In This Episode
On this episode of X-Ray Vision, Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight enter a photo booth! In the Airlock (1:21), they dive deep (deeep) into HBO’s The Last of Us episode 7, including recapping and discussing Riley’s character, emotional maturity, arcades, and more. Then in Nerd Out (51:51) Jason and Rosie discuss a listener theory and pitch about a potential The Last of Us Part 3 video game (Warning: This Nerd Out does contain spoilers for The Last of Us Parts 1 and 2 games).
Note: Imprecise timestamps are an unfortunate side effect of a new ads system. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.
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Nerd Out Submission Instructions!
Send a short pitch and 2-3 minute voice memo recording to xray@crooked.com that answers the following questions: 1) How did you get into/discover your ‘Nerd Out?’ (2) Why should we get into it too? (3) What’s coming soon in this world that we can look forward to or where can we find it? If you’re sending a theory, feel free to send only a summary of your theory (no audio needed) for Jason and Rosie to react to on air.
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TRANSCRIPT
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Jason Concepcion Warning This podcast contains spoilers for The Last of Us Episode seven and in our Nerd Out, pretty major spoilers I think for The Last of Us parts one into the video game and depending on what The Last of Us season two decides to do, potentially for The Last of Us Season two as well. So be warned about that Nerd Out.
Jason Concepcion Hello. My name is Jason Concepcion.
Rosie Knight And I’m Rosie Knight.
Jason Concepcion And welcome to X-ray Vision, the Crooked Media podcast, where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture.
Rosie Knight In this episode, guess what? It’s The Last of Us. And it’s going to make you cry. Like every week. In the Airlock, it’s episode seven. And boy, if you haven’t played the game and if you have played the game, maybe you haven’t played the game you’re in, you’re in for some some sad times ahead. And in Nerd Out, listener Rob tells us about a possible Last of US part three video game. Dun dun dun.
Jason Concepcion Of course, if you want to jump around, check the show notes for timestamps coming up, The Airlock. We’re stepping out of the airlock and into Ellie’s FEDRA orphanage past for The Last of Us episode seven, titled Left Behind, written by Neil Druckmann and directed by Liza Johnson. We start somewhere in suburban Colorado. There is a bloody trail leading to the ruin of a suburban house. Inside, Ellie is desperately trying to keep Joel alive. She has him laid out on a mattress in the garage or somewhere. She’s trying to keep pressure on his gut wound, which same place Sarah was hit in these, like, mirror images.
Rosie Knight Foreshadowing. And I think this is like a great moment to just kind of say the the show is doing so many smart little things to make itself more believable, because compared to the game where Joel is like impaled, you know, this feels very real. It feels like a real small wound that could end a life. And it does have that impact of feeling like, is that where Sarah was hit? It looks the same and Joel is not doing well.
Jason Concepcion I mean, do we have Neosporin in the post outbtrak future? It’s unclear if there’s any left.
Rosie Knight They hope so.
Jason Concepcion Joel is gasping. You know, leave just leave trying to get Ellie to just save herself, get out of there. And Ellie is saying, Joel, shut the fuck up. And she just.
Rosie Knight She’s not having any of it.
Jason Concepcion No. She is desperately trying to save his life. Joel, you know, of course, wants Ellie to take the horse, ride back to Jackson, live out her life with Tommy and Marie, and Ellie covers Joel with his jacket because he’s shivering so hard, and she heads upstairs, closes the door on the room where Joel is and starts thinking about the past. And we flashback there. It is, her FEDRA school. We get to see Ellie at FEDRA school, jogging in fizzed class, jogging around in a circle. She’s wearing a walkman from like 1988.
Rosie Knight Mm hmm.
Jason Concepcion And kind of loping around in a circle. And as she’s doing that, a tall girl who we will soon come to learn is named Bethany snatches her headphones off her head and is like, Hey, pick it up. Apparently collective punishment is the rule at FEDRA, which is not surprising. And because Ellie is slow, everybody’s going to have to run extra laps and Bethany is tired of running extra laps. So Ellie’s like, okay, then I’ll fight you to get my Walkman back. Bethenny says you don’t fight. Your friend fights and she’s not here anymore, is she? And then Ellie punches the girl in the face.
Rosie Knight It’s great. It’s really just a good moment. And I think as well. I feel like this is such a important moment in Ellie’s story, because what we see here is this transition from the girl who lags behind the girl who’s kind of in a room to the girl who clearly was just protected by her friend. And in this moment we get that little bit of fierceness and agency and that, Ellie, that we kind of know now, which is the Ellie who’s not afraid to just punch someone in the face.
Jason Concepcion That’s a great point, because as we see over the course of this episode and as we’ve seen over the course of this series, Ellie is often. The person under the protection of the fighter. The more aggressive person, the stronger person, the more confident person as she’s been with Joel. And that has been the case with her friend, who we have yet to meet, clearly. We catch up with Li in Captain Kwong’s office. Captain Kwong is kind of the the principal of this FEDRA school. And in this meeting, we learned that Ellie’s been disruptive Lately. It’s been just the last few weeks of this kicked off. She’s obviously very smart, brilliant. Even Captain Kwong notes that. But she’s been in the hole several times over the last few weeks. When she offers to just go to the hole again for knocking Bethany out, Kwong is doesn’t take the bait. He’s frustrated because, again, she is smarter than she’s been acting. So he lays out a couple of paths for her. He says, okay, path number one, you keep fucking up and Bethany’s going to be your commanding officer. How do you like that? Or two, follow the rules, become an officer, you get the better food, you get the better housing, you get, the less dangerous work, and you get to give other people orders. What do you think about that? And the truth is, though, she doesn’t say anything here. Ellie thinks that sounds pretty good actually.
Rosie Knight He sells her on it in that moment.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight There’s like an honesty here, an adult who is just telling her how it is and who is basically like, look, you can either let your bullies bully you or you can rise up the ranks of this fascist organization. But then you can bully the bully and you can also be in like a safer space.
Jason Concepcion It’s it’s interesting. The scene starts with Ellie looking at Kwong’s family photos. It’s a wife and daughter, I’m assuming. Right. And who knows if they’re still alive or what. But thinking about this, this is our first real moment of like seeing FEDRA humanized, because Kwong says right after that kind of lecture on the two past, he says, quote, We’re the only thing holding this all together. If we go down, the people in the zone will starve and murder each other. And it’s interesting because we’ve been framing the things that Joel or Tommy have done in the past as you did what you had to do to survive. And I think Kwong would say not only am I doing what I have to do to survive, as distasteful and at times unfair as it is, but I’m also doing what I have to do so other people could survive. He believes that.
