My Step-Mom Auntie’s Wedding Funeral | Brokenwood | "From the Cradle to the Grave" | Mystery Maniacs Podcast EP243
When Frodo is the genius of the group.
Sarah:Yes. Hey, maniacs.
Mark:Hey, mystery maniacs. We're back. Mystery maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of a show including the murders, the mayhem, and everything we love. Especially the loonies.
Mark:The oaths. This is a loony filled episode. This week, Brokenwood Mysteries from Cradle to Grave season eight episode one. I'm Mark.
Sarah:I'm Sarah. First of all, thanks for being patient that we were out last week. I had an incredible mega effect infection in my jaw. Yeah. From having to have a tooth pulled.
Sarah:It was horrible and unpleasant. Yeah. But I'm much better.
Mark:That's good. Because you were ill.
Sarah:I was very ill.
Mark:I was a little worried.
Sarah:But I'm better now. Speaking of being ill, apparently, we were wrong about some things.
Mark:I'm I'm telling you how ill you were you? I was looking up blood infection symptoms because I was like, oh, this could go bad and I need to watch to see if she's exhibiting this symptom so that I can get her to the hospital in time.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. It was better now. Yes. Enough dentist talk.
Sarah:Okay. Speaking you you ruined my segue. Okay. I said, speaking of Ellen We were Ellen Yep. In our last episode when we talked about key parties
Mark:because we were wrong. Boy, were we wrong about key parties.
Sarah:Oh, we were being very American about key parties.
Mark:So what I'm interested in now is there had to be a period of time that if you emigrated to New Zealand, Australia, or some parts of England in the eighties and people in your social group invited you over to a key party for their 20 birthday, you showed up with the wrong idea.
Sarah:Or said, no, that's not really my thing, but thanks.
Mark:In Australia, New Wait a minute.
Sarah:You're saying I can come to the birthday party and I can bring my kids? Yeah. What kind of people are you?
Mark:You're sick. So Australia, New Zealand, parts of England, a key party for a 21 or 18 year old means they get a key to
Sarah:the You're old enough now to be trusted with a key to the house.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:It's a responsibility marker.
Mark:It's a yes.
Sarah:Not a fishbowl, sex with other people's partners.
Mark:Neighborhood orgie.
Sarah:Whoopsie. But, you know, for those of you who are in those places where it has such a different And
Mark:for those of you who partake in neighborhood orgies, we don't want to offend anybody.
Sarah:But people in New Zealand must have been shocked to hear how we define it. They were like,
Mark:what? We got several comments.
Sarah:That's like that's like if we if we said sweets if we said, oh, it's a 16 party. And in New Zealand, 16 was a euphemism not for a birthday party for a 16 year old, but for a party where 16 people show up and have an orgy. And they're like, wait a minute. That's what you call your kid's birthday party? That's so wrong.
Mark:If I had known it was going to be that kind of party
Sarah:I wouldn't have come.
Mark:I would have put my in the potato
Sarah:salad. You're gonna have to bleep that. Yep. And they're gonna wonder, you you're gonna put what in potato salad? That's a quote from a movie.
Sarah:It is. We had some cool, midsummer news this week from somebody on subreddit.
Mark:The someone on the subreddit posted subreddit. Yes. Jackserl posted pictures of filming locations for the current season.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:They're filming in their village. They didn't say what village it was.
Sarah:But they took a photo of a yarn shop.
Mark:A photo of a yarn shop.
Sarah:Maybe they'll be knitting. That would be awesome. Somebody stabbed with knitting needles.
Mark:There was much discussion on the subreddit about there being knitting oriented episodes.
Sarah:That would be great.
Mark:That would be absolutely fantastic. In addition to that, we watched Good Girls Guide to
Sarah:Murder Mhmm.
Mark:This week, which was pretty good.
Sarah:I thought it was super fun. Yep. I really liked it.
Mark:I think that actress is destined to do more television or movies.
Sarah:Absolutely. She's a
Mark:very good
Sarah:young actress. Yeah. So the main character. Yep. It's It's kind of a cross between Nancy Drew, but with the edge of reality to it.
Sarah:If you try to solve a murder in your village, people are not going to be happy about it. It might get complicated.
Mark:My problem was she quit the assignment, like, three times, which I didn't like.
Sarah:You're really stuck on that.
Mark:Yep. I'm sorry.
Sarah:It's still it's really good. Yep. You should watch it. You should check it out.
Mark:Now from Cradle to Grave season eight episode one, original air date Canada Day, 07/01/2022, only three short years ago. I can't believe that.
Sarah:I know.
Mark:Directed by Josh Frizzle and written by Timothy Baum. Okay. There are two certainties in the universe.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:First, Timothy Baum knows some stupid people.
Sarah:Yeah. He has encountered stupid people in his time.
Mark:He has indeed. And second of all, he may have a teenage daughter or access to a friend that has a teenage daughter who wears rock and roll T shirts and is nonplussed with the world. Yes.
Sarah:It's kind of a recurring character type.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But but fun. So I'm just gonna start by saying the plot of this episode is really not important. Let's just summarize it. We spoil things, by the way. Spoiler.
Sarah:Let's just summarize it a little bit so we can talk about all the fun stuff, because in this episode, the the crime itself really isn't that pivotal, interesting, or controversial.
Mark:In the midst of a plot to extort an eccentric out of money, one of the Odds boys fiance murders his mother aunt. We'll get there.
Sarah:Godmother aunt.
Mark:Godmother aunt because she doesn't like her. Yeah. That's it.
Sarah:Yeah. That's it. Controlling girlfriend of newly released prisoner odes kills his mother to get her out of the way.
Mark:Yep. Okay. So that's all irrelevant.
Sarah:Yeah. That's all irrelevant.
Mark:My first note is cold opening. Well, if it isn't the old sports.
Sarah:They each have their own flavor of stupid. Right? So there's Bobby, who's the dad. Yes. And then in age order of the sons, Johnny Yes.
Sarah:Frodo Yes. And Reese. Reese. And it's like it's like they had a pool of smart points, and with every child that was born, they had fewer left. And so poor Reese is as dumb as
Mark:a box of rocks. Reese is incredibly stupid.
