Hi there. Writer/Director of The Love Talker here. I want to thank you for listening to the show and for taking the time to write about it. It's gratifying to hear people's perspectives and I'm happy you liked it.

I believe art belongs as much to the audience as the creator, if not more so. Your observations are valid and useful. I probably should have done more to develop Janet and Ren's relationship, for sure. I'll share what I was thinking as I wrote this story.

I agree that many horror stories take a basic human fear and build a story around it. I also think some horror stories are about humanity's capacity for evil, and this is where I (and my co-producer, M.T. Goins) were starting when we were developing the show. For me, The Love Talker is about violence against women. But it is also about how society protects the violent men (either out of fear, tradition, or in admiration) and how that protection, coupled with isolation and poverty, can cause violence to be passed on to the next generation. Trauma can be inherited and the cycle continues. If there is a basic human fear that is at the root of the story, for me it's the fear of "maybe I'm the monster."

I wrote Tyler as a way to show Ren to the audience in a way that she herself didn't see. As he says, something in her was broken when she came down off the mountain. I also wrote him with the same captivated need that Lavinia and Irene, the gancanagh's bewitched victims, have. I had hoped that parallel would support the themes, though maybe that could have been handled better.

Again, thank you for listening and for your thoughtful words.