First of all, you don't know me.
We all about that high school drama, girl drama, girl, all about them high school queens. We'll take you for a ride, and our comic girl shared for the right drama queens girl girl fashion, but your tough girl, you could sit with us. Girl drama, Queen drama, Queens drama, Queens drama, drama, Queens drama, Queens.
Oh, guys, happy week. I was about to say the day, and then I remember that these don't always drop me the days we're recording.
There you go, happy late late Sunday night, everyone, that's the one. We're so glad you couldn't sleep and you could be here to join us exactly. Hey, soph Hey joy, Hi.
Hi guys, how goes it?
The episode? Can wait? I want to know how my friends are doing.
I'm good.
How are you on that fun combination of overly tired and overly caffeinated?
Mm hmm. I was telling Rob that as absolutely in love with the planet as I am, and so happy it's spring and everything is like gorgeous and green, I'm also allergic to everything.
Oh no, so I am just.
Like likewise caffeinating to get through how terrible I feel.
My daughter is allergic to every flower except I think roses, and that might be the only one. Maybe daisies, I'm not sure, but it's so sad. I'm like bringing wild flowers home and she immediately just I'm you gotta get that out of the house. I can't preape, Like, oh no, it's so sad.
That's an expensive allergy that the only one that doesn't make her sick is arguably one of the most expensive. It's like, I'm only not allergic to orchids and roses.
Know, it's so such a highbrow allergy. Yeah, do you guys take bee pollen or purplis or anything, because I do, and I don't have any allergies. You don't take this on a regular basis.
So if you've got bees, I was gonna say I do all of it because I've been beekeeping forever. But of course, you know, I know, what a crazy thing, right, But it is actually sort of interesting because for years I was like, yeah, local honey totally helps with allergies, and da da da da. Yeah, And a doctor friend of mine was like, you know, that's a really charming but not true, and I was like, oh, well, I really like the old wives tale of it all, and I'm just going to keep it up.
You're like, oh, are you a doctor of honey?
No, Like, well, what you're not is a bee, so who knows.
But you know, we can't not be true. That makes total sense though.
Well sure, but they were like, essentially what I thought was, you know, you're getting trace amounts of the flora and fauna around you in the honey. And they were like, no, it's it's a completely processed thing that comes out on the other side of a bee.
Oh yeah, the honey doesn't the pollen will well.
Right, But the pollen is what most people are allergic to, which is why when they give you an allergy shot, like at the doctor, when you get that little tiny dot dose kind of like a TB test. They give it to you once a week for I don't know, a whole summer, and then you build up build assistance because it gives your body like a small shock of the thing it doesn't like, rather than just fistfuls of pollen, which seemed to be on every car. Yeah, the Tristate area right now.
I think it's if you ingest the pollen, like I get local pollen in a jar and I take a little tiny teaspoon of it and I just take it every day in Propolis too, Yeah, little droplets. I take like thirty drops of propylis a day and all my allergies this season in Tennessee, because usually I don't have many allergies, but here it gets really bad. I've been taking this for a year and this year I've gotten zero.
Oh that's crazy. Well, Propolis is actually really cool. We're just really getting nerdy on the bee stuff.
Hey, if you're just tuning in, welcome back to the Buzz, our weekly be only podcast.
It's the for our friends at home. It's actually the substance that bees make and essentially glue their hives shut with. But it's actually it has antibiotic properties massive and so it's really like you can make tea and stuff if you're coming down with something, and it's pretty great. Yeah, antibacterial. I guess I should have said not antibiotic.
Speaking of antibiotic properties, today, we're discussing season eight, episode seventeen, The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get It, aired March first, twenty eleven. Synopsis reads, As Hayley's do date approaches, she takes steps to ensure that all her friends and family will be ready when the time comes. Oh boy does she. Brooke and Julian also prepare to be in a family, while Chuck turns to Chase for help with a problem. Directed by Les Butler, and it was written.
I love love this episode so much.
Yeah, it's so much fun. I remember it being really fun to film too. Yeah, and just to keep the levity going feels so nice. I will say, you know, the way, we ended last week's episode not understanding the title of this one, and it was typed in in incorrect order, and then we got the right order, and it still makes no sense. The smoker you drink, the player you get? Did anybody I'm really asking because I
realized I definitely didn't. Did anybody remember to google what the meaning of this song title is?
Noop?
Okay? Great?
Cool?
Still don't understand its relation to the episode.
I don't either, because, by the way, the only drinking happens at the frat party. I don't know. Anyway, I don't get it. But here we are, guys, we've got bees. Apparently someone is smoking somewhere, and you know, as Rob said twenty eleven, what a blast from the past.
Seriously, I feel we talked to this last episode, but I feel as though we've just hit this really fun stride. And I wonder if it was just because the writer's room didn't know if this was going to be our last so they were just like, let's just blow it out, giving everyone happy endings. And because the last handful of episodes have all been way lighter, way more fun and playful. Yeah, and this one was no exception.
I think they knew they weren't getting any new viewers. It's not like people were suddenly tuning in season eight and being like, let me start this show. I don't think there was a lot of that happening, So I think they felt like there was a lot of space to just play.
I don't know. I mean, if I've learned anything about our show, it's that every year it finds a new audience.
