Episode 223 | Mystery Maniacs | The Brokenwood Mysteries | "The Killing Machine" | Bad Kids, Car Shows & Chips
Hey, Maniacs.
Mark:Hey, Mystery Maniacs. Mystery Maniac is a recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of the show including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and every else we love. This week, the killing machine.
Sarah:It sounds so much cooler than it is.
Mark:Season 3, episode 3 of Broken Wood Mysteries. I'm Mark.
Sarah:I'm Sarah, and this is a spoiler podcast. We're gonna ruin it. We're gonna give away who the killing machine actually is.
Mark:This is the first of 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 episodes this week.
Sarah:Was that supposed to be, like, laser sounds? Pew pew pew pew. Do do do do.
Mark:You know, I usually don't read, the IMDB descriptions of these episodes, but, we got some good ones here. Again, we're a spoiler podcast. If you let let your kids watch the show about killing machines, then they can listen to the podcast. The IMDB for this week's episode, which is the killing machine, is a thief's corpse is found at a local auto body shop followed by a murder of people who worked there. As Shepherd unveils the case, he realizes the crime may not be anything as pedestrian as theft.
Mark:The episode that you're getting a remix of tomorrow. Pew pew pew pew.
Sarah:I thought you were gonna go wicky, wicky, wicky. It's a remix. It we Wakey wakey wakey.
Mark:Is the a merry bloody Christmas on our episode was called
Sarah:The Santa sue sue suicide.
Mark:In a Santa suit suicide. Yeah.
Sarah:There you go.
Mark:The beloved mayor of Brokenwood is found brutally murdered in a Santa costume and his girlfriend stuffed in the chimney also in the Santa costume. Is is perhaps
Sarah:That needs some editing, I think.
Mark:The best. Okay. Originally broadcast on, 13th of no what are we gonna do for the remix? We gotta figure that out. 13th November 2016.
Sarah:Oh, don't worry about it. I got Oh, you got something?
Mark:You got something?
Sarah:I got something real good for the remix.
Mark:Oh, good.
Sarah:Don't worry.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:So It's gonna blow your mind.
Mark:Just for you new people, we do we've covered the episode that's next before, and we just do a little introduction and play the old episode.
Sarah:We add some new content
Mark:to the beginning. New content and call it a remix. Directed by Mike Smith who's directed a couple of these and written by Greg McGee. I think Greg came in as a relief for the regular guy and gave us a regular episode. This is this is by the book.
Sarah:It's not a bad episode
Mark:No.
Sarah:But it's not my favorite. No. First of all, car shows, snore. Yes. 2nd of off, friend drama, snore.
Sarah:Yep. But there are some fun things.
Mark:There are some Obviously. There are some things for us to talk about, including the garage at night gets almost burnt down. I love how the gas is spilled all over the side of the the garage and then never talked about again. No. It's just never spoken of again.
Sarah:Well, when when we find out that the burglar was actually killed by Charlie because Charlie catches him in the act of trying to torch the place, that's the only other time it's recorded.
Mark:Unbelievable thing in this episode is Charlie Charlie carries that guy up a ladder onto the roof. Yeah. How could you have ever done that?
Sarah:I'll give him that the body in the middle of a big open space having fallen from a skylight is dramatic.
Mark:That's interesting. He's splat. Yep. And it falls apart in a very natural way.
Sarah:Yeah. But that is like a locked room mystery. Yep. And then they kinda ruin that. Yes.
Sarah:They kinda make it quotidian after that. Yes. Here's a big word for you.
Mark:We do learn that Roxy is a feminist.
Sarah:Breen's girlfriend is a feminist in the way that, like, the man hating kind, not an actual feminist. Yes. Men are stupid kind.
Mark:Yes. Did you notice there was a continuity error with this scene of the crime? So they come in, they look at him, and they talk about catalog Alderados and things consistent with the fall. And Mike correctly says, this isn't the job of a of a boss. It's the job of a minion.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:At the very end, his ski mask is back on after it's clearly been removed in the episode.
Sarah:So Interesting.
Mark:Yeah. We're going to Riverstone. This is the first time we're going to Riverstone. We're going to Riverstone for the annual beach hop.
Sarah:Is there a beach anywhere?
Mark:No. I
Sarah:mean, you're never far away from a beach. I understand that. But it's basically a car parade down Main Street in Riverstone, and you're actually wrong. We have been to Riverstone because we went to the doctor's office, this the psychiatrist's office
Mark:Oh, that's right.
Sarah:In the last episode, and he's in way over in Riverstone.
