Episodes 3.10, 3.11, & 3.12: "B Is For Bad" - Don't Forget the Chickpeas Podcast

Today we take on the mighty task of discussing three episodes: 3.10, “What Lies Beneath”, 3.11, “Single Fright Female”, and 3.12, “The Lady Killer”. The vibes between Aria and Ezra are not successfully tense, just sad and weird and boring (per usual). We don’t have interesting things to say about Nate, we just reiterate the anti-Blackness of the plotline. Ali’s bullying is SOOO gay, but we are pro-Paige in these episodes for her suffering, maturity, and baby butch moments. Deepa recounts our previous feelings of betrayal around Toby joining the A team, and we share more thoughts about reality television. Cameron has a thing for uniforms and Deepa is surprisingly the one who brings up Buffy. We keep a secret from you, our dear listeners.

Theme song by Ashok R. Chandran and website by Rainbow Forge.

Chickpeas Oh My Gosh!

Cameron’s “need to go to the grocery store” recipe: roast some chickpeas, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese, then top it with more cheese and a squeeze of lemon after you remove from the oven, and eat!

A bowl with a dish in it that has chickpeas, red cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and feta cheese.

Deepa’s Literary Analysis

Emily reads an adventure novel called The Pirate’s Daughter and the King’s Ransom by K.L. Perry, which apparently was made more famous by being shown on PLL
Aria reads Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, which probably doesn’t have much thematic connection to PLL but is one of Deepa’s dad’s favorite books
There are a lot of things called some version of “the lady killer” but the reference Deepa found most interesting was The Lady-killer by Henry de Vere Stacpool; Deepa could not actually find much about that book, but several earlier books by the same author feature doppelgängers/twinning and uxoricide (apparently what it’s called when a woman is murdered by her husband)

Things We Referenced Related to PLL

The recent article Deepa mentions several times where the main actors and Marlene King discuss PLL for the fifteenth anniversary of the start of the show
Maggie is played by Larisa Oleynik from 90s classics like The Secret Life of Alex Mack, The Baby-Sitters Club, and 10 Things I Hate About You
“Single Fright Female” could be a reference to the 1992 horror movie Single White Female, which in turn was remade in 2011 as The Roommate, starring Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly
The song playing when Mona sneaks out of Radley is “Freaks” by the band the Hawk in Paris

Things We Referenced Completely Unrelated to PLL

“I was canoodling when you were four” is from the Daine and Numair relationship in Tamora Pierce’s The Realms of the Gods
If you too are outraged by nurses who are assaulted on the job needing to use sick time to leave that shift, you should support the nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital who are bargaining to fix that in their new contract! You can follow their Instagram @sch_wsna and even attend their informational picket on September 30
More reality show discourse: Cameron informs us about Virgin Island, why The Ultimatum: Queer Love is not actually very good TV, and Deepa failing (twice!) to solve the logic puzzle of Are You The One? season 8
Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Buffy getting punished for having sex for the first time by Angel then losing his soul

For best, Cameron liked Mona’s nurse outfit because she loves uniforms apparently, while Deepa was into Hanna and Aria’s floral dresses

Mona walking out the front door of Radley in a white nurse dress and cap

Hanna sitting down and looking concerned in black leggings and a black tank top with colorful flowers on it.

A zoomed out picture of Aria’s black dress with large red flowers and smaller blue flowers. In this picture the brown belt she has paired with the dress is also visible

For worst, we did NOT agree despite Deepa assuming we would, but we did both choose animal outfits: Deepa hated Hanna’s raccoon shirt, while Cameron loathed Spencer’s donkey dress with a giant pink bow