Mrs. M’s Butt Cheeks | Brokenwood | "Exposed to the Light" | Mystery Maniacs Podcast EP241
Woah. And then suddenly kissing.
Sarah:Yeah. Hey, maniacs.
Mark:Hey, mystery maniacs. Mystery maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. And each week, we dig into an episode of the show, including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love. This week
Sarah:Brokenwood season seven episode five, exposed to the light.
Mark:I'm Mark.
Sarah:I'm Sarah. Hello, person.
Mark:Hi, Sarah. You look wonderful today. No. It's lovely. Lovely.
Sarah:Gina says, I say I say to the body, hello, person. And they say, hello, Gina. You look lovely today. Gina. Cannot do her accent.
Mark:I've been trying. Officially makes me uncomfortable in this episode.
Sarah:She should be reprimanded Yes. For not doing her job well. But before we
Mark:get into that
Sarah:let's talk about other stuff. Before we get grumpy about that, let's be grumpy about Midsommar.
Mark:Yes. Before we start, it is a spoiler podcast, and so we're gonna ruin the ending of all sorts of movies. And if you let your kids go to the theater, which you should.
Sarah:I guess. Yeah. Sticky conversion to the podcast. Overly priced popcorn.
Mark:What is going on with Midsummer?
Sarah:I
Mark:Oh, gosh.
Sarah:Don't know, but it's bad. You know,
Mark:sometimes you create a podcast for six years. We've been almost going six years on a show that we absolutely love. In Summer Murders, we covered every single episode. We will cover every single episode of the new series. We love it.
Mark:We have loved it from the very beginning.
Sarah:Which is why we have high expectations for it. We have. Which is why we are so incredibly disappointed.
Mark:High expectations. But this week, they have stumbled.
Sarah:On Instagram, they started posting reels about their new merch line, their twenty five twenty fifth anniversary merch line.
Mark:Yes. So Nick Hendrix, plays the sergeant on the new series is advert like, he's going through some of the merchandise that is available.
Sarah:Showing it off. Yeah. And he's a good actor because he actually pretends to be excited about it.
Mark:The merch is now first of all, if you wanna send us a bunch of merch, we'll take it.
Sarah:Yeah. We'll even take your disappointing merch. No. No. I'll take one of those tea towels.
Mark:Take the tea towel.
Sarah:The tea towel.
Mark:And make that. Cute little picture on the tea towel. That is the only thing worth purchasing.
Sarah:It looks like a a blue and white China pattern, but when you look very closely at it, there are people, like, murdering each other. Yes. And that's clever. I like that. Yep.
Sarah:But I think they sunk their entire design budget into that one design and then just phoned in the rest of them.
Mark:No. What they did was they phoned somebody who had never seen the show and had that person explain to them what the show was like and what a good podcast would be to listen to. And then that person ignored that and went away and made t shirts. And typed some words like visited mid midsummer, survived.
Sarah:That's a shirt. You just put your head on your microphone.
Mark:Just they had a chance. They I
Mark:I hate potential that is squandered.
Sarah:I would have given them some of our designs. We've got some fun ones. Yes. We could have had them. Yep.
Sarah:I don't care. Yep. Sell ours.
Mark:Needless to say, August
Sarah:Remake ours. Make them better. I don't care.
Mark:On the Midsummer Murder subreddit, we were not the only ones not impressed.
Sarah:The other thing that they've done, they they seem to be having, like, a promotional push for the the 25, which is great. I'm glad they're doing that. But whoever's responsible for it is really phoning it in and half assing it. Yes. They've got another post where Jeff Povey, is that right?
Sarah:That's his name?
Mark:That's his name.
Sarah:One of the writers who's written many episodes is sitting in a folding chair with a raggedy piece of paper talking to the camera. You can't hear him because the music is so loud over the clip.
Mark:And Jeff is not a public speaker.
Sarah:He's a writer.
Mark:He's a writer.
Sarah:It's filmed from 500 feet away, so you can't even read his lips to even try to hear what he's saying. But the bottom line is he's saying, hey, send in questions, and actors will answer them.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But that is after two minutes of him sort of rambling about various things that he's written or not written or lines that are good or not good or whatever. You can It's like he's just filling time. You can't hear him. And you can't hear him.
Mark:Did they actually look at the reel No. Before. They put
Sarah:it watch it before they posted it. They didn't. Or they would have turned the music down in the mix. It's it's a simple thing. It takes five minutes or less.
Sarah:Listen. Midsummer murders people, people behind this. You don't even have to pay us.
Mark:You all work hard.
Sarah:Just just fly us over. Pay for pay for room and board, and we will run a campaign for you Yep. That is better than what you have.
Mark:Yeah. We'll do that.
Sarah:I don't even expect a salary. Come over for a month. We'll kick ass. And all of our maniacs will help us. Yes.
Sarah:We make this offer, Because what you're doing right now is underselling the awesomeness of that show.
Mark:Yeah. But we do find out the name of
Sarah:an episode. Of the first episode of season twenty six.
Mark:We think it's the first. We don't know.
Sarah:Right.
Mark:But he tends to do the first episode.
Sarah:It's called Death Strikes Three.
Mark:So this will be his eighth episode that he's written. Death Strikes Three.
Sarah:It's gotta be about a clock.
Mark:Clockmakers, perhaps?
Sarah:It's gotta be. Three deaths, perhaps? Or bowling. Oh. I hadn't thought of be bowling.
Mark:They do that sometimes where they take two things that are slightly tangentially And
Sarah:mash them up.
Mark:And mash them together.
Sarah:It could be a clockmakers bowling league where somebody gets murdered.
Mark:That's a possibility.
Sarah:We should be writing this shit. Come on.
Mark:Oh, midsummer. You could do better.
Sarah:One thing we watched this week that was better than I expected it to be. Yes. Which is the opposite of our experience with this midsummer By the
Mark:way, prepare to be stunned.