But I do think, you know, I remember having like a particularly special dinner with a couple of folks from the writer's room coming into the end of season eight, and it's like, you know, when you have that sort of sense memory, I remember four of us sitting at the bar at a restaurant and like how fun it was because you had to huddle together and kind of look like this down each side of the bar to
have a conversation. And it was a cool thing because people were sharing stories and observations and things that even though we'd all been together for eight years, they'd never really done before. You know, when something's going to end, you're like, God, I better make sure to say the
last thing or share the last thought. And I don't know, I really do recall everyone being like, well, crazy that we got this season seven and eight together, and crazy that we're going to be done, and like everyone really thought that the end of this season was going to be it. Yeah, And so it does have this kind
of nostalgia. You know, it's like it's before the senioritis clicks in and you have no desire to be there anymore, but you know it's coming to an end and you really want to go to every every gathering and every school event before you leave.
I don't know.
It has that sort of energy even in the in the episodes.
Yeah, to in the episode, for sure, I feel it.
It also feels like it's the writers taking care of the fans, because you know, sometimes when shows are wrapping up, they'll they will do the like we're going to reach for a cliffhanger to sort of force the network's hand and give us another season, and it's that's that's all fine and well, but that's them looking out for a job for next year, Whereas on this one, it just felt like they're like the writer's room going like, let's just blow it out. Let's just have all the care.
Like in this episode, it's all of a sudden, we have Clay, Julie and Nathan and chasing a scene, we have Haley, like everyone was sort of crossing paths and getting to play together, which is so much fun. So really kind of in a way, I felt like all they're they're taking care of the audience.
Yeah, I agree, that's a great way to put it. Yeah, I loved.
That that sort of central perk scene for you guys, it felt so reminiscent of friends to me. Starting with you and Nathan. It's in the dicktris a diner. Oh yeah, oh that was great, right, Like Nathan and Clay are shooting the shit and they're joking about your taste and food and you know, you're just having this moment and then Chase comes in and then Julian comes in and I don't know, it was so nice and I wish we'd gotten to see more of that with you all.
Do you remember that that is the infamous tea scene that we got roasted for on Talk Soup.
The tea scene because you were both having iced tea.
No, there are Okay. First of all, there's two very notable aspects of the scene. One, I remember this as a product integration thing because there is we go way out of our way to say AT and T's it's sneaky though, right, So if you watch it again, because it's we have this whole weird build up of about like sixty seconds of content of just Nathan and Clay talking about cell phone service and how it always drops
and why you got a text. And then if you watch, the server comes up and Nathan goes, hey, Tea and T. So again, my memory told me, oh, we were doing a product integration, and then I watched it last night I realized, No, that's a shot at AT and T, and it's a reach a weird easter egg of a shot at AT and T. The other aspect is so Talk Soup took that clip because if you watch it, she pours some iced tea in James's cup and then when she goes to mine, here's the problem. When she goes
to mine, no tea makes it into the cup. However, when they cut to the next shot, you do see tea going into the cup. I think Talk Soup cut it after just the first part because you can see her clearly not pouring, and she's in the shot not pouring. But then in the next angle you do see tea going into the cup. So the eric kind of cherry picking to make a meal of that.
Interesting, You're not You're definitely not bothered about it. In the year twenty twenty five, Rob no.
Because again, like it's not like you had to wait, It's like he cuts a different angle teas going in Wait.
Talk Soup roasted you guys about about continuity.
It was one of the like highlight clips of the year. Was this iced tea see the phantom tea scene. Yeah, it's so odd, but for god, the AT and T thing there was. There's two moments in this episode where I was like, did our boss have a bone to pick with at and T? And the other one is this weird moment where it's believe it's Haley and Quinn and you're sitting at the table and oh, Psych, and you go, uh, what should we do? Do you want
to watch Psych? And Quinn goes, is it good? And you go eh, and then there's like a two seconds of just dead air and then you move on like it's a very weird shot at Psych? Did he have a beef?
Psych was a great show, by the way, which I watched like every episode of and loved, and they had they thought it was funny to make fun of Chad, so they made fun of him on their show. James. Is it James? I can't remember his name. I'm sorry. I think it's James, the lead actor the other there's
two lead actors. He's one of them, the one who's not Delay Hill, and he he would do this like the brow furrow and like blah blah blah unless I'm Chad Michael Murray and then he would do that, you know, he would just like make fun of Chad and it was kind of all in good fun, and it was. It ended up on the soup as well. They did a whole thing about Psych making fun of one Tree Hill.
So I guess our boss just wanted to try and get back at them, but like, I don't know why they chose me, because I loved that show and I remember getting the material and being like, okay, like I don't I'm really not sure how to make this work in the context of the scene because it doesn't make any sense and the line is meh. So it's not like I can be like, yeah, yeah, that's good and then we don't watch it, so yeah, it was not fun.
So it's weird to suddenly want to stick up for the person that you've gone out of your way to shine. Like as soon as Chad left, like five episodes later, there's a blatant dig at him that Paul's character delivered to Daniil. So it's just odd to suddenly be like, well, now I'm going to stick up for the person on our show that I openly talked about. It's like Will Ferrell talks about you and step brothers don't see you taking any shots at Big Willie.
I think they had done some episode where they overtly said one tree Hill and it was no longer just about oh the beef between the joking beef between these two actors, which never even existed. I don't even know if they've ever met. I know nothing about this other than which show up on my television screen, but I do think there was something in the in this a recent Psych episode where they said one tree Hill and it probably made our boss. It's just so dumb, It's
so childish. It's like middle school, like, can we just mind our own business and make our own show? Do we need to be doing this weird cross network?
