Forever Knight (Season 3 Ep 20) - "Francesca"
I've been on the 4th for a long time. I've seen nutcases who thought they were everything from Louis the 14th to Elvis' alien love child. Let's keep this one in the real world. Okay? Yeah.
Nick:I'll do my best.
Matt:Welcome back, friends.
Rachel:Welcome back. But we didn't say hi. I'm Rachel.
Matt:Hi. I'm Rachel. And I'm poop.
Rachel:Why you can't do me like that? Can we do this again? Hi. I'm Rachel.
Matt:And I'm Matt.
Rachel:And this is Come in 81 kilo.
Matt:A forever night podcast.
Rachel:That was the smoothest one I think we have ever done, and guess what, y'all? This is the 3rd to last episode.
Matt:It's because I I did I messed up the first one on purpose.
Rachel:You don't need to start. Don't start perfect. Just start. Alright. So welcome back friends.
Rachel:It's time forever a forever night episode, forever night season 3 episode 20, Francesca. And I promised you this episode was gonna have another disclaimer, so here we go. This episode is 30 years old. The way that we interacted with the kinds of questions that this episode leaves you asking was so far removed from the way we talk about these things now that I can't even begin to describe to you how much language around gender confirmation and gender studies and all of that that I have had to learn in my lifetime. And the way that this episode treats it is this is a heterosexual cisgendered man who is having dreams about a vampire woman named Francesca.
Matt:From the perspective of that woman, Francesca.
Rachel:That he is Francesca and that he is having sex dreams about having intimate relations with a man as Franchesca, and that this makes him so uncomfortable that he has sought therapy. And the therapist mentions that traditional therapy has failed him, and so that is how he has ended up with this past life regression therapist. So this man has been seeking therapy for these dreams for a while.
Matt:You haven't turned off the drawl yet.
Rachel:I haven't. This is why I shouldn't have started the podcast with my Southern accent.
Matt:Therapy.
Rachel:Therapy. What did I say?
Matt:Oh, you've been doing the therapy.
Rachel:Therapy. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know that. I have another way of saying that.
Rachel:But anyway, what I'm trying to say is the way this man is treated is almost as if he is possessed by the spirit of Francesca. And this is a little like in Sons of Billial, where by the end of it, Nick is more Billial than he is Nick. At the end of this, Frank is more Francesca than he is Francesca. I do not think this episode was trying to raise questions of gender confirmation, whether or not this man who was assigned male at birth was, trans or anything like that. I don't think that that was the dialogue this episode was having.
Rachel:I think that's a 2024 view of what they're talking about. And while there's certainly a lot of discussion to be had around that in this episode, we are going to limit our discussion to the confines of what they are doing in the episode, which is framing this as a man who is possessed by the spirit of a female vampire. And as such, I'll refer to Frank with he, him pronouns. I'll refer to Francesca with she, her pronouns, and we'll just leave it at that. Okay.
Rachel:Does that sound good? Yep. Okay. Put a lot of thought into that. I pulled the discord.
Rachel:I was like, help me. I wanna make sure that I I think about this, that I'm not just like, I'm gonna discuss it like this. You know? Because there's, you know, this has become a more complicated episode over time than it was ever intended to be initially. It's kind of like Ace Ventura, the first one where the bad the the perpetrator of the crime ends up being trans, and that has aged like absolute shit.
Rachel:And I can't even describe to you how I can I'm not going to because it's almost traumatic even remembering, that movie. So we're just gonna move on.
Matt:This reminded me of how in Children of Dune, Leto the second can, like, channel his female ancestors.
Rachel:Yeah. Kinda like that, except, this guy is real conflicted about it. Yeah. He doesn't like that he can feel what it's like to be a woman. But we open on a pale pale.
Rachel:She's so pale. We kinda ditched the pale makeup in season 1. There are times where he's almost, like, comically, cartoonishly clown pale with bright pink cheeks and pink lips, and, we had kinda ditched that. We were done with it. He's just sort of gare at this point.
Rachel:I don't know. He's not even getting haircuts anymore right now, so it's, like, it's totally fine. But then this lady shows up and they were like, hey. We still have, like, 3 containers of that pale foundation from season 1. What are we gonna do with it when they end?
Rachel:They're like, oh, just put it all on her. It's perfectly fine.
Matt:Yeah. Because you clear out the supplies before the show ended.
Rachel:Yeah. So she's, like, super pale. I guess maybe if you were a redhead and you get turned into a vampire, how what level of paleness could you possibly achieve?
Matt:Is this new life goals for me?
Rachel:Deep, deep paleness. So she's super pale. She's walking around with some candles, and she walks up to this guy in a cage, and she snarls at the guy in the cage. And then we we're kinda cutting back and forth between what's happening in the past and what's happening in the present. And in the present, this person with long hair wearing a dress is carrying a guy and lays him out on this table.
Rachel:And then in the past, we see this lady stab the guy from the cage through the heart with a dagger. And then in the present, the man already has a dagger in his chest, and then we see his throat get slit with a scalpel. And then in the past, we see this lady drink a cup of the dude's blood and then go to kiss him. And then actually what we see is in the present, the guy on the table in the restaurant has a kiss print on his forehead. And then the person in long hair and a dress walks off, and that is the introduction to this episode
Matt:of Crime is established.
Rachel:Yeah. That's hard. It was brought across in 12/28. I feel like we've never actually done that whole monologue on the 91 kilo, which just feels like a loss.
Matt:That'll be a bonus after we finish the series.
Rachel:Yeah. We have to decide if we're gonna do any that's fine. We're gonna already get there. So we come back to a slow motion vampire sex scene with the red headed lady who we find out is Franchesca and Nick, which we kinda bury the lead that this is Nick for a while because we're only seeing the back of his head.
Matt:But we all knew.
Rachel:We all know. Who else no. There's no way Garrett was like, wait a minute. Somebody else getting a sex scene? I'm sorry, but I'm fucking in on this.
Rachel:Drop me in, coach. I'm so ready. And just to make everything feel even more awkward, I guess, Frank is describing what it feels like to have sex with Nick. So he says, the first sip is like an explosion.
Matt:Right. Because they're drinking each other's blood.
Rachel:Right. Because they're vampires, and that's how they do it. Mhmm. And she he he, Franchesca. Oh my god.
Rachel:This is such a minefield because we know how loosely attached I am to pronouns at any given moment anyway. Now I really have to pay attention. I am doing my best.
Matt:Narrating his recollection.
Rachel:I know. I've let me have a moment here. I feel like I'm wearing one of those name tags that's like, hello, I'm and then underneath it just says, doing my best. That's me right now. Aren't we all?
Rachel:Yeah. But surprise. It's this hypnotized guy. Frank is being hypnotized, and he's describing all the stuff that's happening. And he's like, I know his dreams, his fears, his loves.
Rachel:And then we get a more graphic description of vampire sex. Like, I can taste his blood in my blood in his blood as I'm drinking his blood, and I can feel him against me and blah blah blah. And, she commences to describe Nick as well. She's like, he is like, I can taste the sands of Jerusalem in his veins, which makes me wonder, was he part of one of the crusades that actually made it to Jerusalem? Because not all of them made it to Jerusalem.
Rachel:There were a bunch of Crusades. It wasn't just the Crusades. There were, like,
Matt:a bunch of the group of Crusades across a period of time.
Rachel:There's one called the children's crusade where a whole bunch of kids got together and decided they were gonna go liberate Jerusalem, and I don't even think they made it out of England.
Matt:That reminds me of one time at scout camp.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Matt:All the all the really young scouts
Rachel:like a good stuff.
Matt:Had gotten their their tote and chick card
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Which, like, you passed the
Rachel:You get to carry a knife.
Matt:Evaluation for being able to carry a knife. And one of the kids decided, we're gonna go bear hunting.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Matt:And so he and some other kids tied their knives to the ends of sticks and went off into the woods, and they all lost their tote and shit cards that day.
Rachel:Kinda like that.
Matt:After they were all corralled back to the campground.
Rachel:Like that, except they were going to go murder people in a city and take it over for the Lord.
Matt:Yeah. Yeah. A little bit different.
Rachel:Kids. So then he's like, I die in his arms, and he dies in mine. And we repeat this quite a bit, and he starts to freak out. And this is when the therapist breaks Frank out of it because he's, like, writhing around in the chair, and he's, like, I die in his arms, and he dies in mine. He dies in mine.
Rachel:And she's, like, Frank. Frank, snap out of it. Good thing she had a code word to get him out just in case he was insensitive.
Matt:It was this code word just yelling Frank really loudly.
Rachel:When I say, Frank, quit it, you will wake up. Okay. Yeah. She doesn't strike me as, like, trained. Something about all the native iconography all around her room makes me feel like she probably took a correspondence course with the lady from Blackwing.
Rachel:It was like, I think I got this. And she's been trying to reach her for clarification, but for some reason, she's not picking up her phone. Darnest thing. Oh, wait. She died.
Rachel:Oh, because Nick took over her body. Oh, that was a deep cut. So, anyway, the therapist, he asks Frank asks the therapist for details. He's like, okay. So what happened?
Rachel:Like, what's my past life? Was I Rasputin, Hitler? Was I on the Titanic? You know, what's going on here? And she's like, oh, you know, that's not like what we do here.
Rachel:I'm not gonna give you any of that. It's not about finding out who you are. It's about just exploring your fears and your subconscious and all the things that are manifesting themselves as a, quote, past life. And he's like, oh, okay. Cool.
