Chronic Pain Thoughts: Letter to Senator Tammy Baldwin

 Dear Reader,

I wrote to Tammy Baldwin regarding not being able to access Pain Medications, especially in a hospital setting. As my MIL laying in a Critical Care ICU at one our biggest hospitals, she was given IV Tylenol and Gabapentin. I also included chronic pain patients being experimented on with medications other than actual safe and effective pain medication.

She is out of touch. I hope that one day she has to find out what it's like to live every single day in pain and not get anything that helps. To find out what it's like to be experimented on with injections, PT and medications being prescribed off label.

I'm going to pull out sections and talk about it while leaving the original email below

1: The pharmaceutical industry pushed their opioid prescription drugs to treat pain management, and many providers have relied excessively on prescribing prescription drugs without exploring alternative treatment options that are less likely to lead to addiction ~ This is False information. The addiction rates have stayed the same even with a 75% decrease in prescription medications. Did people go to street drugs after being prescribed an opoiod? Yes, but when you are cut off something that works and you're desperate, what else do you do. Instead of looking at what actually happened, the “harm reduction” caused more harm

2: The 2016 CDC Guidelines are quoted, with only the updates from 2018 for Medicare/Medicaid. What about those of us that have private insurance through our employers?

3: While I believe that our country has excessively prescribed prescription drugs, please know that I understand your concerns and I will continue to work to ensure that we create a system that strikes the right balance by prescribing prescription drugs when they are truly needed and avoiding them when alternative treatment methods are available. ~ What? I hope one day you have to experience what the alternative treatment methods are. Injections, anti-depressants and medications with terrible side effects (like Dementia)

4: Lastly, I'd like to include contact information for the Kenosha County Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) ~ I used a letter head, which included my address to show that I'm in Green Bay, yet she gave me the Kenosha County information, you think if I called the number provided they would help me? Also, I'm not disabled or in the age range to be considered “Aging”.

Original Response:

Thank you for contacting me about access to pain treatment. I appreciate hearing your perspective on this important issue. Pain affects individuals of all ages and is the most common reason Americans access the health care system. Chronic pain is often treated with prescription drugs, including controlled substances like opioids. Pain and pain care is a complex issue, and each and every patients situation is different and unique. I agree that opioids can be used safely and appropriately. However, it is critical to move away from the one-size-fits-all approach of relying solely on prescription painkillers to treat patients and to advance more effective pain therapies. The pharmaceutical industry pushed their opioid prescription drugs to treat pain management and many providers have relied excessively on prescribing prescription drugs without exploring alternative treatment options that are less likely to lead to addiction.

I appreciate knowing of your concerns that efforts to combat prescription drug abuse could reduce patient access to needed medications. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, which provide non-binding recommendations and information on how to safely use and prescribe opioids. These voluntary guidelines are available for use by clinicians who prescribe opioids for chronic pain and are intended to help clinicians deliver the safest and highest quality care. In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules for the 2019 Medicare Part D prescription drug program, which would establish some limits on high doses of opioid pain medication and a 7-day supply limit for opioid prescriptions related to acute pain. Several states and some insurance companies have also sought to reduce the number or dosage of certain pain medications.

I recognize how important it is to empower doctors with the tools and resources they need to take a comprehensive approach to pain management to ensure that our families receive the high-quality care they deserve. While I believe that our country has excessively prescribed prescription drugs, please know that I understand your concerns and I will continue to work to ensure that we create a system that strikes the right balance by prescribing prescription drugs when they are truly needed and avoiding them when alternative treatment methods are available.

I also believe that we must continue to support research on our understanding of pain and the development of safer, more effective treatments. I helped ensure that efforts to strengthen research on chronic pain were included in the Comprehensive Addition and Recovery Act (P. L. 114-198) and on October 3, 2018, I was proud to join my Senate colleagues in passing bipartisan opioid crisis response legislation that was then signed into law (P.L. 115-271). This will help improve pain care therapies, and advance research on the causes, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and management of pain. It also directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide technical assistance to hospitals on alternatives to opioids for pain management.

Furthermore, we need to make sure insurance companies are providing affordable coverage for pain treatments that meet patients needs. I have called on top insurance companies to ask that they review policies that could unintentionally be hindering access to certain medications, and ensure that patients can access less addictive or non-addictive pain treatments, non-pharmacological treatments like physical therapy, and medication-assisted therapy.

Lastly, I'd like to include contact information for the Kenosha County Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC), which may be reached via telephone, at 262-605-6646, or online, at: https://www.kenoshacounty.org/155/Aging-Disability-Resource-Center. The ADRC may be helpful to you in coordinating any programming, resources, or referrals that may be fitting and available to you.

