is totally pleased to come and identify Arthur's body.
Mark:Absolutely pleased about that. And his bad toupee. We find out that Declan wrote this poem for you that can you sign it for Melody lady is, like, you know, that's the woman that he is accused of being in a relationship when she was underage. Like, that when you watch it again
Sarah:To be fair, we don't know they had a relationship. Yeah. He was charged with having sex with a minor.
Mark:Sorry. He took advantage
Sarah:of that. She was the minor. There was no relationship. She was the minor though, and he doesn't even recognize her now.
Mark:Doesn't even recognize her?
Sarah:I don't know if he does or not. He certainly plays like he doesn't.
Mark:Yep. But
Sarah:he he kinda gives away that maybe he does.
Mark:And so at this point But
Sarah:he can't he can't admit that he knows her because he's living under an assumed name.
Mark:At this point in the episode, I had forgotten about the whole clue thing. So I was like, there's an hour of this episode left to go. Yeah. What is going to happen? I'd the whole clue thing
Sarah:Even after you saw the scarlet tattoo, you didn't remember?
Mark:I had forgotten all about it. So I was like what are you gonna
Sarah:talk about this
Mark:for an hour. And so then we get into the whole rebranding of the funeral parlor which must be a weird thing.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:It's definitely and we get the bit wiffy line. But so what happens next and I don't know if you noticed this but Mike goes home to read the poems. Mhmm. And I watch this over again. Let's assume that he had a full day of work.
Mark:He starts after work. Mhmm. And Sims is gonna go to the mansion. Mhmm. It's suddenly dark Mhmm.
Mark:Out of nowhere. Like, there's no dusk scene. No. It's like day and then suddenly night. Yes.
Mark:And not like dusk. It's like the middle of the
Sarah:So has Mike been sitting there drinking wine for hours? I I He'd be sozzled.
Mark:I guess. And then the the priest does everything to make him look as guilty as possible in this episode because he takes off right away.
Sarah:Well, all these stupid people who don't just say we were there the night before for a party. Mhmm. And that woman was there, but we don't know what happened to her. Yeah. Like, they just make themselves look so guilty because they don't want to admit they were having a harmless party.
Sarah:You start to wonder if they were having some kind of sex orgy or something. Like, what what get together was it that you are so afraid to admit you were having?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:The first time they show Wadsworth Manor, I had so at the funeral, Brenda White, who's a housekeeper, reads a letter from the Wadsworths about Declan, about him being an amazing gardener. But I kinda missed that he was their gardener. So the first time they show the house, I'm like, man, poets make bank in New Zealand. Yeah. Because that
Mark:is decals.
Sarah:You so
Sarah:so I've totally forgot that he was just a gardener there.
Mark:The two places where this falls apart is the Wadsworths and the house. And the second part is the trip to Thailand for cancer research. Mhmm. Like, it's really hard to fake cancer. Like, you have to be surrounded by a whole bunch of stupid people.
Mark:Not only is he surrounded by smart people, but a doctor Mhmm. Who wouldn't would know who would say things to him like what medications are you on? And, you know, as a as a friend and a doctor, I would be wanna be interested.
Sarah:At least somebody in his life would say, let me help you change the dressing on your head from your surgery.
Mark:That is by far
Sarah:the worst fake dressing ever. It's just headband.
Mark:It's just a headband.
Sarah:Okay. So I have to tell you, this headband makes me think of another headband.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:So one of my uncles, my favorite uncle
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:In the seventies, when I was very small, obviously, was quite the hippie dippy. Yes.
Mark:He was.
Sarah:He had kind of an Afro hairdo and wore what do they call those shirts? Tashikis? Something. Like that. Yeah.
Sarah:And I remember him having a white headband on, and his his fro was like floofing out underneath it and over it. And me thinking that it was a weird style choice he was making. And until I was about 30, I had that image in my head of my uncle
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:Wearing that goofy ass headband.
Mark:We all wore headbands.
Sarah:With your fro?
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:And then I learned that he had had ear surgery. Oh. And it was a bandage.
Mark:It was a bandage.
Sarah:And he was wearing a bandage. For, like, a month, he had to wear this bandage.
Mark:But that
Sarah:At this rakish this rakish angle that went from one side of his head to the other and over his ear.
Mark:Why is that over his ear?
Sarah:But for, like, 30 years, I was like, damn, my uncle had some weird style when I was a little kid. There's a photo of it. Like, this poor man. And when I saw Declan's head dressing, I was like, is that a fashion statement or is that a bandage? I don't know anymore.
