Thank you. Hello and welcome to Level 7 Access, a Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast. I'm Jamie Blumberg. And I'm Michal Shek. And that's it. Again, somehow, it's going to be the year of Jews on this podcast. Wait, no! I see someone. Oh, God. JD appeared. He's just going to forget about us like this. We don't even get. I mean, you forgot about the podcast this year. So like.
Oh, okay. All right. First of all. You said it was just Jews. I pictured like... a field of like non like dudes like going I'm just coming over the hills just like fucking just like a stampede in the horizon oh wait That's so funny, Paige. I had the exact same image. OnlyJuice is my favorite website. But for McCall and I, that was just great to imagine.
I felt like the three of us were just getting snapped away. I was about to make an I don't feel so good joke. Hi, welcome to Level 7 Access, the Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast. I'm JD Jackson. I'm still here. I'm Paige Branson. I'm barely alive. Definitely Governor Johnson. I exist. And McCall and I already introduced ourselves, but we're here too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all here this time, guys. Everyone is here. It's like a reunion show. H7 and I have finally been let out of the closet. We're finally allowed to podcast again. The coup of the podcast. I'm kidding. We missed you all. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's been a long time. We've been a little busy. Nothing has happened. Nothing's happened. No. In fairness, nothing has happened. I mean, it has been a quiet year.
For Marvel stuff, for sure. But really, it's that, like, I moved twice and got divorced and went to London for a week. Two of the people I moved in with were Paige and Devin, so they also moved, which is the first time they've done that in about 47 years. Yeah. We were in our old apartment for like 15-ish years in like a tiny box. And then the whole year. You notice that the audio quality is different. This is our first podcast in, I mean, for three of us in a new space. Yes. Nicole and I.
Nicole, are you still? I'm still in Queens, man. I'm still in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I moved, God, in 2019. We hold the one member of the podcast whose vote matters. I get nothing but political ads now. I live in a swing state. Yay. I mean, despite the fact that we don't, I still get like. 10 texts a day asking me to donate money. Yeah, same. I promise you it's worse here. Wow. I promise. Thankfully, I switched to YouTube a year ago.
And YouTube TV will occasionally be kind enough to be like, wouldn't you rather just skip this and watch nothing for a minute? I really would. Yeah, but I did do my annual like changing jobs. So I took care of that. I knocked that out in September. I'm a week into this. So nothing has happened. I had I had a I had someone live with me for three months and I am still financially dealing with that. So, yeah, sorry about that one.
Don't be nice to people. That's just if someone is like, hey, can you help me out? Just tell them to eat your ass. It's fine. It will at least save you a lot of money in the long run. Funnily enough, I think that's also the moral of this television show. This would have been a much shorter show if everyone involved had just told Agatha to eat their whole ass. And you know what? Maybe she's into that. We'll find out later, perhaps. I saw her scenes with Aubrey Plaza. I'm pretty sure.
I believe Paige and I had feelings when that happened. My feelings were after their first scene together, me screaming out, I'm not, look, I'm. The only thing that they missed from that scene was one of them showing up with a U-Haul. That's all I'm saying. God, what do we have to talk about?
So, hey, J.D., you want the best U-Haul joke that I've come up with recently? I would love a good U-Haul joke. It's the one where Paige and I moved in together first and then got together. So it was a reverse U-Haul. Yeah, that's a thing now, guys. Yeah. Yeah, that's also a thing. Okay, not only that, but just to give people an idea of exactly what's going on here. So my divorce went through, I started dating, and I was like...
Just like being nice to people. And apparently, in order to get 9 million queer girlfriends, all you have to do is be nice to them. Except for the ones who want you to be mean to them the exact right way, which is how I got Paige. Wait a minute! Yeah, this is nice. Apparently I had like infinite game the entire time, but didn't know it. It do be like. Anyway, what show are we covering? Akatha House of Harkness.
Yes. But first, we had, like, other, like, Marvel news that we skipped over from, like, San Diego Comic-Con way back when. Exactly. Or that we didn't talk about yet. And have our feelings over. Maybe we can go even further back, because... Like I said, we haven't done any recordings together as a whole group. Do any of the rest of you besides McCall and I watch What If Season 2? I know the answers. No. It was really fun. Do you know? I know.
You know I had no time. You understand this. The one that is actually good. other one i was like okay with it i kind of hated season one but i love season two all right i thought season one didn't live up to the potential the premise i'm glad to hear that season two did better And I hope I watch it soon. I am glad you enjoyed What If Season 2. And I personally don't want to take that away from you. So I think I'm just...
But he will if you ask. Yeah, of course. I will tell you, though, I think that having an appreciation for what if season two might be a marker of where you stand on the whole RDJ thing. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Should we talk about that one? If we are talking about Marvel stuff, I think it's the next thing in the Marvel calendar because nothing happened in the first half of the year. She was desperately trying to push a segue.
And then all of us were like, we're not following you. We're not going to do this. We're not. Girl, we have a year to talk about. We're just going to leave Echo alone. Oh, that's right. That wasn't January. Jamie and I talked about Echo, right? A little bit. The three of us on the podcast never talked about Echo at all. It was fine. Who watched Echo? I did. It was fine. It was good. Yeah, everyone except me watched it, basically.
I liked a lot of the stuff they did in there. I think the most interesting thing that came from that series was the Marvel Spotlight banner and what they're doing with it. moving forward um and being willing to be a little more uh a little more netflixy with their shows on disney plus especially with like
Eventually, Disney Plus and Hulu are just going to be one. I don't even think they're going to offer them as separate products at a certain point. You can already watch all the Hulu stuff in Disney Plus now. You can just delete the Hulu app. But, yeah, given that they're, you know, it's not just a kid's app now, it's nice to see that they're actually going to have some Marvel branded more adult series, which, I mean, their idea of more adult is, hey, we're going to show the blood now.
Which sure, but Echo was good. I had a good time watching it. Ironically, or not ironically, but oddly enough, I think my favorite thing of that show is the opening credit song. Yeah, that was pretty good. I did enjoy that. But yeah, it was a really good show. Actually, speaking of being able to get Hulu stuff inside Disney+, Hulu is one of those services where you can add on other services within it. So if you want, you could watch a DC movie inside Hulu, inside Disney+.
So you could just have all of your entertainment all in Disney Plus. Remember when streaming was supposed to make everything more simplified and convenient? Remember when streaming was supposed to have a profit margin? No! No, actually. No, I remember when it was supposed to not and therefore we could get a bunch of shows that we didn't deserve. Yeah, it was always supposed to be like the pro consumer response to like big cable. And now it is just.
