Transcript

AJ (00:02.699)
Okay, here we go.

Hey, everyone, welcome once again to podcast in death, weekly podcast where we discuss the in death series of books by JD Rob I am AJ.

Tara (00:14.763)
Terra.

AJ (00:16.477)
And this is episode 247 of podcasts and death. And in this episode, we are going to review the first part of bonded and death because anybody that’s read this book already knows that it’s, it’s dense. It is. She packed a lot into this book as far as information goes. And, Tara and I just thought.

First of all, Tara had a lot of thoughts, apparently. She wrote down a lot of notes as Susan read to her. And so we just thought, well, let’s not just try to cram it in to one episode. We’re going to, we’re going to have to cut it off and do one part this week and one part next week. So we, apologize to anybody who wants a full book in one episode.

Tara (01:13.614)
to anyone who wants a five hour episode.

AJ (01:15.819)
Yeah, that’s sorry. I know that some of you out there, there’s one or two out there that would love a five hour episode, but no, that’s not going to happen this time. So yeah, let’s just get into it. First of all, took you a while to read this one because you were detailed notes and other things.

Tara (01:22.135)
You

Tara (01:38.862)
I well, I was doing notes as I went. But also I did not have the chance to like read it. I had to have Susan read it to me. Just because there’s just a lot going on. I recently took on like basically an entire other person’s job at my job. So so we’re working through that and

AJ (01:54.676)
Yeah.

Tara (02:07.542)
my mental capacity is just not capable of that. But when I’ll just kind of like explain when I when I texted AJ I was like, I have notes. I started listening to Susan reading and like, I got like a second into the book and I was like, okay, hold on.

AJ (02:10.347)
Yeah, yeah, I get it.

Tara (02:35.374)
And then just started anytime I had a moment where I was like, hold on, or I was like, I have commentary on this. I would just stop and I would record. So I’m just showing AJ, like I have like a notes app open and I have it like all. But I all of it’s like voice to text. So a lot of it I went back through and I was like, oh my gosh, what was I trying to say? So there’s that. But

AJ (02:39.957)
Ha ha ha.

AJ (03:00.723)
Hahaha!

Tara (03:05.558)
You know, I just I was like, well, if I just keep kind of like a running commentary, it’ll be maybe fun to comment. Nothing I’m saying is terribly insightful. It’s more just like a reaction. And so I thought that, like at the beginning of each chapter, I would just be like, this is what this was all my reactions were from this chapter, because it might be amusing. It it might not be. I don’t know.

AJ (03:13.769)
Yeah.

AJ (03:30.923)
Well, we’ll just see. It’s something new. It’s a, you switch it up for the listeners.

Tara (03:34.797)
Yeah, I just…

Yeah, and I, you know, that’s I was I think it was I think was on an episode. I don’t think it was on a briefing room. Recently, we were we were I don’t know what the hell our topic was, but I had like said something about being on an episode very, very early on in podcasting death. And I wasn’t. But I I then I was like realizing that, no, I listened to the fucking episode in my car and was like talking back.

AJ (03:58.432)
Yes.

Tara (04:06.894)
to you guys, which I caught myself doing during a recent Romancing the Shelf episode. So that’s just who I am as a person. That if someone is talking to me about stuff, even if they’re not actually there with me, I have something to say. I want to have a conversation. And so that I’m sad that the conversation has already been had and I wasn’t there. So that’s.

AJ (04:07.529)
Right.

AJ (04:16.261)
Right. Yeah. Yeah, I do that too.

AJ (04:27.412)
Right.

AJ (04:32.829)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Tara (04:35.778)
kind of where this stemmed from. It’s nothing like, you know, revolutionary, but the conversation that we’ll have today will, I’m sure, be super fun and insightful like always, so.

AJ (04:48.561)
Exactly. So as always, we’re going to start with the theme of this book. And my choice for the theme of this book is trust.

Tara (04:50.215)
Hahaha!

Tara (05:04.642)
which I 100 % agree with.

AJ (05:08.009)
Yeah.

Tara (05:09.902)
Yeah, I’m glad you didn’t ask me to guess because you know I’d looked at the timeline. So I want you to think that I like cheated. But I agree. I agree with that being, you know.

AJ (05:12.747)
I knew you would already looked at it, so that’s fine. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. and like, like I always say, I always think of try to find it in the first chapter. There’s always a lot of reference to the theme in the first chapter. And this section I pulled out is from the first chapter. And it’s talking about Somerset’s wife. We don’t know that yet, but it’s saying the teacher who at the dawn of the wars had

dug the broken and bloody bodies of her young students from the rubble of the bombed school, now made bombs. Her purpose, she’d vowed when weeping over those broken and bloody bodies, was to destroy those who would murder children. She’d met the medic that day, the day that had changed her life forever.

Out of the smoke and blood, there had been a light. They had loved, they’d married and created a cherished child. To keep her safe, they took the child out of harm’s way in the care of a trusted friend.

and we learn later that’s Ivana.

Tara (06:38.158)
It’s Alice. Oh, the trusted friend is Ivana. Yes, it is.

AJ (06:42.347)
trusted friend is Ivana. And it’s because Ivana trusted Alice with her children at the very beginning of that. And we’ll talk about that. she had to get her kids out because it was obvious. Nora’s making a lot of inferences. She’s not saying anything outright in this book, but she’s making some inferences to part of

the conflict here being mixing the races essentially. so Ivana had married a man who was mixed race and they had mixed race children. And so Ivana wanted to get them out of the country. Her husband had died, wanted to get him out of the country and hid them with Alice until she could.

So there was a trust there. It was a bond and a trust. So then also Eve to Peabody after talking with Giovanni Rossi’s wife said he asked her to trust him. Marriage rules and for plus decades required trust. Later Eve thinking about if she should bring one of the alphabet agencies in on the ops.

She’d already considered and rejected contacting Homeland regarding Rossi and or the security company. She had many reasons and some very personal for not trusting HSO. She considered then rejected contacting Agent Teasdale. She did trust the FBI agent and former Homeland agent, but Eve decided to hold her in reserve.

Also, there’s usually some kind of conflict. It’s mostly between Eve and Rourke where you find the theme plays out. In this case, it was Eve and Peabody and they were having a discussion about the fact that Eve didn’t tell Peabody about having let Yvonne Drosky go in missing.

AJ (09:06.277)
and Peabody’s whole thing is she’s saying to Eve here, you could have told me wound up Peabody kept going. You could have trusted me. Peabody trust had nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing. If I didn’t trust you, I’d have come up with some bullshit story because I knew the name would click for you sooner or later.

Then there is this section here when Eve and Rourke attempt to defuse the bomb that Conrad Potter had planted in the restaurant. And Eve says to Rourke, if he’s watching the place, he could just set the goddamn thing off. Your face is on top of it. I like your face. He glanced toward her and smiled. Thank you, darling. I’m very fond of yours.

This is an old device, Urban Wars era. Urban Wars era, I learned on one of these bastards. Hold this, will you? While she held the light, watched the minute go from 36 to 35, he got out tools. She didn’t know what the hell he did with them, but wished he wouldn’t. Listen, Rourke. Shh. It has a nice, but faint hum. I needed to hear it. I thought after all this time, you’d trust me. I do, but that’s the guilt crap, isn’t it?

Tara (10:08.878)
Ahem.

AJ (10:25.865)
Hmm, there now. He set some sort of housing down. You’ll want to bag all of this. You should run back and get your field kit. I’m not going anywhere, Ais, and if you think I’d leave you here with a fucking bomb, you hurt my feelings. A good attempt at guilt crap.

Tara (10:41.409)
you

AJ (10:43.057)
So yeah, and I mean the whole situation here is because the 12 trusted Conrad Potter and he betrayed their trust essentially.

Tara (10:56.94)
to trade them. And of course the trust that they have, you know, with each other after the, yeah, after the fact that they still are together, that they still have that.

AJ (11:04.255)
with each other exactly.

Right.

Right.

AJ (11:14.256)
do you want to start?

Tara (11:19.054)
Yeah, here I will start. So AJ separated these, the prologue. That’s okay. Yeah, that’s okay. So before I read to you from the timeline, I will just kind of give you my opening comments.

AJ (11:25.157)
I the epilogue, which is really sorry.

Sorry, prologue. Did I put that down wrong? Sorry.

AJ (11:41.599)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (11:48.971)
All right.

Tara (11:49.644)
So, I don’t know. Okay.

Okay, so I turned on my, I turned on the book and I paused it immediately to record this. Okay, Susan, I’m going to stop you like four seconds into this book. This first paragraph is terrifying, especially right now. Thanks, Nora. I wish you weren’t someone who could tell the truth into the possible future like it seems you have in some of these books. Yikes.

AJ (12:25.333)
Ha ha ha

Tara (12:25.496)
But honestly, I just don’t want this to be one of the cases where you’re actually able to predict the future, even if it was unintentional, please and thank you. And, you know, again, these are all my notes from the prologue. So that was the very beginning. And then then I said, one of these is obviously Somerset. OK, he’s obviously Fox. He’s going to be the medic. And Somerset is Fox.

AJ (12:41.077)
Right, okay. Yes.

Tara (12:52.694)
Ivana is also going to be someone here, probably the dancer. Yeah, that’s her. And then, so the teacher is definitely Somerset’s wife. The child is definitely Marlena, and I am sad already. And then, super impressed with rich people being generous like this era is just selling everything to help people.

AJ (12:58.699)
Ha

AJ (13:07.059)
Yeah, yeah

AJ (13:19.787)
I mean, who knew that rich people would do that? Right?

Tara (13:19.99)
I really wish people out in this world now, I really wish people out in the world now were like that, using their money to help people. So Somerset is from the Ukraine, which was something we had kind of assumed, but didn’t know for sure.

AJ (13:30.357)
Yeah.

AJ (13:34.965)
Well, is he, is it Ukrainian? Did it say specifically?

Tara (13:39.054)
I think it did.

think it did, which is why I said it, but who knows what the fuck I’m talking to myself about in the car.

AJ (13:45.995)
We’re sabbaticals.

AJ (13:50.123)
Yeah.

AJ (13:54.238)
Okay.

Tara (13:57.334)
Are you looking it up in your Kindle?

AJ (14:01.375)
Yeah, I’m doing a search for…

AJ (14:08.139)
Doesn’t look like it’s fine.

AJ (14:14.953)
Yeah, I mean, it’s not looking, it’s not finding.

Tara (14:18.124)
Yeah, I’m not really sure. Maybe I just said that or I recorded weird, but that’s what I said when I was in the car.

AJ (14:28.509)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He spoke of his homeland in Ukraine.

Tara (14:33.016)
That’s right, yeah. I just said, know, so Somerset is from the Ukraine. And then I said, it’s really cool to learn about that. Also, I’m getting misty-eyed over here already.

AJ (14:41.877)
Yeah.

AJ (14:46.355)
Yeah, and you know, just.

Yeah, like you said, Nora, dude, like, you know, Nora, there couldn’t have been any way that Nora could know.

Tara (14:55.758)
came from me.

AJ (15:04.799)
Well, you know, yeah, yeah, actually you could. were, we were told ahead of time. And, you know, if, look, if you’re a, if you’re a Donald Trump fan, might want to skip the next few minutes. Thank you. We were told Hillary Clinton told us in the, you know, in the first run for presidency that he was a puppet of Putin. And whether you believe that or not, I mean, that’s.

You know, but, this book is written from the standpoint, in my opinion of what if, and the war with Ukraine started before Nora wrote this book. And I think this is just Nora extrapolating out and saying like, okay, war in Ukraine is happening right now. What happens if Trump wins the office? Let’s just extrapolate that out and.

while you get Urban Wars.

Unless something happens, very well might be.

And like you said, it’s, we could use a little less of Nora telling the future, but I, know, you know, the one good thing that you can say is that, regardless, we come out of it, right? A lot of people will die, but you know, the world will survive.

Tara (16:27.672)
I mean, go off, guess, Nora, but it’s really unsettling.

AJ (16:48.403)
and something different will come out of it. And in that world, there’s a gun ban, so maybe, maybe that’s something that we can, you know. Anyway, so yeah, is that all of your notes or do have more?

Tara (16:57.07)
Anyway. Yeah, yeah, that’s all my notes for that. that’s so then epilogue prologue. It is prologue. So prologue May 2026. In a bunker under a church in London, England, a covert group who call themselves the Twelve are having a meeting.

AJ (17:06.656)
Okay.

I didn’t put much here in this, sorry, prologue.

Tara (17:25.314)
Their number included a teacher, an actor, a dancer, a cop, a medic, a young scientist, technicians, a retired soldier called to duty once more, a thief, a mechanic, an heiress. The teacher’s code name is Fawn, the actor Chameleon, the dancer Panther, the cop Shark, the medic Fox, the scientist Owl, the techs are Wasp and Cobra, the soldier Rabbit,

the thief Magpie, the mechanic Hawk and the heiress mole. They are planning a mission to destroy the enemy’s headquarters and free their people who are being held in prison. And then quote from the book, they drank not knowing one who drank with them was a traitor. Like a banger of an opening.

AJ (18:17.331)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (18:19.498)
I think that this first set, like the prologue, just like set the tone of the whole book, of how I was feeling through the whole book. Even at points of the book that were probably not meant to be like on the edge of your seat levels of tense, I just felt that way through the whole book. And I think it’s because of the beginning. yeah. Do you…

AJ (18:26.015)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (18:40.103)
Right.

AJ (18:47.455)
Good job, Noor. No, go ahead and do, yeah, right. You know, go ahead and do day one and I’ll take over on day two.

Tara (18:49.198)
Good job, Nora. We’re so grateful.

Tara (18:57.902)
Well here, I’ll read my notes.

AJ (19:00.981)
Okay.

Tara (19:03.31)
Okay. So chapter one.

Tara (19:09.646)
Chapter one. I don’t know what airport this guy is flying into, but it’s not a 20 minute drive from any airport near New York to Central Park West.

AJ (19:18.261)
You

Tara (19:24.194)
I think later on we do learn that there’s like a different named airport and I don’t actually know where that is so I’m gonna give that back to Nora but in that moment I was like no. And then that breakfast sandwich sounds delicious. And then don’t say breakfast too loudly or Galahad will wake up. And then is work going to buy Australia? That’s what I know, it’s from chapter one. I told you.

AJ (19:35.103)
Ha ha.

AJ (19:42.837)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (19:47.327)
Ha ha ha.

AJ (19:52.455)
Okay.

Tara (19:53.486)
that I’m all over the place, but those are me talking to Susan in my car. So chapter one, September, 2061, 1220 AM. Wasp, now going by Giovanni Rossi, has just flew into New York City from his native Italy. He was in New York because he had received an urgent message from Fox. He was met by a driver with a limo. Once the limo was on its way, Rossi fixed himself a glass of wine and started to relax when he smelled something odd.

