She Who Wrenches: A Mercy Thompson Re-Read-Along Podcast
Attention Mercy Thompson books and Mercy-verse fans! Uncle Mike’s Book Club (Brittany, Eric, and Kelly) get together to talk all things Mercy Thompson, Alpha and Omega books, and slightly related tangents. Walkers, werewolves, vampires, fae, and mundanes are all welcome!
All episodes are chock-full of spoilers from ALL the books unless specifically marked "spoiler-free", so if you aren’t caught up, beware!
She Who Wrenches: A Mercy Thompson Re-Read-Along Podcast
E12 BloodBound 04: Here Lies Mercy, She Was Trying to Help
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Uncle Mike’s Book Club discusses chapters 6–7 of Blood Bound from the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.
The gang starts off the random references strong with quotes from Tommy Wiseau’s The Room (“How’s your sex life?” and “Hi doggie!”); Black/Beckworth corners Honey and Mercy to get the lowdown; Mercy’s been judging Honey, partially based on literal appearances; did Mercy start changing her mind about Honey because of the abuse, or because Honey sees herself as a monster?; puberty plus werewolf somehow isn’t a disaster??; sexist laws that persisted into the 1970s; what if Cara the teenage werewolf met Mercy; Teen Wolf-style van surfing on the Mystery Machine; how one might pronounce “Leah”; will Leah and Cara’s relationship change in the wake of the events in Wild Sign?; werewolves apparently get to fast-track their therapy; Mercy shows off Honey as the pretty side of werewolves; Mercy asks Bran not to show off his guessing powers while under threat; too many creepy alpha werewolves who would take advantage of a teen girl; Mercy’s lunch with Tony and the evolution of their relationship over the years; the Opel GT with the wrong-rotation engine; werewolves = Wookiees when they rip arms off?; Kelly says we all know what goes on Mercy’s tombstone: “Here lies Mercy—she tried to help”; and we’re totally not fake-sponsored by Lilly’s Piano Bar—you’ll be enthralled by every performance!
As always, there are potentially spoilers for every single book published in the Mercy-verse: shorts, the Mercy Thompson series, and the Alpha and Omega series (everything through Blind Date with a Werewolf, anyway). It’s okay if you aren’t caught up, as long as you’re okay with spoilers for books you haven’t read yet.
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Recording Date: 2026-03-13
Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:34 Recap Guy
00:01:20 Reporter Tells Mercy and Honey About Teen Werewolf Daughter
00:17:34 Tony Asks Mercy About Preternaturals Over Lunch
00:26:26 Wrap Up
00:27:56 Outtake
YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/08c1ArGBsvA
Intro
SPEAKER_00Welcome to New Renchin, a Mercy First Rebead along podcast. I'm Brittany. I'm Eric. And I'm Kelly. Today we're mostly talking about Blood Bound, but everything through Blind Date with a Werewolf is fair game, including Fair Game. Spoiler howl. In case you don't remember, this is the one where we see dark sides and limitations of all the supernaturals, but especially the demon-possessed. Today we're starting partially into chapter six.
Recap Guy
SPEAKER_02And now it's time for Recap Guy! Okay, recap guy was threatened, so there's not going to be too much of a recap guy. Plus, we only covered about a paragraph of the book last time. A recap of last week's episode was we recapped that episode for the majority of it, and then I think we talked about a few things related to a werewolf and a vampire, and that leads us up to here. No, there was some stuff with Samuel that we didn't talk about, and then right before something was about to happen, we ended it. Thank you for that concise and informative recap of last week's recap guys. That was actually probably one of my more coherent recaps. 100%.
Reporter Tells Mercy and Honey About Teen Werewolf Daughter
SPEAKER_00We sent out Gabriel to find parts so that so we could get him off the board while we um have a moment. Yeah. And uh Honey, that's her name. Honey's there and doing the body double body doubling. Oh my god. I'm braining today. Coaching on the brain. I mean bodyguard it.
