This article is part of a series on Adventures in Odyssey Eras.
(This is a note to you! I’ve been working on this article in my limited free time for the better part of the last several weeks. I’ve been whipped around between personal situations, almost literally, meaning I haven’t had as many chances to work on this series as I should’ve. This article was intended to go alongside a What’s Odyssey Podcast episode that would’ve released a few weeks ago. In any case, I wanted to get it out before the release of Album 77, since this new series will point out the very pivotal nature of that new Album. I was going to start by describing this era first, which encases the Green Ring Conspiracy and its domino-effects. Soon, we’ll run through the rest of the eras chronologically. For now, enjoy this post!)
Back in April, the fifth episode of the What’s Odyssey Podcast ended with the promise of an infographic timeline of all of Odyssey’s events broken down into the five Eras described in that episode. I wasn’t able to do it, because that ended up being a very hectic and fast-paced time for me, and I never got around to it. So I’m writing this article now as a sort of apology for that. Now, the original premise of that was supposed to be a sort of explanation of how every Adventures in Odyssey saga is connected, but phase out of each other into separate periods of AIO’s long history, which are its eras. That’s sort of what we ended up seeing in the podcast, but again, it was a rushed time for me and we didn’t really get around to the full depth of what I wanted. However, at the time of writing this, I recently read Polehaus53’s article on what I’ve always called the Green Ring/TTB saga and was very impressed. The main premise can be summarized in one quote:
Why are The Green Ring Conspiracy Saga and The Ties That Bind Saga considered two separate stories? I argue that their plot connections are way too deep to be considered separate.
It got everything I’ve always believed right, except for the conclusion. The Green Ring/TTB does end, but it ends the same way Novacom did, if you’ll remember from our series on it a few years back. In the article, Polehaus53 referred to this connection as the USAIO (United Sagas of Adventures in Odyssey). We do have a name for this here in at AWB, but as mentioned in that podcast episode, we simply refer to this concept as the Adventures in Odyssey “eras”. For example, Novacom has a domino effect that spans all the way until 2008, although that domino effect is split in two, which we covered on the podcast. Anyway, this post from Obsessors has me reinspired to do a new series that will be the sort of conclusion to both their post and the fifth What’s Odyssey Podcast episode. It’s finally time to break down Odyssey step by step, but let’s start with the Green Ring/TTB since it’s the most recent one that’s been brought up and it’s the most fascinating.
As Polehaus explained, this saga (yes, I will continue to refer to it in the singular) revolves around two main albums, The Green Ring Conspiracy and The Ties That Bind. This saga is originally seeded in what I defined as the transitional period between eras four and five (that is, 2008 through 2010). That initialization is clearly defined in Square One and A Thankstaking Story, which establish the main characters that show up in successive albums. Thus, Album 52 is the genesis of both this lengthy saga and the fifth era of Odyssey. To redefine the bounds of the era, it lasts all the way from the Green Ring intro in 2011 until either 2020 or 2022 (I lean more toward 2021, more on that in a second). The Green Ring Conspiracy’s direct aftermath takes place during the albums in between GRC and TTB, but it’s mainly these three albums: Album 54: Clanging Cymbals, Album 55: The Deep End, and (more obscurely), Album 58: The Ties That Bind. That more direct aftermath is reflected mostly in Penny and Jason’s storylines that are (again, mostly) wrapped up in the first two albums I mentioned there. There is, however, one major plot point that is left hanging immediately after GRC ends. That is the one that involves Buck and Mr. Skint. (Upon relistening to the GRC album after writing this, it occurred to me that Chris directly addresses all of these upcoming plot lines in the last wrap of the album.) Skint’s plot won’t begin to tie up for another six years after the Green Ring’s release (or about two years in Odyssey time, as I’ve calculated), but Buck’s is set up immediately with the episodes To Mend or Repair and Child’s Play. And yes, Life Expectancy and its introduction of Jules is part as well, though I firmly believe Jules’ and Buck’s storylines are originally two, and end up intertwined into one. Buck also does something else for us as we move into The Ties that Bind. His time in Juvy gives us a pretty concrete timeframe for the amount of time between the two major albums. I typically use Ohio penal code for things like this, since it’s a pretty good reference and reflects a lot of laws seen elsewhere in Odyssey (pun intended). It would seem that Bucks’ charges would put him in a detention center for anywhere from three to six months. Since he had multiple charges (fraud, kidnapping/holding, etc.), the six-month option is probably the most likely. Within this, we can also put in a few estimates on when other less major events between the albums happen. For example, A Penny Saved and A Penny Earned only happen mere days or a week after the last events of Album 53. The Labyrinth occurs anywhere from a few days to about two weeks after, and concurrently with those events. Subsequently, Home Again happens a few weeks after that, which puts Child’s Play and To Mend or Repair an even place in between. That’s all an aside though, but it still shows the clear connection between the two albums. It also reveals Buck’s centrality to this saga.
