Steve Ahlman

We all have things to work through.

You love a Funko Pop. He loves a frozen corpse.

I mean.

A patron.

Right.

Beautiful champagne suits.

You just named it.

It's a great question. It's a great question.

He was at the office.

Of course not.

Yeah.

I mean, shout out Showtime.

Always so many places to keep it. I don't know.

I agree. While we also punch a bunch.

I...

Straight to hell.

There it is. Vanessa. Vanessa.

There was a lot of stuff on there. He was using every square inch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I'm saying it's not looking great. Just still figuring out the details before. It's not. Yeah. We're in the paperwork era. Yeah. We're working on the contract. That's what it felt like. Right.

Oh, my God.

I'll shake your hand.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

Oh no, how often are you with him?

That's probably how it happened.

Okay.

Yeah.

I've seen a lot of angles here.

Where's Will at?

I knew it.

Steve.

Kayla is my. I need to be on the phones.

That's Tay.

Let's just get back to the pod.

Oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm going by myself. I'm serious. Nobody goes to Turkey Cake.

Yeah. He's not making it to rush hour three. So here's the thing.

Oh, yeah, no.

No.

We're getting ready to talk about Cassian Under. You're listening to a reaction podcast.

Yeah.

But that was important, though, because even though she was obviously being insincere, it was important to show that she could demonstrate a level of savvy and control when she needed someone to do something that she wanted them to do. So there is, at some point, some discipline there. to get to the end that she wants. Even though it was all lies.

What'd you think? How fucking disturbing is a movie supposed to be? I submit that that movie, did you see it? God, no. Oh, it's good. It's really good. I submit that that movie is the only movie that has disturbed me to that degree since Donnie Darko came out. Really? It is Donnie Darko level. Is that your pitch? The vibes are there. I'm not saying the movie's not good.

Even though it was all lies, she didn't get hyper-emotional and lose herself and go into all... And we see that throughout the episode where she's walking out of the hospital and she's conning Catherine O'Hara's character to make her believe that she's okay mentally. And then the really great push-in to her face as the illusion... of her being okay, like, legitimately wipes away.

And the rage comes out of her. She still wasn't able to get people, you know, to come with her to Seattle, but she was able to convince enough people to be on her side so that she had some support and going.

But if you're in therapy, a lot of times your therapist does that to you. You say something and they go, how profound? And you'll be like, you're not fucking with it, huh? And they'll be like, okay, now that you've said the really deep thing, let's get to how you're actually feeling. And then you go, I'm just in pain. Yeah. It works every time. So, I mean, that's part of it.

She's been, like she said, she's been doing it for 40 years. You're not going to be able to sit there. I don't give a fuck how slick you think you are as a 19-year-old girl and talk circles around somebody that's dealt with all different types of people.

welcome into the ringerverse this is of course the ringer's next podcast feed for all things fandom we are steve the architect almond the builder and tinkerer of things we are tell me explain it dinner on you've got questions he's got answers old man van he of the resurgent hairline coke baby chuck 24 karat closer together we are known as about midnight boys also socials insta twitter facebook and tiktok joey yo

I think Jesse voted no because he's a pragmatist. And taking 16 people from that town and leaving to go is a monumentally stupid thing to do.

Yeah, you have to let her have her say because you need her. She's never going to give it up. So you realize that you're probably going to lose her to this mission. But taking 16 people and then going to wage war, killing Abby or killing that entire crew of wolves, and then expecting those people to not get... You are... It's a war, right? It's a war at that point. Now...

The movie, Justin Smith, Jesus Christ, bro. He's going for it. Good, man. Like, the movie is good. Like, it's good, and it's a descent. But I haven't been that, like, Jesus Christ, creepy crawly. What the fuck is going on since Donnie Darko?

Maybe, you know, you let one person do it. Maybe it's going to be a war anyway. But it's such a stupid thing. It's such a stupid ask that I don't think that Jesse would have voted for it.