SPEAKER_01Bodyguard, body double. I've heard it both ways.
SPEAKER_00Honey's in there, and then Tom Black comes back in and he's like, hey, I need all the dirt on Adam.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so we're back in black. No. No.
SPEAKER_01No? No. I was glad we waited for you to make it before we hit record.
SPEAKER_02But not in the room.
SPEAKER_01I'm less convinced now. Yeah. Um, he also comes in a little hot.
SPEAKER_00And that's not just the 107-degree heat. No. This is hi.
SPEAKER_01Like, I'm here to ask he just kind of starts asking some intrusive questions for somebody, literally a dude off the street, rolls in like, hi, and then basically channels his inner Tommy, and out of nowhere is like, so how's your sex life? No? No. To that whole sentence.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Mercy's like, you're not even my favorite customer. And then honey's like, oh, hi, doggy.
SPEAKER_00Okay, that's the scene. All right. There to end the scene. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Next chapter. I think the thing I I actually really like this part because there's a whole lot that happens in a very short amount of time that tells us a whole lot of stuff about a whole lot of people. And that's the part I think is interesting because we find out a lot of we again, we find out that Mercy can stay a step ahead of her mouth, which I still do not understand this particular form of witchcraft and would very much like to learn. We find out like a little bit about his situation, about Tom's situation, and his assessment, his own assessment of his situation, the conclusions that he's already come to about where he is and where his daughter is in the world. And we find out a little bit more about Honey and her assessment of her own of her own situation, which obviously much better informed than Tom is, but not too dissimilar of a conclusion, which is also kind of an interesting thing because everybody's kind of like there's always like two people that are kindred spirits in every piece of this interaction, no matter how you slice it. So I think it's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00No, it is a really interesting dynamic, and and Mercy sort of indirectly called gets called out because she has made these assumptions about honey um based on literal appearances and the things that she appears to prioritize without really having any understanding of what's below the surface. Right.
SPEAKER_01Or that there is a below the surface. I think that's like the first revelation is that there's more to this book than the cover. And you know, behind the cover, not terrible. Like we could hang. But I also appreciate as it unfolds, watching those wheels turn.
SPEAKER_00So there's a uh a Mercy Thompson subreddit that is really one of the only reasons I currently ever go to Reddit. And somebody was making the argument, I can't remember what thread or where it came up, that the the thing that made Mercy see Honey as a real person was that she had experienced sexual abuse. Like, oh, your your feelings don't matter until that was like that's not really the line that does it. The line that does it is seeing when she can see that Honey thinks of herself as a monster. Right. That's the line that makes Mercy go, Oh crap, I don't want to have to like you.
SPEAKER_01But is the is is part of what like this entire scene kind of pivots on that moment because because Mercy figures it out, it's a thing that we all learn as Mercy comes to that conclusion, and that is the same thing that Tom is up against with his daughter. My daughter's a monster. What do I, you know, she's a little girl, but also monster, you know, and trying to kind of reconcile two generally disparate data points in his head and having a really hard time doing it. Because it's interesting that we get the moment of how Mercy sees honey, how Honey sees honey, and how at least one of those dynamics changes as this interaction unfolds.
SPEAKER_00And they talk about like how unusual it is that somebody would have had um survived that that young. But you know what I find really impressive is like accidental changes are things that happen, even for like fairly controlled old wolves. And you're talking about somebody for three years of puberty between ages 10 and 13, exactly once lost control and turned into the wolf without the full moon. Mm-hmm. I find that astounding. Like, I mean, and it does go along also with like she must have lots of self-like whatever. Because that's what brand says. Right. She must have a lot of control. Yeah, she has a lot of control of herself to have even lived.
SPEAKER_01Right. Number one, like, as a person, before you get anywhere else, a 10-year-old survived a change. Number one. Number two, has indoor plumbing. Number three has not become a catastrophe in the subsequent three years of this having happened, which basically to me means now she's just gonna be terrifying because even before you change one, a 13-year-old girl is some scary, scary business. Full stop and confirm. It is known. Can we just say it is known? And so for her to have this added force multiplier of not only hello and welcome to puberty, you will not enjoy your stay. But to add to that, uh oh, yeah, um, you're now gonna have two terrible things that happen to you once a month.
