Forever Knight (Season 1 Ep.11) - "Hunters"
Gotta do something to pass the time. I hate desk duty. Oh. I didn't realize you were an opera buff. Polka?
Nick:Yes, but opera. -Hey, Gore Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, the Beatles. The world of music has as many facets as the gem of life, each beautiful in its own way. A quote from Don Skink. How'd you know?
Nick:Like a guess.
Rachel:That was a good one. Nice. Way to really set the tone here. Welcome back, everybody. Hey.
Rachel:Stop that. You're gonna get yourself going, and then where will where will we both be?
Matt:We're already in bed.
Rachel:Welcome back, friends.
Matt:Welcome back.
Rachel:Can you turn my headphone up just a little bit? Do do do do do. There. That's better. I can hear myself a little better.
Rachel:Alright. Welcome back, friends. Welcome back.
Matt:Welcome back.
Rachel:We've, we've had a really busy day. It's been been at the pod lab and working on the pod lab all day. And I decided since he had a project, I needed a project. So I've been on the fly painting the living room all day.
Matt:And the hallway.
Rachel:And the hallway. So our one flexible space in the entire house is now, unusable. So we are sitting in bed recording a podcast, but Woo hoo. Got to give the people what they want.
Matt:We're adaptable.
Rachel:What they want is another episode of forever night. Always. And this is episode 11, hunters. Not to be confused with the season 2 episode, hunted. This is people in the act of hunters.
Rachel:It is not the past tense of hunting. Hunters. And it is Completely different episode names.
Matt:Yeah. Why why would there be any confusion?
Rachel:I obviously. And this is a skanky centric episode. Oh, one of our most skanky centric episodes, and this is the 2nd episode in a row where we get like, hey, guys. Nat's still in the cast. So here's, like, a 2 second glimpse of her.
Rachel:Hope you liked it. Bye.
Matt:Maybe she was busy.
Rachel:Well, she's been busy. She was busy in dead air too. Remember? She just popped up, had a one liner, and then dipped. Same here.
Rachel:Oh, you know what? No. Nope. She's in it a couple times, but she's just not getting the screen time. It's like we we blew all of her screen time on I will repay, and she's got to build up her build up her, mileage again before she can get back on the show.
Rachel:But we open oh, we shouldn't do this yet because hi. I'm Rachel.
Matt:And I'm Matt.
Rachel:Welcome to the strange and beautiful book club.
Matt:You can do it, Pippin.
Rachel:Just just go, Pippin. It's fine. They look there. Good. It's like, why are you doing the recording?
Rachel:You wanna see this? There's a lot of people walking.
Matt:There's a lot of people standing, advertising themselves.
Rachel:Yeah. There's a lot of Very obviously. Soliciting going on, sex workers working. And they are just walking, they being Nick and Skanky.
Matt:And another person.
Rachel:Yeah. They're just walking and talking with this vice cop whose name is Anderson. Anderson. But, no, what's his first name?
Matt:Mister Anderson.
Rachel:What's his first name? He's in it for, like, 45 seconds. That's our tripper's name. But apparently, he's up for a promotion to daytime commander.
Matt:And And apparently, Nick is bringing the news.
Rachel:Well, no, that he's been asked, and he hasn't said yes. And so Stonetree asked
Matt:him to tell to bug him about it.
Rachel:Yeah. Stonetree was like, go go chat him up because Don Skanky and Anderson were partners for 4 years. So they have some rapport. I think Stonetree is hoping that donut, Don Skanky, can talk Anderson into accepting the position. And so we get a little banter about donut.
Rachel:Where'd you get the name doughnut? And we get, oh, hey. We should have a bad trans joke. Let's just throw that in there while we're at it because it's the nineties.
Matt:It wasn't that bad.
Rachel:You don't think it was that bad?
Matt:No. It was believe it or not, that was Marvin a few months ago. Or
Rachel:Yeah. Miracle of modern science. Yeah. Oh, he dead names them dead names her.
Matt:Yeah. That's a good point.
Rachel:Yeah. Oh, that's bad form. But don't do that.
Matt:I thought I've I interpreted more as skanky. Your eyes are wandering.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Like, the the person that you're looking at isn't who you think they are.
Rachel:Right. Well, it's a it's it's a lot it's a it's a, insensitivity taco. There's some lack there's some less insensitive and more insensitive things all rolled up in rolled up in the taco, but it all kinda tastes bad. So we'll just leave it at that. My question is, does everyone actually dislike Skanky and he just thinks they're all joking?
Matt:I'm gonna say yes.
Rachel:Because because, his former partner is, like, yeah. 1 of the reasons I'm turning down this, promotion is because there's the slight chance I might have to work with
Matt:Tom Skanky again. That was a sarcastic comment
Rachel:Right.
Matt:Because they used to be partners.
Rachel:Right. But skanky, like, laughs at it, and Nick laughs. But it left left me to wonder, how much is everyone really joking?
Matt:It's probably about 75%.
Rachel:75% joking or 75% they don't like him?
Matt:Sure. Skanky is an unlikable character.
Rachel:Is he? I mean, I know we complain about Skanky, but I don't mind Skanky, really. He's a product of the time.
Matt:He's very much a product of the time.
Rachel:Yeah. He's of the time.
Matt:And at a shallow level, he is an unlikable person. Yeah. But we, as the viewer, get to see him on a deeper level. Right. So all of his more shallow interactions come up with, like, police and whatever come off as negative.
Matt:You know, the just the the casual sexual harassment and
Rachel:Yeah. Casual
Matt:racist jokes and whatever. That's the shallow level of skanky interactions, but we get to see him when he's actually doing good stuff.
Rachel:Maybe I'm retroactively applying softer, better skanky from season 2 onto season 1 skanky. That could definitely be it. Yeah. I have to liberate my notes now.
Matt:I'll liberate your notes.
Rachel:There we go. We got him. Sorry, Pip. Sorry, man. Sorry.
Rachel:Oh, Jimmy. Jimmy Anderson. Why are you harassing that cat?
Matt:Because he's hanging out with us too much. So This will make him want some alone time.
Rachel:So they spend all of, like, 2 to 3 minutes. Our whole cold open really is like a shallow chitchat with Jimmy Anderson. And just as he's saying, he's a dyed in the wool vice cop now. He gets shot. Bang.
Rachel:One shot Dead. And Skanky is devastated because that was his partner and his friend, and they went through academy together. And
Matt:Sniper rifle was super effective.
Rachel:Yeah. And we go straight from that to intro. So we go through our
Matt:Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. What? Nick says, I'm gonna go call in to 911.
Matt:And instead of going to their car, he goes up to the rooftop where the shooter was.
Rachel:Right. Well, we don't know that. Because when we come back, Natalie's talking to Nick.
Matt:Natalie, Nick says he's going to call in something. Yeah. We know he's flying away somewhere because he heard something or he's
Rachel:Maybe he calls on the roof. Maybe when he's flying up to the rooftop. Oh, he
Matt:has his cell phone in his pocket?
Rachel:Cell phone. So he's, like, commuting.
Matt:Sorry. I that's why he drives a convertible.
Rachel:You just take off at any moment?
Matt:No. No. Oh. K. On the cell phone.
Matt:Oh, sorry for the wind noise. My top is down.
Rachel:Got the top down.
Matt:Call when he's flying. Oh, sorry for the wind noise. My top is down.
Rachel:Holy shit. You've correct the code. There you go. It's like
Matt:That explains everything.
Rachel:No. I'm just picturing Nick flying, but also using, like, the giant nineties cell phone to see, like the the antenna waving in the wind.
Matt:Or even better yet, the the satellite phone with the giant, like a mini suitcase, like, a a mini briefcase with the phone on top.
Rachel:That's in the backpack.
Matt:Yes. He's got a yes. He's wearing it on a backpack like Spider Man does with his Yeah. Webbing backpack.
Rachel:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like that.
Matt:Except there's a cord coming out at with a giant handset.
Rachel:Alright. Well, now that we've solved that mystery of forever night, you guys are welcome. You're here to hear first. That's why he drives a ragtop. So he's talking to Natalie when we come back, and she's like, are you sure you only found 1 shell casing?