Sarah:I don't trust myself.
Mark:It's just horrendous. Just horrendous. So the newspaper titles are the following. Mhmm. Boo, who was Declan's mystery woman?
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:K. But the second headline is is the best.
Sarah:Boo, like ghost boo?
Mark:Yeah. I think so.
Sarah:Not like you're my boo.
Mark:No.
Sarah:Okay. Who is Declan's mystery boo? So
Mark:in an effort to expose bugle funeral homes, we have the following sentence. Kicking the bucket or dropping the casket, funeral director blunder reveals macabre mystery. That is so small town.
Sarah:Kicking the bucket or dropping the casket? Yep. That's not Those aren't opposites.
Mark:I know.
Sarah:The face you're making.
Mark:I know they're not opposites. It's an attempt to parallel construction which fails.
Sarah:What what should the headline be?
Mark:It should be, who is this woman? Can you help
Sarah:us? Do you know this woman?
Mark:Identify this woman?
Sarah:That would be the most kind of sympathetic human sort of, you know, mystery woman needs identifying? Do you know her?
Mark:Well, thank thank goodness across the top of the page, man builds 8 volt and the answer is still there. You still don't know what that is.
Sarah:You're still doing the enhancement, whatever it is.
Mark:Did you see the title of Declan's first book? Which is, again, why I think they're totally goofing on this stereotype. No. Woman in bloom, man in trouble.
Sarah:Oh, that's right. It's very Bukowski or something. I don't know what they're trying to pull.
Mark:Yeah. It's so totally like that.
Sarah:It's just that overly sexualized male poet that is supposedly super attractive, but also repellent at the same time. You just can't resist, but you want to. And he just doesn't pull that off.
Mark:No. He doesn't.
Sarah:At all. No. When he's coming on to Scarlet in the billiard room, it's just gross.
Mark:Well, that that's what I mean. I don't think they're sympathetic to this character's group at all because if you watch it again knowing what you know, he looks horrible right from the very beginning.
Sarah:Yes. So the Wadsworths go to France. Yes. For the winter.
Mark:From New Zealand where the winters were
Sarah:Yeah. Well, we don't know. Do we know the date?
Mark:Well, no. But they said they went for the winter.
Sarah:Okay. So it's the winter in New Zealand, which would make it The summer. Summer in France.
Mark:I guess. Yeah. I guess.
Sarah:So that would be nice. Okay. Right? Not that
Mark:it appears to get bad at all.
Sarah:No. They have some jackets sometimes, But they apparently trust Brenda and Declan with their home Yeah. And let them have parties and are okay with that
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:And let the psychiatrist and the minister sleep over, and this whole, like, doctor Plummer stayed over because he didn't wanna drive all the way back to Riverstone Yeah. When it's, like, 10 minutes away.
Mark:Well, he's also doing patient reports while he's there. That's
Sarah:no. That's not HIPAA. No. I'm sorry.
Mark:No. But the biggest question I have about the Wadsworth House is can Jared come and do our yard? Yeah. Because he does some fantastic work on on this.
Sarah:Hey. Declan can work on our yard for all I care. Yeah. I don't care if he's on the run. If he's that good at gardening, he can do our yard.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:I don't think he'd survive it, but we've got burrs out there that know your name. Mark, give me a I'll stick to your shorts.
Mark:So now we begin to get hit over the head with the clue references.
Sarah:That's after Hughes says he's going to hot yoga.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And boar hunting.
Mark:Hughes is just and he calls he shows up, says an extreme activity, calls Breen the wrong name, and he's out.
Sarah:Yeah. That is his gay.
Mark:Oh, he dropped some exposition. That's that's it.
Sarah:Here's a report from some group that you asked for it. Yeah. Hi, spleen. See you later. I'm off to fight a boar bare handed.
Mark:See you later, Ginger Spleen.
Sarah:Yeah. So we've we're led to believe that this group of people spontaneously realized their last names were coincidentally very close to the names of the characters in Clue.
Mark:Starlet Ming is an unfortunate name.
Sarah:We've got Janelle Peacock Yeah. Brenda White, doctor Plumber Plumb Yep. The dog who is Mutard Mutard. Which is mustard
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Which Declan Who
Mark:names their dog Mutard?
Sarah:Nobody where we live.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:Here, if somebody heard you call your dog Mutard, they would say, that is so rude.
Mark:You're using the m r word.
