Bioshock Rapture: Part 5
There’s MORE Bioshock Rapture y’all! And only one more episode on it beyond this one. In this episode we talk about Eels, and Hot Pockets. So you know, be aware of that.
Automated Transcript
Okay, I just didn't get that one awesome you know, that's the it was right lovely. Just lovely experience. I
Kevin Erhard 0:06
really enjoyed it just a beautiful, lovely, lovely little game.
Phil 0:10
Yeah, truly
Kevin Erhard 0:14
you know what isn't beautiful or lovely? Hey there everybody
Phil 0:21
it's us we're not beautiful or lovely.
Kevin Erhard 0:23
Welcome back to pixelache My name is Gavin with me as always is Phil. I always do always deep down inside. Today we're talking BioShock rapture, we're in part three. This is our fifth episode on the book and we are probably not gonna finish the book in this sink we're going this episode it is you know, the more we time we spend with it that beef here this book gets in my you you
Phil 0:58
actually put it very well earlier today when we were talking we were texting back and forth. Yeah. And Kevin said when we were reading Far Cry absolution. It had great moments but then there would be a lot of like just basically not filler but it would be like beautiful descriptions of trees and long drawn out action sequences that really when we're you know transcribing them to you guys. It we're just going and then this buffet happens for like 10 pages, right? That is not the case in this book.
Kevin Erhard 1:33
Right now. This is this really pack it in there. Yeah, I think I said it feels like every sentence is a beat. Yeah.
Phil 1:41
It's it's there isn't a lot of padding here. It's
Kevin Erhard 1:44
just padding. It's used pretty well. There is it is like you know what it's like it's like a can of tuna fish. Oh, God. It is very well packed in there. Perhaps oil so many things, perhaps in the water.
Phil 2:02
Well, I feel like that's a chunk of dolphin. The occasional
Kevin Erhard 2:04
chunk of dolphin. I feel like that's appropriate with our with our fan favorite villain Frank Fontane.
Phil 2:11
That is true.
Kevin Erhard 2:12
Yeah, the head of the fishery. I don't know if they were getting much tuna down in Rapture. Maybe they were maybe it was the mercury. That was
Phil 2:22
I mean, the Mercury has had an effect. I think we can all agree on that something's going on. Something's
Kevin Erhard 2:28
going on down there. And you know what it's, it's for sure has nothing to do with the plasmids, or the abject poverty.
Phil 2:39
That's no, that would be silly.
Kevin Erhard 2:41
That would be silly to assume
Phil 2:43
it's gotta have something to do with those damn moochers.
Kevin Erhard 2:47
Those damn parasites, just ruining things for great men.
Phil 2:52
If it weren't for the parasites. He
Kevin Erhard 2:53
was a truly a great man. Don't you think you'd be able to overcome the parasites?
Phil 2:57
That's exactly what I was about to say. It's like you would think that a parasite, it's like well, you're a great man. So get rid of the parasites. What's stopping you from doing that? I that's never answered.
Kevin Erhard 3:09
never answered.
Phil 3:11
I never bring that up. Yeah, we leave that one for the rest of us. Us. Us plebs to figure out
Kevin Erhard 3:15
us parasites over here. US we perish. Any parasites
Phil 3:20
there. That's the name of my next book.
Kevin Erhard 3:22
We've parasites instead of I, Claudius. Yeah, we've heard
Phil 3:26
but it's actually about it's about head lice. We parasites little we parasites.
Kevin Erhard 3:31
So we start with Chapter 15 in the infirmary and Persephone. And we got a dude, Carl wing. Who, who cares? I mean, he's one of those. He's one of those ships passing in the night. Another character that's just gonna see a lot of we're not gonna see a lot of them. He floats in one scene. He's gone the next. But it's another Sofia lamb scene. And there's like some there's been some sort of a gap in stuff that has happened to Sofia lamb because she's in Persephone as, as it were. But at this point, it is become clear that her daughter Eleanor has is being experimented on. Yes, she is. She was taken away from Sofia and she is. She is. Let's let's be honest, she's gonna be one of the Little Sisters.
Phil 4:28
Yes, absolutely. That much is pretty clear.
Kevin Erhard 4:31
So basically, Sophia is Sophia is trying to she still has some leeway within Persephone. For some reason. I don't understand. Like, logically, I'm not sure why Sophia is allowed. Like if she is such a threat.
Phil 4:51
Yeah, I mean, like he has brought up the whole I'm gonna disappear her thing a lot. At this point, she's in This heavily guarded you know, I don't want to tell the dictator how to dictate but at this point she's been in this mental institution kind of thing. Yeah for a while why you could just you could just have a rubbed out right or is that like he's already planned stuff like that is already playing dirty it's he's already you know giving up on his ideas
Kevin Erhard 5:23
he is the grand threat that he enough to be thrown into Persephone. Then why are you letting her talk to the prisoners and give them psychiatric counseling?
Phil 5:38
He makes it's like, yeah, like, I don't I don't. I don't like the idea of offering her No. If I were playing this on renegade style, and I wanted to get all the bad guy points. She should be dead should be dead.
Kevin Erhard 5:55
Yeah. Yeah. So Yeah. Basically, she's she's been using these therapy sessions with Persephone prisoners to build her army from within. And she's still getting visits from Simon Wales, who is one of her followers, but also not locked up, even though he kind of is a turncoat. Right. And Simon Wales is like her interface to the outside, more or less. And, by the way, the guy who does the narration in the audio book does a really weird voice for Simon Wales. And I don't know why. Like, I have no, there's no like, real indication of what what he's trying to pull up.
Phil 6:42
He doesn't have you know, it's like, it's like, he doesn't spend a lot. You know, you when certain when you do narration when you're reading these characters, oh, excuse me. You know, for a lot of your characters, you're just going to talk like yourself, because it's easiest thing to do. And I can understand needing to change the voice if like, there are a bunch of people in the room and you need to differentiate it, but it's just him. It's just the way it's almost never with anybody else. So yeah, it's a weird, weird choice. It is weird, because she's not and she's she's also kind of a Manchurian Candidate eating these people, isn't she?
Kevin Erhard 7:20
Yeah, yeah. Basically, she's trying to plant the seed and activate them later.
Phil 7:26
Right. Right. And And honestly, we really don't have to wait that long. We don't
Kevin Erhard 7:30
have to wait. Actually, she changes their mind in this in this scene. She's like, you know what, we're doing it now. And yeah, basically, she she and her her army take over Persephone because they had the, the warden was on her side. And so the wardens on her side, they off some of the guards. And Sinclair is basically who is who is Ins Persephone at the time he has to like evacuate. Right, but now Sophia lamb has a little base of her own operation and Persephone.
Phil 8:11
Yeah, yeah, she basically pulls a Fuckit We'll do it live. And they just I cuz I was I honestly thought the way it was going. I was like, they're going to just, this is going to be this is the seed they're planting. And the climax of the third part of the book is going to be her taking. Oh, she's done it. She did it. It's over. Yeah. So that was interesting. Yeah, it was didn't see that coming.
Kevin Erhard 8:38
And then we jump over to our protagonist, erstwhile protagonist, Bill McDonough. Doing some work in Hephaestus. Poor bill. And he's listening to Andrew Ryan, giving some dumb speech about altruism and how it's the worst thing in the world. Yeah, everything is everything it is altruism is worse than slavery. According to Andrew Ryan. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's a thing. That he it's a thing that's, that's a thought to chew on. That is That is a thing that he said, is
Phil 9:15
a thing that was said by a human being at a time.
