Purgatory, Missouri – Season One, EP 6:  Belinda

Purgatory, Missouri – Season One, EP 6:  Belinda

Has it been two weeks already?  I’m starting to feel like I’m wandering around in Purgatory, Missouri, myself as the nights shrink and the daylight hours begin to take over.  I tend to lose a little more of the sleep I already don’t get at this time of year, and listening to a creepy-ass show like this certainly doesn’t make it any easier, am I right?  I wonder how we end up defining Purgatory, Missouri, by the time it reaches its finale in a couple of weeks from now…it’s definitely strange, it’s definitely bizarre, and it definitely has its horrific moments too…but as it has continued to play out, it’s almost like we’re in the midst of some kind of real-time psychological thriller that is evaluating us listeners from the other side of the funhouse mirrors.  Regardless of how any of us might choose to define this wonderful audio oddity brought to you by the mysterious mind of Stuart Pearson, I think everyone listening would agree it’s been nothing short of wildly interesting from its very start, and has continued to make pretzel bread out of our minds as we’ve tried to figure it out along the way.  Time to find out if the latest offering will shed any additional light on the devilish details in this show, as we check out episode six, called Belinda.  As we’re getting very close to the end of season one, rest assured there will be spoilers right up ahead, so you better get listening!

We start out this new episode by bringing things back about as full circle as they go, with Belinda being what I think is technically one of the very first characters we’re introduced to if my memory is correct, though we really only heard about her before through the crackling of a phone line.  This time, we learn about what caused her to slip into the coma she’s been in, and that she’s been slowly displaying a few signs of movement & saying the occasional word or two.  It’s grizzly…Belinda tried the ol’ running of the car in a closed garage type thing, which put her in the position she’s in now.  Right before the first break into Pearson’s music, I think we get our first major clue of the episode as a few words are choked out into the air as Belinda makes a bit of noise…but the voice we hear, belongs to the woman we’ve come to know as Blanca.  Coincidence?  Methinks NOT!  Could it be someone else?  I suppose anything is possible right?  I know I heard what I heard, but you should double-check by listening to this show for yourselves!

What’s even more interesting, is you get a short dialog between Five & Blanca shortly afterwards.  While the carnies have tended to try & shun Blanca and keep her on the sidelines, as she approaches another tour through the hall of mirrors, you can hear that Five would readily accept Blanca being a part of this crazy carnival at any given time.  Of course, that means that Blanca would have to stop resisting and/or denying who she’s become in this upside down version of reality, but if she felt so inclined, it sounds like Five would happily find her a job right away.  Which is a fairly significant switch in how Blanca has been typically regarded throughout this series, but also very true to how folks speak out of one side of their mouth when they’re talking about you, and the other when they’re talking to you, know what I mean?

As we’re whisked away into the fog of memories, we get a lot of history on who Belinda is & everything that she went through before landing in her current reality.  Noticeably, my theory was correct (finally I got one right!), and we transition from Belinda’s story straight back into Blanca, who is pissed because she only ever seems to get a fragment of the tale she’s trying to recall, no matter how many times she strolls through the hall of mirrors.  Belinda is struggling equally on the surface of the world we think that we’re living in, herkin’ & jerkin’ around in seizures, seeming to occur simultaneously at the same time as Blanca has her ‘episodes’ in the carnival where she’s glitching out.  To hear how Five describes it, there’s a visual component to go along with it, like Blanca visibly starts to fade in & out right in front of their very eyes.  One would only expect that it’s tough to maintain your physical form when you’re split between two worlds, right?  It’s kind of like that thing with good ol’ Marty McFly fading out of the family photograph.

