Good Omens

His Dark Materials

Hello and welcome to our very first podcast!  Today we're discussing episode 309, "Stealing Fire." 

0:00 - In Which We Introduce Ourselves and Hope We Haven’t Freaked You Out Yet 
0:03 - In Which Old-School Clarke Is Back, Bitches
0:18 - In Which We Discuss Erin’s Thesis For the Whole Season
0:27 - In Which We Secretly Love Ontari
0:34 - In Which We AGGRESSIVELY Love Indra
0:37 - In Which Octavia Is EVERYTHING This Season
0:49 - In Which We Take a Brief Sidebar To Yell About All the Storytelling Problems In the First Half of the Season
0:52 - In Which We Are So Goddamn Excited About the Delinquents
0:56 - In Which Bryan and Miller are the Literal Romeo and Juliet of This Show
0:59	 - In Which Claire Is “Not Exactly a Pike Apologist, But . . .”
1:06 - In Which Everything at Arkadia Makes Much More Sense If You Mentally Re-Insert Lincoln Into Every Storyline
1:17 - In Which We Spend Half an Hour Yelling About Lincoln’s Death
1:46 - In Which It Is Genuinely Astonishing It Took This Long For One of Us to Make a “Hamilton” Reference
1:47 - In Which Erin Is Concerned Octavia’s Going to Turn Out to Be Pregnant
1:49 - In Which KABBY!!!!!!!!!!!
2:00 - In Which We Bid You Farewell Until Next Week and Hope You Do Not Regret Your Life Choices In Listening to This

Episode 3x09: "Stealing Fire"

Welcome back, friends! A.L.I.E. apparently hacked into Erin’s wifi on Saturday night so we had some Skype issues; please forgive the handful of weird glitches where I had to edit out some messy sound.  

Fair warning, this is a lot less of a review and more like a meta.  We had a lot of very complicated thoughts about what story the show may be trying to tell this season about morality, and how all of this week’s stories fit into it, so this is more of a discussion about ethical conundrums than a point-by-point recap.

(P.S. trigger warnings for sexual assault and self-harm.)

0:00 - In Which Our Podcast Totally Has a Name Now
0:01 - In Which Murphy and Ontari Had So Much Potential to Be the Power Duo of the Season Before That Last Scene Fucked It Up
0:07 - In Which Erin Makes a “Hamilton” Reference Way Earlier Than Last Time
0:12 - In Which It Is Real Gross If a Show Can't Tell the Difference Between a Sex Scene and a Rape Scene
0:19 - In Which No One Is Giving Bellamy Enough Credit for Being the Only Character in This Episode Successfully Resisting Coercion
0:23 - In Which It’s Really Hard For Us When Our Two Favorite Characters Are Mad at Each Other But We Still Believe Kellamy Will Rise
0:37 - In Which Goddammit Octavia What Would Lincoln Tell You If He Were Here HE WOULD TELL YOU NO STABBING
0:40 - In Which Morality on This Show Is a Moving Target and Also for Real Are They Trying to Make Bellamy the Villain or Nah
1:12 - In Which Bellamy and Clarke Going 11 Episodes Without a Major Storyline Together Is a Narrative Problem We're Hoping Is Now Behind Us
1:17 - In Which FUCK YEAH DELINQUENTS REUNION
1:22 - In Which Love Is the Key to the City of Light, Abby Is a BAMF, and We're Really Squicked Out by That Raven Scene
1:35 - In Which Jasper Is This Episode’s MVP
1:42 - In Which Y'All Are Gonna Be Sorry You Wasted So Many Tranquilizers In This Episode If the Pauna Comes Back Or Something
1:43 - In Which In Which Jackson, Sinclair and Miller Are a Few of Our Favorite Things
1:46 - In Which Jaha as Season Three’s “Big Bad” Is One of the Best Decisions This Show Has Ever Made

Episode 3x10: "Fallen"

"WE'RE BACK, BITCHES!"
--Octavia Blake (and also us)

Welcome back to Meta Station for the launch of our hiatus S1-S2 rewatch!  We're kicking off with the pilot, about which you will be unsurprised to learn that we had a LOT to say.  Join us for a trip down memory lane to talk about all your late lamented faves - Wells! Finn! Jake! Callie! Shumway!  HA HA JUST KIDDING NOBODY LIKES SHUMWAY - along with Ark politics, class structure, character development, leadership parallels on the Ark and the ground, why Jaha saving Abby actually makes him terrible, the tonal shift from "CW teen drama" to "dark dystopian sci-fi", the origin story of both our ships, why Wells is the greatest and Finn is the worst, the glorious majestic wonderfulness of the Griffin women, and how despite S1 taking a few episodes to really find its footing, the pilot works remarkably well as a pilot.

ALSO!  Stay tuned at the end because we have A VERY! SPECIAL! ANNOUNCEMENT! ABOUT! A THING!  Claire's really bad at keeping secrets so WE'RE REALLY EXCITED WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS NOW

Yay! We missed you! Hope you enjoy the episode and tune back in on 7/28 for our next podcast where we'll be discussing "Earth Skills" and "Earth Kills".  Thanks for tuning in!


------------------------------------
0:00 – HELLO AND WELCOME BACK AND SPOILER WARNING
0:02 – Clarke Griffin: Immediately Kickass Protagonist
0:09 – Rule Followers vs. Rule Breakers
0:12 – Um of Course Claire Can Quote the Kabby Arrest Scene Verbatim What the Hell Kind of Question is That Erin
0:22 – Soooooo, We Have to Talk About Finn
0:31 – Erin’s New Segment: “Why Is Jaha the Worst in This Episode?”
0:36 – Casual Reminder That S1 of This Show Is ALL About Class Conflict
0:39 – R.I.P. Wells Jaha, Literally Too Good for This World: Part I
0:45 – “Loopholes for the Privileged”: The Ark’s Fucked-Up Social Hierarchy
0:52 – R.I.P. Wells Jaha, Literally Too Good for This World: Part II
0:58 – ERIN SINGS! … And Then We Yell About Finn Some More
1:15 – The Secret Theme of This Show Is “Everyone Does Crazy Things For Love”
1:27 – We Haven’t Talked About Bellamy Yet and Erin’s Getting Twitchy
1:45 - GOD THIS CAST IS SO GOOD
1:50 - “She’s Got the Leslie Knope Problem”: The Truest Thing Anyone Has Ever Said About Clarke Griffin’s Leadership Skills
1:57 - Clarke/Kane and Bellamy/Abby Leadership Parallels
2:08 - A VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT A VERY COOL THING WITH SOME VERY SPECIAL GUESTS!

Episode 1x01: "Pilot"

Welcome back to Meta Station for the first of our S1 doubleheaders!  HOLY BEJEESUS THIS ONE WAS A TECHNICAL NIGHTMARE, sorry it took us forever to get it uploaded and apologies in advance for any sound issues.  Hopefully all the Wells and Jake will be worth it.  MAN WE LOVE THOSE DUDES.   Join us for an exciting adventure through our first show flashback, Erin’s mindblowing theory about Wells Jaha and invisible labor, the introduction of Raven, the tragedy of Charlotte, Kane and Abby squaring off in the Council meeting and kicking the Culling plot into high gear, and the show’s first steps toward a definitive shift away from CW teen drama.  Get your tissues out, fam, because we had a LOT of feelings about Jake and Wells in this one.