Rachel:And he's like, yeah. I flew up to the rooftop. I found 1 shell casing. What what's the matter? What what what about that are you not getting?
Rachel:He's, like, slightly aggressive with Natalie. And she says, well, I'm just shocked because it's like he shot one time and the guy, that was it. That's all it took. One hell of a marksman.
Matt:He's a really good shot. He only needed one shot.
Rachel:Yeah. And Nick's like, oh, okay. And Natalie's a little, they're a little combative. They're usually, they're a little flirty, but this isn't a flirty interaction. This is kind of an aggressive interaction because she's accusing him of not finding something.
Rachel:Surely, there's more there. And then she's like, well, yeah. You sure you didn't hear anything before it happened? And he's like, no. I didn't hear anything.
Rachel:I was I was talk I was chumming around with my pals, and she's like, yeah. Didn't hear anything. Weird.
Matt:Which is interesting because she's always guilt tripping him for using his vampire powers
Rachel:Right.
Matt:As part of his regular police duties.
Rachel:She's like that until she wants him to use them, and then she's mad at him for not using them. It's like in dark night when she's constantly telling him not to drink blood, but that's what's keeping him from becoming human. And at the very end of dark night, he's like, you shouldn't give you should not have given me a transfusion. I was really close. And she's like, what was I supposed to do, let you starve to death?
Rachel:Which is it, Natalie? Is not drinking blood going to make him human or is not drinking blood going to make him starve to death? Death is a form of mortality. So technically speaking, if he stops drinking blood, he can become mortal.
Matt:Yep.
Rachel:Yeah. For a very short period of time.
Matt:Or if he's vulnerable to starvation, is he not already mortal by definition?
Rachel:I mean, vampires are only ever functionally immortal anyway because anything immortal is immortal. If you can be killed, you're mortal. He just won't die of old age. He has to die a violent death. That's all it means.
Rachel:And on that note, stone tree's back.
Matt:Dropping knowledge.
Rachel:Dropping some Stonetree is back. Not the angry man from the previous episode, whoever that was. It's his time of the month is over. The full moon season has passed, and stone tree, our stone tree is back. And Skanky is like, I'm going after this guy.
Rachel:I'm gonna get him. I'm gonna he killed Chippy in front of me. I'm gonna get him. And stone tree's like, yeah. I got somebody once.
Rachel:Kill my partner. I put a hole in him the size of my fist.
Matt:I emptied my revolver into him.
Rachel:Didn't bring my
Matt:the size of my fist.
Rachel:Didn't bring my partner back. Never does. I'm glad Stokes is back. I missed his sage advice and calm wisdom.
Matt:He said he said, he really made an impression on me. I thought he was going to say something like, he's a real stoic man.
Rachel:Yeah. But Skanky wants to hunt this guy down, and Stonetree wants him to just go chill out, take some days off, recover from this, and Nick actually argues in favor of keeping Skanky on the case. He's, like, cut him some slack, captain.
Nick:Go back to my house. It's the thing to do. The best thing I can do, the thing I'm going to do is hunt him down. Okay. Cut him a little slack on this.
Rachel:You know, I really think he could I think he could help, and I think it would be good for him. And Stone Tree's like like, okay. But everything is by the book. I don't want any wiggle room for someone to say that we didn't do something that we were supposed to do because you flew off the handle.
Matt:Which at this point, he should make eye contact with Nick and say, Nick, buy the book.
Rachel:Right. Because which one of us generally doesn't? Oh, it's not skanky. It would be Nick. If we go by the book, captain, hours could seem like days.
Rachel:Yep. That's what I thought when he was like, buy the book.
Matt:An old Star Trek reference.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They just popped in my head. Unbidden.
Rachel:They live there rent free. Isn't that what the youths say?
Matt:That that's what the youths say these days.
Rachel:These days. But we get some car time. This is their bonding time. They do their most, like, deep introspective partner talking in the car when they're stuck in the car and they can only talk to each other, and there's no cell phones. So Yeah.
Matt:He can't just scroll Instagram.
Rachel:Right. Skanky can't be on the gram. He can't be playing candy crush. Gotta talk to somebody. This will be horrifying for anyone born after, oh, I don't know, 1996.
Rachel:Born after the year this was filmed, but they literally just have to sit there and interact. And so Skanky thanks Nick for backing him up, for being a mix like us.
Matt:Well, that's what partners do.
Rachel:That's what partners are for.
Nick:It's been years since I worked with Jimmy. Hey. Thanks for backing me up with a cap. I appreciate it. And that's what partners are for.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel:And when we get back
Matt:And Oh, okay. Skanky is kinda like
Rachel:yeah. Yeah.
Matt:Partners. Partners.
Rachel:I had a partner once. Not no more. So they get back to the precinct and they're getting computers. They're getting computerized records so they can look things up, and it's being installed as they walk in.
Matt:And The the office lady I forget what her name is.
Rachel:Norma.
Matt:Norma. Yeah. She's talking to somebody and, like, oh, it's it's not gonna be ready Yeah. Until tomorrow.
Rachel:Couple of days or tomorrow. We're gonna have it up.
Matt:Skanky picks up his mail.
Rachel:Yep. And he's got the police special, which must be some kind of like police specific.
Matt:It's the Chekhov rifle of this episode.
Rachel:Yeah. Definitely. Which we we hear about it now or now. I don't think we ever mentioned it again, but he says he's got a subscription. And the sucky thing about it is the subscription comes a week late.
Rachel:So if he wants the latest at one is the latest issue, he's gotta buy it.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:But he's also the kind of guy that has to have a subscription. So they get them both ways.
Matt:Right. Because he buys it the day it comes out and he's still paying for his subscription. Yep. So he's it's getting 2 caps. So he immediately drops his copy of the Police Weekly in the trash.
Rachel:In the trash. Yeah. Because he's already read it. Yeah.
Matt:And then there's a Manila envelope.
Rachel:With a photo inside.
Matt:A headshot, you one could say.
Rachel:It's a picture skanky with a target drawn on top of it.
Matt:It's like through the crosshairs of a rifle.
Rachel:Yeah. And he's like, holy shit. He was aiming for me, and Stone Tree's like, no. No. No.
Rachel:If he was aiming for you, he woulda hit you.
Matt:Yeah. He coulda gotcha Yeah. Anytime.
Rachel:No. No. No. He was aiming for the other guy, and now he's aiming for you.
Matt:Nick says he took out Anderson first, and he want you're next, and he but he wants to make you sweat first.
Rachel:Yeah. And so, Stonetree actually switches from calling skanky skanky to calling him Don. Did you notice that? He goes, Don, you still got that cabin up north?
Matt:You're right. I didn't really pick up on that.
Rachel:Skanky's like, yeah, I do. I was like, well, you should probably send your wife and kid up there. Myra and
Matt:I don't think they said the kid's name.
Rachel:It she has a name, but I don't we don't say it often enough for me to remember right in this very moment. And it's Jenny. Jenny. Jenny. Myra and
Matt:Jenny. And so And and if you're smart, you'll join them.
Rachel:Yeah. And Skanky's like, well, good thing I'm not smart then.
Matt:I was about to I was about to make the same crack.
Rachel:That's why we were, Kevby. You by missing puzzle piece. And Nick's like, it's kinky. You can't seriously be thinking you're gonna stay here and fight. It's kinky's like, dude, you had my back 5 fucking minutes ago.
Rachel:And Nick's like, yeah. That was before you got a letter in the mail saying that you're the next target. And Skanky's like, seriously, don't you can't tell me you don't understand what I'm feeling right now.
Matt:Flashback.
Rachel:So Nick's like, I do. He left it. The his feelings are somewhere over in the left corner of the roof. It's kinda like tripped.
Matt:The they floated up toward the ceiling over there by that
Rachel:overhead light. It's got a spot. I'm so let's see. Pops that thought bubble. It's a flashback, and they are running from hunters.
Rachel:And it's Lacroix and Jeanette and Nick on horseback.
Matt:And I didn't know that they had smoke machines with that much horsepower.
Rachel:Yeah. So there's a movie called near dark, which we're gonna do near dark, in February, the second full week in February. We're gonna be doing near dark, but they have the same effect where they do the smoke billowing up from around them, but they had actual, like, tobacco smoke emitters.
