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SMNTY Classics: Fictional Women Around the World - Marlene · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm often stuff I've Never told you Protection iHeartRadio, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: welcome back to another classic Today, we're bringing back a
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: fictional Women around the World that we did on Marlene
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: from the.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Last of Us. I mentioned it in this episode.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: In the second game, she is in it in flashbacks.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We don't know if that's gonna happen yet. We'll see, but.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I'm very, very interested. That was kind of in a
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: strange place right now because there's only so many characters
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: we can talk about without spoiling what comes further.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Down the road. And so I have a couple that
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I'm like dying to talk about, but we have to wait.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We have to wait, but we can bring this one back.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, So please enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan Never told you
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: a protection of iHeartRadio, and welcome to another sub sub
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: segment of fictional Women around the World. We are continuing
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: with our Last of Us content. This will have spoilers
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: for the most recent final finale episode of the HBO
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: show The Last of Us, which, yes it's not a sponsor,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: but just a heads up on that there will be spoilers,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: some brief mention of the second game.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: But not much. No spoilers, no spoilers.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I would also suggest listening to Our Riley episode for
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: more on the interaction between Riley and Marlene. And Marlene
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: is who we're talking about? I realized I didn't say, yes,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: we were talking about Marl, So let's get right into it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Marlene is played by Merle Dandridge in both the twenty
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: thirteen game, the twenty twenty sequel game, and the HBO show.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: She was the only one who is a voice actor
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and motion capture of her character in the game and
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: played her the same character in the show, so it's
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: very very cool. You can see her get emotional about
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: it in the behind the show bit after the most
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: recent episode, and also a little bit in the kind
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: of making up the Last of Us. The character is
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: also featured in the comic American Dreams. As discussed in
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Our Riley episode. She is the leader of the Boston
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Quarantine Zone Fireflies are QS Fireflies. She was a good
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: friend of Ellie's mother Anna. She was Ellie's protector from
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Afar and the final quote antagonist I saw her described
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: of the game Slash movie I have my beef with that,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: but whatever.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: There are some key.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Differences between her background and the game and the show,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and I'll go over them, but let's start with the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: game slash comic. Marlene is, yes, the leader of the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Fireflies in Boston, and the Fireflies are this organization or
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: some call them a terrorist group, depending on who you ask,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: in the world of the last of us that are
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: fighting against what they view as this totalitarian, fascist rule
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: and control of this government organization called FEDRA. In some
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: places across the country, the Fireflies have succeeded in taking
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: over the CZI, but they are being cracked down on
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: and killed in most places. Boston in particular, has suffered
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of recent losses at the stories beginning, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: on top of leading this organization, yes, she watches over
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Ellie because of this promise that she made to Ellie's mom, Anna,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: who had been her friend since before the outbreak, since
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: they've known each other, like what did they say, We've
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: known each other forever essentially. At one point, Marlene was
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: close with Joel's brother Tommy when he was a member
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: of the Fireflies, and when Tommy left the organization, he
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: told Marlene she could go to Joel if she was
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: ever desperate. During the events of American Dreams, Marlene saved
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Ellie and Riley from and infected and denied Riley's request
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to join the Fireflies. After a confrontation with smugglers and
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: this intense exchange between the trio, Marlene gives Ellie her
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: mother's switchblade and a letter from her mom. Eventually, Marlene
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: does allow Riley to join the Fireflies, but only if
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: she promises to never see Ellie again, because Marlene wants
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Ellie to be safe at this military school, and it
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: even goes as far to decide to send Riley to
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: another cus. But Riley is desperate to see Ellie one
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: last time, so the pair sneak out to the mall
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: and Ellie convinces Riley to leave the Fireflies and stay
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: with her, but unfortunately they get bitten and Riley dies
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: and somehow Ellie doesn't turn and this is when Marlene
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: realizes Ellie is immune. So Marlee makes a deal with
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a smuggler named Robert to get enough weapons to smuggle
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Ellie out of the QZ, but the military attacks her
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: and her squad, killing everyone but Marlene, who sustains a
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: shot to her side, and yes, that's slightly different than
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: what happens in the show, but essentially the basics are there. Meanwhile,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Marlene finds out that it was Tess and Joel who
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: have killed Robert, and by the way, Marlene and Tess
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: knew each other before the outbreak as well, and they
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: were like wort friends, but they weren't enemies. So Marlene's
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: out of options and she offers these weapons that she
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: was supposed to get to transport Ellie across the country
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: to Tess and Joel in exchange for them getting Ellie
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: out of the city and to a rendezvous point where
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: they'll meet up with other Fireflies who will take her