Kevin Erhard 9:18
So he basically he's listening to it, and Bill is like, but what happens is, is his coworker Pablo, is like, yeah, you know, this is like, Ryan's an idiot, you know? Right. He basically insults Ryan to Bill's face
Phil 9:40
is really echoing he's echoing stuff that bill's thinking he's echoing
Kevin Erhard 9:44
the stuff that bill's thinking but then when Pablo says it out loud. Bill is like, oh, no, I have to defend Ryan. You know, don't don't don't let anybody hear that talk. And, and, and Pablo says yes, like a true lap dog.
Phil 9:59
Oh, It's great. It's great. And Bill like, basically, I mean, he basically has no choice at that point. He has to be like, you talk to me that way again, I'm going to punch you in the mouth. Mm hmm. is essentially what he tells them and public just kind of goes, Uh huh. Yeah, I believe you. Yeah, sure. Anything you say onkey. And moves on. It's it's a really interesting scene because Bill, we've been watching Bill lose any interest. Not interest in the cause? Because he's still, Bill makes me think of somebody who came by libertarianism. Honestly. Sure. Like, who actually does like think that in their heart of hearts, this is really the best thing. The best thing is, yeah, this is right. And that, but then he like, went to a bunch of libertarian conventions and met these people and found out how many of them are obsessed with like, age of consent. Yeah. And building like, see, fairing islands like fucking John Galt. And like, how many of them are just fucking lunatics? Yeah. And he was just like, Ah,
Kevin Erhard 11:09
god, this is terrible. And then somebody else insults them. And he's like, hey, those are my friends, I think.
Phil 11:15
Yeah, it makes me think a little bit of my my friend who's a libertarian, libertarian. I'm a liberal Christian. I'm like, Oh, you must day to day just me. It must be a real rough one for you. Yeah. On a day to day basis.
Kevin Erhard 11:28
Yeah. Yeah. So that that's just another scene in the ever growing pile of scenes of Bill McDonough gets his resolve tested?
Phil 11:39
Pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I will say we just said that, that there isn't a lot of wasted time in this book. Right. I stand by that. But I would argue that we probably needed two or three fewer of those moments. Yeah, it's like, alright, we got it. But I really isn't happy with this right
Kevin Erhard 12:00
there with you. I understand that. Yeah, it was not happy with the way things are going. We jump over to Frank Fontaine. Now, which these chapters are just so filled with scene changes. It's really hard. And as a writer, what is your opinion of, like, of the scene, like how you categorize a chapter versus the scene changes? Because it feels like the the book could have just been like 80 chapters? Who cares? And yeah, each scene change could have just been its own chapter. Right?
Phil 12:39
Yeah, I mean, the whole idea when you're writing chapter, it's the same it, I mean, at all, it's all a matter of taking the same idea and smashing it down. The whole idea of writing a book is you write the beginning, the middle and the end. And then the whole idea with writing parts of a book is each one of them has a beginning, middle and end, a chapter beginning of down two paragraphs in many people's opinions, right? Like, each paragraph needs to deal with one small piece. It's it. So it's, it is an odd choice. I kind of at this point, see why these three chapters have been divided the way they have. But yeah, I totally get what you mean it's especially this part because I think some of the sections a little sections when the within the chapter, this has some of the shortest, most direct sections, especially in a Chapter coming up. They're like little half page right sections of the book, which is not a thing. I believe TV, mostly. Yeah, it makes me think of it where this this whole thing is paced. A bit like a miniseries.
Kevin Erhard 13:52
Yeah, like each chapter is like episode in writing mini series
Phil 13:57
are limited. The moments that yeah, the scenes within the episode. That's not a bad thing or a good thing, right? It is what it is,
Kevin Erhard 14:05
is what it is. Yeah, yeah. Otherwise, what's what is the connective tissue holding the chapter together? If not the man right? Is it like the matter? We're starting?
Phil 14:16
We're starting to see. And we and we saw this with, with the previous two parts, where we would have these moments that didn't necessarily push the plot forward, per se, kind of like the scene with a guy who's spending all his wife's money on plasmids and X ray kills or with a fridge. That doesn't push the plot forward, per se. It's just our window into this world just show us how bad things are getting right. We have fewer of those, but we do have. For example, this part this is a very short section with with Frank Fontaine.
Kevin Erhard 14:55
Yeah.
Phil 14:56
Frank Fontaine in his lab basically working on propaganda for the Atlas. Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 15:03
he's building his Atlas, his Atlas persona, so to speak. Right,
Phil 15:07
right. And he's it's talking about where he's pulling things from it, you know, we find out that they're killing constables. They're they're, you know, basically skip keeping people scared. He's
Kevin Erhard 15:20
got he's got he's he basically just has this guy Reggie going out and
Phil 15:23
shooting cops. Yeah, just killing cops.
Kevin Erhard 15:26
Actually, they haven't debate as as to whether they're cops are.
Phil 15:30
Right, right, right. He says, Well, they're not really even cops, they're constables. You
Kevin Erhard 15:35
know, they're bums with badges.
Phil 15:36
He said about badges. And the guy goes, That guy goes well, between you and me up on the surface. I always thought of copses bumps with badges. So yeah, it's all the same.
Kevin Erhard 15:45
Basically, Reggie, Reggie says a cab and
Phil 15:50
this is a cab, throw his fist up and everyone cheers. But basically, it's a section of Frank gearing up for the big fight. I think it's done well enough. I think I think I think it's done appropriately enough. There. There have been some places I think where you could have just gone ahead and made that all one section. Sure. There was no need to split it up. But But I think it's done well enough. It's just it's it's definitely clipping along at a at a faster pace at this point. Right.
Kevin Erhard 16:25
Yeah. So they so that happens and then we kind of get the the fallout of that happening. Is is Ryan, along with Bill McDonough. Some other characters who don't matter nearly as much. And Cavendish, I
Phil 16:42
literally have them written as pase
Kevin Erhard 16:45
pase. Yeah, yeah. With Cavendish and Redgrave, the constables Yeah, are basically looking at the murders of the of the three constables that Reggie has just shot.
Phil 16:59
Yeah. And they're hanging them. They hang in their bodies near some propaganda.
Kevin Erhard 17:03
Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, there's it's just kind of like a more diving into the, like, the, the, the issues on the street level that are happening more and more often. And
Phil 17:22
Ryan's reaction to that, like, Yeah, makes his own value system crumble because of this point. Yeah. He's talking about we need curfews, we need checkpoints. We need robots with guns, robots
Kevin Erhard 17:34
with guns, because there's nothing more objectivist than a robot with a gun.
Phil 17:40
That's exactly. That's what he wants. And look. Could there be anything cooler than your private society full of you know, armed automatons? Probably not. But Bill just can't believe it. He sees shocked. Yeah. Yeah. And it goes even further south because Ryan basically announces that they're going to go take over Fontaine's business by force.
Kevin Erhard 18:07
Yeah. He's, he's basically doing the thing that it had been like, softly floated out there years prior. And now he's just like, Yeah, I'm doing it. We're gonna, we're
Phil 18:20
doing and it's really funny bit too, because it just, it's another moment of I keep thinking about watching an episode of or maybe it was just an interview. It was an interview with Penn from Penn and Teller. And, you know, he's always been very heavily libertarian. Sure. And, and he explained that the reason he was libertarian is, you know, it's because he's very Pollyanna. He admits that he says, You know, I, I think we're gonna fix the problems. We're the best people to do it, you know, without any evidence, but that was his belief. And, and it kind of makes me think of Ryan and his interactions with Fontane. Right, you know, for all the non regulation of this world that he wants to create. He's still expecting Fontane to play by some level of rules. Yeah. Gentleman's rule.
Kevin Erhard 19:13
Yeah. Like Like he's it's it's taken him this long to kind of realize that Fontane is his jet. Literally, if if we determined that that Ryan is is what is it lawful evil? Right, then Fontane is his chaotic evil like absolutely he is. He is just in it for the chaos baby. Yeah, like is there is there any is there money? Yeah, but let's do it as in the in the most chaotic way possible?
