The Rita Minute 4: 4Ever Love is a bonus, non-canonical episode from season four of The Penumbra Podcast. It was released February 14, 2022.
Overview[]
Official overview blurb not provided.
Trigger warnings:[]
- Enclosed/claustrophobic spaces
- Violence and threats of violence
Episode Summary[]
Rita writes a letter to Frannie wishing her a happy Forever-Love Day. She complains that everyone at the "Aurinko Summer Camp" has gone off on smooch cruises together, except herself and Jet Sikuliaq, and she hopes that Frannie's life has had more romance than her own. Juno and Nureyev, on a comms call with her, interrupt her train of thought to briefly tease her for calling their restaurant date a "smooch cruise." They hang up, and Jet invites Rita to hang out.
Rita asks whether it bothers him to see crewmates kiss, and he responds that he's only bothered when Juno and Nureyev are loud. Otherwise, he's just glad that others have a good time, but participation is not mandatory. Besides, it allows him to spend more time focusing on cars. Rita and Jet discuss her lack of past relationships, and desire to find her forever love despite this. Jet points out that she's unlikely to find a forever love without finding a date first. Rita decides to take the plunge, and finds a dating app on her comms called Squeeze, which claims to put more science into matching users, for true love rather than mere dates. Rita shows Jet a highly complicated variety of gesture interactions she can make to react to different profiles.
She speeds through profiles at such a rapid rate that, just after receiving a canned "congratulations" video and an ad, her comms melts. Fortunately, she caught a glimpse of the coordinates to meet her forever love--just not any other information about the person. Jet agrees to take her to their location on the planet Kronos in the neighboring star-system. Well, after they collect some supplies to make repairs to the Ruby Seven, that is.
Rita, once more narrating her letter to Frannie, describes visiting multiple planets with Jet, intercut with brief glimpses of their adventures, including underwater ruins of a theme park, narrowly avoiding an encounter with Vespa Ilkay and Buddy Aurinko on a spa date, and negotiating with a hardware store clerk to honor a coupon. Rita has fun, but is a little nervous about her date, and questions Jet when he says they don't need to continue fine-tuning the Ruby for now. It's time to get her to her date.
When Rita returns to Jet and the Ruby Seven after her date, she tells them that she's deeply disappointed that her date was nice, but didn't make her feel excited. Squeeze overpromised, which both Rita and Jet admit isn't surprising from a company. Jet points out that Forever Love Day wasn't even invented to celebrate romance or love, but the merger of Forever Industries and Love Incorporated into the Forever-Love Conglomerate. Rita reflects anxiously that she thinks she's experienced attraction before, but maybe not romantic feelings. Maybe they were just crushy. She wants very much to have a whirlwind romance, but she feels weird. Jet asks what she would like to do in this moment. She suggests looking at pretty people and feeling sad.
Ruby takes them back to the Carte Blanche while Rita cries and sorts through her feelings about strong ladies on horses with roses in their teeth, and the horses' mouths too. She says loudly, three times, that she wishes she knew where to start. Jet asks if she wants his advice, which is "It is more important that your understanding of yourself be honest than timely." He further tells her that if she comes to a conclusion about where romance belongs in her life, or if she never does, he will be there for here.
Rita finishes her letter to Frannie by saying that she's going to spend the rest of Forever Love Day with someone she's going to love forever. Once she hits send, Jet knocks on her door to announce he has popcorn and a movie ready to go. He chose one about love, but not romantic love. It's about a woman who loves cars. Rita sighs affectionately and gushes about action sequences, and they begin.
Cast[]
All cast members were uncredited, but recognizable voice work includes:
- Kate Jones as Rita
- Alexander Stravinski as Jet Sikuliaq
- Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
- Noah Simes as Peter Nureyev
- Chloé Cunha as Vespa Ilkay
- Sarah Gazdowicz as Buddy Aurinko
- Harley Takagi Kaner as Ensemble
Crew[]
- Kat Buckingham as Head of Merchandise and Outreach
- Alice Chuang as Head of Design
- Melissa DeJesus and Grahame Turner as Script editing team
- Harley Takagi Kaner as Co-creator, Head of Episode Development, Director, Sound designer
- Noah Simes as Production manager
- Kevin Vibert as Co-creator, Head of Operations, Lead writer
- Ryan Vibert as Composer and performer of original music
- Recorded by Jimmy Corbett at The Bridge Sound & Stage
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
References[]