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man-down-in-hatchet-town · 6 months

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Karma Police

IT'S THE MID-SEASON FINALE BEFORE THE HIATUS! As always, spoilers for The Case of the Greater Gatsby episode 14 under the cut!

So, after the information onslaught that was the previous two episodes, "Karma Police" was a little bit of a breather—at least up until the end. Just lots of cannibalism jokes and character moments as both Ford and Fig start to show the strain of the case in their own ways (Ford’s increasingly surfacing anger, Fig’s anxiety and fainting spell). Which means that you guys get a relatively shorter essay after the absolute monster I posted earlier.

To start with, Fig’s line about the stress of working multiple jobs and how they keep you from keeping up with life events? Too real. Really, Fig’s whole unraveling physical and mental state throughout the entirety of this episode was the perfect encapsulation of my experiences over the last couple of months.

Meanwhile, either TD is way smarter and more conniving than we’re giving him credit for (possible; after all we have yet to receive confirmation of his admittedly convincing alibi) or he is innocent. His issues with blood certainly don’t remove him from the suspect list, but if he had known that Fitzgerald didn’t bleed a drop he probably wouldn’t have passed out thinking about it. But then that brings us back to the question of Mo and just who he’s reporting to. If Mo was on the lot telling Mel about Fitzgerald’s death, wouldn’t her husband/assistant know the details? Or did she kick him out? Regardless, I continue to be fascinated by the Hammermeister marriage. I have so many questions I don’t think I actually want the answers to; you know those two have either never taken so much as a sock off in front of each other or else are the kinkiest bastards you could ever possibly meet.

On the Ford side of things, what fun to get Dylan again so soon! But Shipwrecked better not think I didn’t clock Donald not telling Ford where he was on the night of the party. I’m pretty confidant that Donald did not commit the murder—on a meta level he’d just be a strange choice—but his obfuscation and successful derailing of Ford is suspicious, though that might not have even been intentional. After all, he didn’t know that Vivian was about to show up.

Speaking of Vivian, the PHIGHTINGALE OF IT ALL! Ford’s anger at her lies feels deeper and more personal—you can just taste how strongly he resents their inescapable attraction and connection. And Vivian continues to walk all over him. Her story makes good enough sense, I guess, but I’m still not sure she’s telling the truth, as it’s a little too early in the story to conclusively point the finger at Barnaby. Though I suppose he could have shown up without actually being the murderer…. Meanwhile, after a whole episode of being grilled over his use of the word “grill,” Ford learns that Vivian uses it too, and judging by her tone has met many of the same reactions as her favorite employee. I love everything about their toxic, magnetic, inescapable dynamic. It’s noir perfection. Or, as @its-short-for-jackalope put it, “I think Ford & Vivian are actually soulmates 😂.”

Which sucks for Ford, because Viv’s pulled a fast-one over on Bixby! Whatever his other designs with Mel or Fitzgerald’s murder are, this plot against Bixby seems to a major card up Mo’s sleeve. But while I can see why taking over Bixby’s would benefit Mo, but what does Vivian get out of it? Higher pay? Let’s not forget that Mo made up her alibi on the spot for the night that Fitzgerald was killed. Was he protecting her as part of his takeover? Or is blackmailing her with knowledge of the night Fitzgerald died as part of his coup? I have so many questions about these two and why Vivian’s chosen to tango with this cop in particular.

And a moment of applause for Matthew Mercer’s evil laugh at the end of the episode! What a way to go out. Matt is absolutely incredible in everything he does and Greater Gatsby is no exception. I’m so happy that MK’s brought him into the fold.

Well, that’s it for the time being! I hope Fig and Ford come back soon (have they announced how long the hiatus will be?) but in the meantime I will be re-listening and you can bet your ass I will blog any new revelations that come to mind.

This is man-down-in-hatchet-town, reporting from Tinsel Town, signing off (from these responses, not from the blog).

#shipwrecked comedy #the case of the greater gatsby #fig and ford #ford phillips #fig wineshine #vivian nightingale #bixby crane #mo beats #td hammermeister

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asoftershipwrecked · 8 months

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with pleasure, your audaciousness

#td hammermeister #theodore dorcas hammermeister #fig and ford #the case of the greater gatsby #greater gatsby #hook #shipwrecked comedy #asoftershipwrecked #lumi's remix #a softer world remix #comic 722

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man-down-in-hatchet-town · 8 months

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Hook

Spoilers for The Case of the Greater Gatsby Episode 5, "Hook," below the cut!