Rachel:But, like, can you just give me a hint, like, a little hint? Maybe? You have to understand how disturbing this is for me is what he says, which is why we're going with the he is a reluctant participant in the, a female vampire has taken over my body situation. And, I really think Frank is one of the victims in this scenario when you frame it that way because he was just a regular dude. And then all of a sudden, he started having dreams about being this 18th century vampire, and by the end of it, he gets murdered by the same guy who murdered that 18th century vampire.
Matt:It's just another way that vampires violate your bodily autonomy.
Rachel:Oh, I know we're gonna have to have that talk because we have that talk in this episode. But I'm I'm gonna keep that in a little envelope, kinda like it's the Oscars, and we're not gonna open it until we get to that part of the show.
Matt:Okay.
Rachel:Okay. So then the therapist tells him, you're gonna be alright and, like, shuts the door in his face. Like, bye, Frank. You're gonna be fine. And then she goes back and replays the last part of his tape, which is the, like, he dies in mine, and she's like, whew.
Rachel:Intense. You got a lot going on. And then we cut to the crime scene, and it's Nick walking out of this, whatever, restaurant with Tracy, and he's like, oh, the victim was a poet. He was last seen on Queen Street. Oh, he died.
Rachel:And then they walk up to Natalie, and Natalie's standing there with the body. So she must now tell them how he died because those are the rules. Mhmm. And so Natalie says, he took a knife to the heart. It killed him instantly.
Rachel:His throat was slashed after death, and then he was drained of blood. And since there's no blood around anywhere here, it kind of seems like maybe the killer took the blood away with her. And we refer to the killer as female for most of this episode based solely on the kiss print on the forehead.
Matt:Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
Rachel:So good to know we just slid right in there with the expectations. Yeah. It's fine. You know what? Actually, this is better police work than has happened in the last two episodes.
Rachel:I don't know. But she did leave a distinctive calling card, which is the kiss print, and Natalie says this is as clear as a fingerprint if you can find a suspect to compare it to, and Nick sees the kiss print, and he's like, oh shit. And this actually throws him into a flashback, and it is LaCroix and Nick arriving at Francesca's house and having an immediate fall in lust moment?
Matt:Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nick's used to this.
Rachel:You know what? I really think the line that sold it for Nick was when Lacroix stands up and goes, hello. Let me introduce you to Franchesca, your sister. And Lacroix is like Nick's like, oh, tell me more. Really?
Rachel:I was married to one of my sisters for, like, a 100 years until she left me. I've got a thing for sisters. It's a little gross. I mean, when you think about it too deeply, it's a little gross because clearly none of these women are into LaCroix. Like, LaCroix didn't have a that kind of relationship with Janette.
Rachel:He didn't have that kind of relationship with Franchesca because he's their sire, like their master. Right. And yet Nick is just fucking around the family tree is what he's doing. So, I mean, I guess I don't know. But if when LaCroix changed Nick, did Nick now have LaCroix blood or at least some part of Lacroix's blood in his body?
Rachel:And then if he did, then when Francesca got changed, the same thing would have happened to her. And so then when they had sex, it'd be like drinking a sibling's blood.
Matt:No. They only ever have blood in their body that they've recently consumed.
Rachel:Right. But we just talked about this a couple episodes ago where you insisted that the vampire body changed the blood, and then it became their memories and their feelings. And so if it went through enough of a process, it would have changed into Nick's default blood content, and that would be
Matt:It would have been overlaid with Nick's experiences, but the red blood cells belong to the the cow.
Rachel:Yeah. Oh. Anyway, this is his sister, and this is a little bit gross. So, LaCroix goes, we found ourselves in urgent need of travel, which probably translates to we cut up to shenanigans. We had to get the fuck out of it.
Rachel:Yeah. And Francesca's like, yeah. Cool. Yeah. No worries.
Rachel:Yeah. You know, you're always welcome at any house of mine, and LaCroix is like, see, told you, Nick. She's the best. And Nick is like, yeah. But Laqua didn't tell me how beautiful you were.
Rachel:Not that I would have believed him if he had, Just pretty smooth fucking life. And that's a good one.
Matt:Pretty good.
Rachel:I've never heard of you, but I wouldn't have believed any stories about you anyway because you're way better in reality. And Francesca invites them to dinner. She's like, I was just about to dine, and this is when we'll cause, like, Lacroix. Lacroix. Lacroix is like, oh, yeah.
Rachel:Her estate is known for its vintages, which should include Nick to the the fact that something was going to happen because LaCroix was like, oh, hell yeah. I love it when Franchesca cooks.
Matt:Mhmm.
Rachel:And she tells them she has a special treat.
Matt:Hella sauce.
Rachel:Hella sauce. And we come back to the crime scene, and Tracy gets this weird subplot in this episode, which is introduced in this moment by her feeling of deja vu. She's like, anybody else feel really creeped out by this? Like, they recognize it. Like, they know what's happening.
Rachel:Like, I feel deja vu right now. And Nick is like, okay. And I'm not really gonna address it again because I think it's weird, and I don't know why we included it. But apparently, Tracy You know what? Fucking fine.
Rachel:Why not? You know what? Sure. Sure. And, you know what?
Rachel:It's better than Natalie's immediate armchair quarterbacking
Matt:Because all crime is sexual in nature.
Rachel:There is no sign of sexual assault. There is no sign that this was sexually motivated, which must mean it's sexually motivated.
Matt:It's sexually motivated in a way we can't see.
Rachel:And then she goes on. She doubles down and says that this killer is substituting killing for sex, and she can tell that because nothing sexual happened.
Matt:And there's no evidence of anything sexual happening.
Rachel:And then she says, we are Okay. Like Tracy? You, Natalie? Okay. Are we projecting just a little bit here?
Rachel:Because it kinda feels like it. Because she's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. This lady is really repressed. Like, there's this guy that she really likes, and she really wants to get with him.
Rachel:But for some reason, he's totally he, like, he totally rebuffs every single chance. And this one time, he probably took her out to dinner, and she doesn't really remember what happened, which is kinda weird because this guy can also hypnotize people. And maybe she got hypnotized and something really did happen, but it was really weird and he didn't want her to remember. Anyway, so I think she's really repressed. Thank you, Natalie.
Rachel:I mean, I just really I really am.
Matt:Everybody has experiences like that. Right? Yeah.
Rachel:It's totally fine. So then we cut to Frank, and Frank is putting a weapon in this breastplate that he has bolted to a cinder block wall.
Matt:Sure. Why not? Doesn't everybody have a room like this?
Rachel:Yeah. I don't know what's happening here. We don't actually figure out where that is until the very end of the episode. I guess we're supposed to be like, it's his apartment, but his apartment doesn't have cinder blocks. So I don't
Matt:know. It's, the slaughterhouse?
Rachel:It is. Yeah.
Matt:Yeah. Yeah. But what slaughterhouse? What so is that, like, his day job or something? Why does he have access to this?
Rachel:I don't know. Because I don't fucking know. Because Nick is like, oh, the chef in the slaughterhouse. She said it. Then he just dips, and then he goes straight to wherever Franchesca is.
Rachel:Like, maybe there's only one slaughterhouse in the entirety of Toronto, and Nick just knew where it was. Maybe that's where he gets his Kirkland blood kegs now that Costco has discontinued them. Slaughterhouse. Yeah. Maybe it's the one that he met Laquanne in Dark Knight.
Matt:The one that Laquano owns as a subsidiary of the Raven.
Rachel:This doesn't in any way look like a slaughterhouse. It's just a brick building. And he's got like a cage in it, and somehow he cooked there. I don't know what's happening. It's fine.
Rachel:It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And then we go back to the morgue, and Natalie, is calling Nick out for being a little bit quiet about this case. She's like, you're not saying a whole lot about this case. And he goes, okay.
Rachel:So what were the stomach contents?
Matt:A hem.
Rachel:A hem and sat sadly. Natalie Natalie says he had expensive pate, steak, caviar, and a good merlot, like, only meat. He had meat. He had a pate. He had steak.
Rachel:And then he had caviar. What? Do you think he took do you think she took a steak, smeared the pate on top, and then put the caviar on top of the pate, and then served it like a sandwich, like with a good Merlot? And she goes, the condemned man's last meal. What if somebody put a pate steak and caviar in front of me, I'd be like, what the fuck is happening right now?
Matt:I'd eat the steak.
Rachel:I don't know what the pate and the caviar. Maybe if they put it together as a sandwich. And then she goes, or was he being fattened for the kill? And Nick is like, maybe. And Natalie goes, well, the kiss print had a mixture of lipstick and blood, so she's drinking their blood.
Matt:This guy's blood has
Rachel:his blood. His blood. Yeah.
Matt:Yeah. She
Rachel:goes, his blood, Nick. She's drinking their blood. Could also just be putting it on her lips Right. And then kissing him on the forehead. But that's fine, Natalie.
Rachel:You know what? Just keep leap into those conclusions. Maybe that's how she's getting her exercise today. I don't know. But she confronts Nick about this maybe being a vampire.
Rachel:She's like, this this killer is drinking the blood, so they're obviously a vampire because humans can't like, if you try to drink blood, your body has a way of shutting that down.
Matt:The human body was a way of shutting that down.
Rachel:Remember that senator? Yeah. Do you remember that? Okay. Yeah.
