Bag Snot, Bangladesh & Black Watermelon | Brokenwood | "The Dark Angel" | Mystery Maniacs Podcast EP232
Are you gonna use this converter for? To kill people. Hey, maniacs. Hey, maniacs. Mystery maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV.
Mark:Each week, we dig into an episode of the show including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies. This episode has some loonies. And everything else we love. This week, Broken Wood Mysteries, The Dark Angels.
Sarah:Dun dun dun.
Mark:Season five episode four.
Sarah:It's a spooky one.
Mark:It is.
Sarah:And then it just gets kinda crazy.
Mark:I'm Mark.
Sarah:I'm Sarah.
Mark:Well, okay. First of all,
Sarah:winter Mark has to apologize.
Mark:Well, no. Winter's over. Let's cover this first.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Mark:Winter is over and spring has begun and we could be cut off at any moment.
Sarah:There's the big bada boom outside. We've had it for about twelve hours. The loudest thunder I can remember in a while. If you hear that.
Mark:If you hear thunder, that's what's going on.
Sarah:It's not sound effects for a spooky episode.
Mark:Also, if we suddenly disappear and come back and we're slightly different, it's because
Sarah:You didn't edit it well enough?
Mark:Time is fast.
Sarah:Now on to your apologies.
Mark:Oh my gosh. I screwed up so badly. Last week, a young Mark suggested that Broken Wood and A Remarkable Place to Die took place near each other. Now, relatively to the universe, they do.
Sarah:Even to the globe they do.
Mark:Yes. They do take place in the same country.
Sarah:But in the realm of New Zealand they do not.
Mark:Unfortunately I was roughly 630 miles or 11 or a thousand kilometers wrong.
Sarah:But you were gently informed Yes. Yes, I was. By some useful listeners Yes. Who corrected you.
Mark:And there are many more mountains in the South, which is why there are mountains.
Sarah:They really couldn't be further apart and still both be in New Zealand really.
Mark:You you have to fly or boat to get between them.
Sarah:Did do some things right last episode Yes.
Mark:Yes. So apparently some of you noticed. First of all, we got a very nice comment from Moista on Reddit that this episode was hilarious, particularly the Shih Tzu and kitten fighting and of course the Rocky Horror style Badger's Drift stage show.
Sarah:I'm still giggling about that.
Mark:Which caused both of us to almost lose it.
Sarah:I almost peed my pants.
Mark:Yeah. And then for those of you who listened to the bits at the end of the show, I did a dramatic reading of Yellow's evil woman.
Sarah:Which I thought was quite good. Yes. We also posted a rather embarrassing photo of me and one of my children eating Frodo dogs that we made. Yes. They were in fact Korean corn dogs.
Mark:There were several people concerned that I was eating the Frodo dogs and would get sick again.
Sarah:They were good. They were a lot of work, Korean corn dogs. You have to make this yeasty batter that's got to rise and then you've got the Hot dogs don't want anything to stick to them and you've got to deep fry them and I can't say they were worth it.
Mark:Well, we posted pictures, but wow, I did not partake.
Sarah:We also got a nice message on was it Blue Sky?
Mark:Yeah. Very We got some very special news from Fiona Dolman, was
Sarah:Who is Sarah Barnaby in Midsummer.
Mark:For anyone that does Midsummer Murders, I just received the first script of the new series, season twenty five. Filming starts in a week. Woo hoo. And that was the March 13.
Sarah:Are you surprised she only gets the script a week in advance?
Mark:No. I don't. I think they probably are are on a pretty tight ship.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Now I saw that on on the morning and responded to that which was, oh, you know we do Midsummer. Mhmm. And then I thought that was it. Yeah. Like I thought, whatever.
Mark:You know? And then I refreshed my screen, and I had to go get Sarah. Because she replied
Sarah:With a gif. Of Hulk Hogan.
Mark:Going, what's up maniacs?
Sarah:Mark was very excited.
Mark:We both kind of squeed
Sarah:a bit. Yeah. We're like, Bjorn and Dohlman knows we exist.
Mark:I think that's proof she's a maniac. Now, we know from our talk with Annette Badland that there are people on the show and work on the show that are aware of us. Uh-huh. I wouldn't say they're probably maniacs.
Sarah:But they know we exist.
Mark:But they know we exist. Now, I'm wondering, Fiona. Are you listening? I responded, oh you know, getting ready for the new season, making podcasts, gifing with cast members, the usual. We'd love to have you on the show to promote the new season and then I put a little gif of a big fat guy squeaking.
Mark:And she responded, give me a couple of weeks or so to land and I'll be in touch and then she followed us.
Sarah:Hey! So
Mark:I have I have hopes that young Fiona Dohlman gets in contact with us and we do some promotional work for the new season.
Sarah:That would be awesome.
Mark:That would be awesome. But I'm going to say to you, this was the second best response to this post.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:So, along with this we had Nocturnal Druid, a long time listener to the show.
Sarah:What's up Druid?
Mark:Who actually lives in The US. Mhmm. And he posted, oh that's great news with the little Troy smile. And then Fiona Dolman responded with, it's been eighty four years, the Titanic GIF. Mhmm.
Mark:Right? And Nocturnal Druid said, it can feel that way sometimes but it's always worth waiting on. Always gentlemanly, always right on on the mark. And then Fiona. Fiona is a maniac.
Mark:Are you ready for this?
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:This is how Fiona responds to Nocturnal Druid. Dear caller, we thank you for your patience. Please continue to hold and polite and amusing murdering will continue as soon as possible. In the meantime, for your own safety, may we suggest you avoid fruit pickling, graveyard visits, walking alone, clowns, drag artists and cheese.
Sarah:That's great.
Mark:That is utterly fantastic.
Sarah:That's a lot to type out with your thumbs. Yeah. She's awesome. That's so fun.
Mark:She's a maniac. I know it.
Sarah:She's a maniac. Even if she's not one of our maniacs, she's a maniac.
Mark:Yep, she's a maniac. Sarah hadn't heard that post.