This is the nigga I want to hear from now. Because I'm like, I'm thinking, because I'm thinking, he's thinking corn. I'm thinking tortilla. I'm thinking all the time.

It's actually so versatile that we're probably eating too much corn.

But yeah, so he's trying to get the fucking village back on track with the corn. Yeah. But at the same time. Don't worry about the beef, man.

Yeah.

I thought about Batman Begins. Oh? We'll see. It's not justice, it's revenge.

Remember that? Yeah. The difference between justice is about harmony, revenge is about making yourself feel good.

And... I've always thought about that since they put that in the movie. I'm one of those people that I'll be in a hardcore actual argument with my girl or somebody and be like, remember what they said in Batman Begins? Right. You just want revenge on me. It's not about... I want justice. It's a harmony. You know, I'm the person that like... Yeah, the whole nine.

You're like, all right, liar. As an aside, there's a lot of... There's a lot of wisdom to be garnered from movies. But I just want to let y'all know, y'all not cooking when you in a serious conversation about politics or something and then you like bring up Jurassic Park. Like, you're not cooking. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're not cooking.

Like, you're not... There are certain movies that litigate really important societal things. Right. But you'll be talking to somebody after a while and they'll be like, hey... Just like what happened. Remember Ace Ventura? Oh, my God. Bro. Okay? We talking about Juneteenth.

Why don't we just take inspiration?

It came from a Wikipedia dive that I did. Oh. Wait, where'd you start on the Wikipedia dive? I cannot remember. So I can't remember where I started on the Wikipedia dive. Uh-huh. Right? And I ended up on the page of I Saw the TV Globe. And something that happens to me sometimes when I'm reading the plot of a movie, I'll read the first couple of lines and then I'll stop.

Black Panther was one of the ones. I was like, all right. Because it was like... Because look, here's what you don't know. Right. Here's what you don't know. You know, Disney, big corporation. Uh-huh. T'Challa had the CIA with him. So what you don't know, what you don't know, what you don't know is whether or not they trying to say that The Black Panthers needed the CIA?

You don't know what Disney's really trying to say, right? You can't rule it out. You can't rule it out that there's some fucking exec going... But, Brother Latham.

But see, this is where, to me, this is to me, where clues in them come in. Okay. Because when you come away from that movie, rest in peace, our brother, when you come away from that movie, you think, oh my God, what's the way? Is the way... Because really, Killmonger won. Because all Killmonger wanted... We're going to get right back to Last of Us, guys.

All Killmonger wanted was for Wakanda to help. That's all he wanted. That's all he wanted. He's like, yo, we getting our asses kicked over here. Y'all niggas riding around in spaceships. What the fuck? And in the end, he won. He got it. I mean, he made it. He opened that set. He opened the Oakland. They got Black Panther to come over there.

We don't know that. Who else got vibranium? They might have vibranium in Oakland right now. They might be ghost riding.

We haven't been back there. We don't know what happened to Oakland after the Wakanda.

I love it. I was like, why? Hey, you know who I thought about? When they brought the spaceship to Oakland, I thought about Bub Rub and Lil Sis.

Remember them? I thought about them. You think Too Short got a vibranium muffler? With the whistle? Y'all remember them? They had the whistle mufflers on there?

I thought about putting the whistle muffler on the motherfucking Wakandan chip. Oh, my God, bro.

What's Bub Rub in there? What's his name? Bub Rub?

That's the thing, though. T'Challa wouldn't say that. He wouldn't say that because if the sisters is twerking, that's actually connected back to Africa.

T'Challa wouldn't say that. T'Challa would see them twerking and he would be like, well done.

We on one this morning. All right, we back to last one. God.

Gotta lock in. If the first couple of lines, people should pay attention to this as you're writing these Wikipedia pages and stuff and these synopsis. If the first couple of lines are like,

Tommy has a larger responsibility. Yeah. And his responsibility demands that he put Joel in the context. Because if you are trying to govern for the many, or protect the weakest, then you have to take into consideration realities. And this is the part of leadership that's very tough for a lot of people. The part of leadership is easy to set yourself apart from people and be their boss, right?

