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Day 5 Assignments
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Lois’ Episode Descriptions
what I learned – I do have enough stuff for season one.
season one:
episode one:
Hook/Intrigue: On his way to his 11th birthday party, Meff gets sprayed by a skunk and turns into a skunk.
Main Character journey: Meff must learn to be a skunk.
Major Challenge/Conflict: An owl swoops down and nearly catches him.
Action/Reaction: Meff runs to hide in the hen house where his sister, Polly, who loves skunks starts petting him.
Cliffhanger: His sister tells him she knows just the person who will buy him for a pet.
episode two:
Hook/Intrigue: Meff eats a rotten egg and becomes human again.
Main Character journey: Meff must deal with his dual life.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Meff’s Aunt Abigail assumes human form and attends the family dinner welcoming Meff to his skunkhood.
Action/Reaction: Polly is jealous and clearly plotting some way to stop Meff from being a skunk. Meanwhile, Mann comes over and tries to buy the Skunk Farm. Dad refuses. Mann tells them this isn’t a safe place for skunks with that owl around. Dad says he’ll shoot the owl. Mann says he can’t because the owl is an endangered species.
Cliffhanger: Dad tells Meff “If you can’t be a gentleman, be a skunk.” He gives Meff a bottle of skunk-spray to carry with him just-in-case. Meff sprays himself. Kamali shows up, looking to buy a pet skunk.
episode three:
Hook/Intrigue: Meff, still a skunk, runs to the cave where skunks live, again barely avoiding the owl. His cousins have prepared a skunk party for him.
Main Character journey: discovering the enemy.
Major Challenge/Conflict: His skunk-aunt Abigail gives him his first lesson in being a skunk by taking him to spy on the new chemical company in town.
Action/Reaction: He sees an employee, Kamali Parker, has stolen some of the asteroid mephiderite from his farm. She is doing experiments with it. One vial is labeled: Owl
Cliffhanger: Kamali attempts to trap both Meff and Abigail. She wants them for pets.
episode four:
Hook/Intrigue: Meff is running the family skunk supply shop. A customer who wants to smell like a skunk when he goes hunting, sprays Meff accidentally. Meff becomes a skunk. The customer doesn’t see this change. The customer wants to buy stuff. He rings the bell. Polly comes into the store angry – calling for Meff.
Main Character journey: Meff gets sold as a pet
Major Challenge/Conflict: Polly finds Meff in skunk form just as Kamali Parker comes in to buy a pet.
Action/Reaction: Polly sells Meff to Kamali.
Cliffhanger: Dad goes to Kamali’s appt to get him back. She won’t swap him or sell him back.
episode five:
Hook/Intrigue: Kamali enters Meff in the annual Skunk Beauty Pageant
Main Character journey: Meff gets beauty treatments and learns skunk tricks, like walking on his hands.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Meanwhile Mann (the enemy) captures Aunt Abigail snooping in his lab. He decides to try out his new hair-grow product on her and enter her in the contest.
Action/Reaction: Meff and Abigail meet again at Mann’s booth in the beauty pageant huckster room and plot their escape.
Cliffhanger: Polly is feeling sorry for selling her brother and tries to sneak him a rotten egg. Kamali stops her.
episode six:
Hook/Intrigue: Meff’s family goes looking for him at the Skunk Beauty Pageant.
Main Character journey: Polly opens Meff’s cage. He runs to the nearest booth which has skunk habitat toys. Because he is in Skunk Mind, he is attracted and can’t resist playing in one.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Kamali gets him back from the room at the top of the toy. She looks at the pricetag on the toy and shakes her head.
Action/Reaction: Mom tries to free Abigail. Mann stops her.
Cliffhanger: It’s time for the competition. Mann and Kamali carry their skunks in cages to the Green Room.
episode seven:
Hook/Intrigue: Meff competes in the Skunk Beauty Pageant.
Main Character journey: Meff and the other skunks cause chaos in the Green Room. Polly tries to bring another egg, but the other skunks get it first.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Polly sells her mephiderite jewelry. Mann buys all of it and makes a spray that freezes people. He tests it on Meff’s dad in the men’s room.
Action/Reaction: Meff’s mom breaks into the Men’s room, hauls Dad out and recognizes the smell of mephiderite.
Cliffhanger: Meanwhile, Meff is on stage competing. Mann Mcs praising Meff.
episode eight:
Hook/Intrigue: Meff wins the Skunk Beauty Pageant
Main Character journey: Meff’s prize is the habitat toy he loved. Polly tries again to sneak him an egg.
Major Challenge/Conflict: While Meff is going crazy on stage, trying to get that egg, Kamali chases him, and he leads her off stage.
Action/Reaction: Mann sprays the audience, freezing everybody
Cliffhanger: Kamali loads Meff into her car. He takes over the steering wheel, in her lap, driving her to his Skunk Farm.
episode nine:
Hook/Intrigue: At the Skunk Farm, Mann’s trucks are parked near the asteroid landing spot. His crew are loading mephiderite onto their trucks.
