See, I Don't Think So-

See, I don't think so-

1. He never reacted to the Psi waves! Cutter and Pryce had the regulator on board the whole time they were there, and he was never affected.

2. The mind control worked; it broke early because of Lovelace's blood, but it didn't break like it did for her

3. The star was blue when he went through, not red; it was safe for him to go through.

I DO, however, think it's possible for Eiffel to get his memories back due to a combination of Lovelace blood and The Aliens Having A Copy Of His Brain As Of Watchtower

guys……. You remember how Lovelace’s shuttle fell into the Star

And then Doug falls into the star

Doug must come back as a clone right???

How did I only just realize this on like my seventh listen

Guys he's NOT a Mary Sue he's a BAD guy and he even gets beaten up by JACOBI >: (

hi this is my wolf 359 oc victor riemann, he’s cutter’s Best Friend and EVEN MORE SECRETIVE than si-5. even warren kepler doesn’t know he exists. he’s also really badass and bffs with rachel young. he’s really strong too and really evil and even miranda pryce likes him. he doesn’t legally exist because everything he does is so important and secret

That moment also betrays a certain knowingness on Kepler's part, which implies that Goddard purposely understocked supplies on the Hephaestus so they could be used as bargaining chips later on—

Kepler reintroduces luxuries like coffee, as well as basic hygiene products like toothpaste and presumably soap (as mentioned in Little Revolucion!), upon his arrival. That act of "kindness" masks the obtrusive and ill-intentioned nature of his arrival by diverting attention towards necessities and familiarities the crew's been deprived of. We know at this point that Goddard is bad, but this is one of their earliest examples of manipulation tactics that extend beyond just lying. It's so subtle, it's easy to miss, especially on the first listen. There are plenty more instances of these tactics, including the backstory minisodes— which, while a little more heavy handed, act as similar examples.

TL;DR Goddard sucks and so does Kepler, thank you and goodnight

THE MOTIF OF THE TOOTHPASTE: Kepler mentioning the toothpaste supplies creates a structural callback and calls attention to a time of lower stakes, and allows the listener to track how bad things have gotten, and in this essay I will-

Okay hold on now I have to cast this for fun

Sam as The Narrator

Brennan Lee Mulligan as The Baker

Izzy Roland as The Baker's Wife

Ally Beardsley or Alex Song-Xia as Jack

Aabria Iyengar as Cinderella

Emily Axeford as Little Red (duh)

Vic Michaelis as The Witch

Katie Marovich or Jess Ross as Rapunzel

Grant O'Brien as The Wolf/Cinderella's Prince

Ify Nwadiwe as Rapunzel's Prince

Brian Murphy as Jack's Mother (or Father) (hear me out)

Kimia Behpoornia and Jiovani as Florinda and Lucinda

Siobhan Thompson as Cinderella's Stepmother

And last but not least, Paul Robalino puppeteering Milky White

you know what I want?

I want a production of into the woods featuring the dropout cast.

I want all of that gloriously chaotic, wickedly smart energy that I know they could bring to it

I want to see the way this show can *hit* with the help of the audience’s preconceived notions. a big part of ITW is taking public knowledge of these old stories and shattering expectations; a lot of droupout’s success comes from its audience’s adoration of these people and their relationships, at least what’s shown on camera-everyone has an idea of what each cast member is like, and to see them play characters somewhat like or unlike their personas or the characters they usually play and then take them through the journey of the show would just. be. incredible

I want the pure warmth that would come from Brennan and Izzy’s rendition of “it takes two”

I want Jess Ross’ delivery of “THERE’S A DEAD GIANT IN MY BACKYARD”

I want to see Grant and Ify’s “agony” break the internet

I want to see Katie’s well-known and beloved “quirky girl” vibes contribute to the pain of Rapunzel’s breakdown (or to see the chaos of her Little Red, can’t decide)

I want Sam Reich as the narrator/mysterious man, and I want to see the half-joking edits people would make, putting audio of his and Brennan’s duet over clips of the most diabolical episodes

I want to see that beautiful dropout-trademarked mix of comedy and depth in the context of this striking piece of musical theatre, with the core message of “careful the tale you tell, that is the spell”. because we’ve always watched these people do their silly little prompts and play their silly little games and laugh together and then all of a sudden they’ll hit on something real and break all our hearts, because the stories we tell *matter*, and that is something I’ve seen shine through both pieces of media that I would just so love to see come together

(disclaimer, I’m speaking as someone who’s so far only seen game changer, half of make some noise, and a bunch of clips of other shows-I’m working my way through all the content and I’m sure that once I finally watch D20 my mind will explode with even more of these thoughts)

Memoria

I think, after the events of the podcast, Eiffel and Minkowski would both end up with different trauma responses in the wake of the Hephaestus' lack of food/supplies—

Minkowski's main focus is her crew. Once they're back on Earth, even with every resource at her disposal, she rations everything. She's deeply uncomfortable with the feeling of losing control, so she measures every portion and keeps a meticulous inventory. It takes her almost a year to start using toothpaste properly, because her instinct is to save as much as possible.

Eiffel, on the other hand, was stranded on Lovelace's ship. His trauma largely revolves around rationing and portion control. So, he swings wildly in the other direction and hoards. His cupboards are full of chips, bulk pasta, cereal, frozen burritos. More vegetables go bad in his fridge than he actually eats. He'll grab anything he sees at the grocery store, even if he has no intention of using it, because the fact that he can pushes away the dread of running out of anything. He also rarely finishes a container before moving to the next one, because his instinct is to save some for later, no matter how irrational that is. He has six almost empty cans of coffee grounds laying around at any given time.

I also think the two of them living together might help both of them heal a little. The first few months are hell, of course, because as much as they need and care about each other, Minkowski's obsessive portioning freaks Eiffel out, and Eiffel's reckless abandon does the same to her. Eventually, though, I think they'd each recognize the other's point of view and meet at an almost healthy middle ground