Podcast / Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye

The companion podcast to Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye web series, this Mockumentary investigative podcast is meant to be the In-Universe podcast created by main characters Artemis and Paul Schue-Horyn after the events of the series, in the style of nonfiction True Crime podcasts like Serial. It includes extra backstory and character interviews, as well as a few fun cameos. As such, many of the tropes that apply to the web series apply here as well.

The prologue premiered on October 13, 2020, with the first regular episode ("chapter") premiering on October 16, 2020, and running for 10 episodes in conjunction with the web series. You can find episodes and transcripts here.

This work contains examples of:

• All There in the Manual: The companion webseries gives a different perspective on the events of the podcast, and provides more information on the werewolf plot.
• Ambiguous Ending: Episode 9 has Artemis and Paul leave Truman's fate and much of her motivations a mystery.
• Anachronic Order: While the web series is told linearly, the podcast splices interviews and events together more thematically, meaning that events are sometimes told out of order.
• Arc Symbol: Silver, as emphasized in the prologue. In particular, Artemis's Connor Creek keychain.
  ARTEMIS: You see, in nature, silver is rarely found alone. It’s usually part of a composite alloy, which makes the elements stronger together than they would be alone.[...] For some reason, silver has always been deemed worse than gold but better than bronze. Always second best. Which honestly seems pretty unfair considering its incredible properties. [...] It’s no wonder that the phrase “silver bullet” has entered our everyday lexicon to mean a simple, if not magical, solution to a complex problem. There’s a lot more to silver than meets the eye. And there’s a lot more to my keychain than its metallic composition.
• Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: Justified - when Cliff heard Miner Mole was hiring, he drafted a city ordinance to lift the child labor laws so his underaged daughter could work full-time with the rest of the family to help make ends meet. Somehow, it passed. This is Played for Laughs and treated as a good thing by the family.
  JEWEL: ​A full time job with no spooky puppets is the best birthday present I ever got.
• Backstory: The podcast, mimicking real-life investigative podcasts, provides a lot of background on main players like Silas Torsen, Truman Hensley, and the twins themselves. (See All There in the Manual on the web video page.)
• Belated Happy Ending: In-Universe, the Epilogue acts as a surprise bonus episode six months after the official end of the season. After the bittersweet, ambiguous ending of Episode 9 (see related entries), Artemis and Paul return to Connor Creek for a memorial service, to find that the town divide has healed, a number of characters are much better off than they were before, and a beautiful silver fountain has been erected to honor the fallen Connor Creek citizens.
• Bittersweet Ending: As of Episode 9, eight people have died and many puzzles are (supposedly) left unsolved, having seen Connor Creek at its worst. But Artemis and Paul find a silver lining in Ryan's view of the town at its best, and decide, for now, that that is good enough.
• Bookends: The silver Connor Creek keychain, which opens the show, comes back around in Chapter 9.
• Captain's Log: Parodied with The Ellis Files.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Artemis and Paul, retelling the story weeks after the fact, have moments of introspective commentary, reflecting on why they do what they do and whether their actions in Connor Creek crossed a line at certain points.
• Content Warnings: In-Universe, Artemis warns listeners before describing the state of Ryan's body in Chapter 1. Zig-Zagged, since the web series depiction of events was perfectly fine showing that without warning.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • In Chapter 6, Cliff makes some arguments about lockdowns and the economy that sound very similar to those that came up during the COVID-19 Pandemic. ^note  While the series is set in 2018, the podcast episodes were recorded during the 2020 quarantine in the United States.
    CLIFF: Keeping the economy open is what’s best for everyone. We can’t make the werewolf think we’re weak!! And if a few more people must perish and sacrifice their soft fleshy bodies for our town to come to its senses, I ain’t madabboutit!
  • In Chapter 7, Madison mentions shutting the stores down to stop potential looting during the werewolf hunt, again calling to mind events that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Election Day Episode: Chapter 5 is this, detailing the zany election practices of Connor Creek leading up to the town council election results. Ironically, most of the time is spent caucusing on how to vote - the actual voting only takes 30 minutes for 98% of the town's eligible voters, and is over by 9 AM (since the proceedings start at 3:45 AM).
  PAUL: ​Earlier than 4 AM is, honestly, still night time. I’m not sure it would even qualify as an election ​day.​
• Ending Memorial Service: The Epilogue centers around Artemis and Paul's return to Connor Creek for a memorial service in honor of Truman's victims, with the reveal of a beautiful silver fountain depicting each lost citizen.
• Exact Words: Silas tries to pull an Off the Record, but not only doesn't use the right words, but doesn't get Artemis's agreement before divulging damaging information.
• Fictional Political Party: Conner Creek has three such parties:
  • ​ The Conservatitve Conservation Party
  • ​The Liberal Use of Federal Filibuster Party
  • ​The EggCeptional Independent Party (which only consists of Barney Fletcher)
• Foregone Conclusion: Artemis and Paul survive the events of the series, since they are alive to make the podcast after the fact. Lampshaded in Chapter 3 after Paul's attack.
  PAUL: ​Spoiler Alert: I survived. Me. Paul. Your una-Paul-ogetic co-host.
  ARTEMIS: ​C’mon!! Haven’t you heard of dramatic tension?
  PAUL: What?? I’ve been doing half the narration on the podcast so far! I obviously didn’t die before post production. Besides, you know the old adage: life is about the journey, not the destination.
