| “ | It had been that way for hours. Rita and I standing out on a fourteenth floor Newtown balcony, listening to that jabber at us. Nothing to distract me except the cold bite of wind, the long long way to the ground, and Newtown. Beautiful blue and silver and pink Newtown, tall and strong and completely unrecognizable. | ” |
—Juno Steel
Juno Steel and the Man of the Future (Part 2) is the thirty-first episode of the second season of The Penumbra Podcast. It was released November 6th, 2018.
Overview[]
Give up control.
That's what the thing that looks like Mick says to do. And in a year like the one Juno Steel has had, with the past, present, and city of the future all out to get him... why not? In a world where control can be torn from you so easily, so constantly... why not just give in, let that thing plug you in to its monstrous chip, and give everything you have away to it?
So why not, Juno? Why not give up control to the THEIA Soul?
Trigger Warnings[]
- Sudden loud noises
- Claustrophobia
- Violence and threats of violence
- Manipulation and mind control
- Death and injury
- Illness
- Implied killing of people and animals
- Deception and gaslighting
Episode Summary[]
Juno reflects that Mick under THEIA control is not truly Mick. He suggests he and Rita rip it from him and help him through the recovery rather than tolerate the banal chatter and self-depreciation the THEIA Soul is eliciting from Mick. Rita gently tells him she's almost done disconnecting the THEIA remotely. Juno realizes Mick wants to talk, so he indulges him despite finding it painful. Mick tells him the THEIA Soul simply protects people from their own bad decisions, confiding that the Soul has ended the alcoholism he was hiding from his loved ones. He insists Juno would benefit from the Soul, angering Rita. Juno assures Mick he takes better care of himself than he once did, drinking in moderation and implying he no longer takes drugs. Mick continues to needle him, saying a habit kicked may still return, and leaning on Juno's "failures" with the HCPD, a person from his past named Diamond, and Juno's former force partner, Puck Falco.
Juno monologues that he feels tired and old. He tells Rita that Mick is happy and safe, and he no longer wants her to disconnect him from the Soul against his will. She is dismayed, but agrees. Juno expresses sorrow that Mick has decided his storytelling and hoverbike are harmful instead of joyful.
Mick breaks into the room Juno and Rita are in. Juno struggles against him, telling the listener "in the end, I lost...but that doesn't mean the THEIA won." Rita makes a noise of triumph as Juno screams. Mick, panting with relief, apologizes to them and passes out, Rita having pushed through with her hacking, saving him. She apologizes to Juno for having done so against Juno's wishes; he responds by apologizing for acting like they weren't equal partners in the adventure. He tells her there's no call for him to behave like her boss and not her friend. She accepts the apology with a hug and a sympathetic reminder that it is difficult for him to make decisions with high personal stakes.
They put Mick to bed, where he tells them he'd been excited to try the Soul, but once it was installed, he "just felt nothing," and he is relieved they saved him. Rita stays with him, sending Juno to meet Ramses. Juno discovers the meeting place is his childhood home, made beautiful, with a motif of Andromeda's smiling face. "Mom would have hated it," he says, crying and laughing before entering to confront O'Flaherty. He monologues on Ramses' cruelty in taking people's agency, reflecting that recovery is a personal journey, though one you can accept help with.
He finds Ramses O'Flaherty dead at his desk. Juno searches for signs of poison before finding his papers, some addressing a terminal heart condition. He had already outlived his prognosis, and Juno further discovers notes in which Ramses predicted the possible routes he foresaw his conversation with Juno taking, planning out his own rebuttals. Juno wonders whether Ramses had become so buried under masks that no real man existed anymore. A voiceover plays of Ramses' written confession: he had struggled through highs and lows, stints of doing good and dark periods, and had been inspired by Juno's intervention on the Maia King case to take a "chance to do good again...to ease suffering." Juno is unsympathetic: Ramses never imposed a THEIA device on himself.
Rita phones Juno, urging him to turn on the news. He does so, discovering that he has less than 24 hours before the gates of Newtown will open, threatening the rest of Hyperion with THEIA Souls. Juno channels the courage he admired in Small Fry, the small Martian rabbit he met in the sewers when he first returned to Oldtown, as well as the wisdom of The Man in the Brown Jacket as he sets out to destroy Ramses' legacy.
Cast and Crew[]
Cast[]
Starring
- Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
- Matthew Zahnzinger as Ramses O’Flaherty
- Kate Jones as Rita
- Stefano Perti as Mick Mercury
- Harley Takagi Kaner as the THEIA Operating System
Crew[]
- Kevin Vibert, Co-creator, Head of Operations, Lead writer
- Harley Takagi Kaner, Co-creator, Head of Episode Development, Director, Sound designer
- Kat Buckingham, Head of Merchandise and Outreach
- Alice Chuang, Head of Design
- Noah Simes, Production manager
- Ryan Vibert, Composer and performer of original music
Quotes[]
JUNO: Fine. Fine, "Mick." Let's talk. MICK: Hey, that's great to hear, Jayjay! Just open on up and I'll— JUNO: Through the window. MICK: Sure. We can start this way. Hey, while we're talkin', do you wanna know why I don't just punch straight through this glass here and grab you two right now? Cuz, heh, I think you know I could.
MICK: One weak day. That's all I'm saying, Jay. Your punishment for one weak day could be to lose fifteen years of progress. You could go back to feeling how you did after you were booted out of the HCPD. You might feel fine now, but... RITA: He wouldn't! You don't have to listen to him, Mista Steel, you're better'n that now in a million ways, and I wouldn't letcha anyway, and— MICK: ... you know how quickly "fine" changes. And you know how quickly the people you rely on start disappearing when you hit that point. Diamond... RITA: Mista Mercury! MICK: ... even Sasha, kinda. And your old partner on the force, what was their name... JUNO: Puck. MICK: Puck Falco, that's right. Where are they now? JUNO: I don't know. We... fell out of touch. MICK: Heard that one before, am I right?
RITA: Even if you ain't the boss right now I’m still gonna call you Boss, though. JUNO: What? Why? RITA: Cuz I almost never use your first name and every time I do I wanna throw up a little bit JUNO: So, what, am I supposed to call you Miss — RITA: NO don’t please Rita is good thank YOU!
JUNO(NARRATOR):: Because that was Ramses's problem. He thought he knew better than everybody else, that when people hurt themselves it was because they hadn't listened to him. He'd decided Sarah Steel couldn't handle Northstar on her own, so he took it. He decided I couldn't be trusted with my own body, so he took it. He decided that every resident of Hyperion City had their chance to make their home better and they'd blown it... so he took the city, too. But it never worked -- none of the people he'd ever helped had stayed helped -- because you can't force someone else into it. Because getting better's always on you. It has to be. And that doesn't mean you're alone, doesn't mean you can't lean on others when you get tired or ask for directions when you get lost, but... Getting better's a long road. And if you want to go down it, you have to start walking.
That's what I was going to tell him. I wasn't going to back down. And I wouldn't give in until he stopped -- until he finally left people alone, for the first time in his goddamn life.