Transcript
Speaker: Hey there everybody!
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel Lit!
Speaker: My name is Kevin, with me as always is Phil.
Speaker: Hello!
Speaker: And today we are going to dive into chapter three, Far Cry Absolution.
Speaker: And things are getting tense.
Speaker: Indeed.
Speaker: Indeed.
Speaker: Chapter three, also known as 75% of the book, it feels like.
Speaker: Chapter three is just the book.
Speaker: It's basically the book.
Speaker: And the rest are just dressing.
Speaker: It's huge.
Speaker: And everything happens in it.
Speaker: It is the original and the sequel rolled into one.
Speaker: It's massive.
Speaker: So I just I just I just question why they really pushed for the the approach this approach with the chapters.
Speaker: Is it because is it four chapters like is it like the gospel or something like that?
Speaker: Maybe, yeah, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Like they they've got a whole who knows with the way people format these things.
Speaker: You know, there's so many scene changes that this book could have been like 30 chapters.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the way that the chapters seem to be broken up is the way that you may have seen in other books where it's like broken up by books or broken up by parts, you know, part one, part two.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's a big, you know, just chunk of let me actually see.
Speaker: This one is the longest one by a country mile.
Speaker: But let's see to be exact here what we're looking at.
Speaker: That's one.
Speaker: So we're looking at almost 100 pages.
Speaker: So actually, literally, chapter three is a third of the book because it's about a 300 page book.
Speaker: That is a beefy chapter.
Speaker: It's a beefy chapter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That chapter is like a burger that has an egg fried on top of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Bacon.
Speaker: And perhaps bacon, like slices of avocado.
Speaker: Onion straws.
Speaker: Yeah, onion straws.
Speaker: It's actually unwieldy.
Speaker: It's, you know, those burgers that you get where it's like, there's no way that this is going to remain in one piece.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like you can't you can't wrap your mouth around it unless you unhinge your jaw like a goddamn boa constrictor.
Speaker: And they bring it served with the steak knife already through it as if, you know, it's like, look, I know I'm going to need the knife, but do you have to mock me?
Speaker: Couldn't you just put the knife on the table and like, sir, we understand if you can't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We understand if you're weak, you're weak and you cannot get this into your mouth.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You weak, weak little boy.
Speaker: And you take the steak knife and you hold it to that fucking waiter's throat and you say, I've seen things.
Speaker: Your burger doesn't scare me.
Speaker: And he doesn't flinch.
Speaker: Because this is every night for this waiter.
Speaker: This is this waiter's every night.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: This is this waiter's life.
Speaker: He's not afraid of you.
Speaker: He's not afraid of you.
Speaker: He's going to end you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Your little squabbles.
Speaker: That one time that a guy kicked your ass in a public bathroom.
Speaker: Like he sees that every afternoon.
Speaker: Like that's your story that you tell about being a man.
Speaker: And he deals with that on a daily basis.
Speaker: And it's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker: And what does he get?
Speaker: 7.15 hour plus tips.
Speaker: That's what he gets.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm so sick of Red Robin.
Speaker: They're fucking waitstaff.
Speaker: This Fight Club bullshit.
Speaker: Unless they want to sponsor us, in which case I can come around real fast.
Speaker: Fight Club.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's a big chapter is what we're saying.
Speaker: It's a big it's a big Red Robin burger of a chapter.
Speaker: Big old, big old, big old Red Robin burger chapter.
Speaker: And it starts with Will and Holly having like an awkward conversation about his underwear, which she says that underwear are the windows to the soul.
Speaker: And I don't think I life too.
Speaker: You got to figure it.
Speaker: She's got some, you know, it's, uh, what's the, what's the, that Indiana Jones line.
Speaker: It's, uh, it's not the, uh, it's not the miles.
Speaker: It's the, uh, whatever.
Speaker: I remember that line.
Speaker: It's I, uh, no, I don't remember what it is.
Speaker: Like I was hoping as I just the mileage, something like that.
Speaker: It's not the age, it's the mileage.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was hoping as I said it, I would remember it.
Speaker: And then I got to saying it and I never, it would come to me.
Speaker: I have absolutely been that guy, and I got to tell you, Kevin, I could have told you, it never works out that way.
Speaker: It never works out.
Speaker: And I only know because I've been there so many times before.
Speaker: My brain won't let me down, and your brain's like, you sure about that?
Speaker: I'm totally going to let you down.
Speaker: I'm totally... Have we already forgot about Algebra 2?
Speaker: Like, I'm totally letting you down.
Speaker: This is not...
Speaker: Yeah, they have a they have like a I swear to God, it's if it were a very different book, this would have been the 80s makeover walking on sunshine playing in the background.
Speaker: He hops into the closet, hops back out.
Speaker: She frowns and shakes her head at his outfit.
Speaker: He does it a couple more times.
Speaker: And finally, he looks like the bell of the ball and she's laughing and they're laughing and they walk out of Macy's with a bunch of bags in their hands and everything.
Speaker: And the music.
Speaker: slowly falls.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then he starts shooting people.
Speaker: Then he starts shooting people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There are some really creepy things.
Speaker: She has some.
Speaker: So Holly was one of those characters where I was like, oh, Holly is more like Holly's more like Will than than any of the other characters.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then she becomes increasingly less like Will during the course of this scene somehow.
Speaker: It's kind of like she I think you're right.
Speaker: She is more like Will, but that still puts her a great distance away from him.
Speaker: You know, for a second, he sees her as this kind of like.
Speaker: handhold that he can a kindred spirit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We've been in this church for a while and things, you know, it's weird, but it's our church.
Speaker: Yes, exactly.
Speaker: And she's like, he finds out that she basically tells him this is he thinks this is the only Edens gate location, basically.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she's like, absolutely not.
Speaker: They are all over the place and you are far from the only one that's keeping everybody fed.
Speaker: which is a really foreboding thing to say because you know you figure he's bought himself a lot of time and that sort of thing from being the guy who traps food and brings it to them therefore they must be really grateful and she's like oh no you're not the only one who does that yeah it's just like oh I see there's a whole bunch of people that make fruit for us and he goes because he's noticed that the children are just missing
Speaker: There are no children around and they live on a farm out to the east.
Speaker: And Holly responds.
Speaker: And I think it was maybe the way the narrator, because I was listening to the audio book, reads this line.
Speaker: It just kind of creeped me out where she said, yes, everyone is safe.
Speaker: Everyone has their purpose.
Speaker: You'll see one day.
Speaker: And I just don't like that line.
Speaker: The you'll see one day.
Speaker: Um, it's, it's has a, a threatening, uh, aura.
Speaker: It's got kind of a pod people sort of feel to it.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is good and it is fine.
Speaker: Everyone has a purpose.
Speaker: And, uh, well, yeah.
Speaker: And they start out talking about his clothes.
Speaker: It's actually kind of funny because yeah, they are talking about his clothes.
Speaker: He's got, he's just, his clothes are busted and worn out.
Speaker: And so she says, let's go get you some new clothes.
Speaker: And they've just got, uh,
Speaker: piles upon piles of clothes on the site there.
Speaker: That is that is theoretically from the people that they've offed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like she makes it sound like they're goodwill and people are donating shit.