Mark:Yes. First of all
Sarah:Have you ever been to a car show? Yes. Why? You're not a car person. I know that.
Mark:I know. I know. It was I've made poor choices with women in my life. That's that's all I'm gonna say.
Sarah:So you were you were drugged to a car show?
Mark:Yes. At least at least, the very least, it was a Volkswagen show.
Sarah:That's a little bit different. Yes. It's not just muscle car show.
Mark:No. No. No.
Sarah:No. This is kind of a classic car show, but they're not all, like, mint classic cars. There's definitely some muscle cars there.
Mark:There are some weird things going on at this fair. Including Olsen the clown. Olsen the clown is
Sarah:is my hero. Is my soulmate. He hates spiders, and he hates clowns. Yep. We can get along.
Mark:Yep. You and Breed. So this is Riverstone's annual annual beach hop. The poster which appears everywhere Everywhere. In this episode has some weird things on it.
Mark:First of all, it's the Roll and Rock Festival.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:Not the Rock and Roll Festival.
Sarah:Oh, okay.
Mark:It's the Roll and Rock Festival. Get it? I get it. And rock. The items along the bottom include the following, hot rods, classic cars and caravans, beach hop idol, motorbikes, nostalgia surf fest.
Sarah:Wait a minute. Idol, I d o l or idle I d l e? I d o l. Okay. So they're gonna have a competition.
Mark:Competition, nostalgia surf fest.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:The junkyard fashion show and a nostalgia fair also. So they have multiple things with nostalgia in them.
Sarah:They got a lot going on there.
Mark:They have a car. They have a a woman. I think there's a woman and a man on the beach. I get that, but then there's a cone in the middle of the poster. Why is there a cone?
Sarah:Like a traffic cone? That's cars. I don't know. I guess.
Mark:But some bad kids drive by, and we know they're bad kids because they drive by slow and look at us.
Sarah:Yes. That's how you know. And their car's loud.
Mark:Yes. I know. And they're Jared's friends, and they have a gun in the back.
Sarah:Before we get on to that Yep. What's your dream car?
Mark:You know, I am very much a it's 4 wheels and ghost car. Mm-mm.
Sarah:As long as it's black, you're okay with it. Really don't
Mark:I'm not into cars. I never have been into cars. Really 4 cars goes and plays music is my only requirement. Four wheels cars go.
Sarah:Yep.
Mark:Yep. Is my only requirements. Now I've had some cool cars. I think my, Scion XB that was like a box was kind of a cool car to have. But
Sarah:But you don't have a a dream car? Like, if you could just magically have any car from history and it would drive and run, and you could own it, not have to worry about maintenance or anything.
Mark:If if I had a $1,000,000,000
Sarah:Like, would you want a Batmobile or something?
Mark:Any car I wanted. I would want the Batmobile 66, the Ecto 1, and a Hummer. Not a Hummer. Sorry. A Land Rover.
Sarah:Like a classic Land Rover.
Mark:Like a classic Land Rover.
Sarah:Not one of those new city Land
Mark:Rovers. No. Not one of those city Land Rovers.
Sarah:My dream car is a 19 sixties Hellman Super Minx.
Mark:Wow.
Sarah:Have you ever seen one? Google it. First of all, it's called a Superminks, which is awesome. 19 sixties Hellman Superminks. Specifically, I think I would like to have either the station wagon version or the convertible.
Sarah:Oh,
Mark:these are cool cars.
Sarah:They are British. Yep. They are awesome. And they're called Superbanks.
Mark:They are indeed called Superbanks. Yeah. They're they're very pretty cars.
Sarah:Not too long ago, I would have said an off Austin FX 4, which is a British taxi. Yeah. But now, I think I'd like to have an Austin Superminks.
Mark:A Hellman Superminks.
Sarah:Hellman Superminks. Sorry. Okay. Yeah. They're just so cool.
Sarah:So Jared's friends show up, Greg and Carly.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And we find out right away he was in Afghanistan, though not in the fighting troops necessarily. Though, I'm sure it was dangerous to be there no matter what.
Mark:Yeah. He was in country. He was
Sarah:in danger. He he enters the scene. Even in his car, he's a problem. Like, you know, right off, this is a bad friend.
Mark:Like I said
Sarah:Why would you hang out with him?
Mark:The bad kids drive by.
Sarah:She's she's not a bad kid. No. She's abused. He is bad.
Mark:He's a bad kid.
Sarah:He's the friend that you don't hang out with anymore. Yes. Like, because he's problematic. I hate him right from the get go. I don't want him in the episode.