0:00 – In Which Erin Legit Forgets How Old She Is
0:01 – In Which We Nostalgically Recollect Those Naïve Youthful Days When We Thought Kane Was the Asshole and Jaha Was the Good Guy
0:06 – In Which We Meet the Magnificent Raven Reyes
0:14 – Faith and Hope vs. 100 More Lives: Kane and Abby’s Council Meeting
0:22 – In Which We Present Our New Segment, “Why Jaha Is the Worst in This Episode”
0:33 – In Which We Jump in the Way-Back Machine to Go Fall in Love with Jake Griffin
0:50 – In Which We Discuss Wells Jaha, Invisible Man
1:00 – In Which Wells and Thelonious Are Not at ALL Like Father, Like Son
1:07 – Griffins and Grudges: Clarke and Wells and Forgiveness
1:20 – In Which Erin Won’t Sing the Finn Collins Song and Claire Threatens to Quit
1:23 – In Which the Answer to “What’s Wrong with a Little Chaos?” is “EVERYTHING, BELLAMY”
1:31 – In Which Atom’s Death Is the First Real Turning Point in Clarke and Bellamy’s Relationship
1:41 – In Which Murphamy Is Rising
1:49 – In Which the Narrative Shifts Bellamy from Villain to Foil
1:53 – In Which the Male Gaze On Octavia Is Early S1’s Biggest Feminist Fail
2:02 – R.I.P. Wells Jaha, Too Good for This World
2:11 – In Which We Have a Lot of Feels Over the Tragedy of Charlotte and the Ark’s Children
2:27 - In Which We Thank You Profoundly For Enduring This Far-Longer-Than-Usual Rant IT’S REALLY HARD TO DO TWO EPISODES IN TWO HOURS BUT WE PROMISE WE’RE TRYING

Episode 1x02 & 1x03: "Earth Skills"/"Earth Kills"

Welcome back, fam!  We ended up with so much to say about 104 and 105 that we split this podcast into two sections, one for each episode, to keep from making our heads explode with editing craziness.  So you’ll notice that this one kind of ends abruptly without an outro, and the next one will start right in without an intro, but like I TRUST THAT WE’LL ALL GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER.  Anyway, please join us for the rollercoaster ride of “Murphy’s Law,” for our money the first truly great episode of this show.  Charlotte! Nygel! Murphy! Vera! Raven! Flarke sex!  The legacy of Wells!  Unexamined racism and misogyny!  An intro we recorded after we’d been talking for four hours and were beginning to absolutely lose our damn minds!  STRAP IN KIDDOS, THIS EPISODE’S A RIDE 

0:00 – I Can’t EVEN Describe to You How Cracked-Out This Intro Is
0:02 – Today on “Tumblr Asks with Erin”: “Is Wells’ Death Racist?” 
0:12 – Wells’ Legacy: Forcing the Camp to Get Its Shit Together
0:19 – Scapegoats and Cassandras: The Tragedy of John Murphy (With Sidelines Into the Rise of Dad!Bellamy, the Death of Charlotte, and the Beginnings of Societal Cohesion)
0:52 – Abby’s Wristbands as Ark/Earth Connective Plot Thread
0:56 – Emotional Labor, Immature Men, and Clarke’s Sex Amnesia: Time for Another Installment of “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Finn Collins?” (SONG INCLUDED!) 
1:21 – Nygel, Raven/Abby/Kane Character Development, and the Seedy Underbelly of Ark Society
1:28 – Marcus Kane Is Still His Mother’s Son 

Episode 1x04: "Murphy's Law"

Welcome back to Meta Station for the first of our “Who Are We Kidding Ourselves We Can’t Possibly Cover Two Episodes at Once, Let’s Just Go Back To Giving Each of Them Two Hours As the Good Lord Intended” podcasts.  Erin says “hegemonic” but also refers to the Grounders as “Juggalo Murder Clowns”, we finally find something nice to say about Finn, and we both get a little real about our own families while crying over the Blakes. This one is a RIDE, y’all.  

0:00 – INTRODUCTION! Claire’s 35 Now and Erin Has Been Chasing a Spider For Four Hours 
0:02 – “I’ve Abandoned All Pretense of Journalistic Integrity”: In Which We Discuss the Most Charitable, and the Least Charitable, Interpretations of Finn’s Behavior In This Episode  
0:11 – Finn/Raven and Bellamy/Octavia Parallels (NOT IN A GROSS WAY, This Podcast Is a Blakecest-Free Zone)
0:22 – Raven and Clarke Subvert The Love Triangle Trope
0:30 – “Use Your Words, Lincoln”
0:40 – From John Locke to Juggalos: Season One’s Problematic Grounder World-Building
1:01 – A Lengthy Digression In Which We Yell About Tropes and Racism 
1:14 – Aurora Blake and The Dark Underbelly of Ark Society
1:20 – Like Mother, Like Son: Aurora and Bellamy’s Parenting Techniques
1:35 – Bellamy, Your Trust Issues With Grownups Are Showing
1:38 – The Moment Where Both Clarke, and Erin, Begin to Come Around on Big Brother Bellamy
1:44 – The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Blake Fight
1:54 – Same Parents, Different Childhood: Bellamy and Octavia Can’t Really See Each Other
2:01 – Tragedies of Good Intentions Make Very Good Television
2:07 – The Stealth Feminism of This Show’s Familial and Platonic Relationships
2:11 – Jasper’s Performative Masculinity: Or, Erin Solves Our “Linctavia vs. Jactavia” Timeline Problem

Episode 1x06: "His Sister's Keeper"

Erin invents a new superhero named Horsewoman and Claire tells a nightmare-inducing story about a Dutch performance artist.  Two out of two hosts rate this "the most macabre outtake we've ever done."

Clairin Outtakes - Horse Woman

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!

----------
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!

Episode 4x08: "God Complex"

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.)

The Octavia Problem

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

Episode 4x11: "The Other Side"

Welcome to a very special #TeamAdults edition of Meta Station!  Because this weekend was Erin’s birthday (as I hope you all observed by listening to this outtake - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-happy-birthday-erin-with-special-guests-sam-britt), she was with family and didn’t have time to record, but because she is a good friend she did NOT want to deprive Claire of the chance to flail over 412’s next-level Kabby content.  

So instead, Claire was joined by Brittany Rae of The Afictionados (https://soundcloud.com/theafictionadosthe100) and Sam Coley of TellTaleTV (http://www.telltaletv.com/author/samantha-coley/) for a discussion on the core four surviving members of Team Adults, all of whom gave absolutely top-notch performances in 412: Indra, Jaha, Kane and Abby.  We covered their storylines in this episode as well as how we feel about their season arcs as a whole and what we want to see from them in Season 5.  Join us to flail over Indra mom feels, the return of the Jaha/Kane bromance, ABBY SAYING “I LOVE YOU” TO KANE, epic conflict over moral decision-making, and much more.  

P.S. If you’re desperate for our thoughts on delinquents in space, we’ll cover the kids’ storyline from this episode next week in our finale recap, but there was a lot of stuff that we weren’t sure how we would feel about until we saw how the arcs closed out at the end of the season.

0:00 – LET'S TALK ABOUT INDRA!  Badass Warrior Queen Mom of Our Hearts! 
0:35 – LET'S TALK ABOUT JAHA!  Ruthless Mofo! Epic Shit-Stirrer!  Cult Aficionado Extraordinaire!  New Dad Maybe!
1:06 – LET'S TALK ABOUT MARCUS KANE AND ABBY GRIFFIN! Moral quandaries! Parent feels! Leadership conundrums! Possible brain damage! TRUE LOVE!

Episode 4x12: "The Chosen" - Team Adults Roundtable!