Rachel:Look it up. So anyway yeah. So we know it doesn't go past the lips like a an invisible force field appears, and if you try it just, like, falls out the side of your mouth. Weirdest thing. And he tells her because she says, well, there's no fang marks.
Rachel:You know, like, I got his he got his throat slit. So I guess he can't be a vampire. And Nick's like, why me? It still could be.
Matt:It takes all kinds.
Rachel:He tells her there's no fang marks because killing the victim with a knife to the heart, makes the usual methods unfeasible. Niklika, I know that there are no fang marks.
Nick:There wouldn't be. Killed with a knife to the heart, sudden death sweetens the blood, but it stops the circulation. We need the beating heart to feed, to bring the blood to the neck. If the victim's dead, the body has to be drained.
Rachel:So this is a vampire?
Nick:I've seen it done before.
Matt:Right. Because they need the heart to keep pumping blood up
Rachel:to the neck. Yep. He says sudden death sweetens the blood, but stops the circulation. And so you can't feed the normal way because nothing is bringing blood to you, so you have to drain the body in order to drink the blood. And Natalie's like, oh, yeah.
Rachel:That makes a lot of sense. She goes, so it is a vampire. I mean, he didn't say that. He just said that were I a as a vampire, were I to kill someone this way, here's how I would drink the blood afterwards. And then we go immediately into a flashback, and they're watching this concert of like a string quartet.
Rachel:And I love how the way that the people are playing the instruments has nothing to do with the music that's playing.
Matt:The magic of cinema.
Rachel:And LaCroix is like, you know, I taught Nero how to play the fiddle. We played it together as Rome burned. I just feel like quoting Dark Knight, and I don't know why. I'm feeling nostalgic for the beginning now that we're at the end. Mhmm.
Rachel:And Nick gets really excited. He's like, oh my god. They did such a good job. You can feel the passion, and you just don't feel passion in people anymore yet because they now live past the age of 40, so you're not, like, burning the candle on both ends to squeeze it all in to your 2 decades of life. And he talks to Forbear, who is the violinist, and he goes, you have a brilliant future ahead of you.
Rachel:And then and then Francesca is like, you guys are done for the night. You guys can go to bed. Tell the other tell the other musicians, you know. Go go back to your cages, I guess. You know that Well,
Matt:are they in the cages yet? I imagine they they have nice rooms right now.
Rachel:Yeah. Right now. And LaCroix goes, see, it was worth the ride out here. I told you. Right, Nick?
Rachel:And he goes, yeah. Especially when one has to leave Paris in a bit of a hurry. Then he's like, how do you get these artists all the way out here? This is really great. How do you get them to come to you?
Rachel:And she's like, oh my god. Nobody pays artists. All I have to do is tell them I'm gonna give them food, and they'd literally just come out here. It's like, I don't even have to hypnotize them. It's the weirdest thing.
Rachel:And then he goes, oh, well, must everyone sing for their center set Must everyone sing for their supper countess? And she replies, all my guests must earn my approval, but you will not have to sing. All my guests must earn my approval, monsieur. You will not have to sing. And he looks so jazzed.
Rachel:He's like, he
Matt:knows exactly. He's picking up what she's putting down.
Rachel:Oh, he was also putting it down. He was throwing so much down. She tripped over it, and he pretty much figured that that was her picking it up. And now he they're all in. So it's just happening.
Rachel:And then we come back to the present, and Natalie is like, okay. So you know who did this? Like, you've seen this before? And he's like, well, yeah. But she It can't be her.
Rachel:She dead. And this is when Tracy comes in, and she's like, we found another body. It's in a parking garage in the beaches. We probably should head out there. So they go out there and then we get introduced to this reporter, which I love how we've gone 74 episodes and we've had 2 episodes, 3.
Rachel:Maybe 3 episodes with reporters ever and this is the first time we introduce 1 and he gets a name and a backstory. I mean, he's kinda useful for the plot. Like, he's required for the plot, so I get it. But also I don't know. It's just weird to throw this guy in here, in the, like, of the whole series.
Rachel:So they get stopped by this reporter, and they actually stop and talk to him even though Tracy immediately tells him, go swallow a sock, Fuller.
Matt:That was an interesting rebuttal.
Rachel:Yeah. Oh, go swallow a sock, Fuller.
Matt:Quite know how like, what's the severity of go swallow a sock? Go fuck yourself.
Rachel:But we can't say it on USA.
Matt:Is that higher or is that above or below? Like, what what what's the the unusual way I saw it written down? It was like, go consume a satchel of Richards.
Rachel:Yeah. Kinda like that. Yeah. Or like in shows like Farscape where they would make up cuss words?
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Wasn't it Frell?
Matt:Yep.
Rachel:Yeah. So, anyway, blah blah blah. Doesn't matter. No comment. The only reason this reporter is here is because he leaks this news to the press, and that's how we get in touch with the therapist.
Rachel:Literally his only purpose.
Matt:Oh, yeah. In the plot here. Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And Tracy's like, as they walk away. And Nick's like, wow.
Rachel:You know, what was that? And she's like, well, I dated him once. He goes, oh, what was that like? She goes, no. Like, I dated him once.
Matt:Went on a date.
Rachel:I went on a single date. And let me come back to the therapist because she's got Frank, hypnotized again, and he's remembering some stuff. And he's like, it's quiet. I can hear every heartbeat, and she goes, what year is it? You know?
Rachel:Are you Francesca? What year is it? And he's like, oh, it's 1755. And he remembers walking in and seeing the man asleep in her bed
Matt:The man.
Rachel:In Franchesca's bed.
Matt:We can all see the man.
Rachel:Yeah. And he, like, leans to the side, and the cam like, in the chair, Frank leans to the side. And the camera is, like, out, and he starts going, I know who he is. And then the camera zooms in, and he goes, I know who he is. And then it zooms in again, and he's like, I know who he is.
Rachel:And you're like, dude, we all know who he is. That's fine. And he goes, he's my lover and my killer, Nicholas Chevalier. Do you think that just means night, doesn't it? Night.
Rachel:Yeah. It means night. So his name is Nicholas, French version of night. Shit. Let me come back, and it's because Tracy is having this weird dream about Franchesca, and she sees herself dead like the murder victims.
Rachel:I don't care. So then Frank breaks into the therapists.
Matt:None of us do.
Rachel:None of us do. Even Tracy's like, oh, shit. And so Frank breaks into his therapist's office and steals his own tapes, which is theoretically his property anyway. Maybe that's only how it works in the US. Like, if it has his voice on it or your voice on it, you can request it.
Matt:Yeah. This was way before GDPR.
Rachel:Yeah. It's fine. Okay. So then Frank breaks in, obviously. He steals his own tapes except for 1, and then he comes back.
Rachel:We come back to see him, and he's, like, laying at his house listening to the tapes and remembering as he's listening to himself talk about being Franchesca.
Matt:He's having a waking dream.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. And then we actually cut into a flashback because he hears the line, even in the shadow of our master, he's the one I see. And whoever did the camerawork on this was, like, really enamored with the scene where Nick stands up and, like, shakes Francesca's hand because we see it in, like, 5, 6, maybe 7 times, like, a lot. And then we come back.
Rachel:Oh, I just had, like, a this was really cool. I'm gonna, like, whoop. We're gonna have a palate cleanser for a minute. Okay. I was watching a cool thing about one of the episodes of Star Trek where, which one is it?
Rachel:Where they keep reliving the same timeline over and over again. And I think it's Jonathan Frakes. So it's number 1. What's his name?
Matt:I guess Riker.
Rachel:Riker. Thank you. Just left me. Riker is and then every time when somebody realizes they're reliving the timeline, like, weirder and weirder things keep happening. And there were certain scenes that were the same every time they relived them.
Rachel:So what they did was actually set up, like, 5 cameras and record it all at one time. And then each time when they came back, they just used a different camera angle.
Matt:Oh, so it was actually the same recording
Rachel:Yeah. So they could get from a different perspective. Recording every single time.
Matt:Clever.
Rachel:That was pretty cool. Anyway, that's what they did here. Let's go with that. So then then they go then we go to the flashback. Like, we go to Frank's flashback about Franchesca, and it's Franchesca arriving her room and waking Nick up.
Rachel:And this is another one that I don't suggest you listen to with really good Yeah. It's really uncomfortable. It's a lot better if you just think he's being, like, sultry and seductive instead of, like, locker room dude being like, hey. Yeah. I'm a hit that again.
Rachel:It's like, mhmm. Mhmm. Alright. Yeah. It's so weird.
Rachel:Don't just don't do it. And she gives him this cup, and that's kinda weird.
Matt:It's kinda like a cat when they go, like, when they're eating. That's that's how Nick is being.
Rachel:Yeah. They're like, those. Yeah. She gives him his cup, and he sips it, and he's like, shit. It's forebear.
Rachel:And I love it when he drinks it. He actually gets this thoughtful look, and then we hear violin music playing.
Matt:I'm allergic to violinists.
Rachel:She told me it was a musician. That fuck. The last time I was remember the remember the episode that was basically a music video where he, like Yeah. Tripped out. That's what happens.
Rachel:See, he can't get too close to musicians.
Matt:He had a relapse.
Rachel:But he gets pissed. He's like, you killed for bear.
Matt:I really liked that one.