Sarah:No. I hadn't. Didn't know. I didn't see that one.
Mark:I saved that for her.
Sarah:So So speaking of Fiona's, Dark Angel has a Fiona in it. Let's dive in.
Mark:Yes. This episode, 11/18/2018, Mark Beasley directs it and Tim Baum writes it. This is right down the middle, the team. Mhmm. And I think they do a great job in this episode.
Sarah:I do too. It starts out so creepy and then it gets funny and
Mark:I think I think it has all those elements and the offshoot of everything is you learn that the medical professionals are horrible individuals. The ones in this episode are. Yes. Yeah. And that the people who you feel the most sympathy for are the people who
Sarah:Are vulnerable.
Mark:To be not sympathetic at the beginning.
Sarah:Yeah. Absolutely. So we start out with a couple of teenagers breaking into broke Brokenwood Downs, which is an abandoned psych hospital. Have you ever broken into an abandoned building?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I didn't know that.
Mark:Oh, you didn't know that?
Sarah:No. What did you break into? And then I'll tell you what I broke into.
Mark:This this comes from the I can't believe we were alive file.
Sarah:That we survived this file?
Mark:So in the town I grew up in, in Carlton Place, it's not like this anymore, but there was an old mill right downtown Mhmm. That was abandoned. People weren't doing anything with it. But kids broke in and did all sorts of things. You know, drink and canoodle and all that stuff.
Sarah:So are you a teenager?
Mark:Yeah. Okay. So we LARPed in this environment.
Sarah:You you played live action Dungeons and Dragons in an abandoned mill?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Okay. Well, at least you were doing something productive, I guess.
Mark:The high point being in the middle of the night, the three of us climbing down the elevator shaft in the dark.
Sarah:And you didn't die or get tetanus.
Mark:We did not die.
Sarah:Wow.
Mark:Yeah. I can remember walking along on the Second Floor and one of my friends was on the floor above and his leg went through this floor and was hanging from the ceiling.
Sarah:And you didn't think we should get out of here?
Mark:No. That was before going down the elevator.
Sarah:Well, when I
Mark:was Well, we did this a number of times.
Sarah:I was like nine or 10 and me and a few friends broke into an abandoned hospital that was near where I grew up because we were sure there was a morgue in there. And like there would still be bodies in the morgue. I guess. We we were looking for spooky stuff because I've changed so much
Mark:Yeah. Since
Sarah:then. So they they break in and of course they find a body because this is broken wood. Yes. You gotta find a body. Meantime, at the toad and frog or toad and lion, I get it all confused.
Mark:It's the toad and lion.
Sarah:Toad and lion?
Mark:I think so.
Sarah:The other one was the frog and tiger.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Okay. There's a amateur well, it's not amateur. It's comedy night. They've actually paid
Mark:It's comedy night.
Sarah:Gerrymanders to come and perform. Wow. And it's hard to be this bad at being funny.
Mark:Who I feel sorry for is the bearded guy who's there two nights in a row.
Sarah:Yeah. Well, he does it to himself. He's paying a $10 cover to get in and see this guy twice. He's a glutton for punishment.
Mark:Ray got taken by this guy.
Sarah:I didn't under understand one of his jokes. Okay. So Jerry says Achilles had problems with his calves, which I thought he was talking about his Achilles tendon, like Yeah. His heel is his weak point. Right?
Sarah:But he does like little horns on his head like he's talking about a cow.
Mark:I think he thinks that that's what he had, maybe.
Sarah:But he talks about his armor having a
Mark:Jerry is not good at telling jokes, so to try and to decipher them is a problem. Yeah. Woah. Well Frodo's there.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Gina's there.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And our other players arrive.
Sarah:Well, and I think it's the second night when we see a clip. Missus Marlow is there.
Mark:Missus Marlow's on the second night.
Sarah:But, yeah, Buchanan and Hopalong Cassidy and Chris Kramer, who we've seen before, who looks a bit like the sketch of the Unabomber when he's got his sunglasses on.
Mark:Do you
Sarah:notice that?
Mark:He does.
Sarah:They all show up and they're like, this is funny. And then you find out later that, well, they've just we spoil things. If you don't know, it's a spoiler podcast. They've just come from the murder scene. So they're like, this is our alibi.
Mark:I want I want fifteen minutes of that car ride with the four of them in the car.
Sarah:Yeah. We see a little bit of it. Jacob Deschler, the former doctor in charge of this hospital has been killed with an ECT machine.
Mark:Did you notice the glowing eyes in the window? No. Yeah. And they're they're there when the cops show up, but no one says anything. So there are two little red dots in the window on the right hand side of the back wall.
Sarah:It's gotta be a reflection
Mark:or a piece of equipment or something. Some piece of equipment. But I was like, the glowing eye guy did So
Sarah:we find out pretty quickly that Jacob Dessler was a horrible person. Like, he he wasn't he wasn't actually trying to help anybody. He was a torturer. And then I thought and maybe I'm just listening to too many World War two podcasts, but his name is Jacob with a k Yes. Deschler.
Sarah:It's a very German name.
Mark:I think they're implying that.
Sarah:And I wonder if they're trying to throw back to a little bit.
Mark:I think they are.
Sarah:He's done seven years in prison
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:For torture.
Mark:Yeah. My first thought was you only get seven years for torture?
Sarah:You should get more than that. Like there should be
Mark:There's some people.
Sarah:There's like 10 patients
Mark:there
Sarah:I can
Mark:do seven at least.
Sarah:And he should get seven for each of them at least.
Mark:I wanna talk a little bit about the set design here because it is really good.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:So you have the machine, the ECT machine.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:You have Dreschler barefoot Mhmm. On the gurney, which is just great. You have a chair sitting beside him at the machine. All of that straight out of horror. Oh, yeah.
Mark:Then juxtaposed to it. Balloons, party balloons. Party balloons and a I'm sorry banner. Yes.
Sarah:It's a party. Everybody's received an invitation.
