February 17, 2023 • 34 mins
The danger from the Bridgewater Triangle escalates. Jeremy and Thomas finally speak openly before being interrupted by an unexpected presence.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bridgewater is a production of iHeartRadio three D Audio and
Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. For a full exposure,
listen with headphones. Listener discretion advised.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, hey, wake up?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What what is it?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
You hear that?
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Hear?
Speaker 6 (00:27):
What the hell is that?
Speaker 7 (00:32):
What is it?
Speaker 8 (00:33):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A bear?
Speaker 6 (00:35):
A bear in the swamp?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I think that's in the cooler.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I told you we should have brought it inside with us.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We barely have enough room as it is. Can you
just what scare it off?
Speaker 6 (00:51):
Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Okay, okay, fine, fine, yeah, I'm sure it's just it's.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
Just, oh my god, what is it that? It is
not a bard.
Speaker 9 (01:52):
The surviving camper does not appear to be seriously injured,
aside from a large hand frend shaped roof. The camper
claim they were attacked by quote a huge, hairy bigfoot.
An official from the Department of Parks and Recreation said
this is the first very related death in the area
since nineteen seventy eight and would caution visitors to always
(02:13):
keep an eye out for wildlife with camping and to
not leave moved out it can't attract animals. As for
any bigfoot dangers, well, it would see the first time
someone has made that claim.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
If you're in talk Walk, Peyton Blake, you must be viippin' Kurna.
Speaker 7 (02:40):
Thank you for meeting me.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
Yeah, well, Jeremy assured me he wasn't just sending the
Bee team to chat because he couldn't be bothered. So
I assume you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Wow, Okay, that is a hostile way to introduce yourself
to someone.
Speaker 8 (02:56):
Excuse me for being blunt, but there aren't a lot
of people that I trust with discussing these matters openly.
Speaker 7 (03:03):
But you trust Jeremy. I hear your first meeting was
a bit of a.
Speaker 8 (03:07):
I understand Jeremy's stake in all of this. He's connected
to the other side, whether he likes it or not. You,
I don't know or the nature of your interest in this.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
I'm getting my PhD in mythology and I've just discovered
that magic and monsters are real? Is that a good
enough reason?
Speaker 5 (03:29):
So?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Academic curiosity is why he wanted to talk to me.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
The truth is why I wanted to talk to you.
Why did you want to talk to Jeremy.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
To get him to accept the truth.
Speaker 7 (03:39):
That Thomas needs to go back into the what did
you call it?
Speaker 8 (03:43):
The liminal that Jeremy is in possession of a gift
that was never meant to be given.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Okay, I know we're still not totally sold on her,
but it really seems like we'd be dead if it
wasn't for Peyton.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Really, I thought you were perfectly capable of fighting big monsters.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
Look, look, I'm sorry about the other day. Okay, I
shouldn't have been so hard on you.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
No, I get it.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
You've been a cop your whole life, and you probably
see what I do as frivolous.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
It clearly isn't your knowledge about this stuff might save
our lives? It might save my life.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yeah, well it didn't serve me any good against that Howler.
Well god, I mean, there have been sightings of Bigfoot
for years around here, but there's never been a death.
It's just these scattered bits of evidence over.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Time, what kind of evidence, like I don't know, you know.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Large bipedal footprints, which obviously plenty of hoaxers are created
in the past in order to drum up press or attention,
or just for the sheer joy of pranking people. But
now all of it feels like an indicator of something
much much more dangerous than any popular conception of a
sad squatch.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
I don't understand how it could have come back so
quickly from the other side.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I don't either.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Maybe Peyton didn't banish it properly or fuck, I don't know.
Maybe the fay Realm is able to send it right
out again.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Not good. Those Rooine carvings are the only prediction we
have right now.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
So if they barely give us any time to breathe, Yeah,
And there's also no reason to think that there's only
one of these monsters.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Is that supposed to be comforting?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
If if, if we can't spend all of our time
waiting for the worst thing to happen.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
The worst has happened, Jeremy, someone is dead.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I'm just saying, we have to look at what's right
in front of us, Okay, we have to gather as
much information as we can right now. Vippin is talking
to Peyton, Anne and Olivia or.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Why is Vippin talking to Peyton?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
What do you mean she's.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Trying to get more specifics from her on what the
gathering might know.
Speaker 6 (05:40):
I think she told us everything that she knows. He
shouldn't have bothered with her.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Well, she actually reached out to me. She wanted to
talk to me for some reason.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Why. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
So I told her that she could say whatever it
was to Vippen and he wanted to meet her anyway.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Are you okay? What's going on? I'm fine? Are you sure?
You seem it's just look, I don't want us running
around in circles, that's all ough.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I just feel like we're going in circles.
Speaker 10 (06:03):
Oh, I actually think the problem is we haven't found
any circles.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Oh, you think you're funny to look.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
It was a long shot anyways, but.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
It shouldn't have been. Right, Like, we know for a
fact that Alden got lost somewhere around here, and there's
no way he could have wandered all the way to Freetown.
And Thomas said that Alden remembers walking into a forest, so.
Speaker 10 (06:21):
Well, it's not like we combed through every bush.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Rahoba State Forest is like half a square mile. Hey,
we searched the whole thing. I know it was eighty
years ago, but I was hoping for something. A circle
of mushrooms, a weird path of flowers, out of place.
Speaker 10 (06:35):
Tree, doorway to another world.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
What if it wasn't even about the mushroom circle. Mushrooms
grow in weird formations all the time, and just because
it stuck out in Alden's mind doesn't mean that's the
way he.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Got taken in. What if it was something even more innocuous.
Speaker 10 (06:52):
Well, then we might have walked right past the evidence
and not even known it exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I just I want to know where the tracks are, because.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Then I won't fall in.
Speaker 10 (07:03):
Honey, I don't think it's as straightforward as that.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Live.
Speaker 10 (07:06):
You know, you have to be willing, or you're supposed
to be willing, and you know well enough not to
go follow in strange voices in the woods.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah, except that's all we're actually doing. I was starting
to think maybe there was some kind of Bradshaw Hoskins
family curse. But maybe it's just the way we are,
like something in our blood that makes us want to
walk right into places we shouldn't.
Speaker 10 (07:28):
I don't think that's just a Bradshaw Hoskins straight Plenty
of folks would say the exact same thing about me.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Yeah, so we've got a doubly bad first Thomas, then Jeremy,
then Ethan.