But what it screams of is just like, are you guys are the people in charge of television shows high school student?
Yes?
Like I am always shocked when adults play into high school drama. I'm I don't know. Don't you look around and go, aren't we too old for this? And the irony is that, as cast members who were much younger than our boss, and plenty of people on the writing staff, we all were like, are we doing this?
It's going weird?
Okay?
But I like that you guys figured out a way to let it hang there and then move on because you made it as irrelevant to the plot as it was, And I guess works.
Yes, I like to do exactly what's on the page so you can see how stupid this is.
Well, and it also sort of works because Haley's clearly bored, and you know when you have that thing you're bored or your house bound because you're sick or something, and you're like, ugh, I want to do anything but this, And I also don't want to do anything. Yeah, Like do I want a snack? No, I'm kind of hungry though. Do I want to watch a movie?
No?
I don't really want to scroll either. Like it plays that way, and so I think in the context of of you know, the Dirty Trick runner through the whole episode, it works because Haley's bored and she's trying to have a good time.
Haley's bored and she's trying to figure out what to do, and she sure does.
Yeah, that was a great runner.
It's so cute and I love you know. It harkens back to what I think the Ladies did so well in the last episode. The buttons would come back around, you know, twenty a quarter of the way through the episode, halfway through the episode later, and to have every single person who came in the house have the same reaction and use the same term made the runner of the joke have a nice little button on it. I liked it.
Yeah, did you notice high heels again, Haley in her high heels.
We are all in like, and they're not just heels, they're like platforms.
Yeah, they were like little peeptoe like pumps as far as I saw anyway, But I don't like.
The platform under your toes. And you are nine.
Months pregnant, right, yeah, in these little these little peeptoe pin and the jeans are like what is it called? You know, in the skirt is like it's a pin. What's it called?
Tapered? They're skinny jeans, aren't they skuinea jeans?
Yeah? Tapered. Yeah, there's a word with pin that I can't think of it. But anyway, Yeah, it's just so silly. And she's coming in the room like send me to the send me to the hospital in my high heels, and then Quin's trying to stuffer in the trunk of the corn. I mean it was very funny. I liked the I like the whole setup. But the heels have got to go.
The infamous Toaster Strudel song. Oh yes, we got to talk about it because I how.
Much money did Toaster Strudell pay our show? That clearly, you know, Chantal got none of but had zero. The on camera commercial.
Well, I don't know if that was the actual toaster strudel jingle. No, she made that up, but toaster Strudels was it. That's a legit product obviously, yes.
But she also if you, if you clapped it in the episode, couldn't say toaster strudel. Her song was toaster pastry, and every single person says toaster pastry until shoot. Now I can't remember who it was, if it was Levin or if it was Austin. In the Brook Julian and Chloe scene when Chloe's making one at our house, someone says toaster strudel.
And I went, yes, oh, and it must not.
We must have missed it on the day and nobody caught it.
I think, yeah.
I think even Levin says toaster pastry, and Austin must have ad libbed something about a toaster strudle being delicious. Yeah, and it made it in because they didn't they didn't have a toaster pastry for him.
I don't know.
The whole thing felt really bizarre.
Well, you're right though, because I in my notes I wrote, oh, the infamous toaster Strudel song, but then I went back and I was like, no, everyone's saying pastry. Did I misremember this? And it wasn't until the end of the episode. You're right that scene where someone said toaster Strudel and I was like, no, it's freaking toaster Strudels. I can say behind the scenes that song was the bane of Seantell's existence. Well becaurse she had to do it for
an entire episode. Then of course it was like people like a conventions would be like sing the toasters pastry song.
You know, she had to just make that up. She's like, I don't know how to write music. I don't know what this is supposed to sound, Like, what do I do?
Wait? She had to make that up?
Yeah?
No, yeah, really that wasn't scripted.
My memory of it is her talking to me about having to make that up and trying to figure out what the hell to sing.
If she ad lib that, she did an incredible job.
They would have had to write the words for her though, and be like do something like this, So she had to like make up a melody.
Correct, that's what I mean. I would say, sorry, I mean to imply the words. Yeah, the melody. She had to just figure out how to like there were words on a page. She was like, what the hell am I supposed to do with this?
But are we? Are we sure? Every time she sang the jingle, she didn't say strudle because one of the rhymes is a tasty doodle.
Doodle put toast or pastry. You taste so good and yummy toaster or pastry, get inside my tummy.
That's It's something about the stroudel, the frosting doodle.
Yeah, and then that circles back with strudel.
I wonder if this is going to be the episode where everyone at home is like, Okay, it's official, send these three.
To take a nap.
They're done, they're cooked, goodbye.
I listened for thirty minutes and all they talked about was bees and strudels. What happened to this podcast?
Not for nothing? A honey strudle I would not say no to.
I'd party with that.
Well, here's what I will say. I I thought that a lot of this, you know, referring to what we were talking about earlier, there's a sweetness and a nostalgia even some of what's very stupid, which clearly got us landed. I'm surprised this whole episode wasn't just an entire episode of Talk Soup. But I love Hayley's Runner, and I do really love the paint story line for Brooke and Julian. As soon as we were in the paint store, I
literally went, oh, soft, duckling is coming. Like I remembered how sweet that felt, and I remembered, you know, thinking about exactly that moment for you know, for friends of ours.
