Director's Notes – Episode 120

(NOTE: As always, Director's Notes contain spoilers)

Religions are scary. Lots of tales of people getting eaten by whales, or laughed at by God, or getting murdered by relatives, or trading body parts for other body parts as a form of punishment. 

Of course religions are also beautiful and meaningful. Taking care of the needy. Sharing love with others. Drawing borders around a too-vast universe. Making sense of a life you never asked for. 

Kevin of Desert Bluffs happily (disturbingly) straddles the line between loving and frightening, and I don't think that makes him that odd. Welcome to Night Vale deals in the weird, certainly, and I don't think there are any mainstream religious that celebrate cutting your own face open. 

But to be fair, people regularly cut off parts of babies because of ancient religious beliefs. We still enforce laws that hold to ancient (and likely poorly translated) rules about gender and sexuality and race.

Kevin and his religion are certainly weird in that they don't exist in our real life, but I find it a bit familiar that he believes so strongly in people being happy, however falsely he portrays this. Of course, just as with any zealous believer, he's certainly willing to allow harm to others if it keeps his doctrine of love alive. 

Again, that's not the weird part. That's actually pretty normal. 

Religious commentary aside, I really wanted to visit again with Kevin and Lauren. Their new old town of Desert Bluffs Too seems to be coming together well, and this episode gave us a chance to not worry about infrastructure or municipal specifics, instead just focusing on a special holiday story I've wanted to share for a while.

I hope you enjoyed it, and we'll be back February 1 with new Welcome to Night Vale episodes. 

(And here most people would close out a December email blast with a generic "Happy Holidays!" but that's denying the cultural significance of such an important religious date. So let's not forget the reason for the season:)

Happy All Smiles' Day to all, and to all a Big, Big Smile!

– Jeffrey Cranor
December 15, 2017