Sarah:I don't want her in the episode. I don't know why Jared hangs out with him. Yep. I think He's too nice.
Mark:I think in the end, Jared probably left the show because they didn't know what to do with him. But he doesn't look happy to do this subplot.
Sarah:Well, he's not supposed to be happy with it.
Mark:Well, I I realized that, but he it just looks uncomfortable from the very beginning.
Sarah:And then Greg goes on to almost immediately try to have a drag race
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:In the rain. Bad idea.
Mark:Wow. There's a lot of rain in that scene that they completely don't talk about.
Sarah:It's a bad idea to drag race in the rain. Slippy slippy. But, of course, they get stopped. But he just Greg is just, he's just a jerk. There's nothing redeemable about him.
Sarah:He abuses his wife. He's aggressive towards everybody for no reason whatsoever. He has a gun with him for no reason whatsoever.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:I he likes his car.
Mark:Some people inches away and looks through the scope. Yeah. Why do you need to do that?
Sarah:You don't. You don't. He's just bad.
Mark:But what this episode dearly needs Frodo. Is our man, Frode, who drives up
Sarah:In a Mustang.
Mark:In a Mustang. Convertible. And, of course, Frode's heard something. You know? He knows.
Mark:He's in the know. And he's also trying to be hot with the ladies.
Sarah:Well, he's got 2 pretty girls with him who he clearly doesn't understand because he's got the top down, and their victory roles are gonna get all blown out in the wind. Yep. Their hair looks beautiful. The way they've got their hairstyle, that's called a victory role Yep. From World War 2.
Sarah:They're difficult to achieve at best. They take a lot of hairspray.
Mark:They do.
Sarah:And, the wind is not kind to them. But, yeah, he's got 2 girls with him. Like, this is a guy who can't have a conversation with anybody.
Mark:And they run into missus m and his boy and her boyfriend who
Sarah:is Blind? Color blind? He's
Mark:the guy with stupid. Anastasia from the episode
Sarah:on the beach. Dog on the beach.
Mark:Yep. And they mentioned do you remember what they mentioned? The Carry On movie. Movie.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. Of course.
Mark:Is this Carry On Detectives?
Sarah:Missus m is one of those people who missus Marlow just magically appears wherever there's something interesting going on, and she wants to be involved so badly.
Mark:Now carry on movies, for those of you who don't know, are comedy movies that involve body comedy.
Sarah:Yeah. And they're thematic. I mean, they were cheap to make. They rolled them out, like, every couple of years back in the sixties.
Mark:How many Carry On movies do you think there are?
Sarah:15?
Mark:There are 31 Wow. Carry On movies. When do you think the last one was made?
Sarah:78.
Mark:1992. Wow. There's a lot of Carry on Columbus. So they say carry on detective. Do you think there's a carry on detective?
Mark:Because some
Sarah:sort of
Mark:is. Or carry on Whatever.
Sarah:No. There isn't a detective one?
Mark:A carry on detective, but there is from 1960, the carry on constable.
Sarah:Yeah. I figured there was a crime related one.
Mark:Yep. That is a number 5 in the list of 30 ones.
Sarah:Jeez.
Mark:Do you want to, take a guess at some other occupations that show up in carry on movies? Doctor? Yes. Carry on doctor 1967.
Sarah:Military?
Mark:Carry on surgeon with the first one, 1958.
Sarah:Royalty?
Mark:To to to no. Probably the closest you get is carry on England in 1976.
Sarah:Okay. Sailors?
Mark:Nope. Oh, there, yes. There's also carry on nurse because you said doctor.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:So there's nurse and doctor. My favorite is carry on up to Kyber.
Sarah:They did a lot of history ones.
Mark:They did a bunch of history ones, and then there is the Emmanuel crossover. My gosh.
Sarah:What's so what's the last one? What's 92?
Mark:Carry On Columbus is the last one.
Sarah:You said that. Yep. So And that's Christopher Columbus?
Mark:I believe so. Yes. It is to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the new world. Isn't that a wonderful way to Yeah. Have an anniversary?
Mark:Wow. I remember they showed them on afternoons on Canadian TV, and I remember being very little going, woah.
Sarah:That's a lot of cleavage.
Mark:That's a stunning amount of dirty jokes on television. Yeah.
Sarah:In the afternoon. Yeah.
Mark:I will watch this movie.
Sarah:It took me the longest time to figure out why the name of this auto company is Baxter and Balance. Balance just did not seem like a last name to me. It felt like, oh, they, like, rebalanced tires or something.
Mark:Balance is a car term, not a last name.
