What In The Worlds Is Going On In The Control Room?

Ella Fitzpatrick preps a story to save The Fakist, but she can’t find any new leads. When she goes off to find some clarity on her own, she’ll discover three surprising characters hiding in the control room. Who is Anne Marie, and what does she know about the fate of The Fakist?

The Fakist wouldn’t exist without my wife Anne Marie. She reads every script, lets me bounce ideas off her, and she’s up to play any part I throw at her. She’s encouraged me and supported me through the last few years, and I couldn’t have done any of it without her, especially the first couple of years.

In a similar way, The Fakist: One Last Day wouldn’t have the story it has without Anne Marie, and her temporary pet cat Krinkle.

We found Krinkle in the engine of a car we’d let sit through the pandemic in the fall of 2020. While Krinkle was a very pretty kitty, I’m allergic, so we couldn’t keep him. Anne Marie would spend her evenings on the porch, playing with Krinkle, then come in and give me a kiss/allergic reaction. I felt bad I was the reason we couldn’t keep the cat, but according to my Apple Watch, outdoor Krinkle was still making my heart rate drop at night.

The day before Krinkle moved to his new home, I was standing “socially distanced” from the kitty and talking to Anne Marie about bringing back The Fakist for a Halloween special. She brought up a one-off joke character from Season 1, Mr. Freeze 7-Up, the cat-turned-mutant with a laser arm that my character Paul DaFoe bought to try to get over his ex Cindy. In an effort to honor Krinkle and Anne Marie’s emotional damage, as well as my physical damage, I suggested we do a fun joke sketch where Paul DaFoe and Mr. Freeze 7-Up visit us… That’s Bill and Anne Marie… during our COVID-19 quarantine. Paul would use the cat to lure Anne Marie into their dimension. It seemed like a fun way to update the podcast feed and say “we’re still here” while I got around to making another season.

Once I wrote and produced the sketch, which you can find in our Halloween Special, I was reminded of Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man from Vertigo Comics. It’s a bit of a metanarrative that discusses a creator’s relationships to their creations. Animal Man even sits down with Grant Morrison in one issue.

Is it navel-gazing? Sure, but it’s also a lot of fun. I’ve always loved this trope, and I’ve waited for a project to try it on. The Fakist felt like a good fit for two reasons. First, it would let me talk about what working on this show means to me within the work itself. Secondly, I knew there were a ton of fun “meta” storytelling jokes I could pull off if I made myself part of the narrative.  Lastly, my wife would get a chance to do a scene with Ella Fitzpatrick, whom she also plays. Those were some interesting recording sessions, but she nailed it.

In the first two seasons of The Fakist, I took a lot of shots at pop culture, politics, social issues, and avocados. If I included myself in the narrative, it felt only fair to mock myself twice as hard as I’ve ever mocked anything, just to show I’m a good sport. The characters really lay into me in this episode! They attack my hair, my weight, my interests… I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed writing those lines. There’s something about roasting yourself that is downright cathartic. To be honest, I mostly just transcribed the things my inner critic whispers to me while I work.

Since this is such a weird concept, I wanted to “ground” all the weirdness in emotion and solid character work. Every episode this season is standalone, so I thought it was worth it to include all the weirdest stuff in one episode and try to ground it in some sort of emotional reality. Mr. Freeze 7-Up is a very weird character, but I did my best to give him history and solid motivations. He still has the laser arm though.

One more fun thing: Since Mr. Freeze 7-Up has multiverse powers, I wrote a scene where we “skip” through several realities to homage my favorite multiverse/alternate timeline stories. “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” “Into the Spider-Verse,” and “Avengers: Endgame” all get a spotlight, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve made for The Fakist.

So did my craziest idea ever work? I think so, but decide for yourself by listening to our sixth standalone episode, U Drive Me Crazy.