SPEAKER_00Enjoy.
SPEAKER_01Like that also I can't wait for them to line up. Yeah. It's not even like an absolute nightmare. This is like, but also, like, I have so many questions, but when once we've like once we've established all of the rules that we know at this point of werewolves and changing and all that kind of stuff, like when we met her, I was very excited that she because I hoped that she would become a bigger character. Because aside from werewolf, aside from teenager, she's kind of I'm hoping that she becomes another really interesting person because later on in the book, in all of the books, we hear about um what it's like if you have indoor plumbing and also things, and how uh it's still like the progressive packs, you know, will let you have your own credit card. Like, you know, like it's very, very like minimal, which footnote for everyone listening, that is a thing that was against the law for an unmarried woman to have her own bank account or her own credit card until the 1970s. So keep that in mind. Um, but like she's gonna have an uphill battle. Like a kid who is changed was always gonna have an uphill battle, and now hers is gonna just be worse. But I'm sort of hoping that she gets to maybe hang out with Mercy a little bit, and like maybe this pack, which is way more progressive than a lot of them, because Warren is third and Kyle is accepted, and like maybe this will be where she ends up and she gets to be a little bit more, you know, as she comes into her own, that we will find out more about her, and that like down the line she'll be somebody we get to hang out with.
SPEAKER_00Like, I don't see them letting her go in the Morocco pack, though.
SPEAKER_02I think it'd be cool if Mercy could take her and they could do some van surfing on top of the mystery machine. Wouldn't that be awesome? I just mean to hang out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't I I see where you're going. What you did there? I see it. But like just I'm hoping that she gets a little more attention and maybe she and Mercy will get to hang out. I didn't think she'd move to Tri-Cities, but like knowing of their existence and maybe being exposed a little bit both to um a a apparently breathtakingly more progressive pack than some of the others are, but also to uh Mercy's Don't Get Mad Get Even. Because I feel like if anyone can play the long game, it's gonna be her.
SPEAKER_00Although and I do want to point out the Morocc does have a lesbian couple in it. Oh, yeah, that's true. With a human mate. Yeah. Um, so Maroc pack is also like in the like we we won't kill you for who you are attracted to. Yeah. Bang on. Um, no pun intended. That was pretty awesome. Yeah. I'll give you that. Okay, to like really jump ahead to very later spoilers, we've seen that the exact opposite of Leah's, I'm gonna say Leah, unlike the reader. Leah's depends on the reader. Um, Leah's reaction to Mercy, she takes Kara in. And I don't know if that is that she's an actual wolf that makes the difference. I'm interesting to see, interested to see how their relationship progress as she's had to come to terms with the children she forgot she had and had to give up in various violent ways. And I know that that would be a process that would take years, like for reels, but apparently werewolves get to skip a lot of therapy.
SPEAKER_01Um we'll just knock that out in an afternoon. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's my dog ears.
SPEAKER_02Um that hurt Kelly a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Just a little, yeah. Uh like because she was already somewhat protective of Kara, and then she gets to cope with some of her own feelings about her own offspring, and like I don't know if it might be a potential second chance. Like, I'm just interesting to see, interested to see if that alters their relationship or not.
