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Joanna Robinson
This episode is brought to you by America's cookout classics, Hines, Kraft, and Oscar Meyer.
Rob Mahoney
This summer, we're celebrating 250 years of American cookouts with all the classics. Heinz, Kraft, and Oscar Meyer.
Joanna Robinson
Rob, what's your ideal cookout scenario?
Rob Mahoney
First of all, I want you on the ox. I trust you with that sacred responsibility to pick our music. I'm gonna have to man the grill, and I'm gonna need, like, a copious amount of condiments. I need every possible fixin imaginable.
Joanna Robinson
Well, make sure to top your burger with only the best Heinz ketchup and Kraft singles. And you know it's not a cookout without Heinz ketchup and mustard.
Rob Mahoney
Different vibes, same ingredients. We all know it's not a cookout without Heinz Kraft and Oscar Mayer. Shop at your local retailer.
Joanna Robinson
Hello. Welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Joanna Robinson.
Rob Mahoney
I'm Rob Mahoney.
Joanna Robinson
We're here, unbelievably, to continue to cover the television show Cape Fear.
Rob Mahoney
How's that make you feel?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, proud of my life choices.
Rob Mahoney
I feel like we have been dunked in its glory, bathed and baptized in
Joanna Robinson
the polluted waters of Bluffs Point.
Rob Mahoney
What better way?
Joanna Robinson
Okay. Mongrel is the name of the episode. Episode 7. Somehow, there are three more episodes of this season of television, and I cannot possibly conceive of what's going to happen. Yeah. How many twists and turns are left for us? And three more episodes, I think.
Rob Mahoney
So many.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Endless.
Rob Mahoney
There is at least one child in a psychiatric hold that will be broken somehow. There are murders that need to be resolved. Faith's body is still just sitting in that house, rotting. Gross.
Joanna Robinson
Its own maggot tomb.
Rob Mahoney
Ugh.
Joanna Robinson
How long can they go without being like, oh, hey, a lady died.
Rob Mahoney
I guess at this point, would it just get pinned on Nevaeh? I don't even know what would happen if it did come up.
Joanna Robinson
Do you think Anna ever thinks about, hey, should I tell the cops about what I saw?
Rob Mahoney
Two things I have found to be universally true about this show. One, the Bowdoins will never tell the cops what is going on. They will always omit crucial information. The second one, though, that I held true was broken this week. Previously, every character on the show would forget what happened the week before in the previous episode. This one, though, we pick up.
Joanna Robinson
Well, we pick up right where we left off.
Rob Mahoney
There's no room for forgetting, right? We are still straddling and pointing guns and running over to like beat people's faces.
Joanna Robinson
I love an episode of television that starts mid straddle. I think it's a great place to start. Okay, this episode's called Mongrel. Directed by John S. Baird. Three credited writers on this episode. Andre Jacques Maton, Maria Jacques Maton. Married or siblings. Who's to say?
Rob Mahoney
Okay, don't want to presume.
Joanna Robinson
Who's to say? And Greg Goetz is the third accredited writer on this episode. I want to start with something we don't, we don't have any listener emails this week because as we mentioned last week, we're sort of pre taping this one. So we have not forgotten about you. We're just letting Rob have a summer. That's.
Rob Mahoney
I appreciate it.
Joanna Robinson
That's a nice thing too.
Rob Mahoney
But keep the emails coming. We will be reviewing them for future episodes.
Joanna Robinson
Correct. Where can they reach us?
Rob Mahoney
Prestigetvpotify.com or thinkofabycarrotmail.com Will someone think of the carrots?
Joanna Robinson
I cannot wait. We still haven't released the last episode recorded, so I still don't, I don't yet have the evidence I need to prove to you that sometimes people say opossum instead of possum. But I was Googling it yesterday, results inconclusive. So I'm gonna need some, some the listeners to back me up on this.
Rob Mahoney
I'm very concerned. Nobody is out here saying opossum.
Joanna Robinson
I was. I don't think they say opossum like, oh, opossum, possum. I think they say opossum. Opossum.
Rob Mahoney
Nah, it's just disturbing.
Joanna Robinson
I found some Reddit threads where some people claimed where they grew up, but mostly I would have thought it would be the south for some reason, but it appears to be like a hoity toity New England.
Rob Mahoney
Oh yeah, the people who have never experienced opossum where it's just a possum. Where it's just a. It's a. It's a Concept.
Joanna Robinson
Right. And they're like, what an opossum to break into our abode.
Rob Mahoney
What a twer opossum.
Joanna Robinson
Would it twer. So opossum. All right, I want to start with a character we lost this episode.
Rob Mahoney
Okay.
Joanna Robinson
Jamie Hector's character, Ray and our producer Kai and I were discussing this before you got here today. I was devastated to lose Ray. Not just because I enjoy Jamie Hector as a performer always, but like this guy seemed actually kind of good at stuff. He was following leads. He put gloves. I mean, he was breaking glass, but he put gloves on before he entered. Broke and entered into a place.
Rob Mahoney
Well, to be clear, the breaking of the glass is his job.
Joanna Robinson
Correct. But I'm just saying, like also, he's not leaving fingerprints behind. No, Anna, he's taking photos. He notices the condensation on a beer bottle. You know, like he's just alert and aware and competent. And Kai posited too competent to live, that we couldn't have anyone actually this good at anything on the show or else the Bowdoins might actually like, get ahead of something.
Rob Mahoney
It's a great point. I mean, the whole little meeting that they have with him and Noah and the Bowdoins.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Of please don't fuck this up anymore. Like, yes, we are late to the game, but sit tight. We're going to try to fix this. We're going to keep the ball rolling. We're going to go through like vaguely legal, but also somewhat shady, but line walking means of resolving this.
Joanna Robinson
Breaking and entering.
Rob Mahoney
Light breaking. Breaking and entering, though recreational breaking and entering.
Joanna Robinson
What are the rules for houseboats? I actually don't know if they're different.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, it's maritime law. Okay, so that's all. That's a whole different ball game. Don't even get me started.
Joanna Robinson
Do you think Max Cady had maritime legal books in his jail cell?
Rob Mahoney
We're granting them back to the tape.
Joanna Robinson
Okay.
Rob Mahoney
He does seem exhaustive in his research. So on the competence rankings now that Rey is dead, I mean, Max Katie is quite competent at whatever it is he's doing. Other than that, is anyone else good at their stuff?
Joanna Robinson
We'll see if Zach's new psychiatrist played by great character actor Patrick Fishler. It's a good point, actually. Good at psychiatry.
Rob Mahoney
Well, not surprising that he appears in the show as. As a Mad Men alum in an episode that is written and directed by two Mad Men alum.
Joanna Robinson
There you go. Anyway, Ray, I'm bummed he's dead.
Rob Mahoney
Truly.
Joanna Robinson
It didn't seem like he was going to make it out of that encounter alive. And then also we should say, you know, the archetype of this character usually dies in this story. Yeah, this, like, investigator, friend of the family sort of person has not made it out of a Cape Fear story alive, I'm pretty sure. So tough.
Rob Mahoney
It's part of the tightening news feeling where you find the competent person who you think might be able to help you and bail you out of this. Guess what? They're just more, you know, fish food. I don't know where his body's gonna end up.
Joanna Robinson
And then the bones just, like, bumble and fumble their way into victory. It's tough. You hate to see it. Anyway, on that competency ranking, I did want to ask you, though. So with this confirmation that our listeners have been right since, like, week two about the scopolamine devil's breath drug situation they were locked in, I. I've literally never heard of this, but our listeners were all over this. But given the scopolamine of it all, I guess, does that at all undermine Max Katie's like, decades long mystique of, like, how does he do what he do? Or how does he get under your skin? Or how does he do all this? And then the answer is, like, drugs, A drug you've never heard of, that mind controls and brainwashes and zombifies you. Like, does that, you know, he injects a peach and gives it. Very, very goblin king of him, honestly.
Rob Mahoney
Is that what he's injecting?
Joanna Robinson
I don't know, because that just, like, knocked her out.
Rob Mahoney
That was like horse tranquilizer or something. Like, who knows what it could have been?
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, but, like, you know, the mean has been in. In effect. And is it just Nevaeh using it or is it Max using it as well? And if it's, if it's for either of them, it explains how they can, like, get away with a lot of stuff. It explains how you could convince and Amy to shoot herself in the head twice over the phone or whatever the case may be. But I don't know. I think it kind of like, undercuts Max Cady's like, ineffable demonic sort of ability to move through the world. What do you think?
Rob Mahoney
Well, why can't it be a little of both? Why can't he have his demonic way moving through the world, but also rely on some medicinal assistance?
