{"id":568,"date":"2019-11-18T23:44:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T07:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/?p=568"},"modified":"2020-10-10T17:19:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T00:19:34","slug":"s2e3-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/2019\/11\/18\/s2e3-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"S2E3: Escape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are morally founded in freedom as a society. A right to\nfreedom of speech, to freedom of religion and action. A desire to be free of\nany restrictions that hold us (to reasonable limits) is somehow ingrained into\nour animal desires through the evolution we have grown from. Just how Bowe\nBergdahl, the same man who in our previous blog posts, by his own free will\ndecided to walk into Taliban controlled Afghanistan and was, unsurprisingly,\ncaptured, is now in the Serial Podcast season 2 episode 3 Escape<\/em>\nattempts escape. I will be briefly summarizing the story recounted and then\nanalytically discussing the narrative features of this episode using specific\nevidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The episode Escape<\/em> begins with the first successful\nescape attempt of Bergdahl\u2019s capture. Because he never caused much trouble for\nhis captors, they kept him less restrictive conditions then they should have\nwith a rope tied around his feet and chair around his hands in a room by\nhimself. This allowed him to escape and runs for the trees where he would have\nmade it further if an old woman hadn\u2019t seen him and screamed. After this\nattempt, he was tied spread eagle on a bed with his legs and hands bound to the\nfour corners of the bed frame for the next three months. This would miserable\nconditions including diarrhea, raw and sore spots of his body from the heat and\nsweat where it contacted the bed, and open wounds on his ankles. In between the\nrecounts of the two escape attempts Mark Boal (the filmmaker who interviewed\nBergdahl), Bergdahl, and our narrator Sarah Koenig analyze Bergdahl mental\nstate, relay the interrogation and videos Bergdahl had to make, the United\nStates Army and afghani reaction to the videos Bergdahl was forced to make.\nFollowing this is a recap of his second successful escape attempt where he this\ntime managed to stay out in the Afghanistan wilderness for around 9 days\nsleeping in holes covered in foliage and eating grass before he was recaptured.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout this season, recurring narrative features within\nthe podcasts include audio clips from interviews followed by an explanation by\nKoenig, music mimicking the tempo of the story, and phone calls with\nindividuals from the Army, Taliban, and even Bergdahl himself. The phone calls\nand audio clip and explanation pattern helped listeners understand the story\nwhile the music (like in movies) helped prompt the emotions of the listeners.\nOverall, they helped build a compelling story that helped keep listeners\nengaged and wanting to hear more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new narrative strategy that was unique to Episode 3 Escape<\/em>\nof the Serial Podcasts was a much heavier storytelling narrative that had\nshorter segments from Bergdahl and Boal and much more depiction from our\nnarrator. This strategy allows for the story to really take shape without the\npreviously common interruption of either music, phone calls, or other\ninterviews allowing for the listener to stay focused and hooked on such a\nhorrific time of Bergdahl capture and escape from that capture. The podcast\nexplains the escape from enemy capture during the war and how hopeless it is.\nHow will the escapee know where to go, where to hide, what to eat, blend in\nwith locals, and avoid torture and death upon likely recapture? This\nstrengthens the misery depiction of Bergdahl\u2019s incarceration, giving the\nlistener a better idea of why it led him to decide to so desperately attempt to\nescape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first two episodes of season 2 of the Serial Podcast, we are told about Bowe Bergdahl\u2019s capture, the Militaries frantic search for him, and the Taliban\u2019s strategy in keeping him captive. In Season 2 Episode 3 of the Serial Podcast, Escape<\/em>, the story like is brought nearer full circle with the relay of what Bergdahl\u2019s miserable experience being captive was like and his resilience against it through attempted escapes. It is not only made intriguing through commonly seen narrative features from this season such as music that follows the tone of the story but also it was made more sympathetic with the reader through vivid descriptions of the woeful conditions Bergdahl endured and decided to escape from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word Count 689<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are morally founded in freedom as a society. A right to freedom of speech, to freedom of religion and action. A desire to be free of any restrictions that hold us (to reasonable limits)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,1],"tags":[23,22,15],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-podcast-responses","category-uncategorized","tag-engl200c","tag-escape","tag-serial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}