674: Square One

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How was Square One?

5 stars: Amazing!
4
17%
4 stars: Mysteriously good!
13
54%
3 stars: Ok...
6
25%
2 stars: Pretty square
0
No votes
1 star: Awful!!
1
4%
 
Total votes: 24

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Peachey Keen
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674: Square One

Post by Peachey Keen »



What are your thoughts on this ep?
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TigerintheShadows
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Post by TigerintheShadows »

Does Ryan's voice remind anyone else of David Straussberg's, or is that just me? Because I know their voice actors are different, but still...
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Post by Shennifer »

I really liked this one because for once I actually liked how Matthew and Emily interacted and seemed like realistic brother and sister, who don't always get along, but make up in the end. I thought the story was interesting and for once I actually liked Andre in this one. This episode was engaging and creative. 4/5
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Marvin D.
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Post by Marvin D. »

Yay! \:D/ I liked this episode decently. Matthew and Emily were both portrayed realistically, and I'm also glad that we haven't heard as nearly as much of Matthew as we have in the last few episodes. I think that what Emily did what was naturally expected of her, so it wasn't so much of a shocking twist. Matthew wouldn't have blundered and told Emily all about it, though, I think. He would have said nothing, imo. All the actors were great for the show, and this sort of reminds me of "When You're Right, You're Right", when Emily was stubborn in grasping the truth. So I'm glad that they didn't totally change her. Good moral, one that I think we should all work on. Final rating: 7/10
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Post by Laura Ingalls »

Ha, I got around to looking up who plays Pete, and it is the same person as Seth! \:D/ I thought it sounded just like him...

This episode was fine - I enjoyed it. Not a 5 star, but not too bad either. ;)
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Post by shadowdog »

Yeah. I don't like that it is the same voice of Seth...I never really liked that character too much.

This episode was an okay episode. I'll listen to it every so often....but not too much. 2 1/2 stars (I'll round up)

This is probably ranked 10th of 11th out of the 12 episodes in Album 52 by me.
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Post by DanP740 »

Well, this was a pretty good episode... sort of a strange idea (club that takes stuff apart in a junkyard to see how they work... o_0 ) but it was good.
4/5
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Post by Eugene Meltsner Fan »

I am not on the up and up with new episodes..I have a lot of catching up to do!
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Post by Catspaw »

I really enjoyed this episode, because Emily can be obnoxious with her "helping"/meddling, and as much as I was cringing and wishing she would stop doing what we all knew she would want to, I was really glad that she didn't get away with it, and actually realized that her actions weren't helping her friend out. I listened to this one a few weeks ago and should listen again so I can add more detail, but I enjoyed this episode a lot. That's what I remember the most - I did really like the episode and how it played out. I was invested in what was going on, to the point of verbally reprimanding Emily on several occasions. ;) Yes, I was alone in my car when I listened. ;) I really like Adam Wylie's voice, so that was nice. I find it easier to tell the voices apart in episodes like this (several male characters that we haven't heard that much from) when I recognize some of them. I first heard his voice in the Storykeepers movies (did anybody else watch those?) and then from the Last Chance Detectives audio files as Mike, so it was great to hear him again this season!
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Post by V-lady »

I agree with Catspaw about Adam's voice. Ryan is quickly becoming one of my new favorite kid characters. \:D/
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Post by Cbriggs45 »

I like Matthew. and the Emily discourses... this one made me think. actually about the end. would I have done what Matthew did.4/5 I would give it five. but the club scenes were a little boring.
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Post by Bennett »

My Review can be found here:

http://aio-thechangingtimes.blogspot.co ... e-one.html

And to see how this episode compares with the rest, see here:

http://aio-thechangingtimes.blogspot.co ... verys.html
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Post by The Kings Daughter »

Meant to do this early before I forgot half of the episode... :-

I am very please with how this one turned out. Not because I loved the storyline, although it was good. ;) But rather because this seemed like one of those average AIO episodes that I remember listening to before all of the changes like adding characters and removing characters were made. It just seemed to me like on of the old ones. No 'big mystery', no drastic life-changing event.

Kids had a problem, kids got advice from Whit, kids worked through problem. Yay Square One! :inlove:

Ahem, moving on.

I think Emily Jone's role in this episode was well played out, and she admitted she was wrong at the end. Actually I was pretty much please with everyone's performance this episode.