Going forward, I will continue to support initiatives to improve and expand pain research and safe treatment, including increased access to alternative treatments. Rest assured that I will continue to support measures that provide all Americans with access to affordable, comprehensive health care that meets their needs.

Once again, thank you for contacting my office.  It is important for me to hear from the people of Wisconsin on the issues, thoughts and concerns that matter most to you. If I can be of further assistance, please visit my website at www.baldwin.senate.gov for information on how to contact my office.

Chronic Pain Thoughts: Doctor Patient Forum Repost

 Dear Reader,

This is a Doctor Patient Forum repost.

Caution: Prescribing: Drink Up ~ See article below

As someone who lives in Wisconsin, where every small town will have more bars than churches, alcohol is perfectly acceptable if you're over 21.

From Wine Mom's to Bloody Mary's on Sunday's, nobody bats an eye. Yet, Heaven forbid you need an opioid to get you through your day.

With 4 kids I've been to school functions where a mom says “Lord, after this I need a drink” and everybody laughs, yet if the disabled mom said “Lord, I need a pain pill after this” everybody would think she's an addict.

My own Mother-In-Law was denied actual pain medication for Cancer as she had a history of addiction. Instead, she was given Gabapentin, Cymbalta and Naltrexone. It wasn't until she was in palliative care that she was given stronger pain meds.

Please visit thedoctorpatienforum.com for more information

Copy & Pasted Email:

You absolutely can't make this up. This landed in my inbox today from PharmedOut

They just sent out a fundraiser featuring a bottle of wine labeled “Cautious Prescribing.”

And honestly? That tracks.

Because using their definition of “cautious prescribing,” pain patients will absolutely need the wine, since to them, “cautious” usually means no prescribing. Cheers to abstinence-only medicine.

Alcohol? A fun metaphor.
Wine jokes? Adorable.
Opioids for legitimate pain patients? A moral panic.

For those newer here: PharmedOut, run by Adrienne Fugh-Berman, loves to position itself as a fearless watchdog of pharmaceutical influence, while somehow developing total amnesia when it comes to:

• Suboxone

• Buprenorphine exceptionalism

• Addiction-industry funding of CME

• Or any policy that actually harms pain patients

Funny how the watchdog never barks in that direction.

We’ve repeatedly documented how PharmedOut:

• Runs cover for addiction-industry narratives

• Functions as a serial expert-witness pipeline

• Was funded by funds from Attorney Generals from suing Pfizer

So yes, seeing “Cautious Prescribing” turned into a wine-label fundraising gimmick was genuinely laugh-out-loud absurd.

Because when pain patients point out this double standard, we’re told we’re emotional, biased, or dangerous, but when it’s packaged with a corkscrew, it’s “public health humor.”

The timing is perfect, though.
We directly address PharmedOut, and its role in this ecosystem, in our upcoming exclusive Patreon video, dropping December 31.

If you’ve ever felt gaslit by “cautious prescribing” rhetoric like this, you’re going to want to watch.

We see you.
We document everything.
And we don’t let this nonsense slide.

Book: North Fall Series (Karin Slaughter) Caution Spoiler Alert

 

We Are All Guilty Here

North Falls Series

Author: Karin Slaughter

Book 1

Synopsis.

Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

Thoughts.

This was really good! I didn't expect the outcome.

It took me longer than normal to read this book as I had a ton of personal stuff going on but when I did get a chance to read it I didn't want to put it down!

Movie: Wonka (2023) Caution Spoiler Alerts

 

Wonka

Came out; 2023

Time; 1 hours 56 Minutes

Watched: Max

Rated: PG for some violence, mild language and thematic elements

IMDB Rating; 6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 82%

Popcorn Meter 90%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Timothee Chalamet as Willy Wonka

Tom Davis as Bleacher

Olivia Colman as Mrs. Scrubitt

Calah Lane as Noodle

Paterson Joseph as Slugworth

Matt Lucas as Prodnose

Mathew Baynton as Fickelgruber

Freya Parker as Miss Bon-Bon

Keegan-Michael Key as Chief of Police

Jim Carter as Abacus Crunch

Rakhee Thakrar as Lottie Bell

Story Line;

Willy Wonka is the mastermind behind some of the most delicious and innovative chocolate creations the world has ever seen. But before shaking up the chocolate industry and making a name for himself as a confectionery genius, the ambitious young creator had to defy all odds. As a result, Willy transformed his wildest dreams into reality with a bold vision, determination, and unexpected help from new friends. After all, hard work and a dash of magic can make anything happen. Because, as Willy already knows, it only takes a dream to make a difference

Thoughts:

I had honestly forgotten about this movie until they played all 3 in a row on TV. We decided to watch it uncut instead.

