Meta Station

Welcome back to Meta Station, where we’re joined by special guest Chash for an emotionsfest about the Blake siblings, the return of Sinclair, Clarke Griffin’s sad perfect lil’ face, and the Abby/Bellamy rebel squad Claire has been craving for 4 whole seasons. Then she left us alone with our feelings to hold each other and cry over Jasper, Monty and Harper. Our giddy enthusiasm for last week’s beautiful one-storyline episode has dimmed somewhat in the face of how many huge emotional moments this week got unfairly short shrift because there was so much going on, but ALL THE CONGRATS to first-time director Henry Ian Cusick for getting such fucking incredible performances out of the whole cast. Also, take a shot every time Chash and Erin pronounce “Bellarke” differently, and don’t miss our outtake on fanfic! https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-the-merits-of-fanfic-with-special-guest-chash

0:00 – Hello and Welcome! Claire Is Not Here Yet, But We Have a Chash!

0:02 – The Battle Over Correct Pronunciation of “Bellarke” Begins Almost Immediately

0:13 – WHAT THE FUCK, MILLER

0:27 – The Decisions Clarke Makes Without Bellamy Are Occasionally Garbage Decisions

0:33 – We Love You, Niylah, But We Wish You Hadn't Let Clarke Off the Hook

0:39 – A Wild Claire Appears, With More Niylarke Thoughts

0:46 – JUST PICK UP THE RADIO AND TALK TO SOMEONE, CLARKE, FFS

0:51 – That Bellarke Gun Scene Was AMAZING, Until It Just...Stopped

0:53 – WHY THE HELL IS JAHA THE EMOTIONAL FOCUS OF THE FINAL SCENE

1:00 – We Feel Cheated Out of Emotional Stakes for Clarke's Choices, Dammit

1:05 – The Real Problem Is That Any Reading of Clarke Is Equally Plausible, So Who TF Knows What's Up with Her

1:12 – BELLABBY RISES

1:16 – KELLABBY RISES

1:22 – SINCLAAAIIIIRRRR

1:26 – Why Was Becca/ALIE So Obsessed with Raven Going to Space?

1:35 – Raven Returns to Her Analog Roots

1:37 – S4 Endgame Vs. Other Seasons' Endgame: We Don't Know What Precisely "Endgame" Looks Like

1:43 – We Really Need Clarke To Have Some Feelings About Jasper and Raven

1:45 – Chash Leaves Us Alone with Our Jasper Feels, and Claire and Erin Get Realer Than Ever About Depression, Mental Health and Suicide

2:20 – We Cannot Overstate How Much We Hated Watching Jasper Turn into Jim Jones

2:35 – Jasper Is the First Key Character We’ve Lost Whose Death Was Not the A-Story

2:45 – The Writer/Audience Relationship Is Complicated

2:49 – THANK YOU EDITKRU WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH

Professor Erin moderates a panel discussion between two of her favorite fic writers, Claire and Chash, about how fanfic can be a deep and thoughtful way to explore character, as well as also being smutty fluff for pure fun. Along the way we discuss My Little Ponies, why you can love a show and have no interest in participating in fandom for it, writing crazy things on a dare, and why fic friends are the best friends.

HELLO AND WELCOME BACK TO META STATION, WHERE THE AWESOME SELINA WILKEN FROM HYPABLE JOINS US TO FLAIL ABOUT THE FUCKING AMAZINGNESS OF THIS EPISODE, WHERE WE BID EMOTIONAL GOODBYES TO THREE SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS, CRY WITH BLAKE SIBLING FEELS, FINALLY BEGIN TO LOVE WHERE OCTAVIA’S ARC IS GOING, AND THEN LOSE OUR MIND OVER CLARKE/JAHA/DANTE WALLACE LEADERSHIP PARALLELS WITH THAT INSANE TWIST ENDING

P.S. SORRY THIS IS IN ALL-CAPS BUT IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE LOWERCASE FEELINGS ABOUT AN EPISODE THIS FANTASTIC

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0:00 - After Our Grumpfest Last Week, This FANTASTIC Episode Has Restored Our Faith in This Season and This Show

0:08 – The Conclave Does Right By Octavia and We Want to Scream Forever About It

0:15 – Let’s Discuss That Gaia and Indra Hug: The Throne Room Scenes Keep the Emotional Stakes Real

0:25 – R.I.P. Ilian kom Trishanakru, Who We Finally Began to Kinda Come Around to Liking During This Episode

0:36 – Octavia kom Skaikru Becomes Octavia kom Everykru By Returning to Her Truest Core Self and Remembering Who Lincoln Really Was

0:49 – Is Season 4 Too Episodic For the Stakes of Big Moments to Carry Forward The Way They Did In Earlier Seasons?

