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

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