Sarah:Which is completely outside the box of anything else we talk about is a new movie on Netflix called k pop demon hunters.
Mark:It is fantastic.
Sarah:It is. It's really really fun. I did not expect it to be. I thought it was like, put it on, it'll be annoying, it'll be in the background. We we don't like k pop.
Sarah:Put knitting down to watch cause it was fun.
Mark:We don't like k pop.
Sarah:No. Not at all.
Mark:We don't like anime.
Mark:No. We we don't like we don't generally watch kids movies or animated movies. We don't tend to do any of those things.
Sarah:No. But
Mark:a friend Those songs are catchy.
Sarah:A friend of ours was like, have you watched k pop demon hunters? And we're like, no. Get on with yourself. And then we we have how many channels?
Mark:A million.
Sarah:And we couldn't find anything to watch. Nope. Let's watch k pop demon hunters. And it was really good. So if you have Netflix
Mark:When we left the room, we paused it. That's there you go.
Sarah:Yeah. Because we didn't wanna miss any of It's it's clever. It is. It's very clever.
Mark:It's fun.
Sarah:So if you need some brain candy and you got Netflix, check out k pop demon hunters. Elsewhere on subreddit, there have been some really awesome threads going on, some really great discussions. And I just I only mention it because I just wanna encourage people. Reddit is not scary. Our subreddit is a friendly place.
Sarah:If you go nowhere else on Reddit, come to our come to the mystery maniac subreddit, and you don't even have to post about the episodes that we're talking about. Nope. You don't even have to post about mystery TV. Nope. You can just post about stuff that you think other maniacs would be interested in.
Mark:There are more than 300 like minded people
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:Right there.
Sarah:And it's really fun.
Mark:I moderate it, so nobody's going on saying stupid stuff or anything.
Sarah:There's no racist crap on there or politics or
Mark:anything else like anything that they shouldn't be posting?
Sarah:No. It's it's just all maniac stuff. For example, this week, there was a great discussion about series of books that people like. Yes. And it was really fun, and I got some ideas for things that I wanna read.
Sarah:I would just encourage everybody to give it a shot.
Mark:I would agree.
Sarah:Okay. Are you ready to talk exposed to the light?
Mark:Original air date, 04/26/2021, directed by Addie Walker who played Amy in the spider episode Oh. And written by Roy Ward.
Sarah:How many days does this episode take place over? If the murder is on a Sunday night, when when does the episode end?
Mark:It all depends when the open house is because at first, I
Sarah:would say No. From the time of the murder to the time that it's solved, and the murder happens on a Sunday night, when do they solve it?
Mark:I think two or three days at most.
Sarah:I think they solve it on Tuesday morning.
Mark:Okay. That's a pretty quick turnaround.
Sarah:I think it's an incredibly short turnaround. And I don't know what time it's airing on Sunday night, but they do a lot before the end of that first day.
Mark:Well, Mike teleports back and forth to the hospital.
Sarah:I was just so confused. They kept saying, well, this morning or tonight. I'm like, wait. What? This is like, this is the same day as the murder still?
Mark:What? The time is all weird in this episode.
Sarah:So it centers around the Brokenwood Empire Cinema Yes. Which is an old timey movie theater in Brokenwood, and they're airing the wind from the South.
Mark:Which is pure colonialism cinema.
Sarah:It's like gone with the wind, crossed with song of the South, crossed with New Zealand colonial stuff.
Mark:With an earthquake.
Sarah:There is the earthquake, which I'm not surprised that they feature an earthquake in the movie. Do you know how many earthquakes happen in New Zealand per year? Guess.
Mark:No idea. 200.
Sarah:More. Wow. More. Guess again. 400.
Sarah:More. Guess again.
Mark:A
Sarah:thousand. More. A year. 20,000 a year. Most of them are too too low on the Richter scale for anybody to feel.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:But there are approximately 250 a year that people feel in some way.
Mark:Okay. Dudes, get off those islands, man.
Sarah:In the entirety of The US per year, how many do you think there are total? And the ones we can and cannot feel, how many do you think there are?
Mark:1,200.
Sarah:Yes. About 1,200 in The US.
Mark:Wow.
Sarah:No, I'm sorry. 12,000 in The US. Okay. Okay. But that but that is the entire Of The United States?
Sarah:Most of the continent. Yes. 12,000 a year. Wow. And only about 30 that we can feel.
Sarah:So they have like 10 times more that they can feel. Wow. So an earthquake being in the movie really isn't that big of a deal, except that it required the actors to be like, woah. Then suddenly kissing. Yeah.
Sarah:Well, if you're gonna catch a lady, you gotta kiss her. Right? Charlotte Chambers is the actress who stars in the movie. Yes. When do you think this movie was released?
Sarah:The film that they are watching. It's a black and white film.
Mark:Black and white movie. Don't they say something about fifty years ago?
Sarah:Maybe. Maybe? I'm if they did, I missed If
Mark:if that was the case, it would be in the seventies.
Sarah:Which wouldn't be right. Yeah. So color movies, you know, with like Technicolor became like dominant in the late 30s Yeah. Early 40s, which if Charlotte was 20 years old when she was in the movie, make her like 110.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Even if New Zealand was behind or it was a small production and they couldn't afford color, let's let's give them $19.50. That means she's like 95.
Mark:Read at least two articles on, in particularly, Maori cinema, and Maori cinema has been going on since the teens, the nineteen teens. That's awesome.
Sarah:The it on the movie poster, it says Roy l Vincent presents
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And directed by Klaus Vandenberg. Vandenberg. He's not native to New Zealand. No.
Mark:He's he's not. And of course there's all these colonial jests and things that are going on with the cinema and certainly when I did research into New Zealand hit film history, it's all there.
Sarah:Oh, yeah.
Mark:Absolutely. Now, there's really
Sarah:a movie about a a white woman falling in love with a Maori man. Yes. And the big deal about the film is that it's the first feature film filmed in Brokenwood. Yes. And that the stars, Charlotte Chambers and Patu Elliott, were locals.