Sarah:But not in this one. It's a last name. In my episode. So Charlie Baxter is the second body dead on the side of the road next to his El Dorado with a tube in his mouth connected to the gas tank.
Mark:You ever siphon gas from the gas tank?
Sarah:No. Oh, okay. Have you?
Mark:Oh, tons of times. No. Father would send me out, go siphon some gas from the gas tank for the lawnmower and put it in the in the, siphon it out of the lawnmower, siphon it out of the tractor and put it in the lawnmower.
Sarah:I do remember my dad had a siphon tube, but it had a bulb on it. So you didn't put your mouth on it.
Mark:Oh, I I remember putting my
Sarah:I never had a mouthful of gas.
Mark:I know the taste of gasoline. That's horrible.
Sarah:Yep. No. Thank
Mark:you. Absolute well, we used to wash when we painted anything, we would go outside and wash our hands with gasoline.
Sarah:And and didn't your dad light himself on fire at
Mark:least once? At at least once.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. So So Frodo and the girls, Tony and, Kimberly, actually round the car and discover Charlie dead there. Yes.
Mark:More useless than the girls in Frodo's cars is Charlie's wife.
Sarah:Val. Yes. Mike goes to see her almost immediately. She's just mad. Yes.
Sarah:Angry that Charlie is dead and then immediately tries to sell his car. Yeah. Like, the same day she wants to sell his car.
Mark:Well, I think she realizes how in deep money troubleshoot.
Sarah:Yeah. But, like, grieve a little. At least pretend to be grieving a little.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:A day will not make a difference if you were half a $1,000,000 in debt or whatever it is. At least pretend to be sad. And then there's Olsen, who is the cochair of the antique car thing with Charlie. Yep. And Olsen has a car dealership that imports cars that then Charlie's company retrofits to meet the New Zealand requirements and then gives back to Olson to sell.
Sarah:No. Right? Yep. So they're providing a really important service for these imported cars. It's like if we took a car to the UK, we would have to have the MOT done
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:And make sure that the exhaust and everything fit, you know, met their standards or whatever. Right? So that's what he's doing. And that is a big money making business Yes. Because there's not a lot of car manufacturing in New Zealand.
Mark:No. There is not.
Sarah:Most of the cars are import. I would say all the cars are probably imported. The thief, I put that in quotation marks, found dead at Baxter and Balance is wearing a balaclava.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Do you know where that name comes from for a ski mask?
Mark:It comes from balaclava, which is a place Mhmm. Which became famous and known for ski masks because of the Crimean war.
Sarah:That's right. In the 18 fifties. Yep. That's a a name for a hat that stuck around for a long time.
Mark:It is.
Sarah:We still call them balaclava. Still call them Well, in the US, we tend to call them ski ski masks. But Yeah. So Olsen has a beautiful
Mark:car Yeah.
Sarah:That has won the award, and yet he sticks a bike in the back seat Yes. And dresses up like a clown. And somehow, miraculously, can go from clown to street clothes to clown to street clothes whenever he wants.
Mark:He's super fast with that. Also, his T Bird used car sales place is a shack that is about the size of this room. And yet when Mike asked him about his employees, he goes, I don't really know those people.
Sarah:Well, the building part of a car dealership doesn't really have to be that big. It's more about the lot. Right? And what he's doing is he's hiring people part time to help detail used cars that come into the lot.
Mark:Which I
Sarah:I can see and understand hanging out there.
Mark:But he would know who he hired.
Sarah:Well, he's pretending that he doesn't because he knows the guy he hired is dead now. And then he's not gonna go, oh, yeah. Sunny, I knew him well. He is my best buddy here. What happened to him?
Sarah:Yeah. Oh, that crime I hired him to commit or whatever?
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:No. But I still love how Breen just goes on about you can't trust a clown. Like, who dresses up like a clown?
Mark:He knows.
Sarah:Who does?
Mark:He knows. He's figured it out. I did. It's one of those episodes where Breen says the truth all the way through the episode. They
Sarah:Pretty much.
Mark:Finally agree with him.
Sarah:I forgot to mention this earlier, though. I did see my first car at the car show. Oh, you did? So my first car was a 1965 Plymouth Fury 2.
Mark:And there's one of those at the car show?
Sarah:There is.
Mark:Excellent.
Sarah:It's ginormous. Yeah. I could fit, like, 10 people in my car, and it wasn't a station wagon. I only had 2 seats, but the back end was as big as a couch.
Mark:The first car I had was a 19 eighties Pontiac Parisian that my parents had that also had a number. Like, my 2 male best friends used to sit in the back seat and lie down and not touch each other.