Speaker: And that's actually what brings him to is there are kids clothes and that sort of thing.
Speaker: And he doesn't see any kids.
Speaker: And that's got deeply unsettling vibes.
Speaker: Yeah, he is like, this is weird.
Speaker: This is weird.
Speaker: I don't like this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he gets the hell out of there.
Speaker: And she's like hurrying behind him, trying to get him to stay.
Speaker: Like she's pushing really hard.
Speaker: Like she knows she knows that he is not.
Speaker: feeling it lately.
Speaker: And she's, I guess for his own sake, trying to push him to stay.
Speaker: And he is just not having it.
Speaker: He's like, you gotta, you gotta be come back more often.
Speaker: At least you gotta hear the father's sermons.
Speaker: And he's like, yes, sure.
Speaker: I've, I've missed too many.
Speaker: Um, in the same way that anybody who approaches one of us, for example, that we used to maybe know from church years and years and years and years ago, um,
Speaker: And they're like, you should come and hang out for Sunday school.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, sure.
Speaker: Yeah, I definitely should.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It's been a minute.
Speaker: Is he still giving those really long 45-minute sermons?
Speaker: Because, boy, oh, boy, that was helping me stay.
Speaker: I loved them.
Speaker: So he ends up starting out, and he starts investigating what appears to be this empty bar.
Speaker: Uh, and then, but then he starts to hear voices inside and, uh, and it's, there's people in there who, uh, used to work at the bar, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's, it's, it's, uh, Mary May's employees.
Speaker: Um, uh, well, hypothetically Mary May's employees.
Speaker: Now she is the, now that she has inherited the bar, uh,
Speaker: right right they would be her employees if everything wasn't gone to shit basically it's the cook who uh will actually knew from high school he was a few years behind him um and i believe a waitress yes yes one of the waiters uh waitress wait yeah one of the wait staff yeah and they give him the lowdown on uh
Speaker: And this kind of shocked me because I guess we'd been hearing so much about her parents being dead and everything like that from her part of the story, because basically, you know, pops between her and will that the fact that he's surprised that he didn't know that her parents were dead is kind of jarring, especially when you realize how close he was to them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's, it's, um, it's a little weird, um, that he is actually just kind of starting to put things together.
Speaker: Um, he, he didn't, I don't like, I think he was assuming a bunch of things about Mary May's presence up at the, up at the church.
Speaker: Um, and he didn't know that the parents were gone.
Speaker: So I, I, it was kind of an interesting, um, it was an interesting scene.
Speaker: It's a really brief scene with Casey kind of breaking thing, everything down and it transitions right over to will at the cemetery, uh, looking, looking at the, the gravestones, which, um, uh, I just realized the, the, the gravestones wouldn't be there yet.
Speaker: No, no, this has been two weeks.
Speaker: They would not.
Speaker: This has been.
Speaker: And on top of that, it's been in a world gone to shit where the undertaker is probably probably out in the river drowning people.
Speaker: I mean, it's like my third time looking at this passage.
Speaker: I was like, no, there's it takes like months to get this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Gravestones.
Speaker: Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: They needed something.
Speaker: They needed something.
Speaker: And sometimes, sometimes details slip through.
Speaker: And this is one of them that, that, that Mr. Waite absolutely missed out on.
Speaker: But we're introduced to the, the pastor of the, of the real church, not the fake church that he's a member of.
Speaker: Jerome.
Speaker: Pastor Jerome.
Speaker: Finally, we've got like now I know we see some of these characters.
Speaker: We see some of these these characters and Mary May is a pretty big NPC in the game.
Speaker: But Pastor Jerome is also a major NPC in in the game.
Speaker: And he's and he's my favorite of them.
Speaker: I love him.
Speaker: He's he's like literally like when you meet him, he is like hosing down fucking cultists with a pump action shotgun while wearing a priest's collar in his church.
Speaker: And it's just you're like, OK, now that my friend is an introduction.
Speaker: he's great he's great he's amazing and he doesn't give two shits he is um uh his he goes uh when will asks them how are you and jerome responds tired mostly tired all the time now mostly sick and tired of the shit that goes on yeah jerome is has had it
Speaker: Jerome is a really funny character in that sense, too, because I got a quote from him as well, where he says, he says, the father has many answers for those who seek his shelter, but I do not have the answers.
Speaker: I am not the prophet.
Speaker: The father wants us to believe he is.
Speaker: I am a follower of God.
Speaker: I'm a reader of the Bible.
Speaker: I do not change the words to suit my own delusion.
Speaker: And this is, by the way, mere pages before it's lock and load time.
Speaker: And yes,
Speaker: Look, I'm good with you bringing up a gun and defending yourself from from cultists that I got.
Speaker: You will hear no issue from me on that stretch.
Speaker: But he's literally talking about like, hey, man, I don't I don't change the Bible to suit my needs.
Speaker: It's like, well, all right.
Speaker: So we're not going to we're not going to go with the turn the other cheek bullshit here.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So he doesn't change the Bible to suit his own delusion.
Speaker: He just sort of ignores it.
Speaker: He ignores it.
Speaker: And that's a preacher I can get behind because at least that preacher is like, yeah, I'm full of shit.
Speaker: And you're like, great, cool.
Speaker: We can hang out now.
Speaker: Jerome's.
Speaker: Yeah, he's he has a body count by the end of Far Cry five.
Speaker: And he and frankly, he probably has a body count before all this goes down, because you find out as he and will get into a discussion.
Speaker: They're both veterans.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He's a gunnery sergeant, I believe.
Speaker: And they start having they start talking about war and how it feels.
Speaker: And if you're ready for it, if you're ready for the war that's coming, basically.
Speaker: And it becomes very clear that Will is is ready for it now.
Speaker: Like he's done by the end of this part.
Speaker: By the end of this part.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Jerome basically breaks down.
Speaker: Hey, here's what's going on.
Speaker: They're forcing people out of homes and they're buying the property for cheap like.
Speaker: It's as as all good villainy comes down to.
Speaker: It's a Lex Luthor land grab scam.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: It's it's that's exactly what it is.
Speaker: And yeah, by the end of it, any any level of misgiving that Will has had for the vast majority of this book so far is gone.
Speaker: He is ready to fight.
Speaker: He is sick of it, damn it.
Speaker: He's sick of it.
Speaker: He says, you can call me stupid for saying this, but it's probably time we cued the Shakespeare.
Speaker: And that's referencing earlier in the chapter when he says, cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war to Drury.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I couldn't help but wonder if this writer...
Speaker: Hadn't had the same teacher or indeed been this teacher because I have had this teacher and have been this teacher where in an English class, you give your students a list of quotes and some of them are from the Bible and some of them are from Shakespeare.
Speaker: And you try to see who can guess which is which.
Speaker: And it's always very telling which ones are which because that's side by side.
Speaker: You don't always know.
Speaker: And even I who had administered the test, I didn't always know.
Speaker: So you're like, is this Shakespeare?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: They're both pretty good writers.
Speaker: Just saying Shakespeare and God, pretty good writers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Mark, Mark had a way with the words.
Speaker: He sure did.
Speaker: He was, he sure did.
Speaker: Paul was a dickweed, but a good writer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: With his letters, letters to the Corinthians and Dick Dick.
