Yarn

References

• Red Thread of Fate
• Almost Plausible: String
• Michel Gondry
• Weezer – Undone — The Sweater Song
• Daedalus
• Terry Gilliam
• Brazil
• Wallace & Gromit
• TOOL – Sober
• Almost Plausible: Pillows
• Almost Plausible: Padlock
• Rick and Morty
  • Pickle Rick
• Almost Plausible: Paperclip
• Almost Plausible: Bowling Pin
• Mr. Bill

Transcript

[Intro music begins]

[Shep]
And then at the party, he sees the girl who’s unraveling, or she sees him, or one of their mutual friends sees the two of them-

[Emily]
Introduce them.

[Shep]
Introduces them.

[Thomas]
There’s just like the wallflowers corner, like-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Their friend brings them in, “All right, you can hang out over here with the other wallflowers.” They’re all standing around sheepishly. Sheepishly, because they’re made of yarn.

[Shep]
Yeah. Haha!

[Intro music]

[Thomas]
Hey there, story fans. Welcome to Almost Plausible, the podcast where we take ordinary objects and turn them into movies. I’m Thomas J. Brown, and untangling this story with me are Emily-

[Emily]
Hey guys.

[Thomas]
And F. Paul Shepard.

[Shep]
Happy to be here.

[Thomas]
Today we are creating a movie plot based on Yarn. Now, do either of you knit, crochet, or otherwise use yarn in your daily lives? Perhaps for a murder board?

[Shep]
Uh, not daily. I used to crochet quite a lot when I was a kid, which is, you know, normal, normal young man activity.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah, I knit regularly. I put it off for a while, but recently I’ve picked it back up. I may have a murder board or two.

[Thomas]
Or two.

[Emily]
One might be for solving, one might be for doing.

[Shep]
Planning.

[Thomas]
Yeah. I don’t knit or crochet or do anything like that, which… I wish I could sew. That’s something I’d love to do.

[Shep]
Oh, sewing is great.

[Emily]
It’s actually fairly easy.

[Thomas]
I’m sure it is. It’s one of those things where it’s like, there are more things I want to do than there is time in the day.

[Emily]
Mmm. Yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
So I grew up on a farm, as I’ve talked about many times, and we were subsistence farmers. We had to sew our own clothes. It was like, that’s just how it is.

[Thomas]
Gotta harvest your own flax and make your own-

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah. Thomas gets it. So when I was in junior high school and I was going to a public school, one of the classes they offered was Home Ec. And one of the things they covered in Home Ec was sewing.

[Thomas]
And you were like, “Easy A…”

[Shep]
That’s exactly what I thought. This is going to be easy breezy. I go in, the first thing is a pillow. And so I do like a durable stitch. Like pillows got to be made to last. You know, it’s not just decoration. People are going to use it. And it was completely wrong because the durable stitches, it binds the fabric. And the teacher’s like, “This isn’t the right stitch for this. You should do this stitch where it just goes back and forth.” And in my mind, I’m like, “That’s not durable. If that breaks anywhere, it, the whole thing is going to fall apart.” But whatever. This is one of the many times where it was just: do what the teacher wants.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Shep]
Just do what the teacher wants, even when they are wrong.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that’s really annoying.

[Shep]
Yeah. As she was using my, the thread ripper to tear it up, she’s like, “This, this was actually really well sewn together.”

[Thomas]
You’re like, “No shit, that was the point.”

[Shep]
Yeah, that’s what I thought what the point was. Nope. The point was to make a decorative pillow and then throw it in the garbage.

[Thomas]
That’s why they call it a “throw pillow”. Well, Shep, now that you’re all riled up, you get to pitch first.

[Shep]
Oh, no. Why did I open my mouth? All right. Are you guys familiar with the thread of fate? It binds your pinky to your fated partner’s pinky.

[Thomas]
I believe that came up in our String episode.

[Emily]
Yeah, I was gonna say.

[Shep]
Shit. When I was writing the prompts or when I was writing the pitches, I was like, “This one seems to flow really naturally. Like, I can picture the whole thing in my mind.” What a bummer. Anyway, a man starts coughing, but instead of phlegm, yarn comes out.

[Thomas]
And he’s like slowly turning into a Muppet.

[Shep]
Yeah. Yes.

[Emily]
Oh, I can’t think of a pun for consumption and Muppets.

[Shep]
It’ll come to you later after we’re done recording.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
As soon as we stop recording.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
I will be like, ah.

[Shep]
I mean, it’s just a nightmarish image if you cough and then it’s, it’s yarn.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
It is. Oh, yeah. Then you’re just pulling it out.

[Shep]
Like, what does it mean? You go to the doctor and you’re like, they see your organs, but they’re all knitted, you know, cute little heart.

[Thomas]
This feels like a Michel Gondry film.

[Shep]
Here’s another one: A wolf chases after sheep, not because he’s hungry and wants to eat them, but because he’s obsessed with knitting and wants yarn.

[Emily]
So is he chasing after him with those shears?

[Shep]
Yeah, which is very scary for the sheep.

[Emily]
Yeah, because he’s just clearing the path for the bite, right? That’s what they’re thinking.

[Shep]
It looks, I mean they’re big metal. “He’s gonna cut me open.” All right, here’s another one: In a world where people are knitted out of yarn, one guy’s life starts to unravel.

[Thomas]
That’s pretty good for the poster.

