THIRST S1E1: Icebreaker

The Penumbra Podcast

In the series premiere of Thirst, contestants Dennis Cruz and Anouk Kalhara arrive at San Narcisse University to participate in a high-stake

Key takeaways

• Dennis Cruz and Anouk Kalhara are competing for a potential $100 million prize managed by Studio Laplace.
• The production utilizes advanced AI technology to create digital composites of contestants in different environments.
• Anouk encounters a dead deer with its face completely removed, noting the lack of scavengers on the rest of the body.
• Contestants find an unexpected pot roast in the university kitchen despite the campus appearing neglected for years.
• Dennis Lang, a video game developer specializing in enemy AI, joins the group of contestants.

Main topics

• Reality TV competition
• AI-generated media
• Survival in abandoned settings

Notable quotes

Can't tear my eyes from you.

Conclusion

The episode establishes a high-tension atmosphere where the line betwe

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) Hello, this is Harley Takagi Kaner, one of the creators of the Penumbra podcast. If you're just checking out the feed for the first time, welcome. If you've been a listener of the Juno Steel or Second Citadel series, welcome back. We are so excited to share our new story, Thirst, with all of you. If you are familiar with our previous work, I do want to let you know that Thirst is much more explicit and a lot darker than our other series, so I would not recommend it for children. If you have concerns about potential triggers, those will always be listed at the end of the transcript and in the show notes. And here in the series premiere, we have also included a more comprehensive list so that you can decide whether or not the show as a whole is right for you. I do hope you decide to stick around, though. And now, Thirst. Can't tear my eyes from you. Chapter 1. Icebreaker. Speaker 8 (1:19) Claudia! Marcus! It's been a long road to get here. You've both made great sacrifices, personally and professionally. But if you want a shot at our $10,000 prize, plus that half acre of landlocked property, well, I hope you've both got something big up your sleeves. Speaker 8 (1:43) You know the game by now. Your loved ones are in the audience. Your family. Best friends. Hell, Marcus, even your boss at the cannery took the day off to come and hear what you've been hiding from him. Hi, Dave. This better be good, Williams. Speaker 8 (2:03) Our producers scoured America and interviewed thousands of applicants to find the deepest, darkest secrets we could. Our private team of investigators is on standby to confirm anything our contestants claim. So, Claudia, Marcus, if you want that $10,000, you're going to have to... Confess your crimes! That's right! And we've learned a lot, haven't we? Marcus, we learned you've been jealous of your little brother ever since he went missing 20 years ago. So jealous, you faked your report cards and diploma and hell, even your job just to get mommy proud of you again. And Claudia, hoo-wee, where do we even start? Cheated your way through high school, plagiarized your valedictorian speech, beat a girl in your sorority within an inch of her life and blamed it on her boyfriend. I just hope you haven't let your best secrets loose too early. Speaker 1 (3:00) Me too, Alex. Me too. Speaker 8 (3:03) But now, it's our final round, so each of you gets to pull just one last skeleton out of your closet. Most terrible secret verified by our investigators wins. Audience decides who tells first. So, audience, are we ready? Then get voting! Speaker 3 (3:30) Wow, that's really extreme, isn't it? Is Speaker 2 (3:34) this too much? They're not all like this, I promise. I just picked this one because it's the last thing our producers worked on, so I thought we could, you know, study the lay of Speaker 3 (3:42) the Speaker 2 (3:42) land a little. Speaker 3 (3:43) Our producers? Huh. I'm not sure it quite hit me until you said that. Speaker 2 (3:49) If this is too much, we can stop watching. I promised you and- I Speaker 3 (3:52) know, I know. Okay, okay. I'm ready. Speaker 2 (3:58) You're sure? Speaker 3 (4:00) You're right. We should study if we're going to. That's my fault for not watching your kind of show earlier. You can start it up again. Speaker 2 (4:10) Okay. Let's try to enjoy it, huh? These secrets are going to be juicy. Speaker 3 (4:15) Juicy. That's good. The votes are Speaker 8 (4:20) in. And Claudia looks like you're up first. So, ready to confess your crimes? Speaker 1 (4:27) Okay. Speaker 8 (4:32) As in your supportive husband, Bill? He's in the crowd today. Why don't you stand up, Bill? Let everybody get a good look at you. Speaker 1 (4:45) You know I love you. More than anything, I love you. And I regret it so much, but... Speaker 6 (4:50) Just sit. Speaker 1 (4:55) When you were in the hospital, when you had that heart attack and the doctor said they didn't think you were going to make it, I told you I had no reception and I missed your mother's calls. That traffic was so bad I couldn't make it there. Speaker 6 (5:08) Claudia, no. Not Speaker 1 (5:11) true. Speaker 8 (5:18) Chris Lyman, Claudia's ex. You told me you weren't talking to him anymore. I Speaker 1 (5:25) saw your calls, but we'd had a few drinks and he booked a hotel room and we... We were... We were... Your Speaker 8 (5:46) child, Claudia. That's a hell of a showing. How do you feel? Mr. Lyman now and we'll get him to corroborate your story shortly. Speaker 2 (6:04) That's gonna be hard to beat. Speaker 8 (6:07) But first... Speaker 8 (6:10) I think you know what time it is. I-I do, yeah. Anybody you want to point your confession to? My, uh, mom. Mama's boy just strikes again. Lydia, are you out there? Help her out, folks. Her knees aren't what they used to be. Speaker 7 (6:30) Marky, please. You don't have to do this. Speaker 8 (6:33) We lost the house, Mom. What am I supposed to do? Speaker 7 (6:37) We can just leave. Everything you've said so far, I forgive you. Really, we could walk out of here and pretend this never happened. So Speaker 8 (6:45) sorry, Mrs. Williams, but we've got a contract with your boy's name on it that says otherwise. Clock's ticking, Marcus. What do you want to tell dear old Ma? And all the millions of Americans watching at home. Speaker 8 (6:59) Um, I I know where Martin is you see go on Marcus Don't leave us hanging dead or alive. He's dead He has been for 20 years. I was there when he died. It's the magic of live television the frozen like my grandpa's house and He had been telling us all these stories about how he used to go ice skating there. He told us not to but It was such a cold winter. We've never seen a pro Speaker 2 (7:57) Must be lousy reception. Come on. Come on. Speaker 8 (8:15) We'll be back with the bloated corpse of Martin Williams after these messages from Family Oats. Family Oats, a wholesome meal for the wholesome American family. Speaker 2 (8:26) Damn, no service out here in the sticks, I guess. We'll just have to look up who won later. Speaker 2 (8:32) So, did you, like, confess your crimes? Speaker 3 (8:35) I just don't know if I'm going to be able to do anything like that, Dennis. What, beat Speaker 2 (8:40) me up and drown me in a frozen lake? That's disappointing. I wouldn't have married you if I knew that's where you drew the line. Speaker 2 (8:47) Are you doing okay? Speaker 3 (8:48) Me? Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine? Speaker 2 (8:53) I'm really grateful that you agreed to do this, you know? I know it's not nothing to you, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't so excited you're here. I really miss you when I'm away filming a show. Speaker 3 (9:04) I miss you too, Dee. Speaker 3 (9:07) And I'm glad we're together. I'm scared, but I trust you. After all, I hear my teammate in this game is a real big deal. Oh, Speaker 2 (9:18) am I a real big deal? The Speaker 3 (9:19) size of the deal? Big. Speaker 2 (9:21) The realness? Oh, you better believe it's real. Speaker 3 (9:27) What Speaker 2 (9:27) can I say? Dennis Cruz does not lose. I'm like one of those heroes in that book you gave me. The one with the naked lady riding the fisherman's platter on the cover. Speaker 3 (9:38) No, no, I'm not going to take the bait. You know who that is. Speaker 2 (9:43) There you got me. Who could ever forget the great myths about the woman born from the waves, Soggy Catherine? Speaker 3 (9:50) You'd better be careful, Dee. Aphrodite. The goddess of love and beauty has done terrible things to men for saying much less than that. Speaker 2 (9:59) Goddess of beauty, huh? That's weird. She doesn't look anything like you. Speaker 3 (10:04) Disgusting. I Speaker 2 (10:05) do my best. But yeah, I'm like a mythological hero when you think about it. One of the good ones. Perseus never lost a fight, did he? Speaker 3 (10:13) More of an Ajax. Speaker 2 (10:17) Ajax. Ajax. Speaker 3 (10:20) Think Trojan? No hints. Speaker 2 (10:23) Ajax the Great, second best in the Greek army during the Trojan War. So you do listen when I talk about work. But there's