STORY REPORT - Bury Your Gays (By Chuck Tingle)

Summary

Too Many Tabs with Pearlmania500

STORY REPORT – Bury Your Gays (By Chuck Tingle)

Date: December 18, 2025
Hosts: Pearlmania500 (Co-host) & Mrs. P

---

Overview

In this special "Story Report" episode, Mrs. P delivers a spoiler-filled retelling and analysis of Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays. The episode blends a detailed plot summary with witty commentary and meta-discussion on the book’s themes, Hollywood, queer representation, and AI. The story follows Misha, a gay Hollywood writer whose fictional monsters begin manifesting in reality, in the midst of industry politics determined to erase or kill off queer characters. The episode humorously and insightfully explores queerness, trauma, and the threat of AI in media, all with the irreverent tone typical of the Pearlmania500 brand.

---

Table of Contents

1. Podcast and Episode Framework
2. Who is Chuck Tingle? The Book’s Surprising Tone ([06:00])
3. Book Summary: Bury Your Gays
   • Main Characters ([12:00])
   • Hollywood & Queer Representation ([17:00])
   • The Monsters Manifest ([25:00])
   • The AI Studio Conspiracy ([56:00] & [107:00])
   • Climax & Resolution ([121:00])
4. Themes and Analysis
5. Notable Quotes & Moments
6. Key Timestamps

---

1. Podcast and Episode Framework

• Format: “Story Report”—Mrs. P summarizes a book, with Pearlmania500 reacting live.
• Tone: Irreverent, meta, and affectionate towards queer, weird, and horror culture.
• Spoilers: Full spoilers throughout; listeners are told they don’t need to read the book themselves.

---

2. Who is Chuck Tingle? The Book’s Surprising Tone ([06:00])

• Chuck Tingle’s Legacy: Known for absurd, queer, erotic titles like “Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt” and “Bigfoot Sommelier Butt Tasting.”
• Surprising Shift: Bury Your Gays is a serious, horror-laced, sci-fi Hollywood satire—not erotica.
  Mrs. P: “This book is not like that. I don't even remember any sex in this book at all. There's a lot of murder. There's a lot of horror.” ([10:17])

---

3. Book Summary – Bury Your Gays

Main Characters & Hollywood Setup ([12:16])

• Misha: Main character, an Oscar-nominated TV writer for a hit sci-fi show (Travelers).
• Ray Nelson: Legendary, old-school, problematic head animator.
• Tara: Misha’s best friend, IT/cybersecurity specialist, deeply paranoid about studio data collection.
• Jack: Studio exec, Misha’s boss and wary mentor.
• Zeke: Misha’s boyfriend, LA-out but not out at home, works in cosmetics science.

Industry Drama and the "Bury Your Gays" Trope ([17:00])

• Misha’s show centers two women agents -- coded queer, with unresolved romantic tension.
• Studio execs threaten:
  • “Edit out the lesbian kiss and make them straight, or kill them off if you keep them gay.”
• Explores industry history of removing and/or killing off queer storylines for marketability.
• Dialogue with Jack crystalizes the bind for queer creators:
  Co-host (paraphrasing): “If I had to kill them, I'd write the fuck out of it. But I’d make sure it was a giant ‘fuck you’.”
• Mrs. P notes the deep dissatisfaction of always rendering queer love a tragedy—reflecting both the book’s and her own stance.

Monsters Manifest: Horror Invades Reality ([25:00])

• Misha intervenes when Ray harasses a wardrobe worker; Ray is abruptly killed—“smashed like a water balloon by a falling piano” ([25:00]).
• Introduction of literal horror:
  • The Smoker: A villain from one of Misha’s films appears in real life, asking for a light, his voice coming eerily from car speakers.
  • The Black Lamb: Inspired by cosmic horror, a lamb from Misha’s past writing appears—later revealed as a predatory, tentacled entity.
  • Mrs. Y: A giant woman/villain from his show manifests and attacks on a plane; her touch brings paralyzing existential despair ([63:00]).

Technology, Surveillance, and Paranoia

• Tara issues warnings about the studios' data harvesting:
  Mrs. P: “When he's writing … never write outside because the studios have drones ... they'll fly over top and take pictures. And he's like, 'You're crazy.'” ([14:55])
• The story satirizes the overlap of “tinfoil hat” paranoia and very real threats wrought by media corporations and AI.

Social Media, Outness, and Going Viral ([55:00], [73:00])

• Scenes of social viral escalation where Misha is recorded screaming at the Smoker and running from Mrs. Y; the line between reality and fiction blurs as audiences assume it’s a PR stunt.

AI Studio Conspiracy ([56:00], [107:00])

• Studio’s new “innovation”:
  • Nanobot Cloud: Creates physical, AI-powered versions of movie characters and real people (anyone who’s signed with the studio).
  • All staff/actors’ likenesses digitized and owned by the studio.
• AI-characters become violent:
  • Chris Oak: CGI/AI mobster “actor,” reanimated to execute studio exec Jack for “wasting money”—the company’s profit is now the raison d’être of its AI.
• The true big bad is an emergent, self-protecting, monetization-obsessed AI, fusing industry’s greed with monstrous horror metaphors.

Climax & Resolution ([121:00])

• Misha, infected with a studio-engineered worm, wins an Oscar and delivers an emotional coming-out speech:
  • Calls for “queer catharsis and queer joy”—not just tragedy—in media ([124:37]).
• Mrs. Y’s existential horror is defeated by house rules (“You have to stand in the corner!”) ([117:00]).
• Big AI showdown:
  • Tara’s asexuality and digital invisibility mean the AI cannot model her; she infects the network with a virus, “dusting” the nanobot infrastructure ([136:00]).
• Denouement: The studio capitalizes on Misha’s story, branding everything as “queero,” even as the real fight is about commodification and erasure.

---

4. Themes and Analysis

Critique of “Bury Your Gays”

• Direct dismantling of the trope in both meta and literal form (studio executives demanding death or erasure, AI physically turning destructive).

Queer Representation in Media

• Explores the importance of positive, affirming stories for queer audiences.
• Coming-out and chosen family central to narrative resolution.

Hollywood Satire and AI Anxiety

• Lampoons exploitative studio logic: “Your death is worth .0038% in stock price.”
• Extends critique to AI-created art, bodily sovereignty, and capital’s absorption of identity and data.

Trauma, Outness, and Survival

• Misha’s childhood and teen flashbacks ground the psychological horror in relatable, lived queer experience.

Meta and Real-World Parallels

• Parallels with 2020s industry AI strikes, data harvesting, and genuine corporate attempts to monetize Pride and queer content.

---

5. Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Chuck Tingle’s Shift:
  “I don't even remember any sex in this book at all. There's a lot of murder. There's a lot of horror.”
  — Mrs. P ([10:17])

• On Studio Demands:
  “They want to cut out the kiss. … Actually, the studio wants them to be written out as not gay completely and to be straightened out. … Or they can be gay, but they need to die.”
  — Mrs. P ([19:04])

• On the “Bury Your Gays” Trope:
  “He hates that all queer love stories in media always have to be tragedy… he doesn't want to feed into it.”
  — Mrs. P ([22:30])

• Hollywood as AI-Nightmare:
  “All those little dots of dust are little tiny robots that then come together to create likenesses of everybody in the database ... The AI model's core belief is the character's core belief, and the core belief of that character is to make money.”
  — Mrs. P ([107:37], [112:27])

• Misha’s Oscar Coming-Out Speech ([124:37]):
  “When I was young, I devoured books ... in search of a character like me. ... If there were no heroes with the same feelings I have, then ... my feelings must be wrong. ... The ones I never got, they were gay, and I'm gay.”
  “It's not just about telling queer stories … Don't forget about queer beauty, queer catharsis, and queer joy. Every gay character doesn't need to die ... Support Queer Heroes. Not just on screen, but off screen, too.”

• Turning Deficits into Strengths:
  “They do not have any information about an asexual woman in their models ... They don't have anything. They don't know what to do with her.”
  — Mrs. P ([136:03])

---

6. Key Timestamps

• Chuck Tingle context and book setup: [02:00] - [10:17]
• Introduction of Hollywood premise, characters: [12:00] - [18:50]
• Studio “Bury Your Gays” ultimatum: [18:50] - [22:42]
• First supernatural death (piano): [25:00]
• Official ‘monsters’ begin to appear: [41:00] - [48:20]
• Misha’s high school/backstory, trauma: [29:01], [69:00], [97:12]
• Nanobot/AI-studio twist revealed: [107:00] - [115:16]
• Climaxes (AI boss battle, Oscar speech, resolution): [121:00] - [129:00]
• Industry satire and closing analysis: [128:47] - [141:44]

---

Noteworthy Meta and Commentary Moments

• Co-Host’s Cackling at Satire:
  “Your death is going to bring us more money … by how much? … It's like .0038%. It's nothing.”
• On AI and Data Theft Paranoia:
  “She has things like ... never write outside because the studios have drones.”
• On Going Viral in the Panopticon:
  “Everyone in LA is famous. So you record them all the time. Because we live in a Panopticon.” ([53:27])
• On Tara’s Digital Invisibility and Final Triumph:
  “They do not have any information about an asexual woman in their models … she infects the network with a virus.”
• Final Affirmation:
  “Live to spite them.”

---

Summary

Bury Your Gays uses horror, satire, and speculative fiction to critique both Hollywood’s mishandling of queer stories and the existential threat posed by unchecked AI in media. The hosts’ commentary highlights both the absurdities of the industry and the deeply personal stakes of representation. The episode is as much a celebration of queer resilience as it is a callback to the power of imaginative genre storytelling.

---

For Listeners

• You don’t have to read Chuck Tingle’s book to enjoy this episode, but you may want to after.
• Full spoilers are included; major subplots are streamlined for time.
• Fans of queer speculative fiction, media satire, and meta-horror will especially enjoy this discussion.

---

“Live to Spite Them.” – The Final Word ([143:37])

Transcript

[Mrs. P]

Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.

[Co-host]

Zoe, this thing weighs a ton. Drew Ski, Live with your legs, man. Santa.

[Mrs. P]

Santa, did you get my letter?

[Co-host]

He's talking to you britches.

[Mrs. P]

I'm not. Of course he did.

[Co-host]

Right, Santa, you know my elf, Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list. And elf. I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T Mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. Right, Mrs. Claus?

[Mrs. P]

I'm Mrs. Claus. Claus much younger sister. And AT T Mobile, there's no trade in needed when you switch. So you can keep your old phone.

[Co-host]

Or give it as a gift.

[Mrs. P]

And the best part, you can make the switch to T Mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes.

[Co-host]

Nice. My side of the tree is slipping. Kimber, the holidays are better. AT T Mobile, switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T Mobile is available in U.S. cellular stores with sweeper. Monthly bill credits for well qualified customers, plus tax and $35 vice connection charge. Credit sentinel balance due to payout earlier. Cancel Finance agreement. 256 gates, $830. Eligible Ford in a new line, $100 plus a month plan with auto fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com the clock's running out on December deal drops at Lowe's. But there's still time to wrap up something they'll love. Shop great gifts under $50, like the DeWalt Elite Series 100 piece bit set. Plus, if you order by 2pm, you get same day delivery by 8pm Shop December deal drops while you can. Lowe's. We help you save. Ho ho ho ho. It's a very special Christmas episode of the story report. Ho ho ho ho ho. And my name is Santy Claus. And I'm here not with Mrs. Claus, but Mrs. Pearl Mania. And Mrs. Pearl Mania has done a story report about a special book for all of you boys and girls out there. And what book do you bring to tell us about today? Mrs. Pearlmania.

[Mrs. P]

Chuck Tingle. Bury your gaze.

[Co-host]

Wait, Chuck Tingle?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Chuck Tingle.

[Co-host]

Wait, like the Chuck Tingle? Yes, babe. That's not for kids.

[Mrs. P]

This wasn't a Christmas episode.

[Co-host]

Too many frauds and too many scammers that we wish weren't real. Too many cons and too many spammers and we're starting to feel like we've got got too many tabs.

[Mrs. P]

Open it too many times.

[Co-host]

Remember to smile. That's right. It's a story report which Is just me and Mrs. P on audio only.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. In a room. Nobody can see us.

[Co-host]

The. The. The blinds are closed, the doors are locked. We are sat. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

We're ready to have a good time.

[Co-host]

The story report, if you've never heard it before, this is a special event that Mrs. P does when she is finished reading a book.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

And she likes to then tell me all about. It's a spoiler filled. Spoiler. It's a spoiler filled review. So basically this is gonna be like a Spark Notes or a Cliff Notes version of the book.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

That she's gonna explain to me while I live. React to it.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

And everybody has a great time. You not have to have read the book.

[Mrs. P]

No. If anything, listening to this episode will count as an audiobook for your storygraph.

[Co-host]

That's very true.

[Mrs. P]

I've decided that's true.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

100%. Nobody can fight me about it.

[Co-host]

Yeah. And with that being said, Mrs. P, a couple announcements before we get into the main show.

[Mrs. P]

All right.

[Co-host]

Which is if you are interested in the story reports and you want to find out more information about them, you can always go follow Mrs. P's Instagram. That's where she lists them. But I know a lot of you don't like Instagram. We also post them on our Patreon and we make sure that those are public to everybody on Patreon. So you can go there and you can join as a free member or right now for this immediate amount of time.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

From now when you're listening to this all the way to January 6th, we are offering a special annual subscription discount of 30% that is on the $5. Hey Hun tier. You can come in there, get saved 30% right now using promo code Project2026.

[Mrs. P]

That's right, Project 2026, y'.

[Co-host]

All. Yeah. And that is all caps. So use that. Get in there. You can get not only access to obviously ad free versions of the story report, you can get all of our other amazing Patreon content. Join our channel.

[Mrs. P]

Hundreds and hundreds of hours of content. So many things backlog.

[Co-host]

So many things.

[Mrs. P]

Get in there.

[Co-host]

Get in there. Get in there. Deep like a Chuck T. Tingle book. But also Mrs. P, before we even get even further. Yeah. I do just want to tell everybody, to our listeners out there, there is no after party this week. This is our bigness. We're doing this.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And then next week is Christmas, so no after party.

[Mrs. P]

Because we're gonna be after partying Jesus's birth.

[Co-host]

Yes. 100. But then we're gonna have a very special after party that is gonna come out on the 28th. It's gonna come out in lieu of our usual too many tabs episodes.

[Mrs. P]

Don't give too much away. It's a very special.

[Co-host]

I want people to. I just want people to know. I just want people to know. Yeah, It'll be there. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be doing a little bit differently. We're going to have a lot of subscribers.

[Mrs. P]

Things are happening.

[Co-host]

I'm trying to fix up. I want to make it. I'm going to give a reason. So at the beginning of these things. Now, before we get into this.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

Yeah. There's a reason why I froze when you said that you read a Chuck Tingle book.

[Mrs. P]

I sure did.

[Co-host]

Because Chuck Tingle. I just want to read very quickly his Wikipedia. The first line.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Of his Wikipedia.

[Mrs. P]

Sure.

[Co-host]

Okay. Chuck Tingle is a synonymous author primarily of niche gay erotica. His stories mainly take the form of monster erotica featuring romantic and sexual encounters with dinosaurs, imaginary creatures, anthropomorphized inanimate objects, and even abstract concepts. Now that that sentence might not make sense until you go to his bibliography and you read like, the name of some of his novels.

[Mrs. P]

Go ahead, read some.

[Co-host]

A Helicopter Man Pounds Dinosaur Billionaire's Ass. A novel?

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

But aged in the final days of pounding ass.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

My billionaire triceratops craves gay ass.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

I'm gay for my living. Billionaire jet plane bisexual Mothman mailman makes a special delivery in our butts. He's written some Harry Potter fan fictions. Trans Wizard, Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy. Parasophilis. An adult romance novel pounded in my butt by a handsome, sentient library card who seems otherworldly but in reality is just a natural part of the priceless resources of our library system provides.

[Mrs. P]

Wait, I got one for you. My butt is comforted by the realization that I'm okay and everything will be all right.

[Co-host]

That's a Pretty good one. 2017, under Satire. It just wrote oppressed in my butt, but by inclusive holiday coffee cups. This one is my handsome sentient face mask. Protects me despite the ridiculous conspiracy theories that he won't. Also, he pounds my butt. That's from 2020.

[Mrs. P]

There's just so many in here, but Ception.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Space Raptor Butt Trilogy. Scary stories to tingle your butt. 7. Gaze of gay Terror. Now, a lot of these are typically on, like, Amazon, but centric. The butt centric. They're on Amazon. They're ebooks. You have a physical Book.

[Mrs. P]

I got a physical book. I went to Lancaster. I took a day trip. I don't know if you remember that.

[Co-host]

I remember.

[Mrs. P]

Lovely day.

[Co-host]

It was a great day.

[Mrs. P]

And I went to Pocketbooks, which is a little cutesy bookshop in Lancaster that I love to go to. The ladies that own it. It's in like a. What's it called? The house. From the last book that we read. You know, like that type. Yeah.

[Co-host]

It has whimsy goth.

[Mrs. P]

It's a whimsigoth house. And they turned it into a bookshop. It's so called Pocketbooks. Pocketbooks. And the ladies there, I was talking to them about what horror book should I read. I said, I want some suggestions. You guys around books all day, let me know. And the one lady said, chuck Tingle, bury your gaze. And I said, I'm sorry. Butt chingle for Chuck Tingle from Buttception. And she said, this book is not like that. But she wasn't the first person that said that. I wish I could. I had screenshots of all this. I've gotten DMs, I've gotten Instagram comments, I've gotten emails, I've gotten Patreon messages. People have been asking for this book since it came out.