Speaker: You heard it here, folks.
Speaker: Paul was a dick.
Speaker: Fuck you, Paul.
Speaker: Fuck you, Paul.
Speaker: So Mary Mae wakes up.
Speaker: I smell another t-shirt.
Speaker: Mary May wakes up and she's blissed out.
Speaker: She is... We got a whole basic description of she can't focus on anything.
Speaker: And John is just pestering her to confess.
Speaker: And the way I just...
Speaker: Again, my interpretation of this scene is colored by the narrator.
Speaker: The way the narrator read John's lines were so goddamn creepy.
Speaker: It makes such a difference, doesn't it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because they make a reference in the description, Urban Weight references how his words are kind of like clipped or something like that.
Speaker: So the narrator is like, do you confess?
Speaker: Do you confess?
Speaker: Do you confess your sin?
Speaker: Confess.
Speaker: Confess.
Speaker: We'll be forgiven.
Speaker: And it's like, it's just this really weird scene with the descriptions of her floating and all that stuff.
Speaker: But yeah, basically, John is badgering her to confess, and she's blissed out, and they are...
Speaker: less drowning her or waterboarding.
Speaker: Yeah, they're doing they're they're torturing her.
Speaker: That's for damn sure.
Speaker: She's not having a good day.
Speaker: But here's what's funny.
Speaker: I was I've been playing Far Cry five again just to get in the zone here with this much in the same way you are.
Speaker: And it was at this point I wasn't too far into it.
Speaker: And it had been a while since I played the game.
Speaker: And it was at this point that I started to go, oh, shit, does Mary become faithful?
Speaker: Because for those of you who don't know, she's not mentioned at all in this book.
Speaker: Faith is not mentioned at all.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: But in the book, Faith is this quote unquote sister.
Speaker: And they're very they make a point of making sure those air quotes are good and firmly placed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she's basically the one who runs the bliss operation.
Speaker: She's the weird druid.
Speaker: you know, hippie, you know, spooky Fleetwood Mac, you know, which out in the woods with all her flowers and stuff.
Speaker: And she's the Stevie Nicks of the group.
Speaker: Yes, she's the Stevie Nicks of the group.
Speaker: And and there was a part of me that was like, oh, shit, I wonder if that's like the origin story, because they say you find notes where they're like, yeah, they kind of came out of nowhere.
Speaker: And and then I'm playing the game and I literally
Speaker: got to a point where like, this is Mary May and I'm like, oh, okay, well, never mind that.
Speaker: Well, forget that theory.
Speaker: Mary May is right there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But that actually led to one of the more hysterical moments of playing the game again, because I know we've talked about this before, that this book, the tone is a lot grimmer and a lot more realistic and dark than the game.
Speaker: The game has some serious Grand Theft Auto kind of moments where there's just...
Speaker: Real goofy characters and real weird shit happening.
Speaker: But the thing that drew me the most out of it, because I was playing the game and thinking about the book, and we get to Mary May's bar.
Speaker: And Kevin, do you remember what Mary May's bar is called?
Speaker: No, I don't actually.
Speaker: It is called The Spread Eagle.
Speaker: So this bar that she like inherited from her father, the family bar, they are always so solid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you just expect like Toby Keith to be playing in the background.
Speaker: One of your, one of your first missions from her is like, can you go get my daddy's truck?
Speaker: And your, her daddy's truck is like, it was like,
Speaker: It's like painted with purple flames and has like Gatling guns attached to the front.
Speaker: So it's a little.
Speaker: So it's a very, very sharp, you know, evidence, very sharp evidence of how different the tone of the book is.
Speaker: This guy, I said it before, this guy wanted to get his Cormac McCarthy on.
Speaker: He wanted to do a neo-Western thriller.
Speaker: And he's doing a great job.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: By reading this and playing the game at the same time, it's real easy for me to go, OK, someone missed something somewhere.
Speaker: yeah yeah clearly um just yeah the spread eagle the family bar you know they stole my bar from me my beloved family bar where would the children go without a spread eagle to get their rye whiskey from
Speaker: spread eagle huh all right all right all right that's good to know oh mary may mary may um yeah and she also it's it's like there's some significant differences in her character between the this book and the game uh she's blonde in the game and she's brunette in the book um and as we find out things happen to her in the book that never are referenced in the game no no
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: And it's funny because I was recently on my friend Ian's show, Ian Strong, and we were talking about he was just flabbergasted.
Speaker: He had no idea that so many books based on video games existed.
Speaker: So when he when I explained to him what was going on,
Speaker: He initially thought we were reading fan fiction.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I had to clarify.
Speaker: I was like, no, no, no, this isn't fan fiction.
Speaker: This is actual, you know, what's the word approved?
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is licensed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: From from the game designers and in many cases.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like I noticed that, what is it?
Speaker: I think the Dragon Age books are actually written by the video games head writer.
Speaker: So there are connections.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Like, what is it?
Speaker: Cory Ball, Rog, Barlog.
Speaker: Barlog.
Speaker: I always mess that up.
Speaker: I mean, how could you not?
Speaker: How could you not?
Speaker: He should just change his name.
Speaker: I believe it was like his dad wrote the God of War.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A novelization or something like that.
Speaker: There's just, yeah, there is such a distinct connection with these.
Speaker: But when you're playing them side by side sometimes, like we talked about that with Halo.
Speaker: With Halo, there are certain little things that you're like, okay, there's a difference there.
Speaker: This is not a difference in a small...
Speaker: This is a whole tone shift, whole tone shift on the scale of tone shifts.
Speaker: At one end, there is Resident Evil, which was it is what it like.
Speaker: This is pretty much the games in terms of tone.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It was pretty one for one.
Speaker: And on the other end is this far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: is far cry, which is a really, really well-written and authorized fan fiction.
Speaker: That is absolutely what this has to be.
Speaker: It's just, it's the difference is unreal.
Speaker: And it's kind of amazing at the same time to, to play the game while you're reading the book and be like, Oh, what the fuck is going on here?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, speaking of Mary May and horrific moments.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, because what happens.
Speaker: So after they finish like drowning Mary May, Jerome and Will arrive at.
Speaker: Just down the road from Eden's Gate and Will does the arm up sequence.
Speaker: He takes the hunting knife and the 308 and he's he's going for war.
Speaker: Basically, Jerome is the Jerome is the driver.
Speaker: He just leaves Jerome as the driver.
Speaker: And we come back.
Speaker: It's a really brief scene.
Speaker: We come back to Mary May and she is in a room now seeing all of the bits of flesh pinned to the wall with the seven deadly sins on it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just these tapestries of skin, basically.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's it's gross.
Speaker: And Drew is there, her brother.
Speaker: And and the she's basically arguing with her brother about, like, you know, mama and daddy loved you.
Speaker: And he doesn't believe it.
Speaker: He actually he he he that's that's part of the part of the problem that part of that got them into this whole situation is Drew always.
Speaker: He thought he could not be as good as Mary May, which was his sin.
Speaker: His sin was envy, the sin that they tattooed on him.
Speaker: But he never thought his parents loved him.
Speaker: No, he's got some serious mom and daddy issues.
