Meta Station

"His Dark Materials" 1x03: "The Spies" Nov 25, 2019

Welcome back to Meta Station, where IT’S TIME TO CRY ABOUT MOMS! Lyra finally finds a family, we learn a lot more about daemons, some Dramatic Backstory is revealed, a show finally presents a suicide storyline responsibly, and we have a LOT of thoughts about white male patriarchy. Also, the alethiometer finally works, Ma Costa is our new favorite character, and Fleabag’s Hot Priest has joined the cast which means this show officially has everything. _________________________________________ 0:00 - Thank Goodness for the Gyptians, Adults Lyra Can Actually Trust 0:17 – How This Episode Gets Suicide-As-Plot/Character-Development Right 0:37 – Daemon Discussion Redux: Farder Coram Edition 0:41 – Lyra's Journey to Trust, Belonging, and a Working Alethiometer 0:53 – [Sidebar to Cry About Lyra and Ma Costa, the Ur-Mom] 1:11 – The Gyptians, the Magisterium, and the Value of Children 1:19 – Smash the Patriarchy, Part I: Who’s Outside the Machinery of Power, and Why It Matters That Boreal and the Master Are Black Men 1:33 – Smash the Patriarchy, Part II: Male Shame, the Complicity of White Women, and the Show’s Refreshing Decision Not to Woobify Mrs. Coulter 1:56 – No New Episode Next Week for Gay Reasons, But We’ll Be Back After American Thanksgiving!

"His Dark Materials" 1x02: "The Idea of North" Nov 18, 2019

Welcome back to Meta Station! Sadly for you, several of our BEST jokes this week happened before we started recording, and we apologize to our longtime fans for depriving them of the newest installment of our ongoing “vases vs. botulism” debate. (You had to be there.) Fortunately, this still ended up being one of our favorite conversations, because there is SO! MUCH! TO SAY! about Mrs. Coulter: from using femininity as a weapon to wield power over men, to the complicated relationship between women and anger, to why it matters that her (male) daemon has been silenced. We also talked Magisterium theology, Boreal’s dimension-hopping, and how relieved we are that our pure sons Roger and Billy finally found each other. P.S. Rather predictably, we have already completely abandoned any attempt to remain spoiler-free for people who haven’t read the books, for reasons that will become very clear in the Mrs. Coulter section. If you are aggressively trying to avoid any plot details from the books, you might want to bookmark this one and come back to it after the end of the season. -------------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Lyra and the Apartment: Art Deco Design Porn, Abuse Dynamics, and Gilded Cages 0:10 – The Interior Life of Marisa Coulter: Weaponized Femininity, Suppressed Emotions, a Daemon That Doesn’t Speak, AND A COUPLE OF REALLY BIG SPOILERS 1:01 – Mrs. Coulter: Severing Ties, Emotionally and Literally 1:11 – Boreal, Other Worlds, and Novel Versus TV Plot Pacing 1:24 – Fighting for Ideas . . . of North, and Other Things 1:31 – Claire's Catholicism Corner: What Does "Oblation" Mean? And What Does It Tell Us About Mrs. Coulter? 1:42 - The Magisterium's Cold-Blooded Daemons 1:47 - The Most On-Brand Moment Ever: Claire Ships All the Parents NOTE: We apologize for some very mild sound issues on this one; Claire’s computer, like herself, has a very flexible relationship with the concept of Time, and froze up for a second before reviving so the whole middle of one sentence just disappeared, which is mostly upsetting because it was MILF flailing and we know that’s important to you guys. Also, Erin’s sound recording software was picking up the computer mic instead of her podcasting mic, so there are handful of places where she cuts out for a split-second as well. We edited around it as best we could, but hopefully it won’t be too distracting.

"His Dark Materials" 1x01: "Lyra's Jordan" Nov 10, 2019

Welcome to Meta Station’s first recap of “His Dark Materials,” the perfect show for a podcast hosted by an atheist English professor and a Catholic playwright. Join us for a deep dive into the transformation of the books from page to screen, with side quests into climate change, Vatican II, “Paradise Lost,” gender fluidity, and Galileo. Plus, we lay out a careful plan about avoiding spoilers and then forget it immediately, of COURSE Erin knows the Milton quote Philip Pullman got the series title from, and Claire hops in the wayback machine to reminisce about being a youth minister when these books first blew up in the U.S. Grab your alethiometer and your bottle of secret crypt wine, we’re going on an adventure! * * * * * * * * * * * * 0:00 – Hello, New Listeners, and Welcome Back, Old Friends! 0:02 – Page to Screen Adaptation, Part I: Asriel, Lyra and Narrative Perspective 0:21 – We Stan a Relatable 11-Year-Old Who Is Sometimes a Butthead 0:27 – Page to Screen Adaptation, Part II: Dramatic Irony, Pacing Big Reveals for Television, and How Ruth Wilson Almost Convinced Us, Too 0:44 – The Gyptian Daemon Ceremony: Our Need for Ritual, the Magisterium’s Dehumanization of Religion, and the Return of Claire’s Catholicism Corner 1:10 – Pan-Daemonium 1:34 – Galileo, Climate Change, and Dust: The Politics of Scientific Knowledge 1:55 – The Magisterium, the Master, and the Moral Bankruptcy of Incentivizing Ignorance 2:02 – Erin Rambles On About Miltonian Cosmology, and All Is Right With Meta Station

GOOD OMENS, Part the Second! Jul 29, 2019

Choose your faces wisely, because it’s time for Part II of “Good Omens,” where imagination is the greatest power of humankind, the kids are trying to figure out how to fix the world the grown-ups ruined, Madam Tracy finally gets takes center stage, Derek Jacobi pops in for a truly delightful cameo, and it turns out Crowley still thinks pretty highly of God. This one took us to some PLACES - we went deep on climate despair, youth-led protest movements, and the Horsemen as self-fulfilling prophecies, and then unpacked the theology of Aziraphale and Gabriel and got very real about when organized religion gets in the way of God. Hop on, this one’s a fun ride. Cheers, friends. TO THE WORLD! ---------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Welcome Back to “Good Omens,” Let’s Get This Apocalypse Show on the Road! 0:02 – We Are Now Ride-or-Die Lesley x Maud Shippers 0:05 – The Horsemen vs. the Them: Personification, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and the Triumph of Youthful Imagination Over Adult Despair 0:32 – Pollution and Death in the Pratchett-Gaiman Extended Universe 0:40 – The Gospel of Aziraphale 0:52 – When Organized Religion Gets in the Way of God 1:13 – Imagination: The Secret Weapon of Armageddon 1:21 – Anathema: Living By the Book 1:30 – Adam vs. the Antichrist 1:39 – Love: The Other Secret Weapon of Armageddon (ft. Ineffable Husbands Flailing) 1:44 - (Madame Tracy's) Humanity Saves the Day (and Adam's Life) 1:50 – The Radical Egalitarian Skepticism of the 11-Year-Old Human from Tadfield: The Other Other Secret Weapon of Armageddon 2:03 – The Aftermath of the End of the World: Human Edition 2:10 – The Aftermath of the End of the World: The Great Crowley/Aziraphale Switcheroo 2:18 – Ten-Minute Sidebar to GUSH OVER THE AMAZING CAST 2:31 – One Last Moment of Ineffable Husbands 2:34 – COMING UP NEXT: “Russian Doll” Episodes 1-4! (Spoiler-Free, Because Claire Hasn't Watched It Yet!)

GOOD OMENS, Part the First! Jul 15, 2019

Hello, new friends! Welcome back, old friends! Meta Station is back and we've missed you, too! Summer is truly the best time of year for binge-watching television (some people will tell you it is the time of year for Going Outside and, like, Doing Stuff, in Nature, but those people are wrong and dangerous, stay in here with us where there's air conditioning and couches and snacks). So during July and August we're going to be podcasting on three different miniseries we love which we think you will enjoy too. First on deck is the delightful six-part Amazon Prime adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1991 apocalypse comedy GOOD OMENS, and we are here to tell you as fans of the book that the show gets just about everything right. Join us for a nerdy conversation covering everything from “Paradise Lost” to “Angels In America,” from Francis of Assisi to the end of the Cold War, from the holiness of sushi chefs to the dangers of dudes getting redpilled, with a whole lot of metaphysics, nature vs. nurture, and predestination thrown in. (Plus, obviously, shippy flails, because we can’t help ourselves.) Hop in your 1926 black Bentley, crank up that Velvet Underground (WHICH IS NOT BEBOP), and grab your flaming sword, because it’s time to stop the end of the world. You know what to do, do it with style. ------------------------------------------------------------ 0:00 – Welcome to Meta Station Summer Vacation! 0:02 – *Weary Sigh* No, GOOD OMENS Is Not "Anti-Religion," Calm Down Christians 0:13 – “Paradise Lost,” Angel Sex, and the Joy of Non-Canon Shipping 0:17 – Oh Right, We Should Probably Talk About the Plot 0:20 – "In the Beginning": Empathy, Ineffability, and Asking the Dangerous Questions 0:34 – Sushi Chefs, Francis of Assisi and Queen: Azirophale and Crowley's Attachment to the Human World 1:11 – A Brief Sidebar to Nerd Out About Craft: Acting, Casting, Adapting a Book for the Screen, and Why Everyone Loves Neil Gaiman 1:26 – 1991 In Cultural Context, Part I: Claire the Playwright on "Angels In America" and "Marisol" 1:36 – 1991 In Cultural Context, Part II: Erin the Academic on the End of the Cold War 1:49 – "Form Shapes Nature": Warlock, Adam and Dog 2:14 – Agnes, Anathema, and the Intersection of Prophecy and Free Will: or, FINALLY IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT SOME LADIES 2:33 – Shadwell, Pulsifer, and the Old Guard vs. the New 2:41 – A Brief Word on Horsemen 2:43 – Thanks For Joining Us! We’ll See You Next Week!

Good Omens Podcast Preview! Jul 14, 2019

Welcome to META STATION SUMMER VACATION! We're spending July and August covering some of our favorite binge-worthy miniseries of 2019, kicking off this week with a discussion on episodes 1-3 of Amazon's fantastic adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's shippy apocalypse romp "Good Omens." To whet your appetite, if you've missed us, or to introduce ourselves to you if you're new here (welcome!!), here's a 25-minute teaser - a mini-meta, if you will - to tide you over until the full three hours of nerdery goes live Monday! In this excerpt, we discuss the war between Heaven and Hell in the context of the original publication of "Good Omens" in 1991. Erin has thoughts on the Cold War, Claire has thoughts on "Angels In America," we're both spicy about right-wing dumbs interpreting the story as anti-religion, and Erin shamelessly promotes Claire's book for new listeners. COME HANG OUT WITH US WE'VE MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH

Episode 5x13: "Damocles, Part II" Mar 01, 2019

Welcome back to Meta Station! Since last we recapped you, Erin finished her book, we went to a con, Claire's had the flu like three times, and Donald Trump Jr. is probably going to jail. WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU GUYS?? We split up this week’s 4-hour podcast in two parts, so pop on over to this link - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/unity-days-2019 - if you’re looking for our recap of Unity Days, the funnest funfest in the history of fun, and then come back here when you’re ready for our thoughts on 513! Also, to avoid burying the lede, we wanted to announce at the beginning of the podcast that this will be the last of our regular week-to-week recaps of the show.(This episode is now a collector’s item!) While the show is running, despite the heroic assistance of our cherished Editkru, Meta Station is basically a part-time job, and – in the words of iconic Netflix star/cleaning guru Marie Kondo – we ultimately determined that dedicating that amount of time and effort to producing a weekly podcast no longer “sparks joy.” There were a lot of factors that went into this; some of them we’ll discuss at the end of the podcast, while others are more personal, but in the end it felt like the right time for us to step away from the kind of in-depth coverage we’ve been doing. The fact that our long, rambly, self-produced nerdfest has reached over 212,000 listens and downloads with over 750 regular subscribers remains INSANE to us, and we are overwhelmed and honored and grateful that so many of you have come along with us on this ride. We have so loved getting to spend all these nerdy hours with you, and goodbyes are always bittersweet, though we promise we aren’t quitting cold turkey; we still have a big stack of interviews on deck, we might pop back from time to time in future seasons if we find ourselves with things we just HAVE to flail about with you guys for three hours at a time, and if there’s a UD4 next year we’ll be there with bells on, we promise! We love you all with our entire nerdy hearts and we are so thankful for each and every listener. You guys have been the best part of this whole journey. May we meet again! --------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Hello, It Is Us Again! We Have Returned! Sorry This Intro Is Awkward Because We Chopped Out the Whole Hour About Unity Days! 0:03 – FINALE THINGS WE LIKED: The Jasper of It All! Miller’s Arc Sticking the Landing! Diyoza Calling Octavia’s Ass Out! The Blakes Still Care About Kane! Tiny Hints of Sunshine, Maybe! Bellamy and Madi and the Breaking of Cycles! 0:45 – As Emori’s Get-a-Grip Girlfriends, We Sincerely Hope She Has Not Wiped Murphy’s Slate Clean Just Yet, Because He Was a Real Asshole All Season 0:51 – If You Compare How Many Early Storylines Took Up Time and Ultimately Went Nowhere (Kara! Ethan! Worms!), With How Many Huge Emotional Setups This Season Never Got Real Payoffs Because the Finale Was So Rushed, You Will Go Insane 1:15 – Our Oft-Mentioned McCreary Problem Explodes to Astronomical Proportions and Torpedoes the Finale Endgame 1:37 – This Show Is Kind of Pro-Dictator In Some Peculiarly Unexamined Ways 1:55 – The “Why We’re Stopping” Conversation, Part I: Erin, Bellarke, and Reframing the Relationship You Have with a Show Once You Realize You and the Writers Want Different Things 2:14 – The “Why We’re Stopping” Conversation, Part II: Claire, Kane, and the Validity of Watching a Show For an Emotional Relationship With a Character or Ship 2:32 – Sometimes Analyzing Something For Three Hours Actually Makes It Less Fun, Instead of More 2:42 – “We’re Gonna Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye (One Last Time)”: or, There Is No Wrong Way to Watch a Show, No Wrong Way to Be a Fan, and No Wrong Reason to Walk Away 2:46 – In Which We Have a Lot of Feelings About How Much We Love You Guys and Everything This Podcast Has Given Us

Unity Days 2019! Feb 28, 2019

We talked for so long about Unity Days 2019 that we pulled it out of the recap podcast to post on its own. Join us as we relive the magic, glory and wonder of the third (and maybe final?? unclear??? Sachin is VERY PERSUASIVE????) Unity Days convention in Vancouver B.C.! It was hands-down our favorite yet, with brand-new guests we'd never met before (hi Paige! hi Lola! hi Erica! hi Shannon! hi Tati!), lots of deep dives into the nerdery of television craft (from props design to acting craft) and tons and tons of laughs. Most of all, it was full of those amazing special moments of irreplaceable cast magic that make this con such a unique and wonderful event - from sharing deeply heartfelt stories about what acting means to them, to doing impressions of their coworkers as Fran Drescher or Yoda. (You had to be there.) Thanks so much to everyone at Unity Events Canada for their hard work and dedication! If UD3 is the last of these cons, it went out on a high note; if Sachin gets his way and there's a UD4, we'll see you there!

Meta Station Interviews Lola Flanery! Sep 06, 2018

She's been in the biz since she was nine, she's fluent in French, she knows how to swordfight, and she loves "Fight Club." She's also twelve years old. We sat down with the fantastically delightful Lola Flanery on Sunday, for a super fun interview which then got eaten by Skype Recorder (*shakes fist at ALIE*), so we gave it a second try on Wednesday and had even MORE fun. Join us as we plot a prank war against Sachin and Bob, discuss Warrior Cats and My Little Ponies, get the scoop on stunt training and Trigedasleng, hear what it's like to be the kid on set in a room full of grownups, and learn what Lola loves most about playing Madi. TL;DR - THIS KID IS THE BEST AND WE'RE ADOPTING HER NOW

Clairin Outtakes - Cat Talk Sep 06, 2018

ERIN FOUND A KITTEN IN A PARKING LOT SO THAT WAS THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS TODAY Yes, the Lola interview will go up tomorrow, yes, we're eventually going to recap the finale, yes, we've still got Chris Larkin and William/Ivana interviews on deck, but for now, please enjoy this outtake that is literally just twenty minutes of Claire and Erin talking about cats. We missed you too.

Episode 5x12: "Damocles, Part I" Aug 04, 2018

Welcome back to Meta Station! [INSERT INAPPROPRIATE JOKE ABOUT MARCUS KANE LOOKING LIKE A SNACK HERE] LOTS of deaths this week, including Vinson, a whole bunch of redshirts, and the myth of Blodreina (and we’ll feel a lot better once we know Gaia and Kane are okay), but the fractured groups are finally beginning to coalesce back together, which is a HUGE relief. We know you all had strong feelings about this episode, and we did too; we clocked in at over four hours (don’t worry, this one is edited!) because there was so much to unpack. Initially Erin and Claire were a house divided regarding a few of the storylines, and met more in the middle on rewatch, but overall we’re feeling better at the end of this episode than we did at the end of the last one. We got hope! We got forgiveness! We got love! We got families! We got hugs! We got closure! We got new beginnings! We got another cryptic drive-by reference to Eligius III! In other words, we’re right where we should be as our heroes head into the finale. Come along with us on this EXTREME rollercoaster as we dig into the good (Bellamy and Indra are done with Octavia’s bullshit! Abby destroys the embodiment of her addiction! Murphy has been watching 70’s movies in space!), the bad (what an unsatisfying Princess Mechanic reunion! Why do people keep making deals with McCreary???) and the ugly (there is absolutely no justification for using a torture device on your child). T-minus 4 days until the finale! LET’S DO THIS THING --------------------------------------------------------------------- 0:02 - All of Blodreina's Assorted Chickens Come Home to Roost 0:19 - Okay, But in What Sense Does Bellamy "Want" Octavia to Die? 0:24 - Tragedy vs. Bummer: Why Octavia's (and the Blakes') Arc Is the Latter, Not the Former 0:34 - "Can I Just Say Something Real Gay for a Minute": Claire Is On-Brand 0:36 - We Really, Really Hope That There Are a LOT More Consequences to Come for Octavia 0:56 - Finally, a Glimpse Into Miller's State of Mind!!! And Finally, People Coming Together!!! IT FEELS LIKE HOPE 1:03 - Erin Has Two Boxes of Clarke Feelings: One Is Labeled "Plot Beefs," the Other Is Labeled "Bellarke Flails" 1:06 - That Shock Collar Scene Was Bad On, Like, Every Conceivable Level 1:35 - Clarke Character Crux: Is "Mama Bear" Clarke the Result of Motherhood, or Her 6-Year Isolation? 1:39 – Clarke Has Nowhere to Go For Counsel Except Into the Past 1:53 – Claire Keeps Forgetting That Clarke Thought Bellamy Was Dead LOL Whoops 1:55 – That Clarke and Echo Conversation Was SO MUCH 2:09 – CLARKE/BELLAMY PARALLELS, PART 1: Striking a Deal with the Devil and Leaving Someone You Love Behind 2:16 – CLARKE/BELLAMY PARALLELS, PART 2: Learning Healthy Family Emotional Boundaries 2:24 – Please God Let Us Get a Better Princess Mechanic Reunion Next Week 2:26 – The McCreary Problem: Clarke, Diyoza and Kane Get Stuck in a Massive Plot Hole Playing a Three-Person Game of Idiot Ball 2:37 – Uhhhhhhh IDK Who That Dude Was Who Just Handed His People Over for McCreary to Massacre Them But It Was NOT Marcus Kane 2:50 – Everyone Keeps Interpreting Abby’s Advice in the Most Violent Way Possible 2:53 – Vinson As the Human Personification of Abby’s Addiction Is One of the Most Brilliant Twists in This Entire Season 3:03 – Claire Gets Personal About Vinson’s Refusal to Let Abby Go 3:11 – WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME BUT WE CAN’T NOT TALK ABOUT KABBY

OUTTAKE - Let's Do The Trig Warp In Jan(uary) Aug 03, 2018

Has anyone else had "Sword of Damocles" from Rocky Horror stuck in their heads ever since they announced the title of the finale? We derailed on Rocky Horror/The 100 crossover possibilities for five solid minutes before we even managed to start talking about the episode this week, and gave ourselves stomach aches from laughing in the process! P.S. We are 1000% serious about the "Time Warp" in Trigedasleng thing. If someone translates it, we will MAKE THAT HAPPEN at Unity Days 3 in January!

