3.07: Athena Begins

In this episode of That Weewoo Show, Ellen, Alice, and Bex discuss season 3, episode seven of 9-1-1, titled "Athena Begins". When a murder weapon from a case close to Athena in the early '90s resurfaces, flashbacks to 1989 show how Athena joined the LAPD and became the police officer she is today.

The post 3.07: Athena Begins appeared first on That WeeWoo Show.

Episode Transcript

Maddie (00:01):
9-1-1.
What's your emergency?

Bex (00:16):
Welcome back to That WeeWoo Show, a podcast where we watch and
discuss episodes of the ABC show 9-1-1.
I'm Bex.

Alice (00:24):
I'm Alice.

Ellen (00:25):
And I'm Ellen.

Bex (00:27):
As always, thank you to everyone who has listened to our episodes so far, who
have shared our social media posts, um,rated us on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
We do appreciate it.
Uh, this week, uh, we have special shoutouts to at crow8butterfly on Twitter,

(00:47):
who somehow psychically knew that wewere going to ask question of "what
do you do when you are listening toour podcast" and let us know a week in
advance that they leave their annoyingwork tasks for Tuesday so that they can
listen to us while they get them done.
I'm not sure that I like theassociation that you do annoying

(01:11):
things while you listen to us, butI guess you're welcome that it helps
you get those annoying tasks done.

Alice (01:18):
I'm glad you can do the tasks.

Ellen (01:21):
Yeah, I hope we help.

Bex (01:24):
Thank you also to Ginger who left a comment for us on, I believe Spotify,
uh, giving us a little bit of a headsup about the legalities of axe throwing
bars as they pertain in the UK, wherethey do serve alcohol in axe throwing
bars, but you don't get to drink untilafter you've finished throwing the axes.

Ellen (01:44):
Yes, that is an excellent way to go about things.

Bex (01:46):
I think that's a very smart idea.
So none of this Lena downing littlemini, little, um, mini bottles
of booze just before she's aboutto launch into a room with, um, a
baseball bat or possibly an axe.
I think that's a much, much cleverer way.
Uh, so thank you very much to,um, crow8butterfly and Ginger

(02:09):
for leaving us those comments.
And remember, if you want to share yourthoughts, give us your little tidbits.
Um, please do.
We've got a plethora of socialmedia platforms you can reach out
to us on, or you can do the oldfashioned way and send us an email.
So, this week, we're going to bediscussing episode 7, but before we

(02:33):
do that, Alice, would you like toremind us what happened in episode 6?

Alice (02:38):
Yeah, so last week on 9-1-1, Chimney was stalked by a crow while
Maddie stalked a woman she believedto be abused by her husband, and
Buck returned to the 118 withoutthe warm welcome he was hoping for.

Ellen (02:49):
Poor Buck.
But it's okay, becausehe made up with Eddie.
Yes, . So that's fine.
They did.
Um, so this episode is episodeseven of season three, which
is titled "Athena Begins".
So this one aired in onNovember the fourth, 2019.
And the official summary says that a,a murder weapon from a case close to

(03:13):
Athena in the early nineties resurfaces.
Isn't it, 1989, earlynineties, like, anyway.

Alice (03:22):
No, it the, it happens in 91.

Bex (03:24):
She meets Emmett in 89, and then you've got the couple of years it
takes her to get through the academyand become a probationary officer.
By that time, it's 91.

Ellen (03:32):
Thank you.
Thank you for explainingthis episode to me.
I clearly, I did not takeall of that in at the time.
Okay.
Flashbacks to 1989.
I should have just read the next line.
Um, flashbacks to 1989 show howAthena joined the LAPD and became
the police officer she is today.

Alice (03:51):
Look, I only made a note because they mentioned the year I was born
plus the year Taylor Swift was born.
So I was like, Oh, Hey Queens.

Ellen (04:01):
Obviously, uh, since we're, this is a story about Athena and the LAPD, there's
going to be, um, cops in as a triggerwarning, um, drug use, gun violence, abuse
of power, as well as misogyny and racism.
What a fantastic basket of goodieswe have lined up for this episode.

(04:22):
So this is going to like,I like the way they've done
this with, um, the flashbacks.
It's not like.
I think it was "Hen Begins" whereit was just all a flashback.
The whole thing was just set in the past.
Whereas this one has the, um,it's more like the Bobby episodes
where we flashback and forward.

Bex (04:40):
And I do like the way that the flashbacks are incorporated
into the present day story as well.

Ellen (04:48):
Yeah, yeah.
It's, the story's progressing bothin the past and in the future.
I mean, in the present.
Yeah.
Which is also the pastbecause it was five years ago.
But anyway.
That's timey whimey.

Bex (05:00):
Wibbly wobbly timey whimey.

Alice (05:05):
Does anyone else feel like 2019 should have been last year?
Like, how did we get to 2025?
I don't understand.

Ellen (05:11):
Everything since the plague is a bit of a blur.

Alice (05:14):
Literally.

Bex (05:16):
Let's start at the Grant Nash household where it is
dinner and May has a boy over.

Ellen (05:25):
Oh, yes.
This is hilarious this scene.

Alice (05:29):
He may as well be in the, like, police interrogation room.

Bex (05:33):
You gotta feel sorry for him.
I don't think when May said, comeover for dinner and meet my parents,
that he realised that he wouldnot only be meeting May's mother,
her stepfather, and her father.
All in one hit.

Ellen (05:48):
It's a big family meeting.

Alice (05:50):
It's all the parents.

Bex (05:50):
Yes.
And Harry.
Who looks like, who'shaving just the best time.

Ellen (05:57):
Yeah.
And Athena is just grilling this kid.

Bex (06:02):
Oh yeah.

Ellen (06:03):
She, he doesn't know whether to call her Mrs. Grant or Mrs. Nash.
And um, Uh, Michael isalso giving him heaps.
I guess just, It's kind of mean, but alsoreally kind of funny in the same time.
Apparently this kid isDarius, his name is.
Um, he's taking a gap year and thenhopefully he's going to Stanford.

(06:25):
So, they're excited about that.

Bex (06:27):
Athena's a little bit skeptical about what you do on a gap year though.
I do like, uh, May kind of chides her.
You know, "Mum, be nice," and Athena'slike, "What, am I not being nice?"
And Harry's like, "No, you're beinglike Grandma Bea," which is her mother.
And that's cold, Harry.
That's very cold.

(06:50):
Very, very true, but cold.

Alice (06:52):
Bobby pipes in that he didn't even go to college, and Harry's
like, "Wait, that's an option?"Where Athena and Michael immediately
and simultaneously reply no.

Ellen (07:03):
So they're just, you know, pressing about how, what kind of
doctor he's going, he's planning onbeing once he is done with Stanford.
And but there's the doorbellrings, there's someone at the
door and Bobby gets up to get it.
And then May is like, "Right,we're out of here." Like, "Oh,
we've got to go get going.

(07:23):
There's a movie.
We've got to do the thing." AndHarry's just like, "I thought
the movie started at nine."

Bex (07:30):
And the way he says it, he knows damn well.

Alice (07:33):
Oh, he knows exactly what he's doing.
But he's being the littleshit of a younger brother.
Yes.

Bex (07:41):
Funnily enough, May tries, I don't, she doesn't like just tell him to shut it.
Or, you know, complain.
She tries to explain to him her logicas to why they need to leave, which
I would have understood if one ofher parents had said, but wait, I
thought the movie started at nine,but I don't know why she's trying to
explain herself to younger brother.

(08:02):
Anyway, maybe she's explainingherself to her parents by, via Harry.
Anyway.
So she and Darius book it out the door.

Ellen (08:11):
Mm hmm.

Bex (08:12):
And Bobby returns back to the kitchen, but he's got
Captain Elaine behind him.
I'm sure she's got a surname,I just, I don't know it.
She's Elaine.
Yes, apparently Elaine had someunexpected news that she wanted
to give to Athena in person.
And she says that they foundthe gun that killed Emmett.

(08:35):
Which is absolutely news to everybody,including the audience, because none
of us have any clue who Emmett is.

Alice (08:44):
Yeah.
My notes literally are like, who's Emmett?
And then Bobby to Michael goes, "Who'sEmmett?" And I'm like, okay, cool.
Yep.
Um, yep.
Good.

Bex (08:52):
But then I love that like Bobby asks it very quietly and
Michael's like, I have no idea.
So Harry sticks his head aroundthe door and goes, "Who's Emmett?"
Like, thank you, Harry.

Ellen (09:03):
Athena.
Athena is just.
She looks absolutely shocked.
She's just, you know,gobsmacked about this.
And then, and, but she has like aflashback immediately, just, she
sees Elaine as a younger woman, likestanding in a street saying, I think,
saying her name, like saying "Athena".

Bex (09:24):
Yeah, this is one, this is something that I think the episode does really well.
So whenever something is happeningin real time, we get a flashback of,
something similar happening in the past.
So while Captain Elaine is standingthere saying, "Athena, Athena," we get
the flash to, I don't know what rank sheis, but she's definitely not a captain.
Elaine back in thenineties saying, Athena.

(09:48):
And we find out that Emmett is EmmettWashington and he was Athena's fiance.

Alice (09:56):
Bum, bum, bum.

Ellen (09:58):
And then everyone kind of, everyone turns to look at each other and go, What?

Bex (10:03):
Shocked hamster meme.

Ellen (10:04):
Like, both, both her husbands, uh, turn around and
go, "Did you know about this?"
And, no.
So, Athena, I don't know,does she, is this the same
day, like, does she go to the

Bex (10:17):
I'm assuming it's the next day, just considering how late it was.
And it kind of looks daytimewhen she shows up at the LAPD.

Alice (10:27):
At some point in time.

Bex (10:29):
Yes.

Ellen (10:31):
It could be days later, uh, she's sitting at a table with, um, Elaine
looking at a file and they found thegun on someone who was 19 years old
and much too young to be the killer.
And the gun's gone througha lot of hands since 91.
So they've also, I like the way thisis written as well in that, um, we only

(10:54):
get little bits of the story at a time.
It's very.
showing rather than telling.

Bex (11:00):
Yes.

Ellen (11:00):
Like there's no info dump on what happens.
Like.
Yes.
We just get bits and bitsand pieces of information.
So that was cool.
Yeah.
Um, so they had, they, becausethey've found this gun now, they are
reopening the case and they're headingout to, to find out what's happened.
Um, but Athena, like you can see asshe's looking at the files, she's
like, the wheels are turning in herand she's like, I am going to have

(11:21):
to investigate this kind of thing.
Elaine apologizes for.
bringing it up the other night.
So maybe it was a couple of days ago.

Bex (11:32):
Yeah.

Ellen (11:34):
But Athena says, "I haven't talked about Emmett in 20 years.
There's no way you could have known."

Bex (11:39):
That she's kept it a secret from everybody in her life.

Ellen (11:42):
Yeah.
So we are going to flashback to 1989.
We have some "Express Yourself".
I do like, I do enjoy the mu,the music in this episode too.
There's a bit of 80s going on.

Bex (11:55):
Yeah.
Um, I do have a fun story aboutExpress Yourself, which I'll tell
the story, but I think, um, we mightneed to move it to the post credits.
Um, so if you want to hear my fun storyabout the NWA song "Express Yourself",
go to the post-credits to listen to that.
Otherwise, um, yeah, we go to, Ithink it's the UCLA campus where

(12:17):
there is a, uh, career fairs going on.

Ellen (12:21):
And they're like, even the, um, the sort of hairstyles and clothing,
they've done a great job of makingit feel a bit like the eighties,

Bex (12:28):
a bit retro?

Ellen (12:29):
I think there's a lot of denim around, a lot of teased, teased hairs.

Bex (12:34):
This counts as vintage now.

Alice (12:38):
Oh, don't say that.

Ellen (12:43):
Yeah, it did make me feel old.

Alice (12:44):
1989, um, our queen Taylor Swift was making her way into the world.
Yeah.
She was born right at the endof 1989, so probably wasn't
born if it's a career fair.
When did they have their careers fair?
Probably not December.
I don't know.
And even if

Ellen (13:04):
Well, it looked to be summery.
It was so sunny

Bex (13:05):
Yeah, but it's L. A., so who knows?
I mean, Athena's wearing

Alice (13:09):
It always looks summery.

Bex (13:10):
Athena's wearing a jumper, so it can't have been too hot.
Interestingly, the jumper that she'swearing is a sorority jumper for the
Delta Sigma Theta, which is a historicallyBlack society, so she was a sorority girl.
Um, and her other friend, who I don'tthink we ever find out the name of,
um, is very pointedly carrying a legaltextbook with like the, the front of

(13:34):
the textbook facing outwards so everyonecan see that it's a legal textbook.

Alice (13:38):
Does it actually say legal textbook on it?

Bex (13:40):
Oh, it's like, it has a, the title of the textbook and it's
something about law and procedures.
I did not pay

Ellen (13:47):
And we did get it confirmed that they are studying
law in a minute, when they
yes.
Start talking.

Bex (13:53):
Yeah, because they are going through the career fairs, um, Athena
says that it's a waste of time forthem to go through the fair because
they already know what they're goingto do, but uh, their friend Cheryl
says that they are opening themselvesup to the world of possibilities.
Um, and as they're walking through,they walk past the LAPD stall, which
is being manned by several membersof the LAPD, including Emmett, who

(14:18):
immediately jumps in front of them.
Although I don't think he's somuch interested in recruiting
them as he is in getting,specifically, Athena's phone number.

Alice (14:31):
Just before Emmett jumps in front of them to, I love Athena's
comment, where she's like, "What kindof person upends their whole life
because someone handed them a flyer?"
And then Emmett's just like,"Hello, would you like a flyer?"