SPEAKER_01Me too. Yeah. That's another thing that I was thinking about was like how differently the two of them were treated. I think that'll be interesting. So we learn a little bit about her at this point in the book, just that she was 10, and everybody kind of looks at him like, how can be? And then, you know, after because he starts asking questions of Mercy starts putting it together, like, I I get I think I get what you're trying to do, but I don't think you're doing it for obvious like this isn't because you are you are using your reporter skills to do this, but you are not do you're not really doing this to write a story about Adam. You're doing this for something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And cotton's onto that pretty quickly. And that's when we get the moment when um uh honey changes. So she comes out, sits in the sun, and I really like that part. Shows off a little bit. Yeah, I really like that part in the book because Mercy's like, I when she comes up with it, like, you know, honey, whatever I think about you, you're an absolutely gorgeous animal. Can we can we show this off a little bit, you know? Um and then and then and I I love that Honey knew exactly what to do, like to get, you know, comes in, finds a little pool of sunshine, stands there in it, like, you know, I'm here, what are your other two wishes kind of vibes? And lets him pet her, which I also thought was uh surprising, you know, he gets near and then but like surprising because he kind of gets over himself. Like I am very well aware that she could rip my arm off if I screw this up, you know, and and so proceeds with caution, but has like a positive interaction, which is you know, which is uh maybe his first like non-terrible interaction, because the only other ones he had were with the guy that was like, Yeah, you gotta chain her up in the basement, and then like uh some phone calls after that. So he, you know, has really limited experience and no idea that kindness is an option, that care is an option, that there's like any other sort of emotion besides like venge, you know, being full of vengeance and and rage, and like almost like it doesn't even occur to him that that could be a possibility. And so it blows his mind a little bit, and I really liked watching that unfold with him as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that that he's saying, Oh, we have these other options. And I did like uh when she calls Bran, the like calling him out, like Bran, I know that you can deduct a lot of things, and that's real impressive and everything, but this ain't the time for that. Let's not show off your powers, let's just answer the man's question. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Let's we all know what's happening. It's fine, it's all understood. Can we just skip ahead to this bit here?
SPEAKER_00Past you showing off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. We get it. You're amazing, but here's the deal. Like, can we can we focus? And so she calls and is sort of I mean, she calls him under the gun. A little bit, literally, metaphorically. Um, I really need to not screw this up. Yeah, because he's got about six reasons over there that uh I should really be careful what I say. So again, her her tippy toeing around and uh, you know, bending English to her will like goes pretty well with brand. And we get a list of people that maybe could help. And it's short.
SPEAKER_00That's when we realize that the the number of alphas who would not harm her in any way And it's horrific that this includes sexually There's only about one or two that wouldn't. Well, there's like like a one-fifth or something like that, like some low percentage.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, it was it was a a ridiculously low percentage of the city.
SPEAKER_00And it was like, yeah, that's really creepy. Like, y'all have big problems to solve.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we need to solve a a much different we need to solve for a much larger problem at this point, right here. Like, we need to just stop and like, yeah. But the short list is a list. There's more than one name. There is. Bran is not on it, which I also thought was kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00We isn't on the first list because that's like who they wouldn't mind a reporter knowing about them. Right. So that was only the ones that were out, and he's not out, right?
SPEAKER_01But it was interesting that the person she's on the phone with, you know, is giving all these other names. Ends up sending the child to. Which is where she ends up, which is why I'm kind of amused by it, is that, you know, he wasn't even because we point he points that out later, you know. You I ended up here, but he wasn't even on the list.
SPEAKER_00Like, well, I have I am living proof that he can raise some weirdo female child gambler.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's taken in some baby randos in the past, and you know, as far as I'm concerned, it went to the city.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So he sort of gets it and says, Yeah, he'll call Adam. She's
Tony Asks Mercy About Preternaturals Over Lunch
SPEAKER_01like, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_00Now here comes Tony. Hey, what's up? When I was asking for the updated summary this time, I was like, hey, I cannot for I know that the Tony scene is what's next. I can't for the life of me remember how much longer it is. So I asked ChatGPT to put in what's the time difference between the scenes, assuming this wasn't a hallucination. It's two weeks later for the Tony lunch. Did it not feel like it was the same day? But then I wasn't sure.
SPEAKER_01I thought it was the next day because when Tom leaves, I assumed that was when Gabriel came back with tacos. So I assumed it was like the next day. It's definitely not the same day because he was gonna call that night. Right. Yeah. I just presumed it to be the next day, but yeah, no. And then we get to Eric's favorite part of the book.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, where you talk about the Opal GT.