Speaker: It's not just a, it's not just mommy issues or daddy issues.
Speaker: It's both.
Speaker: And when you got both, it's kind of like.
Speaker: It's real bad.
Speaker: That's real bad.
Speaker: When you, yeah, when you can't narrow it down and you're just, you got parent issues.
Speaker: Well, it's not great.
Speaker: So, yeah, he's you really throughout this whole thing, you really get a feel for just how screwed up this guy is.
Speaker: And yeah, it just just to bring us a little bit back to what we were talking about in the last episode.
Speaker: I mean, it's it's actually very.
Speaker: smartly written and accurate in terms of how cults work.
Speaker: You know, they seek that out.
Speaker: They take you at your lowest point and they, yeah, they find your weakness.
Speaker: And, and drew is just at this point, you have to wonder, I mean, I get it because it's her brother.
Speaker: So she's going to do everything in her power to make sure that he can,
Speaker: You know, just to see if he can get out of there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But I don't know, man.
Speaker: Like at this point for me, the writing's kind of on the wall.
Speaker: And yeah, there's not much.
Speaker: Just you need to go.
Speaker: Yeah, there's not a whole lot you can you can do about about this kid.
Speaker: No, no, absolutely not.
Speaker: we have a few quick scenes after that, um, with, with will, uh, making his way closer and closer to the compound and recalling his, his baptism, uh, with John and the tattoo that he had been tattooed with wrath.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Um, which is the same tattoo that your, uh, main character, uh, your protagonist in the video in far cry five ends up getting, yeah.
Speaker: Wrath spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.
Speaker: Honestly, I mean, yeah, it's spoilers, but if you are playing the game kind of in the quote-unquote intended order, it happens in the first, like, third of the game.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker: Because John is intended more or less to be the first boss.
Speaker: The way they kind of funnel you towards him, you don't have to, but...
Speaker: Yeah, theoretically, you don't have to, but it's just you it's the easiest thing to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's really honestly the one thing I'll say for their for Urban Waits portrayal of him in this is that it's good, but he is not nearly punchable enough, in my opinion.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: In the video game, he is basically the family televangelist.
Speaker: He is a televangelist douchebag.
Speaker: He does not have, John does not have the charisma in this, in the book that he has in the game.
Speaker: Right, charisma.
Speaker: Charisma can be good or bad.
Speaker: And in this case, it's like the bad charisma where it's, oh, you're looking at him.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: You're paying attention to what he says.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You totally get it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: It's like you look at a dude like that and you're like, oh, I get it.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: And of all of them, he's the most dressed up like a hipster.
Speaker: You know, he has the vest.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: He's so punchable.
Speaker: The man bun.
Speaker: Well, it was sort of his brother's got the man's brother too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But like Christ, like it's just, he's just, he's such a little twerp.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He is.
Speaker: You know, and it's just, and in this one, uh,
Speaker: Urban weight portrays him as far more because I get the impression we're not really going to see much more of the father here.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: John John is is who was our first bad, as Kevin said, basically our first big bad in the video game, I think is the big bad in the book.
Speaker: Uh, just for simplicity sake.
Speaker: And he's just not punchable enough.
Speaker: That's my main complaint.
Speaker: Um, yeah, I agree.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Um, we have another scene between John and Mary May.
Speaker: And I think that's my, my, one of my complaints is,
Speaker: is in this chapter, which is such a long chapter to begin with, is that the scenes with Mary May, the way they're done, start to feel a little bit drawn out and repetitive.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because it's just Mary May being Mary May being
Speaker: drowned and tortured and Mary May being tortured and Mary May being tattooed.
Speaker: Mary May and her brother.
Speaker: She'll have the occasional like thinking about her family and what I mean, but it does get very repetitive.
Speaker: It does feel.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Whereas Will is.
Speaker: Will is actively every time we cut back to him, he's doing something like he's locking and loading, man.
Speaker: He's locking and loading.
Speaker: He's sneaking.
Speaker: And we we just have Mary May bound up and it's it becomes almost torture porn in.
Speaker: It's not quite.
Speaker: It's not it's not Eli Roth.
Speaker: You know, it's not hostile.
Speaker: But it's right.
Speaker: But it does.
Speaker: It does feel a little insulting.
Speaker: I feel like if I were a woman reading this, my eyes would be rolling to the back of my skull.
Speaker: And I don't think the author meant it to be this way, because, you know, he's based on what I'm seeing so far.
Speaker: He does.
Speaker: He's not aiming to do the damsel in distress thing with her.
Speaker: But man, at times, especially in this section that you're talking about, it sure does come off that way sometimes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And by the end of the next, this next chunk, they still haven't even, they still haven't even tattooed.
Speaker: No, they sure haven't.
Speaker: Like, yeah, she's just, she's just blissed out.
Speaker: She's,
Speaker: She's blissed out.
Speaker: She's high.
Speaker: She's seeing John as her father and all that stuff.
Speaker: And then we get back to Will and Will is in the building.
Speaker: He has arrived at where they are doing the stuff to marry May and he finds her and because John has left the room.
Speaker: John's left the room to go get his tattooing gear.
Speaker: To finally get the fucking tattoo gun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which always confused me, frankly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why is it?
Speaker: Why wasn't it there to begin with?
Speaker: Well, why?
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why is he using a tattoo gun at all?
Speaker: Like so many of the image images you see with this on these characters, a lot of them, you get the impression they were done with exacto knives.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, so why do why why take the time and effort with an actual honest to God tattoo gun?
Speaker: Just take a take a box cutter and break open a pen and you've got a prison tattoo gun, my friend.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just just do that.
Speaker: It's I don't.
Speaker: But he does it in the game and he does it in the book.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a little weird and inconsistent, especially when you see character art of the father who has like random box cuttered sins on his body.
Speaker: I didn't, I didn't understand.
Speaker: And there's a little bit of a disconnect in, in the, I guess the lore and development of, of why some of these were tattooed and some of these were cut into the skin.
Speaker: And I'm sure, I'm sure if you've been given another, if they'd said, you know, you have an extra two pages now explain that away.
Speaker: He could explain it.
Speaker: I'm sure there's, you know, early on before they got ahold of a tattoo gun, they would use, they would use a knife.
Speaker: That's what it was.
Speaker: You know,
Speaker: But it does seem like a lot of effort.
Speaker: Yeah, it seems like a lot of effort for it, for something that you're going to cut off.
Speaker: Excuse me.
Speaker: Yeah, you're just that's the whole point.
Speaker: You're peeling the damn thing up.
Speaker: You know, now don't get me wrong.
Speaker: We can talk all day about, you know, Buddhist monks pouring sand into the ground to make beautiful mandala designs.
Speaker: And then at the end of the day, you just sweep it all up.
Speaker: But it's I don't know.
Speaker: It just it felt it felt like a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he tries to rescue Mary May and Mary May refused the refuses the rescuing, which is the most agency she is given in this chapter so far.
Speaker: And it's interesting because I thought at first I was like, oh, right.
Speaker: She talks about her brother.
Speaker: I said, well, that's the whole thing.
Speaker: She wants to rescue her brother.
Speaker: And this is her last chance.
Speaker: She probably sees this as like her last opportunity to really save him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But then she goes and she's like, this is where he is, by the way.
