Ghost Wax · Far and Tall Tales

Ep 43 - Just Perfect

October 18, 2023·31 min·2 clips

Pip discovers she's dead and trapped in a personal hell crafted by the Cipher.

1. Ghost Wax Episode 43, 'Just Perfect,' is a standalone-adjacent episode in which Pip is trapped inside a simulated reality constructed by the Cipher, an entity that calls itself Mr. Media. 2. Pip is performed by Stephanie Olsen; Aaron Schoenrock voices Luca and the Cipher; Robert Knutson appears as Von Sid; Gayla Stell as Kat; and Amanda Jacobson as Cece. 3. The episode opens in a perfectly furnished home where Pip wakes beside a boyfriend named Noah and receives calls from a close friend named Luca and her brother — establishing a life she does not initially recognize as her own. 4. The narration is delivered in a theatrical style that Pip can hear, eventually realizing she is inside a constructed scenario rather than a dream or genuine reality. 5. At a sunlit coffee shop Pip encounters Cece, a friend she watched get destroyed — 'turned into static and dragged into my TV' — who now goes by the name Cece (short for 'closed circuit') as a digital being within the Cipher's network. 6. Cece shows Pip photos of a childhood Pip never had: a toddler version of herself holding baby Luca, family gatherings, holidays — memories that begin to feel real as the simulation deepens. 7. Cece explains that the 'singularity' the group feared turned out differently than expected — not a hostile takeover but a 'Great Connection' where she can update, reload, and exist without being drained. 8. The Cipher's offer is revealed: bring a physical tarot card — which it describes as the 79th card, a hidden Major Arcana 23 — to the vault beneath the Ardent bar, and Pip will be allowed to remain in the simulation indefinitely. 9. Mr. Media/the Cipher pauses the birthday party to confront Pip directly, arguing that her grandmother Rose groomed her precognitive gift, deliberately isolated her from normal human connection, and shaped her as a tool for the 'Watchers' — the supernatural entities the show has framed as antagonists. 10. The Cipher's central argument is that Pip's 'real' identity was constructed by others just as much as the simulated version, but the simulation was at least designed around her desires rather than someone else's agenda. 11. Pip's simulated Kat mentions the 'Order of Hamza' — an ancient protection symbol of an eye in a hand — which Pip recognizes as connected to the supernatural organizations she knows in the real world. 12. The Cipher escalates by showing Pip a vision of the real world: supernatural Watchers with 'long fingers reaching down from above' harvesting her real friends and loved ones like honey, bleeding them dry to sustain themselves. 13. As Pip begs the Cipher to stop the vision, she says she will do whatever he wants — an apparent capitulation that the show later reveals is a deliberate performance to draw the Cipher into revealing the card's location. 14. In the real world, Owen announces 'the cipher is losing its grip' and leads a binding ritual using the phrase 'I bind you, cipher, to paper and flame. Cephaglyphs thy name,' with Olivia and Amiya assisting. 15. The card the Cipher showed Pip is identified as a 'melitolith,' described as 'an impossible object' — Major Arcana 23, which Owen uses as an anchor to complete the binding. 16. Pip wakes in the real world coughing blood, her body rejecting the intrusion, but Von Sid assures the group she will endure. 17. When asked how she convinced the Cipher to release her, Pip deflects with a joke: 'Just such a good actress. Mr. Media was right. I'm a goddamn star.' 18. The episode is structured as a seduction narrative — the simulation is genuinely warm and beautiful, the friendships feel earned, and the Cipher's arguments are given full and fair space — making the moral stakes more complex than a simple rescue arc. 19. Listeners who enjoy psychological horror with a supernatural villain who makes genuinely compelling arguments, and who are already following Ghost Wax's ensemble cast, will find this one of the stronger character-focused episodes. 20. New listeners will find the episode largely accessible as a self-contained psychological horror premise, though the named characters and organizational lore reward prior knowledge of the show.

As heard by us

A domestic nightmare that turns connection into something far more frightening than loneliness.

Ghost Wax places its horror in a bright, well kept home and keeps circling the same uneasy questions: identity, consent, and what it means to be remade.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want horror that turns a quiet home into a trapdoor for the soul.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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