Episode 2: Wet Pins

## Official Synopsis

*In this episode, we join our heroes, Alex, Gerry, and Kim, as they head to the drag strip to find their friend Luke Williams.*

*Are free corndogs too good to be true? Tune in to this episode of Critical Bits to find out!*

## Plot Summary

On the morning of Saturday, June 8th, Alex goes to Gerry's house for breakfast and freaks out about the night before. Gerry and Kim attempt to comfort her but only manage to remind themselves of all their own worries about the situation. The three proceed to have a collective freakout.

Mr. Gingham asks what all the commotion is about. He tells them that they'd better not be mixed up in anything bad, since he's heard on the news that troubled kids are being taken away to rehab detention centers. Gerry manages to convince him that they're just playing a tabletop roleplaying game. The three then calm themselves down over cartoons and waffles. While watching cartoons, they see an ad for the drag race, which is set to begin soon.

After breakfast, the teens drive down to the drag strip. Before heading inside, the three smoke some pot in the car to calm their nerves. Alex coughs a lot.

The teens roll up their sleeves and enter the strip to look for fishy goings-on. Alex spots a man in a trench coat who appears to speak into his wrist at one point. She also notices that the owner of the corn dog stand, Michael Douglas, seems very nervous. After relaying this information to Gerry and Kim, they agree there must be undercover D.A.Y.C.A.R.E. agents around.

Matt Glenn approaches the three and asks if they've seen Luke. Apparently he saw the ad for the race earlier and then got a text from Luke asking him to come to the race. Kim gets a sudden bad feeling about this and shouts at Alex to come with her so they can talk privately. The two drug-addled teens step five feet away from Matt and assume that's good enough to keep him from hearing them. Of course it isn't, and Matt walks away from them thinking they're both weirdos.

The trio agree that this whole situation feels like a trap. They think Luke might have already been taken, but they're not sure since they do see his car on the track. Before they can make a move toward the track, however, Nolan Marks arrives on the scene with a conspicuous flyer for free corn dogs in hand. As if on cue, Michael Douglas puts up a sign advertising "Free Corn Dogs for an Hour!".

With the race only thirty seconds away from starting, the teens attempt to pull themselves together. They're interrupted by the sound of Nolan screaming out a warning for Luke and running towards the track. Spurred to action, Kim uses her metal powers to cut the engines of every car on the track, stopping the race before it starts. Everything seems okay.

Then Luke's car explodes.

Chaos breaks out in the crowd. Teens run everywhere, some fleeing the explosion and some drawn by the promise of free corn dogs. Gerry tries to reach Nolan but gets punched in the face and trampled in the crowd. Kim sees Matt Glenn, but he appears to vanish into thin air after a person crosses in front of him. Paramedics attempt to get down to the track but the crowds block them.

As hordes of teens swarm the corn dog stand, Michael Douglas snaps and starts screaming "Don't eat the corn dogs! Don't eat the corn dogs!" Alex sprints over to take down the corn dog sign but completely beefs it: the entire signboard falls over on her and she gets trampled as people rush to grab more dogs. Meanwhile, the man in the trench coat runs down from the stands, attempting to chase down Michael Douglas as he flees.

After Gerry gets back up, he pushes his mind powers further than ever before, casting a wave of ennui over the entire crowd. This allows the paramedics an opening to reach the race track. It also gives the trio a chance to regroup.

The teens agree they should get closer to the track so they can see if Luke was in the explosion or not. They split up so as not to attract attention. Paramedics stop Alex and Gerry before they get very far. Kim gets closer, but Nolan stops her before she gets to the track. He warns that she'll be recognized if she goes down there, saying "I smell it every time—it happens the same way."

A truck from D.A.Y.C.A.R.E. pulls up and starts canvassing the area. Nolan escapes with Kim, literally sniffing out an escape route for them. Gerry and Alex spot Officer Jenkins and convince him to help escort them outside.

The trio meet back up later at the station wagon. Here Nolan explains that he can—in fact—smell the future. Nolan leaves by jumping off a bridge into an open-top feather pillow truck. Immediately afterward, Alex gets a text from Nolan that says he put his number in her phone.

