Parking Meter

Guest Links

• Gareth Reynolds
• The Dollop
• We’re Here to Help
• Almost Live
• Gareth’s Website
• Gareth on Instagram
• Gareth on Facebook
• Gareth on YouTube

References

• A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
• Busboys
• The Other Guys
• Zootopia
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
• Chekhov’s Gun
• Back to the Future
• Crank
• Crank: High Voltage
• Leeroy Jenkins
• Antonio Brown
• Die Hard
• Guns Akimbo
• Mexican Standoff
• Home Alone
• King of the Hill
• GO-4 Interceptor

Transcript

[Intro music begins]

[Emily]
Oh, I was picturing him saying “Best goddamn day on the job.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
You have that right before he gets shot.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Okay, okay.

[Shep]
That’s literally the words that are leaving his mouth-

[Emily]
When he gets shot.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Gareth]
And thinks he’s dying, and he’s like, “It’s just a little bit on the shoulder.” He’s like, “Live on!”

[Intro music]

[Thomas]
Hey there, story fans, welcome to Almost Plausible, the podcast where we take ordinary objects and turn them in movies. I’m Thomas J. Brown, and joining me today, are Emily-

[Emily]
Hey, guys.

[Thomas]
F. Paul Shepard-

[Shep]
Happy to be here.

[Thomas]
And Gareth Reynolds.

[Gareth]
Hey, it’s me from the movies.

[Thomas]
Gareth, as you can tell, is a comedian, but he’s also a podcaster, actor, writer, and improviser. He is perhaps most well known for co-hosting The Dollop, which is an American history podcast that takes a humorous look back at all the wacky shit that’s happened in this country. Gareth, welcome to the show.

[Gareth]
Thank you.

[Thomas]
You have quite a few writing credits on IMDb, so tell us a bit about your history with screenwriting.

[Gareth]
Well, I have written, I wrote, I rewrote the third Harold and Kumar movie, which is, I don’t know, a C. I’ve written a couple original screenplays. I’ve punched up a couple of screenplays and nothing ever got made. So, I guess I’m just a nothing.

[Thomas]
That’s par for the course.

[Emily]
Yeah, well-

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
That’s how it works, right, in Hollywood is all the work and then nothing happens.

[Gareth]
That’s totally right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Well now there’s not even the work. The business is gone.

[Emily]
Yeah, they have AI for that now.

[Shep]
Oh no.

[Thomas]
Right, yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And, you know, you do you do a lot of improv work on The Dollop.

[Gareth]
Yes.

[Thomas]
We actually, when you guys came here, all three of us went to the show and-

[Emily]
Yep.

[Gareth]
Okay.

[Emily]
We had a nice little date. It was cute.

[Gareth]
Oh, good. That’s cool. Yeah, no, a lot of improv, The Dollop, and then more recently, We’re Here to Help. Those are the podcasts. And yeah, a lot of improv. No, no prep. I don’t prep, as, you know, from when I showed up here.

[Shep]
Excellent.

[Emily]
Samesies.

[Shep]
You’re going to fit in here.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Gareth]
Perfect.

[Thomas]
We plan to put those improv and writing skills to the test today when we create an episode about what subject, Gareth?

[Gareth]
It’ll be about parking meters today.

[Thomas]
Each episode of Almost Plausible starts out with a pitch session. We’ll each take turns pitching our ideas about a parking meter, and then we’ll pick the idea we like the most and develop it into a full movie plot. I am pitching first today: Two dimwitted crooks get their hands on a key that opens every parking meter in the city. They hatch a robbery plan that is as ambitious as it is time consuming. By the time officials finally figure out what’s happening, the crooks are drowning in quarters and completely stumped about how to turn a literal ton of coins into anything useful.

[Shep]
I mean, this sounds like it could have happened.

[Gareth]
Yeah, it excites me in the way that I’ve always- I love getting change. I remember when I used to see people, like, emptying the soda machines, and I was like, “That’s a lot of change.”

[Emily]
Oh, yeah.

[Shep]
Yep.

[Gareth]
Change is exciting.

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah. When you’re in the arcade and they come in to restock the soda machine, and it’s like, “All those quarters!”

[Gareth]
“If I just kill that guy, I’ll have $40.”

[Thomas]
This does feel like the kind of story that you would hear about on The Dollop, doesn’t it?

[Gareth]
Yeah, right. Totally. Yes.

[Thomas]
All right, my other pitch: When everyman Dave Kowalski gets cited for feeding a stranger’s expiring parking meter, he fights it all the way to the Supreme Court. As the case winds through the courts, a grassroots meter feeding movement sweeps the nation, and cities find themselves unable to enforce laws that look increasingly absurd under public scrutiny.

[Emily]
Okay, so have you actually gotten in trouble for that because I have.

[Thomas]
Have you really?

[Gareth]
Oh, wow, really?

[Emily]
I have, I have in fact gotten in trouble for that.

[Gareth]
No.

[Emily]
They didn’t cite me or anything, but I got a stern talking to from meter maid-

[Shep]
Yep.

[Emily]
About not doing that.

[Gareth]
I know it’s illegal.

[Emily]
Yeah which is stupid because they’re getting the money either way.

[Gareth]
It’s incredibly stupid.

[Shep]
They don’t want the money, they want the-

[Emily]
It’s the parking ticket, yeah.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Because that’s more money.

[Gareth]
The control.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
It could just be the control.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
That actually reminds me, I have a parking ticket I have to pay.

[Gareth]
Yeah, I do too, actually. That’s not a joke.

[Emily]
No, for real. That really just reminded me I do have a parking ticket.

[Gareth]
Yeah, I, there’s a, I went to the grocery store and there were no parking spots. So, I was like, “I’ll just throw to this meter.” I was like, “I’ll be five minutes.” And I didn’t put any change in. I came out, I was like, “That is a bad idea.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
You know there was, like, a meter maid on their lunch break who was, like, watching you, and they’re like, “Oh my god, oh my god, he’s not really- I mean, I can’t not, can I?”

[Gareth]
I, one time, had a dude, I was walking to my car, and I was leaving a Trader Joe’s. Same shit. I was like, “Yeah, I know. You can’t stop once you started.” And he goes, “Yeah, I can. Whatever. Go.” And I was like, “What?” And he’s like, “Go.” And I was like, “What?” I was like, “You have a heart?” I didn’t know that was possible.

[Shep]
They fired him because of that.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
It was his last day.

[Gareth]
Yeah, it’s true.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Could be, yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Emily]
It was his last day before retirement.

[Gareth]
He just got, yeah, he just got like a terminal diagnosis. He was like-

[Shep]
Oh, geez, this story took a turn.

[Gareth]
I might be pitching my plot. No.

[Thomas]
Yeah, save it, save it.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
All right, those are my pitches. Emily, what do you have for us today?

[Emily]
So, I have one: A meter maid kills drivers who overextend their stay at the parking meters. That’s it.

[Gareth]
Ooh-

[Emily]
Simple.

[Gareth]
That’s delicious.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
It’s kind of the opposite of the guy that let Gareth go.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah no.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
She’s just sick of everyone’s bullshit. So, it’s stabby stabby.

[Gareth]
I would either way, just no parking tickets. Kill me. I don’t give a fuck.

[Emily]
Okay, Shep, what do you have for us?

[Shep]
Okay, a rare coin accidentally gets used as change in a parking meter.

[Thomas]
Feels like it’s more about the coin than the meter, though.

[Shep]
Yeah. We’re using parking meter as a container in that one.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
That’s no good. A time loop where, when the parking meter expires, time resets to the moment it was started.

[Emily]
We just did a time loop.

[Thomas]
I love it, but yeah, we just, literally our last episode.

[Shep]
We just did it. Okay. Wacky hijinks as someone tries to get back to their car before the meter expires.

[Gareth]
Ooh.

[Thomas]
Boy I like that you’ve got like a ticking clock in that one.

[Gareth]
That’s good.

[Shep]
Is literally a ticking clock.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
That is good.

[Shep]
That’s all I have. Gareth, what do you have?

[Gareth]
All right. So, mine is a stoner comedy about one parking meter attendant who is going to retire, and he’s training his replacement in the little meter-maid van. And they, you know, the retiring guy doesn’t give a fuck. The new guy doesn’t give a fuck. But then they witness a murder-

[Emily]
Yes!

[Shep]
Oh, geez.

[Gareth]
And they try to solve it.

[Emily]
Yes!