Ellen (14:43):
"Here, take a flyer. It's got my number on it."
And they, they just sortof like brush him off.
They're like, yeah, we already know,we're already on our career paths.
But, um, he says lawyers and policeare all part of the same system.
We just get to the bad guys first.

Alice (15:01):
Yeah.
"But the only people folks hate morethan lawyers are cops." Thanks, Cheryl.

Ellen (15:05):
Yeah.
Oh, and then he says "People onlyhate police until they," does he
say, okay, this is where the, I heardsomething different than the transcript.
Transcript says "People onlyhate police until they need us."

Bex (15:18):
What did you hear?

Ellen (15:18):
I heard "until they meet us," because he was smiling and looking all
charming and I'm like geez man, but "untilthey need us" makes a lot more sense.

Alice (15:29):
But he's just very charismatic.

Ellen (15:33):
Yeah, like, wow.

Bex (15:33):
I mean, if you had told me that Emmett had said they only hate
police until they meet us, I would,um, I would 100 percent believe
that was something that he said.
But no, they, until they meet us.

Ellen (15:46):
He's a bit of a smoothie.
Yeah.
Anyway, Athena seems very taken withhim because, partially because he writes
down his number and hands it to her.
And says, "in case you decide togive us another look." And Athena's
friend is like, "I wouldn't mindgiving him another look." Ooh.

Alice (16:06):
Oh, she's given a name.
Gabby.

Bex (16:09):
Ah.
She's given a name in the transcript.
She's not, once again, she's notactually given a name in the episode.
And I only count the names if somebodyactually name drops them in the episode.
So she's still namelessas far as I'm concerned.

Alice (16:24):
But yeah, basically Emmett writes his number on the back of a pamphlet for
the LAPD and hands it to Athena, who then

Ellen (16:30):
sticks it on her fridge,

Alice (16:31):
upends her whole life.

Bex (16:34):
Um, And we know that she sticks it to her fridge because we then
cut to, um, Athena and Beatrice atAthena's, I want to say, dorm room?
Apartment?
I'm not entirely sure whereshe's living at this point.

Ellen (16:51):
I mean, it doesn't look like a dorm room, like a
dorm situation, it looks like.

Bex (16:56):
Looks like a little, like, apartment.
Yeah.
So apparently Beatrice has comeup to, from Florida to visit.
Mr. Carter, whose name Icannot remember, has gone full,
like, weaponized incompetence.
Like, "Where's that soap you put inthe dishwasher? Which dry cleaners
has got my blue suit?" Like, sir?

Ellen (17:16):
Uh, he, apparently, uh, Athena's dad let, um, Bea come on her own, which,
which she's absolutely shocked about.
She's like, "He knew better than to tryto stop me." But they, they, she also says
that she's trying to make him move out toLA so that they can see Athena more often.

(17:37):
And Athena's like, you're notgoing to get him to do that.

Bex (17:40):
Beatrice says he'll move if there's grandbabies.

Ellen (17:44):
Ugh, yeah.

Bex (17:45):
Yeah.

Ellen (17:48):
Which Athena is not impressed about, she's like, "nah, I have to finish
law school, I have to get a job, thenI'll find a good man, I will give you
grandbabies. You do not get to shuffle theorder because you're bored in Florida."

Bex (18:02):
So they're having dinner at this point, Athena gets up to clear the
plates and then we see her walk intothe kitchen and we see the um, The
LAPD, uh, brochure stuck to the fridge.
Um, and then Beatrice decidesthat this is the perfect time to
segue into news from back home.
Um, specifically thatMrs. Kingston passed away.

(18:25):
And in case you have forgotten, Mrs.Kingston, the Kingstons were the
family of the little girl that wentmissing when Athena was a child.
The unsolved case that Originallywas the reason that Athena went
into policing, or so we were told,until this episode came along.

Ellen (18:44):
Oh, yeah.
Well, that was when she was stillkeeping this a secret, I guess.

Bex (18:50):
Yeah, I,

Alice (18:52):
yeah, I have, I have things, like, thoughts about this episode,
but I'll, I'll leave them to the end.

Bex (18:58):
We'll discuss it at the end?

Alice (18:59):
Yeah.

Bex (19:00):
Yeah, because I've got thoughts too.
Okay.
Funnily enough, surprisinglyin a shock move that nobody saw
coming at all, I have thoughts.

Alice (19:08):
Bex has thoughts.

Ellen (19:11):
We should rename this podcast.

Bex (19:13):
Oh no,

Alice (19:14):
we need a segment like, um, like SPN Then And Now do
with like Rich's dumb notes.
We, I mean Rob's dumb notes.
We need like little jingles.

Ellen (19:25):
I didn't know they did that, it's funny.

Bex (19:28):
I'm sorry.
Look, if I, honestly, if I am talkingtoo much, please tell me to shut up.

Ellen (19:34):
No!
No, no, no.
That's perfect.
We love it.
We love the thoughts.

Alice (19:39):
We love Bex's dumb thoughts.

Ellen (19:42):
No, they're not dumb at all.
That's the point.
All right, where are we?
Oh, Mrs. Kingston,

Bex (19:49):
yes.
Mrs. Kingston, um, Beatrice says thatshe died of cancer, but she thinks
that she died of heartbreak becauseshe never got over losing Tanya.

Ellen (20:00):
They never found out what happened.

Bex (20:03):
They do, Beatrice says that Mrs. Kingston went to the police station
every month begging for help, lookingfor answers, maybe she has them now.
And they do have Athena cut backto looking at the LAPD brochure.
So, I don't know, maybe that's howthey get around the difference in the
storylines, but we can, like, we'lldiscuss that a little bit more at the end.

(20:27):
Um, instead, right now we're goingto cut to the Brolly Hut, which was a
burger joint in, I think it's down inCrenshaw, in South LA, where, um, Emmett
and Athena are either on a recruitmentdrive or a date, not entirely sure which.

Alice (20:48):
Bit of both.
Yeah.
A little from column A, alittle from column B. Yeah.

Ellen (20:53):
Yeah, well, Emmett's certainly telling her all about it.
Yes.
"The department's goal is 20 percentfemale officers and we're about
halfway there." That's not good.

Alice (21:03):
Whoa, we're halfway there.

Ellen (21:07):
And Athena's like, "10%? I'll, I'll be outnumbered 9 to 1?"
Hopefully it's a little better than10 percent these days, but yes.

Bex (21:16):
Not under Trump's administration because they wouldn't have that 20
percent quota anymore because you'd behiring for merit, not for DEI reasons.

Ellen (21:23):
That's right.
Anyway.
Anyway, let's leave the real world out ofthis because, oh my god, how depressing.
Um, I mean, this is notmuch better this episode.

Bex (21:34):
This episode is sad enough as it is.
We don't need to bringin current politics.
But, um, yes, Emmett, uh, very smoothlysays that he would imagine that
Athena would stick out in any crowdregardless of the demographic makeup.

Ellen (21:47):
Oh, what a smoothie.

Bex (21:49):
Which then Athena calls him on and goes, "Well, now I'm starting
to wonder exactly what it isyou're trying to recruit me for."
They do, they have a little bit of backand forth and it shares his origin story
as to why he joined, um, the LAPD, whichbasically boiled down to, he had a pair
of narcotics detectives came to his classin sixth grade to show them crime scene

(22:13):
photos as a don't do drugs deterrent.
And Emmett took umbrage with the waythat the police officers talked about,
um, what he's called "our world, ourcommunity." It kind of opened his eyes
to how broken the system was and he knewhe had to do something to make it better.
So that's why he became a police officer.

(22:34):
So Athena says in voiceover, "Iquit law school six weeks later."
And we cut, and we're still at theBrolly Hut, but it's now 2019, and
Athena is getting burgers with Hen.

Ellen (22:51):
Yeah, I had to, like, rewind this and see, and work, try and
work out if it was actually thesame place though, because it
looks exactly the same, but yeah.
It still exists.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
It's like 30 odd years.
35 years or something.

Bex (23:07):
Um, so Hen, Athena has told Hen all about Emmett, and Hen is absolutely
amazed because she had no idea.

Alice (23:19):
Yeah, Athena told nobody about Emmett.

Ellen (23:23):
Yeah, she said she locked it all up in a box, and that was the
only way she could move forward,Hen says, "How does it feel now that
Pandora's cracked open that box?"
And Athena says, "It feels like I'mthe one who's cracked open." So now,
now that she, it's sort of all comeout, she's like, it's all coming,
like she's been triggered basically.

(23:43):
It's all come flooded back andshe is not coping well with it.

Bex (23:49):
She's not ready to talk to anybody else, so she is hiding with Hen.

Ellen (23:52):
Yeah.
But yeah, Hen's sort of asking aboutthe gun and whether it can be tracked.
And Athena's like, "Well, I can'treally do anything technically. I'm
just supposed to let the detectivesdo their jobs," and Hen, uh, Hen,
she's like such an enabler, here.
She's like, "You've never been oneto be hung up on a technicality."

(24:16):
So then Athena goes into Snoop mode.
Um, as, as always, it's going totake matters into her own hands.
But in this case, she's got goodreasons to want to be involved.
Although she's a little tooclose to the subject material.

Bex (24:33):
It doesn't really reflect the rest of the LAPD in a very good light.
I mean, she's obviously, shemust think that Romero and the
others are absolute idiots.
And that, you know, they couldn't detecttheir way out of a paper bag if she has
to, like, roll up her sleeves and stormin and, like, Fine, I'll do it myself.
Yeah.

Alice (24:52):
Like, Athena isn't a detective, is she?

Bex (24:56):
No, she's sergeant.
She's, uh, she's patrol.
Detective, um, which apparentlyI've learned from my binge
watching of The Rookie, that's aseparate, you have to take an exam.
And then you get movedinto a separate division.
So she hasn't taken that.
She's taken her sergeant's exam,so she's now a sergeant, but she
has to then take another exam ifshe wants to become a detective.

Ellen (25:16):
Right.

Bex (25:18):
And finally, with the Rookie, um, the actor that plays Romero
is also a detective in The Rookie.
And The Rookie is set in LAPD.
Um, so, but he's an absolute arse ofa detective in LAPD in The Rookie.
Like a completely different character.
It's just, it always makes me laughwhenever he would come up because, you

(25:41):
know, it's either, If all of the TV showsare in the same universe, so you know if
Supernatural exists in 9-1-1, then youwould also think that, um, Athena exists
in the same universe as the Rookie.
So you've got like two Romeros whoare like evil twins or something,
just separated birth, just bothhappen to end up at LAPD and
both happen to end up detectives.
It's just, it's just funny.

Ellen (26:04):
Ah, the multiverse.

Bex (26:06):
Yes!

Ellen (26:07):
Ah.
So, apparently Romero is the oneworking the case at the moment.

Bex (26:12):
Which I don't think he should be allowed to either, because
I, if, Athena's too close...

Alice (26:16):
Apparently very close to it.

Ellen (26:18):
Yeah, he says Emmett was his partner.

Bex (26:20):
Yeah, so I would have thought that he should possibly be, you know, stepped
away as well, because he's also too close.

Alice (26:26):
Yeah, so apparently Emmett was his partner, and we also find out
later that Emmett was his best friend.
And it's like, yeah, Romero, you canwork this case, I'm sure this is fine.

Ellen (26:35):
Yeah, no conflicts of interest at all.

Bex (26:38):
I guess it's because they couldn't hire another actor and
quickly retcon a new character in.
They're like, we've alreadygot one guy on the books as a
detective, let's just use him.

Alice (26:49):
Yeah, but they could have, like, why make Emmett his partner?

Ellen (26:53):
Yeah, he could have just been someone.

Alice (26:55):
He could have just known him, like.

Bex (26:58):
Because then we don't get

Alice (26:59):
Or not even known him, like

Bex (27:00):
But then we don't get the fun flashback of young Romero.

Alice (27:03):
Yeah, true.

Bex (27:05):
Anyway, so Athena has come in and she has bought Romero coffee, which
looks like it's like LAPD coffee.

Alice (27:14):
Yeah, literally she just like gets a styrofoam cup, fills it
out in the hallway and comes in Iwould have thought if you're trying

Bex (27:21):
to like butter him up, you would have gone to like Starbucks or something and
bought a decent cup of coffee for him.
Um, but I guess it doesn't reallymatter cause the coffee is just a ruse.

Alice (27:31):
Romero is a terrible detective, mind you.

Bex (27:35):
He gets there in the end.

Alice (27:36):
Eventually he does work it out.

Bex (27:38):
He figures out in the end.
But, um,

Ellen (27:39):
but it's not his fault.
He's a terrible detectivefor plot reasons.

Alice (27:43):
Yeah.
Um,

Ellen (27:44):
He's a victim of the plot.

Alice (27:46):
It just reminds me of Brooklyn Nine One One now, It's like, "This
is my partner, terrible detective."

Ellen (27:51):
I really need to watch that show.

Alice (27:53):
It's so good.

Bex (27:55):
So the coffee is a diversion.
Athena has purposefully made itwrong, and rather than going to fix
it for him, Romero goes up to getthe sugar to put in his coffee that
Athena has conveniently forgotten.
And as soon as he walks out ofthe bullpen to fetch said sugar,

(28:18):
Athena goes full into snoop mode.

Ellen (28:22):
Oh my god, there are other people in that room.

Bex (28:24):
Yes!

Ellen (28:25):
And she just looks around like, not suspicious.
This, don't, don't look at me.
I'm not doing anything overhere that's suspicious.
And then she goes and just

Bex (28:35):
she immediately dives into Romero's computer, uses his access to access the
records for the 19 year old who foundthe gun, and then prints it all out,
shoves it all in a handbag, and thenwhen Romero comes back with coffee that
is now actually drinkable, as far asLAPD coffee is drinkable, which is, you
know, probably not very drinkable tobegin with, she's like, "oh my god, will

(28:57):
you look at the time, I've got to gopick up the kids. See you later, Rick!"

