Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Sicily, Alaska, a Northern Exposure podcast. 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 6, episode 15, Lucky People.
Speaker: Michelle and Phil Capper are freezing out in nature, popping a little bubbly. They're looking for the perfect spot to build their new dream house on the 60 acres of land they have just purchased.
Speaker: To celebrate, they've brought a little Dom Perignon and some Brie cheese. But Michelle has left the cheese, intended to accompany their champagne in the car. So Phil runs off to get it. And within 10 feet, he has gotten lost despite there being six inches of snow on the ground. And he could have just followed his own tracks back to the car.
Speaker: Yeah, they the old school Trader Joe's canvas bag. Did you notice that? noticed that too. I wrote that down. was like, she's got a Trader Joe's bag. I didn't realize that Trader Joe's was a thing in the 90s. It was when I was in college um in Humboldt. My roommate's parents lived in, um God, where they live, lower California. Um, we would get stuff. There was only a couple of stores down there and we would get stuff shipped up to us from Trader Joe's. And it was like, and this was like 95. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah But it was the best. It was the best. I was like, what is this? Trader Joe's. Hmm. Santa Barbara. don't get it. Cool. I don't i't get it. I've never, i mean, we have Trader Joe's in Denver now. Yeah. I've been. I feel like it's a snack store. It's cheap. I like to make a dinner, it costs way more money than if you were to go to King Soopers and get the exact same ingredients from King Soopers. I love it for snacks.
Speaker: It is the perfect stop for road snacks location because they've got the fun stuff and for skincare. Their skincare is exactly the same as the very expensive stuff. Super affordable. I don't know. We we do a three-point grocery shopping. We do Costco, Trader Joe's, King Super, and they complement each other very well.
Speaker: Trader Joe's has really cheap. milk and milk substitutes they've got cheap butter they've got cheap cheap cheese they've got a lot of stuff that costs more at King Super because my husband does coupons like an old lady and I i do um full menu things so I've already mapped out like can't get my peppers at King Super's gotta get at Trader Joe's cause they're cheaper at Trader Joe's there's like all the things you know
Speaker: We're a Costco almost exclusively family. Like occasionally we'll stop by King Soopers for a thing actually king supers is the only place that sells the tortilla chip or the corn chips we like so we're a safe way gonna drop it for la favorite the best the no those are good they're yeah so good whole foods whole foods i think sells the best tortilla chips you can get flour or corn and i think they're the best
Speaker: You think you go to Safeway? Safeway is so expensive. Safeway's rough. No. That's very pricey. No, it's not. The ones by us. you guys You guys aren't hanging out in East Colfax, baby. You're not.
Speaker: we go to We go to Safeway because the King Soopers here are horrific. Oh, really? and Yeah, they're so bad. and then so we live right by two Safeways, and we live by a Clark's Market, which is really great for like meat. um It's like a boutique place, but we're super bummed because we're moving, and we don't have any Safeways or Clark's Markets anywhere near us. You're dropping this on the podcast that you're moving, Caleb? I already knew. Yeah, well, this is this isn't going to come out until everybody knows.
Speaker: Well, what like where in the order of people am in finding out? Well, Austin knows. I figured he would have told you. Yeah, I only knew i only knew because of poker night. Poker night the reason I know. had to cancel poker night because I had Austin hasn't been to a poker night in, like, months.
Speaker: So, wait, where are you moving? Yeah, where you moving? Uh... We're moving to Aurora do down by Cherry Creek Reservoir. Okay. Well, you know what? You'll be able to go to a bunch of really cool places. um Also, Aldi's is coming. So it's like, and I know you're not into Trader Joe's, but Aldi's basically own Trader Joe's. um And they are even, in my opinion, better. And so like she We're also moving close to a Costco because like we're yeah we're so many miles from a Costco right now. It's not even worth having a membership.
Speaker: Did you all buy a house? Please. i need a little bit of detail, please. Yeah, we did. i don't want to share too much. We close next Monday. I'll share more after next Monday. Okay. After after all the paperwork is signed and everything. Yeah, knock on wood. Yes. yeah Yeah. We won't say anything until then. Okay. Maybe you can continue recording. We'll have people over.