I mean, I think at this point, you know, Hillary was one of our only friends who'd had a kid, You were about to have a kid, And I think about now what it's been like to help so many people put kids rooms together, and there's something so universally precious about it, and I like that it offered this sort of this sort of nesting energy for Brooke and Julian,
but Brook in particular. And then Chloe's in the bed that used to be Peyton's bed and then it was Sam's bed, and now this girl who is theoretically going to give this couple this baby is in this space and you kind of get to track this evolution, and even Brooke bringing up, yeah, I have I have this friend Peyton who used to have a black bedroom. And then that goes up on the wall and it's like,
I don't know. I thought it was a great way to sort of represent if we are really ending the show, if season eight is going to be it like, look at this life we've lived with all these people, and it was cool to see it in those sort of quiet, reflective moments. I liked that.
Can I ask you a question? I want to jump around a little bit here? Time was but do I recall correctly? And if by some chance there's a listener who hasn't watched any future episodes, like just turn it down for like thirty seconds. You guys, it's twins.
Right, we don't get the baby.
Holy I just spoiled it for myself. Okay, sorry, let's go back to the conversation.
Well if.
Wow, I damn it. I shouldn't have asked a question. This is what I get. Okay, welcome, shake it off. Yeah, I'm so disappointed now. And you know what it kind.
Of is when you think about it, it's this really nice build up that's been happening, and we have that you, me and Chantelle have so much fun with Jackson. In the next episode, we have our Saltine challenge, like waiting for all these women to have all these babies. It's so good, and then you get the highlight and the and the crash, and so it's weird because in a way,
obviously I know what's coming. It was a big storyline for us, but it's weird to watch it and be like, oh man, we really did have this sort of pure excitement, And I like that it wasn't overdone, and I like that we were really even though some of it feels a little like whitewash prescriptive in terms of the adoption storyline. To me, I like that most of it feels a little complicated, bittersweet, and you don't always say the right thing,
and it's nerve wracking. And you know, what does a young girl do if she finds herself pregnant in this situation? What does someone struggling with infertility do? Like, I think it's so I think most of it is so good. And then yeah, I remember getting the script for the next episode and just being love, course, we're gonna just pull the rug out from under people.
And I'm not even just devastated. I'm now pre devastated. This is sorry. This is a hard way to start a Wednesday.
You should just watch it tonight and get it over with, write your notes and then be done.
Did anyone notice when he's handing back the tests there's a close up insert shot of the first tests going down on a desk, and the student's name is less Butler. No director of this episode. He threw a little easter egg in there for himself.
That's cute.
The next batch of tests go down and it's too I forget. What's Quentin's character's name?
Hmmm, Oh no, I've forgotten because Quenton is such a memorable guy.
Yeah, well to his character, and the note is his letter grade is d D. And then he finishes spicablepable Tommy, Tommy, yes, tell her man, listen. That guy is a real turns in the punch bowl.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm not a fan, but I did like this storyline. I like that they're drawing it out a little, keeping it interesting. I feel like, is this the storyline that leads Nathan to be kidnapped by the Serbian mafia? No, it's not, okay, isn't that in season nine? Yeah? Yeah, okay, I think yeah.
This is I believe this is the story that gets us to the scene on the bridge where Clay goes all John Cena and top rocks Kellerman into the river.
Geez, wow, there's so much coming up that I did not I was pregnant, y'all. I was so checked out. I did not know what was happening on the show at this point.
It's okay, that feels fair.
I was about to pop.
I knew there were a few sort of indicators about what was coming. I had forgotten where Ian Kellerman's storyline was going to go. And uh, when when you when when Hayley and Quinn are sitting talking, you know about all this nostalgia, and then it's like, and can you believe they haven't found the car? I was like, this is a weird left. Oh. I was like, right, it's it's the exposition she has to give, which obviously this is the place for it to go, because they're reflecting
on parenthood and what's coming. But it felt like a real It just felt like a device, not like a real shift in the conversation between these two sisters. And then I was like, right, right, right, the wagoneer. We had to repeat the Wagoneer because Nathan's going to go in the garage. Got it?
Yeah, yeah, because in real life, you just say, can you believe they haven't found the person who did that? But she had to go? Can you believe they haven't found the nineteen eighty to nineteen ninety wagon year with the damage.
Actually at the time listed as ox blood red.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was an empty bottle of liquor in that car.
Yeah, it was a bourbon because a hit and run driver really seems like a bourbon drinker, don't they Like it's so silly.
I was wondering why that was in the flash but like in the last, last week or last time previously on one trail and they were showing that. I was like, this is such a random thing for them to show. Why are they showing this clip because there's nothing in the episode about you saving anybody's life or anything else. And it was yeah, for that, it was that.
It was also a bit of a hat on a hat for Nathan to find the empty liquor bottle in the car, because it's like he already hit and run and almost killed people. Like it's it's bad enough. I mean, and we obviously see as an alcohol problem. I mean, the real takeaway is that this guy does not he's a very messy person. Yes, he hasn't cleaned his car in weeks, guys.
I didn't need anything more than just the shot in the window. You could see the liquor bottle like peeking out from the seat. It's fine, like that already is more than enough. But the fact that he is to open the door and pull out and hold the water bottle, the liquor bottle in for the camera, it's just so.
