18: "The Big Pump" (Poker Face S2E10)

[00:00:00] Was hat eigentlich Sabines Aktiendepot mit Ingos Tor in der Kreisliga zu tun? Erstmal vorweg, natürlich schießt Geld keine Tore, aber in diesem Fall tut es das vielleicht. Sabine und Ingo sind nämlich beide Mitglieder bei uns Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken und dort zu Hause, wo wir Verantwortung tragen. Denn dank unserer genossenschaftlichen Idee bleibt das Geld in der Region und unterstützt Vereine vor Ort. So schießt Ingo weiter Tore und Sabine jubelt. Morgen kann kommen. Wir machen den Weg frei. Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken.

[00:00:30] Hey Spotify, it's Dampson Idris here to celebrate Tommy Hilfiger's Apex GP Collection. Angetrieben vom Nervenkitzel der Geschwindigkeit und der Kraft des außergewöhnlichen Styles vereint die Capture Collection von Tommy Hilfiger performance-orientiertes Design mit grenzheimlosem Selbstbewusstsein. Das ist mehr als nur ein Look. Es ist die Uniform für alle, die ihre Träume verwirklichen wollen. Discover Tommy Hilfiger's limited edition Apex GP Collection, inspired by F1 The Movie, only in cinemas June 25th.

[00:01:00] Hot Rod, you're here late. Good for you. What, you need a spot? No, what I need is an explanation. I can smell fresh human breast milk from a mile away. Okay. I'm thinking maybe I'm the one who needs an explanation.

[00:01:21] Steroids I could deal with. Drugs, medicine, not my domain, but this. This is my beat brick. And it's disgusting. No, no. No, man. Okay. It's what we're all about. Clean, organic, freely available. It's God's all-natural king's elixir, bro.

[00:01:39] It is a health code catastrophe. And a gross erosion of the public trust. Unregulated breast milk teeming with staphylococcus bacteria. Stealing from babies and mothers in need. Oh, come on. Now you're making it sound terrible. It is terrible. It's terrible. Look, I'm gonna level with you riders, okay?

[00:02:03] This place is a money pit. Eco-cleaning, water filtration, sustainable everything. Look, selling the good stuff is the only way to stay afloat. I don't care. I am turning you in and I'm shutting you down. Dude, I had to borrow money from my wife's dad to start this place, okay? He scares me.

[00:02:24] And welcome to our podcast. I'm Becky.

[00:03:02] And I'm Andy. And this is Murder Magnets, a podcast dedicated to the Peacock original show, Poker Face. Poker Face. Po-po-po-poker face. Poker face. You know, you know the dirty story behind that song, don't you? No. I'll tell you when we're off the air. Poker Face. No. Oh. No. No. Did Gaga tell you that, or? She, yes. Yes, actually, there's a whole lore behind it.

[00:03:33] You can watch the interviews. Like, she's only saying poke her face a couple of times. Like, after that, that's not what she's saying. Interesting. Yeah. We'll talk off air. All right. Well, after that fun fact. This episode, we are covering Poker Face Season 2, Episode 10, The Big Pump, directed by Mimi Cave and written by Megan Amram.

[00:04:02] And it does make me happy. When I'm guesting on this podcast, it always makes me happy. How many women are involved in this show? Oh, yeah. It's amazing. But with Natasha Lyonne on there, I feel like it makes sense. It makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's, this show does a really good job with diversity, which is one of the things that we've talked about with The Pit, or our show that we're doing on our podcast. What's on tonight? That came up. That came up. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:04:30] That came up last week in the conversation. One of the people who Penny had guests on mentioned the diversity. They're like, I don't know a show that does diversity better than this show. And I was like, The Pit? The Pit? Yeah. But yeah, they do do it good here. As silly as the show can be and as outlandish as it can be, racially, any other way you could think of diversity, they do as good or better of a job than almost anything out there. But so does The Pit. Yeah.

[00:04:58] Well, as you can hear, Mandy is back with us. Welcome back, Mandy. Penny is on the road. And Jason is diving headfirst into Squid Game. So I appreciate Mandy for coming back on and not making me sit here and talk to myself about this episode. I don't know why that makes me laugh to think about Jason diving headfirst into Squid Game. I don't know why that just made me giggle. All right.

[00:05:27] Well, before we jump into episode 10, we got some voicemails last week from Kelsey and Steve about episode nine. And I'm going to take a play from Ben and Alex's playbook where they play the previous episodes feedback before they start the new talk. So we're going to go ahead and listen to their messages. First up, we have Steve. Hello, Murder Magnus. This is Steve. And this is going to be for Poker Face.

[00:05:56] What episode are we on now? Episode nine. Season two, episode nine. Oh, I like they changed up the font on the credits a little bit. I've never lived in someplace that was rent controlled. So I don't understand the laws and rules or cities that have these kind of things. It's crazy. A new lease on death is the title. All right. Aaliyah Shawkat and Awkwafina in this one. Oh, we got Steve Buscemi coming back. David Alan Greer. Hasn't he been in one before? Okay. This is a very strange meet-cute between Aaliyah Shawkat and who's, yeah, Lauren Tom playing this, the older lady, right?

[00:06:27] Michael Clayton, another George Clooney movie in just a couple, they talked about the Oceans movies before, right? Hey, I had to pause it for a second to remember where I knew Lauren Tom from. And that's from her voice from Rick and Morty and Futurama. Man is getting busy. This awkward conversation between grandmother and granddaughter about who she's dating. Oh, and now Kate's moving in. Oh, so Awkwafina character paid to have Kate Forrester checked up on it. She's a felon.

[00:06:54] Oh, that is not a good look that Kate just had toward Maddie. That's Awkwafina's character name. Okay. The ominous spin cycle is no joke is sure. Yeah, and the Diet Coke on the ground. Oh, she set a trap for Maddie down there in the laundry room. Oh, what a way to go. That bleach mixed with whatever that other chemical was. And she's, oh, but we don't know if she's dead or not. She's just behind the locked door. In New York City, that's where they are. And now we're introduced to see how Charlie fits into this. She found a parking spot right in front of the building in New York City.