Main Character journey: Meff defends his family Skunk Farm as a skunk
Major Challenge/Conflict: Meff bites the tires of the trucks, giving them flat tires. His cousin skunks join him. They all spray, scaring away the workers.
Action/Reaction: Mann becomes angry. He takes his drug that turns him into an owl.
Cliffhanger: Mann swoops threateningly around the skunks. Most of them run to the cave.
episode ten:
Hook/Intrigue: Mann / owl attacks Meff / skunk
Main Character journey: Meff discovers his super-power spray
Major Challenge/Conflict: Meff fights for his life and his family skunk farm against a lethal enemy.
Action/Reaction: Meff is severely injured, but manages to spray the owl in the eyes before he drags himself to the cave. Polly brings him a rotten egg. He becomes human again, and limps out to find Kamali looking desperately for her skunk.
Cliffhanger: Animal control comes to take Mann / owl away. They will do their best because he is an endangered species.
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Lisa’s episode descriptions
What I learned doing this assignment is that when it comes down to outlining the episodes, it gets kind of scary. I feel like an imposture and like I am wrong, but I tried to come from a place of empowerment and kept going, in spite of feeling inferior, and got it done, eventually.
Episode 1:
Hook/Intrigue: Jane gets run over by a slaughterhouse truck, and Marc turns her into a vampire
Main Character journey: Jane needs to find a way to get blood to survive without drawing attention to her being a sloppy hunter.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Jane is pissed that Marc turned her. He explains that it was to save her life. She needs to get back to her mom. She needs to also get to school to teach a lecture
Action/Reaction: She breaks a bunch of things at Marc’s place. Marc restrains her. Marc says she has to get her thirst under control, and tries to give her animal blood, but she doesn’t want to drink it. The only alternative is human blood.
Cliffhanger: Jane makes it back home to care for her mom. Her brother is no longer there and her mom is on the floor and can’t get up. She sees Ammo and feasts on his blood.
Summary: Jane, a vegan activist, loves the animals and feds the squirrels outside. They come up to eat the food out of her hands. Jane takes care of her mother, who is sick, while also in school to get her PHD. Jane is being followed by someone, but she doesn’t realize it.
Jane goes to a vegan activism event outside a slaughterhouse and gets run over by a slaughterhouse truck. Marc, who was following her the whole time, saves her by turning into a vampire. She wakes up on Marc’s couch and realizes she left her sick mother with her brother, who doesn’t like playing the role of caretaker, Jane has to reevaluate her ethics and find an ethical way to quench her thirst for blood.She is angry and irritable, because she is thirsty. Marc tries to give her some animal blood, but she won’t drink it. She escapes from Marc’s house and makes it to her mom’s house, where her mom is on the floor and can’t get up. She helps her mom up, but is having a hard time being around a warm human body. She goes outside to feed the squirrels and sees Ammo, her frenemy since high school. She can’t control herself and feasts on his blood.
Episode 2:
Hook/Intrigue: Marc stops Jane from killing Ammo
Main Character journey: Marc takes Jane to Orange County. Jane meets Mina, an OC vampire who takes her under her wing and gives her some blood bags.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Jane still needs to take care of her mom, but needs her thirst under control.
Action/Reaction: Jane drinks the blood bags and takes some home with her
Cliffhanger: Mina has kids. Jane wonders how. Mina says they’re adopted, but something seems off
Summary: Marc comes in to stop Jane from killing Ammo. He controls his mind to make him not remember what happened. Marc intervenes and tells Jane she has to get her thirst under control. He brings her to Orange County and introduces her to Mina, a wealthy beautiful woman from Orange county. She has two kids, human kids, which she says were adopted. She gives Jane some blood bags and says they are from a blood bank. Something seems off, but Jane can’t quite put her finger on it.
Episode 3:
Hook/Intrigue: Lucy steals Jane’s blood bags, and locks her in a room with Dr. Berkwood
Main Character journey: Jane has to get out of the room. She breaks the door down with superhuman strength.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Dr. Berkwood is suspicious of Jane, but tells her that she’s a witch, who found out from a plant medicine ceremony. .
Action/Reaction: Dr. Berkwood tells Jane about her ayahuasca experience where she remembers a past life where she was a witch during the time of Vlad the Impaler, and she made a curse to help her people survive. The curse was making them immortal vampires.
Cliffhanger: Dr. Berkwood thinks Jane is also a witch, and tells her she can help her use her powers for good.
Summary: Jane is at school and goes to the refrigerator to find her blood is missing. Jane gets locked in Dr. Berkwood’s office and is tempted to feast on her, but she does everything to control herself. She uses her superhuman strength to break the door down to get out. That makes Dr. Berkwood suspicious of Jane. Dr Berkwood tells Jane that she had an experience on ayahuasca where she saw herself as a witch in the 1800’s an she created a curse to protect her people from their oppressors, making them stronger and also having a desire for blood. Dr. Berkwood thinks that Jane is a witch when Jane breaks down the door with her superhuman strength because she’s getting thirsty for blood and doesn’t want to hurt Dr. Berkwood.