Matt:What?
Rachel:Yeah. And so it made there's one actor who's really young, and it made him throw up, Like, being immersed in so much tobacco smoke made him throw up. Yeah. So I don't think that's what we've got here.
Matt:That's probably not allowed anymore.
Rachel:No. It's like in Dune, the, like, 19 eighties Dune when
Matt:they're running over. Battle scene?
Rachel:Yes.
Matt:Yeah. With the tire fires.
Rachel:They literally lit tires on fire to get the heavy smoke that rolls across
Matt:the battlefield. Stop burning.
Rachel:No. Nope. They're still burning.
Matt:Never light a tire on fire. It doesn't stop.
Rachel:Not even for a sci fi apocalyptic battle.
Matt:Which it worked. It was a very impactful setting Yeah. For this film scene because it's this thick, cloying, black smoke. Yeah. It looks great, but
Rachel:Can you imagine the smell?
Matt:The tires are still burning.
Rachel:I even when you go to a playground and they have chunked up tire mulch and it's a hot day, it's got that off gassing smell. Yep. Can just imagine what it'd have smelled like on the set of Dune after they lit all those tires on fire.
Matt:Good thing they did it in, like, the Middle East.
Rachel:Well, anyway, we did a flashback just like Nick did. We looked off to the record. We just lapsed to do a whole bunch of sci fi stuff. Oh, and my horror movie, which was near dark. Yeah.
Rachel:So, anyway, we're back. There's a lot of smoke. I don't know how they're doing the smoke, but it's not that bad. They're, like, running and all 3, Claude, Jeanette, and Nick are just like
Matt:Yeah. Whenever
Rachel:whenever their smoke trail.
Matt:Tape kind of billows up, there's kind of a burp of smoke coming
Rachel:out. Yeah. I don't anyway, there it's it's because it's daylight, and they're being chased by these hunters. And they they clearly have been unable to find, like, shelter because they're being pursued. And so, Jeanette almost doesn't make it.
Matt:Nick has to save her.
Rachel:And LaCroix's like, leave her. She can't hack it. Let's go. We we can't we can't be going back to get her. And Nick goes back and gets her.
Rachel:And they end up in this, like, cabin y thing, which
Matt:It's a barn.
Rachel:Yeah. I always cabity, the cabin y thing. So I always like when we emphasize daylight in a vampire show where they're allergic to daylight, where we get, like, that small amount of smoke, so we see the light rays. So we make this the sun feel hostile, which is what we do in this scene.
Matt:Right. Physicalize it.
Rachel:Yeah. So we can actually see the light streaming into this room. And they block the door, and they're, like, well, I really hope that sending the the horses on will fool them. And immediately, somebody bangs on the door, and Laquod's like, yeah. I really No.
Rachel:No. No. That worked.
Matt:Oh, shit. Shot him through the door
Rachel:That's right. They shot him.
Matt:And Laqua drops to the ground, and then he says, I think they just answered your question.
Rachel:Because they fucking shot me. And then we go back. Back to real time. And Nick is sporting his red suit jacket and black t shirt, which is there a more nineties fashion combo than the blazer and t shirt? Is Is
Matt:this the bacon shirt?
Rachel:No. No. Not yet. Oh,
Matt:t shirt. Okay. Yeah.
Rachel:He's got a black shirt on. But is there a more nineties fashion combo than the, like, relaxed t shirt and a blazer over top. No. No. I don't think so.
Rachel:And he's taking Skanky to a safe house. And so it's like a vent
Matt:pill. A pal.
Rachel:Yeah. So they take him in. There's a cannon fodder. I don't know what his real name is. Carruthers?
Matt:Or Will Struthers.
Rachel:Struthers. Okay. Struthers. Poor
Matt:Cannonfighter. Little Will Struthers.
Rachel:He's just there to prove the situation. This is
Matt:his red shirt.
Rachel:Yeah. Poor red shirt guy. So Nick, he has a little heart to heart with him. He's like, you're gonna be keeping this guy from finding Skanky, and you're gonna be keeping Skanky from trying to dip. And Skanky's like, you're not talking about a 6 year old here.
Nick:He's gonna be a bit of a problem, Struthers. You're gonna have people coming after him and him trying to get away from you. You're not talking about a 6 year old here. We could debate that, Skanky, but do me a favor. Okay?
Nick:Stay put. Promise me? Yeah.
Rachel:And so, Struthers says he's ordered Chinese if everybody wants to stick around, and Skanky, referencing cherry blossoms, in which he mentioned that he likes Mougou Guy Pan in a show of cultural sensitivity. Absolutely. Yeah. He's like, Mougou Guy Pan? Struthers' like, hell yeah.
Matt:With egg rolls and With
Rachel:egg rolls. And so Skanky's like, Nick, I know you got places to be, but can you join me for an egg roll? And Nick's like, alright. I will, but I'm not gonna eat anything.
Matt:I'm just gonna watch.
Rachel:I'm just gonna watch you eat. Cool. So then we kinda well, we don't see the eating, but we kinda cut to a, empty container empty Chinese food container on the bed. And in the meantime, someone has pushed open the bathroom window.
Matt:Right. We get a, like, POV from someone sneaking through the parking lot Yeah. Up to the bathroom window and preparing some plastic explosives.
Rachel:Yeah. So we're cutting between them chit chatting in the living room and somebody preparing the bomb in the bathroom. And so Skanky is reading the classified ads from the police special and making everyone wildly uncomfortable, whether he realizes it or not. And Nick is finally like, okay. So that was enough male bonding.
Rachel:I'm gonna go, work on the case. You guys have fun. And so Nick leaves, and Skanky picks up the TV guide, which is the little booklet he picks up. And it was a weekly publication that told you what was on at every hour on every channel. In case anyone was wondering.
Rachel:That's what he picks up. It's the TV guide that he flips to the page, and he's like, oh, was it kitty cat wrestling or whatever on the
Matt:Foxy wrestling on the kitten channel.
Rachel:Yeah. He and
Matt:Struthers are both He and Struthers are both excited about that.
Rachel:Yeah. They have, like, a dude look. Struthers is like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. I'll go turn
Matt:it on. But first, he has to go use the bathroom. Right.
Rachel:So as soon as he turns on the bathroom light
Matt:Boom.
Rachel:Kaboom. Just as Nick gets out to his car. So he gets to turn around and go, skanky.
Matt:It like, with firelight flickering across his face.
Rachel:Yeah. Glinting off of his golden curls. Yeah. So, Skinky somehow has survived, but Struthers, unfortunately
Matt:I wonder if they had any, like, outtakes where Nick turned around and was like, skanky.
Rachel:Probably. There's quite a few outtakes where Garrett is doing, just like talking
Matt:to Frankie.
Rachel:Yeah. Being goofy. I have a feeling he's a pretty funny guy. So I don't know. I imagine he was.
Rachel:Some of these scenes, it would be really hard to take seriously. So that's not one. I can see it. I could believe that he's upset that Skanky got blown up. The stanky didn't get blown up.
Matt:You could have made that a really good joke if you went up for Mexican and you blew up the bathroom.
Rachel:Oh, god. Oh, okay. I was like, I don't know where this is going, and I don't know if I'm gonna have to cut it out. So
Matt:Taco Bell sponsor.
Rachel:Wow. K. I gotta refocus now.
Matt:Okay. Okay. So bathroom blows up.
Rachel:Yeah. Skanky. Hey. Right. Right.
Rachel:Right.
Matt:And so runs in for Skanky and pulls him out.
Rachel:Yeah. And Skanky survives, and the police were there.
Matt:That Struthers didn't make it.
Rachel:I know. He's like, I gotta go pack for the kid.
Matt:The kid's done.
Rachel:Nick's like, the kid's done. So go back for the kids. Okay. And so then we cut to the ambulance has arrived, And Skanky is, sitting there just bemoaning the fact that the only reason he survived is because the mattress cut covered him and he he didn't get the brunt of the explosion and blah blah blah. And Nick postulates, somebody had to know where we were.
Matt:Somebody knew police procedure.
Rachel:And the only person that that could be would be a, oh, I don't know, police officer.
