The Mystic and The Mayor — Episode 7: "The Aftermath"

Podcast: The Mystic and The Mayor
Host/Producer: Audio Always
Date: August 29, 2025
Presenters: Anna Richardson (B), Leo Schick (A)

Overview

In this bonus episode, Anna Richardson and investigative journalist Leo Schick revisit the turbulent story of Mayor Gilles d’Ettore and professional mystic Sophia Martinez. The focus shifts from reportage to reflection and emotional understanding: using both tarot reading and candid conversation, Anna and Leo dissect the complex motives, power dynamics, and emotional aftermath following the duo’s public fall from grace, ensuing arrests, and pending trial. The episode interweaves analysis, intuition, and personal anecdote, exploring whether their fateful entanglement was ultimately worth the high cost.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Where Are They Now?

• Gilles d’Ettore and Sophia Martinez have both been arrested for embezzlement, corruption, and fraud.

• They have spent months in pretrial detention and are prohibited from returning to their home region. The legal process is ongoing.
  (00:10–01:15)

• Leo was drawn in by the story’s intersection of "corruption and financial fraud...with a sprinkling of magic and motives we can all relate to, like grief, power, loneliness." (A, 00:34)

• Anna brings her experience as a hypnotherapist and openness to the "unexplained"—she even uses tarot in everyday life.
  (01:02–01:22)

2. Exploring Power Dynamics with Tarot (01:50–06:09)

Anna conducts a tarot reading to illuminate the current states and mutual dynamics between Gilles and Sophia, at Leo's request.

Tarot Spread:

• Gilles: Five of Pentacles — Represents two beggars "left out in the cold" from material comfort and power. Anna interprets this as Gilles, "now like a poor beggar outside that's unable to get to the wealth and comfort within" after his public disgrace. (B, 02:25–03:25)

  • Leo: "That's wild." (A, 03:37)

• Sophia: Six of Cups — Symbolic of "childlike, sibling-like love and familiarity...comfort, nostalgia, and sort of childhood." Anna wonders if Sophia is "around her kin," suggesting she is currently supported by her close circle or family. (B, 03:39–04:30)

• Bridging Card: Ten of Cups — Implies happiness, happy families, and ideal familial bonds. Anna comments, "the card that connects them...was very much family and happiness and togetherness." However, they note the irony considering their relationship has soured.

  • "They were searching, weren't they, for a very, very happy family...just a beautiful somewhere over the rainbow, 10 of cups, happy family life." (B, 04:31–05:25)

• Leo suggests the search may have been "retrospective...maybe the search is still ongoing." Anna agrees the mutual quest for security and happiness led to "codependency." (A/B, 05:25–06:09)

3. Where Did It Go Wrong? (06:28–10:18)

• Leo inquires about the point of breakdown: "A question that I have is about where it started to go wrong." (A, 06:28)

• Noteworthy anecdote: During an interview with one of Sophia's clients, Leo's recording software glitched—leading to suspicion (half-joking, half-eerie) that Sophia might be "interfering through waves." Anna affirms strange occurrences often accompany psychic broadcasts. (A/B, 06:28–07:14)

• Tarot Pull – What Went Wrong:

  • Queen of Swords ("The Queen of Heartbreak") — "Absolutely without emotion...the sword of logic. Ruthlessness, cold ambition."
    - Anna: "She gets what she wants through logic." (B, 09:24–09:34) - Leo says the card fits Gilles, too; Anna agrees the Queen of Swords can be androgynous—representing both using ambition and logic without emotion. (A/B, 09:32–09:48)

• Current State:

  • The Hanged Man — "On pause, at a crossroads in their lives." (B, 10:00–10:18)

4. The Psychic Question: Is Sophia Truly Gifted? (10:19–11:07)

• Anna pulls The Hierophant to address whether Sophia possesses a psychic gift.
  • Interpretation: This card stands for "morality, structure, and what's right," which Anna surprisingly reads as, "I’d say yes. La la la." (B, 11:03–11:07)

5. Personal Reflections and Relationship Analysis (11:07–15:14)

• Anna summarizes:

  • Gilles was a "respected mayor, grieving the loss of his father, introduced to a hugely talented medium ... a seductive introduction."
  • Sophia, with a "disrupted, traumatic childhood," found a loving father figure in Gilles.
  • "Perfect codependent relationship ... that went horribly wrong." (B, 11:18–12:42)

• They analyze the "balance sheet" of gains and losses for Gilles and Sophia.

