S2E1 - Room 692 - Jailbird

"'The Grey Rooms has one purpose. To end you.' - Bob" "'You like chainsaws?' - Warden"

Synopsis (Frame Story)
The episode starts with a short retrospective of Raymond Greene's demise. Various memories are being replayed such as parts of Raymond's life, various doors that Raymond went through, and memories of Raymond's wife along with his kid. Bob taunts Raymond as well telling him he will die over and over again until he chooses the right door. In between all of this is static noises and various sound effects.

After that flashback, we find the next guest Samantha Winters in an elevator going down along with Todd Mathis. Samantha doesn't remember where she is or how she got here. Todd then butts in with some small talk to cut the awkwardness. She asks who he is and he introduces himself as Todd. He states that he works here in the hotel. Todd makes a few jokes and gets himself to laugh but then starts to get down to business. Samantha thinks that this Todd fella is rather odd and that he talks too much. Samantha states that she doesn't remember much and Todd finds that very strange. They finally reach the first floor, and Samantha thanks Todd. Samantha thinks Todd is helping when he clearly stated the opposite. After a few exchanges Todd states that he must go back up and forces Samantha off of the elevator.

After getting off of the elevator, Samantha looks around the hotel lobby. She notes the old architecture, marble floors, and how beautiful the place looks. She then notices the fountain in the middle of the lobby. It might be a statue of a person getting eaten by the whale as she was trying to figure out if the person in the status was Johanna or Moby Dick. She states that she really wants to sketch it sometime. She then realized that because of the advanced ship design it had to of been Moby Dick. Samantha then waked over to the front desk.

Samantha then talks to Bob behind the desk. Bob is clearly looking for something and isn't aware that Samantha is at the front desk. Samantha feels ignored and proceeds to ring the bell on the front desk. Bob apparently doesn't like it when she rings the bell. Bob cuts the chase and lays out everything that Samantha is thinking at this point. Samantha is a bit concerned wondering how does he know this. Bob states that she is in The Grey Rooms, which currently is an old hotel. Bob also states that he is in charge, she can't leave, and that he called Bob. After that, Bob then explains to Samantha on what she needs to do every time she is in the rooms. For those that are already familiar with the premise of the show will find this to be very similar to last season. Samantha now really wants out. While Bob provides the correct answer of how to get out, Samantha chooses to go out the front door.

Samantha walks through the front door of the hotel. She realized that she is all alone and that there are no people and no cars. She then see someone who she describes as the grim reaper. The "grim reaper" introduced themselves as the Warden to Samantha. Samantha is starting to freak out as Warden is trying to find a chainsaw. He also makes a reference of not giving that nail gun away during the Halloween episode. Samantha starts running away, crying and freaking out while the Warden is trying to find a chainsaw to kill her with. Warden ends up catching up to Samantha and gets chopped up by Warden's chainsaw.

Samantha then wakes up in the elevator with Todd. She is very distraught that this happened to her and even started lying to herself. Todd then stated that she wasn't dreaming but how this was her 'glorious' execution. Todd then gives her a tip in telling her to choose a room and then forces her off the elevator.

She then makes her way to the front desk again. Samantha then decides she wants to pick a room, and Bob lays out two options for her. Bob shows a room styled after the Wild West while the other room is about Genghis Khan. Samantha then signs the book for the Wild West, of which Bob calls the room Jailbird and instructs her to head back to the elevator with a key.

Samantha then gets into Todd's elevator. She realizes she's stuck here but Todd offers that she will at least see his shining face every time she wakes up. Then the elevator makes it to the room and the door opens.

Synopsis (Anthology Story)
The story starts where the main character is robbing a bank. The robbers not only intimidate and make the tellers pay out but they also blow up the vault as well. They ended up getting valuables but no money as the vault seemed to be a bit empty from what the listener can tell. The people who were held up in the bank saw Cole's face and Belinda decided to leave no witnesses, killing those inside. Belinda also made Cole kill a kid as they were getting away even as he really didn't want to. They proceed to run away from the scene.

