Welcome to Night Vale: 81 - After 3327

February 1, 2016 6:48 PM

Night Vale High School's AP Auto Shop teacher demonstrates some of his inventions at the Museum of Forbidden Technologies. Plus, a visit from an adorable puppy, an update on the Trial of the Century, and a look at the Community Calendar.

The voice of Maureen was Maureen Johnson.

Weather: "Table Song" by Katie Kuffel

Transcript

Gray dreams. Gray life. Gray words. Gray buildings in a gray world and the light grays grayly through the gray.

posted by DevilsAdvocate (4 comments total)

So, I didn't get the Tesla references until after the episode when I looked the episode title up, so I don't have much to say about that.

What I do have to talk about is the message at the end of the episode. I usually find these to be inspiring, sometimes incredibly so. This one . . .

Listeners, maybe at some point Nick wanted to be something other than he was, but that doesn’t mean he is beholden to that dream he once had. It’s okay for him to be all right with who he is now. Acceptance is not failure. Sometimes acceptance is just acceptance.

Of course, one must always be open to new dreams, and new ambition. And if, at some point, Nick decides that he no longer wants to be an A.P. auto shop teacher, or if he decides he wants to alter history so he will never have even come here…then that, too, will be okay.

But, I didn't get the sense that it WOULD be ok? Like, it was very clear that Nick, regardless of how "ok" he seemed to be with his current life, would build that time machine he clearly has notes on and change his life. So, what? When we say we're "ok" with our lives, are we always secretly wishing that things had gone differently? Would we all jump at the chance to change things? That's . . . brutal.


Also: WHO IS THE INTERN THAT MAUREEN TALKED WITH? She mentions talking with "another former intern of yours", but her response ("I know who Mayor Cardinal is!!!") seems to indicate that it WASN'T Dana. So . . . who was it? This is worrisome.
posted by chainsofreedom at 1:46 PM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Maybe if Maureen put a small speaker in the beagle's collar so that Cecil thinks it's the dog that is asking for Maureen's credit letter...
posted by ckape at 4:20 PM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Thursday is a lost cause. Why even bother with Thursday? We all tried and tried, and still Thursday is what it is. Let’s all give up hope for Thursday and just let it do its thing."

Hah.

"Well, more from Nick as I continue to “accidentally” tell you what he’s saying."

Ditto.

Yeah, what other intern has SURVIVED for Maureen to talk to? Must be a ghost intern.

I think we need to watch out for Maureen's army.

I'm with Nick: where's that time machine already? How can I get the hell out of here?
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:48 PM on February 2, 2016

Cecil is technically a former intern. Intern Vyffica(?sp) is still technically around I guess, she was just called away to do a great task for/become an Erika. Intern Richard was subsumed into the Whispering Forest but I guess is still sort of around.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 3:02 PM on February 4, 2016