Greetings Wolf 359 friends and fans, and welcome back to another installment of Wolf 359 Daily! Today on February 8, we’re diving into Episode 20: “The Paranoia Game”.
My god, what an episode. It’s been a minute since we’ve had truly unhinged shenaniganry on this level. While Minkowski steers the station through a solar storm on manual (thanks to Hera’s elevated glitchiness since the holidays), Hilbert and Eiffel attempt some work on her systems to get her functioning a bit better. Unfortunately, in the midst of this, a screwdriver goes missing, and it just goes downhill from there.
First, I love how this episode hinges on Hilbert and Eiffel working on something that requires Hera’s optical systems to be offline. The only way we get away with a mysterious vanishing screwdriver is if the nearly-omnipresent AI has some reason to be a bit less omnipresent at the moment. Of course the one time Hera can’t see, a piece of equipment manages to disappear. It reminds me a bit of how often soap operas have to make up a reason why someone couldn’t just get a call on their cell phone to de-escalate a dramatic turn of events. Honestly, how many soap opera miscommunications could’ve been avoided with just a phone call, or even a text? But that’s not nearly as much fun as them getting stuck on a backroad with no service, while their wife makes wild assumptions about why he hasn’t called and somehow ends up in the arms of her ex-lover who’s also her son-in-law. Soaps, man.
Anyway, we’re off track. I also love that this is yet another episode that largely involves Zach Valenti yelling at himself for about 20 minutes. So many scenes between Hilbert and Eiffel, I have to remind myself that Zach plays both of them. It’s always so great. And we get some great moments from both Eiffel and Hilbert in this episode. One of my favorites is the “Of course I checked my pockets” bit. But there’s also the completely unnecessary self-inflicted strip search, followed by the inexplicable failure to suit back up afterward. The best part of that is definitely when Minkowski finally comes down to check on them, and they’re still floating around in the half disassembled data center, totally nude. Maybe it’s for the best that Hera had her optical systems offline for this one.
Also, can we appreciate the unbridled sass of Hera in this episode? The bit where she lays out the whole plot it would’ve taken to get them in the room and get the screwdriver unattended, just to have no means of her actually stealing it is amazing. I know she’s still having a rough time with her increased system errors right now, but she upped her sarcasm to 74% and never brought it back down.
And it’s time to reset the clock, because this is our first plant monster contact since October! Good ol’ Blessie’s been here the whole time, just doing its own thing. Apparently it lost its taste for making the crew into mind-controlled puppets, and now mostly keeps to itself. Except when it has the opportunity to nab a handy tool. After all, there’s a staggeringly vast number of evil plans one could enact with just a screwdriver. Off of the screwdriver theft, Minkowski’s about to launch her special mission to hunt the plant monster down personally. While we’re not going to check in with her until February 14, the recording for “Minkowski Commanding” picks up on day 6 of her hunt. Meaning she’ll already have spent nearly a week crawling around the ventilation system by the time we’re back.
This was also an episode that once sent me down a research rabbit hole, wondering what astronauts actually did with tools and things when they were working in zero gravity. Like, surely they didn’t let their screwdrivers and things just float around all the time. Apparently, their uniforms have Velcro patches, as do their tools, so they can just stick things to themselves when they can’t really put anything down. If Goddard had such uniforms, I imagine Minkowski would’ve peeled all Eiffel’s off the first week. He just seems like a guy who’d spend all day making the Velcro noise for no reason.
Alright then, I think that does it for this installment! We’ll catch you again on February 14 for one of my personal favorites, Episode 21: “Minkowski Commanding.” We hope to see you then!
Today’s rejected Pryce & Carter tip:
Trust your instincts. Well, except suspicion. That one you have to be leery of.
Wolf 359 Daily is written and recorded by Rina Cerame.
Wolf 359 is a product of Kinda Evil Genius Productions. More information on the show can be found on their website at wolf359.fm
We hope you’ll join us again on February 14 for Episode 21: “Minkowski Commanding.” Thanks for listening.
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