Episode 5x11: "The Dark Year" Jul 29, 2018

WELP, CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE WHO BET MONEY THAT IT WOULD BE CANNIBALISM YOU WIN AN EXTREMELY GRIM AND DEPRESSING EPISODE Jump in our Way-Back Machine and return with us to a simpler time, where we can revisit our old friends Kara Cooper, brighter indoor lighting, and Kane's good hair! Enjoy this brief flash of a more-or-less sane Octavia before everything falls to shit again and life is The Worst! Claire now bitterly regrets ever having uttered the words “hey wouldn’t it be dope if Abby and Octavia ever had a storyline together” I’M SORRY GUYS THIS ONE’S ON ME I PUT IT OUT IN THE UNIVERSE AND I CAN’T TAKE IT BACK NOW (. . . kudos to Propkru, though. We're never eating Jell-O again.) Meanwhile, in the future, Jason grants our wish to finally get all three Griffin ladies in the same room, though shit's pretty bleak over there too. There’s lots to love (Abby gets cured! Bellamy speaks Trig! Murphy gets a giant gun! Diyoza wants Kabby reunited as much as we do! Raven and Shaw kiss! Echo is in charge and it’s hot af!) and lots to furrow our brows at in mild puzzlement (if Clarke kills McCreary, aren’t all their problems basically over? Does Madi have Clarke’s consciousness in her head, meaning there are now effectively two Clarke minds in play?). Plus, Professor Erin does both “Robinson Crusoe” and “Paradise Lost”, Claire thinks everyone’s reading that final Kane/Diyoza scene wrong, and we have LOTS of thoughts about Wonkru cannibal ethics. All right, take a deep breath and let's dive in! Trust us, there's not enough vegetable broth in the WORLD to make this bleak and stomach-turning hour of television go down any easier. (Thank God at least Raven is happy.) ------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Maybe the REAL Cannibalism Was the Friends We Made Along the Way 0:16 – The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Blodreina’s Power Thrives on Food Scarcity and Fear 0:30 – Mt. Weather vs. the Bunker: Dehumanization, Complicity, and Bodies as Resources 0:43 – “Marcus Is the Key” – The Patient on the Operating Table Abby Has to Save Is All of Wonkru 0:51 – Would It Have Been Possible For Octavia to Pull a S1 Abby By Telling Everyone the Truth? 1:08 – Survival vs. Deserving to Survive: The Origin of the Kane vs. Octavia Rift 1:15 – “Omon Gon Oson” As Both Propaganda and Devotional Practice 1:22 – Kane, Octavia, and Individual Ethics vs. Subsuming Yourself Into the Collective 1:30 – We Need to Unpack Octavia’s Hypocrisy In Burning the Farm 1:34 – Professor Erin Does “Paradise Lost” 1:40 – Is Season 6 Octavia the New Season 4 Jaha? 1:45 – We Just Have Like . . . Infinity Jillion Flame Questions, Guys 2:27 – Are We Just Circling Back Over and Over to a World Order We Already Dismantled, and Rehashing the Same War? 2:46 – Everything Is Broken and We Want to See These Characters BUILD Something Because We Don’t Think We Can Handle Another Season That’s Just About Destroying Things 2:52 – The Trauma of Madi’s Nightblood Childhood 2:59 – We’re Running Out of Time But Here Are Our Spacekru Thoughts In One Minute 3:00 – CLAIRE THINKS YOU’RE ALL WRONG ABOUT THAT LAST SCENE, DAD KANE DID NOT DOUBLE-CROSS HIS CHILDREN 3:06 - Diyoza Reminds Both Kane and Us That Abby Is Not a Villain (Though We're Bummed She Got Overruled By Clarke About Having to Cure McCreary)

Episode 5x10: "The Warriors Will" Jul 20, 2018

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station! We are, again, unfortunately subjecting you to our unedited ramblings, as Erin is on her way out of town and Claire is at San Diego Comic-Con, so our schedules this weekend are a little crazy. Hooray, you get this week’s podcast a few days early! Boo, you have to listen to our unfiltered verbal chaos. But we have so much to scream about, starting with the fact that BILL CADOGAN KILLED BECCA PRAMHEDA OH MY GOD Y’ALL CAN WE SCREAM FOREVER ABOUT MONTY/BECCA, CADOGAN/OCTAVIA PARALLELS PLEASE AND THANK YOU But that wasn’t the only piece of delicious angst we were fed this week by the brilliant Benson sisters, oh no no my friends. Monty saves the day (for a minute), Madi goes rogue, Abby hits rock bottom, Indra is at peak Battle Mom, and there’s no coming back from this for the Blakes. Plus we finally find out why everyone’s so scared of Vinson, we’re beside ourselves with relief that nobody died in that pit (we were REAL worried about Gaia, fam), and we’re delighted that Abby, Clarke and Madi are all in the same room so we can really get this grimdark “Gilmore Girls” AU rolling. And director Henry Ian Cusick shows us he’s definitely got the goods, with fish-eye lenses and broken mirrors and Blake flashbacks and witch burnings and worm larvae and blood smears and a kick-ass fight sequence and SO MUCH FIRE! A LOT of shit went down, y’all, and we are most definitely NOT ready for “The Dark Year” next week. ---------------------------------- 0:00-0:52 – “The Flame Can Save Us All”: Cadogan Killed Becca, Madi Has a Head Full of Commanders, and Clarke Is Not Happy About Any of This Shit 0:52-1:23 – “I Know What It Feels Like to Need Something”: Ian Goes Behind the Camera and Shows Us Abby’s Perspective for the First Time, So We Finally Understand What It Feels Like to Be Her 1:23-2:02 – “First One Who Touches the Ground Loses”: Octavia Would Rather Burn the World to the Ground Than Let Go of Blodreina 2:02-2:51 – “Adam and Eve”: Monty and Harper Bring the Apples to Eden and Our Finale Endgame Predictions Begin to Take Shape

Episode 5x09: "Sic Semper Tyrannis" Jul 15, 2018

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station! Our nightmare of biweekly hiatuses has come to an end and now we’re on a runaway train speeding downhill towards the finale, and BOY OH BOY are we excited. How are you guys holding up? Is everyone breathing? Eating? Getting enough sleep? Are we all stressed as fuck about how Abby’s only remaining friend is a serial killer, what the fuck went down during the Dark Year that turned Miller into a Blodreina zealot, how long it’s gonna be before Madi blows up at Clarke for her new “shoot first, ask questions later” parenting style, and whether there’s any chance in hell all three of those characters will somehow magically make it out of the fighting pit alive? Yeah, us too. In the meantime, though, Miranda Kwok hits it out of the park with a stunning hour of television where ALLLLLLLLL the shit that’s been simmering for the past eight episodes (or the past six years) (or the past five seasons) finally starts to explode all over the place, and the show continues to keep character and relationship at the heart of the plot. COME SCREAM WITH US ABOUT THIS EPIC SHIT --------------------------------------------------------------------- 0:00 – “Thus Always to Tyrants” Is Perhaps the Most Apt Title of the Season 0:05 – Yo, For Real, What Went Down During the Dark Year That Turned Miller and Niylah Into Creepy True Believers 0:16 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part I: Clarke, Bellamy, Madi, the Flame, and a Perfectly-Realized Example of the Show’s “Both Sides Are Right, Both Sides Are Wrong” Dynamic 0:26 – Both Clarke and Bellamy Have Plans That Only Work If You Handwave Away Like Half a Dozen Major Problems 0:41 – Claire Gets Emotional About Lexa and Luna’s Moms, and the Psychological Trauma the Commander Cult Forces Onto Children 0:53 – Bellamy’s Delusion That Removing Leadership From Octavia’s Shoulders Will Bring Octavia Back 0:56 – If You’re Wondering Why the Plot Crescendos In Season 5 Land So Much Better Than They Did In Season 4, It’s Because Literally Every Single One Is Rooted in Relationships 1:05 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part II: That Awkward Sense of Clarke and Bellamy Being in Stasis This Season Was 100% Deliberate 1:14 – That Madi/Gaia/Bellamy Scene: Let’s Unpack the Consent and Choice and Power and Coercion Issues Going On Here 1:19 – The Flame Has Lots of Story Possibilities as a Piece of Becca’s Technology (and a Way for Madi to Help Build a New Society) 1:32 – CONGRATULATIONS TO EMMY NOMINEE ADINA PORTER FOR ABSOLUTELY SLAYING THIS EPISODE 1:40 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part III: Indra and Gaia Can No Longer Put Off Reckoning with the Monster They Created 1:48 – The Myth of Wonkru’s Unity Turns Out to Be a Beautiful Narrative Bait-and-Switch 1:52 – A Brief Digression to Just Yell About How Great This Season Is 1:57 – In Which the Show Takes a Second Run at the “I’m Gonna Chain You in a Boiler Room While I Endanger One of Your Family Members” Plot From 411, and This Time Sticks the Landing 2:00 – SPILL THE BEANS, MIRANDA, WHICH ONE OF YOU LIFTED THE ROCK-THROWING SCENE FROM CLAIRE’S BOOK 2:06 –Murphy Finally Finds a Crisis That Can Only Be Solved by Murphying, and Then Stays Behind to Save Abby From the Consequences of Said Murphying 0:16 – Echo Has the Biggest Spy Crush on Diyoza, Like GIRL SAME 2:20 – Chickens Coming Home to Roost, Part IV – HOLY MOTHERFORKING SHIRTBALLS, THAT MCCREARY/DIYOZA FIGHT SCENE 2:29 – Erin Does Not Like Abby’s Hair But Claire LOOOOOVES Her Outfit 2:32 – Shallow Valley Is Fighting a Civil War Over Who Gets Custody of Abby Griffin and Claire Is Back On Board With Her Storyline Again

Episode 5x08: "How We Get to Peace" Jun 30, 2018

Et Tu, Bro-té????? Welcome to our episode recap of “How We Get to Peace,” an episode that was far superior to its weirdly clunky title. But HOLY WORM EXPLOSIONS, BATMAN, what a ride! Apologies in advance that this one’s going up mostly unedited, because it was another weird schedule week, but we didn’t want to make you wait any longer for the chance to come flail with us about all the CRAZY SHIT THAT WENT DOWN. Kara Cooper gets the John-Hurt-in-“Alien” treatment, times a billion! McCreary is back to fuck shit up! Indra gets demoted! Kane is a godfather now! Echo and Raven are friends again! Emori is done being jerked around! Monty and Harper are PEACING OUT (literally)! Abby solves the medical mystery! Bellamy says “mama bear” out loud! Miller is kind of a dick! Vinson is kind of a bro! WORMS ARE EVERYWHERE! Teenage Diyoza used to make out under the bleachers! And Octavia finally gets outplayed at her own game when Big Brother does the one thing we all believed he’d never, ever do! EVERYTHING HAPPENS SO MUCH 0:00 – Marcus Kane and Charmaine Diyoza: In Which Diyoza Sees Herself Through Kane’s Eyes and Doesn’t Like It Much, Kane Shows Us a Glimpse of an Idyllic Future Jason Will Almost Certainly Ruin For Us, and the Writers Room Has Absolutely Been Reading Kabby Baby Fanfic 0:32 – Monty Green and Kara Cooper: In Which the Fertile Valley Means Life, the Barren Farm Means Death, Monty’s Algae Might Save Everyone, and Erin Gets Excited About the Georgics 1:03 – Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake: In Which the Ends Turn Out Not to Justify the Means, Octavia Says the Quiet Part Out Loud, Bellamy Hits His Breaking Point, There’s Still (Mercifully) No Sign of Love Triangle Stupidity, and Erin Has ALLLLLLLLL the Shippy Flails 1:44 – The Blakes: In Which Bellamy Won’t Swear Allegiance to Blodreina, Octavia Never Sees the Double-Cross Coming, the Childhood Nostalgia Breaks Our Hearts, and We Have No Idea What Happens to Their Relationship Next 2:08 – Emori, John Murphy, and “Graveyard” McCreary: In Which the Agent of Chaos Returns to Ruin Everything, Our Girl Finally Lays Down Some Healthy Emotional Boundaries, and Nobody Actually Wants War Except McCreary and Octavia 2:21 – Abby Griffin and Raven Reyes: In Which Our Doctor Mechanic Hearts Take the Biggest Hit of Their Lives, The Show Remembers Everyone’s Pre-Pilot Backstory, Lindsey and Paige Deserve Emmys, and Claire Would Like to Have Some Words About Framing Abby’s Addiction As a Story That’s Mostly About Everybody Else

Episode 5x07: "Acceptable Losses" Jun 23, 2018

First things first: Meta Station is raising money for RAICES Texas to help reunite and free immigrant detainee families! We started with a goal of raising $2500, which we BLEW OUT OF THE WATER in less than 24 hour thanks to the enormous generosity of Lola Flanery (Madi), Marie Avgeropoulos (Octavia), and 49 other amazing fans, so now we are just going to see how much money we can raise between now and August 7, when the season finale airs! You can donate to our fundraiser here: https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/meta-station-supports-refugee-kids/ Or, if you're outside North America, you can donate directly to RAICES here: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/2086450 If you donate to RAICES directly and still want to be included in our fundraiser, you can DM us a screencap of your donation receipt (here or on Twitter or Tumblr). Crowdrise accepts offline donations, so we can still add you to our total and send you lots of love! ----------- We had LOOOOOOTS to say about this episode!! (*laughs nervously and looks an runtime*) Jasper and Monty! Clarke and Monty! Octavia and Indra! Kara Cooper going full-on war criminal! Blodreina using everyone else's hypocrisy to excuse her own amoral strategic choices! Kabby and Recho breaking ALL our hearts! SHAW AND DIYOZA BACKSTORY THAT WE WOULD TOTALLY WATCH AN ENTIRE TV SHOW EXPLORE SAY HOW'S THAT PREQUEL COMING JASON ROTHENBERG?!?! This was a fun one, fam! 3:00 - Make It Mean Something: Jasper, Monty, & The Letter (TW: lots of suicide mentions) 21:00 - How Jasper Breaks the Cycle of War 28:00 - Jonty and the Struggle to See Outside the Cycle 34:00 - Madi Kom Clarkekru, the One True Breaker of Cycles? 46:00 - Could Madi Save Octavia from Blodreina? 50:30 - Bellamy, Clarke, Blodreina, and Interrogating "I Do It For 'My People'" 54:30 - The Return of Heart Over Head Bellamy (Your Plans Suck, But We Still Love You) 1:00 - Power Vs Powerlessness and Inevitability Vs Choice 1:04 - Ecosystems Are Another Cycle Being Broken, Which Is...Probably Not Great? 1:07 - Chekhov's Algae: Is Monty the Key to Salvation This Season? 1:16:30 - "Let's talk about WOOORMMMSSS!" Claire Sings Through Her Nausea (But We Quickly Segue to Octavia and Indra Because Ewwwww Worms) 1:30 - The Myth of Skairipa Vs. the Myth of Blodreina: Pluralism Vs. Totalitarianism 1:37:15 - RAVEN AND ECHO ARE FRANDS ...Until They're Not And Our Hearts Get BROKEN 1:52 - We Are LIVING for This Shaw and Diyoza Backstory 2:01 - Speculation-palooza: The Many Exciting Ways the Show Could Shuffle the Decks, Loyalty-Wise 2:10:30 - STOP! Kabby Time! 2:40 - Baby, You're a Game Changer

Kabby Roundtable With Special Guests! Jun 13, 2018

Starved for Kabby content since there’s no new episode tonight? WE GOT U, FAM! After many delays caused by travel, book deadlines, and the sheer nonstop vexation of attempting to edit out the background noise caused by recording in a Los Angeles Airbnb with woefully thin walls, THE KABBY ROUNDTABLE PODCAST IS FINALLY HERE! Claire is joined by returning Meta Station guests Brittany of The Afictionados (@brittania_, @theafictionados) and Samantha of TellTaleTV (@samcaseys, @TellTaleTV_) along with new guests Jenn (@abigriffins) and Emily (@ifollowedfires) for three hours of everything from plot analysis to high-pitched squee-flailing on every aspect of the glorious wonderfulness of Season 5 Kabby. We’ll get real about Abby’s addiction storyline, spin some conspiracy theories about weddings and babies, roast each other lovingly on the pronunciation of “Eligius,” and painstakingly catalog every Kabby hug, kiss and touch to unpack our emotions about it. COME JOIN US P.S. if you missed the Bellarke roundtable, hosted by Erin, check out the link here! https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/special-bellarke-roundtable-with-special-guests

Episode 5x06: "Exit Wounds" Jun 07, 2018

Hey look! Our 506 pod is here for you on a THURSDAY!! That's because Erin is going to visit Claire tomorrow and Claire is on a work deadline, and therefore we had almost no time to edit, so--apologies in advance for all the ums and likes and that one time when Erin's dog experiences VERY LOUD bronchial distress causing Claire to completely forget what she was talking about. Grab up as much Swiss chard and apples as your arms can carry, because Blodreina is coming for your veggies! 0:00 - This Is EditKru Appreciation Week, Because Now You All Get To Hear What We Sound Like Without Them! 3:40 - Diyoza and McCreary and Kane, Oh My! 9:00 - Echo, Raven, and Shaw: Friends or Foes to Kane? 16:00 - This Is a War Over Power Masquerading As a War Over Resources 23:00 - This Episode Shuffles ALLLLLL the Decks When It Comes to Characters' Presumed Loyalies, and WE LOVE IT 27:30 - Et Tu, Niylah?? 31:30 - HOW MANY TIMES IN ONE EPISODE CAN OUR HEARTS BREAK FOR CLARKE GRIFFIN 34:30 - Clarke and Bellamy Run Smack Into Their Differing Priorities 42:00 - Octavia Blake: The Only Character Still Fighting for an Abstraction 46:00 - Gaia Has Been Carrying A Torch for The Old Ways (Ba-Dum-Tiss) 53:30 - WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH MADI, BLODREINA (and Gaia and Cooper) 1:00 - Is There a Way to Bring Octavia Back from "Blodreina"? 1:10 - We Love This New Healthy-Emotional-Boundaries Bellamy SO FREAKIN MUCH and We Are SO PROUD OF HIM 1:27 - Listen, "We've All Done Things We Shouldn't Be Forgiven For But Are" Is a HUUUUUUGE Character-Revealing Moment for Bellamy 1:40 - Soft Bearded Space Dad Bellamy Is the Same Badass Will-Do-Anything-For-His-Family Bellamy We Have Always Known & Loved 1:48 - Bellamy and Clarke Have Different Centers of Emotional Gravity Now, and Everyone Feels Weird About It 1:51:30 - A Brief Interlude for Canine Bronchial Distress 1:52:30 - Annnndddd Back to Business 1:57 - Bellamy Blake: Macrame Enthusiast 1:59 - You're Making It Real Hard for Us to Root For Memori, John 2:08 - Murphy, McCreary, and Murphy's Dark Night of the Soul? 2:12 - ECHO IS A SMART, SAVVY, SELFLESS BAMF AND WE LOVE HER WITH ALL OUR HEARTS, DON'T @ US (no, seriously, please don't @ us) 2:20:30 - Roan Is a Centaur Now 2:23:30 - Becho and Madi Anchor the Emotional Stakes of the Political Plot 2:28:45 - On Shipping, (Not) Multishipping, and Managing Emotions

Claire and Erin Interview Luisa D'Oliveira! May 29, 2018

Claire and Erin sat down for an interview with the wise, lovely and hilarious Luisa D'Oliveira and fell immediately and irrevocably in love with her. Join us for a conversation about artistic bravery, how science fiction helps us understand our humanity, the relationship between Emori and John Murphy, her experience playing a chipped version of herself, and how she keeps herself centered in an industry that's so full of constant negative feedback. We want her to be our new 4 a.m. phone call best friend, and after this interview, you will too.

Clairin Outtakes - A Love Letter to Paige Turco (with special guests!) May 28, 2018

A sneak preview of the Kabby roundtable podcast going up this week! After we'd wrapped up and said our goodbyes, we ended up spending another fifteen minutes just exploding with emotions about how much we love Paige, including the importance of strength through vulnerability, what she means to us as women, why it matters that TV shows invest in complex roles for actresses over 50, and how the Kabby fandom brought us all together. Come feel feelings with us! P.S. Erin's not here, but Claire is joined by four special guests - Sam, Brittany, Emily and Jenn! You'll meet them properly when the full podcast is released, but for now, please enjoy the post-credits scene that's basically just seventeen minutes of us crying about how much we love women.