For a neat tidy insert. And by the way, and perhaps this comes from then having gone to do half a decade of a police show. I'm like, don't touch the evidence. Don't you just put your fingerprints all over the car, prints all over.
The bottle bottle? So stupid, you are.
Literally contaminating on crime scenes, sir. And furthermore, what ding dong who's hit and run? I mean, I get that you're putting the car in the garage to hide it from view, but you're not going to like put a car cover over it in the garage for plausible deniability, for I don't know anyone who might walk through your house. You live with your parents, Like you don't think your parents are going to notice the mangled vintage suv next
to the rear door of your home. The whole thing was just silly to me.
Also, where's the bright green Porsche exactly?
That's that would be in the garage? Yeah, silly silliness. Well, there's plenty of other grit that. You know. What else was silly was Milli in that chicken costume.
But let me tell you good.
She pulled it off.
That was incredible.
Yes, I mean that takes a lot of gumption to be able to stand there in a chicken outfit and say that and just you know what, I'm just going to say the things that I'm going to say, regardless of what I look like right now, and people will take me seriously because of what I'm saying. Yeah, that's a lot of that's a big gamble. I loved her for it.
Yeah, it was so great and it was very cool too.
I loved Lisa's choice because you've seen the Mouth and Milly sort of back and forth about the issue at the apartment, and she's made the decision that she's not going to do this, She's not going to try to push any buttons, and then it's you watch her as she's reading you know, her little fact sheet, and she has that moment where she goes, I don't know, I couldn't read it because it was all in caps, and it just like there's something about seeing it right in
front of her face. She chooses for that to be the absurdity that hits her, and when she looks up, I was like, there she goes. But I knew the rant was coming and I was so excited about it, and it was such it was such a great way to differentiate the conversation at home and then the inspiration for that gumption to come out of her under that street sign. She's just so fun to watch.
Yeah, I agree. My note was Lisa should be in a chicken costume every week.
Lisa just needs a show she does. I just want to I want to watch her do everything. And I loved too. It's so much fun the misdirect, especially because Alex has been in our world now for two seasons. When the guy comes up to the girls at the bar and she's like, oh, yeah, it's me, Like I'm used to this and he's like, you're the angry chicken lady.
Yeah.
It's just so the whole thing is so good, so good.
Speaking of Jana at the bar. Do we know that Jana knows Ian Kellerman or not Jana whatever, Alex.
I mean no, up until this very moment.
Okay, there was no other clue that I missed. That was the first time. That was another that felt a little too far fetched for me, Like we really really everyone in town knows everyone else to this degree.
Come on, And it was good at least to have her say to Chase, just a guy I met. Yeah, but I'm like, Alex Dupray is gonna hook up with a.
College student exactly, Like, let's let's not forget for a moment. He hasn't signed any big deals. Yeah, he's like a twenty year old kid. Yeah, that's it. So it's weird that like some movie star would be like, oh my gosh, he has a great fast ball and.
The implications they've already hung out together before, like she's already slept with him because that's what he's testing her.
He's basically like, come over for round two, and here's what's crazy. And Rob, you know, we obviously haven't done as much of it since you joined us on the show, but there were many a story in the first seasons of drama queens for Joy and Hilary and myself to talk about many a dumb decision we made in our early twenties, partially because we were trapped in a town as young girls on TV and the only people there were either college students or like retired dads in their
sixties looking for their third wife. And we've joked about, you know, how small our dating pool was, and so literally, I'm like, this is the fantasy of an older guy to be like, yeah, the movie star is totally gonna want to hook up with the young baseball stude. I'm like, the last thing a girl in her mid twenties who is famous wants to do is hook up with the guy from UNCW. I'm sorry, I don't care how good looking you are. I don't care. Like we're just never
gonna do it. Yeah, And it was so funny to me to be like, wow, they just they don't get it.
Yeah.
And it's also it would be odd if it was I mean, any other character. It would make more sense because to a normal person there's a shot of big things to come for this guy. So it's like I could be I could be a part of a journey of maybe being famous and rich. Yeah, you can't pick the one person in town who's famous and rich. You got to be like, what if he makes it, It's like you've already made it. What are you're talking?
What is the appeal?
Yeah? I will say I loved seeing a softer, saner side of Alex. Yeah, when she gets to sort of just stay sort of a at a lower gear and just be sincere. Like that whole thing with Chase with the glasses. That was funny. Yeh, it's I know it's the times and it's our past, but like, I don't love how fast and loose everyone is with throwing the sex tape in her face. Like Chase has that line of like, yeah everyone can see her, but JJ on
a sex tape, but you're worried about glasses. It's like, bro, come on man, but whatever that aside.
Yeah, he could have just said you made a sex tape and you're worried about about glasses or whatever, like.
Yeah, yeah, this is like the third time he's just casually.
Specifically talk about her vagina. Can we can we be?
Yeah? Like maybe let's not.
Yes, it was very heavy handed, but seeing her like this, this version of herself with Chase. It makes it really easy to root for her.
Yeah, And you know, one of the things I really liked as well is rather than do what we've seen so many of you guys do who are musical on the show and shock us all with a beautiful song, I actually love that they wrote it for her to be sitting and listening and questioning is it good enough, especially because her voice is so beautiful and it's nice to your point, Rob, you're making me realize, like, oh,
that's exactly what a lot of this episode is. It's a quiet kind of reflection for Alex and that's really refreshing to see because yes, Jenna can make anything work, and yes she's so talented, particularly with the over the top comedy stuff, but it's really nice to see this quiet because then at the end it's just something that kind of carries through and she doesn't announce anything to anyone. You watch her just think about it quietly and try to make different choices. And that's really cool.