AJ (19:58.901)
Okay.

Tara (20:23.212)
then started to panic. He tried to open the doors and windows, but they were locked. On the dashboard monitor, the driver watched Rossi die. Once he was dead, the driver rolled the windows down to let the poison gas out, then parked in the garage of a home the driver had bought a year ago. The driver changed out of his disguise and put another one on. He then went out to the limo, got rid of anything incriminating, and put a business card between Rossi’s fingers. On the back of the business card, he had written,

Here lies the dead wasp. He joins Fawn, Hawk, Rabbit. Twelve are now. I can’t eight. Eight. The Roman numerals that she put in there, which are great, but I can’t read them now. Soon there will be only one. Like, I haven’t just fucking read this book, but I was like, I’m looking at Roman numerals. So my brain stopped working.

AJ (21:03.061)
eight.

AJ (21:14.555)
Right.

Tara (21:19.342)
Then he drove Rossi’s body to a highway underpass, got out of the limo and walked away. Back home, the driver made himself a snack and thought about how he would kill the rest of the 12. Fun guy. 430 AM. Eva’s awakened at the beginning of a very promising sex dream about Rourke by a call from Central. She changes in the closet so Rourke can’t comment on her fashion choices, in which I laughed out loud.

AJ (21:30.634)
Yeah.

AJ (21:44.939)
You

Alright.

Tara (21:49.336)
She grabbed a white t-shirt, unless it was cream or oatmeal or another of the myriad shades of white with stupid names. Gray trousers seemed good enough, but when she started to reach for a gray jacket, all those damn shades defeated her. Too early for this crap, she decided and went with a navy jacket. Black boots seemed like too many colors, and god knew Rourke made sure she had a zillion to choose from. She grabbed navy there and dressed in the closet so it would be done before he could point out the error of her fashion-declined ways.

AJ (22:08.317)
You

AJ (22:19.091)
if…

Tara (22:20.77)
Rourke insists she eats breakfast. She drives to the scene and talks to the first on scene officers, Micky and Blaine. They tell her he’s stoned or mildly impaired, man found the limo, opened the door and found the dead body, then called it in hoping that there would be some sort of reward. Sorry, Officer Blaine tells her that the victim, sorry.

AJ (22:37.193)
No, that’s too bad.

AJ (22:46.089)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (22:46.764)
Officer Blaine tells her that the victim has Eve’s business card in his hand and on the back of the card is a cryptic message. Blood on the victim’s hands and blood on the window and privacy screen tells Eve that Rossi fought to get out of the limo but was trapped. Peabody arrives, Eve sends Peabody to question the witness and Eve calls Morris. At this point, Eve is asking several questions in her head. Who the hell was Giovanni Rossi? Why did he come to New York? What did he plan to do? Who did he plan to see?

Why did the killer want Eve on the case? Which is very fair.

AJ (23:24.053)
So, okay. So now we move on to chapter two. As even people I head over to… yeah, sorry. Yeah, give us your comments.

Tara (23:24.571)
yeah.

Yes. Do you like my comments on chapter two? Sorry. So I’m sorry. OK, chapter two. I know there’s nothing wrong with the way that Eve is explaining this to Rourke, but she also knows that he’s reactive. So I don’t know why she didn’t just leave the thing like, just so you know, that’s my business card, but I know that I’m not the intended target.

I love the line, he pissed you off and that’s a mistake. That’s what we’re all thinking.

Okay, Eve, how much time has passed between when you talked to Giovanni’s widow and when Peabody came in and said they couldn’t find a hotel reservation? Because Mr. Rossi told you he is staying with friends and you probably should have told Peabody so she wasn’t taking the time to look up hotel reservations.

Tara (24:23.512)
So I have no idea how much time passed. Maybe it wasn’t very much, but I was like, are we gonna tell your partner who’s doing unnecessary work? Okay.

AJ (24:24.501)
Ha

AJ (24:31.541)
Yeah, well, I… she forgot. Who knows.

Tara (24:35.022)
Right? mean, gosh, she’s allowed to make mistakes. It’s Yes, Peabody Rossi’s a spy. Good job. You totally get it. And I love that you’re afraid to tell Eve. then. OK, but to be fair, things started going to shit in the United States in 2016 as well. I’m just saying.

AJ (24:38.632)
Exactly.

AJ (24:43.179)
You

Tara (24:57.484)
That is the end of my comments for chapter two.

AJ (25:00.053)
Okay. All right, so chapter two. As even Peabody head over to the airport, Eve calls Rourke on the off chance that the victim, that he knows the victim. I don’t know what happened with this text here. Rourke doesn’t know the name, but will look to see if the victim is possibly an employee. A lot of this I was doing also with the voice to text and didn’t really work out that well, like. Right, yeah.

Tara (25:25.422)
Well, I can’t judge you because you know how goes for me.

AJ (25:30.251)
I think that’s how goes with all of us, to be honest. Right. At the airport, they view the security discs, got a visual on the limo driver who picked Rossi up. At one point, he’s waiting. As he’s waiting, the man smugly looks into the camera, holds up Eve’s business card. Back at Central, Eve contacts Rossi’s wife, who is shocked and grieved.

Tara (25:34.19)
because AI is not the all in all.

AJ (25:58.709)
She tells Eve that the only thing her husband would tell her before he left is that he had to go because he’d taken an oath. Eve and Peabody do some more digging on Rossi than decide to go see Dr. Morris. So here’s the scene where Peabody is going to give Eve her thoughts on the case so far. Peabody, I think, and don’t give me the poo poo. Eve simply stared at her partner. The what?

You know, the poo-poo. A Peabody waved her hand dismissively to demonstrate. But I think maybe Rossi was a spy. Please note, I’m not saying you’re an incredibly silly word. That is not an actual word. Why do you think maybe? Well, it’s also Pat so ordinary. And then when you go way back, there’s the Urbans and just a mention of him working with the Underground. In New York? In Europe?

as a cyber tech, but they had spies in the underground and after he’s listed as working for this Italian company in IT and in cyber security. Way ordinary and for decades, same job, same place in the same position, just seems so Pat. People live ordinary lives Peabody and given his age and tech skills, it’s not a shock that he was part of the underground. We’re talking 40 or 50 years ago. Easy, right?

Things began going to shit in Europe in about 2016. Started earlier, lasted longer there in some places than here. Don’t you think his wife would know? If so, we’ll find out in a few hours. Meanwhile, we’ll keep your spy guy deal under consideration.

Tara (27:46.126)
But I mean, she’s right.

AJ (27:48.523)
Yep. As they drive to the morgue, Peabody asks for two minutes to talk about the Great House Project.

Tara (27:58.638)
How do you feel about the Great House Project coming to a close soon?

AJ (28:04.753)
I, you know, I, I’m glad that it’s coming to a close. I mean, I’m not, I’m not one of those that’s overly irritated by hearing about the great house project. and, you know, cause I, they’re excited about it and I’m, you know,

Tara (28:15.938)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (28:30.633)
So yeah, but it’ll be nice to have it just done and over with so that we can get them like living in the house. See that, you know?

Tara (28:31.682)
I was… Yeah.

Tara (28:38.254)
Right? I was, I was thinking during this section about like, how in the last handful, you know, I don’t even know how many books it’s been now since the we first introduced the house. But like, I feel like Eve has shifted a little bit about how she, how she like, lets Peabody talk about things. And I think that it’s just

AJ (28:52.939)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (29:01.587)
Yeah.

Tara (29:07.95)
really, really brilliant. You know, like she knows that this is something that Peabody wants to talk about. She doesn’t act like I don’t think she’s like, oh, thank God we’re talking about this, even though she pretends like she is. I think I think she’s just very focused on what she does. But I think that having these moments where Peabody gets to talk about the house is one, you know, giving giving the people who are interested, you know, because they’re

AJ (29:10.024)
Yeah.

AJ (29:19.883)
Right.

Tara (29:37.622)
readers of all kinds out in the world, who like giving them what they’re asking for. Also giving the character what she needs because we’ve learned over the course of 59 books at this point or whatever. Well, with Peabody 59 books that she she has to like process a lot of stuff out loud and a lot of that has to be personal too. And having her partner to bounce it off of, because I think that like if Peabody were to

AJ (29:39.53)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (30:07.488)
I think she, I personally think Peabody does a lot of this stuff so that she says it out loud and it sounds fucking stupid. Eve’s gonna tell her for real, you know? Instead of, like Eve will pick on her and I think she knows the difference, but if it’s gonna sound fucking stupid, like Eve will tell her and she’ll take that to heart. So when she talks about stuff that like Eve doesn’t know about, she’s also hearing, does that sound stupid?

and giving herself that extra layer, I think. And I think that it also just teaches Eve how to interact with people because not everything can be about business and the stuff she’s interested in. And that’s OK. That’s OK. That’s part of how you grows as a person. And I have really loved that process. Like hearing about the house is fine. You know, whatever. I’m not a homeowner, so my brain does not really like care too much about that. But I don’t I don’t dislike it. I’m like, that’s cool.

AJ (30:46.292)
Exactly.

AJ (30:50.304)
Right.

AJ (30:59.987)
Yeah.

Tara (31:03.47)
But literally, like, I have really enjoyed Eve’s reactions to each of these conversations and how accepting she is of them and how engaged she is with them. And I just I don’t know. I’m excited for them, like you said, to be in the house. And I have a feeling we’re going to get at least one lovely scene in a future near future book of Eve getting to be in that space and admiring it. And of course,

AJ (31:14.688)
Right.

Tara (31:32.726)
you know, Leonardo and Mavis, their space is going to be great. But I think for Peabody and McNabb, think that I think that’s kind of I think we all kind of care more about their space than Leonardo and Mavis and Bella. Not that we don’t love them, but we spend more time with Peabody and McNabb and also like knowing the resources that they have and what this is versus, you know, they’re a lot more innovative. They you know, this is an opportunity for them.

AJ (31:43.974)
Ha ha ha ha!

Yeah, yeah. Right.

Tara (32:01.422)
and Mavis and Leonardo can afford whatever the fuck. They have all kinds of money, you know, and Peabody and McNabber are obviously like frugal about what they’re doing and they have an opportunity to build something very special. And so I just I’m looking forward to that moment of like even more getting to be in that space and seeing seeing it and actually like getting to see it from E’s perspective.

AJ (32:05.717)
Right.

Tara (32:28.182)
and not having Peabody being like, and this is this and this is this. Like I want to see Eve see it and recognize the importance of all of it. And I’m just, I’m very pleased. And I loved, I just loved this part of the chapter. just made me so warm. I don’t know.

AJ (32:31.499)
Right.

Yeah.

AJ (32:42.217)
Yeah, I do think that Eve does see it. I think she does see it.

Tara (32:45.58)
I think she does too. I think she does too. I want, I just want to see it written. You know what saying? Like want to see that part of it.

AJ (32:50.731)
I think you want her, you want Eve to see it when everyone’s moved in and they’re all kind of, yeah.

Tara (32:58.693)
Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s good. I just think it’s going to be lovely. That’s all. Like, I just feel like it’s just going to be a really, really nice moment. And I’ve just I’ve really enjoyed this because I was like, there’s a lot of eave growing in this that we’re not seeing because it’s about something that’s not generally, you know, I don’t know. I’ve just really, really enjoyed it. But this particular time, I was like, I’m so happy about all of this for everyone. Like, I’m just…

AJ (33:02.891)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (33:12.063)
Yeah.

AJ (33:21.981)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, cause Peabody is so happy and, you know, I mean, she’s sitting there telling Eve that, know, we’re going to have a party, a big giant party as soon as it’s all done, which is almost now. And Eve’s like, that’s two minutes plus. And she says, I know, but I’m so happy and you don’t mind. Not so much. And Eve is thinking in her head, she didn’t really, not so much.

Tara (33:28.504)
She is.

Tara (33:41.312)
No!

Tara (33:47.726)
Please.

AJ (33:50.323)
Especially since it was nearly done and she wouldn’t have to hear her regularly about tiles and paint colors and refurbished tables. And here we are at the house of the dead. Relieved, Eve pulled up. So yeah, I just thought that was… Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (33:50.453)
Exactly.

Tara (33:57.902)
you

Tara (34:06.926)
It just makes me so happy. Just like Peabody. I’m happy like Peabody. I just I loved it. But I was like, I was like, oh, no, here’s more of Eve slowly like growing in this area. And even though this moment isn’t about her, it is. I love it. Sorry. So anything else on?

AJ (34:18.731)
All right. Yeah.

That’s okay. No, that’s okay.

AJ (34:27.261)
Nope, we can move on to Chapter 3.

Tara (34:29.774)
Let me read my notes.

Tara (34:34.189)
Okay, so 2024 was terrible as well.

Tara (34:40.398)
Let’s see. Okay. Feeney, that’s a really good idea. The red horse thing, for those of us reading who don’t know it clearly has something to do with Somerset. It’s an amazing connection. It is. And I’m thinking now about what Whitney was doing during the Urbans because he obviously was most likely in uniform or at least on the streets if he was a cop.

AJ (35:07.304)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tara (35:10.016)
and he’s around, or if he was on the force and he is around Feeny’s age. I also really love these code names. And then.

Sorry, because I have no idea what this says. Whitney’s code name is perfect, but not as perfect as Feeney’s. Those are my notes from today. Both of those are great, though. Also, like, what was he doing if his code name was Lightning? I don’t know. So anyway, Chapter three. Do you want to read Chapter three, We will do it.

AJ (35:26.41)
Ha

AJ (35:31.637)
Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

AJ (35:39.743)
He was fast.

AJ (35:43.987)
I mean, I can. Yeah. Let me read chapter three, two and then chapter four and five. Well, five is actually pretty long. So. So you can read four and five. How about that?

Tara (35:46.796)
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (35:54.254)
You

AJ (35:58.591)
Alright, Chapter 3. At the morgue, Peabody stalls by asking Eve if she wants a Pepsi from vending. And it says, the book says, postponing the inevitable, Peabody paused by vending. I could use a cold drink. I’ll buy you a Pepsi. Peabody, Morris stalks them. yeah, right. You saw the body in the back of the limo. Yeah, but it’s different on a slab. I don’t know why, but it is. I do know why.

She corrected as she walked down the tunnel with Eve. It’s because I know Morris has been, you know, in there pulling out organs and all that cutting into the body and taking stuff out that shouldn’t be taken out. Taking it out tells us why the victim is a victim. You’d think they’d find another way to do that. So, yeah. So this, this is really interesting because it, it, a lot of times I feel like Nora is trying to answer fan questions in her texts.