[00:07:23] David Alan Greer, the manager of this apartment. Her cacti. I shouldn't see you for 10 days. Oh, but Maddie has a way to get out of the door when it's locked. So she just knocks the door down. Do you like Jeopardy? She has to find a way of finding me. Okay. Who's Ricardo the librarian? That's the guy that she gave the money to that found... What's Leo Shawkat's character name? I don't remember. Forrester. So now we've caught up to the present and the laundry room incident. Okay. I guess Maddie did pass away.

[00:07:53] Charlie's on the case doing her investigative thing. Oh, and Otto didn't know that Anne was going to adopt Maddie. It's a Rube Goldberg of death. I'm not sure what that reference is. Uh-oh. Now Kate has got her. I set on Ricardo. Whoa. Kate just busted in that door like she knew what was going on. And she took his painting? Wow. She really is tough. Oh, so Kate pulled the fire alarm. It's not what you know. It's what you can prove from a few good men too.

[00:08:22] It's a line used in a lot of movies and television shows. Oh, what changed between Anne and Kate? Oh, Anne doesn't want to live there anymore. Oh, what proof does Charlie have that's going to make Kate guilty? Or is Kate going to try to kill her? Whoa. She just pushed Charlie off the balcony. Oh, onto an airbag. All right. This has been such a great season. And you guys just loving the podcast as well. Talk to you later. We love you, Steve.

[00:08:49] Steve, if I didn't already love you, Rube Goldberg of death would have made me yours for the rest of time. Love it. All right. So next up, we have a voicemail from Kelsey. So here we go. Hello. Hello. It's Kelsey again. My feedback to your feedback of my feedback is thank you. I loved a lot about this episode.

[00:09:18] I've lived in Missouri for a while and I've lived a bunch of places, but I grew up in North Jersey, like 35 miles outside the city. Both my parents are from Long Island. So Charlie among New Yorkers. Love it. Love it. Let's go. Then she gets out of her car and starts talking to the lady sitting there. I'm like, Charlie, you're in New York. You don't ask people about what they're doing with their potatoes.

[00:09:44] I mean, if you see something, say something, but otherwise mind your business, which Charlie famously doesn't do. So New York might be a rough transition. The gal playing Catherine Amelia was like, oh shit, that's maybe from Arrested Development. Yes. Yep.

[00:10:02] I understand why she had a vague transatlantic accent, but biting into anything while making direct eye contact is wild. So aside from this episode being set in New York, my grandmother was a librarian and actually my brother's longtime girlfriend is also a librarian.

[00:10:25] So that feels like a disproportionate number of librarians to be connected to, because I don't know if I've ever even seen two librarians in a library. Take that as you may. We are totally a Jeopardy! household. My dad records it so he can fast forward through the commercials.

[00:10:45] But when we moved from New Jersey to Missouri, the change in time that Jeopardy! was on because of the central time zone was something that had to be coped with. And I have a story for you. A librarian also watched Jeopardy! every single night. She had Parkinson's, so she lost her physical capabilities.

[00:11:07] And when she was about 86, moved in with us in New Jersey, which she wasn't happy about, but never lost an ounce of her mental capabilities. So she also, she watched Jeopardy! every night. And whenever I was living there, we would watch together. Continue to do so until she died at 88 at the thought of moving to Missouri.

[00:11:33] So, on Jeopardy! there's two episodes that play in the background of A New Lease on Death. The first one that's playing with, well, Maddie and Grandma Anne are watching. The episode that's playing is from season 41. It's episode 9170 and aired Friday, September 27th, 2024. Wow.

[00:11:59] And there's two clues in this episode that relate to our villain and our victim. The first, the category is dying on TV. The $600 clue, it was a video clue, so it was presented by Tony Hale, who plays Buster Bluth. It says,

[00:12:28] Oh my gosh! In the double Jeopardy! round, the $2,000 clue category was cameos. Clues, Paul Rubens' final film appearance was a cameo in this movie in which Awkwafina plays the game show obsessed title female. And so it was Quiz Libby. And then the second episode they're watching with Charlie, Maddie, Grandma Anne, and Ricky, the Librarian Enners.

[00:12:58] They're watching an episode that aired May 9th, 2023. It was the 2023 Jeopardy! Masters quarterfinal game four. And the most obvious nod in this one is there's an entire category called Libraries.

[00:13:17] I don't see any other obvious connections like the Easter eggs and the first ones, but if you go to j-archive.com, you can find the categories and questions for every episode. So if anybody else wanted to go and see if there are any other Easter egg type clues, like, I mean, they obviously, they chose these two for a reason. So I wonder if there's something that I'm missing. But anyway, I thought that was cool. Love the show. Love your show.

[00:13:47] Love you guys. Looking forward to hearing what you think. Thank you, Usenikos. Kelsey! Oh my gosh. First off, you really should podcast or come on this show and do an episode. I don't know. That was so, I just love your voice. And second, that was way cool catching those clues. I never, I didn't even think about that. Did you? No, Kelsey, I apologize.

[00:14:14] I think I called you Kate when I said I have a story for you if you love Jeopardy. But I did not catch that. And I love the cut of your neurodivergent jib, Kelsey. That was awesome. I can't believe that you did all of that research. That's amazing. That's right. And second, Becky, I think you need to be on podcasts. You were very entertaining and very smart. And you picked up something in the background that I totally missed. I used to watch Jeopardy! with my grandmother too, Kelsey.

[00:14:43] That led to my lifelong love of the show. And so I thought that part was very sweet. I loved it. That was a bonding moment for you guys. My mamaw too was sharp right up until the very end. Yeah, I was really feeling the love there. And then she mentioned she passed away because she did not want to move to Missouri. And I feel that. I was like, I feel that in my soul. All right.

[00:15:09] Well, thank you both for your feedback on episode nine. And we will get to more feedback once we finish our coverage of this episode. So let's dive right into it. Mandy, what is the synopsis for this episode? Charlie is convinced by her gym buddy that there is more to a lifter's death than poor technique. Dun, dun, dun! Let's talk about our moments to die for.

