Alice Isn’t Dead, Part 1, Chapter 2: Alice

Part 1, Chapter 2, Alice, is an episode that will leave the listeners feeling chilled to their bones as we get far more background knowledge of the narrator. The episode starts with what seems like the narrator singing along to the radio but soon after we hear the familiar sound effect from the last episode of an audio device cutting out and we are then transitioned to the main plot. By now listeners can probably understand how the story seems to be divided into three separate timelines that the narrator switches in between throughout the episode. The first timeline we start off with shows a scene where the narrator seems to be speaking directly to Alice as we hear her say, “I mourned you, Alice. I’ve never loved anyone so hard. From my goddamn gut. So screw you for that. I mean, really.” The first person dialogue we hear makes listeners feel uncomfortable as if they are in the middle of a conversation between the narrator and Alice but fortunately for the listeners, before the conversation seems to get more heated the audio device cuts out and the story transitions to the second timeline. In this timeline, the story feels more philosophical as the narrator openly reflects on things like nature and existential things. Afterward, we are brought to the main story timeline where the narrator arrives at a strange town called Charlatan. Here, a unique element of the story is introduced through the narrator’s description of the town: “Nice enough. Breakfast/lunch restaurant called The Fairenfield, gas station (no name on the gas station), white Ford pickup truck at the pump, teenage girl pumping gas into it. Little neighborhood beyond that. Tract homes, well-kept yards. The Trade Winds Tiki Motel. A woman with what looks like probably her son, leaving room 204. She looks like she’s scolding him, but in a loving way. An elderly man in a flannel shirt crossing the crosswalk. He gives me a long eye, but not in an unfriendly way.” At first this just seems like a normal description to provide imagery of the town but as the story progresses we learn how the gas station, the white Ford truck, the teenage girl, the Trade Winds Tiki Motel, the woman, the son, and the elderly man are the key figures of this episode. As the narrator attempts to drive out of town to the next destination she finds herself returning to the same location in Charlatan as she remarks, “A few more hours down the highway, to Boise almost. And I know this sounds crazy, but I’m at a stoplight in the same town I was in earlier. Charlatan.” She then goes on describing all the figures of Charlatan in the same order when she first arrived as she says,  “Fairenfield, Trade Winds Tiki Motel…but something’s different. It’s darker now, obviously, later in the day, edging onto evening, but that’s not it. There’s still a white Ford pickup truck at the pump. It’s covered in mud and dirt. Everything is covered in mud. Black silt on the windows of the restaurant, wet murk in the front yards of the homes, a swamp like a bog. There’s a teenage girl, but she’s turned away from me, her face pressed into the side of the truck. There’s an elderly man on the corner, but he’s not crossing. He’s turned away from me too, his face pressed into the pole of the streetlight. Room 204 of the motel, the woman and her son, faces pressed into the outside of the door.” These figures of the story continuously return as the narrator finds herself returning to the town with what seems like an endless loop but each time with a new unexplainable difference. 

The next time she returns the town is set on fire and the narrator notices that the elderly man is on fire. During this scene, listeners can hear the dramatic music playing in the background pick up the pace as the narrator describes the burning old man: “He is turning, and looking at me, and his face is hollow and burning. What is underneath exposed as his skin melts away. He opens his mouth and there is fire within! His insides burning!” Although the descriptions from this scene are gross by itself, the dramatic music amplifies the tone of anxiety, fear, and confusion of this scene that makes it very exciting to listen to. And speaking of tone, the voice actress of the narrator does an excellent job in pouring her emotions into the character which helps convey the exact feelings that the narrator goes through during this event. During the final loop of the town, the narrator notices how everyone is crying but as she scans for the elderly man in the end she is unable to find him. But suddenly she realizes that he is in the truck with her and during this scene we hear the chilling fear in the narrator’s voice as the tone of her voice goes down and as she says, “Alice? Alice, he is inside the truck. He’s sitting here with me. I’m afraid to move. He is also crying. His face is eroded by the tears, by what looks like years of weeping. He isn’t saying anything. What do you want?” Because of how the voice actor softened the tone of her voice as if she suddenly had to speak silently to the listeners, the descriptions of the weeping old man became ten times more terrifying. Another excellent example of emotions in the voice is shown at the very end where the narrator states, “You may think you’re free, Alice, but you’re not. You are not free of me.” If one were to just read those words it could be interpreted as the desperation of a woman looking for her wife, however, when listening to the podcast the words are spoken in a menacing way which makes listeners rethink the entire plot of the story and makes them question if the narrator is the actual villain of this story. This episode highlights the captivating audio features of podcasts and their ability to create tone and atmosphere directly through audio effects, music, and the way things are spoken. Unlike written works, the projection of these elements is not limited to just words on paper as they can be performed to the audience.

While listening to this episode listeners may notice the trend with the structure of the storytelling. With the constant timeline switches between the main storyline, the self-reflecting philosophical timeline, and the conversation-with-Alice timeline, the overall story is told by bits and pieces that are given to the listeners during each episode for them to put together. This structure that remains unchanged throughout the whole season makes each episode’s purpose to not be about telling the next part of the story, but instead to give chunks of new information related to the mystery for the listeners to connect and figure out. This makes Alice Isn’t Dead a truly captivating and engaging story. Word Count: 1175