Mark:So now what we must understand is that the killer Mhmm. Went there early, did some party setup.
Sarah:Bought a tank of helium to inflate the balloons or Yeah. Bought went to a party store and got a bunch of balloons.
Mark:Assembled the sign because those signs come as a k. Right.
Sarah:So you can spell out what you want.
Mark:But but they don't usually say I'm sorry.
Sarah:No. They usually say happy birthday George or something.
Mark:Then got dressed up in their dark angel gear. Yes. Waited for Dressler to show up and whammed him in the back of the head.
Sarah:After making invitations for everybody printed on rice paper that they had to eat as soon as they opened it.
Mark:Or deconstruct.
Sarah:Yes. Jerry deconstructs his. It's a lot of trouble to go to.
Mark:That is an enormous amount of anger. Now I realize why she has the anger.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:But it it's it's well, she stays there for six. She creates a whole persona.
Sarah:Yeah. A whole career.
Mark:She is Looney McTooey.
Sarah:And I actually think that Amy is who we're talking about. I actually think that she cares about her patients. I think she probably is a good therapist.
Mark:I think she thought it was bad, and then these people made her realize how much worse it was. Yeah. And that he needed to die with an I'm sorry sign and balloons.
Sarah:Yes. And then his wife well, his current wife. His ex wife thinks she's a mouse because among his acts of evil, he gaslit her into being insane.
Mark:So gaslighting, a term that Breen is unfamiliar with.
Sarah:Yeah. When gaslighting comes up, Breen's like, he lit her on fire?
Mark:No. No. But now most people know what gaslighting from. They might not know where it's from. Yeah.
Mark:It's from a movie called Gaslighting.
Sarah:Right. But he drove her insane. Yeah. And I think a psychiatrist who is evil probably could do that to somebody.
Mark:I would agree
Sarah:with that. Especially somebody who trusted them. So everyone arrives.
Mark:There's no power. There's no power.
Sarah:That's the big mystery is how was the ECT machine powered? Yes. And powered enough to overcome its limitations and kill.
Mark:Because it normally doesn't kill people.
Sarah:No. It can absolutely fry you and break your brain.
Mark:Well, Amy went to the Jared and Kahu Electrical Society School for electrical engineering.
Sarah:I wanna watch the Kahu and Jared electric electricity show. Like Yep. They're so they're like, q for The
Mark:best part of that is they go to Mike's house to do it.
Sarah:Yeah. Of course they do.
Mark:They must have looked at each other and went, we're not gonna do it our No.
Sarah:No. There's a great series of jokes when the detectives are back at this no. They're not even back at the station. They're on the crime scene. Yep.
Sarah:And Breen says that teens often break in there to canoodle.
Mark:And they're making fun of what Mike talks like. His old style.
Sarah:I say canoodle.
Mark:I say canoodle.
Sarah:I mean not frequently, but I would. I certainly say heebie jeebies.
Mark:Yeah, has a bunch of different Yeah.
Sarah:Do you know where canoodle comes from?
Mark:Well, I think the Yiddish origin's probably the most likely.
Sarah:So there's three options if you want to know the etymology of canoodle.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:It's either caress plus noodle Yes. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever. Or it's from the German word for cuddling, which is knoodle Yes. Which I think is kinda likely. But it's not my favorite.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:My favorite is that maybe it comes from when Victorian daters would sneak away from their chaperones by jumping on a canoe, which must have been so common that they would come up with slang for
Mark:it. Wow.
Sarah:Let's canoodle. Alright. Jump in. Don't think
Mark:that's probable, but I agree. That's the best answer.
Sarah:I like it the best.
Mark:And they also say heebie jeebies, which is from a Billy DeBec comic.
Sarah:Deschler for an an evil torturing masochist has a beautiful house. Evil torturing masochist criminal
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Convict. Yes. Has a beautiful house that I think is called Toad Hall. The front door definitely has a sign on it, a nice brass sign. It says toad something.
Sarah:Toad something. It's gotta be Hall.
Mark:It's gotta be Toad Hall.
Sarah:Unless it says toad crazy ass evil guy's house. They wouldn't show that part though, of course. And so Fiona is his second wife, who I assume she was a nurse at the clinic and that's how they met.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Because she like hero worships him.
Mark:Yes. It's totally workplace romance. I'm gonna gaslight my wife and make her insane and torture her.
Sarah:Because Fiona saw that happen.
Mark:You know that plot.
Sarah:Fiona saw that happen and thought, he's so amazing. He's a genius. So she was predisposed to evil is what I'm saying.
Mark:Yeah. I think so.
Sarah:So she she was evil coming into the deal, I think.
Mark:She kinda has an evil nurse ratchet thing going on.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:And and then like, okay. I Sarah knows, I work for really nice people because they work with her too. But if my boss was to ask me to dress up like a dark angel and
Sarah:To scare people.
Mark:To scare people
Sarah:Who are vulnerable. I'd likely do Question.
Mark:Part of it.
Sarah:Something. You would? Maybe. These junior web developers are not doing their jobs well enough, Mark. Put on this costume and scare the bajeebies out of them, okay?
Mark:Bajeebies. So it looks like there's been an ambush to execute him.
Sarah:I'm I'm kind of curious of if you've just watched this episode for the first time or if you can remember what you were thinking the first time you watched it, if you suspected Amy from the beginning because I know that I did.
Mark:She comes
Sarah:Because she's too good, she's too nice, she's too helpful.
Mark:And too into Mike.
Sarah:And then she wants to get into Mike's head. Yeah. And as soon as she does that, as soon as she's like offering, well anytime you want to talk to me, I don't think real therapists do that. They might say, I'm kind of sensing that maybe you've got some history with this. Maybe you should talk to somebody about that.
Sarah:Not talk to me about that.
Mark:And they would also, like, I would say real therapists are probably very good at deflecting.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Would They
Sarah:have to compartmentalize that Yeah.
Mark:So, but I don't care about any of that because I'm completely obsessed with two minutes of the show where they're standing in the cop shop and there's this sign behind them.