Buck, as I’ve realized, is actually the major character that brings both the saga and the entire era together. We see this when we finally arrive at the opening scenes of Album 58. Within moments, Buck is reintroduced and proves pivotal, but he’s not the only one with a pivotal storyline. So to lay it down, when The Ties That Bind (the album) ends, there are two major storylines left hanging. Each of them is introduced with a question. The first, which ends up dominating the next couple of albums, is Wooton and Penny’s. That is introduced with Wooton’s proposal at the end of the last episode of The Ties that Bind. Throughout Album 59, there is an even combination of Buck’s storyline and Wooton and Penny’s. Polehaus53 pointed out that they combine in Dinner Roll Models, and that’s correct. Then what will be the further development of Buck’s story is posed at the end of Let’s Get Together by Matthew. I’ve made a distinction here, but it’s important to note the very integral link between The Ties that Bind and Taking the Plunge, because they really are the same album, so much so that I’ve taken to referring to the episodes in Taking the Plunge as The Ties that Bind Parts 15-20 for years now. This is why when it concludes, we begin to see the end, or really the beginning, of those two storylines finally falling into place, right before a new wrench is thrown in. Albums 60 is just about entirely the setup for the Bassett wedding. Whit tells Connie and the Bassets he’ll be taking a break from the events of the past couple weeks, which encompasses the Ties that Bind but probably GRC as well, which is realized in The Feud for Mason County. However, not one moment after that “break” from all the immediate domino effects of the two major sagas that we are introduced to the last major figure of this Adventures in Odyssey era: Morrie Rydell. As another time perspective, we see that Whit does not appear in Album 61 at all until A Very Basset Wedding. Parker for President and The Key Suspect happen within days of each other, and the events of Old Tricks do as well, so they all likely happen simultaneously with the Feud of Mason County. With the temporary break from Wooton and Penny, attention is finally directed toward Buck and his side of the aftermath. It’s important to note that from this point in the era forward, “Album 62: Let’s Put on a Show!” is the only album outside of its successor and the Buck-focused “Trial by Fire” that does not include a Rydell episode. It brands itself uniquely on top of this, as an album of “Relationships and New Beginnings.” Needless to say, this is a turning point in the era’s narrative. It’s also important as it reintroduces Jules, who’ll end up as Buck’s girlfriend, and concretely places Jason in his role as manager of Triple J Antiques, which ties up another loose end from before The Ties That Bind. There’s one last missing piece as well, which Matthew mentions a few episodes prior, and that’s Jay. His storyline and character development begin to sprout in the Club in the episode There and Back Again, which comes out just a few months after Album 62. It’s important to note that Wilson Knox also comes along to essentially replace Jack, who is canonically officially retired. In real life, this was due to the passing of Alan Young, which occurred in 2016. In Album 63, we get the development of Buck and the Bassetts post-TTB adaptations. It kicks off with the Bassett return first, then moves into Buck’s further growth of the relationship with Jules that was hinted at in Legacy. In Under the Surface, Jay’s story is continued through the official non-Club introduction of Buddy. The Club begins to introduce a young lady who will soon be a bigger character at Whit’s End, Renee Carter. We also get a respin on the Dinner Roll Models-style story as Buck and Wooton both have concurrent stories in the same episode.