Sarah:They lift up the sarcophagus in the museum, and they find that it's heavy. And Frodo says something about he didn't know a mummy could be so heavy, and Reese says, maybe it's a daddy. Like, that's how dumb he is.
Mark:I love
Sarah:him. And it's his girlfriend who kills his mom.
Mark:How on earth does Reese, the actor, the actor who plays Reese, look at Neil Ray in the face and say, I think I wanna be an astronaut.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. Arlo Green, who plays Reese Yes. Has a phenomenal skill of playing stupid. I don't know how he does it.
Sarah:It's It's like when, you know an actor is really good when they lie in something, like their character is telling a lie, and they simultaneously fool the character they're talking to, but you are able to tell they're lying.
Mark:That's
Sarah:Like that kind of meta acting, that takes a lot of skill. And I think it also takes a lot of skill to be convincingly this stupid Oh, absolutely. And not be slapstick because Reese isn't slapstick. No. Now Johnny By is the end of the episode, he looks like the uprights at the end of an American football field because both of his arms are broken.
Sarah:And in casts that have his arms up in the air, he attends his own mother aunt's funeral with his arms up in the air in double casts. How does he scratch his butt? How does he do how does he get dressed? How does he do anything
Mark:This is far with this the funniest episode.
Sarah:Yes. So the director of the museum has hired the Odes Boys to move this Egyptian sarcophagus that she is pretending is 2,000 years old because she sold it to a local collector. Now why she would allow these morons to move anything? Like, I wouldn't let the Odes boys move a boulder downhill. They're so bad.
Mark:I wouldn't let them move my laundry.
Sarah:No. They're awful. They definitely put it on the wrong setting. They're awful. When Frodo is the genius of the group.
Sarah:Yes. You know, he is the most common sense. He's the least criminal and by far the least stupid.
Mark:He's also like so there's this pretend mummy. But
Sarah:It's a mannequin wrapped in gauze.
Mark:Continuously without breaking character, Johnny Odes continually calls it a Roman mummy.
Sarah:I like the Romans Roman pyramids better, but, you know, that's a matter of
Mark:Everything in that section. Everything. They're talking Frodo to is correct. Yes. And Johnny is wrong.
Mark:You're
Sarah:wrong about everything.
Mark:I have had a deep interest in the Roman period. Yeah. See, even Frodo looks at him like, what are you talking about?
Sarah:Never mind. When they help commit this crime, two of them unknowing that they're committing a crime
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:It's only been nine hours since Rhys was released from prison from holding up a bank wearing a dog mask. Like his probation officer must be like, I told you to stay out of trouble.
Mark:I know you don't come from a small town, but there are people like this in small towns who, the moment they get out of trouble are in trouble again.
Sarah:Do something stupid again.
Mark:Vampires are from Poland, not from Greece. Because
Sarah:they're just they're just sleeping. The mummies are just sleeping.
Mark:It is it is almost in need of a laugh track, the jokes.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:They're coming fast and furious.
Sarah:Yeah. They're it fast. So clever.
Mark:And Johnny Oates is his comic timing is fantastic.
Sarah:Yes. That's Without him knowing. Jamie Irvine, who plays Johnny, just slack jawed, hair in his eyes, and yet convinced that he is the best looking man in the universe.
Mark:If I met Tim Baum's brother and he was sorta like this, I would not be surprised. No.
Sarah:When he comes downstairs in the pub and says, wow. I must have fell asleep on the toilet. I was on two hours.
Mark:Two
Sarah:hours. Like, did you hear me? Did you hear how long I was up there? Two two it was two hours. Two two hours.
Sarah:Oh. And poor Trudy is just like, can I ban them from my bar, like, forever? Like, every member of this family?
Mark:Okay. The victim. We need to talk about Janice.
Sarah:The singing telegram lady?
Mark:Yes. This is what Reese thinks she does. Reese. Oh you poor sweet boy. Her son.
Mark:You poor stupid boy.
Sarah:Thinks that she's not a prostitute, that she's a singing telegram person even though nobody sends telegrams anymore.
Mark:Yes. Well, she is a prostitute. Is she Frodo's mother? No. She's his stepmom.
Mark:Because his father is unsure of his parentage.
Sarah:But it's pretty clear who your mom is
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Because she gives birth to you.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So I think Frodo would know who his mom is. Okay. Wow. You sounded kinda like an odes there. Do you know who your mom is?
Sarah:She was there.
Mark:So Janice is not his mom. No. She is his Godmother. His godmother, his stepmom His and his aunt. And his aunt.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:Now, Frodo's dad has one brother who is currently in jail because he is the subject of the Christmas episode. When he gets out of jail, it is the Odds Christmas episode in season eleven.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:I think there's another Odds brother though
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Who is the one that Janice also married.
Sarah:Yes. After Bobby.
Mark:Yes. Bill Oates family tree is
Sarah:It's impossible to figure out.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I don't even think we should try necessarily.
Mark:So again, they're having fun with this episode.
Sarah:It's complicated. They're family.
Mark:So they have a slow walk. They have two slow walks.
Sarah:You mean the slow motion montage?
Mark:Where they walk into the station.
Sarah:The the we mean business?
Mark:Yep. We mean business.
Sarah:I love that Janice's singing telegram name is Flora Begonia.
Mark:I love that she hits Reese over the head with a badminton racket because she wants him to play tennis.
Sarah:If that's his version of the story, who knows what actually happens? He forgot he saw her earlier this afternoon. So she
Mark:That's when your mom was in rehab. So
Sarah:she's wrapped up like a mummy in the sarcophagus. Yep. Comes out, ketamine'd out, about to die, and says, you bastard. And Reese thinks, she means Johnny's illegitimate. Yeah.
Sarah:That's why she said, you bastard. Oh. She knows she's been drugged with ketamine. That's why she's saying it.
Mark:Out of everybody in this episode, including our principals, I would say that Frodo is the most even keeled human in this show.
Sarah:He's upset because his His coffee cart has been impounded. His stepmom aunt. His god god's step aunt is dead.