Phil 19:47
Well, he's the real face objectivism. The irony, you know, Ryan thinks that he's the guy who came up with all of this. Sure. He's like I've you know, no rules, no regulations, and it's just the mark It just the market and that's how it works. And Fontanne goes cool. I can get it on that. And he really absolutely. He's kind of like the comedian in the watchmen. Yeah. Like he's like, he's like showing you the true face of what this is about, like, you know, Ryan thinks he's the face of it. He's not 14 is yeah, you know, and he's showing you exactly because he is willing to do anything it takes right, you know, and there are no rules against it. There are no rules against no rules, not breaking any laws, or, you know, killing people except for killing
Kevin Erhard 20:35
people. But Ryan's doing that. Right. Ryan's like, when you when you don't have any laws, or there's no lines in the sand anywhere? No. So so there's no way that Ryan can say the way I do it is better than the way he does it.
Phil 20:55
Right. Right. They foresee this time and time again. Yeah. You know, Ryan Ryan in Fontane, his litter is truly playing by the rules or lack thereof that Ryan set down and Ryan's the one breaking his own rules to get back at Fontane. Yeah, it's really very ironic. Very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of font day isn't
Kevin Erhard 21:19
big enough Fontane, where there's basically We're back. We're in the little sister's orphanage.
Phil 21:27
Scene made me sad.
Kevin Erhard 21:29
Yeah. Yeah. So basically, what happens in this scene? Oh, this is the description of what the Little Sisters end up like what they're doing to the Little Sisters. Right, which is like at the orphanage, which is like they implant the the kid with the sea slug. And they, one of the things that one of the things that that stood out to me was where it's like, the Little Sisters developed a strangely uniform look in their pinafore in their little Pinafores their faces and bodies remarkably similar thanks to a side effect of the sea slug implantation. The sea slugs were like tapeworms inside of them. They're not human anymore. He told himself. Yeah, yes.
Phil 22:18
It's really upsetting. And and Tenenbaum is not
Kevin Erhard 22:22
happy. Tenenbaum says, Yeah, we have finally met Yeah, we have finally met the line that Tenenbaum is not happy to have crossed. It. Is this. It Like It's this abuse of children. Basically, she's Yes, she's hit it. She's hit the mark. Like oh, I actually do with abusing people, people in general, she will jolts she will stick a needle in a man's testicles to get absolute to get his semen.
Phil 22:52
And my brain was trying to protect me. I forgot all about that. But yes, there's a great moment, like where she's talking about, like her breaking point here. Sure. She's talking about how one of the little girls hops into her lap. Yeah, which is kind of a precious image. Sure. Uh, and she immediately pushes her off and shouts Get away from me. She says I can see the atom oozing out of the corner of her mouth. She closed her eyes remembering her filthy hair hanging in her face dirty clothes that did glow in her eye. I feel hatred. Her voice broke hatred. Frank like I never felt before. Bitter burning fury. I can barely breathe but Frank she opened her eyes and looked at him for one surprising insert instant that I know it is not this child. I hate so she is she is turning in on herself. She asked herself what she's doing.
Kevin Erhard 23:50
She's hates hates herself and Fontane is like the Dame is cracking up.
Phil 23:55
Doesn't even is this chapter where he even says like, because they haven't plucked in a little while. sleeping with her
Kevin Erhard 24:02
again is something like he's like It's like he literally he literally is like It's
Phil 24:05
like she seems she's cracking up maybe I should slip her the old can deal that'll that'll fix the problem. She's got the hysterics I've got a massage or servings like Sheezus like I know we like Fontaine and everything but Jesus Christ, man.
Kevin Erhard 24:23
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's like as a character not as a personality rule. Yes. He's a great guy. He's great.
Phil 24:32
He's horrible.
Kevin Erhard 24:34
Horrible. But slip the old Fontane fountain. Yeah.
Phil 24:38
Oh, God. We need we need more kids for this orphanage after Oh, man. He's Yeah, it's rough. So yeah, clearly something is like broken into she and nothing that there's nothing there's nothing in her that CoQ is going to find. Vic's Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 25:01
So that he then he is talking to sue Chong. About the, the abduction of and this is the it's at this point the plotline that leads into the literal protagonist of BioShock begins because they're talking about the abduction of the stripper that Ryan sleeps with. Jasmine hurt the child basically. Yeah. That she's carrying. That is that is Ryan's but yeah, so they're
Phil 25:40
they bought, they bought her the fertilized egg though the, as you pointed out at the end of part two, she's clearly pregnant.
Kevin Erhard 25:50
And she's trying to tell him that she's pregnant, but she never gets it right.
Phil 25:53
And she never gets it out. So but she was able to get it out to sue Shang, who they paid her for the fertilized egg. So now they have Ryan's DNA, and they've got this plan to use it against him in some horrifying
Kevin Erhard 26:08
to to accelerate its growth and make it so that it is able to be commanded with a code word. So Phil, would you kindly tell me what the next chapter
Phil 26:22
I will tell you what. That was in no way a reference to a very famous game moment. I broke the fourth wall and its own way. I think we all remember that moment. Oh, good. What happened there? Yeah. It's kind of terrible urge to go find a film grad school and burn it to the ground.
Kevin Erhard 26:50
Would you kindly
Phil 26:54
that does that. But that does bring us to chapter 16. Yeah. And we get this wrong. It's that this is a fun opening. Yeah, I get this bizarre propaganda in response to capital punishment, because Ryan's talking about issuing capital punishment, which he's never done before. A lot of a lot of more libertarian types that I know find capital punishment to be abhorrent because it does not. It's a it's an overstepping of the government's boundaries. Exactly. And, and Ryan is basically making propaganda just he's like prepping it to get the people ready. You know, and, and it's truly like some Red Scare era. A shit like where it's just like, hey, you know, better better dead than red light. That whole thing.
Kevin Erhard 27:45
A little capital punishment is a small price to pay to protect all of our freedoms. Oh, now you're talking marry?
Phil 27:53
Yeah, that's right, because it's married the weak willed woman who can't come around to it. And they had the smart man with his big man brain comes and goes, come on, Mary, we're gonna have to kill some people every now and then to protect the sound. She's like, well, I guess you're right. I should just get back to having babies. So that happened
Kevin Erhard 28:13
in 1958.
Phil 28:17
Ryan shows it to Bill and Bill's just so he's so depressed.
Kevin Erhard 28:22
Bill. Bill is is just disappointment personified.
Phil 28:28
And he just talks about looking at Ryan how Ryan just seems like this old sad, paranoid man. Yeah. And is all in over the course of how long has it been? When did they when did they meet?
Kevin Erhard 28:40
I would say it's been 11 years. I want to say ish. So
Phil 28:44
like, they've just like, over this time. He's just watched him kind of just losing it yet. And
Kevin Erhard 28:52
kind of like old and frail basically. Right?
Phil 28:55
Well, it's just it's just his inability to bend you know, it's like, as a man of absolutes. And but when he does bend, that's the irony. He is only willing to bend in a direction that is more of the dictatorship and the totalitarian ship right. escaped with the Soviet Union. Yeah. Uh, yeah, he isn't willing to bend he's, I think that's what it comes down to people like this. The the spine of them is cruelty. Yeah. Cruelty is the point. Cruelty is the point. Exactly. He is He is willing to bend but never in the direction of helping out people that he finds to be undeserving, which is almost everyone almost
Kevin Erhard 29:39
all of them. So, yeah, so they so they're talking while they're reviewing this footage bill and and Ryan are talking more about the radon Fontaine futuristics Yes. And, and Bill is basically trying one more time to impress upon him like, you can't just go in there. nationalize a somebody else's company by force, like, that's against your beliefs,
Phil 30:08
right? Your very beliefs and and Ryan essentially threatens him. Yeah. Yeah, he's just like it's a very because you know, Bill has kind of played the angel on Ryan shoulder as often as he feels that he can reasonably get away with it right. And and Ryan basically is like, I see you like he's, I see what you're doing and you can be replaced. Yes, essentially. Yeah, you know Andals it and Bill thinks of his pregnant wife and shuts the fuck up.
