The Robbery

The Robbery is the fifth episode of the first season of Living Free. Written by star Mike Barkhoff, it features it's Director, Dylan Van Hauen and serves as a continuation of the episode prior, Film Scouting. It is set to debut on October 15th, 2021.

Plot
Mike and Dylan chase after Mike's stolen car to no avail. Giving up, Dylan tries to convince Mike otherwise, and the two endulge in a shoving match due to Dylan deeming it 'a mishap of life'.

Dylan takes his anger out on trees and limbs while Mike continues to walk, out of breath, in search for it. Finally, Mike gets a call. He initially calls for Dylan to come along, then denies those advances. Nonetheless, Dylan, having heard Mike, rushes to the car.

Mike attempts to write more, and goes through a food binge. After he cleans the mess from the binge, he decides to email his therapist's office, asking to set up an appointment.

Production
This episode was initially set to be a part of the prior one, but Barkhoff separated the two due to the excessive length of the script. Afterwards, Barkhoff found the scripts for both episodes to be easier and faster to film than thought. He considered making the episodes whole again but ultimately decided against it, as he thought that it served as a good two part episode.

Due to this, this episode is somewhat shorter than the others. This is also due to a filming technicality in which the microphone being used worked ineffective towards Barkhoff's goal. In editing, he realized the wind was picked up more than their vocals. He tried to separate the two to no avail and attempted to fix it via voiceover maneuver but couldn't on his co-stars behalf due to Van Hauen's busy schedule.

Reception
The episode received very positive reviews, enlisting a 9.5/10 on IMDb. It fell behind in viewership for first 8 hours as compared to the previous episode.