Episode description[edit | edit source]
Showdogs, Bluff City - ★★★★★ (5 Stars)
Reviewed by Kenny W.
i’m seven and i love hotsdog and when i visit my aunt in bluff city we visit show dogs to eat hotdogs with my aunt!! and simons there and hes my cousin and i’m taller than him by a lot and BOY do i make sure he knows it by taking things off tall shelves that he can’t reach to help him out. my aunt took me to showdogs with simon and my sister and our server was called joann and i had a hotsdog with
aunt julia who owns a booksotre and shes excited because shes got tickets to the GALA on thursday night and simon said he was going to go too and i saiad oh i don’t, think so simon because you are a CHILDE!
This week on Bluff City:
Suzanne P, Owner of Showdogs, Bluff City Responded:
Wow Kenny! It’s great to see that Showdogs inspires Excitement and Passion in customers of any age, with our Home Cooked Food in High End Locations! Our new “Dog Show” theming is sure to inspire the joy of youth in young and old.
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
Hey, doc? Yeah. It’s Blake. Blake Blossom. I’ve been having those dreams again. The ones in Bluff City. Yeah. They’ve changed a bit. The bus, it’s a different color this time and, uh, I’ve been wearing a peacoat instead of a windbreaker. But it’s still night time. It’s always night time. And it’s always here, here in Bluff City. Hm? Yeah, that’s right, I’m in Bluff City right now. I’m, uh, shooting a picture, an action thing. Cops, camaraderie, justice— you know, Hollywood stuff?
No, it’s not important that I’m here. I have the dream whether I’m here or not. The dream is what’s important— even if some bits change, the plot, the main events, they’re the same. Every time. Like a drum line in an old jazz standard. The radio man gets killed. Half the town is having a party, the other half is in flames, and I’m walkin’ down the boardwalk, and all around me, people are talking in weird voices. A helicopter goes overhead, and the radio man, his voice comes on and you know what he says? Over and over again, he says, “There’s no greater love.” That’s it! There isn’t an end to that. He just says, “There is no greater love.” What am I supposed to do with that?
No, I don’t want to go walk around the boardwalk, I haven’t been— I haven’t been to the boardwalk since I was a kid. We came for Christmas once, my parents and me. I remember because it was snowing. There was this terrible storm, and it didn’t bother them, because they were here to gamble anyway. But in my mind, even though it was December, I told myself, I was gonna have a beach vacation. So I did.
I went out in a blizzard, I took my shoes off, and walked down the boardwalk, through the white snow, and I closed my eyes and I listened to the gulls, and I pretended it was sand under my feet. And the sky was grey that day. But you know what? When I got back to the hotel, my mom told me I got sunburned.
No, Doc, that’s not the dream, that really happened. The Bluff City in my dreams is different. Fires in the suburbs. Investigators in over their heads— it’s more convoluted than any of my films, but somehow more realistic than the real city I’m standin’ in. The ocean waves sound heavier there. The cars turn the way they used to. And in my dreams, the casinos even let you win sometimes.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
On a Thursday morning, Tyler Taylor Pierce approaches Show Dogs, a hot dog restaurant he frequents, only to find it swarming with police. Curious, Tyler speaks to the closest cop to him to try and talk his way inside in order to get further information on the situation by claiming to have already been in Show Dogs earlier. “Magnolia” James is startled by this, as it would make Tyler a key witness. Tyler plays along with this, continuing the ruse in order to get further information.
He quickly learns that it is the scene of the murder of Hector Hu, although because he is unwilling to admit he was lying about visiting the restaurant earlier that morning, he is pulled into the investigation as a suspect. Under interrogation (timed written statements that have a shorter time limit after each answer), he admits that he had not purchased anything from Show Dogs and is let go, but not before learning that Hector had been shot by someone at close-range and that the mayor is involved (“no one who isn’t from the mayor’s office is going to know what’s in that envelope!”).
Meanwhile, the Outskirts of the city is hit hard by the news of Hector’s death. Many people listen to his show in order to fall asleep, and without his show they stop sleeping and go into a fugue-like state and do not come into work for days or come in very late and don’t leave on time. There also the start of a public mourning for Hector’s death in the form of a graffiti tag of an infinity sign and a love heart, which was Hector’s sign off (“infinite love”).
Florence Slowly hears about the murder via the news and learns of the connection to the mayor’s office through Elementary, a forum for Private Detectives. She arrives very early at City Hall to see the mayor, although she says that she wants to speak to one of the mayor’s aides, as she believes it will be easier to get through to the mayor this way.
She speaks to Christian Wallcot, a mayoral intern who is distracted by the wax seal he has spilt on his sweater. Although he insists that she cannot speak to the mayor, Florence easily pushes past him into the mayor’s office.