Alice (29:01):
Yeah.
Nice to see you for 30 seconds.
Bye.

Bex (29:05):
But they do do this thing where she starts to walk away and Romero
goes, "Wait, hey, Athena, wait."And the show sets it up to make you
think that Athena's been busted.
She like freezes and slowly turnsaround, there's really dramatic
music and all Romero says is, "Ipromise you we're going to find him."

Alice (29:25):
Yeah,

Bex (29:25):
we'll get him.
Like thumbs up and winks.
Like who were they fooling?
Did, did anybody fall for that?

Ellen (29:37):
But she, she agrees with him, like, he says, does he say, I promise
you, I'm gonna, we're gonna find him.

Bex (29:44):
We're gonna find him.
And like, yes.
we will.
We will.
And that's the royal we here, I'm nottalking about you, I'm talking about me.

Alice (29:54):
Yeah, literally.
She's like, yeah, we will, andhe's like, why'd you do quotations,
and she's like, I don't know.

Ellen (30:00):
All
right.
So.
Young Athena.
By the way, this actress is absolutelygorgeous and she does a fantastic
job of playing, like, a young Athena.

Alice (30:14):
Yeah, apparently, um, apparently Angela Bassett helped cast her.

Ellen (30:21):
Ah.

Bex (30:22):
Oh, that's interesting.

Ellen (30:23):
I mean, she's got a lot of the mannerisms down.
She's done, done a great jobof getting that character.

Bex (30:28):
I do love it when they have actors that are cast as younger versions of an
adult actor and they actually take thetime to watch that actor's previous work
so they can try and, um, portray themproperly or portray them accurately.

Ellen (30:44):
Yeah.
So, young Athena, she is now a rookie.
She's got into the LAPD andshe's getting, like, they've
done their training, I think.
Part of their training.

Bex (30:57):
Yeah, so she's, she would have graduated from
the academy and she's now a,
Watching The Rookie was aterrible TV show, 100 percent do
not recommend, but I've got allthis knowledge about LAPD now.
It's great.
So she's now a P1, which is a probationaryofficer, and she's been assigned
to a, um, I think it's somewherein South Central, she's a station.

(31:19):
This is her, her first yearout of the academy actually
working as a police officer.

Ellen (31:25):
Mm hmm.

Bex (31:27):
And fun fact, not so fun probably, um, but.
She's wearing long sleeves as heruniform, which was a, a hazing
ritual that training officers orhigher ranked officers used to do to
probationary officers, to the rookies.

(31:49):
So they'd make them wear theirlong sleeve uniforms, even in the
middle of like L. A. 's hottestsummer, just because they could.
With the idea being that once youpassed your first year and you, you
know, actually were going to makeit as a cop, you could then wear
the short sleeves and be a littlebit more comfortable out on patrol.

Ellen (32:08):
So the, the boss says that Carter is going to be assigned to McCluskey and
he's like an older kind of white guy.
He looks sort of rolls hiseyes and like, Oh, great.

Bex (32:22):
Yeah.
He doesn't look too thrilled with it.
To the point that when Athena goesover and introduces herself to him,
he complains that he keeps gettingshouldered with schooling you people.
And Athena kind of gives him alook and he's like, oh, no, no,
no, that's, that's not what I mean.
It's she's, he's not talkingabout the fact that she's Black.
He's talking about the fact that she'sa woman, because he has gone through,

(32:45):
she is his sixth female rookie, andthe other five have all, you know,
got left the force to have kids.
So he has, what do you call it?
Abandonment issues.
I
mean, it's a, it's a nice, it's a nicerversion of the same speech that Gerrard

(33:06):
gives when Hen was going to becomea poli going to become a paramedic.
Like when Gerrard was saying

Ellen (33:12):
Marginally nicer.

Bex (33:13):
Marginally nicer.
But it's the same idea.
It's the why bother putting, whybother spending the money putting,
um, women through these courses,spending the money on them.
Um, if they're not goingto actually do the work.
So it's, it's not pointing McCluskeyin the best light at the moment.

Alice (33:33):
No.
I do want to mention the, like the watchcommander who's giving the assignments.

Bex (33:40):
Oh, he's so funny.

Alice (33:42):
He's so funny.
He's like, don't get deadand don't dent my cars.
Like that's his whole thing for the day.
Um, and then when we go to.

Bex (33:52):
The first thing Athena does?

Alice (33:54):
Literally the first thing Athena does is gets a suspect
to run straight into the squadcar that McCluskey's driving.

Bex (34:04):
I love that because my notes have got the, the, the suspect
runs into the car and I've got,gee, I hope he didn't dent the car.
The very next scene is the watch commandergoing, um, "What the hell did I say
about my cars vis a vis dents, Carter?"

Ellen (34:19):
Yeah.
But before that, you forgot aboutthe needle drop because we had.

Bex (34:25):
Oh, no, I was ignoring it because it was stupid.

Ellen (34:28):
It was stupid, but it was like, the most dramatic thing that I've

Bex (34:33):
It was the most dramatic thing, but it was stupid
because it didn't make sense.

Ellen (34:37):
No, it didn't make sense.

Bex (34:39):
Okay, alright, go on.

Ellen (34:40):
He's saying that she has abandonment issues, and then she's just
putting him in his place, going, "LookI'm serious about this job. You can teach
me what, you know, you should treat methe way you would any other officer."
And then she basically does this hairflick and just walks off in slow motion.
And then there's like, "LadiesFirst" starts playing and it's like

Bex (35:01):
That is not the mic drop moment, Athena.
Like that is not the, "You shouldtreat me like you would treat
any other officer. Athena out."

Ellen (35:11):
Yes.
I was just watching it go.
Okay.
That was dramatic.

Bex (35:19):
It's dramatic on the surface, but when you actually look down into
the depths, there are no depths.

Ellen (35:26):
It looked cool though.

Bex (35:27):
It looked so cool.
Um, like the music is amazing.

Alice (35:32):
I guess back in the nineties, like the early nineties, she's like,
Hey, maybe don't treat me like apiece of shit just cause I'm a woman.
And he's like, Oh wow.
That's the first womanwho's ever screwed up to me.

Ellen (35:43):
Yeah, maybe.

Bex (35:43):
I don't know.
I suspect they blew their music budgeton this episode though, because they've
got such good music in this one.

Ellen (35:54):
Yeah, but it's all like 30, 40 years old, so, you know.

Bex (35:58):
It's still good.
I defy you that like when they had theEmmett and Athena scene at the Brolly
hut, they had Busta Move playing.
I defy that you are not dancingin your seat when you, when
you Because that's such a bop.

Ellen (36:12):
It is, it's great music.
It's just um, the therights are all kind of done.

Bex (36:19):
It's 70 years.
We're not, we're not up to 70 yet.
This is only in the 80s and 90s.

Ellen (36:28):
Some days, I wonder.

Alice (36:31):
My back begs to differ.

Ellen (36:32):
Yeah, my knees, my knees say otherwise.
Anyway, um, where are we?

Alice (36:37):
So yes, Athena, Athena dents the car immediately.

Ellen (36:40):
And gets in trouble for it.
And then Emmett shows up atAthena's apartment later and he
is like, "How was the first day?"And she doesn't even say anything.
She just grabs the bottle of wine off him.

Alice (36:51):
Yeah.
He's got a bottle of wine and abouquet of flowers and she doesn't
even pay any attention to the flowers,just grabs the bottle of wine.
And he's like, Oh,

Ellen (37:01):
okay.
One of those days.

Bex (37:02):
Yes.
We get, um, more footage of Athenabeing a badass and, you know,
being able to, um, hold her own.
We get a little note from the watchcommander saying that the LAPD is
on track for the fewest number ofofficer involved shootings since 1981.
So let's try not to shoot anyoneuntil the nineties, which must

(37:25):
be like the tail end of Yeah.
Um, we get Athena meeting Mrs.Washington for the first time.
Looks like they're allgoing to church together.

Alice (37:38):
Mrs. Washington's like, "Hope you brought protection"
and Athena's like, "Excuse what?"

Bex (37:43):
But see, I wonder did Athena's mind go to her gun or
did she go to something else?
Because my brain immediatelywent to, is Athena, did, did
you mean like her sidearm?
I don't know if you're supposedto be armed when you go to church.

Ellen (37:57):
Do you mean, Your angel blade?
That's where my mind went.

Alice (38:02):
He had his angel blade.
But no, she meant fromthe girls at church.
Because when they see Athena with her boy.

Bex (38:13):
Yep.
Outsider coming in andpoaching one of their men.

Alice (38:18):
Then we go to New Year's Eve, so clearly it was the very tail end of 89.

Bex (38:22):
It's like 11.
59 and like 30 seconds, becausethey're all standing around the
bullpen counting down to midnight asMcCluskey and Athena walk in with a
perp who's got like a party hat on.

Alice (38:35):
Yeah, um, so they like throw him in the holding cell and then they're like,
"Okay, come on, after midnight's when thereal crazies come out, I don't want to
miss it." And Athena goes, "You're justexcited you get to shoot people again."

Bex (38:49):
Yeah, exactly.
Because it's now the 90s.

Ellen (38:54):
You wouldn't be able to say that in this day and age, would you?

Bex (39:00):
I think it's a joke.
But it does show the interactionbetween Athena and McCluskey.
They do look like they're genuinelyfond of each other and they are
working really well together,despite his initial misgivings.
So then we've got a random scenewhere Athena and McCluskey have

(39:20):
joined with a bunch of otherofficers Is it a traffic accident?
Is it some kind of I was looking atit on a small screen, I didn't exactly
catch what was happening, but a lotof people are being arrested and there
are a lot of vehicles on the scene.

Alice (39:36):
I think it's drugs.

Ellen (39:38):
Yeah, I imagine they're just busting a bunch of people
because there's a like a line up ofguys who are in handcuffs, right?

Bex (39:45):
Yeah, there's like six guys sitting on the curb in handcuffs and Athena
throws another one onto the onto the curb.
Yeah.
Who tells her, who calls her a bitchand tells her to watch the cuffs.
And she tells him to exercise your rightto be silent before I force it upon you.
But as she's doing that, Emmettcalls her over and objects to her,

(40:07):
sort of playfully objects to herbeing there because where she and
McCluskey are, there's not her sector.
Athena shoots back that McCluskey doesn'tbelieve in being confined to sectors.
They just go wherever the work is.

Ellen (40:22):
Which sounds familiar.

Bex (40:24):
Yeah, I wonder where Athena learned that from.
Yes.
And then I think the, pretty much like theone reason that we get this scene is that
while Athena and Emmett are flirting buttrying to not look like they're flirting
because I think they're still hiding theirrelationship, um, Romero calls over to
Emmett, that he's taking their woundedfriend to Mercy West, and I swear to

(40:48):
God, it sounded like the original Romero.
It's like they got present dayRomero to do the voiceover, but then
when you cut, it's a younger guy.
So that's, we kind of, we getthe, um, the showing that Romero
and Emmett were working together.

Alice (41:09):
But Emmett asks Athena before he leaves if she's working on Sunday.
And she says, she's off.
Um, why?
And Emmett says, "You'll see."
And so then we cut to Sunday.

Ellen (41:25):
Yeah, where they were supposed to be going out, but instead they got busy.

Bex (41:30):
Yeah, that was the implication I got too.

Ellen (41:35):
But, because they said they were going to be late when
they were getting dressed again.

Bex (41:37):
But then I questioned it because the bed behind them looked made.
So unless they were notgetting busy in the bedroom?

Ellen (41:45):
Yeah.

Alice (41:47):
We know Athena's a bit of a freak, let's be real.

Ellen (41:51):
Maybe they, uh, I don't want to go too far down that rabbit hole.

Bex (41:55):
Yeah, I know, yeah, it's, it's strange because they're, they're saying
that they're going to be late andthey're quite clearly getting dressed.
But maybe just, we've just got suchgutter minds that our brains immediately
have gone to, well, they must havebeen fucking before they went.
And that's why they're going to be late,where everybody else in the general
audience is like, oh no, they must havejust got held up doing something else.
Maybe they were doing a puzzle.

(42:15):
or something.

Alice (42:16):
Yeah, they were grocery shopping.

Bex (42:19):
But Athena

Alice (42:21):
Playing cards?

Bex (42:22):
It was Sunday, maybe they were at church.

Ellen (42:24):
Scrabble.

Bex (42:24):
Maybe, I don't know.
Um, but Athena counters the, we couldbe, we could rush and be late for the
dinner, or we could just stay in andorder pizza and, you know, have more sex.
Which Emmett seems quitehappy with that arrangement.

Ellen (42:40):
He's down.
Yeah.

Bex (42:42):
So Athena, they both go to look, they're looking for the phone
so they can call the restaurant andcancel the reservation, I guess.
And Athena looks under thepillows of the made bed.

Alice (42:50):
I think that they're finding the phone so that
they can call and order pizza.
Because remember that used tobe a thing, you had to call
for, like, to order things?

Ellen (42:58):
The beginning of the 90s you did, yeah.

Bex (43:01):
Yeah.
Okay, maybe it's to call to order pizza.
I assumed it was to cancel thereservation so they didn't get hit
with the, um, because you sometimespay, you know, for reservations.
Regardless of the why, they're lookingfor the phone, and Athena does not find it
under the pillows of the made bed, but shedoes find it under a pile of clothes in

(43:22):
the middle of the maid bed, which is hencewhy I'm wondering where they were having
sex if they weren't having sex on the bed.
Um, the phone is therealong with a ring box,
which she opens to reveal a diamond ring.

Ellen (43:38):
She looks a bit shaky, but

Bex (43:41):
Emmett kind of appears back in the doorway and says like, you know,
he had a whole speech planned andhe was going to do it over dinner
when they brought out the tiramisu.
And Athena's reaction isjust, "I love tiramisu."