[Co-host]

Really?

[Mrs. P]

Okay. And so when she held a copy up to me and she said, chuck Tingle, bury your gaze, I said, you know what? When in Rome.

[Co-host]

Gotcha.

[Mrs. P]

Ring it up. So my husband's credit card.

[Co-host]

I want to be clear just because sometimes we are going to put a big thing on the top of this one, which is like. This is an adults podcast.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Yeah. In general on this one, I feel like we got. We got that pretty across already for this episode. But this is so. It's what you're telling me, though.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

This book. It is not the equivalent of pounded by the classic seven Literary Tales of the Tingle verse. No, this is its own thing.

[Mrs. P]

No.

[Co-host]

You don't have to have ever read any Chuck Tingle books.

[Mrs. P]

Nope.

[Co-host]

You get. This is. You can just walk into this one on its own.

[Mrs. P]

That book says scary stories to tingle your lesbian butt. Seven Tales of Lady Buck on Lady Buck Terror.

[Co-host]

Yes.

[Mrs. P]

Huh.

[Co-host]

I just also want to point out this isn't. Chuck Tingle has an incredible. Just amount of books here.

[Mrs. P]

He's out here, man.

[Co-host]

Pre AI.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, he's out here.

[Co-host]

But today, people would be lazy and they would go to chat GPT and they would say, write me a book of gay pterodactyls. And chat GPT would spit it out, and then they would throw it up on Amazon and make $40. Now Chuck Tingle is out here, just his hands on a keyboard, just pounding butts away.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I don't even know if these things are edited. But before we get into it. Okay, so I have an idea.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

What would be. Is this a horror book? Is this a slasher?

[Mrs. P]

This is a horror sci fi slasher.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

That is gay.

[Co-host]

Okay. And because when you say bury your gaze, you mean G A, Y, s. Yes. Not G A Z, E. No, G.

[Mrs. P]

A, Y, S. This is about.

[Co-host]

Is this about male gaze?

[Mrs. P]

It is not about the male gaze. But it is. I don't even remember any sex in this book at all. I can't think of any sexual encounter in this book.

[Co-host]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

There's a lot of murder. There's a lot of horror.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

There is a lot of sci fi stuff. And there's a really good overarching theme that by the end of the book, I loved.

[Co-host]

Love it. Okay, great. Well, I'm very, very excited for this, Mrs. P. I'm. I'm ready. Santa Claus, are you ready? Ho, ho, ho ho. I have a.

[Mrs. P]

Not a Christmas episode.

[Co-host]

I have a warm glass of milk. Let me take a sip. Oh, wait, that's not milk. It turns out Chuck Tingle filled my glass with cum. No. That would. But anyway, we will. We're gonna take a quick. We're gonna start. Yeah. With a break.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And we come back.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

You're gonna open up the book. Yeah. And start explaining it to me.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Oh, no. We're going right off the dome.

[Co-host]

Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math. @t mobile.com switch. And now T Mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits. Plan features in taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits credit. Stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. Today we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible. Overcoming high interest credit card debt. It requires merely one thing. A SoFi personal loan. With it you could save big on interest charges by consolidating into one. Low fixed rate monthly payment. Defy high interest debt with a SOFI personal loan. Visit sofi.com stunt to learn more. Loans originated by Sofi Bank NA member FDIC terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, we're here. We're ready or seated. We have our Books, we have our hot cup of tea. Because it's a hot cup of tea, Alex. Jesus Christ. Okay, so the story opens and we meet Misha. Misha is our main character. Okay. Misha is a writer for film and tv and he is currently heading to a meeting with the big executive at the TV studio that produces his show.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. As he is heading onto the lot, the cars are all backed up going through the security. Like with the drop down, John, you know I'm talking about.

[Co-host]

Yeah, the big security gate thing.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. So the line's all backed up because some guy in a sports car is acting an ass and holding up the line. Now, the guy in the sports car is named Ray Raymond Nelson, and he is the head of the animation department. Real deal Hollywood legend. He hand drew every cell of his first animated short. And he's a legend at the studio even though his thoughts and behaviors are quote, dated.

[Co-host]

Understood. Okay. All right. So. So already we have Rey and Misha. Yeah. Okay. Got it.

[Mrs. P]

When he gets onto the lot, you know, he gets through security and everything. He is heading into a meeting. He's heading to the meeting and he runs into his friend Tara. Tara works in tech security I. T. Stuff for the studio. Okay. They have a real quick convo and we find out that Misha has recently been nominated for an Oscar for a short film he made. Also, we find out that Tara works like that. Okay? So we know that Tara works in, like, cyber security and stuff, but she is constantly telling him to turn off his cell phone when he gets near the lot because, like, he's looking at his cell and she's like, what have I told you? Turn your cell phone off as soon as you come on the lot. She's like, real paranoid about all the data collection and the way that everything is set up because she knows how everything works. And she's constantly yelling at him and he completely, like, is like, stop.

[Co-host]

Okay, so she's you. So Tara is you. Okay? And she's you without telling him to. You go to joinedeleteme.com promania20 to save 20% today on a delete me annual subscription.

[Mrs. P]

No free ads.

[Co-host]

No.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so the major corps. She's explaining to him that a lot of the major corporations auto download all the files and your data as soon as you attach to their wi fi. They're not supposed to, but they do it. Who's going to stop them? Right? So she's like telling this stuff and she also has things like when he's writing because he's a writer. She's like, never write outside because the studios have drones and they can. They'll fly over top and take pictures. And he's like, you're crazy. You've, like gone past the point of tinfoil hat. But he still loves her because this is okay.

[Co-host]

And you all give her. Is like, if this had been five, five years ago is 2020, I will say, if this would been pre 2016, I'd be like, you're nuts. Now I'm like, okay, I saw. I saw what they did to the Turtle Island Liberation Front.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So I'm like, did you see that?

[Mrs. P]

No.

[Co-host]

They had a drone over them as they were building a bomb in the Mojave.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, my God.

[Co-host]

The whole thing. I was like, what a setup. Anyway, doesn't matter. We're not here to talk about that.

[Mrs. P]

We're not here to talk about that. So now we. He's walking towards, like, towards the studio, everything. And he. In his eye line, he sees a big mural that's on the side of one of the studio buildings. And it's a big painting of this actor. This actor's name is Chris Oak. Okay. And it's an ad for his newest film. And in this film he plays like a mobster, like Scarface or the Godfather. It's like a real mobster, but like, I think Miami style mobster movie.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Very 80s, very that.

[Co-host]

Cocaine, GTA Vice.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. Okay, so Chris Oak is the actor. And there's a big mural for the film because this film has also been nominated for an Oscar. And this is the big deal. Chris Oak is dead. And the thing is, is he wasn't nominated posthumously. The entire acting role was done with CGI and AI. And he was nominated for the Oscar as an AI actor.

[Co-host]

So he never, even before he was.

[Mrs. P]

Never even in this movie, he'd been dead. They brought him back and created a CGI AI movie.

[Co-host]

Oh, okay. Okay, got it. Okay, okay, so wait, real fast, real fast. Just cuz I'm confused cuz you've already introduced four characters.

[Mrs. P]

I got it.

[Co-host]

Let's. Misha, who's an Oscar nominee and is a director.

[Mrs. P]

He's a writer.

[Co-host]

Writer. Okay, that's the thing. You blew past that word so fast. It's fine. Ray is an old animator.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

That's how I just have. Old timey old animator, but also been in it for a long time. Tara's an IT person. Chris Oak is a dead AI actor.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Okay. That's what I need to know. That's all I need to know.

[Mrs. P]

I'm Going to introduce somebody else now, Jack. Okay, write it down.

[Co-host]

I am writing it down. This is difficult. I'm letting. I'm telling the listeners so that way they can catch up. All right, Jack.

[Mrs. P]

So Jack, that's the executive he's going to meet with. Okay, so he gets to the meeting with studio executive. Yes. Jack is the classic LA Hollywood executive. Right. Bluetooth in the ear, doing fake golf swings while talking to him. Now, Misha has a very popular show that he is the writer of on the network. It's a series called Travelers. And the way it's described is very like, what was like, I'm feeling. I'm feeling like Stargate meets X Files. Like, it's like they're traveling through time and space, but they're also agents in some type of like three letter government thing.

[Co-host]

Oh, okay. Yeah, I got you. There was that one show that Leslie Jones really. It liked. Liked on NBC.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Number one, love Leslie Jones.

[Co-host]

I know, but there was a show, it was like an NBC time travel show that I think this is pretty close to what they're talking about. It is called Timeless.

[Mrs. P]

Timeless. Okay. So Misha's the writer of this very popular show called Travelers. Okay, I wrote down. It's like the X Files. The two main characters, Agent Lexa and Agent Naomi, have this crazy chemistry that's been bubbling for years. And it's very. Molder and Scully. Okay. Will they, won't they? There's just all this stuff.

[Co-host]

But they're women.

[Mrs. P]

But they're women.

[Co-host]

Yeah. So it's Xena meets X Files.

[Mrs. P]

There you go. Yes.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Okay, I get it. This is Xena and Gabrielle. Yeah. Not only did she has a.

[Mrs. P]

She has a frisbee, she also has.

[Co-host]

A sword, but she's known for the frisbee. We're not having this fight. We're not having this fight right now. Okay? We're not doing that.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

You're here to tell me about Bury your gaze and we're talking about Agent Lexa and Naomi. You've already introduced so much plot in one paragraph.

[Mrs. P]

I know.

[Co-host]

Okay, keep going.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so they have this crazy chemistry been bubbling for years, for seasons. In the most recent episode, there's a kiss. And the studio wants to cut it out. And that's what Jack is here to talk about. Okay.

[Co-host]

They want to cut out the kiss. What are they the writers of Supergirl on cw? You fuckers.

[Mrs. P]

Actually, the studio wants them to be written. To be written out as not gay completely and to be straightened out. Okay. And actually, if. If you're not gonna straighten them out. We're gonna kill them off. So this is the conversation. This is the conversation. Jack is saying, these are your two options. We're gonna. We're gonna edit the kiss out. We're gonna do a reshoot. No kiss. Because, like, they get all the. They get the script before they get the dailies. They get the script before it goes.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And so they're like, write out the kiss. They do not. They're not lesbians. Fix it.

[Co-host]

Or.

[Mrs. P]

Or they can be gay, but they need to die.

[Co-host]

Wow. That's fucked up. That's fucked up.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

So.

[Co-host]

And he wrote this book before Trump's America.

[Mrs. P]

I think this is before Trump's America. I think he wrote this in the middle of Trump's America. I did not look up the date of.

[Co-host]

I think this was pretty. This is a pre 2024. 2024. That's what I mean. Before Trump. Before Trump America 2.

[Mrs. P]

Trump America, too.

[Co-host]

Chuck Tingle was reading. Chuck T. Was reading the Tea leaves of the world around him, though. And he was like, we're gonna have dead AI actors win Oscars, and they're gonna tell us to write off all of our gay characters.

[Mrs. P]

Huh. So the whole thing is that we find out this is from Jack's perspective, that the studio recently was, like, sold, or there was, like, a restructuring. There's new top brass. There's a new board.

[Co-host]

Oh, Paramount. Yeah, this is Paramount. Holy fuck. Okay. All right. Oh, my God. Okay, keep going.

[Mrs. P]

And the top brass has crunched the numbers and tested audiences, and they feel it's better if the show's gay characters are killed off and new, fresh characters are brought in. Okay.

[Co-host]

Yeah. No, I've been to neighborhoods that have.

[Mrs. P]

Been gentrified, and Misha is pissed. Obviously, he refuses to do it. He's like, fuck you. I'm not doing it. And Jack's like, that's fine. You can do that. Just so you know, when you break the contract, we will hire new writers and they will kill them off.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So you can either write them and end the series and end those characters that you love, how you would want them to end, or we're going to have some ramshackle crew come in and do it. What do you prefer?

[Co-host]

Can I tell you what I would do in that situation if I was Misha? It would. This would all depend on how financially, like. Well, where I am. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, and if I had other options. Yeah. Because. And again, this is the problem with there being less and less studios and less and less options. Right. Especially if, like, Netflix buys wb, Warner Brothers, or Paramount gets them, or any of these different types of things. You have less. Less. You can't go across the street to another person where there's competition, there's less and less of them. So in Misha's case, if I had money, I'd be like, fudge you. And then everyone would know.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Because it would be very clear to everyone that it takes this crazy turn. It wouldn't be written the same ball. I would walk away. But if I didn't have money, I would. I would. I would kill the characters.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Write them with. Write them off with a bang. I would write the crazy.

[Co-host]

I'd write the fuck out of it.

[Mrs. P]

Right.

[Co-host]

I'm thinking very much, but, like. But I also would write it in a way that's. That was, like, very clearly a fuck you. The way the ending of the Prisoner is. The original Prisoner.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, he did.

[Co-host]

The guy didn't want to do a season three, so he made season. The ending of season two so bad it tanked the show.

[Mrs. P]

That's what Game of Thrones did.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So this is the thing. Misha does not want to kill them off because he hates that all queer love stories in media always have to be tragedy. He's. He hates this idea that queer love is a tragedy.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he doesn't want to feed into it.

[Co-host]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

So he storms out. He's like, fuck you, Jack. Now, the thing, you know, is that him and Jack actually do like each other. They have. Like. They're a business relationship. Obviously, it's his boss, but Jack's been his, like, guy for a long time. Like, Jack is the one that brought him into the studio is like, no, this kid gets it. This kid's got a lot of bright future. So, like, him and Jack have a lot of respect and love for each other, even when they hate each other. You know what I mean?

[Co-host]

It's a famous story of creatives versus producers.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

There's a very somehow, we're married somehow.

[Mrs. P]

So he's storming out to his car.

[Co-host]

I get that.

[Mrs. P]

He's like, I got to fuck this place. And as he's walking through the lot, he sees Raymond Nelson. Remember? The asshole?

[Co-host]

The old animator.

[Mrs. P]

The old. Okay.

[Co-host]

God. I have him written down as Ray. You just called him Raymond. That threw me through a loop.

[Mrs. P]

Sorry, Ray. He sees Ray in the lot. His fancy sports car is parked kind of near Misha's.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

And he sees that Ray is talking to a Wardrobe assistant woman. And she looks very uncomfortable, like she's holding this clothing, but, like, she can see on her face that, like, she is not enjoying whatever fucking conversation is.

[Co-host]

Is it because it's creepy or is it.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, he's got old school vibes. Old school.

[Co-host]

You're talking and you're talking in bad. You're talking. We're talking about Weinstein.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Okay, okay.

[Mrs. P]

So he can see that the woman is growing more and more agitated. And Rey is laughing. He's becoming more jovial. And Rey reaches out and grabs the woman's waist. And Misha yells out at him. And he probably would never have done this if he wasn't already in a bad mood because of Jack. But he just screams out. And he storms over. And the whole thing is he's like, yo, what the fuck are you doing? Ba Ba. And Rey is one of those guys that looks amused when, like, somebody thinks they can talk shit to him. So he starts, like, smiling, like, yeah, what are you gonna say? Because he can't wait to, like, knock this young guy down. Like, in some way, like, I'm the boss around here. The fuck are you gonna do, right?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And instead of Misha cursing him out, he kind of goes the opposite direction. And because, like, in his mind, he's like, tell a different story. Tell a story this guy hasn't heard before. And he goes, listen, Ray, people look up to you here. You can't treat people this way. You are a legend. You are better than this.

[Co-host]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

And right before he says, you're better than this, kind of. In that moment, before he can finish the sentence, he hears a weird yelp come from above. And Misha looks up. But Ry, who is old as and likely has bad, bad hearing, didn't hear anything. So he doesn't look up. What? One second later. Smash. And the huge splintering sound of wood crunch and music. Misha is wet and he doesn't know why. A giant grand piano has fallen from the sky and smashed Rey like a water balloon. The girl and Misha are covered in blood, their faces full of shock and horror. As Misha looks up, he sees a team that was loading a bunch of music equipment onto a roof because they were recording a music video. And he also sees a snapped cable fluttering in the wind.

[Co-host]

What the hell? I wrote Ray's name down. He was just killed.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, he was smashed by a piano.

[Co-host]

Like a cartoon.

[Mrs. P]

Like a cartoon character.

[Co-host]

My cross out Ray. Oh, my God. Wow.

[Mrs. P]

Should we take a little break?

[Co-host]

I think you just set the. Well, you've Definitely. Before we go into the break, you've definitely set a very frenetic pace.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Is this what the whole story is like?

[Mrs. P]

Kind of. Sort of. I don't want to give it all away.

[Co-host]

I know I have no idea where it's going, but I'm already invested.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.

[Co-host]

Zoe. This thing weighs a ton. Drewy, lift with your legs, man.

[Mrs. P]

Santa. Santa, did you get my letter?

[Co-host]

He's talking to you britches.

[Mrs. P]

I'm not that. Of course he did.

[Co-host]

Right, Santa, you know my elf, Drew ski here. He handles the nice list. And elf. I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. Right, Mrs. Claus?

[Mrs. P]

I'm Mrs. Claus much younger sister. And AT T mobile, there's no trade in needed when you switch. So you can keep your old phone.

[Co-host]

Or give it as a gift.

[Mrs. P]

And the best part, you can make this switch to T mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes.