Kevin Erhard 30:39
Yep. Don't Don't be replaceable. Yeah, and
Phil 30:44
Ryan's just what the irony, of course, is that Ryan is getting more paranoid and said, but it's kind of hilarious how often he gets things right. His paranoia actually does suit him well, because he does bring up the idea that he suspects that Jasmine is old Fling is working now with Fontane. Yeah, and it's just kind of like wow, it's kind of hard to criticize this guy for being paranoid when he is kind of spot on.
Kevin Erhard 31:10
Yeah, no, yes, he's able to pick up like the little things, all these little things. Speaking of which, we jump back over to Fontaine. futuristics and Sue Truong
Phil 31:23
good example, by the way of where I think we could have combined
Kevin Erhard 31:26
Yeah, sure. combined a bunch of little scenes. Go back and forth. And back and back. And yeah, Fontaine's area. It that's Yeah, didn't necessarily. And I think because it's trying to because the writer is surely is trying to have the different points of view. Because the first scene was from Fontaine's point of view this scene though is from Penn and BOMs point of view. That's a good point. And so basically, they're growing the fetus in a tube. It's like accelerated growth or something like that. And su Chong is doing the wy K conditioning. Which she doesn't know what that is. And he's like, Well, I can't tell you like we're not supposed to tell every you know, we can't tell each other everything.
Phil 32:17
And she immediately just goes, Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. She's totally on his side.
Kevin Erhard 32:22
Yeah. Which I didn't. Wi K What does that mean? And then as like, Would you kindly
Phil 32:31
Yeah. It's a nice and yeah, but we're watching this little boy's growth and it's Mr. Bubble. You know, it's just like he's he's, you know, exploding in size because basically the idea is that these girls you know what, we're gonna get to it later. But these these little girls are defenseless. So they no no,
Kevin Erhard 32:56
no, this is this is not that this is this now we're getting to that late we're getting to that later. This is this. Oh, no, you're right. This is some this is the the dude from some biosense Kisses Ryan's kid. Yeah, who is going to be sent out into the world briefly and come back with fake memories?
Phil 33:16
Yeah. This is, this is Oedipus. Yeah. Yeah, he's he's see us then is that I didn't think about how big of an Oedipal story this is. Until they literally like throw in my face like God but yeah, I said, Yeah, you're absolutely right. I got mixed up. This is this is this is
Kevin Erhard 33:35
the big daddy stack they call Jack Yeah, the Big Daddy stuff is coming soon. This is this is the main character of BioShock one being grown in a test tube, basically, and he'll come back basically being looking like he's 30 years old. When he comes back in like, two years,
Phil 33:56
he's he's like two years old.
Kevin Erhard 33:58
He's basically two years old, but in the body of like a 30 year old with implanted memories.
Phil 34:03
Right, right. Yeah, and it goes without saying as we put it up before the Tenenbaum is so not okay with that she
Kevin Erhard 34:10
is she is drifting. The rope has snapped and her raft is drifting further and further down the river of not being okay.
Phil 34:18
Yeah. Into the I'm not all right ocean.
Kevin Erhard 34:27
So the so basically, they're, they're getting that taken care of, and they're going to be sending the child off. They have a they have a bathysphere ready to go to get the child out because the the goal is not to keep the child on Rapture. Yeah, that's part of Fontaine's plan, which is important because in the very next scene, we got basically, it's the it's the gathering of the troops at Neptune's bounty
Phil 35:00
Time to raid fun Tang I'm gonna make what's his hours
Kevin Erhard 35:03
it's time for the fight a lot of stuff happens in this scene don't necessarily need to go over all of it is just like a lot of combat.
Phil 35:17
Mostly they it's mostly it's the raiding party getting their ask it destroyed by slicers they're not ready for the splicers man.
Kevin Erhard 35:25
Yeah, they're not ready. The splicers are freezing people there are lighting them up there. They're really they're really messing them up. And Bill
Phil 35:36
what Fontane essentially has is an army of super powered crackheads. Yeah, he's he's got essentially what these are.
Kevin Erhard 35:43
It's like if the if the X Men were addicted to meth, that's what Fontane that's.
Phil 35:51
That's exactly. And he's the only guy in town, making math.
Kevin Erhard 35:56
Making the math is he is Fontane is the Heisenberg of Rapture.
Phil 36:03
Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, it's it's and it's just a mess. And and then Fontane a makes an appearance and it's a really weird appearance. He is super theatrical. Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 36:18
Billy's like really Bill notices that the Void is like this doesn't This is weird. Why is he acting like this?
Phil 36:25
He's literally pulling the whole like you're not you're not gonna take us alive. See? And he's like to like double like like gently double pistol, you know, firing down at everybody. Not giving a shit if he's getting shot out not like being strategic, just Berzerker raging his way into the crowd. And based on what we have heard with Fontane, asking about plastic surgery and whatnot, I think we can all safely Yeah, rest assured, that's not fun. That is not
Kevin Erhard 36:59
Fontane, that is one of his guys who Fontane had hand picked. In that chapter. He's like, Oh, yeah, this guy already kind of looks like me. So we're gonna get them a little plastic surgery. So he looks exactly like me.
Phil 37:12
Right? And they take him out.
Kevin Erhard 37:16
Yeah, no, one of the one of the random guys is like, yeah, I got Fontane. Whoo
Phil 37:20
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's the it's like the classic like Batman taken out by the the nameless goon in Batman The Animated Series. That was a good episode.
Kevin Erhard 37:34
It was a it was like the it's basically any Star Trek The Next Generation episode with Worf getting apps like destroyed by rock by somebody.
Phil 37:47
Might someone by someone like someone worse
Kevin Erhard 37:51
yet worth just getting his ass handed to him?
Phil 37:54
That's exactly what it like, is this, this big baller character who you know we expect to be a total badass just just getting knocked out. But at least with this there's a reasonable explanation.
Kevin Erhard 38:08
Yeah. Yeah, so they they just keep fighting fighting back and forth. There's there's so they they they managed to to kill Fontane, they end up having to retreat anyway kind of because the splicers are are basically just insane. I mean, it doesn't matter the Fontaine's dead.
Phil 38:33
Right? Right.
Kevin Erhard 38:36
And the people who survive are like Bill and Sullivan and you know the the people you hear their names off over and over again Bill salva and Redgrave Cavendish, they all get out. And yeah, they they move on? Yeah, with Fontane, quote unquote Fontane? Yep, dead.
Phil 39:03
Yeah. And yeah, they they're essentially taking over they've accomplished their mission.
Kevin Erhard 39:09
Yep. Meanwhile, still, at Fontaine, futuristics, they find out that the Little Sisters orphanage basically, there had been rumors coming out of the Little Sisters orphanage about what kind of experiments were going on there. And Sullivan is like, Yeah, well, I can confirm now that those experiments that was not just a rumor, they were actually doing that crazy shit. Yeah.
Phil 39:36
He's disgusted his disgust. Sullivan is
Kevin Erhard 39:39
Sullivan is like, he's an interesting character. And I feel like yeah, we don't get enough of him. His deterioration like yeah, some of it, but he has this deterioration going on because he already was an alcoholic, and it is just getting worse. worse and worse as as shit hits the fan.
Phil 40:03
Absolutely. Yeah, he's, and he's going we know that he used to be a big gambler and like he was from a, you know, slum kind of background and Ryan gave him a chance and saw something great and right. And he's like trying to, to ease ease basically like Bill in a way where he just he just wants he doesn't want to let them down. But he doesn't have I guess the self control or reason to be alive that Bill has right. He's trying to start a family. It's just a single Yeah. Bill's
Kevin Erhard 40:37
got his wife and daughter solvents. Just an old old cop.