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: the rest of the way to their final location, which.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: You don't know what it is at this point.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Ellie doesn't like this plan wants to stay with Marlene,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: but Marlene tells her this is the only chance that
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: they have, and so Ellie does go with the smugglers.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Marlene recovers and she and the rest of the remaining
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Fireflies make the check across the country to Salt Lake City,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: where the Fireflies have successfully taken over the Quz, but
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: they suffer a lot of losses along the way her
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: and her group, and it really demoralizes them, and so
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: their spirits kind of rise when they join the Salt
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Lake City Fireflies, but it doesn't last long when they
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: learn that the group that was supposed to transport Ellie
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: died at the rendezvous point and they have no idea
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: where she is if she survived, and Marlene in particular,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: goes really depressed and starts questioning her leadership skills to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: the point she stops eating. She thinks about running away
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: from the Fireflies, and that's where we see some big
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: differences between the show and the game. All Right, So
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: her patrol reports spotting a man and a little girl
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: in the city and they bring them in. At first,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Marlene is thrilled that Ellie has survived, but then she
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: is informed that while they can reverse engineer vaccine from
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Ellie's unique mutation, the procedure will kill her. They asked
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: for Marlene's permission, which she thought was kind of a formality.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: They were going to do it no matter what, so
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: she does give them permission, but it greatly pains her,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: and she records two messages to Ellie's mother apologizing and
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: here's a quote I wanted to include. Apparently there's no
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: way to extricate the parasite without eliminating the host. Fancy
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: way of saying, we got up kill the kid, and
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: now they're asking for my go ahead. The tests just
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: keep getting harder and harder, don't they. I'm so tired,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: I'm exhausted, and I just want this to end. So
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: be it. Oh, I miss you Anna, your daughter will
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: be with you soon. Pretty intense. Marlene insists that they
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: tell Joel, that they tell him because they owe him
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: the truth because he got her here.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: The others disagree.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Some even tried to persuade her to kill Joel, or
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: that they should kill Joel, but she.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Relas, I need to go back where did just was
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: this in the game where she's recording these messages that
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: I missed this? Yeah?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well you find them. You find them.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Throughout like the it's the way you pick up you
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: pick up like these like hand recorders and you listen
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: to these messages.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Wow, I definitely blame that doing that.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Gameplay well, it's kind of it's in the uh in
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: PlayStation five. It comes through your controller, so it sounds different,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: so it's kind of hard to hear in the first one.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like one of the most annoying mechanics,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: which they fixed in the second one. But when you're
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: playing it, you can't move and something could attack you.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: So you're like listening to it like you don't attack
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: on attack.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Oh oh, yeah, I completely didn't know. Okay, that was
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: new to Yeah.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: So they're trying to convince her to kill Joel, but
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: she refused to kill the one person who might understand
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: how she felt. So in the show they have this line,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: and the game they have this line where she's like, oh,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: you were you got her across the country, and it's
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: sort of realizing like, oh, he actually cares about her
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: now because he did not at the beginning. So she
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: thanks Joel for transporting Ellie into him about the vaccine
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: and how it will kill her, and Joel of course objects,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: but she tells him that this is bigger than either
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: of their feelings for Ellie. She tells her squad to
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: give Joel back his supplies and lead him out, instructing
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: them to shoot him if he tries to intervene with
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: the operation. Of course, Joel escapes, kills everyone stops the operation.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Marlene follows Joel to the parking deck and tries to
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: stop him from taking Ellie at gunpoint, asking how long
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: before Ellie faces something horrible in the future, how long
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: before she dies? And tells them it's what Ellie would
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: want and he knows it. In a show of peace,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: she lowers her gun, but Joel shoots her. Marlen survives
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: at first shot and begs him to let her go,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: and he says, you'll just come after her and shoots
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: her again, killing her, which, interestingly enough, I've seen a
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: lot of arguments about whether or not Marlene is dead. Yeah,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: she is dead.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Everyone she could die.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's one of those things that when people
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: were fighting about Riley, I was like, no, she did well.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they do feel like if I hadn't watched you
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: play it through and knew what was going on, it
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: would feel like today, just leave that up for maybe
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: something to come about later.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm, nosters.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: No.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: So Joel lies to Ellie about Marlene's death, about the fireflies,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: about the vaccine, saying that they have given up on
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: finding a cure, and you do that is not the
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: end of Marlene. Just because of flashbacks, I wanted to