[Gareth]
And the whole thing is shot through security cameras around the city. And through their meter-maid camera that’s in their vehicle. Feels like I lost everyone at the end. I’m not married to that part.

[Emily]
No. No.

[Thomas]
No, no.

[Shep]
No, no, no. I want to do this one immediately.

[Thomas]
Yeah, this is great.

[Shep]
I love everything about it.

[Emily]
This is great. There’s a murder, so I’m in.

[Shep]
The meter maid, they got the uniform. They got the badge.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
It’s a cop.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
They witnessed a murder. Yeah, they want to solve crimes. They went onto the police force because they wanted to solve crimes, but they get stuck as a meter maid.

[Gareth]
All right. I’m gonna change my pitch.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Gareth]
Off of that. A guy witnessed a murder and thinks they’re the cops and goes to them and gives them clues. And they, because they hate being meter maids and would love to be upgraded, a la the Busboys plot, which was a great movie, obviously. They then try to solve the murder because they think it might end up promoting them. I pushed it. Shep, you like the original?

[Shep]
I mean, that could be part of the original.

[Emily]
Both are great.

[Gareth]
You’re exactly right. You’re exactly right.

[Shep]
Instead of witnessing it directly, someone comes up to them and tells them.

[Thomas]
And they’re like, “This is our big break.” This is like The Other Guys, where-

[Gareth]
Yes.

[Thomas]
They’re like these crap cops who want to prove themselves.

[Gareth]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Yeah, no, I love this. So, there’s, we have a chronic problem in this show of not naming our characters. And then the whole time we’re just like, the guy, the other guy. Let’s name these guys right now.

[Gareth]
One of them should be called Peter because maybe his nickname is Parking Meter Peter and he hates it.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Oh, that’s, okay. Yeah.

[Emily]
I love that.

[Thomas]
Is that, that’s the older guy? Because he has it.

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah, yes, exactly.

[Thomas]
He’s earned a nickname. Yeah.

[Gareth]
He hates it. And everyone’s like, “Parking Meter Peter.” He’s like, “I can’t wait to get out of here.”

[Thomas]
He’s like, “I fucking hate that name.”

[Gareth]
“I hate it.”

[Shep]
Who’s he training?

[Gareth]
That’s up to me. His name’s Mark.

[Shep]
Okay, so Mark is young and spry and new to the job.

[Thomas]
But maybe didn’t do so hot at the academy.

[Gareth]
Mm-hmm. Yes.

[Shep]
Right.

[Emily]
Just enough to pass.

[Thomas]
It’s like, it’s like, yes, exactly. Just enough to pass.

[Shep]
Right. They thought they going to be on detective track, and they’re like, “Oh, no, it’s write parking tickets.”

[Gareth]
Maybe he showed up to, like, a police academy and went to the ceremony and was like, “Fuck yeah.” And that’s when they were like, “You guys all actually failed, but we’re gonna make you meter maids.” And they’re like, “What the fuck? I don’t want to be a meter maid. Nobody respects meter maids.”

[Thomas]
Everybody else in his class quit the force.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
He’s the only one left.

[Gareth]
Yeah, right.

[Thomas]
So, he doesn’t have any peers.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So, does he have that, like, bright-eyed view of things, or is he a little disillusioned now?

[Shep]
Oh, he’s probably bitter because-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
He wanted to be-

[Emily]
Oh.

[Shep]
Something else and didn’t want this version of the job.

[Emily]
I thought he was, be a little dumb and just be like, “Cool, I’m a cop, I get a badge.”

[Gareth]
He could do that. He could also be from a family of cops-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Gareth]
And he tells them all he graduated and he doesn’t want to tell them the downside of this. So, he’s got a real bad attitude when he gets in there. So, when this presents itself as an opportunity to, like, be a cop, he’s like, “Fuck yeah.”

[Shep]
Oh, yeah, so Peter doesn’t want to do any of that.

[Gareth]
Right.

[Shep]
It’s Mark who’s like-

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
“We could show them.”

[Gareth]
Right.

[Thomas]
Because Peter’s two days away from retirement.

[Emily]
Peter’s got two weeks left. Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Peter’s like, “I’ve seen this movie. I do not want to do this at all.”

[Gareth]
Peter’s like, “I don’t want to storm a building. This is, the reason I got into meter maiding is because it’s the easiest job in the world.” And he’s like, “Stop,” Mark’s like, “Stop calling it meter maiding.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, “We’re not maids.”

[Emily]
“It’s parking enforcement!”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Right. Yeah. “It is parking enforcement. We deserve guns.”

[Shep]
Okay, so I looked up “Are meter maids cops”-

[Emily]
Not anymore. They’re city employees.

[Shep]
And generally, no, they’re not. Yeah, they’re city employees.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
So, they can’t arrest you. They can’t carry firearms.

[Thomas]
But Shep, you had to look that up.

[Shep]
I did have to look that up.

[Thomas]
You didn’t just know that. So, most people don’t just know that, I suspect. I didn’t know that until you told me just now.

[Emily]
Uh, I’ve seen Zootopia. I believe that cops are meter maids.

[Thomas]
There we go.

[Gareth]
I agree.

[Thomas]
See?

[Gareth]
Yep.

[Thomas]
Hollywood just constantly reinforcing it-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And that’s what we’ll do here, too. So-

[Gareth]
Yep. So, let’s say maybe Mark, he “graduates”, quote/unquote. He comes home. The family’s throwing him a party. They’re like, and you know, it’s, like, it’s all of his legacy relatives are like, “You’re got cop now.” You know, he’s like, “Right, for sure.” They’re like, “Let’s see the badge.” And he’s like, “Oh, they give us that in like a month now, I guess.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
And they’re all kind of like, “Oh, that sounds weird. Let me call the sheriff.” And he’s like, “No, don’t call me I want to earn it. I want to earn it.”

[Thomas]
Yeah. “How would it look if my dad was calling, my parents called the sheriff?” Like, “No, that’s embarrassing.”

[Gareth]
Yeah, that’s-

[Thomas]
They’re like, “Oh, okay, okay.”

[Gareth]
And then the next day he meets Parking Meter Peter, who’s like, “You are about to enter the easiest street in the world.” And Mark’s like, “Fuck.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, he’s like, “Look, the bar is on the ground.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
“Don’t raise the bar.”

[Gareth]
Yeah. He’s like, “Just, it’s real easy. Looper, you’re gonna hear this all the time. ‘I put a quarter in it.’ ‘I’m about to move it.’ It’s all bullshit. They all get tickets. You got have a heart made of stone.”

[Thomas]
And then we got to have the thing, like, the interaction that you had where Mark is like, “Okay. And so, once we start writing the ticket, we have to, we have to do it, right?” And Peter’s like, “What? No. I mean, we do it. But we don’t have to do it.”

[Gareth]
“So, you fell for that urban legend? That’s just something we tell idiots.”

[Thomas]
“That’s what we tell men. And then when we want to hit on women, we just tear up the ticket.”

[Emily]
Yeah, I was say-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
“When it’s a pretty lady in a nice dress, eh, she doesn’t need a ticket. It’s fine.”

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Thomas]
So, do they actually witness the murder? Or, what happens then?

[Gareth]
My opinion is gonna be maybe they should see the murder.

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Gareth]
That probably is gonna just cut out some bullshit.

[Thomas]
Or maybe they like hear a gunshot and a guy comes running out of a convenience store.

[Gareth]
Yep. Right.

[Thomas]
And so, Mark is like, “Here we go, my big shot.” And he runs in there and someone’s bleeding out.

[Gareth]
And he’s got a uniform, so maybe he starts kind of convincing the bodega guy to show him all the angles, and then there’s a clue there, and then we’re maybe off to the races a little bit.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Gareth]
And like we said, Peter’s like, “What are you doing?”

[Thomas]
So, I feel like we should give them an edge. There was a getaway car, and these guys have a direct line to the license plate database or the vehicle database or whatever.

[Gareth]
Great.

[Thomas]
So, that is maybe like they’re actually genuinely using the tools that they have to help at least start solving this crime.

[Gareth]
Great.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Thomas]
And maybe it turns out that car was stolen. So, then they’ve got to look at somebody’s Ring camera for the neighborhood and see who stole it or something along those lines.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Thomas]
Does that make sense?

[Emily]
Okay, so how does Mark talk Peter out of just radioing it in? He’s like, “We can just-“

[Shep]
They don’t have radios, they’re not cops.