Sarah:That's the r word just changed.
Mark:With moo. What the fuck?
Sarah:Yeah. It's like a cow person bad name. I can't even say it. Like a a mentally disabled cow. Yeah.
Sarah:That's what you're calling your dog, moo tard. It's not right. And and is is the dog Declan? No?
Mark:No.
Sarah:Like
Mark:Again, it's the details that make both of these dogs.
Sarah:People call them the colonel. They did? Why? Why? Then you have the reverend Green.
Mark:Did he lie about being in service too?
Sarah:Yeah. And then you have Scarlet, who in the flashbacks of prior game parties is played by some woman Some woman. Who gets to sit down at the table.
Mark:That's it.
Sarah:But now
Mark:She needs to be replaced and they find Scarlet Ming.
Sarah:Though, no one knows in town that they do this because they've kept it top secret. A woman on the literal other side of the planet has heard Yes. About this game.
Mark:Well, there's a discord for sad broken board game LARPers.
Sarah:Oh. I didn't know that. But it must be a private one because the cops can't find it to figure out what they were doing the night before the death. No. So and apparently, though miss Scarlett runs this, like, fashion house and has a store and a social presence and everything, nowhere on that does she say, I'm headed to New Zealand to participate in a Pluto weekend.
Sarah:It's gonna be so fun. No. Because then they would have identified her a lot sooner.
Mark:So okay. So let's talk about 2 things, and then we'll get to the most use of sub pot of all time. Mhmm. The first thing is Pluto itself. So why is it called Pluto?
Mark:Do you remember? I think I don't think we talked about this. No. It's clue plus ludo.
Sarah:So game clue game?
Mark:Clue game.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:Created do you know where it was created and by whom? No. I do not. 1943 by Anthony e Pratt, which is an unfortunate name because he was British. Tony Pratt.
Mark:Tony Pratt and then moved to the to America and purchased by Hasbro in the he he had kind of a rough life.
Sarah:What year did he invent the game? 1943. And so just just the beginning of World War 2?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:That's a weird time to invent this game. And and did it always have, like, the the British country house kind of theme
Mark:to it? Because he was influenced by Agatha Christie. This is an Agatha Christie influence game.
Sarah:It just surprises me that there was any market for board games at the beginning of World War 2.
Mark:I really don't understand it because, like I mean, I guess it's Should I read the news about Hitler invading Poland? Or
Sarah:It's expensive entertainment. Yeah. It's escapist. I guess so. I get that.
Sarah:I guess.
Mark:And it was the the company that originally manufactured it was the Waddington's Ah. Which is why they're named Waddington. Nice. Okay. And then till 1949, then it moved to America.
Mark:Now in 1993, they tried to do a 50th anniversary version of the game, but they found out they were gonna do it with Pratt, but they found out he had died 3 years before. Like, he he just became a nobody.
Sarah:Oh. It's kinda sad.
Mark:Like, it's definitely
Sarah:sad. What year did the movie come out?
Mark:The movie would have been 86 or 87.
Sarah:So he was alive Yeah. For that?
Mark:Yeah. And probably didn't go to the the premier and stuff.
Sarah:I don't think he was involved at all. We watched that documentary about the the movie. Remember?
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Oh, that's so sad.
Mark:It's definitely
Sarah:And he probably made no money. No. He probably got, like, $20 for it or something and signed away the license.
Mark:Now, the Pluto, there's no, broken wood Pluto. But there is 2 versions of Midsummer Pluto. Right? So there's Midsummer with Tom, and there's Midsummer with John. There's 2 versions of the Pluto game
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:For Midsummer. And we've talked about this before on
Sarah:We have neither of them.
Mark:No. We don't have and we don't need either of them. We've talked about this before of, local newspapers using Midsummer to get clicks. Yeah. Okay.
Mark:So I read from you from this article from the Eastern Daily Press, which is Midsummer Murders gets new Norfolk twist in new Pluto board game.
Sarah:Where is this newspaper?
Mark:I would say somewhere near Norfolk.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:Okay? So this local woman named Hannah Radakova, who's 29, it plays a fortune teller character in the new Pluto for the new version with John Barnaby.
Sarah:So it's her in the photographs of the character in the game? Yep. Okay.
Mark:I and she says I did play the original Pluto and I have told my friends I'll be available for box signings. But then comes 2 fantastic paragraphs of stuff. So the first paragraph says miss Radikova used to be an illustrator for children's books but has suffered from m e for more than 3 years and needs to take constant rest that's,
Sarah:chronic fatigue
Mark:syndrome. She currently blogs about her condition at superpoopedbloxblock.com.