0:55 – We Debate Whether Octilian Needed to Be Sexual Or Not

0:59 – Erin Calls Claire a “Kabby Baby Truther”

1:01 – R.I.P. Luna kom Floukru, Whose Sudden Descent Into Darkness We Have Many Thoughts About

1:14 – A Science Island Thread About Clarke and Luna Would Have Fixed So Many Issues In Both of Their Storylines

1:22 – R.I.P. Roan kom Azgeda, One of This Show’s Most Beautifully-Realized Characters Who We Already Miss Desperately

1:37 – “Before They Were Ruthless Murder Machines, They Were Nerds”: We Love It When the Show Remembers That the Blakes Are Really Smart

1:41 – Bellamy Finally Finds the Balance Between Protecting Octavia and Letting Her Go

1:43 – Drink! Hamilton Reference!

1:49 – Selina Tells Us Her Least Favorite Moment of the Whole Series

1:52 – A Brief Sideline For Claire to Scream Her Family Feels About This Episode’s Next-Level Kellamy Content

1:57 – WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, CLARKE GRIFFIN????: We Are Mixed On Whether That Twist Should Have Come Out of Nowhere, But We All Love the Twist Itself

2:10 – Jaha and Clarke, Self-Proclaimed “Chosen Ones”

2:28 – How Much You Wanna Bet Kidnapping Bellamy and Not Kane Was Part of a Jaha Power Play? I THINK SOMEONE WANTS TO BE CHANCELLOR AGAIN

2:31 – Is the Bunker Storyline Going to Finally Bring Us the Abby/Bellamy Rebel Squad Team-Up of Our Dreams?????

2:40 – Locking the Bunker Doors Is Clarke’s List v2.0

2:47 – We’re Very Excited to Watch the Griffins Fight and the Blakes Reconcile Next Week

We had some technical glitches during recording, leaving both of us unable to hear the other one for long stretches at a time. Erin decided to leave Claire a couple of Easter eggs to find while editing.

Y'all, we need to talk about the single most important plot development of episode 409, THE GREATEST SHIP WE NEVER SAW COMING, the potential blossoming new love between one Nathan Miller and one Eric Jackson (side note, CAN YOU BELIEVE ERIC JACKSON GOT A FIRST NAME *AND* A NEW MAYBE-BOYFRIEND THIS SEASON, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WORLD WE LIVE IN please don't kill him you guys seriously please we love him so much)

Welcome back to Meta Station, after that way-too-long hiatus! We were decidedly 50/50 on this episode, brimming with love and affection for the heartfelt, earned character moments happening in Arkadia and Science Island, and HEAVILY side-eyeing the white savior "Chosen One" business happening over in Polis. (We also hated Octavia's whole storyline, which we posted as a stand-alone segment here: https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/the-octavia-problem)

0:00 - We Were REAL MIXED On this Episode’s Weird Blend of Intimate Character Moments and Bloodthirsty War Boners

0:02 - Murphy and Raven Shattered Our Hearts Into Tiny Pieces WHAT KIND OF GORGEOUS AND IMPECCABLY STRUCTURED CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

0:11 - Murphy Is So Happy to Have a Family Again

0:16 - We Don’t Think Raven’s Actually Going to Die, So What’s the Becca Hallucination Really Trying to Tell Her?

0:28 - Please God Please Let That 412 Plot Description Mean We’re Getting a Princess Mechanic Reunion

0:33 - Erin’s Space Theory Is Amazing

0:39 - Harper Is NOT a Coward: Time For Some Real Talk About Depression and Suicide

0:45 - Drink! “Hamilton” Reference!

0:57 - Our High Hopes For Substantive S4 Jasper & Monty Content Have Basically Been Dashed at This Point

1:03 - Bellamy Gets Sexed Back to Life, Says Goodbye to Two of His Children, and Breaks Our Hearts

1:09 - Original Flavor “YOU HAVE NO FREE WILL” Jaha Stops By For a Quick Visit

1:14 - SINCE WHEN ARE EITHER KANE OR ABBY THIS FUCKING STUPID?????????????????

1:17 - How Is “I Made a Deal With Roan So Fuck Lexa’s Whole Clan” Transcending Tribalism?

1:23 - The Problem With Clarke’s Arc Is that Nobody Can Emotionally Connect to Abstractions

1:39 - This Political Battle For Power Might Land Better If We Had Any Actual Backstory For the Azgeda/Trikru War

1:44 - Claire Gets to Reference Lord John Marbury and Is Very Excited

1:50 - We Gotta Talk About This White Savior Business, Fam

1:57 - It’s Time to Talk About How Badly This Show Handles the Concept of Religion and Faith (HINT: It Doesn’t Inherently Make You Think Science Is the Devil!)