Ellen (43:56):
And Emmett goes, I know, it's so romantic.

Bex (44:02):
Honestly, the bar is so far on the floor that the fact that he knows that
she likes tiramisu is an amazing thing.
So he asks her to marryhim, and she says yes.
And they all live happily ever after.

Alice (44:20):
For the next 30 seconds.

Bex (44:22):
Except then we cut to her current husband coming home with pizza.
It took a long time forthat pizza to get there.
So long that she wentthrough two husbands.

Ellen (44:33):
Oh my gosh.

Bex (44:36):
Um, So, Bobby comes home, he's got pizza, they obviously didn't get that
delivered, um, and he walks in on Romeroand Athena fighting, because Romero has
finally figured out that he was duped.

Ellen (44:48):
Yeah, you played me.

Alice (44:49):
Um, yeah, Athena says that she wanted to keep him out of it.

Ellen (44:53):
How did he find out?

Alice (44:56):
Because he's a detective.

Ellen (44:59):
It was probably someone else in the room who said, "oh, by the
way. Athena jumped on your computerwhile you were out of the room."

Alice (45:04):
You know Athena was totally like just on your computer
while you were getting sugar.

Bex (45:09):
I have a feeling they also track access to records.
Maybe somebody

Ellen (45:14):
Yeah, but he was on the case.

Bex (45:17):
Was he?

Alice (45:18):
Yeah, because he was logged in, I'm pretty sure.

Bex (45:20):
No, his computer was logged in, but was he so she could access

Ellen (45:25):
He's got the file.
He's about to give hereverything they have.

Bex (45:30):
Who knows, nobody has actually thought about this, so we're
not going to think about this.

Ellen (45:33):
Okay, details, too many details, okay.

Bex (45:34):
For the drama, he found out for the drama.

Alice (45:37):
Um, Athena tells him to fuck off, basically.

Bex (45:42):
But nicely.

Alice (45:44):
She says he can't be a part of it because she doesn't know what's
going to happen, but there's a prettygood chance that she's going to be
out of a job when it's done, and shedoesn't want to take him down with her.
And although Romero's willing to takethat risk, Athena's not, so Romero's just
like, yeah, okay, cool, here's the file.
You

Bex (46:03):
Which I would say would make him liable to, you know.

Ellen (46:07):
Yeah, I don't, I don't know why he, like, for the drama,
he rolls over quite easily here.
I feel like this wouldbe much more of a fight.

Bex (46:15):
And it's not even like, I'm just, oops, I've dropped this file here.
I'll just walk away and not pick it up.
He literally hands it to her.
There's no plausible deniability there.
And Bobby is standing right there.
Like, help.
Like, shows her the highlighted sections.
Yes, on page five, you willsee that I've highlighted some
interesting ATM withdrawals.
I suggest you start there.

Alice (46:36):
Page seven, I've put an arrow and put, Athena, read this.

Ellen (46:43):
And then he says, and then he sort of turns around and
goes, "Hey, Bobby," not, not likesurprised that Bobby's there at all.

Alice (46:52):
What up, Bobby?

Ellen (46:54):
And then Bobby proceeds to get mad with her.

Bex (46:57):
Kind of, yeah, as mad as Bobby can get.
Although, having said that, he didjust slam some guy up against the side
of a duck factory, so, you know, hecan get violent when he wants to, so.
He's not gonna get violentwith Athena, though.
He's just gonna be, I'mnot mad, I'm disappointed.

Ellen (47:16):
I just, I love her reaction where, he's like, "This man's gotten
away with murder for 30 years.
You think he's going to behappy to see you show up on his
doorstep?" And she's like, "I don'tmuch care about his feelings."

Bex (47:31):
But she's very adamant that, um, the guy who killed Emmett
needs to pay for what he's done.
And she needs to makesure that it happens.
And it has to be her that makessure it happens because she has
been carrying an entire luggage.
Department's worth of, um, guilt,because she says that she is

(47:56):
the reason that Emma was killed.

Ellen (47:58):
Yeah, I'm the reason he's dead.

Bex (48:00):
But we're not going to get an explanation about that, yet.
Um, instead, we're going to cut to Bobbytelling her ex husband this entire story.
Gossiping as he does.
Bobby Nash is such a gossip!

Ellen (48:13):
While Michael is off his face, like, really.

Alice (48:18):
So, while, um, Romero's there, like, Athena's sitting
out on the, like, back patio.
But she's got two drinks with her.
I think Michael was there somewhere?
No, like, I was like, oh, so, like,maybe she made a drink for Romero.
And he just like, like she,he walked in all mad and she's

(48:40):
like, here, I made you a drink.
And then I was like,okay, like clearly not.
So maybe she made it forBobby, but Bobby doesn't drink.
So I'm like, who's, what?
And then when he gets home, she justlike gets rid of both the drinks,
like just tips them down the sink.
And I'm like, what the fuck is she doing?
Did she need two drinks?
I'm so confused.
It's a two, it's a

Bex (48:56):
two bottle day.

Ellen (48:58):
Maybe she made two drinks for herself.
I don't know.

Bex (49:01):
Who knows.
As well as time being all timeywimey, the set designer is
having fun and games with props.
How many wine glasses are set out?
Or maybe they like filmed allof this stuff in the same day
and they just left the glasses.
Like maybe they shot Michaeland Bobby first and then the
glasses are still on the tablewhen they shot Athena and Romero.

(49:24):
Yeah, so they're just like, Athenajust interact with these glasses.
And nobody is kind of tweaked to thefact that that's from the previous
scene and they should have been cleared.

Alice (49:33):
Or Romero comes over and she's like, "Hey, let me make you a drink."
And he's just like, "You accessedthe files." And she's like, "Yeah,
so do you want one shot or two?"

Bex (49:42):
Who knows?
Once again, we are putting the focuson things that 100 percent should
not have focus put on them becauseit's like pulling back the curtain,
revealing the man behind there.

Ellen (49:52):
Yes.
Well, in any case, Michael hasbeen, also been having a two bottle
day, or at least a one bottle day.

Bex (49:58):
Yeah.

Ellen (49:59):
He's in his cups.
Um.

Bex (50:01):
Completely.

Ellen (50:03):
And, He's saying that, like, "She, she kept a secret from both of us, and
we told her everything. We, we told herour secrets, and she told us nothing."
I'm like, hang on, hang on, Michael.
This is like

Alice (50:15):
Michael did not tell her his secrets.

Ellen (50:18):
Just because you told her your secret doesn't mean
she has to tell you all of hers.

Alice (50:22):
But also, like, Michael's like Um, because Bobby says that
his hands aren't clean and he'shid things from a lot of people.
And Michael's like, "Which she knewbefore she even walked down the
aisle. Look, we told her our secrets,we spilled our guts, man." You
didn't tell her for like 20 years!
Like, don't, don't act likeyou, like, told her everything

(50:46):
the day you met, Michael.

Bex (50:48):
But also, Emmett really doesn't have anything to do with either of them.
Michael's secret verymuch affected, um, Athena.
Bobby's secret didn't really affectAthena until he got called out and then
he got fired, which point it did startto affect her, but nothing about Emmett,
prior to this situation affected them.

Ellen (51:09):
It's not important for them to know it.
No.
Really.
No.
So.
Really.
Yeah, I think, I think Michael'sbeen a bit harsh in this case.

Alice (51:18):
I mean, Michael was the one that stormed around after he didn't
get an invite to their wedding.

Bex (51:22):
Michael is a dramatic little bitch.
Even more so when he's drunk.

Ellen (51:28):
Apparently so.

Bex (51:29):
And apparently everybody knows this because while he pours himself another
glass of wine, uh, May comes in andinforms the two men that she's moved her
things into Harry's room, at which pointI've gone, why the fuck did you do that?
Why can't your dad sleep on the couch?

Alice (51:47):
Yeah, I don't understand.
Where's Harry gonna sleep?

Bex (51:51):
Harry's sleeping in Harry's room.
May is bunking in his room so thatMichael can sleep in May's room.

Alice (51:58):
But yeah, they have a couch.

Bex (52:00):
Yeah, exactly.
Why can't Michael sleep on the couch?

Ellen (52:04):
He's like "A guest in my own damn house. I built this patio." I'm like,
Oh my God, why are you here, Michael?

Alice (52:10):
Why are you part of this episode?

Bex (52:15):
Because he's family.

Ellen (52:16):
It's fine.
He can be part of it.
It's fine.
It's just that, you know,you don't live there anymore.
Um, he says, May says that, uh, askswhether they've heard from Athena, and
they haven't, and she, and she says, "Icould text her, say I'm at the hospital

(52:38):
or something, and she'd come running,"and Bobby goes, "yeah, then she'd kill
us all," because, but she'd still come.
And then, and then Bobby

Alice (52:47):
She'd still come, because she's my mum.

Ellen (52:49):
She's my mum.
And then Bobby gets a light bulbabove his head, and he's going
to bring in reinforcements.
But we don't get to find out who that is,

Bex (52:59):
No, we're going to go and follow Athena while she does
some, um, old school detecting.
And this is, this is the sequence thatI really like the way they've done this,
where they cut the past into the present.
So we get, um, Athena sitting in her carin present day, spliced in with Athena

(53:24):
sitting in a patrol car with McCluskey,while McCluskey teaches her about policing
101, which is following the money.
So first step is to a pawn shop wherethe 19 year old bought the gun from.

Ellen (53:42):
Yeah, this is an interesting scene because she's following where,
where the gun has been for all this time.
So, you know, she finds someone who's, uh,you know, a couple came in who said they
found it in an attic and then she findsthe girlfriend of the guy who pawned it.

(54:03):
And then, you know, it, it leads her onthis chase for, you know, for a while.

Bex (54:10):
But it's interesting.
It's, I mean, it, it takes a longtime, but the way they kind of cut
it, it's, it's interesting her,um, the progress that she makes.

Ellen (54:21):
Yeah.
it's cut with the past as wellwhere McCluskey is teaching her
about how to You know, how to,how to catch crooks, basically.

Bex (54:31):
Eventually, um, Athena traces the gun through to a guy named
Maurizio, who found the gun in a motel.
He was prepping one of the rooms.
I don't know what he was prepping it for,but he was taking a cover off one of the
vents in the rooms, and he found the gun.

Alice (54:50):
Painting.
He's painting it.

Bex (54:52):
Thank you.
Um, he found the gun in the vent, behindthe vent cover, and he just took it.
And Athena wants to know which hotelit was, hoping that they would have
records of like, who rented that roomso that she could continue her leads.
But Maurizio tells her that itwas the Crestview on Crenshaw,
which was torn down ten years ago.

(55:14):
So she's, she's reached a dead end.

Ellen (55:17):
I'm sure that happens all the time with detective ing.

Bex (55:21):
See, and I

Ellen (55:21):
Which is totally a word.

Bex (55:23):
Romero could have got there.
Athena did not need to do all that.
Romero would have got there, and ifhe couldn't have got there, then he
had no business being a detective.

Ellen (55:32):
Yeah.

Bex (55:33):
I know, this is Athena's story, not Romero's story.

Ellen (55:37):
So, she goes home, and, uh, walks in saying, "Oh, something smells good."
But, Bobby and the kids, and Michael, arethere, but, You know who else is there?
Her mum.
And she said, she sort of goes,"Mama?" And then Beatrice says,

(55:58):
"I heard your life blew up again."
It's like, oh, thanks Mum.
Hi.

Bex (56:03):
Nice to see you too.

Ellen (56:03):
How are you?
Lovely to see you.

Bex (56:07):
So after dinner we get a, a little scene with Beatrice and
Athena where Beatrice tells Athenanot to be too hard on Bobby for
calling in the reinforcements.
And I think this is, shelikes Bobby after this.
Whatever she thought about himbefore, she's kind of, I think
he's now her favorite because headmitted that he needed her help.

Ellen (56:30):
Yeah, any hope she had of keeping any of this a secret has gone
out the window because apparentlyBobby's just going to tell everybody.

Bex (56:39):
Beatrice says that she has never spoken about Emmett because
she thought that by not talkingabout it, it would let Athena heal,
but she never healed from this.
And Athena says that she thought thatif she could find the man who killed
Emmett, Emmett would finally be at peace.
And Beatrice says that he has been atpeace, you're the one who's not at peace.

(57:04):
So
we get the reinforced again,Athena's belief that he was
there, he died because of her.
She looks back at her familyin the kitchen and says that
she doesn't know even how tobegin to tell them about Emmett.
And while Beatrice has been sittingout on the patio, she's got one

(57:24):
of those old fashioned paperenvelopes full of printed photos.

Ellen (57:31):
Wow.
Ancient relics.

Bex (57:33):
She hands the packet over to Athena and says, maybe you can start here.

Alice (57:39):
I like how you say old fashioned because my first, like,
full time job was in a photo lab.

Bex (57:44):
Oh, really?
Yeah, but when was thelast time you printed?
Like you, last time yousent stuff to a photo lab?
Uh.

Ellen (57:53):
I've got stuff printed at Big W before.

Alice (57:55):
Yeah, Christmas the year before last.

Ellen (57:56):
Like recently.

Alice (58:00):
I used to print a lot because, obviously, I worked in a photo lab, so.

Bex (58:03):
Anyway, so, yes, old fashioned.
Um, so they tend

Ellen (58:09):
Back to a time when all photos had to be printed like
this after they were developed.

Alice (58:13):
Right.

Ellen (58:14):
The film was developed.

