Conspiracy Corner: Was Summer a Plant?

Things are slow while we wait for Welch. While looking up information for other comments, I noticed something I hadn't thought of before.

Was Summer a plant?

Back when the Serial podcast was ongoing, before things wrapped up, a woman named Summer called Sarah Koenig to say, "hold up!" She'd heard the Route Talk episode and had something to say: Adnan could not have killed Hae by 2:36.

This was back when no one realized that it was Rabia's mission to establish that Adnan could not have been killing Hae by 2:36. Now we know that Rabia mistakenly believes -- or believed -- that if she could disprove the "state's timeline," they'd have to let Adnan out.

Never mind that the "state's timeline" is just one theory of the case, and "dead by 2:36" is not a condition of conviction. Unfortunately, Rabia thought it was.

So... We know that Laura E. is an Adnan supporter, and Rabia would have set up the Laura interview. (Laura E. also talked to Bob for two hours.) Did Rabia get Summer to call Sarah, too? Was Summer planted by Rabia?

I thought maybe this was a bit far-fetched, until I re-read what Summer had to say. This is the episode where Laura E. says: It's impossible there was a phone at Best Buy. And Summer says: It's impossible that Hae was dead by 2:36.

Laura E

(sighs) Yeah, I dunno why they wouldn’t check it but there’s no pay phone there man.

Sarah Koenig

You’re sure?

Laura E

I’m positive.

Sarah Koenig

So, that’s thing one. Thing two I learned, it also relates to this 2:36 call. I talked to a woman named Summer. She went to Woodlawn, she’s been listening to the podcast and she emailed me because when she heard this one part she said she started shaking her head. She said, if the State is saying Hae Lee was dead by 2:36--

Summer

It’s impossible. It’s impossible. I mean, like, I mean it’s just impossible. It’s not, there’s no way that she was at Best Buy at 2:36.

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We know that Sarah Koenig continued to stress how she was "reporting in real time." She said that episodes were coming together, and being produced week by week. She wasn't producing them in advance. So, after "The Case Against Adnan Syed," did Rabia get Summer to call Sarah?

We know that Rabia was obsessed with the pay phone, and "dead by 2:36." By "Route Talk," Rabia had started to reframe every Serial episode with her own, point/counterpoint blog post. The r/serialpodcast subreddit, by then, was more about Rabia, Colin and Susan's blogs than it was about Serial. There was a huge shift to talking about the blog posts over the content of the podcast. You couldn't comment on the podcast without someone chiming in about what Rabia, Colin or Susan said about such and such. And the blog posts got way more comments than the episodes.

So, Rabia wasn't just standing by, waiting to see what Sarah would say or do next.

What do you think? Too much?