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Holidazed Episode 7 (Encore) · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

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Speaker 1: Hey friends, it's time for another encore presentation of Girls
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Speaker 1: Gone Hallmark. This time we are revisiting our reviews of
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Speaker 1: the Holidays series. These were originally recorded in December twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty four, so you might hear a reference here and
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Speaker 1: there to something around the holiday season. But in honor
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Speaker 1: of the fact that Hallmark is re airing these episodes
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Speaker 1: on the Hallmark Channel for the first time, we wanted
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Speaker 1: to re share our reviews along with those drops, so
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Speaker 1: you can listen along as you're watching enjoy the show.
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Speaker 1: This is a Bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark,
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Speaker 1: a Hallmark review podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a longtime
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Speaker 1: Hallmark fan.
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Speaker 2: I'm wyn Day.
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Speaker 1: I'm a former Hallmark hater. We're heading into the Holidays
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Speaker 1: home stretch today we are discussing Holidays episode seven, The
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Speaker 1: Menetti Hannahan Family, the final of the individual family episodes
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Speaker 1: before finale. We're gonna be changing up the format of
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Speaker 1: this episode just a little bit. We have been kind
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Speaker 1: of doing a scene by scene recap, but I did
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Speaker 1: find that these finals episodes were a little bit chaotic.
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Speaker 1: Lots of people, lots of people, lots of jumping back
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Speaker 1: and forth. So instead we're going to focus on a
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Speaker 1: character driven synopsis. Okay, may I suggest that we start
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Speaker 1: with Clark, who is in fact my favorite manette Hannah Hand.
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Speaker 2: He's the least problematic.
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Speaker 1: That's why I like him. He's like, I'm like, oh,
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Speaker 1: he gets things done. He's pretty non confrontational, like he
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Speaker 1: and his dad go for it, but in a way
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Speaker 1: where he's like just trying to solve problems. Yes, what's
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Speaker 1: that face?
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Speaker 2: No, there's a great quote that I want to just
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Speaker 2: make sure that we cover when we talk about Clark
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Speaker 2: and Chuck.
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Speaker 1: Well, Clark and Chuck, their big issue is first, let's
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Speaker 1: let's do the beginning of the episode before we dive
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Speaker 1: into these because the episode actually begins with Connie Minettie
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Speaker 1: Hanahan making like a video about how all she wants
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Speaker 1: is like a lovely family holiday, cut to Chuck getting arrested. Yes,
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Speaker 1: this is very confusing to me. I assume it's a
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Speaker 1: previous year. But we were watching it together and I
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Speaker 1: paused and I was like, what's happening here?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe it's a previous year. It doesn't make
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Speaker 2: any sense to me, Like there was no reason for
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Speaker 2: Chuck to get arrested this year.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, are we to believe that Manny called the
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Speaker 1: police because Chuck had done something? Yeah, I don't know.
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Speaker 2: I think that Connie is using this video from previous
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Speaker 2: year to be like, I don't want to rebusy that
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Speaker 2: this is the Christmas I want this year, not that.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and we cut to everyone in the house. It's
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Speaker 1: the dark. Now, it's the dark. It's dark in the house.
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Speaker 1: The power is out. I assumed that in this episode
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Speaker 1: we're starting at the power outage. I was wrong. Their
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Speaker 1: power is out because their house is just a series
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Speaker 1: of deferred maintenance items. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: And well I think back in episode one when they
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Speaker 2: remember when they plugged in it blew the fuse.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so their electrical panel is overloaded. We learned
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff going on in the house
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Speaker 1: that just hadn't been taken care of, right, And so
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Speaker 1: Chuck's like, I'm going to fix this, and they look
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Speaker 1: at the panel and it's like completely fried. And Clark's like, yo, man,
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Speaker 1: you need solar panels. And he's like this is what
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Speaker 1: he does for a living. But it's just so funny
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Speaker 1: to me. He's like, I'm going to install solar panels
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Speaker 1: on your house. Yeah, there was a lot of things here.
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Speaker 1: I was like, wait, he just has solar planels laying
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Speaker 1: around and like the battery backup and everything. I've been
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Speaker 1: through this process at my house of putting solar panels
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Speaker 1: on and a backup battery, and it takes weeks, and
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Speaker 1: it takes a city approval, and it takes all kinds
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Speaker 1: of stuff. But the best interaction between Clark and Chuck
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Speaker 1: about these solar panels, Chuck says green is a color, son,
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Speaker 1: not a solution. Yes, And I died.
