#i love how you can see the progression from natrual language to essay speak here

[bones-edition]

The aforementioned more cohesive* thoughts, or, Harlan Guthrie is an incredible writer:

Okay. So. A few things happened in this episode. I'm going to start with Daniel.

Daniel. There's just a whole nother tragic death in Arthur's life that was arguably his own fault. I mean, it wasn't his fault, but if course he's going to blame himself for it. It seemed like. They were actually getting somewhere. They had a bit of reconciliation going there. And then. Boom. Dead. Why do things like this keep happening to Arthur? And, well, he's still not out in the clear of this one yet, either.

On a semi related note, can we talk about how good of an antagonist the butcher is? Like. He's really just a guy. They've faced things that are, on paper, infinitely more dangerous than him. And yet, he's so scary. The way he seems like some sort of unstoppable force, even though they've managed to stop him before, even though he's just a human. It's the fact, I think, that he doesn't show any sign of distress. His voice never gives any hint of frustration, or even anger. He's so jovial, even while he takes away what hints of a new life Arthur has tried to build. It almost reminds me of someone else, but the butcher's casual, carefree additude is, I think, even more threatening than Kayne's hysterical joy, because even though he's not actually that much more powerful than Arthur, he presents himself like he is. He's just going about his daily business, and there's no conceivable way anyone could hinder him from it. And that, I think, is why he has such an impact.

Might talk more about how good the writing is in a bit, but first I need to address the proverbial elephant. I'm worried about John. It's obvious that Arthur knows something's wrong, and it's obvious that Arthur is worried, too. Towards the beginning of the season, I was worried about the argument it would cause when Arthur found out, but now I'm more concerned that John's stubborn refusal to let Arthur in on it will be both of their downfall. All we know about this deal John made with Kayne was that John would get Arthur to New York in return for being reunited with him, but we can see that there's something else up with John. And the two of them still have no idea that Yellow still exists, let alone that he's now in Larson. And where does Kayne factor into all this? What are his motives? There's no way for us to know, and it's driving me insane, because I just know it's important. That guy is just absolutely shrouded in mystery, and I know he's manipulating something behind the scenes that we're distracted from because we're focusing on the current happenings in New York. Also, tangentially related, but the song that John recognizes? What's up with that? I'm so goddamn invested in this story.

Also I continue to be incredibly impressed with the writing of every episode. The progression of this one was masterfully done. It incites our concern about John early on, and then quickly overshadows that with more concerns. John and Arthur emerge fairly successful from the conversation with Oscar, and things, are, overall, going well. And there's just a hint of time for that worry about John to surface before we're thrown into the interaction with Daniel. This has been something that has been building up for a long time, a climax of sorts. And tensions are high at the beginning, but the listener grows gradually more relieved throughout the course of the conversation. And then, just as Arthur mentions the butcher, the action picks back up again. The phone rings, we start to worry about the name situation, and things just start piling up. Oscar's on the phone, he sounds concerned. Oh no, Daniel left his address at the hotel, anyone could have found it, the butcher could have found it. Now there's someone at the door, the butcher knows the address, this is Not Good, and like that, Daniel's dead, Arthur's efforts were for nothing and there's not time for him to grieve because there's never time for Arthur to grieve, he has to run again, he has to run and hide and try to survive, again. And then the episode ends, leaving us stranded in that moment to try to process everything that just happened.

Anyway, I just really liked this episode. I really liked all the episodes. I really like the podcast. That's all. I feel slightly more insane than usual today, perhaps I spent too long outside and the smog is getting to my head.

*More cohesive as compared to the things I posted during the period of time I was listening to the episode. Not, you know, cohesive by some objective measure of the quality. That would be far from what I could hope to achieve on a Tumblr post about malevolent.

#sometimes i question how i passed my lit class #and then i look at these literal essays that i write entirely for fun #and go. oh yeah. i'm a fucking nerd. #i love how you can see the progression from natrual language to essay speak here #and nobodys going to read this but whatever #malevolent #arthur lester #john doe malevolent #oleanders chaos #<a lot of it