Zach Valenti (0:00)

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One more time, please. All right, who wants to check first? I'm happy to do it. No, you stupid piece of R2D2 wannabe. She unlocked the systems. It was Halloween weekend and in some ways it felt like any normal weekend in the studio. There's a little more loud stuff if you could. Yeah, for sure. Let's see. Oh. Damn every single thing to hell. Kira, get me everyone now. Sorry, Emma. I think that might be the most Minkowski line it's ever been written. But something was different. We're recording the last episode. We're recording the series finale. It's crazy. It's a huge episode. It is our last recording session today as a group. We're wrapping on the finale episode, Hollow Wolf. Hollow Weekend. Yeah, so I really wanted a group costume to happen. And sometimes with group costumes you have to make it happen yourself, just like with group projects. So I made. I took it upon myself to make Goddard Futuristics name tags for everybody. Because we're all at one point Goddard Futuristics employees. Or still or forever, I guess. I'm not sure. I think Goddard like might be like a you go in and you never come out kind of thing. So everybody has Goddard Futuristics name tags to wear so we can all take a picture in them. So proudly wearing our Goddard Futuristics badges, we all crowded into the studio. Nine of us cast members, plus writer and director Gabrielle Urbina, writer Sarah Shakit, audio engineer Jared Paul, and later on, composer Alan Rody. Let's get Mr. Alan Rody sound checks. We don't usually have everyone together, so not only was it a huge recording session, it was a Wolf 359 reunion. Was it the Wolf of Wolf Street? No, it was also going to be a long two days. We were looking at a 98 page script, basically triple the length of our usual episodes. So we got to work and tried to save our feelings for later. I am not quite processing yet. I think I'm a little bit in denial. But I'm really excited to be here and I'm just gonna give it my all just one last time. Yeah, that's the way to do it. Yeah, it's like. So there's the, oh my God, it's so great to be with everyone. And then there's the, like, there's no more after this one. I should not look at my phone and like tweet stuff. But also we want to share it. You know, it hasn't really set in yet. I don't know if it ever will. Part of it is that like, yeah, I'm not really thinking about it. I'm just kind of concentrating on all the stuff we have to do. It's a packed day. And also, you know, there will probably be some, some other bits and pieces that we'll have to record later and I'm going to see everyone. So it's not like it's a goodbye thing, but it's certainly something. But when we started recording, when Hera read her opening lines, things quickly got real. So here's a story. Once upon a time, there lived a broken little girl. She was born with clouded eyes and a weak heart. Not destined to be through an entire lifetime. But instead of being wretched or afraid, the little girl decided to be clever. Hera out. Yeah. After how many years? Whenever we could, between long stretches of recording, we all took some time to reflect, to reflect on our characters, our listeners, and what Wolf359 has meant to our lives. Mikayla Sui, the voice of Hera and Price has thought about this a lot. I aspire to Hera's morality. I think that Hera is just a very special soul who really cares genuinely about people, even though there's this kind of divide. And I think she still has this kind of deep level of feeling and empathy for people. And I think that's something that I connect with and really admire in that character. So Price was just fun because sort of the darkness and evil to her, I mean, I wouldn't consider myself a light person. I would consider myself to be, you know, to have my own complexities and darkness, but being able to Kind of get in touch with some. Some of those darker shades, I think was really cool. And it's not something I get to do in my everyday life, at least not in public. Are you ready? Yes. Let's get started. Phenomenal. Thank you, guys. Phenomenal. Everyone else, we are on break until 7:15. Gabrielle was really open to having us be part of the conversation of how to develop our characters. Something I love about Gabriel is he really solicits feedback and tries to meet you where you are. Gabriel wrote a really awesome backstory for her, which I loved because he, like, nailed aspects of my personal past that I had no idea why he would know that. Gabrielle texts me and he's like, here's what Rachel's fans are saying. And it's. And I'm like, I have fans. That's. No, I don't have fans. How insane. We've got some of the best fans in the world. Meeting some of the people who I've interacted with on social media at DragonCon this year was a blast. Yeah. I have Maxwell fans. I love them. I love Alana. I'm a Maxwell fan. I'm a huge fan of Alana Maxwell. I think she's awesome. Jakoby. Dr. Alana Maxwell. Yep. Maxwell came back in this