And be someone that they have to answer to. It's difficult to be their leader because when you are their leader, you have to take into consideration who they are. You just have to because you have to set people up for success.

And when there are failures, you have to be able to look at those failures in a holistic way and say, hey, while it is in me emotionally to want to go and kill everybody who harmed my brother, I know my brother. And knowing my brother means that there were probably vendettas that he created. That in this situation, I don't know how many lives are worth sacrificing for Joel's personality.

No. No? Okay. No, because there's too much... He's got too much tape on him. Right. Right?

intriguing enough I'll stop and go like I gotta watch it so maybe like the first half paragraph four or five lines I'm like oh let's put this on so I put it on and it was fucked up it was a fucked up movie is it really good wait I will say there is a scene towards the end where like is this

And that might have been the reason why they connected. Yeah. Because he saw impulses in her that reminded him of himself. And she saw somebody in him that was an evolved version of who she was already. Maybe who she wanted to be. Maybe who she wanted to be. So they leave. They get on the horse. First of all, let's talk about... Before we talk about them leaving, the scene of her...

going back and going through all of his stuff. Nuts. Been there. Having been there, I almost started tearing up. Yeah, it was weird.

I literally went to my dad's house and the TV was still on. You know what I mean? The TV was still on. So I'm like, shit. Before they got him out of there, I was there two days after he died. So he died on the 4th. I was actually home the next day. So everything was just as he left it. It's just a really eerie, really weird thing to do.

But then I told you guys already, I found his porn and it made me feel okay. I don't know why.

i don't know why he still he still kept the physical one he didn't go over this nigga had burned porn like written in like uh hell yeah like hell yeah like he had burned porn like he had like oh like okay sorry and it was like big booty hoes volume four wow he did mixtapes like yeah did you pop one in just yeah i had to I had to give it up for the old man.

I saw that because he had a DVD-VCR combo. Pops, where were you living?

Yeah, DVD-VCR combo. So I put one in, and the first person I saw, Cherokee Daz. Damn, legend. And I was like, damn, Pops, I'm just like you. And then I took the CDs and I put them into my things.

Yeah, it's part of, you know, you want to keep things for posterity.

That's what I'm talking about. Selma Steve. Selma Steve is back up. That's funny. Cherokee is 49. She's still... 49? Cherokee is 49 and... Still working? I mean, I don't know if she's still working, but I saw an updated picture of her. Still got it, man. Shout out to her. Sometimes I do be like... You're concerned. You're like, I get Cherokee. Because they're not old.

They're in their unty pages and they're living life. Shout out to Cherokee.

I need you to stop. Stop. I need you to stop. I need you to relax. I need you to stop. She offers her cookies.

Dina offers her a cookie back.

Let me tell y'all something right now. Y'all don't think these writers be fucking around. These writers be fucking around. The knitter thing. And then, like, these writers, hey, the cookie is either it's that, but it's also a communion that they're both taking. It's their pact. Peace offering, I believe is what she said. It's a peace offering for sure. Yeah.

But their subtext of I offer you, you, you offer me, me. No, I offer me, you, you offer me, you. They both do that. And then from the moment that they both eat the cookie and get their secrets out, they are the new team. Locked up.

I mean, they talk about it in the first episode. Jesse lost his... Jesse girl's gone. It's over. You think so? Hold on, hold on. It's over. She made her choice. She went on a kill mission with her and then... Ellie doesn't, I love this part of the show because the show has so many different levels. It's also, this show could also be like 80s fucking teen. Teen romp.

You know, because they're laying down and Ellie's like, you know, you were super drunk. It doesn't mean anything. And Dina goes, I wasn't that drunk. Dina really loves Ellie. Jessie is a placeholder. You know what I mean? To me.

Absolutely.

She's a hot mess. She's a hot mess. Or it's the apocalypse.