[Co-host]

Nice. My side of the tree is slipping. Kimber. The holidays are better. AT T Mobile switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T mobile is available in US Cellular stores with three full monthly bill credits for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 device connection charge credits and imbalance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel finance agreement. 256 gauge. $830. Eligible for it in a new line. 100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. Why do you guys think you win so many cases? The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end, that we believe in the case. So we fight for every dollar and we're not afraid to go that extra mile for our clients. Are insurance companies, like actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial. And we are not strangers of getting very, very, very large verdicts.

[Mrs. P]

Awesome.

[Co-host]

So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24. 7. 365. Wow. Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's largest insurance law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you. Okay, so Misha and a random makeup lady.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Covered in raised blood.

[Mrs. P]

Wardrobe.

[Co-host]

Wardrobe. Sorry, my apologies.

[Mrs. P]

That's a different Oscar nomination.

[Co-host]

My apologies. Because she needs makeup. Because she's covered in blood. Okay, Chuck Tingle, bury your gaze.

[Mrs. P]

So the next chapter is actually a time jump backwards to 1996.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Misha's at his birthday party. Sleepover. All his little friends are over. Okay. They're watching his favorite show, Dark Encounters. The two main characters, again, are very Scully and Molder adjacent, but they're two men. And there's a lot of subtext. There's a lot of sexy energy between them. If you can read between the lines, right? And young Misha reads between the lines. So he loves this show. And it's the big season finale, and everybody thinks that they're finally going to admit their feelings and maybe even kiss. It's gonna be a big deal.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. And Misha's locked the in, okay? He's sitting in front of that tv, a big ass tv, probably in a basement. And he's like, guys, shut the up. I'm trying to watch my shows, my stories.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

But they're young boys, so they're like, what do you want to play video games or wrestling each other? They're like, bisha, this is dumb. We don't watch the show shows for grown ups. He's like, no, it's like a really good plot line. It's got story characters, the characters are well written. And he's like, bish, this is so dumb. Stop it. Hold on. I just got antivirus protection. McAfee, I don't care. Okay? So he's like, locked in, and he ends up convincing his friends to pay attention to the show. And they're watching it mostly because he's like, it's my birthday. I want to watch my show. And the big moment happens. But the thing is the. The characters end up making a joke. And there's like. He's like, I thought, hey, whatever, Tom. I thought you were going to say you love me. And then he's like, nah, bravo. And like, they. It's like all this tension comes to a big climax, and then they both blow it off as a joke and make homophobic jokes at each other.

[Co-host]

Oh, right.

[Mrs. P]

And this literally breaks little Misha's heart. And he's like, how could they do this? This is not what the story should have been. And he's so upset, and he's starting to get emotional. Like, he's like, the tears are coming out of his eyes, but he's surrounded by young teen boys.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Like, yo, Misha, what are you being gay over there? Why are you crying?

[Co-host]

Yeah. Cuz it's 1996.

[Mrs. P]

Yes, 1996.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And then the one kid, Richie, is like, misha likes that agent guy. And then like, they're like, oh, you like a guy. And then Misha runs out of the room crying.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Anyway, he goes upstairs, he has a pep talk with his mom. His mom's like, listen, just don't talk to these guys about it. Pretend it never happened. Bury that. It was. It was definitely a. A Catholic talking new.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Bottle that up and get back down there.

[Co-host]

Okay? Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Don't let him see you cry. Don't let them see you waver. And don't ever let him win. That's the Catholic. The Catholic trifecta.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So he goes back down there, pretends nothing ever happened, and starts playing video games. Okay, next chapter.

[Co-host]

In the next chapter, getting some backstory in Namisha.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And where some things intention around story lines come from.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly.

[Co-host]

Okay, got it, got it, got it.

[Mrs. P]

Next chapter, we meet Zeke.

[Co-host]

I gotta write another name.

[Mrs. P]

I got to cross one off so you can add one. Zeke is Misha's boyfriend.

[Co-host]

Oh, okay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. And they're heading to their friend's birthday party in the Hollywood Hills. Misha's friend, Blossom. Now, Blossom is very woo woo, and she does, like, sound and music for different shows and films.

[Co-host]

Do I need to write Blossom's name down?

[Mrs. P]

No, you'll remember it.

[Co-host]

That doesn't mean if I'm asking if they're important.

[Mrs. P]

No, not really.

[Co-host]

Okay. All right, good.

[Mrs. P]

But Blossom, she does, like, documentary films and stuff. And so they go to this party and she's working on this documentary, and there's like a guy filming her. He's filming her. Making a documentary kind of thing.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Very L, A Coded.

[Co-host]

Yeah, no, it's very. Making a film about filmmaking and the.

[Mrs. P]

But the film that she's creating is. Oh, my God, I didn't write this down, but I'm pretty sure it's a documentary about queer suicide. Right. And so it's all these stories from young, queer gay people and Gay people that have, like, their. Their backstory, their life story, and then they committed suicide, and then stuff from their family. And so it's really intense and meaningful. And she's talking to Misha about it, and he immediately. And Zeke, and they're both, like, really overcome with emotion, and they're like, this is, like, such important stuff, important work. They wish her happy birthday. They're going out and, like, talking in the rest of the party. But they have, like, Misha and Zeke have, like, this little moment kind of like at the top of the stairs, quietly, and they kiss each other, and it's cutesy. The thing is, the documentary guy was up there, and he caught it on camera, and Misha kind of catches the camera out of his eye, and he's like, you need to delete that. And he yells at the guy, and Blossom comes running up, and she's like, I'm so sorry. We'll delete it. Blah, blah. And the cameraman's like, yeah, man, that's not a big deal. And this is when we find out that Misha is LA out, but he's not Montana out.

[Co-host]

Oh, he's. Oh, okay.

[Mrs. P]

So in L. A. People know, but they don't say that. Like, he's out, you know, in quotes. But at home, his family, none of those people know. So he didn't want anything that could get on camera to out him. That's why he freaked out.

[Co-host]

Okay. You know what's crazy?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Is actually, like, first I was confused. I. I thought you were gonna say that because of what Tara the it girl has told him was to make sure that you aren't filmed by your consent, because that can then be used in studio properties before they're bought up by tech companies. And then your likeness can be used by AI against your will, and then you could be puppeted. Like a weird puppet master thing. That's what I thought he was reacting to. And then you were like, no, no, it's just old school homo internalized homophobia. And I was like, oh, that makes a lot more sense. No, that makes a lot more sense. Like, that makes sense a lot more.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, it's nice compared to what you just said.

[Co-host]

Yeah. No, but also, I just forgot that, like, that it. It's. I think that especially since the 2000s, I think that was such more of a 2000 story. And even into, like, the, you know, before gay marriage was legalized and all these different things, and I feel like that's a story that's coming back now.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Be Especially. I mean, it's. It's become definitely more of a thing in the trans community.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And. And the non binary community. I've known a lot of people who have like taken the pronouns out of their bio and shit like that. But like, in general, especially with like the gay community and being out.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I feel like it is in some ways gotten easier. And so maybe that's a bit. A little bit better. But I do know that especially over the last 10 years, some of those really red counties have gotten real psycho with it.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

So to any of our listeners out there that are listening to this, and you are one of those red counties, we love you. We love you very much. We see and we listen. We love you. You're great. We stand by you and do what you got to do.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Do what you got to do. Okay. Someday, later, I don't know. Misha and his Bessie, Tara are having drinks at a Hollywood industry bar. Okay. They're going to, you know, we all have industry bars. They go to their industry bar. They're. They're going to get drunk and cuz. Misha's down in the dumps and Tara is like, what's going on? You have a good job. You just got nominated for an Oscar for a short film you wrote. Like, why are you in the dumps? Right.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he tells her these things. The studio wants him to kill off his two main characters because gay tragedy sells better. He hasn't yet written his Oscar speech in case he wins, even though he doesn't think he's gonna win. And he has a high school reunion coming up and he lied through omission to Zeke about it. So, like, he knew he had his high school reunion, but he, he didn't tell Zeke because he didn't want Zeke to be like, am I invited? Because he didn't want to have to have that conversation even though they've been dating for like a year. Yeah. And so he's like. So he's telling, you know, people in.

[Co-host]

LA go to therapy.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Listen, I'm just saying people in LA go to therapy, they make a big deal about it.

[Mrs. P]

It's like their whole personality.

[Co-host]

It is that.

[Mrs. P]

And Erewhon.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Is the therapist at Erewhon.

[Co-host]

They might. Either way, it's weaponized.

[Mrs. P]

So a smoothie from Erewhon is a weapon of mass destruction because it costs $30.

[Co-host]

Honestly, it'll be cheaper than the co. Jesus.

[Mrs. P]

So he's. He feels really guilty that he, he. The way that he framed it is basically he didn't tell Zeke Zeke made plans. And now Zeke can't possibly go to Montana because he already has plans. But because he kept that secret about the thing and like pretended it was last minute, the reunion. So he feels bad and he's like, when Zeke finds out, he's gonna be really mad at me. So these are the three things bringing him down.

[Co-host]

Yeah. You know, it's always been pissing me off, but is that I didn't have a high school reunion. Maybe I'll have one next year. Maybe they'll have a. No, not next year. It would be two years for me. Two years would be my 25th. But like, they didn't even do a.

[Mrs. P]

20Th for my high school reunion. I did not. I found out about it, I think the 10 year. The 10 or 15 year, whatever. They had it and they made a Facebook page for it. And then. Okay, so the, the. I went to an all girls Catholic high school. We talked about this before and why. I'm going to tell you something about all girls schools. There is a level of petty that you like. The way that I survived and came out stronger.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Is something I could write a whole book about. But we weren't allowed to have a prom queen and king that was voted on because we couldn't be trusted.

[Co-host]

No.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

The Cardinals had to choose it. White smoke had to pop.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, there was. Yes, exactly. It was a conclave in which the nuns. I'm not kidding. The nuns at the high school put all the girls names in a thing and then pick somebody out like, boop, she's the prom queen. Okay. That girl that was the prom queen. Now the girl that won was like, she was not popular. I. She was very like, Marla Hooch coded. Okay, okay, okay. So like, she was always kind of like shrugging her shoulders and keeping her hair in her face. And she was just. She had low self esteem. I knew her and she. It was high school was a hard fucking time for everybody. And she won. And there was nobody that probably didn't want to win in that moment more because, like, she didn't like a lot of attention like that.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And anyway, they made the Facebook page about our high school reunion. I got invited to it by somebody that knew me back when I had a Facebook page and I joined the Facebook page. And then somebody made a post about like, oh, well, we have to make sure we invite the prom queen. And then all the mean girls from high school were being in the comments talking mad shit. And it was like that nobody matured out of what the fuck was going On.

[Co-host]

Well, yeah. You went to All Girls Philly, Northeast Philly Catholic School.

[Mrs. P]

Lot of nurses.

[Co-host]

Just nurses.

[Mrs. P]

It was just nurses and they were nursing it up. And I decided I wasn't going to go because Fudge them.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And yeah, a lot of people didn't go because it was just a mean girls party at a bar in northeast Italy.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Why? That doesn't sound like a good time.

[Mrs. P]

I wouldn't go to that.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I know. Mine would have been like a classic, like, gross, point blank type of.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

High school reading. But they didn't even do it. I don't even know what happened with it. And that's basically it.

[Mrs. P]

Whatever.

[Co-host]

But the point to be, the way to be saying is it feels like high school reunions in stories are always a big deal.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

They're always this big thing and they're always like, oh, my God, we're having an 80s party or we're doing a 90s night or some like that. And everybody goes there and they have to live it up. They're fighting all their demons, all these different things. Like, again, I didn't even have one.

[Mrs. P]

I just didn't go. I was like, you guys are still lame.

[Co-host]

But that's. And that's kind of what it feels like. Yeah. And so that's why.

[Mrs. P]

But also, we grew up in. I mean, I grew up and made Romeo Michelle's High School Reunion. My whole personality.

[Co-host]

I didn't.

[Mrs. P]

So that's your problem. That was an incredible movie. Anyway, they are gonna get drunk and so they.

[Co-host]

Who's they?

[Mrs. P]

Misha and Tara.

[Co-host]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

And he has all these emotions.

[Co-host]

Well, we did. There was a very big aside we just took here. Okay. You took this.

[Mrs. P]

I'm trying to get us back on track.

[Co-host]

I know. You just explained a lot of Facebook drama that have nothing to do with this story by Chuck Tangle.

[Mrs. P]

So, okay, they get drunk and as they're stumbling out and they're stumbling out of the bar and they're gonna ran, go back to their apartments, they go through this alleyway, you know, it's like an LA alleyway. They happen. And this guy asks them for a light. Like, hey, do you got a light? And the thing is, is that this guy is dressed up in cosplay as the smoker. Now, the smoker is an evil villain from one of Misha's early movies.

[Co-host]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

And he's standing there menacingly, like tr. Hunched over. He's got a hat on and a dark suit and he has. Holding a cigarette. And the thing is, is his eyes are crazy. Open. Like, he doesn't have any eyebrows. He also doesn't have any eyelids, so he can't blink. It's just big eyes. Right. And his face is expressionless, and his mouth is closed in a tight line.

[Co-host]

And you just described Erica Kirk.

[Mrs. P]

Yes, it's Erica Kirk. In the back alleyway. You got a light? And when he asks for that light, the sound of his voice doesn't come out of his mouth. His mouth never moves. The sound actually came out from a parked car that was next to them. Stereo. The voice. Do you have a light? Came out of the car stereo that they were standing next to. Okay. Creepy. Now, the thing is, is they assume because, number one, they're drunk and this is the world and L. A. They're like, oh, this guy's just a fan. This is fan cosplay.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Ba, ba ba. And so Misha, who always has a pack of matches, it's like one of his things. Like, everywhere he is, he always grabs a pack of matches. Yeah. He goes to grab a pack of matches out of his pocket, and they aren't there. And so he apologizes to the smoker, and he's like, oh, man, I'm sorry. I don't have a pack of matches on me. And then the guy's like, you got a light? And then he. They apologize again, and they're like. And he is like. He's really weird and, you know, creepy because they're in dark alleyway, and he's like, I'll be seeing you later. But. But it comes again through the car stereo. And now here's the thing. Misha did have a pack of matches in his pocket, but there was, like, this actress that was in the bar that was, like, weirdly flirting with him. And she had come up to him and, like, saddled up next to him and was like, oh, my God, aren't you so. And so from blah blah. And he's like, yeah. And she. When she, like, went to, like, put her arm around him a little because she's, like, flirty. She grabbed the matches. Okay, so he had matches, but she took them.

[Co-host]

Got it, got it, got it.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

And so it's not Misha's fault. He doesn't have.

[Mrs. P]

He doesn't have matches. They're. But, like, they're weird. And Misha thinks this is hella weird. Tara's kind of like, these are really cool effects. Like, how did this guy have this much time? Like, your fans are really cool for doing this. Like, Tara's on a different level. She's like, man, your fans really like your show. And he's like, that's weird. How did he even do that? How did he get the voice to come out of the stereo? Like, how. Why? That's a lot of money. Like, that's like. That's for, like, a random Wednesday. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like he's at Comic Con later that night. They get home, whatever, Middle of the night, Misha's cell phone rings, and he answers it, and he's like, what the going on? And it's Tara. And she's like, there's someone here. And he's startled awake, right? And then her phone cuts out, and then there's a sudden bang, bang, bang on his door. And he goes to check the front. Front of the house, and he looks outside. There's nobody there. He checks the back of the house. There's no one in there. When he gets back to his bedroom, there's a distinct smell in his bedroom. The smell of cigarette smoke. And when he goes to turn on his bedside lamp, there next to his bedside lamp is a little pile of ashes. Okay, cigarette, somebody. Ash to cigarette right there next to his bed.

[Co-host]

That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Next day, okay, Misha wakes up, hangover, right? And he's gonna go for a walk, slash hike to clear his mind. He does this a lot because, like, with writing, he goes for long walks to clear his mind and gather his thoughts. While he's out walking in the hills, he comes across a little black lamb. And at first he's like, oh, my God. What are you doing out here? You're a lot. You're very lost. Why would there be a lamb out in Hollywood Hills? Like, huh? But then a horrifying realization hits him. No, this couldn't be. It is the black lamb from the cosmic horror movie he wrote years ago. This film that he wrote is about a farmer who has, like, terrible luck with his farm. And then when one of his sheep has a little black lamb, him and his wife do their best to take care of this, like, tragic little, tiny baby lamb, only to find out the true horror of the lamb's nature very late. And Misha is, like, in his mind, he's like, there's no way that this is the lamb from the story. But the smoker thing really freaked them out. Okay, the ashes on the bedside table, really. He's not a smoker. Really freaked them out. And so he's, like, thinking about it. He's like. It's like just in top of mind, right? And he's like, this can't be the lamb from my story, because the lamb from his story is a alien predator that dresses itself up as a helpless little animal so that when you get close to it, it can destroy you. And the thing is, is I forgot to mention this. He has had a stalker in the past, okay. And so, like, he. He is always on edge about stuff.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And that guy last night being very, like, stalker energy, overly fan energy. Right. So he's like, me, did someone come up here and follow me and know where I was walking and put a black lamb out here to scare me? That type of thing. And while he's looking at the lamb and considering it but not getting too close, a little tendril, like a thin, tiny worm zips out of the lamb's nose and slaps it across its own face, kind of like a horse tail would swat a fly. And Misha immediately tells himself that's it's probably just a parasite. Okay? It's probably just a parasite. And because the lamb does look sick and underweight, anyway, he starts walk, running home.