I want to be a fly on the wall at the Hammermeister estate. I mean, seriously, what are those people like when just sitting at their own dinner table? Is TD capable of asking Mel to pass the salt? That night, do they brush their teeth at the same sink? Who knows!

But the real question is, do we believe that Mel has no interest in producing The Greater Gatsby? That would certainly end a lot of the theories I've tossed around. And if we can believe her, is she protecting her employees or herself? And what is her relationship with Mo in all of this? The way she said "heart attack," implies she may know more about Fitzgerald's death than she's willing to straight-up say. Assuming she's not the killer, Mo would almost certainly be her first source of information, since we know they talk. We could guess that he works for her on the side, but that would make Mel hiring Fig and Ford a little redundant, unless she has reason to distrust Mo. Which would be fair. Still, I think it's more likely that Mo’s playing his own game—maybe he went to her with the truth about Fitzy's death in order to wring some extra cash out of the situation? Or maybe she wanted to ask him, the investigating officer, for the script and he had to tell her that its missing. This something big he’s working on to earn his promotion has to be related to F. Scott—though whether he’s investigating the murder (then why all the secrecy and lies?) or ensuring its coverup remains to be seen.

But back with Mel at Fig’s and Ford’s office, the other big takeaway is that Ford has some big secret he is desperate to protect, to the point of abandoning his deeply-held principles and working for Mel (!!!!!!!!!!!). What the hell could that be? He abandoned Hollywood as a child--seemingly too young to pick up any secrets shameful for him as opposed to the adults who were making all of his choices for him. Was there some additional, secret trauma besides the typical Hollywood exploitation? From the sound of it, Ford knows exactly what is on the line, and Mel knew that Ford would know. So he other obvious question is, did Fitzgerald really put anything about Ford in his script? What could he possibly have known? Or is Mel just 100% playing/blackmailing him, returning him to the helpless pawn he was as a child actor?

Speaking of helpless pawns, Dash Gunfire is a perfect little idiot who may be the only person less suited to his job than I am to mine. Bless him. I’m also deeply intrigued by the concept of Gunfire family drama. Or are they even called the Gunfires? If so, who the hell are they? Circus folk? Do they not approve of his profession? Dash is such a bad P.I.--how has he been surviving without additional family support. And why was he listening at Ford's new door?

And that brings us to the end. Barnaby getting a death threat is certainly a plot twist—he’s neither an actor nor, as far as we know, involved with The Grapes of Wrath or a potential Greater Gatsby film. Perhaps someone wants to shut him and his paper up about something? But what does he have in common with Willie and Cliff? They are all connected to Hollywood, they all had access to F. Scott, they are now all in contact with Fig and Ford, and they all know Vivian...

Unless Barnaby's letter was actually meant for her?

Color me hooked.

#the greater gatsby #the case of the greater gatsby #fig and ford #shipwrecked comedy #mel hammermeister #TD hammermeister #ford phillips #dash gunfire #fig wineshin #barnaby nightingale #mo beats

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shipwreckedcomedy · 2 years

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Suspect: 5'8"; husband and assistant to Mel Hammermeister. They say the meek shall inherit the earth. Those who say that have not met Theodore Dorcas.

Blake Silver is T.D. Hammermeister

We've hit our goal! The Case of the Greater Gatsby | A New Fig & Ford Radio Play from Shipwrecked Comedy | Now Funded on Kickstarter! 🎧

#the case of the greater gatsby #fig and ford #blake silver #td hammermeister #shipwrecked comedy

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man-down-in-hatchet-town · 6 months

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Misery AND The World Has Turned And Left Me Here

Well, life is insane but I intentionally let my phone die and instead found the time to write up my thoughts on Episodes 12 and 13 of The Case of The Greater Gatsby! I know Episode 14 dropped today and I was gonna do all three at once but--there's sooo much to talk about! The notes I had for just these two episodes alone were...erm...generous in number. So, uh, spoilers under the cut and my apologies for the amount of stuff I'm about to say?