Sarah:Yes. So that was a big deal.
Mark:There's an interracial kiss in it Yeah. Which would have been surprising into the sixties.
Sarah:Oh my gosh. Yeah. So Wasn't it a big deal when it happened in Star Trek?
Mark:Yes. It was a huge deal when it happened in Star Trek.
Sarah:So they're having this big, like, film viewing of the film and Charlotte comes to to be there. Okay. It's a big deal. Right?
Mark:We have way more to talk about in the first ninety seconds of this movie than that. Did you see
Sarah:Mark looked at every single poster, flyer, handbill, sticker, posted stamp, posted
Mark:We're not even
Mark:getting to the movie posters yet. Okay.
Mark:Did you see the strange head on a shelf?
Mark:No. If you come around to my screen, you could see the strange head on the shelf that
Sarah:There's a head on the shelf.
Mark:Behind the bartender.
Sarah:It looks like a cross between a young Einstein and Groucho Marx.
Mark:With a little bit of Gene Shalut shown thrown in there.
Sarah:Oh. Wasn't Gene Shalut a movie critic? Yes. Maybe it is Gene Shalut.
Mark:Okay. So there's that weirdness. There's also karma karma cola. Karma karma chameleon Karma cola. Do you know what that is?
Sarah:I know what karma is. I know what cola is.
Mark:Okay. Karma cola is an actual drink company from Australia. Cool. And what they do is they make sodas that are all organic and no. Sorry.
Mark:It's not from Australia. It's Kiwi owned.
Sarah:So it's New Zealand?
Mark:Yes. It's New Zealand. And every drink goes to help villages in Sierra Leone.
Sarah:That's a little product placement going on.
Mark:It is in fact a little product placement going on. So they have not only super cool ethic, okay? But the designs on their packages are fantastic. So they have a Karma Cola which is just cola and they have diet that and diet version. But they also have a lemonade named Lemmy.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:And Lemmy is actually on the lemonade. He's a little lemon
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:That is cute and he he's on the the bus. People from
Sarah:New Zealand are like snore fest.
Mark:They also have a ginger ale
Sarah:called Gingerella. Oh, that's fun.
Mark:Which has a young lady who is a ginger on their
Sarah:She has red hair.
Mark:Yeah. She has red hair. And that so so that's all normal. Then they have a raspberry lemonade, which I think looked super good too. So, I think we should order a couple of these.
Mark:Now, Unfortunately, they only send in packs of 15.
Sarah:That's worse than the pie. Yes. So I can't imagine what shipping is. They'll be so heavy.
Mark:I will consult with Sarah as to what we order.
Sarah:Have a caramel cola tasting. If you're from New Zealand or you've tried caramel one of this brand's flavors, not cola, and you think one of them is best, recommend them to us.
Mark:I would I would like to order some because it helps people in Sierra Leone.
Sarah:It's a good cause and it's a fun brand.
Mark:And it'd be fun to to do that. And plus it's ginger ale. Okay. I have in my notes. I've been working on these notes for fifteen minutes, and I'm only one minute and forty five seconds into the episode because
Sarah:kind of like this podcast episode.
Mark:The next room they go into has a bunch of fake movie posters, including the silent violence.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:A lot of the movie posters are for horror movies. Yes. They're like illustrations for horror movies like Return from the Swamp.
Mark:Yes. And Not All Dogs Are something. Oh my gosh. I literally took two dozen screenshots.
Sarah:Is that the opposite of all dogs go to heaven?
Mark:I guess. I try I was trying and then there's a movie just called The Screamer.
Sarah:Oh, we're gonna talk about movie titles here in minute.
Mark:Boy. Are we? So the film begins and they do that cute little thing where the film takes over the screen and we watch the film and there's really only two scenes shown.
Sarah:There's the earthquake scene and the waterfall scene. Yes. And that's pretty much it.
Mark:Yes. And then you hear what you never wanna hear in a theater which is fire. Now, I wanna talk about this scene with the fire because Mike picks up Mike and and Daniel Chalmers do the right thing that cops are supposed to do which is run towards danger
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Not away from it. Right. That's what cops do.
Sarah:Yep.
Mark:Right? Mike picks up a fire extinguisher, and there is flames in the projection booth.
Sarah:Mhmm. Not CGI flames.
Mark:And Mike puts them out. Yeah. The insurance people must have been like, no.
Sarah:Well, you don't know what kind I mean, like, they could have been extremely contained.
Mark:Well, I'm sure it was absolutely contained. I believe the people who make Broken Wood want to ensure the safety of their actors and things like that. But I bet you Neil Ray was really excited to do that. Oh, Because that's a thing that actors very rarely get to do.
Sarah:Yeah. It's good to actually use it. Have you ever used a fire extinguisher?
Mark:I've never used a fire extinguisher.
Sarah:Me either. So I'm I'm glad I've never had to, but I've always thought it looked kinda like fun.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:So the projectionist is Colin Stubbley.
Mark:Who is not dead.
Sarah:No. But he is so over the top. Like Yes. Totally drunk, smoking like 10 cigarettes at once Yep. Raising a glass, like
Mark:just There's no vape here.
Sarah:His nose is red. He's stumbly.
Mark:He likes to pee from high places.
Sarah:Is that a thing?
Mark:I do not know because I
Sarah:have never done it. But like, would you want to? No. Given the opportunity, you don't think it would be fun? No.
Sarah:If it was totally safe and nobody could see you and there was no chance of anybody being offended by you doing it, you wouldn't think it would be fun?
Mark:No, I don't. That whole part of me, I don't like.
Sarah:That that like dudes peeing on things part.
Mark:It's just
Sarah:Nitrile. Nitrile. Is that right?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Films? Yes. Nitrate. Nitrate. Extremely flammable.