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: include some quotes from Dangridge to close this up about
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: this character. She did say that Marlene has a heavier
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: stillness in the show because they wanted to be more
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: quote realistic about the weight of the apocalypse or something.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: That's not a direct quote. I don't know why I
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: did that.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: That's basically what they were saying, a paraphrasing quote. I
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: guess I go okay, But here is an actual quote
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: from an interview with her about the differences, because this
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: is part of the big the big fight. If you
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: want to learn more about the cere most recent last
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: of those episode about the finale between Joel and Marlene.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: So Danger said, well, I would say there might be
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: a question mark around that. I know that Marlene didn't
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: explicitly offer that information to Ellie because she didn't want
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: to alarm her, but I do think that they have
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: a more pragmatic relationship. She might have even alluded to it,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: which gives Ellie even more conflict and not having had
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: the agency that Joel has taken away from her. Ultimately
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: black and white, Yes, they are both taking this choice
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: from her, but I do think that Marlene has given
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: her a little bit more information. I don't think she's
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: explicitly lied to her. She maybe omitted some truth, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: she would not explicitly lie to her. Also, in the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: midst of this, the relationship between Marlene and Angel is
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: fraught with a lot of history between them. As Marlene
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: put it, they're both capable of so much, and they
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: have abided with each other in parallel lines, but there's
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: a chasm and animosity between them because of Marlene's relationship
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: with his brother Tommy as a firefly caused a physical
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and emotional rift between them, So there's another element of
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: him not giving any two f's about what Marlene wants
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: in this situation, even though she's throwing out every argument
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: in the kitchen sink at him, trying to negotiate with him.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Oh my, I love it. You can tell she puts
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: so much thought into this character.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, this is a character.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I think that's the thing that when you see the
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: behind the scenes and when you have each of the
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: different actors who portray someone else obviously but part of
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: the show. They all love this entire story and they
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: feel like they are a part of it, and I
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: think because they are included, they love it a little more.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: But they do get to have a big say, and
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: then the show and the writers acknowledged them in the
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: aftermath to able to like process not only what they
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: did in the game, but also what they did in
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: the show. So it was lovely. But yeah, having her
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: play this character was so on point. She did an
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: amazing job because it was I don't know, I don't
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: think anyone else could have done that character the way
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: she did it, and she did She's already practiced it
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: through like she's a pro, So this probably only came
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: like other than the few changes that they made, this
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: was just like an old hat for her.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and she's such a great complex character because she
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: is the leader of this organization.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: She has this connection to Ellie, she has this connection
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to Joel, and.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll have a lot more to say about it
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: in the most recent.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do wish that they had played up their relationship,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Marlene and Ellie's relationship rather than just being like, oh,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I knew your mother, Like I really wish they were
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: like where she was kind of a caretaker, you know,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: whether it's like in secret or whatnot, because she wasn't
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: a show in the game, right, So I kind of
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: wish they were able to play that up because that
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: distance makes it seem like she is an antagonist instead
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: of being a complex character.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean she's got a lot going on, which
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: we you know, we did talk about, we'll talk about.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: But they did.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: They certainly like as as the character said, as the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: actor said, they made her. There's more of a harsher
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: kind of stillness with her in the in the show.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: But I mean it's it's a painful thing of like
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: her promising Anna, I will take care of Ellie and
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: then being the one that's kind of like, I gotta
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: make this decision because she's got this like leadership thing
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: going on.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: It's tough. It's tough. Yes, yes, well I do love
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: this character. Yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: We had a plenty to say in our most recent
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Last of Us episodes, so go check that out if
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: you haven't already. This will be the end of Last
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: of Us content for me for now for now, but
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: in the meantime we are moving into Star Wars territory.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: But if you have any suggestions, please, as always let
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: us know.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: You can email us a Steffani your Mom Stuff at
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram. And TikTok at Steffan
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Never Told You, and also check us out on YouTube.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and our
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: contributor Joey.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, yes.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And thanks to you for listening stuff. Never Told You
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: is protection of iHeartRadio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
• 15:33
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• 15:34
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