Tara (36:54.328)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (36:55.827)
And there’s, I know that there’s been people saying like, why is Peabody afraid to go into the morgue when she can go on a scene and look at a dead body? It seems contradictory. And so I really love that she kind of answered that, why there’s a difference for Peabody. And I don’t, I don’t blame her really, to be honest.

Tara (37:11.276)
Yeah.

Tara (37:17.87)
I I think that like, it really is just, it’s nice to see, I guess, that Nora acknowledges that kind of speculation about these characters because like, you know, I I work in healthcare and I don’t work directly with patients or anyone anymore. like, when I worked in like, Gastro, some of the photos I saw, I was like,

AJ (37:29.76)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (37:46.594)
That’s gross. But I was never like, my God, I’m disgusted and I can’t handle that, you know. And I worked with nurses who were like, they’re fine with blood, but if it’s their own, they’re not fine with it. know, you know, just like pricking their finger or whatever, or like, you know, everyone is different. And me, I’m not like I’m not like excited to look at gore or whatever, you know, but.

AJ (37:58.429)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tara (38:15.886)
You know, I watch I watch Game of Thrones a couple of times and it is gory. And there are a few things that I’m like, I’m not watching that. But for the most part, I’m like, oh, OK. But it’s like I’m OK with it. You know, I’m a guy. I’m not jumping up to like get my hands in a mess like that or anything. But I I get it. And I appreciate that that like nor I acknowledges that there’s a difference between. Where you are.

AJ (38:34.521)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (38:44.199)
and what the purpose of that is, you know?

AJ (38:47.657)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (38:50.126)
And seeing someone’s insides all cut up on his lap is different. Even if you see like a mutilated body on, you know, at a murder scene, which, by the way, we’ve seen how that’s affected her too. But we’ve also seen her be like, I have to do this. And she’s not the only one. She’s not the only one. Does that mean that she shouldn’t be a cop because God forbid she have a reaction? Like, I don’t think that that’s one of those things that’s fair to like

AJ (39:03.881)
Yes, exactly. Yeah.

AJ (39:10.217)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (39:20.078)
hold against a person, know? Being like, oh, well, you reacted to something. Okay, unless your reaction was to hurt someone else, I have no problem with your reaction. You know, that’s the other thing, it’s like, it’s fine. She can still do her job, she just also had to go throw up first, so I don’t know. It sounds terrible, but I mean, did the job get done? It got done, I will tell you.

AJ (39:21.395)
Right. Yeah.

AJ (39:32.243)
Right. Yeah.

AJ (39:38.847)
Hahaha

You some of us have to do that. Yeah. As long as the job gets done, you know?

Tara (39:47.99)
So, I appreciate that Nora did that and has done that, you know, kind of before, like Peabody has kind of said something similar, but this was a lot more straightforward.

AJ (39:50.165)
Yeah.

AJ (39:58.816)
Mm-hmm.

okay. So Morris tells them that Rossi was poisoned specifically by a toxic gas. He also tells them that Rossi showed signs of having broken his fingers and some ribs at one time. There is also evidence of a knife wound. and Peabody says to Morris, I think he was a spy. Morris smiled at Peabody as she cracked the tube of, of diet Pepsi. Do you? How interesting. As they leave, I love that Morris just like.

Tara (40:31.534)
Okay.

AJ (40:31.807)
goes with it. And Peabody knows that she can tell him. She doesn’t have to go now. Don’t before you say anything, let me just you know, like she does with Eve. Just I think he was a spy. We’re like, how interesting like I just love that whole exchange, you know. As they leave the morgue, Eve wonders to Peabody who gases an almost 80 year old man spies.

Tara (40:44.558)
That’s so good.

Tara (40:58.062)
She’s right!

AJ (41:01.567)
Hehehehe. Eve spared Peabody a glance. Under consideration.

Tara (41:04.11)
haha

AJ (41:08.651)
At the lab, Dicky tells them that the gas was used on Rossi was phosphine. It’s extremely dangerous and highly flammable. Back at Central, Eve assigns Peabody to do more digging and she goes to see Edd. They’re working to identify the limo driver’s face. Eve tells Feeny that the victim was gassed with phosphine and Feeny tells her that substance was banned after the urbans.

Tara (41:21.006)
Sounds fun.

AJ (41:38.631)
Eve then goes to Whitney and gives him a report. He tells her a bit about his own experiences during the urban wars and that he and Feeny also had code names. Feeny’s was Hound and his was Lightning.

Tara (41:52.066)
Yeah.

AJ (41:53.503)
So.

That’s pretty badass.

Tara (41:57.574)
I actually really, really love the presence of Whitney in this book. Like, it’s pretty cool to have him around a little more. Big fan.

AJ (42:01.758)
Yeah.

AJ (42:08.139)
Yeah.

Tara (42:12.206)
Okay, chapter four notes.

Tara (42:24.504)
Sorry, I was just trying to remember what this was about. chapter four notes. Right?

AJ (42:28.393)
No, you’re…

Like I wrote it down, but I can’t remember why.

Tara (42:36.718)
Um, so let’s see chapter four. OE the accommodation accommodation I don’t think that’s the right word um in your head. Is accommodation is what I’m trying to say? I don’t think so.

AJ (42:45.643)
The combination.

Tara (43:16.44)
Yeah. I’m thinking about when I’m thinking about when, like, she’s talking to the bullpen and she’s like, I’m not a victim. And then like in her head, she makes the like the amendment in her head. That’s like, yes, or whatever. I think that’s what this is about. So I said that. And I don’t think I actually said accommodation. But again, I did voice to text and I never checked it. So.

AJ (43:21.941)
Yeah.

AJ (43:37.297)
okay. Okay.

Tara (43:44.366)
Whatever I said was not or probably was, who knows? I don’t know. But I said, oh, Eve, that I’ll just say amendment in your head. Everyone can hear you. I promise it. And then, OK, I’m loving the scene between even Peabody. And I love that Peabody is challenging her and also very clearly knows that she’s stepping onto the line and pushing the boundary, but doesn’t care because she’s right. And I also love that she said the same thing to Eve that Whitney said about Nadine.

AJ (43:47.242)
Right.

Tara (44:13.258)
And also Feeny said about the Red Horse case. Obviously, everyone’s wrong, but we don’t know that yet.

AJ (44:19.634)
Hahaha

Tara (44:22.104)
I was like, they’re all like, they’re all like so smart, but it’s wrong.

AJ (44:26.153)
Yeah, you might, we might have to delve into that because that none of that is in here. You know. Okay.

Tara (44:31.634)
yeah, we can. Yeah, we’ll talk about that. And then the last part I have here, which is unfortunately not what happens in the book, but I said, Eve, can we please let Rossi’s widow spit in this guy’s face? I feel like that’s not asking too much. Because that’s what she said she would do. And I was like, I think she should be allowed to because fuck that guy.

AJ (44:45.483)
Right? You’re right.

AJ (44:52.991)
I know.

Tara (44:55.958)
So chapter four, and then we can talk about what I had mentioned there. Chapter four, goes back to the bullpen and is assured by her team that they all have her back. Jenkinson says, some fucking fuck screwing with RLT. We’ve got your back. We’re all in. Eve briefs the team on the case, then she and Peabody split an auto chef pizza in Eve’s office. Then they talk further about Rossi’s killer, who Rossi’s killer might be, and also who the people named on the card might be.

Eve thinks about asking Somerset what he might know, but then she gets the call that Rossi’s wife and son have arrived in New York. They go to the morgue first and to Cop Central where Eve questions them about Rossi. So yeah, when she goes to, she goes to Whitney first or does she go to Feeney first? Feeney. Yeah. And Feeney is the one that’s like,

AJ (45:45.845)
She goes to Feeney first and then Whitney.

Tara (45:55.33)
you know, is this really, could this be related to you being the ICO of cop? I think this.

AJ (46:02.437)
yeah, yeah. Okay.

Tara (46:04.942)
And then essentially Whitney says something similarly.

AJ (46:08.413)
Okay, yeah.

Tara (46:13.612)
right?

AJ (46:15.531)
Yeah. Um, wait a Where, where, okay. So where is this? Hang on a second. Oh yeah. It was right after Peabody says, I don’t know if this is what you’re talking about, but this is another thing that I thought was funny right after Peabody talks about them, uh, being a spy. Um,

Something about his…

Do you know what the hell? Maybe this arrogant fucker decided he wanted the cops who had a couple of damn bestsellers detailing their cases and a vid about one of those cases chasing his ass so he can prove how goddamn smart he is. It wouldn’t surprise me one damn bit. But that would be a mistake, Peabody pointed out, because we’re the cops who busted the ICOV gates and the cops who kicked red horses ass. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ve zipped out of the garage.

You know, Nadine’s working on another freaking book. The natural order investigation. know I bet it rocks. I worry about you, Peabody. I don’t want to, but I worry about you. Yeah. That’s when she says, I want two minutes. And he’s like, God. Yeah.

Tara (47:28.323)
You

Tara (47:33.134)
Yeah, so it’s in the last chapter. So I just would like to say that my voice to text error, the word that I was trying to say was qualif, because the line in the book is I’m not a target for now. She qualified in her head. I was like, I totally did not see the combination, but.

AJ (47:48.721)
Okay

AJ (47:53.675)
Mmm.

Tara (47:59.426)
Yeah, love that whole scene, though, with the bullpen where they’re like, yeah, OK, sure. But we still have your back. So calm down.

AJ (48:06.805)
Yeah.

So when Feeney mentions Red Horse, it says, something’s got to be there or the asshole wants notoriety. Get the Eichhoff cop, the Red Horse cop on the chase. And Eve says, shit, just shit. Now he smiled. It’s a damn good vid. The wife’s reading Nadine’s book. She’s liking it. Could be as simple and as stupid as that, figuring he’ll get himself in a book or vid.

And yeah, yeah, I’m going to check with Nadine and see if he’s contacted or tried to.

AJ (48:44.051)
So that’s not it, but I mean…

Tara (48:45.038)
It’s not it. And then what I’m trying to find where Whitney brings it up.

Tara (48:57.198)
It says something. Yeah, here it is.

No.

Damn it.

Tara (49:20.494)
Because they’re talking about code names, like right off the bat.

Tara (49:31.128)
Maybe he doesn’t mention it, maybe it was just feign he and pee body.

AJ (49:31.349)
What?

Well, in chapter four…

Tara (49:37.55)
Yeah.

AJ (49:41.318)
that’s when she and Peabody are having pizza and they’re talking about it and Eve’s like,

Were cops, were a family of cops. and I think you should contact Nadine in case the book vid thing is driving this. And let’s see, then the next thing is.

It’s in chapter five.

AJ (50:10.972)
she’s talking to Nadine and they’re talking about the bids.

Tara (50:13.774)
Okay, I was looking, feel like there was just another conversation about it. But anyway, again, that was just whatever I said.

AJ (50:17.931)
Yeah. I wanted to, yeah, I wanted to put the entire conversation with Nadine in this because I loved the entire combination, combination. See, while we’re talking. I loved the entire conversation with Nadine. Like the entire thing. I just wanted to like copy every single thing and put it into my timeline because it was just gold. The entire thing.

Tara (50:26.262)
It’s great.

Tara (50:31.234)
Hehehehehe

Tara (50:47.95)
Well for chapter five my only note was, my god yes, Jake and Nadine, yay.

AJ (50:55.403)
Right?

Tara (50:56.27)
So that’s literally my only note from chapter five. Other things happen, but as far as my out loud reactions. then from the timeline, chapter five, Anna Maria Rossi tells Eve that she knows that Rossi was part of a team in the underground during the urban wars, but never talked about it or said any of the names of his team members.

AJ (51:02.46)
Yeah.

Tara (51:24.758)
She says Rossi’s injuries, broken fingers, ribs and stab wound was from a scooter accident. Eve’s not buying it. From the book, they held up, Peabody observed. It wasn’t easy on either of them. They just didn’t have the answers. They had plenty of them. They gave me the answers because they didn’t know the answers. Is that a riddle? They didn’t know the answers because he never told them. Not even the woman he lived with for half a friggin’ century. He didn’t.

tell them not just because he didn’t want to talk about it, but because he’d taken an oath. He didn’t tell them because he was a freaking spy.

First Peabody’s mouth fell open. Then her eyes lit as she pumped her fist in the air. I knew it. No, you wondered it. And you hoped it because it adds. What’s the frosty, what’s the thing frosty stuff adds? Cachet? Sure, that works. But he was a goddamn agent at least up until a few years ago. Didn’t fight in the urbans, got a knife wound and broken ribs, broken fingers falling off a scooter. Eve shook her head. I figure he was a damn good agent in his day.

Do you think the security company where he worked was like a front, a front for covert ops? If not, he used it as a cover. This is pretty frosty Dallas. Murder is never frosty.

AJ (52:43.275)
Eve. I mean, she’s right. But let Peabody be a little excited.

Tara (52:46.558)
Eve, she’s right.

Tara (52:52.61)
But also like if your job is interesting, like it’s interesting, you know, and if that’s what you need, it’s like, that’s like, that’s like, you know, like a surgeon being like, wow, brain surgery is really interesting. be like, people needing brain surgery is like not great. Yes, but it’s still interesting. So this is just, this is just too peabody-ous. Give her a break. Back in her bullpen, sees that Nadine and Quilla are there.

AJ (52:56.893)
Right? Yeah.

AJ (53:09.811)
It is interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Yeah.

Tara (53:21.24)
Quilla is interviewing Jenkinson. Eve asks Nadine to come into her office and she gives Nadine some information on the case. And then Nadine is going to start digging in as well. What did you type there, AJ? Digging gives… We’re just, in the business of creating all kinds of things over here. Podcasts, new words.

AJ (53:31.819)
What the hell is going on in that? Well, it’s Degengus. It’s a new word I made up. Yeah. Damn you. You know, auto to text, I guess.

Tara (53:53.774)
Right? It’s all good. Maybe your adult Quilla, this is from the book, sorry. Maybe your adult Quilla, Nadeen’s laugh held easy to light. She’s a gem, Dallas. Another thing I owe you for putting her in my sights. She’s so fucking bright. And the school, Andidan, what you and Rourke have done there, he did it. She’s doing so well there, not just academically, but socially, emotionally.

She works hard, but she’s made friends. You know she’s seeing Jamie. Eve slapped a hand on her eye as it twitched. I don’t want to hear about it. It’s not serious. He’s in college. She’s still in high school. She wants to do, she wants to do what I want to do. He wants to do what Feeny does. They both know you can’t mix that, but they’re good for each other. And I think they’ll, I really think they’ll stay friends.