Speaking of quiet moments, did anyone else notice at the end of the diner scene, Nathan and Chase have taken off, and as we say goodbye, there's just a two shot of Julian and Clay sitting next to each other. I didn't remember this until watching it back, So go ahead and watch that back because there's a very charged moment of silence where everyone leaves the table and we both look at each other and then we have some sort of thinking that goes on and then we quickly look away.
And it made me laugh so hard because I had forgotten we did this. But we one hundred percent were like, let's just add a weird layer of like there is something between us and just not address it. Unless liked it and kept it in. But I immediately laughed. I was like, damn it. When we had Austin on the show, I was joking about the fan fiction people should write yeah about Clay and Julian. I was like, Holy, this is it. This is the seed.
I missed it. I have to go back and watch.
You guys are so funny in that moment. But what really set it up for me to make that smash is that as the you know, it's you two and then Chase and then Julian comes in and the four boys are mashed into this very small little booth. They leave, but before they have, as everyone's talking about what they want to order. You say something about mashed potato. Know, Nathan says something about mashed potatoes, and Julian's like, well, yeah, I want mashed potatoes, and you guys look at each
other like yes because you just said that. Yeah, And now it's this of like the awkwardness I read was a little bit of like while we're sitting really close to each other and also like we both do want mashed potatoes. Yeah, and it's just great. It's like, is it is it feeling.
I'm watching this scene? I felt like this. It was very apparent to me that the writer's room had really come to see who I was, like Rob, not Clay,
and just start leaning into that for the character. Yeah, because it's like it's it starts to get weird and silly, and Clay is like really leaning into it, like that whole thing about Uh, it's hard to say no when someone calls you and ask you to smuggle like five kilos and then and then I go on and on and everyone's like okay, okay, and then I lean and I'm like in your but.
Like just the one last thing, even James kind of broke a little on that. It was so good.
We had so much fun doing that. But to me, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, they're just they're kind.
Of because remember how long it was, like, Oh my god, is this guy ever going to be able to like they bring in a comic genius and you're just gonna load him up with all of this drama non stop, like crazy ghosts and depression and psycho stalkers and like, good grief, let this man laugh.
Yeah.
So wow, Seriously go back and watch the end of the scene. And I'm telling you because it's not it was. I remember us deliberately doing it, thinking it was funny and also one of those things where it was like, dude, there's no way in hell this is going to make it, but let's just do one like this, and it made it. So go back and watch and you will now that you're looking for it, it is clear as day that there's an untold story happening.
This is the This is the stuff I love about acting. This is the play that you know, we show up, we get paid to show up and say our lines, But it's the play in all the in between that really is what makes it so fun. All the layers you get to create that sometimes people catch and and they like or don't like, and then sometimes they don't catch it and it just floats right on in.
I love it.
How about Chloe? Did anyone else get confused that she was? Like, she's a boundaryless cat Burglar, Yeah, a little bit. Brook and Julian come home and she's just sitting on the counter hanging out. And to Brook and Julian's credit, because obviously they're in a position where they need to not rock the boat with her, they're cool about it.
She's on Brook's bed hanging out, eating yogurt or whatever.
So she showed up, she knocked, and she just thought, you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and look for a high to key. It was just it was wild to me.
It's very sam energy to me, like maybe they were trying to recreate that vibe of Samantha. It just it did. It did feel a bit out of place, like it hadn't been earned yet.
And you know what would have been such an easy fix is if we'd come in and she's making a snack and then it's like, but why are you here? And she said, oh right, I came to tell you guys something, and I have to pee every five minutes. Look, you, I found your hide a key. You know you would have been like, oh, okay, yeah, pregnant women do have to pee all the time. Yeah, Like if there'd been some version of or.
If she'd been coming out of the bathroom instead of making a sandwich even a little bit like good, kay, it's understandable, Yes, that's fine, but going in my fridge, like I know you're going to give me your baby, but we haven't established these bit But she's nineteen, so I don't know. Maybe maybe kids assume things.
Yeah, I would have appreciated them grounding it for her a little more than just being like, we've made Seantelle eat eight toaster pastries today, and we'd also like someone else to want one, like for.
What well, And it was odd when we cut to later in the day and she's laying on the bed in the guest room. Yeah, oh oh, are we going to find out she's living out of her car?
Yeah?
Like is she homeless?
Like sand And then that sort of makes more sense that she's just showing up and lingering. But that doesn't seem like that's where it's going. I did like the way that you played the scene so of going like as she's just eating a plate of oreos. In fact, she's not even eating the cookie, She's just eating the awasting, fake ingredient cor frosting that you were like, say, would you like some fruit with that frosting? Maybe maybe a vegetable or too. She's trying so hard to be like,
how about one nutrient? Can we get one nutrient in there?
Just some sort of antioxidant for you and the baby?
So sweet, It's really it's it's cool, and I like, I like though that they let us, or at least they gave us space, and I thought lested really well with it.
