Escape Pod 1020: “When They Come Back” (Flashback Friday)

Date: November 20, 2025
Host: Alastair for Escape Artists Foundation
Story By: Natalia Theodoridou
Narrator: Eber Amonkas

Episode Overview

This episode features a Flashback Friday presentation of “When They Come Back” by Natalia Theodoridou, first aired in 2016. The story delves into themes of identity, loss, transformation, and nostalgia within a post-human world populated by androids and angels. Host Alastair frames the episode as part of Escape Pod’s celebration of milestone episodes, highlighting the enduring relevance and emotional depth of this tale.

Key Discussion Points & Story Breakdown

1. The Setting and Main Characters

• Post-human world: Humans are long gone; androids and angels remain, haunted by memories and rituals.
• Protagonist: An android (possibly named Chantal or Drifter) who travels with a decaying angel, seeking meaning and connection in a world of remembering and forgetting.
• Repetition of Names: A litany of human, flower, mythological, and prophet names is woven throughout, symbolizing loss and attempts at remembrance.

“They were called Maria and Michael and Siobhan, George, Elise and Sarah and Violet, Daisy, Jasmine, Rose. No, perhaps these were not people names. These were flower names, weren’t they?”
(Narrator, 03:31)

2. Rituals of Memory and Change

• Memory Games: The android and angel play a ritualistic game asking, “What will it be like when they come back?” using it as a way to process grief and hope.
• Struggles with Change: The angel is physically and emotionally decaying, resisting transformation and the dissolution of identity—mirrored by the android’s longing for touch and connection.

“Because this is a fantasy... Because they are never coming back.”
(Angel, 06:01)

3. Encounters and Violence

• Violence Against Angels: In this world, androids sometimes hunt and cruicify angels; a harrowing scene unfolds where androids mutilate a “deer-legged” angel.
• Desperation and Loss: The protagonist’s angel finally dissolves, and the android drinks the resulting water to preserve what little connection remains.

“He dissolves slowly... I fall to my knees and bring handfuls of the liquid to my lips, drinking him... before the soil absorbs him completely.”
(Narrator, 13:39)

4. Longing for Transformation and Return

• Fluid Identity: As the story progresses, angels change forms, and androids question what it means to “come back,” clinging to rituals while aware of their futility.
• Children’s Return: The possibility that humans—or children—may someday return is a recurring hope and catalyst for their rituals.

“When they come back, they will be children... They will speak with prophecies and dreams and words as opaque as stones.”
(Angel, 20:40)

5. Encounters with Other Survivors

• Meeting Dhina Mukta: A symbolic angel/being, half-man, half-book, imparts wisdom about forgetting and the self-destruction of both humans and angels in their search for meaning.

“Your kind did some of this. The rest we did ourselves, when we allowed ourselves to forget.”
(Dhina Mukta, 24:13)

6. Perseverance Amid Hopelessness

• Clinging to Ritual: Even after loved ones fade, the android remains, continuing the recitation and rituals, embodying endurance and the hope that something—someone—might someday return.

“What will it be like when they come back? … It will be wonderful, I whisper. The most wonderful thing in the world.”
(Narrator, 26:51)

Host Commentary & Thematic Insights

[25:41] Host Alastair’s Afterword

• Highlights Natalia Theodoridou’s central concepts of the fluidity of identity and genre, and the idea that art is a mirror in constant flux.

• Discusses the story as “being haunted by the ghosts of the past and the ghost of a species.”

• Draws parallels to the modern “enforced landscape of toxic nostalgia,” suggesting androids and angels cope with loss more healthily than many humans.

• Emphasizes the importance of change and self-awareness:

  “Everything changes, everything is fluid, as Theodoridou says. And to borrow one more line from a different source, the 21st century is where everything changes. Let’s be ready together. Angels, androids, you and me.”
  (Host Alastair, 28:34)

• Cites Tina’s original commentary:

  “We only see the tip of the iceberg, but the rest of the iceberg is there.”
  (Tina, Recapped by Host, 25:52)

• Concludes with a call to embrace transformation and uncertainty.

Notable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Attribution | |-------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------| | 03:31 | "They were called Maria and Michael and Siobhan, George, Elise..." | Narrator | | 06:01 | "Because this is a fantasy... Because they are never coming back." | Angel | | 13:39 | "He dissolves slowly... drinking him... before the soil absorbs him completely." | Narrator | | 20:40 | "When they come back, they will be children... They will speak with prophecies and dreams and words as opaque as stones." | Angel | | 24:13 | "Your kind did some of this. The rest we did ourselves, when we allowed ourselves to forget." | Dhina Mukta | | 26:51 | "What will it be like when they come back? ... 'It will be wonderful,' I whisper. The most wonderful thing in the world." | Narrator | | 25:52 | “We only see the tip of the iceberg, but the rest of the iceberg is there.” | Tina (via Alastair) | | 28:34 | “Everything changes, everything is fluid, as Theodoridou says. And to borrow… the 21st century is where everything changes...” | Host Alastair |

Final Thoughts

Escape Pod 1020’s revisit to “When They Come Back” is a moving exploration of nostalgia, loss, metamorphosis, and the rituals that help us process the impossibility of return. Through the lens of androids and angels, Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting prose examines what it means to remember, to hope, and to embrace the fluidity of identity in a world where all that remains is longing.

For listeners:
This episode is best experienced through its immersive narration and layered language—highly recommended for anyone fascinated by literary science fiction, the philosophy of identity, or mythic post-apocalyptic worlds.