[Gareth]
Well, he’s also, maybe he, you know, we know Mark’s motive is he wants to be a cop, but maybe, yeah, maybe there’s something he says to Peter that’s sort of like-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
He has to lie to Peter. He doesn’t let Peter know he wants to be a cop just yet. Maybe that’s an information, it’s a good little secret for him to have. When Peter’s like, “Who cares?” And he’s like, “I do. I came from a long line of cops.” And he’s like, “Oh my god.” You know, and then maybe they part ways for a minute. And then Peter’s like, “All right, let’s find this fucking asshole.” You know?

[Thomas]
It could even be at the start, like he’s, he’s trying to, I don’t know what, he’s trying different methods to get Peter on board. And finally, he’s like, “Look, I’m not asking you to do anything. You can still just sit in the…” trolley? What is that thing called? We need a name for it.

[Emily]
The car, I-

[Gareth]
Quarter car?

[Emily]
Quarter car.

[Thomas]
Quarter car. But he’s like, “You can just sit there. You don’t have to do anything.” And he’s like, “Oh, okay, that’s fine then.”

[Gareth]
Yeah, right. Yeah. And then, by the way, it’s gonna be great just so we maybe have it as an option at like towards the end of the movie, Peter, like, does a badass like gun thing and gets shot, you know? And he, like, pulls through, but he was, the whole time he was like, “I’m about to retire.” And then he takes one in the shoulder.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I like that. Oh, they should, when that happens, they should be wearing bulletproof vests, like, they put on. We see a scene where they’re getting strapped and ready to go. And he gets shot.

[Gareth]
Yeah, that’s funny.

[Thomas]
And he’s like, “Oh, good thing we wore the vest.” And Peter’s like, “Ah!” There’s, like, blood all over his shoulder. He’s, like, “The one spot that wasn’t covered.”

[Gareth]
Mark could sneak into, like, his dad’s cop closet-

[Shep]
Yes.

[Gareth]
With Peter and, like, that’s when it’s like (gun cocking sfx), and Peter’s like, “I think you forgot to feed the meter.” And Mark’s like, “Jesus Christ, you’re into this a little too much.”

[Thomas]
“How long have you been coming up with that line?” He’s like, “Thirty-eight years.”

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, okay, so, so they see that-

[Thomas]
Oh, no, wait. Maybe he says something like, “Time to make change.”

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
Sorry. Go ahead.

[Gareth]
“Change we can believe in.” He’s maybe trying to stick a catchphrase a bunch.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
And Mark’s like, “Please stop.”

[Thomas]
Yeah that’s, that’s like a running gag.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
He’s, like, workshopping different things. “No, no.”

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
And then finally, when they’re getting all strapped up, he’s like, “Actually, that one, I like that one.”

[Gareth]
Maybe he shoots the guy and he’s like “Time’s expired.” And Mark’s like “That’s actually pretty fucking good. I’m not going to lie.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
That one was very good.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Gareth]
But where are we in the beginning? So, they’ve just, they were saying they basically, they start driving around. Maybe Mark’s feeling like the drabness of this existence. Peter thinks it’s awesome. You know, Peter’s like, “You know, I had sex in here once.”

[Thomas]
Right.

[Gareth]
And Mark’s like “Jesus Christ.” He’s like, “I did. Wasn’t easy. She had to sit on my-” and he’s like, “I don’t want to hear anymore.” He’s like, “Alright. Just telling you, it’s been quite a ride, which is what she said.”

[Shep]
Aren’t there like not doors on the sides of the-

[Emily]
No, some of them have doors.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
But the doors are usually slid open, but yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah. And maybe when he sits in there, I mean, again, this is not plot heavy, but Peter gives him like the rules. “There’s no smoking, no farting, no podcasts.”

[Shep]
Yep.

[Emily]
“Oh, no TikTok.”

[Gareth]
“No TikTok.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
“We just, I’ll tell you what we do is we talk. The old school TikTok. Where you and I talk for a long time. Tick tick talk.”

[Thomas]
“The only TikTok is the clock on the meter.”

[Gareth]
“I had sex in here once.” “Oh my god.” “Yeah.”

[Thomas]
Yeah. And he’s like, this is while Mark is, like, hanging onto the side of it. Because there’s only one seat.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Right. He’s like, “Don’t they have, like, training ones?”

[Thomas]
Or are they wedged together into it side by side?

[Emily]
They’re wedged together, they’re squeezed really tight.

[Thomas]
And then when he says that Mark is like, “Okay,” and like tries to-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Stand up or get out.

[Gareth]
“I could walk by it.” “No, no, no. Not sanctioned.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah, so maybe, maybe it’s just, like, you know, our first like, whatever, ten-ish pages, we, fifteen pages, we establish: Peter’s excited to retire. Mark is, really hates this. He wants to be a cop.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Maybe they’re getting a cup of coffee. And that’s when we, you know-

[Thomas]
You hear that gunshot.

[Gareth]
Gunshot and Mark lights up.

[Thomas]
Does Mark put his hand on his hip where a gun would be?

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Ha ha ha.

[Emily]
Yeah, it’s just the little scanner.

[Gareth]
And it’s just, yeah-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
It’s the little scanner thing. “Damn it.” I like it. Yeah, that’s good.

[Thomas]
That’s funny. So, then we see a guy jump in the car and speed off. Mark runs in to the bodega. There’s nothing they can do. Yeah, I mean, I guess they probably would, somebody would have to call it in. Like, police would be on the way. If there’s somebody bleeding out, you’d have an ambulance coming.

[Emily]
Yeah, someone would have called.

[Shep]
I want to make a change at this point.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Gareth]
Yes.

[Shep]
It’s not a murder at the beginning. It’s just a robbery or an attempted robbery.

[Thomas]
Hmm. Okay.

[Shep]
Whatever. Not a big deal. There isn’t a dead body, but it is enough of a crime that Mark wants to pursue it. It doesn’t have to be a murder immediately. The murder comes later when you are escalating things.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that makes sense.

[Emily]
So, when they run the plates, because Mark would be from a family of cops, so he’s really up on, like, the crime beat of the area. So, when they run the plates, it belongs to some thug and some gang that he’s, like, fully aware of is, like, into some bad shit. And he’s like, “Hey, we could maybe infiltrate,” and like try to build it into this bigger thing.

[Shep]
Infiltrate? Go undercover?

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah because, he’s crazy, right?

[Shep]
Are they going undercover?

[Thomas]
They should do a whole bunch of work to get all, like, dressed up and go undercover. They get in there, and it turns out the car was just stolen from the gang.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
That’s- a couple things. One thing I like about the idea that when they go in, we don’t know it’s a murder. They go into the bodega, and maybe the guy doesn’t want to talk about it. And we can reveal later that, like, the police force is a little corrupt-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
Oh, yes.

[Gareth]
Which makes Mark feel like, “Okay, that’s why they passed on me.” You know, and then maybe it pulls a bigger thread. But maybe they get the license plate. Mark’s excited. He knows how to run the plate. He calls it in, and the plate is reported stolen, but they find the address of where it’s stolen. And that maybe is their first port of call. They go to this, you know, maybe woman in an apartment who does not want to fucking talk to him because they’re not, she’s like, “You’re fucking meter maids.” And he’s like, “We don’t prefer that term.” And Peter’s like, “I actually do like it. I’ve always liked that, you know? I actually had sex in the-” “Peter!” And then maybe like, that’s where she’s got a Ring cam. She’s got something.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Gareth]
And she’s like, “Fine, watch the footage.” And that’s where there’s something where they maybe are like, “Hold on, some interesting little clue there.”

[Thomas]
I that.

[Emily]
I like that he just brags to everyone.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
“You know, I’ve had sex in here.”

[Gareth]
“I’ve had sex in here before.” And then maybe like towards the end of the movie, he’s like, “I’ve never had sex in here.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
“Always wanted to.”

[Gareth]
“I wanted to. I don’t know. Just-“

[Thomas]
“I, I’ve thought about it a lot, but uh-“

[Gareth]
“I’ve thought about it a lot. I actually jerked off at-” “Oh, my god.” “What?” So, that feels good, right? Sort of?

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I like that.

[Gareth]
Get there. I mean, I guess we’re going to be on a bit of a lily padding from-

[Emily]
Yep.

[Gareth]
Clue to clue, kind of.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Gareth]
Your classic SVU.

[Thomas]
Has there been a string of bodega robberies?

[Gareth]
Oh, that’s good.

[Thomas]
Mark is like, “Oh, we can, we can solve the big-“

[Gareth]
Mm-hmm.

[Thomas]
The big series of crimes. I don’t know.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah, the Bodega Bandits.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah, perfect.

