The Rydell Revelations, Part 3

“The Rydell Revelations, Part 3” is episode #900 of the Adventures in Odyssey audio series. It was written and directed by Phil Lollar, was originally released in the Adventures in Odyssey Club on July 28, 2020, and originally aired on October 17, 2020.

Summary

Secrets about the past and present are finally revealed as Whit and Emily get to the bottom of all the puzzling happenings in the town Odyssey, with help from an unexpected source.

Plot

Suzu Rydell and Emily Jones are racing through the woods of Odyssey to a shack on Forest Mountain to escape the Rydell house. Emily had been "kidnapped" by Suzu, but was now following willingly. Suzu explains to Emily, when asked the meaning of the flight, that Mrs. Meido is a spy, and she always has been. The "kidnapping" was to make sure Mrs. Meido, who was in the garage, or Morrie, who was just approaching the house, would not see the girls and give away their escape. Under Emily's protests that she needs to stop and process the information, the two continue their sprint to the mountain.

Once Suzu and Emily reach the shack, Suzu explains her discovery of Mrs. Meido as a spy. Before her altercation with Emily earlier that day, Suzu received a text from Natalie, a secretary at her father's embassy in Japan (revealed to be Tasha Forbes in part 2). Natalie told her that Mrs. Meido was a spy who was after a Canadian maple leaf figurine Suzu has. This figurine was part of a collection of knick-knacks Suzu collected while at the embassy with Morrie, gifts between the delegations. Morrie would log on to Natalie's computer and find the arrival times of VIP delegations, and then he would create diversions so Suzu could get the gifts. "You mean steal?" Emily presses, and Suzu assents. In any case, the knick-knacks are stored in the floor of the shack, under a trapdoor that Suzu built. While the two girls are talking, Mrs. Meido approaches the shack, having read about its existence in Suzu's journal before Whit and Morrie left for Wonderworld; she had lied to them about the journal's contents. Suddenly, she interrupts Emily and Suzu, no longer the sweet uba she was previously, but now a determined spy. Claiming to be accomplishing her goal as an uba, by keeping Suzu out of danger, and fulfilling her mission as a spy, by taking the figurine, Meido demands Suzu surrender the figurine. When refused, she lunges at Suzu, but Emily distracts her by pushing a pile of crates on top of her. Suzu escapes, and Emily, captured by Meido, cries to Suzu to find Mr. Whittaker.

Meanwhile, at Whit's office at Whit's End, Tasha Forbes are breaking the news to Morrie and Whit that Mrs. Meido is a spy. Morrie had no idea. Tasha explains that Mrs. Meido had been long suspected of espionage since she began working for the Rydells at the embassy. Tasha was stationed undercover as "Natalie," and befriended the Rydell kids, to get closer to Mrs. Meido to catch her in the act. Then, during a summit between Canada and China, Tasha set up an operation to bait Mrs. Meido into stealing DNA-imprinted biotechnology encoded on a microfiche inside the maple leaf figurine. However, after Morrie staged a distraction (by giving the Canadian delegation permission to wear Remembrance Day poppies to the horror and disgust of the Chinese delegation), Suzu stole the figurine instead. When the aftermath resulted in Morrie and Suzu's placement in Odyssey, Mrs. Meido followed, seeing an opportunity to conduct espionage on American soil. Recently, Mrs. Meido's employers found out that Suzu had taken the maple leaf and alerted their spy, but Tasha intercepted the message and warned Suzu about it.

Just then, Suzu bursts into the office screaming about Emily and Mrs. Meido. She turns over the intact figurine to Tasha and tells Whit that Emily has been kidnapped… for real, this time. Suddenly, Emily's phone, in Morrie's possession, starts ringing, and Morrie answers only to hear the grim voice of his uba on the other end. Meido identifies everyone in the room by name and proposes a swap: Emily for the maple leaf. Whit asks to speak with Emily, who explains that she's okay but has no idea where she is. She wants Whit to make the swap, because "I wouldn't want this to end up like the escape room, or like what happened with the box when I thought Matthew was kidnapped and—" "That is enough," Meido interrupts. Her request is for Suzu alone to meet her at the old water works with the figurine at 5:00. After Meido hangs up, Morrie gets an idea — a way to save Emily unharmed, catch Meido, and protect the microfiche. "But we don't have a lot of time, so [...] we'll have to trust each other."