HOLY SPACE SUITS, BATMAN, WHAT A THRILL RIDE!  Welcome back to Meta Station for the first of our two-part finale recap.  Erin’s back and we have no guests, so it’s just the two of us doing what we do best – yelling about our favorite television show for six hours (which we have edited heavily and chopped into two separate parts to avoid breaking your brains with our flailing).  But man oh man that was a good hour of television!  Tune in Wednesday for Part 2, the Science Island Spacestravaganza, but in the meantime, let’s talk about 412, the bunker, the Blakes, Abby Griffin being the world’s best mom, how the structure of the two episodes work back-to-back as a two-part finale, and why our favorite episodes of this show are the ones where everything focuses on one A-story full of crazy adventure and emotional stakes.  
__________________________________________

0:00 – REUNITED AND IT FEEEEEEEELS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
0:02 – If 412 Was a Dark and Lowkey Somber Survival Drama, 413 Was a Thrill Ride Action Movie (THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT)
0:07 – We’re So Hyped for All Three Sets of Potential S5 Flashbacks (Space Squad, Lonely Clarke, Bunker Bickering)
0:11 - The One-Killer-Storyline Episodes of This Show Work So Well That Claire Is Even Willing to Forgive Jason for the Finale’s Complete Absence of Kabby, Though She Would Like Her Displeasure Noted For the Record
0:23 – Erin’s Thoughts on 412, Based on How Everything in 411 Led Into It, Were Decidedly Mixed, But A Lot of It Improves On Rewatch After Seeing 413
0:40 – The Moral and Emotional Difference Between “Decide Who You Invite Into the Bunker” vs. “Decide Who You Kick Out of the Bunker”
0:44 – Let’s Talk About “Good Guys”: How Abby’s Parting Words Fundamentally Transform Clarke In the Final Two Episodes
0:56 – Heads and Hearts: Abby and Bellamy Remind Clarke That Love Is Not Weakness, Which Frees Her to Be Her Best Self Even After Six Years Without Them
1:04 – A Brief Interlude to Yell About How CANON BRAVENLARKE HAS NEVER FELT SO POSSIBLE??
1:14 – Abby’s Vision: Brain Damage-Induced Hallucination, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, or WITCHCRAFT?
1:26 – Clarke and Jaha and the Notion of “Choice”
1:33 – Jaha vs. Octavia: Bad Leaders Are Full of Certainty, Good Leaders Experience Doubt
1:43 – We Do Need to Talk About the Bindi You Guys 
1:53 – TIME TO YELL ABOUT THE SHOW’S AMAZING PRODUCTION DESIGN 
1:56 – We Are So Emotional About the Blakes 
2:09 – Professor Erin Has Some Thoughts on This Whole Prometheus Business and Would Like to Gently Suggest Reframing the Analogy Around Pandora Instead
2:14 – Are We the Only CW Television Podcast With a Section In Our Finale Recap About Virgil’s “Georgics” y/y
2:22 – We Love the Show Touching Back So Much This Season on the Importance of Jake and Aurora
2:26 – Clarke, Octavia, Raven, Kane: This Season Is Full of Characters Finding the Truest Version of Themselves By Incorporating Every Version of Themselves Into One Self

413 Part 1

Episodes 4x12 & 4x13 - "The Chosen" & "Praimfaya" (Part 1, The Bunker)

Virgil's "Georgics" is basically porn about cows and Claire & Erin have the text messages to prove it.

Clairin Outtakes - Like a Virgil

Welcome back to Meta Station!  Grab a cup of Jasper’s moonshine and join us for an explosive (HAHAHAHA) recap of “Unity Day”, in which Anya shows up, Kabby is rising, thirteen is an unlucky number, Diana Sydney is the queen bitch of our hearts, Linctavia gets sexy for the first time, Clarke has no chill even about drinking games, we take a lengthy Cadogan sidebar because #brand, two different characters get compared to Trump, we’re forever wrecked about Vera, and HOOOO BOY FAM DO WE HAVE SOME FINN YELLING TO DO 
------------------------------------------------------------

0:00 – Hello and Welcome, Turns Out Neither of Us Can Pronounce “Unity Day”
0:02 – R.I.P. Diana Sydney, Our Favorite Shady-Ass Motherfucker
0:14 – No One Is Better Than Diana at Leveraging the Ark’s Class Resentment
0:23 – Wow Nothing Brings a Kids’ Pageant to a Crashing Halt Like a Giant Fucking Explosion
0:29 – From Becca to Lexa to Octavia: On This Show, 12 + 1 = Chaos
0:36 – Where’s Our Cadogan/Becca Prequel Webseries?
0:39 – BRB, Crying Forever Over the Kanes
0:48 – Remember When Both Clarke and Claire Legit Thought Abby Died In That Explosion 
0:52 – What an Iconic Jasper Episode TBH 
0:59 – Unity Days Looks Way More Fun On the Ground Than the Ark (More Booze, Fewer Casualties)
1:03 – Did Anyone Else Totally Forget That Lincoln Was Already Giving Octavia Warrior Lessons This Early In the Show?  
1:08 – FINN RANT, PART 1: In Which Finn Appoints Himself “Guy In Charge of Clarke’s Decisions” and Then Ruins Everything
1:29 – FINN RANT, PART 2: In Which We Need to Talk About Toxic Masculinity 
1:48 – FINN RANT, PART 3: In Which We Have a Lot of Screams About “You Didn’t Have to Trust the Grounders, You Just Had to Trust Me”
1:58 – Anya Is Where the Show Finally Finds Who They Want the Grounders To Be, Which Is a Lot More Interesting Than “Bogeymen In Trees” 
2:14 – Brief Sidebar for a Few More Kabby Flails 
2:15 – On Both the Ark and the Ground, This Is Really the “Chickens Coming Home to Roost” Episode 
2:22 – See You Next Week For Blood-Spattered John Murphy and Bridge Explosions!

Episode 1x09: "Unity Day"

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station, where the takes are HOT and the zombie supersoldiers are COLD, and the jokes are weird because we’re both on book deadlines and slowly losing our minds.  Erin unfortunately cannot be with us today, as she is dead, on account of what a motherfucking drama queen Bellamy Blake was when he strode dramatically into the spotlight holding his dad mug aloft to rescue Clarke from death at the hands of Claire’s new MILF crush Diyoza.  But prior to her untimely demise from FEELS ATTACKS we had tons of shit to say about everything from the increasingly chilling Season 1 Grounder parallels (somewhere in the afterlife, Anya is genuinely touched that Clarke was paying such close attention), to Zeke Shaw as the show’s second and FAR more successful attempt at the Finn Collins character template, to what in the wide wide world of sports “don’t let Diyoza weaponize the cargo” could mean, to how hard Emori is winning this breakup.  Our first two fairly modest nitpicks of the season came into play this week – we’re not wild about the narrative failing to pick a lane with Becho, and Claire would like to see Harper with a little more plot agency – but everything else is still so fantastic that we’re perfectly willing to give those cakes a little more time in the oven and we still have faith they’ll be satisfying in the end.  For those of you who like it when we get existential, we spent about twenty minutes talking about religion; for those of you who like it when we’re complete garbage, stand by later this week for an outtake where we lose our shit over William Miller tweeting at Claire that he refers to that gun as “the strap-on.”

Okay team, let’s do this thing. ACTIVATE KODIAK!  