Rosie Knight He’s a believer. He’s a believer in FEDRA. And he kind of hints at this like, you know, no matter what other people say about FEDRA, like it’s only us. And you know what, in the Boston QZ maybe, maybe that was what was real. Maybe that was a version of that was true, at least at some point, or that’s what Kwong believes. But like, I do think it’s a really interesting comparison after we saw what FEDRA did in, you know, Kansas City.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, I think that argument holds some weight. And it’s also clear that there is no overarching command and control of FEDRA like each FEDRA.
Rosie Knight And they dropped the men and were like, good luck.
Jason Concepcion They’ve become their own little city-states unto themselves without any kind of like oversight. But I think it’s an important perspective. To hear that despite the corruption of the rank and file soldiers.
Rosie Knight There are people who believe there are.
Jason Concepcion People at the top who are like, this is I’m not saying this is perfect, but this is the best we got. And maybe he’s I’m not sure that he’s necessarily wrong. Kwong then goes on to tell Ellie, you know, basically, like I see you as a future leader. Now, get your walkman and get the fuck out of here. And she leaves later. Ellie is in her room. She’s reading in an issue of Savage Starlight. It is raining, much like the night where she and Joel set out on their big adventure from the QZ. You see her knife on the table next to her. She stares across the room at an empty bed. She’s frustrated. She’s lonely. She’s clearly not getting any kind of satisfaction from reading this, this issue of Savage Starlight. And eventually she falls asleep. And when she’s asleep late at night, almost two in the morning, someone creeps into the room through the window. And it is Riley. This is the person who is missing. This is the protector. This is Ellie’s best friend, owner of the empty bed. And Riley has been missing for the last three weeks.
Rosie Knight And I will say this is a great bit of foreshadowing about how.
Jason Concepcion It really is.
Rosie Knight Not sensible Riley is.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight Because Riley creeps into this room and basically sneaks up on her armed friend who obviously is like, What the fuck? And almost stabs her. Like, and I think that is a really good kind of like Riley is someone who has not been made more cautious by the post-apocalypse. Riley is someone who has found that humor and pranks and kind of this laissez faire like reckless attitude is what helps her get by. And she even says it to Ellie. She’s like, It was a joke. I thought you’d find it funny.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, it’s interesting. Riley is where is Ellie is by dint of how she was raised, is kind of a believer in what FEDRA is selling. Reilly is looking for a cause, and she has clearly found it. Ellie is like, Are you okay? And Riley’s like, I just ran away for a little bit. And then she flashes a gun, a piece.
Rosie Knight Dun, dun dun dun. At least Ellie loves a gun.
Jason Concepcion Ellie loves a gun.
Rosie Knight So, you know, she knows what she wants. She knows what she wants.
Jason Concepcion Nobody loves a gun more than Ellie. And Ellie’s fucking shocked because, you know, Riley is joining the Fireflies, this is what this means. Now, I would say for anyone who has been thinking of the Fireflies as like this freedom fighter organization fighting against the evils of FEDRA, they just armed like a 16 year old kid.
Rosie Knight Literally. And, and as we learn more.
Jason Concepcion Put her in charge of bombs. Spoiler. We’re going to moving.
Rosie Knight Yeah. There’s a lot of you learn a lot about Marlene, I feel like, and I wrote a piece actually at IGN where I think this leans into some of our thoughts about like what does Marlene know and how much is she kind of this kind of puppet master.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight They literally just armed a child who is clearly lovely but reckless af. So they’re not very sensible.
Jason Concepcion She’s a kid. You know, she is a kid. You know, there’s almost no situation in which you can be like we’re we’re in an armed quasi military operation fighting to overthrow, you know, despotic regime. And and we’re trying to bring democracy and freedom, you know, back.
Rosie Knight Child soldiers.
Jason Concepcion And that’s how we’re going to do that is by giving 16 year olds guns like it.
Rosie Knight It’s bad.
Jason Concepcion It doesn’t work. So Riley says, you know, she went and joined the Fireflies. She wants Ellie to come out with her for a few hours. Doesn’t say what they’re going to do and have basically the best night of their lives. Ellie is like, Well, I got to be a trill tomorrow. But she goes, of course. Anyway, they head out to the streets of the QZ. Riley wants Ellie to stop fucking around with Bethany. She’s it’s interesting to your point, Riley has come away from this three weeks with the Fireflies, and now she’s acting like. Listen, kid, I’ve seen the world. And as a as a mature adult now an owner of a firearm. I bet it’s.
Rosie Knight Illegally obtained firearm.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. This little drama you have is small potatoes compared to what’s really going out there in the big, big adult world. It’s a little patronizing. Just a little bit patronizing. Riley, we learn, is a fighter. She talks about how she’s learned to kind of like focus her rage, her anger on the things that matter, meaning overthrowing tyranny and reestablishing democracy under the egis of the Fireflies. And she gives Ellie a little bit of up. You can’t fight everything. Again, this this wisdom that she has gleaned in the three weeks.
Rosie Knight You got to pick, you go to pick something.
Jason Concepcion Firefly training camp. Listen, I’ve been firing at paper targets for the last two weeks. I got to tell you, you can’t fight everybody.
Rosie Knight I mean it’s also like.
Jason Concepcion Listen to me.
Rosie Knight I think this is a really interesting. Episode in terms of how it showcases the similarities because faith is making child soldiers. That’s what they’re training people for. And they arguably probably arm some of those children. And guess what? The Fireflies are doing exactly the same thing. It’s kind of the Kansas City question of. Do Do what do you replace something like FEDRA with? It has to be something better. It can’t be the same thing. And are the Fireflies in a process of actually planning for something bad or are they just replicating the thing that they want to stop?
Jason Concepcion Exactly what I was thinking so much about watching this episode, this is maybe this conversation topic is maybe jumping ahead a little bit. But I think the downfall of the Fireflies of FEDRA, of the Kansas City Freedom Fighters, if you could call them that, and people who fight for causes in the real world is this sort of okay, we’re opposing the bad guys, therefore we are good. And when we get power, we will be good when in actual fact you will just become the thing that you overthrew because no one has the clear eyed ability to look at themselves and go, No, actually the the problem is not the people who are in charge. The problem is the corrosive effect of being in charge.
Rosie Knight Yeah. And the systems.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, and the systems that we build. If we don’t build a system that has oversight on the people who were in power, then we’re just going to be FEDRA part two. And this is not a thing that either the Fireflies or Riley or anybody is thinking about. Yeah, that we’ve seen in this world.