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Shep]
Okay, I have a question.

[Gareth]
Yes, good.

[Shep]
Where is the, where does the police corruption come into it?

[Gareth]
Well-

[Shep]
Are these robberies being done by off-duty police officers?

[Gareth]
That’s a good, that’s great. That’s exactly what it should be. Mark should go to the cops with this case pretty put together to sort of, to your other guy’s pitch, kind of be like, “Hey, pretty much solve the fucking case. Now we can use what you guys have.” And they’re like, “Bodegas? We’re solving bigger shit.” You know, maybe we don’t even need the murder. I mean, maybe that is like we-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
See if we get there, but it’s like, if this is about Mark trying to get into the force and he puts this together against Peter’s will, they go to the cops and the cops are like, “Bro, bodegas? What, they took a $150?”

[Thomas]
“We’ll add it to the file,” and they throw it in the trash.

[Gareth]
Yeah, right. There you go. But then that motivates him more. And then that is when they go, “Holy shit, the sergeant’s behind it all.”

[Shep]
“Goes all the way to the top.”

[Gareth]
“This all the way to the top.”

[Thomas]
“Goes all the way to the middle.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
So, then are we gonna add in that trope of clearly one of his cop relatives is in on it and also corrupt.

[Gareth]
Yes.

[Emily]
And now he’s disillusioned not only with the police force, but his family as well.

[Shep]
Right. He’s conflicted. He always wanted to be a cop because he came from a family of cops and they didn’t want him to be a cop. They, they’re like, “You’re not cut out for it.” He’s like, “I’ll show you.”

[Emily]
Hmm, because he’s-

[Shep]
And then he wasn’t cut out for it. And he ends up as a meter maid.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
He’s like, “But they’re wrong. I, I’m cop material.” And then uncovers this corruption. And is like, “Oh.”

[Thomas]
Was he not cut out for it? Or, when he went into the academy, did his family, who didn’t want him to become a cop, interfere? And so-

[Shep]
Yes. Yes.

[Thomas]
He would potentially have graduated, but didn’t become a cop because they wouldn’t let him. So, he finds out by the end, like, “Oh no, wait, I actually did pass that test,” or whatever.

[Gareth]
So, maybe his father was a great cop, but died young.

[Emily]
Hmm, okay.

[Gareth]
And so, his dad’s out of the picture. So, this is kind of his uncle-

[Thomas]
Yeah, I like that.

[Gareth]
His cousins. And then that’s why maybe, maybe, I don’t want to get too dark because it feels light. But maybe he’s like, “My dad was too good of a fucking cop. You guys took him out.” That’s probably too much.

[Emily]
Yeah, it’s probably too much, but I like the idea.

[Gareth]
He loves the legacy of his father. It means he’s not having this sort of Luke/Darth Vader bullshit-

[Emily]
No.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
But his dad’s not there. So, it feels okay that his uncle is being kind of a shithead.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
So, they keep telling him he’s not cut for because his dad was too-

[Gareth]
By the book.

[Emily]
By the book, too much of a good guy.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
He really wanted to make a difference whereas they were like, “We’re gonna seize the opportunity and grease our palms as much as possible.”

[Gareth]
You know, there could be this flashback thought he has to when his uncle, they, is like his, he looks at, you know, he points to his dad. And at this point, his uncle probably knows that he’s not a cop or something. And he goes, “Your dad’d be proud of you. He was a great cop, but just a little too by the book.” And, like, something like that we kind of bury. And then later he’s like, “That’s why he said he was too by the book. You’re behind all of this.” And he’s like (slow claps).

[Emily]
“And you’re just a meter maid.”

[Thomas]
Or it turns out, like, the dad died before they, the relatives became corrupt. Like, “No, had nothing to do with it.”

[Gareth]
Yeah, oh-

[Shep]
“Just coincidence.”

[Thomas]
Completely unconnected.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Oh.

[Shep]
That’s why movies like lots of Chekhov’s guns that never get fired.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah, right.

[Shep]
That’s always a good-

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
No. It’s all got to be an amazing coincidence. It’s all got to come together. I don’t think it’s too dark for them to have killed the dad. That’s escalation later, so it starts as a series of robberies.

[Thomas]
That’s the murder.

[Shep]
I wouldn’t that’s the murder, I’d say that’s a previous murder.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
And then maybe the cops, the corrupt cops, are trying to crack down on this case, this off-the-books investigation and track these guys down.

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Shep]
Maybe to take them out.

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Shep]
That’s your escalation of stakes.

[Gareth]
If Emily signs off on it, I like it. Emily, are you okay with that?

[Emily]
I’m totally fine with it.

[Gareth]
Okay. All right. There we go.

[Emily]
I let them bully me all the time. It’s fine.

[Shep]
She likes it.

[Gareth]
It’s just so man.

[Emily]
Yeah, they mansplain a lot.

[Gareth]
It’s like pitching in the locker room.

[Shep]
So, mansplaining-

[Gareth]
Let me explain to you why manspaining is okay. So-

[Emily]
That’s a new one.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Let me walk you through why your feelings are invalid on mansplaining. So, Emily, what you’re reacting to incorrectly here-

[Emily]
You’re joking, but that has happened to me before.

[Gareth]
Good lord. All right, so I like some, some horizon bits we got coming.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I feel like we need to see a little bit more of the investigation, right?

[Gareth]
Yeah, he’s at the apartment. He probably gets the Ring camera. Or maybe, you know, there’s something about the impound lot it went- Whatever. Something happened that leads them to the next thing. So, that could be- Yeah, this is where it gets hard because now we are writing a mystery on the fly. And-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
These, it turns out, these are quite complicated. That’s why those people get paid so well.

[Emily]
Mm-hmm. We’ve tried.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Okay, so well let’s maybe we trace backwards a little bit. So-

[Thomas]
Sure.

[Gareth]
We’re gonna find out that it’s his, we’ll go to the police, they file it under trash, T for trash.

[Emily]
Mm-hmm.

[Gareth]
Maybe that comes from, at some point, like when they get somewhere, maybe the person who doesn’t really want to talk to them, or maybe when they, like, go to a pawn shop or something, in there, they don’t have what they want, but there is a police badge, and it’s like, it got pawned, and that leads them to the police station. That could have been brought in by another character who, so they saw just before that. I might just be whistling Dixie over here, so you all feel free to jump in.

[Thomas]
Would a pawn shop take a police badge?

[Gareth]
No.

[Thomas]
I don’t think they would.

[Emily]
Probably not.

[Gareth]
Maybe.

[Shep]
In real life or in a movie?

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah, good point.

[Emily]
I’m sure there’s a pawn shop somewhere in the country that would take a police badge.

[Thomas]
That’s true. The pawn broker would probably buy it for himself.

[Shep]
So, uh, meter maids have badges.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, what do they need a police badge for?

[Thomas]
Just that that was another clue that led them somewhere. Is that what you were suggesting?

[Gareth]
It was-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
It was a thread. I mean, we’re trying to follow their thread to the cops.

[Shep]
Also, why would a cop pawn a police badge? I’m trying to figure out the logic.

[Emily]
Look, he’s got a mistress with a baby on the way, a gambling habit, and his wife-

[Shep]
That’s why he’s robbing bodegas.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
He’s got income. Who’s gonna rob a bodega and go “You know what I need is a couple more bucks. I’m gonna pawn my badge.”

[Gareth]
Well, I was saying a witness found it and pawned it, but I’m not saying that made more sense.

[Shep]
I was going to say the bodega owners know that it’s the cops.

[Emily]
Well, yeah.

[Shep]
It’s not a secret to them.

[Thomas]
Oh, so a couple of guys who look like uniformed cops come in and start asking questions, and so they clam up.

[Shep]
Yeah, they’re not gonna, because they know that it’s the cops robbing them.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And it’s like, “You know what? It’s fine. We have robbery insurance. So, we just file a claim. Nobody really gets hurt. Nobody’s actually shot over it. They come in. They get the money. They leave. We file a claim.”

[Emily]
Is that how the cops pitch it to them?

[Shep]
Yeah, it’s just protection money. It’s literally protection money. The cop’s job is to protect and serve.

[Gareth]
What we maybe need is for them to catch the suspect. And they catch the suspect with all the evidence. They take the suspect to the cop shop. And the cops are like, “Jesus Christ, thank you for solving this for us.” And they leave. Mark’s done a job very well. He thinks this makes him look pretty good in the eyes of the law. And then when they’re out having a beer or something, they realize that guy they brought in is now back out. And that’s when they’re like, “What the actual fuck?” And then they re-track him. And then they get that guy to confess that, “Listen, the cops aren’t as clean in this town as you think.” And that’s when he starts sniffing around his uncle and shit.