Have discomfort and awkwardness because we don't know each other, and then have these moments of ease and humor and figuring each other out, and then you know, even the screw ups of it would really help if we knew. And then of course she doesn't want to know. Of course, Brook's not thinking about this because she's so excited about this other part, and you know, Chloe hasn't communicated that and then has to and the sort of fits and starts of it I thought were really they were just
nice to play. I'm glad we didn't do some totally Pollyannish version of it. And I think Levin is so she's so grounded in, you know, the moments and the emotion. She doesn't have to do a lot to communicate a lot. And I liked that we were communicating, albeit awkwardly, not with what we were saying, but with what we were trying to say. I always think that's the mark of good, good writing for sure.
Let's talk about Chuck and Chase real quick. Yeah.
I wanted to pivot there too, because that was my favorite besides Mouth and Millie.
But also Millie saying how clucked up is that? I don't know how that didn't catch on because that was great. But Chuck and Chase, it was all. It was also sweet. There's also some funny elements to it. One I thought, like, my Chase is having him standing with Chuck, has his back to the wall, meaning if he hits the ball, he's hitting it at a room full of customers and glass and glass. But then I thought, oh, but how funny if he did that because he knows that this
kid cannot hit a ball to save his life. And then later so for and also like total jerk move, laughing like when a kid gets vulnerable. You got a button that shit up, you know, But I don't know if you is this. So Chase later goes to Chuck's house to apologize. He goes to the window and he knocks. It gets weirder. I have a different layer for you. So it is weird that he knocks and you hear Chuck, go go away, mister mee Hall. I told you to leave me alone. So Chuck is clearly dealing with some
sort of pervert predator. But here's where it got even weirder. I rewound it, and you know how, I don't know if you like I watch this on my computer. If you rewind it on Apple TV, it'll do ten seconds of subtitles for you. So when I rewound it, when he says, he clearly says go away, mister mee Hall. The subtitle is go away mister Kowalski. What as in like Pete? Well, like the only Kowalski we know on the show is obviously are.
All love Everybody loves Today, which.
Made me wonder if, like in the original script it was Kowalski and then Pete or someone was like hey, no, no, and they changed it. But the subtitles are off of the script or something.
But if you go back and do that, that's horrendous.
It's not even like they were listening and like, oh it sounds like this, No, it's me Hall, but the subtius says, go away, mister Kowalski.
Oh my gods, that's such a frat boy thing that the you know, the crew would do that a lot in it. I mean, it's it was always fun, like putting less Butler's name on the homework sheet. You know, they would use crew members' names all the time as parts of you know, posters that were going up or whatever, a character's name just to just be fun because it's
a fun, friendly community in sweet ways. And that totally sounds like something somebody wrote as a joke and then didn't end up correcting it later.
I absolutely hate that.
That sucks.
Yeah, that was so that was just.
Also just gross, Like why why is that in the show.
It's as if the kid doesn't have it bad enough.
My note for that is I was like, first of all, we have a grown man trapesing down the side of a house in the dark to kind of child's window, which yes, it's Chase, but it's weird enough, yeah, and then the kid's response is to assume it's a different creepy girl man, And I'm like, why are we making a joke out of? Like what is that?
Also, it's extra folk, It's like it's extra shoe leather we didn't need. Because Chase then immediately goes to the front door to meat Chuck. So it's like, why would you go to his window in the first place. That all you do. The only reason you go to someone's windows if you don't want their parents to know.
Correct.
So so that was all kinds of weird. Their story got better though, when they went to the park. He puts on the glasses. He drills that ball so.
Great line drive right into Chase's stomach.
He hits a line drive into Chase's sternam and by the way, Steven, who's great with physical comedy, did that perfect getting hit jump and then I love as he's getting up kind of wheezing, He's like, yeah, you need glasses, But was that cgi because there's no way.
I don't know. I'm sure it had to be.
It had to be. It was too perfect.
Well that or that was a stunt setup because that was clearly when you see Chase fall, it's from so far back it's over Chuck's shoulder. Like that had to be a stunt person who literally threw their body to the ground. So I wonder if they I wonder if they hid like a ball launcher, you know, yeah, oh yeah in front of like they got Chuck's shoulder in but they actually had a like a ball launcher, so they knew in the right.
And maybe Stephen was wearing a pad.
See that makes sense because if you also watch it back because again as one of the ones I went back to like four times, they they do three different shots they do they go like fifty to fifty and then they go like at Chase, and then they cut to a third one. It's so actually you're probably right. They probably told cheated it. But that's what those first two in to be, like it's these two, it's these two, and then it's not the kid.
It looked great good.
So for those of you who don't know, Less Butler was our editor for one of our editors for a very long time, and so he really is skilled at this would have been This was a great example of a way that a great editor can make a shot work. You just line up a few different shots, but the timing down to the millisecond of making it all move smoothly enough that unless you're looking for it, it just looks perfectly seamless. Yeah, it's a great example of that
what a good editor can do. But I love this storyline. I'm so glad that we're continuing with Chase showing up for Chuck. I'm really invested in Chuck's well being. Yeah, I really want to see him win. I just care. I love this kid now.
Yeah, And it's really, you know, there's something to it. We're not saying it, but even the idea that this little boy has gone this long clearly with a site problem and no one's identified it. It's it's just continuing to reinforce the truth that if you invest in kids, they really get to flourish. And it's nice to have that be in the mix of the often sort of you know, dramatic car crash sexy love story world of a TV show. It's nice to have this other thing and it works too.