Joanna Robinson
Pharmaceutical, first of all, shout out to
Rob Mahoney
big pharma delivering a drug that'll help you not get sick on a boat, but if you take too much, will erase your Entire personality. Oops. How is this a side effect?
Joanna Robinson
How is. How is this allowed to exist?
Rob Mahoney
What happened to the fda? Like, who. Who agreed to this?
Joanna Robinson
I. I'll tell you this much right now. And I did not get any money from big Dramamine. But Dramamine doesn't do this.
Rob Mahoney
No.
Joanna Robinson
So if I'm.
Rob Mahoney
What, untether you from reality?
Joanna Robinson
No, it does not, as far as I know.
Rob Mahoney
But the fact that that side effect does exist makes me a little nervous about the many people who did email in. Like, what have they been using scopolamine for?
Joanna Robinson
Well, I'm not sure that they said they were users of scopolamine, just that they were like, you know, they know
Rob Mahoney
a lot about it.
Joanna Robinson
Curious.
Rob Mahoney
Too curious, if you asked me.
Joanna Robinson
I'm just like. I understand that this drug has existed long before. It's sort of like, clinical use as a C. Sickness drug that has, like, maybe ceremonial. Ceremonial usages or all these other things, but I cannot believe that that potent of a drug. It's like if someone was like, oh, you know what's good for tension headaches? Ayahuasca. You know what I mean? It's just sort of like, I don't think that drug belongs in our medicine cabinet ever.
Rob Mahoney
First of all, is it ayahuasca good for tension headaches?
Joanna Robinson
I don't think so. Probably not.
Rob Mahoney
I guess I have to find out.
Joanna Robinson
You will never take Iowa. I'll tell you something right now.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah.
Joanna Robinson
You are never letting ayahuasca enter your body.
Rob Mahoney
Probably not, no. But for the sake of science, maybe I would.
Joanna Robinson
You wouldn't. All right.
Rob Mahoney
If the headaches are bad enough, we'll have to consider it.
Joanna Robinson
Because of the scopolamine and other things, we find out that Zach has, like, decided that Max is his father now that he's no longer Zach Bowden that he is.
Rob Mahoney
Where are you?
Joanna Robinson
In possession watch.
Rob Mahoney
I think this kind of stifles it pretty strongly, unfortunately. Right. He's been convinced through scopolamine and otherwise suggestion. The power of suggestion and hypnosis and drugs.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Then Max is perhaps his holy trinity.
Joanna Robinson
Right?
Rob Mahoney
The big three, as we know. So, yeah. I find it a little hard to believe at this point that there would be honest to goodness possession happening.
Joanna Robinson
Bummer.
Rob Mahoney
It does just seem like he is still Zach, but he believes Max is his father.
Joanna Robinson
I don't. You know, I. I haven't had many complaints or any really complaints about Joe Anders, who, once again, is a. Is a British individual playing Zack Bowden. But I did think, can we go fishing again? I just want to spend time with you was like, one of the most, like, folksiest things.
Rob Mahoney
He's quite fy so far, but also kind of sweet.
Joanna Robinson
Sure.
Rob Mahoney
Well, he. I assume he and Max have not actually been fishing.
Joanna Robinson
I don't know.
Ad Voice
Have.
Joanna Robinson
Has Max been smuggling man out. Out of the house? Or is he just misremembering how, like, because Tom is the person who took him fishing.
Rob Mahoney
And we saw this, like, flashback to this very fond memory he had fishing with Tom.
Joanna Robinson
So has he just, like, rewritten that memory with Javier Bardem's face instead?
Rob Mahoney
I think so.
Joanna Robinson
Tough.
Rob Mahoney
Very tough.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, no. Chekhov's pepper spray gets used immediately. Immediately. Is this the last we see? Is it like a one and done sort of situation?
Rob Mahoney
I mean, it is a very small pepper spray.
Joanna Robinson
It is.
Rob Mahoney
I mean, you can restock that bad boy.
Joanna Robinson
It's heat and it's pink.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, yeah, it did its job.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Nevaeh got it right to the face immediately after. I think she rightly kind of challenged whether Anna would actually shoot her or not. But, yeah, it didn't work out well in the end.
Joanna Robinson
Got pepper sprayed then when. When Tongo's stalking across the street, really want to shout out this delivery. What does this guy want? Really good. And then. He's not your son anymore, Tom. He's my son. Like, you know, the sing song. Taunting voices back. But this whole movement, because, like, at first, first Max is like. He was scared out of his mind, you know, like, still playing the innocent. Quickly switches to this taunting. He's not your son anymore. And then into the public street performance of like, he's only a boy.
Rob Mahoney
He's only a boy. The cop. The very delicious combination of close range being a total piece of shit, medium range playing for the cameras and being a good citizen. Javier Bardem is so good. And frankly, in this sequence alone, this, like, open, navigating all parts of this and the eventual arrest and all that, I would say we get no fewer than six to seven distinct evil smiles from Javier Bardem, tapping at the one
Joanna Robinson
he shoots at Anna as the credit sort of goes over his face.
Rob Mahoney
And that, I mean, Cape Fear score. No other sound.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Javier Bardem as a silent film actor. The show is just levitating whatever it wants to do that. It can do that.
Joanna Robinson
Absolutely. Tom gets stabbed in the back of the Nevaeh's big ass knife.
Rob Mahoney
Was that Nevaeh's big ass knife?
Joanna Robinson
I think so.
Rob Mahoney
I thought that was like a fishing knife.
Joanna Robinson
I think that, like the, like, hooked blade of it. I think that's Nevaeh's.
Rob Mahoney
Oh. I thought Nevaeh's knife was much bigger. This looks like more of a utility knife that a teenage boy might own.
Joanna Robinson
Are you really?
Rob Mahoney
Not me. But other teenagers.
Joanna Robinson
It looks like a Raptor Talon.
Rob Mahoney
That's. That's what I'm saying.
Joanna Robinson
Okay. Are you a fishing guy? Like, have you got a fish before?
Rob Mahoney
I mean, I've got a fish, but I'm not a fishing guy.
Joanna Robinson
I've also got a fish.
Rob Mahoney
Fish.
Joanna Robinson
All right. As you mentioned, Noah is finally on board.
Rob Mahoney
Actually, before we do that. Yeah, yeah, of course. Can we do a little. A little color call out here for when the police show up? And you get the police lights.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
The Bowden somehow only get the blue sides of the lights. And of course, Max and Nevaeh both only get the red sides of the lights. But then you get Natalie and Anna kind of coming into the four getting
Joanna Robinson
splashed with both bisexual lighting.
Rob Mahoney
Well, maybe bisexual lighting. Maybe caught between two families.
Joanna Robinson
I got. Okay.
Rob Mahoney
You know, they are looped into this in a different way than Aggro Tom
Joanna Robinson
would be, I would say. Also, what's interesting is that when we go to Cape Fear River, Bluffs Point, we meet Ron Perlman, who is. Max is playing Max, Katie's father.
Rob Mahoney
Katie, Daddy.
Joanna Robinson
Katie. Daddy Katie. He's wearing a green shirt. And after Nat has her baptism in the polluted waters of Bluffs Point, she changes into a green shirt. So this, like, green coat. We've already talked about this with, like, Crystal Katie. We have the full name now. Crystal Katie, Juliette Lewis's character. But the. The green that's associated with this poisoned branch of the family tree out here by Cape Fear River.
Rob Mahoney
So everything's going great for all these families. I think they're perfectly well functioning. How did you feel, though, about Operation Wait for Max, Katie, to make a mistake? Did you feel like it went well for. For Tom and Anna?
Joanna Robinson
No. He's winning the Public Theater game, like, big time. Yeah, big time.
Rob Mahoney
He's on Citizen. Just like, beating the absolute tar out of this man.
Joanna Robinson
He. You know, he did. That is exactly what he did. He beat the tar out of him. But this is all Tom ever wants to do, and Max knows that. The Foley sound on Patrick Wilson's fist colliding with Javier Bardem's face was so good.
Rob Mahoney
What do you think?
Joanna Robinson
It was like raw meat somewhere.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, yeah. Just like a pork chop.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no, I think they go for something, like, even bigger than a pork. Oh, like a side of beef gets, like, pummeled in the Foley. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. With like a little bit of cartilage crunching sort of layered in. I don't know how you achieve the cartilage crunch if you are a foliar.
Rob Mahoney
That's the trick.
Joanna Robinson
I would like to know. But yeah, it sounded like his face is breaking.
Rob Mahoney
You know, Tom is just so easy, though. Like, of. Of all of the Bowdens to manipulate. Anna is at least guarded enough. She looks. They're all very stupid, Zach.
Joanna Robinson
Zack is the zombie.