[00:15:39] What was your moment to die for? My moment to die for was at the very end when Natasha Leguero gives my future husband, Method Man, that baby bottle of breast milk. And he starts chugging it like an actual infant. Yeah, that was funny. Yeah, I spit out whatever I was drinking at the time the first time I saw it. That was pretty funny.

[00:16:04] My moment to die for is when Method Man offers her a trial membership. And Charlie says, I don't know, man. Yeah, well, you sign one of those things. And the next thing you know, you're in a 10-year unbreakable contract. You got to fake your own debt to get out of. That is as real life as it gets. Yes, for sure. I hate those things. Yes.

[00:16:29] Maybe think of that Friends episode where Chandler and Ross are trying to get out of their gym membership and they're like, petrified to do so. And they end up changing banks so that they no longer have access to their bench. You pretty much have to obtain a new identity. And what's really insulting, though, is that every time you join a gym, I don't know about you, but I might go for several months. But let's be real honest.

[00:16:59] Almost all of us, after the first few months, are going to backslide and go a couple of times a year. So you're wasting all this money, but you don't want to cancel it because then you have to face the fact that you're out of shape loser. Well, my favorite thing is our former employer. You know, they paid for the Y membership and you paid like five bucks. They paid the rest. Yeah, I forgot about that.

[00:17:25] I went to the Y, got my photo taken and I had that membership for seven years. Ask me how many times I went to the Y after I went and got my photo taken. Was it zero? I never went. I never went. So you know what I'm talking about. Oh, I feel exactly. Usually I'll get a new gym membership and I'll do really well for a few months. And then I just get bored or life happens or the summer gets here and I want to lay by the pool.

[00:17:55] Next thing you know, it's like, hey, I haven't been in three years. I wonder if that gym's still there that I'm paying for. And it's probably not there anymore, but you're still getting your money, man. Yes. I feel like no joke. I feel like that's happened at least one time in my life. All right. Let's get to main points. If it's all right with you, I want to start with what I loved the most about this episode.

[00:18:22] And that is that Charlie, when she woke up after she stretched and broke her neck, which Relatable again. If you are a woman above the age of 40-ish, you know that you sound like Rice Krispies. And when you wake up in the morning. Yeah. I've got this mysterious thing just happened in the last couple of months.

[00:18:48] Like I stand up and the first 10, 12 steps I take, I literally look like a 90-year-old woman. Yeah. That's what Darren and I call each other, grandma and grandpa, whenever either one of us gets up for anything. Because the sounds we make and the sounds our body makes. We're way too young to feel this old. Yeah. And that should be a song. I'm sure it is. It is. I'm just kidding. It's a very famous, like, I think it's Garth Brooks song. Yeah. That's right. I don't know it.

[00:19:17] So, but when she wakes up, I wrote in my notes, she's in the same place, exclamation point. This gives me hope that we'll get to meet good buddy at some point. Other than the reoccurring people who were chasing her, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time she's been in the same place twice for two episodes. Other than the first two episodes, I feel like she didn't leave Las Vegas until the second episode, maybe the first season, but I could be wrong about that.

[00:19:47] This, this may be the first time. And I had the same thought that it's like, I wonder where, if they're going towards trying to find somewhere for Charlie to settle in for a little while. Maybe. Cause I mean, she makes a friend. She runs into pay it forward lady. Who's I finally, after halfway through my notes, started writing her real name instead of pay it forward lady. And then Noreen was still there. Noreen. In the potatoes. God, you'll see that line about the potatoes. God, you cracked me up.

[00:20:17] That was awesome. Yeah. Noreen. I liked her. And then the new tenant that we saw on the last, at the end of the last episode, came from my eyes. Like, thanks for the new apartment. After Noreen tells her to screw off. Cause she's mad. Cause that Anne's gone. You high-fived me. Yeah. Or he high-fived me. Yeah. Like I had nothing to do with that.

[00:20:40] I love them giving her relationship with Alex and that Alex didn't end up dead. And yeah, I like that too. You know, they had that conversation in the coffee shop where Alex admits that she's lonely and Charlie's like, look, I'm kind of going through a loner thing right now. I'm doing my own thing. I don't really, I don't really want a friend, but then she ends up showing up at the gym

[00:21:09] for leg day. I just feel like this is, given that I think there's what, two episodes left now after this one, I feel like they're building to maybe Charlie finding her place. Yeah. I don't, I mean, like, I, I loved all that, that she was staying somewhere and that she made a friend. One of the things I loved about this episode is what you were talking about that, you know,

[00:21:35] we talked a lot about how Charlie is so open-hearted even after everything she's been through. And this is the first episode where you really saw her trying to defend herself, protect herself emotionally. But she just, even by the end of that, she, she couldn't do it because that's just not who she is. She's not an emotionally closed off person. She's not somebody who doesn't care and walks away. And I love to see her get rewarded by finding a friend who seems to be the most honest person that she's ever met, which is perfect for her.

[00:22:03] She says she is because she's like, yeah, you never lie to me. But I have two thoughts about it. Like, I don't know how sustainable it would be if they're going to have multiple seasons after this. Like, I wonder if they don't expect to be renewed and they're trying to build up to ending this season in case they don't with like Charlie getting a little bit of a happy ever after. And if they don't think they're coming back, I think that's awesome. And I'd like to see her stay in this place.

[00:22:31] But if they're going to get a season three, I don't know how sustainable it would be for her to stay in one place all the time. Yeah, that's fair. And but I do go back to what we talked about in the earlier episodes. And it could work that if she ends up working for Luca, like as a freelancer, when he needs help, obviously, she's better at his job than he is that she could still have this place as

[00:22:59] her home base with these friends. And oh, look at us right in season three. Yeah. Still still go out on the road and do whatever she needs to do to have her little mysteries and whatnot. So it could work. Natasha, get his call. Rainn, Ryan Johnson. I'll never not want to call him Rainn. I've said Riann every single time. I've had to read that name. Look, I'm sorry, Ryan Johnson. I'm sorry if you're listening to this. It is me.