Rosie Knight No, I think the only people who are thinking about to ironically, is like Jackson.
Jason Concepcion Jackson, WY.
Rosie Knight The communists.
Jason Concepcion The communists.
Rosie Knight They, they took years to plan a system with from what we know like democratic oversight and like extreme planning. But what has that meant? That means it’s a tiny society that’s actually incredibly exclusionary. So there’s this kind of like all these really interesting conversations. And the thing that so blew me away about this episode is like, look, in our discord on the Internet, the thing that is going to get you about this episode is the emotional arc of the characters, right? Absolutely. I came away from it knowing so much more about the world and having so many more questions about the Fireflies. The piece that I wrote, I cover this show every week at IGN, and the piece that I wrote this week wasn’t even to do with Ellie and Riley. It was just all about Marlene, because I was like, Wait a minute, what does this mean? Because they will get to this later. But they changed. So far, they haven’t revealed something that’s really important in the game to understand Marlene. And without that knowledge, Marlene seems like a very sinister figure, and I find that to be a very interesting choice. So yeah, this is just such a mind blowing episode because it is essentially like a fun Stranger Things esque, like, YA, to a point.
Jason Concepcion It reminded me of, I mean, it’s it’s so very, very modeled on the DLC in which Riley appears.
Rosie Knight It’s like directly taken from it.
Jason Concepcion But it also reminded me of the the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror
Rosie Knight Yes, very. San Junipero.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. Two women together just living a life in a night.
Rosie Knight Which I also think is like probably completely intentional because I feel like I feel people felt like that. The third episode of this show, another great queer episode of TV. A lot of people, I saw them being like, the gays, they have their San Junipero. Like the CIS gays like they have it. You know, the men have had they they found their space. And I kind of think that they probably look to that a lot, that this idea of where can you find like joy.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight And love and in queer love, even in the face of like an apocalypse.
Jason Concepcion X-ray Vision will be back. And we’re back. So, Riley leads Ellie over rooftops. They head up into a building. Ellie is when did they find a dead body there, which apparently was not there? The last time Riley has been through this building, they then take a closer look.
Rosie Knight Probably a good time to turn back.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, I would imagine so. But then it’s clear that the guy committed suicide. There’s a bottle of pre outbreak liquor, I think, next to him, which is clearly very expensive, as is the, you know, there’s also a baggie of pills and we know the baggie at least is extremely expensive.
Rosie Knight Oh, yeah.
Jason Concepcion So this this person went out with a bang. The hopelessness caught up to them and they have killed themselves and they kind of like lean in close and they examine this person. They take the bottle of whiskey, and then all of a sudden the floor under this corpse gives way and it just falls down. And it’s a measure of how hardened you would be growing up in this world that Ellie just fucking laughs. She’s laughing hysterically at this.
Rosie Knight Yeah.
Jason Concepcion On the roof, the girls sip from the bottle. Ellie asks, Is that the first dead body you’ve ever seen? Riley It’s like, No, I saw my parents. Ellie’s like, Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I asked about that. As a change of topic, can I hold your gun?
Rosie Knight Could I please? Yes. This is where it began. She’s like, I just love guns.
Jason Concepcion Can I just, like, feel the weight of it?
Rosie Knight Yes, That would be great.
Jason Concepcion I didn’t love the trigger discipline here, but that’s another thing. Ellie then asks, okay, why did you join the Fireflies? Like, what was it a boy like? What was it? This probing? You know, clearly for for what happens later on. Riley says that she was just out. She just snuck out. She’s clearly was very frustrated with the kind of rules and regulations of FEDRA. So she had snuck out. She was running around in the streets. She ran into a woman who she doesn’t define who it is here, but it’s clearly Marlene who asked her, hey, what do you think of FEDRA? And Riley must have asked in the right way because next, you know, Riley is in the Fireflies. And Ellie here, pushing back against this kind of clear, you know, romance that Riley is in with this kind of like new mission that she has found her life pushes back with by basically recycling Captain Kwong’s line, which is like, well, you know, FEDRA, they’re not perfect, but like, aren’t the only things holding it together here. Riley doesn’t argue with this now. She doesn’t? Not. Not at this moment. She leads Ellie on to where they’re going. She’s a they they’re standing on the rooftop she’s like, look over there. You see those new lights? Yeah. Sandra has been apparently running new electric lines to some of the vacant apartments in areas like service and how’s the growing population? And now they have that argument. You know, Ellie’s like, well, see, they’re not bad. They’re not all bad, right? They’re given people a place to live. And Riley says, Yeah, but they’re starving a portion of their population. And Ellie says, Well, it wouldn’t be so difficult if the Fireflies hadn’t blown up the warehouse where all the food is kept. And then Riley’s like, No, we didn’t do that. And then Ellie’s like, And also, the Fireflies are killing civilians when they get caught in the crossfire, get, you know, or just happen to be around where these bombs blow up. And then Riley says, No, we are not doing that. And then she says, The thing that is so bitterly ironic and she doesn’t know it, it’s, you know, again, with this incredible maturity that she’s gleaned, like in the three weeks that she’s worked right away is, you know, it’s okay to admit that you don’t know everything. The the implication being. I do kind of know. Not everything, but a lot more about the world.
Rosie Knight A lot more than you.
Jason Concepcion A lot more than you. You don’t understand how it works. And of course, you know, the tragedy of this is that they’re both wrong. And she also says, okay, we’re here and it’s the mall. This building is supposedly sealed up because it’s full of infected. And Riley says, Oh, yeah, well, if it’s sealed off, then why is it sealed off? And they see there’s a hole in the roof and they go inside. And what they find in here is that the electricity is on. Riley turns it on, and all this stuff is almost as it had been on Outbreak day. Like still the signs of looting at different stores. But electricity on, it’s, music on, fountains running, escalators running.
Rosie Knight Cool visual.
Jason Concepcion It’s really cool visual.
Rosie Knight It’s really amazing. And also, I saw some people who were like, oh, how could you not see those lights? No, I’ve actually been to those American malls where the roof is completely solid, but it looks like there’s skylights and they’re actually electrical lights and stuff. I, I believe that there is a version of the world where you could not see those lights coming on from outside. Now, do I think you should be like blasting carousel music when there is a whole race of infected monsters who can only hear things? No, this is obviously a bad idea. But I will say I do believe that. I do believe there’s a version where people couldn’t see the lights outside. I don’t think the lights are what you should be worrying about.