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Speaker 2: I was like, you go and turn your Fox News
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Speaker 2: back on, because my god, have I heard this from
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Speaker 2: my family members interest?
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Speaker 3: Oh kild you spend so much money on solar panels. Wha,
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Speaker 3: oh my god, Oh my god. You know who's laughing
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Speaker 3: when those drones come and like take over our world?
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Speaker 3: I am because I got a battery pack up.
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Speaker 1: Kidding. I'm joking, guys, I'm just joking. So this runs
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Speaker 1: throughout like basically, Chuck and Clark are like in a
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Speaker 1: battle to see who can repair the power faster, and
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Speaker 1: Chuck is like putting band aids over bullet holes, like
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Speaker 1: he plugs in a generator at one point the generator
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Speaker 1: so they can blow dray their hair. This was a
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Speaker 1: weird storyline with like the kids needing to like get
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Speaker 1: their hair washed. Yeah, anyway, it was you know, Chuck
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Speaker 1: is a lot. Could you imagine having Chuck as your dad,
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Speaker 1: growing up with Chuck as your dad. Chuck exhausted me,
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Speaker 1: like he was just unnecessarily difficult. I felt like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: imagine that being your neighbor too, Like you would just
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Speaker 1: never get along with this person. This person always thinks
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Speaker 1: he's right because he has some experience well, and he's
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Speaker 1: clearly a guy who always has like a project going.
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Speaker 1: Because at one point they show us their mantle which
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Speaker 1: is like burned. Yeah, no explanation for that, Like was
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Speaker 1: there a fire? Is it just like the result of
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Speaker 1: like I don't know what happened? Is it like soot?
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Speaker 1: Yeah from the Yeah, running a fire to me, But
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Speaker 1: it's just one of those things that he it's you
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Speaker 1: can imagine he's like, no, honey, I'll get to it.
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Speaker 1: I'll get to it, and she's like sick and tired
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Speaker 1: of waiting for him to get to it. Always has
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Speaker 1: a project, always kind of trying to fix things himself,
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Speaker 1: and it is not working. Out spoiler alert, Clark does
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Speaker 1: get the power running with his magical solar panels. Yay Clark,
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Speaker 1: Yay Clark.
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Speaker 2: Clark's are a wowie zowie too. In my opinion, I
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Speaker 2: enjoy Giles Panton. Did you just pull that name out
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Speaker 2: from nowhere?
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Speaker 1: No? I have the list of the character Oh I
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Speaker 1: do not. But if you want a full rundown of
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Speaker 1: the cast of this episode, please visit our show notes,
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Speaker 1: where we will have detailed information on each of them.
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Speaker 1: It would be an entire episode to run them down.
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Speaker 2: Yes, I want to talk about the sister and the
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Speaker 2: sister in laws.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. But what's
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Speaker 1: the other sister's name? Laurie is the actual sister. She's
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Speaker 1: played by Hilary Jardine. Rebecca is the sister in law
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Speaker 1: daughter in law played by Lucy Guests played by Lucy Guest.
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Speaker 1: And you're right, Laurie is the mean sister. This whole
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Speaker 1: family is mean. If you look at them, Katie is mean.
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Speaker 1: From previous episode we talked to I mean, you kind
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Speaker 1: of understand why Katie is the way she is. Chuck
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Speaker 1: is mean. The only one who's not mean is Connie. Well, Clark,
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Speaker 1: Connie and Clark, Yeah, and the kids. What's her name, Laurie,
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Speaker 1: Laurie's real mean, Yeah, So Laurie and Rebecca have beef.
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Speaker 1: Laurie tries to make you believe that it's because Rebecca
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Speaker 1: is like superior and she's vegan and has these high
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Speaker 1: standards for her children. And I'm sure she's made some
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Speaker 1: snide remarks because Laurie's like, you know, when you say,
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Speaker 1: like maybe you shouldn't give them sugar before dinner. Rebecca's like,
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Speaker 1: I'm just taking care of your children, and Laurie's like
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Speaker 1: I hear that as you think I can't, right, Like
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Speaker 1: I get those kind of like back and forth. Sure,
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Speaker 1: but Laurie is coming from a place of like there's
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Speaker 1: not anything Rebecca could do that she wouldn't find annoying.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 1: She finds her existence annoying, she finds her life annoying.