[00:23:28] I do have a prejudice against people who name their kids crazy shit and or give them crazy spellings for their name. But you and Rainn Wilson are the same person in my head because of the way your parents spelled your name. That's all I'm saying. I picture Dwight Schrute every time I say your name. I love Dwight Schrute. Either way, they need to give us a call. Sorry, I just insulted your name. Don't hold that against Becky. She's got no idea. So after Mandy's done talking, you can call me.

[00:23:57] I'll relay any messages on to her, but you just can call me and we got you covered. That was my big main point I wanted to start off with. Is there like anything big that stood out or we can just go through? No, I think that just like I feel like if there's a main point I want to bring out is the I don't know exactly what's going to happen because, again, I have different trains of thought about depending on whether or not we're going to go past season two.

[00:24:24] But I did like seeing Charlie make a genuine connection with somebody who didn't die. Yes. Yeah. Finally. Yeah. And a cool person like that. I like that character. Oh, me too. There was a moment where they're at the gym and Alex, I love Alex. Alex is a sleuth. She's on to things. Yeah. And she calls out, Charlie calls out Brick, you know, under her breast.

[00:24:51] She doesn't actually come out and say bullshit like she normally does, but she knows he's lying about the machine or something about the, you know, something about that sentence. She was not telling the truth. And Alex is like, how do you know that? And I love that it flashed like 23 seconds later. Yeah. Because they're, you know, they're getting tired of like figuring out ways to put that in without it being clunky in every episode. Yeah.

[00:25:16] That was a fresh, fun, and nor saving us from having to hear her explain it again. That was very funny. Yeah. When Alex says she wants to play two truths and a lie to test Charlie, she says, I was born to a single alcoholic teenage mother. I have 11 failed businesses, two of which ended in litigation. And I'm deathly. And she says, deathly allergic to cinnamon. And Charlie says, all true and frankly concerning.

[00:25:46] Which is a great moment. But I have, I'm worried that that deathly allergic to cinnamon. Is going to come back. May come back. Yeah. And be the end of Alex. Yeah. It might be Kylie. I'd hate to see her lose a friend. Especially if she has two more episodes really get close to that girl. Yeah. She's just a sweetie. She's like the, some way she's like the perfect foil for Charlie. Yes.

[00:26:15] When she ordered that Watergate salad, uh, cronut. Oh my God. Now I need one of those. Do you know what Watergate, Watergate salad is? I keep wanting to say watercress. I know what a Waldorf salad is. Um, what is a water? I've never, I know what Watergate is. It's what my family always called green goop. It's the marshmallow. It's like green food coloring and like a pistachio flavor.

[00:26:43] And I think you make it maybe with pistachio pudding and whipped cream. And they put like cherries and diced up pineapples and nuts in it. That sounds amazing. It's really good. And I'm imagining that on a donut. That sounds so good. Penny would hate that. Who would? Penny. Why? Penny, whenever you listen to this, I want feedback on your thoughts on what is it called?

[00:27:13] Watergate salad. Why do they call it Watergate salad? Did they make it at the Watergate hotel? Probably. Hmm. Interesting. I feel like I've Googled that in the past and that was the answer. Cause I almost Googled it again today. And I was like, no, I'm pretty sure I've already looked this up. And that's what it is. You talked just a little bit hinted on how Charlie is trying her best to not get involved in this.

[00:27:40] And, you know, she, when Alex is like, there's something here, something's wrong, which I like it. Alex was the one who picked up on this fodder. Yeah. When Brick is saying he died. Cause he was. Which is another way they're a good team. Yeah. It was very cool that it was like, okay, so Charlie wasn't the, you know, not that she's the instigator in all these.

[00:28:05] They just find her, but she wasn't the one to really be like, okay, something fishy is going on here. To go walking into the trouble like she normally is. Yeah. And to push it. So I loved that. And I thought it was great when they were in his office and they got caught. And he's like, what are you doing in here? And Alex was like searching your office. She's just so matter of fact. No, it was well after this.

[00:28:34] But if I had to pick like a favorite line from the show, it was when she says, if you ask me a question and I lie, who are you even having a conversation with? Yeah. I love that. Like, she's not wrong. I'm not saying that I never tell a little white lies or even big lies in my past. I have, but I try really hard not to. And that's often uncomfortable for people. But that's why it's like, I need to trust you.

[00:29:00] And if you're bullshitting me, then I don't really know you. And that freaks me out. Yeah. And Charlie says something similar where she makes the comment that people, where is it? People don't like the truth as much as they think they do. She is not wrong. That is so true. People talk about, you know, if you could read people's thoughts, would you? Absolutely not. I do not want to be in somebody else's head. It's not my business.

[00:29:31] And I certainly don't want to be in anybody's head when they're having a conversation with me. Because, my God, I would shudder at what they're really, really thinking. Like, the way you're looking at me right now, I'm like, I don't want to know what she's really saying. I'm listening to you. No, that's funny, though. Like, you know, it's just been a little bit of a rough couple of weeks for me.

[00:29:55] And I was talking to Eric about, I had a little bit of a mini breakdown last weekend or week before last. And it was just talking to him about how sometimes it's for, I don't want to make every episode we ever podcast about, ever, about mental health. But I am very open about the fact that I have depression and anxiety. And I do really, really well most of the time. But it's just going to be part of my life for the rest of my life. And some days are harder than others. And I was just having a hard day.

[00:30:23] And I said something to him about how frustrating I was. Because just for the rest of my life, the inside of my head is going to be like a bag of cats. Cats fighting. And he never heard me say that before. Becky, I swear to God, it was like, I think that was one of the things I tried to call you about this week. It was like he had an epiphany that that's what's going on in there. Like, he said it like four times in the last week. I maybe need to use that with Darren.

[00:30:53] Because if you all are dealing with anxieties and mental health and your significant other does not, it is very difficult to explain exactly what it feels like. Right. To be in your head. And it's frustrating for them as it is frustrating for you. And so that's a great description. I'm going to try that. Because last night when we went to get the kids from the airport, I was driving. And it's nighttime.