Jason Concepcion I, I think the story will bear you out. Riley notes that, hey, looks like there’s no infected in the mall like they’ve been telling us, so. Score one for FEDRA being absolute liars. She tells Ellie again that some of the stores are empty because of the looting. They stand in front of a Victoria’s Secret store, and they’re kind of just talking about, like, what they’re experiencing. And then Riley says, You know, I’m trying to imagine you wearing that, pointing at one of the pieces there. Ellie blushes extremely strongly, and then Riley is like, okay, are you ready for I’ve got several wonders that you’re going to experience tonight. Are you ready for the first one? She takes her to a carousel and it’s it’s gorgeous. One of the old school carousels with the carved wooden horses, you know, galloping in full gallop, the beautiful lights and mirrored pieces all around the outside. Riley turns it on, It starts spinning around. It’s. I love the touch that it’s like, right across the way from a Game Stop, which is a Game Stop right there. Yeah.
Rosie Knight Well, I just I just want to say as well, I love this because Ellie is like Riley kind of in her jaded Firefly new persona, the carousel, that’s like a wonder to her in she can even see it. But like, when Ellie sees an escalator, Ellie is like moving stairs. Like, is this a wonder? And you really learn so much about like what Ellie doesn’t know. There’s loads of great moments like that. Like after the the Victoria’s Secret moment with this lingerie, you know, Riley walks ahead, and Ellie is kind of checking her hair in the window. And you start to really see that Riley and Ellie are not just friends, or at least Ellie would like them to be something more.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. They both would like the other.
Rosie Knight Exactly.
Jason Concepcion To be something more, but they’re both like afraid, nervous about.
Rosie Knight Exactly.
Jason Concepcion Approaching it.
Rosie Knight And that’s why, you know, Riley is charming. And it’s so cute. And I have to say, Stormie Reid is just so incredible. She’s incredible. She’s an incredible in The Invisible Man, she was really, really great in A Wrinkle in Time, which I know people think is really weird movie. And it is, but she’s brilliant in it. Like she is just oh, she’s great in Euphoria, like she’s such a great actress. And something that this show has done so well is like they bring in cast members for one episode and you just would do anything for them to stick around, you know, But this is a flashback. So you’re already aware that that’s not necessarily going to be the case. And if you remember what Ellie told Tess about getting bitten, Ellie claimed that she was in there by herself. So I think you’re starting to get a vision for what this is going to be. But I love this idea that Riley is like. They’re just friends. But Rileys planned like this date night in an abandoned mall, which, by the way, is the kind of thing we should see more in these post-apocalyptic storytelling. I remember playing DLC. It’s like, Oh, this is what? Why don’t we see this? Why is there never a moment where people take advantage of the emptiness and do something cool and fun? It’s like in The Walking Dead. How was there never a moment where somebody like goes to an old movie theater or something? You know, like.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight I love this idea of like the trying to seek out the human nature of having fun and bringing fun into someone else’s life. Even if, as we are sure to learn, this was a very reckless choice.
Jason Concepcion The carousel stops and the conversation about the Fireflies starts back up again. Riley and Ellie kind of argue about like whether they think the Fireflies will make a difference, and clearly Riley does. Riley says, Hey, they freed other QZs. This is probably not true. Like, clearly, this is, I think, Firefly propaganda. It feels like something.
Rosie Knight Riley’s been groomed to join the Fireflies.
Jason Concepcion I agree. Ellie says that if, you know, like if you stay with FEDRA. I mean, Captain Kwong says I’m a leader. I think we could be running things in a few years. And Riley says, forget that Kwong had me on sewage detail, Like that’s what I would have been doing. You know, like, that’s why I ran away, which made me think again that Kwong kind of has a point in the sense of, Listen, sewer detail, is it anything that anyone wants to do? You know, Is it absolutely necessary for like the functioning of a civilized society where people live together and scale? Yes. Like maybe you could argue in the top three most important jobs that you could have is making sure we don’t drown in our own waste. Like that’s a vital job. But because it’s not framed as this adventure, this grand fight against against tyranny, there’s no romance in it. It’s not something that you could use to groom young people you should get excited for. You know, they want to have old guns and fight the bad guys.
Rosie Knight Yeah.
Jason Concepcion They don’t want to go into the sewer and clean it out. So the 20,000 or 40,000, how many people live here don’t die of some disease that is preventable.
Rosie Knight Mm hmm. Yeah, I think as well, like that is also partly FEDRA’s fault because it’s clear that they use these.
Jason Concepcion They use it as punishment.
Rosie Knight As punishment. So if you don’t.
Jason Concepcion Very clear.
Rosie Knight The rules, you’re going to get the bad thing. But you’re right like that in in a post-apocalyptic. Well, that is a heroic job because that is something everybody needs to do every single day and needs to not die and not get, you know, sick and be able to go to the bathroom. And and I love that because it’s such a good, smart point. There’s something true in what he’s saying.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, but not necessarily presentation.
Rosie Knight They’re not they use these roles as punishment and slight reward if you become a commander. But the Fireflies, they promise a mission. They promise a story.
Jason Concepcion Of freedom and romance and adventure and fighting against, you know, we’re going to do it and you can hold a gun. It’s going to be great. X-ray Vision will be back. And we’re back. They move on to the next wonder. And it is a photo booth. And as a person who loves a photo booth, I’m looking at the office. I see numerous pictures of from various times with various friends and other people.
Rosie Knight So it’s amazing.
Jason Concepcion I fucking love a photo booth that cost $5, which of course, Riley has. She’s been waiting to use since this evening. There’s a wonderful moment where, you know, they’re hanging on each other. It’s like, you know, like. And then all of a sudden, Ellie gets a little uncomfortable by, like, the closeness. And so they. They sit very chastely, like, next to each other, and they look at the pics and Ellie’s like, Oh, I loved that one. And Riley lets Ellie have the one she likes.
Rosie Knight And it’s this is a great, like direct from the game moment where they’re doing these kind of scary faces and there’s so much childlike wonder here. I just love it and I love that as we go along. The $5 is your first hint. The fact that Riley knows about this at all. You start to realize that Riley has, like, planned this. Riley has spent time working to make and present this for Ellie.
Jason Concepcion Next the arcade. Got to. Got to go to the arcade. Old school.
Rosie Knight I love I get this excited.
Jason Concepcion Stand up cabinets, coin up arcade.