  • As of Chapter 6, the audience knows Ellis and Mary Jo survive too, based on the fact that they sent The Ellis Files tape and an invoice to the twins after the twins left Connor Creek.
• For Want Of A Nail: Conversed. Artemis wonders in Chapter 8, "how much confusion could’ve been avoided if Connor Creek had any security cameras?" Of course, considering the town's Dark Secret, perhaps this was done on purpose...
• Held Back in School: Exaggerated with Jewel Irons (who was on her fifth repeat of the fourth grade before dropping out), but downplayed with Paul (who was only held back once, and it isn't treated as a comment on his character).
• Hooked Up Afterwards: Subverted in the Epilogue. When Olivia wonders why she and Riley had never talked about being partners before, Paul asks, "Woah! Is there love in the air?" Riley responds that she and Olivia have been in a domestic partnership for years - they were talking about becoming business partners.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Artemis and Paul highlight that, whether or not the werewolf was real, fear and paranoia was what made the townspeople turn on each other.
• Last Disrespects: Silas Torsen, despite also being a victim of Truman, is conspicuously absent from the memorial in the epilogue. While this may be because the fountain was only meant to honor the Connor Creek citizens, it still serves as a nice Take That! to Torsen, who enabled Truman's violence.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Many of the townsfolk capitalize on the presence of the journalists and werewolf attacks for their own personal gain.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Stated by Madison in Chapter 1.
• On the Next: Each of the numbered chapters ends with "Next time, on Wayward Guide," and provides a snippet of recording footage hinting at the next episode's events (notably, the footage generally does not appear in the episode itself).
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Conversed in Chapter 8, where multiple iterations of werewolf lore are discussed (and in some cases, debunked in the case of Connor Creek):
  • Werewolves only transform during a full moon. (Subverted, since there were multiple nights of killings and the only night without a killing was the night of a full moon.)
  • Werewolves can't be around silver. (Subverted, since Connor Creek is located over a silver mine.)
  • Werewolves can only be killed by a silver bullet or the claw of another werewolf.
  • Werewolves can't remember what they did in werewolf form.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: The entire town of Connor Creek hasn't gotten wind of any pop culture or technological trends since 1989.
• Prophetic Name: Discussed with the Irons family in Chapter 3.
  Artemis: ​Cliff, his wife Rocky, and their daughter Jewel are three key employees at Miner Mole’s Connor Creek branch.
  Paul: ​Real brassy, stone-cold, blue collar folk. The kind of people that make you think, “Huh, what if our names ​literally​ defined us?”
• Pungeon Master:
  • Paul.
    Paul: Get ready for take-off, I’m her co-Paul-et...Paul Schue-Horyn.
  • Also, Miner Mole ads.
    Silas: Because at Miner Mole, what we dig most, is YOU.
    Paul: ​Even for me, that last line was a little much.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Invoked by the twins and Madison when they claim that Truman laced the town water supply with LSD in order to turn the town against each other with werewolf mania, distracting from her true plan. See Gas Leak Conspiracy on the web series page for the other side of this.
• Shared Universe: Potentially with Tin Can Brothers other works, The Solve-It Squad Returns!, Spies Are Forever, and Flopstoppers, based on the cameo of the gay gas station couple, Chimera as Miner Mole's parent company, and Paul's love of Detective Dark comics.
• Shout-Out
  • Paul apparently loves singing "American Pie" on car trips... multiple times.
  • The creature from The Shape of Water and The Babadook are two of the choices in Paul's Boink, Marry, Kill game.
  • Paul comparing the town opinions of Miner Mole with base-breaking finales:
    Paul: It was a touchy subject. Like the final season of Game of Thrones; the final episode of Lost, or the final shot of Inception; Folks either love it or hate it.
  • Jurassic Park
    Paul: But for trust fund bros like Silas... "Life finds a way".
  • Ellis hums the theme to The X-Files as the theme to The Ellis Files.
• Show Within a Show:
  • In Real Life, the show acts as this to the world of the web series. (And what we're hearing is supposed to be Season 2 of an Anthology series.)
  • InUniverse, The Ellis Files in Chapter 6.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Paul is 1 hour and 46 minutes older than Artemis, which he likes to hold over her head.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: At least a few of the townsfolk seem to be able to understand what the mayor is saying. Or think they can.
• The Stinger: In the epilogue, Paul finds the lost company car, only to get attacked by the family of raccoons living inside it.
• This Is Reality: In the intro to the Chapter 9, Artemis essentially says this to any listeners expecting a neat, tied-up ending from their investigation a la a fictional mystery story.
• Twin Telepathy: Discussed in Chapter 3 - while they don't claim to know what the other is thinking, they have a unique understanding of each other that they call "twin-tuition." Artemis also gets a Gut Feeling just seconds before getting the message from Dr. Edwards that Paul was attacked.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Chapter 9 injects a heavy dose of realism into the investigation proceedings after many episodes of kooky characters and wacky hijinks, highlighting the citizens who died and giving little hope for a clean resolution. Paul and Artemis both acknowledge it as a very morbid episode, despite a silver lining at the end.
• Wham Line: For fans of Spies are Forever, Chimera is revealed to still be around, and is the parent company of Miner Mole.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue follows up in Connor Creek 6 months later, reporting on a number of developments in the townspeople's lives.