Prequels don't always work, story lines get changed, things don't add up or the characters are odd. This was a well put together movie with everything making sense.

It was a fun little movie that had the right amount of singing and a happy ending

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

During the late nineteenth century, young William "Willy" Wonka is an American amateur chef, magician, scientist, and traveler who loves chocolate and aspires to open his own candy store in the United Kingdom after the death of his mother. A ship sails towards land and a young Willy Wonka stands on top of a mast, singing a song and when the ship ports in dock, Willy continues singing, but gives away all but one of his silver coins, the last of which he drops down a drain. Willy then goes to look at a store he plans to buy. That evening, Willy gets everything out and plans to sleep on a park bench, until a dog called "Tiddles" comes and sniffs his leg and a man tells him to come and spend the night in his sanctuary.

Once inside Scrubbit and Bleacher's sanctuary, Willy heads for the fireplace to warm up. Mrs. Scrubit then shows Willy a contract to sign, and a girl who works there called Noodle tells him to read the contract carefully, but Willy just instantly signs. Mrs. Scrubit then tells Noodle off and throws her in a coup. The next day, Willy heads back to the Gourmet store and tells the public about his new flying chocolates and a trio of Chocolatiers see this and call the police, before going out and tasting some. After negatively criticizing Willy, the three start floating around and the police arrive. Willy asks the Chief of police for some money for his rent and he hands him a silver coin. Unfortunately however, Willy didn't read the contract properly and that coin wouldn't be enough and Mrs. Scrubit tells Willy he will have to work off the rest of the debt. Willy then goes down the laundry Shute and meets a bunch of other people who suffered similar fates to him.

That night, Noodle comes into Willy's room and tells him she has never tasted chocolate, so Willy makes her a chocolate treat, using his chocolate making machine and tells her the story of his childhood. His mother used to make great chocolate and they had planned to take over the store in the Gourmet store that Willy wanted, but she had died soon after and he had never found out her secret. Noodle takes a bite of the chocolate and enjoys it, but is saddened by the fact that she won't be able to have more, so Willy offers her a lifetime supply of chocolate and Noodle tells Willy one way they can escape. Meanwhile, underneath the cathedral, the Chief of police is meeting with the Chocolatiers and through a song, encourage him to eliminate the competition and get rid of Wonka, by offering him 1,000 boxes of chocolate and he agrees.

The next morning, Willy and Noodle attempt to get Scrubit and Bleacher to fall in love and Willy goes back down the Shute, and reveals an invention, which will do everyone's work for them and he and Noodle escape. Now on the streets, Willy tells Noodle about a "little orange man with green hair" who keeps stealing his chocolates, but Noodle doesn't believe him. Then Willy says that he needs to make more chocolate and he needs the milk from a giraffe to make it. At the zoo, they knock out the security guard by giving him a chocolate that goes through all sorts of alcoholic beverages and the two sneak in. Once inside the zoo, it is revealed that Willy cannot read as he opens the door to the tiger instead of the giraffe. Noodle opens the door to the giraffe and whilst Willy milks the giraffe Noodle tells him that her name isn't really Noodle, only assumed to be, when Scrubit found her in a basket, with an "N" on her necklace. On the way out of the zoo, Willy grabs hold of some balloons and floats to the roof of the Gourmet store, where he and Noodle sing and dance, but the police see them. The Chief of police has a conversation with Willy and the two sneak back into the workshop.

One of them tells the story of how the Trio have been in cahoots for a long time and he used to work for one (Slugworth), but got fired for snooping around and Willy tells them he is a chocolate maker and his dream of owning the store. That night, Willy passes Noodle her chocolates and the gang have a conversation and agree to help Willy with his dream.

The following day, Willy tries out all sorts of new delicious confectionery on the members of the public and the police follow him on bicycles. Eventually, the Chief of police finds a chocolate wrapper and figures out that he has been escaping through the drains in the road. That night, the Chief of police asks the Chocolatiers for more chocolate and they agree. Meanwhile in Willy's room, the little orange man comes back, but gets caught in a trap Willy had set and wakes him up. The man tells Willy that he is an Oompa Loompa named Lofty and he is disappointed at Willy for stealing cacao beans from Loompaland Land and that he will not go away until he has all the chocolate he requires, before hitting Willy with a frying pan and escaping with the chocolate.