Tara (54:48.396)
Sorry, the Quilla Jamie thing is still kind of like a sure. Sure. I feel like it would bother me less if Eve wasn’t so reactive to it. I’d be like, you know, but like Eve always has to react to like relationships because she’s Eve. And I’m like, okay, but is…

AJ (54:57.216)
Yeah.

AJ (55:03.999)
Yeah.

AJ (55:09.939)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, she’s Eve who sees two people, in this case, two kids that she met on two separate occasions and should have been kept separate because Eve wants everybody separate in her world. Jamie is part of this over here and Quilla is part of this over here and to mix them is just gross. It’s like, right, it’s like.

Tara (55:20.354)
Yeah. When they were kids.

Tara (55:29.186)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (55:33.282)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (55:38.4)
This doesn’t work for Eve.

AJ (55:40.883)
some people who don’t like, you know, all of the ingredients on their plate to mix. they, the mashed potatoes are over here and the peas are over here. We don’t ever mix those. And if we do, it’s disgusting. And then you have people like Peabody’s like, yeah, let everything mix. So.

Tara (55:50.594)
Yeah, it’s.

Tara (55:57.454)
It’s just that it’s just it just doesn’t work for Eve. Then Nadine tells Eve everything is going so well with Jake that she’s a bit scared. She’s never been in love before and it’s different from the book. I’ve loved other men before, but I’ve never been in love and it’s different for him too, for both of us together. She pressed a hand to her belly. I get the jitters. Nobody ever gave me the jitters before. I like it. Am I supposed to like it?

Maybe was the best Eve could do. It’s amazing sex, right? Eve, so good. It’s amazing sex. I don’t want to hear about the sex. I’m not going to talk to you about the sex. Okay, then. In her sky high heels, Nadine turned her circle. I’m crazy in love with him and I didn’t expect it. I wasn’t looking for it, but now I have it and I want it and I want to keep it. He’s moving in with me. well, good. And then.

AJ (56:28.459)
Eve’s not really good at this.

AJ (56:55.903)
Good is the question. well, good.

Tara (56:57.496)
Good is a question. Yes. well, Eve not knowing how to navigate through any conversation. And we love her so much for it.

AJ (57:04.787)
Yeah.

Tara (57:09.976)
To be fair, like Nadine’s whole energy here absolutely like encourages Eve to be like, how am I supposed to react to this? Because Nadine’s energy is so not normal Nadine. She’s like, what the fuck? don’t, this is new for me. And Nadine is never not confident, you know? So it’s great. Eve’s reaction is so perfect. And then more from the scene.

AJ (57:20.459)
Right?

AJ (57:25.951)
Right.

AJ (57:33.843)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (57:38.348)
With a hand to her heart, Nadine pivoted. What if I screw it up? How do you not screw it up? I screw it up all the time. Do you? I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse. Was it easy for you and Rourke? Did it just slide into place and stick? No, nothing was easy. And I had a lot to do with that because he scared me. What I felt for him scared me too. thank God. Nadine stopped pacing. Then she walked to the door.

These are all snippets from the scene. Then glanced back. I know I compared him to Rourke, but the fact is Jake is more like you. Seriously? Yes, seriously. I don’t know what the hell that says about me.

AJ (58:18.075)
Hahaha

Tara (58:20.558)
I love that so much because I feel like we kind of talked about this before, like the how even and Jake kind of have some similar like attributes. So so how does that make you feel that the guy you’re dating is also similar to one of your closest, if not your closest friend?

AJ (58:37.024)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

AJ (58:44.651)
You

AJ (58:50.827)
Right. When naturally everybody would think that every woman would want Rourke, but, and Nadine probably thought that too. Like, yeah, I want a guy just like Rourke. And then she ended up like with a guy just like Eve. And you could just imagine what that revelation, like how that affected her the first time she thought about like, oh God, what the, yeah, what does that say about me? What, you know, but it, what it says, well, you know, what it says is that

Tara (58:51.214)
Hahaha

Tara (59:02.99)
God, I like Eve.

Tara (59:08.318)
Right?

Tara (59:15.586)
Seriously, I don’t know what the hell that says about me. It’s so good.

AJ (59:20.523)
clearly something in Nadine is attracted to people with that same energy. So it makes sense.

Tara (59:26.52)
Yeah. And she just, she has not really ever thought about that before, I think is what it is. So, and then the part of the timeline ends, just Eve has decided she’s going to go home and get it the hell over with, which means she’s going to talk to Somerset, which obviously she’s not ever in any hurry to talk to Somerset. And of course, all of us reading the book are going, Eve, you have no idea.

AJ (59:31.721)
Right. Yeah.

AJ (59:48.703)
bright.

Tara (59:54.722)
how much summer that is going to be like, like completely central to this storyline. And he was just like, he was around during the urban, la la la.

AJ (59:57.013)
Right.

AJ (01:00:00.926)
Yeah.

AJ (01:00:04.555)
Yeah. And I think, cause we had a chat going on Facebook about this. And I think at least a couple of people I know said something about that. The whole first several chapters, the whole time they were like, just call Somerset. And I think I was that way too. Like, God damn it, just talk to Somerset. So, but you know, you have to let it play out the way it’s going to play out.

Tara (01:00:22.022)
Yeah.

Tara (01:00:33.762)
Well, think that I think that that yeah. Well, and I also just kind of loved that, like, because I was obviously thinking the same thing, too. I didn’t jump into the chat yet, but. Just kind of being like, just wait. Like every time she’d think of Somerset, I was like, let’s wait. Because obviously, like we here’s the thing is that anyone who’s read these books, I don’t.

AJ (01:00:34.079)
But it makes total sense that you would put that off, yes.

AJ (01:00:41.589)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:00:47.822)
hahahaha

Yeah

Tara (01:01:01.312)
I don’t know, I could be wrong because people might be reading them casually. But a lot of us like diehard fans.

There’s actually like no, there’s no actual specific like indication in the first several chapters that Somerset is central to the story, except for we know that because we know about Somerset. Like we all kind of have all these feelings about Somerset. So no one, no one who’s like a hardcore fan of the series is shocked to learn any of this stuff about him.

AJ (01:01:31.435)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:01:37.567)
You’re right.

Tara (01:01:39.65)
But it’s still kind of a really cool thing to be like, if you’re not a hardcore fan of the series or you like the series, but you read a fuck ton of stuff and maybe you’re just not like crazy like we are, I guess. Like the people who are going to get hit with that when they read that or if they have, you know, the people who have read that and then like, my God, like, wow, that’s so cool. We get to learn more about Somerset without like going. We all kind of went into this book knowing we were going to learn more about Somerset.

AJ (01:02:07.699)
Right, yeah.

Tara (01:02:08.674)
But like what that’s like for the people who are not as ingrained. was like, that’s kind of cool. I’m excited for them. And I hope that it’s a it’s a good experience for them to be like, I don’t know. We were all gifted with that information. But I think for people who weren’t expecting it, I feel like it’s probably an even bigger and brighter gift, I suppose. I don’t know, because I was fucking excited. So maybe that’s not the right way to describe it. But like, I just yeah.

AJ (01:02:13.247)
Yeah.

AJ (01:02:32.011)
Yeah, think we’re all excited about it. mean, that first chapter, because the prologue she released before anything else months ago, think we’re all stoked about it. We’re all very, very excited. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (01:02:40.172)
my god.

Tara (01:02:49.558)
Yeah. And all of us were like, it’s about the Urbans. We’re going to learn about Somerset. Like, we all went there because we we have been given information throughout the series that he was a medic during the Urbans. And while there are lots of characters that could have been involved, it just felt like that’s what we were getting. Like, I think we just are all. I love it. I love it.

AJ (01:03:05.812)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:03:18.153)
Yeah.

Tara (01:03:19.502)
Before you read chapter 6, I will read my notes.

AJ (01:03:22.175)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Tara (01:03:26.318)
Okay, Chapter 6, just a few notes. Eve, don’t fat shame your cat even if he doesn’t seem to be offended.

AJ (01:03:34.091)
Well…

Tara (01:03:37.582)
I’m just saying don’t fat shame your cat. It’s don’t

AJ (01:03:41.099)
What about your dog? Can I do that? Because I don’t ever fat shame Lily, but I do go like, you don’t need another treat. You’re getting a little chubby. The last time we took you in, you were like 50 pounds heavier and that’s not okay. But it’s only not okay for her. And I’ll, I’ll, qualify this. It’s only not okay for her because of her leg and the, her original vet told us to keep her weight down so that it’s not so damaging on her leg. And so yeah, I do.

Tara (01:03:50.152)
Hahaha!

Hahaha

AJ (01:04:11.295)
have to, well, you’re getting a little chubby, so we don’t get that weight down so that, you know, slightly fewer treats. Yeah. And I say that to myself too, slightly fewer treats. Never works for me, but no. Yeah. Well, you know.

Tara (01:04:13.294)
And it’s slightly fewer treats. No, I get it. But I was like, don’t fat shame your cat. Yeah. Now, meanwhile, meanwhile, I’m over here like I’m like, Eve, don’t fat shame your cat. Meanwhile, I was like fat shame myself every day. So there’s that. So we’re doing swell. My other note from this chapter, which obviously

ended up not being anything, so that’s good. I don’t like that Somerset isn’t home. It makes me worried.

AJ (01:04:49.353)
Yeah. Yeah. And it will, and it’s, it’s great writing though, because it’s still, it still continues that like us going like, yes, she’s finally going to talk to Somerset and she gets home and he’s not there. we’re like, God damn it. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (01:04:51.19)
I like-

Tara (01:05:02.765)
Mm-hmm.

It’s so good. And yeah, but like until until you get work being like, it’s his night off, you know, like, and even then I’m like.

AJ (01:05:14.219)
She needs to talk to him, love. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:05:17.634)
And I need him to be okay. Like, is he on his night off or is he… So that’s kind of like where I was on that. And I was like, I don’t like this. I don’t like this.

AJ (01:05:25.917)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great, great writing on Nora’s part. Fantastic writing. She does. So, but and yet, when it comes time for a reread the reviews, you know, we’re gonna get like, it’s a ghostwriter, like, fuck off. All right. Fuck off ahead of time.

Tara (01:05:32.699)
so good. She knows what the hell she’s doing.

Tara (01:05:41.737)
And yet.

Tara (01:05:47.214)
If it was a ghost writing, be like, fuck off.

Tara (01:05:54.219)
Ha ha!

AJ (01:05:55.111)
All right, so chapter six, when she got home, she saw that there was a rainbow right above the house. I love this part. She thought it was funny. So she took a picture of it with a phone to show Rorik later. know, I, again, this is Nora like updating for the culture and for new technology, right? Because up to this point, I don’t think we’ve ever had Eve like, my God, look at this. I’m going to take a picture of it.

because it’s so funny, I’ll show it to Rourke later. And then her showing it to Rourke later and him going, that’s so great, send it to me. Like a conversation that we would have. But these are not conversations that they have ever had before that I know of, that I remember. Just a random like, hey, look at this picture I took, it’s so funny. And he was like, yeah, send it to me. So it was just funny.

Tara (01:06:39.062)
Right. And I love that.

Tara (01:06:47.336)
you

AJ (01:06:51.367)
And then, of course, she goes into the house. And this is from the book. He wasn’t there. No bony cadaver in black stood looming dark eyes cool and scanning for bloody or ripped clothing. No fat cat sat at his feet. What the fuck? The one time she turned to the house comp. Where the hell is Somerset? Darling Eve, Somerset is not in residence. Well, shit. I am unable to perform that function.

Funny, is Rourke in residence? Rourke has not yet returned. Shall I notify you when he does? No, crap. Where’s the damn cat? Gallahad is in your office, darling Eve. Update, Gallahad is leaving your office. Frowning, she stood another moment, then saw the cat coming down the stairs. Nobody here. You can’t, you don’t count. Then she bent to stroke him when he rubbed up against her legs.

You count, but not for this. I’ve got the whole freaking castle to myself when I don’t want it. I’m going up. You might as well come. Christ knows you could use the exercise.” So she was still bitching about Somerset not being home when Rourke came in. She complains to him about Somerset, then tells him that for dinner she wants fries. Lots of fries, like a mountain of fries.

Tara (01:07:59.15)
AJ (01:08:19.067)
They discuss Giovanni Rossi and whether or not his place of business could be a front for covert ops. They also discuss Eve’s discussion with Nadine and Jake and Rourke thinks it’s lovely. They decide to use Rourke’s unregistered computers to look up information on Rossi. So again, this a lot of times I put these passages from the book in to show that again, Nora kind of

answering questions, but you know, as people ask and she’s like answering these questions in the text. She walked to it, pressed her thumb on the pad. Dallas, it hummed to life. I can’t use unregistered for reports. Rourke merely stepped over, pressed a glowing red button. It shifted to green. Now it reads as the comp in your office. Slick. Slick, thought, just slick.

Tara (01:09:11.47)
Jesus.

AJ (01:09:15.355)
And while more of a violation than a crime, still, still she decided she’d think of it right now as a tool. A comp was a comp wherever it sat. Rourke set coffee on the counter for her, then flicked his finger down the shallow dent in her chin. You can go to your office and I’ll bring you whatever results I have when I have them. So I not only bend the rules, but I’m a hypocrite about it. This is fine.

The rules snap back Eve. If we’re honest, CompuGuard’s stated purpose is to detect criminal activity, they do remarkably poor job of. You don’t. Detecting terrorist activity. She rolled her eyes at herself and they don’t do such a hot job there either. Not anymore. Outdated, underfunded, exploitative. So continue? Yeah, do what you do. So yeah, I love that whole

Tara (01:10:12.888)
AJ (01:10:16.151)
seen because, you know, I mean, how many people have complained about like, you’ve skirting the law or whatever. And we’re seeing that like, look, I, again, and something that you brought up earlier about like, Nora predicting things like where we are now. Okay. I can easily see this administration going like, well, we’re going to use Elon Musk’s

Tara (01:10:34.606)
Yeah.

AJ (01:10:45.277)
satellites to start this division of the government that we’re going to call CompuGuard. They’re not going to call it that. They’re going to call it something dumb. X or something, because, you know, Elon Musk loves to name things X, but you know what I’m saying? It’s not a leap. It’s not a really far leap.

Tara (01:10:53.794)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:11:03.544)
Yeah. Yeah.

No, it’s really not.

AJ (01:11:08.369)
And it’s all they’re going to do is screw shit up and they’re not, we’re looking for criminal activity. But what they’re really going to do is just look at regular people and you know, it’s going to end up not being what it’s, what it was intended for. you know, so, you know, can’t say much more than that. So we’ll just wait and see.

Tara (01:11:25.986)
Yup.