[Emily]
Is the opening song that Weezer song “If you want to…”

[Thomas]
Oh, the sweater song (Undone).

[Emily]
Yeah, “…to destroy-” Oh, I can’t sing it because we’ll have to pay for it. Never mind.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So I’m picturing that everyone’s knitted, and then one guy gets a fray, and then if you pull on it, like his body starts to unravel.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
You know, it gets caught on a desk at work unexpectedly, or an unruly kid grabs it and runs.

[Emily]
Is he kind of trying to keep a hold of it so he can get it repaired? Like, but he’s gonna look for somebody to-

[Thomas]
He’s trying to kind of do self-repairs, but he doesn’t have the equipment to like, you know, stitch himself back up properly.

[Shep]
Right. You really need to see a professional.

[Emily]
Well, and he’s right-handed-

[Thomas]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah, he’s right-handed and he lost his right hand right away. Well, that’s all I have. Emily, what do you have?

[Emily]
All right. I have a couple not as good as yours is what I’m gonna say.

[Shep]
She’s doing that reverse psychology thing again.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I was thinking that.

[Shep]
We got to recognize the signs of manipulation.

[Emily]
All right, first one: Pieces of yarn are found strewn about the forest of a national park. They are clearly marking a path to somewhere. The local ranger follows the path and discovers a ramshackle cabin in the middle of a small clearing. As he investigates, he notices there are several mounds of dirt surrounding the house. Several body-sized mounds of dirt. Not wanting to get in over his head, he begins to track back to his truck so he can radio for help. But he never makes it back to the truck.

[Shep]
How does he get lost? There is a path of yarn for him to follow.

[Emily]
Did he get lost?

[Shep]
Yeah. Come on, Daedalus.

[Emily]
My second one is about a young woman who’s trying to start her life after she leaves a very lucrative corporate job. She empties her 401k and buys a small plot of land and decides to raise alpacas. She knows next to nothing about the creatures, but she’s determined to make a living selling alpaca wool and yarn. Noticing that she is in over her head, a handsome neighbor decides to lend a hand. A romance blossoms as the yarn is spun.

[Shep]
This is definitely one of your erotica novels.

[Emily]
I don’t know what you’re talking about.

[Thomas]
The alpacas are, like, looking in the window.

[Shep]
They’re looking through the window? No, it’s a farm story. So, they’re going to be out leaning against the wooden fence that nobody uses anymore.

[Thomas]
Yeah. There you go.

[Shep]
But it only shows up on romance novel covers.

[Emily]
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Okay, Thomas, what have you got for us?

[Thomas]
A man wakes up to discover the end of a long, bright red piece of yarn is tied around one of his wrists. He can’t untie the yarn, and any attempt to cut it doesn’t work. The long string leads outside his apartment, so he follows it. I imagine a Terry Gilliam or Michel Gondry-style world with quirky characters and absurd situations.

[Shep]
You keep mentioning Michelle Gondry is this you just got to get Michelle Gondry out of your system. We got to do a Michelle Gondry pitch.

[Thomas]
I think it’s just our pitches are absurdist and humorous and weird and quirky.

[Shep]
Absurdist? Us?

[Thomas]
All right, I have another pitch: Early manufacturers of yarn would dye the wool before spinning it into yarn so that the fibers would retain their color longer. This led to the expression “dyed in the wool”. But that wool was always dyed after being sheared from the animal. So one enterprising couple decides to take things a step further, dyeing the animals themselves before shearing the wool and spinning the yarn.

[Emily]
Okay, you can’t steal my life plan and pass it off as a pitch.

[Thomas]
To be fair, this is something you and I have been talking about for like 20 years.

[Shep]
But she hasn’t done it yet, so you still can’t use it.

[Emily]
Also, 100% was where I was hoping we were gonna take the rom-com.

[Thomas]
It sounds like we can combine your pitch and mine.

[Emily]
If Shep approves.

[Shep]
Is it better to dye wool when it’s still on the animal?

[Thomas]
Probably not, but it’s more humorous.

[Emily]
Actually, I recently learned that it’s probably not worth it because you have to wash the wool after it’s been sheared.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
So if you pre-dye it, most likely the color will run out in the washing process, but it would still look cool and be fun.

[Thomas]
Be good for the ‘Gram.

[Emily]
Yeah, exactly.

[Shep]
“It’s good for the ‘Gram.” You are a million years old.

[Thomas]
Says you!

[Shep]
Yes, I know! I’ve been around that long. I recognize you.

[Thomas]
That’s true. You, yeah, you would know.

[Emily]
Game recognizes game.

[Shep]
All right, so which one of these are we doing?

[Thomas]
Well, I like the one where the guy coughs up yarn-

[Emily]
That is a good one.

[Thomas]
Because it feels so unexpected.

[Emily]
Where do we go with it?

[Thomas]
Yeah, did you have a tone in mind for that one, Shep?

[Shep]
Uh, no, not really. You look at the length of- This is the shortest pitch I have.

[Thomas]
This is the shortest pitch on the page.

[Shep]
Yeah, my pitches are one line each, and this is the shortest among the one-line pitches. So yeah, what tone would you like? This is like a kind of nightmarish, you know, you cough in its yarn. It’s red yarn. Looks like bloody yarn.