Mark:Is dead. And I think he feels taken advantage of by Johnny. This is not the first time.
Sarah:Or the last.
Mark:Or the last, and he still feels bad about it.
Sarah:The We're never really sure how big Brokenwood is, but it's clearly not a big town. Yes. There's a lot of references to the fact that it's not as big as Riverstone, which is nearby. So it's it's like a village, and yet it has its own prison, its own museum. I mean, it's not it's not the Brokenwood History Center.
Sarah:That's different.
Mark:Well
Sarah:This is the Brokenwood Museum. It's a private museum.
Mark:The museum has its own problems.
Sarah:That charges $10 admission to see a diving helmet and a fake sarcophagus. That's daylight robbery.
Mark:The other rooms that were available.
Sarah:We know that there's the diving room, the sarcophagus room. What else is there? A rotating exhibition room. There's that sign.
Mark:Yeah. I was quickly enamored by something because they show a close-up of the mummy sign.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And on the the mummy sign they it says the following, until recently it is believed the earliest Egyptian mummies are created naturally due to the environment in which they were buried. And then goes on. This is a direct quote from Wikipedia.
Sarah:Oh, set dressers. You could have done better than that.
Mark:You could have done better than that. This museum is weird for a number of reasons. First of all Understatement. The weird sarcophagus thing. Mhmm.
Mark:Right? And the mummy's name. What's the mummy's name? Ruden Carmese. I think the name is a play on like, come on.
Mark:Like the way they say it, it kinda implies a different name.
Sarah:I kept looking at it thinking that it must be a joke Yeah. Because it's not a real name. Yeah. And not it's not very Egyptian either. No.
Sarah:I can only think that Daphne's dad invented that name.
Mark:I think
Sarah:so. And it might have been a joke for him.
Mark:I think so.
Sarah:But I don't know what the joke is. If anybody listening thinks that they get it, let us know.
Mark:And she wouldn't
Sarah:There's gotta be something buried in that.
Mark:I also think that she knew that there was no mummy in there long before she said a.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah:I think so too. But I think if it wasn't meant to be a joke, the name would have been like Nefertari or something. Yes. You know? It would have sounded more Egyptian Yes.
Sarah:Than it is. So Daphne's daughter, who is helps out at the museum, is Fanella. Yes. Talk about names.
Mark:So Fanella
Sarah:Who names their kid Fanella? Fanella. That poor girl deserves to be bitter. Her name is Fanella. The best she can do is Fanny.
Sarah:You want to talk about what something means on either sides of the ocean. Yes. It's not good on either side. So we did have a dog named Fanny who was wonderful.
Mark:Yes. So Fanella, I love when she's trying to signal to Daniel.
Sarah:To Chalmers that the drugs are in
Mark:the Yeah. She's like, Lawnmower? Lucky and a hero.
Sarah:I'm looking with my eyes. Well, she's not a narc.
Mark:No. But she is you're you're right that she's not a narc, but she is Fanella is Trudy junior.
Sarah:Kinda. Yeah. She's got the attitude.
Mark:She's she's got the attitude, but she's doing a job like Trudy.
Sarah:Her dad is Bobby Oates.
Mark:Oh my gosh. The poor thing.
Sarah:I don't think Daphne's all that bad. Her mom's not bad.
Mark:Daphne is the character who puts on airs to And is secretly broke. Is secretly broke. Mhmm. That's what she is. But I didn't
Sarah:And she's also not a good liar. When she finds out that the body is in her trunk, she does not do a good job of hiding it. No. She's lucky that Mike is looking away.
Mark:Yes. She also has bad taste in men with Bobby Oates. How much Flaming Sambuca would you have to drink? A lot. That's a that is a nice eighties drinking reference.
Sarah:Like unconscious
Mark:Yeah. A lot. Have you ever had a flaming sambuca? No. Tastes like black licorice.
Sarah:The only flaming drink I've ever had is absinthe. Because you like the sugar cube on fire?
Mark:Yes. We've talked about the best parts of this episode already, and we still have much to talk about.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:I think the joke of the episode is I found pouring water over the coffee grounds better than the other way around. This is what Chalmers says to Sims. Everybody is in on this.
Sarah:Mhmm. The coffee jokes.
Mark:Chalmers says this to Sims, and then she looks at him in his face, his big old head face, and says, oh, I think I'll try that. What were you doing? That's so good.
Sarah:Well, and then later she says that she offered Mike a coffee when he heard over the radio that Johnny had stolen Mike's car, and he didn't want any.
Mark:They that
Sarah:And Chalmers is like, maybe he just had his fill for the day. Like, No. Not maybe it was because you were making it.
Mark:That scene where Johnny Ode steals the car. Priceless. So much to get to. Mike, you see the blood drain out of his head. I wanna know as an actor what he was thinking.
Sarah:What Neil Ray was thinking of that made him look that way. He's very good about acting about that car. I love it. So when they so Johnny hides in the cemetery for a while so that he doesn't have to be questioned. I don't know what he's thinking is gonna happen.
Sarah:Like, he's gonna hide there forever.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:Or they're just gonna forget that they wanna talk to him about this woman's death. But then when they do catch him, he pretends to be insane. So they put him in the hospital. And he's laying there, butterflies with pumpkin heads and, like
Mark:And doctor Ginger is like taking him not seriously, but she's dealing with him in a medical way.
Sarah:It has to be hard to diagnose somebody that stupid who is also a criminal liar. Because you can't trust anything they self report
Mark:about There how they has to be people who come into emergency rooms and say the stupidest thing.
Sarah:Especially when they've been brought in by the police.
Mark:Yeah. The thing I wanna say is this. The Odes gene is evolutionarily created to annoy the Sims gene. Yes. Every single thing they do, she just is done with it.
Sarah:You know, we've not met Frodo's mom, but she must be a rocket scientist for her her smarts to balance out with the old stupid Yeah. And come up with Frodo who's, like, kind of okay.
Mark:Kind of okay.
Sarah:When when they're recounting how Johnny sells drugs from his lawnmower, and Fanella is watching him
Mark:And that's the worst drug deal ever.