[00:31:22] You know how I feel about driving at nighttime. Yeah. And I was like, you did it. He's like, you're getting too close to this car next to me. And I'm like, I'm in my lane. Like, don't. And then we end up silently. Having a silent argument the rest of the way. Yes. The Cold War started. Yes, it did. It's over now. But it did. Anyway, enough about us and our mental health. We have points that I don't know what they are anymore.

[00:31:49] I really thought the whole breast milk was a very interesting and I don't want. And I'm going to say gross, but I don't mean breast milk is gross. What the female body can do is amazing. Grown men being addicted to breast milk was gross. Yeah. And also, I don't know that I fully got the metaphor unless I did get it. In which case, I'm going to do something that I rarely do and critique this show for being a little bit heavy handed.

[00:32:18] Like, I feel like maybe I'm missing something because it just seems like it's way too obvious of a metaphor. I thought when they're talking about the good stuff, I thought we were going down the traditional steroids or whatever. Right. So when they introduced it as breast milk, I took it first as a clever twist that you wouldn't have guessed. And so it's like, you know, haha, here's a we gotcha kind of thing.

[00:32:47] But then the more we got into it and that end scene that you talked about with Method Man literally being fed baby food to calm down a crying baby. I think it was very much a metaphor. I definitely think it was a metaphor. I just, I don't know.

[00:33:09] Like if all of the message was Jim bro hyper masculine with toxic masculinity is really just masking deeply insecure people, then I feel like it was just a little bit over the top. But I feel like maybe there's deeper meaning that I'm not getting. I don't know.

[00:33:59] I don't know. I was thinking how exciting it was for him. And like, I think I've noticed before. He looks really good, by the way. He looks great in this. But I've noticed before that he and Melanie Linsky sometimes do the same show, but different episodes. Yeah. I think it's probably pretty cool because I love them because they're like a working acting family and they're very down to earth. And I could totally see them just, I just thought it was something cute about thinking about them being like, hey, you want to go to America on vacation or something?

[00:34:27] Because I think they primarily live in Australia or maybe they split their time. But it was just probably very convenient for them to both be on the same show in the same season. Yeah. But just the whole, why are they drinking breast milk? Like, why are they acting like they are addicts when they run out of the breast milk? Like, I don't know, man. I just, I don't know. It just didn't completely work for me. It was weird.

[00:34:55] It was definitely weird. And I wrote down this show, this episode is weird. But I focused so little on that because I was so into the Charlie and Alex side of it. That was my favorite part. That really, that just kind of, the rest of that stuff was just a few ha-ha moments. But yeah, I agree with you. It was odd and it was an interesting choice.

[00:35:21] But I think I did, I did laugh when it, the reveal was it's not steroids. And in Rodney, John Ritter's character says, I could live with the drugs or the steroids, but breast milk. And he starts going into all the diseases and he's like, it's stealing from mothers and babies. That was funny. That was very, very, very funny.

[00:35:47] One of the things that was interesting, I will say, is that the guy that got killed was less likable than Method Man's character, Brick. Which again, very on the nose, like whoever wrote that, like, come on, his name's Brick. But Method Man was actually a monster. Like, you know, it was hard to root against him because he was, on the one hand, he's this guy with this dream of having a place.

[00:36:16] What was it, something like where the glory of the human body can be celebrated and men can get really, really swole. But, you know, he had a dream. He liked his girlfriend a lot. You know, he seemed to be a genuinely kind of affable guy. Meanwhile, the guy that he killed, Jason Ritter's character, is like a health inspector, which everybody hates.

[00:36:38] And he's just kind of a schmuck, you know, he's kind of, you can tell he wants to be part of the it crowd. And he doesn't want to settle for not being, he's like, you know, I don't know, just kind of a beta, I think is what Jim bros would call him. And he's just not a really likable guy. But then at the end, like, Meta Man's totally fine with not only killing him, but he's going to kill Charlie and what's her name too.

[00:37:07] To save his already failing business. Right. But they introduce him when he comes in. You first meet him. And he, when he got to Big Bessie, if you and I went to the gym, we would be Big Bessie. And he's like, is that a bicep I see poking out there? And she's like, don't patronize me, bubble butt. Yes. But when he goes to Rodney and Rodney goes to him and he's upset that he's not seeing results.

[00:37:34] But he's concerned because his high school reunion is coming up and his high school bully is a firefighter now. He basically gets paid to lift weights. But he's like, I'm here to listen to you, Rudy. And he's like, it's Rodney. And then when they get in the fight right before he kills him, which he didn't mean to kill him.

[00:37:54] But I think it was one of those situations where you lit the match and the whole matchbook is caught on fire and it's out of control and you can't, you can't put it out. So I don't think, I don't think he was inherently a bad dude. I think he got himself in a bad situation and it just spiraled out of control. And the only way he knew to contain it was to kill these girls because he didn't want his secret to be exposed.

[00:38:22] Yeah, but I don't know that he was. I think if there is any kind of a moral to this show, it's that he really was a very bad dude. He was a very weak guy. He was likable. On the one hand, Jason Ritter's character, and I guess that's really the most interesting part of this episode. You've got Jason Ritter's character who on the surface is not somebody you're going to want to hang out with at a party. He's a big dork. He's clearly jealous of the in crowd.

[00:38:49] He cares a lot about being one of the dudes and being recognized as one of the dudes and all of that. And he just seems like a shithead. I didn't think he was, I didn't feel that with him at all. Oh, I did. I liked him. I liked him. You liked Jason Ritter's character? I love him. It's hard for me to dislike him, but I didn't like his character. Oh, I thought I liked him.

[00:39:09] And when he's, because I feel like he's that person we've all been, that insecure person who's watching all of these other people, especially in a gym setting, that look better or we perceive them that they look better or that's what we should look like. And that's what another thing I love about Alex is she's like, I like that you don't look like somebody who's at the gym every day. And he took it as an insult, but it was really a compliment.

[00:39:38] But when he pulls out his little hand sanitizers for him because of all the germs and whatnot. And Charlie just throws her weights down when she hears all of the things that she could get. That was funny. I just thought he was funny. And then, you know, I could smell breast milk from real breast milk from a mile away. Gross. Ends up being black belt and almost kicks his ass.