It's a little fucked up, but you know. But you got to know this about Jesse as well. Jesse has a real job to do. Right, yeah. Jesse is like, Jesse can't be worried about all of this can't hardly wait bullshit.

He knows that he's got to tighten it up. Jesse's like, yeah, lover, all of that. When Dina kissed Ellie, Jesse was like, hey, it's all gravy. Yeah, whatever. But that's how you know he's the man.

He's about to be the president.

So Dina and Ellie are on their adventure.

Yeah, I'm just going to read a Wikipedia about a random movie. What a freaked out fucking movie, though.

But that right there just shows you how much Dina has put... How much thought she's put into Ellie's safety. Right. Ellie is... A caretaker. Ellie is a hothead. Dina is a caretaker. And they are going to be good. But we now must talk about them leaving. Right. Every time we fucking try to leave, one of you guys goes. So they leave.

I feel bad for horses to have to walk all the way to Seattle, but it is what it is.

And I was really interested because I never played the game. So I'm like, that was the most video game-y part of it to me. Like the road trip aspect? I'll tell you why. It's because, like, with most shows, they wallow in the aftermath of Joel's death and the assault on Jackson for a little longer. But this has to get... If you're playing a video game, you can't do that.

You didn't see it?

You can't stay there and do the emotional part of it. The game must happen again. Yeah. So... Ellie and Dina being on the road to Seattle is essentially them reinventing the formula of the video game from it being about Ellie and Joel to it being about Ellie and Dina. And getting them back on the road. Getting them back on the road, which is what the game is about.

The Ringiverse button mash returns on Mondays.

Now, in a game, that works perfectly. In a show, I was wondering if it was going to work. I was wondering, okay, so all of this just happened. Now, loading screen, we're back to essentially the show that the first season was. It ended up working, but I was like, God damn, they got right back to it.

Button mash is going to be on Mondays. You guys are going to do that. Tuesday, Ringiverse recommends returns. Oh, my God. What am I going to recommend? I don't know. I saw the TV. Maybe. On Wednesday, the Midnight Boys react to the latest episodes of Andor.

Okay.

It's got to be that now.

You know, Dina understands when it's going to rain because she has special indigenous powers. Stop. What is wrong with you? That's what they made it seem like. No. That's not what she said. That's what they do. No, bro. No, that's a thing. That's what they do. Look up. That's what they do to people, to people of color in these shows. Jesus Christ. It's like, there's a whole thing.

Actually, you got hired. No. No.

We might get a tornado, Massa. Like, you know what I'm saying? Jesus Christ. So, but then something else that once again, never played the game. So, Right. The special Joker people that were massacred. Right. We saw them before. We saw that they obviously they all have a tribal marking. Right. Or a marking of some group. Steve, you're going to tell us. And then we see that they have been slain.

Andor and his adventures are back. I want to say something. I want to start doing, before we move on. This is tangent number two, by the way. This is tangent number two. I want to start doing just Midnight Defense episodes. So I want to come on here, and I want to make a statement. I just want to spend the whole hour. It's not a midnight court, just talking about the statement.

Yeah. They have the hammers.

Go shoot better than everybody. Everybody's like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. He died. Oh. See? Y'all got to watch Charles, man. That's some Waco branch division. I know.

Charles, this is what they do. See, this is bad. That's what they do. What are you talking about? See, that's what these cults are about.

Do witchcraft in the woods. He's going to be spaceless. You ever seen a postman? What? No. Okay, so The Postman is a... The Postman is... I'm telling you, maybe the CIA is behind some of these movies. Is this a Kevin Costner movie? Yeah, so The Postman is a movie about... It's post-apocalyptic. Right. And Kevin Costner... gets people believing in civilization again by delivering the mail.

That's what it's about. Like he delivers the mail.

And because he delivers the mail, um, he becomes like a figure. He's kind of a charlatan, but he becomes a figure of great inspiration and, Because he's the postman. He delivers the mail.