Mark:Oh, they
Sarah:Like, they wanna catch fire. Gonna catch fire.
Mark:So I'm
Sarah:just sitting here. Gonna catch fire.
Mark:I bet you didn't know that this was going to take the turn that it's about to take. Do you know about nitrate films and the Olympics? No. So the Olympic torch is lit in Greece each year. Mhmm.
Mark:Do you
Sarah:know how it's lit? From a flame?
Mark:It no. They take a piece of nitride film to the Acropolis or some space in Greece. Yeah. And on a sunny day and the light from the sun reflected, they use it like a reflected shield around it.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Lights so they get the light, the heat and the energy from the sun. It lights the the film on fire and that's what starts the Olympic torch every single time the Olympic torch is started.
Sarah:Why film? Why not a fuse or
Mark:Because it is so incredibly flammable.
Sarah:Molotov cocktails.
Mark:It's so incredibly flammable. When I saw that, I was like, wow.
Sarah:It's so easy to ignite.
Mark:It's so easy to ignite. And I gotta think
Sarah:I mean, didn't do that in ancient times, obviously.
Mark:No. No. Really? Sarah, I never knew.
Sarah:Maybe it's maybe it's frames of footage from when Germany hosted the Olympics during the war. Maybe. Because everybody wants to burn that memory.
Mark:This is the part of the episode where I feel sorry for Oliver. Don't worry. We'll get to the point in the episode where I don't feel sorry for Oliver.
Sarah:Oliver, Lyle's brother who lives in the red house. Yes. Every room in his house is painted red.
Mark:Well, that's what drives him to sleep with his partners. His brother's girlfriend?
Sarah:Yes. Even way back when? Yeah. What? Never.
Sarah:Karma. He's dying.
Mark:Yeah. So
Sarah:Yeah. Of what? We don't need to know that. That's personal. Anyway Why is that any of your business?
Mark:Doesn't really matter
Mark:because missus M is here.
Sarah:So the burnt the No.
Mark:Not missus M. Reverend Green is here
Mark:Yeah.
Mark:With a naked lady.
Sarah:So the victim is Lyle Denson, who is a businessman and real estate developer who owns a theater along with his brother, Oliver, he of the Red House. Yes. Who names their kid Cain if they don't want their kid to be evil?
Mark:You gotta have twins.
Sarah:You have to. Cain?
Mark:Who names their kid Cain?
Sarah:He's nicer than he should be by his name.
Mark:But yeah. The poor kid has to stay up all night and then gets Kristen's coffee.
Sarah:Reverend Green, who clearly doesn't know how film editing works, thinks No. I can take this this film footage that's been cut from this movie up while they're showing the movie, and Colin will be able to splice it in no problem.
Mark:This is not how It's too late.
Sarah:Is not
Mark:how film works.
Sarah:So he gets knocked on the head so badly that he has to have surgery to to relieve pressure on his brain Yeah. Which is like drilling a hole in your skull.
Mark:They completely kinda gloss over that. And he's like, oh, have a band aid.
Sarah:Where they drilled into my skull to release the pressure, which always makes me think it's gonna be like steam. It's coming. It's like the pressure anyway.
Mark:Mike Phones the only doctor in town and not Frodo's girlfriend is also there.
Sarah:Kimberly. Chalmers refers to the room at the front of the theater as a foyer. Yes. So does everyone else. No.
Sarah:People in New Zealand pronounce it the way we do in Indiana. It's not a foyer. It's a foyer.
Mark:Which is incorrect. It's a foyer. It's a different word. It's the correct word.
Sarah:It ends with ER, foyer. That's how we say it, and that's how Chalmers says it. And I was like, go Chalmers. Mispronounce it like I do. Colin's alibi for the murder is that he was taking a pee from the fire escape.
Sarah:And then fell. Because it's not to code. But don't you think he would have known that door would close behind him?
Mark:And like more than reverend Green, he would have been hurt.
Sarah:Well, he lands in the big trash pile.
Mark:And I do know that he And he's drunk.
Sarah:Breaks a So he's
Mark:loose. Leg. He breaks his leg.
Sarah:And and cracks a couple of ribs or whatever. Yeah. But smokers know what doors close behind them and have door stops to shove in the door. Yeah. He would know that door closes and locks from the outside.
Sarah:Absolutely. Unless he's too drunk to think about it. Yes. And just so excited to pee off the fire escape. Like, that's a rough thing to have to admit you were doing as your alibi.
Mark:Poor Sims has to call, like, call on the brother and the son. Like, oh, by the way, your dad's dead.
Sarah:Mhmm. So let's talk about Patricia.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:She who is the fundraiser for trying to protect the theater and hosting the event.
Mark:Now she lived in Brokenwood then had to leave. We'll talk about why she had to leave. And then waits forty years before coming back.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Now, she's been back for months but it's weird how sometimes it comes off as she just got back and other times she's been back for years. Did you get that?
Sarah:Yeah. Like I think I think you're right, months. Not long enough to be reestablished, but having lived there before she's not new to town, she has connections I guess.
Mark:Well, and you know I hate a everything in your life gets better as you come back to town, your hometown. The town that you grew up in.
Sarah:Yeah. Because reconnecting to people you went to high school with is always a great thing to do.
Mark:I could care less about that.
Sarah:You're not gonna move back to?
Mark:No. No. Not even when I'm in a box will I be returning to Carlton Place.
Sarah:So kinda let's summarize the situation here a little bit. Yeah. Because we could get too into the plot and not enough into the fun stuff.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So Patricia has come back to town. She dated Lyle in high school and thought that they were going to be the love of each other's lives, but she also slept with his brother. She got pregnant, and her parents took her away, right? But now she's back, and she and Lyle have rekindled their relationship.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:She wants to save the theater. He wants to develop the block. And so they come to a negotiation where they will not save the theater, but they will establish a new movie memorabilia museum because she's
Mark:museum. She's a movie
Sarah:Memorabilia Collector.