The show's inconsistency in developing any kind of an arc for Octavia is becoming a huge problem in S4. Here's 45 minutes of Claire and Erin breaking down all the Octavia stuff in 409, our concerns about where her plot might be going, our giant question mark about what Ilian's role is supposed to be, and our enormous frustration that the show can't decide from episode to episode who she is.

(P.S. the rest of the recap is coming Monday! HINT, we love everything about Arkadia and Science Island and almost nothing about Polis.)

We recorded #408 on April Fool's Day, so obviously we had to take a few minutes to cackle at all y'all's hilarious reactions to our "big announcement" podcast. OH MAN, WE CRACK OURSELVES UP

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! WE ARE ONE YEAR OLD! Holy mackerel, what a ride it has been. To celebrate our anniversary, as well as hitting our 50,000-downloads milestone, we decided to do a roundtable for Meta Station fans to come hang out with us and get a chance to talk about YOUR most burning questions. Joining us are Caitlin (@cwalsh93 on Twitter, comingupcait on Tumblr), Shannon (@smrmiller on Twitter), and Danielle (@samsjazzff on Twitter, samsjazz on Tumblr). Our fourth guest, Kelly (@kellycowboy on Twitter, falafel14 on Tumblr), apparently made a powerful enemy of ALIE and some technology issues with her microphone forced her to have to drop out before we started, but she stayed on the line with us via chat and sent in messages for Erin to read out so she could still participate, SO SUCK IT, ALIE

Anyway, we love you all and we're insanely grateful to have such a fantastic crew of nerd fans, many of whom have become real friends, over the course of this year-long adventure in podcasting. You guys are what make this experience great, and we love each and every one of you from the bottom of our sappy little hearts.

Welcome back to Meta Station for our last recap before midseason hiatus! We were thrilled to be joined by two very special guests, @hawthornewhisperer and @knowlesian, who are smart-as-heck analysts of the show and shared all kinds of brilliant insights with us. The delay in getting this recap uploaded was because having multiple people exponentially increases the editing hassle, but we promise it's worth it because these ladies are terrific. We covered 18th century British colonialism, Abby's emotional breakdown, Bill Cadogan's love of wordplay, Clarke and Murphy's relationship, Sassy Nihilist Jasper, how to rave responsibly (hint: bring a backpack), and tons of speculation about where the season might be going next, both things we're hoping for (Becca flashbacks!) and things we're side-eyeing (Commander Clarke???). Come join the lady nerd party!

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0:00 - 100% Not Apologizing For Beginning This Podcast With Twelve Minutes of Jaha Dragging

0:12 – Let’s Talk About Harper

0:23 – Bree, Niylah, and the Occasionally Dubious “Solve Problems With Sex” Trope

0:27 – The Underappreciated Significance of Jasper and Bellamy’s Relationship

0:31 – DRINK! Sarah’s First Pike Reference

0:36 – Everyone Giving Bellamy “Advice” Is Literally Just Describing Themselves

1:01 – “I Bear It So They Don’t Have To” – Clarke’s Leadership Dividing Her From Her People

1:10 – “Welcome to Mt. Weather” – Claire’s a Little Salty That Raven Is Treating Abby Like Dr. Tsing

1:20 – “Don’t Call Her That” – Roan’s Casual Prejudice Shows Us Exactly Why Emori Can’t Trust People

1:25 – That Clarke and Murphy Scene Broke Our Hearts Into Tiny Pieces

1:39 – Clarke and Roan, Sass Siblings

1:43 – We Are Heavily Side-Eyeing This “You Were Born For This” Business

1:55 – “It’s Not Blasphemy, It’s Science” – British Imperialism, Distrust of Technology, ALIE and Cadogan

2:04 – Abby Reaches Her Breaking Point and Paige Deserves a Goddamn Emmy

2:16 – Marcus Kane, a Peacetime Leader Who Sucks at War

2:22 –Hedging Your Apocalypse Bets – We’re Predicting Every Potential Solution Will Come Back In the Endgame

2:26 – DRINK! Sarah Talks About Pike Again

2:28 – Indra 2.0 Is Equal Parts Terrifying Badass, Tragic Hero, and Conflicted Mom

2:39 – Random Final Thoughts: Sarah Has a Finale Theory, Claire Is Going To Scream If Kabby Isn’t Reunited Soon, and WHAT IF CADOGAN WAS THE FIRST FLAMEKEEPER???

2:53 – Stay Tuned Later This Week For Our Anniversary Fan Roundtable!