The next day, the friends showed Willy the keys to the store and open it up. At first it was a bit of a dump, but they soon got it all up to scratch. The grand opening went really well, until it is revealed that someone had sabotaged the treats and the customers all riot, burning down the store. The others leave Willy alone in the rubble and the three Chocolatiers arrive with a brief case full of money, which they will give to his friends, if he leaves town for good and Willy agrees. Later that evening, Willy arrives at the docks, shakes Slugworth's hand and sets sail. Also on board was the Oompa Loompa and he tells Willy he won't leave him alone until he gets the chocolate and Willy notices an "A" mark on his hand and realises that Noodle is in great danger. Willy and the Oompa Loompa go to see the captain, but see dynamite strapped to the wheel instead. The duo jump off and the Chocolatiers just stand and laugh as the boat explodes. Slugworth then goes to give Scrubit the money.

The next morning, Mrs Scrubit and Mr. Bleacher let everyone go with their money, but tells Noodle that her money was to keep her there and Mrs Scrubit grabs her and throws her in the coup again. Suddenly, Willy appears and tells Noodle that they are going to go and steal the ledger and break Noodle free from the coup. At the cathedral, Noodle is disguised as a nun and asks the father for some chocolate, but he refuses. Willy and a couple others go to the zoo, steal the giraffe and let it loose in the cathedral. The father phones the "zoo", which is Willy and his friends on the other side of the phone and tells them to get rid of it. They do so, just before the Baron's funeral. After hearing what had happened, Slugworth calls the father and rushes to the cathedral. Meanwhile, Willy and Noodle had entered underneath the cathedral and started searching for the book. Finally, Noodle opened a trap door in the wall and got out the book. Unfortunately, Slugworth and his companions got them and throw them in a giant chocolate mixer. Slugworth then tells them that the "N" is actually a "Z", which belonged to his brother "Zebedee" and told Noodle that he told her mother she would be in good hands, but instead, threw her down the laundry Shute and told her mother that she had died, before locking the door, taking Willys chocolates for the Oompa Loompa, eating them and leaving Willy and Noodle to drown in a river of chocolate. Noodle however, had a plan to let the chocolate lift them and they could bang on the glass. Unfortunately, no one would help them and the two went under.

Fortunately, the Oompa Loompa came to the rescue and the duo got out with the book. The now oversized Chief of police got out of the car and is told that he as well as the Chocolatiers are under arrest. The Chocolatiers then start floating again and Willy reveals that the chocolate they had eaten were actually the flying chocolates from earlier on. Slugworth claims they'll be back before floating away.

Willy then finally finds out his mother's secret that it is the people you share the chocolate with that matters, not the chocolate itself, after receiving a message from his mother's spirit. Willy shares a piece with everyone, before telling Noodle that her mother lives at the local library and the two get reacquainted. Willy shows the Oompa Loompa to an old castle, which he plans to make into a factory, with the Oompa Loompa becoming Chief chocolate taster.

As the credits roll, Lofty the Oompa Loompa reveals what happened to everyone, including Scrubbit and Bleacher, who were under arrest, but tried to get out of it by eating the poisoned chocolates and the two have one last kiss.

Chronic Pain Thoughts: Provider & Hospital Call Out

 Dear Reader,

For the last several months I've been watching my mother-in-law fight cancer. What started as neck pain turned into a death sentence. I am sick and tired of these providers ignoring us and acting as if we are the ones that are bothering them.

This provider call out is about one provider, I'm going to start at the beginning. For the sake of this blog, we are going to use the name Debbie as referenced to my mother-in-law. I don't have exact dates and all names.

It started as a pain in the neck. We all noticed the hump that slowly growing but thought nothing of it. Being stubborn she didn't go in until she started loosing feeling in her arm. Her provider of course sent her to Spine & Pain. Now, those of us who have chronic pain know exactly where this is going to go.

Having asked for my advice I told her not to let them do injections or prescribe things like Gabapentin, Lyrica or Cymbalta. At her first appointment, without any diagnostic testing (X-Ray, CT or MRI) they told her it was nerve pain and of course gave her the wonderful gabapentin (We in the pain community call this garbagepentin), they gave her the lecture about how such-in-such injection would really benefit her, which she declined. Fast forward to a month and as we know, the gabapentin wasn't helping.

After finally being sent for an MRI, they find what appeared to be a cancerous tumor growing on her spine. A neurosurgery consult was done and it was decided the best approach was to go in, remove the tumor and fuse 4 vertebrae. The tumor ended up being 7 inches but they could only remove 6. At St. Vincent hospital she was given Tylenol only. We had to fight to get her actual pain medication. She was sent home in a brace

After she healed from the surgery she started Chemo. Things went well until they did consolidated chemo where they brought her to the brink of death. She contracted COVID and Pneumonia while in the hospital. I honestly didn't think she would make it out but at least her pain was being managed.