Mark:Magpie, she says.
Sarah:Yeah. Enough that she has her own company called Rosebud, says and And is her last name Wells, or does she want to call it the Wells? Her last name is Wells. Okay. Yes.
Sarah:That's funny, isn't it? Yes. Maybe she's connected doors. Anyway, so they agree that they're going to burn down the theater in what looks like an accident when nobody's in the theater
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Not murder people
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:To not necessarily to get insurance money, but just to justify demolishing it.
Mark:Ladies and gentlemen, we are twenty minutes into discussing this episode, and we have not even mentioned the person who is the killer yet.
Sarah:So so that's kind of like the the larger story of why Patricia is involved and why Lyle is involved. Yep. And my favorite part of this whole big setup is that there are canisters of film in the projection booth that are not the movie they're showing that should have been in a vault next I assume a vault like that is a totally legit thing to have because the film is so flammable. You you need And need to protect and valuable.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Right? It's valuable. And Distributors would give a small theater like this the reels for a new movie, and they couldn't let them get out. Like, if it was a new film that hadn't been released yet, it's gotta go in the vault. Yep.
Sarah:Right? To be protected. And they're gonna come back and get it. Right? When the run's done, like, give it you have to get it back.
Mark:Never mind these film canisters are as big or bigger than, like, garbage can lids.
Sarah:Yeah. They're big. They're So there's a stack of film canisters
Mark:I got a picture of
Sarah:it. That are in the vault that then end up in the projection booth when the fire happens, And we get a couple of nice shots of the titles of these movies. None of them are real, actual films. Nope. But I would like to talk about what you think these movies are about.
Mark:I I've taken some time to come up with some answers.
Sarah:So there are two canisters that say Rappahoe, The Big Blast.
Mark:So Rappahoe
Sarah:Is Easter Island. It's actually Rappahoe. Rappahoe? Yes. Thank you.
Mark:It's Easter Island.
Sarah:Of the famous big heads. Yes. What do you think that movie is about?
Mark:I believe that is about when the aliens came to Easter Island with their giant heads and landed, causing an earthquake, which caused a young woman to fall into
Mark:the arms of a native. See what I did there?
Sarah:I I see what you did there. My theory is somewhat similar.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:So the people of Rapa Nui were self sufficient and peaceful people for a very long time. This is true in history. This is true. They built they carved the statues for their ancestors, and it was a major part of their social system, was to carve these things as a community. Yes.
Sarah:But archaeologists have found that basically, at one point, they suddenly stopped. And they theorized because they overpopulated the island and sort of they ran out of resources. And so that was an extravagance that they could no longer support was spending so much time carving these statues. So they just stopped, right?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And what they did after that this is a big digression, but you'll see where I'm going. What they did after that to replace that part of their culture was they have a competition every year to choose the leader for the year called the egg hunt, where potential leaders are chosen from each family. And they go out, and they have to find the specific bird's egg. And the first one to get one and come back, that tribe leads.
Mark:This is the Easter egg hunt.
Sarah:It's the Easter egg hunt.
Mark:On Easter Island.
Sarah:Though it's called Easter Island by the people who, the Westerners who discovered it because they discovered it on Easter. Discovered. They discovered it. Yes. That's when they discovered it.
Sarah:Yes. It had already been discovered. So I think the big blast is the first Easter egg hunt on Easter Island where they decided it was like the big party.
Mark:There we go. The big blast.
Sarah:And you've just learned a little history about Rapa Nui.
Mark:I did.
Sarah:Now you know. Now I know. Return of a Little Ripper is the second movie. What's that one about?
Mark:I believe this is about
Sarah:Oh, and by the way, there's two canisters about the big blast. Yes. There's part one and part two.
Mark:I believe the Little Ripper is about It's return of the Little Ripper. A child who murders prostitutes in the streets of Wellington again. And he's an alien.
Sarah:Yeah. Because there must have been the Little Ripper first, And this is Return of
Mark:the Little Return the Little Ripper.
Sarah:So I'm not sure about this one, because in Australian slang, Little Ripper means excellent. Like Yeah. That's really great.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:So this could also be about a party. The first one's like, the Little Ripper. Like, it was a great time.
Mark:A movie about can't be about parties.
Sarah:And the second one is
Mark:They're clearly all about aliens.
Sarah:Return to the Little Ripper. Like, the party comes back. Or a diminutive serial killer. I mean, that's obvious, right?
Mark:Some places I think call strippers rippers too. Oh. I think. Don't know about that one.
Sarah:How about Something Smells Fishy? That's the third
Mark:movie. This is a romantic
Sarah:drama. About fishy aliens?
Mark:No. Oh, okay. Not every movie is about aliens.
Sarah:Is it a bad party?
Mark:It's a romantic detective movie in which a fish and chips magnet is killed by his wife before expanding the business into The US market. So he's gonna create, he's gonna move a whole bunch of fish and chip shops to The US market and have them all over the place including Bloomington, Indiana. But his his wife doesn't want him to do this, she wants him to stay with her on New Zealand And so she kills him and falls in love with the detective and something smells fishy.
Sarah:So my answer is a short silent film about a bunch of people in a house smelling something fishy and trying to find the source of the smell.
Mark:By Andy Warhol.
Sarah:How about what might be my favorite journey from Uranus?
Mark:Okay. This movie clearly is about aliens.
Sarah:Do you say Uranus or Uranus?
Mark:Who come on a ship from Uranus Okay. With their fudge guns to stop people telling bad jokes about their planet name. Okay.
Sarah:I think it's an educational film about water treatment plants. Yes. Excellent. Journey from Uranus. And the last one, which has gotta be the weirdest title,
Mark:is called I have a doozy here.
Sarah:Is called straining clay.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Which is something that potters do. Right? If you harvest clay out of the ground
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:You have to you water it down. You make it into a slurry, and you strain it through a series of screens to get pebbles and stuff out of it, and then you let the results dry out until they're the consistency that you want to sculpt with. So that happens, but I can't imagine a film about that. So what do you think it's about?