Episode 5x05: "Shifting Sands" May 26, 2018

Welcome back to Meta Station for our recap of an amazing episode which is simultaneously a heartfelt emotional drama (Indra saying “I love you!” Kane taking care of Abby! Miller and Jackson kissing! Clarke and Bellamy fireside-bonding again!) and a FUCKING HORROR MOVIE (demon sandworms erupting from stomachs! Eligius IV’s very own Hannibal Lecter! Shock collars for everyone!) Also we’re solidly #TeamIndra over #TeamCooper, we want a whole webisode spinoff of just Madi roadtripping with the Spacekru girls, Erin thinks Blodreina would be a very bad penguin, we’re gonna be super real with you and let you know that Clarke and Bellamy definitely ate people, Raven/Shaw is everyone’s new OTP, the Lincoln parallels are EVERYWHERE, we’re more than a little worried about the looming possibility of an Ethan/Madi murderbaby conclave, Bellamy is Octavia’s Fredo, and “Don’t Do Drugs or You’ll End Up Getting Blackmailed By Serial Killers” is a WAY more effective anti-drug slogan than anything we learned in school. OMON GON OSON! ------------------------------------------ 0:00 – Hello and Welcome, Let’s Recap All Our Wild Theories That Have Already Been Proved Wrong This Season, and Discuss Our Remaining Ones 0:07 – Niylah kom Wonkru, Human Butcher? 0:11 – Shit Went Down In That Bunker and Miller and Jackson Do NOT Want to Talk to Clarke About It 0:15 – “We Could Have Used You in the Bunker” Presupposes that the Bunker Wouldn’t Have Fucked Up Clarke as Much as It Did Everyone Else 0:17 – Clarke as the New Lincoln 0:22 – Bring Us ALLLLLLLLLLL the Indra vs Cooper Palace Intrigue, Please and Thank You 0:28 – The Great and Terrible Beauty of “All of Me For All of Us” 0:40 – Octavia, Indra, Bellamy, Niylah, and “Love Is Weakness” 0:49 – Gaia, Nightblood Novitiates, and Blodreina’s Succession Plan 0:58 – Madi, #1 Skairipa Stan, Is Unlikely to Fangirl Quite So Hard Over Blodreina 1:01 – Biblical Plagues, Biological Warfare, and Mother/Daughter Mad Scientists: TIME FOR SOME SANDWORM DISCOURSE!!! 1:10 – Clarke and Bellamy Getting to Know Each Other Again 1:20 – Heads and Hearts and Reversals Thereof 1:28 – Okay So Like . . . This Is For SURE a Love Triangle 1:31 – Give Echo a Great Arc This Season That Doesn’t Screw Her Over in the Aforementioned Love Triangle, Please and Thank You 1:39 – Madi and the Road Trip Adventure Squad Was Everything We Never Knew We Wanted 1:43 – Octavia’s “Love Is Weakness” Delusion Is Not Borne Out By Fact 1:48 – Shaw and Raven, Our New OTP 1:50 – The Sinister Magnetism of Paxton McCreary 1:53 – We Love Charmaine Diyoza With Our Entire Hearts 1:59 – Diyoza’s Achilles Heel May Be Underestimating Shaw and Raven 2:06 – Kabby Fans, Please Ease Your Minds, Kane and Abby Are Not Going to Bang Diyoza or McCreary Except In All the Amazing Fanfic We’re Going to Be Getting This Season 2:10 – Abby the Addict vs. Abby the Scientist 2:18 – It’s So Important That the Addiction Storyline Is Also Being Fair to the Emotional Impact on Kane 2:24 – Mr. Abby Griffin Gets His Political Mojo Back and Then Is Immediately Humbled By Tequila and His Failure to Put a Ring On It, In Our New Favorite Kane Scene of the Entire Series 2:31 – Always Take the Second Shot, Diyoza

Special Bellarke Roundtable with Special Guests! May 21, 2018

Join Erin for a special bonus podcast of flailing over the OTT Bellarke-ness of 503 and 504 with special guests Chash (@chashlet/ponyregrets), Brittany (@bgonemydear), Elizabeth (@leavemearoan/hawthornewhisperer), and Crystal (@wordyblerd)! We talk hugs, mugs, Madi, and--because this IS Meta Station--the nature and challenges of noncanon shipping, the trouble with triangles, and what Roan and Jaha must be talking about in the afterlife!

Episode 5x04: "Pandora's Box" May 20, 2018

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station! We picked up this week with all the Raven and Murphy we didn’t get to last time (with bonus soccer and Murphy being an unexpectedly solid bro), and spent a great deal of time falling head over heels for Lieutenant Zeke Shaw (stop trying to make “Miles” happen, show) as he, in turn, fell head over heels for that pain-in-the-ass computer genius thwarting his every plan. We’re also beside ourselves with glee at all the weird mysterious backstory hints we’re getting, from Order Eleven to the missing Eligius 3, and watching with great excitement as the trio of Diyoza/Shaw/McCreary gets more and more messy with every passing day. True to our brand, we spent nearly an hour and a half on Marcus Kane and his relationships with the women at the heart of this episode – Octavia, Abby and Indra – and the way his very existence threatens the entire social and religious structure of Wonkru. (Does Octavia know she’s literally his new Pike? And HOLY SHIT FAM, has he EVER been more relieved to see Bellamy?????) As a wee preview of our upcoming OTP roundtables, we also each gave ourselves a segment to just explode with feelings about our ships: Erin is HYPED that Clarke and Bellamy each have their partner back, while Claire is stoked as hell that Kane and Abby appear to be headed for a season-long arc where they aren’t separated, and we both lost our shit at both the Bravenlarke reunion, and how beautifully the show is nailing Abby’s addiction storyline so far. Plus bonus Blake feels, and fun with Pandora’s Boxes! HOLY SHIT THIS EPISODE WAS GOOD ---------- 0:02 - Murphy and Raven and Useful Uselessness 0:16 - Clarke Is Alive, and the Weight of the World Is Off Raven's Shoulders 0:20 - Clarke Means So Much to So Many, and We Are EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT 0:25 - Season 5 Is Balancing Character with Plot FLAWLESSLY and It Is GLORIOUS 0:32 - We Reject This "Miles" Nonsense 0:35 - Zeke Vs. Raven Was a SHEER DELIGHT 0:43 - Who Changed the Launch Code: Raven or Zeke? 0:47 - Miles Ezekiel Shaw: Already a Double Agent? 0:50 - SPECULATION SPECTACULAR: Raven Edition 0:54 - SPECULATION SPECTACULAR: Eligius Backstory Edition 0:58 - SPECULATION SPECTACULAR: Erin's Grand Unified Shanghaiing Theory of Second Dawn and Order 11 1:06 - SPECULATION SPECTACULAR: "Cure" for What?!?!?! That Creepy Stomach Shit?!?! 1:11 - Diyoza/Clarke Parallels *AIR HORN* 1:17 – McCreary on One Side, Indra On the Other: Fracturing in the Ranks 1:22 – Kane In the Fighting Pit: Myth, Memory, and the Fragility of Blodreina” 1:31 – Octavia Is Not Exactly 100% Pleased to Be Out of the Bunker 1:35 – Kane and the Power of Story, Part 1: Mothers and Memories 1:40 – Kane and the Power of Story, Part 2: Marcus the Dangerous Revolutionary 1:47 – Kane and the Power of Story, Part 3: Forcing Wonkru to Look at Themselves 1:55 – Kane and the Power of Story, Part 4: Rewriting His Own Narrative to Become a Better Man 1:59 – Kane and the Power of Story, Part 5: Forcing Blodreina to Remember Who Octavia Was 2:04 – Bellamy Is NOT Feeling This Whole Metamorphosis Biz 2:16 – If You Didn’t Cry at That Kabby Scene, You’re DEAD INSIDE 2:25 – The Agony of Loving Someone With an Addiction 2:28 – The Last Thing Out of Pandora’s Box Is Abby Griffin 2:39 – Kane and Abby Are the Last Survivors of Their Entire Generation 2:43 – A Bellarke Reunion Scene Uninterrupted by Some Kind of Immediate Crisis? IS IT CHRISTMAS 2:48 – BRAVENLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARKE 2:53 – Other Potential Pandora’s Boxes

Clairin Outtakes - Luisa D'Oliveira Does Hogwarts Headcanons May 19, 2018

What House is Monty? Who would be the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Which character does Erin think is the Filch of the Ark? Join us as two Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff discuss our Hogwarts/Spacekru headcanons.

Clairin Outtakes - Captain Daddy And The Strap-On May 16, 2018

A pair of brief outtakes to illustrate that A) we are literally twelve years old, and B) it's really all William Miller's fault.

Episode 5x03: "Sleeping Giants" May 13, 2018

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station, where the takes are HOT and the zombie supersoldiers are COLD, and the jokes are weird because we’re both on book deadlines and slowly losing our minds. Erin unfortunately cannot be with us today, as she is dead, on account of what a motherfucking drama queen Bellamy Blake was when he strode dramatically into the spotlight holding his dad mug aloft to rescue Clarke from death at the hands of Claire’s new MILF crush Diyoza. But prior to her untimely demise from FEELS ATTACKS we had tons of shit to say about everything from the increasingly chilling Season 1 Grounder parallels (somewhere in the afterlife, Anya is genuinely touched that Clarke was paying such close attention), to Zeke Shaw as the show’s second and FAR more successful attempt at the Finn Collins character template, to what in the wide wide world of sports “don’t let Diyoza weaponize the cargo” could mean, to how hard Emori is winning this breakup. Our first two fairly modest nitpicks of the season came into play this week – we’re not wild about the narrative failing to pick a lane with Becho, and Claire would like to see Harper with a little more plot agency – but everything else is still so fantastic that we’re perfectly willing to give those cakes a little more time in the oven and we still have faith they’ll be satisfying in the end. For those of you who like it when we get existential, we spent about twenty minutes talking about religion; for those of you who like it when we’re complete garbage, stand by later this week for an outtake where we lose our shit over William Miller tweeting at Claire that he refers to that gun as “the strap-on.” Okay team, let’s do this thing. ACTIVATE KODIAK! --------------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Hello and Welcome, ERIN IS LOOPY AS HELL 0:02 – We Already Love the Structure of This Season 0:07 – Grounder!Clarke Takes Us Back to Season One While Reminding Us Why the Term “Mama Bear” Is Not Always a Cute Compliment 0:19 – Jesus H. Christ We’re Gay for Diyoza 0:24 – Introducing Paxton “Graveyard” McCreary, Actual Worst Person on This Show 0:33 – R.I.P. Detroit 0:39 – McCreary vs. Shaw: Chaotic Evil vs. Neutral Good 0:44 – So They DID Solve a Problem Like Finn Collins 0:46 – It’s Ben Franklin with the Key and the Kite (You See It, Right?) 0:50 – “Two Suns, No Sunscreen”: Our Nightblood Eligius Theories Just Took a Sharp Right Turn 0:55 – Hytholodium, Raven, and Order Eleven: Is Kodiak an ALIE-Chipped Super Soldier? 1:03 – “First We Pray”: Diyoza, Gaia, the Bible, and a Lengthy Digression on Religion as Story 1:22 – Abby and McCreary: Lots of Plot Options, None of Them Good 1:27 – Emori Is Really Winning This Breakup 1:35 – When Does Harper Get to Do Something That Isn’t Just Motivating Another Character’s Plot? 1:41 – In Which We Side-Eye the Noteworthy Absence of Becho In This Episode, and Hope the Show Did Not Destroy Tasya’s Twitter Mentions in Exchange for One Kiss and Nothing Else 1:54 – “Murder, Murder, Murder . . .”: GOD THE BRAVEN IN THIS EPISODE WAS LIIIIIIIIIIT 1:58 – Saginaw, Grandpappy Blake and Arthur C. Clarke: Characters Who Know Pre-Praimfaya Earth As a Myth Finally Meet People Who Lived It 2:05 – Sorry, HOW Many People Does Bellamy Have to Decide Whether or Not to Kill, Again? 2:10 – This Episode Was a Masterclass in Dramatic Irony 2:14 – This Bellamy/Madi Team-Up Gives Us LIFE 2:29 – “She Is” 2:41 – We Feel Bad That We Didn’t Get to Talk More About Raven But We’ll Save It For Next Time

Clairin Outtakes - Bellamy, Kane, and the Troy Barnes Pizza Gif May 11, 2018

Take a journey with us and imagine Bellamy Blake blasting open the bunker doors with McCreary's air cannon only to find his dad in a MURDER PIT while his sister just CHILLAXES ON HER SKULL THRONE 'cause it's just another day in Blodreinaville.

Clairin Outtakes: Richard Harmon Fancasts His "Rudy" Remake May 07, 2018

To tide you over until Murphy returns to your screens tomorrow, here's an outtake from our delightful interview with Richard Harmon, where we put him through the same exercise we gave Sachin with "Back to the Future": recasting his favorite movie using characters from "The 100."

Episode 5x02: "The Red Queen" May 06, 2018

Hello and welcome back to a much grimmer and bloodier Meta Station than the one we all enjoyed last week! Claire and Erin and joined by our friend Crystal (@wordyblerd on Twitter), a freelance writer/TV critic formerly of Black Girl Nerds, to scream at the top of our lungs about “The Red Queen,” which shot straight to the top of our all-time series fave lists, for a whole host of reasons: from the small (Miller sparring! Niylah sass! Ovid references! Ark backstory! THE CHANCE TO YELL ABOUT BILL CADOGAN AGAIN!) to the huge (Octavia gets her best episode yet, but R.I.P. Thelonious Jaha, listen to our whole conversation about his storyline here – https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/take-me-to-wells-yu-gonplei-ste-odon-thelonious-jaha). Along the way, we get the origin story of Blodreina and her scary murder pits, Gaia becomes perhaps the most terrifyingly powerful person in the bunker while Indra starts to have second thoughts, Mackson is everything and we’re emotional about it, we get a new morally gray lady to fall in love with, neither of us can quite pronounce “metamorphoses,” and Kane and Abby face the dark side of every life-or-death decision they’ve ever made (though they do it while handcuffed together and gazing lovingly at each other, because Jason Rothenberg has ABSOLUTELY been reading Claire’s fanfic). Anyway remember last week when Clarke’s new home was colorful and pretty and had ribbons and fruit and decorations and a cute lil’ family YEAH WELL WE’RE NOT IN SHALLOW VALLEY ANYMORE, TIME FOR BLODREINA TO FUCK UP SOME HARDCORE SHIT, SLAP SOME RED PAINT ON YOUR FOREHEAD AND LET’S GO DOWN TO THE MURDER PITS WHERE ALL THE FUN IS HAPPENING AND LET'S DO THIS THING _________________________________________ 0:00 – Hello and Welcome to Our Special Guest, Crystal! 0:01 – From the Ashes of the Show's Many Octaviae, Rises Blodreina 0:07 – The Indra-Miller-Octavia Family Unit Is a Gift We Didn't Know We Needed 0:23 – NIYAVIA RISING: It’s So Nice That Octavia Has a Friend, But Also, We Ship It With Our Entire Hearts 0:26 – Metamorphosesisizeses 0:35 – Power Dynamics, the Mythology of “Blodreina”, and Indra’s Journey 0:38 – CADOGAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN 0:42 – Life Is Death Is Creation Is Destruction: Jaha and Gaia's Ultimate Insight 0:50 – We Love Bunker Power Player Gaia and Are Also TERRIFIED OF HER 1:02 – Blodreina Is the Culmination of Every Facet of Octavia's History 1:08 – Hoo Boy It Is Time For Kane and Abby to Clear the Air, and We’re Here For the Angsty Reckoning 1:18 – Kabby, Mackson, Madi: Love as a Force in How People Make Decisions 1:25 – Kara Brings All Kane and Abby’s Chickens Home to Roost 1:37 – We Stan Kara Cooper, Reluctant Rebel 1:48 – Pike, Kara, and Farm Station: The Ethics and Politics of Subsistence 1:52 – The First Rule of Octavia’s Fight Club Is WE AREN’T SURE TBH WE STILL HAVE A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS 1:57 – Indra, You Have Created a Monster 2:05 – Eligius! Cannibalism! Madi! It’s Time For Our Favorite Pastime, Wild Flailing Season Speculation!

"Take Me To Wells": Yu Gonplei Ste Odon, Thelonious Jaha May 05, 2018

Our full recap of the amazing episode 5x02, "The Red Queen," will go up later tonight, with special guest Crystal (@wordyblerd), our delightful Twitter friend and freelance writer/critic formerly of Black Girl Nerds. In the meantime, to pay homage to the loss of one of the show's original core regulars, here's our emotional sendoff to the sometimes-loved, sometimes-hated Chancellor who finally brought his people to Earth. May we meet again.

Episode 5x01: "Eden" Apr 28, 2018

We’re back, bitches! And so is everything that made this show great. HOO BOY WHAT A SEASON PREMIERE! Mom feels! Road trips! Jasper closure! Clarke as a video game character, wandering through post-apocalyptic wastelands and collecting emotionally-loaded power-up items! Bugs for lunch! Pinterest-worthy outdoor decorating schemes! A smol with a bear trap! Echo/Monty parallels! The mythology of Octavia Blake! Increasingly desperate collect calls to space, waiting for Bellamy to answer his fucking phone! Good earth cleavage! An unexpected opportunity to cry over “An American Tail!” A line Erin laughed so hard at that she sliced it out to make it her ringtone! TWENTY-SEVEN FULL MINUTES CARRIED SOLO ON ELIZA TAYLOR’S TINY AUSTRALIAN SHOULDERS WITH NO SCENE PARTNER EXCEPT A BIRD Come along on this journey with us, friends, we’ll even let you call shotgun. ________________________ 0:00 - We’re Back, Bitches! And So Is the Show We First Fell In Love With 0:04 - We Fully Could Have Watched Another Forty Minutes of Just Clarke 0:14 - Sticks, Rocks and Goggles: Clarke Collects Quest Items to Help Her Survive 0:20 - MOM FEELS MOM FEELS MOM FEELS 0:23 - The Crumbling of Polis, In More Ways Than One 0:29 - Heroes and Monsters: Madi’s Fairy-Tale Lens on the World 0:35 - The Wreckage of Arkadia Fucked Us RIGHT the Fuck Up 0:37 - The Jasper Moment Our Hearts Needed 0:43 - Clarke’s Drawings, Maya’s iPod, and the Beauty of Shallow Valley: Creativity Is What Makes Us Human and Keeps Our Memories Alive 1:05 - The Pitfalls of Mythologizing the People We’ve Lost 1:09 - Interrogating the Stories Clarke Tells Herself About Herself 1:17 - “They Had Their Reasons Too,” and Clarke’s Picture of Her New Self, Go Right Out the Window When Madi’s In Danger 1:25 - Brief Sidebar to Yell About Bible Imagery Because #Brand 1:30 - “Say Five Nice Things About Yourself” vs. “Fight to the Death in This Terrifying Murder Pit”: Boy the Blakes’ Discipline Techniques Sure Are Different Aren’t They 1:32 - Murphy, Clarke, Adaptability, and the Impermanence of Change 1:36 - Space!Emori Is Already One of the Greatest Gifts of Season 5 1:44 - In Which Murphy Is a Cat 1:49 Soft Bearded Space Dad Bellamy Is Our Everything, Even Though He CLEARLY Has One Foot Out the Door 1:52 - Obligatory “Somewhere Out There” Reference Because We Are Children of the 90’s 1:54 - RAVEN IS DOING HER GODDAMN BEST DON’T @ HER 1:57 - Bellamy Is Mythologizing His Sister in Absentia While Echo Can See Her Pretty Clearly 2:06 - “What Are We Now?”: Becho, Marper, and Situational Identity 2:19 - Please Oh Please Give Echo a Real Arc So She’s More Than Just a Love Interest 2:27 - Becho Together, Memori Apart: Setting Up a New Status Quo So It Can Be Disrupted 2:34 - Patience Is a Virtue, in Narrative As in Life 2:39 - ENTER ELIGIUS, and Our New True Love Charmaine Diyoza 2:44:15 - The Most Iconic Line in Meta Station History

Sachin Sahel (Once Again) Interviews Clairin! Apr 21, 2018

THIS TIME, IT'S PERSONAL. Er--or maybe it always was! Anyway, Sachin is back for Part 2 of the Anniversary Clairin Interview! This time we're doing the Claire-only and Erin-only questions, so get pumped for lots more talk about CLAIRE'S AMAZING TIME-TRAVEL NOVEL THE REWIND FILES (go buy it right now, it's on Amazon, there won't be a test but there WILL be a podcast about it with Sachin eventually), what Erin and Claire's patronuses are, and how Erin and Sachin REALLY feel about Finn and Riley. Plus: what did Erin say to make Sachin threaten to hang up on her?? And the wild but true story of Claire's first viewing of The Kabby Kiss! Pictured: Erin and Claire on Erin's wedding day. Awwwww.

