Episode 9: Epilogue (2000)
Narrator: You’re listening to the final episode of The Electronic Lover. It’s the year 2000. If you’re just joining us now, none of this will make any sense whatsoever.
Charlene: I’m making a podcast.
Narrator: I read about this in the paper. It’s like a radio show, right?
Charlene: Sort of, yeah.
Narrator: Remember Frankie’s teenage daughter? Charlene was her handle. Sang that incredible song at the wedding? Well, I was curious what had happened in the aftermath of all that drama and it turns out she was still thinking about it too. She was tracking down and interviewing as many of the people involved as she could. She wanted to figure out how her mom and her friends got so mixed up and emotionally involved in this chatroom.
Marianne: Check, check
One, two
Check, check
How does this sound?
Narrator: I think it sounds pretty good, Charlene
Marianne: You can call me Marianne now
Narrator: Oh right. I’m interested to hear the interviews. Did everyone talk to you?
Marianne: Everyone but Talkin’Lady
Narrator: AKA Joan
Marianne: AKA Jonathan
Narrator: Who’s Jonathan again?
Marianne: AKA Officer Westmoreland. Officer Alexander Westmoreland
Narrator: Oh!
Marianne: And also Joan
Narrator: Okay, I’m getting confused, but I have had a rough couple years myself.
Marianne: Sorry to hear that
I Hope you’re okay
Narrator: It’s been a few minutes since I was narrating that story about your mom and her geeky friends—feel free to catch me up. And you know, it’s just me here —you don’t have to go on singing everything.
Marianne: What do you mean?
Narrator: I mean, you…. oh forget it.
Marianne: When I began to contemplate
the internet of today…
Narrator: I don’t know if that’s a great idea
Wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki
Scroll Scroll Scroll Scroll Scroll
Marianne: …compared to what it used to be
Hello? Hello?
How do we plug it in?
Is this thing on?
Is anybody there?
Marianne: How did my mom
And all her smart friends
Get wrapped up in this drama?
Get fooled by this man?
Narrator: What do you mean a man?!?
Marianne: Let’s have a listen to what they told me
Here’s Theresa! T-Rex!
Theresa: I had always been naive
Awkward and shy
And that forum was my window to the world
I came in trusting everyone
They accepted me
My chatroom family
Became my whole life
Then Joan arrived
And everything fell into place
She was our mother
Our sister, our teacher
I would chat with her late into the night
About all the challenges we faced
With our mobility
And Joan was the one who inspired me – dared me!
To be bold
To be fearless
And to be open to love
But then to discover
That it was all lies
This man posing as a woman
As a woman in a wheelchair
It’s beyond the pale!
Was she also pretending to care?
Hard to believe, it all felt so real
All I know
Is my safe haven
The place I went to be myself
Was ripped away
Ruined, destroyed
Joan coaxed me out of my shell
And Jonathan sent me crawling
Back inside
***
Narrator: What an asshole.
Marianne: This brilliant woman
Narrator: And yet still able to be manipulated by this lying sack. Lying about being a paraplegic? Good Lord.
Marianne: How could he exploit her vulnerability?
Narrator: And what’s disturbing is: He truly did boost her confidence. That was real, too.
Behold the moral grey area!
Narrator: I still think this is hideous.
Marianne: I am so moved by her lingering sadness
Narrator: What did the other women have to say?
Stan! SirStacks! Let it rip!
Stan: No comment! No comment!
That bitch, that bastard!
No comment! No comment!
The biggest betrayal of my life!
No comment!
I was burned
I took a risk
I revealed myself
And it bit me in the ass!
Can you imagine
The humiliation
Flirting with
Confiding in
Pining for
A liar
A sneaky, underhanded, devious, sociopathic
Liar!
I was burned!
Joan was so alluring
She reeled me in quickly
And then robbed me of dignity
Absconded with my choice
Of how to come out to my community
I thought she was my community!
And the nerve
The sheer
Unmitigated
Nerve
Of a biological male
To chastise me
Attempt to silence me
Reprehensible!
But by now
My anger has cooled
I am who I am in the world
I have evolved
Undaunted
Risen from the ashes!
***
He seems like he’s okay!
Narrator: Well, yeah, but I’m sure it took a lot of work to get there. Joan was such a flirt. She went hard with that stuff. And she used peoples’ secrets to manipulate them.
Marianne: I wonder if Joan really cared about Stacks – and felt somehow betrayed by his gender transition?
Narrator: Maybe in her weird way, she did. There were so many people in the chatrooms who really needed these connections.
Bored! Isolated! Lonely! Trapped!
Narrator: But I do like his Phoenix thing.
Stacks flying high in the sky!
Narrator: He runs an archive for LGBT literature now. Just won some big award from the Library Association.
Marianne: And speaking of successes
Here’s the executive VP
Of an international financial institution
That shall go unnamed…
I present to you…
My mom!
Frankie! Friday! Mother of Marianne!
Marianne: This one was a doozy
So much that I hadn’t known
Frankie:
We all carry
One thousand and one shames
And I have learned that if I speak of mine
Bring them into the light
The power they hold over me
Begins to wane
So…
Oh, this is difficult
How do I…
Marianne: Are you sure you want to do this, Mom?
Frankie: I never told you
It just didn’t’ come up
As Joan he was my benefactor
As Jonathan, my lover
Joan was paying my college tuition
And after the affair
Marianne: Excuse me, the affair?
Frankie: It was before I knew
Joan was his creation
That he had lied to us all
Had been lying the whole time
Marianne: What a difficult decision
To step away from that support
After you found out
Frankie: Dearest daughter
I did not
Marianne: You did not?
What are you saying, Mom?