At the water works at 5:00, Suzu walks through a hallway calling for Mrs. Meido and Emily. Meido answers and directs Suzu to the last door on her left, in which Suzu finds Emily handcuffed to a chair and guarded carefully by Meido. Suzu is hesitant toward Meido's formalities, and when Meido remarks that she looks different somehow, Suzu replies that "It's what happens when someone you trust betrays you." Eventually, Suzu surrenders the figurine, which Meido immediately smashes on the floor. She picks through the pieces to find the microfiche, and after analyzing it with a portable scanner, confirms its authenticity. Meido then attempts to leave, saying that the handcuff keys are hanging from the ceiling, when all of a sudden the door closes and locks. The Mysterious Voice echoes throughout the room, instantly identified as Morrie by Meido. Retreating to Emily's chair, Meido asks the meaning of the disruption. Morrie claims he's causing a buildup of water to be sent to the room, which will flood if Meido does not surrender. Meido scoffs at the claim, but when Emily flippantly implies that Morrie doesn't care about her life (having previously locked her in a death trap), Meido runs to Suzu and seizes her, demanding that Morrie end the threats. On cue, the pipes burst, and water fills the room. Meido and Suzu are swept away from Emily's chair in the torrent, and just before the height reaches a drowning level, the water mysteriously subsides. The door bursts open and Whit enters. Meido is furious and begins to drag Suzu toward the door, but as she does… another Suzu walks in! In horror, Meido turns to the person she's holding hostage only to see "A face from the past" as Tasha's voice and appearance morph from Suzu's. She decks Meido and recovers the intact microfiche. Morrie exuberantly rushes in, Whit unlocks Emily from the chair, Tasha takes care of Meido, and the group begins their return to Whit's End.

Later that evening, Morrie explains how he used Emily's clue about the escape room and the Imagination Box to create a virtual escape room that filled with water for Mrs. Meido to experience. With Tasha's work finished, she says her goodbyes to the Rydell kids and Whit (telling the latter, "Don't tell Jason I was here."). With Tasha gone, Whit hands Emily back her phone. "Now you can make your final entry on The Case of the Rydell Revelations," Morrie tells her. Slowly, Emily comes to the realization that it wasn't just Morrie who was responsible for the goings-on in the saga; it was Suzu as well. Not only that, Whit knew from the beginning of “A Sacrificial Escape” that Morrie was the one responsible. And yet he didn't tell Emily at any point because she said after the events of “Further from the Truth” that she wanted to solve the case on her own. "And you have! Congratulations!" he ironically applauds. "Maybe I should have stepped in sooner," Whit posits, but he explains that he didn't because the three of them are special, gifted kids. Whit allowed them to go through the events of the last few months because he believed it would help them use their abilities, to use them… for good. As a kid, Whit himself was allowed to experience dangerous adventures that grew his character, and his goal throughout these events was to give Emily the same experience. "I hope that's a satisfactory answer, Emily. It's the best one I can give you." Emily, however, is not convinced. "If you say so, Mr. Whittaker," she replies, with a "Thanks for that, at least" about Whit having called her dad to fill him in on everything. Morrie's and Suzu's final words to Emily are "Are we good?" and "Can we… be friends?" Emily, shocked and torn, replies, "I don't know," and leaves. Whit then turns to the siblings and informs them that with Meido out of the picture, they'll need a new guardian and might have to be sent back to Japan. Morrie tells Whit that, like his father wanted, he's starting to be affected by the good influences in Odyssey, as is Suzu. He also doesn't think they technically broke any laws, and Whit says that while that's debatable, there are still things they'll need to face consequences for. But, in the meantime, Whit offers for the Rydell kids to live with him until another guardian can be found. Morrie and Suzu agree.

Discussion Questions

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Cast

Heard in episode

Relative Importance / Chronological

Role	Actor
Emily Jones	Cristina Pucelli
Suzu Rydell	April Hong
Mrs. Meido	Ren Hanami
Tasha Forbes	Mandy Fabian
John Whittaker	Andre Stojka
Morrie Rydell	Atticus Shaffer

Relative Importance / Chronological

Role	Actor
Emily Jones	Cristina Pucelli
Morrie Rydell	Atticus Shaffer
John Whittaker	Andre Stojka
Suzu Rydell	April Hong
Mrs. Meido	Ren Hanami
Tasha Forbes	Mandy Fabian

Mentioned in episode

Character	Mentioned By
Raymond Rydell	Suzu Rydell
Matthew Parker	Emily Jones
Jason Whittaker	Tasha Forbes
Simon Jones	John Whittaker

Notes

This is the 900th Adventures in Odyssey episode.
In the Adventures in Odyssey fanbase, this episode is considered to be controversial due to Whit's monologue at the end. In interviews with The AIOWiki Podcast and AIO Audio News, Phil Lollar has gone so far to say that Morrie was justified in his actions throughout the Rydell Saga, including trapping Emily and Matthew in the escape room.
- While Lollar has avoided giving a straight answer on the ethicality of Morrie's actions, he claims that Morrie is not the villain and Emily is not the hero of this three-parter.
- The themes presented here are intertwined very tightly with #892: “Millstones”, released on July 1, 2020 (the same month as all three parts of "The Rydell Revelations"), and another similarly controversial episode.
- In the fourth episode of the What's Odyssey Podcast, the fan controversy was re-ignited when Michael called for the Rydell Saga to be recalled due to the message of this and succeeding episodes.
The Imagination Box's "End Program" effects were suppressed for this adventure (AIOWiki Podcast 29).

Gallery

Artwork
The cast

Quotes

Tasha Forbes: Whit, always a pleasure.
John Whittaker: Take care of yourself, Tasha.
Tasha Forbes: Do me a favor?
John Whittaker: Name it.
Tasha Forbes: Don't tell Jason I was here.

Morrie Rydell: Are we good?
Emily Jones: I don't know.
Suzu Rydell: Can we...be friends?
Emily Jones: I don't know.

Resources