Episode 4:
Hook/Intrigue: Marc accompanies Jane and Heather to their activism in a park. Jane tells people about all the terrible things that happen in factory farms. She tells them about how animals are raped and their babies are taken away and how they’re just tossed away to die. As she recounts this, there are shots intercut with her words that show exactly that happening in the human farms as Marc recalls the work he did there and he feels so ashamed.
Main Character journey: Jane begins to question to herself if the blood she gets is ethical as she goes back to work in the lab with Marc. She communicates with him telepathically using the new skill he taught her.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Jane is frustrated that people don’t see that animal cruelty in factory farms is wrong, but is conflicted because she drinks blood from humans
Action/Reaction: Jane gets more blood from Mina, and Mina assures her it’s ethical and it comes from a blood bank..
Cliffhanger: Jane comes home to find her mom being taken to the hospital. Marc talks to her about how she has options, one of them being she can turn her mother to save her
Summary: Jane awakens in her own bed instead of waking like a Disney princess, she looks hung over. She goes about her normal routine, taking care of her mom. Now she can hear she’s being watched. She goes after the person with a knife and stops herself before she plunges the knife into Marc. Jane is upset that her plants are dying and her animals won’t communicate with her anymore. Marc promises to show her how she can still communicate with him.
Marc accompanies Jane and Heather to their activism in a park. Jane tells people about all the terrible things that happen in factory farms. As she recounts this, there are shots intercut with her words that show exactly that happening in the human farms as Marc recalls the work he did there and he feels so ashamed.
Jane begins to question to herself if the blood she gets is ethical as she goes back to work in the lab with Marc. She communicates with him telepathically using the new skill he taught her.
Jane gets more blood from Mina, and comes home to find her mom being taken to the hospital. Marc talks to her about how she has options, one of them being she can turn her mother to save her.
Episode 5:
Hook/Intrigue: Jane needs to make up for lost time after her accident. Even though Dr Berkwood knows she was in an accident at the vigil and has given her time to rest and recover, Jane feels she needs to throw herself into her work and activism. Jane is trying to go on like nothing happened but everyone can tell something is off. Dr Berkwood worries Marc might be a controlling presence in her life and tries to intervene.
Main Character journey: Jane gets in a screaming match with someone about how they don’t have any instinct to kill animals. She yells at them because they have never found themself sitting next to their dog wanting to rip their head off and drink their blood. As Jane gets more upset her face begins to change, Marc tries to calm her down so she doesn’t kill anyone.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Heather, Dr Berkwood, and Marc are all trying to help Jane. Jane just becomes angry with them. Meanwhile Jane needs help with her mother but she just misses being able to go to her mother for advice.
Action/Reaction: Jane goes to visit her mom in the hospital. She has gotten weaker. Jane asks her mom if she could magically make her better, would she? Her mom seems out of it, but she nods and smiles at Jane.
Cliffhanger: Jane decides to turn her mom.
Summary: Jane needs to make up for lost time from the accident, and decides to throw herself right back into work and activism. Everyone can tell something is off with Jane, and Dr. Berkwood thinks it has something to do with Marc, and that he’s controlling her. Jane gets angry at someone about speciesism and screams at them. She begins to turn, but Marc calms her down. Dr Berkwood and Marc try to help Jane slow down and rest, but she gets angry with them. She goes to visit her mom in the hospital as her mom’s condition gets worse. She asks her mom if she could magically make her better would she like that? Her mom nods. Jane decides to turn her, but just as she is about to give her mom her blood, her mom goes into A-fib and doctors rush in to help her and make Jane leave the room.
Episode 6:
Hook/Intrigue: Show Dr. Berkwood’s backstory of her family life. Her marriage failed and her husband wants custody of the kids and he forces them to eat meat when he has them. Dr. Berkwood doesn’t know who to talk to, since Jane is going through a lot, so she works herself to the bone.
Main Character journey: Jane notices Dr. Berkwood’s distress and talks to her about it. Jane realizes that she uses work to get away from her problems, just like Dr. Berkwood.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Jane is a workaholic and feels bad for not being there more for her mom.
Action/Reaction: Jane goes back to the hospital to be with her mom. She is stable but on a breathing machine.
Cliffhanger: Jane tries to turn her mom, and has a coherent conversation with her. Her mom tells her she had everything in life she ever wanted and that she will always be with Jane.
Summary: Dr. Berkwood is going through a divorce. Her husband is a wealthy lawyer, and fighting her for custody. He forces their kids to eat meat, and the kids don’t like it. Dr. Berkwood abhors it. She buries herself in her work to cope. Jaen realizes that she and Dr. Berkwood have this in common. Jane decides to go visit her mom, who is stable, but on a breathing machine. She gives her mom some of her blood and is able to have a coherent conversation with her. Her mom tells her that she had everything she wanted in life and that Jane is her gift to the world.
Episode 7: Jane’s mom dies
Hook/Intrigue: Jane’s mom has already been to the afterlife. She tells her grandma told her Jane won’t be joining in a dream, and Jane has other dreams where her mom won’t talk to her, and she can’t get to her, and that her mom is sick.