The trio share information and worry about whether they just saw Luke die or not. They decide they ought to find Nolan again later and figure some more things out with him. To that end, they head to Heavendale's most popular Saturday night teen hot spot: Wet Pins. On the way, the three check social media to see if there is any buzz about people getting sick from eating corn dogs. Strangely, they find nothing of the sort (no #sickteenz).

After hanging out at Wet Pins for a bit, Gerry spots Austin about to bowl his first perfect game. Just as he makes his finishing bowl, Gerry yells that Austin's shoe is untied. Austin stumbles over the line and loses his ball to the gutter. He storms over to Gerry and starts yelling at him, leading Gerry to punch him in the nose. Austin and his friend Tommy Bell move to beat Gerry up, but Alex steps in to defend Gerry with the *Minecraft* pickaxe. Not wanting to be seen beating up a girl in public, Austin settles for shattering the pickaxe and giving Gerry one last punch in the face before leaving.

Meanwhile, Kim takes advantage of the distraction and goes looking for Nolan in the arcade. She doesn't find him, but does find a suspicious young man putting his hand on the side of a skee ball machine -- which seems to make it spit out tickets and quarters...

## Major Events and Firsts

* In the opening scenes, we see that Gerry's mind powers can bleed from one person to another through physical contact.
* Mr. Gingham's mention of "rehab detention centers" is the first major foreshadowing of a certain acronymed organization.
* Mr. Gingham seems to have a moment of lucidity when he admits he doesn't want Gerry to be "the next in line" to become a washed-up deadbeat like him.
* While not named in the episode, the man in the trench coat is an important first villain appearance.
* The first (and only) appearance of Michael Douglas the corn dog vendor.
	+ Michael Douglas is also the first character in the show to be named by a listener. He was named by Grahamm Edwards on Twitter.
* First in-person appearances of Matt Glenn and Nolan Marks.
* The mystery of what happened to Luke and Matt starts here.
* Gerry gets punched in the face multiple times in this episode, kicking off a trend for the rest of the podcast.
* Gerry uses his mind powers on a large scale for the first time in the series.
* Kim also has her first big power usage of the series when she shuts down all the car engines on the strip.
* We learn that Jenkins's nickname to friends is "Jenkie Bear".
	+ You can hear the gears of Joel's brain straining in real time as he tries to get the name "Jenkie" out of his mouth.
* Nolan's superpowers are revealed to be sensing/smelling the future. He can also use this sense to pick up on other people's powers.
	+ TIME SNIFFER!
* Wet Pins is established and becomes the first truly horrible Heavendale business in the show.
* Kim first disguises herself with sunglasses when the team heads to Wet Pins.
* First appearance of Tommy Bell when he backs up Austin at Wet Pins.
	+ He is named after friend of the show Thomas Bell.

## Trivia

* It's bad to do crime directly in front of cops.
* This episode establishes that Saturday morning cartoons still exist in the Critical Bits universe.
	+ Also Gak is back!
* Apparently "cartoons and waffles at fuckin' Gerry's house" is a weekly Saturday thing Alex and Gerry do together.
* In this episode, the players retcon their use of "Gerry Geraldo" and "Mr. Geraldo" in episode 1.
* Joel continues to not know what parts of the body are called. He initially says the man in the trench coat put his "wrist up to his hand" to speak, rather than "wrist up to his mouth".
* This episode reinforces the trend of bad rolls for the players, as evidenced by Joel's distress over how much he is trying to set up but can't due to how poorly everyone is doing.
	+ "We didn't say we were *good* at this game."
* While Paul often jokes about Gerry never using Comfort & Support, Gerry uses the move twice in this episode: once for his pep talk before the race, and once to comfort Alex on the way to Wet Pins.
* Gerry is apparently the type to have a fidget toy on hand randomly.
	+ And so is Jenkie Bear! He and Gerry trade fidget devices (spinner for cube). Cute!
* While nothing is said about it in the show itself, both official art and fan art have depicted the characters wearing Wet Pins t-shirts while at said establishment.

## NPC Appearances

* Mr. Gingham
* The Mechanics (mentioned)
* Luke Williams (mentioned)
* Michael Douglas
* Matt Glenn
* Nolan Marks
* Officer Jenkins
* Austin Boyd
* Tommy Bell

**SPOILER NPCs:**

* Triggus
* High Score