---------------------------------------------------

0:00 – Hello and Welcome, ERIN IS LOOPY AS HELL
0:02 – We Already Love the Structure of This Season
0:07 – Grounder!Clarke Takes Us Back to Season One While Reminding Us Why the Term “Mama Bear” Is Not Always a Cute Compliment
0:19 – Jesus H. Christ We’re Gay for Diyoza
0:24 – Introducing Paxton “Graveyard” McCreary, Actual Worst Person on This Show
0:33 – R.I.P. Detroit
0:39 – McCreary vs. Shaw: Chaotic Evil vs. Neutral Good
0:44 – So They DID Solve a Problem Like Finn Collins
0:46 – It’s Ben Franklin with the Key and the Kite (You See It, Right?)
0:50 – “Two Suns, No Sunscreen”: Our Nightblood Eligius Theories Just Took a Sharp Right Turn
0:55 – Hytholodium, Raven, and Order Eleven: Is Kodiak an ALIE-Chipped Super Soldier? 
1:03 – “First We Pray”: Diyoza, Gaia, the Bible, and a Lengthy Digression on Religion as Story
1:22 – Abby and McCreary: Lots of Plot Options, None of Them Good
1:27 – Emori Is Really Winning This Breakup
1:35 – When Does Harper Get to Do Something That Isn’t Just Motivating Another Character’s Plot?
1:41 – In Which We Side-Eye the Noteworthy Absence of Becho In This Episode, and Hope the Show Did Not Destroy Tasya’s Twitter Mentions in Exchange for One Kiss and Nothing Else
1:54 – “Murder, Murder, Murder . . .”: GOD THE BRAVEN IN THIS EPISODE WAS LIIIIIIIIIIT
1:58 – Saginaw, Grandpappy Blake and Arthur C. Clarke: Characters Who Know Pre-Praimfaya Earth As a Myth Finally Meet People Who Lived It
2:05 – Sorry, HOW Many People Does Bellamy Have to Decide Whether or Not to Kill, Again?  
2:10 – This Episode Was a Masterclass in Dramatic Irony
2:14 – This Bellamy/Madi Team-Up Gives Us LIFE
2:29 – “She Is” 
2:41 – We Feel Bad That We Didn’t Get to Talk More About Raven But We’ll Save It For Next Time

Episode 5x03: "Sleeping Giants"

Hey look! Our 506 pod is here for you on a THURSDAY!! That's because Erin is going to visit Claire tomorrow and Claire is on a work deadline, and therefore we had almost no time to edit, so--apologies in advance for all the ums and likes and that one time when Erin's dog experiences VERY LOUD bronchial distress causing Claire to completely forget what she was talking about. Grab up as much Swiss chard and apples as your arms can carry, because Blodreina is coming for your veggies! 

0:00 - This Is EditKru Appreciation Week, Because Now You All Get To Hear What We Sound Like Without Them!
3:40 - Diyoza and McCreary and Kane, Oh My!
9:00 - Echo, Raven, and Shaw: Friends or Foes to Kane?
16:00 - This Is a War Over Power Masquerading As a War Over Resources
23:00 - This Episode Shuffles ALLLLLL the Decks When It Comes to Characters' Presumed Loyalies, and WE LOVE IT
27:30 - Et Tu, Niylah??
31:30 - HOW MANY TIMES IN ONE EPISODE CAN OUR HEARTS BREAK FOR CLARKE GRIFFIN
34:30 - Clarke and Bellamy Run Smack Into Their Differing Priorities
42:00 - Octavia Blake: The Only Character Still Fighting for an Abstraction
46:00 - Gaia Has Been Carrying A Torch for The Old Ways (Ba-Dum-Tiss)
53:30 - WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH MADI, BLODREINA (and Gaia and Cooper)
1:00 - Is There a Way to Bring Octavia Back from "Blodreina"?
1:10 - We Love This New Healthy-Emotional-Boundaries Bellamy SO FREAKIN MUCH and We Are SO PROUD OF HIM
1:27 - Listen, "We've All Done Things We Shouldn't Be Forgiven For But Are" Is a HUUUUUUGE Character-Revealing Moment for Bellamy
1:40 - Soft Bearded Space Dad Bellamy Is the Same Badass Will-Do-Anything-For-His-Family Bellamy We Have Always Known & Loved
1:48 - Bellamy and Clarke Have Different Centers of Emotional Gravity Now, and Everyone Feels Weird About It
1:51:30 - A Brief Interlude for Canine Bronchial Distress
1:52:30 - Annnndddd Back to Business
1:57 - Bellamy Blake: Macrame Enthusiast
1:59 - You're Making It Real Hard for Us to Root For Memori, John
2:08 - Murphy, McCreary, and Murphy's Dark Night of the Soul?
2:12 - ECHO IS A SMART, SAVVY, SELFLESS BAMF AND WE LOVE HER WITH ALL OUR HEARTS, DON'T @ US (no, seriously, please don't @ us)
2:20:30 - Roan Is a Centaur Now
2:23:30 - Becho and Madi Anchor the Emotional Stakes of the Political Plot 
2:28:45 - On Shipping, (Not) Multishipping, and Managing Emotions

Episode 5x06: "Exit Wounds"

Starved for Kabby content since there’s no new episode tonight?  WE GOT U, FAM!  After many delays caused by travel, book deadlines, and the sheer nonstop vexation of attempting to edit out the background noise caused by recording in a Los Angeles Airbnb with woefully thin walls, THE KABBY ROUNDTABLE PODCAST IS FINALLY HERE!  Claire is joined by returning Meta Station guests Brittany of The Afictionados (@brittania_, @theafictionados) and Samantha of TellTaleTV (@samcaseys, @TellTaleTV_) along with new guests Jenn (@abigriffins) and Emily (@ifollowedfires) for three hours of everything from plot analysis to high-pitched squee-flailing on every aspect of the glorious wonderfulness of Season 5 Kabby.  We’ll get real about Abby’s addiction storyline, spin some conspiracy theories about weddings and babies, roast each other lovingly on the pronunciation of “Eligius,” and painstakingly catalog every Kabby hug, kiss and touch to unpack our emotions about it.  COME JOIN US

P.S. if you missed the Bellarke roundtable, hosted by Erin, check out the link here! https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/special-bellarke-roundtable-with-special-guests

Kabby Roundtable With Special Guests!

First things first: Meta Station is raising money for RAICES Texas to help reunite and free immigrant detainee families! We started with a goal of raising $2500, which we BLEW OUT OF THE WATER in less than 24 hour thanks to the enormous generosity of Lola Flanery (Madi), Marie Avgeropoulos (Octavia), and 49 other amazing fans, so now we are just going to see how much money we can raise between now and August 7, when the season finale airs! 

You can donate to our fundraiser here: https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/meta-station-supports-refugee-kids/
Or, if you're outside North America, you can donate directly to RAICES here:
https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/2086450 

If you donate to RAICES directly and still want to be included in our fundraiser, you can DM us a screencap of your donation receipt (here or on Twitter or Tumblr). Crowdrise accepts offline donations, so we can still add you to our total and send you lots of love!
-----------
We had LOOOOOOTS to say about this episode!! (*laughs nervously and looks an runtime*) Jasper and Monty! Clarke and Monty! Octavia and Indra! Kara Cooper going full-on war criminal! Blodreina using everyone else's hypocrisy to excuse her own amoral strategic choices! Kabby and Recho breaking ALL our hearts! SHAW AND DIYOZA BACKSTORY THAT WE WOULD TOTALLY WATCH AN ENTIRE TV SHOW EXPLORE SAY HOW'S THAT PREQUEL COMING JASON ROTHENBERG?!?! This was a fun one, fam!