Sarah:Of course you are. Because you're a maniac.
Mark:So as we recall two episodes ago, the sign said that you should return all cups. Wash and return
Sarah:your Wash and or whoever it was.
Mark:Nigel. Nigel. So I noticed right away that there was something else on the sign. I was like, okay.
Sarah:The sign has changed.
Mark:The sign has changed. What did it say this time? It says, charity poker game this Friday, 03:30, toad and lion. Let's help those kids.
Sarah:Those kids.
Mark:But this is exactly the same time as the charity
Sarah:Cricket game? Cricket game. But that's not for kids. But they're You're supposed to go to the cricket game and then go play poker. It's a charity day.
Mark:The other surprising thing about that scene
Sarah:Only if they get Jerry off the stage.
Mark:Yes. The only other surprising thing about that particular scene was Breen says, I have a team working on
Sarah:this. I have a team tracking down all the mobile generators for hire. I love invisible teams, especially on a small police force where there's like a dozen officers.
Mark:I'm like Breen as a team?
Sarah:I love that in a show like this where they just go get uniforms on that. I wish I could do that in my life, where I could just say, I'm gonna put some uniforms on that. I've got a team looking into that. And then later, somebody would just hand me a piece of paper with the answer to a question on it. That's what I want.
Mark:So Sarah, I have a question for you. How many other episodes did I look at and look for the sign? I'm gonna To see if it changed
Sarah:I'm gonna guess at least 10.
Mark:I looked at four episodes
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:And the sign did not change.
Sarah:Before that, it was all about Nigel.
Mark:It was all about that or cleanup or stuff like that.
Sarah:Oh, okay. Okay. So this is the first time it's about
Mark:Those kids.
Sarah:Those kids. So we have a group of former patients. Right? Lulu, Barnaby Buchanan, Hopalong Cassie, Christopher Kramer.
Mark:And they they do a good job of introducing rich backstories with these characters that make them sympathetic, that are slightly funny and tragic at the same time. Yeah. Wait a minute. His name's Buchanan. Isn't there another character named Buchanan?
Sarah:Oh. My notes just say, Dennis Buchanan is his brother. Oh, shit. There's also Gerry Manders, nice one, and Nigel Smythe. Now Nigel is often a secure unit or prison or something somewhere.
Mark:Something like that.
Sarah:But the rest of them are there. Lulu thinks she's a mouse. Barnaby's married to a horse and he's not a mathematician but he thinks he is.
Mark:So Barnaby's gonna talk to the mouse lady with Amy.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And then Sims says, we'll do the rest. And they suggest talking to the crazy guy. What's his name? Kramer? They suggest talking to Kramer and immediately Sims goes bag's not.
Sarah:And puts her thumb on her forehead.
Mark:Thumb on her forehead.
Sarah:Which is not me.
Mark:The international symbol for not it, but it's not how we do
Sarah:not it. And we put our finger on our nose to say not it.
Mark:That's North American.
Sarah:The last person to put their finger on their nose is it.
Mark:And I I remember that from being a kid in Canada. So Yeah. It is definitely North American. And I've done it here and people
Sarah:Know what you're doing.
Mark:Know what I'm doing. But the thumb on the head is a new one.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:It may be a British thing. And why she says bag snot?
Sarah:I don't know. I looked it up, I couldn't find I
Mark:thought she said bag snot.
Sarah:That's like deterred. Yes. Undeterred, sorry. Undeterred? Bag snot.
Mark:So Breen loses and he has to go talk to the guy, the crazy guy.
Sarah:Well he's talked to him before. He's got rapport.
Mark:Yes. Gina is fantastic in this episode and is everywhere. Yeah. She's at the comedy night, she's at the cricket match.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:And she's talking about Russian serial killers.
Sarah:She would she would rather autopsy a Russian serial killer?
Mark:I would say Than victims.
Sarah:She she calls Mike, and she says, I'm very disturbed. Yeah. And he thinks, oh, by something about the body. And she says, no. I was at a comedy night last night.
Sarah:Like, non sequitur much? Yeah. Why are you why are you calling him to tell him that? Oh, and by the way, come talk to me about this body that I haven't autopsied yet.
Mark:But I know the exact minute of death, but we're gonna keep that
Sarah:Oh, that's an old trope. It's the watch. Yep. It's always the watch.
Mark:And the watch is a problem because it could be set again.
Sarah:No. That's not how it works Mark. Okay. It's always absolutely accurate whether it's smashed or fried or whatever, it's accurate.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:Let's talk about Barnaby Buchanan.
Mark:Oh Barnaby.
Sarah:He has an office. Yep. Where he does math.
Mark:Well, he's supposed to do math.
Sarah:What does he actually do?
Mark:So he calls Sims calls him, he says, I gotta go. So she goes to his office.
Sarah:Mhmm. Well, he just has a
Mark:broken wood office building.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:And we find out later that really as part of his treatment,
Sarah:he It's a trust fund.
Mark:It's part of his trust
Sarah:parents trust fund says that he has to hold down a job in order to get the money. And so he has a fake job where he goes to an office every day and looks at an equation.
Mark:And this is where the subversive part of this episode happens, which is Dennis is a wonderful brother. Yeah. Okay. Is. Dennis takes sets him up in the office.
Mark:Yep. Make sure he's there every day. Right?
Sarah:Yep.
Mark:He also takes care of him when he's in trouble. Dennis can be a million bad things, but he is a good brother.
Sarah:Are you surprised that people like Barnaby and Gerry Manders are allowed to drive?
Mark:A little.
Sarah:Like Gerry doesn't pull over and take his car apart on a whim? Yeah, that's weird. I mean, guess if you kind of separate the crazy in your life, you know, and you sequester it to certain behaviors, then you can do normal responsible things the rest of the time. They don't hallucinate or I
Mark:meet people all day that I'm like, how do you drive?
Sarah:Yeah. You're allowed to drive?
Mark:So, The Office is another amazing set. Mhmm. Right? It has bookshelves with nothing. Nothing in them.