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Speaker 1: And so they almost come to like a little bit
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Speaker 1: of an agreement, and then it kind of blows up
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Speaker 1: again badly. Yeah. It starts in the salon where Laurie's like,
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Speaker 1: try having three kids and see how good of a
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Speaker 1: mom you are at that point, Like I'm just treading water.
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Speaker 1: Rebecca doesn't say anything at that point, but like that comment.
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Speaker 2: Hits her, but you can see it though, sure percent
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Speaker 2: she's completely.
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Speaker 1: Devastated at the comment and just walks away, and you
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Speaker 1: kind of do see you think like maybe they've come
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Speaker 1: to an understanding of each other at this point. Maybe
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Speaker 1: a little bit cut to they're in the pantry and
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Speaker 1: Laurie tries to like offer an olive branch. She's like,
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Speaker 1: let me introduce you to my cecaret box of wine,
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Speaker 1: and she hands it to Rebecca and like Rebecca gags,
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Speaker 1: and Lauria's like she can't handle it, Like she's so
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Speaker 1: annoyed because she thinks Rebecca's gagging because like it's she's
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Speaker 1: too classy, it's cheap wine. She can't have it. Uneasily,
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Speaker 1: like we know what is happening at this point.
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Speaker 2: Now I hadn't caught it.
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Speaker 1: Oh you had it. Yeah, it is in this wine
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Speaker 1: scene that Rebecca revealed that she can't have Yeah children,
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Speaker 1: it's kind of heartbreaking. Yeah, it's kind of funny because
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Speaker 1: this is a vegan family and she's like sneaking meat
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Speaker 1: from sneaking Wally's meathouse. She explains to Laurie, like we've
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Speaker 1: tried and tried and tried, and we can't have more children,
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Speaker 1: and so like I would love to be overwhelmed by children.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, And she's like, we've recently decided to give up trying. Yes,
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Speaker 2: Like that's a hard decision to come to. I thought
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Speaker 2: it was very nice. Like here I'm laying bare everything,
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Speaker 2: like this is what's going on for me, and your
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Speaker 2: comment really.
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Speaker 1: Hurt and like, yeah, I do maybe parent my child
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Speaker 1: to perfection because this is the one child I have.
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Speaker 1: This is my one shot, and so like if I
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Speaker 1: can't have more children, I'm gonna throw my whole self
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Speaker 1: into this one child.
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Speaker 2: Yea.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: So like also we're different people, Like what's important to
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Speaker 1: me is not what's important to you, And like maybe
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Speaker 1: I should shut my mouth sometimes about like the way
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Speaker 1: you parent your kids. But we can do things differently.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, but they have this beautiful like under standing. And
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Speaker 2: then that's when Laurie goes to share the wine and
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Speaker 2: Rebecca kind of gags out on it, and then Laurie's.
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Speaker 1: Like, oh, forget it. I tried. Yeah, she I feel
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Speaker 1: like it's a leap too far, But I also feel
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Speaker 1: like it's been years of Laurie feeling judged by Rebecca.
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Speaker 2: We get the flip side of Katie coming home after
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Speaker 2: the breakup.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So, and of course we saw in the last episode
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Speaker 2: Kevin dumps Katie and then they go off to the
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Speaker 2: stroll and we see Katie like watching from the window.
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Speaker 2: But now we see the flip side of her actually
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Speaker 2: coming home and she's telling the family like what happened,
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Speaker 2: and they fully rally around her, like they're ready to
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Speaker 2: ride for her against Camerina family. Is that how you
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Speaker 2: say their name?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Katie coming home gives them anetti hanahands a common
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Speaker 1: enemy that is outside of their home. It like redirects
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Speaker 1: all this animosity they're feeling towards each other. Yeah, and
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Speaker 1: so they all come together in that way. Connie doesn't
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Speaker 1: want to fight back, and we do need to talk
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Speaker 1: about Connie's storyline. Yeah, but I do, like, I mean,
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Speaker 1: Connie is the voice of reason in this whole family,
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Speaker 1: and you know, Katie's like, this is what I feel
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Speaker 1: like we talked about last episode. I think the tone
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Speaker 1: of this episode with Katie is much different than the
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Speaker 1: tone of episode six. I think that's way because Katie
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Speaker 1: just seems like a heartbroken girl. She's not reading mean
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Speaker 1: girl to me in this moment.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, but then she still shows up to the freaking
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Speaker 2: stroll and like, yeah, throws the ring back in Kevin's face.