AJ (01:11:37.341)
So Rourke found a pre-urban wars blueprint for the building Rossi works in and finds it had a two level underground area and underground tunnels. The building also has military grade shields. Rourke manages to get through the shields and pull up a live video feed. It shows the underground area has, among other things, a laboratory and an armory. Meanwhile, Somerset returns home. He finds a note from Rourke saying that he would like to talk to him about the urban wars.

He makes his way to Eve’s office and finds her board. And book says, and decades fell away in an instant.

Tara (01:12:16.184)
Such good writing.

You know, and I like I feel like we got to the end of that chapter. We’re really like, yep, this is exactly what we expected. know.

AJ (01:12:24.949)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tara (01:12:32.149)
OK, so Chapter seven notes. OK, I’m glad Somerset is home. Also, I want sorry. OK, also, I want to hug him, but I don’t think he would like that. He doesn’t seem like a hugging type. Maybe he is. I’m definitely feeling emotional about all of this with Somerset telling everything, and it’s just so sad.

AJ (01:12:41.406)
No, go ahead.

AJ (01:12:46.283)
Hahaha

Maybe he is, just now with Eve.

Tara (01:12:59.884)
And then I have, my god, we’re having a spy party.

AJ (01:13:00.085)
Mm-hmm.

Hahaha

Tara (01:13:06.958)
And I love even Rourke’s teamwork of taking care of Somerset. It’s wonderful and I just love them all together. What a lovely family. So that’s my notes from chapter seven. Yeah. Okay, sure.

AJ (01:13:13.393)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. So you you’re going to read chapter seven and I have a note of my own in there somewhere so you can read that.

Tara (01:13:24.182)
Chapter seven, even Rourke returned to her office and find Somerset standing in front of her board and looking like he’s in shock. Somerset is quick to point out to them that he is shocked, not in shock. A.J.’ note, Nora absolutely listens to this podcast. You can’t convince me otherwise.

AJ (01:13:47.275)
That’s one thing I said to Tara. Like when, as soon as Somerset, as soon as I read shocked, not in shock, I was like, yeah, no, Nora listens to this podcast. I mean, I, you can’t convince me otherwise because how many times did Jen say that same thing? It just bothers me that they always say, you know, she’s in shock or he’s in shock, you know, but.

Tara (01:14:00.514)
Yeah.

AJ (01:14:15.715)
They’re shocked and they’re not in shock because shock is a specific thing in medicine. And who would know that a medic, but up to this point, she was always said, they’re shocked. He’s shocked. He’s shocked. And, and it just seems funny that we did, you know, Jen specifically did a ton of complaining about that. And then in this book, shocked, not in shock.

Tara (01:14:29.196)
Yeah.

AJ (01:14:45.897)
specifically from Somerset.

Tara (01:14:48.319)
Make sure Somerset clarifies that.

AJ (01:14:52.299)
So yes, you cannot convince me that Nora does not listen to this podcast. So, hey Nora, thanks for listening. us. The number is 205-476-2753 and that spells out 2054-ROAR.

Tara (01:14:58.2)
So thanks for listening, Nora. Call us.

AJ (01:15:10.923)
call us Nara Ruppers.

Tara (01:15:14.542)
And back to our regularly scheduled timeline here. I love that so much. Let’s see. So Somerset tells them how he knew Giovanni Rossi because they were both part of the 12th. Eve asked him for information on all of the members of the 12th and eventually gets to Fawn. From the book, Fawn, Alice, his hand reached up through the chain from under his shirt and the wedding ring it held.

Alice Stormer. was my wife. Eve knew love and understood as Rossi’s widow had said, it could and did outlast death. And then some of us had told them all about the last operation that the 12 planned a bombing of an enemy base. From the book, she died on May 18th, 2026 with Hawk, with Leroy DuVois. Heroes, they died heroes. And they died victims of treachery betrayed by one of us.

Who? We called him Shark and he proved well named. Conrad Potter. He was a cop, one who’d been in the military and intelligence. He was a traitor who betrayed his comrades for money, AKA a piece of shit. Yes.

AJ (01:16:28.267)
Can I add something? Piece of shit. Yes, you’re absolutely right, Tara. But can I add something though? And that is that when I was reading this, then it occurred to me like, there’s another reason for him not to like cops. mean, because his, you know, it’s…

Tara (01:16:36.035)
Yeah.

Tara (01:16:46.506)
I thought that I had made that note in my thing and I didn’t, but I thought about that. Go on.

AJ (01:16:54.025)
Yeah. Well, because, you know, I mean, here’s, Potter and he’s a cop or he was an ex-cop and he pretty much is responsible for the death of Somerset’s wife. I mean, if Somerset’s wife hadn’t done what she had done, Potter would have killed her anyway. That was his, that was his goal. That was his plan. So a cop is, is pretty much responsible for Alice’s death.

Tara (01:17:11.831)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:17:20.221)
And then what happened with Marlena, the cops weren’t involved directly, but the cops were like, death by misadventure. What can you do? So yeah, I mean, it makes a ton of sense why he’s always been so reluctant to accept Eve. So.

Tara (01:17:28.301)
Yeah.

Tara (01:17:39.308)
Yeah, so much sense. Let’s see. So Somerset says the other members of the Twelve went after Potter and Rossi found him first. Rossi broke two of his fingers fighting with Potter. When Somerset got there, he wanted to kill Potter, but he heard Alice’s voice in his head telling him not to. He then told them the other members of the Twelve included his lady friend, Ivana.

Panther and Yvonne Drosky Owl, who Eve called the Let’s Screw With Time Guy. From missing and death. So members of the 12 also included Marjorie Wright, chameleon, a famous actress, and Iris Arden, mole, a rich heiress who inherited the Arden-T’s fortune. Others include Serrell Snowden, Cobra, and Harry Mitchell, magpie. Somerset also tells them that when the 12 broke up after the war,

AJ (01:18:15.083)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:18:37.56)
They took an oath that if one of them ever needed help, all of the others would come without question. They all decide that Rossi must have thought Somerset had signaled that he needed help, and that is why Rossi was in New York. He offers to contact all the remaining members and have them flown to New York ASAP. The next morning, wakes up early. She has more questions for Somerset, and work suggests she questioned him over breakfast. Somerset makes it clear that for some parts of the story,

heavily suggested those parts involve ROAR.

Eve’s recorder would need to be turned off.

I just want to comment on Eve and how she handles all of the like on the record, off the record stuff. Like, I think that she’s just so intuitive about her job that

AJ (01:19:23.765)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:19:33.142)
One, I mean, she’s she’s interacts with Somerset enough to know and she knows enough about Somerset in general that like there are there are things that Somerset is going to say that are not needed for the record but are going to be helpful for her as far as understanding the whole situation and she’s just instinctually so good at it.

AJ (01:19:48.149)
Right.

AJ (01:19:55.146)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:19:56.652)
I just, I find it, you know, someone I’m sure will be bad about it with the reviews, but I find it to be like, I just think that’s her intuitiveness is so important and it’s real, honestly, like there are people who just get it, you know, and Eve does. So I don’t know, I love that.

AJ (01:20:16.297)
Yeah, I agree.

Tara (01:20:18.414)
I’ll read my notes from chapter eight and I think that some of my notes from chapter seven ended up here, but whatever.

AJ (01:20:25.897)
Okay.

Tara (01:20:30.262)
Yeah, so chapter eight, maybe someone seven, I don’t know.

So, okay, I know that Eve is not going to press this, but I want to know why Somerset chose the name Kolchek, even though it’s not relevant to what’s happening. Some of his testimony is really hard to listen to in the present climate. There’s another good reason for Somerset to hate cops. So there’s, that was my, I was like, I thought I said something. Holy shit, I’m crying. This is horribly sad.

AJ (01:20:57.937)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

AJ (01:21:04.041)
Yeah.

Tara (01:21:05.998)
my God, he thinks that the guy is totally not dead. This guy’s totally is not dead. This guy totally is not dead. She’s absolutely right. I love it. So I was like, so pleased. was like, she is so smart. Someone’s going to be mad about that, too. But I was like.

AJ (01:21:12.107)
You

Tara (01:21:24.876)
I’m sorry, this guy worked in like covert ops. It shouldn’t, it shouldn’t be surprising to think that he is still alive.

AJ (01:21:33.533)
Right. And, in terms of why Rourke choo- you’re wondering why Rourke- Rourke. Why Somerset chose the name or why he chose to change his name?

Tara (01:21:49.762)
I just wanted to know where Kolchak came from and like how Eve in the book was like, she wouldn’t press unless it became important. And I was like, but now I’m curious.

AJ (01:21:52.597)
Right.

AJ (01:22:01.003)
Well, see, I don’t, to me, it’s more important why he changed his name.

Tara (01:22:08.984)
Well, I mean, yeah, but that’s part of it. Like where did Colt check come from in that, in that, I mean.

AJ (01:22:10.932)
Right, right.

Tara (01:22:17.516)
Also, I wanna know why you changed his name. But like, you know, just like all of that, but I know it’s not relevant to this plot. So I’m like, but I wanna know.

AJ (01:22:22.407)
It is not, but I’m going to put my, I want to put, I’m going to put my head cannon out there so everybody knows. Somerset changed his name. I don’t know why he picked Kolchek and it may be his, some distant relatives last name or maybe last name of a mentor. Who knows? My head cannon is that he changed his name because his last name.

Tara (01:22:28.484)
Okay. love it.

AJ (01:22:51.583)
was originally Zelensky.

Tara (01:22:57.165)
Okay.

Tara (01:23:01.016)
Did you just come up with this headcanon? I love it. I love it.

AJ (01:23:02.931)
Yeah, I just came up with it right now. No, I didn’t. I thought that he’s got the fact that that he said his father and his mother and his brother were all killed. And it wasn’t like he the way it was worded didn’t sound like all accidents or just just casualties of the war.

Tara (01:23:26.838)
of the war. That’s so fair. Yeah.

AJ (01:23:28.975)
And the fact that he decided to change his name because if they were just casualties of the war and he was just some guy, then why change your name? Nobody cares, right? Nobody knows who you are. Nobody cares.

But if his name in 2024 or prior to 2024 was Zelensky.

Tara (01:23:52.195)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:23:53.621)
people we care.

Tara (01:24:02.894)
I love it.

AJ (01:24:02.911)
Well, the opposition would care, definitely.

Tara (01:24:06.062)
Right.

AJ (01:24:09.301)
So.

Tara (01:24:10.818)
I love it. Well, Kulchak sounds…

I don’t know. I don’t know enough about like, know, where names come from and all of that. Like, that’s not something I know anything about. But like, Kolchuk and Somerset do not sound like they would be have the same background. You know what saying? Like, but I’m not really sure that I know enough to be like Kolchuk sounds like it’s, you know.

AJ (01:24:36.597)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:24:47.324)
Hahaha

Tara (01:24:47.606)
Russian or something, you know, like I don’t I have no fucking idea. So or so. I just I feel like Kolchak and Summers that don’t seem like they come from the same country, I guess. So just interesting choices there.

AJ (01:25:00.613)
No. Yeah, no, I think. So, so I guess the head canon could be that changed to Kolchek because maybe just just a name that he didn’t think would be anywhere near, you know, anything that would if like, if if it was like his mother’s maiden name or whatever, then it would be too easy.

Tara (01:25:26.487)
Right?

AJ (01:25:28.859)
If he was really trying to hide who he was, it would be too easy to just go through and say like, last name Kolchak and here’s this guy named Kolchak and you know. so, if it’s somebody that’s kind of more distant from him, it’s easier to disguise yourself that way. Cause there’s no direct links. and Somerset probably just to cut off the link to, to Ukraine.

Tara (01:25:58.36)
Yeah.

Well, and in that time period, you know, of…

AJ (01:26:01.706)
So.

Tara (01:26:07.582)
them working in the London Underground and many of them not actually being, you know, from the UK and whatever they needed to do to protect their own identity at that point anyway.

AJ (01:26:20.563)
Right, right, because it does say that he went to Ireland after everything was over as Kolchek and changed his name later.

Tara (01:26:29.676)
Yeah, sorry, that’s just out here with all the names. All the names.

AJ (01:26:30.324)
So.

He’s out here with all names. I am, my headcanon is he is some relation to, I’m sorry, what’s, if I try to say the first name.

Tara (01:26:47.841)
I don’t know how to pronounce this first name.

AJ (01:26:50.334)
Vladimir, basically, Solinsky.

Tara (01:26:52.184)
Wait, it’s little dimmer. Yeah.

AJ (01:26:56.253)
If he’s some relation to Vladimir Zelensky, then he would really want to hide.

AJ (01:27:09.661)
Okay, so.

Chapter eight.

Tara (01:27:13.23)
Chapter eight, yeah.

AJ (01:27:15.819)
Somerset tells Eve he is from somewhere in Eastern Europe. There was a war. It took my father, my brother, it took my mother’s heart, and then her life. I lived and wanted a different life, so I took the name Kolchek. So see,

Tara (01:27:25.687)
AJ (01:27:33.617)
Not I lived and wanted to get out of the country or wanted a different life said something to me about he’s somebody that has something to do with politics in Ukraine. That’s my headcanon that because this is what all this sounds like to me.

Tara (01:27:55.15)
That’s, I mean, it wouldn’t be surprising, to be honest. It would not be surprising at all.

AJ (01:28:00.926)
Right.

So I took the I wanted something different in life. So I took the name Kolchek. There are reasons that aren’t important to you for this. But again, why not just tell her if it’s if it has to be something really important for him to go like it’s not important to you to know that, you know, so with those papers with that name and three years added to my age.

Tara (01:28:17.635)
Yeah.

Tara (01:28:24.129)
Right.

AJ (01:28:34.227)
I traveled for a time. I was young, clever, angry. In time, the anger faded. So he traveled around a bit and ended up in London where he quote unquote inserted himself into King’s College to study medicine.

Tara (01:28:47.404)
I’m

Tara (01:28:51.052)
I like how Eva’s like, inserted yourself.

AJ (01:28:55.143)
Yeah, like that’s, and that’s a phrase that he’s heard. She’s heard from Rourke too, but you know, I inserted myself into it like, so it’s obvious that he just basically forged paperwork and you know. Right. So, and from the book, Somerset is saying, and then war came slowly at first insidious, you will, rumbles and distant anger, distrust and more anger.

Tara (01:29:08.305)
yeah. Well, if have the skill set, I suppose.

AJ (01:29:25.759)
Some had too much, some had too little. Some demanded all believe what they believed. Some were from somewhere else and had no business living, working, breathing. So were demeaned, defiled, attacked. It grew and it spread and the violence erupted until cities were war zones. Which, Nora, none of us need that in our heads, but… That, mean…

Tara (01:29:49.31)
Right? Me, this whole book, like, my god.