3:00 - Make It Mean Something: Jasper, Monty, & The Letter (TW: lots of suicide mentions)
21:00 - How Jasper Breaks the Cycle of War 
28:00 - Jonty and the Struggle to See Outside the Cycle
34:00 - Madi Kom Clarkekru, the One True Breaker of Cycles?
46:00 - Could Madi Save Octavia from Blodreina?
50:30 - Bellamy, Clarke, Blodreina, and Interrogating "I Do It For 'My People'"
54:30 - The Return of Heart Over Head Bellamy (Your Plans Suck, But We Still Love You)
1:00 - Power Vs Powerlessness and Inevitability Vs Choice
1:04 - Ecosystems Are Another Cycle Being Broken, Which Is...Probably Not Great?
1:07 - Chekhov's Algae: Is Monty the Key to Salvation This Season?
1:16:30 - "Let's talk about WOOORMMMSSS!" Claire Sings Through Her Nausea (But We Quickly Segue to Octavia and Indra Because Ewwwww Worms)
1:30 - The Myth of Skairipa Vs. the Myth of Blodreina: Pluralism Vs. Totalitarianism
1:37:15 - RAVEN AND ECHO ARE FRANDS ...Until They're Not And Our Hearts Get BROKEN
1:52 - We Are LIVING for This Shaw and Diyoza Backstory
2:01 - Speculation-palooza: The Many Exciting Ways the Show Could Shuffle the Decks, Loyalty-Wise
2:10:30 - STOP! Kabby Time! 
2:40 - Baby, You're a Game Changer

Episode 5x07: "Acceptable Losses"

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station!  Our nightmare of biweekly hiatuses has come to an end and now we’re on a runaway train speeding downhill towards the finale, and BOY OH BOY are we excited.  How are you guys holding up?  Is everyone breathing? Eating? Getting enough sleep?  Are we all stressed as fuck about how Abby’s only remaining friend is a serial killer, what the fuck went down during the Dark Year that turned Miller into a Blodreina zealot, how long it’s gonna be before Madi blows up at Clarke for her new “shoot first, ask questions later” parenting style, and whether there’s any chance in hell all three of those characters will somehow magically make it out of the fighting pit alive? Yeah, us too.  In the meantime, though, Miranda Kwok hits it out of the park with a stunning hour of television where ALLLLLLLLL the shit that’s been simmering for the past eight episodes (or the past six years) (or the past five seasons) finally starts to explode all over the place, and the show continues to keep character and relationship at the heart of the plot.

COME SCREAM WITH US ABOUT THIS EPIC SHIT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
0:00 – “Thus Always to Tyrants” Is Perhaps the Most Apt Title of the Season
0:05 – Yo, For Real, What Went Down During the Dark Year That Turned Miller and Niylah Into Creepy True Believers
0:16 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part I: Clarke, Bellamy, Madi, the Flame, and a Perfectly-Realized Example of the Show’s “Both Sides Are Right, Both Sides Are Wrong” Dynamic
0:26 – Both Clarke and Bellamy Have Plans That Only Work If You Handwave Away Like Half a Dozen Major Problems
0:41 – Claire Gets Emotional About Lexa and Luna’s Moms, and the Psychological Trauma the Commander Cult Forces Onto Children
0:53 – Bellamy’s Delusion That Removing Leadership From Octavia’s Shoulders Will Bring Octavia Back
0:56 – If You’re Wondering Why the Plot Crescendos In Season 5 Land So Much Better Than They Did In Season 4, It’s Because Literally Every Single One Is Rooted in Relationships
1:05 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part II: That Awkward Sense of Clarke and Bellamy Being in Stasis This Season Was 100% Deliberate
1:14 – That Madi/Gaia/Bellamy Scene: Let’s Unpack the Consent and Choice and Power and Coercion Issues Going On Here
1:19 – The Flame Has Lots of Story Possibilities as a Piece of Becca’s Technology (and a Way for Madi to Help Build a New Society)
1:32 – CONGRATULATIONS TO EMMY NOMINEE ADINA PORTER FOR ABSOLUTELY SLAYING THIS EPISODE
1:40 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part III: Indra and Gaia Can No Longer Put Off Reckoning with the Monster They Created
1:48 – The Myth of Wonkru’s Unity Turns Out to Be a Beautiful Narrative Bait-and-Switch
1:52 – A Brief Digression to Just Yell About How Great This Season Is 
1:57 – In Which the Show Takes a Second Run at the “I’m Gonna Chain You in a Boiler Room While I Endanger One of Your Family Members” Plot From 411, and This Time Sticks the Landing
2:00 – SPILL THE BEANS, MIRANDA, WHICH ONE OF YOU LIFTED THE ROCK-THROWING SCENE FROM CLAIRE’S BOOK
2:06 –Murphy Finally Finds a Crisis That Can Only Be Solved by Murphying, and Then Stays Behind to Save Abby From the Consequences of Said Murphying
0:16 – Echo Has the Biggest Spy Crush on Diyoza, Like GIRL SAME 
2:20 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part IV – HOLY MOTHERFORKING SHIRTBALLS, THAT MCCREARY/DIYOZA FIGHT SCENE
2:29 – Erin Does Not Like Abby’s Hair But Claire LOOOOOVES Her Outfit
2:32 – Shallow Valley Is Fighting a Civil War Over Who Gets Custody of Abby Griffin and Claire Is Back On Board With Her Storyline Again

Episode 5x09: "Sic Semper Tyrannis"

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station! We are, again, unfortunately subjecting you to our unedited ramblings, as Erin is on her way out of town and Claire is at San Diego Comic-Con, so our schedules this weekend are a little crazy.  Hooray, you get this week’s podcast a few days early! Boo, you have to listen to our unfiltered verbal chaos.  But we have so much to scream about, starting with the fact that BILL CADOGAN KILLED BECCA PRAMHEDA OH MY GOD Y’ALL CAN WE SCREAM FOREVER ABOUT MONTY/BECCA, CADOGAN/OCTAVIA PARALLELS PLEASE AND THANK YOU 

But that wasn’t the only piece of delicious angst we were fed this week by the brilliant Benson sisters, oh no no my friends.  Monty saves the day (for a minute), Madi goes rogue, Abby hits rock bottom, Indra is at peak Battle Mom, and there’s no coming back from this for the Blakes.  Plus we finally find out why everyone’s so scared of Vinson, we’re beside ourselves with relief that nobody died in that pit (we were REAL worried about Gaia, fam), and we’re delighted that Abby, Clarke and Madi are all in the same room so we can really get this grimdark “Gilmore Girls” AU rolling.  And director Henry Ian Cusick shows us he’s definitely got the goods, with fish-eye lenses and broken mirrors and Blake flashbacks and witch burnings and worm larvae and blood smears and a kick-ass fight sequence and SO MUCH FIRE!  A LOT of shit went down, y’all, and we are most definitely NOT ready for “The Dark Year” next week.
----------------------------------

0:00-0:52 – “The Flame Can Save Us All”: Cadogan Killed Becca, Madi Has a Head Full of Commanders, and Clarke Is Not Happy About Any of This Shit 

0:52-1:23 – “I Know What It Feels Like to Need Something”: Ian Goes Behind the Camera and Shows Us Abby’s Perspective for the First Time, So We Finally Understand What It Feels Like to Be Her

1:23-2:02 – “First One Who Touches the Ground Loses”: Octavia Would Rather Burn the World to the Ground Than Let Go of Blodreina

2:02-2:51 – “Adam and Eve”: Monty and Harper Bring the Apples to Eden and Our Finale Endgame Predictions Begin to Take Shape

Episode 5x10: "The Warriors Will"

WELP, CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE WHO BET MONEY THAT IT WOULD BE CANNIBALISM

YOU WIN AN EXTREMELY GRIM AND DEPRESSING EPISODE

Jump in our Way-Back Machine and return with us to a simpler time, where we can revisit our old friends Kara Cooper, brighter indoor lighting, and Kane's good hair!  Enjoy this brief flash of a more-or-less sane Octavia before everything falls to shit again and life is The Worst!  Claire now bitterly regrets ever having uttered the words “hey wouldn’t it be dope if Abby and Octavia ever had a storyline together” I’M SORRY GUYS THIS ONE’S ON ME I PUT IT OUT IN THE UNIVERSE AND I CAN’T TAKE IT BACK NOW

(. . . kudos to Propkru, though. We're never eating Jell-O again.)