Bex (58:16):
Yeah, oh my god, they were film cameras, weren't they?
Yep.
Uh, so we cut to Athena passing aroundthe photos to Harry and May and I
guess Bobby and Michael as well.
They're all sitting in the livingroom looking at the photos.
And Beatrice is in fine formbecause they're looking at, um,

(58:37):
the photos of Emmett and Beatricesays that he was so handsome, he
was the son that she always wanted.
And cut to Bobby and Michael justlooking at each other, who are
the sons that she actually got.
Like, what the fuck are we, chopped liver?
Yeah.
Fun fact.

Ellen (58:55):
Oh, it's a very touching scene though.
Sorry, go on.

Bex (58:59):
No, I was just gonna say, um, the actress who plays
Beatrice is only 12 years olderthan Athena, the Angela Bassett.
Wow.
She's supposed to be

Alice (59:10):
It's a very young mother.

Bex (59:12):
Yeah, apparently.

Alice (59:14):
It's like how on Supernatural, um, JDM is only like eight years
or something older than Jensen.

Ellen (59:22):
Yeah, five years.
Yeah.

Bex (59:27):
So they're looking at the photos, um, Harry puts his foot in his mouth
slightly and says that he couldhave had a completely different dad.
Which

Alice (59:36):
Athena shuts this down very fast.

Bex (59:39):
I mean, I kind of understand what he means, but it's not, no, there is
in no way, he would not, he, Harry,as he exists, is the product of Athena
and Michael, and he would not existif it weren't for Athena and Michael.

Alice (59:51):
Like, you can sort of see Michael, like, his little heart break as well.

Bex (59:56):
Oh yeah, because he's already had to, he's already had to deal with
Michael, um, with Harry and Bobby.
And now, and now here's Harrythinking that he could have had
a completely different dad again.

Alice (01:00:07):
Now he's, now he's competing with this dead cop and he's
just like, what the fuck bro?
He's never going to win.
But no, Athena's like, "No, no, you'dbe a completely different person. You
are who you are because of your dad andme and who we were when we had you. Um,
I have regrets about Emmett and how hedied, but I do not regret this family."

Bex (01:00:28):
It's a bit of a clunky scene, but it's a, it's, you
know, a lovey dovey touchy.
Which all culminates in Bobby tellingAthena to go and get her answers.

Alice (01:00:40):
See ya.
So she's 360 from don't do this,you'll get hurt, but you know.

Bex (01:00:45):
To go and do this.
So we cut to dispatch.
Um, Athena is looking for the9-1-1 records from back in the day.
Um, and she's draggedMaddie along for the ride.

Ellen (01:01:02):
Yeah, Maddie's back.
Maddie's allowed back in.

Bex (01:01:04):
I don't think Maddie is.
Um, because I don't think Maddie ison duty and she's not in uniform.
I have a feeling that she's just,that Athena is just using Maddie
to get access to the records.

Alice (01:01:17):
Okay.
So Maddie's already in trouble,and then this off streety cop
And then she's doing this.
Yeah.
It's just like, hey, I need to dothis thing, which like, I'm not
actually investigating a case,but can you help me, Maddie?
It's like, yeah, sure.
It's not like my job'sin jeopardy or anything.

Bex (01:01:30):
Oh, she's probably more like

Ellen (01:01:31):
Because I was stalking somebody.

Bex (01:01:32):
It's probably like, I'm already in the shit with Sue, you know,
in for a penny, in for a pound.

Alice (01:01:37):
What's that?
You want me to stalk someone?
Yeah, yeah, sure.
Why not?
I'm good at that.
Um.

Bex (01:01:44):
So, they're looking for 9-1-1 calls from 91, which means that they need
Terry's help, um, and Terry says thatthey don't keep calls that go back that
far, um, and Maddie tells Athena, no,they don't have the audio recordings,
but they will have the logs of thecalls, which were, which is a lot of

(01:02:07):
calls, it's like a spreadsheet thatcovers three giant computer monitors.

Alice (01:02:14):
That's how you know a spreadsheet's big when you have to
use three computer monitors to do it.

Bex (01:02:18):
And I don't even think that's all of them either.
But, they start giving Terryparameters to filter down the results.
"So, we're looking for, um, calls.that were made probably in the vicinity
of the Crestview Motel on Crenshaw,which is where the gun was found."
That gets them down to 2, 000 calls.

(01:02:40):
Um, and Maddie makes a commentthat that's a lot of calls.
She thought the motel wasin LA, not a war zone.
Um, Athena said early 90s, it washard to tell the difference sometime.
So from those 2, 000 calls, she wantsto know how do we get more information?
And Terry says, well, I put in a requestand they bring it up from the warehouse.

(01:03:03):
Athena very innocentlyasks, brings what up?
And we see her and Maddie in theconference room as they dump a document
box on the table in front of her.
And they, she's sort of lookingat, in horror, at the document box.
And Maddie asks, do you want to startat the beginning or start at the end?
Which doesn't make sense untilthe camera pulls back and you see

(01:03:26):
that that document box was stackedon top of another document box.
So, I Which is with a whole heapof other document boxes, to the
extent that the conference table iscompletely covered in document boxes.

Alice (01:03:38):
There's a lot of document boxes.

Ellen (01:03:39):
I really love the way they did that.

Bex (01:03:41):
That was a good reveal.

Ellen (01:03:44):
It was really good.

Bex (01:03:45):
So the next five minutes is just, um, Moby playing while Maddie and Athena sort
through all of the records in the boxes.

Ellen (01:03:55):
And they're all the, um, the red and yellow little cards,
like we saw in that episodewhere all the power went down.

Bex (01:04:02):
Old school.
Yeah.

Ellen (01:04:03):
It's like, ah.
Um, but yeah, it takes them, wedon't know how long it is, but.

Bex (01:04:10):
I didn't time.
I think because I was enjoying themusic, like I really liked that song.
It's, um, "Honey" by Moby,if anyone was interested.
So I was quite happy just tojive along with the music.
So apparently that ishow you distract me from.
Um, extra long, um, like fillerscenes, just put on good music
and I'm not going to care.
But you were trying tostretch the episode out.

(01:04:32):
But eventually, Maddie finds two callsfrom the Crestview Motel on the same
night within an hour of each other onFebruary 17th, 1991, and she asks Athena
if that date means anything to her.

Alice (01:04:51):
Okay, so, just quickly, wouldn't you start with

Bex (01:04:59):
Athena knows what day Emmett was shot and therefore wouldn't you...

Alice (01:05:02):
Athena knows what day Emmett was shot.
Wouldn't you start with that day?
Because they go from, they literallyjust look at all calls from 91 to 96.

Bex (01:05:11):
I think they're looking for, I think you're making the assumption that
the gun

Ellen (01:05:20):
Yeah, you're assuming the gun was placed there on
the night that it was used.

Bex (01:05:25):
Yes, yeah, that's what I'm getting at.

Alice (01:05:27):
No, well, look, like, it was, it ended up being that then, though.

Ellen (01:05:30):
Yeah.
Well, it also assumes that the

Bex (01:05:33):
But then we don't get five minutes of Moby.
Yeah.

Ellen (01:05:36):
It also assumes that the, the document storage system is, you
know, has enough, like, it is fineenough that they could Yeah, yeah.
But could they actually search up exactlywhich box this particular date was...

Bex (01:05:50):
You should.

Alice (01:05:51):
Yeah, they should be, because if the cops actually needed it,

Ellen (01:05:53):
they'd be able to narrow it down.
Yeah.

Bex (01:05:56):
Like, the boxes should be like, this is 1991, or maybe like,
this is January to June of 1991.

Alice (01:06:03):
Yeah.
Like, you would start Personally Like

Ellen (01:06:06):
You wouldn't start at the beginning or the end.
You would go straight for the date.

Alice (01:06:10):
You'd go from the date that, yeah, you'd go from the date that
it happened and check there andthen start working back from there.
Because there's no point, like, ifhe died in February, which it was
February 17th, you wouldn't start inJanuary because he wasn't dead then.
So like the gun wasn't in the motel.

Bex (01:06:28):
And you wouldn't need November and December because Yeah.
No, I understand.

Ellen (01:06:33):
Alice, you're in the wrong career.
Go immediately to the police academy.

Alice (01:06:37):
Well, I used to, like, I used to do investigating of, like, thefts and
stuff at work and, or like, um, chasing uppayments if people hadn't paid and yeah,
it's not hard to find stuff and I don'tunderstand why they didn't start with

Bex (01:06:53):
Because they needed that, they needed that montage scene of them
searching through all of the boxeswith the, the Moby needle drop.

Ellen (01:07:00):
Yeah, clearly we can assume that the document filing system is crap.

Bex (01:07:06):
Or, or Athena's investigative skills are crap.
Like maybe Romero, Romerowould have narrowed it down.

Alice (01:07:13):
This is why Athena's not a detective.
Because she's like, oh, let's checkJanuary in case the gun magically, like,
was there and then came, like, left again.
Like, what?

Ellen (01:07:25):
In any case, they do find, um, they find two girls that came
from the, the motel where a man wasscreaming and banging on the walls.
So someone called up tocomplain about the noise.
Um, but then later that night therewas an overdose and like, I don't know

(01:07:46):
how that, how she's linked to thisparticular call to the owner of the gun.

Alice (01:07:53):
Oh, cause the guy, he had lacerations on his hand.

Bex (01:07:56):
And while Maddie's talking, we're getting flashbacks to the
crime scenes, which there wasa lot of, um, shattered glass.
And they know that, she knows,like, we don't know at this point
how Emmett got shot, but she does.
So she knows that it was, it wasa robbery at a convenience store.

(01:08:16):
So she knows that the guy who wasprobably high on something, smashed the
glass, probably would have cut his hand.
So now Maddie's telling herthere was a guy who was ODing
and he had hand lacerations.
And so she's put the two and twotogether and gone, that's probably the
guy that robbed the convenience store.

Ellen (01:08:35):
So she found him.

Bex (01:08:38):
Yeah.
Cause the guy, uh, was survived.
He got transported tohospital and he's still alive.
So now we're getting to the sticky end.
We cut back to 1991 after thecommercial where Emmett is at
work and is having On the phonewith Athena for reasons, not sure.

(01:09:00):
Uh, he says he's coming home and hewonders if Athena's mother would be good
with that Chinese place, or should hebe getting something fancy for dinner?
Um, Athena's trying to stall him cominghome and sends him to get creamer, the one
that, um, her mother likes for her coffee.
And she doesn't want him to comehome right then and there because

(01:09:22):
she is in her wedding dress.

Alice (01:09:26):
Yes, she's trying on her wedding dress with her mother.

Bex (01:09:29):
Yeah, I think Beatrice is, um, hemming it and taking it
in, doing adjustments on it.

Ellen (01:09:34):
So they don't It looks a lot more classical than the other wedding
dress that she wore in the previous

Bex (01:09:39):
It was the 90s and, you know, it's her first wedding, so,
you know Very traditional, yes.
It's probably going to be in a church,so, you know, she's got to cover up.
So Eamon agrees to go and get thecoffee creamer if it means that he'll
rack up some future son in law points.
Yes.
Athena and Beatrice continue withtheir, um, doing whatever it is

(01:10:00):
they're doing to the wedding dress.
Um, we cut to a littlebit later that night.
They've finished, they're puttingthe dress away and Athena's gone, Ah,
Emmett should have been here by now.
And the phone rings and she gets acall that Emmett has been killed.

Ellen (01:10:16):
Yeah, it's really sad.
She goes there to the convenience store.

Bex (01:10:21):
I don't know why they let her go down to the convenience store.

Ellen (01:10:25):
Yeah.

Bex (01:10:27):
I'm assuming it's because she's also LAPD, but it's not
like they needed her down there toidentify the body, because everybody

Alice (01:10:35):
He had his ID on him, yeah.

Bex (01:10:36):
Yeah, he had his badge on him, so it was very clear who he was.

Alice (01:10:40):
But yeah.
And usually the identifyingis done like, you know

Bex (01:10:43):
Not on the scene, because he's literally still laid out on the
floor of the convenience store.

Ellen (01:10:49):
I think Athena probably just did an Athena, and went down there.

Alice (01:10:54):
Went down there, yeah.

Ellen (01:10:55):
And just walked in because she's

Bex (01:10:56):
No, but Elaine meets her.
The, the clip that we got of the youngElaine at the beginning of the episode
where she's saying Athena is from thisscene where she introduces herself.
She says, I'm Elaine.
I will walk you through the scene.
So they're obviously very aware thatthey've either invited her to come
down or she is coming down, whetherthey were gonna let her or not, and

(01:11:17):
they've decided to just roll with it.

Ellen (01:11:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Bex (01:11:20):
But we find out that Emmett had walked into a robbery, and it was just
the wrong place at the wrong time.
Um, and Elaine offers to get someoneto drive Athena home, and she says that
someone needs to tell Emmett's mother.

(01:11:41):
And then we cut to Athenawalking up to her house.
Oh, this scene.
Which, you would think, the way that thisepisode has gone, that it's cutting, it's
Athena going to talk to Emmett's mother,because that's what young Athena had
just said, but it's a different house.
And when she knocks on the door, she'sgot her hand on her weapon already, which

(01:12:05):
is a little bit of overkill if you'rejust talking to your, um, fiancee's
mother, or former fiancee's mother.
Um, but instead of Mrs. Washingtonanswering the door, it's a
young Black boy opens the door.
with a Black, with a, another man, anolder man behind him hurrying up and
like, "Boy, what have I told you aboutopening the door? Get out of here."

(01:12:28):
Um, Athena introduces herself and theguy kind of jokingly says, "Oh, which
one of my kids is it?" And she's like,"What are you talking about?" And
he says, "I work with at risk kids.
I see a lot of you guys.
I figure that's why you're here." AndAthena's like, "No, I'm here about
the night of February 17th, 1991."
And this guy just, it's likeall the strings have been cut.

(01:12:49):
He just collapses.

Alice (01:12:51):
Yeah, face falls.