episode for a flashback that made us all laugh and cry a little. Oh, hi. Charmed to. I mean, pleasure. It's nice to meet you. She can be naked in her social awkwardness, and maybe Gabrielle and Zack might not agree with this, but I feel like there's something really honest about Maxwell. What do you do? Oh, I. I do machine computational thought experiments and hyper conductive artificial nervous design. I'm gonna ask you that again, and we're gonna try that one more time. Okay. Okay. So, Alana Maxwell, what do you do? I do cool stuff with robots. You? I make very big things blow up. Pleasure. I do enjoy playing Jacoby as the one who pokes fun at people and comes up with wonderful quips that I don't come up with, but the writers come up with. It's also fun to switch modes and to go from the Jacoby that's an asshole to being serious and sentimental. So I kind of enjoy it all. I'm glad that he's a multifaceted character. It's fun and just another fun day of working in the studio and probably making too many quips that we don't have time to make and fooling around a little bit too much, which is sort of my. My signature pastiche. I'm doing these slates for my podcast, the show Wolf360 Space Wolves. And then it was like, all right, okay, so anyway, this is episode 61, section 45, take 2. But as you know, dear listeners, this episode wasn't all laughs. There were ends and beginnings. There were deaths, and there was a good amount of evil. Ariel, are we. No, we're doing. What am I doing? You're killing Warren. I'm gonna die. Oh, my God. I'm killing Kepler. Hey, you come from the top. You best not miss 67. Please. Go for the king. It's just the two of them, right? That's the two of them. Yeah. I died. I died a lot like it was. It was. Yeah. So that was. It was really a very emotional moment, but really fun. Team evil forever. A little bit of darkness in this world. I mean, gosh, there's a lot of darkness in this world right now. But, you know, in a fictive way, it's always a little bit fun and a little bit cathartic. Well, I was sad. I was really sad. But. But I had this really romantic notion about Kepler. Whatever it was, he had an effect on the world, which he was proud of. I definitely don't agree with all the things that he did. I think he's more ruthless as a person than I am. But. But he was like, do your job. Think about the big picture. He. He accomplished those things, and he. You know, he's gonna. He drinks whiskey before he dies. Like, he can't get a death better than that. If you're gonna die all at once into space, you might as well do it drinking really expensive emergency whiskey in your jacket. And the death scenes didn't end there. Let's see you catch this harpoon. That's not how this is supposed to. Everything works out for me to see. I love how even as he's dying, his reaction is not so much pain, it's just disbelief because it didn't go according to plan. And everything goes according to plan. He always has things wired up both ways, inside and out. But not Renee Minkowski. More than enough to kick your ass. The most fun I get to have is either when I get to be especially badass or when I get to be funny. That's my favorite part is funny Minkofsky. Because, yeah, I love her. I love her so much. But, yeah, there's not a ton of comedy in the final episode, which I feel is right. Point the gun back at Renee, Isabelle. Shoot Renee. There's just no real restraints on Cutter as an actor and especially as a film Actor. Everything is so subtle and everything's so small, and so you get trained to do that. But with Cutter, it's like, let loose, be as theatrical as you want. And especially since it's on radio, it's just voice. So I can be moving, and I can do big motions, and it'll come across in my voice, but no one's gonna see it. So that's how it's mean to be, and it's just fun. Sooner or later, you're going to do as you're told. I am Captain Isabelle Loveless. No matter how hard you try, you are not taking that away from me. I don't know if she's a better person than I am, but, like, she is, in some ways, way more admirable than I am. She's, like, brave and committed in a way that is hard to do every day. And, like, the days when I'm like, yeah, that's a good day. Like, those are the days when I'm, like, able to act with the kind of, like, bravery and commitment that Captain Loveless shows. You know, whether she's committed to, like, ripping the arms off of people or, like, committed to making sure that all of her people come home. Okay, the. The days that I'm proud of myself are like, her every day. And that's. I do remember, like, getting these scripts and being like, yeah, oh, right. Yeah, that. Let's do that. You know, and that's like. That's when it's like, oh, yeah, this is why I do this. Many, many hours passed. Doug Eiffel tried to find some answers. I know I was him, but is that still. Am I still that same person? And then out of nowhere, we were almost done. All right. Oh, my God. All right. And then there's one more scene. Yep. No, it'll