Interview for a Wizard liveblog - Episode 5 - “Chapter 4″
A move-the-plot-ahead chapter.
General plot summary + misc. notes
We are still at the coffee house and Jesse is still bound to his chair, which is bound to the ground. Jesse demands to be let go, saying that he has to go back to Alivan’s to check the orders for the wizard. Ch-U-Ch frees Jesse from the magical binding spell, then asks Jesse where he knows Nicholas Fidgewidge from. Jesse tells the agent that Nicholas has been one of Alivan’s best customers for a long time, sending them items and buying things from them up until the last couple of weeks. Ch-U-Ch gets up and pays for the food. He then asks Jesse who else regularly shops from Alivan’s. Jesse is overwhelmed with the thought that his life is actually in danger at the moment, but Ch-U-Ch calms his nerves. Then Jesse replies, “Yolanda something and Mily something,” but to make sure he has to go back into the store. Jesse makes his way back to Alivan’s, but then notices Ch-U-Ch has not moved from the coffee shop. Rolling his eyes, he returns and invites him into the store (something he’s required to do due to the Emunio Concutio magic alarm on the store)
Back at the store the orders start coming in. Suddenly one appears from Yolanda Roundbottom, one of Jesse’s regular customers. Jesse writes down the address for Ch-U-Ch, which is a PO box in Boston, Massachusetts, near Cambridge, MA and Harvard University. Ch-U-Ch knows the location well already and says that he needs to go immediately, but Jesse asks him what he should do - go home or go out of town, due to the danger he might be in. Ch-U-Ch tells him it’s best to just go about his daily routines as usual so as not to alarm Mr. Claw. Suddenly Ch-U-Ch gets a phone call from his wife. He answers it, taking off his pointy hat and completely changing his tone. He lies to her about being a pharmaceutical sales representative, about some meetings having gone well, and acts rushed with her, finally hanging up. He gives Jesse a guilty look and tells him he haven’t told his wife he is an undercover cop since she’s not very fond of “all this magic stuff.” Before Ch-U-Ch leaves the store, he gives his cell phone number to Jesse and reassures him that he will be fine. He then leaves the store, tapping the porch outside with his staff and vanishing.
Mid-morning in Boston. It’s freezing and the wizard Ch-U-Ch is not well protected from the nip in the air. He pulls his hat down over his face and buttons the top button of his coat to keep warmer. He’s standing on the sidewalk directly across from Yolanda Roundbottom’s house, observing it carefully. It’s a typical tight and cute Bostonian house, two-storey with large windows and steps that leads up to a small porch. On the front door is a sign that reads “Witches are welcome”. There’s a floor mat that reads “No one can see the wizard”, which makes the wizard practically cringe. A lightning round in the shape of a witch on a broom is on the top of the roof, squeaking as the wind makes it turn to the west. Five large pumpkins decorate the steps and the porch. Cambridge is busy, with students making their way to coffee shops, riding bikes or jogging. Ch-U-Ch rings the doorbell and a singing voice calls from inside announcing that she’ll be right there. She keeps Ch-U-Ch waiting for long minutes, though, constantly excusing herself for her lateness as she can be heard making last arrangements inside. Finally the door opens and Yolanda Roundbottom sees the wizard. At first she acts surprised but then smiles, happily, as she sees he’s a wizard. She says “No one can see the wizard, not nobody, not no how,” then giggles as she pulls him inside and leads him through a foyer to a small cluttered living room. Ch-U-Ch doesn’t know how to act and just goes along.
Yolanda walks around Ch-U-Ch admiring his wizard’s outfit as Ch-U-Ch asks her if she is Yolanda Roundbottom. She says that she is, then asks him how she can be of service. Then, however, she points out that he’s a little early, which confuses Ch-U-Ch. Noticing her lack of manners, she invites him to sit down and drink coffee. Ch-U-Ch asks her if she’s got Cuban coffee, but unfortunately she has no machine to make anything like it. They drink and talk, and it suddenly becomes clear that Yolanda has five other friends - witches - who will be coming over, and that Ch-U-Ch is supposed to be speaking to them. Apparently Yolanda sent an email to someone to set up a special “talk” for her and her friends, and she has mistaken Ch-U-Ch for this wizard. He tells her that he checked her “registry” in the Identification of Wizards and Witches records, and noticed that she’s only recently registered herself as a witch and doesn’t have a Wizardry heritage or Wizardry family name. He asks her why this is. She tells him that she got a new computer and did a search for witches, and found a website that let people register as witches and wizards. For fun she did it and asked her girlfriends to do the same thing.