After awhile Cole and Belinda are in a running firefight with the local law. Belinda realizes that sacrifices must be made and shoot's Cole's horse. Belinda proceeds to get away, leaving Cole for dead. The group of local law enforcement then pick up Cole to take to his trial.

Cole then wakes up at the trial with a sack over his head. After Cole asks them to take the bag off his head, the Sheriff's posse do so. There he gathered the details he needed to determined that he was at Dangler's Branch with a noose around his neck. Then the group read the multiple charges against Cole about some of the things he done before robbing the bank. After some back and forth, the Sheriff finds Cole guilty and will hang by the neck until dead at Dangler's Branch. After some time, the Sheriff's posse rode off and left Cole to die.

The next day, Cole was awakened by the sound of a Robin and her chirps. Cole hears a voice but was unable to locate the source. A voice asks if Cole has remorse for his actions. Cole realizes after almost falling to his death that a talking robin is trying to get his attention. Cole thinks that he is having a sun stroke but proceeds to talk to the bird. Cole thinks that he's dead and the robin is here to pass judgement. The robin states that she's not hear to pass judgement but wants to know if he still has remorse for his actions. Then the day instantly fell into night, and Cole had a flashback about the kid getting shot by Belinda. Cole then returned to the present realizing that he let that kid die because of Belinda's actions. Cole realizes that he was an Amsel and by being an Amsel he wouldn't be a fully good person. The Robin tries to rebut this but Cole is very stubborn with this fact. The listener can learn that Cole had a rough childhood and was rather bullied a lot due to his last name and upbringing. Looking further into the character's background, it seemed that his father was also a well known outlaw. As the character implies, this caused Cole's mom to lose his life. Cole was hoping that the robin was done with him after giving his sepal, but instead she sings him a song. Song lyrics can be found within the transcript for the show.

Cole cries as he hears this song, but he was cut off from the howls of wolves in the distance. Cole feels that his time is almost up and tells the robin to go. The Robin's question was still unanswered and remained persistent in her question of if he felt any remorse. Four wolves then showed up where they were watching Cole with hungry anticipation. The wolves then try to knock Cole down from the tree and the branch starts to deteriorate. The Robin then swooped in and started to fight the wolves, and Cole joined in the fight sending one wolf packing. After a few blows dealt by both the robin and Cole, they fought off the wolf pack.

After a few gunshots, Cole then fell to the ground. Belinda arrives to the scene and Cole tells her to cut him loose. Cole is very angry with her on how she got him into this mess. Belinda then gets annoyed at the robin constantly chirping at them and she shoots her. She falls dead and Cole heads over to her body. Cole then asks Belinda for a knife to cut the noose off of him and then after getting the noose off, he stabs her with a knife. The Robin recounts what Cole did to Belinda and how he put her inside the tree. Cole then left Belinda alive so that she would be eaten by wolves and Cole would head to Whispering Oaks.

Cast, Crew, and Production Notes
-- Frame Story -- Written by: Brian Black

Samantha played by: Sarah Thomas

Bob played by: Graham Rowat

Todd played by: Alistair Mackey

The Warden played by: Jason Wilson

-- Jailbird -- Written by: Bo Chappell

Cole Amsel played by: Graham Rowat

Belinda Horton played by: Holly Lindin

The Robin played by: Holly Lindin

Sheriff Gilliam played by: Jason Wilson

The Bank Manager played by: Graham Rowat

Deputy Yoak performed by: Gabe Templin

The Old Lady performed by: Charlotte Norup

-- Season 2 Crew -- Season Narrative written by: Brian Black

Music Composition and Design by: JM Scherf

Audio Engineering and Sound Design by: Jason Wilson

Episode Artwork by: Cassie Pertiet

Social Media/Patreon Support by: Brooks Bigley

Trivia
This is the first story to feature JM's track The Grey Rooms Hotel. This is a song played at various parts within the hotel theme for this season.

The song that the robin sung won an Audio Verse award. It was also the first song a character sung within a door.