Sachin Sahel Interviews Claire and Erin! Apr 16, 2018

It's our second podcast anniversary! We're so grateful to all of you coming along on this journey with us over the past two years, we love each and every one of you so much! To celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided it was time for y'all to get to know us a little better, so we opened it up on Twitter for fans to send in questions to ask us...and then we asked Sachin Sahel, AKA The 100's own Eric Jackson, to be our special guest interview! He agreed, because he's the best. Join us on a freewheeling two-and-a-half-hour journey through Ark headcanons, embarrassing celebrity encounter stories, the nature of humanity, weirdest childhood crushes, the Clairin origin story, a LENGTHY digression into our "The 100"/"America's Next Top Model" crossover AU, the history of the science fiction novel and the mechanics of time travel, and SO much more.

Meta Station Interviews Richard Harmon! Mar 22, 2018

The endlessly delightful Richard Harmon joins us on Meta Station this week to talk about growing up in a family of artists, the creative freedom of no-fucks-given auditioning, Murphy's flexible morality, the cathartic nature of portraying dark characters, and Murphy's relationships with Bellamy, Clarke, Emori, Abby and others going into season 5. ALIE gave it her best effort to shut down the entire interview via endless technical difficulties (which is why you'll hear Claire disappear altogether for a few minutes in the middle) but an evil A.I. is no match for the charm of a Harmon who once bought Claire and Erin shots of Jameson, and ultimately we prevailed. (Don't worry, the glitches have been edited out.)

Season 5 Trailer Analysis with Selina Wilken! Mar 16, 2018

We are back with the most extra trailer analysis ever! Literally one hour of talking per one minute of trailer, you guys. Almost three seconds of talking per each of the 5,000+ frames WHICH CLAIRE AND SELINA SCRUTINIZED ONE BY ONE. NOT A SINGLE STONE UNTURNED, THEN DISSOLVED INTO ITS COMPONENT MOLECULES FOR IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS. PLUS! Erin is convinced Kane is getting a new profession, Claire is convinced Abby is up to something with Eligius and nightblood, and Selina is convinced that Clarke's loose lips summoned the Eligius ship! 3:00 - That One Time When Jason Showed Claire and Erin the Trailer Two Months Early 7:00 - Ever Noticed How Clarke Starts Every Odd-Numbered Season Completely Alone? 11:00 - Clarke's Drawings and the Importance of Artistic Expression 22:00 - *BELLARKE KLAXONS* 34:00 - Did Eligius Hear Clarke's Radio Transmissions??? 40:00 - WE WOULD ALREADY LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR MADI 48:00 - Enter Eligius *heavy metal plays in background* 1:22:00 - Erin Cracked Kane's Bunker Storyline, Everyone Can Go Home 2:00:00 - Abby, Eligius, and the Potential Return of the Medical Ethics Theme? 2:04:00 - KABBY BABY THEORY LIVES, but in a New Way That Claire Would Rather Forget 2:15:00 - What the Hell Is in That Dude's Stomach, Y'all 2:22:00 - ZAVEN RIZEZ 2:36:00 - *KABBY KLAXONS* 2:51:00 - The Blakes Aren't Gonna Fight to the Death, but That's About All We Know 3:07:00 - S5's #1 Cinematic Influence: Lilo & Stitch 3:08:00 - #HugsAnd(no)Death(in that montage anyway) 3:23:00 - Memori Problems 3:26:30 - What Does Octavia Want With/From Madi???? 3:42:30 - Selina Drops an F-Bomb

JASON OUTTAKE: #HugsAndDeath Mar 14, 2018

HAPPY TRAILER DAY, EVERYONE!! Now that the S5 trailer has dropped (AAATTTT LAAAAAAASSSSSSTTTTT dot mp3), we can share this snippet of trailer chat from our interview with Jason! Featuring the origins of #HugsAndDeath, a special shoutout to Sachin Sahel aka Jackson, and the hug that got left on the cutting room floor!

Jason Rothenberg Returns to Meta Station! Mar 06, 2018

Since Jason had to miss his panel at Unity Days this year due to production conflicts, Erin and Claire decided it would be fun to open up Meta Station for a virtual fan Q&A...and Jason agreed! Over the course of our three-hour conversation (#ThatsSoMetaStation), we answer 15 fan questions about everything from what we can look forward to in season 5 to what Henry Ian Cusick is like BEHIND the camera, and everything in between--including TONS of awesome behind-the-scenes insights and tidbits!

Episode 1x12: "We Are Grounders, Part I" (unedited!) Dec 17, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station! It's been two months since we posted 111, for which we profoundly apologize; family, travel, work, book deadlines and general life stuff got in the way, and we meant to record at least one episode while we were together (Claire went to go visit Erin in November) but instead we just drank a lot of wine and cuddled with the dog and watched "Burlesque." WE STAND BY THESE LIFE CHOICES Anyway, we've finally hit the S1 finale and HOO BOY it's a ride, fam! Up on the Ark, Batshit Jaha is rising, Kane and Abby are nonstop badasses, Jackson is at Peak Cinnamon Roll, Wells and Jake save the day one last time, and SINCLAIR JUST WANTS TO GO HOME. Down on the ground, Bellamy deserves snuggles but instead receives only struggles, Murphy's red seatbelt kink comes back into play, the Blakes are at peak Battle Siblings, and Jasper and Raven save the day. Meanwhile, Clarke and Finn get a whole sideplot whose entire function is to creepily foreshadow all the crazy of Season 2, from Reapers and blood-drained corpse piles to the first mention of the Commander. P.S. to make sure we got y'all some new content in time for your holiday travels, we posted this one completely unedited. A HUGE amount of work from our Editkru volunteers goes into producing each podcast episode, from filtering out coughs and background noises to slicing out the torrents of "um" and "like" to cleaning up when we talk over each other, which happens a lot. So if you find this one occasionally a hot mess to listen to, shout-outs go to Brittany, Cece, Emily, Jess, Maylina and Melli for making sure the rest of our podcasts are shiny and cleaned up when we post them. They work their asses off and we adore them with our entire hearts. --------------------------------- 0:00 - HI WE’RE BACK AND THIS IS UNEDITED, MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOULS 0:02 - In Which Kane Sits Alone at Jaha’s Council Table Like a Kid Who Got Called to the Principal’s Office 0:05 - TEAM ADULTS RISE: The Optimists, the Pessimists, and the Rise of Batshit Jaha 0:20 - Nanorobots In the Whiskey: An ALIE Conspiracy Theory 0:26 - Hey Let’s Go Get Our Hearts Shattered In the O.R. by Battle Mom Abby Griffin and ACTUAL ANGEL Eric Jackson 0:32 - Clarke and Finn Are Here to Drop Off That Truckload of Season Two Plot Setup You Ordered 0:35 - Today on “Grounder Thoughts With Clairin”: Anya’s In the Doghouse, We Never Got the Lincoln/Lexa Confrontation We Longed For, and Why TF Does Luna Get a Regular-Ass Ambassador If Her Clan’s Whole Deal Is “Fuck This Governmental Structure” 0:52 - Bellamy Blake and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day 0:56 - YO WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHERE MONTY IS!!!! 1:02 - Sooooooo Many Blake Sibling Feels 1:06 - "We Save Who We Can Save Today": Bellamy and Jasper's Relationship Has Come a Long Way, Baby 1:13 - In Which Erin Asks the Very Reasonable Question About Why Key Character Evolution Moments for Bellamy So Often Involve Physical Punishment 1:15 - Claire's Grand Unified Murphy/Sawyer Theory: The Perils of Scapegoating 1:23 - Not That It Excuses Anything, But Jesus Murphy's Backstory Is Fucking Tragic 1:28 - Raven, Braven and Bravenlarke Are All Lit AF In Both Parts of This Finale 1:35 - Goodbye, Happy Holidays, We'll See You In 2018 With the S1 Finale and At Least One Secret Meta Station Surprise We're Cooking Up!

Episode 1x11: "The Calm" Oct 19, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station! Elizabeth’s back to join us for “The Calm,” which, true to its name, slows the propulsive plot action way down to give us what amounts to a three-part deep-dive character study of Kane, Raven and Clarke . . . with a side order of Braven sex, Kabby cuddling, and Finn once again working Erin’s last nerve. Also, Bellamy has trust issues with men, ABBY ISN’T DEAD!, Sass!Kane is rising, Clarke commits her first cold-blooded murder, Raven deserves snuggles and instead continually receives struggles, Monty brings Mt. Weather into the story in a big way (though we don’t really know it yet), and apparently as soon as Claire left for family dinner and left them unsupervised, Erin and Elizabeth started talking about cannibalism. JUST ANOTHER DAY AT META STATION -------------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Hoorayyyyyyy, Elizabeth’s Back! 0:01 – Claire Has Literally Been Waiting to Yell About This Kane Content Since We Started This Podcast 0:04 – The Wick Scenes Do a Remarkable Amount of Character Work As a Turning Point in Kane’s Leadership Development Arc 0:12 – R.I.P. Sinclair, We Still Miss You So Much 0:13 – There Is So Little Comedy in Ark Storylines 0:18 –In a World With No Rules, Who Is Marcus Kane? 0:21 – Claire Makes High-Pitched Noises About Kabby 0:25 – First Documented Instance of Kane’s Secret Love of Hugging 0:27 – Let’s Weep Over the Kane Family For SEVERAL MINUTES, Shall We? 0:34 – Finn Collins: More or Less Bearable When He's Not Making Everything About His Penis! 0:36 – "The Calm" Pauses Plot for Character Development, and WE LOVE IT 0:43 – Clarke's Hypocritical Disapproval of Grounder Child Warriors: Intentional or Not? 0:48 – Tris, Finn, Shock Waves, and the Morality of Unintended Consequences 0:54 – The Rise of Wanhedalton: Clarke Will Do What It Takes to Survive 1:00 – IT'S NOT ABOUT YOUR FUCKING FEELINGS, FINN: Season 1 of The 100 1:04 – The Dos and Don'ts of Handling Raven in A Mood 1:13 – "The Borscht Belt Is Farm Station" 1:16 – Wow Pike’s Earth Skills Class Really Didn’t Teach Miles Anything 1:18 – Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby (Specifically Why We Love This Braven Scene Because It’s All About Active Consent) 1:28 – Give Raven One Non-Awkward Post-Coital Experience 2k18 1:29 – All Aboard the Good Ship Braven 1:32 – Further Fleshing Out of Our Headcanon About the Stand-Up Comedy Scene on the Ark 1:35 – “I Miss Panicky Teenagers Trying to Build a Society SO MUCH” 1:38 – Elizabeth's Grand Unified Theory of Bellamy's Trust Issue with Men 1:44 - Oh, Bellamy, We Love You But Your Plans Are Terrible 1:49 – In Which Erin and ElizabethTake An Unexpected Detour into S5 Cannibalism Spec 1:51 – That Jamming Signal--Was It Really Mt. Weather? Or Perhaps....Cadogan?! DUN-DUN-DUNNNNNN 1:57 – Elizabeth Wrote (Another) Book and It's Gr9 and Y'all Should Buy It!

Clairin Outtakes - Yu Exodus Charter Ste Odon (with special guest Elizabeth!) Oct 16, 2017

In which we discuss why the Exodus Charter is called the Exodus Charter, even though we can't remember if anyone has actually called it by name yet, and marvel at how jarring it feels for Anya to watch Tris die in silence because Trigedasleng doesn't exist yet.

Episode 1x10: "I Am Become Death" Sep 25, 2017

Welcome back for our recap of 110, “I Am Become Death,” AKA the one where everyone coughs up blood and it's SUPER GROSS. WHAT A GODDAMN INTENSE EMOTIONAL THRILL RIDE FROM START TO FINISH, for real. Come flail with us about Raven Reyes, brilliant vulnerable heroic self-sacrificing genius queen and Our Lady of Making Things Go Boom, and rage with us about Jasper and Harper and one of the show's rare missteps into blatant toxic masculinity. Also Murphy is back for blood-soaked revenge, the Blake siblings need each other, there are some REAL UNCOMFY Lincoln/Finn parallels we need to discuss, Clarke's Slytherin is showing, and Raven finally finally FIIIIIIIINALLY tells Finn she's reclaiming her time. LET'S DO THIS KIDS ____________- 0:00 - We Just Gotta Gush for a Few Because THIS EPISODE IS FIRE EMOJI, FAM 0:06 - Let’s Begin at the Beginning, with Diana Sydney’s Charred Corpse! Plus Bonus “Scooby Doo” Conspiracy Theory! 0:10 - Four-Part Finale, Foreshadowing Galore 0:17 - “Our Salvation Is a Smoldering Pile of Wreckage”: The Story of The 100 0:18 - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Jasper’s Jarringly Misogynistic Storyline 0:36 - Jasper’s Reading Assignment: “Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds” by Arthur Chu (http://www.thedailybeast.com/your-princess-is-in-another-castle-misogyny-entitlement-and-nerds-1) 0:41 - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Harper’s First Real Storyline Being Offering Herself As Jasper’s Hero Reward 0:47 - Jasper Jordan: A Tale of the Toll of Toxic Masculinity? 0:52 - Meet the New Murph, Murder-ier Than the Old Murph 1:02 - The Best Idea Finn Ever Has, Only Somewhat Compromised by His Finn-ness; or, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Finn Collins Part Eighty-Seven Gajillion 1:19 – “Be Brave Enough to Break Your Own Heart”: Bombs, Bridges, Breakups, and All the Hard Choices Raven Makes That Finn Couldn’t 1:40 – We Have Some Groans and Eyerolls About This Episode’s Linctavia Content 1:46 – How Do You Solve a Problem Like Characters Who Only Exist In Relation to One Other Character and Never Interact With Anybody Else 1:53 – WE ARE VERY EMOTIONAL ABOUT BELLAMY NEEDING OCTAVIA AND OCTAVIA DECIDING NOT TO LEAVE HIM 1:59 – Clarke’s Metamorphosis From Blunt Instrument to Sneaky, Strategic Leader 2:06 – Erin’s Fave Underrated Bellarke Moments (Also Bellamy Is the MOST EXTRA) 2:10 – Next Week: Hell Yeah, Kabby Snuggles and Braven Sex!

Episode 1x09: "Unity Day" Sep 07, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station! Grab a cup of Jasper’s moonshine and join us for an explosive (HAHAHAHA) recap of “Unity Day”, in which Anya shows up, Kabby is rising, thirteen is an unlucky number, Diana Sydney is the queen bitch of our hearts, Linctavia gets sexy for the first time, Clarke has no chill even about drinking games, we take a lengthy Cadogan sidebar because #brand, two different characters get compared to Trump, we’re forever wrecked about Vera, and HOOOO BOY FAM DO WE HAVE SOME FINN YELLING TO DO ------------------------------------------------------------ 0:00 – Hello and Welcome, Turns Out Neither of Us Can Pronounce “Unity Day” 0:02 – R.I.P. Diana Sydney, Our Favorite Shady-Ass Motherfucker 0:14 – No One Is Better Than Diana at Leveraging the Ark’s Class Resentment 0:23 – Wow Nothing Brings a Kids’ Pageant to a Crashing Halt Like a Giant Fucking Explosion 0:29 – From Becca to Lexa to Octavia: On This Show, 12 + 1 = Chaos 0:36 – Where’s Our Cadogan/Becca Prequel Webseries? 0:39 – BRB, Crying Forever Over the Kanes 0:48 – Remember When Both Clarke and Claire Legit Thought Abby Died In That Explosion 0:52 – What an Iconic Jasper Episode TBH 0:59 – Unity Days Looks Way More Fun On the Ground Than the Ark (More Booze, Fewer Casualties) 1:03 – Did Anyone Else Totally Forget That Lincoln Was Already Giving Octavia Warrior Lessons This Early In the Show? 1:08 – FINN RANT, PART 1: In Which Finn Appoints Himself “Guy In Charge of Clarke’s Decisions” and Then Ruins Everything 1:29 – FINN RANT, PART 2: In Which We Need to Talk About Toxic Masculinity 1:48 – FINN RANT, PART 3: In Which We Have a Lot of Screams About “You Didn’t Have to Trust the Grounders, You Just Had to Trust Me” 1:58 – Anya Is Where the Show Finally Finds Who They Want the Grounders To Be, Which Is a Lot More Interesting Than “Bogeymen In Trees” 2:14 – Brief Sidebar for a Few More Kabby Flails 2:15 – On Both the Ark and the Ground, This Is Really the “Chickens Coming Home to Roost” Episode 2:22 – See You Next Week For Blood-Spattered John Murphy and Bridge Explosions!

2018 "The 100" Fandom Fun: Three Awesome Interviews! Aug 23, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, and happy Claire’s 36th birthday to one and all! We’ll be back next week with a new recap, but in the meantime we wanted to give you all a sneak peek at some of the amazing fan-created events happening in 2018! THERE’S SO MUCH HAPPENING FAM! Thanks to all the great people who are already working their butts off to make cool stuff happen for “The 100” fans all over the world; there are lots more people we didn’t get the chance to talk to, of course, but this is just a sampling. P.S. if there are awesome fan creators you'd like us to interview, shoot us a message! We'd love to do another one of these to shout out more folks! ___________ 0:00 - Michaela, Rory and Rachel from Con-Geda! 0:10 - Miah and Leana from Unity Days! 0:24 - Jo from Cancer Gets Lost!

Episode 1x08: "Day Trip" Aug 17, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station! Grab your gun and crack open the jobi nuts, it’s time for a “Day Trip!” Join us as we take a deep dive into the way the show explores guilt and forgiveness, from the Jake Griffin of it all to the way Hallucination Jaha foreshadows Pike . . . with a side order of stoner chaos at the dropship camp, and a brief jaunt up to the Ark where we suddenly like Jaha and feel sorry for Shumway for a hot second. We’re in the end run towards the season one finale where every single episode is solid gold, so this was a fun one. Hope you enjoy and thanks for listening! All of you are the most beautiful broom in a broom closet of brooms. -------------------------------------------------------- 0:05 - Adventures in Unexpected Likability, Part 1: Poor Shumway?! 0:10 - Winter Was Supposed to Have Been Coming, Apparently, for a Hot (Cold?) Second 0:12 - Adventures in Unexpected Likability, Part 2: The Best of All Jahas 0:20 - In Jobi Veritas: Jasper Edition 0:29 - Miller Appreciation Time! 0:32 - It's Totally Obvious That Miller Is an Only Child 0:33 - Coming Fall 2149, Lincoln Is ... The Enemy 0:34 - The Rise of "Hey, Maybe Not So Much With the Tribalism?" Octavia 0:36 - Adventures in Unexpected Likability, Part 3: We...Sorta...Like Finn? For a Minute? 0:40 - BUT JUST FOR A MINUTE Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Fuckboy Finn 0:50 - Please Can Raven Have Just One Non-Horrifically-Awkward Post-Coital Experience JUST ONE 0:57 - STRAP IN KIDS, IT'S ALL BELLARKE FROM HERE ON OUT 0:59 - Bellamy's and Clarke's Inverted Dark Nights of the Soul 1:07 - "Forgiveness Isn't About What People Deserve": One of Our Fave Show Thesis Statements 1:15 - Griffin Family Dynamics: The Abby and the Jake of Clarke 1:25 - Why "You Need Forgiveness? I'll Give That to You" Is JUST As Huge & Important to Clarke's Emotional Development As It Is to Bellamy's 1:28 - Shooting Lessons: Beauty & King Dork (500 points to anyone who gets THAT reference) 1:31 - The Aragorn Rule 1:34 – WE NEED A FANDOM MORATORIUM ON THE TERMS "TOXIC" AND "ABUSIVE" & Other Unpopular Opinions about Octavia & Abby 1:41 - Acts of Violence a Part of Character Development: Kane & Bellamy 1:47 – Bellamy’s Hallucination: How Jobi!Jaha Foreshadows Bellamy’s Future Team-Up With Pike 1:52 – Clarke Shows Bellamy a Vision of Himself as the Man He Wishes He Actually Was 1:55 – “No Fucks Given” Honesty Is the Ideal Foundation for a Relationship 2:02 – Let’s Talk About the Gun Scene Because It’s Fucking Hilarious 2:04 – Today On “Clairin Hot Takes,” We Are SO Glad They Cut That “Let’s Run Away Together” Business Because It Highkey Fucks Up the Flawless Trajectory of That Scene 2:17 – The Jobi Nuts Work Surprisingly Well as the Running Plot Thread Connecting Everything That’s Happening On the Ground 2:21 – Goddamn We Love the Second Half of Season One 2:23 – Special Podcast Coming Up Next Week About Fan-Run Events Happening in 2018, Including a Special Announcement About a Cool Thing We’re Doing at Unity Days!