Rosie Knight When I go to the mall and they have an arcade, which by the way, I am blessed with because a lot of malls in L.A. have.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight I am as excited as they are in the post-apocalypse, just in a normal day. So I love this moment, I feel like it’s very representative. Cap encapsulates that excitement. And obviously for Ellie, this is that game that we know that Riley told her about. The game that she never got to play.
Jason Concepcion I remember as a kid, like being taken in the mall and just hearing the sounds in the distance as you got close to like the change machine going and all the beep, beep, beep, beep. Like and just being like, Oh fuck, I want to go to the arcade. I want to go to an arcade. I want to be there. I’m like, I remember the first time I ever cashed in $5 for quarters and just being like, Oh my God, this is like a preview of I’m going to be here for 12 hours.
Rosie Knight This is like the most English situation, but like, they didn’t really malls didn’t really exist that way when I was a kid or like arcades and malls. But if you went to the seaside, the British seaside, as we call it.
Jason Concepcion The British seaside.
Rosie Knight The British seaside. If you went.
Jason Concepcion Down to Broadchurch.
Rosie Knight Dunno, you know, to Brighton or Winstable, like if you went there, especially Brighton Pier, it was like they’re just huge arcades and they will mostly be ones to win money and toys, but you would get a couple of stand up cabinets and it’s that same thing, hearing that noise and that like. Ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching of the coins. It just makes you feel like a little kid. And they just love it. They encapsulated it so well here.
Jason Concepcion The excitement that Ellie feels is just palpable. Again, you know, what a great job by Bella Ramsey. And the first thing she wants to do is play Mortal Kombat, too, because as we’ve seen from previous episodes, she has heard a lot about this game.
Rosie Knight There’s even a Mortal Kombat two banner in their bedroom and they share like this is like Riley’s hyper fixation.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. So they play Raiden versus Molina. Riley wins round one, Riley then wins round two. And, man, this hit because anybody who’s ever played Mortal Kombat knows that when you win the bout, you get to hit the finisher, your character, you can hit you.
Rosie Knight If you can can press the button fast enough, you can do a fatality
Jason Concepcion You can execute your your character’s fatality slash finishing move. And in this case, it’s Molina’s maneater move where she eats the opponent.
Rosie Knight And then pukes out the bones.
Jason Concepcion But the thing that I really resonated for me was like playing Mortal Kombat against other people and being like mad. If they were going to hit the fatality like, you better not fucking hit of the dude, Don’t do it. And, So Ellie’s like don’t do it, don’t do it.
Rosie Knight And also like I love Mortal Kombat. That’s like one of the video games in the series, I played more than any other. I even love the movies. Like I love Mortal Kombat. But I tell you, I’m terrible at fatality, that horrible feeling that if you miss it and your character just goes like one and then falls over. So like I also love again, if we talk about Riley and how much she cares about Ellie and the planning, I know she was in that play in that game practicing those fatalities.
Jason Concepcion She basically admits it like.
Rosie Knight Yeah, yeah, that’s how she knows.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight Where the money is because how does she get the quarter? She breaks open a change machine.
Jason Concepcion All the moves she’s like up, up, down. And then you like, come on, you’ve been practicing the fucking moves. You better stop it right now. As they are playing, camera drifts off and our friends are unaware of the fact that a few stores over somewhere here close by in the mall, there is an infected heavily, you know, scaled with cordyceps mushrooms who is just now stirring into consciousness. Ellie finally wins a bout.
Rosie Knight I just want to say we’re talking about Fireflies and their bad training.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, like sweep the mall
Rosie Knight Sweep the mall. How is that not a thing that they taught her? That makes me mad. You have a gun.
Jason Concepcion Secure the fucking mall, folks.
Rosie Knight That guy was. You could have. You could have just gone and shot that infected in the head. And this would not be a problem. Because isn’t. Yeah, I like as well. It touches on that thing. Like you said, I loved that moment where you said they’re both wrong. That’s the sad thing. They’re both wrong. You know, Ellie is wrong about FEDRA, and Riley is wrong about the Fireflies. And I love this because this is a great moment of that. Fireflies were not wrong. FEDRA has been lying. The mall is not overrun with infected. But FEDRA was not completely wrong. They are infected in the mall. So it’s that great gray area of like, what is the truth? And in this moment, the most important thing is just that there’s a single infected in the mole.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, and to your point, one, let’s secure the mall. If you’re going to have a child.
Rosie Knight You’ve been here for long.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. Let’s secure the mall number and tell her how to secure the mall and don’t have her do it on her own. Have teams. And then secondly.
Rosie Knight At least one adult.
Jason Concepcion And to your point. The Fireflies want to overthrow Fedor and they want to reestablish a government. You know that. That ostensibly they would run. And everything that we’ve seen from them tells us that they wouldn’t be good at it. Like they. Marlene and the Fireflies have to have executed one fuckup after another throughout the course of this show. And here they are doing it again, tasking a child with like securing a like a large sensitive space while sitting on a cache of, I guess, like, important munitions. Like, that’s the job.
Rosie Knight they have a child making.
Jason Concepcion And they have a child doing it. It’s ridiculous. Ellie finally wins. They get there. There’s this moment where she and Riley get close to each other, but nothing happens. Ellie is send like, Hey, I got to go back soon. I don’t want to get in trouble. Riley is disappointed, but then she decides to speed up her timetable of wonders to really get to all the things that they want to get to. Riley takes Ellie to a spot in the food court, and we see that she has been sleeping there. We also see that the pipe bombs, as you said, and she gives Ellie the gift. It’s that no pun intended, Volume two, pun book.
Rosie Knight Dun dun dun dun, dun. It’s going to be the curse of Joel’s life. Yes. Six weeks.
Jason Concepcion So as they’re trading puns, this is when Ellie discovers the pipe bombs that Riley has been building. And Ellie is upset. She realizes that Riley didn’t discover them all that she’s been posted here by the Fireflies to make bombs and to guard this like arsenal that she is creating. Then Riley again shows her naivete by saying, Hey, don’t worry about it. Like the Fireflies. Number one, she’s like, Ellie’s like, So what happens is the Fireflies blow me up with Sarah, right? And Riley is like, No, no, no, I wouldn’t.
Rosie Knight I wouldn’t let them.
Jason Concepcion I wouldn’t let them do it. And it’s almost tragic, the naivete that Riley has here. She so, I mean, who hasn’t at a young age, especially in entranced by the feeling of belonging somewhere like finding a community and and there being like a real. But it’s like, almost like falling in love. You realize, oh, and people who are like me and we have a, you know, she really believes that, oh, everyone’s like me. And they therefore love and value Ellie. And they understand that though she isn’t FEDRA, she’s good and they wouldn’t hurt her. And it’s so childlike and sad.