Speaker: Okay. Chris is wrapping up another day on the air, talking about the upcoming Sicily Day celebration. he reminds everybody to show their pride by wearing their official Sicily Day sock.
Speaker: Where's the Sicily Day Sock come from? This is new. This is stupid. Yeah. Don't you remember every season we've had a Sicily Day Sock episode? This is something that has been written into canon. You don't know about Sicily Day Sock? this was never why they came to Sicily all. they were They came there intentionally.
Speaker: How dare you? Because we cut to the doctor's office where Phil is asking Marilyn about the socks and Marilyn informs us all that Cicely and Rosalind drove up from Montana and Rosalind lost one of her socks and she hated wearing mismatcheded mismatched socks, so she had to stop and buy a new pair in Sicily, and that's why this entire town was founded, because of a sock, which also is circular logic and makes no sense. You can't stop at a town and then found the town at the same time that you stop at the town to buy the sock.
Speaker: Also, this I feel like Rosalind would not care about that. No, yeah, exactly. Sicily maybe, not Rosalind. yeah And you know what? I think Cicely was classy enough that she would have dealt with it It would have been Rosalind making sure that Cicely had matching socks that would have made any sense. Yep.
Speaker: But regardless, this is dumb. Yep. Well, speaking of dumb, the train continues because Chris and Maggie are checking out an old abandoned shed in the wilderness. Chris goes ahead and breaks in because nobody's been there for like 30 years and he's the one with the B&E record anyway. Turns out this is a shed where Cicely and Rosalind's old Model T has been stored for the last 30 years.
Speaker: um Cool. Glad we're discovering that now. Cool. Yeah. All right. We're in Holling and Shelley's apartment. Maurice and Holling are hanging out with Miranda. Guys, Miranda's here. She exists. yeah She's made her way into the show.
Speaker: Yep. She did it. Well, Maurice isn't very impressed with the kid at this point. He's never had much of an a affection for kids. But he does say, you know, if you ever had a kid, you'd want one ready-made, despite literally having a kid who is ready-made. who he wants to yeah Hello! Yeah, hello! You have a kid that grew came to you full-grown and whatever.
Speaker: yeah um Randy grabs Maurice's ear, and all of a sudden, Maurice feels a little bit of affection towards her.
Speaker: ah All right. Michelle and Phil are going over their finances and they realize they probably cannot afford their dream home that they want to build. As they're discussing their financial situation, a moose decides to sexually assault their vehicle, setting off the car alarm and tearing up the car in the process. Walter.
Speaker: Wall walks surveying the damage and says, yeah, I saw the moose mount your car. Don't worry, he won't get away from me. Apparently, Japanese radios, even though it's American-made Chevrolet car, attract moose-like pheromones.
Speaker: um All right. Sure. Ed arrives at the brick to ask Ruthann if he can take off a couple of hours that afternoon to help Lester Haynes with the Chamber of Commerce float. Holling the brick to Miranda stops by to ask if he can can't hang out with Randy a little bit.
Speaker: Randy grabs his ear again. That does it. That clenches it. Maurice now believes that Randy is the reincarnation of his uncle Elvie. Holling and Shelly are not quite buying it.
Speaker: Back at the capper cabin, Michelle is gathering some firewood on the front porch when she notices that someone has left her a box that's addressed to her. She opens it, only to discover an old parka and winter boots along with a note that reads, You seem cold. Looks like you could use these.
Speaker: Does Michelle have a secret admirer? No. It was Walt. You think so? You think it was Walt? I feel like was absolutely Walt. Sar came up. She came outside. Yeah. No coat and boots. Walt dropped it off.
Speaker: They never answered who was. It makes sense. Cause yeah, it was Walt. Walt's always around and noticing everything. yeah Yeah. That's a good call. Yeah. Well, and he's the only one who's around there to be witnessed to Michelle.
Speaker: Right. True that. They've run into each other four times in the past few episodes. Like best friends. Yeah. they have Yeah. Best friends. Um,
Speaker: Bill's not there. He's out at the property that they purchased with Maggie. The cappers want to sell off seven or eight acres to pay for the rest of the loan and be able to afford to build their house. They want Maggie to sell the property for them.
