I straight up did not like this story. It may be one of my least favorite PodCastle has run in a while, in fact.
To start with, I thought it was completely arbitrary that the boyfriend character was, in fact, a man. I don't begrudge anyone for thinking that he was female, because he read like a female character. Unlike the great story EscapePod ran a bit ago, "Thirty Seconds From Now", I felt like the author made the character gay just to shock, or to add a layer to the tragedy in this piece, not because he was actually gay. To be honest, it felt like the story was written with a female needing to be rescued, but then the author said, wait, wait, wouldn't it be just extra sad and unexpected Elaine (no idea if that's the correct spelling) was actually a man? And then, he just went through and just changed the pronouns.
Now, I am all for depressing pieces, but I felt like this story was just piling it on. Sam was unlikable in pretty much every way to me. I felt like there were reasons being hand-fed to me regarding why I should feel sorry for this guy, but I couldn't. There was nothing redeemable. Sure, he goes to save the old boyfriend, but I don't believe he did it for entirely selfless reasons. I just didn't understand some of the self imposed agony in this story. Why didn't Sam want to just move away from Paris, if he loved his boyfriend that much? It's obvious something in the city is making him horribly, terribly sad. If Sam really loved Elaine, and wanted to spend their lives together, why not take the leap and go somewhere new and carve out happier lives together? Sam is selfish, and frankly, he deserved to have been left for the promise of a better life with a more loving man.
These issues just turned me off. I listened to the end, hoping for a satisfying ending, but then Elaine, of course, is a twisted wreck of his former self and flings himself tragically from the window, taking a piece of his old lover away with him forever. I wasn't expecting a happy ending, persay, but I just didn't get the point of all this suffering. It was actually kind of boring listening to how much desolation, agony, and sadness was crammed into this story.
End rant!