Clairin Outtakes - The One With Claire's Crazy Week Aug 13, 2017

If you follow Claire on Twitter, you watched this insanity all go down last week in real time, but if you didn't . . . well, there's been a LOT going on. (Please don't ask Claire about Rachel and Joey anymore.)

Clairin Outtakes - Erin's Disgusting Day Aug 11, 2017

FYI this outtake is all about the gross things pets do, SO BE FOREWARNED, Erin's dog Hank got into some hilariously gross shenanigans.

Episode 1x07: "Contents Under Pressure" Aug 02, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station! Our hiatus is over and we’re back to yell in your ears about Season One. And hot damn, what an episode to come back to! This is one of our all-time faves of both the season and the series, so we’re full of wildly enthusiastic shouting about everything from Griffin family feels, the ethics of torture, actual human angel Vera Kane, how Diana Sydney is the Donald Trump of the Ark, a Finn storyline we don’t hate, the next-level prop details in that Eden Tree scene, PRINCESS MECHANIC, and the moment Claire first fell in love with Kane. DISCLAIMER: We recorded this episode the morning after the Senate healthcare vote, so we have a higher-than-usual number of politics thoughts, and also Erin is drunk. THIS WAS A FUN ONE, KIDS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Hi! We’re Back! We Missed You Too! Also Erin’s Drunk! 0:02 – The Structure of This Episode Is So Good We Don’t Even Mind How Much of It Hinges on Finn 0:07 – Kane and Abby (and Jaha, Sort Of?) Confront the Fallout of Both the Culling and Their Past Choices 0:16 – In Which Diana’s the Grifter and Jaha’s the Mark 0:26 – “That’s a Problem for Future Me”: Jake, the Culling, and Project Exodus 0:32 – The Value of the Human Species vs. the Value of the Human Individual 0:38 – What Could Jaha’s Season 5 Storyline Possibly Be? (GUYS. GUYS. IS HE DEAD.) 0:42 – This Is the Episode Where Claire First Fell In Love With Kane 0:46 – Erin Briefly Forgets Vera Kane Is About to Die and Claire Is UPSET 0:48 – Vera vs. Diana: The Light and Dark Sides of Human Emotion 0:51 – Diana Sydney and Donald Trump: The Rise of the Faux-Populist Con Artist 0:59 – Fictional Villains Have to Have a Level of Nuance That Real-Life Villains Don’t (AKA Even Cage Wallace Looks Better Next to Some of Our Actual Politicians) 1:05 – The Best of All Possible Finns 1:06 – We Love Us a Subverted Love Triangle 1:11 – NERD ALERT: Erin Enthuses About Princess Mechanic and Gender-Swapped Medieval Homosocial Triads 1:22 – Compartmentalization Champ Clarke Cries & It's C R U S H I N G 1:30 – Eight Minutes Later, Are We Still Gushing About Clarke? OF COURSE WE ARE 1:33 – Maybe There Are No Good Guys: Torture Edition 1:45 – Lincoln and Finn As Male Bodies to Whom Things Happen 1:48 – Raven and Bellamy and Powerlessness and Power 1:52 – How Do "Good" People Wind Up Becoming Torturers? 1:58 – How Do You Solve a Problem Like Lincoln's Season One Writing 2:12 – Early Signs of Octavias to Come 2:17 – MOAR MILLER SUPERCUTS 2:22 – How Drunk Is Erin Now?

Meta Station Interviews Tree Adams! Jul 20, 2017

Hello lovelies! We're back from hiatus, kind of! We were planning on returning the first week of August to dive back into our S1 recaps, but we just had to make an exception when given the opportunity to nerd out about music with "The 100" composer Tree Adams! Join us for a deep dive that goes from shippy flails (yes of course we asked about the Kabby theme and "I See You," we know what you guys want) to technical nerdery (there's a spreadsheet breaking down the specifics of the sound of all thirteen Grounder clans and Claire DESPERATELY wants to see it) to how Tree created a new sound of Becca's island to bring Raven's story to life and used music to take us on the evolving journey of Octavia's arc. Plus tune in for some hot scoop on his new project "Duskriders," another female-driven dystopic sci-fi adventure with Tree Adams music . . . only this time, he is his OWN Rothenberg because he wrote the graphic novel himself. We had a total blast, and Tree is the freakin' greatest. Go buy the S3 and S4 soundtracks, or check out our Spotify playlist of all the tracks he referenced in our interview here: https://tinyurl.com/treeadams

Clairin Outtakes - Like a Virgil Jun 10, 2017

Virgil's "Georgics" is basically porn about cows and Claire & Erin have the text messages to prove it.

Clairin Outtakes; "The 100," The Musical Jun 09, 2017

We just want to see Nathan Miller tap dancing, IS THAT HONESTLY SO MUCH TO ASK

Clairin Outtakes - Golden Retrievers Jun 06, 2017

Erin's dog Hank needs to work through his internal biases.

Episode 4x13: "Praimfaya" (Part 2, The Space Race) May 31, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, for our VERY LAST SEASON FOUR RECAP *sniffles* *wipes tear* We continue to be full of all-caps love for the bonkers action movie thrill ride of “Praimfaya” and have a great deal of high-pitched screaming about everything from the Murphy/Monty bromance we never knew we needed to how canon Bravenlarke has never felt so achievable (a fact you will hear us casually pitch to the writers no less than four separate times). Along the way, Erin names the space kids “Motleykru,” we’re hyped to finally get the Emori/Raven girl geek teamup we’ve been craving since last season, and the fact that we contained the Bellarke flails to 25 minutes out of a 4.5+ hour two-parter is honestly pretty impressive, given ALL THAT GODDAMN FACE-TOUCHING. Thank you to everyone who has come alone on this rollercoaster with us! WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL _______________________________________ 0:00 – Monty & Murphy, Most Delightfully Reluctant of Bros 0:05 – “The Sad Jasper Detour”: Media Portrayals of Suicide, Time Jump Thoughts, and Our Frustration With the Show’s Occasional “One Designated Mourner Per Dead Character” Policy 0:19 – OKAY BACK TO THE MONTY AND MURPHY BROMANCE 0:22 – Y’all How Great Is Emori Gonna Be at Space 0:31 – “Motleykru” May Be Erin’s Finest Work 0:32 – “What’s Echo’s Deal?”: Our Biggest Question Mark for the Episode (Slash Season 4) (Slash Season 5) 0:43 – Contemplating the Possibilities of Becho: Romantic, Platonic, or Bellamy as Echo’s New Roan? 0:58 – The Bravenlarke Leadership Trio 1:10 – CLARKE CHOSE RAVEN FIRST! 1:16 – Hope Comes from Human Connectedness and Faith in the People You Love 1:20 – O.G. Inspirational Speech Bellamy Is Back and Better Than Ever 1:25 – IT’S TIME FOR BELLARKE FLAILS 1:28 – Future!Clarke’s Hope Comes From the People She Loves 1: 36 – How to Execute a Slow-Burn Endgame Ship, Part 1: Focusing the Finale on Clarke’s Feelings for Bellamy 1:42 – How to Execute a Slow-Burn Endgame Ship, Part 2: The Big Emotional Moment Before Ross Goes to China and Comes Back with a New Girlfriend 1:50 – OUR FOURTH AND FINAL PLEA TO THE WRITERS TO MAKE BRAVENLARKE CANON IN SEASON 5 1:55 – Nightblood! Prisoners! Eligius Mining Company! Becca! Cadogan, Maybe! HOT DAMN WHAT A TWIST 2:02 – Guys Honestly This Was Just Like . . . Such a Good Finale 2:07 – Goodbye and Thank You and We Love You and We’ll Be Back Over Hiatus WE'VE GOT A BUNCH OF FUN IDEAS

Episodes 4x12 & 4x13 - "The Chosen" & "Praimfaya" (Part 1, The Bunker) May 29, 2017

HOLY SPACE SUITS, BATMAN, WHAT A THRILL RIDE! Welcome back to Meta Station for the first of our two-part finale recap. Erin’s back and we have no guests, so it’s just the two of us doing what we do best – yelling about our favorite television show for six hours (which we have edited heavily and chopped into two separate parts to avoid breaking your brains with our flailing). But man oh man that was a good hour of television! Tune in Wednesday for Part 2, the Science Island Spacestravaganza, but in the meantime, let’s talk about 412, the bunker, the Blakes, Abby Griffin being the world’s best mom, how the structure of the two episodes work back-to-back as a two-part finale, and why our favorite episodes of this show are the ones where everything focuses on one A-story full of crazy adventure and emotional stakes. __________________________________________ 0:00 – REUNITED AND IT FEEEEEEEELS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD 0:02 – If 412 Was a Dark and Lowkey Somber Survival Drama, 413 Was a Thrill Ride Action Movie (THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT) 0:07 – We’re So Hyped for All Three Sets of Potential S5 Flashbacks (Space Squad, Lonely Clarke, Bunker Bickering) 0:11 - The One-Killer-Storyline Episodes of This Show Work So Well That Claire Is Even Willing to Forgive Jason for the Finale’s Complete Absence of Kabby, Though She Would Like Her Displeasure Noted For the Record 0:23 – Erin’s Thoughts on 412, Based on How Everything in 411 Led Into It, Were Decidedly Mixed, But A Lot of It Improves On Rewatch After Seeing 413 0:40 – The Moral and Emotional Difference Between “Decide Who You Invite Into the Bunker” vs. “Decide Who You Kick Out of the Bunker” 0:44 – Let’s Talk About “Good Guys”: How Abby’s Parting Words Fundamentally Transform Clarke In the Final Two Episodes 0:56 – Heads and Hearts: Abby and Bellamy Remind Clarke That Love Is Not Weakness, Which Frees Her to Be Her Best Self Even After Six Years Without Them 1:04 – A Brief Interlude to Yell About How CANON BRAVENLARKE HAS NEVER FELT SO POSSIBLE?? 1:14 – Abby’s Vision: Brain Damage-Induced Hallucination, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, or WITCHCRAFT? 1:26 – Clarke and Jaha and the Notion of “Choice” 1:33 – Jaha vs. Octavia: Bad Leaders Are Full of Certainty, Good Leaders Experience Doubt 1:43 – We Do Need to Talk About the Bindi You Guys 1:53 – TIME TO YELL ABOUT THE SHOW’S AMAZING PRODUCTION DESIGN 1:56 – We Are So Emotional About the Blakes 2:09 – Professor Erin Has Some Thoughts on This Whole Prometheus Business and Would Like to Gently Suggest Reframing the Analogy Around Pandora Instead 2:14 – Are We the Only CW Television Podcast With a Section In Our Finale Recap About Virgil’s “Georgics” y/y 2:22 – We Love the Show Touching Back So Much This Season on the Importance of Jake and Aurora 2:26 – Clarke, Octavia, Raven, Kane: This Season Is Full of Characters Finding the Truest Version of Themselves By Incorporating Every Version of Themselves Into One Self

Clairin Outtakes - Conspiracy Theories May 28, 2017

Zombie Roan and the Kabby baby STILL LIVE and you will pry these conspiracy theories out of our cold dead hands Jason Rothenberg WE WILL NOT LET THIS GO UNTIL WE SEE ROAN'S CORPSE AND ABBY'S MEDICAL RECORDS

Clairin Outtakes - Meet The Hasslers (with special guests Sam and Britt!) May 24, 2017

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the entire fandom to read an OMFGTV interview with an actor, thirsting for spoilers on his supposedly epic role in 412, only to find upon watching it that he was literally an extra with no lines. So either a whole storyline about the Hasslers landed on the cutting room floor, or my dude majorly played a media outlet. (Honestly I'm hoping for B. I respect that hustle.)

Clairin Outtakes - "Gif vs. Jif" and Other Stories (with special guests Sam and Britt!) May 23, 2017

In which love means never having to pronounce “gif” the same way, you can’t put out a fire by peeing on it, and Ian has the heart of a troll. Or, three brief glimpses into the kind of conversations Claire, Sam and Brittany have every single day.

Episode 4x12: "The Chosen" - Team Adults Roundtable! May 22, 2017

Welcome to a very special #TeamAdults edition of Meta Station! Because this weekend was Erin’s birthday (as I hope you all observed by listening to this outtake - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-happy-birthday-erin-with-special-guests-sam-britt), she was with family and didn’t have time to record, but because she is a good friend she did NOT want to deprive Claire of the chance to flail over 412’s next-level Kabby content. So instead, Claire was joined by Brittany Rae of The Afictionados (https://soundcloud.com/theafictionadosthe100) and Sam Coley of TellTaleTV (http://www.telltaletv.com/author/samantha-coley/) for a discussion on the core four surviving members of Team Adults, all of whom gave absolutely top-notch performances in 412: Indra, Jaha, Kane and Abby. We covered their storylines in this episode as well as how we feel about their season arcs as a whole and what we want to see from them in Season 5. Join us to flail over Indra mom feels, the return of the Jaha/Kane bromance, ABBY SAYING “I LOVE YOU” TO KANE, epic conflict over moral decision-making, and much more. P.S. If you’re desperate for our thoughts on delinquents in space, we’ll cover the kids’ storyline from this episode next week in our finale recap, but there was a lot of stuff that we weren’t sure how we would feel about until we saw how the arcs closed out at the end of the season. 0:00 – LET'S TALK ABOUT INDRA! Badass Warrior Queen Mom of Our Hearts! 0:35 – LET'S TALK ABOUT JAHA! Ruthless Mofo! Epic Shit-Stirrer! Cult Aficionado Extraordinaire! New Dad Maybe! 1:06 – LET'S TALK ABOUT MARCUS KANE AND ABBY GRIFFIN! Moral quandaries! Parent feels! Leadership conundrums! Possible brain damage! TRUE LOVE!

Clairin Outtakes - Happy Birthday, Erin! (with special guests Sam & Britt!) May 20, 2017

Claire, Brittany and Sam attempt to sing "Happy Birthday" to Erin, with predictably disastrous results.

Clairin Outtakes - OTP: Chash x My Little Ponies May 16, 2017

We know we put you through the emotional wringer with the 411 recap and all the Jasper feels, so we owe you a little something to lighten the mood. With that, please enjoy this guest segment from Chash, Meta Station's Senior My Little Pony Correspondent, about which pony represents which "The 100" character. (Spoiler alert, the most accurate of all of them might be Jaha.)

Episode 4x11: "The Other Side" May 15, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, where we’re joined by special guest Chash for an emotionsfest about the Blake siblings, the return of Sinclair, Clarke Griffin’s sad perfect lil’ face, and the Abby/Bellamy rebel squad Claire has been craving for 4 whole seasons. Then she left us alone with our feelings to hold each other and cry over Jasper, Monty and Harper. Our giddy enthusiasm for last week’s beautiful one-storyline episode has dimmed somewhat in the face of how many huge emotional moments this week got unfairly short shrift because there was so much going on, but ALL THE CONGRATS to first-time director Henry Ian Cusick for getting such fucking incredible performances out of the whole cast. Also, take a shot every time Chash and Erin pronounce “Bellarke” differently, and don’t miss our outtake on fanfic! https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-the-merits-of-fanfic-with-special-guest-chash 0:00 – Hello and Welcome! Claire Is Not Here Yet, But We Have a Chash! 0:02 – The Battle Over Correct Pronunciation of “Bellarke” Begins Almost Immediately 0:13 – WHAT THE FUCK, MILLER 0:27 – The Decisions Clarke Makes Without Bellamy Are Occasionally Garbage Decisions 0:33 – We Love You, Niylah, But We Wish You Hadn't Let Clarke Off the Hook 0:39 – A Wild Claire Appears, With More Niylarke Thoughts 0:46 – JUST PICK UP THE RADIO AND TALK TO SOMEONE, CLARKE, FFS 0:51 – That Bellarke Gun Scene Was AMAZING, Until It Just...Stopped 0:53 – WHY THE HELL IS JAHA THE EMOTIONAL FOCUS OF THE FINAL SCENE 1:00 – We Feel Cheated Out of Emotional Stakes for Clarke's Choices, Dammit 1:05 – The Real Problem Is That Any Reading of Clarke Is Equally Plausible, So Who TF Knows What's Up with Her 1:12 – BELLABBY RISES 1:16 – KELLABBY RISES 1:22 – SINCLAAAIIIIRRRR 1:26 – Why Was Becca/ALIE So Obsessed with Raven Going to Space? 1:35 – Raven Returns to Her Analog Roots 1:37 – S4 Endgame Vs. Other Seasons' Endgame: We Don't Know What Precisely "Endgame" Looks Like 1:43 – We Really Need Clarke To Have Some Feelings About Jasper and Raven 1:45 – Chash Leaves Us Alone with Our Jasper Feels, and Claire and Erin Get Realer Than Ever About Depression, Mental Health and Suicide 2:20 – We Cannot Overstate How Much We Hated Watching Jasper Turn into Jim Jones 2:35 – Jasper Is the First Key Character We’ve Lost Whose Death Was Not the A-Story 2:45 – The Writer/Audience Relationship Is Complicated 2:49 – THANK YOU EDITKRU WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH

The Merits of Fanfic (with special guest Chash!) May 13, 2017

Professor Erin moderates a panel discussion between two of her favorite fic writers, Claire and Chash, about how fanfic can be a deep and thoughtful way to explore character, as well as also being smutty fluff for pure fun. Along the way we discuss My Little Ponies, why you can love a show and have no interest in participating in fandom for it, writing crazy things on a dare, and why fic friends are the best friends.

Episode 4x10: "Die All, Die Merrily" May 08, 2017

HELLO AND WELCOME BACK TO META STATION, WHERE THE AWESOME SELINA WILKEN FROM HYPABLE JOINS US TO FLAIL ABOUT THE FUCKING AMAZINGNESS OF THIS EPISODE, WHERE WE BID EMOTIONAL GOODBYES TO THREE SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS, CRY WITH BLAKE SIBLING FEELS, FINALLY BEGIN TO LOVE WHERE OCTAVIA’S ARC IS GOING, AND THEN LOSE OUR MIND OVER CLARKE/JAHA/DANTE WALLACE LEADERSHIP PARALLELS WITH THAT INSANE TWIST ENDING P.S. SORRY THIS IS IN ALL-CAPS BUT IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE LOWERCASE FEELINGS ABOUT AN EPISODE THIS FANTASTIC ------------------------------------------- 0:00 - After Our Grumpfest Last Week, This FANTASTIC Episode Has Restored Our Faith in This Season and This Show 0:08 – The Conclave Does Right By Octavia and We Want to Scream Forever About It 0:15 – Let’s Discuss That Gaia and Indra Hug: The Throne Room Scenes Keep the Emotional Stakes Real 0:25 – R.I.P. Ilian kom Trishanakru, Who We Finally Began to Kinda Come Around to Liking During This Episode 0:36 – Octavia kom Skaikru Becomes Octavia kom Everykru By Returning to Her Truest Core Self and Remembering Who Lincoln Really Was 0:49 – Is Season 4 Too Episodic For the Stakes of Big Moments to Carry Forward The Way They Did In Earlier Seasons? 0:55 – We Debate Whether Octilian Needed to Be Sexual Or Not 0:59 – Erin Calls Claire a “Kabby Baby Truther” 1:01 – R.I.P. Luna kom Floukru, Whose Sudden Descent Into Darkness We Have Many Thoughts About 1:14 – A Science Island Thread About Clarke and Luna Would Have Fixed So Many Issues In Both of Their Storylines 1:22 – R.I.P. Roan kom Azgeda, One of This Show’s Most Beautifully-Realized Characters Who We Already Miss Desperately 1:37 – “Before They Were Ruthless Murder Machines, They Were Nerds”: We Love It When the Show Remembers That the Blakes Are Really Smart 1:41 – Bellamy Finally Finds the Balance Between Protecting Octavia and Letting Her Go 1:43 – Drink! Hamilton Reference! 1:49 – Selina Tells Us Her Least Favorite Moment of the Whole Series 1:52 – A Brief Sideline For Claire to Scream Her Family Feels About This Episode’s Next-Level Kellamy Content 1:57 – WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, CLARKE GRIFFIN????: We Are Mixed On Whether That Twist Should Have Come Out of Nowhere, But We All Love the Twist Itself 2:10 – Jaha and Clarke, Self-Proclaimed “Chosen Ones” 2:28 – How Much You Wanna Bet Kidnapping Bellamy and Not Kane Was Part of a Jaha Power Play? I THINK SOMEONE WANTS TO BE CHANCELLOR AGAIN 2:31 – Is the Bunker Storyline Going to Finally Bring Us the Abby/Bellamy Rebel Squad Team-Up of Our Dreams????? 2:40 – Locking the Bunker Doors Is Clarke’s List v2.0 2:47 – We’re Very Excited to Watch the Griffins Fight and the Blakes Reconcile Next Week

Clairin Outtakes - Erin Without Claire May 03, 2017

We had some technical glitches during recording, leaving both of us unable to hear the other one for long stretches at a time. Erin decided to leave Claire a couple of Easter eggs to find while editing.