Speaker 10 (07:38):
I mean, who's next Jeremy didn't get taken.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
But you don't think he's just wandered off to you. No,
the messed up thing is part of me wants to see.
Speaker 7 (07:51):
It, see what the other side.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Oh live, I mean, come on, aren't you curious.
Speaker 11 (08:00):
It's like Narnia, Evil Narnia.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
I mean, Narnia was kind of evil Narnia during the
whole Eternal Winter bit live. No, I'm not saying I'm
gonna go doing a weird sacrificial ritual to try and
walk through the wardrobe or anything. I'm just saying that
impulse is there. Maybe that's why our family has been
so easy to lure, because there's something in us that
(08:26):
already wants to go.
Speaker 10 (08:29):
But people don't even get to the other side. They
get stuck in between. And I think we both know
that that's not an enviable fate.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Now, people don't get to the other side as far
as we know. But it's not like you can send
a text back and say, hey, I'm in Fairyland. They
got great food here, never coming back, so we would
never know text.
Speaker 10 (08:49):
It was a joke, No, no, I know, but it
made me think there's a question we haven't been asking.
Speaker 11 (09:02):
All Right, fine, you got questions, ask them.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
How does the Gathering know about the pay, real, about
the deal, about any of it.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
It's the whole reason the Gathering exists. What the Gathering
is just the most current iteration of a community that's
been in operation in one form or another for centuries,
stewards of the gate between worlds.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
You're telling me there's an exclusive club that's been around
for hundreds of years that controls mystical forces. You know
how that sounds? Right?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I do.
Speaker 8 (09:37):
And it's not like that. There's no controlling this thing.
There's just knowledge.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
Oh and human sacrifice to some kind of otherworldly force
that has to be.
Speaker 8 (09:48):
Appeased for the last time. It is not human sacrifice.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
Oh, so the Gathering is the one group in the
entire world who knows about magic, and it's entirely up
to them to keep the tenuous veil from ripping open
and unleashing some kind of fairy chaos.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Do you want me to tell you what I know?
Or do you just want to ride my work and
get out whatever frustration that's pent up?
Speaker 7 (10:13):
Okay, you have to understand that this is all a
bit well. I mean, you weren't born knowing the stuff right.
At some point you have to be told that's true.
Speaker 8 (10:25):
But I was told so young that it feels like
I basically was born with this knowledge. My father was
the Virginia chapter leader before me. I've been going to
gathering meetings my whole life. Saw a snally gaster for
the first time when I was twelve, learned about the deal.
When I was sixteen, you saw.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
A snally caster, a real snallycaster, like the reptile bird thing.
Speaker 8 (10:51):
With the tentacles and all, yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
What what did you? I mean, how did you kill it?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
My dad did?
Speaker 8 (11:00):
The veil there gets really weak at random times and places.
It's even more fickle than here, or at least it
had been.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
So it wasn't like there was something wrong with the liminal.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
No, our rituals have moved like clockwork for at least
the last century. But that's not the only way. Stuff
slips through too much a cult or pagan activity. Everything
from wickens doing their normal practice and not realizing it's
having side effects, to a group of people on a
ghost tour that are buying into the stories a little
too much. It can all leave the door.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Ajar, Wait, so are you saying that the gate is
opened by belief and closed by belief as well. Why
do you think there were so many reports of the
supernatural in the past. It was more accepted, more people
actually believed, so more stuff bled through. Chicken and egg,
(11:54):
round and round. What It's just, it's ridiculous, like clap
if you believe in fairies and they'll stay alive, that's true.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
I mean, Peter Pan got everything else wrong. But all
stories have a grain of truth in them, right, even
if it's a really tiny grain of truth.
Speaker 7 (12:19):
I wanted to believe before I knew any of it
was real. I really wanted to believe, to experience something
that defied explanation, and then to be the one to
find the explanation.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
You didn't break the gates wide open. Don't worry. One
person can't do all that much.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Except close the gate by giving themselves over to the liminal. Yeah,
except that, I don't get it. If the gathering knows
all of this, why didn't Celesti just tell us? And
how did you get the ritual wrong?
Speaker 8 (12:59):
Secrets are order to keep the more people you tell
only gathering leadership is told the truth by the outgoing leaders,
and chapters don't communicate as much with each other, as
we should.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
But Celeste was a leader.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, something.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Something went wrong here, Yeah, no kidding. From what I understand,
things sort of fractured here in the seventies.
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Yeah, there was an offshoot, the Children of Titchiba. They
were more on the side of propping the door open
for good.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
Yeah, that happens. That happens bad leaders have been chosen.
Sometimes someone finds out about the other world and kind
of loses it.
Speaker 7 (13:45):
And that's what you think the Children of Titchibo was.
Speaker 8 (13:49):
I think after the children, everything here broke down. No
one knew how things were supposed to go. So when
it came time to keep the fay Realm happy.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Eh, no one knew how. Okay, But how does that work?
If all it takes is one person to not pass
down the information for everything to go heywire, then how
are we.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
Not constantly on the verge of collapse? Who says we
aren't think about it? There are still sightings and encounters
all over the world All the time. People see Bigfoot,
they think they've been abducted by aliens. Boats disappear at sea,
kids go missing. Most of the time those things are
(14:32):
the result of human behavior or cruelty, but sometimes sometimes
it's the other side bleeding through.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
And how many of these gates are in the world?
Does every state have them? Every country?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I have no idea.
Speaker 8 (14:50):
I know I seem like I'm an expert, but I'm not.
I'm an expert in my area, and I'm tapped in
just enough to know that something was wrong up here.
But there is so much of the picture that I
don't see, right.
Speaker 7 (15:05):
But what about your dad. I'm assuming he's retired now,
but he must have learned a lot when he was
a leader.
Speaker 8 (15:11):
He's not retired, he's gone.
Speaker 7 (15:16):
Oh I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
We knew it was coming.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
He was sick.
Speaker 8 (15:23):
No, he left. That's how it works in Virginia. Becoming
leader of the gathering means eventually stepping into the liminal.
What so he was the volunteer. Yeah, it's cleaner that way.
(15:44):
The secret gets kept and no one ends up in
a place they don't want to. The leader gets to
prepare their successor before they go, and they know they'll
eventually be replaced in the liminal.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
Replaced, what does that mean?