Main Character journey: Jane tells Dr. Berkwood and she tells Jane that it’s just trauma and not actually her mom. She recommends plant medicine. Jane signs up for ayahuasca
Major Challenge/Conflict: Jane is struggling with grief, and still wants to keep going to school and doing activism.
Action/Reaction: They have a barbecue with Bram and Lucy and Mina. Lucy spikes Jane’s meal with meat and they fight. Jane explains that animals are innocent and can’t consent, but humans can. Lucy tells Jane she ordered her homeless friend to be taken off the streets
Cliffhanger: Jane tells Dr. Berkwood something isn’t right about Lucy and that she can’t read her. Dr. Berkwood teaches her remote viewing and Jane sees Lucy and Mina. Lucy sees her.
Summary: Jane’s mom tells her that she was in the most beautiful place with her Grandparents and other loved ones who passed. Jane tells her she can stay now if she feeds on blood, but her mom wants to cross over. She says that isn’t right, but that she will always be with her, no matter what. Jane is stricken with grief from losing her mom, but continues going to school. Jaen is having disturbing dreams of her mom and thinks she’s in pain, and she has a breakdown at school. Dr. Berkwood pulls her aside and tells her about plant medicine and how it helped her with her grief of losing her father. Jane signs up.
Bram has a barbecue to support Jane in her grief. Lucy spikes Jane’s meal with meat, and Jane gets very angry. Lucy tells her that she is a hypocrite for not eating meat, but drinking blood. Jane explains to her that it’s about consent. Lucy tells Jane she had her houseless friend taken off the streets. Jane goes to Dr. Berkwood about Lucy. Dr Berkwood teaches her remote viewing. She tries to see Lucy, but Lucy sees her, and it freaks her out.
Episode 8:
Main Character journey: Jane goes to an ayahuasca retreat fort he weekend.
Major Challenge/Conflict: Jane’s mom comes to her and gives her a warning, shows her that the blood she drinks is poison. She sees human farms of people being tortured and killed for blood Jane is trying to figure out what she saw on her journey and why.
Action/Reaction: Other people try to tell Jane what her visions mean and it makes no sense. She has a session with a healer, who tells Jane that she has blockages and she can help her. She sees something strange that she can’t decipher and wants to work more with her, but Jane is afraid she’s onto her and gets paranoid. She starts to turn from the stress and the Shaman comes and calms her down.
Cliffhanger: Jane leaves the retreat feeling more confused and lost. She goes and tells Marc what she saw in her visions, and he tells her that what she saw is real and that there actually are people farms.
Episode 8: Jane goes on a plant medicine retreat. She sees her mom who seems to be giving her a warning. Her friends at the ceremony try to help decipher her strange experience and what it means but her shaman tells her all of her journey was inside of herself. The mother is showing what she needs to see to learn the truth about herself. Jane is confused by that. One more person, a healer and co-facilitator of the retreat offers to work with Jane privately. She tells Jane she sensed something strange about her and wants to help her work through it. Jane freaks out the second night and starts to turn, but the Shaman comes and does something to calm her down.
When she tells Marc about her visions, he tells her that her visions were actually real. He shows her one of the farms. Jane freaks out and vows to find another way to survive and also vows to put an end to human farms. Though she knows it could put Marc in danger, she tells Dr Berkwood about what she has learned.
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Griff’s Engaging Episode Descriptions for THE LAST STRAW
What I learned doing this assignment: I am reminded that “the difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to make sense.”
Pilot: “Form Follows Dysfunction” – In which we establish Stephanie’s hectic and harried home life with Randy and Todd.
· Hook: Stephanie is a working single mother with two challenging teen boys.
· Journey: Stephanie must learn to navigate home life and work.
· Conflict: Stephanie tries to work at home but the boys make it hard.
· Action: The boys’ antics cause Stephanie to miss a deadline.
· Cliffhanger: The school counselor wants a home inspection.
Stephanie is jolted awake after falling asleep at her keyboard late the previous night. She has overslept again and must get her two boys to school. She manages to get them in the car in a cyclone of last-minute cajoling.
Returning home to work on her now-past deadline, Stephanie is distracted by the neighbor’s party animal daughter, just coming in from another long night out.
Just when she thinks she can settle down to work, the school calls – they boys have got into another “incident” and she must come down and meet with the Vice Principal, who wants to set up a home inspection schedule to check on the boy’s welfare.
Episode Two: “Snot Sucker” – In which we find out why Stephanie is dissatisfied with her role at the magazine.
· Hook: Stephanie’s parental advice column is a fluff piece which is hard for her to take seriously.
· Journey: Stephanie must find a way to get more respectable assignments at the magazine.
· Conflict: Stephanie tries to get her editor to consider more serious pieces from her.
· Action: One of Stephanie’s columns sparks a negative reaction from readers.
· Cliffhanger: Stephanie’s boss threatens to pull her column from future issues.
Stephanie writes her Exhausted Parent column despite feeling like a shill for manufacturers of products like The Snot Sucker. Stephanie lets her own cynicism creep into the advice column.
