Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to c Sicily, Alaska, a Northern Exposure podcast. I'm Anne Flynn Terrell. I'm a cabaret performer and MC. 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 6, episode 14, The Quest. Okay. We open in the middle of the night with Joel banging on Maggie's door. He needs a lift to the illusions, specifically Bogoslav Island.
Speaker: Seems he found a map to a mythical lost city of Kiwa-Ani, amongst some of the old remains of a French explorer from the 1700s.
Speaker: now we're doctor Now we're at the yeah the doctor's office. Dr. Capra is examining Chris's self-inflicted cotton swab wound. While cleaning his ear out, Chris tells Capra that he's a welcome change from the cold assembly line medical practice of one Joel Fleischman. This is my favorite Chris hair. Yeah, this is good. yeah um Maggie flies Joel to the middle of nowhere. She's not quite buying his story yet.
Speaker: Now we're at the brick. Maurice confides in the hauling and Shelley that
Speaker: Michelle Capra has received a fax. It seems that she's been hired to write a review for the but for the brick in an upcoming episode, upcoming episode, no, upcoming issue of Alaskan Highways, the preeminent Alaskan publication, by the way.
Speaker: okay Bernard is back. And he's called on Phil to serve him with a complaint and notice of deposition on behalf of Chris. I guess he's a little bit more than an accountant now.
Speaker: It turns out that Chris is suing Dr. Capra for malpractice. So much for his refreshing bedside manner.
Speaker: So now we're at the brick. Michelle has enlisted Marilyn's assistance with her review of the brick because apparently she needs a second person so that she can order more than one entree. Shelly and Holling are really turning up the charm to secure the best review, very much cluing Michelle and Marilyn into the fact that they know about the review.
Speaker: Back on the tundra, Maggie is tagging along with Joel as they hike deeper into the wild, following the map. The normally adventurous Maggie thinks that Joel is on a wild goose chase and claims that she's only there to keep him from becoming a frozen popsicle.
Speaker: Um, she's really like they're connecting and Maggie's like, my God, what has happened to you? And just as she's wondering this out loud, Joel discovers the next waypoint on the map and, uh, the old woman tree.
Speaker: And it leads them to an elderly Japanese man who tries to attack them. They think he's a long lost world war two soldier who never knew the war was over. They do say later he's 75 years old I think that qualifies as elderly. He's a very sharp-looking 75. Hey, so he's from one of the blue zones, you know? um Japan has a lot of blue zones. That's true, that's true. They ate a lot of, like, fresh fish, good vegetables, unlike the Midwest, which is, believe, yeah the death zone.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah um You know what's weird, though? like My hometown is a blue zone for women. There are so many women that are 100 years old in my hometown. My grandma lived to 92. All the men tend to die pretty early, but that my mom has been to like three separate 100-year-old birthdays in the last year. Wow.
Speaker: My kindergarten teacher just died at 102. Holy cow. holy cow Wow. What a life. She lived by herself until the last like two months of her life, and then she passed away.
Speaker: Oh, that's cool. Dang. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. um All right. Well, they can't communicate with this guy. He's only speaking Japanese. But then they discover, wait a minute, he can speak English when they discover his modern book collection. Turns out he's a retired businessman who lost his fortune in the Japanese recession and always dreamed of retiring in the Aleutian Mountains.
Speaker: His name is Ryu. or dragon. He's the first person or spirit that they've met on their quest. Like all great quests, a hero must slay a dragon or a monster. And Joel punching this 75 year old man is equivalent to him slaying the dragon. And it has impressed Maggie.
Speaker: Oh my God. All right. like Yeah, go ahead. I feel like this episode more than almost any other episode felt like they were waiting for a laugh track. Oh, yeah. Especially in the brick. This episode got so hokey, except for, I will say, the views of when they were meeting this Japanese man.