SPEAKER_00Which he now points out to me correctly when we see them places. That's awesome. They're not common.
SPEAKER_02They're not common, so that's pretty so what, two or three times over the last five years?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_01But I also really enjoyed the the conundrum that was happening. Yeah, it goes like 20 forward, but it'll go like 120 in reports. And then Mercy gets to go to a business lunch, which I just thought was really entertaining.
SPEAKER_00I love this scene, like I love both of these scenes a lot, and they both establish really interesting things for later because like this relationship with Tony is still not only existing, but progressing in the most recent Mercy Thompson book that actually took place in the Tri-Cities, and like it really starts this more formal role of Mercy as their reliable person they can talk to about weird stuff, supernatural relations.
SPEAKER_01I'm just making a face of you because I'm just realizing that, like, yeah. The last the last few have been uh Hi, I'm Mercy. I change into a coyote. I live in the Tri-Cities, and we're leaving town is like Oh yeah. So the last one was just like we're leaving town.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And then the one before that is the one, the the International Harvester is the one where Soul Taken, if anybody's wondering the actual title is, is um the one where Adam has a scene with just Tony where he's like, Hey, how deep do you want to go down this rabbit hole? You've proven trustworthy. But here's the deal, here's the cost to it. And we were left with Tony's gonna think about it real hard. And that's where we left off because the next book we left town.
SPEAKER_01But I think it's because like the last time I went through them, I think I took a detour and did like a couple of alpha and omegas, and then went back and read um the most recent one. So I was like, Yeah, we haven't been in Finley in forever.
SPEAKER_00So Well then the most recent book was a seal, but we also do not really either.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then we do a lot of traveling anyway. We start at the stop and rob, and then off we go to Europe, you know. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's that that's one before. So yeah, but still the most recent one. We start out and then leave town. Yeah. We start out and then leave town. Yeah. Anyway, so the conversation with Mercy and Tony. Yes. Tony like starts off with, so you know a lot of Faye and werewolves. And she's like, I'm not a werewolf.
SPEAKER_01And he's like, Okay, well, you know a lot of them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I like the bit about like, I don't remember how he puts it, but it's basically like, word on the street is you and Adam. Oh, yeah. And she's like, you know, are you why is the world asking me this question? And he goes, Well, and he's like, Well, you know, some so-and-so saw you two out to dinner, and she stares at him and looks at the restaurant and stares back at him. I really enjoyed that.
SPEAKER_00So it also okay, he said you were hot and heavy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I like, but I like their dynamic because we get a little bit of actual this isn't a a a formal relationship. Like they've actually been pretty reasonably friendly for a while. You know, for him to feel comfortable asking her and for her to respond like that, I thought was pretty Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so his cop instincts are like Hey, this isn't normal even when it's frickin' hot and like there's all this extra violence. And so all you can think is, hey, maybe it's magic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That there has to be something besides the heat that does this. Yes, I am here to tell you when you live over there and it's been hot enough for long enough, it gets weird. It absolutely 100% gets weird. Now, not quite as weird as this book would have you believe, necessarily, but yes, absolute uptick. But most of it is like petty stuff. It's like dumb things. Not necessarily domestic violence, but like way more bar fights and like things like that. Like it really does mess with people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It she does, she does go out to say, like, hey, I'd like to give you some advice. Please do not make yourself a target of the Fey because they will take care of business.
SPEAKER_01And here are some reasons why that would be a bad idea, you know. Yeah. But because I think she tells him, like, don't just like go around questioning people or something, you know. And he's like, um, hi, I'm Tony. I'm a police officer. And she's like, This is not what I mean, but like be careful, and here's why you should be careful. And then she explains werewolves. And I also thought that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's like, hey, talk to their alpha. And he's like, what, like with a child? And and she's like, child won't rip your arms off, which of course immediately gives me like chewy vibes. When they lose. Yeah. I'm not playing chess here.