Mark:There's a white board with this equation.
Sarah:The chalk board, yeah.
Mark:Not the Ryman equation.
Sarah:No. We looked it up. It looks complicated, but it's And don't even try to understand what the Ryman equation is. Look it up if you want to. But I I passed trigonometry in high school, and I did not even understand the explanation of the purpose of it.
Sarah:It went right over my head.
Mark:And then we get a fantastic touch of directing. Because he says, I was at a comedy show and before that I had dinner with my wife and we went for a walk. And did you notice what was on his desk?
Sarah:A picture of a horse. Picture of a horse. I love when
Mark:Nothing has been said about his wife and the horse or
Sarah:Nope.
Mark:Nothing nothing has been said.
Sarah:Nope. I love when he calls Sims pretending to be Betty. This is Betty Buchan and my husband was with me. Goodbye.
Mark:Nay. She couldn't have called from your phone. They're the worst liars.
Sarah:Yeah. She doesn't speak English very well. I was I probably was translating. Yes. That's what I was doing.
Sarah:It's like, okay. You're figuring out your lie while you're talking. That's not a good thing to do.
Mark:And that's good acting.
Sarah:So he believes that the horse is his wife because they were in a car accident and she died and he thinks he saw her soul go from her body into the horse. Comedic. Since then, the horse has been his wife.
Mark:Comedic and tragic at the same time.
Sarah:If you and I were in a horrible car accident
Mark:Oh, no.
Sarah:And I died in the car and you imagined in your trauma, my soul going into something else. Would the object be? If you could choose.
Mark:If I could choose. Mhmm. Oh. I don't know.
Sarah:I've thought a lot about this.
Mark:I I This is Maybe maybe like Styrofoam Jack o'-lantern? Maybe? I'm just trying to think off the top of
Sarah:my head. Something that would remind you of me?
Mark:Yes. And not like the problem with the horse is a he has to take care of the horse.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Right?
Sarah:Including shoveling its crap. Yeah.
Mark:Betty. And b horses don't live as long as people.
Sarah:No. So she's gonna die again. Yeah. I thought about this and I thought what I would want if I really thought you were in it would be something I could have with me Mhmm. And that I could talk to without looking too crazy.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:So either a Star Trek communicator badge Oh. Because you're into Star Trek. Yeah. Right? So if I wore it, people would think, oh, that's sweet.
Sarah:Yeah. But then I could touch it and I could talk to you.
Mark:Mhmm.
Sarah:Right? And people people would tolerate This
Mark:implies quite rightly that either of us, after a car accident or one of us died, we would both go literally insane.
Sarah:Yes. Without each other. But I think people would tolerate it because they would be like, oh, she's grieving. She lost the love of her life. Mhmm.
Sarah:And if not that, you know those little troll dolls with the crazy hair?
Mark:What? Not
Sarah:because it would remind me of you, but because I get, like, they're little so I could carry it in my pocket, And I could get it out, and I could talk to it, and be like, what do think I should do?
Mark:Ladies and gentlemen, I have been replaced by a troll doll.
Sarah:I miss you so much. And they have such little expressive eyes.
Mark:And your hair looks exactly the same.
Sarah:I just think I could get away with it a little bit maybe.
Mark:Now we have to do a picture of me superimposed on a troll That
Sarah:mean, wait, that's what I would go for.
Mark:The comedy night has a couple of things.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Right? It has a fantastic sign. Yes. With a font that is clearly out of Microsoft Publisher.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:Ray went out. All out. Because Ray also produced posters.
Sarah:No. I think those are Jerry's posters.
Mark:Oh, you think Jerry brought them? Yes. They are fantastic posters.
Sarah:Because Jerry's also built a website for himself and put fake quotes from fake sources on it. I mean, he's he's really dedicated to this comedy career.
Mark:It says, dark side of my mind. This is a bad start.
Sarah:It is the best poster. The photograph of him is so great. I love it so much.
Mark:It's $10 a seat, and it it just is the saddest thing to look at.
Sarah:Ray's dumb for booking him three nights in a row.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:I mean, how many people live in town? Can you really fill the house three different times? Because the same person is not gonna come back two nights in a row to hear the same comedy. So if Jerry's good, like you're gonna fill the house three times, $10 covers.
Mark:That's a lot.
Sarah:It's a lot.
Mark:Pat Oswald was just in town.
Sarah:Mhmm. He's worth $10. He was like $40.
Mark:I'd pay I'd pay 30 or $40 to go see Pat.
Sarah:He's been on TV and
Mark:stuff. But $10? That's a lot of money
Sarah:to I think Ray's grubby. They probably split it. That's probably the deal.
Mark:I get
Sarah:it. Yeah. The lights just flashed in this room. Are we still recording? Yes.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:Yes. We're still recording.
Sarah:If you hear, the wicked witch has just gone by the window. It's that weird green absolutely still outside.
Mark:It is. We're we're in the center of the storm. Yes.
Sarah:Anyway Harmony Vale. Bangladesh is not the answer to any of my questions. I'm gonna use that in a meeting.
Mark:I'm gonna say Bangladesh all the time. The Harmony Vale Lodge, which is just horrible.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And we find out there that she was Dressler's wife. Yeah. And this is where we get the notion that the battery, like, okay, we need a generator to generate that much power.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Even though a generator wouldn't do that. So, again, let's go back to what she had to do before they got there. So put up the balloons with the helium and the sign. Make the invitations. Get the
Sarah:cloaks on Drop them all off.
Mark:Drop all the invitations.
Sarah:Buy rice paper. Where do even get that?
Mark:Do you even get rice paper? And then she had to change the electronics of the ECT machine.
Sarah:You could get a converter.
Mark:What are you gonna use this converter for? To kill people.
Sarah:Well, she's obviously pretty savvy because she knows how to pull electricity from the battery in her electric car.
Mark:Yeah. That's not possible. And that's
Sarah:a really long cord too.