Rosie Knight It is.
Jason Concepcion And understandable that she would think like this. In fact.
Rosie Knight That notion of grooming and brainwashing.
Jason Concepcion That’s exactly it. Because I would argue, to your point, the Fireflies are counting on people being this naive. Why approach a 16 year old to do this? You’re counting on the fact that they don’t know about the world.
Rosie Knight Exactly. And also not just that you’re counting on the fact that they’re reckless because think about this. In a world where FEDRA hangs people for like going against them for the smallest infractions. We even saw this in Boston. So we know it’s the case where Riley grew up. Riley, a random woman in the street, asked her what she thought about FEDRA, and Riley started chanting shit and badmouthing FEDRA. That in itself, that is like.
Jason Concepcion Not a good idea.
Rosie Knight You are not stealth. Like this is a problem, but it shows that that the anger and hatred towards FEDRA, I think probably very understandably being raised in a FEDRA orphanage, it it bubbles to the top and Riley and they can take advantage of that. And I think this is such a heartbreaking narrative reveal because I think they do such a good job seeding how much Riley’s planned it. And I do believe that Riley planned this date, but the date is secondary and just the offshoot of this mission that she has. And that’s heartbreaking because to Ellie, because to Ellie, that she’s second. She ran away for three weeks. She didn’t know where she was. She thought she was dead. And then she did this beautiful, huge. Like romantic gesture, but it was really just an offshoot of this mission that she had took her away from Ellie. That’s so heartbreaking, because two things can be true. It’s romantic. It’s kind. She put thought into it, but it wasn’t the purpose of her being in the mall. This wasn’t something for the two of them.
Jason Concepcion It’s not just Ellie she’s in love with. She is in love with being a firefly. Truly. It’s a great point. Ellie is now furious, and rightly so. Honestly. And she’s notes, Hey, none of this shit was even about me. You were already here. They ordered you to do this yet? Here. I’m out, Riley. Tells Ellie that, well, if you’re leaving, this is just so you know, like, I’m leaving, too. Like, Marlene is giving me my posting. I’ll be leaving Boston tonight. It’s my last night here. Ellie asks, Why did you bring me here then? And Riley’s like, Because I wanted to see you. I wanted to say goodbye. Ellie leaves. Then doubles back. Just the thought of leaving Riley under these circumstances. It brings her up short. And here’s to the show has been doing this all season, which is subvert giving us these little fake outs where you think.
Rosie Knight Yeah. This is so fun.
Jason Concepcion Something you expect to happen. And it’s always based around some point of the game that that the game players would be expecting. And here is that moment. She comes back, you hear screams, she runs up, panicked. Riley, are you okay? But it isn’t Riley. It’s one of those Halloween decorations.
Rosie Knight It’s like that we like a Spirit Halloween. And it’s like, Yeah. And it’s like waking up and sitting back down, and it’s a little skeleton bed.
Jason Concepcion And it’s there. In this Halloween store, she finds Riley just kind of sad moping in this Halloween store. And Riley says, surprised the fifth wonder. And it’s the store she thought Ellie would love it, so she saved it for last. Riley gives Ellie the book of puns. Ellie tells Riley that. Basically, she doesn’t think that she understands what the is really about. And Riley again says, like, you think you know everything, but you don’t know everything. But then she kind of admits that Ellie is right. She basically says, like. You don’t understand what it’s like to feel like I’m part of a mission, part of a community. They chose me. I matter to them. And it’s a way of saying yes. Maybe. I don’t know everything that the Fireflies are doing, but they want me. So I want them back.
Rosie Knight Yeah, How they make me feel is more important. Also, I guess. Really, there’s a really interesting thing here where, you know, Riley is not. Calloused feelings about Elio Ali’s feelings. Riley asked Marlin if Allie could go with her. And Marlene said no. She stays in FEDRA. She stays in that Boston orphanage. Now, like I say, I’m not going to get into spoiler territory, but in the game and in the tie, in comic and in the DLC, there is like there is a reasoning behind why Marlene cares for Ali and kind of does these makes these choices. That is a human reason. I feel like in the game I understand that they may likely show this later, but currently it feels like a conspiracy to me. I feel like Marlene wants Ellie in FEDRA for a reason. It’s because she thinks maybe they have a bunch of kids who were born after the fall and they think that they could be immune and they want to see. Or maybe it’s because she wants a plant within FEDRA. I don’t know what it is, but I found this announcement even knowing what the game reasoning is, I feel like it’s so interesting. We’ve heard right. Allie has asked Marlene about her mom. Ellie asked Marlene, Are you my mom? There was a chance that for a conversation that could lean into what happened in the game, but instead this just makes Marlene seem like she has some kind of shadowy, over-arching plan.
Jason Concepcion And don’t forget Marlene basically intimating earlier in the year in episode one that she’s been keeping an eye on Allie for a long time.
Rosie Knight So if you in that orphanage like it was me, I think she’s made up for it. And I find that really interesting.
Jason Concepcion Ellie basically is unhappy with Riley’s decision, but comes to a place where she accept it, accepts it. Riley tells Ellie that, okay, we have one last surprise left. She gives Ellie a werewolf mask. Riley puts on a scary clown mask, and they play on. They play on Ellie’s Walkman, a cover of I Got You Babe by Etta James. And they dance. And then at the end of the dance, the masks come off. Ellie desperately says to Riley like that she doesn’t want her to leave. Riley says, Okay. And then they kiss. And it’s a wonderful, tender, nervy moment. Ellie then apologizes, but of course, it’s fine.
Rosie Knight Riley’s like, what for? Like they both wanted this. It’s like they this is a world where maybe in this night it feels like they can make something great happen between the two of them.
Jason Concepcion And then before you know what the infected is there. They hear it before they see it. And Riley has her gun out. She says, get ready to run. It feels like something Joel would say also.
Rosie Knight Which which it really does.
Jason Concepcion The contrast is is so stark, you know. Then all of a sudden, the infected is within sight. Riley’s opening fire on it hits it a couple of times. The infected, of course, does not go down. It’s like, almost like to clicker level or something of, like, hardiness.