Sarah:Put their feet up. Yeah. Mine mine was about that big.
Mark:It just was giant. And velour seats. And because it's Canada, no air conditioning. No. Just seat.
Mark:Oh my gosh. That car would get so hot.
Sarah:I bet. In the summer. So Greg's car, Jared's troublesome friend
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:He calls it the killing machine. Why? Because he's a jerk face?
Mark:I guess so.
Sarah:Because it kills at competitions. Because it kills it going fast.
Mark:I spent the whole thing with them trying to figure out where they were staying. Are they staying at Jared's house?
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:If they are staying at Jared's house, that's a nice house, and Jared doesn't have a job. Jared has 10 jobs. Well, okay. Jared has 10 jobs. Why is he not doing them in this episode?
Mark:And that's still a really nice house.
Sarah:I think this whole episode happens over a weekend. Yeah. I mean, the car show can't be a couple days. No. Right?
Sarah:So Gina says Charlie has gas in his lungs. Yep. So he asphyxiated on gasoline. And they kind of imply that if you swallow a bunch of gas, it's fine. It's not fine.
Sarah:It makes you very sick.
Mark:Makes you super sick.
Sarah:A a mouthful won't kill you, but you'll wish you were dead.
Mark:Again, I know what the taste of gasoline is.
Sarah:Yeah. But hopefully, you never swallowed it. No. No. No.
Sarah:Charlie blinks on the slab.
Mark:He does?
Sarah:Yeah. Oh. He's not getting best corpse here.
Mark:No.
Sarah:Sunny, who's faced down having fallen from the ceiling, we never see his face, and he's a better corpse
Mark:than Charlie. Better corpse than Charlie.
Sarah:Unfortunately. Charlie's got the harder job. Yep. But he blinks. Shame.
Sarah:Shame. Shame. I just referred to him as Sonny. The first dead guy, the guy who was supposedly a thief is Sonny Smith
Mark:Mhmm.
Sarah:Who cleaned cars for Olsen and who was not trying to steal anything.
Mark:No. He was trying to burn down the place for insurance.
Sarah:He'd been put on the job. Yeah.
Mark:Right? So he brings a small time crook.
Sarah:He brings a a can of gas to pour over the jugs of other toxic Yeah. Chemicals that they keep stored all together in one place. Not smart. No. When Charlie catches him doing it, I don't know why Charlie just doesn't go, I'll just throw a
Mark:light Hold on.
Sarah:I'll help you. Let Let me just throw a light on, a match on this. Well, even after he kills him, like, he kills him not thinking about it. He kills him because he's like, this is a bad guy doing something. I'm gonna hit him on the head.
Sarah:Oops. He's dead. But he he could have thought, what was he trying to do?
Mark:And then he goes, wait a minute. I haven't done my cardio today.
Sarah:Let me carry him onto the roof that nobody trusts.
Mark:Up a ladder.
Sarah:Yeah. And just drop him through this skylight.
Mark:This episode and the next episode involve being on roofs with ladders.
Sarah:Yeah. But for Santa, it makes a lot more sense. Which
Mark:is true but wild.
Sarah:Yeah. When they go to talk to Keith Balance, who has that as a last name?
Mark:It's not a real last name. He takes off. The the like, he he does nothing But
Sarah:look guilty.
Mark:But look guilty in the entire episode, and I'm surprised And leave
Sarah:and leave Frodo hanging. Like, always leaving Frodo hanging.
Mark:Is completely left hanging, and I don't know why Sims isn't like he is completely guilty.
Sarah:Yeah. He just he just took off.
Mark:He owned a container load of money. That's a lot of money.
Sarah:I am impressed with how Sam catches Sonny's cousin, Tony Ty. Sorry. Yeah. She takes off running out the back door.
Mark:And he tackles her.
Sarah:He catches her. Yeah. And then as soon as he sees that she's a young woman, he's like, ah, man. Yep. Like, I just tackled the girl.
Mark:I just okay. So Keith says, go look at Charlie's phone, and it's because there are gambling maps on his phone. I have all the names of the gambling.
Sarah:You're such a nerd.
Mark:They include memory, cherry, diamond gems, triples, roulette, horse race poker
Sarah:That's a lot.
Mark:Crowns, win big, red chips, spin to win, piles of cash, aces, bingo, and the wheel.
Sarah:Some poor graphic designer who probably had to design that poster also had to pleased. Also had to make a bunch of app icons they could load on to, probably, a screenshot of the desktop of the phone. Right? So it's just a photo of a bunch of apps. It's not actually
Mark:No. Apps. They didn't make the apps? No. Okay.