Family portraits hang on the walls of the living room, tacky drapes are on the sides of the windows, trinkets and lit lamps cover different nightstands, and there’s a stone fireplace. Ch-U-Ch notices a broom from Alivan’s near the fireplace and asks Yolanda whether she buys from the store, which she says she does. Ch-U-Ch states that he was just there before he came to Yolanda’s house, and Yolanda asks him whether he met Jesse. She calls him “the owner”, however, which alerts Ch-U-Ch to the fact that she might be involved with Mr. Claw - otherwise, how would she know he’s the owner? Ch-U-Ch tells her that Jesse is not the owner of Alivan’s.
Yolanda pulls Ch-U-Ch up and drags her into an adjoining room to show him her “collection”. It turns out to be a huge gathering of items - all sorts of junk items related to fictional witches. Every witch ever seen in a movie is represented in an action figure, picture frame or paraphernalia, including all types of brooms, hats, dresses, shoes and socks. There’s an old medicine cabinet that stands in one part with bottles in every size and shape labelled in small writing, and next to it there is a huge cauldron, dark and dirty. It’s quite amazing and renders Ch-U-Ch speechless and open-mouthed. According to Yolanda, most of the items come from Alivan’s, and Jesse has been very helpful with her orders, giving her a great deal on a new wand. She points the wand at Ch-U-Ch, who raises his staff to block a spell - which never comes.
Ch-U-Ch tells her - again - that Jesse isn’t the owner. She acts surprised, thinking that Ch-U-Ch means that the store has gotten a new owner, however he once again insists that Jesse isn’t and has never been the owner, with that honor instead going to “Mr. Claw.” However Yolanda claims that Mr. Claw told her that he’s the employee in an email, and that he does all the purchasing for Jesse. In fact, Yolanda sold Claw a case of a plant Mr. Claw called “Dragon Breath.” Ch-U-Ch is immediately alerted and gets quite angry. He goes over to Yolanda and tells her she’s just sold a “a very dangerous man” a “weapons of mass destruction”, and committed a national crime. That is, the selling and trafficking of Dragon Breath is against the law. After Yolanda tells him that “Dragon Breath” is nothing but a cute magical name for a weed, which in fact grows in her friend Gina’s rose garden, Ch-U-Ch realizes that Yolanda isn’t a real witch at all. Merely a Folk. And Yolanda thought that Ch-U-Ch was a professor from Harvard University whom the local “Men’s Wizard Club” had recommended to her, and whom she had paid to come talk to her “club” about wizards. A club which was merely for fans of fictional witches. At that moment, Yolanda’s friend, Mary Weather, is heard outside. She tries to get inside, to help Yolanda get everything ready for the club meeting. Upset, Ch-U-Ch towers over Yolanda and brings his staff down on the floor, teleporting away. Yolanda immediately faints.
Mary Weather hears a thump inside the house and forces the door open. She has two other club members with her. They make it inside and find Yolanda unconscious. One of them wakes her up pouring a glass of cold water onto her face, while another calls 911. She awakes and says, moaning: “No one can see the wizard, not nobody, not no how,” and then faints again.
Yolanda Roundbottom. Folk middle-aged woman, short and round, with uncontrollable brown, long hair. She runs a club of fictional witch fans - a fandom group basically. She hired a professor from Harvard University, recommended by the local Men’s Wizard Club - to come to her club to talk about wizards to her and her club members/girlfriends. She mistakes the wizard Ch-U-Ch for this man. She is nutty about magic and witches, judging by her immense collection of junk relating to witches from different movies. Areces gives Yolanda a slightly scratchy, low but animated, happy voice.
Mary Weather. One of the members of Yolanda’s witch club. She usually arrives early at Yolanda’s house to help her prepare for the club meetings. With Areces’ narration, Mary sounds older than Yolanda. Her and the other two witches that we meet at Yolanda’s house near the end of the chapter are also described as being “elderly.”
Two other witch club members. One of them ended up calling 911 when they found Yolanda unconscious. The other woke her up by pouring cold water into her face, only to have her faint again. The two are described as being “elderly.”
We also hear of a “Gina” who’s friend of Yolanda’s, possibly a club member, and who has the “Dragon Breath” weed growing in her rose garden.
New things we have learned about known characters
Mr. Claw has seemingly been sending customers of Alivan’s emails claiming to be Jesse and the owner, and similarly he’s been telling them in emails addressed from himself that he, himself, is the employee. Also, he’s bought, from Yolanda Roundbottom, some of an illegal magical herb known as “Dragon Breath”, which is considered a national crime in the States. This is because it’s essentially a weapon of mass destruction. How, we don’t know yet.