Clairin Outtakes - All Aboard the Good Ship Mackson May 03, 2017

Y'all, we need to talk about the single most important plot development of episode 409, THE GREATEST SHIP WE NEVER SAW COMING, the potential blossoming new love between one Nathan Miller and one Eric Jackson (side note, CAN YOU BELIEVE ERIC JACKSON GOT A FIRST NAME *AND* A NEW MAYBE-BOYFRIEND THIS SEASON, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WORLD WE LIVE IN please don't kill him you guys seriously please we love him so much)

Episode 4x09: "DNR" May 01, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, after that way-too-long hiatus! We were decidedly 50/50 on this episode, brimming with love and affection for the heartfelt, earned character moments happening in Arkadia and Science Island, and HEAVILY side-eyeing the white savior "Chosen One" business happening over in Polis. (We also hated Octavia's whole storyline, which we posted as a stand-alone segment here: https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/the-octavia-problem) 0:00 - We Were REAL MIXED On this Episode’s Weird Blend of Intimate Character Moments and Bloodthirsty War Boners 0:02 - Murphy and Raven Shattered Our Hearts Into Tiny Pieces WHAT KIND OF GORGEOUS AND IMPECCABLY STRUCTURED CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 0:11 - Murphy Is So Happy to Have a Family Again 0:16 - We Don’t Think Raven’s Actually Going to Die, So What’s the Becca Hallucination Really Trying to Tell Her? 0:28 - Please God Please Let That 412 Plot Description Mean We’re Getting a Princess Mechanic Reunion 0:33 - Erin’s Space Theory Is Amazing 0:39 - Harper Is NOT a Coward: Time For Some Real Talk About Depression and Suicide 0:45 - Drink! “Hamilton” Reference! 0:57 - Our High Hopes For Substantive S4 Jasper & Monty Content Have Basically Been Dashed at This Point 1:03 - Bellamy Gets Sexed Back to Life, Says Goodbye to Two of His Children, and Breaks Our Hearts 1:09 - Original Flavor “YOU HAVE NO FREE WILL” Jaha Stops By For a Quick Visit 1:14 - SINCE WHEN ARE EITHER KANE OR ABBY THIS FUCKING STUPID????????????????? 1:17 - How Is “I Made a Deal With Roan So Fuck Lexa’s Whole Clan” Transcending Tribalism? 1:23 - The Problem With Clarke’s Arc Is that Nobody Can Emotionally Connect to Abstractions 1:39 - This Political Battle For Power Might Land Better If We Had Any Actual Backstory For the Azgeda/Trikru War 1:44 - Claire Gets to Reference Lord John Marbury and Is Very Excited 1:50 - We Gotta Talk About This White Savior Business, Fam 1:57 - It’s Time to Talk About How Badly This Show Handles the Concept of Religion and Faith (HINT: It Doesn’t Inherently Make You Think Science Is the Devil!)

The Octavia Problem Apr 30, 2017

The show's inconsistency in developing any kind of an arc for Octavia is becoming a huge problem in S4. Here's 45 minutes of Claire and Erin breaking down all the Octavia stuff in 409, our concerns about where her plot might be going, our giant question mark about what Ilian's role is supposed to be, and our enormous frustration that the show can't decide from episode to episode who she is. (P.S. the rest of the recap is coming Monday! HINT, we love everything about Arkadia and Science Island and almost nothing about Polis.)

Clairin Outtakes - We Think We're Hilarious Apr 20, 2017

We recorded #408 on April Fool's Day, so obviously we had to take a few minutes to cackle at all y'all's hilarious reactions to our "big announcement" podcast. OH MAN, WE CRACK OURSELVES UP

It's the Meta Station One-Year Anniversary Fan Roundtable! Apr 13, 2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! WE ARE ONE YEAR OLD! Holy mackerel, what a ride it has been. To celebrate our anniversary, as well as hitting our 50,000-downloads milestone, we decided to do a roundtable for Meta Station fans to come hang out with us and get a chance to talk about YOUR most burning questions. Joining us are Caitlin (@cwalsh93 on Twitter, comingupcait on Tumblr), Shannon (@smrmiller on Twitter), and Danielle (@samsjazzff on Twitter, samsjazz on Tumblr). Our fourth guest, Kelly (@kellycowboy on Twitter, falafel14 on Tumblr), apparently made a powerful enemy of ALIE and some technology issues with her microphone forced her to have to drop out before we started, but she stayed on the line with us via chat and sent in messages for Erin to read out so she could still participate, SO SUCK IT, ALIE Anyway, we love you all and we're insanely grateful to have such a fantastic crew of nerd fans, many of whom have become real friends, over the course of this year-long adventure in podcasting. You guys are what make this experience great, and we love each and every one of you from the bottom of our sappy little hearts.

Episode 4x08: "God Complex" Apr 09, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station for our last recap before midseason hiatus! We were thrilled to be joined by two very special guests, @hawthornewhisperer and @knowlesian, who are smart-as-heck analysts of the show and shared all kinds of brilliant insights with us. The delay in getting this recap uploaded was because having multiple people exponentially increases the editing hassle, but we promise it's worth it because these ladies are terrific. We covered 18th century British colonialism, Abby's emotional breakdown, Bill Cadogan's love of wordplay, Clarke and Murphy's relationship, Sassy Nihilist Jasper, how to rave responsibly (hint: bring a backpack), and tons of speculation about where the season might be going next, both things we're hoping for (Becca flashbacks!) and things we're side-eyeing (Commander Clarke???). Come join the lady nerd party! ---------- 0:00 - 100% Not Apologizing For Beginning This Podcast With Twelve Minutes of Jaha Dragging 0:12 – Let’s Talk About Harper 0:23 – Bree, Niylah, and the Occasionally Dubious “Solve Problems With Sex” Trope 0:27 – The Underappreciated Significance of Jasper and Bellamy’s Relationship 0:31 – DRINK! Sarah’s First Pike Reference 0:36 – Everyone Giving Bellamy “Advice” Is Literally Just Describing Themselves 1:01 – “I Bear It So They Don’t Have To” – Clarke’s Leadership Dividing Her From Her People 1:10 – “Welcome to Mt. Weather” – Claire’s a Little Salty That Raven Is Treating Abby Like Dr. Tsing 1:20 – “Don’t Call Her That” – Roan’s Casual Prejudice Shows Us Exactly Why Emori Can’t Trust People 1:25 – That Clarke and Murphy Scene Broke Our Hearts Into Tiny Pieces 1:39 – Clarke and Roan, Sass Siblings 1:43 – We Are Heavily Side-Eyeing This “You Were Born For This” Business 1:55 – “It’s Not Blasphemy, It’s Science” – British Imperialism, Distrust of Technology, ALIE and Cadogan 2:04 – Abby Reaches Her Breaking Point and Paige Deserves a Goddamn Emmy 2:16 – Marcus Kane, a Peacetime Leader Who Sucks at War 2:22 –Hedging Your Apocalypse Bets – We’re Predicting Every Potential Solution Will Come Back In the Endgame 2:26 – DRINK! Sarah Talks About Pike Again 2:28 – Indra 2.0 Is Equal Parts Terrifying Badass, Tragic Hero, and Conflicted Mom 2:39 – Random Final Thoughts: Sarah Has a Finale Theory, Claire Is Going To Scream If Kabby Isn’t Reunited Soon, and WHAT IF CADOGAN WAS THE FIRST FLAMEKEEPER??? 2:53 – Stay Tuned Later This Week For Our Anniversary Fan Roundtable!

Clairin Outtakes - Emotional Knapsack Apr 05, 2017

Thank you all for putting up with our April Fool's Day outtake last week, we promise this one is legit and not just a string of nonsense words! Claire, Erin, and special guests @hawthornewhisperer and @oscarmiked discuss Overprepared Dads Bellamy and Kane, how to rave responsibly, why the Pawnee Goddesses are superior to the Boy Scouts of America, and whether that backpack is a metaphor. Also gold star to anyone who can identify the "Friends" reference in the title of this outtake.

Clairin Outtakes - April Fool's (AKA Erin & Claire's Big Announcement) Apr 01, 2017

This week's episode is delayed while Erin's traveling, but don't worry, fam! We have a once-in-a-lifetime surprise for you to help you fill the hours until Wednesday when the 408 recap goes live. "BUT CLAIRIN WHAT'S THE BIG NEWS???" Listen, if we just told you right here in the track description, what would be the point of listening to hear the amazingness yourself? P.S. there was a ton of wild speculation flying around yesterday about what the surprise could be; some of you already guessed it, and congrats to you! We just ask that you don't tweet spoilers until the end of the day; we want all our fans to get the chance to listen in on this huge moment and hear it all unfold exactly as it happened. --------------------------------------------- P.P.S. April Fool's! :-) This is, of course, not a big exciting announcement, it's a sneak peek into the editing process of making this podcast. The "um cut" is when Erin and I go through and laboriously slice out every individual "um", "uh", "like", rambling half-formed thought, and mumbled nonsense that would make listening to us unbearable for 2.5 hours if we left them all in. For fun, Erin edited a bunch of the garbage together and we've been making ourselves cry-laugh over it for a week. THANK YOU FOR TOLERATING US, WE THINK WE'RE HILARIOUS

Episode 4x07: "Gimme Shelter" - Part 2, Arkadia Mar 27, 2017

Welcome back to Part 2 of our recap of "Gimme Shelter," already one of our faves of the season! Part 1, all about the lady BAMFs of Science Island and their snartastic "ramsi" Murphy, can be found here - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/episode-4x07-gimme-shelter-part-i-science-island Also don't miss the outtake from that section where we learned some hard truths about our very different priorities on postapocalyptic house tours - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-beccas-house And now, please join as we plummet into the depths of emotional despair as Harper, Kane and the Blakes get trapped by the black rain in a crucible of dark and terrible pain from which most of them do not emerge by the end of the episode, DOES ANYONE ELSE SOMETIMES JUST WANT TO THROW IN THE TOWEL AND SWITCH TO "PARKS AND REC" OR SOMETHING BECAUSE JESUS H. CHRIST THIS ONE GOT GRIM --------------------------------------- 0:00 – Story Craft 101: Raise the Stakes By Making Them Smaller 0:08 – This Is Not a Drill: Black Rain Moves the Apocalypse from Abstraction to Reality 0:15 – From the Ashes They Will Rise: Octavia, Bellamy and Kane Hit Rock Bottom 0:21 – If Bellamy Can’t Protect Everyone All the Time, Does He Even Know Who He Is? 0:34 – Fire and Water Imagery in That Octilian Scene 0:46 – Gradually Moving From “IF THIS EPISODE HAS OCTILIAN HATE SEX I QUIT ” to “. . . Okay I Can See It” 0:51 – We’re at Record-High Levels of Optimism About the Show Finally Reckoning With Octavia's Treatment of Bellamy 1:00 – LOL If You Didn’t Think We’d Spend a Full Hour on Kellamy You Must Be New Here 1:16 – Kane’s Season Arc Finally Starts to Emerge 1:22 – “My Sister My Responsibility” and Love Are Not the Same Thing 1:39 – Today On “Erin and Claire Get Super Real About Their Personal Lives”: Purging the False Narratives About Who You Are, Even When It’s Excruciating, Is Progress 1:54 – Next Week, We Have Special Guests! @hawthornewhisperer and @knowlesian on Tumblr Will Be Joining Us For 408 Before We Go Back On Hiatus!

Episode 4x07: "Gimme Shelter - Part I, Science Island Mar 26, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, for a podcast so overloaded with content we had to split it into two parts! Stand by in the next day or so for our epic discussion of the Arkadia storyline, featuring Harper, Kane and the Blakes. In the meantime, please enjoy Murphy making apple-and-walnut risotto, Emori being the world's best con artist, Clarke and Abby having a TINY difference of opinion over what "choice" means, and Abby calling her husband all "hey baby, put Season One Kane on the phone real quick, I need murder advice." GOD THIS EPISODE WAS SO FUCKING GOOD 0:00 – WE ARE VERY ALL-CAPS ABOUT THE EMORI CONTENT IN THIS EPISODE 0:23 – “We Have No Choice” vs. “We Always Have a Choice”: The Griffin Women Debate Ethics 0:39 – "Taking a Life Should Never Be Easy": This Mashup of Season One Kane and Season Four Kane Is LIT

Clairin Outtakes - Becca's House Mar 25, 2017

Join us on a recap of episode 407's architecture porn, in which Erin is skeptical about how Murphy's powering that gas stove while Claire kept freeze-framing to swoon over vases, and we pilfer a segment from our friends over at The Afictionados podcast to do our own "Clarke Griffin Shower Watch."

Clairin Outtakes - Alone Time Mar 22, 2017

Writers left alone too long while on crazy book deadlines make very, very poor life choices.

Clairin Outtakes - Niylarke Mar 21, 2017

In which there is a mild difference of opinion between your two hosts about whether Claire's joke is really hilarious or really stupid.

Episode 4x06: "We Will Rise" Mar 20, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, where Roan is an action hero, Luna is magic, and Niylah is the most emotionally mature person on this show. Also Erin thinks she's figured out a Blake sibling arc we might actually be able to get hyped for, Claire's still crying over how only one of Kane's new daughters wants to hug him, and Jaha remains perched atop the fourth wall. This was a good one, fam. 0:00 – The Nap Rotation Theory 0:02 – Let’s Not Breeze Past the Revelation That Becca Pramheda Kept Toy Cars In Her Place of Work 0:05 – The Unexpected Magic of the Raven/Murphy/Luna Power Trio 0:15 – MURPHY IS LEARNING TO LOVE AND WE’RE EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT 0:20 – Medical Ethics On Science Island: Shit’s About to Get Very Real 0:29 – Erin’s Science Island “Bones” AU 0:31 - WHY CAN’T EVERYONE JUST MOVE INTO THAT PRISTINE TEN-STORY LAB THAT CLEARLY RODE OUT THE FIRST APOCALYPSE JUST FINE 0:34 – Luna’s Magical Healing Effect on Raven’s Brain: These People REALLY Need a Therapist TBH 0:41 – Abby, Clarke and “There Has to Be Another Way” 0:46 – Murphy’s Gonna Have to Land the Rocket, We’re Calling It Right Now 0:47 – Octavia Gets Rebooted Back to Last Season and We Have Some Questions But Are Also Maybe Beginning to Figure Out Where They’re Going With This 1:11 – We Need to Talk About the Blakes’ Deeply Dysfunctional Relationship 1:26 – Erin’s Grand Unified Blake Theory: On Rewatch, We Might Know Where Bellamy’s Arc Is Going and If We’re Right We LOVE IT 1:46 – The Shakespearean Tragedy of Marcus Kane 2:04 – Mad Max: Fury Roan 2:09 – Niylah Is the Actual Best 2:17 – The Eternal Hope of Clarke Griffin 2:20 – “Clarke, If I Never See You Again, [ERIN, FILL IN THE BLANK!]” 2:28 – In Which Our Discussion of "Gimme Shelter" Goes a Bit Sideways

Clairin Outtakes - "Snakes On A Plane" Mar 18, 2017

Claire and Erin go in two very different directions with pop culture references about that Murphy/Raven storyline.

Claire and Erin Interview Sachin Sahel! Mar 09, 2017

Ever wondered why Jackson says "Abby" so much? How the cast prepped to play chipped versions of themselves? What Sachin always thought Jackson's first name should be? What Henry Ian Cusick's hair feels like when you run your fingers through it? Were you perhaps in the market for a Paige-and-Sachin-are-best-friends story no one has heard before, some very light and non-spoilery hints about what's to come on Science Island, or a pair of HAUNTINGLY accurate impressions of Bellamy Blake and Charles Pike? MY FRIEND, YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. We got to hang out via Skype with Sachin Sahel ("Eric" Jackson on "The 100") last week to talk about episode 405 and had the time of our goddamn lives. You will too.

Episode 4x05: "The Tinder Box" Mar 06, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station for our discussion of “The Tinder Box,” where Roan has finally ditched Grandpa Theo’s crown and gotten his mojo back! We had some real structural problems with the Arkadia half of the episode, went crazy with glee at the Doctor Mechanic sci-fi movie in the other half, and continue to spiral into madness over Bill Cadogan theories. Plus Erin takes us to school on the Roman goddess Vesta, and if you’re wondering why Claire doesn’t have an appropriately dramatic reaction to the part where Erin starts talking about GIANT MAGICAL FLAMING PHALLUSES!!?!?!?! it’s because her sound cut out for like a full minute and she missed that whole thing. P.S. Claire STRONGLY considered titling each of the timestamps after Billy Joel songs and actually put an embarrassing amount of thought into it but finally tapped out after not getting any farther than “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “When In Rome.” ------------------------ 0:00 – Riley, Echo and Undead Octavia: There Are Too Many Abby’s Hospitals In This Arkadia Storyline 0:25 – We’ve Got Some Real Problems With the Notion That Clarke Is Suddenly Just Now Transcending Tribalism 0:50 – Our Feelings About Ilian Can Best Be Described as TyraBanksWeWereAllRootingForYou.Gif 1:09 – Y’ALL, WHAT A GOOD MARPER EPISODE THIS WAS???? 1:16 – Welcome to Science Island, Where the Doctor Mechanic Content Hasn’t Kicked This Much Ass Since Season One 1:50 – A Brief Interlude to Discuss Filtering for Character Bias 1:54 – Today On “Conspiracy Corner”: Saint Eligius, the Second Dawn Logo, and SPACE AUSTRALIA 2:06 – Professor Erin’s Vesta Discourse 2:12 – If Season 3 Was The Iliad and Season 4 is The Aeneid, Maybe Season 5 Is the Founding of Rome 2:24 – No New Episode This Week, But Can We Interest You In a Free Sachin Sahel Interview?

Clairin Outtakes - "Ark to the Future" with Sachin Sahel Mar 04, 2017

Erin and special guest Sachin Sahel discuss their fantasy cast for a remake of the "Back to the Future" trilogy featuring members of "The 100" cast.

Episode 4x04: "A Lie Guarded" Feb 26, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, where Claire's continued unspooling over how the hell she became THIS obsessed with Jaha meets Erin's analysis of liminal space and death/rebirth imagery in Octavia's storyline. Also, we pay a visit to Science Island, where the the ladies are badass and the drones are armed. We also take a deep dive into the troubling question of eugenics, find some surprising Monty/Roan parallels, are wrecked as human beings by Bellamy and Kane in that prison scene, and go to some REAL-ASS PLACES about ableism and disability representation. Also, if you haven't had a chance to enjoy this episode's outtake, PLEASE DON'T DEPRIVE YOURSELF - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-horse-woman And don't miss last week's interview with Executive Producer Jason Rothenberg! https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/claire-and-erin-interview-jason-rothenberg ------------ 0:00 – Hello and Welcome and Hey We Talked to Jason Last Week and We’re Still Processing It 0:01 – “What’s Your Game, Thelonious?”: Listen, We’re As Surprised As You Are That This Section is 48 Minutes Long 0:49 – Good News: Jonty Pranks Are Back! Bad News: They’re Kiiiiiinda Fucked Up 0:56 – Jasper/Monty: The O.G. Clarke Supporters 1:09 – Game of Th-Roans (I STAND BY THIS PUN AND I’M NOT APOLOGIZING) 1:16 – Anyway Don’t Think About How Kane Is the Only Person Left Who Genuinely Values the Dual Sides of Octavia’s Nature and Now He Thinks He Killed Her 1:27 – Octavia LITERALLY Hits Rock Bottom (I’M SORRY, I HAD TO) 1:35 – This Is What It Looks Like When Echo Makes an Effort 1:42 – R.I.P. Nyko, Trikru’s #1 Abby Griffin Stan 1:49 - Let's Talk About Disability Representation Because This Episode NAILED IT 2:01 - That Raven/Luna Scene, Y'All 2:07 - Time For Some Becca/Cadogan Conspiracy Theories! 2:18 - Luna's Blood, Harper's Dad, and Cultural Narratives About Race: Let's Talk About Eugenics 2:42 - Bob Morley Deserves an Emmy But Also We Can Never Watch that Prison Scene Again 2:46 - See You Next Week for More Bellamy Angst Probably

Clairin Outtakes - Horse Woman Feb 25, 2017

Erin invents a new superhero named Horsewoman and Claire tells a nightmare-inducing story about a Dutch performance artist. Two out of two hosts rate this "the most macabre outtake we've ever done."