[00:40:03] Which then begs the question of why did he need to get swolled to defend himself against bullies if he could do that shit? He didn't want to defend himself against bullies. He wanted to look buff. So when he showed up at his reunion, he could look at that bully and that bully would be like, oh, man, you look great. So he wanted to fit in. Well, I thought he did it because he got mad because he forgot his name again. You're right.

[00:40:33] He punches him in the face. But then, dude, like when he keeps saying, I'm going to shut you down, Method Man comes out, you know, really engages in the fight. So I think he's just I didn't see him as an asshole. I just saw him as a guy who has spent his whole life being bullied, wanting to be this perception of what magazines show us men should look like or women should look like.

[00:41:00] And he was desperate to get there. And when he discovered what was really going on, his health inspector vibe kicked in. It was like, you can't do this. It ended badly for him. But I don't think either one of them went in there with the intentions of either one of them dying. I don't think he meant for him to he wasn't trying to fight Method Man to the death. Maybe I just I don't know.

[00:41:28] I thought his character was more of a asshole. He just I think the whole episode was about toxic masculinity. And I just felt like they were trying to show that he was a different flavor of toxic masculinity with this obsession of like wanting to look like one of these big swole gym rats. It wasn't enough for him to be fit or making gains or whatever. I think it was like you said he wanted to fit in.

[00:41:53] And he wasn't that great of a guy because he was totally going to be fine if he was selling drugs or, you know, he thought that he was getting drugs illegally and he wanted those illegal drugs because he wanted to look like everybody else. He just made me laugh. He did make me laugh. I don't know. I didn't go into this with the very other than Charlie finding a friend and hopefully a home. I didn't look at any of the rest of these characters deeply. So I just saw him for what they were.

[00:42:22] And that was funny lines and an interesting death story for them to investigate. Not here. Yeah. Well, I did kind of look at it like what the overall message was, because I always feel like they do. Usually they do a pretty good job of not preaching, but but telling a story with a moral of some sort.

[00:42:43] And I think the moral of this was supposed to say something about how babyish and childish those types of toxically masculine men are. And that they're violent and that even the nice ones can turn on you at the last minute. And that the women are the ones that are having to literally like even from nice guys at the end. You know, you really like Cliff or not Cliff. What was his name in the show? Met Brick. You really like Brick for the most part. You feel sympathetic towards him even after he accidentally kills what's his name.

[00:43:12] But then he's literally going to kill these two women in a brutally violent way. And I loved at the end when Natasha Lyonne, you expect her to be either, you know, that it's going to be kind of cartoonish or whatever. Or that she's going to try to defend him or that he's going to attack her. Instead, she's the, you know, he immediately breaks down like a baby. And she's like, instead of just believing him, she's going, go get the cops. Like, I loved that.

[00:43:42] I think it was phenomenal that his wife comes in and full names him like we all got when we were in trouble. And he shut, she shut it down. Yeah. I thought she knew he killed Rodney, but I was like, oh, okay. She didn't know. Well, I wouldn't have been surprised if that's the way they went is that the wife was either in on it or she was abetting him or something. I liked that she was a girl's girl.

[00:44:12] Yeah, same. A hundred percent. I thought that was awesome. That was, again, one of those little touches that you can tell that women are involved in creating this, the show. Yeah. Well, that's all the main points I have. Everything else I have is just funny things that happened. Do you have anything else? No, no, I think we're good.

[00:44:37] The main things that I did really like about this episode were the relationship between Charlie and what was her name? Alex. The relationship between Charlie and Alex and the fact that she's kind of staying put and we get to stay put for a minute. Yeah, I hope they, even if she ends up, I guess, having to go at the end of the season, I hope we get two more episodes left.

[00:45:03] If we get more of her being able to stay put and have relationships with these people. Yeah. And I am holding out hope that I will get my, one of my dreams to see Natasha Lyonne and Steve Buscemi. Yeah. In the same room together. So you can prove they're not the same person? Yeah. Yeah. Cause I'm not sure. It might be CGI. I don't know. It's possible. They can do anything these days. Well, you're a psychic on The Better Sister.

[00:45:33] I'm a psychic on Poker Face. You are. Yeah. So. All right. So just a few funny quotes. When Lil brings him his lunch, first off, she feeds him. That right there was a sign that he's a giant man baby. But when she's like, he's, she brings him lunch and he's like, is it chicken nuggies? I laughed because I still at 48 years old call them chicken nuggies.

[00:46:02] Always will. Yeah, I do too. Chicken nuggets actually, I think is what I call them to Jackson. My son. I did like, and I, this, I made this note for Penny because it's one of Penny's pet peeves that Charlie always confronts the person when there is nobody else around. Which I guess she kind of did at the end of the episode when she got locked in the sauna. But when Alex is like, let's, I should, or I should have just asked him if he did it.

[00:46:31] And Charlie's like, no, that is unbelievably dangerous. So for at least for a minute. She had some self-awareness. Yes. That's funny. That's all I got on quotes. You got any quotes? Except for the, so you want to bump bits. I loved it when Charlie was talking about how she's going to try some turnover, a new leaf and try the gym. She goes, fuck it. Fuck it in the butt. Yeah. That was great. Yeah.

[00:47:00] I want to try to work that in sometime this week. And then when they were talking about what could be going on over there, what Brick's secret could be. And she said, maybe it's blood boys. Like, what are blood boys? That is an excellent question. She never explained what she thought blood boys were, but I'm intrigued. That sounds like that would have been an episode of what we do in the shadows. Yes.

[00:47:26] It's not a quote, but I want to say I would have never figured out the H-A-L-P where she was doing the. Oh my gosh. Smart. The exercises. Very smart, but I would have never got. Charlie to die, girl. I would have laid right down on. Well, either. Yes. If you were locked in a sauna trying to send me signals, I wouldn't have gotten it.