Sarah:Was it in the box? At the bottom?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:How many unopened emails did he
Mark:have? 0.
Sarah:I knew that you would look. I
Mark:definitely looked.
Sarah:Mark has a thing about this.
Mark:Okay. It's not a thing.
Sarah:Let's see how many I have right now. I've got my phone. 1,109 unopened emails. He's doing his deep breathing exercises. I have 24 voice mails I haven't listened to.
Sarah:If you wanna torture Mark, just tell him that.
Mark:I follow a productivity method called 0 inbox. So my inbox is at 0 at the end of every day, both my personal and work email boxes.
Sarah:I follow the productivity method. 1,109 unopened emails in my inbox.
Mark:I cannot tell you how much better that is than it used to be. Sarah's at times had over
Sarah:4000 unopened emails. And I don't wanna give the impression that I don't do my job well. I do.
Mark:No. No. And I'm
Sarah:I just get that many more emails than you that I can't just disregard. I just don't Or resolve in a day.
Mark:I don't like notifications with numbers. Any number.
Sarah:I have yet to find out if it goes to 5 digits on the phone. I do not know. I've never had more than 9,999.
Mark:9. Like, we don't need to find out.
Sarah:But I kinda wanna find out. Maybe over the holiday, I'll get that many. Anyhow, they go back to the cop shop, and they have chips.
Mark:Yes. The chips and the ketchup.
Sarah:So There is a bottle of vinegar on the table, and it's the same brand of malt vinegar we have in our fridge.
Mark:And they do the right thing, which is they spread out the chips and they put the ketchup on the side so that it doesn't cool down the chips.
Sarah:Yes. But they don't have fish. They just have chips.
Mark:They just have chips. They also do not have salt and pepper, which is essential for chips.
Sarah:Maybe they're actually seasoned well enough you don't need it.
Mark:There's Pepper and Checha are a marriage made in heaven. And, yes, I spent a lot of time watching that particular scene.
Sarah:So let's talk about Carly and her lies.
Mark:So Carly really screws up here because she uses Jared. Jared. And Jared says exactly the right thing Yep. Which is I did everything I could to help you in your circumstance. Maybe you should let your family help you now.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:That is exactly the right thing for an ex boyfriend to say about finding out his new his old girlfriend is being accused by her husband. That is exact.
Sarah:So Carly and Jared were a thing back when they were teenagers. Now Carly is married to Greg who is abusive and an asshole Yeah. To say the least. So Carly lies to Jared and says, on the night that Charlie died, Greg got out of bed and left in Jared's car and then came back. So Jared does the right thing.
Sarah:He hangs out in the dark outside the cop shop, waits for Mike to come out, slips in the back door so nobody sees him because he can't, you know, have his reputation damaged Yep. Talking to the cops and tells Mike about that. But then come to find out, Carly was lying just to get Greg in trouble. But Greg gets himself in trouble, because when this whole thing comes out and he's confronted about it
Mark:He instantly goes gun.
Sarah:Yeah. 0 to gun. 0 to gun. In 0 seconds.
Mark:Wait. Let me look down the scope at you
Sarah:Now I would be
Mark:inches away from me.
Sarah:I would be really upset if I thought you and your ex girlfriend were trying to frame me for a murder.
Mark:I can understand.
Sarah:I would be really upset about that, but I would not get out a rifle and point it at you in front of the cops.
Mark:No. He screws himself so badly here.
Sarah:Because he can't he needs help. Yep. This is the first time that I think we've seen the lockbox in the back of Kristen's car
Mark:where they
Sarah:keep their guns.
Mark:They have they have pistols and long guns in there.
Sarah:Like, I knew that they had them there, but we've only ever seen the trunk from the other from the front of the car where they open it and then she gets them out.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:But she's driving around with weapons in the back of her car all the time. Yep. I'm guessing Mike doesn't have that in the back of his car because he's not gonna put that box in his car because his car is too special.
Mark:And he doesn't like guns. No. He doesn't take a gun. But Kristen saves the day here yet again. She's the better cop.
Mark:She's the best cop. She's a good cop in these situations. Oh, definitely.
Sarah:But, I mean, Greg thinks he's being framed, so he just makes sure that he's committed a crime. Yes. I'm not gonna go to jail for a crime I didn't commit. Let me commit 1 by holding these people at gunpoint.
Mark:Okay. So then I have a question.
Sarah:After he puts his hand on Carly's throat
Mark:Oh. Oh. Who is stupider? Okay. Greg, who does all the things that you've said Mhmm.