Speaker: Maggie is a little hesitant and breaks the news to Phil that the property, despite being beautiful, is not an ideal place to sell because they're way out in the wilderness. There's no decent road to get there and they're off the grid. So nobody will want to buy it.
Speaker: Which just made think that these two city slickers are idiots. Yeah. Because they didn't even think about how they were, one, going to be able to afford to build this amazing house. And two, wouldn't it be great if there were some services out there so we could actually have a functioning house?
Speaker: um Anyway, Phil's looking around at the wilderness and the isolation, and he begins to have a massive anxiety attack. Not fun. And I really believed it based off of the actor's acting ability. Because he was acting?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, he was acting. He was acting. With a capital A. Yeah. Well, Maggie gets Phil back to the cabin and he's embarrassed. Phil tells Michelle that he's afraid of nature.
Speaker: He has something much worse than agoraphobia. He has nature phobia. The trees, the mountains, and the whole ecosystem feel like they're trying to devour him. their Their cabin looked enormous. It looked like a soundstage, I think, right?
Speaker: Yeah, they definitely blew a couple of walls out and expanded that bad boy after Joel left. Oh, yeah. It looks like an entirely different set. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Did you feel like the sound was just super janky in this whole episode? I feel like the sound in the whole season is really... It tweaked up, it tweaked down. Okay. Especially when it was clearly somebody's ADR. It sounded weird. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: This one especially, though. Yeah, they're they're cutting some corners on some production. Probably. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, while they're hanging out and Phil admits that the ecosystem's trying to devour him, Michelle tells Phil about the anonymous clothing donation that she received. And she's freaked out by it. She actually takes the gift as a threat that the people there don't accept her and they want her to dress like her or like them.
Speaker: um She's not happy about it.
Speaker: I mean, this is the second time she's gotten the gift of clothing, and the first time it was out of kindness, when they had the neighbor, or, well, I guess kind of neighbors, stay their house. Yeah, the moccasins. With the fur-lined boots.
Speaker: Yeah. Like, um this shouldn't be new. not buying it this time. Yeah. Well, we're back at the VanCores apartment. Holling has just put Miranda to bed and Shelly is cleaning up dinner when Maurice shows up with a cornucopia of expensive gifts for Randy.
Speaker: um Still claiming that it's because he believes that Randy is his uncle. um Maggie and Chris are working on the Model t trying to get it up and running when Chris inquires if Maggie is currently seeing anybody. He's been a little inspired by the relationship that Cicely and Rosalind had in their journey in the Model T. Yeah.
Speaker: um I don't like the moment that this happened. I was like, no. And now, no every, no. No. and you so that They're also working on a motor that looks a little too modern to be a ah Model T. Yeah.
Speaker: And also way too big to fit in the Model T. There's no way that they would be able to replace a single part in this vehicle. Like, they stopped making parts almost a century ago. I have a lot of issues with this vehicle overall.
Speaker: um One that culminates later in the episode. Okay. Phil visits Maurice at his office. ah We find out that the cappers actually bought the land from Maurice and they want to sell it back to him.
Speaker: Maurice is being a pretty shrewd businessman and he's not willing to sell the land back. um He claims that it would actually be a disservice to Phil and Michelle. He believes that they need to keep the land to make them the people that they're meant to be.
Speaker: even says that when he first moved to Alaska and bought some land, he had second thoughts, but Alaska turned him into who he is.
Speaker: Michelle finds Ruthann at the brick, wants to see if she's gotten any mail or possibly or possibly understand where the parka and boots came from. Ruthann has no idea who gave her the parka and boots, but managed to give Michelle a little perspective on how people in a nice how people do nice, anonymous things in small towns like Sicily, which I believe. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, I can see that Michelle's a little jaded being an L.A. person, even though they said they've moved like a dozen times in the last nine years. Yeah. um Yeah, it's a little jaded.
Speaker: um As she's leaving, Holland calls after her. But he's saying, Bernice Crandall, Bernice Crandall. He mistakenly thought Michelle was Bernice from behind because of the parka she was wearing. and He turns around and he actually sees Bernice Crandall across the room, a character we've never met, um but is clearly the actress who plays Michelle in very, very old-aged makeup.