Okay, yeah. That was when Kevin Costner... I mean, Kevin Costner is directed. Yeah, many. Yeah, but I like a lot of great movies, by the way. Sure. You act like you're hating. I'm not trying to hate. I hate when people hate. You know, because I'm... There's a lot of, like, Americana, like... Chill out, Kevin Costner. Rances with wolves, my nigga. Yeah, I get it.

So... But, you know, in the apocalypse in... the postman, the bad guys played by Will Patton. You guys know Will Patton, right?

So what I want to do, I submit to you right now that Curb Your Enthusiasm is the funniest show that has ever existed on television. All right, not true, but I want to hear you defend this, because I love that show. Okay, so we can't do it now. Right. Well, this can't be post-credits. Can't do it now, because I need more time. I submit to you. You got to gather the defense.

And he talks about the fact that in his past life, He fixed Xerox machines. Or he was a Xerox machine salesman. And you always think about that. Because I would watch that. I would think about, yo, the apocalypse went bad. And then this guy put together this group of the apocalypse went bad. The apocalypse happened. And this guy became like the worst motherfucker in the world. The most shrewd.

crazy motherfucker in the world and he used to be like he used to sell Xerox machines like who's going to break bad in the apocalypse at this table right now who would break bad In the apocalypse. Jomie. Jomie for sure. Jomie for sure. For sure.

That just fucking breaks your shit. Yeah. Jomie breaks bad in the apocalypse right away.

Get rid of him. Get rid of him. Jomie comes over to my house. He's like, man, we need munitions. We need weapons. I'm like, okay, cool. Yeah, I got some stuff. Like, yeah, yeah. Let me inspect what you have. And I'm like, here. He's like, I don't know how this works. Like, load it for me. And I'm like, okay. Click. There's one in the chamber now. Chief Jomie. Chief Jomie. Boom!

Just shoots me right there. And then that's his sidearm.

What's going on, Uncle Jomie?

So these people, so then we make it to Seattle. We make it to Seattle. We see that they've all been killed. We don't know who killed them. We make it to Seattle. Seattle is in ruins. However, there is a military infrastructure that the Wolves have there. And they have ridiculous resources. How in the fuck? Like, is Abby fucking, not Abby, is Ellie John Wick?

It's like, how the fuck is she gonna get, first of all, find Abby? How's she gonna find Abby and all of that? It's a major American city that's been left to ruins. And then, these motherfuckers got tanks. Like, I literally, that was a great scene because I'm literally looking at all the stuff that they have. They've rebranded these tanks with their insignia.

They're walking with all of these people. And I'm thinking to myself, I know that there has to be this struggle that's going to happen. But what are they about to do? Are they going to turn around and go back to Jackson? What happens?

Is there a point? Because I don't know what the headquarters of the Wolves look like right now. Right? They're on patrol. I don't know if they have a place. I mean, everybody looks healthy. So obviously, there's sustenance there. Obviously, they must have found a way to grow. Whatever.

But is this a situation where maybe Ellie has a point that is actually proactive for them to go up there and fuck over them? Because now they know where the people in Jackson are. And if they get a little froggy, Maybe they sent some guys over.

There are a couple of shows that are in the zeitgeist that are legit. I'm not talking about, hey, I'm talking about legitimately hysterical. So you're saying Curb is better than Seinfeld? Yes. I'd agree with that. By a significant degree. By a significant margin. I would think that. Really? Seinfeld is funny.

I don't know if you can drive a tank from Seattle to Wyoming, but maybe. I mean, motherfuckers in Andor put some ropes on his truck. I was dragging it. Yeah. So look, and then we end with, to me, what the show is about, which is terror and grandiosity, which is kind of what the show is about. Terror and grandiosity. Like, you have... And Wonder. You have Abby and...

um abby i keep calling abby ellie and dean in a new place they're looking at amongst this place you see the ruins of the society and civilization that once was um you see this huge threat and you also have some mystery because you're wondering who killed these seraphites so the show got to a point to where this was really a new pilot yeah this was a second pilot episode you could argue that the first two episodes of the season were a continuation of the last season

And this was really the pilot episode of the second season of the show.