After all this she couldn't sleep because she was in so much pain. They of course upped her gabapentin and gave her cymbalta. Ugh, I realized all this wasn't going to end well but I wanted to make sure she remembered the time she had left.

She struggled with pain control the entire time. Complained that her Oncologist didn't take her seriously and basically ignored her concerns. She had her daughter, who is a PA help her navigate everything but was still being ignored.

After a few falls, she was admitted to the hospital again where they found the cancer had spread to her bones, mostly her pelvis. A new treatment plan was put into place, but this treatment plan didn't include anything for pain.

She was taking, Cancer medications (I don't know exactly which ones), Cymbalta, Gabapentin and Naltroxone along with enough for 2 Narco's a day. We spoke with her on Tuesday 12/16 she was talking about how she didn't know how much more she could take

Wednesday, she fell, Thursday she fell again and ended up going to St Vincent Hospital via ambulance. After a CT scan we found she fractured her T2 vertebrae and had a brain bleed. While in the Critical Care ICU she was given IV Tylenol and Gabapentin. She moaned in pain, kept asking why she was in so much pain.

While sitting in the waiting room, I found out that at her Oncologist appointment, she was in so much pain she couldn't sit in the chair, so she opted to lay on the exam table, when the doctor, Brian Burnette with GB Oncology came in, he asked her if he should come back after her nap. Not only is this rude and not compassionate but it shows he doesn't care about his patients.

Debbie is going to die withering in pain because St Vincent's Hospital & Dr Brian Burnette refused to give a dying patient anything other than Gabapentin and Tynelol. I can only imagine the person making these decisions will receive something stronger when it comes to their time.

Have you been referred to a provider? Google them, check them out on www.healthgrades.com, Web MD and even the reviews on the provider's web site. Don't be afraid to leave one!

Chronic Pain Thoughts: VOL 49 Debunking Lies #4

 Dear Reader,

We've all heard it, that the majority of street drug users started with a prescription from their doctor. Although I believe that people turned to the street when their prescriptions were cut off, I don't believe the stats itself is true. It's something the media has been telling us for years.

In the Debunking lies section from thedoctorpatienforum.com it states:

FACT: That statistic is false and it’s done enormous harm.

The “80%” claim came from a 2013 SAMHSA report, which said that 80% of recent heroin users had previously used prescription opioids nonmedically. That means they got pills illegally or from friends, not through legitimate medical care. It never said 80% were prescribed opioids by a doctor.

Despite this, media outlets, policymakers, and advocacy groups twisted the number to suggest doctors caused the heroin crisis. This distortion became a cornerstone of the opioid elimination narrative, used to justify restrictive guidelines, forced tapers, and lawsuits, while stigmatizing millions of pain patients.

Here’s what the real data show:

• “Nonmedical use” ≠ medical prescribing. It means using pills without a prescription or for the feeling they cause.

• Most misuse didn’t come from doctors. A 2016 SAMHSA report found 53.7% of misused pills came from friends or family, not healthcare providers.

• Heroin initiation patterns have shifted. By 2015, 32% of people with OUD began with heroin, not prescription pills (Cicero et al., 2019).

• Taking opioids as prescribed rarely leads to heroin use. NIDA confirms that heroin use is rare among people who take prescription opioids as directed.

Even Nora Volkow and Tom McLellan reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the risk of true iatrogenic addiction, addiction caused by medical treatment, is generally below 8%, and often much lower.

Yet this myth fueled a decade of harm:

• Doctors were punished and surveilled

• Patients forcibly tapered or cut off

• People mislabeled with “opioid use disorder”

• Abatement funds and lawsuits built on inflated stats

The truth: The “80%” stat was never about doctors or legitimate pain care. It was a misused soundbite that blurred the line between medical use and misuse, and justified policies that punished patients to push the litigation narrative and expand addiction medicine.

Read the full breakdown, data tables, and printable resources on our Patreon page

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TV Show: It: Welcome to Derry Caution Spoiler Alert

 

It Welcome to Derry

Came out; 2025

Episodes: 5

Where to Watch: Max

Rated: TV-MA

Rating 7.7/10

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Cast

Jovan Adepo as Leroy Hanlon

Bill Skarshard as Pennywise

Taylour Paige as Charlotte Hanlon

Matilda Lawler as Marge Truman

Amanda Christine as Ronnie Grogan

Clara Stack as Lilly Bainbridge

Child Chalk as Dick Hallorann

James Remar as General Francis Shaw

Stephen Rider as Hank Rider

Blake Cameron James as Will Hanlon

Caution: Spoiler Alert

Story Line:

In 1962, a couple with their son move to Derry, Maine just as a young boy disappears. With their arrival, very bad things begin to happen in the town.