SPEAKER_01That was immediately what I thought, too. Yeah. And then she, in the midst of this, she's sort of having her own debate about at what point does this just get me in trouble? I just explained to Tony how not to be a target. How do I also avoid that kind of fate? Because she has a much clearer idea of what that means from both groups than Tony ever gets, at least in this book. Yeah. So having that moment of like, how do I also do this for myself, but still wanting to help? Because we all know that's how it's gonna end up for her someday, right? Here lies Mercy. She was trying to help. And that's like we know. We at this point, you know, we're not even that many books. We know this is what's this is how it goes for her. At some point in the future, that's where we're at. So she's trying to figure out how to help, but also not end up uh, you know, dying or something worse. Because as we find out later, there are so many things that are worse than just getting to die. So they have this lunch where she's trying to figure it out and also tries to explain, like, you know, that Tony's kind of lucky because that the alpha that he has to deal with is Adam, and whatever you think of werewolves, whatever you think of supernatural, whatever you think of alphas or any of that, like he's gonna be a straight shooter if it's fair, if you're trying to do something that's helping somebody, if you're trying to to get to the bottom of something that happened to someone, like he will do everything that he can to help you within his power, you know, and is abundantly clear about that, which I thought was also, you know, a nice if there's things that he can he can't do everything to help you, but if there are things that he can do to help you, he will absolutely do them. You know, as long as you as long as you, you know, go to him and work together. And I I I liked that piece of it, how she was trying to describe him.
SPEAKER_00But one of the things I do like in general is yes, we we get we spend the most time with good cops, but also like we do occasionally meet not good ones, also so they exist, like there's there's uh dynamics, but her point is these are the people called to help when stuff goes wrong and they have zero tools or information to do helping with. And as we learn later, they're also the most susceptible to like this everybody's on a killing edge because there the police station is right by the church. Yep. Where Littleton's been. So they're also like also targets in and of themselves.
SPEAKER_01And I also like that there's a little bit of I've watched a lot of crime shows on TV. So can I ask you a couple of questions that somebody would ask on one of those shows? I did get a kick out of that too.
SPEAKER_00So when we next pick up,
Wrap Up
SPEAKER_00we are going to be uh finding out that something horrible has happened to Warren. That is where we're gonna pick up next time. We did not leave chapter six. No, we did. We got into chapter seven. Look at that. We did. Look at that. Yes. Hey, we're getting about a little less than a chapter an episode.
SPEAKER_02Well, we get about the same mileage as uh Daniel's car.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say a vanigan, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a vanigan.
SPEAKER_01A vanigan going uphill. Um, that's us. A vanigan going uphill. Yeah. Um, but uh we also had like a lot to unpack in this one. Like that whole interaction between the two of them is is kind of a lot. A bunch of stuff happens right in this little stretch. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00And these are two really good, really memorable scenes from this book.
SPEAKER_01So exactly. Like, if you ask me, like, what are the things that you remember out of this book? It's a lot of it is these two.
SPEAKER_00Now for our totally not fake sponsor. Thanks for joining. This episode was brought to us by Lily's Piano Bar. You'll be enthralled by every performance. So next time we will pick up in the middle of chapter seven. Thanks so much for joining. Until then, farewell, Howl. Ow.
SPEAKER_02So Mary, I forget her, I always forget
Outtake
SPEAKER_02the second part of her name.
SPEAKER_00Mary You made my brain forget it. Yes, Mary Jo.
SPEAKER_02Mary Joe. Our firefighter? Yeah, firefighter.
SPEAKER_01So a resurrected firefighter is Mary Joe.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a resurrected firefighter. Are there any cops that are werewolf?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a few.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00George is one. George. Oh George, the kinky cop. He's he's always handcuffing somebody for some reason.
SPEAKER_02So that's when I'm gonna use my Lobo cop.
SPEAKER_00Oh no.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Part man, part wolf, all cop. No.