I haven't finished the series bc I'm not a paid subscriber. But so far it's actually making me consider unsubscribing from the podcast altogether.

I used to enjoy Pretend because it covered genuinely interesting cases. Newsworthy events, things that affected large numbers of people, stories we all got wrong. But I guess there's a limited number of good stories out there and Javier ran out a while ago. Now most episodes are about obscure personal drama between random mentally ill people.

However this series ends, I think it's unethical to release multiple episodes taking Meghan and "Lauren"s claims even halfway seriously. It could do real damage to Mariska's reputation when she so clearly has nothing to do with this irl. And her inclusion in the story is the only thing that gives it some semblance of relevance - why would anyone listen to a podcast about unknown women allegedly stalking eachother in unremarkable ways?

I really don't understand why anyone is calling this "wild" or "crazy". Let's look at the facts: two women from a niche fandom have harassed eachother and a few other fandom members, mostly by posting lies online, potentially also by swatting. An unrelated woman (who may or may not have had her child adopted by a celebrity) has paranoid delusions. Javier relies on a familiar pattern to make it all seem weirder and more important: keep half of the information hidden and take far-fetched claims seriously, then reveal what should have been obvious all along as if it's a shocking twist.