[Thomas]
That’s funny because it’s exactly what I imagined without you saying that.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
Right, I’m just pointing out the obvious. Obviously it’s red yarn.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Actually, for all the pitches I was picturing red yarn. I don’t know why.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Because what do you think of when you think of yarn?

[Shep]
Red yarn.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Huh.

[Emily]
Yeah, because it’s distinct and you can visualize it very simply. Or we’ve all watched or had too many murder boards.

[Shep]
I forgot. That’s why I have all this red yarn for.

[Emily]
Mhm.

[Shep]
I was trying to solve the murder of the amnesiac, but I forgot.

[Thomas]
It turns out it was the Amnesiac Killer and…

[Shep]
Yes, I thought the amnesiacs were the victims, but it was someone with amnesia-

[Thomas]
Right. It was you all along.

[Shep]
Yeah, spoilers. I haven’t got to that part yet.

[Thomas]
Oh, your murder board isn’t complete, so…

[Shep]
So, I was picturing it more of a light tone.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
I was picturing like he is dying and he’s coughing up basically his organs are coming out of his mouth. But everyone is just trying to get him to deal with it. Like his mom takes the yarn and knits a little pair of booties or something.

[Emily]
Okay, so with that, I have a question kind of exploring this idea. Is it a situation where he’s dying already and he starts coughing up blood and he sees yarn and nobody else sees it as yarn and he’s sort of hallucinating this kind of situation?

[Shep]
Ah.

[Emily]
I mean, I want to make it sad. I want people to cry.

[Shep]
So I was thinking it is cancer. So as soon as he goes to the doctor, he finds out he’s going to die.

[Emily]
Mm.

[Shep]
But even if it’s not really cancer, if it’s just, if it’s actually yarn, but the allegory is that it’s cancer and it’s eating up his organs and everyone around him is just trying to live life as if it were normal and pretend nothing is wrong.

[Thomas]
So, I mean, I like the idea. I can totally see the whole sort of lighthearted take that you mentioned, but it just feels like Michel Gondry. Like, I feel like I’ve seen him do something like this in his movies. So I worry that it’s too close to that.

[Shep]
Okay.

[Emily]
So that strikes your first one off the list.

[Shep]
Well, so now it’s his guy wakes up and it’s a yarn attached to his wrist, and it goes off and it leads to a guy who’s coughing up yarn.

[Emily]
There you go.

[Thomas]
There we go.

[Emily]
That’s what, he’s pulling the yarn out of the man’s mouth.

[Shep]
The guy’s trying to, like, put it back in. Yeah, the guy’s trying to pull his wrist.

[Thomas]
Right, that’s where the tugging is coming from. He’s like, “What?” That feels very Terry Gilliam.

[Shep]
Yes, it’s the desk in Brazil.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Now that I think about it, like the mom knitting the thing, that’s also like the mom in Brazil pretending that everything is fine, even when everything is falling apart.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
All right, so we can’t do that one. It’s just Brazil, but with yarn. I like the one where it’s the little yarn people and the guy is unraveling.

[Thomas]
I like that. And I think it’s the kind of thing where it’s a very clear allegory, but we can all relate to it. Yeah.

[Shep]
So I thought it was an allegory for mental health.

[Emily]
I see that.

[Shep]
Like, you can’t really fix it on your own. He keeps trying to fix it on his own, but he can’t. You really need to see a professional.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
Everyone thinks that they can just tough it out. And it’s like, that’s not really how that works.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
It is in fact not how that works.

[Shep]
When you want to build a shed, you can’t just take the wood and then tough it out. You need to get the right tools to do the task. That’s what therapy is. You go to therapy to learn the tools to maintain your mental health. It’s dog training. Dog training isn’t about training the dog on its own.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
It’s about training you to communicate with the dog.

[Emily]
So the unraveling guy, is it somewhat lighthearted allegory where like after you get into it for a little while you’re like, “Man, that’s some deep shit.” So where when you’re stoned later and you rewatch it stoned, you’re like, “Oh, it gets me.”

[Thomas]
Is it presented like Wallace and Gromit where it’s like comedy action? Or is it like the Tool music video for their song Sober?

[Shep]
I was thinking Wallace and Gromit, like, as if it were a comedy. The message is about mental health-

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
But the presentation is-

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
I didn’t imagine that it started to unravel at work. I imagine that it started to unravel during his commute and he ignored it.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And then got it snagged on a desk as he’s walking through the office. So it got worse at work.

[Emily]
Now I’m picturing him as he’s walking through the office like he’s carrying some files from one desk to another when it snags. And as his hand unravels, the files just fall to the ground. Yeah.

[Shep]
Oh, that’s when he notices that it’s, yeah, that’s good.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I like that.

[Shep]
And like, does this movie have any dialogue or is it just visual?

[Thomas]
It could just be visual or like very, very minimal dialogue.

[Emily]
We would all enjoy that. But do we want this-?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Do we want a film that’s good that we enjoy-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yes. Yeah.

[Emily]
Or do we want a film that’s decent and will make money?

[Shep]
Well, we couldn’t afford to make this one because it’s animated.

[Emily]
True. Okay.

[Shep]
So it doesn’t matter. So let’s just do the pitch where it’s good.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
Because he’s got to meet a girl who’s also unraveling, and they try to maintain each other.

[Emily]
Oh, no.

[Shep]
You know, her left arm is unraveling. So as long as they stick side by side, they won’t unravel any more.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
But it’s very codependent.