Matt:Yeah. Someone in the department.
Rachel:Right. And Skanky's like, nope. I refuse. I don't receive that. He's like, I don't I'm
Matt:not receiving that.
Rachel:I'm not receiving that kind of negativity right now. He's like, nope. Somebody could have just followed us, and they got caught a lucky break and figured out we were here.
Matt:That's what I'm going with.
Rachel:And that's what I am going with. And, but regardless, where can I hide? If it's a cop, what what can I do? Where can I hide? I got nowhere to go.
Rachel:And Nick's like, oh, I know a place.
Matt:Nick's got resources.
Rachel:Poor Jeanette. Right? I hope You
Matt:mean Janet?
Rachel:I hope Jeanette and Nick are just getting some on the side, and that is why she feels so generous every time he asks her to do something. It's the explanation that I want to believe is true. So that's what I'm gonna go with because Jeanette's like
Matt:Well, that was your your faction. Right?
Rachel:Yeah. Do you want me to talk about you? I wanna talk about my fact that
Matt:I I just saw the content
Rachel:The Forever Knight.
Matt:Instagram post.
Rachel:The Forever Knight Factions are an entire podcast all in and of themselves. They were nuanced, and I don't wanna hear any complaints about them at all because
Matt:No complaints.
Rachel:Just Thank you. Alright. Anyway, so, yeah, the immortal beloveds, which was the one I have always ascribed to, which is someone who wishes that Nick and Jeanette would get back together. Or in this case, believes Nick and Jeanette are together, and that is why Jeanette lets Skanky stay at the Raven. Because she's like, oh, no.
Rachel:No. No. No. No. No.
Rachel:No. And Nick is like, what I'm hearing is yes.
Matt:Well, then I'm not coming over
Rachel:Thursday. She's like,
Matt:oh, Nichola. She's
Rachel:She's like, fine. Fine. Fine. And we get a little bit more flashback, which is, LaCroix and Jeanette couldn't hold their shit together, and Nick ended up killing all of these hunters.
Matt:No mercy, Nicholas. No mercy.
Rachel:This is the moral of this flashback, which I like this flashback ruthless. A lot better than I like last week's flashback. It's that's a that's a low bar, but I do like it a lot better. And so Nick, like, pulls one of them through the window, drags him into the shadow, and kills him. It's just being ruthless vampire guy.
Rachel:And so Jeanette remembers that a little bit too in the episode. So part of our flashback is Nick, and part of our flashback is Jeanette. But Lacroix is, like, so excited in the flashback because Nick is being exactly the vampire that looks so awesome to be.
Matt:In Jeanette's flashback where she's watching Nick, and he kills the guy, and then he kind of stands up and talks. He's talking exactly like Lacroix. Yeah. And I'm wondering if that is partly Jeanette's perception of Nick or if Nick was so Nick was still in his, like, evil phase where he was still kind of, you know, under the influences of Lacroix that he was actually acting like Lacroix.
Rachel:Yeah. Well, I think in that moment, he was sort of channeling Lacroix. That's what we're supposed to get. Nick's, morality is a little bit peak and valley. We get peaks and valleys throughout his life.
Rachel:We're probably in a valley is what I'm guessing.
Matt:In the flashback.
Rachel:In the flashback. Yeah. Right now, we're peeking right now.
Matt:It's because he he killed people.
Rachel:Right.
Matt:A bunch of them. A bunch.
Rachel:Like a bunch. Like a bunch. All of them. But Skanky is at the Raven, and he immediately leches on somebody. And Nick is like, okay, skanky.
Rachel:Listen. We all know you're a ladies' man, but can you fucking hold it together for me and not do anything stupid?
Nick:Skank, although we all know you're irresistible, do me a favor. Keep your hands off the women.
Rachel:Yeah. That's okay. Take it easy. This skanky's like, yeah. Yeah.
Rachel:Totally. My god. Like, like, I would never do that. Right.
Matt:Oh, skanky.
Rachel:Right. So then we immediately or more or less immediately cut to skanky dicking around at the raven. Like, he's in the empty dance room, and he's jumping up and clicking the glasses.
Matt:This is Skanky's filler material.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. This is his fill. And he's making weird, like, dance gestures. And he goes over and leans on the bar, and he looks over and there's a phone.
Rachel:And then we cut to Nick and Natalie are at Nick's apartment, and he's got a laptop open.
Nick:You mean
Matt:a a portable box?
Rachel:Yeah. An old school laptop. Yeah. And so he's going through records, and she's helping go through records because they're trying to figure out who in the past had a beef with both Skanky and his partner.
Matt:Right. So they're reviewing all of the cases they worked together.
Rachel:Yeah. And we get this really sweet moment where the phone rings, and Natalie picks up the phone and just puts it up to Nick's ear without either one of them.
Matt:Clamps it in his shoulder.
Rachel:Right. Without either one of them breaking what they're doing. They both continue to do what they're doing, which he just smoothly hands him the phone. And, of course, it's kinky. And Nick is like, skanky?
Rachel:We've already talked about this. You can't leave. Oh, but Natalie makes a joke because she suggests somebody. And, Nick Nick is like, oh, it's just a low level pimp. It doesn't have he doesn't have any connections to skanky.
Rachel:Natalie's like, are we sure about that? And Nick doesn't think it's she's like, it's a joke. Come on. It's funny. There's better things I could be doing with my day.
Rachel:It season 1 skanky is a little bit sexist. Yeah. And Nick gets a line about, like, skanky is an animal in a cage.
Matt:Oh, no. He says, I I feel like oh
Rachel:Well, first, he says, but he's an he's an animal in a cage, and the longer he stays in there, the more dangerous he gets. And then he cuts to
Matt:the the phone.
Rachel:Well, no. Yeah. Skanky sees someone walk by, sees a woman walk by, and he's like, yeah. Yeah. Whatever, Nick.
Rachel:Okay. Bye.
Matt:He's like, I'll I'll be here. Bye.
Rachel:Bye.
Matt:And then Nick says
Rachel:So the animals are restless, aren't they?
Nick:Why am I suddenly feeling like I put him in the wrong cage?
Rachel:Because, of course, he has to chase this woman, and so he heads downstairs where there's cabinets lined up on the wall and a coffin on the ground. And he's just about to open one of the cabinets when Jeanette catches him. And Jeanette's Jeanette is wearing this, like, capelet thing. And she's like, you can't be down there.
Matt:It's her leisure wear.
Rachel:Oh, I mean, Jeanette's leisure wear is everyone else's formal wear. Yeah. Just just facts. And so she catches him stooping, basically. And she's like, you gotta go.
Rachel:You can't be down here. Let's go upstairs.
Matt:Is that a real coffin?
Rachel:She's like, oh, yeah. We cater to the occasional, fetishist, which works because Skanky's like, oh, yeah. Gross. And he just leaves.
Matt:Okay. So when, Jeanette and Nick are talking about Skanky staying at the Raven, Jeanette makes a comment about, you know what we will have to do if he finds out about us. Is she implying that if Skanky discovers vampires, that they'll have to turn Skanky into a vampire or that they'll have to kill Skanky?
Rachel:He'll become a permanent member of the night shift.
Matt:Gotcha.
Rachel:I think either kill him or turn him. Actually, you know what? I think we're, like, 4 or 5 episodes from finding out the answer to that question.
Matt:Okay.
Rachel:Because there are actual consequences for people that find out what for people who find out about vampires.
Matt:That aren't Natalie.
Rachel:That aren't Natalie. Yes.
Matt:Does Jeanette know about Natalie? Yeah. Okay.
Rachel:Yeah. Remember they met
Matt:vouched for her.
Rachel:They met in the episode where Nick did the thing where he, like, licked Jeanette's neck, and they're about to get it on. Remember that?
Matt:I remember that.
Rachel:And Natalie walks in. She's like, oh, I'm so shit. I'm so sorry. Oh my god. And Nick's like, no.
Rachel:No. Come on. It's fine. We were just we were about
Matt:to This is just a normal This hangout night for us.
Rachel:Thursday. I don't it's fine. Come on, Natalie. And so that's when Jeanette's like, oh, I've heard so much about you. Okay.