First off, WOW WHAT A PAIR OF EPISODES! New reveals! Even newer questions! Quips and lies and truths! A banger of a cliffhanger! Jon Cozart followed by my man Dylan Saunders in his Shipwrecked debut! THE RETURN OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY (the noise I made when I saw he was in this episode…)!! Well played, Shipwrecked, well-freaking-played.

So let’s start out with a bang. Here’s my Wacky And Unlikely Greater Gatsby Theory of the Day(TM): Sheilah was having an affair… with Mel. Think about it: We start the year with Sheilah and Mel hitting it off. It’s about this time that the unsolicited affections start. It’s later, when Sheilah starts doing things like going to lunch with Mel, that Fitzgerald begins to believe she’s acting strange and suspect an affair. Sheilah’s the one to make Greater Gatsby a movie script and then recruit Mel to take it on (proving that Mel was lying to/obfuscating the truth from Ford during “Hook”, by the way). And then Mel callously fires Fitzgerald from Grapes of Wrath for no real professional reason and with apparent joy, almost like she has something personal, such as jealousy, against him. During his final missive, Fitzgerald tells Zelda about some great secret he’s found to put in his screenplay and that she would “laugh as I’ve been dosed some of my own medicine.” While supposedly he could have found out any secret from any of the party guests, the implication is that this final, deadly secret is about someone doing to Scott what he’d done to Zelda. Did someone steal his work? Possible, but everyone knows about Darby rewriting Grapes of Wrath, so not altogether likely. So maybe, just maybe, one of the women he was seeing was having an affair behind his back. Perhaps Fitzgerald discovered once and for all that Sheilah was having an affair, with Mel of all people, and, with alongside his previously cultivated antipathy towards Mel decides to throw that fact into the screenplay, damn the consequences. Meanwhile, we know that TD would do anything for his beloved Mel, and he’s probably also a little resentful about being kept out of the social club. So he finds out that Fitzgerald knows about the affair and intends to reveal it to the world, and, to protect Mel from scandal, kills Fitzgerald and takes the manuscript. Knowing that they both knew about the affair would explain why Fitzgerald talked the way he did to the mysterious stranger at the end. And yeah I know, this whole theory is a little wild, but never let it be said that I’m afraid of a big swing.

(A potential argument against this theory is the pre-Thanksgiving recording, when Sheilah urgently calls for Fitzy and he goes to help her, saying “Blast, not again! I thought we’d put a stop to this!” A stop to what? If I’m right about Mel, the “unsolicited affections” likely would have stopped by this point. On the other hand, the “this” could be something completely different. Is Fitzy the first victim of the threatening hate mail? Or is a third thing happening? Because it’s hard to see what he meant by “put a stop to it” if talking about letters, whether written with love or hate. Unless of course he knew who was sending them?)

On the other hand, Sheilah is not the only woman in Fitzy’s LA life. Vivian starts the second episode by making it very clear that she gets what she wants. The Greater Gatsby script tells the story of a innocent young man arriving in LA to write movies before falling under the allure of a morally dubious red-headed woman. Was Vivian inspiration for this character? Or was Fitzgerald already writing a meaty role for his red-headed mistress, a role that someone like Willie couldn’t snatch away? (Meanwhile, I should note that while coming up with this Vivian-esque character is when Fitzgerald starts to accuse Sheilah of acting strangely. Maybe he’s deflecting his own behavior onto her, excusing his own affair by accusing her of having one as well?). Vivian also returns to Fitzy’s house on the night of his murder, leaving seconds before the supposed killer arrives. It doesn’t seem likely that secret Fitzy discovered is hers—that’s just not the tone of the conversation. But tones can be misleading. And Fitzgerald uncovering her big secret and putting it in his script would fit the role the Vivian-esque character seems to play. Regardless, Fig and Ford are right—Viv did lie to them and her angle in this whole case is hard to understand. What exactly is she up to? Did she see the killer? Was it Barnaby and that’s why she’s so sure? But why not tell the police?

