Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Sicily, Alaska, a Northern Exposure podcast. so I'm Anne Flynn Terrell. I'm a cabaret performer and emcee. I'm Caleb Cohart. I'm a documentary and commercial filmmaker.
Speaker: I'm Amy Gerlich. I own and run a improv and sketch comedy theater in Denver, Colorado. This is a podcast where we talk about Northern Exposure and how it's affected our lives. And we have some amazing special guests.
Speaker: Season six, episode question mark. Six. Zarya. I liked this one. This is probably one of my favorites of this group. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, because it's not from this season. Right. Yeah. A lot of my notes too are being so confused as to why it should have been in this season. But then halfway through, I'm like, oh, I actually did the research and found out why it's part of season six. It's not, but it is, but it's not. Yeah. yeah And it's not.
Speaker: I thought it was literally a lost episode that they just got rid of it. I've seen it. What it feels like. I've seen in this one.
Speaker: I didn't think I had, but then about midway through, I was like, oh yeah, I've seen this. It was here. I have the exact notes because I looked it up. Zarya was originally filmed and intended to be part of season five.
Speaker: However, CBS delayed its original broadcast, ultimately airing it on October 30th, 1994 as the sixth episode of season six, When Amazon acquired the rights to the streaming series because of international rights, they restored it back to where it was shot. So it's on Amazon, it's season five, episode 25, but in all of the DVD collections that you'll find in the world, it's season six, episode six.
Speaker: So they must've done that later because we've been watching these in order on Amazon Prime. I think they did, yeah. I think they really did. Interesting. And I think too, because like we were, like i didn't watch season five on Amazon Prime. i watched it on alternate sources, like the DVD collection, it didn't show up. and then when we're watching And now I'm watching six on Prime,
Speaker: and it's not there. So I literally thought it was just like, at one point they were like, you know what, na let's we've got too many, let's cut one. And this is one they cut. Oh, what a shame that would have been. I thought they were like, I thought they were like, there's too much going on with Russia. We can't show. Oh, but no, it's not the case. All right. Let's talk about it. So Ed setting up a camera to interview Marilyn to try and figure out why she has pain in her leg. She's doing a second job at the movie theater, but she's saving up for a laser disc player.
Speaker: Marilyn is telling Ed her grandfather's story so Ed can try to diagnose her issue with her leg. I had a major issue with this opening scene and it's a technical issue. um ed is shooting on a 16 millimeter camera that is not a sound recording camera. Yeah.
Speaker: It has no crystal sync, which allows you to sync sound with it. And he so he talks into the camera from just a few feet away. There's no microphone. But magically, it's recording the audio of him introducing what he's recording. i mean, we do cut later to Marilyn's shot, and she's wearing a lob mic. You can see it on her shirt. So he's got to be recording her into a tape recorder.
Speaker: But when he's watching the playback on his little flatbed editing system, it's just going to be him flapping his mouth because there's no audio from Ed. i was like, the attention to detail, especially about the filmmaking on a production making film is astounding to me. it That was a big sticking point for me on this one.
Speaker: ah I was stuck on a different point because I was a Titanic girly and I was an Anastasia girly. And ah this definitely counteracts the cartoon Anastasia that I also love, which also rewrote history about how the Bolshevik revolution started in a pretty terrible way, saying that it started because of a bat. um But this is also equally as wild and...
Speaker: I think one of, well, no, they like to ah do revisionist history on the show a lot. So i will hold what I was going to say. Great. So Anastasia Romanoff, a Russian princess, was in Sicily, but it was a secret. Emery Whirlwind was Marilyn's grandfather. he escorted Anastasia to Sicily.
Speaker: A classic genre episode from Northern Exposure taking place in 1921, 10 years after Cicely and Rosalind found the town. So also interesting that, again, Marilyn was not in this. Yeah. Which i felt I felt like she should have just played her grandfather. and Because Ed already was a character in this town.
Speaker: That's true. was He was the wild, like he was like the wild dog child. Yeah. That turned into a poet. they The fact that she wasn't in either of these, I mean, maybe they were like, well, we better make this center around her past. So we have her in the opening and the closing scene because we forgot to stick her in here on the previous one.
Speaker: There was, this is a little trivia history. The person who plays Stalin's advisor, ah was MacGyver's arch enemy in the MacGyver TV series. I was very excited because I loved MacGyver as a kid.