Rachel:Yeah. We're not far from we're not far from answering your question, but since I am trying to live a spoiler free life, I'm not gonna tell you anything about it. And so we're back to the precinct and the computers are up and running. Hooray. Which, Matt, thought it was really funny.
Rachel:The IT guy was wearing, like, a lab coat.
Matt:Why would an IT guy wear a lab coat? That that makes no sense.
Rachel:Because you're scientists. Well, it has the business name on the back. So maybe it's like the nerd herd or whatever the
Matt:The the police department's IT division?
Rachel:Right. Or, you know, just
Matt:It it looked like it was just, like, overlapping wavy lines. It didn't look like text to me. Just looked like a decorative thing across the back of the lab coat.
Rachel:It was probably supposed to be like a business logo, like a contractor, computer contractor. You know you know, at the time, computers were sensitive. I kinda wear a lab coat. Can't contaminate.
Matt:Okay. Computers in, like, the seventies. Yes. Clean room. Absolutely.
Matt:Because they were the size of a room. But in the nineties, anyway, Nick Nick's talking to Norma and Yeah. She's printing out just a stack of pages.
Rachel:Yeah. She goes, this is the life and times of Skanky and Anderson, Jimmy Anderson.
Matt:And then 16596, that's your badge number. Right?
Rachel:Right, Nick?
Matt:Yeah. But don't worry about it. I'm Yeah. Yeah. No.
Matt:Don't. Thanks for this. I'm gonna get going. Hey. There's and and so then we see her type it in on the screen Yeah.
Matt:And hit enter. And it just says Nicholas Knight, no files found.
Rachel:Yeah. And she's like, oh, that's weird. It's weird. There's nothing here under your badge number.
Matt:No medical history.
Rachel:She's like, well, what what precinct did you work at before this? And Nick's like, oh, you know, it's actually, you know what? I got lots you know? Oh, god. Look at the time.
Rachel:So what? That's so weird. And then he
Matt:does He blusters his way out of this interaction pretty well.
Rachel:That I do every time I need to get out of a situation, which is just, he kisses her. Every time Matt is questioning something, I don't need him to question it. Just kiss and run. And so that's what he does. He's like, thanks, Norma.
Rachel:And he just leaves over, plants, swat on her, pow right in the kisser. And then he dips. He's like, peace. Gotta go. And then he calls, oh, yes.
Rachel:Kinky's talking to Jeanette at the Raven. He's like, you know, Janet she's like, Jeanette, please. Please.
Nick:You see, I am what is referred to as a man of action. You see, Janet.
Rachel:Jeanette. It's it's it's Jeanette, please. Jeanette.
Nick:My apologies. Jeanette. Jeanette.
Rachel:Which I love every time Jeanette and Skanky talk to each other because they are the most unlikely characters to ever meet in real life. Right? Without Nick,
Matt:they would never ever relapse. Skanky is so oblivious Yeah. To his to people's reactions to his own bullshitting.
Rachel:Jeanette never lies to him, and he just never gets it. It's like how Nick never lies to him, and he just doesn't get it. Or he gets it and he just has accepted Nick is some sort of benevolent supernatural creature that has chosen to be his partner. And he doesn't question it beyond that, but he does get lots of unhelpful advice from Jeanette because at this point, Skanky is feeling a little bit,
Matt:Cooped up.
Rachel:Cooped up and useless. And it's the last thing that Skanky likes to feel. Or as he tells Janet, he's
Matt:a man of action. A man of action.
Rachel:This is such a better episode than dead air. We had so much fun with this episode. Yeah. And apparently, Norma's not Norma Nick's brilliant distraction techniques didn't work on
Matt:It didn't work.
Rachel:Because she's still a little bit preoccupied with the fact that, Nick has absolutely no records whatsoever.
Matt:In the just hanging out in the precinct, and he uses his vampire hearing
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:And hears Norma talking to Stonetree about how there's no records.
Rachel:She's like, according to our our database, officer Knight doesn't exist. And it's Nick's like, shit. This is gonna cost a lot of money.
Matt:So then he calls Janet.
Rachel:Yeah. He calls Janet.
Matt:Because anytime he has a problem, Gina is there for him.
Rachel:Right. He's like, I need a favor. And she goes, you better be careful because you're using them all up at once.
Matt:For this week?
Rachel:Yeah. Well, for this week. This could be a this could be a Tuesday Thursday week, if you know what I'm saying. So he
Matt:It cost him, double double the price. Double the price.
Rachel:So, apparently, he needs somebody named
Matt:Merlin. Larry Merlin.
Rachel:Larry Merlin. No relation To the mythical Merlins. But he needs Larry Merlin.
Matt:Is that the south England of Merlins? The Camelot Merlin.
Rachel:Later, this is gonna be Aristotle, which you're gonna like Aristotle because he has, hard drives in his office. So his whole wall is lined with, like spinning real tapes. Yeah. You kinda like Aristotle. Oh, but then we get our, some filler, which the last several episodes have all had filler.
Rachel:I don't know if this was like a I don't know. I'm trying to think of, like, what in the nineties would have inspired them to have these long, long patches of just rehash. Oh, you know what it might have been? If you had come back late from a commercial break or you'd missed part of an episode, This is a good recap before we get to the climax.
Matt:Oh, yeah. Yeah. With the voice over.
Rachel:Yeah. Because he spends he's rearranged his apartment because in the last couple episodes, his piano was over by the refrigerator. It's moved a bit because in I Will Repay when Natalie walks in and she's giving his her impassioned speech. He, like, collapses on the piano bench, and he's behind the pillar that's directly in front of his refrigerator. So at that point, the piano's over there.
Rachel:And, also, his motorcycle just gets around the room. His motorcycle may actually just be like a
Matt:He drives it around. If he's sitting on the couch and he really has to go to the bathroom really bad, he rides his motorcycle.
Rachel:I'm sorry. But next night does not shit. There's no it's not Canon.
Matt:Well, something has to happen to the blood.
Rachel:Sometimes he's working on the microphone. Or sometimes he's working on the motorcycle. There's, like, 1 or 2 scenes where he's working on the motorcycle, but I don't ever think that the motorcycle Maybe
Matt:the motorcycle has to go to the bathroom.
Rachel:Maybe it's metaphorical.
Matt:Does this motorcycle run on blood? Is it a vampire motor?
Rachel:I've never
Matt:Did Nick turn something else into a vampire?
Rachel:I have never understood the purpose of this motorcycle. I think it's ambiance, or maybe it's to explain all the leather jackets.
Matt:It's the aesthetic.
Rachel:It's the aesthetic. He just owns it, and it sits there. Sometimes it's over by the elevator. Sometimes it's directly behind his, like, chair that's adjacent, that's kitty corner to his couch. Yeah.
Rachel:Sometimes he sits on it as, like, a piece of furniture for his pensive moments. He sits on the
Matt:Well, it it's easy to rearrange it when you can just pick up the motorcycle with one hand.
Rachel:Or just roll it. No. I don't know. I don't know. I'd love to know.
Rachel:If anybody knows what the fuck the purpose of this motorcycle was except for just decorative.
Matt:Garrett, if you're listening.
Rachel:Let let us in. What was the what was the motorcycle for? Because it it's a consistent prop, which one of the things I like about this show is we use consistent sets, and they they feel very lived in
Nick:Right.
Rachel:Because they
Matt:And the wardrobes They change. You mentioned.
Rachel:Yeah. And they recycle wardrobes. So it ends up making the character feel like a real character because they rewear outfits. They have, like, favorite shirts or whatever that they'll use over and over again, or they'll wear the same jackets or whatever. Or, like, Skanky has a duck lamp, and we see the duck lamp a couple of times.
Rachel:Yeah. I've seen the duck lamp. So there's just, like, you know, it it makes it feel lived in. So this was a choice. I mean, putting this motorcycle in here was a choice, and it had to have meant something.
Rachel:Had to have a reason for being there because it's in the set, but I don't know what that is. So, anyway, questions for the ages. We should probably get back to the episode. This is why we don't record in bed because it just inspires a lot of, tangential conversation.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Don't you think so, Pip? Never. He's fallen asleep. Oh, where were we? Oh, yeah.
Rachel:He's rearranged his apartment, and he's
Matt:We were in the filler.