Mark:This is a nineteen seventies sorry, early eighties reaction film to the Mad Max movies from Australia, which must have taken this region by storm.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:This is Australian's answer to the apocalyptic Australian movie with their own apocalyptic
Sarah:New Zealand So it's Max. It's straining clay. No.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But that's the character's name.
Mark:The only way they can get water is by straining clay, getting the water out of clay. Oh.
Sarah:I thought it was a person. No. Like Max is a person.
Mark:It could be though, but maybe the lead character's name is Clay too.
Sarah:Oh, double. And then aliens. I thought maybe it was a documentary about Clay Aiken's congressional campaigns in North Carolina
Mark:Maybe.
Sarah:Where he ran for congress twice and lost twice.
Mark:Maybe.
Sarah:I'm sure it was a strain on
Mark:him. I guess so.
Sarah:Dorks. We're dorks.
Mark:If you give us a bunch of movies and no context, we're gonna come up with our own. Mike immediately okay. So the murder happens. Okay. The murder happens.
Mark:The fire starts. Mike runs upstairs with the fire extinguisher, puts out the fire, calls Gina. What is his second call? I don't know. Before he teleports to the the hospital?
Mark:I don't know. He calls the graphic design department at the cop shop to make them a map of the theater.
Sarah:Oh. Because It's a good map.
Mark:The next more
Sarah:He draws it on the dry erase board, doesn't he?
Mark:No. It's a printed
Sarah:Oh. Well it looks like it was made in PowerPoint though. It's just squares and
Mark:Okay. But somebody had to make that.
Sarah:It's good.
Mark:I also noticed if you noticed if you remember I had a problem with Kristen's sign on her desk. What was the problem I had with Kristen's sign on her desk?
Sarah:I don't remember.
Mark:It pointed at Kristen. It was like reminding Kristen who she was.
Sarah:Oh, yeah.
Mark:Which is not the purpose of a desk sign.
Sarah:No. A a nameplate?
Mark:Yeah. A nameplate. Chalmers is also in the same place.
Sarah:Also, on the night of the murder, Lyle, the victim, spends some time with his PA, Cherry. Yes. And then sends her away to go eat at a restaurant
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Called Cowrie Cowboy Restaurant.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:What is a cowboy restaurant?
Mark:I guess that's like a steakhouse. This is not a real restaurant, though. It looks like a real restaurant.
Sarah:There's a cow skull on wall. Does that count?
Mark:Well, no. They have a printed sign that's on glass. Yeah. There is a region called Kowri.
Sarah:And maybe there are cowboys there? Maybe. They raise cattle there?
Mark:It's like a very touristy place.
Sarah:So That makes sense.
Mark:The biggest that that's not the biggest problem I have with the episode, though. The biggest problem I have with the episode is they changed Frodo's sign. Yeah. They took all the fun out of Frodo's sign.
Sarah:Well, he's not there. Kimberly's running the coffee shop. So, you know, if Frodo's not there, he'd he's not there to put the sign out.
Mark:I guess. It's as weird as the constant references to Norwalki Falls that go nowhere
Sarah:where all the teens go to make out. Didn't you know that? Everybody knows that.
Mark:I get
Sarah:I get So much so there are greeting cards from there
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:That look like they were printed on your printer. We also get Bryony, the reverend Green's mysterious sister. Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere?
Mark:At first I thought she was gonna be homophobic.
Sarah:She doesn't seem to be.
Mark:But no, she is just succumbed by the wiles of Oliver.
Sarah:She's secretly in love with Oliver, her high school sweetheart who's slept with Patricia, but she's long forgiven her. But she came back to town a month ago and didn't tell her brother because she didn't want him to judge her. Also, the What? He's a bible beater, you know.
Mark:The worst line in the episode is, I didn't know who the father was.
Sarah:Well, she didn't know if it was
Mark:Lyle or You have made some poor life choices as a 15 year old.
Sarah:As a 15 year old, yeah.
Mark:If you don't know who the father of your baby is.
Sarah:Yeah. So much so that looking at the baby wouldn't even give you a clue because they were brothers who looked too much alike.
Mark:Suddenly, Glenn appears.
Sarah:For no reason at all.
Mark:So if you don't remember,
Mark:if you don't have an The last time encyclopedic knowledge jump rope
Sarah:and Glenn was on a video call watching a bad zombie movie with his girlfriend, the host of Antiques Roadshow, who's a killer.
Mark:It's not a bad zombie movie. Remember, Tim Baum was
Mark:the star
Sarah:of the set. Bad bad in quotation marks zombie movie.
Mark:Chalmers and and Mike are like, what is that guy doing?
Sarah:And we're like, what's that guy doing here?
Mark:And he goes, oh, I decided to move to Brokenwood. Why would he move to?
Sarah:When your girlfriend kills somebody
Mark:Who move to She's not from there.
Sarah:No. Move to the scene of the crime.
Mark:I I guess. This
Sarah:is where my girlfriend killed a guy on a garrotting chair. It's awesome.
Mark:I guess. What? Mike finds a VCR.
Sarah:Well, the library always has VCR tapes.
Mark:I do not have a VCR. I do have a video disc player Yes, but I do not have a VCR.
Sarah:Let's talk about Gina's poor job performance.
Mark:Okay. Gina sexually harasses Mike in this episode. Mhmm. She also does not give relevant information to Chalmers that she should be giving to him. Yes.
Mark:Sent by Mike. Yes. She also talks about talking to dead people.
Sarah:Which Mike does all the time. My problem is the way she treats Chalmers. Yeah. That he's there for a professional reason to find out the cause of death and she refuses to tell him.
Mark:At least he puts the forceps in the sink. So he picks up a pair of forceps, and then in a great moment of acting, the actor does that look of, what am I doing? Why am I touching this? Yeah. I shouldn't be touching this.