And speaking of Barnaby—his icy warning to Fitzgerald was chilling and completely belies his earlier statements to Fig and Ford. It seems like our girls aren’t the only ones lying through their teeth. I’m really loving how this character turned out—he’s so charmingly dorky and funny but with these moments of darkness that make you understand why Vivian’s accusing him of strangling another man to death. Also I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if his joke about the dead fellow soldier wasn’t a joke at all. Really, things aren’t looking good for either of the Nightingales.

Moving on from them for a bit, though, we learned a bit more about the Brigade and their thoughts on the Greater Gatsby. Fitzgerald gets the idea for Greater Gatsby, announcing his intention to fill in the gaps (which we know come to contain the secrets of various Hollywood insiders) right as he’s about to attend the first meeting of what will become the Brigade. We later learn that the Brigade unanimously despise the script (it’s not just Donald), so its interesting to wonder about the role they play in shaping its earlier development. Does someone spill secrets to Fitzgerald that they later regret enough to kill for?

On the subject of the murder, what about that license plate? “1ADLR1.” Something about it feels familiar but I can’t tell you what. I spent several minutes trying to remember who was called “Adler” before realizing I was thinking about the Planetarium Meredith Stepien works at in Chicago. Also, it’s funny that car expert and fussy neighbor Citizen Jasper Fox failed to mention such a loud vehicle when talking about Fitzy’s last night. Did he just respect the car too much? What is he hiding? Regardless, the murderer’s silence on the tapes indicates that they knew about their presence. By my count, the people who know for sure about them are: Sheilah, Vivian, TD, Mel, Dorothy, Darby, Ernest, and George.

Speaking of George Astrum of Astrum Appliances (Jon Cozart!), it seems pretty apparent that he and the Highwayman are one in the same. But is this a red-herring? Or is there even more to George than doorway robbery? Is it possible that he’s in fact the missing Eugene? Honestly, I could see Jon Cozart as the addition to the Brosenthal/Esther sibling double act. The Persauds also take a moment to let us know that Astrum knows about the tapes. Was Astrum actually an investigator doing recon? Could he be reporting back to the eventual murderer, letting them know to stay quiet incase Fitzgerald has his tape-deck going?

Which brings us to our final big plot thread: Rex's letter and Lex’s baffling subsequent disappearance. Why escalate with Lex Punchwhistle of all people? Were the Punchwhistle twins the original targets in all of this? Does that timeline even work out—people didn’t know they were coming until after Willie received her letter. And how does Eugene play into all of this? Is he behind the letters? Did Lex see the letter first and follow some hidden clue back to Eugene (we know she was following up on some leads), leaving Rex to assume the worst? Or did the leads she was following get her into trouble, and the threatening letter just happened to arrive at the same time?

The next episode is already out and I am SO EXCITED TO LISTEN TO IT!! Seems like it’s essentially the mid-season finale and I can’t tell if I should be excited, terrified, or both

Some stray thoughts because there was too much to pontificate about:

-Shout out to the LBD cast in these episodes! Obviously Mary Kate is amazing and Vivian is so much fun. DVG was a terrific centerpiece and guide through the last year of Fitzy’s life, and Julia Cho’s just been fucking killing it this whole time. Also DVG and Laura Spencer totally need to play love interests at some point so that he can have romanced all three Bennett sisters.

-Fitzgerald revealed that he and Zelda promised to visit each other in December. Is this just another reminder of how Fitzgerald’s life was tragically cut short too soon? Or were these plans for early December, and their failure to follow through on them, relevant to Fitzy’s demise?

-Fitzy was so real when reacting to the actual sound of his own voice. Every time I hear how I sound I die a little inside.

-That line about tape recorders being too fussy for Zelda’s “idiotic mind” is a major OOF moment. No wonder she has issues, if he talks to her like that.

-DYLAN! Didn’t talk much about his stuff cause it didn’t seem as plot relevant but it was such a joy to hear him and I really like Donald! One of Hollywood’s last good men!

-Fitzy was totally selling Greater Gatsby to Roger, right? The conversation with Ernest probably gave him the idea.

#the case of the greater gatsby #fig and ford #vivian nightingale #barnaby nightingale #mel hammermeister #td hammermeister #Greater Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald #Greater Gatsby Sheilah Graham #george astrum #citizen jasper fox #rex punchwhistle #lex punchwhistle #shipwrecked comedy #greater gatsby #ford phillips #fig wineshine

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