Speaker: The vistas in that scene where they were walking around his, i don't know, cabin? it Yeah, like a little hut cabin. It was really a gorgeous episode. yeah Yeah, it was. Yeah, the they went all out for Joel, I think, in this one, they for the scenery-wise. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And I love, too, that like we quickly learned that he's basically on a very typical hero's journey quest, like an Arthurian tale. And it's good. Yeah, I loved it. Speaking of dragons, you guys see my dragon back here?
Speaker: This little guy? It's making me so hot. I'm like sweating. Tell those pets to like cool it. They got it they run it like 101. Yeah, and it's like 101 outside, so it's not helping. It's just a compounding effect. My back is so hot.
Speaker: um Speaking of hot, Bernard is taken to the airwaves and he's covering for his ailing brother. Maurice and Capra arrive at the radio station. Maurice cuts the program mid-sentence as Bernard is swaying the listener's public opinion on the matter of Chris V. Capra.
Speaker: In his own pragmatic way, Maurice manages to escalate the situation by trying to fire Chris before storming out in frustration. Back on our journey, Maggie and Joel stumble across a lodge in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker: And now back to the Capras, Phil Capra is complaining to Michelle that um who is working on her brick review. ah Phil feels like they're back in L.A. with all of the litigious nature of everything happening right now. And Michelle is writing a pretty bad review of the brick, but she's just being honest. um The cappers are not going to fare well out of this one. Michelle doesn't want to compromise her journalistic integrity, but Phil is worried that they're going to ruin their chances of having any relationships up here whatsoever. So he's kind of like, hey, look, you can't do a good review. Yeah.
Speaker: Alright, we're back at the lodge. Joel and Maggie are and and enjoying a nice spa day. Hold up, make that a nice spa week. As Maggie realizes that her and Joel haven't fought in many, many days and that they've been in the lodge for at least three days.
Speaker: Seems they're stuck in this trap where they've lost all desire for what they want to accomplish. You know what? The lodge turns out to be a siren. Another typical obstacle on an epic quest.
Speaker: Okay, now we're at the church. See, the church wasn't at the last episode. We had a town hall, or two episodes ago, the town hall meeting was at the break. Now we're at the church. The church was under construction.
Speaker: Oh, there we go. um Yeah, they were they were constructing they were constructing the pews for the deposition of Philip Capra. Maurice Capra and his counsel are all waiting as Bernard shows up with Chris, now fully wheelchair-bound because of his ear injury due to earwax.
Speaker: And you know what, guys? Bernard is proving himself to be a very adept attorney, even though he is just an accountant. yeah He's really taken it to Philip here. He's talented. I mean, he is he's been a lot of things. Every time he comes into town, it's like he assumes at least two two roles. It's Renaissance man, just like Chris.
Speaker: Yeah. I feel like he's the more successful Renaissance man, though, because he's the more pragmatic of the Renaissance arts, whereas Chris is more of the the dreamer. Right.
Speaker: All right, we're back in the tundra. Having escaped the sirens, Joel and Maggie are marching through the wilderness and talking about the hero journey paradigm and how they've slayed the dragon, they've resisted the temptation of the sirens.
Speaker: This is when Joel starts to comide that confide in Maggie that he's never really felt a sense of reality in what he sees, that like nothing is real. and that's why he became a doctor. That was his true motivation, so that he could finally get some answers by studying hard science. But becoming a doctor didn't help him figure it out.
Speaker: He never really knows what reality is. So after a while, they come up on a bridge in the middle of nowhere, which happens to be locked. And there's a gatekeeper. To get across the bridge, the gatekeeper happens to be Adam. He's back for one final appearance.
Speaker: ah He doesn't recognize Joel and Maggie, and he's going by Gustav, Gustav the gatekeeper because you know CIA and stuff so he asked this riddle and ah first he asks it of a trapper that comes along and the trapper is not able to answer it ah the riddle is how do you keep the one you love and turns out Joel can answer this he says you can't ah Love is selfless and it's non-possessive. You can't keep them if you truly love them.