[Shep]
Why would you confess? Why would you confess if on one side it’s a couple of meter maids and on the other side it’s the police force?

[Emily]
He’s drunk and he’s trying to show off that he’s got better protection because he knows he can get away with it.

[Shep]
Then you wouldn’t admit anything.

[Gareth]
Because in this scene, Peter proves his worth finally. Peter, who at one of the bars where they went to celebrate, was falling in love with the pickled onions behind the bar.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Gareth]
He pulls out the jar of pickled onions and explains that those are testicles of the last guy who fucked with him. And Mark’s kind of looking at him like, “What the fuck?” And Peter’s like, “So if you want your nuts to join the jar, don’t say a fucking word. Otherwise, tell us what’s going on.” And maybe Peter gets a little fucking ham on the guy, punches him a couple times, and Mark’s like, “Jesus Christ.” The guy’s like, “All right, look. The cops, they helped me.”

[Shep]
Okay, I want to change that slightly. I want a running thing.

[Gareth]
Oh. Change it dramatically.

[Shep]
No no no.

[Emily]
Oh, there it is. I was waiting for it.

[Shep]
I want a running thing, where- I’m saying “No no no,” that I’m not going to change it dramatically.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, I want a running thing where Mark is trying to, like, solve this case, and Peter’s not like “You’re not a cop. You’re not a cop! Like, you keep trying to act like you’re a cop but you’re not a cop.” Like, that’s a thing that he says over and over and over again.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
They track this guy down again, they have him on the roof. And Mark is like, “I will drop you off the roof if you don’t talk.” And he’s like, “You can’t drop me off the roof. That’s illegal. You’re a cop.” And he’s like, “I’m not a cop.”

[Gareth]
You know what else? I like that. I think that totally works. It might be funny, like, if Peter’s holding him while Mark’s interrogating him, but maybe Peter drops him into, like, the trash and Mark’s like, “What the fuck?”

[Shep]
Like, trash is not soft.

[Thomas]
No.

[Shep]
You’re not surviving that.

[Emily]
Okay have you never seen a movie in New York-

[Shep]
Yes, I have seen the movies.

[Emily]
Where it’s full of, what is it?

[Shep]
Empty boxes and an inflated garbage bags.

[Emily]
Empty boxes and that straw, yeah, and but that straw stuff from packing material.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah. It always pulls me out of it.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
They’re coming covered in that sawdust.

[Thomas]
Mark is, like, “How did you know that you could safely drop him into that dumpster?” And he’s like, “I didn’t even notice the dumpster.”

[Shep]
“Dumpster?”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, if the guy’s facing up and he’s just leaning back, then he doesn’t see what’s behind him.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
And so, if Peter accidentally drops him, or intentionally drops him, or, look, Peter’s old. So, like, his grip strength is just not there. He’s, like, he’s keeps trying to hurry Mark up with the questioning. And Mark takes too long and his, and his grip slips.

[Thomas]
Yeah, Mark is like, “This is going really well.”

[Shep]
That’s where the fire escape. That’s where the fire escape is.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, he just lands on the top fire escape floor, so he doesn’t fall that far. He doesn’t fall enough to die.

[Gareth]
It’s funny to me if Peter becomes crazy.

[Emily]
I agree.

[Gareth]
If Peter starts to maybe fall in a little too much to this. Like, Peter starts, he’s like, “I don’t want to do this.” And then the deeper they get, the more he’s like, “We got to put our foot up this guy’s ass.”

[Thomas]
This could feel like a good mid-second act turning point for them where, like, now Peter is becoming interested in this case, and Mark is like, “Oh, okay, interesting.” And this is like building their friendship more.

[Shep]
I like that, especially if, so, Peter gets shot at the end in the shoulder where the vest doesn’t cover.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
And so, he, by that point, he’s very gung-ho and everything. And then he gets shot and he’s like, “Nope, I’m out. Everything was a mistake.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Oh, I was picturing him saying “Best goddamn day on the job.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
You have that right before he gets shot.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Okay, okay.

[Shep]
That’s literally the words that are leaving his mouth-

[Emily]
When he gets shot.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Gareth]
And thinks he’s dying, and he’s like, “It’s just a little bit on the shoulder.” He’s like, “Live on! Peter… expired.”

[Thomas]
(Laughing)

[Gareth]
All right. So, do we like that he drops him off the fire escape? And then maybe that gets the guy to be like, “Hey, okay, okay.”

[Shep]
Well, he’s already talking at that point.

[Gareth]
Right. Okay, that’s great. It’s great if he gives them the information that’s needed, and Peter’s like, “You sick of shit.” And Mark’s like, “He told us what we needed.” And Peter’s like, “Oh.”

[Thomas]
The guy stands up, like, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
“I told you what you wanted.”

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah. So, the information he reveals is maybe that, like, you know, he’s on the take for the cops. They’re a little dirty, something like that.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah, however, we want to-

[Gareth]
Yeah, okay.

[Thomas]
Actually, I think that adds to the mid-second act turning point, too, of like, oh, this is a bigger deal than we thought it was.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Thomas]
It’s not just a guy robbing bodegas, it’s the police force robbing bodegas.

[Shep]
Okay. So, now they know that it’s the cops. They don’t know what cops, but, like, this is definitely a job for internal affairs.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
So, Mark contacts his uncle. He’s like, “Hey-“

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
“We have corrupt cops. I need help.”

[Gareth]
And his uncle’s like, “Oh my god.”

[Shep]
Yeah, because his uncle-

[Gareth]
“That makes so much fucking sense.”

[Shep]
All the information. And the uncle is like, “I’ll take care of it.”

[Gareth]
“These fucking sacks of shit. Mark, I’m going to tell the chief about this. This is big.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, “You did good.”

[Gareth]
Yeah. And then Peter’s the one like, “Something your uncle said stuck with me.”

[Shep]
Well yeah, the uncle could let something slip-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
About some clue that they didn’t say, that they knew about-

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
But didn’t say.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And then they only realize moments later that, “Wait, how did he know? How did he know that it was that specific bodega?” Like, how did, like-

[Gareth]
And then, you know, it could happen? In that moment, Mark could be so fucking mad at Peter for even suggesting that, that he, they separate.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Gareth]
And he’s just like-

[Thomas]
It’s got to come a little later, though, right?

[Gareth]
Maybe, yeah. But when he does do that, what should happen is Peter should put one AirPod in his ear, call Mark, and confront the uncle, who kind of is like, “Who gives a shit what you think?” You know, so he’s almost wearing a wire, but it’s his AirPod. And Mark overhears some of it.

[Thomas]
All right, their makeshift wire.

[Gareth]
Yeah, and Mark overhears it and is like, “Shit, I owe Peter an apology.”

[Thomas]
All right, well, let’s take a break here, and when we come back, the rest of our story about a Parking Meter.

[Break]

[Thomas]
All right, we’re back. A question that we were sort of flirting with before we went to the break and I’ve been thinking about for a while is, to what extent is Mark’s family, his uncle and his cousins and whatnot, to what extent are they involved with the crimes? And one thought that I had had is perhaps at some point Mark goes over to the uncle’s house and is there talking to him and sees a photo and the guy who they dropped off the roof is in the photo with the uncle. And that can be a big clue for Mark like, “Oh, wait, my uncle is a big part of this in some way, or he knows that guy.”

[Gareth]
Mm.

[Emily]
I like idea of it not being the uncle directly. The uncle’s just sweeping it under the rug for his cousins. Like, his cousins, they’re around his age. They’re young.

[Thomas]
Hmm. Okay.

[Gareth]
That’s good.

[Emily]
They’re hotshots. They’re dumbasses.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
And the dad is just like, “Eh it’s boys will be boys.”

[Gareth]
“Times changed.”

[Emily]
“Cops will be cops,” right?

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
“No one’s getting hurt.”

[Emily]
Yeah, “No one’s getting hurt.”

[Gareth]
I do like that pitch of Mark or Peter clocks that the guy in the photo is a guy that they talk, and then they go find the guy again-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Gareth]
And that’s where they get the confession out of him. So, that would precede that a little bit, if that makes sense. Judging by your faces, it doesn’t.

[Thomas]
No, I think it does make sense. And I think that can work. We just need that revelation that the cops are dirty to come before that point.