That's what they said it was supposed to be when they lied. Yeah, the irony is it's all the same company. It was legitimately that for a little while. Right, but that's when they... run it without profit so that they can destroy the old system so they can take over the old system like yes all venture capital they did a kamikaze capitalism to it for um as was the style at the time
But yeah, anyway, streaming services are a disaster and the entertainment landscape is fucked up. But Robert Downey Jr. is coming back as Dr. Doom. So that doesn't change anything I just said. It's still fucking weird. It's fine. I guess. It's, I think it's an optics problem more than anything else. Because it just reads desperate. Yeah. And it's really hard to shake off that, that like read of the move of like, oh.
Marvel movies aren't making what they did before, which is kind of true and kind of not true. And they're definitely not as critically well received as they used to be. So we're going to go and dig back into our glory days and have Robert Downey Jr. try to fix it. I don't know if you've seen some of the stuff that Robert Downey Jr. has done non-Marvel.
since he signed up with Marvel, but he's not a singular draw either. I don't know. He was amazing. He was. I've also seen both of the Sherlock movies. I feel like that was I feel like the Sherlock movies were like the get me out of Marvel thing. I don't know. An attempt at a different franchise. Yeah. He also did. Possibly the worst adaptation of Dr. Doolittle, which is really saying something. So I think. Go ahead, McCall. Well, my defense of this.
massive corporate decision, is just that, I guess, I... First of all, I don't think Marvel, Marvel's not capable of selling out. Marvel is inherently selling out. That's like saying that like oxygen is breathable. Like it's, you know. So I personally am like, if we're taking it on that.
score, right? Where they're not capable of selling out. Obviously, it's a desperate move, but who cares? Because if it's successful, nobody will even remember that they weren't happy about it in two years. So my feeling is like, I don't know. He's a good actor. I, as a, I guess, what if super fan, am curious about the, I don't know, interdimensional situation that could turn the guy who started out as...
Tony Stark into Doctor Doom. I find that an interesting thing to contemplate. My main question is, how is there enough money in the world? But that's different. I have to guess that somebody in Marvel was like, well, he is expensive, but there's a chance that if we don't do this, we'll make no money. I mean, they...
They clearly had to pivot with Jonathan Majors. They had to do something to address that situation. So that also adds to the desperation bit a little bit because they could have just recasted Kang. And continued upon their merry way. You know, there's like, do we criticize them for, you know, like reading and listening to fan backlash and kind of like pivoting due to that?
Or do we praise them for doing that and being perceptive to it and open to making that change? Or do we criticize them for giving in to the loudest voices in the room? But, you know, they clearly had to do something. This has basically changed their direction because that Avengers movie is no longer Kang Dynasty. But, I mean, like... Obviously, Doctor Doom's a major villain. It will be interesting to see whether this is a Tony Stark variant who has gone mad, I guess, or bad.
or whether Robert Downey Jr. just is Victor Von Doom, and they do not mention Tony Stark whatsoever, which is kind of what I'm hoping, because I think it would be the most wild, right? Everyone in universe just has to pretend that that guy doesn't look exactly like. Well, except they won't because they'll be all scarred and shit. So nobody will be able to. Oh, maybe.
Also, going back to Oppenheimer, I did not recognize him for like a good 20 minutes. And then I was like, why does this guy's voice sound so familiar? And then it was like, oh, my God, it's a quarter of Tony Stark with way less hair. As far as the scarring goes, I don't understand scarring him up if you're going to pay for all that money for him. All that money, you're going to want to see him too. That's so much money!
I mean, I imagine if they're going to do something that may split the difference a little bit, where for a long time, most of the characters we've dealt with don't realize that he looks just like Tony Stark. But then at some point Reed Richards pulls out like a picture of him in the before days. Like, what the fuck? That's just Tony. Like, and then it becomes a thing maybe.
I actually, because like this is another two part Avengers movie thing, I can very clearly imagine him face revealing and taking off the mask being like. the end of the first movie or being like the dramatic beat that they end on. Yeah. Be part of it. Certainly. I also can't imagine. I mean, this is a rumor that I've heard. I don't know if it's true, whatever. Sorry if it's a spoiler or whatever. But like the idea being that this takes place.
Fantastic Four takes place in a different universe, right? And then at some point they get ported into the main 616 MCU. Presumably Doom comes along with them and then everybody from the... from our team has to be like, fuck, Tony's back, but he's evil. Super, super. He's the evilest. He's the big bad. Like that to me is actually a really interesting way of solving the Thanos problem.
You know, of just not being able to have a baddie. Even Kang, honestly, at his scariest. I'm not saying they wouldn't have gotten there. Because it took a while for Thanos to get there. But, like, he never was at that level for me. So I feel like when you have someone with... an intelligence level and an ingenuity level and a basically willing to do whatever the fuck level that we know that Tony Stark has. And then you put it in the supervillain. I find that really interesting. Yeah, totally.
Boy, would you enjoy pro wrestling. I'm like, yeah, keep describing a heel turn. This is great.
I think it's going to all just come down to execution. If they tell a good enough story and explain it in-universe well enough, then people are going to accept it. Exactly. And if they don't, then it's going to be a... giant turkey i was gonna say my question is do you trust them to tell that story i trust them to try like i mean i i mean i think they're i think they're capable of it it's just whether they
are too panicked or not. Whether they're actually panicked or just like, that's what it looks like. Who's working on the next two now? Because it's dischanging. Is it the Russo brothers again? Yeah, and then I think also Dustin Daniel Cretton is doing something that he wasn't before. He was supposed to direct the Kang Dynasty, and then...
He's not, because the Kang Dynasty is not happening. Yes, Anthony and Joe Russo are the directors, and Stephen McFeely is writing the script. Oh, that's right. Dustin Daniel Cranston is going to the next Spider-Man movie. Oh!
Yeah, because I think the idea being that John Watts is like, it did my trilogy, I'm out. So whatever next Spider-Man movie, it's going to be Shang-Chi guy. And Shang-Chi, I guess, is just like, whatever. I mean, I don't feel like Shang-Chi really... needs a sequel right now and they certainly like it does not look like they are have that in the near term plans at all so yeah no but he was supposed to get one
he was or at least show up in an avengers movie that should have happened a year and a half two years ago as well yep um i know a lot of the the upcoming movies are much more like set now Or at least we have something resembling a concrete schedule moving forward. I think we've thought that before. Something like that. Still remember where Blade is on there. We're now like...