AJ (01:29:56.363)
Like… Yeah. So, Moving on. He became a medic. He met up with Ivana, who had been in a mixed marriage. Well, he had already known Ivana. I didn’t put that in, but that was way before. He knew Ivana and they basically were lovers when they were young kids or younger. Let’s not say kids, but younger.

Tara (01:29:58.616)
Yeah!

Tara (01:30:05.646)
you

Tara (01:30:14.168)
Yes.

Tara (01:30:24.696)
Yeah. Yeah.

AJ (01:30:26.507)
So then he met up with Ivana again. This time she had been married in a mixed marriage and had two children. Her husband had been killed. She had joined the underground. She recruited Somerset while Alice hid Ivana’s children until they could be transported out of the country safely. Then Somerset recruited Alice. Eventually the Twelve saw an opportunity to take out a large portion of the enemy and their headquarters.

The mission to destroy the enemy headquarters was carried out in two teams. One to plant the explosives in the tunnels beneath the headquarters and the other to storm a nearby prison in Whitechapel. The plan unraveled when Shark abandoned his post intending to kill his teammates. Take control of… I should tell you right now that I was like, how do I condense all of this?

information that he’s giving me. So I had a chat GPT condense it for me. Thank you.

Tara (01:31:25.9)
Right, it’s a lot of information.

Tara (01:31:32.227)
Thank you.

AJ (01:31:34.283)
So, sorry, the plan unraveled when Shark abandoned his post intending to kill his teammates and take control of the detonation and escape. Instead, his interference alerted the enemy, leading to a desperate fight. Alice, realizing the only way to complete the mission, detonated the explosives, despite being unable to get clear. Though Magpie tried to save her, she succumbed to her injuries.

Her sacrifice, turned the tide of the war, and within months the battle was nearly won.

So way to go, Alice. There should be a statue somewhere. Yeah. Maybe they will. This goes beyond planting a tree, Rorik, if you’re listening. Nora, if you’re listening. It kind of goes beyond planting a tree, you know. From there, Somerset took Marlene and went to Ireland.

Tara (01:32:09.624)
She’s like a fucking he- right? Fucking hero.

Tara (01:32:22.412)
Yeah, rock if you’re listening.

AJ (01:32:35.947)
And it was explained that it was because Alice’s grandmother was from Ireland and she always wanted to move back to Ireland. This is from the book. Then years later, I found a young boy half beaten to death in an alley and things changed again. Having this boy, a very angry boy, disturbed the quiet I’d lived in and with for too long.

He didn’t know it, but I needed the boy as much as he needed me. When I killed the man who beat the boy near to death, I did it to save him and my daughter. But it also reminded me that I had a purpose. I found it again. I found myself again. So that’s very touching.

Tara (01:33:27.448)
You know.

AJ (01:33:30.723)
Eve tells him that she was, no, Eve tells him that she has to share the parts of the story that she recorded with the people on her team who need to know. But she assured him that what is not on the recorder would only be between the three of them. Then much to Somerset’s dismay, she tells him that he is confined to the house until the case is resolved.

Tara (01:33:57.582)
Come on, Somerset. Like, what the fuck did you expect?

AJ (01:33:58.635)
Right. So this is from the book. Okay, I’m gonna need to talk to the others tonight. Understood. And you’ll stay in the house. You don’t leave the house. She all but heard his spine crack. That’s absurd. I have an any number of errands to you’ll give a list to me. Rourke told him I’ll see that it’s dealt with. Somerset’s frown could have called thunder as if you have time for such things or the wit to know how to pick out a ripe melon.

If that was supposed to be an insult, I don’t think it was going to Right. I pay plenty of people who have time for such things and I to pick a bloody melon. I’m buggered if you’ll end up like Rossy, so you’ll stay here.

Tara (01:34:30.698)
Rourke is like, really? Are you fucking kidding me right now?

AJ (01:34:56.817)
I’m as capable of handling myself as either of you and have been at that a great deal longer. Regardless, Rourke’s tone, cool and final, drew a deep hard line. You’ll give me a list and the errands to be seen to. The boy still needs you. If you love him, you’ll do as he asks.” That’s conniving of you.

It is, and smart. Eve gave Rourke an approving nod. He’s good at pulling out stuff like that, and it works because he means it. Anyway, if you don’t do what the boy asks, the cop will put you in protective custody. You won’t like it.

Tara (01:35:40.942)
this dynamic is just golden.

AJ (01:35:43.635)
Right, it’s amazing. On her way to Central, sends a text to Peabody. Heading downtown now, I have a lot of new data. Report in ASAP. Need to brief you and write up the report before my consult with Mira. When Peabody gets to Central and sees Eve’s board, she says, Holy shit, a lot. Eve tells her, you should pack away the holy shits for now because you’ll run out of them.

Tara (01:36:12.344)
I would like to say that Eve underestimates the amount of holy shits that the average person can pull out. mean, Jenkinson is on her team and he has an endless supply of fucks. So I feel like you should not be surprised by the amount of holy shits your partner can come up with. I’m just saying.

AJ (01:36:16.051)
Right? She really does.

AJ (01:36:21.797)
Right.

AJ (01:36:28.618)
Yeah.

Yeah, 100%. Yep.

Eve relates to Peabody the whole story Somerset told she and Broerich about the Twelve. Also that the remaining members of the Twelve are being flown to New York and will be staying at the mansion. Later Eve calls the prison where the supposedly late Conrad Potter was being held after being convicted of war crimes. The warden is an asshat who tells Eve he personally confirmed

that Potter died doesn’t know where the doctor who treated Potter is and refuses to cooperate further. Dick.

Tara (01:37:06.712)
This guy just like…

Tara (01:37:11.83)
I get so annoyed with people like this. I’m like, people being difficult for the sake of being difficult. Come on. Also, every

AJ (01:37:18.207)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don’t, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, you know, give any hint that I think that I did anything wrong in this case. Like is that, that’s what it is.

Tara (01:37:29.728)
Right. It’s like, or you could just be like, let me look into that. But there was like, I don’t I’m not even interested in like helping you at all or whatever. Also, every time they mentioned this prison in Manchester, I thinking of the Manchester England song from the musical here. So if you know that song, I hope it’s in your head now.

AJ (01:37:51.595)
I don’t, so I’m safe at this point.

Tara (01:37:53.358)
Ha

I bet you know what it is, like if you heard it, you’d be like, yeah, I won’t do that to you. But when it’s in my head.

AJ (01:37:58.549)
Probably. If I heard it I’d go like, yeah.

Okay, thank you. So I don’t need any more earworms in my head, to be honest. Eve immediately calls Interpol and talks to Abernathy from shadows. She tells him she believes Potter faked his own death with the help of the prison doctor and wants Abernathy to get Potter’s remains and find the doctor. He reluctantly agrees. Right?

Tara (01:38:23.534)
normal shit. She’s so funny. I just like that when she first I was like um Eve this is not just like a simple thing but okay. Not that she thinks that way. I need you to literally like do something that you probably can’t do easily. It’s fine.

AJ (01:38:35.967)
Here’s what I need you to do. I know you’re Interpol.

AJ (01:38:43.275)
I know you’re in a poll and I’m just a New York City police lieutenant, but here’s what I need you to do.

Tara (01:38:53.056)
It’s so fucking funny. Eve.

AJ (01:38:54.399)
You know. Well, I mean, you know. She then calls Feeny and asks him to take footage of the limo driver and analyze it for any sign of prosthetics or facial enhancements. She then tells Peabody that she believes Potter is still alive. To which probably Peabody said, holy shit. Yeah. Yep. Now, I feel like chapters nine and 10 are pretty short. So if you want to take both of those.

Tara (01:39:15.256)
Probably, very, very likely because she has.

Tara (01:39:24.728)
Sure, let me read my notes from chapter 9. And I don’t have notes again until chapter 12 unless I just didn’t mark what chapter I was in. And also, this looks very confusing, so bear with me. Chapter 9. So I feel like Mira’s administrative assistant now just like fucks with Eve and knows that Eve is afraid of her and that she totally exploits it.

AJ (01:39:34.781)
Okay. Okay.

AJ (01:39:42.169)
Hahaha!

AJ (01:39:51.403)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Tara (01:39:55.438)
I’d like to imagine that whenever Eve has something that seems like a bizarre theory for who, I know what I’m trying to say here. So I like to imagine that whenever Eve has like a bizarre theory for like who could have done it or what weird thing could have happened that just doesn’t seem like normal or expected that she tells it to Whitney and Whitney has to call Tibble and be like, okay, just I know it sounds fucking crazy, but hear me out.

And I feel like I feel like there’s like no one else in the force where if this were be the case, they wouldn’t have this discussion, you know, but like I feel like Whitney is just like, OK, I know it sounds crazy. You’re not going to believe it. But like this is Dallas until we’ll be like, yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it. Like, I just feel like that’s an interaction that has happened before more than once. So and then. And then.

AJ (01:40:46.367)
Right.

Tara (01:40:54.414)
I also said, I also like to think that Eve cringed on the inside when Tibble stated that she had a relationship with Somerset. And then when they’re talking to when Eve is talking to Callender and McNabb and they’re talking about this other cop, whatever, I would just put Prince of Skin and Flesh is disgusting.

AJ (01:41:02.777)
hahahahah

AJ (01:41:21.611)
It really is. Yeah, mean, Queen of Hair and Fiber was kind of charming.

Tara (01:41:23.692)
What? It really is. It’s disgusting.

Tara (01:41:31.006)
Right? But okay, we’re on the same page there.

AJ (01:41:35.487)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (01:41:38.072)
So yeah. Okay, chapter nine. So Eve goes to see Mira to ask if there are ways to fake death. Mira says yes. From there, right? Yes. From there, Eve goes to Whitney’s office where both he and Tibble are waiting. She gives them her report. Tibble warns her that when the case breaks, she can expect to be giving lots of press conferences, not just locally, but internationally.

AJ (01:41:50.901)
Amen.

Tara (01:42:07.508)
Eve is not thrilled. She then, yep, as expected. She then goes to see Feeny from the book. He wore an expression she’d seen on Rourke. Irritated work mode. Pissed off E-Geek. Fucking fucker, he muttered, then spotted her. Sorry, bad timing. I’ll come back. He lifted his hand, made a sharp yes, irritated, come in gesture. I’m taking five anyway, fucking fucker.

I know I dumped a lot on you, so how the fuck does some prison sawbones know how to poof and poof clean as fuck? So Eve realized he’d taken Pierce himself, a matter of pride. He had help. I think help from someone with serious skills and financial backing. I tagged that asshole, Warden. Mary old England, my ass. Guy’s a lazy stuffed shirt prick. I love pissed off Feeny. It’s so good. But also,

He’s right, that guy fucking sucks, man. He is a stuff shirt prick. Come on, get your head out of your ass.

AJ (01:43:07.667)
Yeah, he really does. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I feel like he probably won’t have a job after this. That’s my other headcanon. Yeah.

Tara (01:43:15.374)
Probably not. And here’s the thing is like he very easily could have just been like, let me look into that. Like even if the mistake was his, what I was this five, four or five years ago when it happened, like owning up to that and recognizing that you were duped, because guess what? That can happen. And not being a dick about people trying to rectify this means you.

AJ (01:43:25.503)
Right.

AJ (01:43:30.496)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:43:36.107)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:43:42.402)
Probably could keep your job, but I’m with you. He probably does not have a job anymore. Not when Airlpool gets involved. Fuck off.

AJ (01:43:46.943)
Yeah. Yeah. Right?

Tara (01:43:52.27)
Hi, Lily. Feeny tells her tells Eve that he’s really goddamn sorry about Somerset’s wife. He also tells her he had a pinup of Marjorie Wright in his locker at the Academy before he met Sheila. Mcnaven calendar step into Feeny’s office and tell them about the analysis of the photos of the limo driver say that his skin is too smooth to be real skin.

So they suspect it was a disguise. They want to bring Carmine in and tell Eve that if Harpo is the queen of hair and fiber, Carmine is the prince of skin and flesh. Yeah, that’s gross. And he would be able to tell them if it was a disguise or not. Yeah, that one’s gross, Yeah, but I mean, I guess, you know, off the top of your head, I get it, you know. Bad art is better than no art.

AJ (01:44:31.231)
Yeah.

AJ (01:44:38.067)
Yeah, there could be a better way to say that, but okay.

AJ (01:44:46.741)
Yeah.

Tara (01:44:50.222)
So, you know, a terrible nickname is better than no nickname. I mean, yeah, how do you find good art if you don’t fucking make shitty stuff first, you know? So, it was a stretch of a comparison, but you know what I meant, so. Chapter 10. Back in her office, Eve goes through everything she knows about the different members of the Twelve.

AJ (01:44:50.443)
I guess so. I guess so. Okay.

AJ (01:45:08.715)
Yes, I do.

Tara (01:45:20.174)
Peabody comes in and they have their conversation about what happened in missing with Yvonne Drosky. From the book, you are protecting me, but I don’t want that. Standing up for me, having my back, that’s different. I’m your partner. It matters. It has to matter. It does matter. I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but I did what I thought I needed to do at the time. I made the decision and didn’t give you a choice in it. I’m your partner, Peabody, but I was also responsible. You weren’t.

I’m telling you now because from this point we’re both responsible. Good. The single word snapped like a whiplash. We are both responsible. That’s how I want it. Eve tells Peabody that technically when they meet with Droski, Peabody should arrest him. Peabody tells her she’s not going to do that. And she’s insulted Eve with things she would. From the book, have you finished swearing and snapping at not only your partner but your lieutenant? I think so.

The hot color fury brought to her cheeks ebbed. Yeah, pretty much done. Then let’s go meet with this bunch of spies. So I just want to comment on how this conversation is like 100 % more charming than it probably should be. I find this whole thing very charming. I think Eva’s charmed by it. I think she’s like, okay, Peabody has to like have a moment about this, but also…

AJ (01:46:35.263)
hahahaha

Tara (01:46:45.75)
I think it’s just another way of us learning that Peabody is loyal as fuck. Like there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Peabody would literally, if Eve was like, in order to do blah, blah, you would have to do, she would kill for Eve at this point, hopefully that’s never gonna have to happen, but she would do it. I think that that’s like, it’s very, very clear.

AJ (01:47:08.522)
Right.

Tara (01:47:12.526)
but she doesn’t know how to express it in a eloquent way. And so her having a little meltdown and being like, I can’t believe you fucking did this, you know, is almost charming. And I feel like Eva is like, okay, just gonna let her have her moment. But I think she’s right. I think that’s the part about it. Like, I think that both of them are right about how like the situation in Missing went. You know, like you see…

AJ (01:47:16.874)
bright.