[00:47:48] But because I know you and if you call me or message me more than once, I need to. You'd be needing to make sure everything was okay. Yes. I would have figured it out, but I don't think it would have been through the H-E-L-P. No. That was good. You could have done elbow dips. I see Alex sleuthing. Yeah. I know. That's why they're perfect together. But when she said you could have done elbow dips. Yeah. That made me laugh because I actually had been sitting there thinking, what could she have

[00:48:18] done instead of the arm rolls? That she was vaping while she was working out. Oh, I didn't even notice that. How did I miss that? I don't know. I was like, that is commitment. That is very funny. I love her. So yeah, that is all I have, I think. Yeah. That's pretty much all I've got too. I love this show. It's my favorite series. I'm going to be so bummed if we don't get another season.

[00:48:48] I definitely enjoyed watching it. It just wasn't my favorite, which was a little bit more disappointing even than it would be because I love Methaman so much. And he did a great job. This role was so funny. It's just, I just felt like the metaphor, whatever they were trying to say was pretty clunky with the breast milk stuff. That just did that. That didn't land for me. I don't argue with that.

[00:49:11] But I think where this episode ranks high for me is that we have been talking all season about what direction Charlie is going in. What is she going to do? How is it going to play out? And for her to have woken up in the same place and seeing the same people and actually developing relationships, even if Noreen hates her. Even if Noreen hates her. Yeah.

[00:49:41] It's just, I loved that. And I love that that opens the door for some great possibilities. And this, what I hope is going to be a very nice friendship. And I hope they don't, she doesn't die of some cinnamon poisoning later on down the road. Yeah. Or turn out to be a bad person. Yeah. I liked the episode. I agreed. The breast milk was weird.

[00:50:08] It made me laugh when it wasn't steroids, but I didn't, I didn't get too much. It just didn't make any sense. And it was also super convenient that she's in the coffee shop with the bros drinking their formula. Right. And there's a baby that just happens to be drinking formula. Yeah. And she smelled the baby. The baby happens at that point.

[00:50:35] And she flashback to them when dude burped in her face. Yeah. It was a bit, that whole thing was very convenient. Yeah. It just didn't have the subtlety that a lot of the other episodes have as far as like drawing everything together. But I will forgive it because they gave me Charlie with a friend in the same place. And great acting. Everybody did a phenomenal job with their roles.

[00:51:01] And let me tell you, Natasha Lyonne coming straight out of Asana with her wet curly hair. She looked stunning. I just want to say. Why is Natasha Lyonne so beautiful? Like her skin was just, you do know she's like, if not our age, older. She's a little bit older than us. Yeah. Yeah. She's just, and there's not a wrinkle on that woman's face. No. And she's, she looks amazing. She does. Her skin was dewy and glowing.

[00:51:30] Her eyes were like just big doe eyes. Like a, like, I feel like they, I was looking at her makeup and I was thinking, do they get inspiration from like twenties movie stars? Because she's got very much like a Clara Bow look about her. I agree. Well, they're doing a great job because she looks amazing. And I wish I could step out of a sauna known as. Amen. Outside in Nashville in August. Looking like that. But anyway. Nashville in June right now. Yeah. Stupid summer.

[00:51:59] It's like a damn oven out there. It's ridiculous. All right. Well, that's it for our talk about the show. Let's move into feedback. We got a couple of comments from Facebook. Mandy, do you want to start us out? Sure. Jared Harden wrote solid, but not my favorite episode this week. Yeah. Same. Cool to see meth, man. I found myself just waiting for Charlie scenes. She's so charismatic on screen.

[00:52:29] And is it me or does her hair look great? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Why are you not here? Jared, you are in our head. I did love all the jokes in the episode and the references to the series. I'm so glad we get two more episodes. It won't be enough. And please, can we have a much shorter hiatus for next season? Preach, homie. You and I could have written that. I mean, like we're sharing a brain, man. That's perfect. He was very much in this conversation with us. Mm-hmm.

[00:52:56] So next up, dear friend Kelsey McNamara, I am so bummed you didn't call in, but I'm glad that you did give us some feedback. So she says, yay, Charlie has a friend. She thought the bullshit in New York would be white noise, but I love that she ended up finding the most honest person she's ever met. But the idea of them all drinking and burping breast milk was bad enough. But then at the end, when Brooke was fully crying and Natasha Leggero's character patting

[00:53:24] him, beating him the bottle and saying, it's okay, baby boy, really stimulated my gag reflex. Same. Same. Are there other shows that have amazing guest stars week after week like this? One of my favorite shows of all times is Monk. And Poker Face has proved so much of what I loved about Monk without feeling like an imitation of something else. And I could say a lot of things comparing the two shows, but I can't think of another show

[00:53:52] that regularly features such awesome guests. I'd be down for 10 seasons of Poker Face. Maybe Charlie will stay in New York and next season Steve Buscemi will get off the road and they'll be roommates. That is my dream. Yeah, that would be very cool. And Lisa Sturr added to Kelsey's comment that says, I have a feeling the new friend is a psychopath. I hope I'm wrong. Oh, I hope you're wrong too.

[00:54:20] Lisa, I'm not saying that that hasn't crossed my mind. I'm hoping not. Definitely could be a possibility. I'm going to bask in the love and joy that they are bonding right now before we get there. So we got a voicemail from our boo, Steve Brown on this episode. Let us hear what he has to say about the big pump. Hello, Murder Magnets.

[00:54:51] This is Steve. And I just, I'm just finally getting in. It's Friday morning. So hopefully I get this to you on time, but this is going to be for Poker Face season two, episode 10, the big pump. And I just happened to pause it as it was starting on the title card with the person's butt in my face. Method Man and Jason Ritter. Can't wait to see this one. Oh, I remember doing deadlifts. Oh, this one was directed by Clea Duvall. Didn't she play Charlie's sister in the first season?

[00:55:20] Oh, the Brickhouse looks like it's in some trouble. And this guy Rodney is looking to get juiced. Okay, so what is the good stuff? It's medical something, obviously. What, is it breast milk? It's a birthing center she's getting it from. Ew. Oh, Rodney's about to figure out that he wasn't given the good stuff. Uh-oh. Oh, so it is human breast milk because Rodney just said he can smell it. Oh, Rodney, bad move, threatening the gym owner. Uh-oh. Oh, wow. And he's punched. Whoa, Rodney's got some skills. Oh, Brick.