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Speaker 2: It more.
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Speaker 1: That felt more motivated by the fact that she's got
11:39
Speaker 1: all these like wild men Eddie handah hands behind her,
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Speaker 1: like they roll deep they come in the montage of
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Speaker 1: them like marching in. Yeah, and then she's been motivated
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Speaker 1: by her family, who's like out for revenge in whatever
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Speaker 1: form it takes. Like we hate the camerainas, Yeah, we
11:55
Speaker 1: hate the camerainas. Let's do this, yeez, run Kevin, let's
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Speaker 1: talk about Connie. Well, let's talk about Connie. So halfway
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Speaker 1: through the episode when he's like, I got a bad
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Speaker 1: feeling about this.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad they kept it vague.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, me too, I'm glad they kept it vague. So
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Speaker 1: we know that Connie just wants a nice Christmas. And
12:21
Speaker 1: at one point early in the episode, Chuck's like, are
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Speaker 1: you okay, and She's like, I just want one nice Christmas.
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Speaker 1: Cut to we see her like missing a phone call.
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Speaker 1: She gets pissed. Yeah, she drives to the medical center.
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Speaker 1: They're closed Christmas Eve, I mean of course, right, Yeah,
12:43
Speaker 1: she finally reveals that she had an abnormal test result
12:49
Speaker 1: and she had a biopsy and she was hoping to
12:51
Speaker 1: have had the results by now, but she didn't. And
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Speaker 1: so she does make a comment like this Christmas might
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Speaker 1: be my last kind of irked me a little bit.
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Speaker 1: I'm like, you, you.
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Speaker 2: Have no information, you don't have any year operating off
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Speaker 2: of fear right now.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that seems like a bold statement to me. I
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Speaker 1: can understand being like, I want a good Christmas because
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Speaker 1: I don't know what next year is going to be,
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Speaker 1: like like if there is a diagnosis, maybe next year's
13:15
Speaker 1: gonna suck dealing with treatment. Yeah, but the jumping to
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Speaker 1: like this may be my last when you have no
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Speaker 1: information was Yes, perhaps a little bit too much, a
13:24
Speaker 1: little insensitive, I think, but that's that's where she's operating from. Well,
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Speaker 1: and now it.
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Speaker 2: Makes sense how she just wants, like, you know, a
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Speaker 2: Hallmark Christmas card. That's I think that's what she said.
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Speaker 2: Make the point, and I get it, like if you know,
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Speaker 2: she's feeling fearful. But so it's nice to finally have
13:46
Speaker 2: like a full loop, a closed loop on the motivation
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Speaker 2: of her like in her Christmas contract and all that.
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Speaker 1: Although quite frankly, she doesn't even need that. She could
13:57
Speaker 1: just be that up because this family is impossible. And
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Speaker 1: if this was my Christmas every year, where there's just
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Speaker 1: strife and everyone's fighting with everyone else, including the neighbors,
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Speaker 1: I would be tired of it too. Yeah, And she
14:09
Speaker 1: tries to be like so neutral.
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Speaker 2: I would be like screaming my head off, like I've
14:13
Speaker 2: have already.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I would just be like, bye, I'm
14:16
Speaker 1: not doing this, like you figured it out, Goodbye, goodbye.
14:21
Speaker 1: And the only softness we see in this episode comes
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Speaker 1: from Chuck when Connie gives him this information, and you know,
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Speaker 1: he has to make a military metaphor. He's like, I've
14:30
Speaker 1: never lost anyone on my under my command. I'm not
14:32
Speaker 1: about to lose you. I did enjoy that.
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Speaker 2: I enjoyed this softening of Chuck here at the end
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Speaker 2: of this episode as well.
14:39
Speaker 1: Also, I kind of like the llama, I.
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Speaker 2: Please explain to me why were they going? Why was
14:45
Speaker 2: he looking for a reindeer? Apparently she had signed them
14:49
Speaker 2: up to bring the reindeer to this stroll, and I
14:51
Speaker 2: was like, real reindeer, You're gonna have live reindeer.