[Gareth]
Yep.

[Thomas]
That like, that’s not where they find out the cops are dirty.

[Gareth]
Yep, agreed.

[Thomas]
So, they get a different piece of information out of that guy at that moment.

[Gareth]
Well, that the police are behind the bodega stuff, maybe, no? Wouldn’t that be the breadcrumb… No? Am I crazy?

[Thomas]
If we want that moment of finding out, “Oh, it’s the police,” if we want that to be the mid-second act turning point, and that’s what really sets these guys on the second half of their journey, then we probably need that to be- to happen earlier than finding out lots of details about-

[Gareth]
Oh, I see what you- I see what your pitch is. Okay, I get you. All right. Your version is the opposite, or the-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah, we swap those parts. Gotcha.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Okay, right.

[Thomas]
So, if that’s what we want to do, what do they, what’s the first thing they do when they find out? I mean, I like the idea of calling the uncle-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
I do too.

[Thomas]
Because the uncle’s internal affairs and being like, “Oh my gosh, all this is happening.”

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Thomas]
And at that point, are they sort of like, “Okay, well, we’ve done everything we can. We’ve collected a bunch of evidence. We’ve turned it over to the right people. There’s nothing more we can do.”

[Gareth]
I think we give them a little celebration there, and then there’s a new bit that pops out during that.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Gareth]
They go out and get nice and drunk together.

[Thomas]
And Peter’s like, “Hey, did I tell you? I’ve had sex in this thing.”

[Gareth]
Peter’s like at the bar talking to a woman, and he’s like, “I think I got a shot. She wants to see the vehicle.”

[Emily]
“Don’t come out for fifteen minutes.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
“Eh, five.”

[Gareth]
Five. Yeah.

[Thomas]
“If the cart is a-rocking, that’s a normal day because the suspension is shot.”

[Gareth]
Yeah. You know what else we got see is a scene where they got to go gas it up.

[Thomas]
Oh, and some person walking by like “ACAB!” and whatever. They’re like, “We’re not cops.”

[Gareth]
Yeah. But where he’s just like, “Gas prices are out of control. $12 to fill this up. Crazy.”

[Emily]
Mark’s like, “Why’d you pick the old one? The new ones are electric.”

[Shep]
Yeah, the new ones are electric.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
“I own mine.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
“I use this for Uber on the weekends.”

[Emily]
I love that.

[Shep]
Use it for Uber!

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
It’s got one seat.

[Emily]
DoorDash then.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah. He DoorDashes in it. Oh, there should be a moment where they’re trying to tail this car on the freeway. And he’s like, “We can’t.” And he’s like, “Take it on the freeway.” He’s like, “AHHHH!”

[Thomas]
Or is that a reveal, like, Peter’s like, “Oh, I’ve souped this one up. It goes up to 45 miles an hour.”

[Gareth]
“Careful. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

[Shep]
Okay, so for that, I think Mark should be driving it.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
And Mark is like, “I’m gonna, I’m gonna chase him.” And Peter’s like, “What are you doing? You can’t follow him onto the freeway.” And Mark does it anyway and then discovers, oh, it doesn’t-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
It doesn’t remotely. That guy’s gone.

[Gareth]
Yeah. (Bzzzz)

[Thomas]
He’s like trying to merge in, and cars are, like, blowing past him.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Thomas]
And he’s like, “Oh, this is a bad idea.”

[Shep]
Just driving on the shoulder to the next exit.

[Thomas]
Yeah, he’s limping along the shoulder. Yeah.

[Gareth]
But maybe, maybe what we could see is if we wanted to see a little bit of Mark’s cop acumen, he opens the door and grabs on the bumper of a car that’s moving fast. And then suddenly he kind of _Back to the Future_s the car down the freeway-

[Emily]
Yes.

[Gareth]
While he’s kind of steering it like this. And Peter’s like (hyperventilating).

[Thomas]
They gotta have, like, just gotten lunch-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And the lunch comes in little bags.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And so, he’s like doing the breathing in the bag thing.

[Gareth]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then Mark takes his sandwich out of the bag. He’s like, “Do that after I have my fucking sandwich. Jesus Christ.” All right. Those are, that’s good little stuff there. Those are good little set pieces.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Okay, so story wise, where are we at in our story?

[Shep]
When do they have their fight and go their separate ways? It’s gotta, so, Peter’s got to catch that the uncle said something and to point it out to Mark. And Mark is like, “No no, that’s my uncle. He’s not one of the corrupt cops. He’s one of the good ones.”

[Thomas]
That’s got to be a late second act, right?

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Right.

[Gareth]
Yep, it’s close to all is lost because they’ll pretty much part ways there.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Yes, they do part ways there.

[Thomas]
They part ways, and then that’s when, is that when Mark finds out that his family is involved? And so, that’s like the lowest moment of like, “There’s no one on my side anymore. I can’t go to anybody.”

[Shep]
Yeah, this is when the cousins show up-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
To silence him. Not, I mean, they didn’t want to. He’s family. But he just knows too much. And he won’t keep his mouth shut, just like his dad.

[Emily]
“We thought about cutting you in. We thought we could trust you, but-“

[Shep]
They did not think about cutting him in.

[Emily]
They lied to him!

[Shep]
He was- he was too-

[Emily]
They’re corrupt cops.

[Shep]
By the books, his uncle said.

[Thomas]
Oh, that was another thought I had is that because Mark wants to chase down this criminal, because he’s like, you know, trying to follow the rules or whatever, Peter keeps calling him Boy Scout or whatever.

[Emily]
Oh, yeah.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Thomas]
And like, he’s a goody two-shoes and stuff like that. And it turns out, like, yeah.

[Gareth]
He keeps calling him Rook. “Easy, Rook.” I like the idea that if Peter does show some undercover acumen with the, if they do part ways, if we do like that, that Peter comes back with irrefutable proof. So, Mark is now like, “Oh shit, the call’s coming from inside the house.” We could set up in initial uncle scene where they’re kind of bringing him the evidence before they kind of celebrate or something like that. The uncle could mention that “Ah me and the boys are going down to Tom’s tonight, you know, for something if you want to swing by,” you know, and Mark’s like “Ah maybe,” you know, something like that. But Peter knows that’s where they’re going to be.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Gareth]
So, he can show up there and that’s where he can maybe get a little information out the cousins who don’t know who he is. Which he then comes back to Mark with to be like, “Mark, I have bad news.” It could even be that he’s, he’s got the AirPods, like, we show him put the AirPod in the pocket and he goes in. We see him get the information from one of the cousins. He says whatever it is, you know, something, he gets something. He comes back and he apologizes to Mark that he has to set him straight and he plays the evidence and it’s just muffled from the pocket.

[Thomas]
You just hear the like clothes rustling and stuff. Yeah.

[Gareth]
He’s like, “I had it. I had the AirPod in my pocket.” He’s like, “What? You’ve proven nothing.”

[Shep]
Did you ever watch the Crank movies?

[Gareth]
No, I know what they are.

[Shep]
At the end of the first Crank movie, he calls his girlfriend and, like, leaves this message on her voicemail. And it’s very sweet and touching. He’s falling to his death from a helicopter. And then in the second movie, you know, when he sees her again, he, like, “Didn’t you get my message?” And then there’s a brief shot of the not voicemail when it’s a physical machine what’s that called?

[Thomas]
Oh, an answering machine, yeah.

[Gareth]
Answering machine.

[Shep]
Answering machine, sorry. I’m glad Gareth is here with all the words. So they’re playing the answer machine and you can’t hear anything because there’s all this wind noise because he was falling from a helicopter.

[Gareth]
That’s hilarious.

[Shep]
So, would Mark believe it, even if Peter showed up with evidence? Like, “That’s all AI. That could be fake and generated.”

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Thomas]
Well, I think that’s why he needs to see for himself.

[Shep]
Right. That’s why I had the cousins coming after him.

[Gareth]
Yeah, what could happen is that if Peter has that proof, we tease the audience, then it’s just kind of a funny gag, but it plants the seed in Mark’s head. And then he gets a little breadcrumb, and he’s like, “Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, I’ll see you guys Sunday for pizza.” And then he leaves and he’s like, “Fuck.” And then he has to go to Peter and be like, “You were right. I’m sorry.”

[Shep]
And then they kiss.

[Gareth]
Then they kiss each other. Yeah.

[Emily]
And then they have sex the car.

[Gareth]
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah.

[Thomas]
So, how does this wrap up? How do they bring this, these criminals down? These criminal cops.