[Thomas]
Well, we better start figuring out the beats of this story. So I like the idea that he’s like riding the bus or the subway or something, and there’s just like a little bit sticking out on his arm. He’s sort of like playing with it with a finger, like, “What is this?” He’s trying to poke it back into place.

[Shep]
Oh, at first he’s just bumping it like, “What is this thing that’s dangling down?”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And then he pulls on it and realizes that it’s unraveling him. So he stuffs it into his sleeve like, “Oh, let’s not deal with this.”

[Thomas]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So is that the inciting incident then is discovering the loose thread?

[Shep]
Yes. Yep.

[Thomas]
Okay. So I feel like there must be a little bit of time between first discovering it and then the whole like getting caught in the desk in his hand, his whole hand unravels, where it keeps like popping out of his sleeve or like it kind of gets snagged on something a little bit.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
It’s getting like a little longer and a little longer and he keeps tucking it away and oh, he must at some point consider getting scissors and like snipping it off.

[Emily]
Oh, no. I was thinking, because it’s his hand, right? It’s physically his flesh, right?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
That’s what we’re going with, not his clothing?

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
I thought it would be cute, I guess is the word, if he was going to get a cup of coffee after he gets off the subway, and that’s when it falls out of a sleeve that he’s tucked it into, and she’s like, “Oh, you’ve got a little.” And then goes to clip it, and he’s like “No! I am okay.”

[Shep]
Goes to clip it? What coffee shop do you go to where they got the scissors handy in a world where people are made of yarn?

[Thomas]
Little minor surgery with your…

[Shep]
She’s a murderer. Put that on the murder board.

[Thomas]
She’s trying to collect a trophy.

[Shep]
Yes. Yep.

[Emily]
She needs to add to that path because she keeps getting lost two-thirds of the way there.

[Thomas]
Look, she’s building a boyfriend Pillow and she needs material. Yeah.

[Shep]
All right, what other of our episodes we haven’t referenced yet?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So yeah, it starts as a little thing, but he ignores it and it keeps coming out. And at one point when he’s at home, it gets caught on something, but he notices, but he almost kept walking. And he realizes, “Oh, that was dangerous.” Like, “Maybe I should do something about this.” And maybe that’s when he gets scissors. And he’s like, “Do I?”

[Thomas]
You see how he’s pondering it.

[Shep]
Yeah. And then he’s like, “Nah,” and he just wraps it around his wrist so that it’s like, it’s more, it’s secure now. “I fixed it. I fixed the problem.”

[Emily]
Tucks it in one of the loops. Just try and pull a knot into it.

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we can see the first part.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And we see him in his daily life. He’s clearly not happy.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
What is his want?

[Emily]
To be happy.

[Shep]
He wants a better job. He wants to be in a relationship, but he has trouble being in a relationship. You know, maybe he’s got anger issues. Maybe he’s just awkward. Whatever. Fill in the blank.

[Emily]
Maybe he has super low self-esteem.

[Thomas]
Is there like a woman at the office? This is the girl at the coffee shop that he has a crush on.

[Emily]
Yeah, and then they buy a Lock and…

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Where does he meet the woman? Does he know the woman? No, he has to meet her later.

[Shep]
He’s got to meet her later after he starts to unravel.

[Emily]
At a bar?

[Shep]
I was thinking at a party.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
Like, his friend’s throwing a party, and he’s hesitating whether to go or not.

[Thomas]
Is his arm all janky at this point? Because he’s like trying to reshape it on his own.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
So he’s really embarrassed by it.

[Emily]
And his friends kind of keep asking why he hasn’t gone and got that mended yet.

[Shep]
Right. They’ve, you know, they talk about when they unraveled before and they know a guy that’s really good at that. He’s like, “I’ll think about it.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
“I’ll, you know, whatever.”

[Emily]
“I don’t know. It sounds kind of spendy.”

[Shep]
Or he calls his parents, you know, his mom’s like, “Oh, yeah, you should go to therapy.” And his dad’s like, “No, be a man. Suck it up.”

[Emily]
“Just tie it in a knot. Call it good.”

[Shep]
You see, so you see the parents talking on the phone, and then when they get off the phone, it’s the wide shot of the dad, and like half his body is unraveled, because he’s never taken care of himself.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And the mom is like scooting it out of the way.

[Emily]
Mhm.

[Shep]
She’s just dealing with how unraveled her husband is, because what can you do? “That’s just how guys, that’s how all guys are.” Like, no, meet more guys.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
“Yeah, I wish he would fix it, but, you know, I love him, so-“

[Shep]
“Flaws and all.” Wow, this is depressing. When does this start to get better? I guess at the end when he goes to a professional.

[Thomas]
Well, so he meets this girl. Is this kind of like the end of the first act is when they meet up at this party?

[Shep]
I was thinking it was, that’s the second act, is he meets the girl. The first act is: he’s trying to deal with it on his own, and then it gets worse, and then it gets even worse. And so, he’s like, staying at home. “If I go out, people are going to notice that my arm is all janky. I don’t want that. I’ll just stay home where it’s safe and I won’t unravel anymore.”

[Thomas]
So then is she the mid-second act turning point “Of, oh, I’ve met someone like me?”

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he thinks then that’s solved the problem.

[Thomas]
I wonder then if that shouldn’t happen at a party, if it should be like a mutual interest.