Sarah:He's got one of those gripper arm things that you use to pick trash up.
Mark:And this is sad because we're laughing at murder and drug deals. I know.
Sarah:It's funny. He's so stupid. So Fanella is standing outside of the museum. Yes. And Abigail, the murderer, who we have hardly talked about, comes out to tell her it's time to get back to work.
Sarah:Fanella is holding a cup, like a to go cup.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Did you see it? No. She's drinking a soda standing out there. And the to go cup has a giraffe on it, and it says the longest, and then her hand is covering the next word. Okay.
Sarah:I tried, maybe it's from like a known
Mark:Fast food place.
Sarah:Gas station chain, couldn't find anything about it. So what the missing word is, I don't know. Maybe it's the longest sip, I don't know. It's not a particularly big for American cups anyway. Yeah.
Sarah:So he deals drugs from his riding lawnmower.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Which sort of limits the range of his drug dealing. I mean, I know he puts it on a trailer and drives it around, but you know, come on.
Mark:I wonder. My first thought at that point in time was, was he the one that sold the nutmeg to the other people?
Sarah:Why would they have to
Mark:I don't know.
Sarah:Buy nutmeg from a drug dealer? Like, you just go to the grocery store.
Mark:They were pretty stupid, and he's pretty stupid.
Sarah:Well, they were at a key party, so, know, who knows about them. Exactly. The lady from the National Museum who comes to inspect the sarcophagus to ensure that they're storing it properly is named Antigone James.
Mark:Which is fantastically named.
Sarah:It's almost nominative determinism. Yeah.
Mark:And she is there solely to provide some grounding of the like, this is a great example of anyone outside of Riverstone and Brokenwood because Looney McToon he's in Riverstone, the dog food magnate. Yeah. Anyone outside of those places has a grasp of reality that the people in this episode do not have.
Sarah:Do not have.
Mark:Yeah. Mike's like, we should keep this climate controlled and stuff. And she's like, no.
Sarah:Like, they shouldn't even have touched it if it was real. Yeah. They shouldn't even have touched it. No. No.
Sarah:And she's like, this is made maybe in the nineteen forties.
Mark:Well, I love that it kind of plays reverse on the colonialism. Right? Because there's a whole podcast called Things the British Stole.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Right? The idea that somebody from a white Western country came to your place especially during war the Egyptians never gave them an artifact. No. The Egyptians sold them a pig in a poke.
Sarah:Yeah. An empty pig in a poke. Yeah. We see the dry erase board Yes. In the police station.
Mark:It has the weekly schedule on it.
Sarah:Oh, then I saw a different dry
Mark:erase one did you see?
Sarah:The one right outside Mike's office.
Mark:What did it have on it?
Sarah:A to do list. Oh. It says file evidence for school report, reports for South Road break in, and case 84 evidence arriving.
Mark:I need a screenshot of that because the one in his office
Sarah:It's at fifty five minutes if you wanna
Mark:see in his office that used to have the financial stuff on it has, like, meeting daily meeting 08:00 and, you know, it has times and a schedule.
Sarah:Because that's how you keep your schedules on a big dry erase board.
Mark:I I guess.
Sarah:What a hassle that would be. So Johnny's in the hospital acting crazy. He's our and he decides to break out and steal Mike's car.
Mark:Because the it's Keystone Cops. Has to borrow Mike's car.
Sarah:Because Frodo's is broken down and is blocking the parking lot.
Mark:And Sims is in Riverwood Riverstone talking to the dog food magnet. So all those things have to line up like they they do a great job applauding this episode because all those things have to line up for two things. For Johnny to steal Mike's car and for Chalmers to try to get in the smart car. And I think they probably worked backwards. Yeah.
Mark:They were like, okay. We need
Sarah:We want a scene where Chalmers has to commandeer a car and can't fit.
Mark:Okay. So who would he be chasing? Well, Johnny, of course. Yeah. Okay.
Mark:Johnny escaped
Sarah:from the car. His own car?
Mark:Why doesn't he have his own car?
Sarah:Because Johnny stole Mike's car.
Mark:Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, I can't go and then, well, why doesn't he take Sims car? Because Sims Yeah.
Mark:From Riverstone and why like
Sarah:Chalmers tries to get into that car and he hops out again and goes, as you were. And he goes, and comes, here's a different car. Now you've driven a smart car. Did you feel like that getting into it?
Mark:No. I didn't feel I'm I'm a big guy, if you don't know. I'm not exceptionally tall guy. I'm a normally sized tall guy but I'm I'm a bigger person. I didn't feel that way in the smart car because I was alone.
Mark:Yeah. Like having passenger too. Having a passenger would have been weird. I did feel like, okay, you know those kids cars that are like, it's like a big tykes car.
Sarah:Like a pedal car?
Mark:It's a pedal car that has a red bottom and a yellow top. Mhmm. Going beside A real car? No. No.
Mark:A transport. Oh. I totally felt like I was in one of those.
Sarah:You guys have to know. So when Mark drove a smart car, it was shortly after they were first released. Yes. They were kind of novelty, that you didn't see many of them around. And he went to Canada to visit his family, and he was gonna, he rented a car, and he would have flown to Toronto.
Mark:I flew to Toronto,
Sarah:then Ottawa. Then Ottawa. Yep. And he's on the road driving the, what, two hours to your
Mark:No, like forty minutes.
Sarah:To family. And he calls me to tell me that he's on the ground, and he's got a car and everything. And he's talking to me, and all I can hear in the background. I'm like, what is that sound? And he's like, oh, it's a car.
Sarah:I was like, that doesn't sound right. That car's not right. That's what you rented? And he's like, it's a smart car. Like, you're driving a smart car?
Sarah:Yes. Like, is it not roomy? Okay? It's not roomy.
Mark:I was definitely like, I showed up at my mother's house and my brother came over like twenty minutes later and and was like, we heard you have a smart car.
Sarah:That was before electric cars had generated sounds that made them
Mark:It was totally
Sarah:sound like an electric car. It was totally A novelty
Mark:in town? The small town novelty car.
