The Hammer of C Block

Nathan and Eppy discuss the first appearance of Isaac Hayes as Gandolf Fitch in Season Two's The Hammer of C Block. Gandy has been in prison for 20 years for a murder he swears he didn't commit, and since Jim owes him money from their time together in the slammer, his first stop is Rockfish's trailer. The plot of this one revolves around discovering the truth behind the murder of Lila, Gandy's ex-girlfriend; but what we struggled with as we watched is how Gandy is, at root, the actual villain of the piece. Content warning! This episode (and thus our discussion) include direct focus on emotional and physical abuse, and suicide. It's an engaging, effective episode that isn't reducible down to a clear "yes, watch it" or "no, don't."

As you'll hear in our discussion, the picture in our heads of Gandy from our first encounter (our Episode 6, Just Another Polish Wedding) was of a character who seems to be seperated from this dark backstory. What is the responsibility of a show to maintain character continuity, especially for characters who are problematic but presented as sympathetic? We tackle this, and end up deciding that we'll have to watch the final Gandy episode next to see what happens in that one to really get a handle on the topic.

Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files!

Support the podcast by subscribing at patreon.com/twohundredaday. Big thanks to our Gumshoe patrons! Check them out:

• Richard Hatem
• Victor DiSanto
• Jim Crocker - keep an eye out for Jim selling our games east of the Mississippi, and follow him on twitter @jimlikesgames
• Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app
• Kevin Lovecraft and the Wednesday Evening Podcast Allstars
• And thank you to Dael Norwood, Dylan Winslow, Bill Anderson, and Dave P!

Thanks to:

• fireside.fm for hosting us
• spoileralerts.org for the adding machine audio clip
• Freesound.org for the other audio clips

Two Hundred a Day is a podcast by Nathan D. Paoletta and Epidiah Ravachol. We are exploring the intensely weird and interesting world of the 70s TV detective show The Rockford Files. Half celebration and half analysis, we break down episodes of the show and then analyze how and why they work as great pieces of narrative and character-building. In each episode of Two Hundred a Day, we watch an episode, recap and review it as fans of the show, and then tease out specific elements from that episode that hold lessons for writers, gamers and anyone else interested in making better narratives.