Meanwhile, in the future, Jason grants our wish to finally get all three Griffin ladies in the same room, though shit's pretty bleak over there too.  There’s lots to love (Abby gets cured!  Bellamy speaks Trig!  Murphy gets a giant gun! Diyoza wants Kabby reunited as much as we do! Raven and Shaw kiss! Echo is in charge and it’s hot af!) and lots to furrow our brows at in mild puzzlement (if Clarke kills McCreary, aren’t all their problems basically over? Does Madi have Clarke’s consciousness in her head, meaning there are now effectively two Clarke minds in play?).  Plus, Professor Erin does both “Robinson Crusoe” and “Paradise Lost”, Claire thinks everyone’s reading that final Kane/Diyoza scene wrong, and we have LOTS of thoughts about Wonkru cannibal ethics.

All right, take a deep breath and let's dive in! Trust us, there's not enough vegetable broth in the WORLD to make this bleak and stomach-turning hour of television go down any easier. (Thank God at least Raven is happy.)
-------------------------------------------
0:00 – Maybe the REAL Cannibalism Was the Friends We Made Along the Way
0:16 – The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Blodreina’s Power Thrives on Food Scarcity and Fear
0:30 – Mt. Weather vs. the Bunker: Dehumanization, Complicity, and Bodies as Resources
0:43 – “Marcus Is the Key” – The Patient on the Operating Table Abby Has to Save Is All of Wonkru
0:51 – Would It Have Been Possible For Octavia to Pull a S1 Abby By Telling Everyone the Truth?
1:08 – Survival vs. Deserving to Survive: The Origin of the Kane vs. Octavia Rift
1:15 – “Omon Gon Oson” As Both Propaganda and Devotional Practice
1:22 – Kane, Octavia, and Individual Ethics vs. Subsuming Yourself Into the Collective
1:30 – We Need to Unpack Octavia’s Hypocrisy In Burning the Farm 
1:34 – Professor Erin Does “Paradise Lost”
1:40 – Is Season 6 Octavia the New Season 4 Jaha?
1:45 – We Just Have Like . . . Infinity Jillion Flame Questions, Guys
2:27 – Are We Just Circling Back Over and Over to a World Order We Already Dismantled, and Rehashing the Same War? 
2:46 – Everything Is Broken and We Want to See These Characters BUILD Something Because We Don’t Think We Can Handle Another Season That’s Just About Destroying Things
2:52 – The Trauma of Madi’s Nightblood Childhood
2:59 – We’re Running Out of Time But Here Are Our Spacekru Thoughts In One Minute
3:00 – CLAIRE THINKS YOU’RE ALL WRONG ABOUT THAT LAST SCENE, DAD KANE DID NOT DOUBLE-CROSS HIS CHILDREN
3:06 - Diyoza Reminds Both Kane and Us That Abby Is Not a Villain (Though We're Bummed She Got Overruled By Clarke About Having to Cure McCreary)

Episode 5x11: "The Dark Year"

Welcome back to Meta Station!  [INSERT INAPPROPRIATE JOKE ABOUT MARCUS KANE LOOKING LIKE A SNACK HERE]

LOTS of deaths this week, including Vinson, a whole bunch of redshirts, and the myth of Blodreina (and we’ll feel a lot better once we know Gaia and Kane are okay), but the fractured groups are finally beginning to coalesce back together, which is a HUGE relief.  We know you all had strong feelings about this episode, and we did too; we clocked in at over four hours (don’t worry, this one is edited!) because there was so much to unpack.  

Initially Erin and Claire were a house divided regarding a few of the storylines, and met more in the middle on rewatch, but overall we’re feeling better at the end of this episode than we did at the end of the last one.  We got hope! We got forgiveness! We got love! We got families! We got hugs! We got closure! We got new beginnings!  We got another cryptic drive-by reference to Eligius III!  In other words, we’re right where we should be as our heroes head into the finale.

Come along with us on this EXTREME rollercoaster as we dig into the good (Bellamy and Indra are done with Octavia’s bullshit! Abby destroys the embodiment of her addiction! Murphy has been watching 70’s movies in space!), the bad (what an unsatisfying Princess Mechanic reunion! Why do people keep making deals with McCreary???) and the ugly (there is absolutely no justification for using a torture device on your child).

T-minus 4 days until the finale! LET’S DO THIS THING
---------------------------------------------------------------------
0:02 - All of Blodreina's Assorted Chickens Come Home to Roost
0:19 - Okay, But in What Sense Does Bellamy "Want" Octavia to Die?
0:24 - Tragedy vs. Bummer: Why Octavia's (and the Blakes') Arc Is the Latter, Not the Former
0:34 - "Can I Just Say Something Real Gay for a Minute": Claire Is On-Brand
0:36 - We Really, Really Hope That There Are a LOT More Consequences to Come for Octavia
0:56 - Finally, a Glimpse Into Miller's State of Mind!!! And Finally, People Coming Together!!! IT FEELS LIKE HOPE
1:03 - Erin Has Two Boxes of Clarke Feelings: One Is Labeled "Plot Beefs," the Other Is Labeled "Bellarke Flails"
1:06 - That Shock Collar Scene Was Bad On, Like, Every Conceivable Level
1:35 - Clarke Character Crux: Is "Mama Bear" Clarke the Result of Motherhood, or Her 6-Year Isolation?
1:39 – Clarke Has Nowhere to Go For Counsel Except Into the Past
1:53 – Claire Keeps Forgetting That Clarke Thought Bellamy Was Dead LOL Whoops
1:55 – That Clarke and Echo Conversation Was SO MUCH 
2:09 – CLARKE/BELLAMY PARALLELS, PART 1: Striking a Deal with the Devil and Leaving Someone You Love Behind
2:16 – CLARKE/BELLAMY PARALLELS, PART 2: Learning Healthy Family Emotional Boundaries
2:24 – Please God Let Us Get a Better Princess Mechanic Reunion Next Week
2:26 – The McCreary Problem: Clarke, Diyoza and Kane Get Stuck in a Massive Plot Hole Playing a Three-Person Game of Idiot Ball
2:37 – Uhhhhhhh IDK Who That Dude Was Who Just Handed His People Over for McCreary to Massacre Them But It Was NOT Marcus Kane
2:50 – Everyone Keeps Interpreting Abby’s Advice in the Most Violent Way Possible
2:53 – Vinson As the Human Personification of Abby’s Addiction Is One of the Most Brilliant Twists in This Entire Season
3:03 – Claire Gets Personal About Vinson’s Refusal to Let Abby Go
3:11 – WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME BUT WE CAN’T NOT TALK ABOUT KABBY

Episode 5x12: "Damocles, Part I"

ERIN FOUND A KITTEN IN A PARKING LOT SO THAT WAS THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS TODAY 

Yes, the Lola interview will go up tomorrow, yes, we're eventually going to recap the finale, yes, we've still got Chris Larkin and William/Ivana interviews on deck, but for now, please enjoy this outtake that is literally just twenty minutes of Claire and Erin talking about cats.

We missed you too.

Clairin Outtakes - Cat Talk

She's been in the biz since she was nine, she's fluent in French, she knows how to swordfight, and she loves "Fight Club." 

She's also twelve years old.

We sat down with the fantastically delightful Lola Flanery on Sunday, for a super fun interview which then got eaten by Skype Recorder (*shakes fist at ALIE*), so we gave it a second try on Wednesday and had even MORE fun.  Join us as we plot a prank war against Sachin and Bob, discuss Warrior Cats and My Little Ponies, get the scoop on stunt training and Trigedasleng, hear what it's like to be the kid on set in a room full of grownups, and learn what Lola loves most about playing Madi.

TL;DR - THIS KID IS THE BEST AND WE'RE ADOPTING HER NOW

Meta Station Interviews Lola Flanery!