We're now fully past the COVID times where, like, things just kept getting moved around. And we're not still dealing with Jonathan Major stuff. So it feels like things are more settled. Sure, we're past COVID. At least as far as people taking it seriously enough to have it impacting a movie. Until someone major gets taken out for a week in the middle of a shooting. That's, I mean, at this point, they're like, that's only a week. We don't care.
I hate to spin it that way, but that is the way the world has decided to be. Exactly. I know that's how it is. I would not be surprised with a couple of major delays in some of these movies that happen to screw up the schedule. Again. Anyway, you know what Marvel property is out now? Is that Agatha Coven of Chaos? Yes. No, wait. Agatha Darkhold Diaries. Sorry.
Or maybe it was the one that they put up for like just a day or two back in May. Agatha the Lying Witch with the Great Weardrobe. Yes. Which, the worst title. The worst and best at the same time. For a while, it was also just Agatha. Did you do Agatha Dark Hole Diaries yet? I did, yeah. Okay, cool. We covered them all. Good job. Yep.
Yeah, there is an actual show with actual people and stuff, and it's actually maybe good. At the very least, I was pleased by the premiere. I liked it. I liked it a lot. And not just because of Aubrey Plaza licking Katherine Hansen. Come on. It's a big part, though. It's a very big part. Come on, though.
I hope we have some Mare of Easttown fans on the podcast. I saw people making the reference, but I've never actually watched the show to get the joke, really. I mean, it wasn't so much a joke as it was. like a very faithful recreation of the style of that show i was i was sitting there like i texted pages was like i mentioned that it felt like a a late 2000s like tnt or hbo show and i'm sitting there like
why does this show feel so, why does this framing device seem so familiar to Click? And I was like, oh, it's literally just Mare of Easttown. Down to like... the attitude of the main character and her mysteriously gone child. Like, okay, cool. Am I reading this right? Are we really supposed to believe that they are releasing four MCU films next year?
Which ones? What? Captain America Brave New World comes out February 14. Oh, I thought that was this year. Nope, February 14, 2025. Thunderbolts is May 2, 2025. Fantastic Four is July 25th, 2025. Okay. And the one that I call bullshit on, Blade, is November 7th. Oh, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.
Which, I mean, that one has not started filming yet. I would be very, very surprised if Blade comes out next year. At this point, I don't want it to because I would be, like, super rushing that movie to, like, make a fucking train wreck. I don't want that for Blade.
Now, critical question. When you said Thunderbolts, did you say the asterisk at the end? How do you pronounce? Did you just say asterisk? Yeah, how do you pronounce that, Jamie? It's more about an intent, I think. You got to kind of like will it onto the word. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Can I also say that the fact that the next slash maybe last, I guess, Venom movie comes out on my goddamn birthday this year is... I can't tell if I'm insulted or not.
I had Deadpool and Wolverine on my birthday, so I felt really good about that. That was pretty good, though. We all liked that, right? I fucking loved it. I didn't see it, so... You guys thought I saw the Marvel movie? No. But it was really good. Yeah, it's really good and it's got a lot of funny things in it because it's the funny movie.
Are you aware of what Chris Evans does in that movie? Have you been spoiled on his cameo, basically? I can't say that I have any particular memory of being aware of that. Okay. It also drops more hot TVA lore. You're the one person that has not been spoiled on that, I feel. Guard that with your lunch. I'll watch it at some point. Yeah.
I genuinely want to know what you think about this one because it's meta in ways that not even any of the other Deadpool movies have done. And I think either you would like... be pleasantly surprised by it or maybe hate some of it and either way i want to hear you talk about it it does have maybe my favorite modern like recent villain yeah oh yeah Yeah, Elizabeth Debicki. Yeah. Awesome. And apparently she's also like six feet tall, which is also awesome. I think she's non-binary.
I think you are right about that. I think they are. That is true. But yeah, Elizabeth Debicki is awesome in that role. Weren't they in Tenant and they were steering like the... the wheel of the car from the backseat with their feet or something? I don't. Maybe. I pointedly did not see Tenet. Yeah. You just made a case. You just made a case for me. People were talking about that kind of thing.
Yeah, they were in Tenet. Also, that was Emma Corrin, not Elizabeth. Oh, wait, no. Yeah. Oh, wait, no. Elizabeth Debicki's in. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm getting people mixed up now. Yeah. Emma Corrin is the fact the one who is in the new movie. Yes. God damn. Yeah, no, it's Emma Corrin who plays Cassandra Nova, who is fucking great. Yes. Top notch. Anyway, I guess back to...
I don't know. Pick a former title. Agatha, Darkhold, Coven of Chaos, Diaries. Let's go with the real one. What is the real one, even? Agatha. I know, I'm joking. but yes you can talk about the actual show um yeah how is everyone like had everyone enjoy the first two episodes i guess i'll go first it was great i love it um it's
This is a show that is actually made for me. It's got a lot of really funny ladies in it. And magic and witches stuff. And it's kind of creepy. And I love it. And it's very funny. A whole show of like Catherine Han is making me very happy because when they first announced the show, I was like, yeah, OK, I'll watch her in anything. I don't care.
i literally don't care how this is gonna turn out because i get to go watch her for like a full series okay cool uh and i'm getting what i want uh in spades because like i get her all the time and it's a good show so yay a bonus yeah i do like the idea of we've got a marvel show here where it's basically about like five to six ladies and one
gay dude and that's those are all the characters like is there a it will be any straight white dudes in this show i hope not there might be like they're gonna find stuff on the road The bunny might be straight, you said? The bunny might be straight. I don't know. Absolutely not. I kind of feel like bunnies like that are just like chaotic buys, all of them.
I was about to say, that bunny does not know how to sit right in a chair. Yep. Yeah, I really enjoyed those first episodes as well. There's a lot of like... vague, weird stuff going on in the first episode. Like the idea of Agatha being trapped in a police procedural for a little bit. Pretty hilarious. A great bridge between the two series of bringing that in and then shattering it. Yes. Going back to the TV influence thing of WandaVision for a little bit.