Although I will say that... That was the work of the show and the creative team to make people... It's a delicate dance to make people care about Joel's death, but also... be connected to the show in his absence. And we'll see, particularly in the next episode, not even in this one, because his DNA was still over.

And I know we're going to see Joel again, but whether or not they could do that, whether or not the new story that they're telling is, is going to resonate with people. And that's, that's, you know, because there's a third season as well. So certainly, yeah.

I'm like, interesting. A new dynamic. A new dynamic. Well, Midboys, what do you guys think?

That's true. Also, I'm talking about all shows now, right? Okay. So, Early Chappelle Show is in this conversation, right? Early Chappelle Show is in this conversation. Curb is in this conversation. I, anyone... Give me something that's funnier than Curb and the ridiculous ways that that show is fun.

But the problem with the Hollywood Hills is that you don't have to go up and down the hill by foot. You ain't got no car.

I mean, he showed up for it. At that point, you got to let bygones.

Can I say something? You know what I like? I like the fact that Ellie was going on a trek to Seattle, and she brought all weapons. Nothing else. No cupcakes. Like, she brought... She brought hardtack, though. She brought... Yeah, hardtack. Hardtack. Hardtack. Hardtack.

I like the rifle, but... How come we never see people fishing in the show? Shouldn't they be fishing? Do they fish?

I want to see them fish. That's enough. Good episode of television, guys.

Good fucking episode of TV. All in on where The Last of Us is going. Interesting to see when Joel pops back up in flashbacks and how they use them. I'm sure you guys know because you played the game. But interesting to see that. But also, at the same time, I think I'm good saying goodbye to Joel.

Good straight right. Good straight right. Look, I thought, I see, you know, you watch enough TV and movies and you see guys that were throwing a football like the dude and the, and it's like, but I thought she threw the decent little straight right. I was, I was surprised. Handle business.

All right. We're out of here. That is a wrap. This week on the Ringiverse feed, Ringiverse button mash returns on Mondays. Tuesday, Ringiverse recommends returns. I can't wait. You guys have something you're going to recommend? Yeah, buddy. And on Wednesday, the Midnight Boys read to the latest episodes of Andor. There's a show about Rebel Spy casting in Andor. Okay?

It's an insurgency that's happening against Emperor Palpatine in the galaxy. Yeah. And it's Luthen. Okay. And it's Cassian. I don't know what this is. And it's Bix. Yes. And they're going for it.

You guys might want to tune into it. You might want to tune in to Disney Plus to watch Andor. And then tune in here as the Midnight Boys cover it. Yeah. Okay? Okay. Fuck I'm talking about. Tune in, God damn it. All right. Our producers are Steve, the architect, Almond. Jonathan Kerma. Jomie at dinner on our socials. Hashtag, I saw the Jomie glow. I saw the Jomie glow. That's good.

And in the apocalypse, Jomie will probably take your hope. Hell yeah. Additional production from Arjuna Ramgopal. Chuck, take us out.

Yeah, you can order it from Postmates. Like an AMC? It's not going to be cold. Send me a... Well, I mean, there's two things you can do. Number one, if you order it from a movie theater near you, it's not that bad. Depending on... But the Grove is here or missed because it takes those guys a while to get in there.

But when you get it, you put it in the air fryer. Oh, okay. Pops right back up. Now, if you, if it was like fucking like three, like five hours, I'm sure. But like, if you get it, you put it in the air fryer, me and Kalika will have movie night and we'll get the stuff. She'll even get an Icy. Instead of making the popcorn yourself? Yeah, because a movie theater popcorn is just better.

Very true.

So this is going to sound so stupid. Okay. Do you know the reason why I don't use the popcorn maker? Why? Because it triggers me and reminds me of the pandemic.