AJ (01:47:38.601)
Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Tara (01:47:40.962)
You see how Eve has, and this has been addressed before, Eve trying to protect Peabody because she’s the lieutenant. And then the parts of Eve protecting Peabody that come with the fact that not only is she Peabody’s lieutenant and partner, she’s her friend. There’s the protection of the fact that she probably feels over. Peabody still has that teeny bit of like, innocence is the wrong word, but like.

AJ (01:47:57.728)
Right.

Tara (01:48:09.726)
she’s idealistic. And I think that constantly being with someone who’s as cynical as Eve, think Eve probably, even though I don’t think she actually believes that Peabody would become as cynical as her, I think there’s a part of her that’s probably trying to protect from that. Like, I don’t know, there’s just like this little layer or something of like Peabody and her like idealism and her, you know, just…

AJ (01:48:11.221)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:48:24.107)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:48:37.644)
That’s just her personality. And I think that Eve is like, I don’t want to see that tarnished. And so she thinks of that.

AJ (01:48:42.047)
Right. yeah, and I think it’s also that it’s that, and this may be, I don’t know, maybe I’m saying the same thing that this making the same point that you’re trying to make, Eve knowing that sometimes she makes a decision that she feels is right to create, to, know, because she, she sees it as justice.

Tara (01:48:54.818)
No. You’re

Tara (01:49:07.63)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (01:49:09.175)
but on, on the other hand, she knows that legally it might be wrong. And she doesn’t, she doesn’t want to put that on Peabody. Like that has to be my decision only because I can’t, you know, she can’t say for Peabody, like, you know, what would, you know, is this also how you view justice or, know, she doesn’t, she doesn’t want to even put that on her. doesn’t even want that to go there because.

Tara (01:49:34.039)
Right.

AJ (01:49:39.305)
You know, it’s her feelings about what justice is and, you know, her feelings only, and she can’t put those on somebody else.

Tara (01:49:50.582)
Well, that, I mean, that’s, that’s like, that’s not even what I was saying. That was like, you like completed what I was saying beautifully with that because that’s really what it is. you know, and I’m really glad that you said it that way because, I was thinking about how Peabody handles these moments and like, she’s, she can be very reactionary. I know this is shocking.

about these things because I think that as partners, they should be able to have those conversations. And I think what you said was 100 % correct is that like Eve makes this decision and that is like, I’m not gonna, know, pigeonhole my partner into being in the same place because legally this is bad.

AJ (01:50:19.807)
Hahaha

Tara (01:50:49.166)
she could lose her badge over that. And she doesn’t want that for Peabody who had nothing to do with that decision. So she is protecting Peabody. And so that’s why I was saying, that’s why I don’t think either of them are wrong in what they were saying here in this conversation. But also I think that this is just continued evidence that Peabody is.

AJ (01:50:51.594)
Right.

AJ (01:50:57.226)
Right.

AJ (01:51:06.047)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:51:14.958)
Peabody is absolutely willing to step over that line if she, you know, for Eve because I think she’d agree with her. But that’s, that’s, that’s a heavy responsibility on Eve to think about, you know, this person who she’s supposed to be responsible for. Cause she, that’s another thing is like Eve is like, I’m responsible. And now in this moment, she’s like, we’re both responsible, but also she’s responsible for Peabody.

AJ (01:51:22.752)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (01:51:44.594)
And I don’t know that it’s a very fine line and I love when Nora kind of dabbles in this area because it’s a way of showing how both of them have grown and it’s a way of showing how they are ideal partners.

And also it’s always fucking funny because Peabody was just like, well good. I wasn’t gonna, I’m not gonna do that anyway. I’m just gonna like, it’s great. It’s just great stuff. But thank you for like literally like closing the loop on what I was saying because I think that you brought the rest of it around really very nicely.

Tara (01:52:32.535)
But yeah, I love that. I love that scene. And then on the way to the mansion, they talk about Nadine and Jake and Peabody mentions that from the book, Mabea said, Avenue A is working on Jenna Harbaugh’s music disc. They’re establishing a foundation thing in her name for scholarships. I guess, you know, Rourke’s putting it on his label and that cut’s going to go into the foundation too.

AJ (01:52:36.053)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (01:53:02.712)
He mentioned it.

AJ (01:53:04.053)
So yeah, I put that in because we had just did an episode on Rourke’s philanthropy and this is another way that we’re seeing that.

Tara (01:53:08.724)
yes. Another one.

Literally, which none of us are shocked by because work is a good billionaire. And then she starts to talk about how excited she is to meet real spies, especially ones who are famous. Eve threatens to hurt Peabody if she fangirls. From the book, I’m warning you, Peabody, there will be pain. Which is why I’m getting it out now. You know, since you pulled me into homicide, I’ve met famous actors. I’m actually friends with rock stars.

AJ (01:53:25.396)
You

Tara (01:53:42.934)
a fabulous designer, a best-selling writer and Oscar winner. I’d love my job even if that wasn’t true. But that part of it is mega frosty extreme. Wee, wow, wow. Okay, fan geeking complete. If you don’t want to be limping for the next several days, it better be. And then at the mansion, Rourke shows Eve the room he has set up for interviews, which he is now calling Interview A because he thinks it’s funny.

AJ (01:53:55.412)
You

AJ (01:54:09.451)
It is kind of funny.

Tara (01:54:10.742)
I was going to comment also on that conversation with Peabody where she’s just like, where she’s like, and Somerset, I know Somerset. And like, just think of Eve being like, my fucking God. She’s like, she’s like, because like Peabody likes Somerset. But the whole like her whole reactive to it is just fun. It’s so fun. But I just like the part where she’s like, and I know him.

AJ (01:54:27.528)
Yeah.

AJ (01:54:36.331)
Yeah, Peabody. I mean, we would all kind of be that way, right?

Tara (01:54:43.29)
Right? Oh yeah. Fuck yeah. I don’t have notes for 11, I don’t think. I think I said my next notes were 12. Let me pull that up. Yeah. No, my next notes are for 12, so.

AJ (01:54:49.343)
Okay.

Okay.

AJ (01:54:55.337)
Okay. yeah, I can read chapter 11 and then we’ll do chapter 12. And then. Yeah, we see where we’re smart to at the very beginning, say like, this is a two parter because we’re already at two hours and we’re halfway through. We’re so smart. No, we just know each other and we know like how much we talk about the series and.

Tara (01:55:07.064)
Yeah.

I’m yeah. We smart.

Tara (01:55:18.968)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

AJ (01:55:25.257)
You know, I, I, I just didn’t want to put, I don’t, I don’t want to put like a damper on it. I didn’t want to like say like, we’ll talk about everything and then I have to try to cut all this stuff out, all this good stuff out that we talked about to make it fit at, you know, two and a half hour show or whatever. So.

Tara (01:55:39.331)
Yeah.

Tara (01:55:43.362)
Also, so the file isn’t like so big that you can’t upload it or something.

AJ (01:55:46.315)
Right, that’s that’s another thing. So, okay. So chapter 11, they start the process of interviewing each remaining member of the 12. They talk. Pardon you. We have just a couple of chapters left. I promise I’m almost done. Okay, because I know I’m almost done. Okay.

Tara (01:56:12.302)
Aww, Lily.

AJ (01:56:14.323)
I know you’re a girl. Can you go lay down until I’m done? I know I’m almost done. I’m almost done. Okay. Go lay down. Poor dog. Okay. Yeah. we’re not sure how things are going to go next week. And because next weekend, we are babysitting my grand dogs overnight.

Tara (01:56:27.608)
Poor Lily.

Tara (01:56:41.667)
my.

AJ (01:56:44.265)
So we’ll see how that goes.

Tara (01:56:47.406)
Can’t wait to hear about that.

AJ (01:56:48.459)
Alright, Chapter 11, they start the process of interviewing each member of the Twelve. They talk to Ivana first. She tells Eve that she saw Rourke shortly after Marlana’s murder and that she thought to recruit him, but realized that Somerset needed him, so she left him alone and deleted his file. Eve tells Ivana that she believes Potter is alive and that…

And basically, again, the translation didn’t work here. And that she wants Ivana to think of any little detail about Potter that they might be able to use to find him. Ivana tells them Potter has a sweet tooth and a particular fondness for Fry’s peppermint cream bars, candy, and that he likes to play golf. Right, he really does. Marjorie Ro-

Tara (01:57:44.27)
This guy sounds boring as fuck, man.

Wee, he likes chocolate and golfs. Okay.

AJ (01:57:50.859)
Well chocolate peppermint cream bars, so that’s yeah

Tara (01:57:55.628)
No, it’s true. But like, if you are so fucking basic that that’s what people remember about you as the kind of candy you liked…

AJ (01:58:03.443)
Right, exactly. So Marjorie Wright is next. She asks for a gin and tonic rather than coffee or tea and seems a bit emotional. So can I ask you at this point, Tara?

Tara (01:58:05.742)
just saying.

Tara (01:58:18.04)
Bartender Peabody, what?

AJ (01:58:19.989)
Can I, right? Well, she, the AC did it, Okay, Marjorie Wright, who is she in today’s world? Who plays her?

Tara (01:58:22.189)
haha

That’s true.

Tara (01:58:32.366)
Hmm.

AJ (01:58:36.597)
So how old would they be, like 70-ish?

Tara (01:58:40.682)
Yeah.

AJ (01:58:41.545)
I mean, my initial was like, it’s clearly somebody like Dame Judy Dantcher.

Tara (01:58:49.27)
Right, but Judy Dench is too old at this point. Yeah.

AJ (01:58:51.614)
I know.

Or also too old as Julie Andrews. I really like the idea of it being Julie Andrews. Maybe.

Tara (01:58:59.084)
Is it like Olivia Colman or like, you know, it’s like Olivia Colman. It’s like that’s the first person I can think of otherwise. Or I mean, honestly, it would. Who?

AJ (01:59:10.107)
Jennifer Ehle. Jennifer Ehle.

Tara (01:59:17.934)
Do you want to hear that?

AJ (01:59:19.231)
Yes.

AJ (01:59:22.763)
Look her up. She did the in the original PBS version in the 80s of Pride and Prejudice. was Elizabeth.

Tara (01:59:48.312)
can hear up. Because I would say what? So how old is Marjorie right now?

AJ (01:59:55.957)
70s?

70s maybe?

Tara (02:00:01.88)
So Marjorie would be my age. Like, so someone who’s my age right now. Right?

AJ (02:00:11.549)
I mean, well, if this is made into a movie is what I’m saying. This is made into a movie and they’re playing their parts, it would be somebody older because they have to play their parts as somebody older. Jennifer Ehle is my age, but I just, don’t know. There’s something, I like that choice. It’s just me.

Tara (02:00:17.742)
yeah.

Tara (02:00:23.852)
It would be some older- Jennifer Ehle. Old enough?

Tara (02:00:32.791)
Yeah. I do like that choice. Now that I’m looking to see who that is, I’m like, yes, I do know who that is. Me, like, I just, I was like Olivia Coleman, because I just fucking love her.

AJ (02:00:39.328)
Yeah.

AJ (02:00:47.133)
And that’s not a bad choice either.

AJ (02:00:53.097)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s not a bad choice either.

Tara (02:00:53.72)
Cause I

Tara (02:00:59.47)
I mean, I Jennifer All is more like…

AJ (02:01:04.725)
Jennifer Elle is more of the pinup that you would put in your… Yeah.

Tara (02:01:07.424)
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking is like she’s more like traditionally attractive. That would be like if you were choosing someone my age, you’d go with someone like Lara Pulver or something because she is very traditionally attractive. I think she’s a couple years younger than I am.

AJ (02:01:12.383)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (02:01:16.713)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (02:01:26.094)
Oh no, she’s a few years older than I am. But like, yeah, someone who’s just more like… But I just love Olivia Colman, so she’s always gonna be my answer. That’s a cool idea, though. I like Jennifer Elle.

AJ (02:01:42.399)
Yeah, I just thought, you know, an actress in her seventies, like who who is she now? Like trying to think of that. But. Sorry, that’s off on a tangent.

Tara (02:01:49.378)
Right.

Tara (02:01:54.582)
No, that’s okay. But also, like, I just, like, know, Googled her again and I was like, this more recent photo of her, she looks fucking awesome.

AJ (02:02:04.988)
Jennifer Ehle.

Yeah.

So I could totally see that, right?

Tara (02:02:12.728)
Yeah.

AJ (02:02:14.889)
So, yeah.

Tara (02:02:15.072)
Anyway, we’re just, love it. I love it.

AJ (02:02:18.795)
Okay, so, sorry.

AJ (02:02:23.893)
So Marjorie Wright is next. asked for a gin and tonic rather than a coffee or tea and seems a bit emotional. So this is from the book. Peabody noticed Marjorie’s eyes sparkled but with tears. Dame Wright, did something happen? I’m a bit emotional. Yvonne and Cyril arrived and it struck me and very hard that we’re what’s left of us. So a G and T if you’d be so kind to fill the crack in my heart. And Eve says,

Tara (02:02:50.615)
You

AJ (02:02:51.539)
I bet telling us how Potter was an asshole will lift your spirits. And Margaery grinned at Eve, then did that head toss laugh. I’m going to like you, both of you. And I’m going to flirt outrageously with your gorgeous husband. Do you have one detective, a spouse? I’ve got a guy. Is he adorable? I think so. Then I’ll flirt outrageously with him if I get the chance. That’s my wiring.

Tara (02:02:55.95)
Always fun

AJ (02:03:20.639)
So Marjorie tells them, among other things, that Potter was a bigoted wanker.

Tara (02:03:25.634)
Well, if the fucking shoe fits, you bigoted wanker.

AJ (02:03:29.413)
right? And he hated cats and he liked to be clean shaven at all times.

Tara (02:03:35.33)
Yeah, this guy’s a fucking tool.

AJ (02:03:37.413)
Right. Yvonne Drosky was next. Eve let him know that Peabody knew all about Eve letting him go. He apologizes for coming back to New York after Eve told him not to, but that he had taken an oath.

Tara (02:03:50.712)
But also she’s like, well, I asked you to come back. well, I I had Somerset ask you back. So I can’t really be mad about that.

AJ (02:03:54.611)
Right. Well, yeah. Right. But you know, I mean, he’s hedging his bets. He also told them that Potter had given him terrible advice about women. Really, that shocks me. Really shocking. Yeah. Shocking. And then we’re not we’re not in shock. We’re just shocked.

Tara (02:04:11.352)
shocks me that a man like that would give terrible advice.

Tara (02:04:20.974)
It’s just shock.

AJ (02:04:24.151)
and that later on, Somerset gave him better advice. Good for you, Somerset. He’s like, don’t listen to him. Don’t fucking listen to that wanker. Yes. Right.