Rachel:Yeah. He's, like, playing the piano with one hand and sticking his fingers in a candle flame with the other hand, which is like flirting with Death. Death, I guess. And I mean, he's not laying around playing chess. So we've got that going for us.
Rachel:He's not throwing tarot cards at the camera, which we've got going for us.
Matt:Oh, I meant to highlight when he goes into rescue Skanky, he's really putting himself at risk into the burning building.
Rachel:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Because we've established that fire is one of the things that, like yeah.
Rachel:Fire bad. You don't like fire. You don't even like fire in a fireplace. We have to, like, do the dramatic turn away turn away. We need to film ourselves because I do so much physical gesturing with
Matt:And I smack the microphone so often.
Rachel:Well, you know what? You are better. You have gotten better. And I meant to tell you that. Thank you.
Rachel:You also don't adjust it as often. So just want you to know. I haven't heard a microphone smack in a while. Yeah. But yeah.
Rachel:I mean, he does the, like, normally, but he did. He went in to try to rescue Skinky. That's a very good point. Good job, sir. Thank you very much for pointing that out.
Rachel:But we during this filler, we're also getting the bad guy glimpsing. So this is our first actual images of the bad guy except for the fact that he was the
Matt:Okay. So we watched this episode a few weeks ago. Rachel was just watching random episodes.
Rachel:Yes. I do.
Matt:And when we finally had the reveal of the bad guy, I'm like, hey, that's the that's the database guy in the lab coat. And Rachel's like, nah. No. It's not. Whatever.
Matt:Anyway, so we watched it tonight. Like, I'm I'm gonna check. So I queued up the scene where we see him working out, and I queued up the scene of the IT guy in a lab coat, and it's the same guy. Yeah. And that's how he knows.
Matt:He he is working in the police department. He's the database admin. He has access to all the police information. That's how he knows where they take Skanky.
Rachel:Yep. Which this guy looks like the renter version of the guy who played Moon Knight, the guy who's also in Star Wars.
Matt:Yeah. Isaac. Oscar Isaac. Yeah. Yes.
Matt:Yeah. He looks like the the poor man's Oscar Isaac.
Rachel:The renter version. Okay. I mean, he's not bad looking. But the first time I saw him, I was like, that's not no. Not possible.
Rachel:It's not it's not him, but it does look a little bit like him. But we are getting our first, like, images of him. He's doing, like, a, upside down
Matt:Which that was kind of a nineties trope that inversion was, like, a really hardcore, like, physical training thing. Yeah. Nobody does it anymore.
Rachel:Batman did it in the Bruce Wayne, the the Tim Burton Batman movies.
Matt:Okay. Like I said, it was a nineties thing.
Rachel:Because because I was like,
Matt:oh, I'm not gonna put that in. Was a hardcore physical training exercise. That was in the nineties, honey.
Rachel:I know. Oh, I was just pointing out that, yes, you are correct. It was also appeared in this other thing that I have seen.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Because that's the theme of the episode is random asides. Our episode, not this forever night episode. There's Gotcha. Very few random asides in this forever night episode. But as we're getting some bad guy
Matt:Okay.
Rachel:So we see the guy mentions Alan Smithee. He calls and says he's checking on a, ad that he placed.
Matt:A classified ad
Rachel:that he placed. Ad by Alan Smithy.
Matt:In the police special weekly.
Rachel:Yeah. Which Alan Smithy I was like, isn't that that that name? Like, it's, a And so I I looked it up. To them?
Matt:It's a pseudonym. Yeah. It was they stopped using it at some point. But it part of the the DGA, Director's Guild, whatever
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:If a director was like, I don't wanna be associated with this movie as the director, they would have to go, like, in front of a committee at at the DGA and can make a case that they they were not given freedom to for creative control. Yeah. And so it's they don't wanna be associated with it. And so then they would officially, change the director's name to Alan Smithee.
Rachel:Yeah. It was like, I didn't get enough creative control. This doesn't reflect my vision. Right. I don't want it.
Matt:I don't
Rachel:want it. I don't
Matt:want it. Whatever. Yeah. So this is, I think, supposed to be an Easter egg for film people.
Rachel:Yeah. And this is our why we've been talking so much about the police special. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's put an ad in the police special.
Rachel:And Nick has decided that brooding in the apartment is just it's just not he's not feeling brooding in the apartment today. He's gotta brood on the run, so he starts driving and brooding. Yeah.
Matt:So now we get some filler while he's just driving around.
Rachel:Listening to
Matt:But we're listening to a new song.
Rachel:Yeah. It's not, The Night Called by Name. It's Touch the Night.
Matt:Touch the Night.
Rachel:Jennette likes touch the night.
Matt:Any of these songs, you replace the you put a k in front of the night and Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel:It's like fortune cookies when you add in bed. Yeah. You didn't get my joke.
Matt:I I caught your joke.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's not
Matt:like to touch the night.
Rachel:I did laugh. I laughed.
Matt:You you laughed enough for both of us.
Rachel:Well, thank you so much. But this is, this driving around, he's actually alternating between coats. Sometimes he has his, like, black cloth cloth
Matt:Multiple filler scenes.
Rachel:Sometimes he's got his shiny black leather coat on from dark knight. So they were clearly, like, compiling, driving scenes to create this longer filler moment. And then he finally gets to the raven, and Skanky is like, what is taking so long? And then it zooms out, and Nick is talking to this kind of sleazy looking vampire guy, and it's Larry Merlin.
Matt:Yes.
Rachel:And Larry's like, well, you know, this can be hard because they've already flagged your files, so I can't just drop records in here. I'm gonna have to go all the way back to the hospital you were born in.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:There are quotes.
Matt:Like, previous employers and all that stuff.
Rachel:Yeah. I'm gonna have to see the records in all these different systems. It's gonna cost you, and Nick's like, yeah. It's fine. Whatever.
Rachel:Which we don't know it yet, but Nick is, astronomically wealthy because and there's a sword fight involved in that. And there's a funny story about that episode, but because I'm now living a spoiler free life, I'm not gonna tell you anything about it. Don't even ask me.
Matt:When you publish this, you need a hashtag spoiler free life.
Rachel:So Skanky is feeling restless and aggressive. And
Matt:He's he's lost track of what day of the week it is. Yeah. He's And then he realizes that it's Friday. The police special weekly is out. Yeah.
Matt:So he tries to leave and Jeanette stops him. You're not allowed to leave. Skanky.
Rachel:She he's like, I'm just going across the street. I'm gonna buy my my thingy.
Matt:I need to read my stories.
Rachel:I need my stories, and then I'll be right back. And Jeanette's like, fair. Okay. Fine. Go.
Rachel:And so he's over there leaning against the side, reading his police special. And he's reading the classified ads to the woman who like the judgey newspaper saleswoman. And he finds an ad addressed to Donut Don.
Matt:Womp womp.
Rachel:And he's like, oh ho ho. Oh, shit. And so he runs off and
Matt:Meet me
Rachel:on memory lane. Commandeers a car. He's like, I'll bring
Matt:him to the side. Yeah. Commandeers a civilian vehicle.
Rachel:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. And so Nick realizes he's missing, And he calls Jeanette, and he's like, the fuck, Jeanette? And she's like, I am not my skanky's keeper.
Rachel:She's like, you asked me to keep an eye on him. I did. He left my line of sight, and I kinda forgot he existed. Who's skanky again? Jeanette doesn't give a shit.
Rachel:She's he is lucky she stayed focused on this this long. And he's like, this is this is a bad situation. He's running on instinct, and Jeanette's like, how is that bad, Nick? About 15 minutes ago, he said that he was just going across the street to buy a newspaper.
Nick:Jeanette, I thought I told you to look after him.
Rachel:And I have been a good sport about it, but I am not a babysitter for your idiotic buddies.
Nick:Look. Someone's out to kill him.
Rachel:Then let him fight back. Come on, Nikolai. You did. Let the hunted become the hunter.
Nick:He's out of control, Jeanette. He's running on instinct.
Rachel:Is that such a What's bad about instinct? And so we get our last little bit of flashback, which is Jeanette and Lacroix are trying to go into the basement of this barn slash cabiny thingy. And she's like, come into the darkness, Nick. Come with us. And he's like, no.