[Shep]
Hmm.

[Emily]
No, I think because they’re both unraveling and they’re going to become codependent, and it’s a metaphor for two people trying to fix each other without having the tools to fix themselves. I think meeting at a party or something more frivolous is better.

[Thomas]
I see what you’re saying. Yeah.

[Emily]
Because I feel like if you’re meeting at something with a shared interest, I don’t know. I feel like that’s-

[Shep]
Ah, okay, I got it. Let’s combine your ideas.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
He meets a girl at a shared interest. She is not the girl who is unraveling. She is who turns out to be his love interest at the end. But he tries to talk to her or whatever, but he’s awkward, and he’s trying to hold his arm, but it keeps, you know, everything’s falling down. And so he’s distracted by his unraveling. And then she, you know, walks away ’cause he’s not talking to her. And so he’s like, “Ah, ah, I am unworthy of affection.” And then at the party, he sees the girl who’s unraveling, or she sees him, or one of their mutual friends sees the two of them-

[Emily]
Introduce them.

[Shep]
Introduces them.

[Thomas]
There’s just like the wallflowers corner, like-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Their friend brings them in, “All right, you can hang out over here with the other wallflowers.” They’re all standing around sheepishly. Sheepishly, because they’re made of yarn.

[Shep]
Yeah. Haha!

[Thomas]
So they start dating? The two unraveling characters?

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
They’re going to help each other navigate the world.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
But it is a rocky relationship.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
They fight, then they move in together, because that will fix their relationship.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
Yeah, because they’re fighting because they don’t have enough time with each other.

[Shep]
Right.

[Emily]
Obviously.

[Shep]
“Well, this will fix it.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
“More time with the person that annoys me. That will make me love them even more.”

[Emily]
“They don’t annoy me. The fact that I don’t see them annoys me. I don’t see them enough because they don’t, they’re not as communicative as I am. They don’t call as much. They don’t text. But if we lived together, I would see them every day.”

[Thomas]
I mean, there are moments here and there where they’re having a nice time-

[Emily]
Oh, yeah, of course.

[Thomas]
Where they’re helping each other with their, like, fix their unraveling parts and whatnot.

[Emily]
Yeah, every time they “fix the problem”, it is good for a little bit. Right?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
They move in together and then it’s easier for them to make meals because one has one hand, one has the other hand, you know.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
Moving furniture and whatever.

[Thomas]
Applauding.

[Shep]
Juggling, things you need two hands to do.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Playing the bagpipes, I don’t know.

[Shep]
Playing the guitar.

[Thomas]
There you go.

[Shep]
He can strum and she can do the- oh no, she can strum.

[Thomas]
However, after they move in together, both of them are starting to unravel at a faster rate.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And maybe even more frequently.

[Emily]
Yeah, and they kind of keep tripping over each other’s yarn, each other’s disaster.

[Thomas]
Mhm.

[Shep]
Right.

[Emily]
And that causes them to, like, unravel more. Like, she’s in the shower, and he’s gonna go make a cup of coffee, and he trips over all of the yarn that she’s left out, and that causes him to catch on something and more of him unravels.

[Shep]
Then he starts yelling-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And even more like, it’s yarn shooting off of him as he’s, can’t control his anger.

[Thomas]
Yeah. So what is the lowest low for these characters?

[Shep]
Well, his lowest low is she moves out. Like their relationship doesn’t work. And so now he’s back to being alone and he’s even more unraveled than he has ever been before.

[Thomas]
So is there some sort of like knockdown, drag out type of fight? He’s super unraveled.

[Emily]
I was gonna say, I think she gets to a point where she’s so unraveled, she can’t really function, even with his help.

[Shep]
Oh, they come home and it’s an intervention of her friends for her.

[Thomas]
Oh, and I was just gonna suggest, does she start to get help?

[Emily]
Yeah, that was where I was gonna go. She was gonna get help.

[Thomas]
And then that’s putting them on, like, really divergent paths.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Yeah. Because she’s slowly getting repaired.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
And he’s like, “Why are you wasting your money? This is such a waste of time. We were doing fine. We were doing fine before.”

[Thomas]
Well, and she’s like confronting the difficulties and he doesn’t want to confront the difficulties. So that just irritates him and frustrates him.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
All right, well, let’s take a break here. And when we come back, maybe we’ll send our main character to therapy in our episode about Yarn.

[Shep]
That’s right. It’s about Yarn!

[Break]

[Thomas]
All right, we’re back. Shep, you appear to be champing at the bit to.

[Shep]
I have so many thoughts on this. The break was a long break. And I was like, “Oh, man, I want to talk more about this, but we’re paused.”

[Thomas]
Right. We took a break, but your brain did not.

[Shep]
My brain would not shut up.

[Thomas]
Well, let’s hear what it had to say.

[Shep]
So the gist of the movie, the message of the movie, is: go to therapy.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Which I think is a good message. I mean, that’s- it’s like, just go to a barber to get a professional haircut. Like, that should not be a shameful suggestion. That should not be a thing to be embarrassed by. Professionals are good at what they’re trained to do.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
Sometimes your car makes a weird noise and you take it to the mechanic, not because it’s broken, just for a checkup. Some of the times you got to take it just for a tune up. You know, it’s been a couple of years.

[Thomas]
Sure.

[Shep]
Let’s go in. Let’s change the oil.