Speaker 8 (15:58):
It's a temporary center. They move on, move on where
that I definitely don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Maybe just death. Whatever that is.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
My dad always thought it meant going over to the
other side completely, living in the kingdom. I think you
liked the idea of being in a magical world, monsters
and all. I'm kind of hoping for disappearing entirely. I
don't know that I'm on board for eternal life in
(16:35):
some other place.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
You you're the replacement.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So the story goes.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Why in the world would you agree to that.
Speaker 8 (16:52):
I get to live a full life before then, have
a family if I want, mentor someone protect the world,
and I'm gonna die anyway, so this is just adding
a pit stop.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
Thomas said it didn't feel like forty years.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
It felt shorter.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
It's unclear. I think he couldn't tell. I think sometimes
it felt endless with that because he didn't age. It
also felt like no time at all. But I'm sure
it's different for every person.
Speaker 8 (17:22):
Well, he's the only one who's ever come out after
going in, so he's probably the best source of intel
I'm gonna get.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Look, I know you want him to go back in.
Speaker 8 (17:34):
I don't want anything except for the deal to be
honored and the gate to be shut. If someone else
wants to go in, they are more than welcome to.
But what kind of life could he have now? Really,
he's been declared dead for decades. He can't undeclare himself
without becoming some sort of government pincushion.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
And people steal identities, you know.
Speaker 8 (17:59):
Sure, but then what hmm? He watches his son most
likely die before him, He loses his wife before he's
even fifty.
Speaker 7 (18:08):
They never actually got married, Ann and Thomas. I mean,
that's not my point. And they seem pretty till death
do us part regardless, and one of their deaths is
going to come a lot sooner than the others. But
he barely got to live the first time. He has
(18:28):
a daughter and a grandson. He has never met a
son who's grown up without.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
Him, and that will never not be a tragedy. But
he can't get it back. Even if he had the
whole happy family unit in place, he would never get
that time back.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
So I was thinking, maybe tonight you and I could
go out, grab a beer, get a burger somewhere.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
I'd have thought that you would want to go back
to Anne and share what we've found.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
I think we can take one night off without the
world ending.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Well, that's a very different tune from what you were
singing earlier. Look, I just I don't know how much
time I have.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Please, please don't talk like that.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
No matter what happens, I want to make sure to
spend time with my son. Maybe we can even make
it a new tradition. Pick a place, go there every week,
just the two of us.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
That does sound good, That sounds great.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
It'll take a while for me to catch up on
all that I've missed. I want to hear about California
and Oxford and she's everything.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Really, God, I don't know where to start. I mean, honestly,
there's not a lot to tell. I'm afraid I spend
most of my time in California and Oxford in class.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Well, I want to hear all about it. Maybe I
could even come out to one of your lectures.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, that might have to wait.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
My students this semester are well aware enough of who
you are that I'm not sure that they'd be fooled
with your updated haircut.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
Fine next semester, then, and in the meantime, you can
tell me what you do outside of teaching.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
You mean, like now present day.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Yeah, we still have about a half a mile.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Yeah, I go to conferences sometimes, I meet with other academics,
swap research.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
There's usually some kind of faculty gathering once a semester,
but you know, school, and I've been working on the book,
so these things keep me pretty busy.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
How about friends, mat a girlfriend?
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Huh oh, yeah, I've never been much of a I
don't know. I guess I'm not a super social person.
And dating just always has felt like it's too I
don't know, it's more trouble in it's worth.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
Dating.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Must have changed.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
You never wanted to get married have a family.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I just never.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
I haven't met anyone that I had interest in sharing
my whole life with. And I don't think I would
honestly make a very good father.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
What about you?
Speaker 5 (21:32):
What I mean, God, you must be dying for human
interaction after having spent forty years with a kid.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
I've always loved kids before. You were my favorite person
to spend time with.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I was a baby, I was a toddler.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
I mean, it's not famously good demo for conversations.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
You were wonderful, curious, You're funny, always loving. You were
so open, so giving kids off and are But it
was like nothing scared you, was like nothing could hurt you.
I have this like memory of just a feeling so.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Safe when I was with you, and now.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
I'm not sure what you mean?
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Did I.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Then what happened?
Speaker 6 (22:35):
You're not that open and trusting boy anymore. I mean,
from what you just said, you've kept yourself guarded alone.
It feels like that's because I left.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, first of all, that you didn't leave.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
But it's still my fault. Isn't it that you don't
have a full life, that you're unhappy?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Whoa who said? I'm not happy? My life is plentiful.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Just because it doesn't look the same as yours or
what you maybe expected for me, doesn't mean that I'm
not fulfilled.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
So you are fulfilled. You're not lonely, you're wanting.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yeah, I mean, of course there are things that I
want or ways that things could be better. But you
didn't condemn me to some life of misery because because
you because you went missing. Plenty of people grow up
without two parents and they turn out just fine.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I know I was one of them, but that's not
It wasn't just about me going away, it was the
way it happened.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
I don't know what you want me to say here, Dan,
that growing up with people telling me that my dad
was killed by a cult wasn't traumatizing. I can't say that,
and it did shape the person who I am today.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
But there is no.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Way for me to know what I would have become
if you had stayed around. I mean, god, if I
had been raised by you and Anne, which is what
would have happened, right.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
Your mother and I we were figuring out shared custody.
But yes, I mean the plan was for you to
live with us.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Look, I none of this matters right now, not really.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Because I grew up the way I grew up.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
I am the person that I am now, and there's
nothing that any of us can do to change that
unless we I don't know if I figure out how
to use magic to time travel or something. But until
that time, we are stuck with what we have. And
that's just fine, okay. I just I don't want your
life to be fine, Jeremy. Then stay, don't listen to Peyton,
(24:51):
don't don't try to do something selfless.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Just stay, stay and help me figure this out.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
I already promised you I would, But I also promised
Alden I would get him out.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
Right. Then we'll figure that out too, Okay, come on,
we got to keep going.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
And for the record, I'm not lonely.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Okay, Olivia said that Vippin is probably your closest friend.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The fuck.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Why are you and Olivia talking about my social life.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
I'm curious about you, Jeremy. I don't want you to
be isolated.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
I'm not.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Vippin is a good friend.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
I mean, yeah, we work together, but I also like
to think that we get along too.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I had a great catch up just now with Sophie.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
Where you talked about the Fay Realm, that Bluss.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
There's this legend trip that I just met. She's becoming
a friend, actually, honestly, the fastest friend I've made in years.