I really thought they were going to do that framing device for much longer than they did. And in the moment, I was kind of disappointed that it dropped so fast. And I think in hindsight... Good call, I think. I don't mind it. Yeah. Because, like, there's not a mystery with it this time. Right. Like, that is not part of the mystery of the show. It's just where we left that character. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's a temporary mystery for Agatha herself to unravel by going back through time through WandaVision. Yeah. And it introduces us to at least two characters that are outside of that that want to bring her out of it as well. Yep. I mean, it's also I mean, I think it's also really. fun to like revisit Westview after the events of WandaVision and check in with characters that, that made an impact on us the first time around. I do love how many apparently just keep Deborah Jo Rupp.
Just keep her. Yeah. I love her so much. Am I supposed to know this song? Classic. That line absolutely killed me. Yes. It was very good. She has the perfect energy for that. Probably for the show moving forward. I've got a prediction that she's actually Ryo in disguise.
And that's how they were able to actually successfully get onto the witch's road because there is an actual witch there. Yeah, that would be that would be strong. I like that. Yeah, it shouldn't work with her like at all unless she's like. either Rio or like another one.
I mean, she's a gardener, so she's kind of like an earth witch. Yeah, the premise is that she is witchy enough, I believe is how they put it in the show. She's enthusiastic and plucky is what she is. And then, yes, the garden thing. being Earth-centric, I think it was, is what they needed.
Yeah, and having been touched by magic before maybe also, but I think the idea of like, we know Ryo's going to show up again, and Ryo has to get to the witch's road somehow, so I think having it be that she's been there the entire time makes the most sense to me. It would make a lot of sense. Well, and it's also... It's also a really fun mirror of how Agatha's relationship with Wanda was in WandaVision. Oh yeah, that's very true. It's fun to turn those tropes around on the character. Anyway.
The number of times there were like little winky references to things in WandaVision as well, where it was a lot of fun. Like when Agatha's like going back into her house naked and like a dog barks and she gets really angry about it. Like, oh yeah, that sounds like you. Uh, I mean, I, first of all, I can't believe they did that in a Disney show. Like, we got full Catherine Han butt. Anyway. I mean. That was probably a stunt butt. They do stunt butts all the time. We got a full butt.
It doesn't matter who's. We got a depiction of Katherine Hahn's butt one way or the other. We have an idea of it. We have a reasonable facsimile of Katherine Hahn's butt. On a Disney show. I have a much better idea of what Katherine Hahn's butt looks like before. I'm sorry, than I did before. Even if it is partially a fantasy butt. And you know what? That would be fine. It's a show about magic.
I think one of my other favorite bits was... uh in the second episode where they go to drive off is it the second episode of the i think it's the second episode that's where they go to drive off and we see what her car was in her mom yeah oh this is not a car Not a car. I love the fact of thinking that she's just walking around town, breaking into people's houses, thinking there are other buildings. And people are just like, oh, yeah, that's just Agnes. Yeah, you gotta...
placate her. She'll go away eventually. She's the town cat. The neighborhood is, like, still helping her. For three years! I think a large part of that is, like... I don't think they would have done that had they not all gone through something very secret. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a part of me that's like, oh, they don't think that she was weird the whole time. They think that she just never came out of it. Right. I will admit.
I mean, I loved seeing all the characters from, again, it actually like brought me right back to like that. very sweet time where everyone was playing someone different every week and it was it was awesome um did make me mad again though because um dotty should have been the villain Or been used more. Yeah. From what I saw in the credits, I think this, the first episode is the only episode she's showing up in. Let's take it one at a time. They wouldn't necessarily disclose all that.
Yeah. And I think the rest of the series is not about Westview, really. No, they made it a point to get out of Westview pretty quickly. We don't actually know if they're out of Westview. But I mean, like when she went to go recruit, like we moved out of there pretty quickly. Although she did say that the coven is within like a three mile radius. So probably not. Yeah. They didn't go that far. Like they, they went to the mall around and that's about it. Which like, I'm also sat there like.
Wow, all of those witches were within a three-mile radius of Westview during Wanda's stuff and just did nothing? Or moved there within three years after it. Yeah. Yeah. If you were any of those... kind of washed up, frankly, witches, would you have wanted to do something about Wanda? Yeah, I would have looked at that and been like, this is not my problem. Oh, and Avenger had a nervous breakdown and kidnapped an entire town? Not.
My problem. I will throw a potion at the wall. Oh, it did not say great. I'm out. That's above my power grade and my pay grade. Although the idea of Agatha needing to go and get witches of different domains was a cool idea. Especially given the fact that everyone knows exactly who Agatha is and what she's about and what she's done. In the past, they all do not care for it.
Yeah, I liked the episode a lot, too, with just the getting the band together kind of thing. Everyone having their own reasons for accepting. Yeah, I did very much like the episode and the vibe of the show. And I am definitely excited for more of it. I think that was probably the only part that felt rushed to me was the getting the band together bit. I mean, I definitely understood why two of them joined. Yeah. There was one that I was like, I don't know why you're here.
And that was Alice. Yeah. Her reasoning to decide to show up just wasn't there or felt very ill-defined. I think that might get touched on later, but it might just be that, you know, that. The nerve that they touched on when they went after her affected her more than she showed. Because she does seem like a kind of closed off person.
Yeah, and she's probably going to get expanded upon because of like what they said about her mother and everything. Like that's probably going to be a bigger thing later. So they're probably just building up to that. Yeah, I do wonder how long they're going to try to keep. the secret of who Joe Locke is playing I like that I like that um Agnes already knows that something's up though like yes
Yeah. Calculating already. She might even know who he is. It's possible. Yeah. I think she suspects for sure. she knows there's some bullshit i like that us as the audience we're also like okay we already know who he is like that's not even like the big thing about it it's more like okay well why is there this lock on who put it there what what's going on
It clearly was supposed to be a big thing, though. I mean, for the people who don't pay attention to the hype cycle and the interviews and stuff like that, then I think in that case, they will be surprised. Yeah. The less tuned in you are, if you're listening to any podcast about the show, you know. If you're not, and you're a normal person, then...
Or if you maybe don't go to the Marvel Cinematic Universe wiki and look at Agatha all along, where it clearly spells out who he is playing. Oh no. As the second person in the cast list. With no spoiler bar or anything. Good job, guys. You know, Wikipedia, they're doing good work. They just have it as Joe Locke as, quote, teen. Right, which is how...
I think that's how they're credited. Now, if you do hover over the word teen, it will show up at preview of the article for the actual character, but they tried. It definitely will. Anyway, we're doing the spoiler thing really well, guys. Yep. He's a fun character, though, just at least the way that they're portraying him of being this, like...