Speaker: And he gets the riddle right. So Adam Gustav allows him to cross the bridge, but gives him a warning that what you find, what you seek may not be what you're after. And he gives him the lock.
Speaker: But then Joel- Yeah, he gives him the lock. I noticed that. That Joel has locket behind him. I'm like, so now anyone can go over this bridge? Well, yeah, I think Gustav was there for one hot second and then Gustav was gone. Gustav's cover blown. So he's got a skedaddle. Yeah, he's going to blow the bridge as soon as Joel's across. That's true, yeah.
Speaker: Just to cover his tracks.
Speaker: Michelle happens back into the brick. um Holling believes that he doesn't have to kowtow to her, you know, just a lowly critic. He always serves good food. And I think he's right.
Speaker: um He doesn't need to. He's a well-established business. But there's a hair in the soup that Holling tries to force feed her. i had a problem with this whole brick arc here. Why after six seasons is the brick all of a sudden a horrible place to eat? Because they're trying to diversify too quickly.
Speaker: m it was the It was the diversification. they They tried to do too much too fast. They do great diner food, but they were trying to appeal to her California sensibilities. Everybody knows people from l LA love clam chowder. And crudite. Well, I mean, perfect opportunity they had Adam. Why didn't they just bring in Adam to make food for while she was there?
Speaker: Because Adam was gone. Gustav has replaced him. I know, but I just mean like you have the actor. Like that's what I was assuming he was going to happen. Oh, yeah. Oh, and that would have been great. But then it would have been fun to watch the downfall as soon as Adam leaves.
Speaker: Like yesterday, this tuna steak was incredible. And today it's hard as a rock. And there's a bandaid in it. oh Exactly. But then that that yeah yeah oh that's too much fun. I had a problem with that. yeah That just happened on MasterChef, by the way.
Speaker: a band-aid and a yeah a band-aid in Masterchef yeah it was the first episode of this new season um a woman had cut her finger they put a band-aid on it they and then all of a sudden when they were eating it the last bite they found a band-aid and they were all like huh i was like is there anything that could shut a restaurant down faster than that she got cut You know, I used to love that show until I was talking with somebody who was a producer on it and basically said that is the most scripted reality show. Because I actually thought MasterChef is one of the least scripted reality shows. It can't be scripted. Oh, my God. It is so scripted. It's insane. All cooking shows. Yeah. All reality shows are so non-reality. I worked on a couple of pilots, and they are so fake. Yeah. Producers are feeding everything to the people.
Speaker: I had a friend who worked on Duck Dynasty and they were a writer. And I was telling my dad about it because he loved Duck Dynasty. And I was like I've got a friend who's a writer on Duck Dynasty. And he's like, writer? It's a reality show. And I was like, no, dad, it's all fake. It's all been fake since the very beginning. And I also loved Real World and Road Rules. loved all that early reality television. And then to realize that everybody was just a puppet being played. Yeah. It was it was sad. Yeah.
Speaker: That's just good entertainment. That's true. Yeah. It's all. All right. So we're at camp for the night. Joel and Maggie are cooking a little stew up in the pup tent while trying to figure out the final clue. Maggie's eerily calm in this moment. She has no regrets. She's really enjoying herself.
Speaker: I think she's letting Joel go after hearing him solve the riddle. You know, they finally get their moment. Um, this is a pretty emotional scene. I feel like they were starting to really feel the weight of this being their final moment together.
Speaker: Yeah. Um, did you, yeah. Did you guys notice it looked like Janine Turner had been crying a ton before shooting the scene. So maybe they just shot it a bunch of times, but she was looked like a mess.
Speaker: Yeah. She looked, yeah, I think that this was a big deal. The, the weight was really coming down. um Maggie has this great theory on meeting people. And she starts to say, you know, like of all the billions of people on the planet, I've always wondered how I'm going to meet the people i should be with and the man I should marry. And then she realizes she's come to realize that you just meet the people you're supposed to meet.
