#s2ep36

So I actually got to do the live listen this time, since I'm off for summer break. I'll get to do two or three more throughout July, which is exciting. But I kind of wish that I hadn't had all of the extra distractions. I usually crawl into bed at the end of my work day after dinner and listen without anything else going on.

On to the episode:

First of all, Willy controlling the other dads with the collars is still blowing my mind. It makes sense that he would mimic that from season 1, but it also feels a little bit out of nowhere. We haven't seen or heard from the kiddads since "The Staircase", so it feels a bit out of left field.

And boy do I want to hear that fight and know more about how that went down. Willy overpowered all four of them? I mean, sure, he's a powerful dude, but it still blows me away.

After the opening and understanding that Terry Jr is being controlled, there's mostly just a lot of planning of how they're going to get into this other building with the Papa John people (why are they back??? They weren't in the city before - what the heck is the anchor that's in there???) before we get to the crazy ending that has my brain reeling.

It's a bit of a crazy plan, and it doesn't go well. At the end of all of this, they still haven't gotten into the place they need to get, Grant has killed Terry, and the party is split. Taylor, normal, and Link are all on the ground, and Hermie and Terri are still on the roof. And the Black Parade, which had decided that Terry was their leader, is now leaderless again.

And what was Nick doing this whole time??? Hopefully some awesome subterfuge that helps them all out next time.

The last time somebody (Tony Pepperoni) died on the show, they did a time jump. We can't do that here. (Please don't do that here). That means these teens just don't get any time to process what they just witnessed. Heck, technically the boys on the ground didn't see anything. They just would have heard the gunshot.

While there is a big part of me that wants Normal to cast Revivify, one, he can't exactly do that from his position on the ground, and two, I do kind of want this death to matter narratively. It feels like if he were to cast it, the death would have no weight. I guess that's a problem with the rules of D&D in general.

I don't know where this is headed, and I don't know how they're going to get the next anchor. This one should be the last one, right? Does that mean we're in the end game? Numbers-wise, if they were planning for this season to be as long as the first, we'd only be about halfway there.

Is Willy going to see Terri as she is right now? He still didn't want Terry Jr (or the other dads, presumably) to hurt her. Huh. That's making me realize a couple of things: 1. Willy knows that she didn't actually kill the other teens. Otherwise, how would he know to tell the kiddads to shoot them? So, 2. That means he knows that Scary lied to him and still doesn't want to hurt her. He needs her for something. I've been assuming that he plans to sacrifice her (or some equivalent), so my guess is that explains why he wouldn't be upset by her betrayal.