Thank you very much to Nicole for commissioning this episode!
Wow, y'all, this episode was a little bonkers wasn't it! I don't know what to make of this development about the boats being alive, but I'm a huge fan of the fact that Margo handled it so well, and I'm hella proud of her for smushing her eye. That took some real commitment.
But of course, the main issue this episode is the fact that fucking Penny is dead? Kind of? I am just not really sure what this means (of course) because he's not actually passing on into the spirit world or the underworld or whatever you call it. So how does he get back into his body?
Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!

Thank you so much to Melanie for commissioning this episode and for being so patient even though I royally fucked it up. She's a pure angel and I am lucky we were able to work it out and do the Shorts instead, which were HILARIOUS and I highly recommend.
This episode was a fantastic finale, and full of little surprises that were delightful and funny, until we got to the BIG surprise at the end...Grunkle Stan knows all about the journals, and he's been trying to find them! And he's got some kind of control room under the Shack! What the hell is going on?!
I am deeply excited about watching episodes 1 & 2 live! Eeeeeee!

Thank you very much to Abbey for commissioning this episode!
These chapters are really interesting to me because things don't really go according to plan, and yet they all work out for the best (at least in the short term). Lirael and Sameth attempt to cross the wall under a glamour to make them look like soldiers, but the people who work there are no fools and they can tell something is up. Which, you know what? GOOD. Thank heaven for that.
I'm really hopeful that they're going to be able to help poor Nick because I'm still weirdly preoccupied with worry about him. At the very least, I'm impressed with Sameth getting ahold of himself despite the news (which we now know is incorrect) that his parents are dead. He's really growing!
Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!

Thank you ETERNALLY to Julia for commissioning this episode!
I'm absolutely in love with this weird fucking show, y'all. I'm already a little worried because there aren't many episodes commissioned and I'm simply dying for more, but I'm going to have faith that y'all will come through for me because I NEED MORE OF BOTH THESE STRANGE WOMEN.
So in this episode, we've got Villanelle killing a man in one of the most creepy ways possible, all while he expects to get his fetishes catered to...and then the rest of the episode is Villanelle indulging her own fetish with a tourist. And of course, DOING THE WORST POSSIBLE THING AND FUCKING MY HEAD RIGHT UP.
This show, omg.

Huge thanks to Abbey for commissioning this episode!
I'm delighted to have so much of this book left to go, because it's been a huge amount of fun and I'm not ready to say goodbye to these characters yet. In fact, I'm not ready to say goodbye to this world yet.
In these chapters, we've got a whole lot going on with Lirael and Nicholas. She's got her work cut out for her to convince him that there's something going on with him other than a simple fever, and it's not until he tries to fight back against the fragment taking him over that he really gets a good sense of how serious the situation is.
Then we get the tale from the Disresputable Dog about what exactly is in the hemispheres, and unsurprisingly, it's nothing good.

Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!

Many thanks and many apologies to Melanie for commissioning this episode. Because I made a crappy mistake, and it's entirely my fault. This episode was supposed to lead into a live-watch of the finale episode of Season 1, but like a giant dodo I went and watched this episode AND the finale episode, rendering Melanie's commission of a voyeur episode moot.
Although I've already seen the finale, in this podcast I only talked about Episode 19 because there was just so much to cover. So the next episode I will cover the finale, and the slot that would have been there because of the live watch will instead be taken up by me watching all of the Gravity Falls shorts on Disney+ on Facebook Live.
It's a shame, and I feel like a real dink, but thank you Melanie for being gracious about this and helping me come up with a way to try and make it up to you. (I also sent her some Christmas goodies and I hope that helps soften the blow.)
Thanks so much to you all for listening, and I will see you all soon with the finale episode.

Many thanks to Ashleigh for commissioning this episode!
This episode is the final one of the book, and it's leaving me with a variety of feelings. Part of me is pleasantly surprised by the way she's handled certain characters, and I'm feeling as if this author deserves more faith than I gave her. But there are some things that I'm kind of puzzled by, interesting details that I feel were barely mentioned, or mentioned rather than shown.
Overall, I enjoyed this peek back into what was going on before the Guild was created, and I think it's setting a really interesting stage if we come back to see what's going on with the women who fled Sachaka.
Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!

Thank you so much to Megan for commissioning this episode!
This episode is the second-to-last of the season, and there's a lot that's changed since the first episode! Rebecca is banging the hell out of Greg, for one thing, and Josh is turning down sex with his super-hot girlfriend, for another.
And how about Paula? In a lot of ways I think about Paula the most because I feel like I relate to her stage of life and the way she's observing Rebecca's antics. But Paula, it's time to let it go and learn how to just be friends! PLEASE!
Thanks to all of you for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!

Thank you ever so much to Ashleigh for commissioning this episode!
We're so close to the end of the book, and I still feel a little off-balance about where we're heading in terms of the final conflict. So far I'm pretty compelled by what's going on with Hanara, and I like that the Emperor read his mind because it's going to give him a huge advantage in seeing what Takado was really up to.
There's also a really interesting moment where Stara and he ladies are evacuating, and they come across Tessia and Jayan. Their names are never said, but I kind of like that chance encounter, although I don't love that Jayan gets severely injured. Yoiks.
Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!

Thank you so much to Martin for commissioning this episode! This is starting to get more and more interesting as we finally begin to inch closer towards finding out what a Shipheart is. We're also finding out about Arks, which are basically like Shiphearts on steroids. And I share my own suspicions on exactly how the people of the ice really live, considering that there are Arks that have been buried under the ice and remain unaccounted for. Also, there's a revelation about what's going on with Nona, and it turns out that she's feeling terrible NOT necessarily because she's being possessed but because PERHAPS the trauma of contact with demons spurred some physical changes. And perhaps. PERHAPS. She's the Chosen One. Thanks for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!