Phil 40:42
Right? Yeah. Yeah. And he just and so when when Sullivan sees all this shit going down, he just disappears into a whiskey bottle.
Kevin Erhard 40:50
Yeah. Yeah, he curls up. He gets he gets nice and comfy. What with whiskey bottle. But Selvan is breaking down. Like he's basically telling Ryan like, yeah, they were using the little girls to harvest to produce Adam. And it's like, it's terrible, isn't it? And Ryan's like, yes. Terrible, as well,
Phil 41:16
we can do that.
Kevin Erhard 41:19
Well, we might as well just let them leave them as they are for now. And we'll figure out another way to produce Adam efficiently later. Yeah, slash never.
Phil 41:30
Exactly. It's the old it's the old what we need, you know, we're just we're just need to technology will come in and solve everything and then we promptly don't look into that technology at all.
Kevin Erhard 41:40
Yeah. And then so yeah, yeah. And then what was it the SU Chang basically starts talking about how the girl little girls can also be used as Adam harvesters. Yeah, dead bodies. And because now soo Chong is back and Ryan's employed obviously.
Phil 42:03
Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 42:05
Just worked back and forth. These he's back home.
Phil 42:09
It's kind of hilarious because this is later on. But yeah, he like, you know, they he asks about Sue Sean's loyalty and Sue Sean literally says, I shouldn't have hung out with a guy who didn't have enough guns. You know, my problem is that I was with a guy who didn't have enough soldiers and shit and you I won't make that mistake again. Yeah. Which is not really tells them
Kevin Erhard 42:33
the answer to his question.
Phil 42:35
Not really. No, no,
Kevin Erhard 42:36
Brian picks up on that that that Sue Chung literally just says, Yeah, I'm just gonna go with the person who has more guns. Yeah, I'm
Phil 42:44
just gonna go with whatever's the most the the person who will get get me killed the least. That's that's he just openly says that. So yeah, the scientists are put right the fuck back to work. Nothing changed. Nothing changes Fontane, except for the name.
Kevin Erhard 43:01
Yeah. Now it's, it's Ryan plasmids instead of one
Phil 43:04
plasmid. Yeah. So yeah. That brings us to Diane,
Kevin Erhard 43:10
we haven't heard from Diane in a bit. No,
Phil 43:13
we haven't heard from her a long bit. And this is a it's a funny chapter. I didn't understand the use of it until later. But essentially, it's all it's not even chapter. It's a section. We are in chapter 17. Now, yeah, um, but she's been gambling and having like a lot of luck. She's been winning a lot of money. And just doesn't care. It doesn't make her happy. She doesn't feel good. She
Kevin Erhard 43:38
wants to be she says she wants to be shopping on Park Avenue in New York. Not really on here. Writer.
Phil 43:46
sucks. Yeah, it's like doing well in Rapture. Yeah, that's kind of a bittersweet sort of thing. Yeah. Like, what do I have your end all this on? I gotta watch another shitty musical by the one guy who writes musicals down here.
Kevin Erhard 44:02
One shitty musical writer who writes musicals in the shity shity. City.
Phil 44:09
Yeah, I'm going to go to I'm going to go to a city underwater. It's like, don't worry. We've got a famous playwright. You'll get to be the only one of the only people get to watch us plays. What's his name? Neil. Neil Abune. Ah, no, I just
Kevin Erhard 44:22
is that oh, is that a play? Is that a play writing deep cut there?
Phil 44:27
That's me throwing some shade at it. And a play right?
Kevin Erhard 44:31
Sure. Feel free. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pick up on it or understand it, but just just let me know when it works up and it math works.
Phil 44:42
Yeah, yeah. It's, I'll give you I'll give you a five minute Headstart. Okay. Like I'm about to make a theater reference. is what you get when you goes with a funky disco. I'll
Kevin Erhard 44:54
just put up a warning like theater reference, upcoming theater reference
Phil 45:00
So she's wandering around rapture and a woman comes up to her asking for a donation to Atlas. Yeah. And Diane's kind of disgusted with her because she's like, okay, so you're with Ryan at first, obviously. And then let me guess You jumped ship and went off with Diane lamb and their people. And that didn't work out because they're a bunch of fanatics and now you're hanging out with this atlas guy, am I right? It's Pullman's basically like, yeah. Yeah. But this guy's different. She's like, this guy's different. I've seen him. He's fantastic. You know, he's wonderful. And she just paints this wonderful picture of this hero of the day Atlas. And so So Diane is very intrigued. Yeah, by by this this guy's charisma. Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 45:48
basically. Yeah, cuz she she reads the pamphlet that the the woman gives her. She's like, Yeah, it is nonsense and walks away and then, but the pamphlet says yes, someone cares. And like the that word phrasing just kind of like rattles around in her head.
Phil 46:07
It's a very chick track kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah. expected to be like, Eh, it's like Atlas. You know, I know. Obviously, it's not meant to be that kind of character. But you kind of expected to be a little tiny comic books. I guess someone cares. And the Catholic Church is evil like it's that kind of thing.
Kevin Erhard 46:26
God but Diane's d&d character died.
Phil 46:33
So So Diane killed her
Kevin Erhard 46:35
So Diane killed herself.
Phil 46:39
That brings us to Bill and Wallace they're in I think it's a Ryan square. And no one's done anything about the dead cops that are high that they've the summons the ones that are hanging before still they're still they're still there presumably because no one paid them to do and
Kevin Erhard 46:57
no one is paid anybody to take them down? Yeah. And so
Phil 47:01
he and they and they happen upon a big crowd a big gathering and who is there speaking Atlas Atlas he's
Kevin Erhard 47:11
given his speech he's now he's he's talking about how everybody was Lord to rapture with the promise of a better life their their Lord from slums and queens or Dublin's or Shanghai or London and it's like there is he talks about the income inequality and and how it's like the workers need to unite because there's these fat cats that are
Phil 47:38
Oh yeah, hoarding full Das Kapital
Kevin Erhard 47:40
he is going like the the executives, the CEOs are hoarding all the wealth while the working man is getting none of it. And everybody is up there
Phil 47:52
up there telling truths. Sick of it. So second easiest
Kevin Erhard 47:57
way to handle it is just, you know, tell the truth. Right. And
Phil 48:04
they're getting closer in because this is like this a serious revolutionary talk like this is worse than lamb. Yeah, like this is this is straight up. Well, seditious.
Kevin Erhard 48:15
They call him rolling. Wallace says, Oh, he's Huey Long. He's the king fish. He's he's got that populist, very populist streak to him. Yeah. So he just like Atlas mixed. Huey Long and and Bolshevism together. And he got his own like little flavor. I can't remember what you like was Huey Long racist. King fish levy was Yeah, yeah.
Phil 48:43
I bet most people were but yeah, that's helps. I'm actually gonna look it up because that's because I was actually wondering that like,
Kevin Erhard 48:51
Huey Long's vibe was that like, no this stuff but only for white people.