Rachel:Anyway oh, in my notes, I put in parentheses, don't listen to this part on headphones. And then we come back from the flashback, and we actually don't come back to the flashback from the flashback to Francesca slash Frank. We come back to Nick and Nat, and they're in the morgue. And Natalie goes, hold up. You could tell who it was from just one sip.
Rachel:And Nick goes, who it was, what he thought, who he loved, how he died. And then we get my favorite, like, quotation in probably the entire series. And I know I've said that, like, 6 times, but I mean it every time. I feel like everyone should know that now, but it's his, you have to understand that every drop of blood has your whole life in it. So you could tell who it was from just one sip?
Nick:Who it was, what he thought, who he loved, how he died. You have to understand that every drop of blood has your whole life in it. It's not just our food. It's the way we feel life. Imagine if you could know someone's soul just by sharing their blood.
Nick:Everything you know, everything you are transformed into touch and taste. Imagine the temptation to take just one sip. One sip and then another and another. To take them inside you and know every secret. To let them know yours.
Nick:To be them. That's why it's such a tough habit to break.
Matt:I think this was vampire mythology that really could have been established a lot earlier in the series.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:And it would have added a lot of more depth to the whole blood drinking thing.
Rachel:Say. We talk about it in last act, which is season 1 episode 4, because she remembers things that she saw in his blood when they were making love
Matt:Right.
Rachel:Slash vampire banging. And that is it. And then we go radio silence until the 3rd episode from the very last episode. And all of a sudden, we're getting the depth of vampire mythology that we wanted this entire fucking time. But congratulations, y'all.
Rachel:It's now and then it's gone because this is the 3rd to last episode of the entire series. And this is such a good moment because he's finally explaining to Natalie why every time she nags him to give up blood, he can't do it. And how the fact that he's already stopped drinking human blood is a big enough sacrifice because he has given up feeling alive.
Matt:Now Nick only has memories of fields and grain. He has replaced
Rachel:The sun on his back.
Matt:He's replaced the deepest sense of human connection that any humanoid can experience for chewing. Memories of entire lives of chewing and then and chewing again. And he's trying to convey how much of a loss this is.
Rachel:I feel like we're both trying to make the same point right now, but we're just coming at it from different angles.
Matt:I'm I'm trying to highlight the preposterousness of Nick's actual situation.
Rachel:Okay. So maybe
Matt:At this point, he's gone back to human blood.
Rachel:Okay. So all vampires were originally human. Right?
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:So maybe there's no clean transaction between humans and vampires. So every time you drink a human's blood, part of their life leaks into you. But a vampire was never a cow, and so maybe when you drink cow blood, it's just nothing.
Matt:It's like boiling water.
Rachel:It's like static. You get nothing. You get, I don't feel hungry anymore, but you don't get any sense of life. You don't get any sense of another person which must feel intensely lonely. You have the ability to completely understand another person.
Rachel:It is always just the thickness of their skin away, and you have completely restricted yourself from being able to do that. That has to be really fucking hard. And the fact that we didn't use that throughout the rest of the series, listen, when we do the reboot y'all, I promise, we're gonna keep it because I
Matt:love that. Day 1.
Rachel:That's not an original thing. That pops up every once in a while, the whole, like, I can see your memories in your blood thing. And I'm always like,
Matt:Warm bodies, for instance.
Rachel:Well, he eats the brain. That's a little bit different. But this is like, you know, you're like, but how though? Because it's just plasma and red blood cells. But you know what?
Rachel:It's cool. I don't care. If being a vampire is a little bit mystical, then maybe the blood drinking thing is a little bit mystical too. So we'll just
Matt:Everybody gets to be a little bit magical.
Rachel:And I think
Matt:that's the thing. Exist.
Rachel:Yeah. Yes. This is a world where vampires exist. If you tell me blood carries memories, fucking fine. I have no notes.
Rachel:I don't care. And, actually, this is an important note. Kristen has a video that uses this dialogue, and she did, like, a voice over with Nick and Natalie scenes, and she plays, like, snippets of this over it with this really sultry music. By the way, go check it out because it's really good. So then, my favorite part about this is Nick is telling Natalie this, and she's just, like, turned on.
Rachel:Like, she's watching him like, oh, yeah. That sounds amazing. You can just know a person completely. That's great. Oh my god.
Rachel:And then he drops the line, and now you understand why it's such a difficult habit to break. And she's like, oh, wow. I don't know. Maybe she actually realizes, like, it's kinda strange. Right?
Rachel:Because if a vampire feels life by drinking human blood, then when Nick stops drinking human blood, he actually gives up his own his only way of completely interacting with humanity in order to become closer to humanity?
Matt:Oh, I don't know that it's as much of a, like, complete loss or what what would be an equivalent? Like, getting magic and then spending a 100 years learning to perfect using that magic to interact with the world and building it up as an instinct and then losing all of your magic.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:And then you have to go back to being a regular person.
Rachel:He had to figure out how to do it all again.
Matt:And You have to lost something, but you're it's because you had something extra that other people don't don't have. And and now you have to you know the loss of it. Yeah. You know the difference. But for everybody else, it's like, we'll just
Rachel:Just do it. What's wrong
Matt:with you? Get along Yeah. With what you need to do.
Rachel:Now, on that note, 7 episodes after we last saw him, guess what y'all? Vashon is
Matt:back. Oh, finally.
Rachel:Look at Vashon. There he is. He's talking to Tracy, and I spent the whole time. I had to rewind it and watch it again when I was taking notes because I was like, did he cut his hair while he was gone? Is it actually a little bit now?
Nick:It looks
Matt:extra fluffy.
Rachel:It looks a little bit more clean.
Matt:If you say so.
Rachel:And I just and there was no bangs. The bangs are, like, swept to the side. Maybe that's what it was. I don't know. But he's talking to Tracy, and Tracy's like, okay.
Rachel:So here's the sitch, describes the murder, and Vashon's like, well, you could have a connoisseur on your hands because there are vampires who get off on the death rush. I mean, I'm not one of them or anything, but, like, there are vampires that do that. And, you know, like, these days, it's an expensive taste, but you can always find people who will cater to any taste for a price. And then he explains the idea of, quote, special vintages, which is like a poet, a musician. He goes, even an actor would bring a premium if you have the right customer.
Rachel:I mean, they taste like cigarettes, cocaine, and shit, but, you know, they're available if you want them. And then they kinda brainstorm about the type of person who might do this. And in the end, what they kinda decide is, is it really a vampire? Because this person is leaving these bodies out in a very public place. They kinda wanna get caught.
Rachel:And if you were a real connoisseur, you were somebody who was procuring blood, you'd be profesh. You would never find the body. And Vashon's like, well, I mean, if you do find out it's a vampire and then you find her, what are you gonna do? And Tracy's like, oh my god. I don't know.
Rachel:I mean, like, I can't call you. You're not gonna come.
Matt:You're you're unreliable.
Rachel:I know. I love how he's not like, I'll follow you around and help you. Like, he would have, I don't know, 13 episodes ago. Instead, he's like, oh, wow. Best of luck.
Rachel:That sounds like you got there's some shit going on. That's
Matt:Yeah. Yeah. In in a week, I'm still gonna be tuning my guitar.
Rachel:That's later. He's not tuning yet. And then we get Frank again, and Frank is still listening to these tapes. He talked a lot, apparently, and he had a lot to listen to. And this is the moment where he I think we're supposed to see that Frank and Francesca, the line is blurring significantly because we realized that he set his room up to look exactly like Francesca's room.
Rachel:And he ends up walking over to the window, and we get this, like, Frank slash Francesca looking out the window scene where he's looking out the window, and then in the past, she's looking out the window. And they remember
Matt:He's already been living a life that's in line with the day to day kind of habits and preferences Yeah. I think she's
Rachel:slowly been nibbling away at Frank. Like, she's slowly been taking pieces of Frank so that he's becoming more Francesca than Frank. And then he remembers meeting Nick again. And this is when we cut to the to the precinct and the therapist actually comes into the police because she has realized, thanks to the reporter writing an article about these murders and describing the way that the murder was done, which is kind of trash because usually they don't do that because then you can have copycats come in and say, oh, yeah. I did it.
Rachel:Let me give you the details, but you don't know if they learned those details from the newspaper or if they actually did it. So but whatever. In this case, it helps because the therapist read the description and was like, oh, shit. That sounds like Frank. And she's like, I guess it's technically patient like, doctor patient confidentiality, but not if people are getting hurt.
Rachel:And then so she tells them about Frank slash Francesca and that they were describing fantasies that sound a lot like what the murders are described of as in the press and then tells them that Frank stole all but one tape. And Tracy goes, wait a minute, he?
Matt:What?
Rachel:And this is when that this is probably the most dated interaction, if there's a dated interaction in this episode, because then the therapist tells them that he's been undergoing past life regression, and that yes, the dominant personality that has been appearing in their sessions is female. And Reese, very derogatorily, one might say, it's definitely not like a.
Matt:It's a boomer vibe.
Rachel:Bit of a boomer vibe says, apparently, he thinks he's the reincarnation of some 18th century countess, a vampire. And both Tracy and Nick are, like, oh my god. Vampires. So what? What?
Rachel:You guys are crazy. What? That's crazy.
Matt:Excuse me for a minute while I go Is it
Rachel:hot in here? It feels kinda hot in here. Is anybody else hot? No. I don't sweat.
Rachel:I don't have a body temperature. Oh, okay. And so they can listen to the day. Nick sweats blood. Nick sweats.
