Bellsbellsbellsbellsbells
This entry discusses Episode 403, “Mother Wolf” — listen to it first!
The overall theme of AGENT STOKER Season Four is set up pretty clearly in Episode 401 — who survived the apocalypse and why (or why not)? Agent Stoker himself has barely survived because he was at Ground Zero, and he was left in the fourth dimension along with Irene, who reincarnated there because it was all the “there” that was left at the time —
But what happened to the directors of the Night Brigade, the people who actually saved all creation? They’re nowhere to be found. Agent Stoker will spend this season tracking them down —
Yet he’s still human. Oh, so human. Still needing to self-medicate more than he should. Still not sure he’s up to the destiny he’s been handed.
So it’s understandable that before he sets out on his odyssey to find his allies, he has some personal business to address. In Episode 402, he reconnected with the person he’s closest to — Laila Zomorodi, whom he left in the company of Caroline Dao.
That … didn’t go so well.
Laila and Caroline brought along Simon Diaz, who had been turned into a vampire in a shocking moment during the end of Season Three. And the Stokerverse is a world with no sympathetic vampires. Barnabas Collins isn’t showing up here. Simon was ready to fang someone — and Stoker himself was a prospect, now that he’s no longer protected by the shard of an elder god within his soul.
It looked bad for Stoker, but he managed to survive — yet it came at the cost of Simon’s life (or unlife). And the steps that he took to end Simon as a threat — those steps terrified away Laila and Caroline.
What can he do, now that he’s responsible for one of his best allies dying as a vampire?
What can you do — unless you’re a man who has discovered he can walk through time?
Episode 403 sees Agent Stoker reuniting with another old friend, Miri LaVeau — played by the wonderful Myra Lucretia Taylor. It’s directed by Rachel Talalay, whose amazing credits in genre run from TANK GIRL to DOCTOR WHO and beyond. And since Myra and Rachel are both artists I first met when I was an undergrad at Yale, it felt appropriate to lean into that shared connection in this episode —
Taking it further, Stoker and Miri walk through New Haven and discuss local landmarks like Atticus Books and Ezra Stiles College — yet as a podcast, there’s only so much we can do with local color —
Unless we drew on one of the signature sounds of the Yale campus: the carillon in Harkness Bell Tower.
The carillon is a great network of 54 bells, cast in England, that are played by students who love the amazing experience of musicianship that the bells afford. And it’s also great for the students who never even enter the tower. Music from the carillon sounds out over the campus unexpectedly throughout the week, ranging from classical music to new compositions. I remember as an undergrad hearing a slow theme that I thought I knew — and realized to my delight that it was the theme from “Looney Tunes!”
Reaching out to the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs, we were delighted that they enthusiastically offered up music for this episode. And as Stoker comments in dialogue, it’s only appropriate to our Poe-inspired podcast, since Edgar Allan Poe’s SECOND most famous poem after “The Raven” is — “The Bells!” Enjoy!