We talked for so long about Unity Days 2019 that we pulled it out of the recap podcast to post on its own. Join us as we relive the magic, glory and wonder of the third (and maybe final?? unclear??? Sachin is VERY PERSUASIVE????) Unity Days convention in Vancouver B.C.! It was hands-down our favorite yet, with brand-new guests we'd never met before (hi Paige! hi Lola! hi Erica! hi Shannon! hi Tati!), lots of deep dives into the nerdery of television craft (from props design to acting craft) and tons and tons of laughs.  Most of all, it was full of those amazing special moments of irreplaceable cast magic that make this con such a unique and wonderful event - from sharing deeply heartfelt stories about what acting means to them, to doing impressions of their coworkers as Fran Drescher or Yoda. (You had to be there.) Thanks so much to everyone at Unity Events Canada for their hard work and dedication! If UD3 is the last of these cons, it went out on a high note; if Sachin gets his way and there's a UD4, we'll see you there!

Unity Days 2019!

Welcome back to Meta Station! 

Since last we recapped you, Erin finished her book, we went to a con, Claire's had the flu like three times, and Donald Trump Jr. is probably going to jail. WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU GUYS??

We split up this week’s 4-hour podcast in two parts, so pop on over to this link - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/unity-days-2019 - if you’re looking for our recap of Unity Days, the funnest funfest in the history of fun, and then come back here when you’re ready for our thoughts on 513!

Also, to avoid burying the lede, we wanted to announce at the beginning of the podcast that this will be the last of our regular week-to-week recaps of the show.(This episode is now a collector’s item!) 

While the show is running, despite the heroic assistance of our cherished Editkru, Meta Station is basically a part-time job, and – in the words of iconic Netflix star/cleaning guru Marie Kondo – we ultimately determined that dedicating that amount of time and effort to producing a weekly podcast no longer “sparks joy.” There were a lot of factors that went into this; some of them we’ll discuss at the end of the podcast, while others are more personal, but in the end it felt like the right time for us to step away from the kind of in-depth coverage we’ve been doing.

The fact that our long, rambly, self-produced nerdfest has reached over 212,000 listens and downloads with over 750 regular subscribers remains INSANE to us, and we are overwhelmed and honored and grateful that so many of you have come along with us on this ride. We have so loved getting to spend all these nerdy hours with you, and goodbyes are always bittersweet, though we promise we aren’t quitting cold turkey; we still have a big stack of interviews on deck, we might pop back from time to time in future seasons if we find ourselves with things we just HAVE to flail about with you guys for three hours at a time, and if there’s a UD4 next year we’ll be there with bells on, we promise!

We love you all with our entire nerdy hearts and we are so thankful for each and every listener. You guys have been the best part of this whole journey.

May we meet again! 
--------------------------------------------- 
0:00 – Hello, It Is Us Again! We Have Returned! Sorry This Intro Is Awkward Because We Chopped Out the Whole Hour About Unity Days!
0:03 – FINALE THINGS WE LIKED: The Jasper of It All! Miller’s Arc Sticking the Landing! Diyoza Calling Octavia’s Ass Out! The Blakes Still Care About Kane! Tiny Hints of Sunshine, Maybe! Bellamy and Madi and the Breaking of Cycles!
0:45 – As Emori’s Get-a-Grip Girlfriends, We Sincerely Hope She Has Not Wiped Murphy’s Slate Clean Just Yet, Because He Was a Real Asshole All Season 
0:51 – If You Compare How Many Early Storylines Took Up Time and Ultimately Went Nowhere (Kara! Ethan! Worms!), With How Many Huge Emotional Setups This Season Never Got Real Payoffs Because the Finale Was So Rushed, You Will Go Insane
1:15 – Our Oft-Mentioned McCreary Problem Explodes to Astronomical Proportions and Torpedoes the Finale Endgame
1:37 – This Show Is Kind of Pro-Dictator In Some Peculiarly Unexamined Ways 
1:55 – The “Why We’re Stopping” Conversation, Part I: Erin, Bellarke, and Reframing the Relationship You Have with a Show Once You Realize You and the Writers Want Different Things
2:14 – The “Why We’re Stopping” Conversation, Part II: Claire, Kane, and the Validity of Watching a Show For an Emotional Relationship With a Character or Ship
2:32 – Sometimes Analyzing Something For Three Hours Actually Makes It Less Fun, Instead of More 
2:42 – “We’re Gonna Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye (One Last Time)”: or, There Is No Wrong Way to Watch a Show, No Wrong Way to Be a Fan, and No Wrong Reason to Walk Away
2:46 – In Which We Have a Lot of Feelings About How Much We Love You Guys and Everything This Podcast Has Given Us

Episode 5x13: "Damocles, Part II"

Welcome to META STATION SUMMER VACATION!

We're spending July and August covering some of our favorite binge-worthy miniseries of 2019, kicking off this week with a discussion on episodes 1-3 of Amazon's fantastic adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's shippy apocalypse romp "Good Omens."

To whet your appetite, if you've missed us, or to introduce ourselves to you if you're new here (welcome!!), here's a 25-minute teaser - a mini-meta, if you will - to tide you over until the full three hours of nerdery goes live Monday!

In this excerpt, we discuss the war between Heaven and Hell in the context of the original publication of "Good Omens" in 1991. Erin has thoughts on the Cold War, Claire has thoughts on "Angels In America," we're both spicy about right-wing dumbs interpreting the story as anti-religion, and Erin shamelessly promotes Claire's book for new listeners. COME HANG OUT WITH US WE'VE MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH

Good Omens Podcast Preview!

Hello, new friends! Welcome back, old friends! Meta Station is back and we've missed you, too! 

Summer is truly the best time of year for binge-watching television (some people will tell you it is the time of year for Going Outside and, like, Doing Stuff, in Nature, but those people are wrong and dangerous, stay in here with us where there's air conditioning and couches and snacks). So during July and August we're going to be podcasting on three different miniseries we love which we think you will enjoy too.

First on deck is the delightful six-part Amazon Prime adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1991 apocalypse comedy GOOD OMENS, and we are here to tell you as fans of the book that the show gets just about everything right.

Join us for a nerdy conversation covering everything from “Paradise Lost” to “Angels In America,” from Francis of Assisi to the end of the Cold War, from the holiness of sushi chefs to the dangers of dudes getting redpilled, with a whole lot of metaphysics, nature vs. nurture, and predestination thrown in. (Plus, obviously, shippy flails, because we can’t help ourselves.)

Hop in your 1926 black Bentley, crank up that Velvet Underground (WHICH IS NOT BEBOP), and grab your flaming sword, because it’s time to stop the end of the world.

You know what to do, do it with style.
------------------------------------------------------------
0:00 – Welcome to Meta Station Summer Vacation!
0:02 – *Weary Sigh* No, GOOD OMENS Is Not "Anti-Religion," Calm Down Christians
0:13 – “Paradise Lost,” Angel Sex, and the Joy of Non-Canon Shipping
0:17 – Oh Right, We Should Probably Talk About the Plot
0:20 – "In the Beginning": Empathy, Ineffability, and Asking the Dangerous Questions
0:34 – Sushi Chefs, Francis of Assisi and Queen: Azirophale and Crowley's Attachment to the Human World
1:11 – A Brief Sidebar to Nerd Out About Craft: Acting, Casting, Adapting a Book for the Screen, and Why Everyone Loves Neil Gaiman
1:26 – 1991 In Cultural Context, Part I: Claire the Playwright on "Angels In America" and "Marisol"
1:36 – 1991 In Cultural Context, Part II: Erin the Academic on the End of the Cold War
1:49 – "Form Shapes Nature": Warlock, Adam and Dog
2:14 – Agnes, Anathema, and the Intersection of Prophecy and Free Will: or, FINALLY IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT SOME LADIES
2:33 – Shadwell, Pulsifer, and the Old Guard vs. the New
2:41 – A Brief Word on Horsemen
2:43 – Thanks For Joining Us! We’ll See You Next Week!

GOOD OMENS, Part the First!