Rob Mahoney
I mean. Yeah, but I give teenagers a little bit more latitude here.
Joanna Robinson
Okay, that's fine. But I just think if we're doing a pure ranking, Zach has to be number one with a bullet. Zach, I'm your son now. Bowdoin. Yeah, I don't know.
Rob Mahoney
It's two words to Tom, and you can make him punch somebody.
Joanna Robinson
I think somehow Anna is the most.
Rob Mahoney
That's what I'm saying. And that's against all odds. And this is the woman who went once more under the breach of the drywall last week. Like, that is the level we're talking about.
Joanna Robinson
This is a woman who went to a murder scene, fondled the murder weapon.
Rob Mahoney
She went into the snakehouse with the convicted murderer and was like, let me record this guy. It's going to be fine.
Joanna Robinson
Wow. I would like to do an. I mean, I've already shared a few of the line readings that I particularly loved. But this delivery as we're speaking about Anna, this comes from Hester Devereaux. This one ran down to Anna Devereaux. You still pinning for the devil? I mean, oh, my God.
Rob Mahoney
It's really just the elongation of Dev Ro.
Joanna Robinson
You still pining for the devil?
Rob Mahoney
Really? I think the only competition for Lyra, All of the best stuff happening on the line read front. Happens once we get to. To Daddy Katie's house.
Joanna Robinson
Absolutely, Absolutely. Okay. Noah's finally on board, I should mention. Okay, so. So Anna's back in the blue linen shirt that we mentioned that she and Max Katie have in common. Tom is now wearing this sort of like lavender linen shirt that we've actually seen Anna wear before. So Anna's, like, wearing these, like, putting on these linen shirts of the various men in her life. But also, I just.
Rob Mahoney
Or vice versa.
Joanna Robinson
I just think it's.
Rob Mahoney
They share a closet, it seems.
Joanna Robinson
I think it's very sweet that the Bowdoin's just like swapping linen button downs. So it's an economical way to approach your wardrobe.
Rob Mahoney
It honestly is the most beautiful thing about their relationship, which is otherwise quite Corrupted?
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Very messy. Paul. We're gonna have to add Paul to the board, I guess. But he's, like, very unmemorable. Um, there's a hilarious line in this episode where Tom, in trying to convince Anna that they should send her, you know, felon father across the street to plant drugs, et cetera, et cetera.
Rob Mahoney
Good point.
Joanna Robinson
He's like, what are we going to do? Move, look over our shoulder, worry about our kids every single time they're not in our eyesight. And I was like, what do you mean, worry about your kids every time they're not in your eyesight? What are you talking about?
Rob Mahoney
You would simply never.
Joanna Robinson
So they ship Natalie off to Paul's for safekeeping. Paul, the most incompetent person seemingly on the show. And again, the bars in hell and he limbo's right under it. Like, who is this guy? Anna was Anna. Anna Devereaux was ever engaged to this guy Paul? Well, this guy sucks.
Rob Mahoney
He might have been a different guy at that point in time.
Joanna Robinson
Maybe.
Rob Mahoney
You know, maybe his life has really taken a turn since Anna Devereaux left him. But. Yeah, not a good dad. If you need me to say with 100% certainty that I am your biological father, I will do it. No, don't. Don't do that. Don't just make shit up.
Joanna Robinson
How often has Natalie been at Paul? You know what I mean? Like, what's the vibe there?
Rob Mahoney
They have a very strange relationship.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. And she's like, mom's here. He's like, really? She's like, yeah. You know, call her if you don't. You know, like, Paul just, like, lets her go. It's just. What, a piece of wet tissue paper?
Rob Mahoney
Paul is completely. I. At least, say what you will about the Bowdoins. I believe from, like, an acting performance perspective, this is like, a weird broken house. And, like, I get how these people interact with each other in this heightened world of Cape Fear. I don't really get what Paul's doing here. Like, this character, who he is to Natalie. Like, they don't really make sense in
Joanna Robinson
terms of, like, tracking. You know, Tom has two kids, and one of them is his biological kid, and then the other one is Natalie.
Rob Mahoney
Maybe, maybe.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, maybe Natalie's also his daughter.
Rob Mahoney
Who knows at this point?
Joanna Robinson
Sure. In terms of, like, does he care about them in the same degree? Is he more invested in. In his son who is his biological kid or something like that? How. Like, how much of a love language do you think it is to make Natalie's birthday the code to the Gun safe is that show like that, he really cares? Could have been Zach's birthday, but it's Natalie's. Nat's birthday is the code to the gun safe.
Rob Mahoney
I mean, we should say at the time this is published, this publishes Nat's birthday will have already come and gone. July 2nd. Happy birthday to Natalie. But I guess it is, like, I didn't. I didn't put it together that way, but you're right. It is. It is a sign of affection, I would say. If you're going to do it, maybe don't just yell it out loud.
Joanna Robinson
Right.
Rob Mahoney
Maybe don't just tell everybody what the combination to the gun safe is, including your teenage daughter.
Joanna Robinson
Well, that was a tough. That was a tough thing that got an early payoff. So she's a cancer on the zodiac sign. Are you. You're a cancer.
Rob Mahoney
I am a cancer, yeah.
Joanna Robinson
How do. Do you feel an affinity to Natalie?
Rob Mahoney
Honestly, I think we do have a lot in common, unfortunately.
Joanna Robinson
Where's your overlap with Natalie Bowden?
Rob Mahoney
We're both emotionally reactive people. It's just. It's just I can. I can see some of her follies in me.
Joanna Robinson
All right. All right. Cancer to unite. I don't know. I thought it was kind of sweet that Natalie's birthday was the code to the gun safe.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah. What if it was like the day that Zach leaked the nudes, you know,
Joanna Robinson
Sophia Gate Day.
Rob Mahoney
There are bad. There are bad answers to what is the. What if it's Lexi's birthday? You know, like, there are things that cannot be on the board.
Joanna Robinson
He's like, anna, go get the gun. It's Lexi's birthday.
Rob Mahoney
You know the one.
Joanna Robinson
You know, she's a Sagittarius. All right. Max brings peanut butter money back to the house as his sort of, like, lure.
Rob Mahoney
Many nay.
Joanna Robinson
Peanut butter, Right, Exactly. That's a maiden name thing. You can't do it for name changes.
Rob Mahoney
I think you can.
Joanna Robinson
I don't think you can. Anyway, he. He uses peanut butter to get sort of Natalie to open the door. I mean, this is an excellent use of cat lore.
Rob Mahoney
Basically, a skeleton key could open any door in the Bowdoin house.
Joanna Robinson
And then he does, like, a very. I mean, again, this is. This is where I, like, really admire Max. Because he doesn't tell her to get in the car. No, he just drops the bait. Drops a little trail of pig's ears or turkey or whatever, you know, and she. She trots after him. She goes get the gun.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah.
Joanna Robinson
She comes up to the car. She's like, I've shared my location with my friend. And if I were Max Katie, I'd be like, what.
Rob Mahoney
What friend this is. Does she not have a single friend in the world?
Joanna Robinson
I don't think so. It's just Cali who sucks, and then, like, Nevaeh, who was a honeypot. So, no, I don't think she has a single friend.
Rob Mahoney
Maybe this is me inferring from the start of the show, but it felt like Natalie had a richer social life. Maybe that was just me kind of coloring in the space around C at that stage.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Cie. And then, like, Zach's friend who she goes to, like, see with her open container at the. The beginning of the episode, she just
Rob Mahoney
didn't seem like the kind of outcast that Zach is, but apparently she just doesn't have a friend in the world.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Yeah. When she's like, I shared my location, he's like, sure you did, but. Sure you did.
Rob Mahoney
But that's what it is. I mean, it's like she is clearly feeling isolated in a bunch of different ways, betrayed by her parents, like, doesn't have a good sense of what the truth is about who she is, why she's asking that. Now, I do agree with Paul. Like, we went all these years and you never brought this up is a little weird, right? But here you are now. And I think what Max does, no drugs required, is, like, give her enough encouragement and confidence and mystery. Where I. I think the greatest manipulations in. In movies and TV usually come from when the detective. The would be detective, feels like they're picking up the scent.
Joanna Robinson
Right.
Rob Mahoney
It's like, oh, I'm putting things together on my own. Where in reality, Max is just dropping stuff left and right for her to pick up.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, absolutely. And later, of course. I mean, I don't want to skip past what's on the ox. When. When you're on a road trip with Max Getty, we can talk about that. Blue Oyster. Colton, a second.
Rob Mahoney
But, like, it's a little cheeky.
Joanna Robinson
Really.
Rob Mahoney
Don't Fear the Reaper.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, for this man. I just felt like I really liked the vibe. Of what? Of what's playing in Max Katie's car.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, yeah.
Joanna Robinson
This, like,'70s dad.
Rob Mahoney
That part fit.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. But. Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Don't get in the car.
Joanna Robinson
Well, I said this last week. Don't get in the car.
Rob Mahoney
This is so much worse than the first time.
Joanna Robinson
Don't follow Max Katie to a secondary state in the United States. Is that. Is that the.
Rob Mahoney
The escalation from. Let me take you to get a coffee already. You probably shouldn't do it, but she did it to. I don't even know where you're going. Right, But I'm going to get in this car with a gun I don't know how to use in a drawstring bag. After everything we've just experienced together, Natalie simply not. And all it took was seeing some very obviously staged text messages and her being like, wow, you really changed my mind on this.
Joanna Robinson
I'm sorry she hurt you, but I have no more information for you, Natalie. Yeah, this is all time stupid shit from Natalie. Very bad facts we learn in the car. Max Katie can't swim.
Rob Mahoney
So he says. Oh, I. I just interpret everything he says in the car to be a means to pull her closer. Right. It's like little ways for her to feel sorry for him. Little ways for him for her to feel like he is trusting her to drive the car. Even his like mental episode. Do we think that actually happened?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, I kind of do.
Rob Mahoney
I believe that those things do happen to him. But it feels like the kind of thing he could stage to give her the chance to drive. Which if he's bugging their house, he knows she wants to do.
Joanna Robinson
Right. Lerner's permanent is on our conspiracy board for a reason. Like, this is a vulnerability of hers that she, she wants. But I really felt like he was actually going through something. And also the sound design was like giving us that sort of like high wine sound you get when someone's having like a headache.
Rob Mahoney
But is that just the Natalie level panic of having to grab the wheel in that moment?
Joanna Robinson
I think his glitch prescription, his glitch scription needs to go on the conspiracy board.
Rob Mahoney
Glitch scription is a card. There's really no doubt. I just think the I'm going to have this very conveniently timed, inconveniently timed for driving purposes, but conveniently timed for manipulation purposes. Head glitch. And afterwards I'm be like, oh, my head hurts so much because your dad hit me in the head many times.
Joanna Robinson
That was obviously like a World Club, World cup esque, like flop, you know. But like, I just think that, I think that was a real glitch. I. I don't know. You don't think Max Katie not being able to swim would be like an interesting thing to be on the show. Like especially a story that has at least in the 90s, culminated with a houseboat on, on Rocky Shores sort of situation.
Rob Mahoney
The solution with Max Katie, not unlike the solution in 28 years later, is just like go live on an island and he can't get to you.
Joanna Robinson
Ooh. With the causeway.
Rob Mahoney
Hope there's not a causeway, or else you really have to mind the tides. But this is the Max Cady question. Is, like, is he the most Machiavellian planner that the world has ever seen, or is he just great at improv?
Joanna Robinson
I think both. I think he. Like, we've talked about this before. It's like, how much is planned and how much is just sort of like, making the most of a given opportunity. You know what I mean? And, like, when Nevaeh gets caught. She's not planning to get caught, but, like, she's, you know, she's like, taunting Anna, like, bet you can't shoot me. She doesn't account for the pepper spray, but there are, like, moments when you have to pivot and figure things out. He is obviously has plans within plans. He injected that peach before they even got in the car.
Rob Mahoney
He knew she was getting in the car.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, tough.
Rob Mahoney
Here's one area where he did just
Joanna Robinson
make it read so clearly.
Rob Mahoney
One area where he did make the most of it. When Natalie says, are you kidnapping me? And he hits her with the rare quadruple take as a bit.
Joanna Robinson
Give it. Give it to me.
Rob Mahoney
I simply can't. I don't go past double take. My neck doesn't work that way.
Joanna Robinson
You've never done a triple take. But when he's like, that's hilarious. That's hilarious.
Rob Mahoney
And you know what? He's right.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
She got in the fucking car.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rob Mahoney
She want. She wants to.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Masterclass in acting. It really is from our guy, Max, Katie, not my guy.
Rob Mahoney
And so much more kind of mask dropping from him at this stage in the season. Like, anytime someone can't see him, Natalie gets in the car and he's above it. Complete facial change.
Joanna Robinson
Absolutely. When he walks away from her and he's, like, smirking and sneering because he's know. He knows he's hooked her.
Rob Mahoney
Yep.
Joanna Robinson
So we go back to the family home, and this is another moment where we get to appreciate what Javier Bardem is capable of. Because Max, Katie, who has been, like, in control of every situation he's been in, shows up to. To interrogate his abusive father. And his abusive father, who used his dog training skills to abuse his son, can make him sort of cower and cringe. And, like, does Max get what he wants at the end of the day? Yes, from Hester. But his father puts him on the back foot.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, yeah.
Joanna Robinson
Just sort of like. It was. It was really impressive to See Javier Bardem flip into this sort of cringe, cringe mode sort of thing.
Rob Mahoney
We saw it activated a little bit when he met with Crystal in the humidor earlier this season.
Joanna Robinson
Right.
Rob Mahoney
Like a little bit of that. Mixed it with some just casual sibling make out, spitting stuff. But this is different. I mean, your fave, not me.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
I mean, Rob Perlman is just playing like an absolute piece of shit here in, In a really wonderful storytelling kind of way. The whole, like, if you train a dog well, they'll always remember who their master is. Kind of like that kind of psychosis.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Incredibly effective.
Joanna Robinson
A very, like, we're not so different, you and I, when we have Ron Perlman showing up as Max, Katie's father, daddy Katie in this episode, and then Ted Levine showing back up as Anna's shitty father. Right? So the two shitty, shitty father played by these great, you know, actors that we've known for so long who are capable of such menace, who have this inherent menace to them. I was, like, going back and watching some Ted Levine, like, yeah, sounds the lamb stuff. And it's just like, it's incredible what he does in that movie. And. And so he's got these, like, beautiful eyes, as do, like, most of the people on this show, but he's just like, you know, and he's doing this whole, like, I'm reformed. I was certainly hoping you would give me a second chance. You know, like, he's in his, like, tidy little polo with his, like, name tag from work, just like this whole reformed thing. And, you know, like, we're supposed to believe in, in, in reform for people and, and second chances. But there's just something about Ted Levine where I'm just sort of like, I wouldn't.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, yeah. Nor would I. But also, I think it's just as Anna straight in the crosshairs where, yeah, theoretically, her entire professional life is about giving people second chances.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, yeah.
Rob Mahoney
And here she is with her own dad being like, you're not having fucking dinner with my kids. Are you kidding me?
Joanna Robinson
It's her. It's her. Like, she. The confrontation that she is encountering these last few weeks has been really tough for her.
Rob Mahoney
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Joanna Robinson
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Rob Mahoney
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Joanna Robinson
Sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana.
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Joanna Robinson
I even have seven days to love it or return it.
Rob Mahoney
So there's no.
Joanna Robinson
No, no Buyer's remorse. More like buyers rejoice.
Rob Mahoney
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Joanna Robinson
Did I ever tell you about the time I saw Ted Levine in a bookstore that I worked in?
Rob Mahoney
No.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Well, of the bookshops that I worked in, he came in and one of my co workers walked up to me and they're like, buffalo Bill is in. And I was like, where? And they were like the gardening section. And I was like, incredible. And he bought some gardening books.
Rob Mahoney
So I mean, there were worse sections for him to be in.
Joanna Robinson
Absolutely.
Rob Mahoney
Like the lotions, meat preparation, many things,
Joanna Robinson
sewing, you know, bug maintenance and care of bugs. I don't know. I really liked this Max Katie goes home session. Do you want to talk about creepy Luke?
Rob Mahoney
I would love to talk about creepy Luke. I mean, first of all, casting call guy who looks like he might ask to kiss you within 60 seconds. And while we're saluting our Foley artist, I would also like to salute whatever boom mic operator sufficiently captured his like mouth breathing, close range mouth breathing as he really makes the moves on that.
Joanna Robinson
He likes the shy dogs, you know,
Rob Mahoney
consent that made me, Max style, like fold up into a little colonel like I did not like it.
Joanna Robinson
You know, consent is key. And he did ask, wow, can I kiss you?
Rob Mahoney
Our consent king.
Joanna Robinson
Our consent king. Creepy Luke.
Rob Mahoney
Wow.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. I think all he contains multitudes. Consent king, Creepy Luke. He just feeds the dogs.
Rob Mahoney
He just feeds the dogs. He Looks after him. He feels protective of them.
Joanna Robinson
You have any thoughts about this guy?
Rob Mahoney
Do we see him again?
Joanna Robinson
Can't be nothing. He's just there for, like, creepy, like, color to send Natalie, like, running towards the porch.
Rob Mahoney
Just an unsettling bit of drapery.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
I think this is the question with
Joanna Robinson
overall, is he, like, a Boo Radley type figure, like, misunderstood in his time?
Rob Mahoney
Of all of the characters at the Katy. At Daddy Katie's house.
Joanna Robinson
Katy compound.
Rob Mahoney
The Katy compound. Thank you. I mean, I think we see Ron Perlman again. We've gotten one phone call and one appearance.
Joanna Robinson
Simply must.
Rob Mahoney
We're going to get one more Ron Perlman show. Hester. That might be the end of Hester.
Joanna Robinson
Can I just say, though, between Daddy Katie, Creepy Luke, and Hester, Hester's the person I'm most interested in seeing.
Rob Mahoney
You want to know her story?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, my God. Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
What's Hester's whole deal?
Joanna Robinson
Anna, Deborah. Like, my God, I love her.
Rob Mahoney
So your perspective, generally speaking. Daddy Katie, good. Daddy Luke, Consent King Hester, the woman who could have saved Max from a life of abuse but chose not to.
Joanna Robinson
An icon.
Rob Mahoney
I just want to know what she's up to.
Joanna Robinson
And I got. All right, so we get the boat. It's called the Galilee. Do you remember? Did I talk to you about the name of the boat in the 90s?
Rob Mahoney
No. What was it?
Joanna Robinson
It's Moana.
Ad Voice
What?
Joanna Robinson
I'm not. I'm not kidding. It's called Moana.
Rob Mahoney
Just want to know how far it goes.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Nick Nolte's been standing at the edge of the water as long as he can remember.
Rob Mahoney
I haven't even seen the animated Moana, but that song goes. Are you kidding me?
Joanna Robinson
You should watch that movie. It's actually great.
Rob Mahoney
I am. Look, I'm just a sucker for the very specific Disney. Like, I am at the threshold about to embark on the journey, and I want song. Yeah.
Joanna Robinson
You love Go the Distance from Hercules.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, my God. Do I love Go the distance?
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
I've often dreamed, Joe, of a far off place.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Let's go.
Joanna Robinson
And I want song. That's like Santa Fe and Newsies.
Rob Mahoney
It's very true.
Joanna Robinson
Is an I want song.
Rob Mahoney
Very much so.
Joanna Robinson
All right. So creepy. Lou, Crystal, Katie. The. This boat is called the Galilee. Very biblical. How do you feel about seeing a houseboat in a Cape Fear story? Are we. Is this the. Where everything's going to go down at the end of the day?
Rob Mahoney
Always welcome. I kind of think it might be a little bait and switch, though.
Joanna Robinson
We're Going to zag.
Rob Mahoney
I think we're going to zag a little bit.
Joanna Robinson
Okay.
Rob Mahoney
This felt like maybe a one time location, although it might come up and be relevant. Clearly Rey was murdered here, so there's a lot happening.
Joanna Robinson
Where's the body?
Rob Mahoney
It's in the trunk. Oh, I think.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, we did get that. That sort of Edgar Wright sort of like smash cut to closing the trunk.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, that wakes up Natalie.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. You think he's in the trunk?
Rob Mahoney
I would assume. Or maybe he took a shovel or something out of the trunk.
Joanna Robinson
I guess, yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Here's my question about the decomposition of a dead body. Something that maybe all of our friends who know so much about scopolamine may have more experience with.
Joanna Robinson
I think those brain surgeons are still thinking about emailing us about brain surgery.
Rob Mahoney
They certainly might. If you were taking a four to five hour road trip as this seems to be, would that thing start to smell in the trunk?
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, in the summer, southern heat.
Rob Mahoney
What's AC though, in the trunk? Well, kind of.
Joanna Robinson
Does the trunk get ac?
Rob Mahoney
Well, not directly, but I think it's in there. I don't think in that model of car. It does seem like an older car.
Joanna Robinson
You're right. I don't think so.
Rob Mahoney
So it's just bacon back there.
Joanna Robinson
Is there ice back there?
Rob Mahoney
Maybe that's what he was putting in the trunk.
Joanna Robinson
I don't, I don't think that. I don't think we're making it back to Savannah without some sort of suspicious odor coming out.
Rob Mahoney
In that case, the body cannot be in the trunk.
Joanna Robinson
I don't know.
Rob Mahoney
Did he feed it to the gators?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, just like tossed it in the river.
Rob Mahoney
That seems sloppy for Max KD though. He did. He didn't have time. Okay, so we do know he comes back. His shirt is off now. So maybe he did dig a hole or maybe it was covered in blood. I don't know exactly what happened.
Joanna Robinson
He doesn't seem smeared enough with dirt to have dug a grave of some kind.
Rob Mahoney
He doesn't have the Zendaya and euphoria like I've been digging this ditch and am now a walking dirt clod vibe.
Joanna Robinson
Not even that like sort of fetching cheekbonesque stripe of dirt that people often get in these situations.
Rob Mahoney
That's what the actor's request.
Joanna Robinson
Can you give me some contour? Yeah. Where is the body? Thinkofabykaratgmail.com if you think you. If it's just in the trunk, that's interesting.
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
Joanna Robinson
Then where's it going to land?
Rob Mahoney
Well, here's the Other question that I had is who could possibly connect the dots of what happened here? Natalie has been passed out in the front seat. The murder weapon is one of the Bowden's guns that is in their gun safe. That theoretically no one else has access to. Bad decisions. Very bad. There's one person, though, who could have seen it, and it's Crystal. Crystal Katie, who was warned by her. By her dad to run away or hide or whatever. Yeah, clearly it was close enough that the beer was still cold and still condensating, as you said.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, she's.
Rob Mahoney
I think she's around here somewhere and
Joanna Robinson
she's just like in. In the. In the underbrush.
Rob Mahoney
In the underbrush. Like maybe a compartment of the boat. I don't know exactly, but I feel like this show would not be able to resist the metatextual payoff of Juliet Lewis getting her revenge on Max Katie.
Joanna Robinson
I'm excited. I miss her. I'm excited for more Juliet Lewis. I. I was bummed that she was not at the boat.
Rob Mahoney
Did not appear in this episode.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, I really wanted to.
Rob Mahoney
Well, other than when Ray shows up to the woman who owned the station wagon previously and poses as an insurance salesman or adjuster or whatever, he could be entitled. Clearly that works pretty well, cuz Ray's
Joanna Robinson
competent at his job.
Rob Mahoney
He is competent. That said, I know she gets the hundred, so she's not asking a lot of questions at this point, but this guy's like, I'm an insurance salesman. And also, do you know this woman who. I just said I don't know who she is before, but I have a photo.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, she's like, let's see, mask, rain slicker, hood up, a bit of hair. Sure, that's her.
Rob Mahoney
That's the fruit loop. I know.
Joanna Robinson
That's definitely her. I love that woman. I. I'm really bummed that Rey is dead. I would watch a Rey prequel where we get to see him like, driving around the south and like breaking and
Rob Mahoney
entering for good, you know, what are we calling it?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, gosh.
Rob Mahoney
Nope, Rollins, in order. What's the pun here? There's something. There's something here. We just gotta workshop.
Joanna Robinson
Ray of Justice. I don't know.
Rob Mahoney
Ray of justice is pretty good.
Joanna Robinson
I think it's pretty bad.
Rob Mahoney
Prestigetv, thinkofabycarrot. Sorry. Prestigetvpify.com or think of a baby carrot.
Joanna Robinson
Gmail if you're listening, we're available to write the Ray Rollins prequel.
Rob Mahoney
This is free ip, Absolutely, actually. But the prequel is about him getting out of prison.
Joanna Robinson
No. Well, it's both there's like. Because that can be involved in it.
Rob Mahoney
There's.
Joanna Robinson
There's him being competent at his job, doing all the things that he does that are. That skates the edge of right and wrong. But there's flashback to when he was in prison and got him there.
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
Joanna Robinson
And perhaps he has, like, a guy he knew and they dug coal together. Just something to think about.
Rob Mahoney
I mean, full justified reboot with Jamie Hector.
Joanna Robinson
Why not?
Rob Mahoney
I'm in for that when you watch it. Plus, I. Look, I'm always in for a backstory as the sum of all the influences that make a person. I do kind of like that we're getting that with Max Katie, where it's like we've seen who he was in prison and kind of like this religious aspect of his personality that has sort of taken over. We. We're seeing now with his dad, like, the whole everything. You know, I knew first that his dad drops on him. I mean, incredible line.
Joanna Robinson
Really good.
Rob Mahoney
So, yeah, like, I like that we're seeing all of his tricks kind of turned against him and seeing their origin story, too.