Sarah:So let's talk about Gordon Godby. Okay. He who has offered to buy the sarcophagus for a $100,000.
Mark:Yes. So he is stupidly rich. Yes. Because his family has engineered it that he can do no harm to himself. Right.
Mark:But he has enough money to spend a $100,000 on something. Yes. So they have to be unbelievably rich. Yes.
Sarah:They have As a provided for him and also insulated the company from him.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Gordon Dogby Godby. Not only How old do you think he is? Seventies?
Mark:Seventies. Not only did he get the newspaper reporter to write a fake biography for him.
Sarah:Do you think that was what's her name?
Mark:Kushla? It is. It's Oh, okay. They they say it's Kushla.
Sarah:I I missed that they said it was Kushla.
Mark:Same as Kushla. Know her.
Sarah:So It's called My Life in Ruins. My
Mark:Life in Ruins.
Sarah:It should have been called I Ruined It. Yes. There. I ruined it.
Mark:Plus, he's a foot fetishist guy. Not that there's anything wrong with foot fetish, but I do not want Janice's feet anywhere near me.
Sarah:Janice's feet may be the prettiest part of her because her face is not up there. No. She's got some scars and some dimples and weird places.
Mark:She is a fantastic actress.
Sarah:She's a good actress.
Mark:She must have walked in and they went, yes.
Sarah:Not a looker.
Mark:Right there.
Sarah:She's got the full lash line eyeliner on top and bottom. Top and bottom. Not only is he into feet, but he's into archaeology and feet. Like, so the scene, if you don't remember, if it's been a while, is he hires her
Mark:So it's a flashback Yeah. To hire her
Sarah:to as a seeing telegram lady. What did your dad call prostitutes? Women waiting
Mark:Women for the waiting for the bus.
Sarah:Yeah. As a woman waiting for the bus, she comes over, and he has this sandstone prepared Yeah. With a spot in the back of it for her foot,
Mark:I guess. I mean I don't believe this is the first time this happened.
Sarah:This this takes a lot of effort It does. So that he can pretend to excavate her foot.
Mark:And then she says, is this gonna end soon?
Sarah:Is this gonna take much longer?
Mark:Like
Sarah:She's not enthusiastic.
Mark:You have to reevaluate your life when the hookers in your life
Sarah:are asking to leave over. All I know is that Phil from Time Team would not approve of his excavation approach.
Mark:No. No. This is not self approved.
Sarah:But he he's kind of a feat. Like, the way he eats the sausage roll
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Is kind of a feat. And yet, he's clearly into women
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Or at least their feet. I don't know.
Mark:And then he does the thing that is the best thing for him to do, which he should have done earlier, which is call his lawyer
Sarah:Dennis Buchanan. Dennis
Mark:Buchanan shows up.
Sarah:So if you had to, would you rather admit to a stranger that you were in the bathroom for twenty minutes because you had curry diarrhea, or admit to them that you enjoyed putting on a diving helmet and pretending to be a deep sea diver.
Mark:I don't know why he just doesn't fess up there.
Sarah:Would be less embarrassing to you. It's not embarrassing at all.
Mark:He was enjoying the exhibits. That's what he was doing.
Sarah:I don't think you're supposed to put them on. But, like, if you had to confess to one or the other
Mark:Yeah. The Dennis' explanation of the curry is fantastic. Yeah.
Sarah:Was it spicy curry? Oh, man. You were in for it. You were asking for it there. He's a good liar.
Mark:We did some digging into Dennis Buchanan. So Dennis Buchanan is played by Shane Cortese.
Sarah:And we we did this because we saw that Instagram post. Yes.
Mark:What From started Shane Cortese. Yes. In which we learned that Shane Cortese is not only an actor, he's also a real estate agent and an auctioneer. Yeah. So first of all, Shane is a fantastic actor.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. But the Instagram post that we saw initially was him talking about real estate because he is a real estate agent. Like, it was advertising a new development. There But the thing that we a spokesperson for it.
Mark:The thing we noticed was he is Dennis. Yes.
Sarah:Either he he always is that person as soon as a camera aims at him, or that is who he is all the time.
Mark:I have absolutely he's not in anything else. No. Nothing else. No. So obviously, Tim Baum was trying to buy a house or something, ran across this guy and said you're
Sarah:the guy.
Mark:You're the man for us. Come on.
Sarah:And he was like, I always wanted to act. Yeah. Sounds good. He's great.
Mark:He is the non aggressive, positive salesperson in your life.
Sarah:Yeah. He's not skeezy.
Mark:He's not skeezy.
Sarah:He's not trying to trick anybody.
Mark:None of those.
Sarah:He's actually an ethical lawyer.
Mark:He does a fantastic amount. The actor also does a fantastic amount for charity. Yeah. So he's a fantastic guy, but he is that guy. Like, the cadence was the same.
Sarah:It was the same. When I first saw that Instagram post, I thought, oh, they've hired the actor to be a spokesperson for the real estate company. Yes. No, no. There was another post where they were looking to hire another agent, and it was him talking about, this is what our culture is like.
Sarah:This is who we're looking for. I hope you'll apply. And he's on the website. I mean, like, he works there. I was very surprised by that.
Mark:Okay. We have to deal with this.
Sarah:Even split, seventythirty? Eighty twenty. That's the odds even split.
Mark:Frodo's dad, Johnny's dad, Reese's dad, same person, is a bit skeezy when it comes to women and predatoriness.
Sarah:Yeah. For a guy who wears overalls, he has too much self confidence.
Mark:But in a really funny way. I don't
Sarah:I don't know how funny it is. When he looks Abigail up and down, it's gross.
Mark:It is gross? The first thing he says to Trudy is, do you remember? You'd make a good mom.
Sarah:Yeah. Because he has eight kids and counting or 11 kids and counting.
Mark:Trudy isn't Trudy is fantastically Trudy in this episode. And this is the high point of Trudy because she says, I'm not a narc, but then she explains
Sarah:Yes. Then she narcs.