Sarah:I mean, there's fatigue and then there's being pooped. Wow.
Mark:That's just fantastic.
Sarah:I've never understood pooped being slang for being tired anyway.
Mark:This is this is so local paper tries to put Midsummer in the news so that it gets clicks.
Sarah:Like, the shoehorn is breaking at this point. I mean, good for her for sharing her story.
Mark:Oh, no.
Sarah:It's probably helpful to other people. But
Mark:I'm not laughing at her. I'm laughing at the newspaper.
Sarah:At the newspaper. Like, all this woman did was get paid to model for a character Yeah. To be photographed, and the character is used in a board game. And she's sorta local. Kinda local.
Mark:Yeah. So
Sarah:the question blog is called Superboo.
Mark:He's Superboo. The second question I have for you is what board game would you want to play in real life?
Sarah:Like, they're playing at a party like this? Yes. And I can pick any board game I want.
Mark:Any board game you want.
Sarah:And it can it'll make you can make it possible. Yeah. Right? I don't have to choose a board game that's No. Possible.
Mark:No. While while you're thinking, I'll give you a couple of examples.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:I always love the chess scene from the history of the world part 1. Yeah. So the the live people chess
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Is always fantastic. And there's always in any 3 musketeers French revolution movie, there's this Human
Sarah:chest thing.
Mark:Human chest thing. I've noticed because I've been out at the places where the kids are lately Mhmm. That there's like people play connect 4 at bars.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Like, there's a big life like, it's not like regular connect 4 that you play on the table. It's like a big thing and you drop things in it and you play connect 4 while you're drinking your drinks and listening to your hippie hop music.
Sarah:That makes sense because you don't I mean, you don't have to learn it. It's basically Tic Tac Toe kinda.
Mark:I'd say that there are several times when I packed the children into the van that I was reminded of the game of life with all those pink and blue pegs in the back of the car.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah.
Mark:And, doctors kinda play operation surgeons play operation every day as a game anyway.
Sarah:Except there's nothing in your body that goes and shocks them when they hit it, I hope. I don't know. I'm kinda torn between Mousetrap.
Mark:Do you
Sarah:ever play Mousetrap? Yes. It's that big, like, Rube Goldberg machine convoluted thing.
Mark:Never had all the parts in it.
Sarah:Oh, you you lost a part immediately.
Mark:A part immediately.
Sarah:And I think I think that would be fun. And then and we saw this happen on a show, Battleship. Which show is that where they played Battleship?
Mark:Oh, it was physical 100. No. No. It was the mental version of that. Yeah.
Mark:It was yeah.
Sarah:But they they played real battleship, not with battleships, obviously, but with people in little boats. Yes. And that was I that would be fun.
Mark:That would be fun.
Sarah:And I could choose who gets to go in the boat. Right?
Mark:Yes. I always wanted I always I always thought
Sarah:And the mortar blows up underneath the boat.
Mark:To play, like, card games with giant cards too.
Sarah:That would just be hard. You must I can't hold a hand of cards anyway. So Like, UNO, you know.
Mark:I just thought we should talk about games that you might wanna play in real life.
Sarah:I tell you one I don't wanna play, snakes and ladders.
Mark:Snakes and ladders in real life is bad news.
Sarah:That is terrifying. I don't like ladders. I don't like heights, nor do I wanna slide down the back of a gigantic snake.
Mark:Some of those snakes are humongous.
Sarah:No. Thank you. No. Chutes and ladders, fine. It's well, the ladders still don't throw me, but at least they're slides.
Sarah:It's a slide, like a playground slide. I'm not sliding down on a snake. No. Thank you. Declan, when he's hitting on Scarlet in the billiard room, is laying limericks down as come online.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Don't they never give a whole limerick. Yes. Don't Google the lines or the limericks that you hear.
Mark:I'm sure
Sarah:You don't wanna know what the rest of it is.
Mark:So when how old were we? We were probably 10 or 11. It's prime time. Right? Mhmm.
Mark:We discovered this book on my friend Davin's mother's bookshelf called the limerick. It was easily 3,000 pages of limericks.
Sarah:Like 1 limerick per page or something?
Mark:No. No. No. No. Oh, wow.
Mark:Like
Sarah:Well, Well, they're not hard to write.
Mark:I would assume that every limerick that it was ever written down was put in this book.