[Thomas]
Preventative maintenance?

[Shep]
Preventative maintenance.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And we don’t do that. Most people don’t do that, it seems, for their own mental health, which is the just the craziest thing because you got to live with yourself every day. You know, your car makes a weird noise. You don’t drive every day. Big deal. But you’re always using your own brain. So-

[Emily]
But you don’t always know it’s broken.

[Shep]
That’s why you go in for a tune up every once in a while.

[Emily]
Sometimes the mechanic goes, “Have you tried losing weight or walking in sunshine more?”

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Sometimes there are bad mechanics out there is all I’m saying.

[Thomas]
And sometimes you get a new mechanic.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, the gist is therapy is good.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
I’m reminded of the Pickle Rick episode of Rick and Morty.

[Emily]
That is a great episode for that.

[Shep]
It is so good. I thought, ’cause I saw previews of the parts where he’s fighting the rats, and I’m like, “This does nothing for me.” Like, “What is the point of this? It’s him as a pickle. This is dumb, and I’m not gonna like this episode.” And then I watched it, and I’m like, “Oh, I think this is my favorite episode of all time.” Because the monologue at the end where Dr. Wong is just like, “Yeah, therapy’s not fun. It’s maintenance, like brushing your teeth. So it’s just a thing that you gotta do and people don’t really enjoy it. Like, it’s not fun.”

[Thomas]
There’s a reason they call it “doing the work”.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yes. And I thought that was great. And I like that introduction of that character going forward in that series, like really seemed to help Rick. So the message of that is, like, even Rick is benefiting from therapy. So like, everybody can benefit from therapy, even if you’re not broken. Your car can not be broken and you still get it tuned up and it’s better than it was.

[Emily]
Good point.

[Shep]
So that’s what I’m saying. That’s the thrust that I want this movie to go on. So we see the girlfriend, or now the ex-girlfriend, gets better.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So they run into each other again later and she’s better, but he’s still a mess. And she’s like, “Okay, we’re- so, we can’t get back together because you’re all broken, but you should get help.”

[Shep]
But of course he’s not going to interpret that as advice to follow because this is his ex-girlfriend.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
So we see the main character deteriorate more. He’s staying home. He’s not going out. He’s not answering his phone. He’s drinking. He’s watching TV. He’s falling apart. He’s unraveling. Maybe he even gets fired from his job. I don’t know.

[Thomas]
I was thinking that that would be something that contributes to that lowest low. I’m thinking that the intervention or the breakup needs to be the mid-second act turning point. So it’s like she moves onto that path of getting better and their paths diverge. And so that sends him further down.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And like you said, he’s staying home, he’s unraveling more, his work is suffering, his social life is suffering, his dog doesn’t like him as much, his goldfish doesn’t respect him, I don’t know, whatever.

[Shep]
Oh, if he has a dog, that dog has definitely grabbed onto that yarn and unraveled him some more.

[Emily]
Oh no, he has a cat.

[Shep]
That’s so bad.

[Emily]
Yeah, it wasn’t a great decision on his part.

[Shep]
It was her cat. So during the time that they’re together, there’s the cat and it’s always messing with them. But then she takes the cat when she leaves.

[Thomas]
And then yeah, like you said, they see each other later, but she’s not interested in dating him.

[Emily]
No.

[Thomas]
He’s even worse than he was.

[Emily]
Yes, he’s worse.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
And I think, you know, we gotta have that sweet little line of, “I really hope you find the help you need,” or something like that.

[Thomas]
Now, is she all fixed up or does she have scars?

[Shep]
Ooh.

[Emily]
Well, there’s clearly some mending. Like, you can see the mending.

[Thomas]
Yeah. So it’s not like a really clean, even, perfect stitch like it would be.

[Emily]
No, it doesn’t look like the original. It’s maybe a little stretched out in spot.

[Thomas]
But her arm is fixed and yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Things are the right shape but the wrong pattern or whatever.

[Emily]
And they’re functional, but not-

[Thomas]
Right, not perfect.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And she’s not done. She’s still going to therapy.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
I was also thinking that over the course of the second act in general, his friends are trying to be there for him, but they’re there less and less because he’s just so difficult to deal with.

[Shep]
Yup.

[Thomas]
And he’s pushing them away and stuff, so that by the end of the second act, no friends calling, he’s not going out, no job, no girlfriend. Things are really- His life has unraveled.

[Shep]
Oh, so we have a friend. We establish earlier that he has a friend that’s trying to take care of him. Maybe this is the friend that introduces him to that girl, invites him to the party.

[Emily]
Sure.

[Shep]
So, as he’s falling apart more, that friend is still trying to organize things and take care of him, comes over to his house, tries to see him, bring some other friends with him.

[Thomas]
Brings pizza and beer.

[Shep]
Yeah, brings pizza and beer! It’s just enabling him.

[Thomas]
That’s a true friend.

[Shep]
A true friend stops you from getting the help you need. What is the message of the friend here? I think that the friend doesn’t understand the problem.

[Thomas]
Mmm.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So the lowest low is, even that friend can’t help him anymore. Or maybe he comes and knocks on the door and the guy doesn’t let him in.

[Thomas]
Or maybe he thinks, “Oh, I’ll contact him.” He texts that friend, and you see the three dots up here and then disappear, and that’s it. The friend just never replies to him.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
And he’s like, “Oh, fuck.”