Mark:I'm in the middle of another conversation. I need to get this off
Mark:of my hand right now.
Mark:And he puts the forceps in the sink, and I was like, yes.
Sarah:Well, know, Mark, the bear dances, but the tamer collects the money.
Mark:And I love that it cuts right then to Mike and
Mark:Chalmers going.
Sarah:So in I'm the bear.
Mark:Am I the bear?
Sarah:Am I the tamer?
Mark:Am I the tamer?
Sarah:She's calling Chalmers an animal.
Mark:Yes. Which is racist.
Sarah:And saying well, it's just rude. Yeah. And saying that she'll only give information to his boss. Yeah. It's it's a fun joke that she's so into Mike that she finds excuses to be around him.
Sarah:But this I think this is too far.
Mark:I I I totally agree. Yeah. And that's not even the naked bits of the episode because
Sarah:We haven't mentioned the killer yet.
Mark:No. We have not mentioned the character who's the killer.
Sarah:We should mention the killer.
Mark:Okay. So the woman who stars in the movie, Charlotte, has
Sarah:She lives at a nursing home. And she has a helper. Named Ben.
Mark:In the greatest coincidence of all time, who happens to be the son
Sarah:Of Patricia and Lyle or Oliver.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Who has taken this opportunity to come back to Brokenwood with Charlotte to confront
Mark:His father.
Sarah:Who he thinks is Lyle, but could be Oliver because Patricia put Lyle down on the birth certificate but didn't really know. Yeah. And he confronts him in the booth and strangles him with film which you can't even do.
Mark:You can't do. Why Mrs. Marlow is important is Charlotte Chambers has a body double because even though the actor the director liked her, she wasn't going to appear naked in the film.
Sarah:But Mrs. Marlowe would.
Mark:So this isn't
Sarah:She's up for whatever. She's a wild lady.
Mark:So this also implies going back to the very first thing you talked about about this movie, that this movie is pre code. Yeah. What that is is the Hays Code which was an American thing, but a lot of international cinema followed it. Which before the Hays code, early twenties cinema was some racy stuff. Like, you look at an actress like Louise Brooks and you're stunned what was filmed and what was placed on camera and what was shown in theaters, which would be difficult even today.
Mark:And that's that's why that was cut out of the film, that's why there was a body double, that's why missus m appears naked, not in the episode, but in the movie.
Sarah:You get to see her butt cheeks.
Mark:We get to see missus m's butt cheeks.
Sarah:Young missus m's butt cheeks. Yes. And that's the clip that Reverend Green has that he wants put back in the movie.
Mark:But missus m is not there.
Sarah:No. Because she's off paragliding.
Mark:Where is she supposed to be?
Mark:She's gonna paraglide. On vacation?
Sarah:She's gonna paraglide off of a cliff
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Into the ocean? I That's not where you wanna land.
Mark:But where is she supposed to be? Is she in New Zealand? Somewhere. In Australia? Or
Sarah:Somewhere with good phone reception.
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:Because she's gotta answer the phone while she's doing it.
Mark:I was 15 and my parents didn't approve to, yeah.
Sarah:That every day you're having sex with a different member of this family out at the falls?
Mark:By the falls?
Sarah:I'm not surprised. So Kane
Mark:Did you notice that Cherry has a pug pillow?
Sarah:A pug pillow? Yes. So Cain is Lyle's son. Yes. And they fight.
Sarah:Right? They argue a lot because Cain knows that Lyle is having a fling with his PA, Cherry.
Mark:Who he has a crush on.
Sarah:And Kane has a crush on Cherry, but Cherry does not reciprocate that Kane's upset because he's taken photographs of the two of them together Yes. Which of course break Patricia's heart because she thinks that Lyle, you know, is for her.
Mark:The only one worse than Oliver is Lyle.
Sarah:Yeah. But Kane's choice to resolve this is to go to Cherry's house and walk bathroom while she's in the shower like a scene from psycho.
Mark:With a knife.
Sarah:With a knife.
Mark:And I think that's supposed to be more of a psycho reference than it comes off as. Yeah. It it comes off as a little forced and
Sarah:He says he's go he goes to get the knife. He doesn't have the knife when he first comes in. Yeah. But then she closes the door and locks it, justifiably so. She's upset.
Sarah:And he goes and gets a knife to open that door. Okay, Kane, this is a bad decision that you're making, and it's only getting worse.
Mark:I know why he's named Kane now. Why? Citizen Kane.
Sarah:We're supposed to think that Lyle was a movie guy too?
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:Even though he has no connection to the
Mark:I'll tell you what.
Sarah:Theater other than as a piece of real estate.
Mark:Chalmers is no movie guy. No.
Sarah:Oh my gosh, him and Mike talking about movies is so funny. Rosebud. Well, guess I don't have to see it now. Yeah. Because Mike does one line of dialogue from Citizen Kane.
Mark:Fast and Furious five. The first four weren't that good, but the fifth one.
Sarah:Have you seen that? Yes. Is it?
Mark:No. Oh. They're all bad. Okay. They're all horrible, horrible movies.
Sarah:So long story short, Ben the nurse kills Lyle in the projection booth during the movie because Lyle is a bastard. So He's rude to Ben about being his son. Someone Ben loses it.
Mark:Someone on IMDb gets to the root of the problem here. Mhmm. The first twenty two minutes of this film, two people fall asleep, a child wanders around, the killer goes has a vape and then goes has goes through this does the killing. The rev goes up to splice the film together. The projectionist goes out like a million things happen in the first twenty two minutes of this film being shown.
Mark:Yeah. Way too much. And
Sarah:the son And it must be boring.
Mark:The son comes in.
Sarah:Kane.
Mark:Finds his dead dad and leaves without being seen by anyone. Mhmm. Like, the hallways are populated by people.
Sarah:Well, that's because Kimberly and Todd are out in the alley.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So no one can see anything.