[00:55:49] So now we have the murder and the cover-up. How is Charlie going to fit into this one? So we have Charlie waking up. Is she still in Good Buddy's apartment? Yes. Okay, it looks like she's still in the same apartment. And there's the retired reporter woman. Aw. It looks like the neighbor lady doesn't appreciate that douchebag got the apartment. Oh, and we have more repeat actors. This is the first time we've had this in this show, right? Yes. The coffee place has a B-minus health inspector. Charlie has a friend.

[00:56:19] A gym bro. Oh, and here we have Rodney meeting the melon girl. And he says, always use a spotter. Oh, how tall is Method Man? He's like, he looks like he's too tall in these women. Wait, Charlie, for the first time you don't want to investigate a murder, but your friend does? Huh, come on. You don't want to investigate a death, I guess. We don't, she doesn't know it's murder yet. Oh, come on, Charlie. She just wants a friend. Oh, the guys are noticing that something's different about the good stuff. Oh, Charlie, you know you're going to get drawn into this investigation no matter what.

[00:56:48] See, now that your friend knows about your superpower. Finally, Charlie, you admit that it's dangerous to question murderers. Oh, so we gave him baby formula instead of actual breast milk. Charlie, none of your business, right? Murder is your business. Come on. Ew, Charlie, smelling the burps. Now she knows the baby formula and she's putting it all together. Oh, he just lied to her. He said he wasn't there. And she buddy bumped him. I knew as soon as Charlie got into the sauna, I knew she was going to get locked in there.

[00:57:16] It always happens in TV shows. Okay, how is she going to get out of this one? Well, Charlie, good job with the workouts, but you don't have an E exercise. Alex has got to figure it out, right? Help is help. Oh, he threw that discus again. Well, Brick, you just broke a mirror. Seven years, bad luck. Brick's wife called the police. All Alex and Charlie are friends. Oh, this ending with her in New York. Maybe this is going to be her baseball operations from now on. We'll see. Talk to you later. Oh, I hope so.

[00:57:46] Thank you, Steve. It is truly a joy to hear from you week from week on all of our podcasts. We heart you. By the way, I Googled it while you were talking, Steve, and Method Man is six foot three. He seems taller than that. Not that six foot three isn't tall, but. Six foot three is ginormous if you're on camera standing next to a woman who's, I think, Natasha Lyonne's like 5'1". Darren is 6'1", and I'm 5'4", and I love it.

[00:58:15] He makes me feel tiny. It makes me think about the Cardi B lyric from her new song. I'm so small and tiny. He's so big and tall. That's what I thought about when I saw it. Method Man, he's still hot. That man never ages. No, he looks good. He looks very good. You can get it. He can. He's been able to get it since 1991. I'm going to be honest, though. I say that, but I don't think I would.

[00:58:44] Well, I mean, no, not in reality. We're married. Well, yeah. Oh, you're saving yourself for Noah Wiley? Yeah. You can have a stable. They're all imaginary, Becky. You can have a stable. That is true. You did see my Christmas card that one year with all my fake boyfriends on it. And I feel like that was the last year Darren let you send out the photoshopped Christmas cards. No, they came after including and he just got included in them. Okay.

[00:59:13] I thought maybe he made you stop doing that after a year. The world should know that Becky for a very long time, Becky would send Christmas cards every year. Would be photoshopped to somehow have Eli Manning as her husband. Peyton. Peyton, excuse me. I don't know why. That was a terrible breach if you knew, Becky. I can't believe I made that error. Peyton and I are officially divorced now. I was thinking about that year that you made Eli your son. Yeah. And little me with our kid, Jaquita.

[00:59:43] Yeah. It's good stuff. I'm going to have to post all that on social media one day. But you stopped doing it. So I figure maybe Darren got his feelings hurt because he was really relegated in the background. Well, last year with my job ending and I was depressed. I just didn't feel like even sending out a Christmas card last year. But yeah, I think I'm done unless something just strikes me as super funny. And then I'll surprise everyone every once in a while, I guess.

[01:00:11] But anyway, enough about something that none of y'all listeners absolutely care about. So thank you everyone for writing and calling in. We genuinely always love to hear from you. If you want to write in or leave us a message, you can find all our contact info at podcastica.com. And you can find our other shows and links to our social media pages. You want to tell everyone about your podcast that you've got going on? It's called Dinner for Her.

[01:00:40] You can find it on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, anywhere that you can get your favorite podcasts. It is about historical women with flavor. Every episode, a friend and I will sit down and we will talk about a woman from history that she finds inspiring or interesting or just feels like more people need to know about.

[01:01:04] And then after we have a good chat about her, we will sit and enjoy a meal that is somehow inspired by that woman's life. It could be something that she enjoyed making her favorite meal, something relevant to her life or work. So, yeah, check us out. Very good. And don't forget to follow slash subscribe to Murder Magnets wherever you get your podcast. And if you're feeling frisky, we do love a five-star review.

[01:01:32] So, please, please, please. And only five-star review. Right. Only five. Especially this episode because you got the greatest duo ever in the world of podcasting. I thought you were going to try to be modest and be like, you don't have to vote five stars for this episode. You ought to try to figure out a way to get six stars if you can for this specific one. But we don't have to tell you. You've just enjoyed us for the last hour. Right.

[01:02:00] And if you would like to enjoy more of us, Mandy and I do have our own podcast titled What's On Tonight, where we are finishing up our coverage of The Better Sister. And we have covered the pit, what we do in the shadows, and we've got some more good stuff in the works. So, please check us out. Next time, we are going to be covering Season 2, Episode 11, Day of the Iguana.

[01:02:30] This better not be like Gator Dunn, where we have a death-eating... Iguana. Yes. Did you notice the part where Alex, when she was talking about all of the horrible things that can happen to you if you start nosing around, and she says, almost eaten by alligators. And Alex says, that's not fun. Actually, the alligators do sound kind of fun. Charlie's like, no, it's not.

[01:02:59] That was very funny. Yeah, that was funny. Well, that is all for this episode. Thank you, everyone, for listening. And Penny Lennox, we know what you did, you psycho.