Rachel:Bruce is like, are you sweating blood? He's like, what? Oh my god. It's a prostate thing. I'm sorry.
Matt:I was thinking, is there any Canadian beverage that has a lot of red dye in it?
Rachel:Cheer wine.
Matt:Is that Canadian?
Rachel:No. It's only in the Southern United States. There's so much red dye, your whole mouth turns red.
Matt:I was just thinking if if they're oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, it's the Ribena.
Rachel:Sorry. I had a lot of ribena the last week. He's like, listen. I read about this cocktail online. This lady wait made one up.
Rachel:It's ribena, vodka, Red Bull, and seltzer.
Matt:And I've just been mainlining the shit always.
Rachel:That was me. Also, throw a twist of lime in there. It's really good. So he was like, I've been using the Red Bull to stay awake. I've been using the Ribena to stay fine.
Rachel:I've been using the vodka to deal with Natalie, and then the seltzer just lowers the calories.
Matt:But that's how Nick explains blood sweat.
Rachel:He's he's like, oh my god. I need to cut back on the vodka. Not the ribena. Never the ribena. And so, anyway, they listen to the tape.
Rachel:This is the final tape. And luckily, this is the tape where Frank is describing how he kills people in the old knife through the heart trick. He's like, first of all, this is not as easy as it looks. You've gotta kill them at just the right moment because it pours their feelings into their blood, and then you can taste the lust for me and the fear of me, and it's like the best. You know what I mean?
Rachel:And Nick is sitting there like, I am a little turned on right now, and I just need to play this off as discomfort. That's what it looks like. Like, whoo. Yeah. No.
Rachel:They because you have to imagine, there is a part of Nick that is Nick, and he has described that he has a vampire. So he has, like, a set of instincts that are purely vampiric, which he thinks of this sort of separate from himself. And when he hears this kind of stuff, there has to be an immediate reaction over which he has no control.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And so this is hard to listen to because part of him is uncomfortable and part of him is wildly turned on all at the same time. And the therapist is talking, which is kind of helpful because she's a bit of a wet blanket. And she's like, he came to me because he was having dreams of himself as a woman making love to a man, and he was feeling the urge to be this woman. And this is the part where we are very much not going to talk about the implications of that. And she says he was heterosexual, and he wanted to have control over this thing that was happening to him.
Rachel:And Reese says, continuing his real, real, judgy way of interacting with like, hold it together, Reese. You just went on a, like, rage fueled campaign against this guy. Can you give someone else the benefit of the doubt that there might be something happening in their lives that you have not you have no conception of exactly what that is? Like, can you leave it? Because he goes, which one of you decided he had been a woman in a former life?
Matt:I'm kind of waiting for him to walk through the precinct, try to get a cup of water, and just say, I just don't get these kinds of people.
Rachel:We haven't
Matt:done that well. Understand how a person would think that way.
Rachel:Well, that was kind of what that whole last episode was was I don't get these people, which nobody does. It's cool. Yeah. So but, like, come on, Reese. Which one of you decided he'd been a woman in a former life?
Rachel:And this is we are not going to talk about the implications of the which one of you decided he was a woman because that is not what this episode is trying to go with.
Matt:Right. This is
Rachel:more of a criticism on the past life regression therapy Right. Than it is on the Frank slash Francesca situation. Right. This is Reese being incredulous about the therapy he was receiving, not necessarily about his gender identity. So that's what we're gonna stick with because they are not having a discussion about gender identity.
Rachel:It was not in the zeitgeist like it is now.
Matt:Right. The this is forever night season 3 episode 20 through a 1995 lens, not a 20 24 lens.
Rachel:Right. 2024, you're like, hold up. What do you mean decided he who decided he was a woman? But your knee jerk reaction is to be immediately offended by the implication that his gender was something that was decided by the therapist or whatever. But that's not what they're going with.
Rachel:So we have to not go with it. We have to go with what Reese is talking about, which is the this woman came in and said she'd been hypnotizing this guy into remembering his past life, and he remembered being an 18th century vampire woman. And so the outrage is, what do you mean in a past life? Past lives don't exist. That's the outrage we're supposed to be going with here, so that's what we're gonna go with.
Matt:Okay.
Rachel:So the therapist says because she immediately reacts to Reese as if the criticism is about her therapy because she says traditional therapy had failed him. He went and saw other traditional therapists, but they weren't helping him. That's why he came
Matt:to me. Came to me, the crackpot.
Rachel:The the experimental therapist. I don't know.
Matt:I was I was being hyperbolic.
Rachel:Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's what the crackpot thing is what Reese is thinking, that this lady is what part of her therapy played into what Frank is doing right now, I think, is the question. And she explains that it's not about whether the past life is a real life. It just helps them unlock their fears and hopes and dreams and that it just happened to be that the past life that he described in the therapy sessions was from a female perspective and that that is immaterial to her overall therapy approach.
Rachel:And Nick is kind of listening, but, also, he goes into a flashback where this is the part where he's pissed that she killed the the violin, bro.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And he's like, you fucking wasted him, and she's like, wasted? What are you talking about? Now we can savor him, and he's immortal just like us. I mean, you want me to get you a violin right now, and then you can play the violin just like he did? And he's like, yeah.
Rachel:For, like, 2 fucking hours, and then it's all gonna be gone. And she's like, then I'll get you another one. And Nick is a little handsy. He does a lot of grabbing her and throwing her around.
Matt:Yeah. He gets a little rough, but he he's upset because because he feels like she's done something reprehensible.
Rachel:Is actively harming people. She's actively murdering people. So that's I think it's more of a well, first Nick Nick actively murders people. I know. This is one of those ones where you have to kinda squint a little because
Matt:Right. Where because Nick is so little. What Nick is implying is, yes, there's the humans that we, like, consume their blood and toss them into the middin heap and move on as if they never existed. But then there are the humans that we want to keep around Yeah. Because we they entertain us.
Rachel:He was one of the interesting ones, and you wasted it. He could have given 3, 4 more concerts before we murdered him. Jesus, Francesca. So I think what we're gonna do is just squint a little at the violence, because I think what they're going with is she's not necessarily a woman. She's more of a vampire, so they are on par in terms of strength and physical prowess.
Rachel:So he is capable of throwing her around. She's capable of throwing him around, so it's not the same, but it's also kinda the same. And I don't know. I don't know how I feel about this because this is actually, like, the second time. The first time he throws her, it's because they're getting ready to do the vampire nasty, and he tosses her on the bed, like, we're about to do it rough.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And then this time is like, you bitch. You killed forebear, and so he throws around the bed. And we're not given enough context to real at to know what the what constitutes acceptable between male and female vampires? Were they both human? He's absolutely in the wrong here, just like she would be in the wrong if she was tossing him around.
Rachel:But I don't know. This isn't a problem we solve, uncommon 81 kilo. Just know that I'm conflicted about the fact that he tosses her around.
Matt:Okay. So this, this reminds me of a discussion I saw on the interwebs. There's this, manga slash anime called Invincible.
Rachel:Okay.
Matt:And it's about this guy. It's kind of a a Superman story, but a Superman was a fucking asshole.
Rachel:Okay.
Matt:And so he comes, and he kinda keeps the world safe because he falls in love with this human woman. And, but he's, like, really judgy of anybody that's, like, less powerful than him or or humans' attempts to kind of do anything Yeah. On par with him. But one of his things is he goes straight for the head Okay. Anytime he's fighting somebody.
Matt:And it makes all of the fights, like, really graphic and brutal because he he there are so many crushed heads. Yeah. I have not watched the series.
Rachel:Okay.
Matt:I have just read read about this example. And so it comes up regularly. Why does he always go for the head? Why is his default response for when he wants to, like, incapacitate somebody is head crush mode. And so somebody was explaining this.
Matt:On their home planet, they are all that powerful. Right? He is just one of an entire race of aliens that are all this powerful. Their bodies are nearly indestructible. The only way they can do any real harm to each other is by hitting each other on the head really hard.
Rachel:Okay.
Matt:And so his entire life, okay. If this is a serious fight, if I actually wanna take you out, I gotta go for the head. And if I hit you real, real hard, I might stun you for a little bit. But then he comes to Earth, and he has this built in reaction of this is a serious fight. I need to incapacitate you.
Matt:I need to go straight for the head. That's his reflex. That's, you know, built in default strategy. Yeah. But then when he's fighting these, Earth superheroes or supervillains, whatever, if he punches them in the head really hard, their head explodes.
Matt:So for vampires who are really strong and durable, if Nick has been around at this point for, what, 5, 6 100 years, if you're in a fight with another vampire, oh, this is a serious fight. I have to get really, really physical, and that's the only way I can do any kind of, like, have any real effect on you to where you might, like, pause or, like, I might be able to stun you a little bit if I throw you really hard. So this might be the equivalent of, like, tapping somebody on the side of the head to get their attention And they're they're chuck you across the room.
Rachel:That's what I mean. We don't know, like, how if you have 2 vampires, what constitutes normal? Like, what constitutes okay?
Matt:Physical do you get?
Rachel:Yeah. So we're just gonna leave it. We come back to the therapist, and she's like, well, Frank sublimated his hunger for sexual attraction into this vampire fantasy complete with this love, the dark and dangerous Nicholas Chevalier. And she says that Francesca is just a manifestation of his desire that he could not separate that he could separate from himself and therefore control his own impulses. And they're like, okay.
