Hello fellow romantics,

I’m baaaack! Dang, this week was busy. I got so much inspiration while on vacations and there’s tons of things I want to do and even more things I need to do.

I’m super excited I can share the latest episode with you today. One of the things I want to implement in the coming weeks? Earlier access for you, patrons. Give me a few more weeks and you should see episodes popping up sooner… There’s much more news I want to share, but let’s do one thing at a time!

Something unique this week: I understand it’s difficult to stay on top of the plot with all the characters and such a slow release schedule. Like, in the story something happened yesterday, but for us, it’s been weeks since we heard that episode, right?

That’s why I’m going to do something I haven’t done before. I’ll give a quick recap—I’ll try to make it as enjoyable as possible. 😀 Unfortunately, in podcasting, there’s no ‘skip recap’ button like the one on Netflix so I’m going to try to release this as a bonus release in the coming days. If you want to get the recap before you listen to part 22 early, you can find it posted below the player here.

Love,

Sigrid

CONNECTION REVEALED RECAP

Alright, let’s go. It is 2063 and the world is completely different than what we know it to be. Climate change had transformed large areas of the planet into desert. There is one global government and army that govern the entire planet. However, there are some rebels scattered about, like the Fireblue Rebels in San Francisco. These rebels have decided to make use of technology in a way that serves human connection rather than hindering it.

In this world, we have Jade Turner, a scientist who loves being in the desert. Jade is different from most people. She doesn’t view the rebels as a threat. Jade loves to daydream about Fireblue rebel life on the other side of the desert. Her friend Ben works in the cyber army and knows more about the rebels, so he shares information with her now and then; this really triggers Jade’s imagination. 

Jade works on a power optimization project for the global government and discovers a huge problem with the power supply of the base she lives on. She doesn’t trust her bureaucratic boss to take this seriously quickly enough, so she decides to take it up to the newly appointed commander of the base – the very …let’s call it grumpy, Michelle Becker, one of our other main characters. 

Michelle was demoted to the rank of commander at this base after an operation she ran went horribly wrong. This is the story told in Connection Concealed, so I don’t want to give too much away in case you still want to listen to it. You should know that Michelle’s ex was involved though, deserting the army to join the Fireblue rebels.

Anyway, Michelle is very resentful and angry, wanting nothing more than payback by attacking the rebels living in the area of San Francisco. These rebels living a completely different lifestyle with much less technology have been keeping to themselves lately; but, in the past, they had attacked global infrastructure and Michelle is still convinced they’re terrorists. She’s very much focused on attacking and destroying them; however, the global government and army leadership aren’t on the same page with her. Michelle believes in the end justifying the means, so it seems only a matter of time before she takes matters into her own hands once again. 

But one morning, after a power outage had kept Michelle busy the previous day, Jade Turner suddenly shows up at her door, saying that the whole base was in big trouble because of the power supply. Michelle doesn’t take the woman very seriously at first. Until… Jade mentions the rumors about Louise’s ex. Jade isn’t supposed to know any of that and Michelle feels threatened by it, because she still had plenty to hide.

For example, officially Louise is dead, and she doesn’t want anyone to know that Louise is actually alive. If they were to find out, they might discover why Michelle had lied about her death. Considering this, Michelle reluctantly joins Jade on a trip into the desert to investigate the power supply issue. In order to feel safer, Michelle takes it upon herself to have cyber soldier Garcia hack the Fireblue network without authorization from the army so she can monitor any communication concerning the border. She knows it’s a dangerous move, but for Michelle, the end justifies the means as this problem is especially personal due to her ex: Louise Thomas.

Louise Thomas, now a resident of the Fireblue rebel territory, has left everything behind for love. She has fallen head over heels for the leader of the rebels, Eleanor Lucas. Despite her move and new life with El, Louise struggles with loneliness. Both are caught up in their own work and moments of connection between them have dwindled. Louise tries to rekindle their love but El always seems too busy to notice her efforts. 

Let’s talk about Eleanor Lucas then. The enigmatic El was elected again as the Fireblue president. She’s very idealistic and gets consumed by her work easily. She might have started to take Louise for granted a bit, although she doesn’t realize that until something wakes her up. That something is Louise’s ex, Michelle Becker, showing up at the border. Becker is an enemy to everything the rebels stand for, but also a personal threat to El. It took Louise a very long time to get over Michelle, and El knows this. 

Now that she realizes she hasn’t been very present for Louise, she fears Michelle even more. What if Louise still has feelings for her after all? Or misses her old life? El decides to confront Michelle Becker in order to get her as far away from Louise as soon as possible. She tells herself and her team that she’s going to confront her because Becker must be setting up another attack on the rebels, but deep down, she knows that she is doing this because it is so personal.

El doesn’t want Louise to know about Michelle showing up at the border, so this is where she makes things really messy. By ordering everyone to keep Louise away from this, she takes away the only thing left for Louise right now to help her feel like she belongs in Fireblue Territory. Louise’s team is the one that discovered Michelle Becker at the border and since they’re not allowed to tell Louise about it, she essentially loses her team. She feels humiliated, more isolated, but still doesn’t understand what’s happening. Worst of all, she knows El is behind it, yet El chooses to keep her in the dark. In spite of all that, Louise still tries to see the best in El. Meanwhile, El is focused solely on hiding that Michelle Becker is now in Fireblue Territory.

We’re almost there now! Let’s quickly recap how Jade Turner and Michelle Becker got themselves stuck in Fireblue territory. They were approaching the border and their destination when they lost their connection. Jade doesn’t really see the problem and wants to keep going, but Michelle fears that the rebels are involved in some way and were already alerted to her presence near the border. She freezes, demanding they stay put, making it increasingly harder for Jade and Michelle to make it back to the base. When they suddenly get approached by the rebels, Michelle is again stuck in her own head and opinions, rather than listening to Jade on how they could get to safety.

Long story short, it turns out the rebels are there to warn them about an upcoming storm since Jade and Michelle appear to be stuck. They’re not moving after all. When they finally do move, they manage to get themselves stuck in an old rebel spy post. Now the rebels have no choice but to come to their rescue. Michelle, of course, doesn’t trust them at all and would rather take her chances with the storm. El has ventured into the desert to convince Michelle to let them help her escape, but she refuses to listen. In the end, El throws something onto the floor and drugs everyone, including herself, so her team can grab them and flee from the path of the approaching storm. That was a bit of dramatic plot twist, I admit; something that could happen in an opera, rather than a lesbian romance book. 

Anyway, the team takes Michelle and Jade to a safehouse in a nearby forest near the border. And that is exactly where we find ourselves now. It seems Michelle and El are stuck in the past. Now that Michelle is in Fireblue territory, El desperately wants her out of there as soon as possible. Michelle’s rage , in the meantime, clouds her judgment and she no longer acts rationally. She is solely focused on finding an opportunity to hurt Eleonor and Louise. She is determined to get revenge on them both.

Jade sees all this happening and tries to understand why Michelle seems increasingly erratic. She is slowly piecing things together, though, and getting to know Michelle better. Despite Michelle having a rather problematic personality, Jade cannot help but feel a fascination with her. Michelle too is beginning to soften toward Jade. Still, her thirst for revenge often overtakes her, but this only gives Jade more opportunity to uncover the secrets Michelle desperately attempts to conceal.

Okay, I think that is pretty much where we’re at. Now let’s go to part 22!