Sarah:Was Nantucket mentioned?
Mark:We would sit on his bed and laugh our asses off at that book.
Sarah:Wow.
Mark:Oh my god. We we I'm sure we read limericks for days and just laughed and laughed and laughed and didn't get half of the jokes. But
Sarah:Well, the ones that Declan's are Declan's laying down are are racist, and I don't even know why Scarlet laughs at them.
Mark:I know. So the most useless subplot in this episode
Sarah:Declan is Jared's father.
Mark:Yeah. Why is this even in here? It's not needed. Just not needed at all. There's a DNA test, you
Sarah:know. It's an excuse for aunt Tina to go around yanking people's hair.
Mark:I don't wanna go to a psychiatrist who can't recognize cancer.
Sarah:Another person.
Sarah:Who doesn't even say your cheeks are awfully rosy for somebody going through chemo, Declan.
Mark:Yeah. Like, you still got a medical degree. Where did
Sarah:he go when he said he went to Thailand?
Mark:I I I think he just went off with
Sarah:the missus White. Just on the boat. Just hanging out.
Mark:Okay. More importantly more importantly, between the funeral and when he steals the boat, right, it is implied that he is hiding.
Sarah:Mhmm. Where?
Mark:Where? And when he goes to get the boat, why is missus m not going, there's Declan.
Sarah:Yeah. Maybe he's hanging out in Janelle's
Mark:forest side. A famous person.
Sarah:In a small town. In a small town. Maybe he wrapped his whole head in bandage Man. Like the invisible man I and nobody recognized him.
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:Maybe he put on scarlet's dress.
Mark:Maybe.
Sarah:That's what they did with it. He was prancing around dressed as her. Nobody recognized him.
Mark:We will find out that Roxy likes margaritas.
Sarah:Roxy's a goer.
Mark:She is.
Sarah:She's got tattoos, margaritas, does pole dancing, dances on tables. Yep. Spleen's got quite the girlfriend.
Mark:Yes. And we have a new lawyer, missus Temple. Mhmm.
Sarah:Miranda. Yes. She's a divorce lawyer who also does criminal law.
Mark:No. Well, small town lawyers gotta do a bunch of stuff.
Sarah:That's a big difference.
Mark:But everything starts falling apart here when they start doing timelines and start doing where was this person when this happened.
Sarah:They didn't get their story together. For people who play a murder game, they should be better at alibis.
Mark:They
Sarah:Did the ambulance help move the body or not? Yes. When Janelle was like, well, maybe Brenda moved him. Yeah. Brenda picked up a dead Declan and moved him into the cottage by herself.
Sarah:I guess. And nobody saw her do it. No. He's duped 2 women.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Brenda thinks she's going away with him, and Janelle thinks that he's in love with her too. Those 2 never compared notes. They never picked up on each other. And they're both jealous of Scarlett?
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:What has he got going on? Yeah. He he's not super mister sexy guy.
Mark:No.
Sarah:He's not wealthy? Nope. Not attractive?
Mark:He tells racist limericks. He's not clever?
Sarah:Yeah. I'm not buying it. I mean, it it should have been, like, Russell Crowe or something
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Playing Declan. You know?
Mark:Mike goes to buy a rug. Okay. How annoying would that be to the poor rug guy?
Sarah:Yeah. Because
Mark:the rug guy is trying to sell his rugs. Right? That's what he does. And Mike is comes in interested in rugs and then just leaves.
Sarah:He he does a total Barnaby. Yeah. In the middle of a conversation, he figures something out and goes rushing off and leaves people going, what? Yeah. What just happened?
Sarah:And he leaves his rug. Yes. Are they gonna clean the rug, or are they just gonna throw it away? I don't know. I gotta measure for a spike, and he's off.
Mark:Yeah. He totally Tom Bartimaeus it. The boat is missus Smith. Who names a boat missus Smith?
Sarah:Boats have stupid names. Yes. Take it easy name.
Mark:My new boat is called Ginger Spleen. So Mike puts, who does he put in the cell?
Sarah:Plumber? No. I've heard.
Mark:Janelle. Yeah. He puts Janelle in the cell. And
Sarah:Nice rhyme.
Mark:He twists the knob of the the thing. It's not really a key. That's not how locks work.
Sarah:She could just reach around and untwist it.
Mark:Mike kind of fiddles with it for a while.
Sarah:It's like a Murdoch cell.
Mark:Yeah. It's it's really, really weird.