Mark:So she they try a generator with Jared Mhmm. And the mouse lady. And she does what I completely understood as an excellent response
Sarah:to overstimulating. It's way too loud. Yeah. She runs and hides.
Mark:Yeah. They know it's not that. So then Jared goes, can I borrow this? And I'm like
Sarah:Well, Jared's on the case. Mike Mike has seeded that. Right? When never mind that when Sims sees Jared and Kahu together, Jared introduces Kahu as my uncle's brother's cousin.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Which means wouldn't that just be your uncle's cousin?
Mark:And nobody like goes, woo hoo.
Sarah:Yeah. It's your first cousin once removed.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:That's who he would be. Yep. But it's more fun to say my uncle's brother's cousin. Yes. But yeah.
Sarah:So a generator won't won't do the job That's too loud. So then they get
Mark:Now they're at Frodo's Coffee Hut, but we haven't seen Frodo at the Coffee Hut yet.
Sarah:No. They get a whole bunch of car batteries on a watermelon.
Mark:Where did they get the car batteries?
Sarah:I don't know. The car place?
Mark:Why did they do it Why did they do it at Mike's? Wouldn't you? I would do it at
Sarah:Mike's. I would do it at somebody else's
Mark:house. They burn
Sarah:from the inside.
Mark:Fry the watermelon from the inside. That is the best, like New Zealand Mythbusters episode ever.
Sarah:Does Kahu need a machete?
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:How many watermelons have they already fried? What would fried watermelon taste like? Why is it black? I have so many questions. Shouldn't it be smoking?
Mark:It I would think it would be. So we went over we went over, the backstory of Dennis' brother.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Now Cassie is known as Hopalong in town, which is cruel but But she does hop. People are cruel about these things.
Sarah:It's not the meanest thing they could call her.
Mark:No. And she says she was a dancer at the bullshoi and Sims
Sarah:Does not.
Mark:Some ethical problems this episode.
Sarah:Does she? She looks at Buchanan's phone for evidence while he's injured and incapacitated. Yeah. That's illegal.
Mark:The court's not gonna like that. No. And she says she was dropped on her head and shows us
Sarah:A hole in her head.
Mark:A hole in her head.
Sarah:They could have called her Humpty Dumpty. They called her a hop along.
Mark:And so so that's her story. Sims doesn't believe a bit of it and missus m goes, oh no, it's all true.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. She had a scholarship.
Mark:The mouse lady was the ex wife who got gaslit. Yeah. But we don't know up until this point that Jerry is actually Gerald.
Sarah:Mhmm. Jeremy. Jeremy. Sorry. But it's not difficult to figure out that he's one of them.
Mark:And then we have the side plot that you're not supposed to notice which is the person who died that was killed by Dreschler was a famous author. This show is fantastic at This is a famous author that no one's heard about and here's a book by them. Yeah. And everybody knows about this.
Sarah:And they're dead.
Mark:I'd say that's completely unrealistic but there is huge swaths of Canadian literature that I've made reference to in front of people in America and they have
Sarah:no idea. No Margaret Atwood is it. That's it. That's the only author you the only author. Yeah.
Mark:So. And ten years ago, people wouldn't know who Margaret Atwood was.
Sarah:Yeah. We read Handmaid's Tale in in college and that was more than ten years ago.
Mark:Yeah. Okay. So so we're not supposed to pay attention to this subplot about the author and his family being dispersed.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Because his wife was American, so they went back to America.
Sarah:Except he died the day after his daughter's thirtieth birthday. Yes. Hughes dropping a big hint.
Mark:Yes. Hughes is this there to drop hints and throw balls?
Sarah:At Buchanan's head. Conk. Conk. If he didn't have a helmet on, might have been dead. I love that he gets up.
Sarah:He's like, I'm okay. And then he just melts.
Mark:That's some good physical acting.
Sarah:Yeah. It's good.
Mark:Yeah. So Jeremy takes Breen's pen apart because he has this problem. And you looked up the name of it.
Sarah:It's called punding. Punding. It's like, it's a tick that where you repeatedly do an action that's not goal or outcome oriented, like sorting things or taking things apart or putting things together. People with Parkinson's do it.
Mark:And now this isn't when you're putting something together. It's it's When you do it purposely it's called kneeling.
Sarah:It's a But it's a compulsion.
Mark:This is a compulsion.
Sarah:Right. I kinda did that as a kid.
Mark:I took stuff, tons of stuff apart as a kid.
Sarah:I was rough focused on everything my sister owned that she liked.
Mark:But that's because she went to the youngest sibling club.
Sarah:My dad bought her she loved to play Thor and my dad found this old cash register that went ka ching and everything.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:And she played with it once, and then I took it apart. Every piece. I sorted all the screws into a pile. I mean, it was as deconstructed as it could be.
Mark:Your sister lives in another state.
Sarah:Uh-huh. I love her.
Mark:Do you have a favorite pen?
Sarah:I have a favorite pencil, a brand of pencil.
Mark:Oh, what pencil do you use?
Sarah:They're called Blackwings. I love them so much. I'm holding one in my hand right now.
Mark:I also have a favorite kind of pencil because I'm that kind of guy. I have a Japanese mechanical pencil. Japanese mechanical pencil that when you press on it The lead rotates. The lead rotates. So that it's always kind of sharpening itself.
Mark:Nerd. I love them immensely. And so those of you who know I'm a productivity person and I like productivity stuff so I have a number of notebooks and I do write a number of things and notes and lists in in my Japanese mechanical pencil. They're not super expensive.
Sarah:No. But you have the one you misplaced it one day and I thought you were gonna have a fit.
Mark:Well, I have five now.
Sarah:Yeah. You solved that problem. Anyway, missus Marlow sees Dennis walking Betty in the rain. Yes. This is conspicuous.
Mark:Yes. And and Dennis does the great lawyer thing of, I don't think it's raining.
Sarah:Just deny reality and keep going.
Mark:It's like so raining.
Sarah:But what did missus Marlowe think he was gonna do? Just tie Betty up to the fence and get in the car? Leave her out there all night?
