Episode 41 Morals

In plain English, these are the morals from Episode 41:

The Setup

I write these notes at the time of original publication, and that means some people are going to read them before I've published the subsequent two sections. For the sake of those having read only the first part, let me emphasize clearly that the whole point of this is not the ending. Oh sure, there is an ending, and I hope it's entertaining and leads to lots of wonder about who might kill Sasha. But for me, and especially as I describe my thoughts about The Setup, the issue is the marvelous opportunity that storylines like this offer for showcasing a wide variety of characters in interesting ways leading up to something bad happening because so many people are involved, directly or indirectly, with the Sasha storyline.

A murder is not something to be rushed, as it was in the evening episode of "Who Shot Victor?". It is something to be built up to gradually, and savored. There are few enough big plot lines that there's no sense in rushing the ones that really do ask to be played out in detail. Because of my format, I've had to rush it a bit here--even though this episode is much longer than the normal AWO episode. But the show has no such excuse. Let's see some plots that are planned and executed in the fine style of "Victor's Second Coming" or "Cassandra's Assassination Attempt" where we know it's coming but the show takes its time building up to the inevitable.

The Murder

Again, I wasn't really focused here so much on the event. I really just enjoyed writing about the weave of characters coming and going. Everyone with a wedge to drive, an axe to grind. Things narrowing in on poor old Sasha until the inevitable struck. And this was a chance to get some backburner characters like Katherine and Gina back into frontburner mode, because they are the busibodies of the town and the way the information would flow at times when it needs to.

I especially enjoyed getting Katherine and Esther into play because they are just such fun to write for. Many of the characters on the show are so dry in their terminology that the only way to write for them is to insert one or more of their standard phrases, like Cricket's "I just have to say..." or the Black Night's "I'll be damned." But a few of the characters, like Malcolm, Katherine, Esther, call for dialog that is truly theirs and that is just fun to write because you can feel the depth of it.

The Investigation

I hope I didn't upset anyone by this ending, which I freely admit is slightly flippant in nature. I wanted it to have at least a bit of surprise for everyone, and to be entertaining at the same time. But I did try hard to leave enough clues that someone who was taking this all seriously could still appreciate that I'd given them clues enough to suspect this as well as anything--if only they could think of a motive. And the motive was there, you just had to reach for it.

But my outcome was really meant to be only one of many possible. If you had another theory, that's great. That helps prove my point that there was opportunity for people to develop interesting conflicting theories about which they could argue interestingly. Contrast the "Who Shot Victor?" plot, where try as we might, we couldn't understand or relate to the only possible theory that the writers were able to cobble together! Good mysteries get their suspense from being rich in alternatives, not from making every possibility an impossibility and then producing a conclusion by magic. The audience has to feel, in the end, that they had a shot at the right answer.

That's all for Episode 41's morals. Don't miss Episode 42 and its morals!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.