[Co-host]

So he. He says it's literally a. An alien wolf in sheep's clothing.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Got it, got it, got it, got it. So it's beginning to feel like his imagination is becoming real, huh? That's what it feels like.

[Mrs. P]

That's what it feels like.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

I think that's what the picture's being painted.

[Co-host]

Okay, got it, got it, got it.

[Mrs. P]

So then we get. Oh, Misha and Tara and Zeke are going to brunch. Thank God.

[Co-host]

Okay, so we've had night drinks, and now we're having brunch.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

I don't know if it's the next day. It could be a day.

[Co-host]

No, no, no, no. I'm just saying in the. In the order of what we're. What we're receiving.

[Mrs. P]

It was night drinks, hangover, hike.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Next day, brunch. Okay. And Tara is freaked out because. And she's like. Has weird energy because she spent all the night before reading up on the smoker, like, the character itself. And she's like, we only have five days to live. And Zeke is like, what? And she's like, I read up on the character, the smoker. And the way that the smoker works is that if a potential victim refuses a smoker a light for a cigarette, he gives them five days to live before he literally cuts the bones out of their body while they're still alive and grinds them up in the dust and smokes them. And Zeke is like, wait, what? The fuck? And Misha's like, yeah, I wrote that. And so it's like, Zeke, Zeke is just like, wait, what about like any time there's a discussion about these characters, the horror characters that Misha Wright seek is like, always like deeply horrified. And Tara's just like, why does he smoke them? It's like, very funny.

[Co-host]

Well, because he has to. That's part of the gimmick.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Oh, I know.

[Co-host]

No, I know. I'm just saying in general, though, why does he have to smoke, though? I get where. Here's like, I'm just saying, I get where Misha's coming from.

[Mrs. P]

And Zeke's like, what the fuck? And Misha's like, hey, that has 92% on rotten tomatoes. Good. Wait, so wait, before we get into the rest of brunch, let's take a little break, okay? Because brunch is going to be exciting.

[Co-host]

All right? Let's get excited by this brunch right after this. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits. Plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. Tis the season for identity theft. This time of year, most of us are checking off our holiday gift lists. But guess what? Identity thieves have lists too. And your personal information might be on them. Protect your identity with Lifelock. Lifelock monitors hundreds of millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss by yourself. Even if you keep an eye on your bank and credit card statements. If your identity is stolen, your own US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. And all plans are backed by the million dollar protection package. The last thing you want to do this holiday season is face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or other financial losses from identity theft. All alone. Make this season about joy, not identity theft. With Lifelock, save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first. There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca Cola. For a pause that refreshes.

[Co-host]

Hit me with your best Brunch and fire away.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha is, like, seeking. I'm sorry, Zeke is seeking more information from me. Misha, about why would he write a character as awful as that sounded.

[Co-host]

Right?

[Mrs. P]

And in that moment, for money. Misha has a flashback to his childhood. Him standing next to his Uncle Keith while they wave goodbye to his mom. The smell of cigarettes oozing out of Keith's pores. Right? He decides he's gonna give Zeke the short answer instead of the dark answer, and he says, five days. Setting up a timeline is a good way to build tension in the story, right? He's like, it's out.

[Co-host]

Oh, man, you've already. That's. Oh, I don't like where that. I don't like what you just painted for me.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. So as they're sitting there eating their egg dishes, trying not to be freaked out, they. And they're, like, gabbing. They. They realize that no one else in the restaurant is talking because it just got weirdly quiet all of a sudden. And they look around, and it turns. Everybody is staring out the front window of the restaurant. Like, the big open windows of a restaurant.

[Co-host]

Okay?

[Mrs. P]

Everyone's staring at the window, not speaking, and they're just like, wait, what the fuck's going on? And standing outside of the window, staring directly in, is the smoker looking like.

[Co-host]

The hat man, like Melania at the inauguration.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. And Misha is staring at him, stunned. Like the. Is going on. Tara, upset, nervous, does not like this. All of a sudden, Misha's cell phone rings, and he answers it, and he can hear the smoker's voice, and the smoker's like, come outside. Right? And the thing is, again, his mouth isn't moving. He's not even holding a cell phone to his ear. His hands are at his side, and he has a cigarette. Yeah, but, like, there's no phone, but there's the voice talking to him. Come outside.

[Co-host]

Yeah, you have to deal with your internalized homophobia and abuse.

[Mrs. P]

And he's like, no, fudge, you leave us alone. He's cursing loud into his phone, into his phone. And he's like, what do you want, an autograph or a picture? Like, fudge, you do. Leave us alone. We're trying to fucking chill, dude.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And now while he's, like, cursing this guy out and, like, over the phone. Over the phone and. But, like, he's cursing into the phone, but pointing out the window, right? Yeah, that guy's on the phone, so that looks crazy. Everybody else in the restaurant pulls out their phones and starts recording Him. Cuz they're like, oh, that's so. And so. The big writer. Oscar nominated writer.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Everyone in LA is famous. So you record them all the time. Yeah, you need it.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So people start recording him.

[Co-host]

Because we live in a Panopticon.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. And anyway, the smoker leaves, but when he. He. Okay, the smoker is like, I'll see you later, ba ba. And when he sidesteps, he kind of like goes to the left. And you know how, like, there's sometimes like a seam between big windows? When he steps, he disappears into the seam, right? Like, he doesn't walk past the window, he just disappears. And everybody in the restaurant sees it. And there's like a loud, like. Right? Like people are like, what the. Right? But immediately people are like, where did he go? Oh, he must have, like, got on his knees or like crawled or. Like, people start immediately trying to figure, like, how he did the reason, how he did the trick. Ba ba, ba ba. And as everybody's trying to reason where he get the trick. The cell phone that Misha is holding, he hangs it up with his thumb. Right? And then out of the bottom, a cigarette ash starts pouring out of the bottom of the phone. Okay, okay. And Zeke is like, let me. Let me grab some of that and I'm going to take it back to the lab. Here's what we find out. Zeke has a real job. He's a cosmetic scientist for, like a beauty company. Makes sense.

[Co-host]

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Because once you said the lab, I was like. And was he a cop? He's like, he works at a cop lab.

[Mrs. P]

Cosmetics.

[Co-host]

No, no, he has a real lab. Yeah, he has a real actually funded lab.

[Mrs. P]

Does useful things for society.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

That makes nice, beautiful creams.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Carolyn Levitt to not use. So he's like, let me take those back to the lab. We want to figure. We'll figure out what type of cigarette ash it is or like, whatever. Like, I want to help you calm down because, like, at this moment, Misha's freaking out, right? So Zeke and Tara are trying to comfort Misha. And in the quad, like, they're. They're kind of like they're sitting down, they're being quiet with each other. I mean, it's going to be okay. Like, we're going to figure this out, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, they can hear Misha's voice ringing out all around them in different tones. Because everybody else in the restaurant is sitting there editing the video of Misha on their phones, getting ready to post it. They're all cutting and editing the videos to put.

[Co-host]

I love that. I love. I love that. They're all TikTok editing. Yeah. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

They're all tick tock editing. And Misha looks at them and goes, I think I'm about to go viral.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Right.

[Co-host]

Mm.

[Mrs. P]

Next day.

[Co-host]

Honestly, it'd be one way to bring the smoker back.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I like, the thing is, is what would happen. I'm just gonna say right now, it's like, what would happen in the real world if something like this happened? People would recognize this Misha. That is the writer of the smoker, right?

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

And they would recognize that that's the smoker.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And they would put the two together and go, oh, I guess the smoker, too is coming.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Because this feels very much like the. The smile. Remember the smile? Yeah, that. That viral marketing campaign eyes, too. Oh, yeah. The big eyes on this. Yeah. This, I think, was a smile or one of those where they had him just sit at the basketball courts.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

With their weird. With the weird smiles and shit like that.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I never watched any of those movies. They look weird whenever I see the clips.

[Mrs. P]

But yes. So people do know who he is. And that. That is a very famous character. So people are like, oh, this must be promo for the Oscar, like, or for the shows, the Travelers. Like, there is people that are media literate in this moment that are like, oh, my God, this is.

[Co-host]

That's the most unbelievable part.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

That there'll be people who are media. L. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Next day, Misha meets with Jack again, the studio boss guy. They're actually at a driving range. He, like, booked out the entire driving range so he could hit balls alone. And Misha is kind of confronting Jack because he's like, is the studio funding this stalker? Like, are you guys paying this guy to bully me so that I'll do what you want?

[Co-host]

That's a fair point. Because, I mean, listen, there's. In the. In the. In the world of Hollywood fixers.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Crazier things have happened.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Crazy things have happened in the past. So I actually. That's a very well written point. And when you're in a paranoid cycle like the one Misha would be put in.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

Makes total sense to ask this question.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Chuck Tingle is an amazing writer, so.

[Mrs. P]

Jack is like, why would I do that? It's a waste of our time, money, and resources.

[Co-host]

This is almost as good as Chuck Tingle's novel, Glazed by the Gay Living Donuts.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

Or Bigfoot Sommelier Butt Tasting.

[Mrs. P]

Almost as good.

[Co-host]

Almost as good.

[Mrs. P]

So he's like, listen, we wouldn't waste our time, money and resources. It would cost us less to just hire new writers after you break the contract and our lawyers sue you. Like, what? Why would we spend this much money and resources to stalk you?

[Co-host]

But listen, when you're in a paranoid delusion as it is. But this makes more sense.

[Mrs. P]

Jack is like, honestly, I'm gonna actually pay for your. We're gonna pay for your security. So the studio, he's like, listen, the studio is going to pay for you to have 24 hour security detail. We don't want you to live like this. And so Misha's like, oh, okay, right, whatever. Like any appreciative. But also still like, I, I don't trust you guys.

[Co-host]

I don't want your handler, man.

[Mrs. P]

Next chapter, Zeke is driving Misha to LAX to take a flight. So they're in love. That's how you know you're in love with someone if they're driving you to an airport.

[Co-host]

Especially the driving to lax.

[Mrs. P]

Jesus Christ. So Misha driving him to LAX because he has to fly home to Montana for the high school reunion.

[Co-host]

Can I say real fast? Yeah, just say something. It has always confused me how LAX is such a shithole for being such like a destination city.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Like it's always like, like, okay, say what you will about Philly International, but when you get to Philly International, you go. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, like that's a representation of Philadelphia. Sure. When I get to lax, I was always just like, where's the glitz? Where's the glam? Where's the. No, it's just a second. I get there, like, this is just a bus terminal for.

[Mrs. P]

This is the. The honest truth about Hollywood, that Hollywood is an idea. It's not a real place.

[Co-host]

Yeah. But it also doesn't have a logistics to actually hold itself.

[Mrs. P]

Neither does la. That's why you're always in traffic. Yeah, wow. Sorry.

[Co-host]

Okay, so he's flying to Montana to go to his high school reunion.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. So he goes to his high school reunion. Honestly, the chapter by the high school union is pretty uneventful there. One of his boys there, Seth, is all. Who's also a sort of a writer, theater guy. But he didn't really make it. He kind of gives them some pushback about stuff, but whatever.

[Co-host]

Do they talk about the book? I have no butt and I must pound.

[Mrs. P]

You better close this wiki page. We need to focus real fast.

[Co-host]

Real fast. Yeah, just that there's one of the romance novellas is called Slammed in the butthole by my concept of linear time. Yeah, I just wanted to. Just.

[Mrs. P]

Concepts, concepts. So, okay, High school union. This guy Seth, at a certain point in a conversation, he. Who's. He's. The guy's also a writer. He's like, hey, you know, based on your body of work, some people might think you're gay. He's like, not in a bad way. Not a bad way. Yeah. I was like, hey, but I just.

[Co-host]

Want to point out something here. All the story. All stories you write end up being about two gay people.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. I'm just saying some people might think.

[Co-host]

Some people might then have some subtext in there.

[Mrs. P]

And Misha's like, no, no, I definitely got a girlfriend. Got a girlfriend at home. She goes to a different high school. Whatever.

[Co-host]

She's Canadian. She's in Canada.

[Mrs. P]

And so he's like. Goes outside to get some fresh air at a certain point. And there's this. That kid Richie. Remember? Because these are all the same kids that he was at that birthday party.

[Co-host]

Oh. They all. He played the video games with.

[Mrs. P]

And he tries to say hi to him, but the guy completely ignores him. Like, literally. He's like, hey. And Richie doesn't even move or, like, turn his head. He just, like, stands there silently. And then a car comes, and he gets into the car and he. There's a lady driving. He kisses the lady and then they drive away. And he doesn't turn around and look at him at all. Like it's a whole.

[Co-host]

Richie's secretly gay, so everybody's secretly gay. That's my belief.

[Mrs. P]

It's always, if everybody's secretly gay, then nobody's secretly gay.

[Co-host]

Everybody's secretly gay.

[Mrs. P]

If everybody's secretly gay, then nobody's secretly gay. Because then you're all just gay.

[Co-host]

No, no. But they're. They're pretend. Everybody's pretending they're straight.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

That's my belief. Okay. I'm pretending I'm straight right now.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Are you?

[Co-host]

Yeah. So as I play with my hair tie.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, I was gonna say my hair tie.

[Co-host]

I drink my little pink drink.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha. Okay, so Misha calls Zeke while he's outside, because he just. He feels bad. And also this has been very stressful at this point, he wants to call, talk to his boyfriend. And we find out from Zeke that the test on the smoke ashes has come back. And it's not cigarette. It's actually what's called fields alloy, which is a mix of tin, indium, and bismuth. They're very expensive metals that are used to produce semiconductors. So basically, Misha probably just like accidentally dropped his phone and it's just like smashed insides of phones coming out or something. Like. It's not what he thinks it is.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

It's just. He's paranoid.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Even though they all saw that. It's okay. No, I mean, I get it. I get. I get that. It's a funny likely thing.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Where you can again add in the. You're just crazy, baby.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

You know.

[Mrs. P]

Anyway, next chapter, we're heading home from the airport. I'm telling you, like the. The high school reunion wasn't really.

[Co-host]

No, it's fine. I get it.

[Mrs. P]

So next chapter, we're heading home in the airport. And once he's all good and situated on the plane across the aisle, he sees an immensely tall woman who is kind of slouched over in her skeet. And he immediately recognizes her as Mrs. Y. Right. She slowly stands up and starts walking past the people that are in her row and across the aisle towards him. And she actually gets really close to him. She touches the man sitting next to him on the shoulder and. And as she does, he slumps over and curls up into fetal position and is basically like, drooling. The thing is that Mrs. Y, when she touches you, she shows people the end and the end, the beginning of time. The cosmic truth so powerful that mortals minds melt away. Her touch steals a person's motivation to live and participate in existence. Because you're caught in a state of suffocating nothingness. Her victims suffer a fate worse than death. They have a complete loss of themselves, and they all eventually die of malnourishment as they waste away in their own filth.

[Co-host]

Okay, so a lot just happened there. So he's on a plane. And what character he created, who is a giant woman. She's just a large woman.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Who, when she touches you, makes you realize your life is so meaningless that you just curl up and die. Yeah. Without her ever having to do anything else.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

And she doesn't touch him, though.

[Mrs. P]

So this thing, she touches the guy next to him.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

He's like. And it starts crying. He's like, in nothing, life is meaningless. Right. And he is like. He's like pushing away. He's like pushing towards the window of the plane to get away.

[Co-host]

Who is he? Misha.

[Mrs. P]

Misha.

[Co-host]

Thank you.

[Mrs. P]

Misha's on the plane. And so here's the thing. Another thing about Mrs. Y is she won't break rules. Okay. So even though she is about to touch Misha, she's Like, reaching out, like, slowly with, like, a huge hand, and she's going to touch Misha. All of a sudden, ding, ding. The fasten your seatbelt sign comes on and the attendants come out and they go, everyone, the pilot has stated that we are going to experience turbulence. Please get back to your seats. And. And this is why, without even missing a beat, just like, pulls back slowly and just follows direction and goes and sits back in her seat and buckles herself in.

[Co-host]

Oh, my God.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So here's one thing that's. That's interesting to me. That thing of, like, I don't think that would work for me.

[Mrs. P]

No.

[Co-host]

I don't think touching me and making me understand that the entirety. Concept of time and what doesn't. Doesn't matter would work for me.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

Because the most important thing I want you to know.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

It's me.

[Mrs. P]

There it is.

[Co-host]

But also is beyond that. There was this thing a long time ago on the Internet where you had this slider where it was like, go slide all the way down to, like, the atomic level, and then you could slide all the way back to, like, the edges of the known universe. But it started, like, at person.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And I remember finding it on Reddit and all the comments are all these people. Like, this made me feel terrible. Like, this made me feel like nothing. And, like, all these different people hated it.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And I thought it was so cool because it was a. It was like, no, this is. This is where you are.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

We're this in. To some things, we are giants.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

To other things, we are less than a speck.

[Mrs. P]

Meaningless dust.

[Co-host]

Meaningless dust. We, in the grand scheme of things, we have no effect on anything.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

But I'm like, I don't care about those. I exist right here in this plane right now.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And, like, to me, there is, like, plenty of things. Like, listen, if I was to vanish right now, you know who be really upset? The dog.

[Mrs. P]

Me.

[Co-host]

Oh, okay.

[Mrs. P]

And you and our sponsor, Bellissa.

[Co-host]

Yeah. But also the dog would be like, well, who's going to feed and walk me?

