GROUP CHAT Episode Two

What is the point of being alive?

Previously on GROUP CHAT: Tone-setting icebreakers, the first potential rivalry of the season, and an inaugural hot-take-off.

This week: What is the point of being alive?

What is the point of a group chat? Is it to workshop your writing? Is it to solicit advice or support from friends? Or is it to performatively bait your peers into aggressive low-stakes conflict for the entertainment of whatever audience may or may not be watching? In this week’s episode, the cast of GROUP CHAT takes up this very question, and the answers are more far-flung and far-fetched than you might think.

In its second week, the chat is no longer a territory in search of a map. The cast members have poked around the interior and sized each other up. Now they’re ready to let their individual strategies guide their way.

A couple of the cast members prefer to hang back, cultivating aloof mystique. Jasmine makes a weekly cameo appearance to share excerpts from her in-progress erotica:

Ryan is also a stealth player, dropping off for days at a time only to casually resurface at a critical juncture:

Other members, though, are determined to engage at a much higher level:

Different approaches are borne of different motivations, and sometimes of different origins. Three members of the cast (Isabel, James, and Nick) are based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and three (Jasmine, Ross, and Van) in the New York Metropolitan Area, which by the beginning of week two has already bred contempt:

Friction intensifies when one of the West Coasters shouts out antediluvian lower Manhattan lightning rod (and fellow Bennington College alumnus of GROUP CHAT producer Stephen Piccarella) Honor Levy:

The lightning rod of the chat, however, appears to be Isabel, whose unwavering commitment to self-promotion leads first to speculation about her motives as a cast member and then to a poll that may or may not be a passive aggressive attempt at a coup:

As polarizing as her behavior may be, though, Isabel is not the only member of the cast with an eye toward promotion. In an attempt at a different kind of coup, James nearly spends $100 on an advertising contract with Ross Barkan, who, despite being identified in Episode One as a likely GROUP CHAT spy, refuses to engage:

Fortunately Barkan is not the only Ross in the GROUP CHAT universe. In fact, it’s Ross Devlin’s poll that really sparks the chat’s curiosity:

Will Ross follow a mysterious rich looking person to Japan? Is Isabel here for the right reasons? What is the point of being alive? If you find yourself asking any of these questions as the summer heats up, you know where to find the answers. In the meantime—back to the CHAT!

Next week on GROUP CHAT:

GROUP CHAT is a production of Grey Fiction Media. All episodes are written, directed, edited, and produced by Stephen Piccarella. All original music by Sebastian Castillo.