Rachel:But why the vampire, though? And she's like, well, the vampire is an archetype an archetype for like, it's an archetype that's buried deeply in our collective unconscious, and in creating Francesca, he created a persona that had the sexual freedom that he never had. And this whole dialogue gets a little bit like, are we saying this guy is creating this persona because he can't reconcile mentally the fact that he's maybe not straight and maybe not male? I don't know where we're going with this, except maybe he was I don't know. And because the nineties didn't have a way they didn't have the language to tell us what they're talking about, we can only extrapolate it, and then we're only gonna be able to see it from 20 24 perspective.
Rachel:We can't rewind our brains 30 years.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:They are just implying that this guy is sexually repressed. And probably what they mean by sexually repressed is he hasn't had a girlfriend in a while, or he has difficulty finding women or performing with women.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:That's literally probably what they're talking about. Though when we're hearing it, we're like, oh, so this guy is gay, and he doesn't want to admit he's gay. Is that what we're talking about? Or he's he's actually a woman, but he was assigned male at birth. I don't know what no.
Rachel:That's 2024. You have to remember what they're talking about. This is the nineties. And Reese is like, okay. Thank you for the therapy lesson, but also what does this have to do with killing?
Rachel:And she says, you know, in the vampire myth, killing is sexual, and sexual freedom becomes the freedom to kill, which is what Nick says. He goes, yeah. Sexual freedom becomes the freedom to kill. And you're like, oh god. We're going there.
Rachel:Because then Tracy says
Matt:all pitch in. Tracy says all kind of look around at each other like, wait. We all have some insightful comment about this particular vampire topic. Yeah. That's really weird.
Rachel:Because Tracy says if he were a vampire, he would believe it gave him the permission to kill as part of his nature. And Nick just gives her a look like, what? And she's like, I mean, at least that's what they say in the myth. And Nick goes, yeah. Well, myths can be pretty powerful.
Rachel:And you're like, oh my god. We went there. We went there. If you go there, you have to you have to have the is a vampire killing somebody sexual assault conversation. I don't wanna have that conversation.
Rachel:I just I feel like I've spent 70 some episodes deliberately not having that conversation, and I don't wanna have it right now. And why did they bring this up? And this is where the vampire gets super murky, and this is why the vampire is super fun to play with because they really walk a line. I mean, like, a werewolf a werewolf might kill you and eat you, which obviously you can't consent to theoretically.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:But also, they might turn you into a werewolf, which is like, meh. I'm not happy about that. And then, like, swamp thing might drown you. You know, there's monsters and they might overtly kill you, but only the vampire is viewed as, like, an attractive monster. Like, there's this inherent, sexuality to the vampire mythology unless you go full monster vampire, which is why I think a lot of people like to live in vampire monster monster vampire 30 days of night land.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Because then it's very cut and dry. They are the bad guy. They bite you. They drink your blood. You die.
Rachel:Okay? Great. Done. But then you come back over here into, like, romance. Vampires are able to mask land, and this is when we get real, real fun, but real, real complicated, which is why they're hard to do right.
Rachel:Right? And ironically, Joss Whedon, when he did the vampires and Buffy, the reason he gives them the demon face was because he wanted it to be very clear that they were monsters, but that they could also have a human face, which is really ironic that Joss Whedon made a monster that could also have a human face. Knowing what we now know about Joss Whedon, just gonna leave that there. So anyway, someday, I will have a podcast about vampires, and we will completely unpack why vampires are the best trope for, like, dragging out human nature and exploring the nature of humans and how they interact and the implications of being othered and whether you're othered in your sexuality or othered in your, like, the way your brain works or whatever. And all of that, you can play with so beautifully with the vampire myth because it's so nuanced and it gives you so many different paintbrushes to paint with.
Rachel:But that is not today, so we are just gonna keep on rolling. Because after Nick makes the, yes, myth can be very powerful statement, the therapist is like, well, yeah. Because she doesn't notice that literally everyone is vibing right now, and they're all looking at each other like, are we all talking about vampires? Because we know what vampires are. That's probably the best part about the Traci weird subplot side story thing that's happening because we kind of Follow
Matt:the clues.
Rachel:The clues. We kind of forgot that Tracy knew about vampires, but not about Nick, and we forgot to play with it. And now they're like, whoop. Let's drag that out, shake the dust off, throw it back at us. And the therapist says, you know what?
Rachel:Actually, I think I'm kind of way in over my head here. I was literally only treating this guy for, and she uses the term gender confusion. We might now say gender confirmation, but she says gender confusion and issues of sexuality and identity, not for this. And Nick is like, okay. Well, can you go make a sketch of Frank and, captain?
Rachel:I think we should probably go to his place and take a look around. And Reese is like, oh, yeah. Totes. You go do that. That sounds like a great idea.
Matt:I'll scrape up a warrant.
Rachel:I'll scrape up a warrant. And then he goes, Nick. Nick. Because Tracy just walked out with the therapist, and he's like, I've been on the force a long time. I've seen a lot of shit.
Rachel:I've seen a lot of people believe there are some really weird stuff, but I need you to try to keep this in the real world. Okay? And Nick goes, I'll do my best.
Matt:Aye aye, captain.
Rachel:Do my best. Oh, yeah. I'll keep it rooted in a world where vampires exist. That's what I'll do. And then they go to Frank's
Matt:house. Reality.
Rachel:Yeah. And this is where Nick recognizes immediately that this looks a lot like Francesca's bedroom, and he has kind of a sexy flashback. And then he goes to talk to LaCroix about it because he's, he's a little unsettled. So he goes to see LaCroix in his pod lab, and LaCroix is like, Franchesca is dead. Remember how I took you to her house to meet her, and then you immediately murdered her?
Rachel:Remember that part? Yeah. And then we lived in her house for, like, another 100 years because it was paid off. We didn't have anywhere else to go. And the artist kept just showing up, and I kept killing them, and you got so mad at me.
Rachel:Remember that? And Nick is like, yeah. Yeah. But I think she's back. And this is when the claw is like, reincarnation?
Rachel:Are you serious? He's like, I've lived a long time. I've seen a lot of weird shit. I've seen kids come back being able to speak ancient languages. I saw who like, I saw Houdini do a neat trick with some handcuffs and a tank full of water, and Nick is like, you're making fun of me.
Rachel:And I know you're making fun of me, but this isn't a trick, LaCroix. I think this dude has her soul, and LaCroix is, like, oh my god. Maybe her soul has him, which means she is truly immortal. So whose law will you use against this killer? If it's a vampire in a human body, whose law is she subject to, and who will you arrest?
Rachel:Will you arrest him, or will you arrest her soul? And if this is Franchesca, I doubt she remembers you fondly. And there's like the low key implication that she came back to exact her revenge on Nick. And then at the end when he kills her, Francesca is like, I'll be back. I'm gonna get you and your little fucking dog too.
Rachel:And it implies that that dick was so so much that this woman came back from the motherfucking dead and possessed a dude just for the chance to get back at him. And this isn't even the first woman that has pursued him over 100 of years to get back at him. And this is why you should allow women to look at your scripts when it has any kind of romantic something in it because they'll immediately tell you there's no way this woman who lived 100 of years on her own is so upset about the one dude she fucked one time that she's going to come back, from the dead for the opportunity to stick it to the man, one man.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:The Nick man. But we leave it at that, and Lacroix ends up, leaning over to start podcasting right after Nick leaves because he's so inspired. And he's, like, where does responsibility lie in our lives? Do we render payment in full when we die? If we do come back, why?
Rachel:What does it mean? Do we return free of our sins or burdened by them? Is life a prison? Is this a life sentence, so to speak? And the only important part of it about this really is that Francesca is listening to LaCroix and remembering that voice.
Rachel:Because at this point, Frank has fully been possessed by Franchesca and is wearing a full Francesca costume. Outfit, however you wanna describe this.
Matt:Vibe. Vibe. Frank is wearing a Francesca vibe.
Rachel:Yeah. And we get a moment where Tracy's talking to the therapist, and she's like, what about and the therapist is like, and that's the end of that discussion, and we're not gonna talk about it. So then we go back, and Nat and Nick are I fast forwarded through myself. Thank you. And And I go back to Nat and Nick at the morgue, and Natalie's like, reincarnation.
Rachel:I love her, but he's like, Nick, you're full of shit. And he's like, I got possessed by a demon. I met a woman who didn't believe she was a vampire so fucking hard that she wasn't a vampire sometimes. I met a ghost, like, 4 episodes ago that came back as my ex wife.
Matt:And now, this guy has the memories of a lady I killed 100 of years ago.
Rachel:You guys, this isn't that crazy. And Natalie's like, I'm in the habit of believing 10 unbelievable things every day starting with you.
Matt:I think that contradicts, like, a literal line she's said before.
Rachel:What? This show is contradictory? I can't I'm not receiving that right now. She goes, starting with you, you are one of the unbelievable things, Nick, but this is a stretch. And that's Nick says, Natalie, you didn't hear the tape.
Rachel:You didn't you weren't there. This is true, And Natalie goes, is someone messing with you? And Nick goes, who? And she goes, Lacroix. And Nick says, why would he do that?
Rachel:I don't know. Maybe someone's messing with your head. LaCroix?
Nick:Why would he do that?
Rachel:Because he's evil? Sorry.
Matt:Why would he do that? Why do you have to ask?
Rachel:As if Nick's entire life, Lacroix has not devoted every single moment of his fucking attention to fucking with Nicholas.
