As for this episode, for my perspective there was an angle I thought that was slightly glossed over as a brilliant “theatre of the mind” moment. This episode has the hanging pitfall that somebody has deduced who the Shadow is, and you pointed out that hey, that’s a glaring loose end that Lamont needs to shut. The quintessential trope of the bad-shadow dying right before he could expose Lamont was indeed quite hilarious, but I’ll fully admit that when listening I saw a very different twist.

Lamont was particular in his telling of Margo to have the police arrive after his meeting, and he had to at least suspect his adversary knew his identity given the targeting of notes and calls. To me the beautiful “sneering” moment when Lamont tells the professor that he can in fact see him is very telling. There was an edge here in this version of Lamont that we don’t really see that pairs well with the otherwise irrational and easy admission that Lamont is, in fact, the Shadow. You guys hit on in your discussion how strange it was that he just gave up the gig and had to know ahead of time his foe wouldn’t be coming out of this one alive. Follow all that up with the pushing of the police to start shooting, and in that listen I ‘saw’ Lamont taking the kill shot himself, before immediately laying on with the “he’s hit with a stray shot”. It’s all too convenient for a threat so obvious to his whole way of life.

What would you do if you were invisible and this punk was about to bring the world down on your little secret? In that dying gasp I ‘saw’ the Shadow’s boot coming down on the dying professors neck to silence him at the crucial moment, before slipping away from the scene. It’s a darker take than this version usually takes, and is far too dark for this “children’s episode” of the Shadow to overtly take, but an amazing example to me of how the radio can play out a different picture to each listener. Theatre of the mind, indeed!

That’s all for me nerding out today. Thanks again for all your hard work and fantastic productions.