Stephani's Listens: Betrayal Season 6 | BONUS

0:05 Hey, it's Stephanie.

0:06 On Friday, October 23rd, Love Trapped returns with a brand new episode. While we're waiting, there's another show that I think Love Trapped listeners will really love. It's Betrayal Season 6, The Confidant. Today, we have the executive producer of Love Trapped and the host of Betrayal, Andrea Gunning, with us.

0:27 Thanks for having me.

0:28 Of course. And I'm so excited to talk to you because I'm honestly hooked. I think I told you when I was listening, I sat in my parking spot before I went inside and I was like, there's only 10 minutes of this episode left.

0:40 And I have to know what happens. It's one of those shows. So I want to hear from you what the season is about.

0:45 So this season is a little bit different than past betrayal seasons because it doesn't focus on a romantic betrayal like a husband and wife.

0:54 This is a friendship betrayal, a community betrayal.

0:58 So the main protagonist of the season is Carl Bryan. And he all of a sudden starts receiving harassing text messages. And he's convinced it's from his ex-boyfriend, Adam Mejia, who had just spent the last year in prison. And he's convinced that his ex-boyfriend is trying to ruin his life. And just craziness ensues.

1:20 And so.

1:21 This year of chaos for Carl goes from phone calls and text messages and eventually escalates to swatting.

1:29 I don't want to give too much away, but.

1:31 It's just it's crazy things that are going on for these two people. And when we were writing the show, we just kept thinking about Love Trapped and how there's so many similarities between the perpetrator of the season and Laura Owens.

1:47 It is so similar. It's the twists and turns. It's the unexpected next step. It's that relentless behavior that we get with Laura Owens in this season of Love Trapped 2. When I was listening to the first few episodes and everything that Carl's receiving, it took me back to when I was going through Clayton's LO file and reading all of the emails and looking through all the text messages.

2:08 And it's that feeling of like overwhelming love. anxiety as you're going through all of this and you can't believe that somebody is actually sending all of these things.

2:17 It's scary.

2:18 Yes, it's really scary.

2:20 And I think that I don't know if you heard this yet in one of the episodes, but Tom Binger, he's a prosecutor, is a very famous prosecutor. And he started prosecuting this case for this season. He says we have to redefine what violence means in 2026. Because it's no longer just in person. The violence that you can inflict on someone from afar, whether it's through text messages, phone calls, or just manipulation by using technology is really interesting.

2:48 And I think Love Trap listeners really know what that's about.

2:51 Yeah. Just like the psychological warfare is very similar in your season one and our season six. And I think that that's what audiences will relate to.

3:02 Yeah. I think as I've listened to this season, obviously I'm not all the way through yet and I'm a little bit ahead of the feed. But one of the things that I've always wanted from Laura Owens is to find out the why. Yeah. Because it doesn't feel like it's about money. It might be about the relationship. But I think in this story on betrayal, there's something satisfying about this because I think we do find out the why.

3:26 Yeah, you hear it straight up from the perpetrator's mouth. episode six showcases a four and a half hour confession tape, which really outlines exactly what the perpetrator was thinking. In plain words, it's extreme and it's hard to relate to. And so while you get the why, it still is laced with absurdity. Whether it's betrayal or another show we're working on, whatever why the individual gives us, it's never gonna feel good enough.

3:59 Because we're applying reason to unreasonable people.

4:02 Another thing that I really wanted to talk to you about was the waste of resources. In this season of Love Trapped, we obviously see that with the court system, the legal system, the police.

4:13 And we see that in this season of betrayal as well.

4:17 Yeah.

4:18 Both perpetrators are using public resources to their advantage.

4:23 And what a drain, right?

4:24 Right.

4:25 Right.

4:26 In Betrayal Season 6, we really explore swatting. I mean, not just from what it's like to be on the receiving end of a SWAT.

4:33 Call where one wrong move, someone could end up dead.

4:36 But you've just hijacked a number of officers when they could be actually policing and keeping the community safe. And the perpetrator just doesn't care.

4:48 I feel that way about Laura, too.

4:50 We know that she just accepted legal accountability by accepting a guilty plea. But that's a lot different than actually acknowledging that you're sorry. And through my research with this, I've not heard Laura say she was sorry one time. And I'm curious if in this season, we're going to get that in Betrayal.

5:13 I don't think this perpetrator really truly believes they did anything wrong. And I'd feel like they felt like they were entitled to all the love and acceptance and connection that they deserved, and they didn't get it.

5:28 And so there was hell to pay.

5:29 That sounds awfully familiar.

5:32 Yeah, exactly.

5:33 Okay, so one of the last things that I want to talk about before we wrap up is the multiple chances that these perpetrators.

5:41 In both seasons had to stop.

5:44 This has been going on for Laura for over 10 years at this point. She's had multiple opportunities to just stop this. And I think we're finally getting to the point, hopefully, that when we reach sentencing later this week, we might see some sort of an end to one part of this case. But in this season of betrayal, it was the same thing. There were multiple chances for the perpetrator to stop.

6:11 Oh, yeah.

6:12 And he didn't. So what do you make of that?

6:15 It's really fascinating that you asked that. I think what our seasons have in common is that both show what rejection can do to a person.

6:26 Absolutely.

6:28 What extremes people can go to when they can't face rejection. And I think everybody can kind of understand it because everyone at one point in their life has to deal with rejection.

6:41 It's how you respond to it, though.

6:43 Right.

6:43 Exactly. Exactly.

6:45 Rejection, right, is something that happens to all of us. We get denied jobs. We get denied romantic relationships. And it's just how you respond to it. And if you're going to retaliate or get revenge on that, rejection. Yeah. I definitely think we should catch up after this season of Betrayal is over and after we find out what Laura's sentence is. Because I think we're probably going to have a little more to talk about.

7:07 I think so, too.

7:12 And just a reminder, Love Trap returns on Friday, October 23rd with a brand new episode. And don't forget to listen to Betrayal Season 6, The Confidant. It's available now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.