Continuing to pitch more serious pieces to her editor, Stephanie is becoming frustrated with being pigeonholed at the magazine. Her editor calls her bluff to quit if she doesn’t get a shot at a serious piece.
Episode Three: “Life Isn’t Fair” – In which we explore everybody’s identity crises.
· Hook: Everybody feels like they are not seen for who they really are.
· Journey:
· Conflict:
· Action:
· Cliffhanger: .
· Randy bullies Todd for being a “wimp”
· School counselors ask for a home evaluation.
Episode Four: “Gimme The Ball, Gimme The Ball, Gimme…” – In which we follow Randy as he tries to get on some sports team, any sports team at school.
· Randy tries out for baseball. He’s got the chops, but he is not picked.
· Randy tries out for basketball. He can shoot and pass and runs circles around the other kids. Still not picked.
· Randy tries out for wrestling. That was dumb.
· Randy tries out for football? Nah.
Randy’s passion is sports. He spends much of his time shooting hoops in his backyard on a broken-down backstop. He almost never misses a shot.
He keeps going out for various sports but the bigger guys just can’t get beyond his small size. He frequently takes out his frustrations by beating up on his far bigger little brother, Todd.
The senior lettermen enjoy picking on Randy, but he’s too fast for them to get ahold of him, generally.
When the lettermen follow Randy and Todd to the local Quik Mart, Randy is ready to fight. They show no interest in him, however, and he thinks they want to pick on Todd. Instead they try to recruit Todd for football. Randy goes ballistic.
Episode Five: “Martha Stewart You Ain’t” – In which Todd explores his artistic interests at school.
· Todd signs up for a cooking class and must endure Randy’s derision.
· Todd attempts to keep his excellent grades a secret for fear of Randy.
· Stephanie becomes aware that she has inadvertently been overlooking Todd’s sensitivity.
Episode Six: “Whatever Became of Crash Damitch?” – In which we find out how much Brad misses his old life as a Rock Star.
· Brad patiently explains to a student the importance of learning music fundamentals before trying to show off.
· Todd hangs out more and more, avoiding Randy. Brad decides to help him out by showing him some ninja moves.
· Brad is frustrated when a student pulls off a shredding stunt he learned on YouTube.
· Stephanie becomes concerned with the amount of time Todd spends at Brad’s.
Randy’s bullying causes Todd to seek out Brad as a kind of surrogate father. Brad has some eccentric interests, among them martial arts and firearms. Brad thinks some aikido training might be the remedy Todd needs to get Randy off his back.
Brad struggles to find satisfaction in his teaching when all his young students seem to want to do is to mimic YouTube videos.
Stephanie is concerned about the amount of time Todd has been spending with Brad, thinking that Marcey is probably a bad influence. Meanwhile it is Randy that has developed a crush on Marcey.
Episode Seven: “Cul-de-sac Diplomacy” – In which Stephanie becomes aware of a spy in the neighborhood.
· Stephanie confronts a man in an unmarked car who appears to be staking out the cul-de-sac.
· The man won’t be dissuaded and Stephanie’s inner Momma Bear is aroused.
· Brad is convinced the cops are about to come down on Marcey for drug offenses.
· Stephanie thinks it has something to do with her boys, but she’s wrong about that.
· Marcey warns Stephanie not to antagonize the stalker. Why?
Episode Eight: “ …And Your Enemies Closer.” Stephanie has pissed off the wrong stalker.
· Agent Vaughan to be claims to be in law enforcement but will not identify himself.
· Stephanie becomes aware that someone is making trouble for her with the school and Child Protective Services.
· A visit to the Sherwood home by social workers does not go well.
Episode Nine: “Do You Know Who I Used To Be?” – In which we discover the life Brad gave up to give Marcey a “normal” life.
· Hook: Brad attempts to intervene in Marcey’s “party” lifestyle.
· Journey: Brad needs to explore whether he can revive his Rock n’ Roll career.
· Conflict: Brad can’t “control” Marcey because he’s got it all wrong. She begins to feel conflicted as to which is worse – Brad worrying about what she’s doing or about what she isn’t doing?
· Action: Water and food left by Marcey saves the life of a young migrant, Maria.
· Cliffhanger: Brad takes off in the old Hell Toupee tour bus for a Las Vegas convention.
Brad’s biggest fear is that Marcey will end up like her mother, a drug addict who overdosed. He doesn’t know that her party lifestyle is an act designed to put him off the scent of her real mission – to help migrants survive in the desert.
All the while, Brad’s past is tugging at him, and he discovers that the other members of the old band are planning to attend a nostalgic Rock convention in Las Vegas.
In the course of Stephanie’s prying into Marcey’s activities, she becomes aware of Brad’s celebrity past. Has Stephanie stumbled onto a story that could turn her career around?
Episode Ten: “The Border Crossed Us.” – In which the tragic death and legacy of Marcey’s mother is revealed.
· Hook: Stephanie becomes curious about Marcey’s desert activities, not buying the Party Girl act.
· Journey: Stephanie prods Brad for more on Marcey’s background and gets the story of the tragic death of Marcey’s mother. Brad is now becoming wary of Stephanie, too.