The mayor is practising his putting into a projector screen of a non-virtual golf simulator. She tells him that she wants to speak to him about Hector’s death, and he tells her that if she has any questions that she should speak to the BCPD for updates (“they protect us, they serve us. That’s their motto. They protect us and serve us”). Undeterred, Florence presses forward, questioning the mayor on the document connected to the mayor’s office. The mayor insists that he doesn’t know anything about it, and that possibly it was someone on his staff who was interested in the document.
He puts down his golf clubs, shut down the golf simulation and sits down at his desk, briefly showing Florence an email he previously had open as his computer screen comes back on. It is an email relating to the Ollerenshaw Office of Requisitions, although Florence is unable to see the contents of the email. He then gives Florence his full attention.
Meanwhile, Show Dogs burns down under mysterious circumstances. On the Mainland, the situation escalates, with people taking even less part of their usual schedules (including sabotaging their workplaces), and graffiti of ‘Omega Love’ (an upside-down love heart with an omega symbol in the middle) appearing in place of the previous ‘Infinite Love’ tags.
Late at night, Chris goes to the WBRK The Break studios to investigate Hector’s death, wanting to confirm for herself that he is really dead. She gets in easily, due to her being so well-known as a fan. The receptionist tells her she should go to see Hector’s office, where she runs into Gabby. As she speaks to Gabby about her taking over Hector’s slot and is not pleased by the changes that Gabby plans to implement.
Chris says goodbye to Gabby, waits for her to leave Hector’s office and then sneaks back in. She finds a copy of the same email, with an attachment that references the mayor’s office and Show Dogs. The attachment is a highly redacted scanned document, as though is had been printed by an old dot matrix printer. Chris is able to read “the investigation by the Concern is ongoing. We are sending Green-level agents as soon as possible”, as well as other fragments such as “Squire” and “Knight”, mentions of “the Institute”, “crab men” and “Blough City”.
Reading through the document, Chris learns that Hector has been to a place called Blough City, but that he has no memory of it and was scared by this. He had discovered this document via the mayor’s office from Ollerenshaw and had been going to deliver it to a contact of his, only referred to as “Page”. Chris is more upset than shocked by this, as she finds Hector’s genuine fear unsettling.
Chris posts about what she has found on Elementary, hoping to connect with other Hector Hu fans. As the majority of Hector’s fans are caught up in Omega Love, the only ones to show up are Patty, Florence, and Tyler. Patty organises for them to meet at a neutral place, and then pays off all the staff and people to pose as customers as a coffee shop in order to know what people are saying when she is not present in the room. She and Chris are familiar with each other as they were both avid listeners to Hector’s show, and Chris gives Patty a condolences card. Patty waves a device over it to check for bugs before telling Chris that it was very sweet of her.
Chris tells them about the document and shares it with them a copy that will expire after a certain time frame. They discover that a page is missing (page 112), and someone else downloads a copy of the document. Patty responds by putting the coffee shop on “lockdown”. Three people that are closest to the group get up and bar the door.
They realise that the Commodore is the most likely suspect to download the document. Patty walks over and shuts his laptop (“this restaurant's on lockdown, that means no one leaves, no one works”). Patty demands that he delete Chris’s document. The Commodore insists she let go of his laptop. Instead, Patty walks behind him and tries to open his laptop to see what he was working on.
He sits back abruptly and Patty makes a big show of falling over (“I’m being attacked by a member of the US armed forces!”). He bends down and whispers “you have the document and I have the document but I have seen them” to Patty, then walks to the door, unbars it, and then leaves. Patty assumes that he means the crab men.
Herbert Bix helps Patty to her feet and brings the group coffees. Patty cross-references the document with other files she has, aided by the rest of the group. They find the name in the document of a former coast guard, Captain Leslie Strada. Slowly, the team builds out a corkboard of evidence with what they have found.
Florence turns, looking towards the chair that the Commodore had been sitting in as she thinks over the case. Through the window, she sees Hector Hu getting into a bright blue jitny and sees the orange ocean behind him. He looks back at her before he steps onto the jitny and drives away.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker as the GM
- Ali Acampora (Christine Andrews)
- Art Martinez-Tebbel (Tyler Taylor Pierce)
- Jack de Quidt (Florence Slowly)
- Keith J Carberry (Patty Fink)
Other Characters[edit | edit source]
- Blake Blossom (opening)
- James “Magnolia” James
- Christian Wallcot
- Ollie Fraser
- Herbert Bix
- Agent Ward
Gallery[edit | edit source]
Poster for the "There Is No Greater Love" arc by Lily Pfaff.