Mark:I I guess. Todd
Sarah:and Lyle can fit into the gap that Chalmers can barely fit into.
Mark:I I don't wanna be value judgey on Todd. He's selling the organic sodas. Okay?
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:But maybe work is not the best place to be lighting up.
Sarah:Todd and Kimberly work everywhere.
Mark:They do work everywhere. That's true.
Sarah:The farm, the wellness center
Mark:Big daddy theater.
Mark:Big daddy photo is just taking in money in this episode.
Sarah:I don't Frodo's off with missus Marlow.
Mark:Maybe Frodo is off with missus Marlow on vacation.
Sarah:Or maybe he's staying at Glen's house. Know, they swapped houses for a while or something.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Literally, the inside of Oliver's house is red. Everything is red? The just the walls in every room are red.
Mark:Well, I'm dying.
Sarah:I kinda Woah.
Mark:You just dropped that in the conversation?
Sarah:I kinda like it. It's kinda pretty in one room, but the choice to do it in every room is kind of, it's a lot.
Mark:It's not the worst choice of the episode. The worst choice of the episode was Ben actually takes a sip of Kristen's coffee.
Sarah:Oh yeah. Wow. He's sorry for that, isn't he?
Mark:He immediately pushes it away.
Sarah:So what happens after the episode? Briony and Oliver stay together until he dies, I guess?
Mark:Okay. So, Briony and Oliver, since his brother's dead now, he can't hit on any of his brother's girlfriends.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:So I think they're okay until Oliver dies.
Sarah:Yeah. I think Briony and Oliver are gonna stick together.
Mark:Yes. I also think
Sarah:Maybe Briony and Rev Green will make up and she'll realize he's not bible beater judgy because he's gay anyway. He's
Mark:gay. The gay.
Sarah:What what does he care?
Mark:And that even though his partner Doctor. Plummer. Manages to flirt with other men
Sarah:Who are his former patients. I'm sorry. I know it's against the law to to have any shenanigans with your current patient, but it's unethical to have any shenanigans with your former patient too. You still have that relationship with them. I'm sorry.
Sarah:It's not okay.
Mark:The doctor is only there to look guilty. Mhmm. Everything he does makes him look guilty. And that's the way that character has been since the very beginning.
Sarah:Well, and to be sad Yes. He's worried about about the rev.
Mark:Oh, so so then okay. So Oliver's gonna die. Briony's gonna
Sarah:Go back to wherever she Wellington.
Mark:Go back to wherever she was. Kane inherits everything. Kane owns the theater now.
Sarah:Yeah. Is he gonna do any time for breaking into Cherry's house?
Mark:I think he should probably at least go see a therapist. Yeah. He's got a lot going on.
Sarah:But don't think he's gonna go to prison.
Mark:I don't think he'll go to prison. I don't think Cherry
Sarah:will She has to choose to press charges.
Mark:Don't think she'll press charges. Sherry's out of a job because Yeah. He's not gonna run the company. He's probably got school on Monday.
Sarah:Yeah. He looks pretty young. He rides that bike around. Glenn is gonna stay in town. Missus Marlowe
Mark:is better. Glenn is in the next episode.
Sarah:What about Patricia? Is she gonna they didn't actually like the theater on fire. So though they were colluding
Mark:I think she's gonna pay a fine because Mike's pissed at her for doing that. Yeah. I think they'll pay she'll pay a fine, but I don't think I don't think the theater is gonna survive. I don't think
Sarah:Well Colin's out of a job then. The only thing he knows how to do is run a protector. Colin
Mark:Colin needs to steal the movies back and go sell them on eBay and then buy a pack of smokes.
Sarah:And a bottle of whiskey.
Mark:And go out on his roof, pee to his heart's content.
Sarah:He can go with Mrs. Marlowe and pee off that cliff.
Mark:I guess.
Sarah:The wind would just blow it right back on you, wouldn't it? You'd you'd end up being all over yourself. And that, maniacs, is exposed to the light on that note. Luckily,
Mark:the show ends with a naughty bits theater thing.
Sarah:That was weird. The restored version of the film with missus Marlow's butt in prime place.
Mark:So now they had to watch that movie, that bad horrible movie again?
Sarah:No. Just that part.
Mark:Just that part.
Sarah:I think it's fun that they do that. Yes. I think it's fun that she's proud of it.
Mark:I love all of that. But wow.
Sarah:So not only is the film exposed to the light, missus Marlowe's butt is exposed to the light. Hence, the title of the episode.
Mark:Moon over moon over Uranus's. Journey. Over missus m's Uranus.
Sarah:Something smells fishy.
Mark:Mhmm.
Sarah:What? What what is episode six?
Mark:Episode number six
Sarah:Of season seven is
Mark:Here's to you missus Robinson. Have you forgotten this episode? Yep. This is when Sims goes to solve the murder at the seventies swinger party.
Sarah:Oh, that's right. Because Mike's away mysteriously. Yep. Oh, Sims has to solve one on her own.
Mark:Yep. Kristen is left to lead the investigation of a nineteen seventies party. It's a swinger party.
Sarah:Party, isn't it?
Mark:It's a key party. Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah:So we have that to look forward to next week. Yep. Anything else?
Mark:That will be coming out on the July 7. On the July 2, the newsletter will be coming out.
Sarah:So So if you're not subscribed, subscribe.
Mark:Subscribe to our newsletter. Somebody asked if we were going to be on Substack. No. I have some problems with Substack, but we are still using the free version of Mailchimp because they're we're not at 500 yet.
Sarah:Yeah. So When we have 500 subscribers, we may have to rethink it.
Mark:Rethink it, but
Sarah:We're good.
Mark:I'm just so pleased with that newsletter, how well it's done. So thank you very much for all the things you say about it. We give a little schedule. We give a little picture of the dog, and I write up a little thing.
Sarah:Yeah. It's like a three minute read.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Yeah. Yep. Alright. So 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.