Out of the Picture is very pivotal to the entire era, because it shows the main shift in the GRC/TTB narrative. We see the peak development of Wooton’s then-20-year-old character arc, but that’s a story for another time. This episode also moves into a story arc that involves digging into Buck’s past, which will ultimately lead to the next major specific Green Ring episode, The Long End, and ultimately to Buck’s adoption. This post-Album 62 character arc, originally seeded in Crash Course, is the fruition of everything leading up to it, from the events of 2012’s Album 55 to The Ties that Bind. And just when you think this is going to be the huge conclusion to everything, a new card is thrown into the deck that is Jillian Marshall, who will end up being key to the 28 Hours (arc? It seems too soon to say). In any case, we see three things in both Expect the Unexpected and Trial by Fire. We see Detective Polehaus, the hardened detective who was essential to both the stories of GRC and TTB, become his own character, showing his humanity to both the citizens of Odyssey (and the greater metropolitan area) and to the audience in The Toy. We see Eugene and Katrina’s security as Buck’s foster parents reaffirmed in Divided We Fall, which shows the move toward Buck’s eventual home. We see Ted Humphries, shown at the very beginning of The Green Ring Conspiracy, displayed in a moral light during Breaking News. We see the continuation of the Rydell arc outside of the context of Emily (another aspect we’ll focus on later), in The Good in People. And we see a whole ton of payoff that includes another Wooton/Buck crossover, Jillian integration, and Connie and Penny restructuring, especially in the light of the Bassetts (still relatively recent) marriage. And finally, at the very end of Trial by Fire, it’s the three-part penultimate payoff to seven years of Buck’s character development. Where the Labyrinth tied up the main plot seed, the conspiracy with Grote, and where A Very Bassett Wedding concludes a love story found in that very first 2011 album, we see The Long End wrap the element of what happened on the grounds of Odyssey. The two pulled-apart crooks went their separate ways and are now reunited. And, it is a direct sequel to the newer saga that starts at the end of Under the Surface. And I would be confident to say this is where the Green Ring Saga ends, except for one loose end, which Adventures in Odyssey and its staff just had to complete, throwing a monkey wrench into this whole era. And that monkey wrench…is Penny. Yep. I always believed her storyline was the one addressed the most quickly. The very second episode after the Green Ring ended had her name in the title! But nope, there’s another loose end. We’ll get to that in a second though, because we’re very close to the end of this thing. But since I’ve started going down the era-breakdown road, let’s buckle down and wrap up now.
I do believe that for its part, The Long End closes a chapter in this very lengthy era, and opens a third one. This third (and final) chapter of this Adventures in Odyssey era is the one that really leans into the side of things that doesn’t deal with TTB/GRC. Initially, that’s the Rydell arc, which kicks into high gear over the next three albums, spanning into 2019 and 2020. The pinnacle of More Than Meets the Eye is A Sacrificial Escape, which got several fans buzzing on its debut. There’s also Nightmares by Constance, which began to inspire “Jillson” (eghhh) talks. The subsequent album serves as a sort of sequel to both these episodes, with direct sequels in Good Job! and Further from the Truth, respectively. A Wise Surprise is also thrown in as a sort of sequel to the Wise episodes that are, at this point, four to five years past in our time. And finally, June (or October) 2020 arrived with the album that has always been a personal thorn in my side, Album 69, the album in which every episode belonging to it is a sequel to itself. It begins with The Rydell Revelations, which commences both what I believe is the turn-around point for the Rydell saga and the beginning of the end for this Adventures in Odyssey era. Let’s summarize the rest of this era before we get to the complicated parts. It’s important to remember that while the side of the Rydell arc that focuses on the Rydells (rather than Emily Jones, more on that in a later article) kicks in beginning with Album 70, a new development begins in this album as well. The Christmas Bells teases a completely new character arc that will ultimately involve Olivia Parker. A couple years back, I made the point of recognizing that this new arc was secured by the moral quandary Olivia dealt with in The Clown Hero. But this raises another interesting spin. From that point until the present, AIO makes a point of incorporating Club episodes (and later comics) into their “mainstream” works. It occurred more subtly with this example, but moved in closer, especially in light of the soon-to-be upcoming “new Club app”, although most fans didn’t know it at the moment. Other times we can see this are the Odyssey team’s whole “Club suggestion box” deal, and the recent introduction of Renee into mainstream albums. That “Club suggestion box” is also what I believe led to the production of the much-praised “28 Hours”. Finally, an entire storyline began and wrapped in the Club in September and October of 2023. But back to 2021. Around this time, the conversation surrounding the Rydell arc began to move south, especially with the release of “The Team”. We saw this recognized in the same album, with four of its six episodes dedicated to the intriguing “One of Three” saga (as it was then known). It’s important to see that this is where Zoe Grant makes a huge debut as the deuteragonist of this arc. We also see Connie and Ms. Adelaide play big roles in this saga. What’s interesting is, until the last few episodes of this short arc, Whit doesn’t appear at all, and when he does, it’s only briefly, just as with the Bassett’s saga. This could be related to the concurrent negative light Whit had recently received, but I believe it’s more. Throughout the second and third chapters of this era, Whit shows up as a main guide or character less and less. The exception to this is of course Rydell, but even he admits he intentionally stepped away from that arc. That’s something we’ll look into deeper in a few weeks, but it’s important to keep in mind as a defining factor of this era. Speaking of characters stepping away, November of 2021 marks the time this era is thrown for a loop.