Rosie Knight Yeah. And also, like, again, I feel like the three weeks did not was not spent well. They didn’t think like, let’s make sure she can do it. Sure. Yeah. Clearly they know or shape something like that. They need to know. She needs to know how to kill a zombie because she’s protecting these, I’m sure. Very, you know, expensive in the relative times of The Last of Us economy munitions that could kill many people. Maybe would have been good to have one of those around in case there was an infected. Riley has clearly been told there is no infected. Riley is not ready for this. And it is like really heartbreaking to see this. Also just want to show the fact that throughout this episode from the beginning they’re playing a is music. So if we know what Bill’s code is, we knew this was going to go anywhere. Exactly.
Jason Concepcion So there is a struggle. Riley is knocked out for a little bit. Ellie is on her own. Then Riley comes back to knocks the infected off of Ellie. Ellie finally kills it with a head stab.
Rosie Knight So sick.
Jason Concepcion And they are both so high on adrenaline. Ellie is, like, particularly, like, flush with victory. And then she looks at Riley, and Riley got this. Devastated look on her face and they realize they’ve both been bitten and so they’re dead, essentially. We go back to the house. Joel is shivering on the floor. Ellie is still standing on the door. All of these thoughts have flashed through her mind. And in the seconds that she had been standing on the other side of that door and and it steels her for what comes next, she thinks, I’m not going to lose Joel the way I lost Riley. Something happened. She runs upstairs, looks for any supplies she can find to try and stabilize Joel. We go back to the mall, and Ellie, in her rage at the hopelessness of their situation, is just smashing everything in sight. Riley is like, Go ahead. There’s more stuff to smash over there. She’s really kind of resigned to this happening. I will say both of them are acting like there’s no more zombies in this building. Like, you know, like if you saw one that would tell me there might be more. But that’s that’s for another time. Riley is really resigned to this being in the end. She says that. You know, I guess we could kill ourselves. But I don’t want to. I think what we should do is go into whatever comes next. Hand in hand. We squeeze every last good moment out of the moments that we have left. And. And it’s this really. I read it as this very young. You know, the passion and strength of young love is this feeling like. Even as infected. We know who each other are, you know, like that. It’s almost that kind of that kind of statement of like. Yes, but we’ll be together.
Rosie Knight Exactly. Actually, I really love how in this final moment, Riley actually has like, this immense amount of wisdom. Like, we’ve kind of joked about this three weeks of wisdom that she got from the Fireflies. But in this moment, she has a recognition that, like no one else really has had apart from Sam. So it’s kind of that childlike wonder of, you know, what? One, we could still have four or 5 hours together in this moment where we remember each other. So let’s make the most of that. And to who knows what happens?
Jason Concepcion Who knows what happens next?
Rosie Knight Many times. You never know. We might just be both living in here, being infected together. And I love that is such a out of the box, different hopeful outlook than what we usually get, which is this You got to kill them. You got to kill someone. It brings me back. I’m really happy to see a lot of people in the discord reading the guy with all the gifts and starting to watch the movie. And I feel like this is really playing into those questions. Like we don’t really know what the cognizance of a zombie is. We don’t know how the infected experience life. And I love that Riley has this kind of, you know, kind of that mindblowing moment where she’s just like, well, we could just enjoy each other and spend time together. I mean, I can’t imagine how horrific that would have ended up being for Allie because we know who survived and who didn’t.
Jason Concepcion Yes. So they grasp hands and lean on each other and go forward into whatever comes next. We go back to the house. Ellie has come back to Joel. She has a sewing needle and she kind of grits her teeth, steels herself and goes about the really, really hard work of binding up Joel’s wounds. He passes out from the pain of it, and we fade to black.
Rosie Knight Yeah.
Jason Concepcion And we still don’t know the fate of Joel.
Rosie Knight Just before he passes out, there’s this great moment where, like, she put. She’s pressuring the wound, right? Putting pressure on it. And Joel allows her to hold his hand.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight And they their fingers like, intertwine. And it’s this first moment of vulnerability, real vulnerability that Joel’s shown Ellie. And also, I think that marks a change. If if if Ellie asked Joel if she was family now, he would say, yes, it wouldn’t be your your cargo. You know, this is she’s willing to save him and he can feel that and he’s willing to be saved in that moment. What an episode.
Jason Concepcion What an episode. And. In an episode that really underlines Ellie’s growth from a person who has kind of been the sidekick in a lot of the important relationships in her life until now. And now she’s really standing up on her own two feet and being the person who saves the other people really beautiful. And also, I got to say, is an episode that makes you see the Fireflies in a very, very different light.
Rosie Knight Yeah, it’s a really interesting world building episode. Like I said, like this has the potential emotional heft of a of like episode three. And I’m sure that for a lot of people it’s going to hit that way. And it is Storm Reid and Bella Ramsey’s so brilliant together. Yeah, but the thing that really blew me away as a viewer and as a kind of somebody who’s always enjoyed looking at these narratives, it was that world building. It was this idea of like, Who are the Fireflies, really? What does Marlene know? What could happen? That would explain away this behavior and will it come too late? Does it matter? And also, like you said. Arming children, putting them in charge of munitions. This is not some great hope for the future. Currently, this is, like, dangerous.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. Well, we’ll be continuing our coverage of The Last of Us show here on the X-ray Vision podcast. Up next, Nerd Out.
Rosie Knight Spoiler spoiler. This Nerd Out contains spoilers for the video game The Last of Us part two. Which would make me say probably just skip past this if you have not played the game or care about spoilers because this will likely come into play. While there will be characters mentioned, they would come into play in a second season.
Jason Concepcion I would also secondarily.
Rosie Knight Yes.
Jason Concepcion If you are a show watcher who has never played the game.
Rosie Knight Exactly.
Jason Concepcion I would also stay away from this.
Rosie Knight Yeah, I would say and like I’m saying, just generally don’t do it. Probably
Jason Concepcion Don’t listen to this unless you have played The Last of Us one and two.
Rosie Knight If you do, do not be googling anything about these characters.
Jason Concepcion Also, don’t do that.
Rosie Knight Don’t do that. In today’s Nerd Out way, you tell us what you love or why. Or a theory that you’re excited to share, Rob pitches us The Last of Us Part three video game, which I think introduces something that the first last of us was arguably missing, though I understand why it was missing.
Jason Concepcion So here is Rob’s pitch for a Last of US three game and how it would end quote. The third act would end with Ellie traveling with Abby back to the new Firefly HQ. I would love to be able to switch from Abby to Ellie on their journey using each one’s different skill sets or play skill sets to move the player along towards the goal and survive. I would also make Ellie’s choice to sacrifice herself up to the player. So in other words, unlike The Last of Us one and two. But I would love to have that be the choice, be the potential savior of mankind, or act like the father figure of her life. Joel and tear down the Fireflies once again. So. So in other words, Rob pitches a Last of US three ending with a choice as Ellie, you can either A) sacrifice herself, save the human race, or B) kill all the Fireflies.