It still works with the storyline of investing in people that are younger than you, which we've done on our show consistently throughout, you know, you with Sam and Hayley, with Quentin, I feel like there's always these younger mentor moments. So I love seeing that Chase is doing that now and oh them laughing at him when he put his glasses on. I agree with you, Rob, but I don't
know if you noticed this. When Chuck put the glasses on, he turned around and then he made this, He made a face, he smiled really goofy, And that's to me what I was like, Oh, I thought they were laughing because he was making fun of himself, like making a goofy face and sort of giving them permission to laugh. So anyway, that worked well for me, that to make them not just look like dicks that were just laughing at a kid they had only moments ago told they weren't going to laugh at.
It was a really good choice either by Less or the prop department or them together to put Chuck in a very exaggerated, like almost nineteen fifties cat eye adjacent pair of glasses. It added to the humor in a way. You know, if they'd given him like a cool Clark Kent pair of frames, it wouldn't have worked the same. And so you know, Michael May being such a good sport, playing Chuck and leaning into his own physical comedy and making the face and the glasses being so like nineteen fifties,
you know, Lady and the Boys. It made it just made for a lot.
Of fun, very cute, and it also helps land the joke about why Alex would be insecure about people seeing her in them, But then it begs the question, like, you're an adult, why wouldn't you just go buy a pair that you look good in? But regardless, it's so. It was very funny on Michael May honorable mentions. What do we got?
Yeah, chicken suit, Yeah, chicken suit all day.
I'm going to go the runner of Haley auditioning everyone she knows for her labor driver.
Yeah that was fun. That was fun.
That was great.
Yeah. I liked the reaction when she tries to pull it over on Clay and Nathan and y'all are already yeah already, Wise, go ahead.
And force those knees together, Hails. Yeah, it's a Clay says something that effect.
Oh yeah, I remember. That was fun to shoot and you losing the keys down the down, Acy bent.
It was a really fun day.
Yeah, I did enjoy that. What's our listener question?
Brenda asks, This question is for joy. Did you film all the way up to having your daughter? Whose idea was it to put you in the heels while filming in your third trimester, especially when Haley is home in her own house. Grenda, we have been talking about this for two weeks.
A girl after my own heart. Let me tell you, I know, can you imagine what woman in her right mind walks around in heels in her home in her third trimester? I would like to meet that woman. So yes, I filmed all the way up to having my daughter. I did. And it's one of the reasons why my storyline became very sporadic and unrelated to many other storylines, because they weren't sure at what moment I might have to disappear and go have a baby and be gone
for two weeks. So yeah, just episode by episode kept filming, and Maria was two weeks late. Actually, so kind of through everything.
Buddy, did you only take two weeks off?
Yeah?
Holy cow, that's bonkers, man.
Yeah, it was wild.
Wow, you are a soldier. I did not realize that was all the time you took after creating and delivering a human to the America. Yeah, right, she'll walk it off, she'll be fun.
Bill paid leave and two weeks is you're told, is a luxury? Like absolutely insane.
I remember us filming a scene at the hospital later after I'd had my daughter, and it was I think but kind of right after I came back and I was still in pain, and I remember asking I started to walk and it was when we filmed at the hospital, we had this area, so we parked our trailers and then there was this massive area that felt like an acre maybe of just rocks, and they were all these little it wasn't tiny gravel rocks. They were like no,
they're like big river rock, plunky rocks. Yeah. That you had to walk across all the way up to get to the hospital doors where then all the filming would be. And I started to walk and I was just like my body just hurt. I mean, I had a baby. So I had asked them, I was like, we're at a hospital. Is there like a wheelchair in there? Could I just like get a lift please? Just like a
little lift over to set. And I remember they brought one out and I got The producers came to me and they were like we heard you like had needed a wheelchair to set like that seems really dramatic.
Are you okay the all male producing team the way, Yeah.
Just like yep, just fine, just you know, just had a little baby, that's all.
Just needed a little extra You're like, I just actually have a football size open wound inside my abdomen. But thank you so much for asking.
Yeah, yeah, no, no problem. Sorry to be over dramatic. I'm so sorry to like.
We heard you're being hysterical. Would you like to tilan all.
It just took you so long with the wheelchair over the rocks, you know, yeah, you need to go slow because of all the you know rocks. But we made it. We're here, oh lord yea America. So anyway, Brenda, thanks for your question. We'll have lots more of those pregnancy stories, I'm sure, as as the baby baby gets closer.
Also, for anyone else who liked the Three of Us thinks a two week maximum is insane, you should probably follow Paid Leave for All. They're a great nonpartisan organization trying to advocate for you know, actual parental leave.
I love that. Yeah, pretty great, good plug.
You know you can come for the drama and you can stay for the for the wonderful community organizing. Yes, now, who's getting the wheel?
Most likely to cry during a rom comid?
Julian, Oh yeah, yeah, Julian and skills.
Oh my god, how about in real life?
I mean, so if you do, if it's a good one, I'll cry. But yeah, I don't know. Rom com seem to be kind of a diamond dozen now. I mean, I'm in a lot of them. I shouldn't say that.
Name names Joy name names.
Yeah, but but if it's a real like I love those old nineties ones like Lawrence kan and like the you know, Tom Hanks, make Ryan Sandra Bullock, love those old ones. Those ones always get me.
Yeah, those get me And I'm definitely a crier.
I love it all right, ging come back out join us next week. We got season eight, episode eighteen with a much better title, Quiet Little Voices.
Feel here. Hey, thanks for listening.
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