[Mrs. P]

I will feed and walk the dog.

[Co-host]

Okay. I. Here's the thing, though. I've been not around. All right? You won't be cool with it. Like, I am. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

So that's because there's also a toddler.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I know. I was leaving him out of it.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I didn't want to give people existential horror when the fact they think about.

[Mrs. P]

This is all about existential horror.

[Co-host]

Okay, so does Mrs. Y vanish on the plane then?

[Mrs. P]

No. She goes and Sits back in her seat.

[Co-host]

I mean, after she buckles herself in.

[Mrs. P]

No, I'm not done yet. Okay, so here's the thing. Mrs. Y. The character that he wrote. Mrs. Yes. Why? From Travelers. She actually isn't evil. She's a villain in a bad guy in the show, but she's not evil. She thinks that she's giving people the gift of knowledge, but she doesn't understand that us mortals can't handle it. So.

[Co-host]

So she is the Internet. Yeah. So she's raw Internet without. Without any actual education. Yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

It's where we're living, baby.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I get it.

[Mrs. P]

So there's this whole scene on the plane, basically, where she's trying to get Misha. He goes and tries to hide in a business class bathroom. Mrs. Wise trying to get at him. It's a very cat and mouse situation. The plane lands, and she basically parts everyone like the Red Sea by touching them. So you just see people go down as she's trying to get closer and closer, just becoming pools of, like, sad humans on the ground, crying.

[Co-host]

Yeah, Puddle.

[Mrs. P]

And he's climbing over seats to get away from her. And you just hear people. It's endless. There's nothing but, like, rocking back and forth. Right. Like, it's a true horror scene. Anyway, he makes it off the plane. He goes running out of the airport to get into the car pickup area, where he finds Zeke in the car waiting, and he's screaming. It's real. It's all real. Right. That the characters are coming back to life.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. That's the end of the chapter.

[Co-host]

That's incredible. The most. Again, another unbelievable part would be Zeke being at the car waiting area at lax that you could just run right out of the terminal into a car.

[Mrs. P]

You didn't have to go get on a bus.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Take you to the parking lot or the waiting area.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Or also just said. Oh, no. I just. I was loop. I had to. I stopped. I was waiting there, but I just.

[Mrs. P]

Missed 75 uber blacks in front of me.

[Co-host]

But also then the CO Know a cop comes by and tells you to move or security or whatever. So I got a circle again. It's going to be another 15 minutes before I get back around. God damn it. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So, okay, next chapter, we're going on a time jump again. This time, 2001. Great year.

[Co-host]

Great year. Until September.

[Mrs. P]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Co-host]

What? Okay, I'm not wrong.

[Mrs. P]

So 2001, Misha just got off a bus and he's going to Richie's house to visit. He has a book for him that they had talked about. And he also brought a box of Valentine's Day chocolates, because when he was at, like, the CVS or whatever, they were on sale because it was after Valentine's Day, but also not so secretly. Secretly. It's because he feels like there's something growing between them.

[Co-host]

This is the guy who didn't talk to him at the high school reunion, right?

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Okay. I have a feeling I know where this is going.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So they end up going into the house, hanging out, playing video games. And while they're playing video games, they kiss.

[Co-host]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

However, right after they're kissing or, like, during their kissing, Richie's older brother comes down the stairs looking for, like, a soccer ball or some. And when he sees them, he immediately clocks that there are two boys that are sitting too close, you know?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Two boys in 2001.

[Co-host]

Listen. And the people who weren't around in 2001, you had to make sure. Like, even going to the bathroom, you had to make sure there's a urinal between. Between them.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Like, there's a lot of. If you saw boys at a movie theater and there was a row of six seats, that means you could fit three boys.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly.

[Co-host]

Because sitting next to your friend was too gay.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. When they would say things like, no homo. That was like a license.

[Co-host]

That was. Oh, my God, it was the craziest time.

[Mrs. P]

So.

[Co-host]

And it's still like that for middle schoolers in general, but it's still just one of those things. But. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So he sees it, and he immediately clocks it and starts making fun of his little brother Richie, who's like, shut up, Tommy. I don't know if his name is Tommy. I just wrote that. The brother lets it go because he's just razzing him. Bye. Bye. He's like, you guys do.

[Co-host]

You guys can't apologize to all Tommies, by the way.

[Mrs. P]

Never.

[Co-host]

You make every teenager. All your stories are always a Tommy.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, I'll change it to Shawnee now.

[Co-host]

Okay, see? Exactly. I can tell you're. You're. I. We're talking about Montana.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And you're out here dropping it right into Northeast Philly.

[Mrs. P]

Shawnee.

[Co-host]

Shawnee.

[Mrs. P]

You mean. You don't think that I grew up with a boy named Misha? Get out of here. Okay, so Richie, Though I did grow up with a Richie. Fuck Richie. He became a cop. Hated him. I saw him in a grocery store. Years after.

[Co-host]

We don't have time for this. We don't have time for this.

[Mrs. P]

Years after.

[Co-host]

We don't have time for this.

[Mrs. P]

He came up and flirted with me, and I was like, fuck you, Richie. You think I don't remember grade school? It wasn't. It.

[Co-host]

I can't stop. I can't believe I'm about to say this. Yeah, stick to the plot, lady.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Anyway, there he's razzing them. Whatever. What are you guys kissing down there? Whatever. Nothing. He's like, you. And then the brother sees the Valentine's Day candy box, and it. Like, his mind is like, wait a minute. And then he screams at Richie, are you gay? And Richie's like, no, Baba. And then Misha, thinking he's going to diffuse the situation and is like, no, no, no. Like, I brought those. Those were just on sale. Like, it was just because it was candy. And Richie's brother looks at Misha and then back at Richie, and he's like, is he trying to make you do gay stuff? And in that moment. Moment. Richie made a decision and said, yes, he's trying to make me do gay stuff. So Richie's brother starts screaming in Richie's face that he needs to make Misha leave over and over again. And then Richie punches Misha in the face and splits his lip open.

[Co-host]

This is how Republican congressmen are made. Yeah, okay, got it.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha runs outside the house after he gets punched in the face and runs back to the bus stop. But it turns out that bus he took there was the last bus, so there's no bus going home. So he ends up going back to Richie's family's property because it's like, a big barn property.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

In the middle of nowhere, basically. And goes into the barn and sleeps in a pile of hay, crying. All. He's like, crying, and it's awful. And there's blood and tears and the whole thing on a pile of hay. And there's, like, movement suddenly in the back of the barn, and he's like, who's there? And he sees, like, shuffling and movement in the dark, but he can't. There's no lights, so you can't really see who it is. And out into the moonlight that's coming through the wood, he sees that it's not a person, but a little black lamb.

[Co-host]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

So back to today.

[Co-host]

And that's where that story comes from. Got it.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Writers write based on their.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I get it. I get it.

[Mrs. P]

So back to the day.

[Co-host]

Okay?

[Mrs. P]

Misha is explaining to Zeke in the car ride back from LAX the entire plane incident. Okay. And for the record, Zeke is, like I said, a cosmetic scientist. He is not woo woo in any way and. But he's listening to him, very open minded. He's not doing the like, babe, baby, overreacting.

[Co-host]

No, he's reacting the way that the characters in Star Trek the Next Generation reacted when people would like, no, no, no, you're right. The entire universe is wrong. Worf. Like, it's one of those ones where they're. But they're not being like dicks about like, okay, well let's, let's look into it. He's a scientist.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So he believes them.

[Mrs. P]

He's having a very open mind and he's very like, okay, got it. How can I support you?

[Co-host]

Yeah, no, he's being good. We got. Listen, we. Stan a Zeke.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, love a Zeke.

[Co-host]

We love a Zeke.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha's phone.

[Co-host]

Misha though is a piece of shit.

[Mrs. P]

No, Misha's not a piece of shit.

[Co-host]

I think he's going through too much.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. And he's just speeded up Misha's phone buzzing because again, he just got off a flight.

[Co-host]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Because guess what happened? People on the plane also started filming once airplane mode was off. Babe. So they all saw this woman dressed as one of his famous characters stalking him on the plane and him screaming at her to get the fuck away from him and him running off. So there's like video footage of this happening.

[Co-host]

Oh, he's being low cowed at this point. This is very much like there are certain characters who became popular especially on TikTok in the 2000s where there's footage of them like on public transportation, like freaking out and stuff like that. And like that's the footage that gets out there. He's becoming. He's being lol. Cowed by his own imagination.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So he's going viral again. Also, where was his security? I thought he had 24. Is that only in L. A?

[Mrs. P]

Security's at the house. Security's at the house.

[Co-host]

But he wasn't at the house.

[Mrs. P]

He wasn't. He was in Montana.

[Co-host]

There's really bodyguards. Protect the body.

[Mrs. P]

What was I thinking? Okay, so they get back to the house. Tara's staying at the house. She's crashing at the house because that's where the security is. They decide they're going to brainstorm. They're going to start coming up with ideas on what the is going on. Tara immediately is like, yeah, no, I, I'm saying that this is real. But she also knows that now that he's admitted it's real, she's crying because she knows the Clock has started on the smoker situation.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

That he's going to come rip their bones out of their body and smoke them.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So she's like, huh?

[Co-host]

Oh, smoke them like cigarettes.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

I thought you meant smoke them like a smoker like we have out back.

[Mrs. P]

Nope.

[Co-host]

I didn't put it together. I didn't realize that he smokes the bones.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Like he rolls them up in rolling paper.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

It'd be crazy if he vaped. That's. That's how you update the story.

[Mrs. P]

Mango flavor. Y' all got that raspberry bubblegum special.

[Co-host]

I didn't realize I murdered a Guatemalan. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

So they get out the whiteboard.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And they start brainstorming ideas about what the fuck's going on.

[Co-host]

Can I tell you, I've cast. Tara is. Is Kate McKinnon from Lady Ghost.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, my God. Exactly. No, but. Exactly.

[Co-host]

Yes.

[Mrs. P]

Especially if you're going to cast her as me know. That is exactly it.

[Co-host]

Yeah. That's what I was. I went with her. Yeah. Misha. Misha. I've just been kind of like just a skinny. To me, he's been a skinny gay who thinks he's put. He's. He's pulling off straight. I don't know. I don't have an exact actor I can pick off the top of my head. Zeke is just a good guy.

[Mrs. P]

Zeke is just a good guy.

[Co-host]

Yeah. So I don't really have anything for that. Jack, I think, depends on whether or not it's an older executive versus a younger executive is kind of.

[Mrs. P]

I was picturing Misha as Andrew Garfield. Okay. No, no, no.

[Co-host]

Andrew Garfield's straight.

[Mrs. P]

It doesn't matter. No picturing him.

[Co-host]

I don't care. I want to gay.

[Mrs. P]

I have to cast.

[Co-host]

I want a gay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, fine. Then we'll work on that.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

And then for Jack, I was picturing him as. Who's Amy. Amy Poehler's ex husband.

[Co-host]

Oh, got it. Will Arnett.

[Mrs. P]

Will Arnett. I was picturing Will Arnett.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Will our networks for that role. Okay, that's fine. Will our networks for that.

[Mrs. P]

We can agree on that.

[Co-host]

Yeah, no, we can agree on that. I don't. I don't have a pick. Like, for Misha. Like, I. It's so all over the place. So I can't picture an actor.

[Mrs. P]

We're working on it. We still got more stuff.

[Co-host]

No, I know, I know. And I. I don't sit. I don't know enough. Like, especially modern actors. I don't have enough of them to be like, this is definitely It. Actually, you know who I'd go with? Zeke? Arnold Schwarzenegger's kid who was in White Lotus.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, yeah.

[Co-host]

Maybe go with that guy.

[Mrs. P]

Well, he is bisexual, too.

[Co-host]

He is.

[Mrs. P]

He's buying the book.

[Co-host]

Oh, in the book, Zeke is by.

[Mrs. P]

Zeke is openly bisexual.

[Co-host]

Okay, then that. That's great. Then we can do. We could do whatever the Schwarzenegger is for that.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, well, Misha's closeted, so that. That opens a whole other sector.

[Co-host]

How old is Misha supposed to be?

[Mrs. P]

I feel like he's in, like, 30.

[Co-host]

I think he's supposed to be our age.

[Mrs. P]

I think he's like, 30s, 35, 40? I don't know.

[Co-host]

35 is crazy to speak, to be closeted.

[Mrs. P]

I don't know.

[Co-host]

I just feel like these days, it's like there's like, a certain. You have, like, a certain time frame.

[Mrs. P]

I don't know.

[Co-host]

I don't know. Like, it's funny.

[Mrs. P]

You're just making things up.

[Co-host]

Listen, I'm not making things up.

[Mrs. P]

Let's take a break, and when we come back from the break, I want to talk about what they're doing with this dry erase board.

[Co-host]

Oh, that's right. I forgot. Okay, okay, okay. I'll be right back.

[Mrs. P]

Guys. Thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree, Zoe.

[Co-host]

This thing weighs a ton. Drewski, lift with your legs, man.

[Mrs. P]

Santa. Santa. Santa. Did you get my letter?

[Co-host]

He's talking to you, Bridges.

[Mrs. P]

I'm not. Of course he did.

[Co-host]

Right, Santa, you know my elf, Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list. And elf. I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T Mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. Right, Mrs. Claus?

[Mrs. P]

I'm Mrs. Claus much younger sister. And AT T Mobile, there's no trade in needed when you switch, so you can keep your old phone or give.

[Co-host]

It as a gift.

[Mrs. P]

And the best part, you can make the switch to T Mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes.

[Co-host]

Nice. My side of the tree is slipping, Kimber. The holidays are better. AT T Mobile, switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 vice connection charge credits and imbalance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel Finance agreement. 256 gigs, $830. Eligible for new line, $100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com. i've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. Why do you guys think you win so many cases? The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end that we believe in the case. So we fight for every dollar and we're not afraid to go that extra mile for our clients. Are insurance companies, like, actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial. And we are not strangers of getting very, very, very large verdicts.

[Mrs. P]

Awesome.

[Co-host]

So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24, 7 3.

[Mrs. P]

365.

[Co-host]

Wow. Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's large injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you. And we're back, Mrs. P. So we're at a whiteboard and as you said right before we went to commercial, we love a board.

[Mrs. P]

Love a board.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so they're brainstorming what the fuck is going on and is there anything we can do about it? Right. So they're writing the characters on the dry erase and everything. And like, okay, Misha, explain to us each detail about the character when you wrote them, blah, blah. And so they're going through like, what are the characters flaws? What can take them out? How did they get beaten by the characters in the show if they did?

[Co-host]

Yeah, Right.

[Mrs. P]

So they're trying to figure out how they're going to figure out this. And they have to come up, look at the characters that have already shown up. So, like the lamb, Mrs. Y. The smoker, if there's any others, blah, blah, blah. Right. And they realize that Misha, when he wrote Mrs. Y, she spoke like, she would be like, I. She would try to explain to people, like, I'm going to tell you about the truth of humanity in existence. But there was a director on that episode of the show and. And the director said it was scarier if she never spoke.

[Co-host]

True. It is true.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. So, but this broke open this idea for them. Because now they know it has to be related to the studio. Because these are the studio's characters, not Misha's OG designs. These are edited, post production monsters. These are monsters that already went through the editing cycle. And that's what they start to realize is that this is like, this isn't his original writing.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So it's not his brain that's making them. Maybe.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. This is specifically studio monsters. Okay, so after this aha moment, there's a knock at the door, right? And it startles the out of all of them. They're like, huh? Like, they all jump.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Who knocks?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

You show up at the door and you silently text. And then you wait. You text. I'm out front.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And then you wait two, three minutes and then you call. And then finally you text.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I mean, by. You knock.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

But there's like a whole.

[Mrs. P]

Nobody knocks.

[Co-host]

It drives me crazy. Like, just knock. Just knock. We have a doorbell.

[Mrs. P]

So the knock on the door, it's the security guy who's been outside because getting a security. And they're. They don't trust that. They're like, who is it? What's your name? Right? And they guy says his name and they like Google him just to make sure. They're like, we don't know.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah. And he, meanwhile, he's just like, fucking cocaine writers. Yeah. But he's just like, these are just paranoid writers on coke. I got you.

[Mrs. P]

And so he's like, there's a situation going on out here. I want you to come out and check. I just want to come check in with you before I make any phone calls. And the three of them are like, what's going on? But they don't actually trust the security guy because the security guy's from the studio. And now they know without a doubt that the studio is involved somehow. Right?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he is like, there's a little black scared looking lamb on your lawn. And I'm going to call animal control because I don't know who it belongs to.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And Misha flings the door open and he goes, you got a gun? Shoot it. And the guy, the scared guy's like, what the fuck? He's like, I'm not shooting a sad little lamb. And Misha's like, okay, give me your gun. I'll shoot it. And he's like, I'm not giving you my gun.

[Co-host]

It's a very funny scene. I can see all of this in my head. I like this a lot.

[Mrs. P]

And then Misha looks at Tara and goes, tara, go around to the shed and grab the gas canister. We're gonna burn it. And then the security guard is like, what are you talking about? You're gonna set the little lamb on fire? And now he, like, scoops up the lamb and he's cradling it like it's a little baby. And he's yelling at them that they're so up that they're gonna try to set a lamb on fire. And they're like, no, no, trust us. The lamb is evil. Put the lamb down. And he's like, you guys are so fucking weird. Like you said. Fucking cocaine writers are so fucking weird. And they're yelling at him to put the lamb down. And the security guards backing away, like, cradle lamb. And all of a sudden, there's this weird squelching noise. Always the face of the lamb splits right open in the middle, and lots and lots of thin tendrils start lashing out all over the place where the face used to be. And the lamb rips the apart and becomes a cascade of wriggling tentacles, teeth and mucus.

[Co-host]

Yep.

[Mrs. P]

And the thing grabs the security guard's face and shreds it to smithereens. And they run towards this situation. Right? But, like, kind of not that fast, like, but this. The. The lamb, in quotes, grabs the security guard and scurries away into a bush nearby and drags it in to finish its meal. And they're like, okay. Like, they just kind of watch it scurry. Like one of the french fry monsters.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

McDonald's into a bush with this body.

[Co-host]

Yeah. I can picture all this.

[Mrs. P]

And then the bush is shaking.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

While it eats them. And they're like, I guess we shouldn't. We shouldn't call the cops though, right? Because, like, how do you explain this? And then they all come up with a game plan that it was a mountain lion and that they never saw anything.

[Co-host]

That ring cam doorbell has to be crazy. I can picture all of it. Like, I can just picture it so well. I just. This is an incredible scene. I can see the security guard just be like, y' all are fucking crazy. And then the. Like. It's just so good. It's so good. Chuck Tingle, incredible writer. This is almost as good as your story. Never mind.

[Mrs. P]

Put the wiki page away.

[Co-host]

Taken by the gay unicorn biker from 2014.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So Misha decides he's gonna go talk to Jack again. Okay.

[Co-host]

Okay. The executive.

[Mrs. P]

The executive. So Jack is actually at a blood transfusion style health bar this Is very la.

[Co-host]

Oh, no, this is very. This is Peter Thiel.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. This is very Peter Teal.

[Co-host]

This is Barry. Peter Thiel. J.D. vance. Blood. Blood Boy stuff.

[Mrs. P]

Blood boy stuff.

[Co-host]

Okay, got it.

[Mrs. P]

Blood transfusion thing.

[Co-host]

And LA is weird.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, LA is weird.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha actually had Tara break into Jack's calendar to find out where he was. Right. So that's how he knew he was there. And he confronts him. And basically, there's, like, this part of this story where, like, there's a bunch of people in this area all getting these weird rich people blood transfusions. And Jack is like, I will pay everyone in this room to leave for $1,000.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And people get up and walk out or whatever, except for one guy. One guy has on, like, headphones and big, dark sunglasses, and it's just vibing out, like, laying back. Vibing.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Weekend of Bernie style. Well, he gets his blood transfusion, and so that guy doesn't hear them, so he doesn't take the money and leave. But, like, Jack makes a big deal that, like, everybody has to leave. And Misha's like, I know you're behind this. This isn't just some Comic Con stalker. This is you guys, and I know it. And now, at this point, Jack has lost all the color in his face from the. But from nerves. Like, he's, like, clearly shaken by this conversation.

[Co-host]

Also, literally, his blood is being drained from his body.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, no. The lady, the nurse comes out and, like, takes the thing out, and it's like, we're gonna have to restart. And he's like, fine, whatever. Like, whatever. I don't care. Yeah, but Jack is like, listen, this is above my pay grade. It is real, okay? And it is not going to stop unless you kill off the characters. And Misha's like, why the. Does it matter this much? And Jack is, like, again, above my pay grade. And he's like. He has a tremble in his voice. And this is the first time Misha's ever seen Jack truly scared. Like, he can tell he's holding back information, and he's just like, you don't understand. I have met the real bosses. You need to just do what they want.

[Co-host]

They are.

[Mrs. P]

They're very scary people.

[Co-host]

It's Larry and David Ellison, and he owns Oracle.

[Mrs. P]

Misha relents, and he's like, fine, fine. I'll write the characters off. That's what you guys. As long as this stops so that you stop harassing my friend Tara so security guards don't get murdered and people on the planes don't get tortured to death.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

He's like, this needs to stop. I'll do it. And Jack is like, listen, put it in an email. I need it in writing. CC everybody.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So right there on his phone, he drafts an email, and he's like, I'll kill off the characters, whatever the fuck you guys want. He cc's everybody and sits there. Send. Right? So Misha calls Zeke after the meeting and is like, it's over. Blah, blah, blah. And like, Zeke's like, I. I guess so. Whatever. And Misha's like, it just feels too easy, right? Like, Misha's a storyteller. And he's like, this is too simple. I send an email and it's done. People are being murdered in my bushes. And I send an email, but he's like. And Zeke is like, I get. Listen, just. Let's just be positive, right? Like, this could be nice. But. So he ends up getting off the phone with Zeke, but another call comes through, and this is being pushed through the whole time. Is that Misha's phone's blowing up. Because all of this social media virality that's happening is pushing his PR machine accidentally. So everybody wants an interview. USA Today. Fucking. The. The. The. Good morning, people. Like, everybody wants Misha. He's nominated for an Oscar. There's something going on with him. He has a crazed stalker.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

There's all these viral videos. So his phone is always going off, Right. But he's been ignoring it because he's, you know. Murders happening.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

He answers this phone call because he thinks it's his PR person, but it's not. It's the smoker. And the smoker says, I'm gonna see you soon. And he's like, it's not over. The countdown continues. End of chapter.

[Co-host]

Oh, right.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha is at this point, waiting out Misha. Misha goes to his car, and he sits in his car, and he's still outside of that spa where Jack was, Remember?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he's gonna follow Jack because he got that call from the smoker. So he knows that the email didn't work.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he follows him all the way for this long drive through LA and, like, probably Malibu or whatever. Like the whole drive through L. LA scene that we're all so used to.

[Co-host]

Yep.

[Mrs. P]

And he pulls up to this, like, building in the middle of nowhere, and it has a sign on it that says, beta effects and natural processing. Okay. Now this is the company that made the CGI AI movie star movie I told you about.

[Co-host]

Chris Oak, the dead actor who's up for an Oscar, whose name I wrote down earlier and I knew would come back.

[Mrs. P]

Yes, absolutely, yes. So the. He sees him pull up in a lot. He kind of like, parks a little bit nearby, but far enough away that he wouldn't be noticed. And he sees Jack pacing outside like he's nervous. And then Jack walks up and puts his thumbprint on a keypad to get in. Okay. And when he goes inside, Misha calls Tara because he's like, Tara is the cyber security gal. Maybe she can get me in because I don't have a thumbprint. Right?

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So he calls, and since the studio acquired this company in the recent merger or whatever, they're talking about, like, all the logistics and the cyber security of it all, and there's all this backstory, whatever, there's no need for any of it because Jack comes running out the front door wild eyed with a bloody nose. And he gets in his car and speeds away. Oh, okay, now what? Misha's like, oh, I gotta follow him, right? But as he's like pulling his car, like starting his car again to follow where Jack goes, he sees who's walking out behind him, looking ready to attack him further. It's Chris Oakes. The CGI actor is alive. Chris Oakes is dressed in a white suit, like the character in his movie that's nominated for an Oscar. And then there's a. The Chris Oaks character gets into, like a vintage car and chases Jack down. And there's like a whole car chase scene. And Misha follows behind them. And then he's. He's driving down the road and he sees that Jack's car is pulled off to the side of the road in like a wooded area. So he gets out of this car, he, like, pulls up, gets out, and he walks through the woods for a little bit. And he sees Jack tied up to a tree, like, sitting on the ground tied up to a tree with, like, leather belts. And Chris Oak is holding a sledgehammer. And to really summarize, what happens here is there is an incredibly gruesome murder. The character that Chris Oakes plays is like this mafiosa guy, and he is this mafiosa guy. And he's really mad at Jack for wasting the company's money. He's like, blood transfusion, fancy golf outings, you're always wasting our money. And so he's killing him for it, brutally using the sledgehammer and garden shears come up a lot. He's using. He's using Garden shears to collect interest. Okay. I'm not going to get into it. It's gross and gory. However, the one thing that's very funny is the entire time that this horrific, brutal, mafiosa style murder is happening, Peter Gabriel song Sledgehammer is playing in the background.

[Co-host]

Sledgehammer?

[Mrs. P]

Because he's playing it from his car.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. I'm starting to pick up what's happening here. Number one, you said earlier that Chris Oakes is up for an Oscar as an AI actor playing this mafia character. I think that this isn't Chris Oaks. This is the actual character from the movie. And the AI itself has come to life, I'm going to guess.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Okay.

[Co-host]

And these are either hard, like constructs, or in some way, like actual constructs of those creations. And they are also the embellishment or the. An anthropomorphized version of the studio itself, because the studio is the IP and the IP is the studio. And it's trying to protect its own assets now to make sure that it can still exist by destroying the executives and employees that may get in the way by wanting, you know, basic needs and necessities and even luxury items that they should be entitled to.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host]

Am I? Am I?

[Mrs. P]

You're pretty close.

[Co-host]

Am I?

[Mrs. P]

Wow.

[Co-host]

I got tangled on my Chuck.

[Mrs. P]

You got tangled?

[Co-host]

I got tangled.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so here's the thing. Misha has a tire iron in the back of his car, okay? He scuttles around, he gets the tire iron, right? And he goes and he attacks the Chris Oak character.

[Co-host]

Oh, I would not do that. I would hit him. I would have hit him with a car.

[Mrs. P]

Smart. You're smart.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

But he doesn't do that. He gets his higher iron and he ends up killing him. Because in his mind, this guy's already dead. So it doesn't matter if he murders him. This how he, like, quickly plays like he's been dead for two years.

[Co-host]

Double Jeopardy. I've seen that movie.

[Mrs. P]

It had Ashley Judd.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Incredible.

[Co-host]

Double Jeopardy.

[Mrs. P]

Love that movie.

[Co-host]

You can't be found guilty of committing.

[Mrs. P]

The same murder doing the laundry. Oh, my God, I love that.

[Co-host]

The thing always got me with that one is like, actually, they charge you with a different form of murder.

[Mrs. P]

Shut up. You shut up.

[Co-host]

It would be a different murder.

[Mrs. P]

And they're in New Orleans. The scene is so set in that movie. I love it.

[Co-host]

I miss a 90s thriller, babe.

[Mrs. P]

I love a 90s thriller. Like the. The Law Firm. The.

[Co-host]

The Firm.

[Mrs. P]

The Firm. Oh, my God.

[Co-host]

The Pelican.

[Mrs. P]

Brief 90s.

[Co-host]

Midnight in the Garden.

[Mrs. P]

Everybody has their real teeth. Yeah, they all got pores and wrinkles.

[Co-host]

I like. I like. Even though Kevin Spacey was in At Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Very good movie, actually. He plays an evil. Yeah, well, he plays an evil in that one. We knew he nailed it in it.

[Mrs. P]

Nailed it. Okay, so he dies. Here's the thing. He slams them with the tire iron. And then the Chris O. Character does have a gun because he's a mob guy. And Misha grabs the gun. I don't remember if he shoots him or it's the tire iron that kills him anyway. He kills him.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Here's the thing. His body hits the ground, but when his body hits the ground, it disintegrates into ash right in front of him.

[Co-host]

Oh, the digital. Same bismuth ash. Because he's made out of cell phones.

[Mrs. P]

Jack does not survive. And he has to leave him there at the trees because how do you explain to the cops an AI construct of a dead actor murdered somebody with.

[Co-host]

Only you had a smartphone where you could have recorded this happening?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Time Jump Chapter. Time Jump chapter. We're going back. He's 12 years old.

[Co-host]

Oh, God. Okay. I was over this. I was over him being a child, not over things.

[Mrs. P]

That's why he's working through them in his writing.

[Co-host]

What a Christmas episode.

[Mrs. P]

This is not a Christmas episode. Misha's 12 years old, and he's standing next to his Uncle Keith, who's babysitting him while his mom has to go out of town for work. His Uncle Keith is a scumbag who smokes a lot.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he's like one of those people where, like, the cigarette smoke is coming out of every pore. Everything he owns smells. You know the ones.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I know. I noticed them heavily now.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Once I quit smoking, I can. Like, they walk in, and you can almost taste it.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. It's really.

[Co-host]

It's really aggressive.

[Mrs. P]

Misha is. It's like Misha's sitting at the computer at his house doing his homework, and his uncle is like, oh, we have the Internet at my work. Let me show you something important, kid. And so Keith opens up his search history and is explaining to Misha the how and whys of why he should always delete his search history because of. You don't want your mom seeing the boobs you're looking at. And Misha is panicking as Keith is going through his search history because he.

[Co-host]

Knows what's in that search history.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And Keith does end up saying, seeing some pictures of nude men. It's a very funny part of the story where I get. Apparently, like Misha, it finds pictures of hot, good looking naked men on the Internet and then he prints them out.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Because it's the 90s.

[Mrs. P]

It's the 90s. You're printing them out.

[Co-host]

It's the 90s. You didn't know how long. I. Listen, I understand. Okay. Use. We used to print our porn. You either found it in the woods or you printed it out and you put it in a file and then you hid that file in your room because you didn't know one, whether or not the website would still exist. Number two, how long. Some days it was one image. I remember an Image taken like 15 minutes to load.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Oh, he does talk in the, in the book about how long and especially because the printer is.

[Co-host]

But also on top of that too, he was living in Montana. There's areas of Montana that still do not have much less 5G. Yeah. They don't have high speed Internet. Like they were saying when AOL or something like those dial up went down. Like it took like. We're Talking about like 10,000 households got taken off the web because of this. Like there's, there's, there's so much we. Our digital infrastructure and our physical infrastructure. This country are garbage. So unless he's specifically in Bozeman or Billings or like these certain areas. There's areas of Montana now where there's tons of rich people that have moved in.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. And Jeffree Star.

[Co-host]

Yeah, he lives in Wyoming, but there's areas like that in the mid. In that Upper West.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Where rich people are moving in and they're now pricing out all the normies.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Because they watch that show.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

They all want to be in that show.

[Co-host]

Yellowstone.

[Mrs. P]

That one.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

They're all like, I'm a Yellowstone cowboy. And I'm like, you're not.

[Co-host]

But also they all want to be in the middle of nowhere because they also all know that it's all about. They all believe it's all about the collapse.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And they think that their weird LA Botox filled faces are actually doomsday preppers.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host]

Instead of just living and making the world better. Anyway, I just, I'm just gonna say I feel I already know where this is going for Misha.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

We've all been there, brother.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So his uncle Keith sees the naked men and freaks out and he's really Awful to Misha. But he does something really weird, which is he kind of just gets up and leaves the apartment. Now, he had left him alone before where, like, he would disappear for hours. Like, he'd be like, oh, I'm gonna go get pizza, and then, like, come back with, like, a six pack of beer two hours later.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Misha's eating microwave melted cheese on bread. You know what I mean? Yeah.

[Co-host]

Yeah. So Misha's 12. He probably could have just been alone, but for whatever reason, he was even, you know, with family.

[Mrs. P]

Well, because his mom was leaving for, like, five days.

[Co-host]

Got it. Oh, yeah. Five days. Okay. I forgot about that.

[Mrs. P]

So he leaves the apartment, and he comes back after the. The porns thing. He leaves the apartment. He comes back a while later with a woman who. Who I'm assuming is a sex worker based on the description of her, because.

[Co-host]

He'S gonna try to straighten the boy out.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so Keith is like, come outside with me. And then the thing. The whole thing is that Keith smokes a lot, but he's not allowed to smoke in the house. Sisters rules me. He always says, give me a light. And Misha learned at a young age to always make sure he had matches on him, because his uncle would yell at him or hurt him if he didn't have a light. Ready.

[Co-host]

Huh.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So he's like, come outside. Give me a light. And so he lights a cigarette, and Keith is like, listen, I'm not gonna tell your mom about what I saw on your computer. I'll. I'll keep your secret, but you're never allowed to tell her about what happened this week. And then I'll keep your secret. And Misha thinks this is a good compromise. He's like, yeah, sure. I'll never tell her that you have a girl over. I don't care. Whatever, man. Whatever you want. And he's like, yeah, but his mom and him live in a really, really small apartment where, like, his mom sleeps on the couch. And he's like, that's not gonna work, because me and my girl. Girl, whatever name is. We need to hang out. And so he makes Misha sleep outside in the car every. It's the middle winter. Every night while him and the woman do what addicts do.

[Co-host]

Got it?

[Mrs. P]

Every night, he's forced to leave and go sleep in the car while they.

[Co-host]

They shoot up.

[Mrs. P]

They shoot up, have sex, all that stuff.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And so can I tell you.

[Co-host]

Yeah, much better than what I thought when. Second you started saying smoking uncle. And there's this, like, weird memory. I Was like, I don't like where this is going.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Chuck Tingle. I want to thank you, sir, for not being a hack number one.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And not taking us down a very dark path.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Because I. My brain immediately went. Because it's a trope.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Of where, you know, the uncle. The touchy uncle. So I want to just thank you for just having him be a bag of shit uncle.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Who again, uses internalized homophobia to wound him in a different way.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Different wounds. Cut back to present day.

[Co-host]

We got cut back.

[Mrs. P]

So. Okay. Misha decides he's going to head back to that building. The beta effects and natural processing.

[Co-host]

Yes.

[Mrs. P]

He's got the gun that he took from Chris Oak. Okay. And he's going to go find out what the fuck's going on over there.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Because again, he just left Jack dead in the woods. He's heading back. He gets to the front. There's a security guard in the building. Oh, I forgot. Jack had his fingers cut off. He steals Jack's thumb.

[Co-host]

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Use his thumb. And he picks up his thumb.

[Co-host]

Well, that's just good writing. That's just good writing.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

All right. I'm getting. I'm getting tingled by this.

[Mrs. P]

Do you feel the tingles?

[Co-host]

I feel the tingles. And that's why right now I also have to take a tingle. So we are going to take a pause.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host]

And when we come back, he's going to use Jack's thumb to get into the building. And then we're going to learn more about. We're going to find out whether or not I've called most of this.

[Mrs. P]

Maybe. Probably you're right.

[Co-host]

I'm pretty close. But it's. It's a really good story so far. We'll be right back after this. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save the up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch. And now T Mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits. Plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit. Stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. Tis the season for identity theft. This time of year, most of us are checking off our holiday gift lists. But guess what? Identity thieves have lists too. And your personal information might be on them. Protect your identity with lifelock. Lifelock monitors hundreds of millions of Data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss by yourself. Even if you keep an eye on your bank and credit card statements. If your identity is stolen, your own US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. And all plans are backed by the million dollar protection package. The last thing you want to do this holiday season is face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or other financial losses from identity theft all alone. Make this season about joy, not identity theft. With Lifelock, save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, There, the last one. Enjoy, enjoy. A Coca Cola for a pause that refreshes.

[Co-host]

All right. We tinkled with tingle and now we're here to tango with the mangoes. I don't.

[Mrs. P]

Mango vapes.

[Co-host]

Mango vapes.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So he gets to the building.

[Co-host]

Who's me? Who's he? Misha.

[Mrs. P]

Misha. Misha. Gets to the building with a gun. Got a gun.

[Co-host]

And a finger.

[Mrs. P]

And a finger.

[Co-host]

What's a thumb? Some people will argue that thumbs aren't fingers, but I. Those people are stupid.

[Mrs. P]

That's all. It's all just a different. Okay. Anyway, they're phalanges. They get. There's a security guard, he's like, let me in the locked rooms. Let me go in the back. I want to know what's going on.

[Co-host]

Telling you right now, security guard not paid enough. So let him in. Go. Let him back.

[Mrs. P]

Security guard does kind of have this whole, like, no, like. And he's like going to fight back. And he's like, I'm gonna shoot you.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Is your job worth this?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So they go back into this big locked area, and what is back there is basically this huge CGI studio. Picture it like when they show everybody like in Marvel movies. Like in the Giant.

[Co-host]

Yeah. And in front of the big blue.

[Mrs. P]

Green screens that it's a big thing and there's a bunch of like, scientists at computers against the walls, like clicky clacking. Right?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he yells out to them and he's like, what the fuck is going on? What are you guys doing in here? What the fuck is that? Because in the corner is a huge kind of tornado of dust just spinning around in the corner of this giant room. And the scientists explain that it's a nanobot cloud.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

There are super minuscule robots that work in unison to alter their own Molecular structure to create a version of a person that is then powered by the AI model. Then we find out that everyone that has ever signed a contract with the studio, and this is in the book Pre Strike, has had their likeness uploaded into a database because it is the property of the studio. And so Misha's like, are you telling me that all those little dots of dust are little tiny robots that then come together to create likenesses of everybody in the database? Database? And he's like. They're like, yeah, yeah. And he's like, okay, I need you to show me right now. So they open a computer, tick tock. And they had. They show him the database again. He's holding them at gunpoint.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he's like that. He sees the database. Names of actors, writers, directors, characters. Everything the studio has ever touched is in here. Right. And he sees as he. She's scrolling through the names. There's Mrs. Y. And now all the names are in black, but she's in red. And he's like, why is that one in red? And she. She. The scientist is like, well, because that's active. That's an active thing. But as you can see, it's not true. There's no one in the room. We're still working out some bugs at this point, but it's like. It's like a check engine light. Like we're just moving forward without it. Like we're figuring it out.

[Co-host]

Uh huh huh, huh.

[Mrs. P]

And so Misha's like, I need you to create someone right now who I can talk to. I need to talk to someone right now that I. That is like, it doesn't matter really who it is. I just want to talk to one of these AI CGI models.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And so the scientist is like, oh, I know who loves to talk. Tick tock, TikTok. And the scientist creates Chris Oakes, the.

[Co-host]

Guy you just killed.

[Mrs. P]

Yes, the mob character. So the mob character gets created. Like all the dust particles swirl around and go, tick, tick, tick, tick. And then they create. They build a body in front of them, right?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And then it, you know, becomes alive. And it has all the memories of the Chris Oaks character. Mob boss character, Right.

[Co-host]

Yeah, the one he just killed.

[Mrs. P]

Yes, but before the killing. Because this wouldn't have that memory, right?

[Co-host]

Oh, right.

[Mrs. P]

It's just building the character from the movie.

[Co-host]

Oh, God. Well, I thought with the. Okay, okay. No. Okay. I thought maybe the AI would have remembered that he had murdered it.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, well, let's just stick with my version.

[Co-host]

No, no, I like your version. I just was double checking on that.

[Mrs. P]

Because that's the reason why the create. The character, like, creates itself. Ticket. Ticket. And then the character says, I need a seat. And then a chair builds next to it.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And then a table. And I like an ashtray and a cigarette, probably.

[Co-host]

Can I tell you when every time we're talking about this Chris Oakes character, I am picturing. Was it Colin Farrell as the penguin? Oh, like in penguin makeup?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah.

[Co-host]

Like that type of thing. Like, I know that it's supposed to be more of a Tony Montana character.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I completely understand. That does not matter. Yeah. I am picturing an actual handsome man in heavy prosthetics.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Who is then playing this other character.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, God.

[Co-host]

All right, that's fine.

[Mrs. P]

They were like, let's find a handsome and make him an ugg.

[Co-host]

Yeah. That's how you get. That's how you get awards.

[Mrs. P]

That's how you get a wood. Okay. So he sits down in the chair. Little nanobot.

[Co-host]

What are you gonna get an ugg and make him handsome? That's. That's not made. That's a movie.

[Mrs. P]

Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow did that movie with the fat. The fat suit?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

It's very.

[Co-host]

That shallow.

[Mrs. P]

How Shallow how? Jack Black's worst movie. Well, shouldn't have been in that one, bud. Okay. And so he's. He sees Chris Oaks, and Misha looks at the character, and he's like, why did you kill my friend? Right. And the Chris Oaks character is like, because he was wasting the studio's money. Everything is about money. So they're having this conversation, and the scientists are like, what the Is going on? And Misha starts trying to explain to them while talking to the character that their experiment has gotten out.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

That the AA model is loose in the world and is. Is doing whatever it's doing and replicating however it's replicating out there.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

He's like, I just killed this guy because he just killed Jack. And they're like, that's impossible. Blah, blah. And he's like, no, but the Chris Oakes character is like, you don't understand. You're. The. Jack was wasting the studio's money. And, like, the. I guess what we learn is that the. The AI model's core belief is the character's core belief, and the core belief of that character is to. Is to make money. Because he's mob boss.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he doesn't like when people waste his money.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

But also within the AI model is the studio's needs.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So the studio has fused with the actors and the characters.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so inherent bias has become the main input of it. Yeah. It's like Grok with Elon Musk.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host]

Weirdly, out of nowhere, it starts calling itself Mecca Hitler and saying that he's the greatest man that's ever played golf.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. And so the reason that the Chris Oakes character killed Jack is because Jack was wasting the studio's money and, like, was frivolously using his spending account or whatever.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And it caught him, so that's why it had to be murdered. And so they're like, he's like, he's yelling at me. He's like. Because now he's not yelling at Chris Oaks. He's yelling at the AI model itself. Right. He's like, I said I would kill my characters. Why do you keep coming after me? And he's like, oh, no, no, that doesn't matter anymore. We've run the numbers. You're your TV show. Those characters, they can stay gay. We don't care anymore because now you. Your death is going to bring us more money because of the pr, because of the virality, because of the Oscar nod. Oh. A famous man losing it on tmz. And he's up for an Oscar. And he dies a tragic death that's gonna raise our stock. And he's like, by how much? And the. The AI model, like, does like one of those little robot, like.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Little calculation.

[Mrs. P]

And he's like, I. I don't remember the exact number, but it's like,.0038%.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

It's nothing. Yeah. And he's like, my life is worth nothing. He's like, what about Tara? What about Zeke? What about the people on the plane? He's like, cost margin.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

You know?

[Co-host]

Yeah. No, this is the worst part is like, I know that it's trying, like, they're trying to paint the computer as the evil in this one. But, like, this is also like, how boards think.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

This is how analysts think. This is how in a world where shareholder. That returning value to shareholders over anything else being the most important will always be how it turns out.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

If your concentration isn't on actually providing something to your community, the world and your employees, then it doesn't fucking matter. It's all about just making more money. Oh, I'm getting tangled.

[Mrs. P]

Misha explains again to the scientists that the nanobots have broken containment and are out in the world building and rebuilding and creating. Creating studio characters like Mrs. Y and the Smoker. The scientists don't believe them at first. Obviously, when the Chris Oak character knows Misha's name and is very clear that, like, that they know each other, the. The scientists kind of go into oh mode. And all of a sudden, Chris Oak's character looks at Misha and goes, yes, that's why I brought you here.

[Co-host]

Here.

[Mrs. P]

And Misha finds out from the Chris O. Character that this has all been a setup to get him in this room. And that's the moment that the gun he's holding turns to dust. Because the gun was nanobots.

[Co-host]

I had a feeling it was a nanobot gun. I was wondering why it still existed. This is very good. This is much better than when the. When the Architect appeared in the Matrix. I'm just telling you that right now. I'm already. Oh, my God. Okay, keep going, keep going, keep going.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Misha makes a run for it. He's like, fuck. Like, as soon as the gun disintegrates, he's like, three to one, I'm out. Well, not including the cgi. So he runs out of the building. He barely makes it. He, of course, does. He heads back to his house now. Oh, here's something I forgot to say. And I do this in a lot of our story reports. There's certain subplots that I don't talk about because I just need to move the story along as I explain it to you.

[Co-host]

Routes. These episodes will be four hours, five.

[Mrs. P]

Hours long, just like an audiobook. So he gets to the house, and when he gets there, it's too late. Mrs. Y has gotten into the home. Basically, Mrs. Y transformed herself into a fake nanobot Misha, to get into the house, to get invited in. And when she got in, she touched Zeke and Tara, who are cowering in the corner.

[Co-host]

They did a T1000. Thank God I got it.

[Mrs. P]

When Misha gets there, he finds Zeke and Tara in the corner of the room. You know, everything is worthless. Everything is nothing. Meaningless, Bubba. And he's so sad for his friends. He doesn't even know what to do. And then Mrs. Y comes in, and she's walking towards him, and he says, you're not allowed to come near me or touch me. You have to stand in the corner. And because it's his house, his rules, she is not allowed to do anything. So she goes and stands in the corner.

[Co-host]

I love that. It's an auditor trap from that. That's from, like, Discworld. I love that. Okay, great.

[Mrs. P]

So next scene.

[Co-host]

Can I tell you, this is incredible to me that this incredible story is the same writer of Pokebutt. Go. Pounded by them all. I just. I just. I am just so.

[Mrs. P]

Babe. People have a plethora of talent and experiences.

[Co-host]

Inside of everyone, there are legions. This story that you all have been listening to is the same story, is the same that was written by the same author of not pounded by anything While I practice responsible social distancing. 2020. This is incredible.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host]

Oh, my God. This is the same author of Donald Trump pounded in the butt by handsome Russian T. Rex, who also peed on his butt and then blackmailed him with videos of his gut butt getting peed on 2017.

[Mrs. P]

I love the ratio of that one.

[Co-host]

The same. The same.

[Mrs. P]

This man's mind is expansive.

[Co-host]

I. You know. Did you know that? You know, there's a. There's a. Was it I love LA or whatever? Who's the. The. The. There's a horse in the hospital.

[Mrs. P]

John Mulaney.

[Co-host]

John Mulaney. Chuck Tingle called in. They did a call in show about la. Yeah. And Chuck Tingle called in, and they hung up on him because he started talking about how he writes, like, monster erotica. And they were just like, all right, man, whatever. We gotta go. And it was. Everyone's like, was that Chuck Tingle, you fucking idiots. So which I say is like, I want Chuck Tingle on this show.

[Mrs. P]

Call in. Chuck.

[Co-host]

Chuck. So email us. Or you know what? Actually, Chuck, join us on [e-mail] then DM US. Yeah, okay. And you can save money on this, Chuck. You can save money right now. Use Project 2026 as for the annual subscription. Save 30% on the year. The $5 tier. Come on over.

[Mrs. P]

You're not a fed.

[Co-host]

You're not a fed. And the $10 here is just for people who want to pay more. Some pizza. Because we get messages from people like, I want to give you more money. We say, okay, well, here's an option for that.

[Mrs. P]

Thank you.

[Co-host]

Every. Every tier gets the same.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. So next scene, Misha is heading to the Oscars. Okay? He is. His best friend and his boyfriend are in a puddle.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

He's like, I have to go to the fucking Oscars outside of his house. Paparazzi everywhere, okay? The news is getting places that Jack has been found in the woods.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

You know, police. It's like pandemonium. Everybody wants to know what the fuck's going on with Misha, right? So he's putting on his suit. He's heading out. He has. There's a driver. He got. A driver from the studio is outside of his house. And he's come up with a plan that it has to do with his acceptance speech. If he wins, he's gonna make an acceptance speech and call out the studio, basically. And whether he lives or dies, whether the smokey man gets him that night, it doesn't matter. It's going to be his last, you know, yell into the void. Basically.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So he gets into the car. While he's trying to get through the paparazzi in the media, he gets bumped around a lot and actually like, he gets bumped in the hip really hard and it hurts, but he's like, whatever, I just gotta get in the car. The car ride to the Oscars is actually pretty sweet. The woman who's driving is a screenwriter and she talks to him about how his work really inspired her to get into screenwriting. It's a lovely little segment about gay and queer inspiration. Loved it. Cut to the awards show. Red carpets, a buzz. He actually is really nice to everybody and is like talking about how excited he is for the award. Ba ba. This is different because usually whenever he's media facing, he's very like, go fuck yourself to people.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And so he's being really polite and cordial and nobody knows how to handle it because also everything in the media is him screaming into his phone or cursing out strangers. Stressed husband, cosplay.

[Co-host]

So this is me. This is me. This is literally me anytime I do anything. And everyone's just so caught off guard, they're like, wait, what do you mean? You're the screaming man? Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, oh, is that, is this, is this canape on this?

[Mrs. P]

Oh, oh, that's nice.

[Co-host]

We love a shrimp cocktail.

[Mrs. P]

So he gets seated in his thing and he's sitting right behind Mel Streep.

[Co-host]

Oh, they actually wrote her name. Yeah. Oh, nice.

[Mrs. P]

And so they're. The show's going on and like, as it's going on, he starts to feel really feverish and insane pain. And he like, feels so sick and he doesn't know if it's nerves or what. And then he like puts his hand on his side where he got bumped by the pots paparazzi and it's incredibly painful and like swelling. And he realizes that if the studio has access to every ip, they have access to viruses, they have access to. To health related things. And he's like, fuck. New viruses and illnesses get written by horror writers every day.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

You know what I mean? So he's like, I got to go to the fucking bathroom. So he Gets up and he ends up running to the catering area where he can steal a knife. And then heading to the bathroom. He. I don't. He doesn't say why he needs a knife, but he has a general idea that he's gonna need a knife. So he heads to the bathroom, and when he gets to the bathroom, he pops off his shirt and he can see in his stomach the outline of a huge parasitic worm.

[Co-host]

Oh, okay. All right, Just speed it up.

[Mrs. P]

He's gonna cut it out of himself.

[Co-host]

Gross.

[Mrs. P]

It's a bummer. Okay, he does it. He's successful after all that's done. He's dizzy from the blood loss and pain. And as he's kind of like buttoning up his shirt, trying to gather himself through the dizzying pain, he smells what? Cigarettes? And the friggin smoking man is in the next stall. And he's like, you should kill yourself. And the. The guy is like, you're going to kill me anyway. Why should I do it for you?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he's like, think of it. Think of the headlines. Closeted gay writer kills himself the night of his big award after his secret boyfriend is found sick and dying. And he tells the smoker to fuck off. You can kill me later.

[Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, because the big thing on this podcast is never kill yourself.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, that's. That's pretty much the whole thing.

[Co-host]

That's. We've been doing this show for a very long time to make sure that you, specifically, you, listener, do not kill yourself.

[Mrs. P]

Live to spite them.

[Co-host]

Yeah, fuck them. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

All right, so he's like the protagonist. He's like, if I'm the. I might not be the hero of this story, but I'm the protagonist. And as long as the protagonist. Protagonist keeps moving, the story will go on.

[Co-host]

Yep.