We've got similar interests and she's I don't know, she's
easy to talk to. She seems to understand me, which,
for whatever reason, it's a little bit rare. And anyway,
the point is, I'm just I really don't feel lonely,
(25:58):
all right, all.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
Right, I just never pictured you as a I don't know,
an eternal bachelor living with Justice books for company.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Oh my god, that's a bit harsh. Don't you think
I'm not trying to criticize. Really, No, I'm just I'm
trying to understand. Wow, when look when I was your age, Dad,
You've never been my age, literally, never been my age.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
You're right, I just want you to be happy. Okay,
that's all. That's the only thing any parent wants say.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Can you please just accept that my happiest life might
look different from yours.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
No spouse, no kids, no job. That means carrying around
a badge and a gun.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
I like my life and I I will be happy
when we figure out how to protect you.
Speaker 10 (26:46):
Okay, Okay, I don't know why I wasn't the first
thing we asked him about.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
There's a lot going on, Nana. I think you can
be forgiven for not taking him down the list of
unanswered questions.
Speaker 10 (27:07):
But now we know, we know it really was him
on the answering machine. He found a way to communicate somehow,
So if we figure that out.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
We could figure out a lot about the liminal exactly.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
And I'm trapped here. I've been trapped. Things are thinning out,
it's opening again.
Speaker 10 (27:30):
He was trying to warn us, and when he first
came out, he said it was hearing celess voice. So
maybe there's a way to communicate to the limonal, not
just from it.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Has he mentioned anything about that?
Speaker 10 (27:40):
No, he hasn't, but like you said, there's been a
lot to focus on.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
So sure.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
But if he knows something about how all this works
and isn't telling us, well, I just we should ask him.
Speaker 10 (27:51):
I guess no, Thomas would knowingly keep anything from us.
Speaker 7 (27:55):
That would be useful, right, yeah, and I know.
Speaker 10 (28:00):
Okay, So when he and Jeremy get back from that campsite,
we can play him the message, ask him what he
did to try to get it out and what he
meant by it, and then maybe we can get word
into Alden and coordinate with him to try to break
the deal somehow. He's seven, well he's been seven for
eighty years. I'm a feeling he's more confident than your
typical first grader.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
That's a good point, okay, So if we are able
to communicate with the in between that and then maybe.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
What the hell?
Speaker 10 (28:30):
Okay, okay, just stay calm live.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Is this what happened before?
Speaker 10 (28:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Yeah, and you're sure it's not an earthquake?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Do you hear that? What music? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:45):
You hear it?
Speaker 10 (28:45):
Right, it's a I think it's coming from the other side.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
It has to be.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
You mean the liminal, No the other side.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
All right here we are all right. Yeah, something definitely
came through her. Look how much brush is trampled. Some
of that could have been the campers that got out
of here in a hurry. But we should look for
any footprints or fur or hair, anything that would give
us an indication of what attacked them if it was
the same thing that almost attacked us.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Lots of human footprints, the regular kind.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Yeah, well, I'm no forensics expert, but those look like
two distinct shoe treads, and those would be the campers.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
Thank god for muddy ground. Wait ooh over here, look
at these deep punctures in the ground.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Ten stakes.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
No, no, no, look those are here. I recognize the
formation from them when I used to go camping with
these five in a.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Row, Like whatever attack that cow?
Speaker 6 (29:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Did the howler have five claws? Did? Did you get
a good look at it?
Speaker 6 (29:54):
I wasn't actually paying attention to the fine details.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
And why would there be just claw prints? There's no footprints?
Speaker 6 (30:01):
Well, the thing we saw standing was on two legs,
so maybe it was on its toes basically, you know,
pushing its claws into the mud for leverage, right right, Wait, here.
There's two more prints with five claws here too, Like
its front paws or something.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Those are much smaller than the hands we saw. God,
it might not even be the same animal. Hell, these
prints could just be from a regular old bear or something.
Every time we get to one of these crime scenes,
I just feel like I'm further away from all of it.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
You were, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just the stiff bones.
My joints have been sore all day, shaking off the dust.
I guess, dad.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
What if?
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Wait? Maybe it's a shape shifter. There's plenty of those
in folklore, right, yeah, all kinds there's.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 6 (30:58):
Must be more campers?
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Yeah? Maybe there there, it's coming from over here.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
No, no, it's it sounds like a woman.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah, there's something about it.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
I can almost make her out.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Hello someone there?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Wait you control.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Son? Are you okay?
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Oh my god, my god, it's not possible.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
What is not possible?
Speaker 5 (31:59):
Mm hmm that voice, that voice, I know that voice?
Speaker 8 (32:07):
What who is it?
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Celeste?
Speaker 8 (32:15):
You can trust to?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
This episode of Bridgewater was written by Lauren Shippen and
directed by Brendan Patrick Hughes Assistant director Sarah Kleine. Sound
designed by Vincent De Johnny Rima El Kali, Josh Thayin,
and Trevor Young, with music by Chad Lawson, Starring Misha
Collins as Jeremy Bradshaw, Melissa Ponzio as Anne Becker, Alan
(32:50):
Tudik as Thomas Bradshaw, Karen Sony as Vipen Kurana, Sabra
May as Olivia Hoskins, Cheryl Umanya as Officer Bautista, Will
Wheaton as Captain Haddock, Tricia Helfer as the Legend Tripper,
Stephen Guarino as Doctor Edwards, Non Demi su Dmbe as
(33:11):
Peyton Blake, Hillary Burton Morgan as Shelley Hoskins, Nicky McCauley
as Celeste Then, Victoria Grace as Katie Franks, with additional
voice acting by Greta Gould, Shelby Young, Adam o'byrn Monte, Markham,
Charlie Bergman, and Tarren Westbrook. Executive producers Aaron Mankey, Misha Collins,
(33:33):
Lauren Shippen, Matt Frederick and Alexander Williams. Supervising producers Josh
Thain and Trevor Young. Bridgewater was created by me Aaron
Manke and is a production of Grim and Mild and
iHeart three D Audio. Learn more about the show over
at grimandmild dot com, slash Bridgewater, and find more podcasts
from iHeartRadio on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(33:56):
you listen to your favorite shows, and as always, thanks
for listening.
