| “ | My name's Juno Steel. And it's my job to protect this place, because this is my home -- the only home anyone will ever need. | ” |
—Juno Steel
Juno Steel and the Soul of the People (Part 1) is the thirty-fourth episode of the second season of The Penumbra Podcast. It was released January 15, 2019.
Overview[]
Welcome home, Juno Steel.
Trigger Warnings[]
- Sudden loud noises
- Pursuit
- Forced incarceration
- Violence and threats of violence
- Implied killing of people and animals
- Deception, gaslighting, brainwashing, propaganda
Episode Summary[]
Juno Steel returns to consciousness, unsure where he is and who knocked him out. A THEIA Soul has been installed in him; it triggers calming pathways in his brain, and encourages him to trust it. He agrees that he does, he but finds Ramses' voice in an orientation clip the THEIA plays distressing. He and the Soul determine that Juno is in an interrogation room of an abandoned former HCPD station in Oldtown. Juno hears Rita's voice calling out to him. He is unable to remember her name or what their relationship to each other is, but he knows they arrived at this building together, and she seeks to destroy the THEIA system.
The episode flashes back to a conversation between Juno and Rita in which she explained the HCPD station must contain a central computer for the THEIA network. She worried that it may be beyond even her hacking skills, while Juno worried there was more to the threat than they realized, trying to recreate Ramses' train of thought. Rita hacked into a fallen THEIA bot found under a desk, activating an elevator for them.
The THEIA interrupts the memory, saying it is too soon to dwell on it more deeply. In the present, Juno uses THEIA protocols to break down the interrogation room door despite it breaking his shoulder in the process. He hunts for Rita, the influence of the Soul compelling him to stop her from interfering with the THEIA. On catching her, the Soul prompts Juno to take Rita to "the base of the tower" to fit her with a Soul as well.
He flashes back again, this time to a memory of Rita determining she needed to be at the central computer to hack into it. They were both spooked by a loud noise elsewhere in the building, but pushed on. Rita uncovered a Northstar report outlining development of the THEIA Soul over time, specifically concerns about its power requirements and ethical calculations refined with further experimentation, and ultimately a passing vote to install the Soul in the "Newtown" community, despite insufficient testing.
The Soul pulls Juno out of his memory again as Rita struggles in his grip. He steals her comms before she escapes and begins to tell the listener he learned that trick from... he glitches, repeating the word "from" with a rush of static, before continuing the story. He goes to protect the central computer: a tower composed of many monitors and computer parts, its base extending through the floor, underground, into an underground cave where Souled citizens continue to add to it.
Juno flashes back to the first time he and Rita saw the tower. He'd given her a dead Soul to discourage the THEIA from interfering with her. He remembers they were attacked anyway and had fled the room.
In the present, the THEIA prompts Juno to attach a virus to the tower. He does so, panicking as the THEIA shuts down, returning to his memory.
He and Rita escaped the bots and discussed a new plan of action, Juno worrying it was already too late to stop it and urging Rita to think of something. She firmly told him it was hard to think while he was yelling and crying. He apologized, and Rita did think of a possibility, inspired by a stream she enjoys called Marionette Mercenaries from Planet Puppetron, but she nearly discarded it on the basis that it would endanger Juno--and besides, it wouldn't work if she told him what would happen to him. Juno responded that he wasn't the same lady he was a year ago: he now believes he's better alive than dead. But he trusts Rita, and he had told her this was a story in which she was the hero.
In the present, THEIA Juno resolve to keep fighting. Rita taunts the THEIA over an intercom, but it threatens to use Juno to kill people until Rita reveals herself. Rita promises the virus is working its way through every Soul and will free Juno eventually, but Juno resolves, under the THEIA's influence, to Soul Rita before this can happen.
Cast and Crew[]
Cast[]
- Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
- Kate Jones as Rita
- Harley Takagi Kaner as the THEIA Operating System
- Matthew Zahnzinger as Ramses O'Flaherty
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