Tara (02:04:24.471)
you

Tara (02:04:28.654)
Of course he did. Of course he did. Because Somerset is good people. So listen to that guy. He’s a fucking tool who has no friends and plays golf. There’s nothing wrong with playing golf, but if that’s your whole personality, we gotta talk. We gotta talk. We gotta find something else for ya.

AJ (02:04:40.843)
Right. Yep. When he left, Peabody summed up what they learned from Droski. Add user, Peabody said, with not only a diverse skill set, but diverse knowledge.

So unfortunately, you know, he’s a user that knows a lot of stuff and can do a lot of stuff.

Tara (02:05:07.438)
Yeah.

AJ (02:05:08.809)
Alright, so this is our last chapter for this particular episode. Chapter 12 notes.

Tara (02:05:10.03)
Okay, chapter 12 notes.

Tara (02:05:21.004)
More bartender Peabody. I mean, I know it’s actually the auto chef, but like, what a weird request. Like, we’re like, part of my job is to sure. OK.

AJ (02:05:23.115)
Well… Right? Genetonic? Yeah, I can do it.

Tara (02:05:36.366)
Let’s see. Okay. I’m with you, Eve. Those things don’t sound like food, even though I know that they are. Petty Bottom is really stupid. I love how Eve is doing all the accents in this book. Those are my notes. So yeah. And then chapter 12. Timeline. The question here…

AJ (02:05:44.875)
Hahaha

AJ (02:05:50.239)
Yes.

Tara (02:06:06.158)
you want me do want to read it?

AJ (02:06:08.349)
No. Did you say you loved how Susan’s doing all the accents?

Tara (02:06:13.838)
Well, I loved how Eve is like, Susan does Eve doing accents and like she like that’s how Nora has written her to like she does them twice in this book where she’s like doing someone’s where she’s basically like and I don’t know if that’s Susan’s choice or not now that I don’t I’m not reading the book isn’t right in of me, but twice in this book, she has been like doing a voice or an accent Eve has.

AJ (02:06:25.171)
AJ (02:06:33.609)
It could be.

Tara (02:06:41.004)
And I don’t know if that’s Susan’s choice or if that’s how it’s written, but.

AJ (02:06:44.251)
Yeah, and maybe I didn’t pick up on that the first time. don’t know. I’ll have to go back and listen. Yeah.

Tara (02:06:47.852)
Well, I know I can’t wait to read it again. The other thing that Eve does in this book, and it’s already happened at least once and it happens, she’s really generous with her office chair. Like she lets she lets Peabody sit in her office chair. She lets Meera sit in her. She lets is it Rio? I think she looks she’s real nice.

AJ (02:06:58.602)
Yeah.

AJ (02:07:03.615)
Yeah, you’re like, Eve, just get a fucking new chair. Get a fucking new chair, a couple of them. Stop it. Stop this. Stop being so stubborn. Get a fucking new chair.

Tara (02:07:08.28)
Get a, thank you, Eve, come on.

She’s so funny. So anyway, chapter 12. So they question Harry Mitchell next. Harry said that when he and Potter used to go out for a pint, Potter would talk about moving somewhere hot and sunny, specifically Costa Rica. Eve had Harry send Rourke up and she and Peabody decide to take a break. Rourke asked how he can help and Eve asked him to look into houses that Potter might buy or rent.

AJ (02:07:19.178)
Yeah.

Tara (02:07:42.2)
Then Feeny called and they found the doctor who helped Potter escape. He’s living in Costa Rica under the name Mason James Pettybottom. It’s really fucking dumb.

AJ (02:07:49.579)
Yeah, it is dumb.

Tara (02:07:53.867)
Eve tells Feeney to tag Abernathy and let him take care of it because Abernathy loves being told what to do.

AJ (02:07:59.813)
Right. From a couple of New York City cops. Yeah.

Tara (02:08:02.35)
But he was like, sure. Then they questioned Cyril Snowden next. He tells them Potter didn’t like working with homosexuals or women. From the book. He misjudged Fawn. That was his mistake. He worked and fought beside her, but he dismissed her. Tears threatened again. Eve heard them soaking his voice. He didn’t comprehend her dedication, her ferocity, her incomparable courage.

But those sad eyes filled with pride. She thwarted him. He planned to kill her, but he didn’t. She gave her life and she stopped him. She saved lives by giving her own. After it was all over, all of it, I never wished anyone harm. There’d been so much harm, so much death. But when I heard Shark was dead, I opened a bottle of champagne. But he’s not dead and another good friend is.

He also said Potter liked French food and real theater like opera or ballet, which, you know, struck a chord over here. Fuck, real. Okay.

AJ (02:09:10.163)
right right i was like you know terry’s gonna have some things to say about that

Tara (02:09:15.726)
I mean, honestly, offer and ballet are great, but that’s gross. That’s one of those people that would be like, would be like, oh, that’s a that’s there’s dancing in that. And it’s not like ballet. It’s, you know, tap dancing and probably hates shit like that would like lose its fucking mind over the Book of Mormon or something rotten or anything with children in it because he hates children.

AJ (02:09:20.811)
hahahaha

AJ (02:09:37.514)
Hmm.

Tara (02:09:44.302)
He’d like, the sound of music, fuck that, you know. Anyway. So the next person they interview is Iris Arden. She basically corroborated everything everyone had said. And then Somerset was last. He also corroborated everything but added slightly more detail, except by this time, he suspected that Potter had put the moves on Atlas. From the book, he worked out rigorously and routinely.

AJ (02:09:44.553)
Yeah, there are those people out there.

Yeah.

Tara (02:10:11.426)
He was very fit, very strong, and very aware of his exceptional build. Is that why you didn’t take him on? Excuse me? When he moved on your wife, because he had, was sure of it. Somerset gave Eve one long stare, and when she didn’t blink, inclined his head. Alice had handled that situation, and I respected her ability to do so. But I had a word with him. Which word? Lieutenant…

You are relentless. It can hardly apply. Details matter. And I bet it’s a detail Potter remembers. Very well. I waited until he was in the shower. Then I went in, took his cock in hand, twisted, and sent him to his knees. While he gasped, I told him if he put his hands on her again, Alice would surely send him off limping. But there were ways to break what I twisted in my hand, and I’d add that broken cock to his bruised balls.

Then I left him on his knees with the water running down his face. We never spoke of it again. I’m not proud of it. I would be. Peabody shot him double thumbs up. Mag move. Peabody, really, really, really the mood of this thing. I’m not quite there, but okay. Also, also encourage people.

AJ (02:11:17.099)
You

AJ (02:11:31.049)
you know, mean, it inside Somerset appreciates it. He’s not gonna let that show but inside he appreciates it. He’s like, yeah, it was a mag move. Trust me. And guess what? Taught it to Rourke. And he, he used it on Jess Barrow, who is also a dick.

Tara (02:11:36.044)
Right? And Sunny’s like, yeah. Todd is a rook and he was well fucking aware of that.

Joke. so good. So it’s so nice. So nice to hear about that coming around. What a closed loop that is. See, you says you humiliated him, bested and humiliated him, Eve added. He’ll have something special planned for you. In his Somerset way, he looked down his nose. I trust you’ll see he’s disappointed. That’s the plan. If you leave this house before I say go.

AJ (02:11:51.824)
Right?

Tara (02:12:17.098)
I won’t take your cock in hand, but I will kick every square inch of your bony ass.” Eve then had Somerset look at the image they had of the limousine driver. He didn’t see Potter in the image. Before he leaves, he thanks them both for their service.

AJ (02:12:34.857)
All right, so that’s a good place to leave off.

Tara (02:12:36.394)
I. Yes, I just want to say that, like, I was so invested in every single person’s, just them being there. And then also, you know, I’m like at this point, we’re halfway through the book and I was like, I’m to be so pissed if one of these characters dies. I was like, I don’t want to lose any of them. And I was like, I think that that’s why I was on edge through this whole book, because, like, spoiler thinking back.

AJ (02:12:53.725)
Right? Yeah. No.

AJ (02:13:03.253)
Mm-hmm.

Tara (02:13:05.774)
on like the final like takedown of Potter at the end of the book. It’s a little anticlimactic, but like the writing isn’t and the interrogation isn’t. And I’m okay that it’s not that it’s anticlimactic because all of those characters lived and I like them all and I didn’t want anything to happen to them. So I love it. And I think that the balance of it is so good. But these couple of chapters just getting to spend time with all of them, I was like,

AJ (02:13:24.78)
Yeah.

Tara (02:13:34.968)
They’re so fun. And Susan does amazing work with all their voices. And I’ll be honest, I loved seeing Yvonne Drosky again. And I’m so curious, like, when did Nora decide that this was going to be a storyline? And how did she determine to bring him back? Like, I’m just so curious.

AJ (02:13:36.831)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (02:13:40.651)
She really does. Hats off to Susan.

AJ (02:14:00.735)
Well, yeah, I mean, because she had to have something in mind at the time because, you know, that he’s a spy was obvious and that he knew Somerset was a friend of Somerset’s and not clearly Somerset knew he was a spy.

Tara (02:14:18.338)
Right. But like, yeah.

AJ (02:14:19.291)
And we’re, and we already suspected that Simmerset was a spy when he was in the urban wars. So like, yeah, I don’t know that this particular idea was percolating, but maybe it was, who knows.

Tara (02:14:33.23)
Or maybe she just vaguely had this backstory, like when we meet Somerset’s, you know, when we meet Yvonne and we meet Ivana, which is the choices of their names as we are talking about right now, sounds a little funny, but obviously we meet them at different times, but we are introduced to them and we know that, like we learn that about them right away. And if you didn’t think Somerset was a spy before or had worked, you know, in some sort of,

AJ (02:14:47.167)
Right.

Tara (02:15:03.062)
underground, you know, situation. Being friends with spies, you’re like, OK. So this all kind of builds up again, like no one reading this book should be shocked to learn that Somerset is a spy. Like I said earlier, I think people who aren’t expecting it are pleased to have this more information. But I don’t think anyone’s surprised that he’s a spy. And they shouldn’t be at all.

AJ (02:15:10.154)
Yeah.

AJ (02:15:27.315)
Yeah. No. No. They should not.

Tara (02:15:32.916)
but you know, I, but I was really like, I was really just loving getting to know these characters. Really a big fan.

AJ (02:15:40.479)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, it’s overall just a wonderful book, but we’re not done yet because, yeah, we’ve we’re only we just now read chapter 12 and there’s like 24 chapters. So unfortunately, yeah, as Lily tippy taps behind me. She’s.

Tara (02:15:50.232)
We’re not even done yet, yeah.

Tara (02:16:05.57)
Lily’s like, you said a couple more chapters. It’s let’s go.

AJ (02:16:10.345)
Right? Yeah. So. Now she’s trying to act like she doesn’t see me looking at her. We’re almost done. Okay. Just lay down there. almost done.

So, yeah, I think that…

Yeah, overall, the book, I just knew it was going to be dense and packed with, you not just what happened in the book, but our commentary. So and the next part.

Tara (02:16:34.348)
Yeah.

Tara (02:16:40.046)
Well, and also us not feeling like we have to get through all of it, so, you know.

AJ (02:16:44.011)
Right. Yeah. And that’s, and that’s another thing is I wanted to take my time because I thought, I think, I mean, obviously we were, the reviews is going to tell us a different story, but from what I’ve been hearing from everybody on our Facebook page and online, mostly that this is like an exceptional book in the series. This is one of the top. And I feel like that too. I don’t, yeah. Um, just based on

Tara (02:17:07.223)
I did too.

AJ (02:17:12.083)
the amount that we hear, that we find out about Somerset, but everything has been just really fun to read up to this point, getting to know the people that he worked with, but everything that has gone on with this case has just been really, really fun to read. It was just a really fun read overall.

Tara (02:17:31.766)
Yeah, I just I was engaged. I mean, I’m I am nearly always engaged in these books, like because Nora really does know how to hold my attention and is a fucking great writer. But this one was like and there were times where I was like, I need to stop and like take in what I’ve just been told. And then, of course, I needed to like make awkward comments to myself out loud.

AJ (02:17:40.329)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (02:17:53.963)
Right.

Tara (02:18:01.934)
But I just I don’t know, like I really this book, if I had all day, like if I had the time, this is one that I would just like pick up and then not put down until I was done. But that’s that’s unfortunately just not an option. And so. Being forced to like stop sometimes at parts where I was like, I really want to. I would like I would like restart a chapter sometimes just because I was like, want to get back into this. So.

AJ (02:18:02.815)
It’s very important.

AJ (02:18:14.109)
Mm-hmm.

AJ (02:18:31.615)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (02:18:32.44)
So looking forward to discussing it more.

AJ (02:18:35.605)
Yeah. and so, we’ll talk about it more. Obviously we’ll finish it next time. I don’t think we’re going to do podcast business or anything this episode, cause we’re already at two 18 and I don’t think that there’s much I can cut out. So, and I don’t know that I have podcast business anyway. So, but, yeah, that’s, I guess that’s it.

Tara (02:18:57.387)
I don’t have any.

AJ (02:19:06.537)
So we don’t really have to tell you what’s coming up next week, because it’s second part of this book. If you have something to say about what we’ve talked about so far, you want to comment on it or whatever, join our Facebook page. If you’re not already on there, we have a chat on our Facebook page specifically for this book. If you’re not part of that, let us know and we’ll add you. And contact us on Instagram, contact us on Blue Sky.

Tara (02:19:09.91)
Yeah, so I’m proud of this book.

AJ (02:19:35.535)
call the number number is two zero five four seven six two seven five three. That spells out two zero five four Rourke. send us an email show at podcast and death.com. especially if you also, if you have some, something to say about the next, the next half of the book, which is, or this half of the book, which the next half of the book is really going to be action packed. This was this

Tara (02:19:55.471)
Or this half of the book is fine, too. Yeah

Yes.

AJ (02:20:02.397)
First part of the book was, was loading all of the information. And now, you know, we’ve kind of like pulled back the string or whatever. And now we’re just going to let, we’ve pulled back the car. We’ve pulled back the DLE like old timey card, like when you pull it back and then you let it go and it speeds off. So this is what we’ve done in this, this, this episode. So next episode, it’s going to, everything’s going to be resolved. So it’ll be fun.

Tara (02:20:05.88)
Yeah.

Tara (02:20:20.184)
and it spins.

Tara (02:20:28.834)
gonna go. Yeah.

AJ (02:20:31.044)
all right, so that’s it, I guess, for this episode of podcasts and deaths. So for podcasts and death, this is AJ.

Tara (02:20:38.562)
This is Tara.

AJ (02:20:39.997)
And we’ll see you next week with the second half of this book.

Tara (02:20:44.322)
Bye guys.