· Conflict: Stephanie thinks there is a story lurking in Marcey’s disappearances.
· Action: Stephanie tries to follow Marcey out into the desert.
· Cliffhanger: Marcey and Harmony are arrested by Border Patrol. Stephanie bails them out.
Stephanie pays unwanted interest in Marcey and Harmony packing the SUV with water and supplies. She is skeptical that all this is for parties out in the desert.
Stephanie confers with Brad and gets the whole background about the drug overdose death of Marcey’s mother and finds out some more biographical information, like her Hispanic heritage.
Marcey does her best to be elusive, but Stephanie is determined to get a scoop out of it, thinking there’s some scandal to be exploited. Following Marcey and Harmony out to the desert, she inadvertently leads the border patrol to the girls leaving supplies in the desert for migrants crossing illegally into the US.
Episode Eleven: “Land of Opportunity” – In which the plight of migrant workers like Maria is illustrated when one of their own collapses and dies of preventable asthma.
· Hook: Maria experiences abuse at the labor camp; her few belongings are confiscated.
· Journey: Maria tries to find out who are her allies and who are her enemies.
· Conflict: Maria stands up to the bosses and looks for support.
· Action: The bosses threaten retribution against Maria for starting trouble.
· Cliffhanger: A young pregnant woman collapses in the fields and dies of an asthma attack.
Maria tries to tough out the poor conditions at the labor camp because she needs to send money home to her family in Mexico. It becomes clear to her that the bosses play the workers off against one another.
In the fields, Maria tries to get help for a pregnant girl who has collapsed with asthma. She begs for transportation to take the girl to a clinic. The bosses are in no hurry to help out, and the girl dies.
Episode Twelve: “Take A Number” – Season One Finale – In which all the stress of coping boils over and everybody lines up to run away from home. Who will that leave?
· Hook: The boys get into big trouble at school again and are brought home by police.
· Journey: The boys begin to realize that they may be separated from their mother.
· Conflict: The school notifies Social Services that the boys are not receiving adequate care at home.
· Action: All the stress leads to a huge argument which spills into the street.
· Cliffhanger: The morning after the big blowup Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.
Stephanie, trying to make a deadline, is late to pick up the boys from school. They decide to walk over to the Quick Mart, and Todd shows off some of the moves he learned from Brad. A passing squad car sees two boys fighting and the cops pick them up.
Stephanie loses it, not so much angry at the boys as with herself and the situation. Shouting and accusations spill over and the boys and Stephanie all threaten to run away from home. Marcey, already on edge with Stephanie’s prying into her business, gets into the act, taking the boys’ side.
Things eventually settle down and everyone goes to bed. However, in the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both gone.
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Going through these stages helps arrange/organise the sequence of events within each episode, something that I didn’t have quite right at the beginning. It adds to greater clarity.
Pilot #1
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet’s maid hasn’t turned up from her day off
Journey: Harriet leaves no stone unturned to find her
Challenge/Conflict: Both Harriet & Elliot hide their sexuality from their families
Action/Reaction: Elliot wallows in self doubt whilst Harriet scours the local town trying to find answers to Rosie
Cliff-hanger: FLASHBACKS: Rosie and Tily’s arrested, Elliot narrowly escapes while his lover is arrest having spent the night in a Molly House.
DESCRIPTION
Follow two major characters, Harriet determined to find out why her maid hasn’t turned up from her day off. She leaves no stone unturned to find her. Elliot locks himself in his room and hits the bottle he’s unsure what to do about nearly being arrested.
Both Harriet and Elliot hide their sexuality from their families, Flashback: reveals Rosie the maid is in actual fact Harriet’s Lover. Rosie and Tily being arrested by local Police and the early morning raid of the Molly House where Richard helps Elliot escape but gets caught.
Episode #2
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet in her search for Rosie comes across Tily’s association with the criminal underworld.
Journey: Harriet continues to find Rosie
Challenge/Conflict: Harriet and Elliot both introduced to prospective partners.Action/Reaction: Elliot finally comes out to his younger sister, they both agree to keep it a secret from their father Oswald Edwards.
Cliff-hanger: Harriet must perform a crime in order to gain the trust of the criminal underworld boss.
DESCRIPTION
In Harriet’s search for Rosie she finds out that her maids sister Tily, has criminal underworld connections. Both Harriet and Elliot meet their “suitable prospects” chosen by their match making families.
Elliot finally comes out to his sister, they both agree to keep it a secret from their father Sir Oswald Edwards. Harriet must perform a crime in order to gain the trust of the criminal underworld boss, before he hands over any information regarding Tily.
Episode #3
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet does the crime on behalf of the underworld boss. She must rob one of the crime boss’s competitors and put an end to his corruption.
Journey: Elliot decides to rescue Richard, Harriet gets more involved with the criminal underworld
Challenge/Conflict: Oswald is outrage at his son’s lack of interest in the family bloodline/heritage/estate. Harriet’s mother, Mrs. Wright curious about her daughter’s curious change in behaviour
Action/Reaction: Elliot decides to find his lover
Cliff-hanger: Harriet receives 5 dot tattoo on the back of her hand, a symbol she can be trusted by the criminal underworld. Harriet must break in to the legal records office to find information about Rosie
DESCRIPTION
Harriet must rob one of the crime boss’s competitors and put an end to his corruption. Elliot comes to his senses and decides to find his lover.