Mark:That she like, in the truest sense of the word of a narcotics officer Yes. She gives up Johnny for selling drugs in the bathroom. Like, she totally narcs on me.
Sarah:I'm no narc, but he sells ketamine. Yes. What would a narc have said? I'm not really sure. It's it's like she's saying, I'm not paid to tell you this.
Sarah:I'm not a professional narc.
Mark:But the Oates family, and Johnny comes by this from his father, is they all have a way of talking in which they don't talk about the truth and they imply other things.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Like like when he talks about, we're not really sure about Frodo. They just kind of skip over that really quick.
Sarah:Bobby and Johnny do that. Yeah. Reese is too stupid
Mark:Reese is too stupid.
Sarah:To be slick.
Mark:And I believe that Frodo's good heart tries to keep him out of doing. I don't think Frodo
Sarah:I think Frodo would be perfectly happy to run his coffee cart, actually date the girl who says she's not his girlfriend, Kimmy Yes. And mind his own business.
Mark:Yes. I think he would be absolutely pleased with that.
Sarah:Back to Gordon for just a second. Yes. At one hour and nine minutes
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:One hour and nine minutes, they are in Gordon's home yet again. Yes. I think it's him and Sims talking about
Mark:Which I think his home is a museum. It's beautiful.
Sarah:Yeah. But it is the conversation where Buchanan shows up.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Right? Where he's admitting it wasn't Curry, it was a diving costume Yes. That he was occupied with for twenty two minutes. In the room that they are in, there is a very strange painting Yes. That takes up much of a wall.
Sarah:And the only way I can describe this painting is a man seemingly saying, are those my feet? Will put a picture of this painting.
Mark:Will put a picture of this painting in the show notes.
Sarah:It's kind of a good painting, I think, maybe. Again It's hard to say. Rich. So it it could be like a well known artist. It could be, as you say, like an actual museum collection, maybe.
Sarah:But the painting is of a man with a lot of empty space around him standing, looking down at his own feet with a face that just says confusion. Like, when did those get there? Yeah. Talking about his feet. It's worth looking at.
Sarah:If anybody knows what it is, let us know. So this let's talk about the body. Okay. So Daphne has probably known for a while that there's no actual mummy in the sarcophagus, but now she wants to sell it. And Gordon is dumb enough to not know, because he's not an archaeologist, though he pretends to be one, see his book.
Sarah:She knows if he finds out that there's no mummy in it, he's not gonna buy it. Yep. So she wants a body in there. Yes. She goes to Bobby Yes.
Sarah:The father of her child, and says, you've never paid child support. You've been a deadbeat her whole life. Yes. I need a favor, and you're gonna do it. Yes.
Sarah:I want you to dig up Gwen, and we're gonna put Gwen's body in the sarcophagus.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Okay? Now, let's just think about the logistics of this.
Mark:Again, there is no reality in this episode. You cannot pick up a 100 year old body from a casket
Sarah:Like a plastic skeleton.
Mark:Like a pointed skeleton that it is. Yes.
Sarah:So Gwen doesn't have a last name on her tombstone. So I can only assume she has no family and was unidentified.
Mark:I wouldn't be stunned if it was Gwen Oates.
Sarah:Yeah. But seemingly they've at least chosen somebody who doesn't have family who's gonna care. Yep. Maybe. Poor Gwen.
Sarah:So Bobby digs her up, and I guess then wraps her in gauze.
Mark:I guess so.
Sarah:Which would not have been easy to do. Never mind, there would have been some kind of casket I would think, even if it was just a wood casket.
Mark:Well, never mind. Johnny goes to the grocery goes to the department store and steals the mannequin. Yeah. Like, that's clearly a mannequin and like, it has one of those fashion poses.
Sarah:It was never gonna fit in sarcophagus.
Mark:Never. Sorry.
Sarah:I don't know what Janice was thinking. She might have measured the width of it, but not the depth of it because No. It wouldn't have fit. No. So so Bobby digs up Gwen, then they put Gwen that Bobby has wrapped
Mark:up Yes.
Sarah:Into the sarcophagus. Yes.
Mark:This is at the museum. Yeah. It has three employees and nobody comes to it.
Sarah:Right. Abigail decides to stash Janice's body. Now I think wrapping Janice in gauzy wrappings would be even harder than wrapping because she's not a tiny woman.
Mark:Well, she's a knitter.
Sarah:You think she knit the The
Mark:sweaters. The sweaters. That Reese has on is horrific.
Sarah:It's it's bad.
Mark:She's a good cook. She's not a knitter.
Sarah:When they have the flashback of Abigail committing the crime Yes. And she slings Janice's body over the cart that she uses for this supper with her ass up in the air. Abigail is secretly super strong.
Mark:She is clearly because she
Sarah:can move the lid of the sarcophagus by herself. Yep. Get Gwen out. Yep. Lift Janice up.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:High enough to put her in the sarcophagus.
Mark:Wait. She's a small woman. She's up to her head height Yeah.
Sarah:To get Shoulder height
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:With Janice Yep. Who she's already wrapped up in gauze on the side of the road, I guess, by her car. I guess? And put her in the trunk. Maybe?
Sarah:To then get her out and put her in.
Mark:Again, this makes no sense.
Sarah:Avigail is a psycho. Yep. But she's talented.
Mark:She is.
Sarah:She's really strong.
Mark:And and again, she is a good cook.
Sarah:She can knit. She's not a good cook. She can put things in the oven.
Mark:That's true.
Sarah:She puts frozen things in the oven. I'm not impressed with her cooking. No. When she says Maybe she makes the vol au vent from scratch.
Mark:When she says, I know that's what the instructions say, but I know differently. I'm like, oh, you're that person.
Sarah:Like, okay. Think Abigail's mother is in the back room in a rocking rocking chair. Chair.
Mark:I definitely think that could happen. Mother. Yes. Roadblocks. Abigail, like, is that kind of person.
Mark:Like, if you're making food and you don't have a recipe or you do have a recipe, you follow the instructions and you can maybe fiddle with it a bit. But if you're taking something out of a package and it has instructions of how to cook it, you follow those instructions.