  • Gilles: "He got access to a kind of father figure, in a way, and also a daughter figure."
  • Sophia: Accessed a father figure, "acceptance from someone in a powerful position," possible material benefit.
  • Both lost positions, families, and reputations. (A, 12:42–13:28)

6. Was It Worth It? The Madness of Two (13:28–16:18)

• Anna and Leo discuss the intoxication and appeal of "folie à deux" (a madness shared by two).

  • Anna: "Have you ever been in love...so intoxicating, so all-consuming, you would have done anything...If you think about the person you fell in love with, that you had this insane affair with—was it worth it? Of course not. But ... you would have carried on." (B, 13:28–14:17)
    • Leo: "The folie à deux." (A, 14:18)

• They define and contextualize "folie à deux"—the madness of two, how shared delusions spiral. Anna stresses this was not a sexual affair but a "magnetism and attraction that goes beyond that...unbreakable." (B, 14:50–15:14)

• Anna on regret and memory:

  • "Would you want to erase those mad loves that you’ve had? I don't think I would. Even though it’s caused enormous damage...Would I never have wanted to have done that in my life? No. I think I still would've taken the risk. That's crazy, isn't it?" (B, 15:23–15:57)
  • Leo: "Well, that's the definition of a folie à deux." (A, 15:57–16:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I think you've got two people...a grieving guy who found this woman, and then a woman who has come from a really disrupted traumatic childhood, who found a very loving father figure in Gilles. So it's a perfect codependent relationship, in my view, that went horribly wrong."
  — Anna Richardson, 11:18

• "Here are two people who found each other. He was searching for his father, who he adored. She has always been searching for a happy family life. So that is the connection between them—which makes sense."
  — Anna Richardson, 06:09

• "The card that connects them...was very much family and happiness and togetherness. Because you can see the sort of husband and the wife and the two children there. They were familial to each other. So that is quite interesting that that's the card that connects them."
  — Anna Richardson, 04:31

• "Would you want to erase those mad loves that you've had? I don't think I would. Even though it’s caused an enormous amount of damage to other people, to myself? Would I never wanted to have done that in my life? No. I think I still would've taken the risk. That's crazy, isn't it?"
  — Anna Richardson, 15:23

• "Of course you don't want to do that, but your emotional side would say I'd do it all over again."
  — Anna Richardson, 16:01

Key Timestamps for Reference

• 00:10 — Recap of the case, charges, and Leo/Anna’s perspectives
• 01:50 — Start of Anna’s tarot reading (Gilles, Sophia, bridge card)
• 04:30 — Interpretation of the relationship via tarot
• 06:30 — Discussion of the breakdown; technical difficulties as "psychic interference"
• 09:32 — Queen of Swords: logic and heartbreak as relationship’s downfall
• 10:18 — The Hanged Man: a crossroads for both
• 10:19 — Is Sophia genuinely psychic? (The Hierophant drawn)
• 11:18 — Anna's psychological analysis of the relationship
• 13:28 — Reflecting on whether the relationship was "worth it"
• 14:17 — "Folie à deux" explored

Conclusion

This episode moves away from pure journalism, blending intuition and investigation to analyze not just what happened between Gilles and Sophia, but why. Through tarot, candid stories, and frank questioning, Anna and Leo suggest that theirs was a bond born of mutual longing—one that destroyed them as quickly as it drew them together. The question of worth lingers, with no firm answers, only the bittersweet wisdom of experience.

The story continues, pending legal outcomes.

(Contact and credits follow; Gilles and Sophia declined to comment on the episode.)