He's basically like a baby puppy witch. Just really eager to help and get stuff done and a bit of a fanboy. But he was strong enough to get through Wanda's spell. Well, there's some question about that. There were two characters that were trying to break out of it. I mean, there's also the... So if you follow the... I mean, what the show is presenting, which is Wanda is dead. Yeah. Then...
it would make sense that it would be significantly easier to pull her out of that spell now. And the Darkhold doesn't exist anymore. The Darkhold doesn't exist and Wanda's dead. So, like, there's really nothing to, like... back that to keep her from breaking out eventually. It kind of implied that she was keeping herself in there.
at one point or just like she like she was so like deep in it for so long that it was hard for her to naturally come out on her own without somebody giving her a nudge yeah I also I'm not ruling out the possibility that um billy is the one who is keeping um agnes from knowing who he is oh oh yeah i think that he may be unaware i think i could see him doing it without realizing it
but like he he should he would know who she is right like she's at minimum the creepy neighbor who killed their dog right like yes and assuming it's that version of him True. Well, yeah, there's that. Well, so the way that it works in the comics, at the very least, it's essentially is that like Wanda has these fake children that she makes. And then at once...
Like they are unmade, like the souls that she essentially like used for making them get put into other people. So they're not like biologically her children, but they are like spiritually in some ways kind of thing. Um, so like they grew up normal lives, not knowing about her, but then as they get older, they develop powers that are very similar to Wanda and Pietro and stuff like that. And then realize eventually it's like, yo.
comes clear what the connection is, but they're not, they're like, she's like mom with an asterisk kind of thing. It's complicated. So I don't, I don't think he would actually would have any of those memories from the Westview time. Something is obviously going on because there would have had to have been more accelerated growth. And at least from what you can kind of hear as he's explaining his backstory, he says he grew up in Eastview.
which I don't know if that actually exists because they only mention Eastview in the... That's one of my favorite theories is that Eastview is just not real. Yeah.
the shelbyville like i actually really i mean i don't i don't want to over theorize and disappoint myself a la wandavision um but i do i do really like the idea that this is actually billy's plan to get wanda back that is a that is a pretty good theory as well what i like about this show is i i think they're being a lot more intentional and careful about theories about putting stuff out there
And I think I've read in interviews where that was like, they kind of acknowledged that they were too sloppy with that in WandaVision. And were like... purposefully being more careful about what breadcrumbs they leave and what references they make. So like, I don't know. I agree with you. I also don't want to over theorize because, and I think the show is just.
a lot more straightforward um and like i think the vibe moving forward is going to be a lot more straightforward like you know they're not going to I don't think they're going to play with the symbolism and the theory crafting as much as they have. But I do like that some of these, like, I mean, trying to theorize, you know, is Billy trying to get Wanda back? Like, that's a very straightforward...
Like, we have a character, we know who they are. I mean, we don't know who they are yet, but the spoilers are out there enough that we know who they are. So we can start to put together theories based on what they have shown us so far, as opposed to like... oh, we saw Mephisto's name in a paper clipping in the corner. What does that mean? Like, you know, they're not doing that to us this time. Yeah. At least not yet.
Which is nice, except for, you know, in her fever dream world with the son that she lost, the name is Nicholas Scratch, which is very comic specific and I'm hoping is not just a throw out. and is actually a thing, considering how crucial they are to the Salem 7 as well. Scariest thing I've ever seen in a Marvel thing, by the way. Oh yeah, that was legitimately unsettling. Nowhere close to like five seconds with the Salem 7. That was a party game I played in high school.
Oh, boy. Just they're the living embodiment of, hey, I'm going to head out. Whereas I watched them and I was like, oh yeah, I've seen The Ring as well. That was just the icing on the cake. I was out when they showed up. I was like, oh no, this is too scary for me. And then it kept getting... exponentially scarier by the time she was crawling down the steps. I was like, what's going on? And I did enjoy, like, first the crow shows up and we're like, oh, she's being a little paranoid.
but understandable and then the rat shows up and we're like yeah that's also kind of paranoid oh that's a coyote never mind that fucker is here for you Or I just let a lot slip about me and anytime my coyote shows up, I'm like, oh, you're here for me. Anytime you see a coyote, you assume it's at the very least a familiar.
For a witch. Oh, death approaches. Cool. Oh, is there a pale horse somewhere around here too? For me, you shouldn't. Yeah, apparently the Salem Seven... members are all are primarily named after like the creatures they're representing so it's snake crow fox rat owl coyote and there's one called vertigo Butch Vertigo is a comics character. Yes. We will definitely be well acquainted with them some point soon. Probably, yes. But in the comics, Nicholas Scratch is the one that like...
assembles them slash leads them. And so I'm assuming, given that they've already shouted that name out, we will probably see them at some point as well. Oh, in the comics, Vertigo is Agatha's granddaughter. Yeah, because Nicholas scratches her son. Although also in the comics, the Salem Seven was not adversarial to Agatha. Not outright, although Vertigo was temporarily apparently on the Frightful Four, which is like fantastic for a bit evil.
in some ways. Also, Agatha's not really a bad guy in the comics. No, she's morally dubious sometimes, but she's not evil. She's willing to do what she needs to do to get her goals accomplished, but she is generally like... a good guy in the comic. Yeah, in the comics she was Franklin Richards' nanny for years. Oh, that explains a lot. Yeah, like her...
The twist on making her younger and more sarcastic... power-hungry asshole in the in the i mean she was kind of a power-hungry asshole in the comics too but not not to that extent that's definitely an mcu choice which i i mean it Makes character more interesting. Yeah, they're doing, of course, just like they've done with so many other characters who their MCU interpretations take off, as they've made the comics version a little bit more like the MCU version these days. Yeah.
They really lucked out right from the beginning by getting Katherine Hahn to be Agatha. I don't think any of this would be happening if it wasn't for how awesome that she is as an actress. I really do feel like, I mean, I think they gave her a lot of scenery to chew in the first two episodes because they just kind of let her go, which has been...
I mean, it's a treat to watch her. It's a treat, especially because of how ridiculously into the role she gets, despite the fact that she never has to. Her face is so expressive, too. There were so many times where she's cracking jokes, like sitcom jokes, and nobody made her say those words. Those were her choice to be more on the show.
essentially yeah and i mean like i obviously i think that is like she is aware of who she is as a person she's been alive a very long time and i think she realizes that that's Like, she is kind of naturally charming. That is definitely a skill that she uses or doesn't use, depending on the situation. Yeah, sometimes she's like, I'm naked and I'm going to yell at you and I don't care what anyone thinks.