[Shep]
Yeah, you can’t go to the cops. What do you do? We painted ourself into a corner. Okay, what were the other pitches? Let’s just take a look.

[Emily]
No, so, part of it is, Peter’s dad was IA. Not Peter’s dad.

[Gareth]
Mark’s.

[Thomas]
Mark’s dad, yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Mark’s dad was IA. And that’s part of what led to the uncle getting after him, because he’s like “You’re not toeing line. You’re against us.” Like, he did some undercover work, and that’s what got his dad killed, so his dad actually has other cop buddies, right? He just goes to his uncle because it’s his uncle, right? But he’s got, you know, like Timmy, dad’s ex-partner or whatever, and he can kind of go and talk to him about it and then get the real IA in.

[Shep]
Okay, I love that. Here’s what I’m gonna change about it.

[Emily]
Alright.

[Shep]
You set up earlier that Mark doesn’t like his dad’s former IA partner because he didn’t protect his dad for whatever reason. He blames the partner. Let’s call him Steve.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Emily]
The uncle is Steve. What are you t-? No.

[Shep]
We know that in real life the uncle is Steve, but we want to mislead the audience.

[Emily]
Okay. Oh, fine.

[Shep]
Steve is our villain name, and they’re like Oh, it’s the dad’s partner, named Steve, that betrayed the dad or didn’t, you know, the dad called for backup and it never came. Whatever it was, they blame the partner, the old partner. So, at the end, that’s who comes in with IA. Because Mark went to him and, like, gave him all the evidence and told him all the stuff. And it’s like, that’s the reversal. It’s like, you think that that’s the enemy, and his uncle is his friend, but the uncle is the enemy.

[Emily]
I like that.

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Thomas]
Yeah. We have talked about a scene where they’re getting strapped up, putting on the bulletproof vest, getting their guns.

[Gareth]
Yes. We need it.

[Emily]
Oh, 100%.

[Thomas]
So, what is that scene? Who all is involved? Is he gonna, like, take guns and go after his family?

[Gareth]
Well, he should feel some level of-

[Emily]
Yeah, it should be awkward.

[Gareth]
Yeah, there should be a threat. There- Fucking, you know what I like about Shep? You know when he’s got an idea.

[Emily]
You, right? The excitement in his eyes when he’s like, “Oh!”

[Gareth]
He fucking holds one finger up at his mouth. I feel like I get like that. Go, Sheppy baby.

[Shep]
I gotta turn my camera off.

[Gareth]
Go, baby. Go.

[Shep]
Okay, the cousins-

[Gareth]
You know, people call it pitching, but it doesn’t mean they physically look like they’re about to throw a baseball.

[Thomas]
Shep’s going to literally throw ideas at you.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Let’s see what sticks. Let’s see what sticks.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
The cousins are escalating.

[Gareth]
Okay.

[Shep]
And here’s what they’re escalating: They have kidnapped a woman. So, you introduce much earlier a love interest for Mark. Maybe she works at the bodega-

[Gareth]
Yep.

[Shep]
And the cousins are escalating things at the end, and they’ve kidnapped her. And so they’re strapping up, not to, like, get evidence or whatever, but to go rescue… Give her a name. What’s her name?

[Gareth]
Sheila.

[Shep]
Sheila!

[Emily]
Perfect.

[Shep]
They’re going to rescue Sheila. So, that’s the action scene at the end.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm. Yep. I think that’s pretty good. And I think once they feel like he’s getting a little close, they hold Sheila. The only thing I would pepper in up top is how do we meet Sheila? How do we know Mark likes her? And what is the history there a little bit? Should he meet her- I guess he should meet her- by the way. Meet her, meter, something.

[Emily]
Hmm, I love it.

[Gareth]
You know, it’s a meter cute. But, maybe it’s like we say, maybe it is a meter cute. Maybe he’s about to give her a ticket. And then she walks out and he’s like, “No, don’t worry about it.” And Peter’s like, “You’ve got to give them a ticket.” He’s like, oh, maybe he’s gone out with her once or twice and he hasn’t heard from her and it’s kind of awkward. And maybe in a weaker moment, a little later, they go out again and she explains that she’s sorry they didn’t see each other, something like that.

[Shep]
No, if they went out and it didn’t work, why would you then go out again with someone who gave you a parking ticket!?

[Gareth]
No, he doesn’t give her the ticket.

[Shep]
No, that’s crossing the line!

[Gareth]
He doesn’t give her the ticket.

[Shep]
But see, that goes against his character that you’ve already established, that he’s so by the book. If she deserved a ticket, he would give her a ticket. We don’t want that.

[Gareth]
And by the way, I think it’s more attractive that he gives her- I think, I think that would be, that would work better.

[Thomas]
I could see a scene where they’re driving along in the little cart, and he’s like, “Oh, wait, stop, pull over,” because he sees her car-

[Gareth]
Hmm.

[Thomas]
And he’s like standing there pretending to write a ticket. And she comes out, like, “What? I have time on the meter.”

[Gareth]
Uh-huh.

[Thomas]
And then he’s like, “Huh? It’s me!” And she’s like, “What the fuck are you doing?”

[Gareth]
“You’re a meter maid?”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
“That’s not the preferred term. That’s like calling a flight attendant a stewardess. That’s pretty rude.” But yeah, we could establish her.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
I think, I think we need her. I think that’s good.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Gareth]
I think we establish her. We meet her. Maybe they haven’t gone out. Maybe we meet her on his route. He writes her a ticket. He sees her out. He’s like, “Let me buy you a drink.” And she’s like, “No.” And he’s like, “I owe you for the ticket. I’m sorry about that. Like, that was bullshit.”

[Shep]
I want to change that. She distracts him somehow. He’s about to write a ticket on a car. And she distracts him and puts a quarter in the meter. And he’s like, “You can’t do that.” But she’s like, she outwitted him.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
That’s their meet cute. Their meter cute is, is she outwitted him.

[Gareth]
I like that.

[Shep]
And he likes that.

[Gareth]
I like that. Emily?

[Emily]
Yeah, I think that’s cute.

[Gareth]
Thomas?

[Thomas]
Yeah. Does he, does he’s like, “Oh, I’m going to have to cite you. I need you to write your phone number on here.”

[Emily]
Whoa, no no.

[Gareth]
Ugh, the creepiest shit.

[Emily]
You two give me shit time me about trying to make meet cutes with people at work, and this, like, power dynamic, and here you are pitching one that you would tell me “No, Emily, that’s not okay.”

[Shep]
That’s not a co-worker! That’s just-

[Emily]
There’s a power dynamic! He is a, he is a-

[Gareth]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Enforcement officer.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
I like how were about to say cop, and you’re like, “No, wait, he’s not a cop.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
No, she likes the uniform.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Emily]
Well, I mean that’s true. I would date a meter maid for the uniform.

[Thomas]
And she’s like, “Do you guys ever have sex in the-” And he’s like, “What is everyone’s thing about this?”

[Gareth]
“Uh, ma’am, as a matter of fact, how are you? I’m his, uh, I’m rookie’s partner.”

[Thomas]
Peter leans out, he’s like, “We do.”

[Shep]
“Not, not ‘we’, not ‘we’.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, “Not us, not us.”

[Gareth]
“Not ‘we’.”

[Thomas]
That’s very funny. Okay, so they, they rescue her.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Gareth]
They have to rescue her, yeah.

[Thomas]
And so, that’s when Peter gets shot.

[Gareth]
Maybe Peter does the- You ever seen the Leroy Jenkins video?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
Yes. Have we seen the Leroy Jenkins video??

[Gareth]
Maybe Peter Leroy Jenkins. Like, Mark is coming up with all this strategy and he’s like, “You’re gonna go up there. I’m gonna pounce through the- Jesus Christ!” Peter’s like, “Ahhhh!” (Gunshots)

[Thomas]
Right. He’s like, “I always wanted to do that.”

[Gareth]
Oh, fuck yeah.

[Shep]
Would it be Peter doing that or Mark doing that? Because Mark wants to rescue Sheila and he doesn’t want to wait around.

[Gareth]
But Mark wants, Mark’s a competent, invested- Mark’s gonna, Mark’s drawing the playup in the dirt. He’s the QB. Peter’s Antonio Brown. He’s just, run there.

[Shep]
But Peter is the older experienced one.

[Emily]
Yeah, but he’s also like got a spark of life-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Now that he’s been paired up with this young guy with these crazy ideas.

[Shep]
Oh, that’s right.