Speaker: Oh, you think? What? That makeup was excellent. Oh, I thought it was just a and ah different actress. Oh, yeah. Maybe we got a stand-in. In an old age, we're going to go. Oh, really? Well, we'll have to check it.
Speaker: Yeah, it seemed like a little like. actually surprised none of us checked this before. Yeah, exactly. I'll look it up now. They were trying to lean really hard into the idea of Michelle's story without actually leaning hard into Michelle's story.
Speaker: yeah I knew that she didn't have too many episodes. I mean, they also brushed out her hair to make it look like ratty and long. like it Oh, it was a terrible wig. It was bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think it but it's a, my my bet is it's a different actress.
Speaker: All right. Let's afford a bit. I might be willing to take that. Yeah. um A dollar. all right. I'll take a dollar on that. Yeah, what does Moose Gal say?
Speaker: I'm looking up Moose Chick right now. What's IMDb say? ah We could check that, too. You'd never be able to find it on there. You can barely find half the actors that are on there.
Speaker: Moose Chick probably says something. All right, Shelly and Randy are playing with a new toy that Maurice has bought for Randy. um Hauling comes out of the... another room with a solid wooden bunny that he's carved for Miranda as a new toy. I appreciate the effort, but I don't think a solid block of wood is really a good toy for a toddler. Of course, I don't have kids, so I could just be reading into that. I don't know. My mother often tells me of most of her toys, which were either like lead-based metallic toys or solid blocks of wood with wheels and metal accoutrement. Yeah. Oh, no joke.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Like it's it was a lot of solid blocks of wood. Like she told me about this Snoopy toy that she had that you would pull on a string and it like its feet would flap. It's a really cute toy, but it is a log of wood.
Speaker: That's funny. Yeah. Well, all right. I see it. I mean, kids will play with whatever. would Yeah, I never, I loved playing with just like sticks and shit. so Exactly. You can pull it off. Well, as they're playing, Jerry Moore, Maurice Minifield's stockbroker, arrives at their door. Jerry informs the Vincores that Maurice has started a growth portfolio for Miranda, and she now owns a bunch of stocks, and that Maurice is the custodian of the account.
Speaker: Hauling is not a fan of this. 100% agree with Hauling. this is a creepy move man yep um yeah but he should have kept them he should have kept those because that would have paid for her college hell yeah it's just another episode of transference yeah it's this continuous like ownership misdirection of love yeah with Maurice or like in the last episode with Chris and Joel like it's always just they don't know where to put their emotions yeah
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. um The next morning, Phil shows up at the brick to order a fresh mango apricot shake from Eugene. Eugene politely informs him that there are no mangoes and no apricots. In fact, the only fresh fruit they have is apples.
Speaker: Phil loses his shit and admits that he hates this place. And just like that, one episode after Joel has left, we have ourselves a new Joel. Nobody seems phased when Phil gets up and decrees out loud that he hates this place. And I think it's because they're used to their doctors hating this place.
Speaker: We cut back to Maurice's office as he arrives for work. Holling is sitting in silence, waiting for him with all of the gifts that he has given to Miranda, including the stocks. He confronts Maurice saying that this has nothing to do with your uncle Elvie, that there's actually an ulterior motive behind everything, which of course Maurice adamantly denies.
Speaker: Later on, we see Ruthann and Michelle are outside working on a booth for the library Surprise, surprise, Michelle is freezing her butt off because she's not wearing any of the parka or boots. She's actually dressed very inappropriately for winter in Alaska.
Speaker: plum Ruthann realizes that Michelle is probably suffering from frostbitee frostbite because she has gone numb in her feet and can't feel anything. So acting quickly, Ruthann takes Michelle to see her hubby, the doctor, and luckily they caught it in time.
Speaker: As Phil is attending to his wife, he informs her that they have ruined their lives and are trapped with no escape. They've gone down the rabbit hole, not just because of the contract, but because they bought a bunch of land that they never that they'll never be able to sell, and they're...