Honestly, if you're that old, like the fact that you bother to wear pants at all sometimes. Or she's going to try to berate people into blasting her with their magic. That was actually pretty clever on her part. I mean, it was clever, but everyone was immediately like, wait a minute. Yeah, it was pretty clever until she got that, like, ooh, I'm about to eat my candy face. Yeah.
Which is the face that Aubrey Plaza showed up in the show with and maintained through every appearance that she was there for. I showed this video to Paige, but I saw a, like... one of those little like actors interview each other things uh with uh harry plaza and patty lapone it was a first day feast like with the hot wing oh yeah oh yeah and so like they're asking each other questions and plaza is just like
so relentlessly horny. It's great! She asks Patti LuPone to bring Plaza inside her and then birth her again later. She's like, you are so great. I love you so much. Who was it that had the best description of Audrey Plaza as like an alien that like... Oh, yeah. An alien who came to Earth and it just like got really famous and it's just sort of vibing here now.
Like, she accidentally became popular, and now she's stuck here, living out that life. She accidentally became popular, and now she's making it everyone's problem. Yes, exactly. But actually, like, as we were... watching the first part of the episode and watching the first episode and the part where Plaza licks Katherine Hahn's hand, both Paige and I were like, that was great.
I'm leaning over to Paige like, yeah, she's always been super hot. Yeah, that's just always been her. Yeah. Do you want to... Recap? Yeah, I do have the Wikipedia. I don't remember how we do this. Yeah, I mean, well, the thing is, we can do whatever the hell we want. It's our podcast. But I do have the Wikipedia. Quick summaries pulled up. I figure going to the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki ones will probably just be...
We'll be here for days. I don't have six hours. Yeah, exactly. Very short and very well written. Yeah. So I'm getting on one of those. They're not short. Yeah. The episode one is called Seekest Thou the Road, directed by Jack Schaefer, who was one of the people who was also involved in WandaVision and is, I think, the showrunner, technically. Yeah, she was the showrunner. Yeah.
Which is also why this kind of feels nice, because it feels like a little bit of a redemption for WandaVision and possibly Wanda. Like, I'm not saying this is going to culminate with Wanda coming back, but, like, I feel like most people...
Even if you liked Multiverse of Madness, that was a pretty bad, like, reversal of the character. It was an extreme, like... you understand how they could how she could get there but it was still a bit of a jump like emotionally oh yeah i also i don't know i've heard that people have said within like
while they were working a multi-person band, I was like, oh, we might have ruined Wanda. And they kind of did. So I feel like, I don't know, it's nice to see Jack Schaefer kind of, I guess, getting a second turret to speak. Yeah, like you mentioned that maybe Billy's purpose was to bring her back at some point. I don't know if...
That's going to be their purpose, but I think that might be the results, because I don't think that anyone who came in who might eventually succeed on this journey is going to get what they set out to get. I think it's going to be more of a like, no, that's what you wanted. Now here's what you need. Yeah, quite possible. Yes. But then you also have to be like, well, I mean, I don't know. They've clearly like.
Agatha has clearly walked the road before, right? And what did she get from it then? Which is, I think, something that is going to be interesting. Yeah, for sure. Because she's been very coy about, like, she kind of implies that she got power that way, but she's very coy about what that power was. Yeah, what people do and don't say. It would not surprise me if that's how she ended up with the Darkhold in the first place. That kind of deal.
Yeah, and if she got power from the road, it's because she ended up tricking the witches that went with her into stealing their power. Which I'm pretty sure she intends to do again, whether or not it's about, like, stealing the power. Oh, yeah. Yeah, whether she has explicitly said that or will try to do it in the spur of the moment, she is definitely going to do it. I mean, everyone except Deborah Jo Ruff basically is like...
All my other options are worse. You know? Right. Yep. This first episode was also written by Schaefer. And it starts in a crime noir television series titled Agnes of Westview. Agnes O'Connor is a police detective in Westview fixated on a Jane Doe murder case. One night, a teenager breaks into her house looking for, quote, the road. Agnes believes he is tied to the murder case and arrests him.
Ryo Vidal, an FBI agent, comes to Agnes and helps her realize that the Jane Doe she is actually, sorry, the Jane Doe she is seeing is actually Wanda Maximoff's body, and that Agnes is actually the witch Agatha Harkness, who has been trapped under Wanda's spell for three years. Which, like, I don't know if they wanted that to be mysterious when we show up at the body, but it was not mysterious when we show up at the body. No, I think they had enough clues there. Like, oh no, yeah, that's her.
I think it's really much more of a like, how is it going to be made relevant? How's it going to be explained in the context? That kind of thing. And we get fun moments of her going around to different residents of the city. who have been brought back. We see Norm, he was running a pawn shop. Dottie's a librarian now. Exactly, yeah. And part of the library is still fucked up from the Visions fighting, I guess, or something.
I loved that whole opening sequence of her as, like, a police detective. I'm like, this is the whole episode. I'm actually okay. And they don't say anything. Yeah, exactly. I also loved, like, the weird little, like, things that you could... think of as references like Agnes Agatha Agnes whatever she's in the library and she is chewing gum incessantly and that's where Vision chewed some gum and fucked up his tum tum
So, you know, things like that, they're just like nice little parallels. Waking up from the spell, Agatha realizes that her powers are gone and that Vidal, a fellow witch from whom Agatha has history with, is there to kill her.
Yeah, in between is the time where she walks out naked talking to her neighbor about what the fuck is going on and, like, just great work from Han. Agatha convinces Vidal to spare her until she gets her powers back, but Vidal warns Agatha that the Salem Seven will soon come after her. After Vidal leaves, Agatha is unsure what to do about the teen whom she actually kidnapped under the influence of Wanda's spell. He's just in the closet. Yeah. Tied up in the closet. What a metaphor for a gay kid.
She was just going to leave him there, too. Yeah, yeah, totally. It's your house now. I think that's just what she said. Yeah. Which, I mean, is fair. It's not her house. She stole that house. Yeah. She stole it from Ralph. Boner or whatever the fuck his name. No, that's exactly what his name was, lest we forget. His witness protection name. So that's how the first episode wraps up. And the second episode, which aired at the same time.