Thoughts:

OMG I loved every single second of this

It was creepy, intriguing and totally kept interest

My only regret is not waiting until all episodes were out and I could binge watch it one after another. I do wish it was more clear on who the kids become as adults.

So many things were explained, the graphic and visuals were amazing, the freeze frame with all the teeth out was awesome! I will be watching this again

Episode Guide

Episode 1 The Pilot

In 1962, a boy named Matty Clements asks a family to take him out of Derry, and the journey becomes increasingly strange as the family's behavior worsens; the woman gives birth to a mutant baby who attacks Matty. Four months later, Major Leroy Hanlon arrives at the Derry military base and experiences a racist incident. Lilly Bainbridge has a horrific vision of Matty singing a song and sees his bloody fingers from her bathtub; Lilly tells her friends Marge, Teddy Uris, and Phil Malkin about the vision, but no one believes her. Teddy later has a horrific vision of a human lampshade screaming at him. Lilly, Teddy, and Phil search for information about Matty's disappearance; they find Ronnie Grogan, who tells them that she has also heard children's voices coming from the sewers near the movie theater, singing the same song as Matty. Leroy is ambushed by masked men and is saved by his friend and partner, Pauly Russo. The group, accompanied by Phil's sister Susie, goes to the movies in search of answers, and Ronnie puts on a film where they see Matty, who blames them before releasing the mutant baby, which kills everyone except Lilly, whom Ronnie rescues.

Episode 2 The Thing in the Dark

The police investigate Ronnie's father Hank, who is suspected of the murder and disappearance of the children. Leroy suspects their attack was orchestrated by Soviet spies while Sergeant Masters is imprisoned for it. Leroy's wife Charlotte walks through Derry and tries to break up a fight, but receives disapproving looks from the adults. Ronnie has a vision of her deceased mother. The army searches the woods for something with the help of Dick Hallorann, under the watchful eyes of Native Americans. Ronnie tells Lilly about her vision, and they discuss the version Lilly gave to the police. Leroy's son Will struggles to adjust, but he befriends Ronnie and Cuban American Rich. Chief Clint Bowers blackmails Lilly, and the police arrest Hank; Ronnie confronts Lilly at her home. Leroy exonerates Masters as one of the attackers. General Francis Shaw tells Leroy that he orchestrated the attack to test his fear and that only he can retrieve a "weapon" that instills a mortal fear in anyone. After another vision, Lilly returns to Juniper Hill, a psychiatric hospital. The army finds a car with corpses inside, a beacon to locate the weapon.

Episode 3 Now You See It

In 1908, a young Shaw has a vivid experience of a terrifying-looking man who stalks and pursues him when he is saved by a young Native American named Rose; they leave the forest and she explains what that thing is. After that, Shaw and Rose spent the entire summer together until Shaw left Derry. In the present, Lilly is abandons Juniper Hill; in school, Lilly and Ronnie plan to obtain visual evidence to exonerate Hank. Shaw, after finding nothing useful in the car, sends Hallorann to use his psychic abilities on air. Hallorann has a vision of soldiers dying on battlefields in a war and of bodies floating before escaping; Leroy saves Hallorann from falling out of the helicopter. Shaw visits Rose at her pawn shop about her cease and desist letter and lies to her about the reason for the excavations. Lilly and Ronnie recruit Will and Rich into their plan, and Rich claims that the thing is an orisha, an evil spirit; the group sets out to summon it. They go to a cemetery for the ritual when they discover that Rich is not sure if it will work. As they leave, they have a vision of Teddy and Susie's spirits chasing them. They manage to take pictures, of which one shows a clown.

Episode 4 The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function

The group takes the photos to Bowers, but when he looks at them, the spirits are nowhere to be seen. Leroy takes Will fishing, where the latter has a vision that tells him that he will die in flames; Leroy rescues him and sees burns on Will, who warns him about something evil in Derry. With his friends, Will theorizes that this evil wants to increase their fear to devour them. Charlotte visits Hank to help him with his case; Hank confesses to having an affair with a married white woman that night. Marge tries to play a cruel prank on Lilly, but has a vision in which her eyes pop out and mutilates one in fright before Lilly intervenes. Will sees a clown watching him from his window, and when Leroy goes outside, he sees a red balloon. Hallorann enters the mind of Rose's nephew Taniel, and discovers the entity's origin and how it gained more power as it killed, and how the natives imprisoned it in the place that is now Derry. Taniel shows Hallorann that the entity is in the Neibolt Street house.