Elliot’s father is outraged at his son’s lack of interest in the family bloodline/heritage/estate/. Mrs Wright is curious about her daughter’s change in behaviour. Harriet receives 5 dot tattoo on the back of her hand as a symbol she can be trusted by the criminal underworld. Harriet must break into the legal records office to find information about Rosie.
Episode #4
Hook/Intrigue: Rosie spends her day off with her sister Tily.
Journey: Rosie and Tily arrested by local constable and thrown into jail awaiting a trial. Elliot makes careful enquires about the raid on the Molly House.
Challenge/Conflict: Harriet can’t find any details of Rosie’s arrest, too many people on the books.
Action/Reaction: Tilly steels the clothing from a gentleman client and makes a quick escape, handing some of the items to her naive sister
Cliff-hanger: Harriet’s awkward date night where he forces her to give him a quick “hand job”.
DESCRIPTION
FLASHBACK: to Rosie’s day off with her sister Tily. Tily steals the clothing of a gentleman client and makes a quick dash hands some of his items to her naïve sister. The two are arrested by a local constable and thrown into jail awaiting a trial.
Harriet struggles to find any leads about Rosie’s arrest due to the vast amount of people written up in the books. Elliot makes careful enquiries about the raid at the Molly House. Harriet has an awkward date night where he forces her to give him a quick “hand job”. Something he will later regret, seeing the irksome expression on Harriet’s face.
Episode #5
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet finds the name of the jail where Rosie and Tily are being held.
Journey: Harriet makes plans to visit the prison, must make plans for someone to care for her horses/stables
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot’s awkward date night, she gives him a bad blow job in the orangery “a little less teeth”.
Action/Reaction: Harriet plans a highway robbery, is this something the criminal underworld has arranged or is she now going rogue?
Cliff-hanger: Harriet seeks revenge on her prospective future husband (arranged by her doting mother) by robbing him whilst he travels on a highway in his carriage
DESCRIPTION
Harriet finds the name of the prison where Rosie and Tily are being held and now must make plans to get there. In the meantime she must arrange for someone to take care of her horses whilst she goes to Bristol.
Elliot has an awkward date night where the young woman gives him a bad blow job in the orangery “a little less teeth”. Harriet plans a highway robbery, is this something the criminal underworld has arranged or is she now going rogue?
Harriet gets revenge on her prospective husband by robbing him whilst he travels on a highway in his carriage. Will she kill him or set him free?
Episode #6
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet keeps both her criminal activities and sexuality from her mother.
Journey: Harriet loves her involvement with the criminal underworld and her popularity is rising within the ranks.
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot’s sister tries to soften the rift between her father and her brother by suggesting that perhaps he is better off being a bachelor. (she is married with a young son and a second child on the way)
Action/Reaction: Elliot tracks down Richards land lady at the Sailors digs and finds out he is awaiting a trial in a ships prison hulk. Murky character eaves drops on the conversation.
Cliff-hanger: Elliot receives a letter where he is being blackmailed.
DESCRIPTION
Harriet keeps both her criminal activities and sexuality from her inquisitive mother. She loves her involvement with the criminal underworld and her popularity is rising within the ranks, which rubs the boss the wrong way.
Elliot’s sister tries to soften the rift between her father and her brother by suggesting that perhaps he is better off being a bachelor (she is married and with a young son/second child on the way). He tracks down Richards landlady at the Sailors digs and finds out he is being held captive in one of the many prion hulks in Bristol. Elliot receives a blackmail letter.
Episode #7
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet involved in more criminal activities Journey: Harriet misses her lover.
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot fights with his father, he says he is willing to give up his heritage/wealth and that everything should be passed onto his sister and her son.
Action/Reaction: Mrs. Wright very curious as to why her daughter is so determined to find their maid.
Cliff-hanger: Harriet comes out to her mother. Mrs. Wright is furious and starts to throw out her daughters’ belongings at the front door.
DESCRIPTION
Harriet gets involved in more criminal activities all the while missing her lover. Elliot fights with his father saying he is willing to give up his heritage/wealth and that everything should be passed onto his sister and her son.
Mrs Wright is very curious as to why her daughter is so determined to travel to Bristol to find their maid. Harriet comes out to her mother. Mrs Wright is furious and starts to throw out her daughters’ belongings at the front door.
Episode #8
Hook/Intrigue: Mrs Wright may be coming round to her daughters sexuality.
Journey: Harriet finally arrives at the prison only to find that she is too late. Rosie was carted off to London for her trial only a few days earlier.
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot must find the name of the prison hulk that Richard is being held.
Action/Reaction: Harriet extremely disappointed in missing her lover drowns her sorrows. Chance meeting with Elliot, he takes pity on the drunken Harriet and takes her to his club.