Speaker: Save him, please.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is like, wait, what?
Speaker: Then what are you doing here?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the only explanation I can think of is she's high.
Speaker: Yeah, she is high as hell.
Speaker: She is super stoned.
Speaker: And they do.
Speaker: And Urban Wait writes several times over the course of the rest of the chapter that Will's like, I probably shouldn't have left her.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: Will's POV from here on out cracks me the fuck up because it's like he speaks for a lot of us in the sense that he goes, I should have done this.
Speaker: Why am I doing this?
Speaker: What is going on here?
Speaker: I had I had her.
Speaker: I could have just gotten her and left.
Speaker: What am I doing?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like he's the video game PC and we're controlling him and he doesn't have any agency.
Speaker: He's like, wait, what?
Speaker: What am I doing this for?
Speaker: It's like, cause I want to see explosions.
Speaker: Well, that's stupid.
Speaker: I might die.
Speaker: Well, then I'll just respawn.
Speaker: It's no big deal.
Speaker: What are you talking about?
Speaker: Respawn.
Speaker: Like, well, I'll explain later.
Speaker: I'll explain later.
Speaker: You're probably going to die.
Speaker: Now let's go get that submachine gun.
Speaker: Let's go make it like, get that checkpoint and get the auto save going.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: You see the logo in the corner.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: It's auto save.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: We're good.
Speaker: We're fine.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That logo wasn't there before.
Speaker: It was, it was.
Speaker: It was.
Speaker: Shh.
Speaker: Don't you worry, Will.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: So, yeah, this is then this is just one of many examples where he's like, I shouldn't have done that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, so he he he being.
Speaker: a smart man chooses not to argue with a woman on drugs.
Speaker: He does not argue with the woman on drugs and he leaves to go find drew.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, and meanwhile, John is back and she's, he, he drugs her up again.
Speaker: Oh, but will has left her a knife.
Speaker: So that's, will has left her a knife.
Speaker: He's left her knife.
Speaker: He has left her checkoffs knife.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And we're going to get into Chekhov's exploding building here later, too.
Speaker: Which I loved how Chekhov-y it was.
Speaker: Super Chekhov-y.
Speaker: So we'll get there, though.
Speaker: We'll get there.
Speaker: We'll get there.
Speaker: There's a whole bunch of action.
Speaker: Will is basically, he is hunting down Drew, and there's a whole lot of him thinking about, you know,
Speaker: He's thinking about his past and all that stuff, and he catches up with Drew, and he basically ends up just beating the shit out of Drew, knocking him out.
Speaker: Just beats the fuck out of him, which is hilarious because the way they've described him is, don't get me wrong, he's a very able-bodied dude, and we're going to see that.
Speaker: He's a mountain man.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But he's a much older guy, too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But he just beats the snot out of Drew.
Speaker: It's hilarious.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Drew's a very slight frame.
Speaker: You know, he's.
Speaker: Yeah, he's a little guy.
Speaker: He's a little guy.
Speaker: He's like five foot seven, 140 pounds.
Speaker: And so we'll we'll lays them out, ties them up.
Speaker: And this is all after, by the way, it was kind of a nice moment.
Speaker: We were learning how close Will was to their family.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: He knew them as kids.
Speaker: You know, the misc is he was close friends with their parents.
Speaker: Their parents loved him.
Speaker: They make a point of saying that.
Speaker: And and the first thing he says to Drew when he sees him is, I wish I could have helped.
Speaker: I wish I could have been around for you when all this went down.
Speaker: Like he's having regrets about the fact that.
Speaker: When life got really hard, he distanced himself from it.
Speaker: He went out to the woods and hid away.
Speaker: And he could have been there for the people like Drew and Mary when he could have been there sooner.
Speaker: And he's making up for it.
Speaker: But he could have been there sooner.
Speaker: And that clearly weighs on him.
Speaker: That's not changing the fact that I am going to move into a house in the middle of the woods, far, far away from everybody.
Speaker: The moment that I have the money to do so, you would think it would have had an effect.
Speaker: None.
Speaker: Once you have that down payment ready, you are you are gone.
Speaker: I'm going out there and I'm and I'm hunting bears with beaver carcasses, my friend.
Speaker: And yes, that is a euphemism.
Speaker: so yes and we get another moment of Will's guts being a problem yeah yeah he's got something broken in there it's not good yeah and they kind of imply that it's just an ulcer like he hacks up something that's bloody and everything and I was like I don't know man that sounds kind of awful that sounds way worse than an ulcer he coughs up his like it's like he coughs up something the size of a golf ball
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yes, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker: He coughs up like a big goddamn goblet of something.
Speaker: Well, it's also like it's also symbolic, right?
Speaker: It's symbolic of him.
Speaker: Like just getting this, getting Eden's Gate out of him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But it's also a terrible health problem.
Speaker: It's also see a doctor.
Speaker: He needs to see a doctor.
Speaker: Like you should see a doctor.
Speaker: He goes to the doctor.
Speaker: The doctor's like, yes, I'm afraid it's stage three metaphor.
Speaker: Did you, did you, did the, when you coughed this up, were you possibly leaving a role or a family or something like that?
Speaker: Ah, yes, I thought so.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: I'm afraid the only, the only cure is heroic suicide.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: So you're going to die either way, but.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker: Good luck.
Speaker: We have to pay off that metaphor or else it'll seem trite.
Speaker: There will be, if we don't pay, you don't understand, sir.
Speaker: If we don't pay off that metaphor, we are going to receive six or seven annoyed emails.
Speaker: And I just don't, I just don't have the strength.
Speaker: So yeah, he knocks out.
Speaker: Damn it, Will, I'm a doctor, not an editor.
Speaker: Uh, Gersh agency.
Speaker: Where are you?
Speaker: Uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's that it's the, yeah.
Speaker: The Gersh agency is that, is that particular, uh, world's version of the Mayo clinic.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, my favorite thing that he does is he hits Drew's head against the door jam as he's leaving.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: They make a point of his, like, he picks him.
Speaker: He's knocked Drew out and he's running through the door and he just kind of like lets the kid's head slam into the door jam.
Speaker: Oops.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: It's basically the equivalent of Chris shooting the shark.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Just for spite.
Speaker: Just for spite.
Speaker: and and later on he even says like we're talking about regrets and everything like later on kind of like in passing uh will he's carrying drew around and he literally just goes i shouldn't have done this like why am i carrying this asshole around yeah it's like he totally regrets what he's doing here yeah and uh what happens when he goes outside but oh holly is standing there oh
Speaker: Hi, Holly.
Speaker: Hi, Holly.
Speaker: We're friends and we have a connection, so that's probably going to be fine.
Speaker: I love the first second he thought to tell her it wasn't what it looked like, but he knew exactly it was exactly what it looked like.
Speaker: He was fucking Drew.
Speaker: God.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: It's like, this is exactly what it looks like.
Speaker: He should have just said it.
Speaker: I'm carrying him around.
Speaker: Bondage.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, oh, thank God.
Speaker: I thought you were doing something weird.
Speaker: But yeah, and she just and like he see she sees him.
Speaker: He sees that she has seen him and he just turns around and runs like he was planning on going back for Mary.
Speaker: He is not going to get the bonus for taking out this outpost without being detected.
Speaker: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Speaker: The alarm is going to go off.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And reinforcements are coming.
Speaker: No extra grand for you, my friend.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we come back to John tattooing Mary May.
Speaker: He's putting envy on her.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And it's funny because he was like, it said that he was on V. Yeah.
Speaker: Or was it N?
Speaker: I don't remember.
Speaker: And I thought that he was I originally for a split second had been like, oh, he's tattooing Eden's Gate on her.
Speaker: I think it was the end.
Speaker: It was like E.N.
Speaker: I said, oh, yeah, he's tattooing Eden's Gate on it.
Speaker: And then he says, oh, I got to get the V now.
Speaker: It's like there's no V at Eden's Gate.
Speaker: You idiot.
Speaker: Evans.
Speaker: I'm living my own fantasy here.
Speaker: And then, but yeah, you're right.
Speaker: Will outside unbeknownst to them has lost the bonus and they hear sirens going on outside.
Speaker: And so John leaves to go check out the noise.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she, um,
Speaker: He leaves to go check out the noise.
Speaker: She gets out.
Speaker: She is still stoned.
Speaker: She is still stoned.
Speaker: And John comes back and is, I don't know how she did it.
Speaker: Is she a gymnast?
Speaker: She jumped and landed on him.
Speaker: Like, how high did she jump?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah, she found the knife.
Speaker: Like, so she's got a knife, but that's not going to give her, like, high jump abilities.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So she, she basically just jumps on him and then dumps the entire vial of bliss on his face.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, John is now incapacitated.
Speaker: He is blissed out.
Speaker: She, yeah, he is literally blissed out.
Speaker: And now we get to Chekhov's Chekhov's Stergo.
Speaker: I loved this.
Speaker: Or Sterno.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sterno.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So Will is running away with Drew.
Speaker: He sees Eden's Gates coming for him.
Speaker: And they find this house and he just like he's by the way, he's tied up, drew his gag drew so he can throw him down for a little bit.
Speaker: And he's just clearly looking for anything that'll buy them some time.
Speaker: And they don't know where he is at this moment.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Don't know where he is.
Speaker: Not right now.
Speaker: But he knows it's only a matter of time before they get over there.
Speaker: And he finds this the oven in the kitchen and basically just wrecks the oven, kicks it out of the wall.
Speaker: and blows the gas line open.
Speaker: And he's found this can of Sterno in the house.
Speaker: And he has this whole moment.
Speaker: He has this old bit where he knows there's got to be Sterno in the house.
Speaker: And he says something like, like, these are my people.
Speaker: They, I understand.
Speaker: These are my people.
Speaker: They use Sterno.
Speaker: They use Sterno.
Speaker: And for those of you who don't know, Sterno is like a, it's like a jellied gasoline.
Speaker: You use it to like,
Speaker: you it's like it'll just burn and keep things warm.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like when you have a if you have like a cookout and you have like a bunch of aluminum foil trays or whatever, like on a on a thing and you put the sterno, the lit sterno underneath it to keep it warm.
Speaker: And it's just a low, you know, low, slow flame.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And and people like me, for example, I know my I learned this from my dad.
Speaker: When you live on the coast, I'm sure you have you've got something like this, too, Kevin, like when you live on the coast, you're always ready for hurricanes or outages, stuff like that.
Speaker: And dad would always have a box of sterno in the house.
Speaker: And I remember I was working in a hotel and they were getting rid of a bunch of stuff and it was a whole box of sternos perfectly good.
Speaker: And that was the beginning of my bug out bag.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I have a bug out bag that started with these old cans of sterno.
Speaker: And so he, so it's like, so this guy and come, come, come to find out sterno is a super popular item for bug out bags because it's, they're super easy to light.
Speaker: They last for a good long time.
Speaker: They're, they're a good source of fire.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so he's like, I know these people.
Speaker: They're my people.
Speaker: I am these people.
Speaker: I am these people.
Speaker: And they got and indeed he defined some Sterno because these are his prepping people.
Speaker: And and he lights it and like kind of sets it in the bathroom, doesn't it?
Speaker: It's like the door of the bathroom.
Speaker: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker: And basically he's going to wait for the house to fill with gas.
Speaker: And, you know, in the stern, all the flame will do the trick.
Speaker: And but of course he has set he's kicked the oven out of the wall.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Everyone knows where he is.
Speaker: They know where he is.
Speaker: It was way too loud.
Speaker: Yeah, so he fights a guard, he escapes, and basically ends up getting a little further away, and he's keeping these people at a distance with his rifle.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, he hits one of them, and the guy's wounded, and so everyone's afraid to get close.
Speaker: It was actually one of the more realistic fights in the whole thing.
Speaker: It does not work this way in the video games.
Speaker: You shoot one of the buddies, they're just going to charge you.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: They just keep coming at you.
Speaker: And then this one, he's like the guy was bleeding out and they're like, oh, we got to we got to back off because he's got a rifle.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is the proper response.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the proper response.
Speaker: He's a crazy old man with a gun.
Speaker: Let's let's let's keep our distance.
Speaker: He meets up with Mary May and and drugged out Mary May.
Speaker: And they basically they get together only to split up again.
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She saves his life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just like he's getting choked out by some dude and she stabs him in the back with his knife.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: And then and then, yeah, she leaves.
Speaker: The first check off pays off.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The check off knife totally paid off.
Speaker: And it did.
Speaker: And, you know, honestly, pretty good time.
Speaker: Pretty good time.
Speaker: Pretty good time.
Speaker: Sterno.
Speaker: Meanwhile, check off.
Speaker: Sterno remains to be seen.
Speaker: Still waiting on Chekhov's Sterno to the point, by the way, that after a while here, I started to go.
Speaker: Did that happen?
Speaker: I literally went back like 10 pages at a certain point and I was like, did I miss the explode?
Speaker: I like nod off while I was reading like.
Speaker: what the hell so yeah and and oh oh and there's a little detail uh right before this section ends where will thinks of they were in one of the houses and it was covered in uh a bunch of different skin pieces right of people's tattoos that they've torn off and it kind of uh
Speaker: it's evidence basically that Eden's gate is massive.
Speaker: Like he, he, he couldn't believe how many he saw.
Speaker: And it's just evidence of how huge and out of control this whole thing has gotten.
Speaker: So I, I think once again, just like her parents being dead and he just now got the memo, like he's got, he realizes he's like, Oh, I'm not out here fighting like 15 rednecks.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like I'm out here with a, an army that's going to be like choking me out here soon.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, she so she's basically just going.
Speaker: She's running through the wilderness.
Speaker: She has she has the 38 her daddy's gun, though, if this was the game, her daddy's gun would probably be like a Tommy gun or something like that.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It'll be covered with like a decal of the American flag or something like that.
Speaker: It have like the Punisher skull hanging from it or something.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Blue lives matter symbol on the handle, like that kind of thing.
Speaker: That kind of, that kind of stuff.
Speaker: Um, and then she's going and, um,
Speaker: So all of the and then suddenly, then in an instant, all the gunfire and the sound of the bullets digging up the woods completely stopped.
Speaker: And for half a second, she thought the world had been sucked up and away into the vortex of some tornado that had rendered what possibly could have happened.
Speaker: The light of the explosion hit her first, followed closely by the sound.
Speaker: And Mary May turned to see the mushroom cloud expanding.
Speaker: The mushroom cloud.
Speaker: The mushroom cloud.
Speaker: You know.
Speaker: As you do when you're when you're when you're when your gas, your gas explosion, your house gets out of control and a mushroom cloud happens.
Speaker: That is one mighty can of sterno.
Speaker: That is that is that is.
Speaker: Yeah, that is a checkoff brand sterno, my friend.
Speaker: That is checkoff brand sterno.
Speaker: When you absolutely positively need to fuck up in the third act.
Speaker: Yeah, there it is, baby.
Speaker: He did like Will's awesome disappearing house magic trick finally took place.
Speaker: And everyone's just like everyone who was chasing her again.
Speaker: Again, pretty realistic.
Speaker: I think they like forget about her for a second ago.
Speaker: The fuck just happened.
Speaker: It's pretty great.
Speaker: One of my favorite little bits that happens in this moment is this feeling of.
Speaker: Because it's it's so unrealistic at times, like for God's sake, the house just let off a mushroom cloud.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But also this thing, you know, a house blows up in an action movie.
Speaker: You've got a few people that get killed in the explosion.
Speaker: They jump forward and go.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And in this, it's I don't as far as we know, no one gets killed, but it does what would actually happen in real life.
Speaker: It causes everyone to go.
Speaker: Fuck.
Speaker: Was that?
Speaker: Like plenty of time to get away.
Speaker: Like it's it's it's actually going to be pretty effective in that sense.
Speaker: Yeah, she just said she's like, oh, I'm going to go now.
Speaker: It's kind of hilarious because she herself like stops and goes, what the fuck?
Speaker: And she even thinks herself.
Speaker: She says, oh, I better go.
Speaker: Like, I'm also caught up in this.
Speaker: And she also thinks for a moment, like, did Will and Drew just die in that?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, that's absolutely true.
Speaker: She's like, oh, that's kind of where I just saw them, isn't it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so she she runs like hell and and finds Father Jerome.
Speaker: who uh who uh will basically gave her quick instructions on like he's coming down here he's gonna pick you up and pick us up too he gives her super quick instructions and indeed she finds him she finds him yeah yeah and she's in the safe caring hands of father jerome father jerome and his pump action shotgun yep
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So in meantime, we rewind.
Speaker: We rewind.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Can't go back to Will.
Speaker: Will and Drew just Jesus.
Speaker: This is like it.
Speaker: It's just I get tired just reading like Will has to like run with Drew over his back and he's climbing and he's shooting and there's trucks.
Speaker: There's so many trucks.
Speaker: There's people chasing after him.
Speaker: This is this is yeah, this is an extended action scene.
Speaker: And like he basically is playing Thermopylae, the home game here.
Speaker: And yeah, this is also and you mentioned it before, but like.
Speaker: he sees there are trucks full of cultists that are coming in as reinforcements.
Speaker: And this is precisely what happens in the game.
Speaker: When you come to an encampment and the alarm goes off and you don't just have to deal with the people in the encampment.
Speaker: Now you got to deal with all these fuckers coming in from out of nowhere to back everybody up.
Speaker: And it's a pain.
Speaker: And he's starting to realize that,
Speaker: And he starts getting hunted by a sniper.
Speaker: He realizes he's there getting closed in on and a sniper, someone who can actually shoot.
Speaker: Like he makes a point and goes, oh, fuck, there's somebody out there who actually is a good shooter.
Speaker: And he draws a bead on the guy from a quarter mile away and takes him out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pretty cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Now we also got the cultists that have flak jackets and all that stuff showing off those goddamn armored guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, that's the biggest frigging pain.
Speaker: And, and he's, and again, he's figuring that out.
Speaker: And this is basically the beginning of a standoff that goes on for pages where trucks are coming and he is like shooting people as they come and, and, and just taking out truck after truck and he scoops up drew and finally, and then an explosion that Mary may just experience.
Speaker: We get a second.
Speaker: Chekhov's house exploding.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Check off.
Speaker: Completely different angle from a different angle.
Speaker: Same one, different angle.
Speaker: And he basically uses it to get himself a better position across the way and keep taking these out.
Speaker: Like he doesn't bother.
Speaker: Like, remember, he's hefting drew across his shoulder.
Speaker: He doesn't bother like going, I'm going to run now.
Speaker: He knows there's no running at this point.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And at this point, he's taking out truck after truck, just a man and his rifle.
Speaker: And I got to say, Will is not a blowhard, you know,
Speaker: redneck, like I'm a badass.
Speaker: I'm living for my freedom and all that shit like that.
Speaker: He's not that guy.
Speaker: He's he's very humble and he's very he doesn't like what he's doing.
Speaker: We've had many moments where he is fully aware of how many people he's killed and he bums him out.
Speaker: And it does bum him out.
Speaker: But let's be really super honest with ourselves here.
Speaker: This is just the fantasy of every three percenter and militia LARPer all over the country.
Speaker: This is what they dream about on a regular basis.
Speaker: I love the term militia LARPer.
Speaker: That's what they are.
Speaker: They got all the cool gear.
Speaker: They paid good money for it, but the army wouldn't take them in a thousand years.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And that's what these guys are.
Speaker: There are these paperbacks of Far Cry Absolution.
Speaker: I guarantee you there are a handful of them in the hands of some of these people that the pages are stuck together with dried semen.
Speaker: It is crazy.
Speaker: sure one man and his rifle against the the sheep you know yep yeah and and this is the part that like because you mentioned you you kind of talked about this a second ago he drops drew into this gully
Speaker: and uh and he puts down his gun and uh and he stands up and and like kind of cracks himself out like you know like he just stretches his bones and everything and this is how old i am i felt the relief that his back must have felt yeah he's been carrying this kid forever and trying i just want to crack my back right now just
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Like, you just want to take yourself across the back of the couch and just stretch.
Speaker: And it's just it's like that was that's how old I am.
Speaker: Like, I don't have the militia LARPer fantasy of like, I'm going to kill all these dudes.
Speaker: I have a fantasy of four will at that moment.
Speaker: It's like, I wonder if he there's got this is this is Backwoods, Montana.
Speaker: Someone's got a jacuzzi.
Speaker: He deserves it.
Speaker: He deserves a jacuzzi.
Speaker: He deserves to stumble upon Harrison Ford's Montana ranch and, and, and just like, Oh, there's a, there's a, there's a nice jacuzzi.
Speaker: There's a sauna.
Speaker: Like just treat himself.
Speaker: He's earned it, man.
Speaker: He's earned it.
Speaker: His wife and daughter aren't coming back.
Speaker: Why is everyone gotta be miserable?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So he, I did love this moment where he, he's out of bullets.
Speaker: And so he there's and there's another truck coming and he's basically using Drew as bait.
Speaker: That's why he's thrown him into this gully.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And he draws his knife.
Speaker: And my brain immediately went to that scene in Predator where Sonny, the badass Cherokee warrior guy, like is standing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he slices himself across the chest.