Rachel:There's one more.
Matt:Yeah. That's when he's talking like Lacroix.
Rachel:Yeah. And so he kills the last hunter. And that's the end of that flashback, which was Nick killed all of them to save everybody. And so Skanky should also be afforded the chance to save his own life Yeah. Is the moral of this story.
Rachel:And so Skanky arrives at the police precinct because memory lane is referring Police academy. Police academy is referring to the police academy, the training course on the police academy. And so he's and he's on it. He's like, I'm here, you son of a bitch.
Nick:I'm here, you son of a bitch. You gonna come on to show your face?
Rachel:He's on fire. This is this is riled skanky, the most riled we see them. Usually he's pretty like he's lecherous or sexist. Yes. But he's not, aggressive, generally speaking.
Rachel:He's usually-
Matt:This is violent skanky.
Rachel:Yeah, this is, I got, I've been cooped up in this club full of young people who make me uncomfortable for the last, I don't even know how many days. And I I I gotta get I gotta get this over with. And so, meanwhile, Nick shows up to try to figure out where Skinky could have gone. And so he goes to the newspaper lady, and so she's telling him, I I gave him the police special. Plasticizer.
Matt:Here's what I was doing. I was telling him about that, and then I turned over to look at my lockbox. And then when I turned back, he was gone. And by the time she gets to the point to that point in the story, Nick is now gone.
Rachel:Yeah. Nick is now gone. She's like, what the fuck? Another one. So Nick has whooshed away.
Rachel:That's our symbol for Nick has flown away. And then he's in the car, and he's driving. And then he, like, screeches the car to a halt because he's talking to Stonetree.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:And Stonetree is like, oh, yeah. Memory lane. That's referring to the police academy. And Nick's like, hot damn. And so he slams on the brake in the middle of the road, and then whoosh, we're off into the air again.
Matt:Don't mind the wind, stone tree. I just put the top down. Exactly.
Rachel:Oh, I like it. So Skanky's at the academy, and he's getting taunted. And we see, like, a cardboard cutout and he shoots it, and then he gets shot at blah blah blah. And then there's
Matt:another cardboard cut
Rachel:out cut out. Yeah. And he shoots the other cardboard cut out and he puts together that this is an academy washout from his class. Somebody who was a better marksman, better at everything physical, but fail failed the psychological evaluation.
Matt:Yep.
Rachel:And he's like, they should've put you away then. You're cuckoo for cocoa puffs. And the guy's like, that may be. But what I'm real, real mad about is I didn't get promoted at my IT job.
Matt:Because this police the police academy stuff was still on my record.
Rachel:Yep. I'm still working for the Nerd Herd. I didn't get to move up to DevSecOps or whatever.
Matt:Area manager. Area manager. Sorry.
Rachel:I like displaying my, inadequate knowledge of IT to my resident IT person. It's a continuous source of amusement for me. But he's going up the stairs, and he turns, and he thinks it's another cutout.
Matt:But it's not He sees a silhouette of a cop.
Rachel:Because this is our it's just noodles, Michael, moment.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Because he's been cut out. Oh, it's a person. No. It's a cut out. Oh, it's a person.
Rachel:No. It's a cut out.
Matt:He shot, like, 3 cut outs in a row, and he's like, I need to stop shooting these cut outs. Yeah. Because he's already refilled his gun.
Rachel:Right. So this person is actually a person just like the bottle in The Lost Boys is actually blood. That was a spoiler. You're welcome. So Oh, yeah.
Matt:Huge spoiler.
Nick:Huge.
Rachel:I don't feel bad about spoiling movies that are, like, oh, I don't know, like 30 some years old.
Matt:What about what about TV shows?
Rachel:Well, no. Because we're gonna get
Matt:there. 30 years old.
Rachel:I can't do it because we're going through it. And if I spoil it, then, yeah, I'm not gonna get the authentic reaction that I want because it's a Okay. It's a bananas episode. What What what are you looking for?
Matt:Hold on. For something like Lost Boys, you mean something that's 35 years old?
Rachel:You you you shut your dirty ginger mouth right now. It's still good, though. We need to do that on the pod soon. We should just have a vampire marathon. Get 2 Lost Boys, Near Dark.
Rachel:See? Now look look what you made me do. Now we're gonna have to watch a bunch of vampire movies. So Skanky almost gets shot by this guy who is not a cutout, but Skanky thinks he's a cutout just like they weren't really noodles. So Nick shouts, watch out, skanky.
Rachel:And so skanky turns and shoots the guy Or Nick does. Nick has his gun out. Who shoots him? I don't think we clear that up really.
Matt:Nick shoots, what's the guy's name?
Rachel:McAvoy.
Matt:McAvoy. Yeah. Nick shoots McAvoy, but that's it. That's it.
Rachel:Yeah. And so Skanky's like, hey, man. I had to have been toast if it wasn't for you. And they get a little bit of, like, partner cuddling. I don't know.
Rachel:They like Nick's so touchy with everybody. It would freak me out to be around him. Because at any moment, he might, like, hug me. So he hugs Skanky. They kinda hug it out a little bit, and we cut back to the precinct.
Rachel:And Norma's like, it's the weirdest thing. I tried for a whole week. I looked in all the systems, and I couldn't find him. But now I just put his badge number in and look. It's all here.
Rachel:It's all here. And it's a, like, black and white, like, broody photo. Everybody else probably has, like, a straight on, like, mugshot for their badge photo, and Nick is, like, 3 quarter profile, like, turned look over his shoulder with, like, cloth hair, which is there. Yeah. He was like, this is my good side.
Rachel:I just did the turn. And so, hey, he's in the computer now. And Stonetree's like, fuck if I know, man. Computers. I can't understand it, but there he is.
Rachel:I look for a week. I check every database, every department, and nothing. And then I come in here this morning, and boom. It comes right up.
Nick:Well, computers work in mysterious ways. Personally, Norma, I've never ever trusted the things.
Rachel:Whatever.
Matt:And then Nick walks in. Which is Hey, Nick. Where were you born?
Rachel:He's like Chicago. 1956. She's like, you mean 57? He's like, oh, yeah. It was New Year's.
Rachel:I always get confused about that. And then, we cut to skanky and he's sitting at his desk because he was shot in the arm. And so he's on desk duty.
Matt:I hate desk duty.
Rachel:And he's answering all these trivia questions correctly. And Nick's like, oh, man. You're good at that.
Matt:I didn't know you were a fan of the opera. Yeah. Polka. Yes. Opera.
Matt:No.
Rachel:Skanky gets a really cool line about how they're all beautiful in their own way. And Nick's like, oh, is that a skanky quote? Yeah. Yeah. The skanky's like, sure is.
Rachel:And so, skanky thanks, Nick. And Nick's like, you know what? Skanky, you you did a good job. You're a good cop.
Matt:Right. All all that stuff he was saying, like, yeah, you know, Stone Tree said the same thing. It's takes more than shooting a gun
Rachel:Yes.
Matt:To be a good cop.
Rachel:It's not about bodies on the ground. It's not picking up bodies. Yeah. There's more to being
Matt:a cop. More than picking up dead bodies.
Rachel:Yeah. And you're a good cop, Skanky. And Skanky is like, oh my god. What that was that a compliment? Is that a compliment, Nick?
Rachel:And Nick's like, yeah. I'll let it go to your head. He's like, oh, I won't he's like, don't worry. I won't let it go to my head. And Nick says, I'm pretty sure you've already lost that battle.
Nick:You've been reading my files? All I'm saying is that Anderson was right. There's more to being a good cop than picking up dead bodies, and you're a good cop. I is this a compliment? I'll try not to get a swelled head.
Nick:You want me to tell you the truth? Yeah. Yeah. I want the truth. You lost that battle a long time ago, don't it?
Rachel:And that's the end of the episode.
Matt:So maybe after, the Lost Boys marathon, we can look at 40 year old movies like Tron and, hold on. Gotta go back in the list.
Rachel:Why why are you trying to
Matt:hurt me right now?
Rachel:Oh, god. I hate ET. I don't hate ET.
Matt:Star Trek, the wrath of Khan?