Mark:She goes, get in the car. And I was like, both
Sarah:of them? Yeah. Betty sitting in the back seat, the three of them just going down the Road. Yeah.
Mark:And the other way, the former patients are going in the car the other way.
Sarah:We're going to the comedy show where we will have been all evening.
Mark:Okay. Hughes is in his whites.
Sarah:So the cricket game? At the cricket game. Gina's there.
Mark:Gina is in her whites.
Sarah:Hughes is there. Buchanan's there.
Mark:Yep. And Breen is in is in his whites. But Sims is there and is all business and Gina just eviscerates her.
Sarah:Because Mike's not there. Yeah. Mike should be here. She just wants Mike to see her in her whites.
Mark:And she's like, why didn't you tell Mike why didn't you offer to Mike to to take some time off?
Sarah:I did.
Mark:She's like, I did. Well, you didn't try hard enough.
Sarah:She's kinda nasty about it.
Mark:I have a note that says Mike holds down the fort with his new girlfriend killer and the mouse lady.
Sarah:Yeah. He goes to see Amy. He's already hinted that the ECT is kind of bringing back some bad memories. And we we know that it's about one of his wives Yes. Who needed some mental health treatment.
Mark:This is a touching scene where Mike is gonna open up.
Sarah:He cries.
Mark:No. No. That's the second scene. I'm talking about the first scene.
Sarah:The coffee shop.
Mark:Where they're having coffee.
Sarah:Yeah. And he's he's almost about to admit something about one of his ex wives.
Mark:And I screamed.
Sarah:And you scream?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Okay. Because I thought you said he was gonna open up about his ex wife and ice cream.
Mark:No. No. I screamed.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:Because Frodo comes up to give them coffee and explain that maybe he was a little more upset about his friend dying. Mhmm. Which should have been in our episode one notes of what happens later. And he has on a Frodo dog hat. Hey.
Mark:It is fantastically homemade. It means that Frodo dogs is still alive.
Sarah:No. It just means that he's too cheap to get a new hat. That's all.
Mark:I had a bit of the depressions. Well, a lot of the depressions.
Sarah:After his friend was murdered at his
Mark:bachelor party When you're like standing by the river throwing your gun in the river.
Sarah:And you were almost arrested for murdering him. Maybe that was upsetting a little bit. But then when Mike is at Amy's office
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I think Sims has figured it out. Jared has figured it out. Mike's not answering his phone.
Mark:Well, we have the let's call Mike scene where everybody in the scene calls Mike.
Sarah:Tries to call Mike, but then he talks about his ex wife and he really tears up.
Mark:Because Jared has given him the clue. Jared has figured out the clue which is it's an electric car.
Sarah:Mhmm. But Neil Ray is such a good actor because he just wells up. Yeah. How you do that, I don't know. Yeah.
Sarah:He must be like pinching his thigh real hard, something to make his eyes well up like that. It's so good. But then he finds the book.
Mark:He finds the book first. And she also does the flirty thing that kinda make me throw up a bit in my mouth where she was like, it's like somebody going through your underwear drawer, isn't it Mikey? Like, like, it was like that?
Sarah:That's She's talking about a mouse.
Mark:No. I know.
Sarah:But it just She calls him Mikey? No. She doesn't.
Mark:She doesn't call him Mikey, but she mentions her underwear drawer. And I just felt, ugh.
Sarah:I remember the first time I saw this, she said she was gonna go get a book out of her car, that seemed unlikely to me.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:It was either she's gonna take off because she's just she thinks that he knows, or she's going out to get a weapon.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But she's actually just going out to get a book.
Mark:Now we talked about the the incredible house
Sarah:that Toad Hall?
Mark:Toad Hall is. Did you see her office? Yeah. It's this giant white house.
Sarah:Yeah. But that's pretty typical for a small town.
Mark:But there would be more people there.
Sarah:She's just got one office in that big house. Maybe it's a Saturday. The cricket game's on. It's a weekend.
Mark:Now they do something in this episode that I know you don't like, which is they do reenactments of the crime with other people as the killer.
Sarah:Yeah. And then finally False reenactments.
Mark:Finally, we get the true reenactment. So it does not include the party planning or the rice paper purchasing or the invitation creating.
Sarah:She must have had a to do list. You gotta have a list. That's too much to remember.
Mark:Once it's past three things, you need a list. Right? You're going to the grocery store, you gotta get eggs, you gotta get ketchup, you gotta get milk. Oh, we're at a list.
Sarah:They should have known right off the bat that it had to be her because all these people are contingent living at best except Barnaby Buchanan. And somebody knows where they all live to give them an invitation, and she's the only one.
Mark:She's the only one.
Sarah:And the only reason it takes her so long to invite Jerry is that she doesn't know where he is, but then he comes to town.
Mark:And then she kind of pretends with Mike that she's not the murderer. Mike's like,
Sarah:no. Yes you are.
Mark:Yes you are.
Sarah:Yeah. You're upset because your dad got killed and you're seeking a little bit of revenge. So she goes And she's spent hours talking to these patients about all this trauma that they've experienced.
Mark:So her dad dies at 30. She goes with her mom to The United States, then she goes to Bolivia. Ecuador. Ecuador. Then she gets the plan.
Sarah:Mhmm. I'm gonna go back. Changes her name.
Mark:Changes her name back to New Zealand and I'm going to pretend Do you think she's an actual therapist?
Sarah:Well, if she was 30, she may have already done that for a living or gone to college or Yeah.
Mark:Let's give her that. Yeah. But then she waits while he's in prison planning this.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And and like, wow.
Sarah:Well, and you can assume that his sentence probably wasn't seven years. It was probably like twenty five years and he only served seven.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So she's gotta be there in advance Yeah. Waiting. And then because he's gonna get released at some point.
Mark:With all this crazy stuff going on, the comedy show, these four horribly broken individuals, the electrical, engineering society, the Buchanan getting hit in the head in the hospital, the doctor, with all of this, the episode goes goodbye.