[Gareth]
Peter’s changing.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that makes sense.

[Shep]
You’re right.

[Gareth]
Peter’s been bit by something here.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
You’re right. I forgot that was a thing that was built up he’s getting crazier and crazier throughout the movie.

[Gareth]
Yeah, and Mark’s going like, “Bro, you’re not a cop.” And he’s like, “Neither are you. Let’s-” Fuck, you know, when he drops the guy off the balcony, we’re like, “Peter!” Peter’s like, “I don’t know karate, but I know karazy.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, so that’s Peter’s arc is like he’s just been living this super almost sedentary life. He just doesn’t care about anything.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
And so, now he’s getting like-

[Gareth]
Two weeks away from Meter Maid retirement, and now he’s at Sheriff Fantasy Camp.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
So, then Mark’s like, “Now I gotta go in there and fucking try to rescue two people?” You know.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
He goes in there, and now it’s Peter and Sheila. And maybe we need a Die Hard thing. Maybe we need a little Die Hard action. Maybe we need a pistol behind the meter-maid thing. Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe there’s something there.

[Thomas]
Does Peter just go running in, he goes charging in and you hear him going, “Ahhh!” and you hear a single gunshot-

[Gareth]
Oh!

[Thomas]
And there’s like this pause and Peter’s like, “Ow!”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And Mark is just, like, “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
I thought that the initial raid went well, and Peter was like, “This is the best day,” and then gets shot.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah I like that. I do like that. Okay, yeah so Peter goes rushing in and Mark is like, “What are you doing?” And so he goes running in after him. And there’s nobody there. It’s just Sheila tied up in a chair. And so, they’re like, “Oh, wow. That went a lot better than I expected.”

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Emily]
Very anticlimactic.

[Thomas]
“Man, this has been the best day ever.” And then that’s when the cousins come back. They were out getting something out of the trunk.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Emily]
What bad criminals are they that they didn’t leave someone with the-

[Thomas]
Oh, there’s no one around. They’re in the middle of- They’re down at the docks. Who’s at the docks at night?

[Gareth]
Nobody.

[Shep]
Okay, I want to change all of that.

[Thomas]
Okay. That’s fine.

[Shep]
I want to bring back the parking meter, and here’s where we bring it back.

[Thomas]
Ah, yes. Okay.

[Shep]
So, Peter runs in. You know, guns akimbo. And ends up in a standoff with the cousins. Mark tries to get in through another door or window or something, get an angle, so they have this Mexican standoff, and everything is very tense, and then there’s, like, a loud BOOM from outside. Peter’s like, “It’s too late! The cavalry’s here!” And the cousins surrender. And it turns out that Peter had rigged one of the parking meters with some explosive of some kind-

[Emily]
Like a cherry bomb.

[Shep]
With something that would go off when the meter goes off.

[Gareth]
That’s good.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Emily]
He’s really into this.

[Shep]
Yes! And you can establish the explosive earlier when they’re strapping up, or even before that, at the beginning, when Mark talks about all this crazy stuff that his dad has in his armament closet or whatever.

[Emily]
Oh, but we could also just talk about how Peter’s crazy and he says weird shit all the time. And one day, he’s like, “Sometimes these assholes. I just want to rig bomb a meter so that when it expires, just blows up on them and the car.”

[Gareth]
“Wouldn’t be hard either.”

[Emily]
Yeah, like he’s just-

[Shep]
“I know exactly how to do it.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
“C4…”

[Emily]
Says this random weird shit.

[Thomas]
“I downloaded the manual for the meter. I know exactly how it works.”

[Gareth]
“If you just put a red wire and a yellow wire inside of the coin hole…”

[Emily]
And at the time, Mark is thinking, you know, this is just a crazy conversation like him having sex in the car.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Interceptor, they’re called interceptors.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
Ah, yeah, that’s right. Is there a scene where they throw quarters across the floor so that the other guys running slip on the loose quarters on the-

[Gareth]
They Home Alone him.

[Shep]
Ha ha ha.

[Thomas]
“Pocket quarters, shisha.”

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah, but maybe they’re like, they just walk over them, and Mark’s like, “Damn it.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, “I thought that would work.”

[Emily]
Well, I want a scene where Peter, because I want to make Peter extra crazy, where he’s like, just emptying a meter and filling sock, and maybe to originally when they were interrogating him the first time, he’s, like, just gonna “Sock full of quarters, man.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Emily]
“That guy.” And Mark’s like, “N, no-“

[Thomas]
And for that, he just, like, takes off his shoe and takes off his sock that he’s wearing.

[Emily]
Just his old sock, yeah.

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
He’s like, “What are you doing?”

[Shep]
And then he’s, like, hitting the sock full of quarters against his hand-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And the sock breaks, and the quarters go flying out all over the place.

[Emily]
Everywhere.

[Shep]
And then he holds it up, he’s just got an empty sock, it’s much less threatening.

[Thomas]
Maybe Mark grabs it and, like, holds it up under the guy’s nose and the guy’s like, “Oh, I’ll talk.”

[Gareth]
All right, so wait, okay, so where we feel like we’ve got Sheila-

[Shep]
Oh yeah! So-

[Thomas]
Oh, right.

[Shep]
They get the cousins, they rescue Sheila. Peter’s like, “This is the best day ever.” Then get shot. It’s the uncle-

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
Because these are his kids, right?

[Gareth]
Mm hmm.

[Thomas]
Right, right.

[Emily]
Right, right.

[Shep]
He’s not going to let his nephew-

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Capture his kids. So, he’s like, you know, “It’s over. Sorry, you gotta go.”

[Thomas]
And then maybe one of the cousins is like, “Dad, you just shot a cop?” And he’s like, “They’re not cops.”

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Emily]
“They’re not cops, and you just kidnapped a woman. It was one thing when you were robbing bodegas.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
“We are having a strong sit-down when we get home tonight.”

[Gareth]
Word over our heads.

[Shep]
Right. So, anyway, that’s when Steve shows up and the cavalry and the uncle is surrounded.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Yep.

[Thomas]
I like that.

[Gareth]
I like that too.

[Thomas]
Have we resolved all of our story plots here? Do we-?

[Gareth]
Pretty much.

[Shep]
I think that’s everything.

[Emily]
More or less, yeah.

[Gareth]
And then I think we would see Sheila at an event where-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Gareth]
Mark is getting sworn in as a cop-

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Emily]
Hmm, yeah.

[Gareth]
And Peter’s there, proud.

[Shep]
Does Mark still want to be a cop after all of this?

[Gareth]
Maybe at this scene, maybe he rejects it as he’s being heralded. They sort of, like, Peter and him are both getting like the, you know-

[Emily]
They award some sort of community award.

[Gareth]
They’re getting, yeah, they’re getting some medal from the mayor. And then the mayor says, “And Mark, for your service, we are swearing you in as a full-time sergeant.” And everyone claps and then he goes, “I appreciate that, miss mayor. However, I do feel like my services are better as a meter maid.” And everyone gasps and then he’s like, “I’m kidding. My dream is to be a cop. Thank you so much.” But then Peter stays on. Peter decides to work a little longer. And as he’s walking out, like, he’s like, (sighs), and then this kind of attractive woman’s like, “I watched your story on the news.” And he’s like, “Oh, thank you.” And she’s like, “I’ve got a dirty little fantasy.” And she whispers to him. And he’s like, “Let me get the keys.”

[Thomas]
Yeah. And that’s when we crash to black, roll credits. Right?

[Gareth]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
We don’t normally come up with titles for this, but I was just struck with the idea, The Enforcers.

[Gareth]
Yeah, I like that.

[Shep]
Ha ha ha.

[Emily]
That’s good.

[Thomas]
Well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode about a Parking Meter. Did we feed the meter, or was it just a coin toss? Let us know by leaving a comment on our website, reaching out on social media, or sending us an email. Links to all of those can be found at AlmostPlausible.com. Gareth, we can’t thank you enough for coming on the show. Where can our listeners find out more about you and all of the things that you’re up to?

[Gareth]
You can listen to The Dollop, and We’re Here to Help. Those are my podcasts. And you can go to my YouTube, which is @GarethReynoldstv, to watch my talk show called Almost Live. And I’ll probably be taking a little movie I made on tour. So, go to follow me on the socials @ReynoldsGareth.

[Thomas]
And we’ll link to all of those in our show notes, which you can find at AlmostPlausible.com. Be sure to subscribe so you can join Emily, Shep, and I on the next episode of Almost Plausible.

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