This is where the trickiness comes in. Before the release of Album 75 last year, my default assumption was that Era Five ended around Album 70, or more likely Album 72 with Buck’s adoption. But here’s what makes this strange. The passing of Will Ryan meant Odyssey had a giant elephant in the room, with very few options. Odyssey was able to successfully record Buck’s adoption, which secured down a major plotline that had been running for 11 years at that point. The question then was “What happens to the Meltsner family?”. Even as I’m writing this, I’ve now found that rather than the 2021-2024 period being a transitional period, as I initially believed, there isn’t much of a transition between Eras Five and Six, but it is there. The monkey wrench that threw a hole into my theory was As Far As It Depends on Me, which made the annoying decision to uncover the Green Ring Saga once again. It was my understanding that Penny’s direct involvement in the saga was concluded now twelve years ago with the episodes that literally had her name in them. I see now that AIO had bigger plans up their sleeves. So let’s deconstruct this last, very important chapter of the era. This third chapter is a chapter of conclusions. Yes, Buck’s adoption kicks it off. It concludes the decades-long saga, but especially those last portions involving Out of the Picture and The Long End. Then, we see Jillian’s introduction payoff in 28 Hours, where she is really the star of the show. Buck and Jules’ relationship seeded, or rather hinted at, in Legacy, Part 1, and the rest of Album 62 finally pays off in the last episode of Album 74. Years and years of Renee’s character development show in her mainstream debut, where she is inducted as an employee of Whit’s End. And then, Album 75. The big 75. The spotlight in this album is focused on The Best is Yet to Come, but let’s direct our attention away from that for a second. As Far As It Depends on Me is where the unseen gem lies, because until now, the presumptive conclusion of the Green Ring Conspiracy was The Long End. But this episode puts a more symbolic, and honestly more fulfilling capstone on this lengthy saga. As far as I’m concerned, and to answer the question posed by this article, this is where the Green Ring Conspiracy and Ties That Bind saga ends, and where it’s supposed to end. But it’s not where the era ends. There’s one more saga to wrap up, and the Rydell arc. Take a look at a clip from my article on Realizations at the end of 2023:
For all intents and purposes (even if I don’t agree with the moral implications), the Album 75 episode I glossed over, “Two’s Company, Four’s a Crowd”, intentionally sets up both Emily’s reconciliation with Whit and budding “friendship” (ugh) with the Rydell’s for the three-part episode we see kicking off Album 76. Indeed, this entire album is a reprisal of Album 69 in its three-part Rydell, three-part Jules/Buck format. So where As Far As It Depends on Me is the cutoff for the GRC/TTB, this episode is the cutoff for the entire era. That brings us to the present. The absolute present, as when this article releases, there will only be a few hours remaining until the release of Album 77: A New Perspective. There is only one episode in this album that intrigues me, if not concerns me. That is “Painted Into a Corner”, the episode featured on cover, since it shouldn’t be directly related to the TTB arc, but rather the greater Wooton arc as a whole, which, as I explained earlier, I’ll be writing a seperate, more thorough article on soon.
So there you have it! A breakdown of one of the most complicated eras in Odyssey history! Of course, there are things I glossed over, such as family introductions, like the Calhouns, the increasing obsolescence of the Parkers (which I have written about by the way), and other more minor sagas that have been sprinkled across the decade. All in all, though, I think this article gives a well-rounded explanation of this very complex concept, and I hope you enjoyed this lengthy read!
TL;DR: The Green Ring/Ties that Bind Saga is the main focus of one of Adventures in Odyssey’s longest eras. It has three major chapters: the intro and set-up, which includes the transitional period from 2010-2011, the bulk of the era’s most important events, which lasts from 2011-2016 and gives us the main characters on whom we focus, and finally, part three, where more minor sagas take on the scene while the major one wraps up. Those minor sagas include but are not limited to, the Rydell arc, the Olivia arc, and the introduction of a new generation of families, such as the Calhouns and Perkins. It is one of the most pivotal periods of Odyssey, because it covers the rise and fall of multiple main characters and sagas.
Once again, thanks for reading. We’ll be covering the release of Album 77 as it happens, as well as breaking down the other four AIO eras. For now, see you soon!
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