Episode 11: Wheat & Wheat By-Products (stream, transcript)
I feel like this is kind of the first time that something very run-of-the-mill goes suddenly weird? Before this we had obviously-weird incursions and happenings related to weird places, but the very prosaic ubiquity of wheat and wheat by-products is a jump up.
Recurring items
* Wheat and wheat by-products, of course, which end the show banned and with lots of people in permanent quarantine. (Oddly I don't remember "silver lining for people with celiac disease" being mentioned at all.)
* The Apache Tracker has reappeared, "transformed into that which he always absurdly claimed to be," and can now only speak Russian. I know that his character is explicitly about calling out skeevy cultural appropriation, but . . . I'm not convinced that this literal appropriation of a body gets called out as such? I can see people easily reading his transformation as a reward for his earnest desire, and ignoring that he's still lacking in all the history and context and general baggage that someone born into an Apache group would have?
* Discount bloodstones: "Anyone caught selling these bloodstones will be put into the Dark Box, pending erasure from recorded history. The lesser charge of buying or possessing them will be met with mere summary execution."
* John Peters, you know, the farmer? and his imaginary corn
* Marcus Vanston, the billionaire who's so wealthy that obviously he doesn't have to pay taxes
* Carlos's team of scientists still exists (there have been points at which fandom thought he was the only one left)
* earthquakes no-one can feel
* Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex: Apache Tracker sits outside, the Angels chant about it (presumably both in reference to underground city)
Oddities
* the multi-billion dollar pulsar development facility that's trying to develop a neutron star underneath Night Vale (if this were the kind of show that would give a reason for the inexplicable unfelt earthquakes, I'd start here)
Carlos
* Can't answer Cecil's question about why they don't feel earthquakes; distracted and distant when Cecil asks
Interns
* None
The Weather
* Adam Green - Cigarette Burns Forever. Short; slightly distracting emphasis on rhymes.
Stay tuned next for
* "a live broadcast of a man, locked in a recording booth, silently staring at the microphone with intense suspicion"
Miscellaneous
* Discount bloodstone accidents include "the creation and subsequent obliteration of a mirror version of Night Vale, forcing all of us to watch our identical counterparts perish — and thus confront the inevitability of our own futures."
* "Listeners, the City Council, for national security reasons, have replaced the following report with the sound of a burbling brook, followed by the sound of a running blender." STOP with the horrible sound effects, already!
* The first "Good night, Night Vale. Good night." Yay! I didn't realize I'd miss it so much.
Episode 12: The Candidate (stream, transcript)
Cecil crushing on Hiram McDaniels is hilarious. I also really like the Emergency Dream Broadcast System and the performance art of no-show Santa at the mall (and their plans for Valentine's Day).
Recurring items
* Simone Rigadeau in the Earth Sciences building at Night Vale Community College (doesn't work there, lives there)
* Hiram McDaniels, of course!
* Mayoral elections: supposed to be in three years.
* Also, I really like Mayor Pamela Winchell; there are days when my life would be measurably improved by shouting "arrgh!" into the phone and stomping off to chop some wood.
Carlos
* None
Interns
* Stacy, who survives the episode!
The Weather
Anais Mitchell - The Brightness. Tori Amos-ish, only sharper and thinner in the vocals; not my thing.
Stay tuned next for
* "our two-hour special, Car Alarms and Their Variations, brought to you commercial-free by Canada Dry"
Miscellaneous
* The source of third-eye Cecil fanon: the noisy sunsets have caused "and at least two dozen claims of folks growing third eyes — including Kincaid himself, who had an arachnid-like eight eyes when he spoke before City Council yesterday morning."
* Interestingly, though racism exists and is acknowledged in Night Vale, and a past history of sexism is acknowledged ("Our great country once held to some terrible old customs, but we grew up. We learned. We abolished slavery. Women won the right to vote."), I don't remember once hearing anything about the existence of homophobia.
* This is lovely: "Sleep heavily and know that I am here with you now. The past is gone, and cannot harm you anymore. And while the future is fast coming for you, it always flinches first, and settles in as the gentle present. This now, this us, we can cope with that. We can do this together, you and I. Drowsily, but comfortably." -- but I don't agree that the past can't harm you any more, alas.
Episode 13: A Story About You. (stream, transcript)
The first brilliant episode, to me. So oddly beautiful. Wouldn't recommend people start here, but damn it's good.
Recurring items
* I think, the crates being transferred between trucks in the desert? I have a vague recollection, anyway.
* Also, I think, the planet lit by no sun.
* People wielding semaphore flags for traffic signs.
* Apache Tracker. (Transcript translates: "(1) You are in danger; (2) They’re coming; (3) They will come from below. Pies will not help.")
Carlos
* None.
Interns
* None.
The Weather
* Mount Moon - You Don't Know. Mountain Goats-ish. Vocals so fast in the first bit that I tuned out because couldn't tell what was happening.
Stay tuned next for
* None.
Miscellaneous
* This is I think the first really blatant instance where Cecil is talking about stuff he can't personally know, if you assume this story about you to be a true story told in real time.
* There's a continuity error, when you go home, and then go past a lot of other things before going by Old Woman's Josie's house; except that the beginning, you live next to her.