We've been waiting, for what has felt like forever, but today the first episode of season two of the 'Serial' podcast quietly dropped in to our iPhones.
Here are the five things we now know...
1. Season two will look at the case of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl (above), an US former prisoner of war in Afghanistan, who is now facing trial for deserting his position in the army.
2. Episode one, entitled DUSTWUN, begins with Serial’s infamous host Sarah Koenig describing a video that shows Bowe being transferred from a Taliban truck to a US Blackhawk helicopter, and then the celebrations around the world as his release in announced, including a clip of President Obama proudly declaring him free from the White House’s Rose Garden.
3. Sarah then continues to explain how the news quickly shifted. That within days Bowe was being called a deserter, even a traitor, and that parents of fallen soldiers from Afghanistan believed their sons would be alive if Bowe had not gone missing from his post.
4. During the episode we learn that in 2009 Bowe freely walked away from his base in Afghanistan, launching a huge hunt for him.
5. But Bowe himself, during recorded phone calls, says he was not deserting, but planning to simply go missing for a short amount of time to bring awareness to problems within the leadership of the army.
And so the case begins...
Why did Bowe walk in to the dangerous open desert in Afghanistan? And does he deserve the possible life sentence he's facing for what he did after already having spent many years in capture by the Taliban?
Next Thursday can't come soon enough.
If you want more be sure to download ELLE UK's podcast 'She Said'.