Speaker: I was just waiting for them to be like, Will took his shirt off and drew the blade across his chest and waited for the predator to come for him.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: But he gets up just cutting this driver's throat while they're distracted with a Drew.
Speaker: Like he is.
Speaker: This is this is Rambo shit.
Speaker: This is some Rambo shit.
Speaker: Oh, it's absolutely Rambo shit.
Speaker: Yeah, because that's the thing.
Speaker: We go from Predator to straight up Rambo shit.
Speaker: And here, this is the passage of ludonarrative dissonance is what I like to call it.
Speaker: All he'd done that day could not be changed and he felt helpless.
Speaker: People had died because of him and at his hand.
Speaker: And though he knew it had been them or him, he could in some way still not accept it.
Speaker: He had thought all of this long behind him.
Speaker: And it's kind of nice.
Speaker: Like, he's actually regretting.
Speaker: He's regretting it as he's killing people.
Speaker: He's like, I'm sorry.
Speaker: And he's murdering people like a video game badass.
Speaker: But he's not happy about it.
Speaker: And not happy about it.
Speaker: We get the title of the book.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: He hoped it was enough for absolution.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: There's the title of the book.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And then we get this final moment.
Speaker: I will say this for this chapter, this very, because we're here at the end.
Speaker: At this point, they do not go out of their way.
Speaker: I kept expecting that the next truck rolling up was going to be Father Jerome and Mary May.
Speaker: It's never them.
Speaker: It's never them.
Speaker: It's never them.
Speaker: Like I kept waiting for the alarm is still going, man.
Speaker: There's just going to be endless reinforcements until you end that alarm.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he knows based on all the skin flags, he knows that he's got like hundreds upon hundreds of dudes applying Neosporin liberally to their chests and rushing out to kill him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like, I was waiting for like Jerome to show up and like save the day.
Speaker: Like, listen, next summer, let's vacation at your place.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was waiting for that.
Speaker: But by the time the chapter ends, we still do not know what Will's fate is.
Speaker: We still don't.
Speaker: He says he looked at Drew again.
Speaker: This is the final final paragraph in the chapter.
Speaker: He looked at Drew again.
Speaker: The man's eyes fixed on him.
Speaker: A look of disgust across his face.
Speaker: Will's head swam and he nearly fainted, except he knew he couldn't.
Speaker: It was the only sound.
Speaker: It was only the sound of car tires that now kept him from passing out.
Speaker: Then from somewhere down the road, here, the racing of an engine, he took the shotgun from the man who is now dead and will lay there with a stock braced across the man's chest and the barrel pointed down the road.
Speaker: He had little will to move and he waited now to see who would come knowing he would fight if it came down to it, that he would use each and every last shell.
Speaker: End of the chapter.
Speaker: So not only is he is he fucked like royally fucked in a big way.
Speaker: The guy he's defending hates him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like the whole reason he's still out there was to defend this guy.
Speaker: He told, you know, he knows this kid.
Speaker: He's known this kid since he was little.
Speaker: And he and his the guy's sister, he promises to her he's going to go and defend him and help him and save him.
Speaker: And it's probably going to get him killed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's really bleak.
Speaker: And it is a hell of a way to end the biggest chapter in this book.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, I mean, obviously, and we'll talk about chapter four in the next episode, but chapter four in the epilogue, it's like the shortest chapter in the book coming up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: going to wrap this thing up that things happen pretty quickly uh from from here on out to say the very least so what well what do you what do you think so far kevin how's how uh now we've got most of this book behind us how is it coming along for you um i still i still like it and i still it's still the best book that you know we've i i feel we've read i think yeah there are so you think so too you think this one yeah yeah yeah i
Speaker: I think I think we leave the Cormac McCarthy behind a bit quite a bit in this chapter.
Speaker: And it goes over to a we're we're in first blood territory now.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Who wrote first blood?
Speaker: That's a good question.
Speaker: Who did write first blood?
Speaker: Wasn't that it was based on wasn't it based on a book?
Speaker: It was.
Speaker: It was.
Speaker: Oh, gosh.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Oh, I know that dude.
Speaker: David Morrell.
Speaker: Morrell.
Speaker: David Morrell.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That guy was like one of the big, you know, pulp adventure novelists.
Speaker: Like, yeah, that's huge.
Speaker: So we, yeah, we leave, we leave that and we're now on First Blood with, he goes from, you know, just your standard Cormac McCarthy grumpy protagonist to John Rambo.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: To a straight up murderer and a reluctant one.
Speaker: But God damn.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm I'm I think.
Speaker: And interestingly enough, this is the part in the book that if I didn't realize it was based on a video game, there would have been a lot of moments where I've been like starting to feel like a video game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It wouldn't have been a negative or a positive.
Speaker: It just would have been a statement of fact.
Speaker: And this one is an interesting one for that.
Speaker: We're going to have a lot to talk about when we wrap this thing up.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's so weird.
Speaker: The tone shift, the difference.
Speaker: I really enjoy the book in and of itself, but I'm starting to have misgivings just based on how is it?
Speaker: Is it a...
Speaker: Can you honestly recognize it as a good video game novel if it's not actually all that representative of the video game it's based on?
Speaker: That is a good question.
Speaker: That is a question we'll answer next week.
Speaker: Bum, bum, bum.
Speaker: We probably won't.
Speaker: We'll probably.
Speaker: I feel like we'll never quite answer that question.
Speaker: That's between you and your local literary theorist.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That'll do it for today's episode.
Speaker: Follow us on Twitter at PixelitPod.
Speaker: And remember to rate us five stars and give us a review on the Apple podcast.
Speaker: Now, I know.
Speaker: The Applecasts.
Speaker: The Applecasts.
Speaker: I know about 75 percent of you are not listening to us on Apple, and that is OK.
Speaker: But for those of you who are, please remember to five stars and leave us a review because it really does help.
Speaker: Apple does have some fun, funky little algorithm things that that can help us out.
Speaker: on that particular platform.
Speaker: So feel free to do that.
Speaker: Feel free to check out our website, pixelitpod.com, where we post all of our episodes and you can join our Discord from there.
Speaker: And I think that about wraps it up for today.
Speaker: Just about.
Speaker: We're actually, we are going to be, we have a Twitch account.
Speaker: We have it.
Speaker: It is in our grasp.
Speaker: It exists.
Speaker: It exists.
Speaker: We have not yet christened the thing.
Speaker: As of this recording, anyway, by the time it comes out, we may have.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: In fact, I hope we have.
Speaker: I hope so.
Speaker: But check us out.
Speaker: Pixel It Podcast on Twitch.
Speaker: And we'll be playing not just the games that we're talking about or are related, but...
Speaker: Honestly, let's face facts.
Speaker: We're a couple of old gamers.
Speaker: We're probably going to do a lot of point and clicks and really enjoy ourselves.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker: So if you have any suggestions of games you'd like us to see, anything like that, let us know.
Speaker: Let us know at pixelitpod at gmail.com.
Speaker: And that's the first time I've given the real email address out on this podcast, I think.
Speaker: Oh, I'm getting saucy.
Speaker: Anyway, have a good night, everybody.
Speaker: Super special.
Speaker: Good night.
Speaker: Bye.