Episode 5 29 Neibolt Street

Shaw tells Leroy that his plan is to obtain the pillars containing the entity so they can control it. The group finds Matty at their meeting place and reveals that Phil is alive. The natives comment that, just as when it awakens, a deadly and violent act is imminent before the entity sleeps for 27 years and repeats its cycle. Rose tries to get Shaw to stop trying to capture the entity, but to no avail. Hank is sent to Shawshank State Prison, but the bus crashes and he escapes. The kids, along with Matty and the newly arrived Marge, venture into the sewers in search of Phil, taking Lilly's mother's pills to relax; the pills drug them. The army enters with Taniel, but the mission begins to go awry. The kids discover the bodies of their friends just as Matty transforms into Pennywise, so they flee. Leroy and Pauly encounter the kids; Leroy fires thinking it is an illusion, but Pauly intervenes, knowing they are real, and is killed. Pennywise tries to eat Lilly, but the pillar prevents him, and he retreats. Hank finds Ingrid in her car and tells her what to do to save him; Ingrid visits Charlotte. Hallorann emerges from the sewers and sees a dead Pauly.

Episode 6 The Name of the Father

Leroy scolds Will for being in the sewers and orders him to stay at the base for safety, but Will confronts him and Leroy slaps him. Lilly shows the group the pillar that saved her, and when she plans to return to kill the entity, she and Ronnie have a heated exchange. Hank takes refuge in the Black Spot until Charlotte can get him out of Derry, much to Hallorann's dismay. Leroy suggests using Hallorann's enhanced gift to find the pillars, much to Hallorann's anger. Marge confronts her former friend group, the Pattycakes, as she and Rich get closer. Lilly discovers that Ingrid was the clown they saw in previous experiences, as she was searching for Pennywise, her father. She explains that her father left, but she stayed in Derry. In 1935, she saw Pennywise disguised as her father, killing a girl at Juniper Hill, but justifies that entity as his father and its killing of children by her father's experiences in those years apart. Ingrid proposes Lilly to go with her and let the entity become her father, but Lilly runs away. Bowers, relieved from his position, receives a tip-off about Hank's location and leads a group of armed masked men to the Black Spot.

Episode 7 The Black Spot

In 1908, Bob Gray, Ingrid's father and Pennywise's performer, is lured into the woods by the entity disguised as a child and never returns. In the present, Bowers' mob arrives at the Black Spot demanding Hank, and when the patrons refuse, they set the building on fire. Hallorann saves Hank, Ronnie, and Will, while Rich dies protecting Marge, who survives. Ingrid, in her Periwinkle costume, arrives as Pennywise kills her husband Stan after feeding on the victims; realizing he is not her father, Pennywise shows her the deadlights, leaving her catatonic. Marge and Ronnie inform a paranoid Lilly, increasingly attached to the pillar, about Rich's death. Hallorann, sensing Pennywise entered hibernation, leads the military to a pillar, which they remove and burn, while Shaw tells Leroy he intends to free Pennywise and use its powers to control Americans. Meanwhile, Rose hides Hank, believed dead, but Pennywise reawakens, appears at Will's house, and shows him the deadlights.

Episode 8 Winter Fire

A dense fog descends on Derry as Pennywise kills the school principal and lures most of the children to the auditorium, where he hypnotizes them and begins taking them away. Ronnie, Lilly, and Marge follow him, while Pennywise taunts Leroy about Will. Leroy seeks Hallorann's help, and with Rose's special tea, Hallorann silences the voices and tracks Lilly's dagger. Pennywise separates Marge, sensing her future son Richie Tozier and his friends will cause Pennywise's death. Hallorann freezes Pennywise long enough to free Will and the other children as the others arrive, but Shaw and the military intervene, killing Taniel and detaining the adults. Pennywise kills Shaw and pursues the children as they try to restore the "cage". The adults subdue the soldiers and shoot Pennywise, slowing him until Rich's spirit appears and helps complete the ritual, imprisoning Pennywise. After Rich's funeral, Ronnie and Will share a kiss before she and Hank leave Derry, Hallorann leaves to work as a chef at a hotel, Charlotte and a honorably discharged Leroy stay, and Ingrid is institutionalized. Twenty-six years later, Ingrid witnesses Elfrida Marsh's suicide and meets her daughter, Beverly.