Phil 48:56
Oh yeah. Um no, no, he was cool with everybody with everybody okay, he was yeah in a political climate dominated by racism Huey Long worked to uplift the poor regardless of color. Yeah, there you go. So yeah, he was he was he was cool with with other colored people. So that's good. Yeah, that's good. That's That's good. That's our that's our villain here people that's it's just just when you think that the that the BioShock thing is making a really good point in objectivism stuff like that which they are it does start to slide dangerously into like both sides are bad. Yeah, it's it's very dangerous. It's like I think all extremists are bad. It's like no fuck. So it's not the same that same. So they they're kind of moving into this guy's general direction trying to get a closer look. And then they notice that they are full on being watched by a small cadre of splicers are hanging upside down hanging on the walls and just watching them and they they and they realize they they see which way the wind is blowing. And and they beat feet they get the hell out of there. Yeah. So they because if you're being watched by someone who creeps along the wall like a fly
Kevin Erhard 50:19
spiders yeah those spider splicers are no fun. No one likes them. No, I
Phil 50:25
don't blame their skin. I don't blame anyone for that
Kevin Erhard 50:28
very disconcerting. Yeah. So say the least, Fontaine futuristics basically this scene is, is they're taking the sign down at Fontaine futuristics and putting up rind industries. And Sue Chang and
Phil 50:44
this is where we were saying before that they find out that Adam is able to be harvested from the dead and that's that's the perfect kind of job for
Kevin Erhard 50:54
for the Little Sisters sisters. Yeah,
Phil 50:57
but they need to be protected. So they're going to have what the Little Sisters referred to as big daddies. Yes. To protect them. Mr. Bubbles. Mr. Bubbles?
Kevin Erhard 51:08
Yeah, so they took they took Johnny topside who was there is absolutely no, there's like a scene kind of Yeah, the whole Johnny topsites was kind of random. It's very random. There's a chapter early on, where they talk about how this guy Johnny topside basically smuggled his way into Rapture.
Phil 51:31
Yeah, and wasn't a big diving suit and everything like yeah,
Kevin Erhard 51:33
and then he was thrown into Persephone. And now they've taken him out of Persephone, and he has been turned into subject delta of the of the of the of the Big Daddy's basically a cyborg. And that there, and there you have our main character, our protagonist of Bioshock. Two.
Phil 51:58
Yeah, yeah, we've gotten we've gotten both of our protagonists in the space of a couple of champions.
Kevin Erhard 52:05
So basically, they're, they're, they're using, they're bonding the girls to these big daddies, they're you they're like making them attached to the suit. Basically, they use a robotic suit. That just like plays with them until they have a big daddy for them to to assign to them. So it's, it's interesting. So Gil Alexander's like the architect. They mentioned his of his work on The Big Daddy program, the Alpha series and all that stuff. So he, he, in Brian's like, yeah. What do you need for me? What do you need? Yeah. What do you need me to do to make this happen?
Phil 52:54
Yeah, he's good with all of this, the app.
Kevin Erhard 52:58
And we jump over to McDonald's bar. And Sullivan
Phil 53:03
are Sullivan's getting flour is getting planning hammered.
Kevin Erhard 53:06
And he thinks about it. He's like, this won't look too good. Me being in charge of law enforcement rapture and being the junk of son of a bitch and rapture.
Phil 53:18
These back to gambling like he's he's just he's lost some money. He's lost some brain cells. He is He is tight as a boiled owl. He is just gone.
Kevin Erhard 53:30
Yeah. Yeah. And he runs into while he's drunk. He, he runs into some slicers, which is like, pretty much the worst thing that he could have run into.
Phil 53:45
Oh, absolutely.
Kevin Erhard 53:46
But what's funny is they like, they fucked him up a little bit. And he's eventually he just like, I'm not dealing with this anymore. And he just yeah, he just leaves the fight
Phil 53:58
and just leaves. That's the whole section. It was such a weird fucking moment. Like, I was like, What the fuck is this for?
Kevin Erhard 54:05
I don't I don't understand why we had to see that. But I
Phil 54:08
don't understand what that section was for either. I was wondering, I put an asterix next to my notes for that part. Because I was wondering, we're gonna pick up on something that maybe I just missed.
Kevin Erhard 54:21
I did not pick anything up other than he gets, he gets he's drunk. He gets beaten up by some splicers via the end.
Phil 54:30
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's a really, it's not long. It's like a page long, but it's so random. I don't know what it's doing there. So anyway, that that brings us back to Diane who's wandering the streets of rapture, which is always always the sensible option. And she's, she's looking she's in kind of the lower sections of the, you know, the more rougher areas of rapture because she wants to see the side Atlas guy she's been intrigued ever since our last encounter with her Yeah. And so she's hanging out with this kind of greasy spoon diner where all the derelicts are hanging out. And and suddenly Atlas shows up. And he starts giving out food and supplies and everything like that. And so she bribes the the waitress there. Or at least like yeah, she greases her palm and says, you know, is that who I think it is? Yeah. And the waitress is clearly very nervous but tells her yeah, like that's that's him. He shows up. He hands out food and supplies and we love him. We think he's great. And and before the
Kevin Erhard 55:44
righteous dude. Yeah, exactly.
Phil 55:46
This is a righteous to me is in his own way. But before Diane can approach him and I don't know what the fuck she's, I'm really curious. I really want to know what she planning to say to him. Yeah. But before she can do that, some sirens, you know, whale in the distance. And Atlas has to beat feet and he runs off into the
Kevin Erhard 56:11
dark runs on a night like her like Batman. Yes, exactly.
Phil 56:15
leaving her alone with with just a terrible sounding pie. That the waitress described at one point, it's like a fish pie. They described and I found myself oddly fascinated with for a couple
Kevin Erhard 56:29
of pies. That sounds like I mean, I guess that's like, and it sounds like something British people eat right?
Phil 56:35
They eat a lot. I they a lot of eel. From what I've read, or at least in London, they used to like do pies used to be like a staple food maybe I don't think they do that as much anymore. But like, the fucking Thames was just just full of eels. And they would just pull up all these eels and make pies out of them. I like eel and I like pie. So maybe that would be good. I probably not in the 18th century, but I don't think a lot of foods are good back then.
Kevin Erhard 57:06
Yeah. I mean, I just imagine like, like, you know, a short crusts, pie, and inside is just like, eel. And like, you know, like just like that. That texture that eels are like and
Phil 57:26
it's still flapping
Kevin Erhard 57:29
it's still like you could you look at the top of the short the top of the pie and you could see it like bubbling a little bit and it's because yes, and
Phil 57:38
we got we got some we got some English and British friends like tell us a little still a big part on the side over the house
Kevin Erhard 57:44
how wrong we are. Those are wrong. I
Phil 57:47
know. I read that. It used to be a big thing, but I don't I don't think that's how it is anymore. But come on, y'all. You still gotta have yourself. river full of fish Anita mince, mince eel pie. That's the more more I think about it. The idea. The idea of I like I love meat pies. I fucking love like, you don't find them over here in the States as often. But if you can find a good British pub over here, every now and then they'll have like, Cornish pie. And just like these. They're just delicious. They're so good. So flaky, and they're filled with meat and fucking you know, it's not like a chicken. Right? Well, it's not like a chicken pot pie. Yeah, same it. It's like a ham pie. You can eat the goddamn thing on the moon which is the idea right? Um, there's so good.
Kevin Erhard 58:36
Like a hot pack idea. Right?
Phil 58:39
I mean yeah, pretty much like a big socially respected hot pocket. But But the moment you add any and I like fish but the moment you add any sort of fish as a filling to a by my interest plummets. Yeah. I think I have to the textures. Yeah, I
Kevin Erhard 58:58
think I have to see. I know. I don't want fish in a thing. I wanna I want to be able to see that I am consuming fish. That's just me. I can't just like I don't want to be tricked. I don't want I don't want I'm like mixed in there. I don't want to buy a bit No, I don't want a tuna Hot Pocket.
Phil 59:15
Right? Yeah. Oh, no, God,
Kevin Erhard 59:19
fresh out of the microwave with with oh,
Phil 59:22
your now your house smells that way for a while you have a
Kevin Erhard 59:25
little power gratulations and you squeeze some mayonnaise on it like the ice of a pop tart. Or pastries? Tartar sauce over the tartar sauce. Pastry strudel with the inefficient side okay. So and when
Phil 59:41
you and you take a bite and there's still room in your mouth for the gun. So because you've reached that point there's no going back.