[Shep]
So what is the breaking point?

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
What is the part where he just unravels almost entirely, and also how much of him is left before he starts getting put back together?

[Thomas]
Yeah, I was wondering that.

[Shep]
Is it just his face or is it nothing?

[Emily]
I think it should be at least his face. I think he should still have a little piece of him intact. That’s what he’s building off of. If he’s nothing-

[Thomas]
Right, like he’s able to grab something in his mouth and start like, he gets a Paperclip, one of our other episodes.

[Shep]
Are there any left we haven’t referenced in this episode?

[Emily]
Bowling Pin.

[Shep]
Put bowling pins in the background.

[Thomas]
They go bowling at one point.

[Shep]
They go bowling and he gets caught on the ball.

[Emily]
It gets sucked down to the thing.

[Shep]
Well, it like unravels, you know, his arm.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
It’s like, “Oh no!”

[Thomas]
He’s embarrassed. He’s like, “Oh, sorry, sorry.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah, there’s so many humorous things. So we have the cat pulling on it and unraveling him. We have it getting caught on the desk. We got a kid grabbing it and running away. We got the bowling ball. Like, there’s so many funny things you can do where it’s like, you know, how is he going to get unraveled in this scene? It’s the Mr. Bill, you know, how is he going to die?

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
You know what’s going to happen.

[Thomas]
And then as he gets unraveled, does he go, “Oh, no!”

[Shep]
That’s probably public domain by now, right?

[Thomas]
Yeah, so he starts putting himself kind of back together as best he can, but he is not in good shape, regardless.

[Emily]
There should be a callback to the parents.

[Thomas]
Does the mom come and help him?

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
I could see that because the mom wants him and her husband to get therapy. The husband just absolutely refuses.

[Emily]
See, I didn’t want to make the husband that dickish. Like, he refuses and he’s not interested. Because he feels like it’s too late for him, and he wants his son…

[Thomas]
But he’s also not completely unraveled.

[Emily]
Right, but he wants his son- His son has more time.

[Thomas]
So you’re saying the dad is like, “I wish I would have done this. This is a regret that I have.”

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Emily]
“I’m almost done with this life, essentially.” And he’s like, “And you’re falling apart faster than I am, and you have so much more time. You should get it fixed” or something. I don’t know. I want maybe the dad to be like, he’s not gonna get the help, but that doesn’t mean he can’t encourage other people to get the help.

[Shep]
Now, obviously I want this to be a pro-therapy movie, so the dad has to get help at some point.

[Emily]
Eventually. How about eventually? At the end, you see him slowly starting to get back together as the son is getting better.

[Shep]
So I like the thing that I think Thomas mentioned, where the ex-girlfriend, she’s more put together, but you can see the mending marks.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
So you can see when the dad’s getting therapy, he’s more together, and you can see the mending marks.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So at the end, when our main character is mostly a person again. And he’s covered in mending marks, maybe he talks to that girl that he tried to talk to earlier, and she’s just getting off work. And so she takes off her work coat and puts it up, and you can see one of her arms has the mending marks on it. It’s like, ah, see? See? Everyone.

[Emily]
We all have it.

[Shep]
We all have it.

[Emily]
Yeah, I just want the dad to sort of… Okay, because if we’re going to talk about it actually being an allegory for mental health and getting therapy. So when I was at my low, my lowest low, I was encouraging others to go and get help. And to be better and to not be like me, essentially. So I think the dad could come out and say that and be a voice of reason along with the mom and everything. But, you know, the dad too, be like, “Don’t be like me. You still have time to mend yourself. I don’t,” even though he in fact does.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
That’s why you see at the end, when they’re having the conversation with the parents again, and it cuts to the wide shot that the dad is partly mended.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
But I do like the idea of, because he’s just a face, he can’t really do it yet. So his mom comes and gets him and takes him, like carries him in a basket.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
It was just his face and a bunch of piled up yarn.

[Thomas]
On, like, a chaise lounge in the therapist’s office.

[Shep]
Yep.

[Emily]
Does the therapist have knitting needles?

[Shep]
Yes. Yeah.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
Because they’re professional knitters.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Like, that’s what they are in universe. They’re knitters.

[Thomas]
Or crochet hooks or whatever it is, whatever the visual style is.

[Shep]
Yeah. Or an array of repair tools.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
That’s why there’s definitely some marks and unevenness to it is because sometimes that particular repair is going to require a different tool.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, the professional repairs him enough so that he can start repairing the rest of himself by himself. They teach him the tools and how to use them.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
But he still needs to go in once in a while-

[Shep]
To check the work.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
To check the work.

[Shep]
And then they could point out, “Ah, this is, you missed a stitch here.”

[Emily]
“Oh, you should have used this instead.”

[Thomas]
They’ve got to unravel a bit back of it to-

[Emily]
“This will fix this right up. You’ll see. It’ll be more flexible if you do it this way.”

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
So what does that third act look like? Because I can see a montage of him going to therapy and being fixed, but that makes a very, very short third act.

[Emily]
It’s a movie about yarn people. Why does it have to be?

[Shep]
Why does it gotta follow the three-act structure?

[Emily]
Why do you gotta follow the rules?

[Shep]
Because that’s what people expect.

[Thomas]
I mean, I guess we can see him going to parties. I mean, what would be the climax of the film? Would that be seeing that other woman again or…

[Shep]
Yeah, just talking to her. Like, they don’t get together in the movie.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
But it’s like, oh, now he can talk to her.