Mark:Or Charlie and Keith who are running a criminal Operation. Operation and have the books that Breen can figure it out in 15 minutes. Okay. I'm just telling our audience. I don't believe many of you, if any of you are running criminal organizations.
Mark:But if you are running a criminal organization, have 2 books.
Sarah:Well, I don't think the evidence is in the books. I think the evidence is in the comparison of how much money Charlie has lost and what the books say the business is bringing in.
Mark:But that's evident to Breen in 15 minutes. It's like
Sarah:I think we're supposed to get the impression. He's been looking at these books for a few hours. Keith doesn't think the evidence is in those books or he wouldn't just hand them to Breen and say, go go to town.
Mark:I don't know. He kinda went, Frodo, I'm going to the bathroom. Goodbye. Yeah. I don't think Keith I don't think Keith is the smartest guy.
Sarah:Because Charlie's been losing more money than he had to lose. So there's got there's some missing a missing source of money there.
Mark:He could still afford a house with a pool. I was like, wow. That's a nice pool.
Sarah:It's a nice house. Yeah. And so the money that makes up that difference is what's coming in in the imported cars with drugs in the chassis.
Mark:Now the one question I don't think it gets answered. They find Keith with a tube in his mouth hooked up to the Exhaust. Exhaust, and they get him to the hospital. Do you think Olsen did that or
Sarah:Keith was trying to Keith did it. Okay. I think he was trying to kill himself.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:Because he knew he was about to be found out for for the crime Yeah. That they've been committing. And poor Frodo is so stupid. We we've, you know, when we when we do these import jobs, it has to be in a special designated area of the shop Yeah. With a wall.
Mark:And I drive back and forth between these two places that are really close together every single week
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:With, like, listening to, music from Midnight Express.
Sarah:Yeah. Just I have to have the car detailed every 2 weeks, and that's why they let me drive it. Okay, Frodo. Let's think about this for 2 seconds.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Now you do have to have a barrier when you're welding Yes. Because it throws off sparks and stuff like that. I get it. But, like, Frodo going, oh, we're not allowed over there by law, Mike. You can't go over there.
Sarah:Like, did did he really buy that line?
Mark:Yeah. Frodo's
Sarah:He's not the sharpest stick in the bunch.
Mark:They're really trying to make Miranda Temple a reoccurring character, and I don't think we see her again.
Sarah:She she doesn't bring anything to the table.
Mark:She doesn't. She's
Sarah:like the other lawyer who's so skeezy. Yeah. Val not only tries to sell her husband's car on the day he's died, she's also increased his life insurance Yep. Trying to make herself look as guilty as possible. Keith, who didn't kill him, runs away every time the cops come by.
Sarah:And Val, who didn't kill him, tries to sell his car, doesn't doesn't mourn for him, and has just increased his life insurance. Like, could you have more red herrings? You couldn't have more red herrings if we were at a fish shop.
Mark:But Olson one ups everybody by walking out of the station because his lawyer gets him off and then going and doing the thing he's accused of doing while he says all the things that he did, why did he not walk in and, like, hit Frodo over the head and walk away? Like, why did he have to go, this is the crimes I've committed in this episode.
Sarah:Let me hit a bunch of random crap with this big mallet that I just happened to find.
Mark:He leaves the station.
Sarah:No. They have enough time to set up he waits till dark. Right? They have enough time to set up Kristen and Frodo's jumpsuit and the camera
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:And, you know, set up the situation to frame him because they know he's gonna come. But If he just buddy said,
Mark:well, no. I don't think he's that stupid.
Sarah:If he walked in quietly and just bashed him and walked out
Mark:With a ski mask on, well, Olsen's pretty
Sarah:He's distinctive. Yeah. He's gigantic. You you know it was him. But he's not he's not a smart criminal.
Mark:No. Never trust a clown.
Sarah:I also don't understand this whole Ford versus GM thing. It's a weird very manufactured
Mark:seventies thing. It's a real seventies thing.
Sarah:But the but for car lovers, like, you love the car that you love, the make, the model. It's not that you're like, any GM is better than a Ford. Yeah. There used to be this kind of artificial tension between those two companies, but I don't know. Naming the other companies, Taurus and Edsel, like Yeah.
Sarah:Come on.
Mark:Again, I think this is a competently written episode, but it doesn't fly. It doesn't it has no magic to it.
Sarah:It's it may be confidently written with the bad guys and and, frankly, the innocent people all written as idiots. Yes. That's the problem. They're all idiots.