Kevin Erhard 59:57
God
Phil 1:00:00
Yeah. Meanwhile, meanwhile, Bill and his wife Eileen are at the shooting
Kevin Erhard 1:00:06
Gala was teaching his wife how to shoot because things have gotten to that point.
Phil 1:00:11
And she is just not thrilled. Not happy with him. It's like, she's trying. And we get a lot of moments in this chapter with the two of them, where she's trying to put on a brave face and everything like that, but she is just not she she clearly wants to leave. She clearly wants she misses home, she doesn't want to be there anymore. And Bill's coming around on that too. But he can't say it he he still feels like he owes. You know, Ryan something. And there's a great moment here. Where she says, Sure, okay, Bill, I just hope you're right about who we've got to shoot at. She lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper far as I can tell, they might come at us from either side of the fence. She cocked the gun, I guess I'd better be ready for anything. So, like, she already I mean, she's not stupid. She knows that Ryan is paranoid. That you know, just because it's kind of like when you read about Stalin's inner circle, like they were just the most paranoid people in the world. And, and like there are reports of some of them, like would go, one of them would go back to his wife. Yeah. And he would like tell jokes and talk about certain topics. And he would commit to memory which things Stalin liked talking about, or laughed Azure in which he didn't and he'd go to his wife and his and tell her she'd write them down and he'd recite them they recite them back and forth so he knew never to bring up certain topics ever again and to bring up other ones to make these amazing Yeah, and it's in it's that kind of thing terrifying it's terrible but absolutely I basically knows that she's a mob wow
Kevin Erhard 1:01:56
yeah that's what yeah she's very aware of of what the situation is like right you know
Phil 1:02:02
we got enemies but just as likely gonna get shot by Ryan
Kevin Erhard 1:02:06
Yeah bills into deep she all she can really do is just mentioned every once in a while, like we should try to get out of here if we can.
Phil 1:02:16
Right. So that's, that's that's and then we come ahead to Christmas Eve. Yeah. Bill is playing I'd like to just see this was kind of warm and it's
Kevin Erhard 1:02:28
warm and cozy. It's a nice scene. It's it's Bill car Lawsky and red grave. Yeah, Constable red grave and constable red grave is black and Karloff ski is Russian. And the two of them kind of have like this little, little back and forth. You know, like poking fun at each other. Carl offski says, Oh, you black bastard. And And redgrave's like you dirty casick. You know, basically just like, just like playfully being racist to each other
Phil 1:02:59
playful, playful turn of the century race.
Kevin Erhard 1:03:03
But it's like a bonding moment. Between the three of them.
Phil 1:03:07
It is clearly everyone's having a nice time. It's after they'd invited them over for Krishna supper because they don't have, I guess, families to share it. And so and as the evening progressed, they started a poker game. And so they're all getting sloshed. And Eileen is watching and laughing. And, you know, and Bill comments in his head, his inner monologue about how attractive he is to his wife how much he loves her. And like they're just everyone's having a nice day. It's actually a really pleasant, warm and cozy kind of moment. That Christmas Eve moment. It's nice.
Kevin Erhard 1:03:41
Yeah, yeah, it is nice. It's nice. And then we get something not so nice, which is New Year's, New Year's Eve,
Phil 1:03:48
New Year's Eve. Got straight from Christmas Eve to New Year's.
Kevin Erhard 1:03:52
So basically, Bill and Elaine are at a fancy restaurant. And they're both arms, but they're they're going to try to have a nice night. They make a yeah, they make a point of like, oh, yeah, you know, Bill is carrying a pistol but and so he's laying in her in her purse and everybody is in there and they're surrounded by a bunch of the sander Cohen Silas Cobb, Diane McClintock.
Phil 1:04:16
Ryan is supposed to be there at some point. at very least, yeah, he's gonna do automated
Kevin Erhard 1:04:22
Diane is sitting alone at Ryan's table just like waiting for him. Right. Which we've seen happen before. Yeah, which we've seen before Diane.
Phil 1:04:34
He ain't me Never gonna love you,
Kevin Erhard 1:04:35
girl now now.
Phil 1:04:39
So I like they also make a point of saying like that neither of them have slept well. And then they make a point of saying like, but then again, nobody in this room has slept well. Right. Everyone's getting a little more
Kevin Erhard 1:04:51
everyone is a little. They're in a bad, bad way. Yeah. So basically, they're the They're just kind of chillin, they're having they're, they're getting ready. There's some music playing. And I like, it's interesting. Because they're talking about Count Basie and Duke Ellington in this scene. There's a moment later where someone comments on the music itself in Rapture, like, we'd been down in Rapture for so long. We actually don't even know what popular current music would sound.
Phil 1:05:29
Yeah, they've been listening to all the same music for the entire time that they're down Rapture.
Kevin Erhard 1:05:36
What they brought down since in the 1940s, you know,
Phil 1:05:39
yeah, there are rumors of this thing called rock and roll up on the surface. Right? It's very interesting. It's kind of a it's a very, it's a terrific opening to this CEO. It's
Kevin Erhard 1:05:52
in the scene. It's music and rapture had to be updated. There were rumors. Yeah. Yeah,
Phil 1:05:57
yeah. It's it's a fantastic opening to the scene. Because first off, it sets this tense note, right, which is going to pay off later. I think we all know that. Yes. But it also gives you it kind of feels like it's New Year's Eve, the new year is about to begin. And to me, this very much felt like a final moment of like, kind of a time capsule of what rapture is like, yeah, this moment, right before everything crumbles. Everyone's paranoid, they're bored, nothing new. Every even their music has dust on it. There's nothing new. Everything's old. And everyone's paranoid. And at one point, Bill, he sees one of the guards who's drinking champagne. He's got a gun in one hand, the champagne in the other. And he says, That's Rapture. Yeah, a gun in one hand, a glass of champagne in the other. And I think that's a terrific image. And so it's just it sets this moment of, if not, it's this weird combination of both paranoia and extreme boredom. Yeah. Yeah. So the nothing's new. Nothing's interesting. There's this great Conan the Barbarian story. From the depression, one of the original short stories, and Conan goes to this city. He's heard of his whole life. And it's full of it's full of people and the ruling class are these people who cannot die. And they just they're 1000s upon 1000s of years old, and they just sit and drink and eat and fuck, and they're so bored. And every now and then, one of them climbs to the top, top top of the tallest tower and throws themselves off, including their retinue like all of their servants, all of their slaves all of their money. They just they fucking kill themselves and take all of their people with them. And for a moment all the other ones get something entertaining to watch. And then they go back to their boring right boring lives. This is what it felt like to me. They surely kind of paints this picture of the sad paranoid super sad people. Yeah, it's just a terrible existence. And then we get the countdown
Kevin Erhard 1:08:06
countdown which literally becomes a countdown to a bomb. Exactly as soon as Happy New Year. Happy New Year bill it pulled the lane close for midnight kiss and then the explosion came Womp womp. So it's
Phil 1:08:22
a bunch of gunman come in and start firing on
Kevin Erhard 1:08:25
very beautifully cinematic like I could see it in my head. Like so it would go to me it would be like it would just go slow motion because Auld Lang Syne is playing in the background so you just have all blank zine playing while these gunmen just burst in and just start murdering the shit out of this this this party? Yeah, Ryan actually is not even there. But
Phil 1:08:52
no, but but his pre recorded New Year's speech starts playing and that's when you talk about cinematic I was I was in the same boat as you like they the the his speech about this belongs to you. You all did this. This is all yours. You know, rapture belongs to all of us. And it's meant to be this inspiring New Year's speech and of course played over people being murdered by atlases terror. Yes. It's chilling. It's a brilliantly written scene.