Sarah:I don't know about that. I don't always follow them. Sometimes they're wrong. They shouldn't be, but anybody who's ever made frozen french fries will tell you the time on the back on the bag is wrong. It's a lie.
Mark:I I just have trouble with that.
Sarah:Well, the shoebox recreation is brilliant. When they have the doll and the skeleton and the shoebox. Yes. And the mummy, which I think is a Barbie wrapped in toilet paper. And they're like, well, the Holly Hobby could go in, and then the skeleton can come out.
Mark:Yes. And then
Sarah:because you almost have to do that to figure out and Abigail did all of that?
Mark:Yes. At this point in time, before the funeral, which is one of the best parts of the
Sarah:episode Yes.
Mark:I think there's a Johnny Odes mowing sign in the cop shop.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. A flyer.
Mark:Yeah. Yeah. Which is brilliant because he sells drugs while he's doing it.
Sarah:Yes. And he's basically advertising in the cop shop? Yes. So they do the the recreation of the shoe with the shoebox. Yeah.
Sarah:But then they've got to go back to the museum and actually time it to figure out if Abigail actually had enough time to commit the crime, right?
Mark:Who else goes to these lectures? And why isn't Miss M there?
Sarah:You know who goes to those
Mark:lectures? Yes.
Sarah:Who want a free sausage roll.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And we've all know we all know those people. Yeah. I'm surprised there's not a retirement home bus out front
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:That brings people an empty amount to go and get a night of entertainment. But they recreate the crime, timing it to see if Abigail could have done it. And poor Chalmers has to pretend to give a lecture. Yes. And he decides to give one about how country music increases the chance of divorce.
Mark:The divorce.
Sarah:It's so funny. And in conclusion, country western music causes more divorces. It's great.
Mark:They they started this season and this episode and said, this is an Odds episode. Mhmm. And everybody sat back in their chairs and went,
Sarah:okay, it's on. Yeah. Full full on. No stops. Yep.
Sarah:Frodo is speaking at the funeral.
Mark:Yes. So they have a funeral for Janice.
Sarah:There's what? 10 people there?
Mark:So Frodo, Johnny, Bobby
Sarah:Reese, Abigail Reese, Abigail. Mike, Sam.
Mark:Some red haired woman there.
Sarah:And like three extras.
Mark:Three extras. Johnny is in his Jesus Christ pose.
Sarah:Yes. No, he's in the field goal post.
Mark:Yes, he's in the field goal post.
Sarah:Reese has already said the last time he saw his mom, other than earlier that day, that he's forgotten about was when she hit him with a tennis racket. No. A badminton racket because she wanted him to play tennis. Yep. And Frodo is at the front of the church saying that auntie mom was a really good tennis player.
Mark:Frodo is so like, he plays it so clean in this episode.
Sarah:And then Reverend Green, Janice was well loved by many, most who could not be here today.
Mark:So they decide to turn a negative into a positive and have a wedding. At this point Sims is like, now? Can we break this up now?
Sarah:Abigail is full on psycho now. Yeah. She's kind, but weird initially. And when you see her meet Janice in the flashback at the museum, she seems like legitimately trying to ingratiate herself with Janice. Like, I'm sorry.
Sarah:I think we got off on the wrong foot.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:You know?
Mark:And she goes, of course you know who I am. And Janice is like, Janice is a horrific. She's a horrific person.
Sarah:Oh, yeah.
Mark:But she has no idea
Sarah:who She's also shrewd. Yes. Because though she's a bad mother who probably dropped Reese on his head and hit him with
Mark:He fell on his head.
Sarah:And hit him with a badminton racket or whatever, she's like, he's dumb, and I'm not going to let the least I can do is not let somebody take advantage of him.
Mark:Yeah. She reads her in a second. Yeah.
Sarah:She's like, I got your number, your mom's in the back room. Doubt you're a Skype anyway. Mummified in a shawl rocking in a rocking You're creepy, stay away from my son.
Mark:Her eyes, at this point in time, Abigail's eyes go full on, like it's all white Yeah. Around around around the pupil.
Sarah:But when Jana says that, she is signing her death warrant. Oh, yeah. And she doesn't know it. Nope. Like, oh, Abigail's just like, I'm going to kill you later.
Sarah:Bye. It just clicks in her head. And at the so she's little bit crazy because she's dating Reese, And starts writing him because he's in prison, and she's like, well, if all he's got is Johnny
Mark:Well, he's in for thirteen long ones.
Sarah:Yeah. Years? Months. She's like, is the least I could do is write this guy letters to keep him company, though he's probably two blocks away at the men's prison, wherever that is.
Mark:And she has a long string of crazy town boyfriend encounters too.
Sarah:Yeah. So she goes from that to the Janice encounter, a little bit crazier.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Then we see them at home Yep. With the tea and the sweaters, and she's more crazy. Yep. Insists on reading one of the letters that Reese wrote her from prison, which he didn't write. Didn't write those letters.
Mark:Yeah, okay.
Sarah:By the time we get to the funeral, and they're up behind the podium, she's full on crazy.
Mark:Oh, she is like, I got the marriage license downtown today.
Sarah:Yeah, She has planned it all out. Yep. Yeah, he can be an astronaut.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Like there have been times when you've said, you know, I don't think I want to do this thing. And I thought, maybe I don't if you really want to, I'm behind you. Yeah. Like, it's totally possible. You can do it.
Sarah:I don't know if you should, but if you want to, you got me. Yeah. I'm there. But if you said, I think I wanna be an astronaut, I'd say, honey, are you okay? Yeah.
Sarah:Like, let's talk about it.
Mark:I am not astronaut material. No. And I accepted that at like eight.
Sarah:Is that when they put you on that gravity machine and you threw up? No. Like when you started, they started the tests? No. Canada doesn't really have a space program, do they?
Mark:We borrow yours. Yeah. Have astronauts who hitch a ride
Sarah:on it. Hitch a ride. Yeah. Yeah, you don't really borrow it.
Mark:Chris Hatfield.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Being the most well known. So
Sarah:you didn't have a lot of role models to look up to.