Claire and Erin Interview Jason Rothenberg! Feb 23, 2017

We can't believe this either, but we just spent an hour and a half talking to Jason Rothenberg! He approached us 2 weeks ago to tell us he's a fan of the podcast and would love to come talk to us, WHICH IS INSANE TO US TO YOU GUYS, FOR REAL, and ended up giving us a full hour longer than we were scheduled. To get this up as fast as possible, we've edited nothing, so please forgive Skype glitches, interruptions, lots of "um", and all of us talking over each other. But we had a fantastic, complex conversation on everything from leadership themes in season 4 to fandom and social media. Anyway, we need to go walk it off because like WE SORT OF STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED???, but we hope you enjoy!

Episode 4x03 - "The Four Horsemen" Feb 19, 2017

Hello and welcome back to Meta Station, where the world is ending and everything is terrible! But don't worry, because Jackson, Nyko and Dad Miller are back. Also Raven gets a taste of what it's like to be Clarke every day, Octavia gets a new sister maybe, the ponytail's a good look on Ilian, Claire's neck and neck with Jaha for "Who's More Weirdly Obsessed with Bill Cadogan?", ain't no nuclear apocalypse gonna bring down Luna, and Murphy is going to get adopted by Abby Griffin whether he wants to or not. THIS SEASON JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER -------------------------------------------- 0:00 – Things Get a Little Loopy, Erin Can’t Say “Bagel,” and This Is the Longest Intro We’ve Ever Done 0:06 – Welcome to the Big Time, Kid!: Octavia Passed Her Murder Audition and Gets a Callback 0:10 – “One Life to Save Thousands”: This Time, It’s the Kids’ Turn to Make the Calls 0:18 – Underneath all the Stabby Blood Lust, Octavia Still Has a Soft Spot for Families 0:32 – The Representation Conversation: Why It Matters That Indra Isn’t Stereotypically Maternal 0:38 – What a Convenient Time to Stumble Upon a Nightblood Scout /What an Inconvenient Time for the Sudden Rise of a Violent Anti-Technology Cult 0:52 – HELL YES the Abby/Nyko Hospital Plot They Dropped After 302 Comes ROARING BACK 0:57 – Raven Reyes and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day 1:14 – LISTEN GUYS IT’S NOT EXACTLY EASY BEING THE COMMANDER OF DEATH OKAY 1:25 – “I Don’t Even Know If YOU Know Why You Do the Things That You Do, Murphy” 1:40 – Underappreciated Episode Highlight: Father/Son Guard Duty! 1:46 – “Any Cult In a Storm”: Jaha’s New Crush on Doomsday Prophet/Con Man Bill Cadogan 1:52 – The 13th Bunker: Lifeboats, Finale Spec and Wacko Conspiracy Theories 2:02 – And We Close With Erin, Once Again, Not Being Able to Say “Bagels”

Clairin Outtakes - Claire's Pregnant Abby Conspiracy Theory Feb 18, 2017

The inside of Claire's head is like a conspiracy theorist's wall full of random news clippings and red string. Moderately NSFW.

Hey So Erin Do You Have Some Thoughts On Bellarke Or . . . Feb 18, 2017

You asked, we delivered. To tide you all over until the full 403 episode recap goes up on Sunday, here’s 50+ minutes of pure, unfiltered Bellarke, for those of you who might be interested in such a thing. We laughed, we cried (no, literally), we flailed, we analyzed, we discussed “Day Trip” and Abby/Bellamy parallels (look for Claire’s wacko tin-hat conspiracy theory about this in the episode outtakes later this week), and also we love each other so much it’s GROSS. Enjoy!

Clairin Outtakes - Writing to Your Cast Feb 15, 2017

Erin and Claire talk about how "The 100" writers' room adapts story to fit the skills of their actors, and raves about how much we love this cast.

Episode 4x02 - "Heavy Lies the Crown" - Part 2 Feb 13, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station for part 2 of our podcast! We covered Polis and Arkadia before Jo had to leave, so we then spent another hour and a half on Clarke/Jaha and Farm Station. SO! MANY! LEADERSHIP! PARALLELS! God this was a good fucking episode. This is a tricky one to timestamp because it’s kind of just Claire and Erin having a conversation about Culling parallels, S1 callbacks, the whole Clarke/Bellamy/Raven = Jaha/Abby/Jake thing, moral choices and leadership styles, which circles back to a lot of the same themes over and over again. But like LOOSELY, here is a general outline: 0:00 –How the Actual Hell Do We Have 40 Minutes of Thoughts on Thelonious Jaha, Ark/Delinquent Leadership Parallels, and Isaiah Washington’s Acting Choices? IDK BUT WE FUCKIN’ DO 0:40 – The Loudest Erin Has Ever Laughed at Claire In the History of Meta Station 0:48 – Ethical Frameworks, Personal Values, and That Farm Station Scene 0:58 – Bryan and Miller Broke Our Damn Hearts, Y’All 1:09 – Original Flavor Bellamy Is Back 1:21 – We’re Dead with Joy Over the Return of Characters Driving the Plot, Instead of Plot Driving the Characters 1:24 – If We HAD to Find a Bone to Pick . . . 1:31 – Claire Loves Iambic Pentameter a Little Too Much

Episode 4x02: "Heavy Lies the Crown" - Part 1 Feb 13, 2017

RILEYS AND GENTLEMEN! Welcome back to Meta Station, where we are joined by a special guest - the wonderful Jo Garfein, host of The Dropship and our IRL friend after we spent an awesome weekend hanging out together at Unity Days. This is technically part 3 of 2 (yes, you heard that right); we recorded the Polis and Arkadia half of the podcast with Jo, then the Farm Station half after she left, but then had some major technical glitches and re-recorded with Jo again two nights later. So this is our second attempt at a conversation among the three of us, and in order to get it uploaded on time, it has not been edited very heavily; we apologize in advance for how often we say "um" PLEASE DON'T HATE US Stand by for Part 2, coming up next! 0:00 - Intros: SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST! Also Jo Garfein Is Here, Thanks Be to Riley 0:02 – Blue Butterflies and Creepy AI’s: Welcome to Ilian’s Hippie Commune 0:09 – It Took Less Than Ten Minutes For Jo to Bring Up the Fact That Claire Still Hasn’t Watched “Lost” Even Though She Promised She Would In Like July and She’s Very Sorry 0:15 – Trishanakru Is Descended From Burning Man: or, “Shout-Out to My Sister’s Ex-Fiance Troy” 0:20 – Darktavia is Rising and We’re All Very Gay For It 0:30 – “How to Care For Your Adopted Teenage Assassin: A Manual for New Parents” (Good Luck, Kane) 0:40 – I Mean, She’s No Riley, But We’re Really Feeling Echo (and Her Potential to Fuck Shit Up in Arkadia) 0:50 – CLAIRE IS THE HUMAN EQUIVALENT OF ALL-CAPS ABOUT THE KABBY SEX SCENE WHICH WILL PROBABLY SURPRISE EXACTLY ZERO OF OUR LISTENERS 0:54 – Jake Griffin, Forever In Our Hearts 1:00 – Oh Sweet Mother of God, Erin’s Sound Effects Are Back 1:08 – Claire Gets Real About Dead Parent Feels for a Second 1:11 – Jo and Riley: Co-Presidents of the Clarke Griffin Fan Club 1:13 – That Good Earth Cleavage 1:17 – PRINCESS MECHANIC IS BACK ON TOP! Riley Would Pick Them BOTH First 1:23 – Clarke/Raven/Bellamy = Jaha/Jake/Abby v2.0 1:26 – “We All Have Battle Scars”: Raven, Lindsey, and the Representation Conversation 1:30 – “I Don’t Like Mondays”: How Is Riley Going to Help Jasper? 1:38 – Harper and Bellamy Family Feels 1:40 – Like Season One All Over Again (This Time, With 100% More Riley!) 1:41 – Clarke’s “Live Together, Die Alone” Speech (DRINK, Jo Made Another “Lost” Reference!) 1:48 – Murphy’s Back Next Week! REUNITED WITH RILEY AFTER ALL THIS TIME! Also, Can Emori Join the Lady Tech Squad? 1:54 – What the Hell, Put Niylah on the Lady Tech Squad Too 1:56 – End of Part I, Get Ready For Part Two, ALL ABOUT RILEY

Episode 4x01: "Echoes" Feb 06, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station, for the first of our weekly Season 4 recaps! We're crazypants excited about this episode and can't wait to yell about it with you! And don't forget to stop by the "Outtakes" playlist for bonus content from this episode; we talked for about 45 minutes about that Kane/Bellamy scene, and also did some giggling about Roan's dorky crown. You can find all that fun here - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/welcome-to-meta-meta-station-or-the-great-kellamy-debate-of-2017 https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/clairin-outtakes-dopey-lies-the-crown -------------------------------------------------------- 0:00 – *Octavia Blake voice* WE’RE BACK, BITCHES! 0:03 – The Jasper of It All: Dear Show, Please Don’t Fuck This Up 0:13 – Erin Gets Real About Mental Health 0:29 – Supergenius Raven + Bravenlarke Rising 0:33 – Hot Damn We Have a Lot of Jokes About Extended Warranties for Nuclear Power Plants 0:38 – We Would Like to Place an Order for One Backstory with a Side of Plot Agency for Harper 0:43 – Our Murphamy Hopes Were Dashed, But We’re Psyched About Memori 0:58 – The Polis A-Story: Or, Holy Shit It’s Great to Have the Whole Gang Back Together 1:11 – The Badass Bellarke Leader Squad Is Back on Top Where They Belong 1:25 – Clarke and the Flame: In Which the Show Does Justice to Lexa and the Reality of Grief 1:43 – Clarke & Kabby vs. Octavia & Jasper: Choosing Life vs. Choosing Death 1:49 – The Bellarke/Kabby Power Squad 1:56 – R.I.P. the Azgeda Guards Too Dumb to Spot the Ol’ Live-Person-in-a-Body-Bag Trick 1:59 – HOT TAKE: Roan Is the Lincoln of Azgeda 2:11 – Claire Hates Saying “Heavy Lies the Crown” Because Misquoting Shakespeare Makes Her Stabby; Also, See You Next Week With A SPECIAL GUEST????

Welcome to Meta Meta Station: Or, The Great Kellamy Debate of 2017! Feb 06, 2017

Welcome to Meta Meta Station, where Erin and Claire having an exceptionally rare moment of strong disagreement about how to interpret that Kane and Bellamy scene from the end of 401 turned into one of our favorite-ever conversations, where we meta about meta and unpack all the different ways we interpret story to figure out why one of us liked it and one of us disliked it. SPOILER ALERT: it turned out to have almost nothing to do with which one of the two is our most fave.

Clairin Outtakes - Dopey Lies the Crown Feb 04, 2017

We had some thoughts about Roan's crown in the Season 4 premiere. And by "thoughts" we mean "cackling with hysterical laughter."

Unity Days Recap (Featuring Tons of Special Guests!) Jan 24, 2017

Welcome back to Meta Station! We’re back from the magnificently delirious weekend of nerd fun which was Unity Days 2017, and we’re here to tell you all about it! Joining us are special guests Brittany Rae and Robyn Jeffrey (formerly of The Giantist, now co-hosts of the Afictionados podcast network) and Sam Coley of TellTaleTV, who – along with The Dropship’s Jo Garfein – were our fellow panelists for the Unity Days Friday night Meta Panel, where we answered fan-submitted questions and meta prompts about the show. For those of you who missed the fun live, we’ll recap our weekend experience, from the best questions we got at the panel to our favorite cast member encounters to the most exciting season 4 tidbits we picked up along the way. We also got way too many meta questions submitted to answer live at the panel, so we’re recreating the magic here and answering a few more of our favorites on air that we weren’t able to get to at Unity Days, discussing everything from Hogwarts to My Little Ponies. And stay tuned at the end of the podcast to hear our post-Unity Days conversation with Caitlin Walsh and Kelsey Juntwait of Talk Nerdy With Us, recorded in our hotel room right after the con ended, with more fun stories about cast encounters and nerdy fun. Thanks so much to Leana Santos, Miah Bannerman, the whole staff and volunteers of Unity Days, and of course the amazing cast of “The 100” for a totally amazing weekend we will never forget! We’re even more hyped for S4 than we were before!

Season 4 Trailer: Predictions and Flailing! (UNEDITED) Dec 15, 2016

Kabby sex! Bellarke snuggles! Dark Octavia! Power vacuum in in Polis! Drones chasing Raven! Radiation! Explosions! Literal, actual, mountains of corpses! There was a LOT to unpack in the Season 4 trailer, and we are HELLA FUCKING PSYCHED about the direction the show seems to be headed in. So like .... of course we had two hours' worth of things to say about it. Two vital disclaimers about the following podcast: 1) We wanted to get our s4 predictions up the day the trailer aired, so this was a quick and dirty version. We have not edited at all. Like, at ALL. So try not to think of it like a nice, polished, cleaned-up podcast and more like you’re eavesdropping on a Claire and Erin phone call – which begins (as they all do) with hysterical giggling, and ends (as they all do) with Erin’s husband telling us to get off the phone because we’ve been talking for way too long. It is rambly and interrupty and there is background noise and coughing and it does not sound fancy or professional in ANY WAY, so just know that going into it. We usually spend many, many hours on cleanup to whittle down 4 hours of rambling into a 2-hour podcast, but now you get to hear how we actually talk. 2)Today Erin discovered how to use our recording software’s sound effects feature. For this, we apologize in advance.

Episode 1x06: "His Sister's Keeper" Oct 17, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station for the first of our “Who Are We Kidding Ourselves We Can’t Possibly Cover Two Episodes at Once, Let’s Just Go Back To Giving Each of Them Two Hours As the Good Lord Intended” podcasts. Erin says “hegemonic” but also refers to the Grounders as “Juggalo Murder Clowns”, we finally find something nice to say about Finn, and we both get a little real about our own families while crying over the Blakes. This one is a RIDE, y’all. 0:00 – INTRODUCTION! Claire’s 35 Now and Erin Has Been Chasing a Spider For Four Hours 0:02 – “I’ve Abandoned All Pretense of Journalistic Integrity”: In Which We Discuss the Most Charitable, and the Least Charitable, Interpretations of Finn’s Behavior In This Episode 0:11 – Finn/Raven and Bellamy/Octavia Parallels (NOT IN A GROSS WAY, This Podcast Is a Blakecest-Free Zone) 0:22 – Raven and Clarke Subvert The Love Triangle Trope 0:30 – “Use Your Words, Lincoln” 0:40 – From John Locke to Juggalos: Season One’s Problematic Grounder World-Building 1:01 – A Lengthy Digression In Which We Yell About Tropes and Racism 1:14 – Aurora Blake and The Dark Underbelly of Ark Society 1:20 – Like Mother, Like Son: Aurora and Bellamy’s Parenting Techniques 1:35 – Bellamy, Your Trust Issues With Grownups Are Showing 1:38 – The Moment Where Both Clarke, and Erin, Begin to Come Around on Big Brother Bellamy 1:44 – The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Blake Fight 1:54 – Same Parents, Different Childhood: Bellamy and Octavia Can’t Really See Each Other 2:01 – Tragedies of Good Intentions Make Very Good Television 2:07 – The Stealth Feminism of This Show’s Familial and Platonic Relationships 2:11 – Jasper’s Performative Masculinity: Or, Erin Solves Our “Linctavia vs. Jactavia” Timeline Problem

Clairin Outtakes - Compliment Sandwich Sep 28, 2016

Erin and Claire take a break from discussing Finn to unpack the etymology of the phrase "compliment sandwich."

Episode 1x05: "Twilight's Last Gleaming" Sep 25, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station! After a not-entirely-planned hiatus due to an avalanche of Life Stuff for both of us, we’re back with the second half of our 104/105 podcast! LET’S HAVE SOME FEELS ABOUT THE CULLING, MY DUDES! It turns out that the answer to “Are Claire and Erin, in fact, capable of covering an entire episode in just over an hour?” is “Yes, if it is preceded by five hours of watching two episodes back-to-back and then discussing another episode and it is very late and we are tired and punchy and our brains are mostly dead.” Don’t worry, I edited out all the parts where one of us just sort of . . . . trailed off into nowhere. THERE WERE A LOT. 0:00 - Nope, No Intro, Just STRAIGHT Into the Jake Flailing 0:08 – So We're All Agreed That the Culling Storyline Is the Best Thing This Show Has Ever Done, Yes? 0:12 – The Tragedy of the Culling Is That Everyone To Blame Was Just Trying To Save Someone Else 0:16 – It's Time For Another Installment of "Why Is Jaha the Worst?" 0:17 – "He's the Jafar of the Ark": Kane, Jaha, and the One Line of Dialogue That Makes Claire Want to Scream 0:23 - Time For Some Ark/Ground Leadership Parallels! 0:27 - KABBY IS RISING! 0:29 - Let's Crash Down From the Ark Storyline to the Earth Storyline With Our Girl Raven, Who Instantly Makes Everything 100000% Better In Every Way 0:40 - Strap In, For It Is Time To Scream About the Love Triangle and Finn Collins' Total Absence of Narrative Purpose 0:55 - Erin Sings the Song and Claire Has Some Questions For the Writers 0:59 – Hey, Remember When the Show Was Trying to Make Jactavia Happen? 1:06 - . . . And Then We Trail Off To a Very Abrupt and Exhausted End I DON'T THINK THIS TWO-AT-A-TIME PLAN IS WORKING, WE'RE GOING BACK TO ONE AT A TIME FROM NOW ON

Episode 1x04: "Murphy's Law" Aug 12, 2016

Welcome back, fam! We ended up with so much to say about 104 and 105 that we split this podcast into two sections, one for each episode, to keep from making our heads explode with editing craziness. So you’ll notice that this one kind of ends abruptly without an outro, and the next one will start right in without an intro, but like I TRUST THAT WE’LL ALL GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER. Anyway, please join us for the rollercoaster ride of “Murphy’s Law,” for our money the first truly great episode of this show. Charlotte! Nygel! Murphy! Vera! Raven! Flarke sex! The legacy of Wells! Unexamined racism and misogyny! An intro we recorded after we’d been talking for four hours and were beginning to absolutely lose our damn minds! STRAP IN KIDDOS, THIS EPISODE’S A RIDE 0:00 – I Can’t EVEN Describe to You How Cracked-Out This Intro Is 0:02 – Today on “Tumblr Asks with Erin”: “Is Wells’ Death Racist?” 0:12 – Wells’ Legacy: Forcing the Camp to Get Its Shit Together 0:19 – Scapegoats and Cassandras: The Tragedy of John Murphy (With Sidelines Into the Rise of Dad!Bellamy, the Death of Charlotte, and the Beginnings of Societal Cohesion) 0:52 – Abby’s Wristbands as Ark/Earth Connective Plot Thread 0:56 – Emotional Labor, Immature Men, and Clarke’s Sex Amnesia: Time for Another Installment of “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Finn Collins?” (SONG INCLUDED!) 1:21 – Nygel, Raven/Abby/Kane Character Development, and the Seedy Underbelly of Ark Society 1:28 – Marcus Kane Is Still His Mother’s Son

Clairin Outtakes - Shakespeare & Klingon Aug 07, 2016

To tide you over while we get the next podcast up, please enjoy Claire and Erin sharing the Shakespearean pronunciation of "Bellarke" and the Klingon pronunciation of "Kabby." #peaknerd