*Eugene moment* In closing, I found the entire episode most pleasurable to listen to, and I look forward to being able to make re-hearing it a repetitive tradition in the upcoming days ahead.
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Post by Sapphire »

This was a pretty cool episode. I loved that Nelson, Pete, and Ryan were in it. Very interesting, and it had a great moral. Emily Jones was a bit annoying in the episode. It reminded me of Connie's curiosity. I'm glad that she admitted she was wrong in the end. I liked the scene where Whit tried to give Matthew and Emily advice. I will give this episode four stars out of five. :yes:
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Post by Bob »

I won't lie; when I first tried to listen to Square One, it didn't immediately enrapture me. In fact, I got bored and turned it off, without really concentrating on it, the first few times I played it.

That said, though, last night I got around to listening to it for real, and I was mostly pleasantly surprised by it -- it develops the characters well without any contrived elements (except one thing, as I see it, and that's kind of what keeps this from being better than 4. I'll talk about this later).

The basic premise of most of the Detective Agency stories we've heard so far is that Emily Jones knows everything, and she knows she knows everything, and she uses that to solve everyone's problems. We know from earlier episodes (Barrett's Valentine card) that she's also a meddler and a manipulator. This actually hasn't caused many problems, but in this episode, these negative personality traits finally catch up with her.

Matthew, who's usually portrayed as the useless, bumbling sidekick -- like a poor man's Watson to Emily's Holmes -- is well-written in this episode. He's normally been characterized as a coward, but Emily's actions in this story are so extreme that someone has to call her out on it, which he does, like a true friend. I have my summary of the plot below; if you haven't heard it, or want to skip straight to my opinions, don't open up the Spoiler box.
The story starts out when Matthew starts tinkering with Emily's multi-color pen. Emily finds this very quaint, but we know that it's just what Matthew does; he's a tinkerer. Somewhere out there, he thinks, there are other kids just like him.

Shortly thereafter, he finds out he's right. There's a secret club of tinkerers (consisting of Ryan, Nelson, and Pete, all seen in the Kidsboro three-parter) that's taken an interest in his skills and wants to recruit him. They tell him to meet them at their clubhouse at 4 o'clock...and don't tell anyone.

Matthew immediately forgets this promise and proceeds to tell Emily where he's going that afternoon. Being somewhat domineering, Em is upset at the idea of her friend doing anything without her knowing all about it, and does everything she can to pry into it. Matthew realizes he's blundered moments after this, and refuses to say anything more...which just makes Emily more curious. Matthew tries to get her to back off, but she doesn't commit to anything.

Matthew drops by the clubhouse. After the normal pleasantries, and after the club members show off their ultra-cool equipment, the conversation drifts back to the topic of club secrecy. Matthew almost tells them about his forgetfully telling Em -- but thinks again and stays silent. (This turns out to be a big mistake.)

Later, Em finally catches up with Matthew at Whit's End. Apparently he's been trying to avoid her (presumably hoping that she'll just drop the subject). This didn't work, though; not only did she track him down, she's still just as pushy about this topic as ever.

In fact, she's so pushy and so curious that she's willing to effectively blackmail Matthew for this information about the club. Matthew's obviously unwilling to cooperate, but apparently backs down anyway and tells all.

After an unknown length of time, Emily tries to further spy on the secret club (with binoculars, no less), but is caught by a trap that Pete devised to protect the clubhouse. Understandably, the club believes that Matthew sold them out, and is only too eager to kick him out. It's only because of Nelson that Matthew isn't immediately gone at this point (which makes sense, since Matthew and Nelson are the only people we've seen that were disposed to this sort of thing before this episode).

Nevertheless, they still agree to put him on probation for a week, which is almost coincidentally just how long it'll take for them to lose a particularly cool piece of equipment that Matthew's been messing around with. Em and Matt leave.

She tries to 'console' him, but Matthew doesn't buy it; finally Em apologizes, and then tells Matthew how he can, for sure, win back the club's trust, with four fool-proof methods.

There's several scenes after this that cover it; basically the entire plan amounts to flattery and bribery. None of them buy into it.

After this fails, Matthew commiserates (as much as he can while preserving the secrets, anyway) with Mr. Whittaker. Em alludes to a "fifth method" that can get Matthew back in, and then leaves without saying anything.

Not long after this, the club members show up and tell Matthew that he's back in; show up at 4 o'clock. Matthew figures something is up and interrogates them over just what Emily did to get them to agree to this. Finally, they confess; Em took pictures of their clubhouse and threatened to post them up online (which would, for reasons I won't go into here, permanently destroy the club). Matthew rejects the club's attempt to let him back in, and says he'll take care of Emily.