Matt:If you mentioned this in Lacroix's hearing range, he'd be like, that is an amazing idea.
Rachel:Damn. Why didn't I do that? I'm getting
Matt:started on this immediately.
Rachel:Do you remember the time he faked having Egyptian artifacts to get you to lure your foot on a bet to get you to lure your archaeologist friend so that he could murder her? Remember that one? Remember that time he pretended that the woman you loved was not Colt pure so you murdered her? I could go on. I could go on.
Rachel:He's been fucking with him for years. What do you mean why would he do that? He would do that because it's, oh, Chex watch. Fucking Wednesday. That's why he would do it.
Rachel:Natalie actually goes, because he's for
Matt:another one.
Rachel:She goes, because he's evil? I don't know. Like, why not? And Nick is like, he gets to the heart of the matter which is, if this is real, then it means that when I die, I'm not actually gonna die. I'm gonna come back and infect someone else like an evil like sons of Billia.
Rachel:Like, I'm gonna come back as a a thing that takes over somebody's life. And it means that evil can't be destroyed. And then Natalie really feeling helpful and optimistic and useful in this moment is, like, Nick, of course, evil can't be destroyed. It can only be controlled.
Matt:Guided, shaped.
Rachel:Natalie, what are you trying to say? This man is like he's looking to you for reassurance right now, and you're like, yeah. Obviously, you're gonna be as evil now as you are. Like, you're always gonna be this evil. And he's like, why am I trying to become human then?
Rachel:And she's like, well, it'll make you better at controlling your evil.
Matt:The mortal condition gives you a deadline. And and like some people I know, if someone's having trouble completing a task, you say, I put a 5 15 minute timer on and boom. Yeah. They do it.
Rachel:I really wanna kill somebody. Okay. Well, I have to wait 15 minutes. And now that I'm mortal, I can. Natalie, this was your moment to be like, no, Nick.
Rachel:I don't think the evil lives on after you. Maybe just pick some shit up. I don't know. Take a minute. Offer some comfort.
Matt:She's like the path to true immortality? I don't mhmm. See? Aggressive reincarnation?
Rachel:Natalie could have been like she could have put a pin in it right there and been like, nope. Sorry, Nick. I don't think that's what's happening right now. I think maybe Franchesca came back, but maybe she's actually using the evil inside of Frank or I mean, there's a lot that could be going on here. We don't know what who what or who Frank was like before he became Franchesca.
Rachel:We don't know if something about him made him particularly receptive to who she is. We know nothing about Frank exists as Franchesca and not before. And the fact that Natalie is like, well, no. You're always gonna be like that. You're just gonna be human and like that.
Rachel:So then when you die, your evil will die with you because, you know, the good that men do is often turned with their bones and the evil lives after them. You like Shakespeare. Right? There you go. That's Julius Caesar.
Rachel:So instead of being comforting, she's like, oh, no. No. No. You're just gonna be you, but you mortal. And he's like, well, fucking great.
Rachel:Thanks. Thank you for that. And then we cut to Tracy is talking to the therapist. Remember the earlier conversation that I fast forwarded through? Well, the reporter actually overhears the therapist and Tracy chatting about, like, could this person really be a vampire?
Rachel:What's really happening here? And he is really not subtle about it. He tries to follow the therapist out, and Tracy calls him back probably to give the therapist a chance to get away.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And then she gives the composite sketch to the guy to put in the paper, and then he ends up stealing the therapist card from where Tracy has thrown it away.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And she threw it away because she goes to see her real therapist who is in fact Vashon. And Vashon is so into this conversation, he's tuning his guitar the whole time.
Matt:Badly. But he probably had to do a bunch of takes, and he's like, guys, we're on the 6th take, and I've replaced the 6th string.
Rachel:Look. He's on hour 30 hour 1 hour 1 minute 30 of the 2 hours that he had from the time he drank that guitar guy's blood to be able to tune his guitar. I don't know. And Tracy's like, well, could this be real? Could this guy really be a reincarnation of a vampire?
Rachel:Does Nicholas Chevalier mean anything to you? And that Sean's like,
Matt:what? Where'd you hear that name? Who? Nick? Not that it's significant or anything.
Rachel:Nick of Nicholas. No. No. It's not.
Matt:I I only know a Nicholus.
Rachel:I I've Nicholus Cavalier? Chevalier. Chevalier. Chevalier. And Tracy totally ignores the fact that he's now extremely uncomfortable.
Rachel:She's like, maybe he's still around. Maybe he's the connoisseur. And Vashawn's like, nope. Mm-mm. No.
Rachel:I don't think that's your guy, and Tracy's like, oh, so he is still around, and he's a vampire. Okay. Do you know him? But Sean does not answer.
Matt:Really hard.
Rachel:He doesn't say anything.
Matt:Not give anything else away.
Rachel:And Tracy sees right through him. She's like, oh, you do know him. Oh my god. Because he's just like, tearing the guitar. Just tearing the guitar.
Rachel:Tuck it away. Nick will fucking kill me. Do you know what happened to me last time?
Matt:When I was supposed threatened
Rachel:to do to me? When I was supposed to be watching Tracy, and then urged showed up, so I went out to talk to my friend, and then Tracy got attacked when I was not talking to my friend. But Tracy, he gives it all away by not saying anything at all, and this is when she says, again, there's just something in front of my face, and I'm just not seeing it. And then we cut back to the reporter, and he's at the therapist office, and it doesn't really matter because she kicks him immediately the fuck out. The only reason he shows up at all in his entire purpose in this moment is so she will start the tape.
Rachel:Right. Because she starts the tape to tape their session and then nothing. And what I really love is that he has a drawing of the guy and, like, what happened to that fancy software from human factor where we made a face that looked just like Jeanette, but not like Jeanette at all, but it looked like a real person face. Why did we do a paper sketch when we have the boop, boop, boop, boop computer program from human factor. Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. Where did that go? Maybe they lost the budget for those graphics. I don't know.
Matt:There there was an operating system update, and it broke the application. And the application developer didn't hasn't produced an update that's compatible with the new operating system.
Rachel:That's exactly what happened. And so then he she kicks him out. She shuts the door and then immediately tap, tap, tap, and she opens the door thinking it's the reporter, and it's actually Francesca, which means that the reporter had to have passed him because he's already got the knife out. She, I guess, Franchesca. Frank is she, Franchesca at this point.
Rachel:She already has the knife out, and she's standing there, like, twirling the knife. So was she holding
Matt:the like a little pocket knife.
Rachel:I don't know what's happening. And then, I don't know. So then we cut the precinct because they have the tape, and they're playing the tape because it's the, like, therapist going, oh my god, and then nothing. And it's been running for, like, 12 hours. It's a really long long fucking tape.
Rachel:Does it flip itself? I don't know. Because she had an a side and a b side. Mhmm. I don't know.
Rachel:And they're like, you know the great thing about this, mister reporter man who's here in the room with us? You're on this tape, and he's like, what? I'm allowed to go ask questions. And they're like, okay. But did you see anybody else?
Rachel:Like, you were there. What did you witness? Because it happened right after you left. And he's like, the only other person there was some woman. And Nick is like, oh, shit.
Rachel:Frank is now fully Franchesca. And Reese is like, hang on. He's a she? And Nick is like, I'll put it in terms you can understand. I think he becomes Franchesca when he kills.
Rachel:And Reese is like, oh, I get that. And then we cut to the cinder block thing. Like, this is the cinder block thing that we saw at the very beginning. And we find out that this is actually in the room that he uses as his kill room. And he's trying to get the therapist to eat, and the therapist is trying to get him to understand that he's Frank and not Franchesca.
Rachel:And she says, I came to you because I was confused, doctor, but now I know who I am and what I am. And she's like, yeah. You're Frank, and he's like, no. I'm all that's left of Franchesca, and I still remember her beauty and her passion and her needs. And then we cut to the flashback of Nick freeing everybody from their cages, and then we have our vampire battle where they run around really fast, and then she falls down and can't get up because she's helpless, and her boobs get stuck to the floor.
Rachel:And then she gets stabbed with a pork colice that's made of wood, which is, like, the dumbest decision for a vampire to ever make.
Matt:She gets double stabbed.
Rachel:Double stabbed. And they're all vampire speedy speeding around, and it doesn't really matter. This was the inevitable conclusion. We knew Nick was gonna kill her this entire time. We just didn't know how.
Rachel:And then Natalie is at the precinct because they're trying to figure out what happened. They need to figure out where Frank is taking these people when he kills them as Franchesca. And Natalie very helpfully points out to Nick, you know, if this is Franchesca, this all might be about you. And he's, like, I mean, obviously, it's about me. I thought it was It always is.
Rachel:I thought it was about me from the very beginning. I'm pretty sure it's always about me, so it's fine, because that's the only reason any woman would come back from the dead because have you seen this dick? And Natalie's like, actually
Matt:last significant experience of her life.
Rachel:Yeah. Significant. And Natalie's like, actually, I have not seen that dick, not from lack of trying. And then Nick has a memory because he remembers when he's down with the dudes and he's breaking them all out of their cages. She goes, the chef should not see the slaughterhouse.
Rachel:And he's like, oh my god. Chef in the slaughterhouse. And then he leaves.
Matt:Great police work.
Rachel:And he does his Mothman flight through the so
Matt:Yeah. And we get a snippet of, like, over the road flight that we haven't seen before.
