EP:
Got a Holiday appropriate ep from one of my favourite podcasts. This was technically a Groundhog Day Special, but it's also darkly appropriate for Valentine's
What is the work?
The incredibly long running and influential anthology horror podcast Pseudopod, more specifically, episode 904: Jinx
Who is the candidate
The candidate is the narrator, Andie's seemingly perfect new boyfriend, Jake.
What does he do?
Jake initially appears to be a perfect date, who's perfectly compatible with Andie. However, in the leadup to the dates, Andie keeps having bizarre dreams. Dreams where she's out at dinner with Jake and things escalate out of control, like Jake freaking out violently at things like losing at mini-golf, or Andie disliking Enchanted. The dreams are accompanied by violent, painful headaches, but since the dreams seem to be the exact opposite of what happens, Andie tries to ignore them. Andie's grandmother was killed by her husband, and her mother was a victim of long-term domestic abuse, so Andie is reluctant to give up on a relationship where the problems are so much "in her head" and the real problems (Jake's weird thing about finishing other's sentences as a "cute" joke, his complete unwillingness to learn what she likes sexually).
They move in together, and Andie ends up with a whole list of minor annoyances around Jake, ranging from walking in on him watching a terrible misogynistic comedy special, to him knowing a ton of personal information she never shared, ranging from Embarassing Phobias to her grandmother's murder. Andie is concerned she might've started dating a stalker, but Jake seems uncannily knowing about everything else, and also the dreams are getting more intense, and Jake's behaviour in them is getting worse, including one where he strangles her.
When Jake proposes, that's the breaking point. Andie confronts him, and Jake rants about how he's done everything for her. he obviously sees treating her well as a burden, and she's mak b/ing a big deal over nothing. Jake is convinced he and Andie are meant to be together and he's been looping back to make everything perfect for her, and as far as he's concerned, she's daring to act like it's not enough. Ever since their first date repeated over and over until Jake got it "right", Jake thinks the universe wants them to be together,and when Andie runs, he stabs her repeatedly. Explicitly responding with "disappointment. Mild chagrin" rather than regret, Jake explains that he can erase all this, and when Andie says she'll remember This time, Jake repeats it along with her, indicating this has happened multiple times before.
There's a timeskip to six months after that repeat. Andie's best friend has died (obviously murdered by Jake to keep her from supporting Andie) and Jake's "confessed" to being possessive sometimes and needing therapy but he promises he's working on it. Andie's headaches from the repeats have escalated to a previously unknown brain disorder, and Jake's using it to gaslight Andie to convince her that's where all the discomfort comes from, even as his looping is making them worse and possibly making it terminal. The story ends with Andie stumbling over an engagement ring, and being ready to accept and take control over her life.
Redeeming Qualities
None that are genuine. As revealed over the course of the story, Jake is violently entitled to Andie, and any changes he's been making for her are just to ensure she doesn't leave their "perfect relationship". Jake is perfectly willing to harm her, up to and including death, because he can just reverse it. At the end of the story, it's pretty obvious his powers are killing Andie and he's still using them, because he'd rather she be dead than alive and away from him. He cries while stabbing her to death, but I think that goes right back to the fact he's breaking down over loss of control, especially given this isn't even the first time he's killed her.
Heinous Standard
Pseudopod is almost entirely disconnected as an anthology. The stories are not only set in different universes, but also have different writers, some are republications. I'd submit the shared work heinousness standard is pretty much just baseline. Jake only has a few victims (Andie, Audrey, Andie's landlord who he killed to make it easier for her to move in with him) but he's been gaslighting and controlling Andie mundanely and through timeloops for months (years, from his perspective) and has killed her multiple times, and he doesn't care if he ends up killing her with degenerative timeloop brain. I think he makes it based on the intense cruelty.
[tup] HAPPY VALENTINES