Bridgewater is a production of iHeartRadio three D Audio and
Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. For a full exposure,
listen with headphones. Listener discretion advised.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, hey, wake up?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What what is it?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
You hear that?
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Hear?
Speaker 6 (00:27):
What the hell is that?
Speaker 7 (00:32):
What is it?
Speaker 8 (00:33):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A bear?
Speaker 6 (00:35):
A bear in the swamp?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I think that's in the cooler.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I told you we should have brought it inside with us.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We barely have enough room as it is. Can you
just what scare it off?
Speaker 6 (00:51):
Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Okay, okay, fine, fine, yeah, I'm sure it's just it's.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
Just, oh my god, what is it that? It is
not a bard.
Speaker 9 (01:52):
The surviving camper does not appear to be seriously injured,
aside from a large hand frend shaped roof. The camper
claim they were attacked by quote a huge, hairy bigfoot.
An official from the Department of Parks and Recreation said
this is the first very related death in the area
since nineteen seventy eight and would caution visitors to always
(02:13):
keep an eye out for wildlife with camping and to
not leave moved out it can't attract animals. As for
any bigfoot dangers, well, it would see the first time
someone has made that claim.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
If you're in talk Walk, Peyton Blake, you must be viippin' Kurna.
Speaker 7 (02:40):
Thank you for meeting me.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
Yeah, well, Jeremy assured me he wasn't just sending the
Bee team to chat because he couldn't be bothered. So
I assume you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Wow, Okay, that is a hostile way to introduce yourself
to someone.
Speaker 8 (02:56):
Excuse me for being blunt, but there aren't a lot
of people that I trust with discussing these matters openly.
Speaker 7 (03:03):
But you trust Jeremy. I hear your first meeting was
a bit of a.
Speaker 8 (03:07):
I understand Jeremy's stake in all of this. He's connected
to the other side, whether he likes it or not. You,
I don't know or the nature of your interest in this.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
I'm getting my PhD in mythology and I've just discovered
that magic and monsters are real? Is that a good
enough reason?
Speaker 5 (03:29):
So?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Academic curiosity is why he wanted to talk to me.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
The truth is why I wanted to talk to you.
Why did you want to talk to Jeremy.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
To get him to accept the truth.
Speaker 7 (03:39):
That Thomas needs to go back into the what did
you call it?
Speaker 8 (03:43):
The liminal that Jeremy is in possession of a gift
that was never meant to be given.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Okay, I know we're still not totally sold on her,
but it really seems like we'd be dead if it
wasn't for Peyton.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Really, I thought you were perfectly capable of fighting big monsters.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
Look, look, I'm sorry about the other day. Okay, I
shouldn't have been so hard on you.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
No, I get it.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
You've been a cop your whole life, and you probably
see what I do as frivolous.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
It clearly isn't your knowledge about this stuff might save
our lives? It might save my life.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yeah, well it didn't serve me any good against that Howler.
Well god, I mean, there have been sightings of Bigfoot
for years around here, but there's never been a death.
It's just these scattered bits of evidence over.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Time, what kind of evidence, like I don't know, you know.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Large bipedal footprints, which obviously plenty of hoaxers are created
in the past in order to drum up press or attention,
or just for the sheer joy of pranking people. But
now all of it feels like an indicator of something
much much more dangerous than any popular conception of a
sad squatch.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
I don't understand how it could have come back so
quickly from the other side.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I don't either.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Maybe Peyton didn't banish it properly or fuck, I don't know.
Maybe the fay Realm is able to send it right
out again.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Not good. Those Rooine carvings are the only prediction we
have right now.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
So if they barely give us any time to breathe, Yeah,
And there's also no reason to think that there's only
one of these monsters.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Is that supposed to be comforting?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
If if, if we can't spend all of our time
waiting for the worst thing to happen.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
The worst has happened, Jeremy, someone is dead.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I'm just saying, we have to look at what's right
in front of us, Okay, we have to gather as
much information as we can right now. Vippin is talking
to Peyton, Anne and Olivia or.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Why is Vippin talking to Peyton?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
What do you mean she's.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Trying to get more specifics from her on what the
gathering might know.
Speaker 6 (05:40):
I think she told us everything that she knows. He
shouldn't have bothered with her.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Well, she actually reached out to me. She wanted to
talk to me for some reason.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Why. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
So I told her that she could say whatever it
was to Vippen and he wanted to meet her anyway.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Are you okay? What's going on? I'm fine? Are you sure?
You seem it's just look, I don't want us running
around in circles, that's all ough.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I just feel like we're going in circles.
Speaker 10 (06:03):
Oh, I actually think the problem is we haven't found
any circles.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Oh, you think you're funny to look.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
It was a long shot anyways, but.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
It shouldn't have been. Right, Like, we know for a
fact that Alden got lost somewhere around here, and there's
no way he could have wandered all the way to Freetown.
And Thomas said that Alden remembers walking into a forest, so.
Speaker 10 (06:21):
Well, it's not like we combed through every bush.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Rahoba State Forest is like half a square mile. Hey,
we searched the whole thing. I know it was eighty
years ago, but I was hoping for something. A circle
of mushrooms, a weird path of flowers, out of place.
Speaker 10 (06:35):
Tree, doorway to another world.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
What if it wasn't even about the mushroom circle. Mushrooms
grow in weird formations all the time, and just because
it stuck out in Alden's mind doesn't mean that's the
way he.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Got taken in. What if it was something even more innocuous.
Speaker 10 (06:52):
Well, then we might have walked right past the evidence
and not even known it exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I just I want to know where the tracks are, because.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Then I won't fall in.
Speaker 10 (07:03):
Honey, I don't think it's as straightforward as that.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Live.
Speaker 10 (07:06):
You know, you have to be willing, or you're supposed
to be willing, and you know well enough not to
go follow in strange voices in the woods.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah, except that's all we're actually doing. I was starting
to think maybe there was some kind of Bradshaw Hoskins
family curse. But maybe it's just the way we are,
like something in our blood that makes us want to
walk right into places we shouldn't.
Speaker 10 (07:28):
I don't think that's just a Bradshaw Hoskins straight Plenty
of folks would say the exact same thing about me.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Yeah, so we've got a doubly bad first Thomas, then Jeremy,
then Ethan.