Finally, we see Matthew confront Em over her manipulative, untrusting, untrustworthy behavior. By the end of it, she sees the error of her ways. There's more stuff after this; Matthew gets to get back into the club, but basically that's the end of the story.
The episode does have a strong message about trust; it adequately shows that it (and personal relationships in general) can't be instantly repaired. Emily's behavior hadn't caused real problems before this episode, but it was necessary that the AIO staff attend to it sooner or later...before Em was always looking for the quick way out, and almost seemed to believe that the 'ends justify the means', neither of which are desirable for a Christian protagonist.

All in all, it's much better than I thought it would be. The only thing that I'm inclined to complain about is that the club seems awfully hostile most of the time -- and come off as hypocrites because of it, since Ryan and Nelson themselves outright lied to and betrayed their friends in the Kidsboro series. You would hope that after that experience, both of them (Ryan in particular) could be more forgiving, or at least phrase things to Matthew more diplomatically than they did. They're still far more sympathetic characters than Pete, though, who comes off in an almost villainous light; as soon as the trouble starts, he immediately wants to kick Matthew out, and we don't hear him say one more positive word in the entire story thereafter. This is strange since the club members are supposed to be the good guys in this, and Em is the villain; yet she comes off as far more likable than the people we ought to agree with.

Mr. Whittaker played a useful, but not overbearing, role in this episode. I think they're trying to get him more into the role of the very old-school, Hal Smith Whit...instead of being the focus of the story (like in many, many other episodes), he just periodically shows up and offers advice to the child protagonists. This is probably a good idea and I thoroughly support it.

All of the voice actors did a great job in this episode. Pete seemed a little different (and much more snarly) than in Kidsboro, but I think that was mostly because of the writing. Everyone else was easily recognizable. Andre Stojka did a good job as the voice of Whit, as usual.

I'm not sure that this episode will end up in my all-time favorites list, but it's a strong effort by the Odyssey team. The writers, for the most part, paid close attention to the characters' traits and personalities and realistically developed them. Hopefully this will lead to even more work in other characters (like Connie, who's been in an unproductive, character-deteriorating rut for the last ten years).

4/5. One of the better new episodes that I've heard.
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Post by Parker Family »

Emily and Matthew Rock \:D/
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Post by Christian A. »

Here's my review:

I actually liked this episode quite a bit. It had its problems, as others have, but for the most part it was really good.

A couple of minutes into the show I was sure that this was the long-awaited fourth Kidsboro episode because of the presence of Ryan, Pete, and Nelson. Since the three of them said that they were thinking about letting Matthew into their secret club, I thought for sure that it would turn out to be Kidsboro. But then I turned out to be wrong. And I just looked over the episode summaries for the rest of the season and saw that there isn't another episode that might be a Kidsboro one. I must have missed something over the summer because I thought that we'd been told that a new Kidsboro episode was coming.

One thing that I thought was weird about the secret club was that Ryan and Pete never seemed to be as geeky as Nelson in regards to wanting to know how things work. It was weird that the three of them started this other club seperate from Kidsboro.

I think Emily Jones is growing on me. I'm getting a little more used to her voice, and I guess I look forward to the upcoming episode featuring the Jones and Parker Detective Agency. However, I am glad that she wasn't the narrator this time. ; )

Oh, and to all you fans who speculated in Album 51 about a relationship between Matthew and Emily beyond being mystery-solving partners, your theories were thwarted when we heard that Matthew had told Emily about his secret crush, thus disproving the conjecture that he has a crush on her. Though she may actually still have a crush on him as shown by her exhaustive attempts to make sure that he wasn't getting into trouble.

The episode had a great moral that we haven't heard from in Odyssey since Sounds Like a Mystery or The One About Trust, whichever came last. I was glad when Matthew didn't let Emily get away with blackmailing Ryan, Nelson, and Pete, and it was also nice that the boys were finally able to trust Matthew again when he proved himself.

One thing I thought was hilarious about the show was that probably a large fraction of the episode was spent with the characters saying the full name of the pinball machine. : D

Pretty much the only thing I didn't like about the episode was that there wasn't really good writing for Mr. Whittaker. The actor probably did the best he could with what he had, but the writer didn't give him good lines.

Other than that, it was an enjoyable episode, but not as good as last week's.

I give it a 7/10.
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Post by The Mysterious »

Some people in the SS hate this episode.
But I am not one of them.
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