Frankie: I stepped away from the forum
As we all reeled from the discovery
I never spoke with Jonathan again
Marianne: That definitely sounds like the right decision
Frankie: But my bills were quietly paid for years
Semester after semester
I got my degree
And I said nothing
I told no one
Marianne: Wow.
And how do you feel now?
Frankie: I wouldn’t have my career
Without that diploma
I never thanked him
But there is some relief in the telling
Now you know everything, honey
Promise
***
Narrator: Wow. Was that interview a little weird for you?
Marianne: I’m so angry!
It just took one person
To destroy they all built
She admits there were benefits
And she took advantage of them
Mom is smart, after all
Narrator: I get that, but I can’t believe he wouldn’t talk to you.
Was he ashamed? Or did he actually think he was helping everyone?
Marianne: Listen to what Aunt Margot said
She and my mom have remained very close
Margot! Mar-GoGo!
Margot: A lifetime ago
We had no idea what we were in for
What would become of our beloved
Chatrooms
Our boards and forums
There is no question
Jonathan was deceptive
Please! A psychiatrist claiming he wanted to understand women?
A hurtful and creepy
Social experiment
He took advantage of our trust
And toyed with our lives
I was his unwitting accomplice
Like a wolf isolating his prey from the herd
He pushed for the women-only forum
And in my ignorance
I invited him in
To ravage us all
I stepped away from this world
But as I look back now
How could it have gone
Any other way?
It’s the internet after all
The Garden of Eden
It’s all so Shakespearean
Narrator: Speaking of Adam and Eve, it seemed like something was going on with the chatroom’s first couple, her and Buck. Am I right?
Marianne: Yeah, I had to ask her about that, finally
Margot: A short romance rekindled
We let the sparks ignite
And let them fade away in time
I have no regrets
***
Marianne: And … ?
That’s all she gave me.
Narrator: Yeah. And? I guess that’s all she’s going to say about Buck. And she’s not even in computers anymore. She’s an herbalist. Works with plants. Safer.
Marianne: I don’t know what to make of any of this
Narrator: Why does everyone always have to make something of everything?
Marianne: I don’t know
This just isn’t what I expected.
Connection
Communication
Information
Technology
It’s not adding up
I’m not even sure what – or who – I’m mad at anymore?!
Will you accept the cookies?
Will you accept all the cookies?
Marianne: It makes me wonder
Rate and review your experience
How many stars will you give us?
Marianne:
It makes me wonder
It makes me worry
Internal server error
Submit the form again
This file doesn’t exist
Marianne: What happened to my mother’s idealism?
That giddiness of discovery
New friends and new frontiers
Your account has been hacked
This username already exists
You have been catfished
I don’t know how I got here
Please remove me from your list
Marianne: Without trust
How will I know who I am
Or where I am going?
Maps, Earth, Satellite, Street View
Put on your headset and take a V.R. tour!
Marianne: What has been lost
Taken from me?
In 100 feet turn left
Turn left
Turn left
Make a U-turn
You have arrived at your destination
Marianne: It makes me wonder
Would I have been so naive
To believe everyone I met online?
Or am I too jaded now
To give anyone the benefit of the doubt?
To trust my heart and jump in
It makes me wonder
Will all this knowledge
Set me free
Or set me up
For an empty and lonely future?
Add it to your cart
Subscribe
Subscribe
Unsubscribe
I never signed up for this
We’re sorry to see you go!
Marianne: Is it still okay to talk to strangers?
Ruben will be in a white Kia Soul
Anmolpreet will be in a white Nissan Altima
Mahbub will be in a black Toyota Camry
Humberto will be in a grey Toyota RAV4
Dagny will be in a blue Toyota Prius
Frantz will be in a black Dodge Charger
Jagtar will be in a silver Nissan Rogue
Hung will be in a white Tesla Model 3
Jose will be in a white Hyundai Ioniq
Federico will be in a silver Chevy Bolt
David will be in a black Ford Escape
Servando will be in a blue Hyundai Sonata
Ismail will be in a black Lexus ES
Abdelghani will be in a black Nissan Altima
Lhakpa will be in a white Mitsubishi Outlander
Marianne: It makes me wonder
Wary and watchful
How will I find love
In this cold new world?
Rideshare Carshare Homeshare Bikeshare Fileshare
Sharing my photos with friends only
Sharing the recipe for authentic baba ghanoush
Cher live in concert in Monte Carlo in 1979
What is this bird?
That is a goldfinch
What is this song?
Milk Man by Deerhoof
What is this flower?
A scarlet beebalm
What is this building?
The Chrysler Building, you idiot!
Marianne: It makes me wonder…
When was it built?
Who is the architect?
Is it the 11th or the 12th tallest in the world?
Marianne: My mom and her friends
Chose to play this game back then
But now is it even possible
To unplug?
To opt out?
I’m sorry
I didn’t understand that
***
What is this shooting pain in my arm
In my head
In my chest
In my stomach
In my eye
What is this rash
Why does my
Is it normal if
Marianne: It makes me wonder…
Did you mean?
Did you mean?
Did you mean?
That ducking weirdo
That ducking weirdo
Ducking
Ducking
Jesus!
It won’t type ducking!
I give up!
Marianne: What will I become?
How do I sear the perfect steak
How do I fix my lawnmover
How to fall asleep fast
How do I trim my bangs
How does someone become a narcissist
How do I break up with my girlfriend
How do I ride a bike
How to cook a perfect soft-boiled egg
How do I mix a martini
How do you get ringworm
How do I get a library card
How do I grow a mustache
How to get rid of hiccups
How do I get a passport
LOL – BRB – TY – NP – LMK – LMFAO – HMU – IDK – IRL – TTYL
Marianne: What have we done?
I need to pick up my car from the macaroni
The macaroni
The mechanic
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***
The Electronic Lover 