Speaker 10 (07:38):
I mean, who's next Jeremy didn't get taken.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
But you don't think he's just wandered off to you. No,
the messed up thing is part of me wants to see.
Speaker 7 (07:51):
It, see what the other side.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Oh live, I mean, come on, aren't you curious.
Speaker 11 (08:00):
It's like Narnia, Evil Narnia.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
I mean, Narnia was kind of evil Narnia during the
whole Eternal Winter bit live. No, I'm not saying I'm
gonna go doing a weird sacrificial ritual to try and
walk through the wardrobe or anything. I'm just saying that
impulse is there. Maybe that's why our family has been
so easy to lure, because there's something in us that
(08:26):
already wants to go.
Speaker 10 (08:29):
But people don't even get to the other side. They
get stuck in between. And I think we both know
that that's not an enviable fate.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Now, people don't get to the other side as far
as we know. But it's not like you can send
a text back and say, hey, I'm in Fairyland. They
got great food here, never coming back, so we would
never know text.
Speaker 10 (08:49):
It was a joke, No, no, I know, but it
made me think there's a question we haven't been asking.
Speaker 11 (09:02):
All Right, fine, you got questions, ask them.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
How does the Gathering know about the pay, real, about
the deal, about any of it.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
It's the whole reason the Gathering exists. What the Gathering
is just the most current iteration of a community that's
been in operation in one form or another for centuries,
stewards of the gate between worlds.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
You're telling me there's an exclusive club that's been around
for hundreds of years that controls mystical forces. You know
how that sounds? Right?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I do.
Speaker 8 (09:37):
And it's not like that. There's no controlling this thing.
There's just knowledge.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
Oh and human sacrifice to some kind of otherworldly force
that has to be.
Speaker 8 (09:48):
Appeased for the last time. It is not human sacrifice.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
Oh, so the Gathering is the one group in the
entire world who knows about magic, and it's entirely up
to them to keep the tenuous veil from ripping open
and unleashing some kind of fairy chaos.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Do you want me to tell you what I know?
Or do you just want to ride my work and
get out whatever frustration that's pent up?
Speaker 7 (10:13):
Okay, you have to understand that this is all a
bit well. I mean, you weren't born knowing the stuff right.
At some point you have to be told that's true.
Speaker 8 (10:25):
But I was told so young that it feels like
I basically was born with this knowledge. My father was
the Virginia chapter leader before me. I've been going to
gathering meetings my whole life. Saw a snally gaster for
the first time when I was twelve, learned about the deal.
When I was sixteen, you saw.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
A snally caster, a real snallycaster, like the reptile bird thing.
Speaker 8 (10:51):
With the tentacles and all, yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
What what did you? I mean, how did you kill it?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
My dad did?
Speaker 8 (11:00):
The veil there gets really weak at random times and places.
It's even more fickle than here, or at least it
had been.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
So it wasn't like there was something wrong with the liminal.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
No, our rituals have moved like clockwork for at least
the last century. But that's not the only way. Stuff
slips through too much a cult or pagan activity. Everything
from wickens doing their normal practice and not realizing it's
having side effects, to a group of people on a
ghost tour that are buying into the stories a little
too much. It can all leave the door.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Ajar, Wait, so are you saying that the gate is
opened by belief and closed by belief as well. Why
do you think there were so many reports of the
supernatural in the past. It was more accepted, more people
actually believed, so more stuff bled through. Chicken and egg,
(11:54):
round and round. What It's just, it's ridiculous, like clap
if you believe in fairies and they'll stay alive, that's true.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
I mean, Peter Pan got everything else wrong. But all
stories have a grain of truth in them, right, even
if it's a really tiny grain of truth.
Speaker 7 (12:19):
I wanted to believe before I knew any of it
was real. I really wanted to believe, to experience something
that defied explanation, and then to be the one to
find the explanation.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
You didn't break the gates wide open. Don't worry. One
person can't do all that much.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Except close the gate by giving themselves over to the liminal. Yeah,
except that, I don't get it. If the gathering knows
all of this, why didn't Celesti just tell us? And
how did you get the ritual wrong?
Speaker 8 (12:59):
Secrets are order to keep the more people you tell
only gathering leadership is told the truth by the outgoing leaders,
and chapters don't communicate as much with each other, as
we should.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
But Celeste was a leader.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, something.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Something went wrong here, Yeah, no kidding. From what I understand,
things sort of fractured here in the seventies.
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Yeah, there was an offshoot, the Children of Titchiba. They
were more on the side of propping the door open
for good.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
Yeah, that happens. That happens bad leaders have been chosen.
Sometimes someone finds out about the other world and kind
of loses it.
Speaker 7 (13:45):
And that's what you think the Children of Titchibo was.
Speaker 8 (13:49):
I think after the children, everything here broke down. No
one knew how things were supposed to go. So when
it came time to keep the fay Realm happy.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Eh, no one knew how. Okay, But how does that work?
If all it takes is one person to not pass
down the information for everything to go heywire, then how
are we.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
Not constantly on the verge of collapse? Who says we
aren't think about it? There are still sightings and encounters
all over the world All the time. People see Bigfoot,
they think they've been abducted by aliens. Boats disappear at sea,
kids go missing. Most of the time those things are
(14:32):
the result of human behavior or cruelty, but sometimes sometimes
it's the other side bleeding through.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
And how many of these gates are in the world?
Does every state have them? Every country?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I have no idea.
Speaker 8 (14:50):
I know I seem like I'm an expert, but I'm not.
I'm an expert in my area, and I'm tapped in
just enough to know that something was wrong up here.
But there is so much of the picture that I
don't see, right.
Speaker 7 (15:05):
But what about your dad. I'm assuming he's retired now,
but he must have learned a lot when he was
a leader.
Speaker 8 (15:11):
He's not retired, he's gone.
Speaker 7 (15:16):
Oh I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
We knew it was coming.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
He was sick.
Speaker 8 (15:23):
No, he left. That's how it works in Virginia. Becoming
leader of the gathering means eventually stepping into the liminal.
What so he was the volunteer. Yeah, it's cleaner that way.
(15:44):
The secret gets kept and no one ends up in
a place they don't want to. The leader gets to
prepare their successor before they go, and they know they'll
eventually be replaced in the liminal.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
Replaced, what does that mean?