Speaker: nay Yay, yay characters. thought the guy who played Stalin was incredible. Yeah, he was so good. ah Whoever was working on the costumes also for this episode. Hell yeah.
Speaker: Hell yeah. The hats, the coats, the shoes. Great job. It was so good. That was one of my only things that I liked in this. So let's continue. Mace, Maurice, and Kit, Chris, are now a priest and the richest man in town. Kit has stumbled into an eloquent speech pattern and a clean-cut look.
Speaker: Anastasia was played by Tuska Bergen. She didn't have much like ah that we would even recognize for IMDb stuff, but she's an Australian actress. ah she She did not make an appearance in the soap opera that I'm i'm still currently watching and I'm on episode 230.
Speaker: And I almost have nailed down multiple Australian accents now. I'm really excited about it. But she was she came over to America and did a bunch stuff. She was in Mad Max 3. She was in Swing Kids. She was in the 1999 Cherry Orchard film.
Speaker: um She was on an episode of Fantasy Island. She was on an episode of Angel. ah The others, Frasier and CSI. Wow. Pretty good career.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. That's solid. She was definitely like it was niche because it like she did a lot of work in Australia, but then like a chunk in the United States. And then it kind of just slowly disappeared.
Speaker: Yeah. So Anastasia arrives in town and Marilyn's grandfather's heart had been captured. She was there for talks to get back into Russia. Lennon also came to Sicily for the talks to get support from Anastasia. And Joel played Lennon's personal doctor.
Speaker: Maggie played Anastasia's lady in Waiting.
Speaker: This was my first clue. i mean, the cat's out of the bag. We figured out that this was originally made for the fifth season. But at this point, while watching this, I was so confused because I was like, wait a minute. Joel is still a main character of this.
Speaker: The Capras are nowhere to be seen. um And Joel and Maggie are still very much a thing here. it was weird. I was like, yeah, what's going on? I don't think it would have been weird had we have watched it in production order yeah but watching it in release order it's like this makes no sense what did they just go back on everything they've been building up to this season and then i was super confused with chris's short hair and that yeah the the joel maggie thing and chris's short hair made me go hold up this is not from this season Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of cues for some of the other episodes that follow this where even those were like plugged and played because there's some weird things happening there, too. All right. So Maurice ah Mace is talking to Chris Kit about building a car to manufacture. And Chris is into it. ah But it wasn't like the first car because he talks about talks about Ford, right? Or he talks about... Yeah, he's wanting to make like the first off-road car. That's right. That that can handle the tundra.
Speaker: That's right. So the lighting, i wrote, the lighting lighting on Maggie is so film noir, so gorgeous. And every everybody else was like in the dark.
Speaker: Yeah, this is, I don't know if the cinematographer intended this to be more, to make it look like it was an older film, um like a a noir, but the reason she's so soft in those shots is they used what's called a pro-mist filter, and they do this extensively on women, especially um in older movies. If you ever watch like an older movie, even up through like the seventy s and eighty s They'll cut to a woman, a shot of like a closeup of a woman and she'll look slightly out of focus and a little halo-y.
Speaker: And it's literally a glass filter they put in front of the lens that has like little granules in it to soften and halo the light. And it's supposed to get rid of wrinkles and make a woman look more refined. um You can also do this very cheaply by, i kid you not, smearing Vaseline thinly on the front of your lens. oh we know we watch rupaul's drag race yes yeah that and we were watching austin and i watched um casablanca a little while ago and every time they cut to any woman this like beautiful soft glow but i called this at least in this episode the morticia lighting because they always lit her eyes just like in adam's family yeah so every time they cut to her i will say her makeup was also very striking
Speaker: I do think these flashback episodes are, they've got to be some of the technical crew's favorite episodes because they just get to play. Like they get to light these differently, film them differently. the costumes are just on point in these things.
Speaker: not Very cool. I was just going to say they must have just been really enjoyable for the actors as well because they get a chance to step outside of the characters. And I've got a few notes on that that we can talk about later on.
Speaker: Okay, her and Joel are having a meal together, and he's eating like a monster. um Maggie is trying to bribe Joel into bending Lenin's ear to help with the talks.
Speaker: this is I do have a ah quick political thing. um ah found this episode, the juxtaposition of like the Marxist-Stalin-Socialism- um coming from like this capitalistic society. like This is when Russia went from capitalism to socialism. um I find it very prescient to today's landscape. um Even though this is like 30 years ago, we're now like literally in the face of the United States trying to chain like there's a movement to we're becoming ultra capitalistic just like the old russian oligarchs that ultimately fell like anastasia um to and you have this new movement of socialists coming up and i just thought this episode is really cool to watch today because we're in the midst of like this pendulum swing where our society is kind of swinging a little too far to capitalism
Speaker: And you see this idea that we should go to socialism like Russia did, but every time socialism has been attempted, it's failed. And like really when this show, when this episode came out, I would say the pendulum was right in the middle and in one of the more prosperous times in U S history. And now we're watching it 30 years later where we're, it's swung too far. So I got a really good kick out of the juxtaposition of what they were trying to sell with this Stalin,
Speaker: um Anastasia storyline, along with what's currently going on with our current administration and and government and the fact that a week ago, the world had its first trillionaire.
Speaker: but It's wild. That we know of. That we know of, yes. And where' we in Denver are experiencing the second wave of the democratic socialist ah type of movement, Mamdani.
Speaker: I think so, yeah. New York is gigantic. um But yeah, it's going to be very exciting because as of recording this, we are one day away from election day, not election day, election. It is the the runoffs to see who will be the Democratic ah and the Republican candidates on the ballot.
Speaker: We're in the primaries. It's very exciting. h Thanks for the reminder. I need to go drop my ballot off. my gosh. Drop your ballot off, Caleb. i know. I forgot. I need to. I'll fill it out and drop it off. Don't forget. Okay. Yes. You've got through tomorrow.
Speaker: Okay, we have codeine, heroin syrup. That's what the Ruthann shopkeeper characters sling in these days. Lennon and Ruthann are talking politics, and she apparently had a big impression on Lennon.
Speaker: So Maggie says Marxism is not the answer. Lennon is becoming more open, but is still holding his ground. Marilyn's grandfather carved a comb out of a whale bone for Anastasia as a gift.
Speaker: Joel is examining Maggie. he puts a handkerchief on her back and puts his ear to it ah to listen to her heart. And I wrote a sweet moment.
Speaker: It was actually, it was funny because I was like, they have some chemistry in this, but you know, because they're not Joel and Maggie because they're a doctor. What's his face and yeah. And whatever her name, I didn't pay attention. Can i tell you what this felt like? Yeah. I also didn't pay attention to the character names.
Speaker: This felt like they kept trying to put the the cheerleader or the theater girl and the high school jock together in a theater production.
Speaker: Yes, it was really contrived. And yes, I was really sick of it by the end. But was I just still overwhelmed by how much I like the costumes? Also, yes. i This felt...
Speaker: that the The whole handkerchief over the back, i was yeah like, this feels like a little TBS afternoon when I was younger where they would like maybe show an episode of silk stockings or something like that. It was like little racy for northern exposure. Yep.
Speaker: So ah jazz has come to the brick. A band from New Orleans has come to Alaska and everyone put aside their differences and dance the night away.
Speaker: Joel is trying to find a cure for tuberculosis. Him and Maggie start to passionately kiss and then she abruptly leaves. I love that in the age of tuberculosis, when they're looking at a slide of tuberculosis, they start making out. I know. triculosis yeah They're like, hey, look at this tuberculosis as close as you can possibly look at it, and then let's swap bodily fluids. Yeah. Also, yeah, there's a super infectious disease. You said that you have lung issues. I've listened to you with my ear handkerchief. Let's make out. Yeah, yeah. Research, research. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the talks continue with Anastasia in London. He begins to argue, agree with her ah demands. the They call the agreement the Treaty of Sicily.
Speaker: Joel apologizes to Maggie for kissing her. He blamed the talks and agreed it would it it would never happen again with Maggie. Embry is visited by Anastasia and she speaks for the first time.
Speaker: And we're about 30 minutes in. that long Yeah, that was weird. Very weird. She thanks him for the come, says that she they have a lot in common, and she wants him to meet her in the morning to kite fly.
Speaker: Kite fly. Not fly kite. Kite fly. Nope. Kite fly. Yeah. Yeah. And that's not a euphemism. Nope. They... They were going to do that. Yep. Probably his first time too, I would imagine. Like, it was probably like, yeah, I've never done that before either.
Speaker: Oh, maybe it was a euphemism. I couldn't say. ah i feel like kite flying was one of those things that everybody just did back then because they didn't have anything else to do. But a Native American? We know that from Mary Poppins.