Joanna Robinson
It's pronounced again,
Rob Mahoney
you know, I deeply apologize.
Joanna Robinson
Okay. Before I. I'm. I. I missed this part when he gives her the peach to eat. And something we've celebrated is that there isn't, like, creepy sexual vibes between Max and Natalie. It's like. But they couldn't help themselves. When he's like, is that good? And she's like, georgia peach. I'm like, what. What was the tagine you put on that particular library? Like, what the fuck was that?
Rob Mahoney
First of all, I don't like the spice you put on that in particular.
Joanna Robinson
But Tajin, like, anyway, Georgia peach. What the fuck are we talking about? Natalie? That was so weird and flirty inside of the episode. It might be your dad inside the episode where she's just like, are you my dad? You know, like, very curious to me.
Rob Mahoney
All of the lines are getting crossed here, as it seems they do in the Katie household.
Joanna Robinson
What did you make of the baptism scene?
Rob Mahoney
It did make me think about last week's episode and the ending a little bit different. You. You asked me about that shot we got at the end of episode six, Possum of the Red Eye.
Joanna Robinson
Right.
Rob Mahoney
Like, oh, right, right. And you. You asked me, like, who do you think this is? What is it now? I think it's definitely Zach. Where it feels like that is Zach's eye kind of turning red.
Joanna Robinson
Right.
Rob Mahoney
Like coming over to the Max Katie side. And this is sort of the same thing. Like a Dunk and a baptism. And now Natalie is. Her situation is more complicated.
Joanna Robinson
Well, she's like, I feel the same. And he's like, because you are who you've always been.
Rob Mahoney
My daughter. My biological daughter. Here's. Here's question number one. Do we think that's actually true?
Joanna Robinson
I think it being revealed. Revealed in episode seven makes me think maybe it's not true. Right.
Rob Mahoney
I don't even know what Max knows too. Like, he could believe it to be true. He could also be giving her the hair just as like a. Go chase this down and see how it makes things messy.
Joanna Robinson
Do you know how to, like, get a DNA testing? Do you know how to, like, Never done it. Who do you mail your. The beard hair to?
Rob Mahoney
Apparently not 23andMe. That doesn't seem like the answer.
Joanna Robinson
I. I don't know. I kind of think it's not, though. Yeah. To your point, like, if he wasn't sure it was him, would he give her the beard hair?
Rob Mahoney
I think he might do it anyway. But yeah, I mean, to answer your question, Joe, you know, I'm not even like, putting my fingerprint on my phone.
Joanna Robinson
I do know that the idea of
Rob Mahoney
I'm sending my and someone else's DNA into a corporation. Simply not happening.
Joanna Robinson
One more thing. I want to circle back to this Ted Levine who's also. He's also wearing a green polo. Green polo's on both the bad dads of this episode. He's going for the. The Gilmore Girl. I need dinner with you once, once a month.
Rob Mahoney
I didn't realize that. Who proposes it in Gilmore Girls?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, Emily Gilmore. It's the whole start of the Gilmore Girls is that Lorelei Gilmore is estranged from her parents, but she needs money to send Rory to a good school. So she asks her very rich parents for monies, and they're like, in exchange, you have to come and have family dinner with us every Sunday.
Rob Mahoney
But only her. Not Rory.
Joanna Robinson
No, Rory has to come too.
Rob Mahoney
Rory has to come too.
Joanna Robinson
They want to know their granddaughter.
Rob Mahoney
Mandating a granddaughter's appearance.
Joanna Robinson
Absolutely.
Rob Mahoney
That's a big ask.
Joanna Robinson
And so the friction between the generation of Gilmores is. Is really the meat and potatoes of what Gilmore Girls is. But. But I. I feel like Anna's shitty dad has been watching Gilmore Girls. He's like, you know what I'll do? Do a full Emily Gilmore and I'll demand a. A regular dinner in exchange.
Rob Mahoney
I think there's a lot we can learn in terms of plotting and scheming from the Gilmore Girls.
Joanna Robinson
Absolutely. Emily Gilmore is like Hester, an icon. Do you think this is going to go well with Anna's dad planting these drugs across the street?
Rob Mahoney
No. This is such a bad plan.
Joanna Robinson
This is a garbage plan. The whole wait for Rey to get back. He won't be coming back. But if. If you were, like, waiting for someone to break and enter and plant something, wouldn't you ask for Rey, the guy, you know, who does this for you and is trustworthy?
Rob Mahoney
Oh, you mean as opposed to the untraceable alternative of having your own biological father do it?
Joanna Robinson
Speaking of DNA reports, no one could
Rob Mahoney
possibly connect this to us. I think. Look, I think it's a good instinct to stop Tom from just running over there and planting himself. That's a bad idea.
Joanna Robinson
I actually think Tom would have done a better, better job than what I assume is going to happen.
Rob Mahoney
He's going to be on his own. Security cameras walking out with drugs in hand and probably on Max. Katie, Security cameras planting the drugs.
Joanna Robinson
But they have the WI fi jammer. It's probably evidence now, but now that they know that the WI Fi jammer exists, I would go out and get my own WI Fi jammer.
Rob Mahoney
What did you.
Joanna Robinson
The jammer.
Rob Mahoney
Can you jam a jammer?
Joanna Robinson
I would think so.
Rob Mahoney
I feel like if you could do that, then in the Matrix, the sentinels would have emped the mp, you know? I'm saying, like, you can't jam the jammer.
Joanna Robinson
There's still time for another Matrix sequel in which that happens.
Rob Mahoney
I'm. I'm available for the writers room for that. What did you feel about the WI Fi chamber being covered in, like, tasteful teen stickers?
Joanna Robinson
Honestly, I loved it.
Rob Mahoney
I couldn't make out what they were.
Joanna Robinson
She's just a girl.
Rob Mahoney
She is just a girl.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, did you freeze Ray Mahoney? Zach's bedroom? We got, like, more shots of posters and, I mean, what an incredible bedroom Zack has. Oh, my God, the exposed brick. He's got a whole, like, city over in the corner. Like, what are we. What are we complaining about?
Rob Mahoney
Zach, I would kill for that bedroom right now. I would. Very nice. I did not. Because, honestly, we had seen a lot of his bedroom already. What I did, freeze frame, was when Natalie returns from Paul's house and gives Anna an ominous call about, like, her parentage and trying to press Anna for the.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, she's like another flask of booze deep into her afternoon drinking.
Rob Mahoney
She's in her cups.
Joanna Robinson
Natalie, that's not water.
Rob Mahoney
It's not water. She has, like, a bunch of stuff splayed out over the table. Oh.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, yeah. Family photos.
Rob Mahoney
Family photos, mostly. So photos of, like, young. I would say, like, Enchanted Era, Amy Adams among that myth.
Joanna Robinson
Some even earlier, I think.
Rob Mahoney
You think so? And then obviously some that they staged for the purpose.
Joanna Robinson
They're like, hey, is there a photo of you drinking in a bar? We're going to need that.
Rob Mahoney
Let's just. Let's just pull that up for the archival.
Joanna Robinson
You in your 20s drinking in a bar. Find us that photo.
Rob Mahoney
Let's find it. But two things that I think if this season ends up as Anna fears and dreads with her kids trying to. Like, someone trying to take her kids away from her in a legal sense, because she is abusing substances, because she has this history of alcoholism, whatever. Two pieces of evidence on this table I think are really going to work against her. One, a ticket stub to a Duke football game, which I think is abusive parenting. Would not recommend it to a ticket stub to an Alabama Shakes concert. That will not help your case in court.
Joanna Robinson
Tell me about. I. I saw that, and I was like, I feel like Rob's gonna have an opinion on this. You're anti Alabama Shakes.
Rob Mahoney
I just. I'm a little baffled at who brought who to that.
Joanna Robinson
I think Tom brought Anna to the Alabama Shakes concert.
Rob Mahoney
Oh, I thought this. I thought this might be Natalie's stuff.
Joanna Robinson
We don't know that because it's like, family photos.
Rob Mahoney
Okay. Actually, it does check out that Tom and Anna would go. Okay. I was just worried that they had taken the kids.
Joanna Robinson
No, I don't think so.
Rob Mahoney
They better not have.
Joanna Robinson
What's, like, an absolute deal breaker? Ticket, concert. Ticket stub. If you find it among, like, people's
Rob Mahoney
possessions, it's a great question. The problem is, like, look, there are ethical answers to this, but I'm gonna be honest. People are going to those shows. I get a lot of, like, Kanye Instagram stories in my life being shared with me. So clearly, you can't cut everyone out for the people that they enjoy listening to.
Ad Voice
Yeah.
Joanna Robinson
You're like Chris Brown fans. I'm a fan of you, but on.
Rob Mahoney
I did not say that. That's you into a microphone. Clip it, ship it, put on social feed. Who. Yeah. What taste would be so offensive that it would be an actual deal breaker?
Joanna Robinson
Is it like Jimmy Buffett? Are you, like, anti Margaritaville? I'm. I'm pro Margaritaville, personally.
Rob Mahoney
How are you pro Margaritaville but anti Randy Newman?
Joanna Robinson
Oh, that's like a.
Rob Mahoney
That's an overlapping vendor.
Joanna Robinson
Why have Mike. Randy Newman takes onto the microphone? I don't think I've because I find them offensive. Randy Newman is horrible. Jimmy Buffett is a king.
Rob Mahoney
I have nothing against Jimmy Buffett, but they're of a piece, are they not?
Joanna Robinson
If Randy Newman had a chain of restaurants based off of his, you know, most popular hit, I would be supportive of.
Rob Mahoney
So your problem is that he's not capitalistic enough.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, I love capitalism.
Rob Mahoney
You do love us. A small to medium sized business owner.
Joanna Robinson
I'm just, like, looking for my lost shaker of salt. Yeah. What else we got to say about this episode?
Rob Mahoney
It's a great question.
Joanna Robinson
Is this good television? Rob, how are you feeling?
Rob Mahoney
I often wonder. Yeah, is this good podcasting that I'm certain it's not. The show is just objectively insane, but the things that work, really, really work and the rest of it is stupid or confusing or just enjoyable enough to keep me tethered along at every single step.
Joanna Robinson
What performance did you enjoy most in this episode?
Rob Mahoney
Bardem.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Is it.
Joanna Robinson
Is the answer any ever? Anything other than Bardem?
Rob Mahoney
I think it can. It can waver into other things. Like whenever Juliette Lewis is coming on screen, she has such a weird, nervy energy that's super fun.
Joanna Robinson
She's so good.
Rob Mahoney
I think you're right to isolate Jamie Hector and how much we're going to miss him from a performance aspect in this episode. Not just the character, but he has, like. It's such a weird thing coming from where he started on the Wire, where it was, yes, a calm character and a controlling character, but of such a different energy, totally different menace from, like, the reassurance he has eased into later in his career.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, I will definitely miss him. Other than that, like, I would say the only other person who can steal a scene from me off and on is Lily Coleus, who plays Natalie.
Joanna Robinson
I agree.
Rob Mahoney
I think she's been really, really great. And their road trip sequence, the, like, she's feeling herself, she's feeling liberated and honestly, very true to life of like, the first road trip you get to drive for yourself is such a formative experience and him dangling that carrot in a way that he knows Natalie won't be able to resist. I just think she plays the full range of skepticism and, like, wanting to see the good in Max in a way that is really compelling.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, I think she's fantastic, but it's like, it's Bardem's show and I think without him here, there's no point in doing it. To be honest with you, like, I can't think of another performer I would want to see in this role and the show doesn't work if you don't have, like, a sort of elemental force playing Max Cady.
Rob Mahoney
To be fair, the same is true of all the movies like that. That is a role you have to nail in a very specific magnetic way.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
And they did that. Regardless of what you may think of the rest of the show or whether it works for you or not, or whether there's too many tow jars involved. Like, I think they got the casting right on. Max just absolutely nailed it.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
One quick thing.
Joanna Robinson
Sure.
Rob Mahoney
Because they threw it out there and I didn't know what to make of it. Is after they leave the hospital to talk to the doctor about Zach's involuntary psychold and the scopolamine and all that.
Joanna Robinson
And the zombification.
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
Joanna Robinson
Of Zach Bowden.
Rob Mahoney
He's been brainwashed. Not clinically, but technically. Tom tells Anna this dream he had.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Yeah. Where they're on the roof of, like, the parking garage and the sky is very blue, and maybe they're in the volume. It looked a little weird, but it looked very odd. Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
But you got, like, a weird drone shot, too. So I think it was on location. I think it just was captured strangely, maybe purposely. Maybe.
Joanna Robinson
So it was color that way. Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
So the dream he reveals is that in his dream, he's 14 years old. His dad tells him his brother's going to die over Thanksgiving break in a car crash. His mom agrees. He's, like, panicking that they're not doing anything about it. He looks to his brother, and his brother, he cuts off, is my son.
Joanna Robinson
Right. So there's three options here, because he almost. Like, I watched that multiple times because I wasn't certain. And Anna seemed to know, like, what his answer would be, or she, at least was, in classic Anna fashion, deeply incurious about what the. Where he cut himself off.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah.
Joanna Robinson
Was my son. Was myself.
Rob Mahoney
Would you say myself? I think you would say it was me. But he says my. It was my.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, it was my.
Rob Mahoney
So I think it wouldn't.
Joanna Robinson
Not my. Myself.
Rob Mahoney
I think it wouldn't be myself.
Joanna Robinson
Okay. So we're taking that off the board. So either my son or my fa. He started to say, like, f. I think his father. He almost says, but his father. I know. Yeah. But it's dream logic.
Rob Mahoney
It is dream logic.
Joanna Robinson
I was very baffled by that cutoff because I did not feel like it was clear what he was going to say.
Rob Mahoney
Nor did I.
Joanna Robinson
And I'm like, it'll be a weird thing to come back and clarify this. It can only be. But, like, why would he say my. Why wouldn't he just say it was Zach or our son?
Rob Mahoney
That would make sense, you know?
Joanna Robinson
And why wouldn't he just say it was Zach? Because I'm worried about Zach's mental health the way that I worried about my brother's mental health. Don't worry about it. He didn't hang himself. He died in a car accident. It's not the same. But, like, when's that information coming out? I don't know. Yeah, I thought that was a really weird scene.
Rob Mahoney
Very odd. Anytime a show makes a point to explain a dream, I'm like, okay, you're telling us something, but I have no idea what this was about.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, very interesting.
Rob Mahoney
I would say. The only other thing of note from this sequence is this is also when Natalie calls Anna asking about who her real father is. And as soon as Natalie asks it, Anna gives the quick, like, look to see if Tom is already in the car. Before I start answering this question, do
Joanna Robinson
you know how insulting that is to ask your mother? She took a DNA test.
Rob Mahoney
Turns out it's quite insulting.
Joanna Robinson
Where are you on the question of is Max Cady Natalie's father?
Rob Mahoney
I'm with you. That narratively, this early in the season feels too early to introduce it if it's true.
Joanna Robinson
Right.
Rob Mahoney
There is one twist yet to come, and maybe the twist is just that it's Tom. That it is actually Tom and not Paul, as they suspected initially.
Joanna Robinson
How nice is that? Nice. I don't want it to be Paul for sure, and I don't want it to be Max. So of those options, yeah, Tom is nicest.
Rob Mahoney
He is nicest. But that also makes it extra messy because that would mean that the whole trial was corrupted from the beginning.
Joanna Robinson
Buddy. It's already quite legally messy. We don't even know what they did yet. You don't really know how they legally colluded to put Max Katie away.
Rob Mahoney
But what else could it be other than that's what.
Joanna Robinson
That's what Hester was saying. Right. Like, I know what you did because you were ashamed of wanting him. Right?
Rob Mahoney
Right.
Joanna Robinson
That's what she said. And Hester is, if nothing else, if not a truth teller. So, you know something I think about. Do you want to go to the board?
Rob Mahoney
I would love to.
Joanna Robinson
All right. As per usual, we have come up with some cars that we want to add to our extremely legible, completely normal looking conspiracy board that we've put together for Cape Fear.
Rob Mahoney
I've genuinely never been more proud of any piece of work I've ever been a part of. So thank you for. I mean, really. You're the driving force of this project.
Joanna Robinson
Do you want to. We updated a few cards that are already up here.
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
Joanna Robinson
Juliet Lewis's card now has a character name. Crystal Katy, of course.
Rob Mahoney
What else do we update this like? Ray, obviously. Rest in peace.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, rest in peace Ray. Ray got the red X treatment. The gun safe.
Rob Mahoney
0702702.
Joanna Robinson
That's the. Do you think it's just 0702 or her or the year as well?
Rob Mahoney
Oh, it was just 0702. I saw her.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, you saw her do it. Okay. 0702. That's the combination of the gun safe. So now we can all access the gun safe anytime you want.
Rob Mahoney
There were several handguns in there.
Joanna Robinson
Wow. All right. Anything else?
Rob Mahoney
I think those are the only ones we updated this week.
Joanna Robinson
Let's talk about things we're going to add. Well, we took a few down that we're going to replace with something else. So we're starting with scopolamine, AKA Devil's Breath, the very specific mind control drug that is driving a lot of the machinations on this show.