Speaker 8 (15:58):
It's a temporary center. They move on, move on where
that I definitely don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Maybe just death. Whatever that is.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
My dad always thought it meant going over to the
other side completely, living in the kingdom. I think you
liked the idea of being in a magical world, monsters
and all. I'm kind of hoping for disappearing entirely. I
don't know that I'm on board for eternal life in
(16:35):
some other place.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
You you're the replacement.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So the story goes.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Why in the world would you agree to that.
Speaker 8 (16:52):
I get to live a full life before then, have
a family if I want, mentor someone protect the world,
and I'm gonna die anyway, so this is just adding
a pit stop.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
Thomas said it didn't feel like forty years.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
It felt shorter.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
It's unclear. I think he couldn't tell. I think sometimes
it felt endless with that because he didn't age. It
also felt like no time at all. But I'm sure
it's different for every person.
Speaker 8 (17:22):
Well, he's the only one who's ever come out after
going in, so he's probably the best source of intel
I'm gonna get.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Look, I know you want him to go back in.
Speaker 8 (17:34):
I don't want anything except for the deal to be
honored and the gate to be shut. If someone else
wants to go in, they are more than welcome to.
But what kind of life could he have now? Really,
he's been declared dead for decades. He can't undeclare himself
without becoming some sort of government pincushion.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
And people steal identities, you know.
Speaker 8 (17:59):
Sure, but then what hmm? He watches his son most
likely die before him, He loses his wife before he's
even fifty.
Speaker 7 (18:08):
They never actually got married, Ann and Thomas. I mean,
that's not my point. And they seem pretty till death
do us part regardless, and one of their deaths is
going to come a lot sooner than the others. But
he barely got to live the first time. He has
(18:28):
a daughter and a grandson. He has never met a
son who's grown up without.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
Him, and that will never not be a tragedy. But
he can't get it back. Even if he had the
whole happy family unit in place, he would never get
that time back.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
So I was thinking, maybe tonight you and I could
go out, grab a beer, get a burger somewhere.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
I'd have thought that you would want to go back
to Anne and share what we've found.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
I think we can take one night off without the
world ending.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Well, that's a very different tune from what you were
singing earlier. Look, I just I don't know how much
time I have.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Please, please don't talk like that.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
No matter what happens, I want to make sure to
spend time with my son. Maybe we can even make
it a new tradition. Pick a place, go there every week,
just the two of us.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
That does sound good, That sounds great.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
It'll take a while for me to catch up on
all that I've missed. I want to hear about California
and Oxford and she's everything.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Really, God, I don't know where to start. I mean, honestly,
there's not a lot to tell. I'm afraid I spend
most of my time in California and Oxford in class.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Well, I want to hear all about it. Maybe I
could even come out to one of your lectures.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, that might have to wait.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
My students this semester are well aware enough of who
you are that I'm not sure that they'd be fooled
with your updated haircut.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
Fine next semester, then, and in the meantime, you can
tell me what you do outside of teaching.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
You mean, like now present day.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Yeah, we still have about a half a mile.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Yeah, I go to conferences sometimes, I meet with other academics,
swap research.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
There's usually some kind of faculty gathering once a semester,
but you know, school, and I've been working on the book,
so these things keep me pretty busy.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
How about friends, mat a girlfriend?
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Huh oh, yeah, I've never been much of a I
don't know. I guess I'm not a super social person.
And dating just always has felt like it's too I
don't know, it's more trouble in it's worth.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
Dating.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Must have changed.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
You never wanted to get married have a family.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I just never.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
I haven't met anyone that I had interest in sharing
my whole life with. And I don't think I would
honestly make a very good father.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
What about you?
Speaker 5 (21:32):
What I mean, God, you must be dying for human
interaction after having spent forty years with a kid.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
I've always loved kids before. You were my favorite person
to spend time with.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I was a baby, I was a toddler.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
I mean, it's not famously good demo for conversations.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
You were wonderful, curious, You're funny, always loving. You were
so open, so giving kids off and are But it
was like nothing scared you, was like nothing could hurt you.
I have this like memory of just a feeling so.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Safe when I was with you, and now.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
I'm not sure what you mean?
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Did I.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Then what happened?
Speaker 6 (22:35):
You're not that open and trusting boy anymore. I mean,
from what you just said, you've kept yourself guarded alone.
It feels like that's because I left.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, first of all, that you didn't leave.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
But it's still my fault. Isn't it that you don't
have a full life, that you're unhappy?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Whoa who said? I'm not happy? My life is plentiful.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Just because it doesn't look the same as yours or
what you maybe expected for me, doesn't mean that I'm
not fulfilled.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
So you are fulfilled. You're not lonely, you're wanting.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yeah, I mean, of course there are things that I
want or ways that things could be better. But you
didn't condemn me to some life of misery because because
you because you went missing. Plenty of people grow up
without two parents and they turn out just fine.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I know I was one of them, but that's not
It wasn't just about me going away, it was the
way it happened.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
I don't know what you want me to say here, Dan,
that growing up with people telling me that my dad
was killed by a cult wasn't traumatizing. I can't say that,
and it did shape the person who I am today.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
But there is no.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Way for me to know what I would have become
if you had stayed around. I mean, god, if I
had been raised by you and Anne, which is what
would have happened, right.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
Your mother and I we were figuring out shared custody.
But yes, I mean the plan was for you to
live with us.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Look, I none of this matters right now, not really.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Because I grew up the way I grew up.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
I am the person that I am now, and there's
nothing that any of us can do to change that
unless we I don't know if I figure out how
to use magic to time travel or something. But until
that time, we are stuck with what we have. And
that's just fine, okay. I just I don't want your
life to be fine, Jeremy. Then stay, don't listen to Peyton,
(24:51):
don't don't try to do something selfless.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Just stay, stay and help me figure this out.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
I already promised you I would, But I also promised
Alden I would get him out.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
Right. Then we'll figure that out too, Okay, come on,
we got to keep going.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
And for the record, I'm not lonely.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Okay, Olivia said that Vippin is probably your closest friend.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The fuck.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Why are you and Olivia talking about my social life.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
I'm curious about you, Jeremy. I don't want you to
be isolated.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
I'm not.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Vippin is a good friend.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
I mean, yeah, we work together, but I also like
to think that we get along too.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I had a great catch up just now with Sophie.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
Where you talked about the Fay Realm, that Bluss.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
There's this legend trip that I just met. She's becoming
a friend, actually, honestly, the fastest friend I've made in years.