one big difference between me and him. I'm second best on purpose. Because the thing is... The thing Speaker 3 (10:35) is, getting second place in a competition show is actually the smart move. It is, Speaker 2 (10:39) though. Speaker 3 (10:40) Because everybody loves an underdog. Speaker 2 (10:42) Don't forget about the prize money. And Speaker 3 (10:43) then you get the run-run prize without the press banging down your door all the time. Pretty smart, right? Speaker 2 (10:48) Wow, that is such a wise and intelligent and handsome thing you just said. Did you come up with that, or... I Speaker 3 (10:53) learned from the second best. Speaker 2 (10:55) Not for long, I'm not. Because you and me are cashing out, babe, and taking this competition show is how we do it. You don't need to be nervous. It's the end of the world, Anouk. Speaker 1 (11:07) What? Speaker 2 (11:08) I said, it's not the end of the world if we don't win this. I can always go on another show. So we'll get in there, I'll try to figure out our win, and if not, who cares? We got a free trip out into the country. Did you Speaker 3 (11:18) really just call Weston Moss the country city boy? It's Speaker 2 (11:22) got trees, doesn't it? That's country enough for me. And anyway, country girl, it's beautiful out here. Air's great, no flood risk. Think of this as a paid vacation. Just... One where we could win $100 million in a house somewhere far away from the sea. Speaker 3 (11:38) That would be nice. You sure it's $100 million? Speaker 2 (11:42) You prefer your contracts written or verbal? Because I got both flavors. The executive producer, Ms. LaPlace, she called me personally to give me the offer. Speaker 3 (11:50) She did? You didn't tell me that. I Speaker 2 (11:53) didn't want you to feel pressured to say yes. If you didn't want to, I would have just... Anyway, Miss Laplace called me the day before we filmed our audition tape and asked me, Mr. Cruz, you're married, right? And I tell her I am, but for the right price, that can be Delta. And she says, how's a chance at a hundred million dollars sound to you? And I tell her it sounds great, of course, but you should have heard her, babe. People love rooting for you and it's time you were paid your due. She even said she liked my videos, Anouk. She mentioned Recap Roundup by name. See? The pros want us here, babe. They're not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. I promise. Speaker 3 (12:27) And this Miss Laplace also produced that Confess Your Crimes show? Speaker 2 (12:31) I really freaked you out watching that, didn't I? I knew I should have picked 24-hour dodgeball for us to study. Speaker 3 (12:36) No, no. It was great, obviously. I just... All that for a $10,000 prize? That's nothing. That's barely three days in the hospital. And that man threw away his life confessing to murder for Speaker 2 (12:50) it? It'll probably talk him down to manslaughter. And the tears and the shouting and all that, that's just theater. Unwritten rule of these shows is if the audience gets bored watching you, the producers find a reason to give you the ax. So the winners, they just play a good character, right? But that doesn't mean that's who they really are. They're Speaker 3 (13:05) nice, Speaker 2 (13:05) usually. I Speaker 3 (13:07) just feel like I should have done more to prepare. Watch more of these shows or study them like you do. I'm going to be so angry with myself if I let you down. Speaker 2 (13:15) It's not your fault competition shows stress you out. They aren't for everybody. Just... almost everybody. Speaker 2 (13:23) Listen, I'll say this as many times as you need. I'm glad you're here. I mean, when we win this thing, this is going to be my last competition show ever. The Dennis Cruz swan song. I'll still upload all my videos and stuff, but this is emotional for me. I'm glad you're here to help, and you couldn't possibly let me down. Honest. Speaker 3 (13:43) Thanks, D. It's just... Speaker 2 (13:46) Yeah? Speaker 3 (13:48) I'm sorry. Doing these shows has just been so much of your life for so long. Even more than your videos. And it's just... Hard for me to believe it's almost over. But you promised you're done after this. Really. Speaker 2 (14:04) I promise. You always keep Speaker 3 (14:06) your promises. I know. I mean it. Speaker 2 (14:09) Get pumped, babe, because this is the finish line. One more win and we'll have enough for life. We already Speaker 3 (14:14) have enough, Dee. I just have to go full time and... No. Speaker 2 (14:18) Nope. No. Uh-uh. When we first met, I