Movie: Wake Up Dead Man; A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Caution Spoiler Alert

 

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Came out; 2025

Time; 2 hours 24 Minutes

Watched: Netflix

Rated: PG-13 for violent content, bloody images, strong language, some crude sexual material and smoking

IMDB Rating; 7.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 92%

Popcorn Meter 94%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc

Josh O'Connor as FR. Jud Duplenticy

Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix

Josh Brolin as Mons. Jefferson Wicks

Mila Kunis as Chief Geraldine Scott

Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp

Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, ESQ

Andrew Scott as Lee Ross

Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven

Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane

Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt

Jeffrey Wright as BP Langstrom

Story Line;

Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet

Thoughts:

I knew they were coming out with another one, but I had no idea it was out. We turned on Netflix to watch something, and this was the top movie.

Having loved the first two we immediately turned this one on

This was creepy, funny and kept you guessing.

I'm not religious but loved the undertones of this

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

Jud Duplenticy, a former boxer turned Catholic priest in upstate New York, is reassigned after punching a rude deacon. He is made assistant pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a rural parish led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. Wicks is the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks, who forced Jefferson's mother, Grace, to remain at the church with the promise of receiving his inheritance, only for the fortune to disappear after his death; Grace ransacked the church and destroyed its crucifix, which the younger Wicks refuses to replace. Jud comes into conflict with Wicks over his incendiary preaching, which has driven away all but his most loyal parishioners. During a Good Friday service, Wicks dies suddenly in a storage closet near the pulpit, stabbed in the back with a knife fashioned from a devil's head lamp adornment that Jud previously stole from a bar and threw through a church window. Though the evidence is inconclusive, suspicion falls on Jud.

Police chief Geraldine Scott summons private detective Benoit Blanc to investigate the death. He recruits Jud to assist him despite Geraldine's objections, assured of his innocence. After Wicks' burial in Prentice's mausoleum, Jud and Blanc question the congregation, learning Wicks had abruptly disavowed his followers at a meeting just before his death. Failed politician Cy Draven reveals that Wicks allegedly found Prentice's fortune and was planning to use it to pursue a career in politics with Cy, who he had learned was his illegitimate son. Jud drops out of the investigation, tired of Blanc's singular focus on the murder and the mystery of the fortune, choosing instead to focus on his ministry.

While returning to his rectory at night, Jud appears to witness Wicks exit the mausoleum and embrace groundskeeper Samson. He is knocked out pursuing them and wakes up next to Samson's corpse. Blanc stops Jud from turning himself in, having noticed a second devil's-head adornment missing from the bar, stolen by town doctor and Wicks follower Nat Sharp. Blanc and Jud go to Nat's house and find his corpse dissolving in a tub of acid alongside Wicks' body. The following morning, the police and the congregation convene in the church for Jud's confession, only for Blanc to explain how Nat killed Wicks: he spiked Wicks' private flask with tranquilizer and attached the second adornment to his vestment to fool Jud, covertly switching it out and stabbing Wicks whilst pretending to examine the body. Midway through his summation, however, Blanc has an epiphany and abruptly declares he cannot explain Wicks' resurrection, and the congregation leaves.

Before Geraldine can arrest Jud, Martha—the church's longtime secretary—reenters, ready to confess: Prentice killed himself by swallowing his fortune in the form of a valuable diamond, which Grace sought in her desperation to escape the church. Martha kept the secret of the diamond's existence until Jud challenged her to confess her deepest sin to Wicks, but she soon realized he was plotting to retrieve the diamond from Prentice's corpse after learning of its existence. To stop Wicks, she plotted his murder with Nat, persuaded Samson to be entombed in Wicks' place to retrieve the diamond, and had the two stage Wicks' resurrection to restore faith in the church while planning to destroy the diamond afterwards. Nat killed Samson to get the gem for himself, framing Jud in the process, but Martha tricked him into consuming a cup of coffee he had poisoned and intended for her. After revealing this, she collapses, having now taken the remainder of the poison, which Blanc had realized during his denouement, hiding his final deduction to allow her to come forward on her own. With her last breaths, she prays for forgiveness from all victims including, at Jud's urging, Grace. Jud performs absolution before she dies, and she drops the diamond.

One year later, Jud is about to reopen the church, now renamed Our Lady of Perpetual Grace. Most of the former parishioners have moved on with their lives, while a disgruntled Cy threatens to sue Jud, Blanc, and the church if the diamond is not returned, but they all proclaim ignorance. As new parishioners enter for Jud's first service, the diamond is seen hidden inside the church's new crucifix.