Rachel:Yeah. No. Fuck. I'll always watch Khan. You know it.
Rachel:I just quoted Khan, in fact.
Matt:Yeah. The Secret of NIMH, The Last Unicorn, Dark Crystal.
Rachel:These are
Matt:all those are all 1982. 1982 was a good good year.
Rachel:You know what I saw the other day? A top ten list that I saw the other day that really ground my gears, And it was top 10 vampire television shows of all time. Number 1 was the moonlight.
Matt:It's a good one.
Rachel:I mean, moonlight was good. I own moonlight on DVD and it gets about an annual rewatch, but moonlight is a reboot of this show, a forever night. And how do you throw moonlight, which had, like, 8 episodes, 3 or 2 or 3 of which are totally incomprehensible because falls right in the middle of the 2008 writers' strike. And they lost half the season, and they had to wrap up a whole bunch of plot in, like, an episode so that they could have 2 or 3 coherent episodes before they had to wrap it for the season. And it never got remade or it never got a second season because it happened right in the middle of the 2008 writers strike.
Rachel:How do you put that? But you don't put forever night?
Matt:Was it really supposed to be a reboot of forever night, or was it just a It's a inspired by?
Rachel:Inspired by the vampire detective, vampire cop, vampire investigator. You know, like Angel is like a vampire cop. At least he is when he first starts.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And then as time goes on, that becomes less and less of a thing.
Matt:Kinda like Harry Dresden. Yeah. Does less and less PI work and more saving the world and the universe.
Rachel:Yeah. With great power comes greater plot stakes. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt:You don't need the the private investigator plot plot hook.
Rachel:Right. No. You've that that's not necessary to drive it anymore. But, I mean, this this does because that's we stick with it, which is fine. It's great.
Rachel:You know me. I love a monster of the week.
Matt:Yeah. Serialized drama.
Rachel:Yeah. Anyway, I've been waiting for a while to get that off my chest that why the fuck was FOUR overnight not even on the list?
Matt:Was there anything else on the list that was noteworthy?
Rachel:I mean, none that I haven't seen before. It was all the Vampire Diaries and all Vampire Diaries spin offs, which I have strong opinions about. And then moonlight and a couple other ones that I had already seen. But this one wasn't even on the list, which there's not
Matt:that many. Maybe it was maybe it was, like, the top vampire TV shows of the last 20 years.
Rachel:You. You found a button, and you're just like
Matt:Poke. Poke.
Rachel:What what would happen if I just keep pushing it? It's fine. You're older than me. So Yep. Yep.
Rachel:It's an older man prerogative. Well, Pippin's already asleep, and we're already in bed. So I feel like a natural conclusion to this episode is to just wrap things up. So we don't really have any news in particular. PodLab's coming along.
Rachel:I had to put a picture, a teaser picture of it up on Instagram the other day. So I'll post some more progress pics tomorrow. I keep the Instagram pretty updated. It's a lot of a smorgasbord of whatever's in Rachel's mind that day, really. So it's kind of an interesting glimpse into my thought processes.
Rachel:And I like to think my captions are pretty funny. They make me laugh. So Yeah. Hey. I got genuine interaction today.
Rachel:I saw that. Yeah. It wasn't a bot. It was actually somebody answering a question, which I thought was really good. I was very excited.
Rachel:I was like, oh my god. My first real Instagram comment. I mean, Kate comments and my sister comments, but this is somebody that I'm not related to and is under no obligation to comment.
Matt:Purely because of the podcast.
Rachel:And I've been meaning to take a screenshot of every, like, Matt's biweekly Instagram login where he goes and likes That's username. It's liked all these things. And I had a reel the other day that got, like, 20 likes in one day. So, I mean, that's basically viral. So Woo hoo.
Rachel:I don't know if you know this or not, but I'm kind of a big deal. Got 31 followers now. Feel like I should give the count every single time. I don't know. I'm just really proud of my little Instagram page.
Rachel:Having a lot of fun, which is the point.
Matt:Yes. The point. Yep.
Rachel:We also have a suggestion form if anybody wants to throw some suggestions our way. I was thinking we could start doing, like, a sci fi movie, horror movie, fantasy movie in sequence. Because we've done a lot of sci fi. We've done a lot of fantasy. We've underserved horror a little bit.
Rachel:But I feel like if we put them in sequence, then people will be like, okay. I know the 1st week of the month is when they put out their sci fi. I mean, that way we can give the people what they want on a schedule. You know what I'm saying?
Matt:That's a good point. Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. So I think we're gonna start doing that. I'm trying to get Matt to give me some suggestions, which, guys, it's gonna be Gattaca. I don't know if you know this or not, but it's gonna be Gattaca and Stargate. Yeah.
Matt:The first one. Absolutely not.
Rachel:It was so gonna be Gattaca. No. What was it gonna be?
Matt:Definitely not the second one. Star Kate.
Rachel:Fun fact. Fun fact. Anybody wanna know fun fact? I was in labor with our second child. I was like, Matt.
Matt:Gladiator is also on the list.
Rachel:It's like, Matt, can you please put on a movie? I mean, be distracted. I hear the the walking through the wheat music from gladiator. It's like, did
Matt:you just It's a really good movie.
Rachel:Did she just fucking put on Gladiator when I was in labor? Yeah. No. He totally did.
Matt:It's a good background movie.
Rachel:I mean, it's a good movie. It's a great movie. Is it a labor movie? I don't know. I don't know.
Rachel:I don't know. Which how old is Gattaca? It's gotta be 30 years old now. It's late nineties.
Matt:It's late nineties, so it's, like, 25.
Rachel:Oh, we also have a website while Matt is looking that up, and it is strangeandbeautifuldot club. And I have all sorts of links on there. But if you follow me on Instagram, I do have a Linktree in our
Matt:25 years. Exactly.
Rachel:I do have a Linktree in our
Matt:What is Linktree?
Rachel:Do you know what Linktree is?
Matt:I've only ever heard you say the words Linktree. I have one. There is a Linktree here. I don't know what Linktree is.
Rachel:It's just a page that has links on it. It's like a Like
Matt:a website.
Rachel:Yeah. It's like a it's like but I don't have to build it. I just tell Linktree, please include all these links. And it's like, cool. You wanna pay so we don't put Linktree branding on it?
Rachel:And I go, I don't give a shit if you put Linktree branding on it. It's because that makes it free.
Matt:So it's it's literally a web page
Rachel:with links
Matt:on it.
Rachel:Link that somebody can click on, and it has all well, not everybody's website is just links. Okay? Some people's websites have a bunch of shit on it. And if you don't wanna wade through the shit, if you don't wanna wade through a river of shit and come out clean on the other
Matt:side more than one page on a website.
Rachel:You can just you know what? There are different ways that people interact with the Internet. Okay? And some people like going to independent websites and some people
Matt:one way to interact with the Internet from the command line.
Rachel:K. Not all of us have been using computers since IT guys had to wear lab coats. Okay?
Matt:Hey. I never got to wear a lab coat. I I'm feeling gyped out on this.
Rachel:You should just buy yourself 1.
Matt:I I worked in a hardware lab. I didn't have to wear a lab coat. I didn't get to wear a lab coat.
Rachel:Just buy yourself 1 and embroider on the thing like matte, and then put your little whatever computer designation
Matt:The only thing they said was we're we had to wear close toed shoes, but I still wore my flip flops.
Rachel:God. You're such a rebel.
Matt:I'm such a rebel.
Rachel:Oh, I love a bad boy. Okay. We gotta get that. Stop. Stop.
Rachel:Stop. You're distracting me from wrapping this up. Okay? So I will show you what a link tree is after this by going to my Instagram page and looking at my profile where the link tree lives. Okay?
Rachel:It's where it grows and blossoms.
Matt:Is this the show everyone in the episode?
Rachel:Yeah. Well, you keep fucking distracting me. It's where it's where the link tree lives. Okay? So remember And
Matt:then you remembered.
Rachel:You gotta say your head thing.
Matt:Remember, sometimes the strangest things are the most beautiful too.
Rachel:So be who you are and love what you love. Until next time, friends.
Matt:Bye. Bye.
Nick:You never feel safe when you're the hunted.