Choose your faces wisely, because it’s time for Part II of “Good Omens,” where imagination is the greatest power of humankind, the kids are trying to figure out how to fix the world the grown-ups ruined, Madam Tracy finally gets takes center stage, Derek Jacobi pops in for a truly delightful cameo, and it turns out Crowley still thinks pretty highly of God. 

This one took us to some PLACES - we went deep on climate despair, youth-led protest movements, and the Horsemen as self-fulfilling prophecies, and then unpacked the theology of Aziraphale and Gabriel and got very real about when organized religion gets in the way of God. Hop on, this one’s a fun ride.

Cheers, friends. TO THE WORLD!

----------------------------------------------

0:00 – Welcome Back to “Good Omens,” Let’s Get This Apocalypse Show on the Road!
0:02 – We Are Now Ride-or-Die Lesley x Maud Shippers
0:05 – The Horsemen vs. the Them: Personification, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and the Triumph of Youthful Imagination Over Adult Despair
0:32 – Pollution and Death in the Pratchett-Gaiman Extended Universe
0:40 – The Gospel of Aziraphale 
0:52 – When Organized Religion Gets in the Way of God
1:13 – Imagination: The Secret Weapon of Armageddon
1:21 – Anathema: Living By the Book
1:30 – Adam vs. the Antichrist
1:39 – Love: The Other Secret Weapon of Armageddon (ft. Ineffable Husbands Flailing)
1:44 - (Madame Tracy's) Humanity Saves the Day (and Adam's Life)
1:50 – The Radical Egalitarian Skepticism of the 11-Year-Old Human from Tadfield: The Other Other Secret Weapon of Armageddon
2:03 – The Aftermath of the End of the World: Human Edition
2:10 – The Aftermath of the End of the World: The Great Crowley/Aziraphale Switcheroo
2:18 – Ten-Minute Sidebar to GUSH OVER THE AMAZING CAST
2:31 – One Last Moment of Ineffable Husbands
2:34 – COMING UP NEXT: “Russian Doll” Episodes 1-4! (Spoiler-Free, Because Claire Hasn't Watched It Yet!)

GOOD OMENS, Part the Second!

Welcome to Meta Station’s first recap of “His Dark Materials,” the perfect show for a podcast hosted by an atheist English professor and a Catholic playwright. Join us for a deep dive into the transformation of the books from page to screen, with side quests into climate change, Vatican II, “Paradise Lost,” gender fluidity, and Galileo. Plus, we lay out a careful plan about avoiding spoilers and then forget it immediately, of COURSE Erin knows the Milton quote Philip Pullman got the series title from, and Claire hops in the wayback machine to reminisce about being a youth minister when these books first blew up in the U.S.

Grab your alethiometer and your bottle of secret crypt wine, we’re going on an adventure! 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

0:00 – Hello, New Listeners, and Welcome Back, Old Friends!
0:02 – Page to Screen Adaptation, Part I: Asriel, Lyra and Narrative Perspective
0:21 – We Stan a Relatable 11-Year-Old Who Is Sometimes a Butthead
0:27 – Page to Screen Adaptation, Part II: Dramatic Irony, Pacing Big Reveals for Television, and How Ruth Wilson Almost Convinced Us, Too
0:44 – The Gyptian Daemon Ceremony: Our Need for Ritual, the Magisterium’s Dehumanization of Religion, and the Return of Claire’s Catholicism Corner
1:10 – Pan-Daemonium 
1:34 – Galileo, Climate Change, and Dust: The Politics of Scientific Knowledge
1:55 – The Magisterium, the Master, and the Moral Bankruptcy of Incentivizing Ignorance
2:02 – Erin Rambles On About Miltonian Cosmology, and All Is Right With Meta Station

"His Dark Materials" 1x01: "Lyra's Jordan"

Welcome back to Meta Station! 

Sadly for you, several of our BEST jokes this week happened before we started recording, and we apologize to our longtime fans for depriving them of the newest installment of our ongoing “vases vs. botulism” debate. (You had to be there.) 

Fortunately, this still ended up being one of our favorite conversations, because there is SO! MUCH! TO SAY! about Mrs. Coulter: from using femininity as a weapon to wield power over men, to the complicated relationship between women and anger, to why it matters that her (male) daemon has been silenced. We also talked Magisterium theology, Boreal’s dimension-hopping, and how relieved we are that our pure sons Roger and Billy finally found each other.

P.S. Rather predictably, we have already completely abandoned any attempt to remain spoiler-free for people who haven’t read the books, for reasons that will become very clear in the Mrs. Coulter section. If you are aggressively trying to avoid any plot details from the books, you might want to bookmark this one and come back to it after the end of the season.

--------------------------------------------------

0:00 – Lyra and the Apartment: Art Deco Design Porn, Abuse Dynamics, and Gilded Cages
0:10 – The Interior Life of Marisa Coulter: Weaponized Femininity, Suppressed Emotions, a Daemon That Doesn’t Speak, AND A COUPLE OF REALLY BIG SPOILERS
1:01 – Mrs. Coulter: Severing Ties, Emotionally and Literally
1:11 – Boreal, Other Worlds, and Novel Versus TV Plot Pacing
1:24 – Fighting for Ideas . . . of North, and Other Things
1:31 – Claire's Catholicism Corner: What Does "Oblation" Mean? And What Does It Tell Us About Mrs. Coulter?
1:42 - The Magisterium's Cold-Blooded Daemons
1:47 - The Most On-Brand Moment Ever: Claire Ships All the Parents

NOTE: We apologize for some very mild sound issues on this one; Claire’s computer, like herself, has a very flexible relationship with the concept of Time, and froze up for a second before reviving so the whole middle of one sentence just disappeared, which is mostly upsetting because it was MILF flailing and we know that’s important to you guys. Also, Erin’s sound recording software was picking up the computer mic instead of her podcasting mic, so there are handful of places where she cuts out for a split-second as well. We edited around it as best we could, but hopefully it won’t be too distracting.

"His Dark Materials" 1x02: "The Idea of North"

Welcome back to Meta Station, where IT’S TIME TO CRY ABOUT MOMS! Lyra finally finds a family, we learn a lot more about daemons, some Dramatic Backstory is revealed, a show finally presents a suicide storyline responsibly, and we have a LOT of thoughts about white male patriarchy. Also, the alethiometer finally works, Ma Costa is our new favorite character, and Fleabag’s Hot Priest has joined the cast which means this show officially has everything.
_________________________________________
0:00 - Thank Goodness for the Gyptians, Adults Lyra Can Actually Trust
0:17 – How This Episode Gets Suicide-As-Plot/Character-Development Right 
0:37 – Daemon Discussion Redux: Farder Coram Edition
0:41 – Lyra's Journey to Trust, Belonging, and a Working Alethiometer 
0:53 – [Sidebar to Cry About Lyra and Ma Costa, the Ur-Mom]
1:11 – The Gyptians, the Magisterium, and the Value of Children
1:19 – Smash the Patriarchy, Part I: Who’s Outside the Machinery of Power, and Why It Matters That Boreal and the Master Are Black Men
1:33 – Smash the Patriarchy, Part II: Male Shame, the Complicity of White Women, and the Show’s Refreshing Decision Not to Woobify Mrs. Coulter
1:56 – No New Episode Next Week for Gay Reasons, But We’ll Be Back After American Thanksgiving!

"His Dark Materials" 1x03: "The Spies"

Greetings from Meta Station, where a playwright and an English professor who have been best friends for sixteen years recap our favorite genre television shows. Check out our archive for 4 seasons of coverage of the CW's post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama "The 100," including cast and creator interviews, and join us in summer 2019 for coverage of three new streaming miniseries perfect for binge-watching - "Good Omens" on Amazon Prime, "Russian Doll" on Netflix, and "Gentleman Jack" on HBO!

META STATION

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks