Purgatory, Missouri – Season One, EP 7:  Rules

Purgatory, Missouri – Season One, EP 7:  Rules

Well it’s about time!  All this seemingly self-governance…this whole illusion we know as “reality,” and the freedoms we like to think we enjoy…pfff!  What we need are some heckin’ RULES!  Who doesn’t love more of those, am I right?  You don’t want self-determination.  You don’t want the guise of “free will.”  You want restrictions!  You want to know where the line is!  You want rules to tell you what to do!

I don’t know if I’ve personally got any rules for ya, because I don’t adhere to any myself…but here’s some unsolicited free guidance you should heed.  If you haven’t read one of these podcast reviews that I’ve written on Purgatory, Missouri, yet…well, I’m sure they’re riddled with spoilers (and a whole lot of theories that don’t make no damn sense…try to steer clear of those!) – so consider yourselves warned.  Even here at the very end of season one, it’s safe to say that I’ll spill a whole bunch of beans, if not noticeably more beans than I’ve already spilt in my previous bean spillins.

I’ll tell you this much straight off the bat, I’m gonna miss the sound of Richard Malmos reciting the opening to this show in his best Rod Serling-esque blend of mystery-meets-psychosis.  I might just need to resort to having him narrate my life as the new voice in my head now that season one of Purgatory, Missouri, has come to its finale.  I can hear it now…”There’s a bizarre portal in the Gladstone kitchen, which Jeremy believes will take him to the ingredients of the ham sandwich he’s been dreaming about all day.  Little does he know, the ham has vanished and been replaced by a very dry and unforgiving amount of turkey, and the mayo he would need to moisten it is down to its last pitiful scrape from the jar…”  Yeah.  I’m just gonna call it like it is – life would be way more interesting if it was narrated by Malmos.  He’s done an exceptional job in directing this series…coaching the voices & bringing this vision from Stuart Pearson’s and Hunter Lowry’s mischievous minds to fruition…and of course, doing his own work in the show as the leader of the carnival, known as One.  To think all of this wonderful mayhem started out by producer Maureen Davis reaching into the random to see if Pearson would be interested in developing the songs from his music catalog into some kind of podcast-drama.  I can only imagine what it’s like to stand back and have a listen after an idea turns into this much fun and such a quality show when all is said & done.

So where were we?  Thirty Eight (Dave Foley) is in the midst of freakin’ out, and he’s trying to make some sense out of the reality he’s in.  In relaying his tale to Five (Mindy Sterling), she does her level best to convince him that he ain’t seen nothin’ and that he should just go about his bloody business – but I think we all know it’s way too late for that.  Consciousness is creeping into the carnival in ways that it hasn’t had to deal with yet, and a rookie like Thirty Eight might just unravel a bunch of secrets if he’s not too careful with those loose lips of his.  He implores One to explain what this place is all about once and for all, and while One is unafraid to explain as best he can, we’re still only getting tiny snapshots of how Purgatory, Missouri, came to be.  Ultimately, I feel like the scattered details speak strongly about what this place really is and our understanding of it, in addition to how the characters perceive it as well.  I look at it this way – if it was easy to figure out, I’m fairly certain they’d all be lining up to leave as quickly as they could…but Purgatory, Missouri, has become this exhausting mental maze that has a complexity continually compounded by their own confusion.  So no one really knows what is real anyway…and I have to believe that either I’m amongst the dullest of crayons in the box, or that One doesn’t really know either.  I still think that Purgatory, Missouri, is an excellent metaphor for life itself in how we all think we know what it’s about…but all we really have are theories, assumptions & beliefs, nothing more.

One and Thirty Eight proceed to discuss Blanca (Crissy Guerrero), even though One has explicitly stated they shouldn’t be talking about her at all.  She’s disruptive to the whole foundation of the carnival in ways they can’t quite understand, and you get a treasure trove of information during their discussion that labels Blanca & the newcomers to the carnival as “unstable elements” that make it hard to maintain control over this place.  We all feel existential threats at times, don’t we?  High Striker (Alina Foley) and Tunnel Of Love (Tonoccus McClain) are feeling threatened as well, way out there by the Perimeter.  With all the unrest around them, One is certain that an uprising is set to occur at any moment.  Danger is lurking in the carnival more than it already tends to, and if you’ve listened to this series throughout its chapters, you know that’s really saying something.  The tension of Purgatory, Missouri, has always been one of its greatest assets and we can feel it boiling over as we listen…things are gonna pop off real soon.

“Constant surveillance and instant enforcement of the rules,” explains One…that’s the key to keeping things as civilized as they are in this ghastly society they’ve created.  It sounds every bit as threatening as it’s intended to be.  “Fear is a powerful peacemaker,” he continues…and he ain’t wrong.  It’ll last for a while, but not forever.  Like I’ve alluded to in some of these reviews, it’s like Purgatory, Missouri, is the dusty reflection of our own society staring back at us in the mirror…and we’ve seen how often fear can be used & weaponized in an attempt to control us…but eventually, history shows us that an uprising will occur when enough is finally enough.  Is this sociological/political commentary beginning to permeate the story – or has it been there all along?  If you know, you know.  Personally, I think Pearson and Lowry have always put forth a perspective and a point of view throughout this entire series, and I’m thankful that they have.  They’ve done an excellent job of making this strange, strange place they’re in feel even stranger…like home.

Void (Nathan Smythe) seems to have been singled out as the potential leader of the uprising to come, and it isn’t long before the carnies come lookin’ for him as they take matters into their own hands.  Dragged by Twenty Three (Gina Elaine) and Twenty Six (Samuel Matury), Void is met with a familiar slurping sound at the Perimeter, and again, if you know, you know…that’s the place we all want to steer clear of.  Blanca glitches in and out as she struggles to maintain some kind of molecular stability, and she seems like she’s able to actually bring the rest of the carnival with her as she fluctuates between realms.  The next thing you know, you’re in the hospital room with Dr. Gold (Samuel Matury again) & Kayla (Julia Albert) as they work to help Belinda (also played by Crissy Guerrero), and they can see physical shadows on the wall that look like people struggling.  That fucking phone (Hunter Lowry) decides to chime in, and it sounds like it’s time for a full-scale evacuation of the carnival.  What I loved about this whole scene, is that One sounds absolutely terrified as he seems to view the hospital room.  Like I was tellin’ ya…it’s all like a mirror image – we would be frightened AF to visit the carnival, so it only stands to some kind of reason that the carnival employees would be just as terrified to visit what we know as reality, right?  This whole mirror business has been my theory and I’m stickin’ to it.  Spoiler alert – I have no real other choice…for now.  Would you believe me if I told ya that a certain someone wakes up at long last, and the show just freakin’ ends like it was modeled after the last episode of the Sopranos?  We get just enough in the final moments to come to the conclusions we think we know…and in the process, I think we also get to wonder about whether or not One has been pulled through to the other side, where we are now, or if he’s been trapped forever as a shadow on the wall.  Maybe the carnival is coming to a theater near you, feel me?

THANKFULLY, the benevolent Mr. Pearson and Ms. Lowry have included a snapshot of what SEASON TWO will be like at the end of this finale episode – and I think of all the questions we had along the way, will or won’t the show continue on was at the top of every listener’s list.  So hell yes, I’m proud to report that there WILL be more Purgatory, Missouri…this story is far from over, and I’m stoked about that – there’s really so much more than can be done with this wonderfully mysterious and malevolent place that Stuart and Hunter have created.  It sounds like Belinda/Blanca is going to realize that the two places were way more connected and REAL than she realized.  It sounds like Five is seizing control of the carnival in the absence of One.  It sounds like Thirty Eight has joined the uprising, and that the Perimeter is awfully hungry.  It sounds like things will get extremely meta with a podcast-within-a-podcast storyline to come, which is even more awesome when you think of this show like a reality-within-a-reality to begin with.  Someone call Kevin Bacon will ya?  We’ve gotta be no more than six degrees away from him by now.  You’ll also love this detail too…the podcast, which seems to center around the concepts of paranormal activity at Mercy General, will feature a focus on a primary guest…known as…Juan.  Does that sound familiar?  What if I spelled it differently for you…not Juan – but One.  How freakin’ cool is this?  It’s another fantastic example of human beings running with what they think they know, and putting their own spin on the facts without listening intently enough.  The uprising in the carnival sounds MASSIVE & very real – and if you were to ask me, it sounds like Stuart Pearson, Hunter Lowry and their incredible carnival cohorts are more than ready for another season with all the ideas they’ve put on display through this sneak peek at season two.

The final episode of season one does a stellar job of answering many of the questions we had, while still finding awesome ways of having us wondering about what else comes next.  Seven episodes was enough – but barely – I could have easily taken twenty of’ em and I’d never be bored.  To say I’m looking forward to the next season already would be a criminal understatement – the entire cast of Purgatory, Missouri, did an outstanding job on this series from the moment it began, treating its unique authenticities and quirky eccentricities like it was all a part of their own DNA all along.  The specialness of this series was carefully curated and maintained throughout the course of its length, and again, I’m thankful for that.  With Pearson and Lowry at the helm for the writing, I’m fully confident that with each subsequent season (yes I’m already calling for more than two before the second season has even begun!), Purgatory, Missouri, will go on to amaze us even more, and before we know it, this whole show will become a permanent fixture in premium podcast entertainment that no one will be able to resist.

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

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