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Hello and welcome to Slate's Serial Spoiler Special.

I'm Slate Senior Editor Gabriel Roth, and joining

me from our DC studio is Slate's words correspondent Katie Waldman. Hi, Katie. Hi, Gabe. Are you all ready

for the Blizzard? Um, yes, I have stocked up on exactly nothing, but I've got Netflix, so I think

I'm good to go. Glad to hear. We're back after an unexpected hiatus, because

as you've probably noticed, cereal has moved to a bi-weekly schedule, a change that we will

discuss later. But in case you're joining us for the first time, this is the podcast where

Katie and I discuss season two of cereal week by week, sort of, going deeper into the show's themes,

exploring its characters and situations, and looking

at the ways in which the podcast reverberates in the world. This week, we are talking about

episode five of serial season two. Meanwhile in Tampa. Katie. Yes. Big themes. What were the big

themes this week? Oh my gosh. you're starting with like the heavy guns.

Starting with big things.

I would say, yeah, I would say that the big themes are the tangle of competing interests that are complicating the rescue operation for Bo Bergdell.

Basically the question that we are asking ourselves as the story is unfolding, is it worth it? Is he worth it?

And do the circumstances of his capture matter? Should that factor into the decisions that all these people are making is they're spreading a limited number of resources around trying to do a lot of different things in a really sort of messy situation.

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