The first one was called Circle Sown with Fate, Unlock Thy Hidden Gate. So we'll be interested to see how poetic these episode titles remain. This one's also directed by Jack Schaefer, but written by Laura Donnie. I think all of the episode titles are just lyrics from the song. That's quite possible, yeah.
So the teen reveals that he thinks he freed Agatha from the spell and wishes to travel the witch's road, which rewards any witch who survives its trials what they most desire. In Agatha's case, the restoration of her powers. Agatha also realizes magic is preventing her from learning any personal information about the teen, including his name. You know, literally, she asks him his name and then like a little like, you know, well, like it's like.
sensor bar. It also kind of looks like sewing thread going over his mouth as if he was like a shrunken head kind of thing or something like that. Needing a coven to open a portal to the road, the pair recruits the witches, Lilia, Calderu, Jennifer Kale, and Alice Wu Gulliver, who all have reasons to walk the road as well. The last one, it's a little shakier, because I guess her mom went...
here down there, they think. But yeah, we'll see. Not wanting to recruit Vidal, Agatha instead turns to Westview resident Sharon Davis, which again, I'm thinking it's just Vidal in disguise because her name was on the paper. It could be. It would make a lot of sense because obviously she had been there and investigating for a while, I think, before she confronted Agatha. I think so. But I do love when...
Lillia like has her little prophetic moment and writes out the names in the piece of paper. And then one of them is her own name. She's just like pissed off about it. Yeah. I mean, I definitely, I definitely. agree that that is likely what's going on with Deborah Jo Rupp's character is that that's actually Rio. I... Her learning the words to the song happened very quickly. Those words don't rip you. They're in the refrain. They're saying it over and over again. She's able to just join in.
She gets in on some verses, too, is the problem. Yeah. Might just be the spark of magic or whatever. But I do think the idea of her secretly being... Rio makes sense. Raf says hi, by the way. He just joined. Hi, Raf. Raf, does everyone sound relatively okay? This is the first time with our new audio setup. You can answer when you haven't. Excuse me.
But yeah, so Agatha instead gets Sharon Davis just like, hey, you want to join a party? Come on. And they go down in her basement. So as the four witches and Davis perform the ritual to open the gate to the road, they and the teen escape through it to narrowly evade the Salem Seven. This one doesn't mention specifically that he tries to bar the door with a couch and stuff because the actual door is broken off from Rio the day before and stuff like that. And then like...
They just appear in the house anyway. Yeah, I don't think physical barriers are much of a problem for any of them. No. Yeah, he's thinking of like zombies and that's not how that works. I do like the other instance of premonition they have when they're down in the basement. And Lily, I think, just says, like, get off me. And then later that's them trying to...
Grab him. Yeah. So I wonder how much more of that we're going to get. I do also love when the door opens and they're all like, whoa. And he's like, go, go, go, go, go. And she just runs down. We need to leave now. It's all fascinating and magical. Let's go. Cool, cool, cool. We're gonna die. Go. What's like...
He had told Agatha to let him know when the road opened so that he could join them. She was not coming for him. She was never going to do that. Yeah. Yeah, then the group sets off on the witch's road. They take their shoes off. to, I guess, commune with nature? Yeah, they're following the yellow witch road, Raph says. Yeah. I'm sure we'll see some munchkins next episode and they'll be perfectly pleasant.
I don't know what everyone was freaking out about. That road looks totally safe and fine and chill. But yeah, those are the first two episodes. I really enjoyed it. I thought this was the strongest opening for a live-action Marvel show since, like, WandaVision or Loki, quite frankly. Yeah, it was good. It turns out that if you give... smart people resources to make a smart show they can actually do it as opposed to like crunching people into weird timelines for
Turn around and stuff like that. I don't understand what you're talking about. I don't understand what you're saying. Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. It's not the industry you work in. Yeah. You wouldn't know what that's like. Yeah, no idea. No idea what that's like. It's way more fun to crunch people. It's so fun.
I mean, crunch is just such a fun word to say. Wouldn't you want to do that to people? I mean, there's literally a gym called Crunch Fitness. It's fun to say. And they've got a fist logo thing. They do have a fist logo thing. And Devin literally just ate a Nestle crunch. Devin literally just ate a Nestle crunch. Show me the wrapper. Yeah, I'm excited for the next episodes. This is a nine episode series just to fuck with us. So do we maybe want to do every other episode and then...
do a big one for the last three or maybe do a separate one for just the final episode potentially. The last two were airing together again. Yeah, they are. God damn it. Maybe it'd be like three and four and then maybe five, six and seven and one or something along those lines. My favorite note on the Marvel wiki for this, at least for Rio Vidal, is that...
Aubrey Plaza was also filming Megalopolis during the last two weeks of filming, but they were shot on the same lot. So she was able to go from one to the other without any problems. And she said in an interview that she would go onto the Megalopolis set in character from as Rio and fuck with Giancarlo Esposito. We found someone who can fuck with Giancarlo Esposito. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Plaza's got that kind of energy, so I get it.
I'm actually never sure that she's either in or out of character. I like people tell me that she acts and I'm like, that's just her, right? I don't know. Like, I feel like it's not that. She's always just like being herself when she's acting. I think she's always acting. I mean, when you're an alien, you have to. Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, and I feel like no one alive, perhaps.
That's what the real Aubrey Plaza is like. Oh, we get our glimpses. The one that's lived to tell the tale. Yeah, exactly. She kept asking her, what do you remember why you hate me? And I was like, I hope you're going to show me. Anyway. I think the wiki entry said that Ryo was coming to kill her, and they pointed out pretty explicitly that neither of them can kill each other, so I wonder how that's going to... Come up later. Wait, did they say that? Yeah, at one point when they're fighting...
They both say, you know you can't kill me. That's against the rules. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but I think that's like, I think maybe Rios is hoping for like, well, I mean, you're depowered right now. Are you really still a witch? I think that there's probably some kind of tie that means they can't kill each other. But...
Obviously, they could probably still set each other up to be killed and things like that. There's ways to get around. I mean, it's very clearly, I think, I mean, I think it's pretty implicit that Rio is the reason the Salem Seven are there. It's like, I can't kill you, but they're not held by whatever. The impression I got is that it's against the rules, as in, like, if you as a witch kill another witch, other witches will get on your case. It's not like...
you are prevented from doing so by any kind of magical law, especially considering we saw Agatha eat all her coven in the first, in WandaVision. So, I mean, it could be that, or there could be... like some, some kind of pact or something more specific. I think it's more along those lines. We will find out. I hope.