Agent Ch-U-Ch knows the area around Boston, MA and Hard University, and Cambridge, very well. Most likely from his work as a detective of “the Department.” It was stated in the first chapter that most of the customers buying from Alivan’s are in the north-eastern area, including Boston. This leads me to believe there’s a large concentration of Wizardry there.
At the coffe shop Ch-U-Ch demands to know how Jesse knows Nicholas Fidgewidge. He tells him that he’s been a steady customer of theirs up until a few weeks ago. They go back to Alivan’s to check the orders for other regular customers so that Agent Ch-U-Ch can learn more. There, they find a new order from the other one of the three most regular customers, named Yolanda Roundbottom. The address is a PO box in Boston near Harvard University. Ch-U-Ch knows it well. Before he can teleport himself there he gets a call from his wife. He lies to her over the phone since he hasn’t told her he’s an undercover cop of the wizard world. Instead, he’s told her he’s a pharmaceutical sales rep. He feels guilty about it, but it’s necessary since she’s not fond of the magical world.
Ch-U-Ch teleports over to Yolanda’s house. There, he’s greeted by Yolanda. He thinks she might be involved with Mr. Claw and his plans, but it turns out she’s merely a Folk woman who runs a club of fictional witch enthusiasts. Essentially a fandom group. In turn, Yolanda thinks Ch-U-Ch is a man she hired from the university to talk about wizards to her and her club members that very day. She also thinks Jesse is the owner of Alivan’s and Mr. Claw the employee, which alerts Agent Ch-U-Ch. He also discovers that he’s sold Mr. Claw a box of a weed called “Dragon Breath”, which as it turns out, according to Ch-U-Ch, is a dangerous weapon of mass destruction and is in fact illegal in the States. He tells her he’s committed a national crime. This is when he realizes she’s not a witch at all. Upset and knowing a dangerous man has just gotten an even more dangerous weapon, he teleports away, causing Yolanda to faint. Subsequently her friends come by and find her unconscious. They call 911.
This one was short and sweet. Not too hard to follow. Also nice tone and descriptions of the cold Boston area, though it wasn’t as complex this time. It’s pretty cool to see Jesse and the wizard - and detective/secret agent - Ch-U-Ch starting to work together, and Jesse starting to trust the wizard. The wizard did make him feel comfortable in the last chapter, but only at the end of that chapter did he finally realize that Ch-U-Ch wasn’t just some nutcase.
It was nice to learn who this “Yolanda Roundbottom” person was. Back in Chapter 1 we heard of her, in case anyone reading this doesn’t know, and we were told that she was one of Jesse’s three most steadfast customers.
There’s something inherently humorous about the reveal of Yolanda not being a true witch, and the reveal of her collection of witch junk and crap she’s gathered over the years. Makes you wonder, however, if her character’s going to come back somehow. Not a lot with Jesse this episode, with most of it following Ch-U-Ch and his investigating. I love this idea of having a wizard who’s a detective. But not a detective who usually works together with regular people, like Dresden does - although Dresen also works with supernatural forces and investigating monsters and such - but an actual wizard who works as a detective in the wizardry community. I hope that makes sense. I just love learning about the police procedurals of their world.
I wonder how Folk got access to a Identification of Wizards and Witches website, though. Highly odd, I don’t think that’s meant to be public in that manner hahaha.
The plot also ramps up in this episode, as we get a clue as to what Mr. Claw might be planning. He’s bought from Yolanda, an illegal magical herb which is a weapon of mass destruction. We don’t know how loony Claw is yet, but I’d be crapping my pants just about now! I don’t know if I think it was necessary for Ch-U-Ch to vanish so up in Yolanda’s face, though. Highly immoral and intimidating, especially how his body language was before he did it. Angry-looking, even angry-sounding, towering over her etc.
It’s also funny how many non-magic people buy from Alivan’s. Doesn’t any Wizardry look down upon the fact that so many genuinely flying brooms and wands, a lot of which probably have some (rare?) magical components, from magical creatures and such - in them. Doesn’t seem particularly wise. But… it’s Claw’s store, and he’s crazy.
I don’t have many things to say about this one, sorry. Not many critiques, not many things that particularly excite me. It’s just a nice little move-the-plot-ahead chapter. I am excited to see how Ch-U-Ch and Jesse reacts to the news of the Dragon Breath, though.