I’ll say this.  I’m remarkably pleased.  From the very get-go, Blanca was the character I felt the most intrigued by, so to have this episode draw a definitive line in the sand that confirms she’s really what this whole season has been centered around, felt like a form of vindication.  I don’t think I’ll be alone in how I feel – I think Pearson did an exceptional job in writing Blanca, and that the direction of the show has continually drawn us towards her story as we tried to figure out the mystery of how she fit into it all.  So we essentially share in that triumph of feeling like we finally know something as concretely as a thing can be known in listening to this episode of Purgatory, Missouri…because this IS Blanca’s story, ain’t it?  While Stuart has expertly played a sleight of ear hand by purposely misdirecting our attention to these wandering Pin-bots in the carnival, Blanca has remained the show’s true constant.  Sure, it’s true that almost every moment we’ve spent with her has confused us even more as we’ve sunk into this mystery, here in episode six, we really start to get a sense that it’s Blanca that will find her way out of Purgatory, Missouri, one day.  She seems to have an inkling of a possible departure as well if you’re listening to her words in conversation with Thirty-Eight, trying to prepare him for a future that might be without her.  Of course, now that I’ve written all that done I’m freakin’ terrified – y’all know what it’s like when your new favorite show loses one of your favorite characters, right?  Purgatory, Missouri, NEEDS Blanca in it.  And now that I’ve written THAT out, I realize that might just be the crux of the whole situation.  This odd little community DOES need her…so much in fact, that you have to wonder if it could ever really let her go.  Even more to the point – what lengths would Purgatory, Missouri, go to in order to keep her there?

There’s an excellent conversation you’ll find towards the end with Highstriker, who once again is able to bring this strange place into relatable context as she speaks on how One & Five keep the illusion of their surroundings/hierarchy feeling like it cannot be changed.  As I’ve asked before in listening to this show, ain’t that just what it’s like to live life as we know it?  We’re constantly being told that things have to be a certain way or the whole thing will collapse into some mythical black hole, yet deep inside of us all, we know there’s got to be a better system that works for everyone than the one that we’ve come up with.

The Perimeter becomes a more pronounced threat than it has been so far, and you’ll soon discover how potent its dangers can be as one of the characters gets tossed into it.  Can we talk for just a moment about how AWESOME it was to have like…a noise that sounds like the character was sucked through a straw at the end of a milkshake when tossed into said Perimeter?  It’s all about attention to detail, folks.  The conversation between Highstriker and Tunnel Of Love is as wild as ever – the way these two talk to each other is like the greatest of Jazz y’all…they’ve got an unspoken rhythm that you simply can’t resist.

Is there a revolution, or a full-on carnie revolt on the horizon here?  Will Belinda/Blanca ever get outta here, or will her two sides fuse permanently into one?  What about that phone?  Fuck that phone!  Can Purgatory, Missouri, possibly wrap itself up in the one episode we’ve got left?  So many questions…and yet, so little time left!  That’s one of the signs of a great show though…either you get all the answers you’re looking for in the finale episode, or you can bet your ass it’ll be back for another season.  We’ve had some hints about that along the way, but I’m still waiting to hear the concrete confirmation of a season two.  All I know is that I want MORE of this, and I’m just as confident that you all will too – Purgatory, Missouri is a fantastic show that feels like it has limitless possibilities for where it could go in the future, even if it does manage to finish off the tale that it has woven throughout season one.  I’m looking forward to the finale like you wouldn’t believe – make sure to join me on June 10^th in the next review, where I’ll tell ya everything else that I can about what I hear.  We’ve all gotta start pounding on Pearson’s door right NOW though – great art like this needs public support & encouragement to continue – so LISTEN to Purgatory, Missouri, and give the man a virtual high five for the incredible effort that’s been put in to make such a remarkably captivating show like this.  I don’t just WANT to hear that next episode, I freakin’ bloody well NEED to at this point.

Listen to Purgatory, Missouri by visiting Stuart Pearson’s main site, right here:  https://www.stuartpearsonmusic.com/purgatory-missouri-episodes

If you dig what we do at sleepingbagstudios & want to be part of the madness, by all means click here to be featured on these pages of ours!