The Making of Season 5 | BONUS
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What insights does the Betrayal team share about Season 5?
This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal. Today, we have another bonus episode. Now that season five is over, I wanted to get the whole team together, our producers, our editors, to talk about how the season came to be and all of the moments that stuck with us along the way. Here's our conversation. Hi, everybody. Hi.
Hi.
We did this last year where after we released season four, we got together and talked about all of our favorite moments, what it was like producing the season. And I thought that it would be kind of fun to do it again. Maybe where we can start is going around and everyone introduce themselves and tell a little bit about how you worked on the show.
Yeah, sure. Hi, I'm Caitlin Golden and I helped to produce this season.
Hi, I'm Carrie Hartman, also a producer.
I'm Monique Laborde. I'm the story editor on the last two seasons of Betrayal.
I'm Matt DelVecchio. I am a sound engineer on Betrayal.
And I'm Tanner Robbins. I am one of the audio editors on Betrayal.
I think a really great place to start is how we found the story in the first place. I think this question goes to Caitlin. Can you tell us a little bit about how this season and how Saskia's story came to be?
Yeah, I started at Glass about two years ago as an associate producer when Carrie and Mo were running production on Betrayal. And one of my big jobs was going through the email inbox where people, you know, write in with their thoughts about the show. But also kind of most importantly, they're writing with their own stories of Betrayal.
So Saskia, she sent an email September 2024, which is the same month that Giselle Pelico went to trial for the rape case of her husband. I actually pulled up her initial email. I want to read it. It's pretty short. She said, Things only got worse when I found out what he was doing and we went through a legal battle. Quote, raping your wife, end quote, apparently was not a crime in Maryland. So we had to have police contact tech experts in these camming websites to get the footage for court.
How did Saskia's story come to be in Season 5?
I would really like to tell my story. I can so relate to these women that I am watching on your show. Let me know if someone can contact me. I think it would be cathartic for me. Heart emoji. Thank you, Saskia. So, yeah, it's taken a year and a half to get here where the story is officially out and the season's over. But it's been a real team effort.
Dre, I'm curious when you go back to the moment that you were like, this needs to be a season as opposed to a single episode. Is there something that... stands out for you? A scene in your mind where you first really remember connecting to the story?
I think for me, the fact that he could watch this person spiral, wake up with black eyes, wake up on the bathroom floor, feel like she is going crazy, feel like she is just now destined to walk the same path as her father who struggled with mental health. And to know that you were doing something in the dark that could contribute to that is just so cruel. To me, that's why I thought this was a really good season. Like the two things that were happening, light of day and in the darkness.
One thing that we've learned throughout the five seasons of Betrayal is that perpetrators like Mike, they're actors. They're acting out the part of a loving husband or a great stepfather, but they're really actors. And once you accept and understand that, it's easier to see that all of it, it's like a giant fraud.
Yeah. The other aspect of the story that I just was like, from an emotional point of view. I think I've always really wanted to dismantle the idea of the perfect victim because I feel like We just really default to this understanding of righteous rape. That the only person that's worthy of saying I had this crime of rape done to me is this pristine victim that was plucked off the street and this happened. Saskia's story kind of defies that archetype. But it still doesn't change what happened to her. And so it allowed us to really examine that myth in a really big way, not just through the criminal trial, but really the divorce trial.
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