Speaker: Yeah, let's go fly a kite was one of the... One the showstoppers. Yeah, but I feel like- It had made it from Victorian era British nannies through Russia, and Anastasia was introducing it to the native Alaskans. Well, I don't know. I feel like a lot of cultures had kites. Like a lot of people are into wind and putting stuff into the wind.
Speaker: True, true. Maybe I'm just overthinking it. so Marilyn says that's all she can remember of the story. Interview over. So Ed's sleeping and his but projector magically turns on.
Speaker: Probably a dream of his, we can assume. He sees them kite flying. Emery tries to get her back to sign the treaty. They race back on their bikes. While simultaneously we have this split screen kind of situation happening with Kit and Mace are trying out their automobile. When he almost hits Anastasia and Emery and they go tumbling down a hill on their bikes and Emery jumps off to stop Anastasia. When Emery hurts his leg from doing this.
Speaker: So we've got our connection in Maryland. Anastasia is late to the treaty signing. Nobody's there. Everyone's left. Kit thinks the automobile is out of harmony with nature, and he says it will one day cause the earth to warm up.
Speaker: Yeah. Kit, via Chris, literally invents global warming in the 1800s. So we did not find the cure for tuberculosis, but we foresaw global warming.
Speaker: And we started the Bolshevik Revolution by flying a kite. Okay. I'll buy it. Wars have been started over weirder things. True. For sure. For sure.
Speaker: um i loved Chris. or Sorry, Amy, you go ahead. I was going backwards in time. Okay. Lenin leaves the meeting before Anastasia can get back to sign the treaty and Joel tries to convince him to stay, but he won't. And Joel decides he's going to stay in Sicily.
Speaker: Anastasia leaves Sicily. She has a heartfelt goodbye with Emery. Ed tells Marilyn his vision of the end of her grandfather's story. And Marilyn says, there's something people keep forgetting.
Speaker: The intangible. We see Joel and Maggie leaving the brick together. So for sure, before he is off on his own, this is like a flashback to regular time and he's got short hair and it's definitely not the Joel and Maggie we know as we are going along in season six.
Speaker: So the episode concludes with the lady-in-waiting and the doctor meeting in town and walking off together. A little sequence ending um that says, after his return from Alaska, Lenin institutes the new economic policy which allowed for limited private enterprise. The policy which allowed for limited private enterprise, the paul oh, I just said that, I wrote it twice. The policy revived the Soviet economy but was scorned by hardline party members. After Lenin's death, Stalin abolished Lenin's reforms and returned the Soviet Union to poor pure socialism.
Speaker: And I wrote pretty boring for a genre episode, but great costumes and great lighting. Did you all feel like in this episode you could really tell the TV actors from the stage actors?
Speaker: I felt it stronger than in almost any other episode. And oddly enough, somebody who has seemingly kind of been a stage actor really wasn't. I thought Chris was really TV acting and was out of its depth. I also thought Janine Turner.
Speaker: I thought Maggie was not acting in this kind of play that everybody else was in on. Mm-hmm. just like Like in that they didn't give in to kind of the fantasy of it? in the like That and kind of the, yes, I would say yes, the fantasy of it, the the allowing themselves to live outside of their character as another character, or in addition to their character, they didn't let themselves become the lady in waiting for Anastasia or the priest Anastasia. It just felt like they were maybe like a shade of color different than Chris and Maggie, whereas everybody else was really falling into their new roles and they were having fun. I will say maybe Ruthann.
Speaker: Ruthann's just kind of always Ruthann. All right. Anything else for this episode? No, I enjoyed it. ah It wasn't, it was not nearly as good as the Sicily flashback episode, but now i i did.
Speaker: I had fun with it. I didn't, I didn't take it too seriously. i thought it was enjoyable. If Anastasia would have lived, and this was the truth, she would have been 20. So I think they did a pretty good job of casting Anastasia. Although real Anastasia had like very dark hair. She was also killed with the rest of the Romanov families. It was very sad. And Chris being the only person who knows that that music is called jazz was ludicrous. I know, it's so funny. They had the line, i think it's called jazz.
Speaker: Sure. Get out here, Chris. Sure, Chris, sure. Sure. Yeah, he looked it up on the internet. Well, there's also like so many little stupid things that I was just like, oh, I bet this episode was intended to be in like the episode before they got stuck in the plane. And Maggie was like, I've always wanted to be go to Russia. Like, oh it's a lot i like oh I didn't even draw that one. Yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker: That makes perfect sense.