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Speaker 1: At the stroll? I don't why, like for decoration. I
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Speaker 1: didn't understand. But they hadn't made a reindeer reservation, and
15:03
Speaker 1: chucktures to get a reindeer and there's no reindeer. All
15:05
Speaker 1: they got is a llama. But I really liked Chuck
15:09
Speaker 1: with the lama.
15:11
Speaker 2: Okay, I like lamas too, I just don't. It was
15:15
Speaker 2: weird to me, Like it was odd. That's so weird.
15:18
Speaker 1: Just adds to the cads. Yeah, too much chaos. I can't.
15:21
Speaker 2: I don't operate on cass guys, And so this family
15:25
Speaker 2: stresses me out.
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Speaker 1: The episode ends, you know, we have our classic power
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Speaker 1: outage moment. Oh no, we do learn that Rebecca's pregnant
15:39
Speaker 1: because they come home, yes, and they're all gonna get
15:43
Speaker 1: the family photo. They've all reunited over their shared goal
15:46
Speaker 1: of taking down the camaran as they go cause havoc
15:50
Speaker 1: at the stroll and they come home and they're gonna
15:52
Speaker 1: get the family photo. And there's like this montage of
15:55
Speaker 1: everyone making the house nice and getting into their sweaters
15:57
Speaker 1: and they repair the mantle and all of the and
16:02
Speaker 1: Lori offers Rebecca a glass of nice wine and she
16:07
Speaker 1: gags there too, and she was like, what the hell man?
16:10
Speaker 1: And then she was like, she's pregnant. Even the fancy
16:14
Speaker 1: wine makes her gag.
16:15
Speaker 2: Hey, did you catch the oh shit in this episode?
16:19
Speaker 1: And shit got bleeped? Yeah? Yeah, and Clark shows off
16:27
Speaker 1: his solar setup. You know, they turn the lights back
16:29
Speaker 1: on all of this. This is all good news. Yeah,
16:32
Speaker 1: Chuck's like, maybe y'all scale down the Christmas lights so
16:35
Speaker 1: that our solar load can handle it. This is so dumb.
16:39
Speaker 2: This is so dumb to me because their Christmas lights
16:43
Speaker 2: are not that obnoxious. I think it's like there has
16:49
Speaker 2: to be some Christmas Vacation inspiration here, because uh, in
16:53
Speaker 2: the next episode spoiler alert, there's like a moment where
16:57
Speaker 2: like the lights are like really blind in the Camarina's house,
17:01
Speaker 2: and in Christmas Vacation there's a moment where like the
17:04
Speaker 2: neighbors are blinded by Clark's lights. Nobody's Christmas lights are
17:08
Speaker 2: that bright that they're like a spotlight shining into your house.
17:11
Speaker 2: No never, now, I will tell you.
17:15
Speaker 1: My house.
17:16
Speaker 2: Our houses. I live in southern California. Our houses we
17:19
Speaker 2: don't have, like there's not there's not miles and miles
17:22
Speaker 2: between the next house, right, And so when their Christmas
17:26
Speaker 2: lights have been turning on lately, like I see them
17:28
Speaker 2: from our windows, but I actually enjoy it.
17:31
Speaker 1: Well, it's not like blinding you. You can still go
17:33
Speaker 1: about your day.
17:34
Speaker 2: No, it's just but it's just like a nice little
17:36
Speaker 2: and I'll be sad when the season's.
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Speaker 1: Over and it doesn't turn on anymore. So so the
17:44
Speaker 1: power goes on, the family waits by the tree, they're
17:50
Speaker 1: about to get their family photo, and boom, the power
17:53
Speaker 1: goes out. Storm with the storm the power, But that
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Speaker 1: solar bit does set us up nicely for episode eight,
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Speaker 1: bring in the families together. So thank you for listening
18:08
Speaker 1: to this episode of Girls Gone Homework, a Bramble Jam podcast.
18:11
Speaker 1: Come back tomorrow for our wrap up of holidays. We'll
18:15
Speaker 1: see you next time.
18:16
Speaker 2: Goodbye, bye.
18:28
Speaker 1: All right friends, before we go, just a quick heads up.
18:30
Speaker 1: You're about to hear some ads. These little gems help
18:33
Speaker 1: us keep the show running and the Hallmark love flowing.
18:36
Speaker 1: So do with that info what you will, Grab a snack,
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Speaker 1: hit the skip button, or maybe just maybe listen in
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