Speaker: and that the land also paralyzes him with terror. ah While trying to figure out if Michelle is also the old actress in this, I did see one trivia thing about this episode on IMDb, and apparently they make a big deal about Phil repeating this line of them going down the rabbit hole as alluding to a reference of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,
Speaker: That's a bit of a stretch because yeah there's nothing else here that would support that at all. Yeah. This is, it's almost like they were trying to scrub season six from all of these websites. I'm having a really hard time finding the cast breakdowns for individual episodes.
Speaker: Wait, I think I might've just found it on Rotten Tomatoes. What did the older woman have a name? Bernice? Yeah, Bernice. Bernice. That's right. Thank you. um Yeah, nope.
Speaker: Bernice Crandall. Still having problems. Yeah, those people that that don't have lines usually are not included.
Speaker: Yeah, but I could have sworn it was her. Yeah. I thought for a second it could be. Yeah, we'll say it could have been or maybe it wasn't. Who knows? Yeah. um All right.
Speaker: Well, Maurice shows up at Ruthann's shop, despite the fact that she's closed. He's avoiding going to the brick um or having to confront anybody. Ruthann, however, confronts Maurice about the Uncle Elvie business, pretty much calling him out as a metaphysical cuckold. She lays it out that because he couldn't have his own child with Shelly, he's now trying to take over Miranda. um Ruthann calls him a lonely man with a lot of regrets trying to buy a family.
Speaker: yep And then to help out, the lovely human being that Ruthann is invites Maurice over for a late supper with her and Walt. What a peach. um The next morning, Phil is literally ripping the counter out of their house for some reason, maniacally. um Ed shows up with a box for Michelle, another box for Michelle.
Speaker: It's a costume for the Founders Day parade that Ed found in the basement because he realizes Michelle's not going to be able to get out. she's you know she can't She has to stay off of her feet to recover from her frostbite. I think in this moment, Ed teaches Michelle and Phil a little bit more about the generosity of a small town like Sicily, the true spirit behind it.
Speaker: um I found Phil to be utterly ridiculous in this scene. Blatant, like tearing the kitchen apart. redecorating.
Speaker: I think this a little bit of a precursor of things to come. Well, anyway, they eventually fire up a very rusted, very dilapidated Model T. Let me repeat that because it's very important.
Speaker: A very rusted, very dilapidated Model T. All right. Now we're back at the Capra's where Phil is continuing to rebuild the entire house. You know, once he finishes the kitchen, he's going to move on to the bathroom.
Speaker: Where do they get the money to rebuild a house when they still own all of this land and want to build another house? It's absurd to me. Anyway, Michelle has decided to get in costume and go down to the Founders Day Parade.
Speaker: Phil still has a bit of a butthead attitude, but Michelle brings him back with the story of the socks and the realization that we have to make the best of our future.
Speaker: You know, a sock can teach you a powerful lesson. Wherever you're at, you have the power to choose how you wish to take it on. Rosalind's story made Michelle see that if you have the courage and you maintain your essence and your sense of fashion, nothing can get the best of you.
Speaker: I actually thought that would relate to you though, Ann, because if you maintain your sense of fashion,
Speaker: I truly do feel like if i but if I start, when I worked remote, I really lost my sense of self in a lot of ways. And one of those ways was like fashion. I didn't go out often. i didn't put on the clothes that I love. I'd never needed to do my hair really. Like I did it up, but it was more often than not a ponytail. Didn't do my makeup often because it was just a camera. i was just on camera all day. And I love going out and being around people and being the person that I feel the most comfortable being. So, yeah, in that way, I do feel that at least my outer must reflect my inner self.
Speaker: And my outer self was not reflecting my inner self for a while. Hmm. I love watching, um I was like deleting old stuff off our YouTube page and your level two that you taught during COVID, the Zims. I would click on them and watch it because you were so done up. And I was like, oh love it. I love it.
Speaker: good it matters it it matters to me and what also matters is that episode 16 has been scrubbed from reality wow right i am having well and i think a little bit of this is that it was because of the um the episode that was meant for season five That they've added in. So some websites have it as season 15. Some websites have it as season, and or sorry, episode 15. Some websites have it as season 16. Oh, so it's confusing everything. Yeah. That makes sense.