Bex (01:12:53):
Yeah,

Alice (01:12:53):
he's down.

Bex (01:12:54):
So this is Dennis Jenkins.
Athena comes in and Dennisis telling her his story.
He was a junkie and he thought aboutNothing more than his next fix He went
to the convenience store to get money.
He had a gun Um, he didn't even know thatEmmett was there until after he shot him.

(01:13:18):
And he spent, he was, for months, formonths afterwards, he was terrified
that somebody was going to find himbecause the clerk had worked with a
police sketch artist and they had asketch of his face and he was terrified
somebody was going to recognize him.
And he realizes at this point that, oh, athing that is, he says, "You're her." And

(01:13:44):
she sort of looks at him like, "what doyou mean?" And he recites the obituary.
"Officer Washington is survived byhis mother, Tina, and his fiance,
Athena Carter. You are Athena Carter."

Alice (01:13:56):
He's a better detective than Athena is at this point.

Bex (01:14:01):
And as Dennis is telling the story.
We get the flashback, um, towhat actually happened, um, as
he's telling the, the story.
So, yeah, he walked into the conveniencestore, he stuck a gun in the clerk's
face, um, when the clerk wasn'tmoving fast enough, he slammed his
gun down barrel first, um, the handle?

(01:14:24):
Hilt?
What's the part you hold?
Doesn't matter.

Alice (01:14:30):
Handle?

Ellen (01:14:30):
Handle?

Bex (01:14:30):
He slammed, he slammed his, he slammed.

Alice (01:14:33):
I don't know, we don't have guns in Australia.

Bex (01:14:35):
He slammed the gun down sort of on the counter, which shattered
the glass top, cutting his hand.
Um, the clerk is, is tryingto get money into a bag.
The noise attracts Emmett, who comesaround the corner from where he was in
the dairy case, picking up the creamer.
And Dennis just sees motionout of the corner of his eyes
and just turns and shoots.

(01:14:56):
Emmett didn't even get a chance to sayanything, didn't couldn't, didn't even
have a chance to identify himself.
Dennis didn't realize he'dshot a cop until afterwards.

Alice (01:15:04):
Until he woke up in the hospital.

Bex (01:15:07):
Yeah.

Ellen (01:15:08):
He woke up in the hospital four nights later.

Bex (01:15:12):
Yeah.

Ellen (01:15:13):
Did he hit his head or something?
Why was he unconscious for that long?

Bex (01:15:17):
Because he OD'd.

Ellen (01:15:19):
Oh, okay.

Bex (01:15:20):
So I guess the timeline is that he robbed the convenience store, he
went back to the motel, he stashed thegun, then OD'd, somebody, they took
him to King George, they saved him.

Ellen (01:15:36):
Damn, that's rough.
And he says he thought they would comefor me, like, you know, once he found out
that he'd killed a cop, he thought theywould come for him, but they never did.
And he's Athena sort of gets to,like, he says that he, you know, tried
to make up for it because he'd beengiven a second chance, so he helped.

(01:15:56):
He, like, turned his life aroundand got clean and went to church
and started helping people.
And Athena sort of gets right tothe point and says, "You could have
turned yourself in, but you didn't."
Like, he was trying to help, like,"Emmett was just trying to help out and

(01:16:17):
you killed him." You can tell that it'ssort of breaking her heart to actually
tear this guy's life apart, but sheneeds to do it because he, in her eyes,
he must face justice for what he's done.

Bex (01:16:30):
Yeah, it's interesting because she says that when he killed Emmett,
he didn't just kill Emmett, hetook, um, he took the, he ruined
the lives of Emmett's mother, of hisfriends, of He ruined Athena's life.
He was a wrecking ballin all of their lives.

(01:16:50):
And she is essentially beingthat wrecking ball for him.
because he is, he's,he's become a good man.
There's a point in the episode whereDennis is talking and Athena is looking
at the shelf in whatever room they're in.
And it's just covered in trophiesand plaques for recommend, uh,

(01:17:11):
recognition of service to Dennis.
So he, he has become anupstanding member of society.
He's got a family and she's coming in anddestroying all of that in one fell swoop.
And I guess you, It becomes theinteresting philosophical argument
about whether justice for Emmett isworth destroying everybody's lives.

(01:17:36):
Or whether the fact that, the factthat this guy has spent the rest of
his life doing good works, whetherthat in some way makes up for what

Alice (01:17:46):
Yeah, Athena even says, "You claim you're a good man now.
But Emmett was always a good man.
He believed in second chances too, he'dbe impressed with the life you built,
but you built it on the back of a deadman, and I for one can't get past that."

Ellen (01:17:59):
Yes.
Feels a bit like...

Bex (01:18:00):
So it's not about the war at this point, it's vengeance.

Ellen (01:18:04):
It's revenge.
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
Like, revenge might feel satisfying,but does it really, is it worth it?

Alice (01:18:13):
Because isn't, like, theoretically, prison is supposed to be a place
for criminals to rehabilitate?

Bex (01:18:21):
No.
It's meant to.
And I think Yeah, that's what I mean.
I think the justice system worksbetter when you try to rehabilitate,
but it is essentially, it is punitive.
It is punishment.

Alice (01:18:34):
Yeah.

Bex (01:18:35):
I think it would be better if our system was working to
rehabilitate and to get prisonersto turn their lives around too.
Um, so that they don't go outand, um, commit more crimes.

Ellen (01:18:50):
But like, I don't know anything about jails in the U S really, uh, only
what I've seen on TV, which is not aglowing report of what it's like there.
Um, but you'd hope.

Alice (01:19:00):
We've all seen Orange is the New Black.

Ellen (01:19:02):
I, from what I've seen, Orange is the New Black is quite gay.
So that's fine.
That'd be a fun time.
That aside, um, yeah.
You'd hope that the good works that he'sdone in his life and the fact that he's
proven to himself to be good, essentially,would help lessen whatever jail time he
may have to serve at this point, like.

Bex (01:19:24):
But the issue is also that he's a cop killer.
And so if he had, like, if, if hehad killed the clerk, then maybe
whatever came next, his lawyer couldargue, Yes, he killed this guy.
It's a terrible, terrible action,but he has spent the rest of his life
making up for it, and um, sending himto prison now is just not going to do

(01:19:49):
anything, because he's, he's punishedhimself, and he's rehabilitated himself,
but they're just going to look at thefact that he killed a cop, and just run
with that, because the laws for, for,Attacking cops, killing cops, are so
very different from killing civilians.

(01:20:10):
So it would, I also would've thinkit would be interesting if Hal
Romero would've approached this.
if Romero had shown up and seen whatDennis had made of himself, um, we
might've had the same result becausehe was, you know, Emmett's friend.
Or if you had a random detectivewho had had no contact with anybody

(01:20:32):
back in the nineties, who cameinto this fresh, whether he would
have a different approach, um, adifferent perspective, and whether
he would do the same that Athena did.

Alice (01:20:41):
Well, the thing is like a lot of, I feel like if they weren't,
that involved in the case, theywould have got to the, Oh, the
motel was ripped down 10 years ago.
I guess that's a dead end.

Ellen (01:20:53):
Oh yeah.
And she, and they might not havebeen able to dig up the records.

Alice (01:20:57):
They wouldn't have gone that extra step.
Cause like detectives haveseveral cases generally that
they're working on, I believe.

Bex (01:21:05):
Yeah.
They don't have the time to just throw allof their resources on dead ends like this.

Ellen (01:21:12):
Also, they don't have a professional snoop like Maddie
to help them out, so, you know.

Alice (01:21:17):
Although they might have started at the night that he was killed
and been like, oh look, I found it.

Ellen (01:21:22):
Maybe, maybe they would.
Anyway, yeah, it, it kind of, okay, we'renot quite at the end, but when we get
to the end, we can talk more about...

Alice (01:21:32):
Yeah.

Ellen (01:21:32):
The justice system.
Um, so after,

Alice (01:21:36):
Unfortunately, we are just a podcast.
We cannot fix the justice system

Bex (01:21:39):
for any country at any point in time.

Ellen (01:21:43):
Athena is watching something on TV and her mum comes in.
This is, this is still back in the past.

Alice (01:21:51):
Yeah.
So this is March 3rd, 91.

Ellen (01:21:54):
So it's after.

Alice (01:21:56):
A couple of weeks after.

Ellen (01:21:58):
Yeah.
So it sounds like Athena, Beatrice isassuming that Athena is moving back home
to Florida and they've contacted a movingcompany and then Athena is watching,
she sees what Athena is watching onTV where, which is a group of police
officers beating up a man in the street.

(01:22:19):
And she's like, "Oh my God,what is this?" And Athena says
it's a traffic stop gone wrong.
Someone got it on video.

Bex (01:22:28):
First of all, let's just, um, stop and marvel at how amazing it is
that someone did catch this on video.
So that meant that in 1991, this isway before body cameras for police.
This is way before everybody havinga video camera in their phone.
Somebody had to be down therewith a full ass video camera.

Ellen (01:22:50):
A video camera.
Yeah.

Alice (01:22:52):
It was a whole ass video camera.
He was a, like, amateur videographer.

Bex (01:22:57):
Oh, wow.

Alice (01:22:58):
And it was in, like, his study, which is why the footage
starts, like, halfway through.
Um, because he was watching andhad to go, like, back into his
house, and then he zoomed right infrom the balcony on his apartment.

Bex (01:23:11):
Oh my god.
So, Athena is watching, um, thepoli the footage of the police
officers beating Rodney King.
Which Uh, if anybody listening doesn'tknow who that is, or doesn't know what
happened, um, Rodney was a, a Black man,who, it's a whole lot, it's so much more

(01:23:33):
than just a traffic stop gone wrong.
Um, Alice and I were looking atthis before we started recording.
Um, so he and his friends wereout, and they were drinking.
Police tried to pull them overand Rodney, who was on parole,
tried to, uh, run in his car.

(01:23:55):
Because he didn't want the DUI becausethat would be a parole violation.
So he led police on a highspeed pursuit through LA.
When they finally managed to pullhim over and get him out of the car,
four police officers, three white,proceeded to beat the crap out of him.
They kicked him.
They used his bat, they used their batons.
Um, he ended up, they tased him.

(01:24:16):
He ended up with so many injuries.
He ended up in hospital.
And what was.
It got captured on videotape, and not justthe, um, the officers beating up Rodney,
but the fact that multiple other officerswere seen standing around watching and
cheering on the other police officers.

(01:24:38):
So the four officers who were theones that were seen in the video
actively beating Rodney, uh, werecharged with excessive use of force.
And a jury a year later found them notguilty and South Central went nuts,
they exploded and they started rioting.

(01:25:01):
And the riots lasted for five daysand like tensions were already
high in the um, LA community.
Uh, South Central, sort of South LAarea, not just between police and the
Black community, but also, uh, the Blackcommunity and the Latino community and
the Black and the Korean community.

(01:25:22):
Um, the jury that found the policeofficers were predominantly white,
but there was also a Latino andan Asian, uh, members of the jury.
So, everybody just gotswept up in this riot.
Um, It got so bad to the point thatRodney King came out of hospital and
made a statement to the press andsaid like, You guys need to stop.

Ellen (01:25:41):
Oh, jeez.

Bex (01:25:43):
And it's, it's just, it's a, it's a really dark day in, um, American history.
So that's what Athena's watching.
And she was right.
He was alive at the end of it.
Um, and Beatrice sees this as a signthat it's a good thing that Athena is
going back to Florida and she's notgoing to be a police officer anymore

(01:26:07):
and Athena says that she's going to stayand she's going to go back to policing.
Uh, that she joined the force for areason and the Rodney King incident
is it's kind of, helps put is helpingher case because Athena says that the
cops like the ones on the TV They thinkthey're doing the right thing Somebody

(01:26:28):
needs to show them that they're wrong andshe's going to be the one to show them

Ellen (01:26:33):
Yeah, Beatrice tells her that she's a fool I think in that other
episode that she was in she alsomentioned that she was a fool, right?
I seem to remember her saying this before

Bex (01:26:43):
It must be like the worst insult in the world Is to be a

Ellen (01:26:47):
fool.
You're a fool.
I cannot allow you to do, and Athenajust tells her it's not her, not
her business and not her decision.

Bex (01:26:55):
Which it's not, I mean, Athena's in, what, her early 20s now.
Yeah.
She's a grown ass woman.
She was about to get married.
I mean.

Ellen (01:27:03):
Yeah.
Mum's just trying to protect her,but she doesn't, she wants to stay.
Um, Athena is still, back inthe, in the present day, Athena
is still at the Jenkins house.
Yes.
And she, um, is on the phone andshe says, we'll be there soon.
And then Dennis's kids are allsitting around the table and then

(01:27:26):
they all get up and kind of, youknow, they're all crying and they
give him a hug and they say goodbye.
And it's really heartbreaking,this whole thing.

Bex (01:27:34):
Wrecking ball.
Absolute wrecking ball.

Ellen (01:27:36):
And he says, he tells her that he's ready and they leave the house.
And then she walks himinto the LAPD headquarters.

Bex (01:27:48):
And this is all in slo mo, too.

Alice (01:27:51):
And like, the music that's playing and everything, it's so well done.

Bex (01:27:58):
Yeah, so the music that's playing is Andrew Rai's "Rise Up",
although I don't know who's supposedto be rising up at this point.
No, it's just It's very,it's very stirring music.
Yeah.
Um, but they They do, they do frame itas Athena doing this wonderful thing,
and like, she perp walks him intoLAPD, she's cuffed him, even though

(01:28:21):
he is going in of his own recognizanceand he's agreed to do it, she's
still cuffed him and walks him in.
Um, and pretty much everyone inheadquarters is in the lobby watching
as she walks him in, and like, walkshim straight up to Elaine and Romero.