Rosie Knight That would actually be such a nice reflection of that first game. And it would give us that. It would. How much has Ali changed over these games and what choice would the player make? It would give us back the agency that we never had, and it would give Ellie the agency to make the choice that so many people wanted her to make. I think that is like that could be a really deep and interesting way.
Jason Concepcion I think this is great. Here is a pitch because I feel like this choice is already a video game. You’ve likely, you know, by the time you get to Act three, you’ve replayed certain levels several times because you didn’t make it through and now you’re here. It seems to me almost too easy to make the save mankind choice right now. I wonder if you can add some stakes to it, like if you saved mankind. I don’t know how you do it, but if you save mankind, you can’t play your next play, so you have to start all over again. I like it. You know what I mean? Like, you know how like, when you finish a game.
Rosie Knight Player stakes.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. And you kind of end game. Yeah, you can, like, jump back in and play certain levels. If you save mankind, it wipes.
Rosie Knight Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. It wipes. Either you don’t, you keep you wait because Ellie dies. Yeah.
Jason Concepcion You keep all your achievements, but the next time you play, you have to play from the beginning. Now, if you decide, as I would imagine, either Abby and Ellie together or just Abby, or just Ellie, if you decide to wipe out the Fireflies, then you keep all your saves. You can play, you can jump back into different levels and keep all that stuff. You keep all your DLC regardless of what choice you make. But I’m thinking there has to be.
Rosie Knight I like that idea, right? Yeah. I mean, the one thing I’ll say is. The writers of these games are like so brilliant at telling these stories. I also think that there is a version of this where they get you so invested in this story that there are people who will make the other choice. Also as well, it’s the it’s the Joker thing. There’s people who just want to see the world burn. So I think there’s that interesting thing of like knowing that you’re making the wrong choice and the human appeal to make this horrific choice and also the tradition of the game, which is to make the terrible choice. So I think that’s really interesting.
Jason Concepcion What about this? If you choose to sacrifice yourself, there is no post. You know how usually you win the game and then there’s like a post-game montage?
Rosie Knight That’s what I’m saying. Nothing you get. You’re just dead. Black. Fade to black. Done. Yeah, I think that’s it. You don’t get any cut scenes. You don’t know.
Jason Concepcion You don’t know if it works.
Rosie Knight You don’t know if.
Jason Concepcion You don’t know if humanity is saved.
Rosie Knight You don’t know if the rest of the world keeps going on. You have no idea because you’re dead. I think that’s such a complete.
Jason Concepcion Just Sporano it.
Rosie Knight Yeah. Fade to black, and you never know. And that’s. I think you have people talking for, like, a million years.
Jason Concepcion I do love the idea, Rob. I think it’s really great. My here’s the thing I wonder is Naughty Dog so invested in their style of storytelling, which is, in these big moments, you don’t have agency. We have agency. We’re telling our story. If you want to know about our story, you can play through and that’s it. But don’t expect to be like, Well, now Joel’s not going to do this or else is not going to do this. And now Ellie’s going to decide to, you know, not get involved in this fight. Abbie is going to decide to walk away and live peaceful like. And so I wonder if.
Rosie Knight Did they give up that power?
Jason Concepcion If they would ever switch it up. I do wonder if they would ever decide if they do decide to go back for The Last of Us part three, which is I would. Can’t imagine they won’t. If they ever do decide to hand over the keys in a key moment to a player. Yeah. I wonder.
Rosie Knight It’s so exciting to even think about. Thank you, Rob. If you have theories or passions you want to share, as saw an xray@crooked.com. Instructions are in the show notes, as always.
Jason Concepcion Well, that’s it for us, Rosie. Anything to plug, plug, plug.
Rosie Knight You can read my coverage of the show, which is a weekly article that I write about certain parts of the show that speaks to me at IGN. You can read, I wrote a lot of articles for DC.com. DC Comics, now known as DC’s.
Jason Concepcion Ever heard of them?
Rosie Knight Ever heard of them? Superman. Batman and Batman. Superman. Wonder Woman. I watched Manhunter. Yeah, I think, man, I actually got to write a Plastic Man article, which was very fun about Kyle Baker’s brilliant Plastic Man, like one of the weirdest best comics ever made. I wrote a lot of articles there this month. You can check them out. I have a really cool one. Maybe I don’t know what days are, I think it will be out by the time this comes out. About a really underrated under read Green Lantern arc by Christopher Priest and Mark Bright. That was really cool. That ran us back up in Action Comics. So those are fun. Yeah like lots of articles online you can I just. When this finishes I will be sending the much toiled over next draft of this secret project that I have to be able to be able to share soon. So that’s cool. And yeah, I’m here twice a week. Rosie Marx on Instagram and Letterbox’d and obviously here.
Jason Concepcion Catch our next episode, Friday, March 3rd, where we’ll be talking about the premiere episode of Mandalorian Season three Bring Back The Baby.
Rosie Knight Bring back the baby. We want to see him.
Jason Concepcion We want to see this beautiful, now 53 year old baby. Of course remember remember, we’re bringing you two episodes twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays on your podcast platform of choice. Check us out.
Rosie Knight And if you want to see us as well as hear us, you can subscribe on YouTube where you can watch full episodes of the show now. Follow us on Twitter. We’re @XRVPod and check out our Discord. We talk about it a lot because we have a lot of fun in that bunch of amazing fans, people who love all the same cool stuff as we do. And me and Jason pop in there every now and again. If you want to do watch parties, those are popping off at the moment. We’re going to have them for The Last of Us, for Mandalorian.
Jason Concepcion Five star ratings. Five star reviews. We need them. We got to have them. You got to give them to us. Here is one from MelaGatorFamilyBonding. I love and learn from Jason and Rosie so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Rosie Knight That means a lot.
Jason Concepcion They are very entertaining. And occasionally I can mention something to my 16 year old and shock her. Thanks for making me a sometimes cool mom. You’re welcome.
Rosie Knight Wow. That’s the power of X-ray Vision.
Jason Concepcion It really is the power.
Rosie Knight I love it.
Jason Concepcion X-ray vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Saul Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Girard. Our editing and sound design is by Vasilis Fotopoulos. Delon Villanueva and Matt DeGroot provide video production support. Alex Reliford handles social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for our theme music. See you next time.
Rosie Knight Bye.
Jason Concepcion Folks.