Speaker: Uh, I thought that was great. That was really profound. yeah, right, we cut back to the Airstream, and Chris and Bernard are going over an offer that Maurice and Phil have sent over.
Speaker: Chris wants to reject it because Capra isn't offering anything personally. He wants to nail Capra to the wall. He wants to make his life a living hell. That's all that counts in this battle.
Speaker: Turns out Chris is just straight up on a vendetta against Dr. Phil. Yeah, and he's smoking. We've never even seen Chris smoke before. He's torn up. I think Chris is starting to do a pretty good job here about like, he's been torn up this whole episode. Like even when he was in the doctor's office at the beginning, something felt a little off.
Speaker: A lot weight in this episode. He was talking shit on Joel. Yeah. In that first scene. And then all of a sudden he did, as soon as Capra starts talking shit on Joel, he does like a whoop, a 180.
Speaker: Yeah. Kind of like when you talk shit on like your parents to your spouse and then they start talking shit back and you're like, oh, no, no, no. Yep. You get to do that. Only I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. And you can feel like there's rules. There's rules and shit talk. Yeah. And there's going to like come up some stuff, but I feel like, you know, it's a little bit of a defense mechanism. It's a coping mechanism here for Chris. He's a little tortured in the moment.
Speaker: um We cut back to the wilder wilderness and Maggie wakes up in the middle of the night after having a very vivid dream about Paris. And she figures out that the word that they couldn't solve on the map, it's actually croissant.
Speaker: They thought it was something else Latin, but it's croissant. So they draw a croissant on the map and it forms an X and it marks the spot. of where they need to go. So we're back at the brick and the review has come out. Holling and Shelley are not in good moods. they're very nervous about this. Eugene delivers the review.
Speaker: The review is exactly three lines long. It says that they serve food, their hours of operation, and their address. Turns out to be the best review they could have gotten and Vancouver's are extremely happy about it.
Speaker: right, we're back at the Capra's house. It's the middle of the night. We're in their bedroom, and they're dealing with the realities of the litigious nature of medicine, journalism not being the romantic idea that it once was, and Chris shows up outside of their bedroom window knocking on the window. They're a little freaked out, ah but they answer, and it turns out that Chris has dropped the lawsuit.
Speaker: He apologizes. says that he was actually Actually, because of Dr. Fleischman, that his relationship he's ever had, he knows him in every way, every nook and cranny, and he's having a really hard time letting go of Joel.
Speaker: He's also crying a little bit in this one. Yeah. You can tell. This was pretty heavy. I think like some of these actors were really connected with Rob. Some of them weren't, but some of them were.
Speaker: right. All right. Maggie and Joel are in a very mystic and majestic place in the wilderness. We see a void off in the distance, and Joel begins to see something on the horizon in the darkness.
Speaker: And it comes more and more into view, and the lights become brighter, and we start to see that it's the New York skyline, the jeweled city. This, this is his mythical city. You know, at first, Maggie, she can't see it at all.
Speaker: But he tries to focus her in, and and they both focus focus in on this she begins to see it. It's not as clear as it is to Joel, but she's, she's seeing that there's something there. And she realizes that this is for Joel.
Speaker: This is his place. And she doesn't have a place in it. Joel wants her to come with him. And she says, you know, I've, I've thought long and hard about if you asked me to go with you, if I would or not.
Speaker: And I'm not, this is my place. Alaska is my place. New York is your place. And this is the final goodbye. for Dr. Joel Flashman as he walks off into the horizon of New York City.
Speaker: I felt like they were... You see Marilyn sitting alone in her... Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, didn't feel like they were like implying that he died?
Speaker: it just felt like... Because I didn't know this was his last episode. didn't. But then we see him later, obviously. but I didn't know... yeah I didn't imply death, but I definitely got the gone.