Ellen (01:28:40):
Yeah, and she, I mean, I don't know if it's the I can't remember
the music exactly, but it, it almostfeels like it's not triumphant at all.
She, I don't know.
I don't know if it was because Iwas watching this in kind of tears,
it was all a bit overwhelming.

(01:29:02):
Um, but yeah, I don't know.
It's not as, as triumphant as it could be.
Which is a good thing, I think.
Like, maybe if they had made it outthat, uh, he was a bad guy, we'd all be
happy about him getting arrested, but

Bex (01:29:21):
It's definitely the fact that he is such an upstanding member
of society, and he has changed hislife, and he has changed lives.

Alice (01:29:30):
And like, yeah, Athena may have found him, but Emmett's still dead.

Bex (01:29:34):
Yeah, it doesn't change anything and it's not going to make her feel better.
It's not going to bring her fiance back.
It's not going to allowher to rewind time.
And I don't think she

Ellen (01:29:42):
No one has won anything here.

Bex (01:29:43):
No, there are no winners in this situation.
And she might have thought thatshe would feel better once she
caught the man, um, killed Emmett.
I guarantee she doesn't feel any better.

Ellen (01:29:58):
So this next part, this next scene is amazingly done.
Um, she We have the two, thepast and the future cut together
here where she's walking up tolike Emmett's mother's house.
And in the old, uh, story, it'slike the beautiful sort of front of

(01:30:18):
the house and the gardens all nice.
And then in the present day, it'sall kind of run down and the paint's
peeling and it, it looks veryweathered 30 years later kind of thing.
And Mrs. Washingtonopens the door in both.
timelines.
And this, the first time, youknow, Athena, young Athena has

(01:30:43):
to tell her that her son is dead.
But in the present timeline, shetells her that they made an arrest.
And so in both cases, they'rekind of hugging on the steps and
sobbing in each other's arms.
Um, but yeah, beautifully done.

Bex (01:31:01):
Interestingly, in the 1991, in sort of younger Athena, Mrs.
Washington's absolutely broken down.
And she's sobbing and she's clingingto Athena and Athena is having to hold
back her own emotions so that she canbe there to support Mrs. Washington.
In the present day, Mrs. Washingtondoesn't even know who she is for a moment.

(01:31:23):
Doesn't recognize her.
And when Athena sort of, when she finallyrecognizes Athena and Athena says, "We've
made an arrest," I think she was expectingperhaps the same kind of reaction.
But Mrs. Washington's just kind oflooking at her like, oh you poor thing.
Are you still on about this?
I've let that go, I am at peace with that.

(01:31:44):
And it's more like she is huggingAthena, supporting Athena.

Ellen (01:31:50):
She's comforting her.

Bex (01:31:52):
Yeah, it's, it's reverse.
Even though Athena perhaps thoughtit was going to be a replay
of what happened 30 years ago.
It's a very different encounter.
Um, but she still holds herself togetherbecause she's not going to break down.
She saves that until she gets home.

Alice (01:32:08):
Yeah.
So she, we cut to theGrant Nash household.
Where Athena comes home, Bobby's there,um, Athena's just like, Yep, found him.
Bobby says that he's glad.
Athena puts her bag down, takesoff her badge, and it's all very,
like, Oh yeah, this is just whatshe does after she gets home.

(01:32:32):
But then she just absolutely collapses.
And Bobby catches her and she justsobs and, like, wails in his arms.

Ellen (01:32:43):
Poor Athena.
It's just all comescrashing down then, yeah.

Alice (01:32:47):
And it's just all, like it's, yeah, it's all come back to the
surface, it's all, like, and as soonas she takes off that badge, like
as soon as she's no longer a cop,she's off duty, she's Bobby's wife.
Like, she's not Sergeant Grant.
She needs a husband.

Bex (01:33:04):
Yeah.

Alice (01:33:06):
And he's there to catch her.

Bex (01:33:08):
And that's where we end the episode.

Ellen (01:33:10):
Yeah.
So, it's Not a happy ending by any means.
And I did immediately after watchingthis, have to go and watch some
Supernatural to cheer myself up again,

Alice (01:33:22):
which is like,

Ellen (01:33:28):
well, you know, it's, even though it's also kind of sad, it's
very comforting in a way, becauseI know what's going to happen.

Alice (01:33:35):
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Absolutely.
Could I have those comfort shows, evenif they're, you know, ones that kill
their characters over and over and over.

Ellen (01:33:43):
Yeah.
Maybe that's just thereason that I need therapy.
But anyway, um,

Alice (01:33:49):
anyway, yeah, definitely not a, um, an uplifting episode.

Ellen (01:33:55):
No.
All right.
Give us the thoughts.

Bex (01:33:57):
So we have thoughts.
Alice, would you like tostart with your thoughts?
Cause I'm pretty sure your thoughtsare going to be the same as my
thoughts or similar to my thoughts.

Alice (01:34:06):
Um, I, Very sad that Athena apparently kept this in for 30 years.
Um, and didn't tell anyone.
I feel like it's a little bit retconny.
Yeah.
She was like, "Oh, you know, I wanted tobe a cop since I was a little kid. Cause
of that other little kid that vanished."

Bex (01:34:29):
Yeah.
Once again, we've got a situationwhere the character has revealed in an
earlier episode, their motivation for.
Being the person they are today.
And then we get the begins episodesand it's a completely different story.
So like with Hen, we had, "Oh, I gotshot as a kid and the paramedic saved
me. So that's why I wanted to become aparamedic." And then we find out that

(01:34:52):
it's a completely different reason.
that she becomes a paramedic.
And then we've got the same situation.

Alice (01:34:57):
Someone had a heart attack.

Bex (01:34:58):
Yeah.
And I mean, the writers do try to, theyget that, like that, Oh shit moment.
Like, Oh my God, we've actually alreadymentioned a storyline previously.
We need to somehow tieit to this new storyline.
Um, which I think is where we getthe, the name drop of Mrs. Kingston
and Tanya, and then Athena is lookingat the LAPD flyer on the fridge.

(01:35:19):
So it's partially.
she joined because of Emmett, butit's also, oh, I remember that when
I was a kid, I wanted to become apolice officer to help find her.
So maybe I will do that.
Yeah, that's right.
That was that missing girl that one time.
But the entire episode is pretty much, shejoined the police force for a pretty boy.
Yeah.
For Emmett.

Ellen (01:35:39):
Yeah.
I mean, she can't really say that onthe new, on the TV, you know, like
that previous story that she gave wasto the, for the report thing, right?

Bex (01:35:50):
Uh, that was Hen.
Um, Athena, we found out about theKingstons when she's just talking to, um,
Bobby and she's talking to him, becauseit was, I think it was in "Haunted"
that we got it, when they had the

Ellen (01:36:05):
Oh, when they find Yeah, okay, you're right.

Bex (01:36:06):
Yeah, the skeleton, and

Ellen (01:36:07):
They find the skeleton, yeah.

Bex (01:36:08):
And Athena was desperate for closure, and she explains that the
reasons why she was sort of desperatefor closure was because, She knew
of a family that never got closure.
And then when, whatever episode it was,her family comes in and insults Bobby
three ways to Sunday, um, Beatricebrings that up and says, you know, like,
I know you wanted to be a cop becauseof these, because of this little girl.

Alice (01:36:30):
Yeah.
Which is weird that like hermother was just like, Oh,

Ellen (01:36:33):
we just that is a weird thing for her mum to say.

Alice (01:36:35):
Yeah, because they, Emma didn't exist until this episode.

Ellen (01:36:40):
Uh, retcons.

Alice (01:36:42):
Yes, retcons.
So yeah, a bit retcon y. I also,so we had "Rage" two episodes ago.
We then had "Athena Begins",which is all about like, oh
no, look how good the cops are.
And isn't it sad that like oneof them got shot when he was

(01:37:02):
just minding his own business?
Isn't that sad, guys?
Look and be sad about cops.
But also at the end we'll talkabout how crap they are and how
Athena's totally beating the system.
Where she's really justusing the system for revenge.
A lot.

Bex (01:37:20):
I actually wondered whether these two episodes were supposed to be bookends.
Whether we were supposed to gofrom "Rage" to "Athena Begins".
Um, but when they were lookingat the scheduling, they realized
that the episode after "Rage" wasgoing to be the Halloween episode.
So they've gone, okay, no, we'regoing to have to, like, we've got

(01:37:42):
a Halloween episode that needsto be aired around Halloween.
So we'll push "AthenaBegins" a little bit.
And it's such a standalone story.
It's completely removed fromany of the other storylines.
It doesn't really matter wherein the season you put it.
It's not going to be out of place becauseit doesn't connect to anything at all.

Alice (01:38:01):
Whereas I wondered if they had Athena Begins written.
And then after they did Rage, andthey were doing Athena Begins,
they're just like, Oh shit, quick,we better put something in at the
end about how not all cops are good.
And that's where they put the,like, Athena watching the, watching

(01:38:21):
the beating of Rodney King.

Bex (01:38:23):
I don't think you could have a discussion about a police officer in
LA in 91 and not bring up Rodney King.

Alice (01:38:30):
True.
Yeah.

Bex (01:38:31):
I think that whenever they made the decision to have this timeline and
these dates for Athena, it was alwaysgoing to be, we are going to have to
bring up Rodney King because that wouldhave been a huge thing, not only for
people in LA, but for other policeofficers in LA and for other Black
people in LA, and especially whereAthena, she was stationed sort of South.

(01:38:52):
Yeah.
South Central and South LA, sothat was her stomping grounds.
So it's like myriad of reasons thatwas a really important event for her.
So I think it would have been verydisingenuous to have an episode about
her and not mention Rodney King.
But again, it's interesting thatwe had Athena's family have a bad
traffic stop and then we get Athenawatching another bad traffic stop.

Alice (01:39:17):
But yeah, I did like the scene where, um, Athena was following
the, like the gun down there.
Yes.

Bex (01:39:24):
And I think, I think it bears mentioning because you and
I shit on Kristen Reidel a lot.
And I do stand by a lot of whatI say about her writing, but this
was a Kristen Reidel episode.
Um, and so as bad as she is writingensembles and as bad as she is writing

(01:39:49):
other characters, when she is givenone character to write about and it's
a almost, I almost want to say like agrown up story she does very, very well.
So she wrote this one.
She also wrote "Fight or Flight",which was Maddie's episode, which was
another like single character followinga very dramatic serious arc. That's it.

(01:40:14):
Like she just, she sucksat ensemble cast stuff.
Yeah.
So please everyone who's listening,we recognize that there are, that
in Very specific circumstances,Kristen Reidel is a good writer.
Unfortunately, I don't think she is agood writer for a show that has ensembles.

(01:40:35):
Because it's not that often that you cando a standalone episode that just follows
one character, because if you do thatyou abandon the rest of your characters
that their storylines need servicing.

Alice (01:40:47):
Yeah, it was actually, it was in the trivia as well, um,
how only 7 of the 11 main castmembers appear in this episode.

Bex (01:40:54):
Yeah, the rest of the 118 do not appear.

Alice (01:40:57):
Yeah, they're not mentioned, they don't appear,
they're basically non existent.

Bex (01:41:01):
Yeah, you could pull the, like I said, this is a completely standalone
episode, you could pull this episodeout and stick it anywhere in any season.
And you wouldn't be able totell that it's out of place.
That is the type of episode that KristenReidel is very, very good at telling.
And she did, this was very well done,very well written, and very well told.

(01:41:24):
Just unfortunately, she is a writerfor an ensemble show that cannot tell
these kind of stories every single week.

Alice (01:41:33):
Yeah.
I also like the, the Bobby and,um, Michael friendship that's
there happening a little bit in thebackground, but um, I still don't
understand why Michael was there.

Bex (01:41:44):
Because family.
We know Kristen Reidel loves family.
She loves like, or like actual family.
So like blood family, um, legal family.
So she's going to prioritizethat over everything.
So Michael is the father ofthose children, so therefore he
is still part of that family.

Alice (01:42:03):
Yeah, he's there.

Bex (01:42:04):
So he's going to be there.

Alice (01:42:05):
But yeah, I do like that it was just Athena and Bobby at the end.
Because as I said, like, I liketheir relationship, I just wish
it was slow burn, and not justone date and then they're married.

Bex (01:42:19):
Yeah, that time jump really, their relationship, as far as the, I am
concerned, suffers from that time jump.
Because we didn't get to see it.
But we get our ensemble back next week.

Ellen (01:42:32):
Yeah,

Alice (01:42:33):
so good, next week.

Ellen (01:42:35):
Tell us about next week.

Bex (01:42:37):
So next week, tragedy strikes at an ice skating show.
Other emergencies include an accidentinvolving a self driving car and a
fulfillment warehouse robot going rogue.
Meanwhile, Eddie's fight club getsout of control and Hen struggles
with her relationship with Karen.
So our triggers for next week, wehave, um, multiple car accidents.

(01:43:02):
We have depression, we have deathof a patient, we have gore, which is

Alice (01:43:07):
so much gore,

Bex (01:43:08):
so much gore.

Alice (01:43:08):
you guys, so much gore.

Bex (01:43:11):
We have,

Alice (01:43:11):
if you're not a fan of blood, maybe miss next week's episode.

Bex (01:43:14):
Yes.
It specifically says femoralslash brachial artery bleeds.
We have more fight club and we also havefertility issues and figure skating.
Although that's not a trigger,that's not a trigger, that's
just something to look for.

Alice (01:43:30):
I don't know, it might be a trigger you guys.

Ellen (01:43:33):
That's just a tag.

Bex (01:43:34):
That's just a tag, that's just fun.

Ellen (01:43:39):
Um, anything else you wanted to say about this episode?

Bex (01:43:42):
I think I've said enough.

Alice (01:43:46):
I think we've covered it all.
It's another one of those episodesthat's difficult for three white women
in Australia to discuss in some parts.