Sarah:We do find out that Plummer did stay over at the Wadsworth House the night of the party. Yep. But he left before Declan died. Yep. But so did reverend Green.
Mark:Yes. And then and it is not talked about in a perfect way here because he comes to the doctor's door Yes. When they're looking for the doctor.
Sarah:Green is in plumber's room in the middle of the night.
Mark:And it's not discussed. It's not, like, oh my god. They're gay. So they're the killers. Yeah.
Mark:Which would have been what it was in the 19 eighties.
Sarah:Yeah. You
Mark:know, none of that.
Sarah:No. And they end up together later. Yes. So but it's assumed that that's why Plummer has a divorce lawyer. Yes.
Sarah:Because he's in love with Reverend Green.
Mark:Yes. And they do have a full interesting relationship. Later. Yep.
Sarah:Yeah. When they go check out missus Smith and Breen goes out on the no. Jared does. Jared goes out onto the boat and checks it out because Yes. Mike won't go on the water because he doesn't like boats.
Sarah:The old New Zealand accent kicks in.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And Jared says that there's nobody on the boat, and he says something about the deck either side of the companionway. He says, this is missus Smith's thighs, and you could you could kinda see it as a reference to the deck either side of the companion way, if you know what I'm saying. Yep. But when he says it, he says it in his New Zealand accent.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And the old dick deck thing kicks in. And he says, the dick either side of the companion way. And I almost spit soda on my laptop because it is what he's talking about. Yeah. The thighs and everything else.
Sarah:And he says, the dick here the side of the companion way. Like, you did that on purpose.
Mark:In my notes, I have, why is anyone in love with that question? Yeah. Mike goes to buy a pie.
Sarah:No. Why does he go buy a pie? Like, I'll just stop and get a snack for this steak out. I guess. Because I know what's gonna I mean, there's
Mark:He's going to a steak out.
Sarah:So he's
Sarah:on the boat chase, and he's not going on the boat chase, so he may as well have some lunch. Yep. You know, I'm surprised he eats in his car. Yeah. He does.
Sarah:So what yet another exciting broken wood boat chase, though.
Mark:And what we find is the boat is empty.
Sarah:Yep. And there's no one on it, and the rudder has been roped.
Mark:Boats are really hard to control.
Sarah:Not this one. It self drives with just a rope.
Mark:Just self
Sarah:It avoids all the shallows and the little islands and the crags and crevices and just heads way out to sea all by itself.
Mark:And we're stuck with 2 horrible people in a car. One is missus White who killed miss Scarlet.
Sarah:The worst thing about missus White is how much she lies about knitting.
Mark:Oh.
Sarah:She can't knit.
Mark:She cannot knit at all.
Sarah:And Sims doesn't know crap about knitting. She's like, that's quite the complex pattern. Like, no. It's not. It's garter stitch in one color on straight needles.
Sarah:It's 4th grade knitting at best This is why With acrylic yarn. It's crap.
Mark:Come to Mystery Maniacs, folks.
Sarah:Only an evil person knits baby booties out of cheap acrylic yarn on big straight needle. You can't knit baby booties on straight needles. I'm done.
Mark:Okay. Sorry. So she's horrific. And then it all comes out how horrific Declan is.
Sarah:Yeah. And those And they're staring at each other in the car like, what? What? What? You killed you you're who?
Sarah:And I love You did what?
Mark:I love how Mike just leaves.
Sarah:Mike's like, you guys deserve each other. Yeah. Here's some scissors.
Mark:By the way, Jared's not your son, and your poem's over at your mother. Scene.
Sarah:And why why do you keep 6 inch scissors in your knitting bag? Those are sewing. These are
Mark:Stabbing somebody with scissors in the chest would have created a cascade of blood.
Sarah:I don't know. If you left him in until they they were dead.
Mark:They were good scissors. She did have to get them back.
Sarah:She did have that that red lace double layer dress on
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:That probably absorbed a lot of it.
Mark:Maybe?
Sarah:That they took off of her and did what with?
Mark:Where where is that dress?
Sarah:Brenda, not only do you lie about knitting, but you stripped a woman naked Where? For no reason.
Mark:Where? Okay.
Sarah:What did she do with the rug?
Mark:She hid the body and then explained to Declan, like
Sarah:And then slipped into the funeral home and swapped them?
Mark:Where was the body through all the
Sarah:What did she do with the heavy bags they put in the casket?
Mark:Where? Where?