Sarah:The end. Like nothing. Do you think she practiced on watermelons too? Oh, well, maybe. And Cassie lives in the room above the room where they have the party.
Sarah:Yeah. Why doesn't Cassie catch her setting up?
Mark:I don't know. Maybe she should have watermelons all over her office.
Sarah:Like just over in the corner of the room where he dies, there should be a pile of seemingly perfect watermelons. But then when Gina cuts them open, every one of them is black and charred on the inside. Somebody was practicing on watermelons. This is an ancient Russian killing technique.
Mark:Yeah. They walk out with her and Mike's kinda like, oh, well.
Sarah:I think he's sad. He's sad. And he must feel really betrayed.
Mark:And Because he all must feel betrayed.
Sarah:He just opened up about something to her Yeah. And then finds out she is not at all who she says she is. Yeah. Though she is kind of. Kind Like she's just as damaged and broken as all those other people are, just in a different way.
Sarah:Other question I have bad for her but betrayed too.
Mark:Okay. She's done all this. Okay? Mhmm. That book should be her most precious possession.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Why is it at work?
Sarah:Because when you're in a job like that, you need to look smart and you need a bunch of books to look smart.
Mark:But wouldn't she have that in a very special place in her house?
Sarah:Maybe. Or to hide it amongst a bunch of other books. But it's probably the only book of poetry on that shelf, don't you think? The rest of them would be psychiatric reference books.
Mark:Oh, I bought it at a rush sale.
Sarah:I mean, I would keep it at home in a special place.
Mark:Yeah. Wouldn't you? Like
Sarah:I just said that's what I would do. So yeah, I would.
Mark:Yeah. It's just weird. And then the episode just
Sarah:And then it just ends. Boom. No banter, no funny you know, Gina hitting home run
Mark:or whatever they call her
Sarah:in cricket. No.
Mark:Like, no going to the comedy night on the third night and suddenly Jerry's funny?
Sarah:He he just makes the one joke over and over again. The one about the screwdriver just Yep. Over and over. Yep. Because he finally said something funny.
Mark:Never mind. We didn't even talk about Breen and him in the car and the attempted suicide. And Breen's going like, this is so full, this episode. It's really full. Yeah.
Mark:And yet it moves along.
Sarah:Yep. It's a good one. Yep. Bangladesh is not the answer to any of my questions. I got the team on it.
Sarah:Just remember.
Mark:So what happens after this? Because we know who the the the dead body is.
Sarah:There's only one.
Mark:And he does a good job.
Sarah:These poor people are gonna need even more help. Yes. Which hopefully they get. Hopefully none of them go, you know, Amy was right. There's some other people who were kinda mean to me.
Mark:If I was Fiona, I'd be not only seeking higher authority, but maybe moving.
Sarah:Three days in church is not going to fix what's wrong with her. No. She's very broken and why she didn't move away from there in the first place, I don't know.
Mark:She's like Fiona She Devil of the SS.
Sarah:She should be long gone except you know she can't leave Toad Hall because it's too cool.
Mark:If any therapist suggests getting dressed up in costumes,
Sarah:no. I'm not going to say that. I don't know.
Mark:Maybe.
Sarah:But if it's get up dressed in a costume to scare these vulnerable people we're treating, that's right out.
Mark:Yeah. That scene so they do If
Sarah:I ask you to dress up like a troll, it's not therapy.
Mark:They oh, cool. Is my hair high enough? So they do a reenactment scene of the torture. Water torture? Yes.
Mark:Yeah. Poor Buchanan, and the entire room is white. It's the same room. So I went back and forth between those two scenes of the death and of the
Sarah:The treatment and the Finding
Mark:the body and the party. The party. Worst party ever. Yeah. And all they did was turn on a bunch of lights, right?
Mark:Because the walls are white and everything, but they put these big plastic pieces down on the floor like table cloths.
Sarah:To make it look like it was
Mark:All white.
Sarah:A clean nice white room.
Mark:Super white.
Sarah:You know what? I need to I need to retract some statements though. I've just figured something out. I've been saying that though Amy is the killer, she actually seems like a a caring therapist. But she purposefully exposed all of these people who are vulnerable already to watching this guy twitch and foam and die in front of them.
Mark:So she could frame them.
Sarah:And thought that that would be therapeutic for them. If not, frame them.
Mark:She either thought it would be therapeutic, I'm sorry, or frame them.
Sarah:Either way, yeah, I take it all back. She's horrible too. Yeah. She's bad.
Mark:Really, anyone who cares for people is horrible in this episode. Yeah. And the people getting cared for are not.
Sarah:Yeah, I agree. They seem to be better support for one another than any of the people who are actually supposed to be supporting them.
Mark:Well, plus it only takes two people to run-in asylums.
Sarah:Well, yeah, if you're doing stuff that you don't want anybody to see and you don't really care about
Mark:quality of Multi floor asylum.
Sarah:They just close off, you know, narrow it down to like one or two rooms.
Mark:Frodo young teenage Frodo's in the back mopping
Sarah:up. Mopping. Smowing the grass. Serving Frodo dogs.
Mark:Frodo dogs.
Sarah:With an ad on. Yep. So that is the Dark Angel. What's what's up next week? Season six episode one?
Mark:Season six episode one. Oh, we are in for a treat ladies and gentlemen because it is the power of steam. The infamous
Sarah:Steam fair episode. Oh, the steampunk.
Mark:And if you remember, it's a dog episode with Mike. Mhmm. And I think an ex wife.
Sarah:Yeah. I think so. I think so. Yeah. So Might be the same one that's shown up before though.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Yeah. Repeat ex wife. Yes. We're never gonna know how many he actually has.
Mark:No. We're not. Alright. It's so It's impolite to count people's exes.
Sarah:Especially the ones that have died drowning Yes. Or through ECT maybe or I who knows?
Mark:Who knows?
Sarah:Anyway, until next week. 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, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:Sorry. I thought you were gonna blow your nose.
Mark:I thought I was too, but I just needed to wipe it.