Rachel:Yeah. That's true. And so, canonically, this was another moment where the moth man made his appearance. And then we're getting our she isn't real, she is real debate with Franchesca and the therapist who has a name, but I don't know her name and I don't care. And Franchesca is like, I'm pretty sure I'm real.
Rachel:I'm like, I'm sitting right here, and the therapist is like, no. You're the sublimation of Frank's unconscious sexual desires. And Franchesca's, like, okay. You're not getting this. You're like, you don't appear to be getting this.
Rachel:And this is when Nick shows up at the slaughterhouse question mark. I don't know. We don't know how he knows where this building is, and it doesn't really matter Because Franchesca immediately recognizes Nicholas. Franchesca's like, you bitch. You son of a bitch.
Rachel:You killed me, and I know what you are, and I know how to kill you. And so she runs over and grabs an axe out of the chest piece thing and throws the axe.
Matt:The wall display.
Rachel:I thought she was gonna try to stab him with the end of the axe, but, no, she tries to kill him with the axe, which spoiler alert, that's not how you killed vampires.
Matt:A metal blade will hurt them. Sure. But It's Unless you chop
Rachel:their head off. Nicks vamps out. He's like snarls at Francesca, and she runs at him and stabs him and, like, runs at him with this fire poker, and they, like, spin around, and then we just hear, and it's because Francesca Nick, like, dodged to the side, and Francesca kept running and ran directly into
Matt:forgot that she wasn't in a real vampire body anymore.
Rachel:I guess. Ended up running directly into the ax that she just threw into the door and stabbing herself through the chest. And then she falls down and Nick is like, oh, no. I did it again. Except this time, poor Frank was just Frank.
Rachel:And then all of a sudden, Francesca appeared in his dreams, and then he's killing people. And now Nick has killed him. And she says, this isn't the first time you've killed me, Nick. I'll come back again. It won't be the last time you meddling kids.
Rachel:Like, I get you.
Matt:The, the first time I saw this scene when I saw this scene and Francesca fell on the floor, it's like,
Rachel:I lay dead. I thought,
Matt:2 deaths for the Atreides. The second retrospect Which
Rachel:is a quote from Dune Messiah.
Matt:Yeah. Yeah. In retrospect Children of Dune.
Rachel:This Children of Dune.
Matt:Yes. Children of Dune. In retrospect, this feels a lot more like the the series of interactions between this entity and Arthur Dent, where Arthur in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where every time this
Rachel:Thing comes back.
Matt:Soul reincarnates
Rachel:Yeah. As a plant kills it.
Matt:Whatever Yeah. Arthur ends up doing something that inevitably leads to its death. And it has happened so many times, it ends up reincarnating as this, like, winged demon creature who creates a shrine for the sole purpose of killing Arthur Dent.
Rachel:Yeah. Before it can kill him again. Yeah. Yeah. No.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah.
Matt:That's So this this feels like the start of that same relationship Yeah. But with between Francesca and Nick.
Rachel:Did we mention that's from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams? Yeah. It's pretty deep in the books too because he references, like, 3 or 4 books because he's the bowl of petunias at the very beginning.
Matt:That says, oh, no. Not again.
Rachel:Oh, no. Not again. And they're like, well, if we knew why it said, oh, not no. Not again, we'd understand more about the universe. Well, you find out it's because, Arthur Yet again.
Rachel:Yet again Arthur has caused its demise. Yeah. And then we come back to the precinct, and Nick is walking with Tracy, and he's like, oh, so how's that therapist doing? And she's like, weirdest thing? She doesn't remember anything from after Frank broke into her place.
Matt:Oh, yeah. Don't you know? She just forgot everything.
Rachel:And Natalie goes, probably for the best. And then Tracy walks off, and Nick just looks at or sorry. Natalie just looks at Nick like, and? And he goes, it was Franchesca. I'm sure of it, but now he's dead and she's gone, but her soul will come back.
Rachel:And then we have a thing at the end where Tracy goes to the therapist, and she goes, and then the therapist goes, and that's the end of
Matt:the episode. 8 7654321.
Rachel:And that's the end of the episode. Done. Done. I mean, we find out she's forbear. That's why no.
Rachel:That's because we hear the violin and yeah. That's why she's been creeped out by this whole thing, and my friend Jessica creeped her out and blah blah blah blah blah. But, I mean, I don't I can't undersell how how I mean, normally, I'm like, Look at the cute subplot, but this time, you're just like, I don't care. So I mean, we're done. That's it.
Rachel:That's Franchesca, and now we have 2. Oh my god. 2 more. I cannot believe I know we've said this for, like, the last 10 episodes because I've been, like, leading up to the fact that we're almost done for, like, 10 episodes, but, also, I'm so proud of us.
Matt:I'm proud of myself.
Rachel:Are you for making it through this whole thing?
Matt:For enduring.
Rachel:How do you feel about forever night right now? It's good. It's good. It's good. Yeah.
Rachel:Is it, is it good because
Matt:It has provoked many conversations between us, which is the main goal of this project.
Rachel:Can you see why it's kind of a unique take on vampires that
Matt:Oh, yeah. Especially at the time.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. I can see
Matt:how it was very novel.
Rachel:And even now, like, there's kind of moonlight, but moonlight doesn't know what it is. Moonlight doesn't know whether the guy is has standards, doesn't have standards. Like, it just doesn't know. And then I feel like forever night for all of its inconsistency was fairly consistent in the fact that Nick wanted to be human. And whether or not he was actively working towards it at any given moment is variable, but he had a very clear goal in mind.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:And it ends up being a very clear motivation for him for a long time. And I completely hijacked your conversation, and I'm really sorry because I asked you a question Yes, honey. I would absolutely
Matt:recommend this to every person I meet in the world. No. If if I was having a conversation with someone and they were, like, they'd communicated that they were interested in vampire stuff and and they were, like, my age
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:I'd be like, woah. Have you seen this, you know
Rachel:Forever night.
Matt:Camp kinda campy nineties show about vampires? Who's the yeah. It's the first vampire cop show.
Rachel:Yeah. It feels important for what it is. Like, it's the great granddaddy of vampire cop procedurals. And I think it's important for that. It's important because this is the only time anybody's tried to tell this story.
Rachel:And with as many recycled ideas as we get, the fact that we haven't recycled this is absolute bullshit. Like, I I would watch 6 different iterations of forever night. You give I watched every episode of moonlight. Did I love moonlight? I liked it just fine because I wanted it to be more, and I was waiting for it to get better, and then it got canceled.
Rachel:So that is what it is. But, like, our friends from cinematic anarchy, who we appear on their podcast, probably more regularly now than we have in the past. And, he really loves, like, nineties cheesy, eighties cheesy. Like, he's one of those people that I think would really appreciate forever night. I know he's tried to listen to the podcast, but was like, wait.
Rachel:I need to watch the show first. And I feel like that's exactly the kind of person that I would be like, you would love forever night. You should check it out. Yeah. Because he's gonna get it.
Rachel:I feel like you could like, if we recommend this to my niece, it would be like watching something in a foreign language with no subtitles. She wouldn't get it at all. Right.
Matt:It it'd be like the, the German sex comedy that we watch. Yeah. And we probably missed 2 thirds of the, like, jokes and cultural references
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:And pop culture references.
Rachel:Right.
Matt:And it was still kind of entertaining, but, it's slightly out of our sphere of zeitgeist.
Rachel:Yeah. It's out of our sphere of, experience, our context. It's out of our context. Like, when my dad got really sick, I always thought this line was really funny. If he got really confused, he'd go, I'm out of context.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And I feel like that's one of those things where you're like, oh, that's really poignant, actually. It's a really poignant way of describing that. I'm out of context. So, anyway, I think forever night's out of context for a lot of people, but I feel like it has a lot to say still. Like, I I wish somebody would watch it and go, oh my god.
Rachel:I think we should give that a shot. Like, I think we could do that, and I think we could make that work. And I think that could be awesome. And I think we could just write down our mythos and our our world building.
Matt:Just it employs somebody and say, hey. Like, showrunner or lead executive producer or whatever. Okay. It is your job to make sure that we remain cognizant of these ten rules, these ten facts about the show. Yeah.
Matt:Make sure we don't forget about these.
Rachel:I kinda feel like being raised on nineties television as a superpower because our standards are so fucking low. Like, if you just remember what happened in the last episode and you keep it consistent, I'm like, oh my god. Look at a good job they're doing. Such a good job. Like, they're making the murder bot television show, which I am somebody.
Matt:Stoked. So stoked.
Rachel:There's a an account I follow who does Murder about Mondays every Monday, and she's been posting all the casting. And every time people are like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if that's gonna be, like, great. I don't know if they look like the type of birthday. That's not how that person looked in my mind.
Rachel:And I literally commented, at this point, they could make it with puppets, and I wouldn't fucking care. Like, just make the show. And I know I'm going to love it because, listen, my standards are they're they're abysmally low. I I I will take a great idea executed mediocre any day of the week rather
Matt:than look at your choice in men.
Rachel:That's true. But my standards for movies are entirely different. It's really weird. You know? It's like my standards for books are really high, like, almost unbeatable.
Rachel:And then my standards for movies are, like, a little better. And then my standards for television are, like, you did a real good job. I'm so glad you tried. Alright. I'm getting stressed now.
Rachel:Okay. Until next time, friends. Bye. Bye.