Sarah:Brenda's very capable. Yeah. She's an evil liar about knitting, but she's very capable. I guess. And she's pregnant.
Sarah:So she's got some goals.
Mark:Yeah. That's that in the end, that's the thing I dislike a bit the most is the whole I'm crazy because I'm pregnant.
Sarah:I don't think we're supposed to think she's hormonally crazy. It's more like I've got a reason to protect this future that we've planned together now, and I'll do whatever it takes.
Mark:Also, Sarah, you've stabbed this scarlet lady
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:With your favorite scissors.
Sarah:Because my deadbeat fake cancer on the run from the police boyfriend flirted with her. That's why I'm killing her.
Mark:Yeah. Okay. So you've hid the body. Mhmm. Now there are people staying reverting
Sarah:her look like she just rolls her up in the rug and puts the rug behind the couch.
Mark:Bodies don't smell. They don't get whiffy.
Sarah:Well, and nobody's gonna see that rug back there.
Mark:No. So the the doctor and the priest are there overnight. Is missus Peacock there overnight? No. Okay.
Mark:So she comes the next morning? Mhmm. Okay.
Sarah:So so all
Mark:these flowers
Sarah:Because Declan lets her pick flowers from the Wadsworth Garden to sell in her floral shop.
Mark:Yep. All this. Okay. So then everybody shows up in the morning. People are waking up.
Mark:You're feeding breakfast. Now is the time that you decide to clean the murder weapon in full view of everyone in the kitchen.
Sarah:Anybody who happens to walk in is like, why are you washing scissors? Never mind the big question through all of this. Everybody's you you finally figure out where everybody is. Where was Mutard? Maybe he helped hide the
Mark:Well, then okay. So and I hate to go back to this because I've gone back to it so many times in so many podcasts. She had to remove the scissors. Mhmm. When she removed the scissors okay.
Mark:Did she leave them in the body for a long enough time to get them out to then that it wouldn't be bleat? Like, there would be blood everywhere.
Sarah:I I'm much more troubled by her moving a body alone. Yeah. And and Out of the house to the funeral home, swapping out the weighted bags they put in the casket to put her in.
Mark:Yeah. And plus, when she found the weighted bags in the casket, wouldn't she be like like, did she know Declan was not dead also?
Sarah:She must have. Yes. So So so she and Janelle were both being duped. So why together.
Mark:But, you know, lady from San Francisco shows up and flirts a little bit, stabby stabby, but Janelle plans his fake death with him and she's like, oh, well, it's just Janelle. Yeah. Why doesn't she kill Janelle?
Sarah:She should. Yeah. They should try to kill each other because Janelle should be jealous of Brenda.
Mark:Janelle is horrible. Mhmm. Okay? But I don't think, like, she fakes a person's death. Mhmm.
Mark:She is complicit in that conspiracy, but she doesn't commit a felony or any. Like, she doesn't murder anyone.
Sarah:No. She doesn't murder anybody, but that is a felony.
Mark:But they, like, Tim.
Sarah:And neither of them even know that he's already on the run.
Mark:Yes. Like, Melody Walking around town with missus m going, oh, look. It's Declan.
Sarah:Yeah. Melody is Chekhov's sex crime victim. Yes. I'm sorry to say. Like, she's there.
Mark:Which should be the name of the episode, but I could not put that on
Sarah:YouTube. Wouldn't be okay. Yep. But she doesn't have to be there. No.
Sarah:They don't find out about his fire crime because of her. They find out about it because of his record, and I love his mug shot in his old police file. Yes. Like, it looks like his face is, like, shoved up against the camera lens or something.
Mark:Tom Romanski.
Sarah:Yeah. But yeah. And then the last final humiliation of Declan is that the poem is about his mother.
Mark:Yeah. It just it's there are a lot of motives of the writers in this episode that were easily seen.
Sarah:Mhmm. So Even Scarlett says when she reads the poem, I feel like it was written for me.
Mark:Well, I think they're goofing on that idea too.
Sarah:Like, groupie instagroupies.
Mark:Yeah. That that parasocial relationship thing.
Sarah:It's still it's crazy fun. Yeah. I don't think that the way they play the game would work. No. I don't understand.
Mark:I'm so glad the clue stuff is there though because I thought the whole episode was just the fake death, and I was like
Sarah:More
Mark:I'm not sure if this is gonna be exciting. And then the clues clues stuff happened. I'm like, oh, this gets interesting.
Sarah:It looks like a fun night.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:If you're not playing with jerks.