Episode 1x02 & 1x03: "Earth Skills"/"Earth Kills" Aug 01, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station for the first of our S1 doubleheaders! HOLY BEJEESUS THIS ONE WAS A TECHNICAL NIGHTMARE, sorry it took us forever to get it uploaded and apologies in advance for any sound issues. Hopefully all the Wells and Jake will be worth it. MAN WE LOVE THOSE DUDES. Join us for an exciting adventure through our first show flashback, Erin’s mindblowing theory about Wells Jaha and invisible labor, the introduction of Raven, the tragedy of Charlotte, Kane and Abby squaring off in the Council meeting and kicking the Culling plot into high gear, and the show’s first steps toward a definitive shift away from CW teen drama. Get your tissues out, fam, because we had a LOT of feelings about Jake and Wells in this one. 0:00 – In Which Erin Legit Forgets How Old She Is 0:01 – In Which We Nostalgically Recollect Those Naïve Youthful Days When We Thought Kane Was the Asshole and Jaha Was the Good Guy 0:06 – In Which We Meet the Magnificent Raven Reyes 0:14 – Faith and Hope vs. 100 More Lives: Kane and Abby’s Council Meeting 0:22 – In Which We Present Our New Segment, “Why Jaha Is the Worst in This Episode” 0:33 – In Which We Jump in the Way-Back Machine to Go Fall in Love with Jake Griffin 0:50 – In Which We Discuss Wells Jaha, Invisible Man 1:00 – In Which Wells and Thelonious Are Not at ALL Like Father, Like Son 1:07 – Griffins and Grudges: Clarke and Wells and Forgiveness 1:20 – In Which Erin Won’t Sing the Finn Collins Song and Claire Threatens to Quit 1:23 – In Which the Answer to “What’s Wrong with a Little Chaos?” is “EVERYTHING, BELLAMY” 1:31 – In Which Atom’s Death Is the First Real Turning Point in Clarke and Bellamy’s Relationship 1:41 – In Which Murphamy Is Rising 1:49 – In Which the Narrative Shifts Bellamy from Villain to Foil 1:53 – In Which the Male Gaze On Octavia Is Early S1’s Biggest Feminist Fail 2:02 – R.I.P. Wells Jaha, Too Good for This World 2:11 – In Which We Have a Lot of Feels Over the Tragedy of Charlotte and the Ark’s Children 2:27 - In Which We Thank You Profoundly For Enduring This Far-Longer-Than-Usual Rant IT’S REALLY HARD TO DO TWO EPISODES IN TWO HOURS BUT WE PROMISE WE’RE TRYING

Episode 1x01: "Pilot" Jul 15, 2016

"WE'RE BACK, BITCHES!" --Octavia Blake (and also us) Welcome back to Meta Station for the launch of our hiatus S1-S2 rewatch! We're kicking off with the pilot, about which you will be unsurprised to learn that we had a LOT to say. Join us for a trip down memory lane to talk about all your late lamented faves - Wells! Finn! Jake! Callie! Shumway! HA HA JUST KIDDING NOBODY LIKES SHUMWAY - along with Ark politics, class structure, character development, leadership parallels on the Ark and the ground, why Jaha saving Abby actually makes him terrible, the tonal shift from "CW teen drama" to "dark dystopian sci-fi", the origin story of both our ships, why Wells is the greatest and Finn is the worst, the glorious majestic wonderfulness of the Griffin women, and how despite S1 taking a few episodes to really find its footing, the pilot works remarkably well as a pilot. ALSO! Stay tuned at the end because we have A VERY! SPECIAL! ANNOUNCEMENT! ABOUT! A THING! Claire's really bad at keeping secrets so WE'RE REALLY EXCITED WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS NOW Yay! We missed you! Hope you enjoy the episode and tune back in on 7/28 for our next podcast where we'll be discussing "Earth Skills" and "Earth Kills". Thanks for tuning in! ------------------------------------ 0:00 – HELLO AND WELCOME BACK AND SPOILER WARNING 0:02 – Clarke Griffin: Immediately Kickass Protagonist 0:09 – Rule Followers vs. Rule Breakers 0:12 – Um of Course Claire Can Quote the Kabby Arrest Scene Verbatim What the Hell Kind of Question is That Erin 0:22 – Soooooo, We Have to Talk About Finn 0:31 – Erin’s New Segment: “Why Is Jaha the Worst in This Episode?” 0:36 – Casual Reminder That S1 of This Show Is ALL About Class Conflict 0:39 – R.I.P. Wells Jaha, Literally Too Good for This World: Part I 0:45 – “Loopholes for the Privileged”: The Ark’s Fucked-Up Social Hierarchy 0:52 – R.I.P. Wells Jaha, Literally Too Good for This World: Part II 0:58 – ERIN SINGS! … And Then We Yell About Finn Some More 1:15 – The Secret Theme of This Show Is “Everyone Does Crazy Things For Love” 1:27 – We Haven’t Talked About Bellamy Yet and Erin’s Getting Twitchy 1:45 - GOD THIS CAST IS SO GOOD 1:50 - “She’s Got the Leslie Knope Problem”: The Truest Thing Anyone Has Ever Said About Clarke Griffin’s Leadership Skills 1:57 - Clarke/Kane and Bellamy/Abby Leadership Parallels 2:08 - A VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT A VERY COOL THING WITH SOME VERY SPECIAL GUESTS!

Episode 3x16: "Perverse Instantiation, Part II" May 29, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station for our VERY LAST episode recap of the season! Join us for a madcap romp through dueling A.I.’s, the triumphant return of Jonty, the Murphy/Abby duo we never knew we needed, a surprisingly satisfying closure to Bellamy’s arc, PLOT-RELEVANT ADULTS, the (real or not real? We’re not sure) return of Lexa and Becca, and Super-Genius Raven saving the day. Also, R.I.P. Pike. #neverforget 0:01 – “My Brain Is All Kinds of Awesome” – Our Only Beef With Raven Is That There Wasn’t Twelve More Hours of Her 0:12 – “Just Another Day On the Ground” – John Murphy, Grumpy and Reluctant Hero 0:30 – “I Know This World Can Suck, But At Least It’s Real” – Jasper, Monty and the Honest Ugliness of Grief 045 – “Only If They Get Past You” – Kane, Abby, and the Revolutionary Notion of Letting the Adults Actually Do Stuff In the Finale, THANKS BE TO GOD (also featuring a brief sidebar discussion about military ethics) 1:03 – “I Don’t Want That For You” – After the Hot Mess of 3A Bellamy, the Writers Finally Stuck the Landing 1:21 – “’Blood Must Have Blood” – This Show Has an Octavia Problem 1:31 – “There’s Still Hope” – Clarke, Lexa, Becca and ALIE in the City of Light 1:50 – So Long, Farewell. Auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight

Meta Station Presents: A Very Special Interview With Michael Beach! May 22, 2016

We can’t believe this happened either, but we got to interview the completely delightful Mike Beach for a very special edition of Meta Station! Tune in to find out who his on-set drinking buddies were, how he approached the craft of creating Pike’s character, what got cut out of that Kane/Pike arrest scene that we missed, his arc over the course of the season, the ways editing shapes how we view a character, and how all the pieces of making a TV show fit together. Plus Claire nags him to post the rest of his behind-the-scenes photos and Erin asks him a question he’s never been asked in an interview before.

Episode 3x15: "Perverse Instantiation, Part I" May 16, 2016

EXPLOSIONS AND STABBINGS AND TORTURE, OH MY! For real, fam, when was the last time an hour of television worked so hard to make you pass out from sheer hysterical panic? The reviews are in, and 100% of the hosts of this podcast describe “Perverse Instantiation, Part I” as “one of the most goddamn stress-inducing TV episodes of all time.” (Who are we kidding, next week will be worse, but Erin’s coming to Portland so at least we can huddle on the couch together and scream at each other in real time instead of two time zones apart via text.) With all our precious babies more or less in the same plot now, we decided to break this down by character instead of storyline. Murphamy made our hearts leap, Kindra will never die, Jonty is on the rocks, we’re OBSESSED with Roan, Abby literally destroyed us as human beings, Briller is so cute they’re probably doomed, the Blakes are rising, Ontari is getting whatever the exact opposite of a character development arc is, and the Bellarke subtext is becoming text so fast that even ALIE is onto them. STRAP IN, KIDS, IT’S FINALE TIME (P.S. ALIE hacked into my laptop and there are a handful of weird sound things happening from time to time I'M SORRY DON'T HATE ME I'M STILL NEW AT THIS SHIT) 0:00 – Professor Erin’s Crash Course on the Meaning of the Episode Title 0:02 – We Have a Fancy New Tumblr, Y’all! (www.metastation.tumblr.com) Send Us Your Perversest Instantiations WAIT WHAT 0:05 – The Abrupt and Inexplicable Sabotaging of Jasper’s Spectacular Season 3 Arc 0:37 – The Geek Squad Is Rising: Monty and Raven Save the Day 0:46 – We Have No Chill About Roan 0:59 – FUCKIN' JAHA, MAN 1:01 – Pike and Indra Bring the Season’s Themes Home 1:06 – “The Dead Can’t Help Us”: Octavia Learns to Let Go 1:19 – We Were Not Prepared for Our Murphamy Feels to Be This Violent and Overwhelming 1:26 – SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST: Why Is Bellamy Repeating His S1 Character Arc? 1:43 – “Stubborn Like Her Mother”: Clarke and Abby and the Scene That Almost Broke Us 1:56 – Finale Death Predictions, Season 4 Speculation, and a Very Exciting Announcement!

Episode 3x14: "Red Sky at Morning" May 11, 2016

Well hello, sailors! Welcome aboard a very special maritime edition of “Meta Station at Sea,” where an oceanic oil rig full of pacifist isolationists and their badass queen drop some much-needed truth bombs on our seafaring Adventure Squad. Meanwhile, back on dry land, Pindra is rising, we take a surprisingly metaphysical side trip into discussing the nature of human consciousness, and Monty has a big day. Also, join us for our newest segment, “Mystery or Plot Hole?”, where we try to figure out how the ever-living hell ALIE got onto the oil rig or found out Sinclair was dead. ANCHORS AWEIGH! (P.S. I had like nine other boat puns I could have used here and chose not to, YOU’RE WELCOME) 0:00 – Sailors, Take Warning 0:01 – INDRA’S PRISON RULES: Step 1, Make a Shiv. Step 2, Stand in the Corner and Wait. 0:04 – Hello, I Would Like to Place an Order for a “Three’s Company”-Style Spinoff Sitcom Starring the Reluctant Hero Trifecta 0:10 – Emori, Hannah, Derrick, ALIE and “Love Is Weakness” 0:19 – ALIE vs. Princess Mechanic: Erin’s Super-Awesome Finale Speculations 0:27 – Monty Green, American Hero 0:29 – Does ALIE Just Have Brain Data or Also Souls? (Also If Everyone in the CoL Is Linked Then Did EVERYONE Have Sex with Murphy?) 0:45 – “All You Know How to Do Is Fight”: The Octavia Blake Story 1:02 – And Now It’s Time for Some Luna Flailing 1:08 – In Which the Library Is Open and Luna Reads Clarke to Filth 1:13 – Luna’s Oil Rig: Crucial Plot Development or Random Side Trip? 1:17 – No More Season Finale Genocide for Clarke 2K16 1:28 – Luna Thinks Isolationism Is the Only Path to Peace UR FAVE IS PROBLEMATIC 1:32 – Today on “Mystery, Or Plot Hole?”: Floukru’s Ambassador, Harper/Monty, Something Something Drones, Jacopo Sinclair, Who Took the Chip, and those Goddamn Sneak Peek Set Photos 1:51 – Time For One Last Luna Flail 1:52 – NIGHTBLOOD BABIES??? 1:55 – Roan’s Back Next Week, LOOK AROUND LOOK AROUND AT HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW

Episode 3x13: "Join Or Die" May 03, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station! Kane's in the City of Light with his wife, Pike's on the world's most incongruous rebel squad, we were wrong about Luna being dead, sassy Jasper is back, the Blakes will rise, and Jaha is garbage. Also there's a Kabby kiss AND a Bellarke hug, LOOK AROUND, LOOK AROUND AT HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW 0:00 – Love Means Never Having to Call Shotgun 0:03 – Octavia and Bellamy Finally Make Some Progress, THANK GOD 0:07 – Okay but We Call Bullshit On Octavia Making That Fire with Wet Wood 0:16 – This Is the Part Where Erin Screams About Bellarke, SORRY NOT SORRY 0:21 – Wanheda, Vera Kane, Atonement and Forgiveness 0:35 – Bible Study With Claire, Part 1: “Jus Drein Jus Daun” vs. ”An Eye For an Eye” 0:42 – Seriously Can Someone Explain Why Bellamy and Lexa Aren’t Allowed to Be Important to Clarke at the Same Time Because We Think It’s Garbage 0:48 – THE HUG! 0:53 – DELINQUENT FLASHBACKS! 1:00 – Welcome Back to “Pike Apologism with Claire”, Today We’ll Be Discussing How JAHA IS THE FUCKING WORST 1:07 – Unity vs. Division, Enemies Within, and the Pike/Indra/Murphy Rebel Squad of Our Dreams 1:13 – Bible Study with Claire, Part 2: Excuse Me, Do You Have a Moment for Our Lord and Savior Marcus Kane? 1:16 – Unity Day Was Bullshit and Also Erin Hilariously Can’t Pronounce It, I Left In One But She Seriously Fumbled It Like 3 Times 1:19 – Has Jaha Fucked Up ALIE Way More Than ALIE Has Fucked Up Jaha? TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES 1:25 – A Veritable Kentucky Derby’s Worth of Trojan Horses 1:27 – Strong Minds, ALIE’s 3% Rejection Rate, and Kabby (Hopefully) Rebelling in the City of Light 1:33 – This Is the Part Where Claire Screams About Kabby, SORRY NOT SORRY 1:43 – Here’s a Story About How Claire Has No Chill 1:44 – Luna kom Floukru: The Hero Gotham Needs and Deserves 1:54 – We’re Shipping Luntavia and We’re Not Apologizing (Also, R.I.P. Bartender Mechanic)

Episode 3x12: "Demons" Apr 25, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station for an analysis of the slasher film bottle episode "Demons," where only Monty Green knows what movie he's in. DON'T FOLLOW THE CREEPY MUSIC! 0:01 – The One Where There’s No Stockholm Syndrome in Polis, But Murphy Still Can’t Escape His Lady Problems 0:06 – The One with Jaha’s Creepy Special Relationship with ALIE 0:10 – The One Where Erin Knows the Key to Claire’s Heart Is a Cristo Redentor Reference 0:12 – The One with Post-A.I. Genius Super-Raven 0:19 – The One Where Robots Cannot Understand Love 0:23 – The One Where If Emori Isn’t Luna, Who Is? 0:29 – The One with Claire’s Hilarious Kabby Meltdown 0:40 – The One Where Monty and Clarke Can’t Let Go 0:45 – The One Where Jasper Is Actually Braver Than Everybody Else 0:52 – The One with Miller’s Ghost Story 0:55 – The One with Emerson, the Flame, and Erin’s Genius Atonement Theory 1:01 – The One with the Requisite (Albeit Accidental) Hamilton Reference 1:07 – The One with the AGGRESSIVELY SYMBOLIC Funeral 1:14 – The One Where Everyone Risked Their Necks to Rescue Three People and Now Two of them Are Dead, HELP US OBI-WAN KANE-OBI YOU’RE OUR ONLY HOPE 1:19 – The One with the Bellarke Feels 1:25 – The One Where “Mountain-Slayer” Is Not a Cool Nickname 1:30 – The One Where Claire Seriously Considered Making a Dad!Kane Joke about “THAT’S WANHEDA HAIR!” But Successfully Resisted, YOU’RE WELCOME ERIN 1:31 – The One with Claire’s Theory About Where “Blood Must Have Blood” Came From 1:35 – The One Where ALIE is Kilgrave and Clarke is Jessica Jones 1:39 – The One Full of Lengthy Speculation About the Four Remaining Episodes 1:47 – The One Where Claire Continues to Assert That She Is “Not a Pike Apologist” and Continues to Be Completely Full of Shit 1:50 – The One Where We’re Pretty Stressed About Next Week, Fam

Episode 3x11: "Nevermore" Apr 19, 2016

Welcome back to Meta Station! We're thrilled to have you join us as we flail over the best episode of the season so far. CAN SOMEONE GIVE LINDSEY MORGAN LIKE FIVE EMMYS, THAT WOULD BE GREAT, THANKS. 0:00 - In Which We Are Over-the-Moon in Love with This Episode and Everything About It 0:03 - In Which It Is So Fucking Important That Octavia and Monty Have This Storyline Together 0:21 – In Which Monty and Jasper Do a “Freaky Friday” 0:25 – In Which Hannah Is the Actual Worst, BUT STILL 0:28 – In Which Claire Is Once Again Our In-House Pike Apologist 0:33 – In Which Octavia Comes Down Off Her High Horse 0:41 – In Which Forgiveness and Acceptance Are Very Different Things 0:45 – In Which We Take Our First-Ever Listener Question! 0:48 – In Which Niylah Is the Human Face of Bellamy’s Guilt 1:04 – In Which This Is Jasper’s Series-Best Episode 1:16 – In Which We Discuss Whether Jasper’s Gonna Die and Claire Swears the Clues to Everyone’s Fate This Season Are Hidden in Those Character Promo Posters 1:21 – In Which Evil!Raven’s Truth Bombs Are the Shot In the Arm This Show Has Needed All Season 1:23 – IN WHICH WE JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT JAKE GRIFFIN OKAY 1:27 – In Which We Get Hella Philosophical 1:30 – In Which Erin Is Full of Terrifying Theories About the Title of the Finale 1:35 – In Which We Bow Down Before the Goddess Lindsey Morgan 1:37 – In Which Dad!Sinclair Is the Greatest 1:41 – In Which Claire Casually Says “Hey Erin, What Did You Think About Bellarke” and Then Sits Back To Enjoy the HIGH-PITCHED SCREAMING 1:56 – In Which We Talk Shipping, Wound-Tending Parallels, and the Possible Future of Bellarke

Episode 3x10: "Fallen" Apr 11, 2016

Welcome back, friends! A.L.I.E. apparently hacked into Erin’s wifi on Saturday night so we had some Skype issues; please forgive the handful of weird glitches where I had to edit out some messy sound. Fair warning, this is a lot less of a review and more like a meta. We had a lot of very complicated thoughts about what story the show may be trying to tell this season about morality, and how all of this week’s stories fit into it, so this is more of a discussion about ethical conundrums than a point-by-point recap. (P.S. trigger warnings for sexual assault and self-harm.) 0:00 - In Which Our Podcast Totally Has a Name Now 0:01 - In Which Murphy and Ontari Had So Much Potential to Be the Power Duo of the Season Before That Last Scene Fucked It Up 0:07 - In Which Erin Makes a “Hamilton” Reference Way Earlier Than Last Time 0:12 - In Which It Is Real Gross If a Show Can't Tell the Difference Between a Sex Scene and a Rape Scene 0:19 - In Which No One Is Giving Bellamy Enough Credit for Being the Only Character in This Episode Successfully Resisting Coercion 0:23 - In Which It’s Really Hard For Us When Our Two Favorite Characters Are Mad at Each Other But We Still Believe Kellamy Will Rise 0:37 - In Which Goddammit Octavia What Would Lincoln Tell You If He Were Here HE WOULD TELL YOU NO STABBING 0:40 - In Which Morality on This Show Is a Moving Target and Also for Real Are They Trying to Make Bellamy the Villain or Nah 1:12 - In Which Bellamy and Clarke Going 11 Episodes Without a Major Storyline Together Is a Narrative Problem We're Hoping Is Now Behind Us 1:17 - In Which FUCK YEAH DELINQUENTS REUNION 1:22 - In Which Love Is the Key to the City of Light, Abby Is a BAMF, and We're Really Squicked Out by That Raven Scene 1:35 - In Which Jasper Is This Episode’s MVP 1:42 - In Which Y'All Are Gonna Be Sorry You Wasted So Many Tranquilizers In This Episode If the Pauna Comes Back Or Something 1:43 - In Which In Which Jackson, Sinclair and Miller Are a Few of Our Favorite Things 1:46 - In Which Jaha as Season Three’s “Big Bad” Is One of the Best Decisions This Show Has Ever Made

Episode 3x09: "Stealing Fire" Apr 07, 2016

Hello and welcome to our very first podcast! Today we're discussing episode 309, "Stealing Fire." 0:00 - In Which We Introduce Ourselves and Hope We Haven’t Freaked You Out Yet 0:03 - In Which Old-School Clarke Is Back, Bitches 0:18 - In Which We Discuss Erin’s Thesis For the Whole Season 0:27 - In Which We Secretly Love Ontari 0:34 - In Which We AGGRESSIVELY Love Indra 0:37 - In Which Octavia Is EVERYTHING This Season 0:49 - In Which We Take a Brief Sidebar To Yell About All the Storytelling Problems In the First Half of the Season 0:52 - In Which We Are So Goddamn Excited About the Delinquents 0:56 - In Which Bryan and Miller are the Literal Romeo and Juliet of This Show 0:59 - In Which Claire Is “Not Exactly a Pike Apologist, But . . .” 1:06 - In Which Everything at Arkadia Makes Much More Sense If You Mentally Re-Insert Lincoln Into Every Storyline 1:17 - In Which We Spend Half an Hour Yelling About Lincoln’s Death 1:46 - In Which It Is Genuinely Astonishing It Took This Long For One of Us to Make a “Hamilton” Reference 1:47 - In Which Erin Is Concerned Octavia’s Going to Turn Out to Be Pregnant 1:49 - In Which KABBY!!!!!!!!!!! 2:00 - In Which We Bid You Farewell Until Next Week and Hope You Do Not Regret Your Life Choices In Listening to This

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