Like... I'm willing to do this. Everybody pick a show. We'll have a battle of Midnight Boys. Whoa. Like, rumble.

popcorn maker oh you were using a lot of birthday yeah okay and that was during the pandemic and uh i was making a lot of popcorn uh because just because because it was like it's something to do something that was your sourdough starter that was my sour yeah with coffee was yeah it was so i was making a lot of popcorn and like we will watch what's that movie with uh chris hensworth

that came out on Netflix during the pandemic.

Extraction. So, oh, we're going to watch Extraction, right? We're going to sit there and we're going to watch Extraction. Let's make some popcorn and watch Extraction. So you're watching it and you're like, this is not the shit. Yeah, it's not. I like the Extraction. I'm not talking about the movie. Right. I'm talking about, yeah, we made popcorn.

yeah we're watching the extraction yeah it's dark yeah this is not the shit yeah no it's not okay and so we i was making so much popcorn popcorn smelled the whole time and now when i make that fucking pop when i use that popcorn machine it reminds me you get more flashbacks it reminds me i swear to god so tough i order it you know put in a black panther tin or whatever i still have

Oh, we should. That's a good one. You know? That's a good one. Martin's in there.

The office is funny, but it's levels to this.

Okay, no. Never seen an episode. New Girl is great, but it's just a warm blanket. Shout out to Lamar.

Wow. That's your. I've never seen it. You've never seen New Girl? There's a lot of ways that I support my friend. I was at the Prince last night. You've never seen New Girl? I've never seen it. I've never. I've never.

Yeah.

I'll check it out.

There's white women.

He falls in love with a white girl. No, she's not white. Wait. No, no. He falls in love with a professor. That's enough.

This is post-credits now. Sorry. But on today's show, we give you our instant reactions to the latest episode of Last of Us. Guys, we're about to talk about Last of Us, and we're going to spoil stuff, but we promise. We make a promise. So you put this in the document. I think it's very apt.

We are only spoiling the game up to the show, so you don't have to worry about any of our gamers here on the Midnight Boys spoiling something that would happen in the future. But we are going to be spoiling stuff that has happened on the show. Steve, run the spoiler warning.

The spoilers are coming. Begin our reactions. Got to put you in the know. Only way to do that is the Midnight Manifest. Only person who can do that is Chuck White.

They did something that was very important to do. They got us right back into story, which you would think would be difficult after losing such a major character. But you have to get right back into story. You have to say that this is a story that's worth telling without Joel.

okay um which a lot of times with your main characters it's hard to do yep it's hard to imagine the Sopranos without Tony Soprano it's hard to imagine uh Breaking Bad without Walter White Succession without Logan Succession without Logan we've talked about this it's hard to imagine however this show is not about Joel it's about he was the anchor of the show it's really about the world and the choices that the characters have to make so they have to

reorient us to get back into the show uh without him and they do a good job two things that they do that to me are very effective and i'm wondering what you guys think number one starting us with just a hint of the trauma from joel's death tommy looking at his body watch things of that nature

Then a little time jump to where you assume that people have processed things a little bit more and you see that literally Jackson is blooming again. The season has changed. But you still have people that are still negotiating the scars of not only what happened to Joel, but the attack, and they don't know how to move forward. So I thought that the episode had to do that, and it did do that.

It was very important.

Yeah, you got to keep your eyes closed. You can't. We're on YouTube. Like, comment, subscribe, share. You can watch every Midnight Boys and House of Art episode on youtube.com backslash at ringerverse. Also on Spotify, programming. Oh, programming reminders. I watched the movie before we get into it. A quick tangent, an early tangent. I watched the movie. I saw the TV glow. Oh, yeah. Great movie.

They're not hitting it that far out. The kids ain't got no power.

Don't you dare. I was like, God damn, he is cooking. So I enjoyed the council scene. It was my favorite scene of the entire episode. Because while Ellie was able to deliver a really competent speech. I didn't think she had that in her bag.