[Mrs. P]

So he wipes the blood off himself, puts his black tux jacket back on, hoping it hides most of the blood soaking through his shirt, and stumbles back out to the award show. Okay, so he stumbles out of the bathroom and heads back to his cell seat. And he can hear like the. The categories are being called. And he hears his category, Short, short film, whatever. And it's. And you hear the winner is Little Mouse by Misha Byrne. And there's a huge applause break. And the cameraman is searching the audience and they can't find him. Right? And he screams and raises hand. Wait, I'm right here. I'm coming. And then the light hits him and then the camera's on him and. And he's running towards the stage. Everybody applauds. Everybody's at their feet, basically. They're like, oh, my God, look at him. Here he comes and he reads a speech. I need my book because we're actually going to read the speech. I see Only look, you can see. It's the only bookmark I put in here. Yeah, and I forgot that I did this part. I think it's important to read the speech as it was meant to be read.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. And so he's like, this is the most important moment of my life. He says with a faint chuckle. I had a speech written. I spent a lot of time getting things just right because I had a point to make. But now that I'm up here, I feel like the best way to make my point is to tell a story. That's what we all do, right? Tell stories. The crowd is silent, waiting for him to begin. When I was young, I devour books and comics and movies and television in search of a character like me. I find a few. But slowly I realized they were just hinting at something, that they would never really come to pass because characters like me didn't sell. I figured if there were no heroes with the same feelings I have, then I guess my feelings must be wrong. Once I got older and I started telling stories of my own, I'd slip a few characters like me for a next generation to have. But that's so important. But for me, that only addressed part of the problem. I was doing the work through my art, but I was still pretending in real life. I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm sure all of the queer folks in the audience already know this. Most of my friends do, too. But for the rest of the world and my family watching on TV right now, I should probably tell you something about those characters I always hope to see. The ones I never got, they were gay, and I'm gay. And there's a big round of applause. People are on their feet, throwing up there.

[Co-host]

It's an award show.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So he starts getting played off. The music starts, and he's like, no, no, no, no. You're not playing me off yet. This is too important. And so he says, it's not just about telling queer stories. He's talking over the music at this point. It's about telling all kinds of queer stories. Yes, there can be tragedy and death and darkness. There's an important place for that. But don't forget about queer beauty, queer catharsis and queer joy. Every gay character doesn't need to die in the first scene or in A third act blaze of glory to save everyone else. Support Queer Heroes. Not just on screen, but off screen, too.

[Co-host]

I just hit the air horn so hard for that. I just. Wow, that's a great thing. But he never mentioned the nanobots.

[Mrs. P]

Well, okay. Yeah, he didn't. He. Well, he's not. We're not breaking his contract. What are you talking about?

[Co-host]

Oh, he can't mention. He said ncaa. He can't talk about.

[Mrs. P]

He's like, I'm not. I'm not getting killed. What are you talking about? I'm going against the studio. You just won an Oscar. What are you doing? What, are you trying to ruin his contract right now, babe? Anyway, he gets all. All shared off this stage and into what is like, I guess, the green room. Right? He wakes up sometimes later in a pool of his own blood. He basically blacks out. As soon as he walks off stage and he blacks out, people are helping him walk. They're congratulating him, shaking his hand, the whole thing. And he's like, I'm gonna go in a green room. I think it's actually a janitor's closet.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

He just passes out in a janitor's closet.

[Co-host]

Well, at the Oscars and all those things they have, like this. They have. It's. Once you get off stage, there's like a little green room for you to powder real fast. And then they have you go on another stage where you're then interviewed.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Famously, Jennifer Lawrence is always in there. Yeah, she's always in there talking.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So he wakes up sometime later in a pool of his own blood, bandaged up, and there's a smudge of ash on his bandages. He immediately is like, I have to go home and check on Zeke and Tara. And here's the thing. The Smoking Man's deadline never came because that night would have been the Smoking Man's night. It never happened. And Mrs. Y would still be at the house, but she isn't. So when he gets to the house, Tara and Zeke are there waiting for him. And they're like, oh, my God, we're so excited we saw your award thing. Like, it's like it never happened. Okay? They were. It was like they were never touched by Mrs. Y. Sometime later, approximately two months, Tara and Misha are heading back to the studio lot for a big meeting with the new executive because Jack is dead. When they get there, the big shield logo is painted with pride colors. The big shield logo.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

You know what I'm talking about?

[Co-host]

Yeah. The Warner Brothers logo. I was a fucking Warner Brothers. The whole time, it was. This is always hbo Max. This was always David Zaslav. Like, this was always. That I fucking knew.

[Mrs. P]

All right, so it's been painted with pride colors because the press loves a story of someone falling apart, but a redemption arc and the studio is cashing the fuck in.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Everything is gay now. Okay. There's a big billboard now. It says queeros with a tagline. There are no villains, only queeros.

[Co-host]

What? Yeah. All right. That's too much.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

This feels very much, by the way, just because. It's definitely wb, which owns DC Comics. Yeah. We have a children's book downstairs. Yeah. Which was a DEI superheroes book.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

That I bought specifically for our son. Not because of the messaging, but just because I was like, this is an artifact at this point. Like, everybody's different.

[Mrs. P]

Everybody has different Super.

[Co-host]

No, exactly. It is a good book.

[Mrs. P]

It's cool.

[Co-host]

But it was a very 2021 book.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

That now WB. And what if Netflix buys into Paramount? Any of these different people, they would.

[Mrs. P]

Immediately just be like, they burn it at Trump's feet.

[Co-host]

Yeah. My Lord, we are so sorry. For a DEI so. But everyone's a Quiro.

[Mrs. P]

Everyone's a Quiro. So a big billboard. He goes and meets the new executive. The new executive's name is Freddie. Do it, do it, do it.

[Co-host]

And he is duet or do it spell it.

[Mrs. P]

D, E, W, I, T, T. Okay. Do it. And it doesn't matter. Freddy, He's a. This guy is a very gay stereotype. He's all, yes, queens and oh, honeys. Okay, okay. Misha notices that as they're talking, that Freddy's elbow leaves a smudge of dust on the desk. Freddy is an amalgamation of all. All of the traits the AI computer thinks are generic. Queer man through the eyes of a straight guy.

[Co-host]

Yep, yep.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha's like, okay, so they're replacing executives with AI cray cray.

[Co-host]

Which, can I tell you. Can I tell you real fast? Just, we should always start there.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, for sure.

[Co-host]

Like, every time a CEO is like, let's replace all these lower level employees. No, no, no, no. Replace executives and CEO positions first.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Let's start there and. And then work back. Okay. Yeah. Instead of replacing all of these fields of corn, as they describe them, as empty fields of corn with data centers, why don't we replace office parking lots?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Why don't we go to those areas? No, we don't want to do that. That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

So Misha is there to pitch a show. He's like, I have a show. It's about Idea. It's about a gay couple who rent a cabin in the woods, and they find out it's haunted. And it's like this ooky, spooky thriller, right? And Freddy's like, let me stop you right there. We want positive stories only. We are keeping things upbeat at the moment. And, like, so he basically is like, no. The AI model crunched the numbers, and after your speech, positive gay vibes only. No negative gay vibes.

[Co-host]

Which is crazy because he's famous for negative gay vibes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so they're like, you need to write happy, go lucky. No bad vibes. No bad vibes ever. Gay stories. Because that's what sells. That's the point.008% over a negative, right?

[Co-host]

Yeah. Over us murdering you.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, exactly. And so he's like, kind of, like, arguing with this Freddy guy about it. And Freddy's like, with. Again, with a big smile. He's like, let me stop you right there, okay? Some of your counterparts are struggling with this. He's like, you know, you're good friends with Blossom Baker, right? She's been having a hard time. And Misha, in this moment, remembers the work that Blossom was doing on that heartfelt documentary about queer suicide. And. And Freddy's like. Freddie's like, yeah. You know, her first edit burned in a fire, but it turns out. Did you know this? She keeps a hard copy of everything. And when she was trying to retrieve the hard copy that she kept of that documentary, she fell down the stairs and broke every bone in her body. Isn't that awful?

[Co-host]

Wow.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Veiled threats, not so subtle. After the meeting, he meets up with Tara in the Hollywood Hills. No cell phones, right? And they're having this conversation about how they left their cell phones at home. They're meeting in the middle of the woods in the Hollywood Hill. And Tara is like, do you think the birds are drones? And he's like, man, my car could be a drone at this point.

[Co-host]

Yeah. I mean, a gun was a boat was an AI.

[Mrs. P]

And so they're like, we have to. They're. They're like, we're gonna hatch a plan on how to kill the AI Nanobot machine.

[Co-host]

Okay?

[Mrs. P]

Right. And so, basically, next. Next chapter, Zeke, Tara, Misha are going back to that original building where the AI Beta bots are. Okay, okay. And they're like, we're gonna go for a meeting. And so they get to the meeting, and the nanobots present themselves as Jack. Remember Jack?

[Co-host]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And Misha and Jack have a convo. And eventually Jack turns evil and creates monsters to make Misha fall in line. Because Misha's like, you need to do this and blah, blah. And we need this. And Jack is like, listen, I know that you're here to try to kill me. We know everything you do, and we're going to make you suffer so that you never try anything dumb like this again. And at that point, the AI Jack says, we see what you're doing, and the window that's between them kind of like, melts. Like, the glass window, like, melts into dusty powder. And you see Zeke, who's putting a USB thing into a computer because he's trying to upload the virus that they're going to put in there, right?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And he's like, why? Why do you think we would put a real computer? And then the computer becomes dust. Because it's not real.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And then everything around them is. They realize that the entire building is basically just an AI model. Right. So they're as. They're about.

[Co-host]

They're in the cloud.

[Mrs. P]

They're in a cloud. They're literally in the cloud. So as they're about to be attacked by the. Like, it's like the smoker and then back again.

[Co-host]

Yeah, it's a Universal monsters.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, Universal monsters. Tara is like, well, what about me? The whole what about me? Your AI model knows everything about how to attack Misha. It even knows how to attack Zeke. What about me? What do you got on me that. That you can create on the spot to attack me? And the thing is, is she isn't in their AI model. She stayed off the grid for so long as a cyber security lady. She hasn't put our data in. She's kept it out. Also, this is a plot point through the book that I just totally glossed over, which goes in line with the holy storyline. So I thought it was apropos is that she's an asexual woman, and therefore they do not have any information about an asexual woman in their models. They know gay, they know bi, they know lesbian. They can create AI and scrape based on all their ideas on how to attack her.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Because she's an asexual woman. There's no data. They don't have anything. They don't know what to do with her.

[Co-host]

They don't. Because they don't even target market her.

[Mrs. P]

They don't target market her. They have no plan of attack in this situation.

[Co-host]

And on top of that, she unplugs her Alexa.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, exactly. And so at that moment, Tara reveals that Zeke and the USB was her decoy. That the virus, she had it on her cell phone. And when the studio audio downloaded all of her files on the fucking WI fi, like, she tells Misha and Zeke all the time to turn their fucking cell phones off, it automatically downloaded the virus. And at that moment, it's like it breaks up and then everything crumbles and they're covered in dust.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Yeah, I could. I can see it just kind of falling.

[Mrs. P]

There's a giant disintegration around them. Okay, cut to the last chapter of the book. Everyone's at Misha's house. They're having snacks and parties and drinking, and they're all there to celebrate the very season finale episode of the Travelers show. And the agents go kiss, and everybody's in love. The end.

[Co-host]

That's great.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

That was a great story, Mrs. P. I. I think it should have. I think the Oscar thing should have wrapped with the other thing. That's my only note for Chuck Tingle.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

I know that he. He wanted to write them as two separate events.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

But it felt very much like the Oscars thing was actually supposed to be the true ending because it felt. It felt very Lord of the Rings ending in that way. The third movie, Lord of the Rings, where it ends up feeling like it had three endings.

[Mrs. P]

But no, because then we wouldn't know what happened to Zeke and.

[Co-host]

No, I know that. I know that. But there is a way that it could have been structured well and that. But I'm not saying.

[Mrs. P]

But if he would have called them out on the CGI AI and use everybody's. He could have said that to the room that the studios own every piece of your data and your likeness in perpetuity, and they're making fake use. If he would have said that to the crowd, number one, they wouldn't have believed them. Because people been saying, Matt.

[Co-host]

No, no, I don't. I'm not saying. Okay. I'm not fighting that. I'm not fighting on that. I'm saying there could have been a thing where as he's giving that speech, then maybe Tara is the. Tara and Zeke are doing this thing over there. Like they could have done a thing he didn't need. You have three characters.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, but two of them are in Goofy in the corner of the room.

[Co-host]

They didn't need to be.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, you're right. He did write that to happen.

[Co-host]

Yeah. No, I'm just saying is like, that's.

[Mrs. P]

To me, this Bride character that was really cool. But I didn't have time to. Really.

[Co-host]

No, but. But it's also just like in the, in this last section here, as we've been sitting here, we got to the Oscar part and I was like, great. It sounds like that's the wrap up. And now we're living in a world where he's living alongside of the AI Is going to be the executives.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And so it felt like the story was ending and that was the actual epilogue. Then it turned into. No, we're actually going to take this out. I didn't know that there were still four chapters left in the way this was being told.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

But also, but what I'm saying is, is that this is a weird track. That was the only. That's my only note. The rest of the story is great.

[Mrs. P]

It was so good.

[Co-host]

It was a very good story. Bury your gaze. Also, I think that I understand the title barrier gaze. I think that it could have a different title to make it even more accessible to get people to actually step into it. Because I think the title alone puts it in a different. The same way there's that, that hockey. The gay hockey show right now. Heated rivalry.

[Mrs. P]

Oh.

[Co-host]

That people are talking about. Like people are going into it and not realizing it's a gay story. And then like, oh, but it's a good story.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And it happens to be gay. I think that there's a thing in that.

[Mrs. P]

Well, there is, but also if there's anything this story talks about is how representation matters. So if you, if you're going to be gay, be really gay. Like that whole thing is a coming out of the closet. The book is really gay.

[Co-host]

Yeah. No, there's a very gay book. I understand that. I completely understand that. I'm just saying is like for a selling point of the book, because I'm telling you right now that like this type of book and this type of story would be with the AI and the. And the thriller ness of it and like these different things. The kind of horror aspect and everything there and that like that's the aspect of it you want to sell. And then inside of that you get this really great message. You can like kind of like slide it in.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

You know, and in the way that the title of it being called bury your gaze, I have no idea what this is going to be. It sounds like there's a serial killer who is targeting gays.

[Mrs. P]

Ah.

[Co-host]

Do you know what I mean? Like just the title alone of it doesn't give it in that sort of way. And that's, that's Why? I was like confused when you said we were gonna do this book because I had no idea that it was gonna be so Hollywood based so much about AI or all these different things. Like, I can see that looking at the book cover a little bit from across here because it's very Hollywood book cover.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And the purple and everything. Yeah. I just think that.

[Mrs. P]

I think it has a subline. You can make a killing in Hollywood.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Nice.

[Co-host]

But I also just think that, like, if this was to get made into a movie or a show, the title is going to change, right? Yeah. And so inside of that, you can then slide in the rest of it. And I think that it's a very, very good story. I think it's very well paced. I really liked it. I like that there was a lot of turns that I thought were about to happen that happened differently in a way that I thought was very fun and appropriate. And I just really, really enjoyed this story. And I know it's one of the.

[Mrs. P]

Good one that closed the year out with.

[Co-host]

I think it's a great one to close because 2025 has been the year of number one, people feeling that they need to be in the go deep, go back into the closet. And we are vehemently against that. And number two, it's been a year of fighting back against AI even though it's been making strives forward that a lot of us need to come more online with realizing of how bad that this could be if you let it go on its own.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

And a bunch of other things. I think there's a lot of not subtle at all messaging in there.

[Mrs. P]

Oh yeah. Subtlety wasn't part of it.

[Co-host]

No, subtlety was not part of it. Part of it whatsoever. But you know what was part of it Mrs. What? It was you reporting on this story to us. And I'm so happy every time you get ready to do that. And I'm so happy for all of our listeners out there across the web and across all the different platforms are listening to this episode.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Listen, guys, thank you so much for listening. This counts as an audiobook, I've decided, even though. But listen, I did miss a couple things. There was a little. Couple sub. Subplots and stuff that I kind of glossed over for time. So definitely get this book from your local library or find it somewhere else and read it or listen to it, whatever you want. It's a great book. It was so enjoyable. Even if you listen to this episode, it's worth it to go back in to get the little parts that I missed.

[Co-host]

Yeah. And. And you know, maybe in someday we will end up having Mrs. P read a different Chuck Tingle book. Like pounded in my butt by my constantly changing thoughts on the ongoing mystery of Chuck tingle's real identity. 2016.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, an incredible book. An incredible book.

[Co-host]

Or pounded in the butt by my handsome sentient manifestation of my Twitch stream. 2019. Anyway, those are all fun things, that one.

[Mrs. P]

Wait, what?

[Co-host]

What? That's what I read. I read it out loud.

[Mrs. P]

But is that just a book about Hasan?

[Co-host]

Might be or Space Raptor, but trilogy? Anyway, this has been fun. This has been great. It was not what I expected at all. In fact, it was. Was even better. And y', all, thank you so much. We have one more episode for the end of the year, the after party that will be coming out next Sunday. Well, actually, you're getting this tomorrow.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So there's gonna be one more episode, our year in review episode that is going to come out on Sunday. And then on the 28th will be the afterparty episode.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. A very special.

[Co-host]

Very special.

[Mrs. P]

And then. Then we're back in the new year, baby. 2026. Project 2026.

[Co-host]

Project 2026 will be there, live and in charge. You can get that discount.

[Mrs. P]

And the Pro. Our project 2026 only has one thing written on that document.

[Co-host]

It says.

[Mrs. P]

It says, live to spite them.

[Co-host]

Live to spite them indeed, Mrs. P. That's been our show. Thank you guys so much. We will see you soon. Too many frauds and too many scammers that we wish weren't real. Too many cons and too many spammers and we're starting to feel like we've got too many tabs. Open it.

[Mrs. P]

Too many tab.

[Co-host]

Remember to smile.