Speaker: hu I got the gone. I feel like ah felt like it was a the magic of Alaska. ah it could have been death. I could see how death is very... yeah I could see how you'd feel it is death. Definitely a death for the city. like it was He was going to be dead to Sicily.
Speaker: Yeah. that like that Definitely a a never to be seen again kind of departure. Yeah. a different A different than just a goodbye. yeah This was a, he's out, he's done.
Speaker: Yeah. um Marilyn is sitting alone in her house crocheting and she feels it. Well, that's what I mean. She feels as he walks off. Yeah. and She just turns and says goodbye. Yeah. It felt very ominous.
Speaker: Do you think about those friends that you like connect to very, very deeply and like maybe you went to college with them um or went to a camp or something with them and you say goodbye and you don't maybe realize it at the time, but it's likely the last time you'll ever see them.
Speaker: i I do. This made me think a lot about that, about those relationships and those friendships where it deeply impacted the rest of my life and and maybe they're not on social media, so I will never see them again. Or maybe they are, but I'll still never connect with them in that way. And they are effectively only alive in my memories.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely feel that. i think more and more, like the older I'm getting, I feel like I'm in a season of endings right now as well. um You know, I just had my 30th high school reunion.
Speaker: One of our classmates is pretty sick, so he's probably not going to be around for the next one. oh And we've already we've already lost like three of them from our class. We only had 26 to begin with. um But then like you know we just took our very last family vacation to the lake after 35 years of going. We took our last one and you know just a lot of stuff ending. I feel like there's seasons of ending. So yeah, I've been i've been very in tune with some of that lately of thinking how things are over and I'm getting sick of it. I'm ready for some new shit to start.
Speaker: I know. Ready some beginnings? Well, tonight is a new moon, Caleb. So it's really good for taking some time to think about the new beginnings that you would like. Amen. Full moons are great for saying goodbye to things. New moons are great for saying hello to things. So maybe you need to sit under the new moon this evening and think about what you'd like to welcome into your life.
Speaker: Yeah, Absolutely. Yeah, I felt the same way about going to my parents and my mom's 80th birthday. It was like all starting to hit me that this was probably the last time our entire family would be together. um Yeah.
Speaker: Like, like, realistically, I even said it to my mom. and she She was like, yeah. And I was just like, holy crap, because they're both 80. And I'm like,
Speaker: wow, this is so weird. And like Zach was there. So it's like, we were all, I think we were all very emotional, but I don't think Zach was quite feeling it as much as we all were. So it was, it was just a difficult situation, but everybody was pleasant.
Speaker: Like I said to you guys, like the, usually there's like someone has a fight or someone's made to feel weird. And this time there was none of that. Um, But like, yeah, i it all hit me at once. And I was like, dang, we're all getting so old.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. There's no, um well, there's only two ways out of it. You keep living or you die. Or you keep dying. or you keep the dying. Exactly. Exactly. um Well, Maggie isn't dying yet.
Speaker: She's returned into her life in Sicily and she stops in at Ruth Ann's and Ruth Ann's got some mail for her. She receives a nice little postcard from Joel with his final words that say New York is a state of mind. Truly.
Speaker: Yep. And our final shot of the episode is Joel on the ferry approaching the island of Manhattan. He's home.
Speaker: I thought in my childhood brain, this was the final episode. This was the final moment of the final episode. It would have been nice... They should have ended it right here. It would have been... Well, except for the rest of the episode.
Speaker: It would have been really nice. The B-plots were not hidden in the same way. yeah It's the cappers, man. I can't stand those guys. Michelle doesn't bother me too much, but Phil, every time I see him on screen, this is a weird thing where like...
Speaker: I hated Joel for five seasons, and now i love Joel, and i hate Phil. I mean... Well, it's just transference. Yeah, it is. But it's also like um that new producer, he did his job to you, Caleb, right? He wanted people... He wanted to find someone who people could hate even more.
Speaker: He nailed it. Mm-hmm.