I mean, I assume that Rio, but my thing is that Rio is going to be like, yeah, I'm not supposed to kill you, but I will. And then everyone else will be like, you know what? Like an exception. I think that's what she's envisioning. They all do seem to really hate. Yeah, because she spent hundreds of years apparently just eating her way through all of witchdom. Yeah, slurping up other witches. Yeah, I think that she has the reputation of stealing power from other witches.
Which I understand the other witches do not care for. Will having the same thing done to her make her re-evaluate? Probably not. No! Unlikely. I think the reason why I like this show so much is like the goblin energy radiating off of everyone in the cast. Will you learn your lesson? No. It is a collection of people constantly looking for an angle. Like, how can I get ahead? How can I move this?
situation to my benefit it's a bunch of people with very selfish reasons for doing the things they're doing that may or may not help other people but that's not really what they care about yeah I mean, this is witches, right? Like, witches, I feel like, are always in that kind of bind or stuck between, like, they are more powerful in a group, but also are inherently singular, you know? But yeah.
Either way, this show's fun. I want more of it. Good thing there will be more in like four days. Yeah, you just have to wait a couple of days. Yeah. I'm glad there's not going to be some giant break in the middle like some of the other shows. Yes.
Yeah, I'm glad that there's a good regular release schedule, and it's going to go through Halloween season, which is perfect for a show like this. Specifically finish up right before, I think. Yeah, it's actually the last two episodes coming out the 30th, so the day before Halloween.
Is Halloween even a day anymore? I thought it was half a year. The entire month of October. Halloween is more of a vibe. Excuse me, it was starting in August, man. Look, I've said this before. If Christmas is going to eat all the way back... to October 31st, then Halloween, hey, just keep doing the same thing backwards. Ate all of October. Keep going. I don't want either.
I mean, neither is great, but at least one of those is preferable, I'd say. And it's the one where Paige and I get to go to... Michael doesn't buy oopy spoopy decorations. So much stuff. Oh my God. So much stuff. I bought like little cats, little bats. It was so cute. Paige is definitely very much enjoying having a house to decorate. Yeah, I can see that.
I love having more space for all my useless tat. Well, I suppose we should wrap it up then. Because McCall has things to do this evening. Yeah, McCall has plans like a regular person. I have a nap. in my future. Probably gonna go grab lunch. I'm a sleepy person. I've been sleepy since 1999. I gotta watch the Ravens lose later. Like, big day. Oh, gosh, this is an interesting question to ask now.
Jamie, where can people find you on the internet? My website is at jamieblumberg.com. It has links to various things. My primary social media these days is on Mastodon at jamie underscore blumberg. IQderm.io, which is listed on the website and in our show notes and stuff like that. Devin? Oh, I'm barely posting anything anywhere. You barely post anything anytime anyway. Yeah, that's true. But now it's even less, so.
Michal? I mean, I have updates on Twitter. It is all news, no editorial. And Instagram, I guess. But that's... I'm not very interesting on Instagram. Paige? Yeah, don't find me on social media. That was going to be my joke. God damn it. You can find me. Don't lose my number. Forget I ever. Yeah, I. Don't exist, Mar. I did Blue Sky for a little bit. I don't. I haven't in a while. I'm still on Blue Sky. Yeah, I'm still on Blue Sky, but not posting.
I am ostensibly there. I don't post and I barely open it. I usually open it first to get like news now. I'm glad that that shifted for me. Like if I'm looking for news for something, I can just shift over there now. One of my friends is working on an app that will let you post to Mastodon, Threads, and Blue Sky all at once, where you're just making one post and it just sends it to all three of them. So once that's done, I'll be all post on Blue Sky.
But that won't get me to open the app. And, like, Thread shouldn't exist. Threads is also terrible. Yeah, differently terrible, but terrible. All of the... social media in general there's problems all over the place it's just a matter of like find your little section with the people you like talking to and just kind of like chill and hang out until you get driven off by anti-semitism yes well yeah
Uh, you can find the podcast on Twitter at level seven access pod question mark. Yeah. I mean, you can email us level seven access pod at gmail.com. And our Patreon is patreon.com slash level7access. And yes, we are going to work on the Patreon and give you stuff soon. Especially because we're, like, recording again. But, you know, give us some time to get our feet under us again. And then I know that is a priority for us is to try to figure out things that we can do.
Give us a little time. We'll get there. Our year of tumult has calmed down somewhat. Now we can start actually focusing on things again. Yeah, that'll do it for us this week. We'll be back in a couple of weeks to talk about the next episode, next two episodes of Agatha all along and fill in any news that may pop up. Have a good week. We'll talk to you all soon.
Bye. Bye everybody. Bye. the fuck else do we need for the house i'm like am i a crack what are you what are you the notes isn't updating jamie fix it turn off your goddamn vpn like every time that's no I'm mysterious. No, you're really not. It's okay. That's not your strong suit. That's fine. Oh my God. Not everyone has to be debonair and mysterious. Oh my God.
Worst comes to worst, I can troubleshoot it here in a little while. Yeah. Like, after we record. No! I need to get this done now. I'm never going to get it done. Yeah, and Devin, you totally can pick that mic up if you want to. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what the best thing is because it kind of drags around when I move it around. Yeah. I'm trying to keep it as stationary as I can. Yeah, we need... Yeah, this setup is...
Better than nothing, but it's not quite there. Well, I'm fine because I'm holding mine with the weight of my arm. I'm doing just fine. Now, Paige, how do you know this is not updating? It's just because, like... It says June whatever at the top, and I don't see cat mats or what else we talked about because I can't remember what we talked about. I've been adding a lot of the things to the reminders list, like the shopping list. There's enough! Other lists? Yes.
There's an entire different app specifically for doing to-do lists. Michal, the three of them live together now, so we are stuck in this hell from now on. I actually thought that this was going to be better. I did too. And I quickly, like you, the realization has dawned upon me that no. It's differently bad. I'm looking back at my extremely enthusiastic texts, and I'm like, oh, dear. Okay. Okay. So do we, in fact, want to do the ridiculous pretending that it's just McCall and I? Yes. Yes. Yes.
All right, so I will go ahead and start that off, and then I'll pivot to let JD do an actual intro of some sort, and then we'll go from there. Hello and welcome to level 7 access, a marble, you know what, fuck it, I messed that up, it's been so long, god damn. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Taking that clean.