[Thomas]
Right, now he’s able to keep up with her. He’s not chasing his yarn and stuffing all over the place.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
They can go do their shared mutual interest thing.

[Emily]
Yeah, I think you slowly see, you can see him rebuilding relationships also.

[Shep]
Oh, yeah. That friend comes back. Yeah.

[Thomas]
He’s going to parties. He’s not standing with all the wallflowers.

[Emily]
Right, he can go back and work in the office now because he actually has a body versus when he was just a face.

[Thomas]
So he was unhappy with that job, I think, was one of the things that we had said before.

[Emily]
Right, that’s true.

[Thomas]
So maybe he has a new job. Like he’s always, he wishes that he could be a graphic designer, and so he goes and does that, you know, or whatever it is.

[Shep]
I don’t like that. No, no, no, I don’t like that.

[Thomas]
No?

[Shep]
Oh, I did it. I actually said the “No, no, no.”

[Emily]
You almost always say the “No, no, no.”

[Shep]
Yeah, but I’m not really, I’m not always aware when I do it. And this time I was like, “Oh, I heard it come out. Oh, no.” What I was going to say is, sometimes you’re just in a job and you can’t- like, that’s… it’s a fantasy that you can just do what you love.

[Shep]
So I think a more grounded, now, of course, this is a movie about knitted people. So. A more grounded ending is, he’s back at his job, but now doesn’t get aggravated when his boss is unreasonable and he uses his words to express himself and communicate and make his job better rather than changing the job entirely.

[Emily]
But sometimes you have to change the job entirely.

[Shep]
Yes, but we’re doing one message at a time.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
So, I guess I’m of two minds. Like, I think he can continue to do the same job. That’s fine. I wonder should it be at the same office or a new office? But I feel like, especially if we’re trying to do a dialogue-lite film, putting him back in the same office, you learn a lot just from that as an audience member. And then maybe he has started to do the thing that he wants to do as a job. He has started to do that as a hobby. So it’s a thing he’s never done previously. He’s like, “Ah, this would be such a cool thing to do.” And now he’s like, ah, he has a sketchbook that he carries around with him, and when he’s on the bus instead of dicking around on his phone-

[Emily]
So my only objection to that is the monetization of hobbies.

[Thomas]
I didn’t say he was selling that. I just said he was doing it as a hobby.

[Emily]
Okay, so you’re not necessarily saying we’re going to present that this is what he wants to be doing.

[Thomas]
Well we can present that as “I wish this were my job” or “This is a passion that I have.”

[Emily]
Okay, but I think that for me, in my opinion right now, saying that he wishes this was his job and that he’s taking the steps to become better at it makes me feel like he’s going to… Like we’re capitalizing the hobby, the passion, versus just letting him have it.

[Shep]
Right. And I don’t like that. But if it’s just a hobby.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And in fact, this could be the shared interest he has with that other girl. Maybe she’s the art teacher. Maybe that’s how he first sees her, is, he goes to the art class. But then as he unravels more, when he doesn’t have his right arm anymore, he can’t draw anymore.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
So you can even have that as a scene. He’s at home trying to draw after he started to unravel. It’s like, “I could still do this. It’s fine,” and it clearly isn’t.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
And so he gives up on his hobby instead of learning to draw with his left hand, because we’re not telling people that you should just have coping mechanisms instead of dealing with the underlying issue.

[Emily]
No, yeah, this is true. This is true.

[Shep]
You want them to fix the underlying issue. And so he, he re-ravels his right hand, and then he can draw again, which is another reason that he can go back to that class and talk, actually talk to her this time.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Are there any other major story elements that we want to include before we wrap it up?

[Shep]
Before we tie it up?

[Thomas]
Ayy.

[Shep]
Ayy!

[Emily]
I never have major story elements, so I have nothing.

[Thomas]
I mean, I feel like we’ve got a pretty good story here. I’m satisfied if this is where we end, so-

[Shep]
So- Yes. Also, he has cancer. I don’t know if I mentioned that earlier.

[Emily]
Yeah. It keeps coughing up more red.

[Thomas]
Right, ergo, the coughing up, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
Well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode about Yarn. Did we spin a good yarn, or should we frog the whole thing? Let us know by leaving a comment on our- you both look confused.

[Shep]
No, I know what frogging is.

[Emily]
No, I’m trying to remember what frogging is. I know it is a term that I know.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
When you have to unravel everything you’ve knitted together.

[Emily]
Oh yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
Like, you made a mistake three lines back.

[Emily]
Oh yes, then I’m extremely familiar with frogging.

[Thomas]
Well, you can let us know by leaving a comment on our website, reaching out on social media, or sending us an email. There are links to all of those at AlmostPlausible.com, where you’ll also find episode transcripts, links to our many references, information about the three of us, and ways you can support the show. In the meantime, knit one, purl two, and join Emily, Shep, and I for the next episode of Almost Plausible.

[Outro music]

[Thomas]
Emily, we were talking before about puppets with consumption.

[Emily]
Mhm.

[Thomas]
I’m pretty sure that whichever puppet you were talking about, he probably felt under the weather.

[Shep]
Ah, boo!

[Thomas]
That’s the best I’ve got.

[Shep]
Boo!!

[Outro music]