Speaker: hu But I'm still like, Plex has a pretty good, ah really like thorough cast list, but I'm having a hard time finding this specific freaking episode.
Speaker: It's crazy. interesting Well, we still have to talk about the parade. Yeah, because we're there We're at the celebration. And Maurice sees Holling-Shelling Miranda. And, um you know, I just noticed that Holling's hat has miraculously healed itself from a couple of episodes ago. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, no more rip. um But Maurice tells the couple that Miranda could never be his uncle because she likes the song Great Balls of Fire.
Speaker: And his uncle, a staunch Southern Baptist, had a zero patience policy for rock and roll. I guess that's his special way of apologizing. Mm-hmm. Had zero tolerance for rock and roll, but every tolerance for reincarnation.
Speaker: Yeah. 100%. You know those Southern Baptists? um Well, the Founders Day Parade starts and everybody's extremely excited. ah Phil and Michelle arrive in their moose-humped vehicle to enjoy the Founders Day Parade.
Speaker: And wow, not only... Did Maggie and Chris get the Model T running again? But they have completely detailed it, painted it, and reupholstered it in the matter of a single night.
Speaker: This thing is pristine, museum-ready Model T. um And then Chris arrives, dressed as Cicely, to accompany maggie' Maggie's Rosalind so that they can ride ah in this magical car together.
Speaker: And once again, a beautiful town celebrates its beautiful history with a beautiful parade. Everyone sees the magic in a little town called Sicily, Alaska. For their parade of eight people.
Speaker: And two floats. So this parade was bigger than the parade at my parents town, ah but everyone goes, but everyone goes apeshit for it. And it's like my favorite thing because it's like eight cars, the fire, the fire truck and the trolley.
Speaker: And it's just like people in town in the cars, like waving and it is hilarious. um But what i what was funny is I came home and I started watching these episodes. i was like,
Speaker: This parade is bigger than my parents' parade in Waterville Valley. But what I also liked was when they panned back, everyone was in the parade. There is only like two people on the side watching. Yeah, it's just like it's a participatory parade. It's intended to be watched. So funny. No, yeah. everybody Everybody gets to ride the ride. Nobody has to watch. Yeah. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Yeah, it's more of a party than a parade, really. Yeah, exactly. That's a good way to think about it. um Are either of you familiar with the idea of, I'm using air quotes, shipping characters?
Speaker: No. So when you two...
Speaker: characters into a relationship you're shipping them and this often happens in like the fan ah fanfic communities so if you're writing fanfic for a like I would read fanfic for X-Files when I was younger and like if there is a fan base for any show there's usually fanfic for it I have never gone searching for Northern Exposure fanfic but so there's some ships that are very natural so like you would ship Mulder and Scully yeah um Or people would ship um Mulder and Skinner.
Speaker: And this ship of Maggie and Chris infuriated me from the get-go. And I just got angrier and angrier as the season went on. This makes me so irrationally angry because there are some ships that just shouldn't be sailed.
Speaker: I'll say that. Wow. And this is one of them. You know, those producers were like, got to put the two hot people together. Yeah. Let's do it. They had to. They had to. Yeah. We got to put a bow on it somehow. You've got to button it.
Speaker: Had to. Oh, and the minute he starts, Chris starts talking about like, you know, people need to pair off. That's what they've got to do. They've got to be together to be happy. Yeah. Oh, it made me so angry. That was it. They weren't subtle. Yeah.
Speaker: Chris, ah the philosopher, the person who could find oneness and wholeness in nature and in words is like, well, you gotta have a partner. This guy has not, Chris, I think, has had one of the biggest disservices done to him over this last season. Yeah, I would agree with that. He had to feel so weird watching his character crumble. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or he didn't because we found out he didn't put that much effort into his monologues. Yeah, or that. Yeah, know he was probably like, i got I got sex in the city coming up. I'm good.
Speaker: I got sex in the city lined I said Jessica Parker is waiting for me. I gotta go. Yeah, my big fat Greek wedding. I got you lined up. I'm good. Yeah, come on, guys. Let's go.