Mark:No. But I did grow up in the time in the mid seventies where I was, like, convinced I would be living on the moon by February.
Sarah:See, this is we have a small difference in age, but the difference in age is enough is that as a kid, I thought astronauts blew up while you watch them on TV.
Mark:Well, and then they came out with the the shuttle, and I was like, that doesn't look like a moon base.
Sarah:Nobody's gonna live in that.
Mark:How am I gonna get to the moon in that?
Sarah:And when I do, where am I gonna live?
Mark:And then, like, Billy Bragg has a fantastic song about this. It's called The Space Race is Over.
Sarah:Maybe Reese should have heard that song. Yeah. He wouldn't understand Billy Bragg, I don't think.
Mark:No. But but
Sarah:So so Abigail's there. She's got a marriage license already. I mean, Rev Green is trying everything to, like, diffuse the weirdness. And then just is like, I guess I gotta go with it because There has I want this to be over.
Mark:There has to be meetings of clergy or liturgical people in a community where they discuss things like, oh, boy. I had a wedding funeral this week. Like where you talk about the job. Mhmm.
Sarah:Where you get to say, this woman came to me to perform her husband's funeral and she wanted me to Yes. Did you do it? Well, it was his last wish so yeah. Yep. I wore the bunny suit.
Sarah:It meant a lot to them. Like they gotta ask somebody who will sympathize with them.
Mark:Speaking of like the comedy of this is brilliant because Bobby asks about the life insurance, asks about it again.
Sarah:She'd want her kids to be taken care of and she'd expect me to do it.
Mark:Asks a third time and then knows he has stepped over the line about asking it Yeah. And never mentions it again.
Sarah:Nope. Nope. He's gotta be good at identifying the shit show and slipping out. Yes. He would not be where he is, having survived that many women not killing him.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Must understand, this situation's too hot for me. I'm out.
Mark:Yes. I'm going back to the graveyard.
Sarah:There's no advantage here for me. Yes. I'm gonna go. She Well, it's Abigail grabs funeral flowers for her bouquet.
Mark:It's Bobby Yodes. He goes, am I gonna get either some sex or a child out of this situation? No. Okay. I'm gone.
Mark:Or cash?
Sarah:Yeah. No? Yeah. I'm goodbye. I got better things to do.
Sarah:Yep. I'm gonna go dig a perfect grave.
Mark:Now I wanna watch. I wanna watch the Christmas Ode show from season eleven again. Mhmm. Because I think there are so many callbacks to this episode That we
Sarah:would have forgotten.
Mark:That we would have forgotten.
Sarah:Like in that episode, and this is not a spoiler if you haven't seen it, Johnny is just getting out of prison, and they say that part of the reason why he was in prison was that he mishandled human remains.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And I couldn't remember, like, what did he do? I had And it's forgotten this, it's him helping move Gwen's body around.
Mark:I had forgotten the whole Janus sarcophagus, Egyptian, I Roman, pyramids, was just like, oh, it's the Oates family episode.
Sarah:I've never been to a funeral wedding before.
Mark:No. Neither have I. And Mike as a girlfriend. The end.
Sarah:The end. That he's not telling them about.
Mark:So do you think, like, we're supposed to not know who this is, but we know who it
Sarah:is? Mhmm.
Mark:Who did we think it was at the time? Because there's no indication in this episode who it is.
Sarah:No. I don't know. Because Mike's love life is such a mystery Yeah. That I don't think we could have guessed unless we thought maybe it was his ex. Maybe.
Sarah:The one who's not with the cheese monger.
Mark:Now, when you watch the last episode of season seven, it is obvious what they're setting up. Mhmm. Because we know.
Sarah:Yeah. Looking back,
Mark:it's clear. I don't think
Sarah:I don't think I picked it up at the
Mark:time when I
Sarah:first saw it. No. Not at all. No. After the credits, it's pretty easy in this one.
Sarah:Johnny goes to jail. Abigail goes to jail.
Mark:Reese becomes an ambulance driver.
Sarah:Of course he does. You know, because he's driving around bodies. He's done it before.
Mark:I I just have more feelings for Frodo. And also, if you remember, the very first time we're introduced to Frodo, the first episode, Kristen says something about the Odes family in that episode. Mhmm. And they just put that in the little envelope and they said, we'll get to that later.
Sarah:It was like a rainbow that they penciled in the very beginning of it
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:Knowing there was an arc Yep. And it was gonna come back. It'll we'll get there.
Mark:And the Oates family story is not up. And I don't wanna I don't wanna give you any spoilers. But if this episode is 11, the Oates family Christmas is 15.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. Yeah. At least. At least. It's like this, but everybody's on ketamine.
Sarah:Yes. Oh, so that is from the cradle to the grave. Yes. Poor Reese. I don't
Mark:wanna call it the best episode because I like other episodes.
Sarah:It is the funniest episode.
Mark:By far the funniest episode.
Sarah:Until the Odds family Christmas, which I think is funnier. But this is very funny. It's an awesome way to start a season.
Mark:It is a fantastic way to start the season. Next week, we will cover in season eight episode two death and bass about the killer bass at the music festival.
Sarah:It's like drum and bass, but it's death and bass. Yep. I get the joke.
Mark:It's, death at a music festival. We just recently watched a logistics video on music festivals. We watched it on Glastonbury. Woah. What a craziness that is.
Sarah:That watching that, what was it, twenty minutes about the logistics of how they put on Glastonbury convinced me of two things. One, I never wanna plan a big event like that. No. And number two, I never wanna go to Glastonbury.
Mark:Now that's a fantastically huge event.
Sarah:Like, that's a world altering dirt. It's just a lot of dirt.
Mark:It's a lot of dirt.
Sarah:And sweat and people.
Mark:And we get that in the Babes Festival.
Sarah:In the Babes Festival.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Alright. Until then. Bye, maniacs.
Mark:Bye, maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the mystery maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:We should be recording this.
Mark:Yes. Okay. Okay. 5. Back up going.
Sarah:Yes. Do you need to cough?
Mark:No. I'm good. 5.
Sarah:4. 3. 2.