Kevin Erhard 1:09:26
It really it's brilliant scene. Elaine, Elaine Shouts out to Diane who is Diane at this point is just crawling on the ground. She's had like, half her face like shredded off with with shrapnel and she's just like bleeding profusely. It's it's a it's a super intense scene. And right at the end of Ryan's speeches, to rapture 1959 may be our finest year. Yeah, it is. It is so in Intense oh yeah the combat back and forth red grave is wounded so Karloff skin red red grave are trying to take care of the splicers as much as possible. And they they basically bill in a lane escape there they're able to escape. And then and then they were in their own flat panting Bill locking the door lane with her person one hand and gone the other. Hello called Mariska Lutz their sitter from the next room back already have a good time.
Phil 1:10:38
Yeah, great. And, and see and racing, racing. Like some of the best, just just terrific action. It's chilling. It's haunting. It's, it's, it's it's a wonderful scene. And it's this culmination of everything. You know, someone lit a fuse several chapters ago and this is exploding.
Kevin Erhard 1:11:05
Yeah, it's what's nuts. Is that the end in terms of Chapter structure? We talked about it before? It feels like that could have been the end of the chapter. The chapter continues on. Yeah. Yeah. With Ryan. Ryan just being talking about how pissed off he is. Yeah,
Phil 1:11:21
it's kind of hilarious. Because he says he says, This was meant for me. They were trying to get me and and I immediately rolled my eyes and was like, Oh, of course. Everything's about you. Right. And I thought about I was like, actually, it was specifically
Kevin Erhard 1:11:33
for him. Yeah, they were. They were trying to kill Ryan.
Phil 1:11:36
And Bill points out that it's, this is all in retaliation for they're killing a fun taint. Yeah. This is all reaction to all of that like
Kevin Erhard 1:11:47
that. Ryan got the ball to broker a Pete. Yeah. Ryan got the ball rolling. You know, and they just, like, run down all the like, there's people betraying Rapture. We don't have enough, Adam, we're running out of Adam. Even with the Little Sisters and all that. And then it ends with, with Ryan making this proclamation, I built Rapture. I'll do whatever I have to but I will not let the parasites tear down what I've built. So it's now becoming more of like, he doesn't care about what he has to do to prevent the thing that he built from being torn down. Yeah, yeah. So it's like whatever I have to do. And so all of his all of Ryan's ideals and ethics are completely out the window.
Phil 1:12:39
Yeah, yeah. It you know, it's it. Ryan won't give over Fontane. That's what bills like, Hey, give him give him fucking Fontaine's. futuristics. Yeah, Ryan won't do it. And it goes back to what you're talking about before where, you know, he'll bend but only in the direction of, you know, cruelty. You know, he basically says, you know, you know, that he wants to make an army of people basically the same way that Fontane made an army of splicers. He wants to do the same thing. Make this army of Adam users and Bill threatens resign. Yeah. Yeah. He says, If he says if we if we can't broker some sort of piece here, and I'm going to announce it, and yeah, and and Ryan accuses bill of letting them down. Yeah. And Bill, immediately thinking of his family once again, kind of starts to backtrack. Yeah. And basically pretends to reconsider the
Kevin Erhard 1:13:36
whole Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so Bill is walking around. We're still with Bill he's walking around near the banks. And he said we're still with Bill Amra. And he sees Anna called Pepper who is who is one of the singers basically singing songs about a run on the bank. There
Phil 1:13:58
she's just kind of doing a a Dylan Yeah, sort of
Kevin Erhard 1:14:02
commenting some some hysteria, economic hysteria. And Bill is trying to give him some like Ryan some reasonable advice be like yeah, you can just do a bank closure for a little bit you know, calm people down. And Ryan's Ryan is so annoyed so pissed off that he says I've seen enough let's get out of here. I'll see to it that the little red bird stops singing
Phil 1:14:26
right Oh, it's also it also has this hilarious moment where cuz everyone's trying to withdraw their money from the bank you know, because they think that because all the ships hit the wall right? And are the fan Yeah. Oh, fan on the wall. And so everyone started withdraw their money. And that's yeah, like you said bills like we could shut down the banks. And so these people come down and Ryan goes, no, no free market and all that. And he said they can withdraw their money, but they're fools. I tell you fools because when everything gets back to normal, then they're going to they're all their money. He's going to be worthless because you know how how the market works so it's like oh, you're a fucking idiot Jesus like It's like it truly is those people yeah it's like like well I've got I've got to save five cents it's like we can't say five cents of everyone's dead yeah like it's it's
Kevin Erhard 1:15:19
sitting there I mean I you start to wonder how Ryan became the the billionaire that he is yeah
Phil 1:15:27
yeah it's kind of it is kind of how it happens nowadays where you look at some of these guys and go How did that how'd you how have you tricked people that think a genius
Kevin Erhard 1:15:38
like Elon Musk specifically yes is is that he's a great is a great example of of the I don't quite understand why he is worth nearly $300 billion dollars
Phil 1:15:53
he he's just he's it's a combination of having a lot of money to start with and talking out of your ass so that's true regular basis
Kevin Erhard 1:16:01
constantly talking shit on Twitter and accusing random people of being pedophiles
Phil 1:16:08
now that worked out that he's he's
Kevin Erhard 1:16:11
actually found what was it the not liable for it? Somehow, I don't know. These fucking these people. So the The chapter ends and we'll stop there for the night. The chapter it
Phil 1:16:29
has one of the I'm sorry, The chapter
Kevin Erhard 1:16:31
ends back at Ryan plasmids formerly Fontaine futuristics with Tenenbaum basically doing the the, what would you call it? Like, trying to associate the the little sister Big Daddy by using
Phil 1:16:50
she's got a big daddy. You know the robot suit? They're like they don't Yeah, it's
Kevin Erhard 1:16:54
not a real big daddy yet. It's just a suit. Right?
Phil 1:16:57
But they want but it's there with a little sister and she's basically kind of puppeteering to play with her so that she imprints on on the big daddy for all intents and purposes. And and we're left with a real moment of like 10 and Bob just ready to snap like she is. She is not okay. No.
Kevin Erhard 1:17:19
Yeah, she is. She's not okay at all. Something about it stabbed it stabbed her to the core. And that is where we'll leave it for this episode. I mean, that is a that is a that's a lot of stuff.
Phil 1:17:32
A hell of a place. That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot. And we've only got three chapters
Kevin Erhard 1:17:37
left. But yeah, the next episode will probably be might be a short boy, but who cares?
Phil 1:17:43
Then again, we only went through three chapters to the only way that's true. That's but the but the last one chapter 17 is like was lawless.
Kevin Erhard 1:17:51
several chapters built into one Yeah, pretty
Phil 1:17:54
much. So we are coming to an end though. Ladies and gentlemen, next episode, we are coming to the thrilling conclusion the
Kevin Erhard 1:18:01
thrilling conclusion of BioShock Rapture will be next episode. So with that being said, if you would like to support us, please leave please follow us on the podcast platform of your choice. Rate us review us and share our content far and wide with your friends family and pet birds I think if you share it with I think
Phil 1:18:29
if if they're if they're smart birds that can like talk yeah,
Kevin Erhard 1:18:33
yeah, that could be good. Yeah, play us in front of your you're talking birds. And oh, God. Oh, that would be great. A terrible idea. That'd be a wonderful idea. And then send us videos.
Phil 1:18:45
If you if you have to African parents, or similar talking birds, please leave them in rooms with our voices and find out which one is Kevin which one is gonna be a nightmare. I'm really looking forward to it.
Kevin Erhard 1:19:00
Oh, I love it. I love
Phil 1:19:03
it. It's not it's gonna go over very poorly.
Kevin Erhard 1:19:11
And, and so yeah, share us, share us share us. And that'll do it for tonight's episode. Thank you very much for listening and have a good evening. Good evening, everybody.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai