Find a Penny, Part 2

“Find a Penny, Part 2” is episode #827 of the Adventures in Odyssey audio series. It was written and directed by Kathy Buchanan, was originally released in the Adventures in Odyssey Club on July 20, 2017, and originally aired on October 14, 2017.

Avery Award Winner!

This episode won three Avery Awards for Best Sound, Best Script, and Best Episode in the 2018 Season!

Summary

The search for Penny continues as Wooton and his friends put the pieces together.

Plot

Whit and Jason surmise that whoever gave Wooton the drug wanted him to forget something, since Wooton didn’t lose his wallet but did find his phone missing. Wooton remembers waking up at the airport in a sitting area next to gate 16. Jason steps out to make a call to check and see if there was any surveillance video of who drugged Wooton. In the meantime, Wooton checks his voicemail. One new message, from Penny’s parents. Her dad says he ran into a Marty Gordon who says he saw Wooton’s story on the news, of how he saved someone’s life at Niagara Falls! Connie looks up the video on the Buffalo News website. The video is an interview with Wooton describing how he saw a kid falling off a balcony… in the gift shop, and ran over to catch him. Wooton broke kid’s fall, and that’s why he and Penny were at the police station: to work out the details. At the end of the interview, the boy’s dad, Joel Moore, runs up and tells Wooton to just give him a call if there’s anything, anything, he can do as a debt of gratitude. The incident at Niagara is also why Wooton and Penny’s flight had to be rebooked, onto two separate flights.

Jason returns with news! The airport security camera shows a man giving Wooton a cupcake, Wooton eating it, and then him passing out gently. The man also took Wooton’s cell phone, but probably nothing else. Just then, Jason gets a text. Agent Martin wants to meet with him at the hospital.

“It’s a bit more complicated than your friend getting drugged,” Agent Martin says. He says he ran facial recognition software on the video, and found a name for the man in it: Seymour Plotner. Although he’s just a crony (as Jason points out), he’s been linked to a group called ‘The Victimizers.’ They use the Clibriapoxide drug commonly in their crimes. A while ago, their group supposedly stole a penny called the Birch Cent, a rare coin worth millions of dollars. The group was arrested, but let go because the coin wasn’t found on them. Agent Martin thinks that the coin was, at one point, planted on Wooton. Seymour Plotner likely took the coin from Wooton at the airport, and drugged him so Wooton wouldn’t remember the incident.

While waiting for Jason to return, Wooton and Connie watch the Pool Boys video again – four times. Fortunately for Connie, Jason and Agent Martin return before the fifth time and bring them up to speed on what’s happening. Agent Martin shows Wooton photos of the Victimizers so he could possibly identify any of them. He sees one he knows: Ernest the bellboy. And another: Francine from the plane! “Her real name is Phoebe MacGregor,” Agent Martin explains. Wooton recalls that “she was so nice” and “even gave Penny a hat.” The pieces fall together – that’s how the coin was passed off: inside the hat! But that means… Penny has the coin! Drugging Wooton was just a means to get him out of the way so they can get Penny!! The revelations are too much for Wooton and he hyperventilates. His friends try to calm him down and get him to figure out where the final destination was. Is there a theme? Paris, London, Nicaragua, Niagara Falls. Then Jason figures it out! If ‘London’ is changed to ‘England,’ then there’s an acronym: P-E-N-N… Y! The final destination starts with a Y! Jason looks up flights leaving Buffalo that morning for a flight with a Y name. There is one: Youngstown. Wooton remembers – its postage stamp museum looks like it’s wearing a red hat! Jason immediately decides to call Martin to tell the authorities in Youngstown. Also, he and Whit are going themselves. Wooton starts to get out of bed, but Whit eases him back, telling him that Wooton needs to stay safe in the hospital and not drag them down while in Youngstown, since he’s been drugged. Wooton says, as a piece of advice, that he thinks he booked the Meir Mount Resort, because of the pool complex.

When Whit and Jason touch down in Youngstown, Jason reports that Agent Vicks has made it to the resort and her team should have infiltrated the hotel by now. Wooton also got another message from Penny – she ran into Ernest! Also, she thinks she’s being followed by men with guns. She says she’s thinking of going under— and then she gets a knock at her door and hangs up to answer. Whit and Jason board a taxi and head straight to the hotel. On the way, Jason calls Martin and gets patched in with Agent Vicks. Vicks is at Penny’s room – it’s been ransacked. No one’s there. Suddenly, Martin sees someone rappelling off the building with a yellow hat in hand. Vicks hangs up to give chase, and Martin does the same. The taxi arrives at the hotel, but the taxi driver will not let them out at the front door. He is Ernest. He takes them to the pool complex to try to draw Penny out. The man on the building was only carrying a decoy hat to draw the agents away; they haven’t found Penny. After standing around for a minute, Whit and Jason spot something in the pool: Penny hiding underwater. She surfaces to say hi, and is spotted by Ernest. After Penny yells at Ernest, and he starts threatening the trio, a helicopter appears in the sky. But it’s not the Victimizers – it’s Wooton! Ernest and his crew are surrounded on all sides. Agent Vicks does the honors and puts Ernest under arrest.

After everything settles down, Connie breaks the news to Penny that she’s been carrying a priceless penny and was being followed by criminals. Penny says she knows; there were too many coincidences for them to be just coincidences. Besides, when she was leaving Paris, the metal detectors went off at the airport and she discovered the coin in the hat. She hands over the penny to Agent Vicks, then thanks Wooton for setting up such an awesome mystery adventure for her. Jason says it wasn’t a mystery; it all really happened. Penny slowly realizes that she really was in danger, and takes a minute to sit down and let it sink in. She asks Wooton where he got the helicopter, and he replies that Mr. Moore from Niagara Falls has a helicopter touring company, and Wooton called him and found one nearby. Wooton called from the hospital after Whit and Jason left. He didn’t even finish eating his applesauce first – that’s how much he loves Penny.

Discussion Questions

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Cast

Role	Voice Actor
Wooton Bassett	Jess Harnell
Penny Bassett	Kimmy Robertson
John Whittaker	Andre Stojka
Connie Kendall	Katie Leigh
Jason Whittaker	Townsend Coleman
Lachlan	David Sheftell
Joel Moore	Unknown
Ila Coleman	Unknown
Agent Martin	Joseph Culp
Ernest	Fabio Tassone
Agent Vicks	Unknown
Unknown	Lauri Fraser

Notes

Wooton mentions Drake the Cosmic Copper’s cousin Gordonopolis, who lives in Youngstown.
This episode takes place away from Odyssey: Episodes That Take Place Away from Odyssey

Quotes

Wooton Bassett: Call who?
Connie Kendall: Don’t ask; he can’t tell you.
Wooton Bassett: Can you tell me?
Jason Whittaker: No.