Recap / Slushpile

Slushpile season 1:

S1 E1: Moby-Dick

• Wrenn and Punter welcome a new fiction and poetry reader, Sydney, to Three-Master's masthead. Without consulting the rest of the group, Wrenn obtains a slot on a TV game show called The Editors, where she'll get the chance to have her journal funded and sent to AWP by wealthy celebrity writers.

S1 E2: Brave New World

• On The Editors, Wrenn nearly succeeds in getting a deal to bring Three-Master to AWP, but the hosts of the show take it one insult too far, and Wrenn goes on a tirade that costs her the deal. Despite this, she seems to think that the journal is better off without the aid of the Editors.

S1 E3: All Passion Spent

• Wrenn decides that personal rejection letters would be a positive feature to add to the journal. The others agree until they witness a personal rejection Wrenn herself has received from Nellie Russell, an ex-girlfriend who happens to be the editor of a large magazine called Space Tornado. However, Wrenn sticks to her decision. This episode features an omnibus of cameos from real writers, who read actual rejection letters (both automated and personal) aloud in the style of Celebrities Read Mean Tweets.

S1 E4: Pride and Prejudice

• A writer/blogger named Emerson seeks Wrenn for an interview, which Wrenn reluctantly accepts after climbing five Adirondack High Peaks.

S1 E5: Treasure Island

• Punter is distracted from working on the journal by a story treatment he's writing for a Jacky Faber TV series, which he believes will be a perfect fit for HBO. In order to snap him out of it, Wrenn and Sydney don pirate costumes, but the group ends up having too much fun with this, and all of them end up distracted from work. Meanwhile, a poet named Vince, who has waited six months for a reply about his poem, decides to take matters into his own hands.

S1 E6: In a Grove

• In the style of ''Rashomon,'' the group deals with the fallout of the public revelation that Wrenn, back when she was a teenager, wrote a tasteless bodice-ripper fantasy romance under the pseudonym Felicity Bliss. Gabby, a workshop partner from Wrenn's MFA program, shows up to help with this situation, which involves outwitting Wrenn's arch-nemesis, Heather.

S1 E7: The Princess Bride

• Wrenn has her interview with Emerson, which turns out to be a Battle of Wits involving a cup of water and a cup of vodka (which Emerson has set up in order to trick Wrenn into letting Emerson observe the workings of the journal for a weekend). Wrenn wins, but allows Emerson to visit anyway. Meanwhile, Sydney reads a message from Wrenn's estranged sister, and contacts Nellie about how to handle it.

S1 E8: Neuromancer

• In order to fund Three-Master's poetry prize, Wrenn asks Nellie for five hundred dollars. Nellie agrees as long as Wrenn can stay awake while Nellie speaks at length about her own journal, Space Tornado. Wrenn falls asleep and hallucinates a future scenario where she is an unknown writer who never amounts to anything. Ultimately, Nellie gives her the money.

S1 E9: Wuthering Heights

• In an episode reminiscent of The Wire, Wrenn accidentally awards the poetry prize to a white man pretending to be Chinese. While deciding whether or not to revoke the prize because of the deception, she is confronted by Vince, who demands an answer to whether his poem will be published or not. The two end up leveling with each other about their pasts as writers, and Wrenn makes two decisions: Vince will have to continue to wait for his response, and the deceitful poet will not be awarded the prize.

S1 E10: Lord of the Flies

• Wrenn's sister, Sig, enters the group into a LARP against their will, with the prize being six thousand dollars. Sig promises to forge an alliance, but she ends up working against the group, who become alarmed when Sig takes over Three-Master HQ and trashes the house. Punter's old coworker Clyde enters the LARP as a mercenary. The episode ends on a Cliffhanger.

S1 E11: Gilgamesh

• The LARP continues, with Punter and Sydney being eliminated. Eventually, Wrenn and Sig come face to face, and Wrenn tells Sig that just because they're sisters doesn't mean they have to be friends. Clyde ambushes the duo, but they work together to defeat him, and a outlying player named Moe wins the game. Wrenn and Sig decide to go to dinner together. In The Stinger, it turns out that Emerson had a hand in forcing Wrenn and Sig into the prior showdown.

S1 E12: To the Lighthouse

• In an episode stylistically reminiscent of Life Is Strange, Wrenn releases the new issue of Three-Master, but becomes distracted by nostalgia for her ex, Colleen. She decides to pick a new nonfiction editor for the journal, and decides on Emerson after an emotional conversation.

Season 2:

S2 E01: "Frankenstein"

• Jessica Mc Cloud takes over as Managing Editor of Three-Master while Wrenn works on her novel. Jessica, Wrenn, and Punter discuss the various takeaways of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Jessica mentions having found a way to increase donations to the journal so that Wrenn doesn't have to do another TV embarrassment like The Editors. This strategy turns out to be (unbeknownst to Wrenn) a Bachelor Auction that allows the top donator to win a date with Wrenn. A Star Wars nerd named Clark is seen excitedly entering.

S2 E02: "Lives of Girls and Women"

• Wrenn is publicly gaslighted by famous writer Ed Maddox because she wouldn't let him sit on her bed and touch her while they were having a conversation (add extra Squick for the fact that Wrenn isn't attracted to men in the first place). Seeing that the subsequent depression about this is ruining Wrenn's focus on her novel, Jessica and Punter don HAZMAT suits and form a group called the Wrenn's Rights Activists, who speed up the grief process and channel Wrenn's energy into writing a counter-piece to Maddox's offensive comments. Wrenn's response goes viral, which causes the group to celebrate, but the celebration causes Wrenn to once again be distracted from her novel.

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