We've got similar interests and she's I don't know, she's
easy to talk to. She seems to understand me, which,
for whatever reason, it's a little bit rare. And anyway,
the point is, I'm just I really don't feel lonely,
(25:58):
all right, all.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
Right, I just never pictured you as a I don't know,
an eternal bachelor living with Justice books for company.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Oh my god, that's a bit harsh. Don't you think
I'm not trying to criticize. Really, No, I'm just I'm
trying to understand. Wow, when look when I was your age, Dad,
You've never been my age, literally, never been my age.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
You're right, I just want you to be happy. Okay,
that's all. That's the only thing any parent wants say.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Can you please just accept that my happiest life might
look different from yours.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
No spouse, no kids, no job. That means carrying around
a badge and a gun.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
I like my life and I I will be happy
when we figure out how to protect you.
Speaker 10 (26:46):
Okay, Okay, I don't know why I wasn't the first
thing we asked him about.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
There's a lot going on, Nana. I think you can
be forgiven for not taking him down the list of
unanswered questions.
Speaker 10 (27:07):
But now we know, we know it really was him
on the answering machine. He found a way to communicate somehow,
So if we figure that out.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
We could figure out a lot about the liminal exactly.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
And I'm trapped here. I've been trapped. Things are thinning out,
it's opening again.
Speaker 10 (27:30):
He was trying to warn us, and when he first
came out, he said it was hearing celess voice. So
maybe there's a way to communicate to the limonal, not
just from it.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Has he mentioned anything about that?
Speaker 10 (27:40):
No, he hasn't, but like you said, there's been a
lot to focus on.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
So sure.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
But if he knows something about how all this works
and isn't telling us, well, I just we should ask him.
Speaker 10 (27:51):
I guess no, Thomas would knowingly keep anything from us.
Speaker 7 (27:55):
That would be useful, right, yeah, and I know.
Speaker 10 (28:00):
Okay, So when he and Jeremy get back from that campsite,
we can play him the message, ask him what he
did to try to get it out and what he
meant by it, and then maybe we can get word
into Alden and coordinate with him to try to break
the deal somehow. He's seven, well he's been seven for
eighty years. I'm a feeling he's more confident than your
typical first grader.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
That's a good point, okay, So if we are able
to communicate with the in between that and then maybe.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
What the hell?
Speaker 10 (28:30):
Okay, okay, just stay calm live.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Is this what happened before?
Speaker 10 (28:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Yeah, and you're sure it's not an earthquake?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Do you hear that? What music? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:45):
You hear it?
Speaker 10 (28:45):
Right, it's a I think it's coming from the other side.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
It has to be.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
You mean the liminal, No the other side.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
All right here we are all right. Yeah, something definitely
came through her. Look how much brush is trampled. Some
of that could have been the campers that got out
of here in a hurry. But we should look for
any footprints or fur or hair, anything that would give
us an indication of what attacked them if it was
the same thing that almost attacked us.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Lots of human footprints, the regular kind.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Yeah, well, I'm no forensics expert, but those look like
two distinct shoe treads, and those would be the campers.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
Thank god for muddy ground. Wait ooh over here, look
at these deep punctures in the ground.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Ten stakes.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
No, no, no, look those are here. I recognize the
formation from them when I used to go camping with
these five in a.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Row, Like whatever attack that cow?
Speaker 6 (29:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Did the howler have five claws? Did? Did you get
a good look at it?
Speaker 6 (29:54):
I wasn't actually paying attention to the fine details.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
And why would there be just claw prints? There's no footprints?
Speaker 6 (30:01):
Well, the thing we saw standing was on two legs,
so maybe it was on its toes basically, you know,
pushing its claws into the mud for leverage, right right, Wait, here.
There's two more prints with five claws here too, Like
its front paws or something.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Those are much smaller than the hands we saw. God,
it might not even be the same animal. Hell, these
prints could just be from a regular old bear or something.
Every time we get to one of these crime scenes,
I just feel like I'm further away from all of it.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
You were, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just the stiff bones.
My joints have been sore all day, shaking off the dust.
I guess, dad.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
What if?
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Wait? Maybe it's a shape shifter. There's plenty of those
in folklore, right, yeah, all kinds there's.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 6 (30:58):
Must be more campers?
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Yeah? Maybe there there, it's coming from over here.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
No, no, it's it sounds like a woman.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah, there's something about it.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
I can almost make her out.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Hello someone there?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Wait you control.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Son? Are you okay?
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Oh my god, my god, it's not possible.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
What is not possible?
Speaker 5 (31:59):
Mm hmm that voice, that voice, I know that voice?
Speaker 8 (32:07):
What who is it?
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Celeste?
Speaker 8 (32:15):
You can trust to?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
This episode of Bridgewater was written by Lauren Shippen and
directed by Brendan Patrick Hughes Assistant director Sarah Kleine. Sound
designed by Vincent De Johnny Rima El Kali, Josh Thayin,
and Trevor Young, with music by Chad Lawson, Starring Misha
Collins as Jeremy Bradshaw, Melissa Ponzio as Anne Becker, Alan
(32:50):
Tudik as Thomas Bradshaw, Karen Sony as Vipen Kurana, Sabra
May as Olivia Hoskins, Cheryl Umanya as Officer Bautista, Will
Wheaton as Captain Haddock, Tricia Helfer as the Legend Tripper,
Stephen Guarino as Doctor Edwards, Non Demi su Dmbe as
(33:11):
Peyton Blake, Hillary Burton Morgan as Shelley Hoskins, Nicky McCauley
as Celeste Then, Victoria Grace as Katie Franks, with additional
voice acting by Greta Gould, Shelby Young, Adam o'byrn Monte, Markham,
Charlie Bergman, and Tarren Westbrook. Executive producers Aaron Mankey, Misha Collins,
(33:33):
Lauren Shippen, Matt Frederick and Alexander Williams. Supervising producers Josh
Thain and Trevor Young. Bridgewater was created by me Aaron
Manke and is a production of Grim and Mild and
iHeart three D Audio. Learn more about the show over
at grimandmild dot com, slash Bridgewater, and find more podcasts
from iHeartRadio on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(33:56):
you listen to your favorite shows, and as always, thanks
for listening.
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