Bex (01:43:57):
I don't know, I think vengeance is universal.

Ellen (01:44:00):
Yeah, not much of it was racially motivated, so,
apart from the ending, I guess.
But, wanting justice for somethingthat happened a long time ago is fairly

Alice (01:44:10):
Fairly universal.

Ellen (01:44:11):
Fairly universal.

Alice (01:44:13):
But yes, once again, Athena doing things for her own personal reasons.

Ellen (01:44:19):
Yeah, she doesn't like to go by the book, does she?
All right.
Uh, well let us know what youthought about this episode.
Um, or like, I don't even know whatquestions to ask about this episode.
Do you like revenge?

Alice (01:44:37):
Have you hid a fiance for 30 years?

Ellen (01:44:40):
Oh my God.
Um, tell us all of your secrets.
No.
Oh my God.
Uh, you can definitely contact us though.
All of the ways that you can getin touch with us are listed on our
website, which is thatweewooshow.
com.
And, or you can leave a message for us onthe way that you listen to the podcast.

(01:45:01):
Um, I think most of them nowallow you to leave comments.
So, um, go for your life.
We love it.
Uh, thank you very much for listeningthis week and we will see you next
time to talk about episode eight,which is called "Malfunction".
See you then.

Bex (01:45:14):
Bye.

Alice (01:45:14):
Bye.

Ellen (01:45:15):
9-1-1
is a fictional show, but manyof the situations portrayed
happen in the real world too.
If any of the topics we've discussedin this episode have affected
you, please know you're not alone.
You can call or text numbersin your country for help.
Just Google Crisis Support in yourlocation to find out the number.
If you enjoy our podcast, you can helpus out by leaving us a review on Spotify

(01:45:39):
or your preferred listening app, andby sharing our social media posts.
Find out more at thatweewooshow.
com

Bex (01:45:54):
Welcome back to That Wee Woo Show, a podcast where we, what do we do?
We do something.
We watch and discuss.
There we go.
We watch and discuss.
Apparently.
Okay.
Let's try that again.
We're off to a great start.
Okay.
So fun.

(01:46:15):
My fun little story aboutthis song, "Express Yourself".
So I remember.
Um, couple of years ago, putting on theradio station and they were playing this
song on repeat and I had no idea why.
And so I was, I did a little bit ofresearch cause I wanted to be able to say,
Hey, just in case it was like my brainmisremembering things, I wanted to be able

(01:46:38):
to come on and go and say, Hey, fun fact,there was this day, god knows when, when
Radio Station played this song over andover and over again, and this was why.
Turns out it's a much biggerstory than I originally thought.
So In Australia, for thoselisteners of our podcast who are not
Australian, uh, we have the AustralianBroadcasting Corporation, the ABC.

(01:47:00):
That's our public broadcaster.
They do television and they do radio.
And one of the ABC's radio stationsis a station called Triple J and
that is the youth radio station.

Ellen (01:47:11):
Yes.
And, and it has been for...

Bex (01:47:13):
it has been pretty much since its inception.

Ellen (01:47:15):
Many years.

Bex (01:47:16):
Um, way before it was Triple J, um, it was for the youth.
It also focus, it also focuses onAustralian music and it focuses
on more alternative music.
So, back in 1998, NWA, which is a hiphop crew that features Dr. Dre and Ice
Cube, NWA is an acronym, which I willnot be saying in full, um, released

(01:47:41):
their album straight out of Compton.
And there is a song on thatalbum called "Fuck Tha Police".
Triple J was the only radio station,pretty much they say, they claim that they
are the only radio station on the planetwho played "Fuck Tha Police" on the radio.

Ellen (01:48:00):
Right.

Bex (01:48:01):
I'm sure that there are other radio stations that did, maybe some college
stations in the US, but because of thefact that it's pretty much N word and
F word constantly throughout the song.
The profanity is off the charts.
Um, so, but Triple J played it andthey played it without censoring it.
And they played it for about six months.
Not, you know, straight in a row,but it was in their regular rotation.

(01:48:26):
Um, and people had an issue with it.
They had an issue with the amountof profanity and they also had an
issue with the content of the song,which is about police brutality.

Alice (01:48:37):
Fucking the police?

Bex (01:48:38):
Well, it's about police brutality and racial profiling and, you know, coming
from a group of Black men talking aboutpolice, you can kind of understand why
they, why they're saying fuck the police.
So basically, it went all the way up tothe head of the ABC, and he issued an
edict, you cannot play this song anymore.

(01:49:00):
And Triple J went, yeah, okay,fine, we won't play this song.
Part of Triple J's programming alsoincluded a current affairs program, where
they would do investigative reporting.
And one of their reporters decided todo a story about profanity in music
and censorship of profanity in music.
And in response to this edict beinghanded down that they couldn't

(01:49:21):
play "Fuck Tha Police" anymore.
And as an example of,Hey, here's an example of.
Given that there was profanity in musicbeing censored, 22 second clip of "Fuck
Tha Police", which apparently the head ofthe ABC decided, breached the agreement,
that they would not play the song anymore.
And the reporter was summarily fired.

(01:49:43):
And the other DJs and reporters and staffat Triple J were not happy, and so they
played another N. W. A. song, "ExpressYourself", which happens to be the only
song on Straight Outta Compton withoutany profanity on it, back to back.
They claim they played it,uh, 350 times in a row.

Alice (01:50:05):
Oh my god!

Bex (01:50:06):
The other reports say that they only managed to do it about 82 times in a row.
But they literally justpressed play, repeat.
They occasionally broke in to remindeverybody why they were doing it,
it's like we're protesting againstthe, um, dismissal of our reporter.
Um, and it worked, they,the guy got his job back.

Alice (01:50:25):
Oh, that's amazing.

Ellen (01:50:27):
When was this?

Bex (01:50:28):
So this happened in 1989.

Ellen (01:50:32):
Okay.

Bex (01:50:33):
Um, but what happened was then in 2014, Triple J launched
a digital radio station.
And in the two days before theradio station went live, they

Alice (01:50:44):
Did we lose Bex?

Ellen (01:50:47):
I think so.

Alice (01:50:49):
No, no!
What happened?
What happened?

Ellen (01:50:51):
You can't just leave us hanging like that.

Bex (01:51:01):
I mean, to be fair, they played, like, different versions.

Ellen (01:51:03):
Oh my god, she's back!

Alice (01:51:06):
Oh my god!

Ellen (01:51:08):
Sorry, you dropped out just as you said.

Bex (01:51:10):
When did I drop out?

Ellen (01:51:13):
You were like You're like, in the two days leading up to
it, and then it just went quiet,we're like, oh, what happened?
What happened?

Alice (01:51:20):
What happened?

Bex (01:51:22):
Sorry, okay.
So in the two days leading up tothe radio station going live, they
played nothing but "Express Yourself".
And they played, like, at leastthis time they found, like, cover
versions, they played the originalthat, um, NWA sampled from.
But I, like, I remember putting iton going, oh, Triple J's got a new
digital radio station, and I will putthat on, not realizing it didn't go

(01:51:44):
live until like Wednesday at lunchtime.
And I think I put it on itlike Wednesday at nine o'clock.
I'm just going, why are theyplaying the same song over and
over and over and over again?
Um, and that was why.
It was to honor a protest inthe eighties that related to
the NWA song, "Fuck Tha Police".
Yes.
So that's my little tangent.
I think it's very interesting that, um,they used an NWA song, which I'm guessing

(01:52:11):
they're thinking is just timely, but thefact that they also have this song, "Fuck
Tha Police", in an episode which featuresRodney King, and it also comes on the
back of "Rage", um, yeah, interesting.

Alice (01:52:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
There you go.
We learn so much on this podcast.
That's why I do it, just tolisten to Bex's story times.

Bex (01:52:34):
Oh god.

Alice (01:52:37):
Anyway, we're recording.
I've been listening to a podcastliterally, so yesterday and today,
have not stopped listening to it.
It is about, I've got two episodes left?
Until I'm up to date.
But it is about the influencer whohas been accused of poisoning her kid.

(01:52:58):
Have you guys heard about this?

Bex (01:53:00):
No.

Alice (01:53:02):
So it's happening, it happened in Queensland, which is
why I was just like, no, I have tosee if Ellen's heard about this.

Ellen (01:53:07):
I have heard something on the news about something like that,
but I didn't really, I didn't,I don't know any of the details.

Alice (01:53:13):
Yeah.
So basically it was

Bex (01:53:14):
Is it a Munchausen's by proxy thing?

Alice (01:53:18):
It sounds like it.
Um, for some reason, the authoritiesare staying away from that wording.
I don't know why, because it lookslike it fits the bill, but for some
reason they're staying away from that.
Um, but basically it's this likemummy blogger and she, um, was like

(01:53:42):
posting that her kid was really sick.
And I knew vaguely about her becauseshe's got like, her kid is a similar
age to one of my best friend's kids.
Like the baby was like a year old.
And she was posting how she kept havingseizures and how she was really sick
and then she like went in for brainsurgery because she had all these

(01:54:02):
tumors all over her brain and allthis stuff and then next minute the
dad has come out, like comes out inNovember last year and says, hey guys,
like I had no idea about any of this.
It was my impression thatthe kid was really sick.
Blah blah blah.
I'm really sorry, and then likevanishes and everyone's like,

(01:54:22):
what the fuck is he talking about?
And then the police are like, oh,yeah, we're looking into some matters.
So it turns out one of the nursesraised the alarm because like none
of the things that she was saying onsocial media matched up to what she
was, like what the medical records said,and she's now being charged, like she

(01:54:45):
was arrested ten days ago, I think.
Um, so she was arrested early lastweek with like poisoning the child.

Bex (01:54:56):
Holy shit.
She got charged with torture.

Alice (01:54:59):
Yeah.
And torture.

Bex (01:55:01):
Torture, administering poison, fraud, and making child exploitation material.

Alice (01:55:07):
Yeah.
So she's, she raised over60, 000 via GoFundMe.

Ellen (01:55:13):
Yeah.
I think that was the partthat I'd heard on the news.
Like they'd been saying.
someone raised a whole bunch of moneywhen her kid wasn't actually sick.

Alice (01:55:20):
Yeah.
And like, not only was the kid notsick, like she was making the kid sick.

Ellen (01:55:24):
Oh, that's awful.
That's really heinous.
Like that whole thing.

Bex (01:55:29):
That's fucking scary.

Alice (01:55:31):
It was so scary.
Oh yeah.
Massively scary.

Bex (01:55:33):
Like I cannot imagine putting my child through that just for
like my 15 minutes of fame.

Alice (01:55:40):
Like, I feel bad standing on my dog's paws.
Like, what the fuck?

Ellen (01:55:46):
And then someone's made a podcast about it, like,

Alice (01:55:49):
Yeah, so someone's made a podcast, like, going through
the facts, um, because, like,all of it was online, because it
was all on TikTok and Instagram.
So there's so much evidence.
And, like, looking back on things,everyone's just like, oh shit, like,
yeah, there are things that are reallyweird, but at the time everyone was

(01:56:10):
just like, oh, you know, like, it'sjust because she's trying to cope.
Like, when she made the, like,announcement video about, like, her kid
having tumors all over her brain, shewas literally like, yeah, so, like, we've
just been told this and she's got tumorsall over her brain, and I really need a
coffee, and I don't have a coffee machine.
Like, that was pretty much the video,and I was just like, what the fuck?

(01:56:33):
Oh my god.
Yeah, it's insane.
Like, it just keeps getting moreand more crazy as it goes on.
Um, but yeah, the podcast,like, the hosts of the podcast
went to the first court date.
Right.
And, like, watched it, and theyalso went to the press conference
and asked questions and stuff.

Ellen (01:56:54):
Hmm.
Well, you better tell us the nameof the podcast now, if people are
listening to this and Now I find Idesperately need to not listen to it.

Alice (01:57:02):
Yeah, so it's called Poisoned?
Yeah, wait, hang on.
It's on Spotify, it's called Poisoned.
But yeah, like the last episodecame out on Wednesday, this
week, um, because she was bailed.

Ellen (01:57:14):
Oh god, so she's out there in the community.

Alice (01:57:16):
Yeah, because apparently she was found that she's not
a threat to the community and

Bex (01:57:20):
No, just her own children.

Alice (01:57:22):
Yeah, well she's not allowed physical contact with her children.

Bex (01:57:25):
Good.

Alice (01:57:26):
Nice.
Um, but she is allowed to videocall them or call them and
everyone's just like, seriously?
But I guess like the kids wouldn't,because there are several kids, like
there are like a few kids involved.

Ellen (01:57:39):
Yeah.

Alice (01:57:40):
Um, and I guess they don't like understand, like it's still their mum.

Ellen (01:57:44):
Yeah.
Geez.

Alice (01:57:47):
Um, so as far as I know, it hasn't been, like, what she was
using hasn't been released yet.

Bex (01:57:53):
Nope.
And they will not release thatbecause people will get ideas.

Alice (01:57:57):
Yeah, right.
Um, but it was all, like, pharmaceuticals.
Like it doesn't seemto be anything illegal.

Ellen (01:58:05):
Well, that sucks.
Thank you for sharing that.

Alice (01:58:10):
But yeah, I was just wondering if you'd heard, like, if it was
like all abuzz in the schoolyardbecause you're in Queensland.

Ellen (01:58:16):
No, I've definitely heard of it, but I, yeah, no, I haven't.
This is the first detailed,um, account I've heard.

Alice (01:58:24):
It's wild.
But yeah, if you're in the mood for atrue crime podcast that's like actually
happening as we speak, it's pretty good.
The episodes are really short.
Like, I was listening to it whiledoing my washing yesterday and had
it on two times speed because Ihave no attention span, but, um,