Mark:Or stabby stabbies.
Sarah:Who kill people because they because your boyfriend hit on her. She didn't do anything wrong. Just imagine if you're Scarlett's family. Yeah. Hey.
Sarah:Okay. Wait a minute. She went all the way to New Zealand to hang out with these people who love the board game that she loves.
Mark:And they killed her.
Sarah:And then put her body in another guy's casket. And then she was on the front page of the newspaper basically naked and dead. What?
Mark:And they probably don't even know yet.
Sarah:Yeah. It's just bad. The poor woman.
Mark:Thank God.
Sarah:She just came to have fun.
Mark:Ginger's spleen was on the scene.
Sarah:He's on the case.
Mark:And that
Sarah:It's better than spleen ranger.
Mark:Yes. So so what happens after the credits?
Sarah:Scarlet's family shows up, and they are mad.
Mark:I'm glad they solved this problem, but they're gonna sue everybody.
Sarah:So Janelle's going to jail. Brenda's going to jail. Declan's going to jail. The, reverend Green and Plummer are gonna get together. The Wadsworths are gonna come home and go, what the hell happened Yep.
Sarah:In our house. Yes. We're never leaving again.
Mark:Missus m goes to another funeral.
Sarah:Mhmm. For fun.
Mark:Jared's father is never mentioned again.
Sarah:It's sad that his mom died during childbirth,
Mark:and he never knew her. And It's it's very sad, but he had lots of aunties.
Sarah:Yep. He he's he's kind of like,
Mark:Crabtree.
Sarah:Crabtree raised by his aunties. Yep. Yeah. I mean, you know, the flower shop's gonna close.
Mark:Yeah. And Well, maybe the rubbish shop will expand.
Sarah:The rug shop. Maybe mister Bugle will reach out to the rain birds and get some advice on running a successful funeral home.
Mark:He needs some satin service.
Sarah:So that is Over Her Dead Body, Broken Wood season 3 episode 2.
Mark:Dead body of the week has
Sarah:to be Arthur. Arthur is the dead body of the week.
Mark:Without a doubt. Yeah. Next week, the return of Frodo.
Sarah:Yes. Frodo's
Mark:is back. On December 23rd, we will release I can't believe how close it is to Christmas. The broken
Sarah:That's correct.
Mark:Broken one mystery season 3 episode 3, the killing machine, which should be entitled the return of Frodo.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:Because that is the most important thing that happens in it.
Sarah:Not that the rest of the episode isn't fun. Now But for us, that's the most important.
Mark:Next episode is a merry belly Christmas, which is, the Christmas episode that which we did, I believe, 2 or more years ago.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:So we covered that. That's why we ordered the pies.
Sarah:Yes. I They were good.
Mark:They were good.
Sarah:But we're gonna do a little bit of a remix for it, so it'll still be worth listening to. We'll add some new stuff.
Mark:We'll add we'll add a little bit in the new stuff.
Sarah:Few surprises.
Mark:And I'm gonna because I love our listeners. I love you all. I'm gonna drop that on the 24th of December.
Sarah:Christmas eve.
Mark:Little Christmas Eve present for you all. Awesome. So you get 2 episodes next week of mystery maniacs.
Sarah:Awesome.
Mark:Then we're on break. I don't know when we're coming back. We'll probably cover more broken wood.
Sarah:What will we it won't be, like, a week or so, but it won't be don't say we don't know when we're coming back. It'll probably be gone for a long
Mark:time or not. Probably be the 6th January Yeah. Yeah. When we return. So We just need a week.
Mark:Yep. For the honeymoon. The the first episode of the next season is the parachuting
Sarah:episode. Where Gina comes into full bloom and all of her craziness.
Mark:Yes. So we'll we'll we'll move on to season 4 of of broken woods. So
Sarah:Alright. Sounds good. Until then.
Mark:Watch all the good things.
Sarah:Black Doves, Shetland, Dag Leash. Look out for Sister Boniface, the Christmas special. Chelsea detective is starting.
Mark:Is starting.
Sarah:Go out and check out the subreddit
Mark:for about that.
Sarah:Post about homemade presents and recipes and stuff.
Mark:Yes. And we will talk to you in a week, but thank you for all the love you gave us over the last 2 weeks, and bye, maniacs.
Sarah:Bye, maniacs.
Mark:Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word. Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:What's the name of the lady who works for the newspaper who's got the weird the photographer who's got the crazy name? Kushala. Kushala.