Rob Mahoney
Makes me very uncomfortable that it exists, that people know so much about it. But not as uncomfortable as Daddy Katie himself. Just a real. A real gem of a man. Ron Perlman.
Joanna Robinson
And you know what makes me believe in love? The icon. Hester and Daddy Katie. They're still in love. And you love to see it.
Rob Mahoney
They are in love. I wish I could say this has anything to do with love, but it doesn't. The Bowden handgun.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Was in the safe. Taken out of the safe by Natalie. Used to murder Rey in cold blood.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
And presumably put right back in the safe.
Joanna Robinson
Right back in the safe. Gunpowder residue. I don't know how well that would
Rob Mahoney
be on Max's hands, I would think, but the ballistics would match that exact gun.
Joanna Robinson
But, like, I don't understand how ballistics. Like, you know the exact gun, but do you know, like, the exact gun, but you just know the make and model of the gun?
Rob Mahoney
I think you would know the make and model.
Joanna Robinson
But if also it's like, doesn't that look like a. And he's got, like, three of them
Rob Mahoney
in there, but no one knows that it's missing one bullet. One bullet.
Joanna Robinson
Right. Maybe one bullet.
Rob Mahoney
Actually, no. He shot him like, three times. Three bullets.
Joanna Robinson
Let go, let go. So now we've. So we've got the handgun. We put the shotgun up last week.
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
Joanna Robinson
Camera. Where it Is. And then the gun safe is up there. So we just got guns aplenty, guns a blazing.
Rob Mahoney
It's that kind of show.
Joanna Robinson
Okay, great. Oh, there's the shotgun. Okay, Bluff's Point, location wise, this is where the baptism happens. Is where the giant cross is on Bluff's Point.
Rob Mahoney
Do we return to Bluff's Point, do you think?
Joanna Robinson
I think we have to.
Rob Mahoney
I hope we do. Because I would love more metaphorical baptism in addition to the very literal baptisms that occur on this show. But we're baptizing. Baptizing ourselves literally every week, frankly, around here.
Joanna Robinson
Speaking of stuff with water, Max Katie can't swim. Or can he? But maybe he can't swim. It's a very like, beefy arm, but like, he's got the guns. So he does, like representing.
Rob Mahoney
And he's flexing him yet again.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, he really is. Can Max Katie swim? We don't know. But for right now, I'm gonna take him as word.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah. Joja Peach. It's stone fruit season, baby.
Joanna Robinson
We both bought peaches this week.
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, get familiar.
Joanna Robinson
What's your favorite? Oh, you like to bake with peaches.
Rob Mahoney
I mean, I just love a peach by itself. No drugs.
Joanna Robinson
Added peach in a salad. Like a. Like a savory salad, but like some peaches in there.
Rob Mahoney
Peach and goat cheese.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, Elite buddy character actor Patrick Fishler.
Rob Mahoney
That's Dr. Patrick Fisher to you.
Joanna Robinson
I will change it. Dr. Patrick Fisher MD well, while we're introducing new characters.
Rob Mahoney
Your consent. King Creepy Luke.
Joanna Robinson
I can't believe you. You wanted to do that card. He doesn't get a full size card, Paul. He just gets a little one because that's what he deserves.
Rob Mahoney
He's sad. He's down bad. I don't want to spend any more time with Paul than we have to. We have another addition card in the vein of we added traitor to peanut butter now many last week.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
Rob Mahoney
To add to Crystal Katie Juliet Lewis. Fruit loop.
Joanna Robinson
Should we put a trader card on Zach?
Rob Mahoney
We might need to just like walked
Joanna Robinson
his ass across the street and said, this is my dad now.
Rob Mahoney
And it wasn't even very hard. Little scopolamine goes a long way.
Joanna Robinson
Glitch scription. You know what I was thinking of the Buffy Vampire Slayer episode Helpless. Because that vampire in that episode is like, my pills, my pills he needs. And it comes back. So like, will Max, you know, be like, my pills, my pills and Anna's like these little things.
Rob Mahoney
So you think the final boss boss is Max in a dungeon and meanwhile,
Joanna Robinson
with a very long spoon.
Rob Mahoney
No One has any guns nor any magic to protect them. It's tough, honestly. A horrifying episode of Buffy the Aggro Tom footage. Yeah, we didn't really talk about this much during the episode, but there are now two different pieces of video evidence that Tom is just beating the out
Joanna Robinson
of people that he's like, I don't lift these weights for nothing.
Rob Mahoney
No, this is not cosmetic. These are functional muscles. And I suggest. I. I think they will be used against him at some point.
Joanna Robinson
Again, last but not least, the Galilee. The boat. No cell service at the Galilee. We did not point that out, but that is very important. Rhae's phone call came through garbled, so they didn't get all the information. But if someone else goes out to the Galilee, they're also not going to have cell service. So I think that's just something important to establish.
Rob Mahoney
Absolutely. It is not least, it's also not exactly last because, I mean, your beautiful artwork has featured all over the board, including the gallery itself. But we have our first photo card to put on, if you can even call it a card. It is a giant, grainy photograph of a possum who did not appear this week, but I am always wondering about its whereabouts.
Joanna Robinson
Where is the possum?
Rob Mahoney
Will someone account for it?
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Grainy footage of the possum. Thanks to our producer, Kai Grady.
Rob Mahoney
Just tremendous stuff.
Joanna Robinson
Really great work.
Rob Mahoney
I think when all is said and done, when we put Cape Fear to bed and we decided what we really think of it, the thing that will stick with me the most are the
Joanna Robinson
possums you met along the way.
Rob Mahoney
It's Tom either getting thrown through the drywall or bursting through the drywall. And then Anna being like, it was
Joanna Robinson
just a possum, just a little possum. It was just a possum pinning for the devil. All right, that has been Cape Fear, episode seven. Devereaux Devrou. We'll be back with episode eight. Once again, send us your emails. Even if we don't get to them, we will eventually catch back up and get to address all of your emails. Thanks to Kai Grady. Thanks to Jacob Cornette. Thanks to Dev Ronaldo. Thanks to this batshit show. Yeah. Having a great summer.
Rob Mahoney
Thanks to polluted rivers.
Joanna Robinson
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rob Mahoney
Thanks to scopolamine, obviously.
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, yeah. No, thank you. Thanks to you, Max, Katie, for killing Ray Rollins. We don't like it. We don't know, where's the bot? Where's the possum? Where's the body? These are the questions we're asking Stay tuned next week. Bye.
Rob Mahoney
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
Joanna Robinson
$45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan. Required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.
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Rob Mahoney
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Rob Mahoney
No photos, please. I'm just a regular dad who happens to have a stylist. I really look my best when someone else makes the decisions. Hey, we can all see you two way mirrors. Just share your size, style and budget. And your stylist sends personalized looks right to your door. Stitch Fix. Get started today@stitch fix.com. i want to hug you. I'm going to hug you. I'm coming. I'm coming in for a hug.
The Prestige TV Podcast | Hosts: Joanna Robinson & Rob Mahoney | July 10, 2026
In this episode, Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney dive deep into “Mongrel,” the seventh episode of the twist-heavy, fever-dream TV adaptation of Cape Fear. With only three more episodes in the season, they discuss the escalating stakes, family dysfunction, murder fallouts, and the ever-expanding mythology (and conspiracy board) of the show’s characters. They focus on the classic tropes at play, standout performances, evolving character dynamics, and the delightfully bewildering tone that defines this season.
Tom Bowdoin’s endless rage is easily weaponized by Max, as seen in the public altercation/beatdown ([15:12]).
Anna, by contrast, is surprisingly the most resistant Bowdoin, despite her many bad decisions ([16:23], [16:26]).
The code to the Bowdoin gun safe is Natalie’s birthday—discussed as both a sign of affection and a narrative Chekhov’s gun ([20:06]).
Paul, Anna’s ex, is “the most incompetent person on the show” and is hilariously inept at protecting Natalie ([18:42]).
The “Chekhov’s pepper spray” is deployed immediately for dramatic effect ([11:34]).
Javier Bardem’s performance as Max is often described as “a masterclass”—levitating the series with wordless, evil smiles and mask-dropping facial acting ([12:32], [27:48]).
The “quadruple take” Max gives Natalie when she asks if he's kidnapping her ([27:24]).
Light, repeated bits about possums/opossums (“it was just a possum, just a little possum, it was just a possum pinning for the devil!” – Joanna & Rob, [60:21]) continue to be running in-jokes, reflecting the podcast’s playful tone.
To participate in ongoing Cape Fear theories or offer board additions, contact the show at:
prestigetvpodify.com or thinkofabycarrot@gmail.com
Summary by The Prestige TV Podcast Summarizer—because we never forget an opossum, or a twist.