| “ | ...So here’s a new saying, a better one, from your pal Juno Steel, Private Eye: “Don’t bother going home. Ever. If you wait long enough, home will come looking for you – and if you’re lucky you might even survive the visit.” | ” |
—Juno Steel
Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 2) is the eighth episode of the first season of The Penumbra Podcast. It was released June 21, 2016.
Overview[]
They thought they’d gotten away with it. They were just kids when it happened. Juno Steel, Sasha Wire, and Mick Mercury – they were just kids when they did it. It was supposed to be a game, the kind kids play when there are no adults around to talk to… when there’s nobody around to tell them just how deadly their little game could be.
Trigger Warnings[]
- Alcohol
- Death and violence
- Gore
- Deception and gaslighting
- Sudden loud noises
- Claustrophobic spaces
- Past trauma
- Natural disasters
Plot Summary[]
Juno, Mick, and Sasha slog through the sewers. Juno reiterates in a monologue to the listener that it has been fifteen years since he last visited his hometown and the only part of his return he has enjoyed is chatting with Mick. Mick is still injured from crawling through the pipes earlier, and he expresses regret over making Annie Wire go through the three "trials," stating he was the leader of the gang and as such, the entire ordeal was his fault. Juno refutes this, insisting the fault was shared—and that Mick was not their leader anyway.
The group becomes lost in the sewers, and as Mick recalls another set of tales about monsters, he starts to slip towards panic. Just as Juno and Sasha have successfully calmed Mick down, they hear a noise. The creature making it draws closer and closer and roars at them. It is revealed to be one of a population of large, intelligent mutated rabbits dwelling in the Oldtown sewers. Juno gives it a friendly greeting, promising they won't hurt him, before explaining to his friends that when he used to run away from home as a child, he would go to the sewers and mingle with the resident rabbits. Juno hires the rabbit with ten creds to protect and guide them through the sewer.
Near the exit, the rabbit stops in fear and runs off, leaving the trio there alone. Sasha and Juno argue about how to proceed, but Mick interrupts, drawing their attention to something in the water. They run away from the presumed monster, but Mick's leg injury slows them down. The monster rises from the sewers, made of metal and smelling of gasoline, to reveal the face of thirteen-year-old Juno. Juno ponders if this is how Annie had seen him twenty-five years ago. They shoot the monstrous robot, trying to keep it at bay as they exit. Sasha suggests there are probably three monsters, one resembling each of the trio.
This is revealed to be correct when a "monster" with Sasha's face grabs Mick, pulling him down into the water. Juno tries to backtrack to rescue him, but Sasha stops him, stating that their attacker clearly wants them to suffer through the "three trials" they had set Annie as children as a condition for joining their gang of friends. Therefore, they won't be able to save Mick from the sewer; he's being taken to the old munitions factory where Annie disappeared. Juno reluctantly tells her she's right. They exit and find themselves outside the factory after all.
Juno narrates that Annie would have been waiting for them to save her all those years ago. Annie was only supposed to spend thirty minutes there, but when two hours passed without her returning to them, Sasha suggested they get the cops. Neither Annie nor "even a hairpin" was found in the resulting search, and she has been presumed dead ever since.
As Sasha and Juno rappel their way down an elevator shaft in pursuit of a diesel smell indicating recent activity, another metal monster grabs Juno and drags him to the bottom. When he lands, he hears crying and sees what appears to be Annie begging to be told why they did not come for her. Juno shines the dim light of his comms into the space, uncovering Mick's body crumpled in the corner and a tangle of cables at Annie's feet. He despairs that Annie, Sasha, and Mick have surely all died because of his mistakes, before Annie screams at him to help her. Juno tries to shoot the tangle of cables, now in motion, but as he realizes they are coming from Annie, the attacks overwhelm him. Sasha turns on the overhead light, prompting the cable assault to end. Juno is relieved Sasha was not killed in the elevator shaft, but Annie encourages Sasha to kill Juno, saying he instigated her death. Juno accepts his fate, and Sasha disarms him, before turning to shoot Annie, having correctly concluded she is one of the robots.
While Juno processes his shock, a recorded voice recites a Dark Matters slogan over a track of music, followed by the appearance of Sasha's mentor, Agent Burgess. It is revealed that the day's events had been organized by Dark Matters as an exam for Sasha's promotion to sub-director, and Sasha has aced the test. Mick is revealed to be alive, and Sasha ignores her mentor's continued praise to ensure he's alright. Juno accuses Burgess of hurting innocent people in this exercise, but Burgess merely laughs (and laughs, and laughs), insisting that it was for the greater good. Juno threatens to shoot Burgess in the leg, prompting Burgess to sign off from what Juno had not realized was a holographic call.
Juno continues to rail against Agent Burgess, but Sasha silences him and confronts Juno about his self-obsession and suicidal tendencies. They briefly discuss her own struggles with Annie's death, and she tells him their punishment is to continue living with it—not the elaborate, glamorous punishment he seems to crave. She leaves, telling Mick to look after Juno. Mick and Juno go for drinks and talk about what happened. Mick further confronts Juno about his self-destructive behavior. Juno initially lashes out at Mick for trying to help. Eventually, however, Mick snaps at him to "Suck it up, ask for help, and live, you jerk," startling Juno into taking in the words and accepting Mick's desire for him to "be okay." The tension between them breaks, and they shift into teasing each other and laughing.
Juno's closing monologue reflects on Mick's gift for making people feel better by "spinning yarns and lying and building shining cities in the air between us," saying that such stories are necessary to teach us how to recognize these imagined shining cities when we eventually find them.
Cast and Crew[]
Cast[]
Starring
- Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
- Stefano Perti as Mick Mercury
- Harley Takagi Kaner as Sasha Wire
- Mia Dilluvio as Annie Wire
- Noah Simes as Agent Burgess
- Additional Voice Work by Kate Jones, Scott Galica, and Kevin Vibert
Crew[]
- Kevin Vibert, Co-creator, Lead writer, Sound-effects designer
- Harley Takagi Kaner, Co-creator, Director, Lead editor, Sound designer
- Grahame Turner, Lead Editor
- Ryan Vibert, Composer and performer of original music
Quotes[]
MICK:: You think you’re the only one with problems? I’m breaking the land-speed record on going nowhere, Juno, and I know it. But I keep moving, and you know why? Sure, the world is busted. But what we did to Annie, that’s not what busted it. It was broken before we got here. And it’d be a whole lot more broken without you around.
JUNO:: I’m not some selfless hero, Mick. MICK:: No, you aren’t! You’re full of yourself! It’s the best and worst thing about you, Jay, for you and everyone else. Listen, if you’re in trouble this deep, you can’t just sit around and mope. If someone’s going around killing people, how long’s it gonna take for them to get around to you? JUNO:: I don’t know. MICK:: Well, you can’t let them! If you won’t do it for you, do it for me. Suck it up, ask for help, and live, you jerk.
MICK:: Sticking around? JUNO:: Yep. MICK:: I didn’t mean at the bar... JUNO:: I know. Mick, buddy... MICK:: Yeah? JUNO:: Thanks.
Trivia[]
- Kevin Vibert voice acted the sewer rabbits in this episode.[1]
- In the first season Q&A session, Kevin Vibert stated that this episode marked the beginning of Juno working on his self-destructive tendencies, a theme that continues throughout the latter half of the second season and especially into the third.