be good. And it is the last scene is the last scene of the episode. So that's pretty special. We wanted intentionally to do it last. Oh. Have I really done all my parts before now? I think so. Is that real? I think it's getting real. I think we forgot one. Yeah. We've officially ended the. I'm not crying. You're crying. You know, as we get ready for this slate, I can't help remembering the time that I made a visit to this school for Nates, where they are, sadly, without many slates. I gave them a speech, and I said to them, I said in the speech, I said something that I learned at home, where I grew up. Gork, Blork. And they learned a lot of things. That day, and the first thing that they learned was that. This is episode 61, section 45, take one. All quiet on the engineering front. Minkowski, you all right? Yeah. Just looking at the star one last time before we go. Return flight to Earth. Everybody hold onto something. Here we go. That was it. One take, right? You're all happy with it with that leg? So, anyway, this is episode 61, section 45, take two. All quiet on the engineering front. Minkowski, Ira, you ready to go home? No. But since when has that ever stopped us before? Return flight to Earth. Everybody hold on to something. Here we go. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Very nice, you guys. Very nice. Now, episode 61, section 45, take three. All quiet on the engineering front. Minkowski, you all right? Yeah. Just looking at the star one last time before we go. I'm good. I'm good. First, I'm gonna take a long vacation. Somewhere warm and quiet where nobody has any idea who I am. USS Urania, this is Earth space. Copy your flight plan. Please use sublight vector 03D8 and contact again for your final approach. Roger that. From what I gather, spending time with the two of you was about the best damn thing Doug Eiffel ever did. Return flight to Earth. Everybody hold on to something. Here we go. Well, there we went. We went. That's it. And then he woke up. I did want to get everyone to sign my script, so we do that. I would be very happy to. Oh, good. Oh, don't worry. I'm excited for it. I hope people continue to connect with the show in the future. I'm also excited for us and me to revisit this show five years down the road. It'll remind me of a place in my life and a time in my life and the character and a time in the world. And I think that's. That's gonna be fun, to have this forever. It's been a huge, huge part of my life. It's sort of changed the total course of my career as an actor, as a person. Also the first female role I've ever played where I really felt it was of great substance. We're all kind of pursuing different paths, but I don't know, I just feel, like, at our core and like, at our essence, there's this very common kind of bond and an appreciation for weird love for one another, creativity, love for art and openness to that. And I think that, for me, has been one of the most special parts of being this project. The pleasure of this project is being able to hang out with people you knew or people you didn't know as well as you wanted to in college, and then being able to kind of, like, hang out with people and see them as we're all growing up and all like, becoming kind of the next iteration of who we are, and that's really cool and special and that's been great. It's a wild ride. It was a blast. Thanks for joining us. Behind the scenes of our final episode. This behind the scenes feature was produced by Rebecca Seidel, featuring the voices of Zach Valenti, Emma Shirjarko, Michaela Sui, Cecilia Lynn Jacobs, Zach labresco, Noah Mazur, Michelle Agresty, Scotty Shoemaker, Ariella Rotenberg, Gabriella Urbina, Sarah Shakit, Alan Rode and Jared Paul Music by Alan Rode the Fable and Folly Network where fiction producers flourish. Well, hello there. Dr. Charlie Tuckett here. You know, rumor was Spaceship Oz 9 was intended to take a bunch of rich folks to a new planet. Since, you know, we pretty much used up the one we have now. But, you know, since it's looking more and more likely the ship might be humanity's last stand, let's take a quick look around. Are you telling me the four sacred tokens are all aboard the Oz 9? Me again, why we're doing this. Allegiances are too muddled on this ship. McCasec is a normal institution of higher learning. Ah, but if you pull back the outermost layers. I'm from Minnesota, where we like our lives as neat and as open as the inside of a freshly caught and cleaned walleye. Do you know I am now the only assassin aboard the Sheep? What are you doing, Elaine? I want to know what's decide he's on when the ship hits the fan. Aren't they the most ridiculous people I've ever met? Fetch that annoying bunch of trespassers so we can bring Pluto to heal. The new order starts today. Well, however this all plays out, you have a strong stomach and a high tolerance for stupid. You can follow the Oz 9's adventures just about anywhere. You listen to podcasts. I got a trot, space monkeys. Stay safe out there.