Mark:It has no girlfriend stuffed in the in the chimney as missus Claus. Like, that that's brilliant. The fact that they don't even discover her for, like, half the episode.
Sarah:She does have a really great line, though, the lawyer.
Mark:What does she say?
Sarah:She says, hobbits driving Mustangs? Come on. Like, that's the evidence you have? That Frodo. That's a good line.
Sarah:Yep. Never trust a clown.
Mark:And and we we get Frodo from now on. Yeah.
Sarah:Which is fantastic. And Kristen gets to drive the Mustang.
Mark:Yeah. And she seems to be suddenly enamored with cars. And I
Sarah:No. I think she just appreciates that people see something in it, and it it might be fun to drive it.
Mark:They are fun to drive.
Sarah:I don't think she's gonna be like, oh, now I'm gonna start collecting cars.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:But I also think that this is kind of the beginning. Every time we see Frodo, Kristen sort of knows him better than everybody else because she's been there. And we start to get the impression that they've probably known each other their whole lives Yeah. But not run-in the same circles. Yeah.
Sarah:Right? So she's known of him most of his life and knows like, she never really considers him a killer in any of the episodes he's in where he could like, in the bachelor party or this one.
Mark:She definitely knows him better
Sarah:than anybody. And and knows that he's just dumb. He's not bad. He's just dumb.
Mark:Speaking of, after the credits, Frodo needs another new job. This becomes a theme for a little while that Frodo
Sarah:Frodo like Jared
Mark:is a bit of a job hopper.
Sarah:Collects jobs. Yep. Yeah. Jared has lots of jobs at the same time, and Frodo is kind of a serial job guy.
Mark:So now okay. Olsen's going to jail. Keith, if he ever recovers, is going
Sarah:to jail. Gonna recover. Yeah. He is gonna go to jail.
Mark:He's gonna go to jail.
Sarah:Charlie's dead.
Mark:Charlie
Sarah:The business is done. The car lot's done.
Mark:But the wife inherits the half a1000000 for the insurance because her husband was murdered. Yeah. And they have proof that he was murdered. Yeah. And it wasn't her.
Sarah:But it's not enough to pay off the debt.
Mark:Yeah. It's a lot of debt.
Sarah:So she's she's gonna be in a ton of debt. Now his gambling debts might get washed off. Yeah. Because those are his debts, not hers.
Mark:They pay for the house and stuff like that.
Sarah:Yeah. I have a feeling if she gets out of it, you know, clean and gets to start over, she'll be fine with that.
Mark:Yeah. I think so.
Sarah:She just wants to be done, and I think she'll probably move out of Broken Wood. I think so. But who's gonna be the clown at next year's beach hop?
Mark:Oh, no. Maybe Jared because he's everybody.
Sarah:That's Jared. It's not gonna be Breen. No. And Greg's gonna go to jail.
Mark:Greg goes
Sarah:to jail. Be the most number of people
Mark:who go
Sarah:to jail.
Mark:Who go to jail.
Sarah:Yeah. Greg's gonna go to jail. Hopefully, it's like Carly will go to her family
Mark:and get help. Season of Poirot, the the episode about where they're stuck in the Swiss hotel with the vernacular. Almost everyone in the entire hotel goes to jail. Yes.
Sarah:So Except Poirot.
Mark:Yep. And the cop even goes, does everybody go to jail in this hotel?
Sarah:Yes. Yes. Yeah. They do. You'll have to take him down in the funicular one at a time and and put him in a cop car.
Mark:Just to recap, this was episode 223. 224 will drop tomorrow, which is a remix.
Sarah:But it's got some good stuff, new stuff at the beginning. Has some If you've listened to it before, at least tune in for the first little bit
Mark:with the nugget. Has a nugget that she's teased us with. It's pretty good. Okay. We will return on January 6th with a season 4 episode 1 fall from grace or as it's better known, the guy who falls out of the sky without a parachute episode.
Sarah:Yeah. 2 episodes in a row with well, the Christmas one's in the middle, but
Mark:Yeah. Splat. Yep. There's a lot of splats.
Sarah:Gina comes into her own freakiness.
Mark:Oh, my. Yes. The picnic.
Sarah:And Mike's birthday?
Mark:Mike's birthday.
Sarah:It's good stuff.
Mark:Yep. All good stuff.
Sarah:Alright. Until then, bye, maniacs.
Mark:Bye, maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, behind the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:Naming the fake companies, Etzel and what's the other one called? I can't read my own notes.
Mark:I don't
Sarah:t o w Taurus. Sorry. Yes. Taurus.