Cliff-hanger: Harriet and Elliot wind up in bed together, but it’s not what you think. The two discover they have common ground and decide to work together to find their lovers.
DESCRIPTION
Mrs. Wright may be coming round to her daughters sexuality. Harriet finally arrives at the prison only to find that she is too late. Rosie was carted off to the Old Bailey in London for her trial only a few days earlier.
Elliot must find the name of the prison hulk that Richard is being held and journey’s off to Bristol. Harriet extremely disappointed in missing her lover drowns her sorrows. Chance meeting with Elliot at the pub, he takes pity on the drunken Harriet and takes her to his club. They wind up in bed together, but it’s not what you think. The two discover they have common ground and decide to work together to find their lovers.
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Frank’s Episode Descriptions
What I learned is that this process also takes me a lot of time if I want to generate good ideas for each episode (weeks in my case). But by taking the time to flesh out the first season episodes in such detail, and with a keen focus on raising the intrigue and major conflicts, the episode ideas really began to take on a vibrant life of their own. It’s fun & rewarding, but exhausting.
Episode 1: Marjorie’s best friend is kidnapped, and Marjorie and her friends set out to find her. Marjorie gets a message from her dream parents that comes true in her waking life.
- Hook/Intrigue: Marjorie dreams about a strange experience, there are guys with guns, an explosion, she’s falling through the sky in a machine, and then wakes up. She’s in a version of the 1960s deep South where African-Americans are in control.
- Main Character Journey: Marjorie knows a lot about technology that no one else knows. And her best friend Gwendolyn is kidnapped.
- Major Challenge/Conflict: Marjorie and the community suddenly feel unsafe after Gwendolyn’s kidnapping. Marjorie faces a shapeshifter and is getting beaten up, when the Old Fisherman shows up to save her. The shapeshifter looks human the whole time except at the end when a bit of its monster form is revealed, before it flees. Can’t understand her dreams, they are like nightmares for her.
- Action/Reaction: Marjorie vows to find and rescue Gwendolyn. Her friends and her step-dad Hank go with her.
- Cliffhanger: Hank runs over Gwendolyn.
- In Episode 1, she trips over the uneven floor to their front door. And Hank promises to fix it, to which Marjorie replies she can fix it. But Hank insists he’ll do it. Nancy says, “Give your dad this one thing.” So then they go to school. Then in Episode 4 Marjorie faces her dream parents and that gives her the confidence to stop tripping over the uneven floor. Hank notices and says, “I guess I don’t have to fix it anymore.” (Multiple hidden meanings here!)
Episode 2: Nancy tells Gwendolyn’s moms that Marjorie was brought back to life by god.
- Hook/Intrigue: Immediately after Hank hits “Gwendolyn,” he wraps up the body and tosses it into his trunk. When he picks it out of the trunk, it’s a bit heavier, but he doesn’t notice. He weighs it down with something and tosses it into the bayou. Nancy wakes at the crack of dawn (just as Hank goes to bed) to get dressed in her finest attire and put on a full face of makeup. She goes to do laundry and notices Hank’s uniform in the washer. She says a quick “thank you” prayer, dusts off her “World’s Best Mom” plaque then, pops a batch of cookies into the oven, and prepares the kitchen table for breakfast. At breakfast, Hank lies about why he washed his uniform. Later she enters Gwendolyn’s home uninvited and shares that she
- Main Character Journey: Marjorie and her friends discover Gwendolyn had a secret boyfriend. So they look for him first, and then by the climax of the episode, they go to the lighthouse and find advanced equipment and they see the emblem of the junta on the machinery. Marjorie remembers seeing that same emblem in her dreams. Marjorie demonstrates that she knows how to use the computer, and it shows that there was a teenage female subject in the machine recently.
- Major Challenge/Conflict: Hank is lying, nervous, and upset because he thinks he killed Gwendolyn. Marjorie and her friends discover Gwendolyn’s secret life with her boyfriend, which makes them question how well they knew their friend.
- Action/Reaction: Marjorie and friends continue to search for Gwendolyn. Clues lead them to the lighthouse. Gwendolyn’s reaction to learning that they think she’s Marjorie who is from a future world, is freaked out at first but then she quickly recovers because of her love of sci-fi. And then she says she is Marjorie because she wants to leave her small town and go to a cool future. The shapeshifters kidnapped the perfect girl.
- Cliffhanger: By the end of the episode, he gets a call from Marcus to head down to the bayou right away.
Episode 3: Reveal that Nancy was Marcus’ prom date before she got pregnant by Hank.
- Hook/Intrigue: Hank is drenched in sweat as he walks up to the law enforcement officers in the bayou in the dead of night. Marcus points to a sheet-covered body. When he removes the sheet, it’s a horribly slimy monster.
- Main Character Journey: Marjorie dabbles with her new technology.
- Major Challenge/Conflict: John Denbey discovers that Gwendolyn is not Marjorie.
- Action/Reaction: At end of episode, Gwendolyn escapes after the shapeshifters realize she is not Marjorie.
- Cliffhanger: Marjorie dreams and sees the faces of her biological parents clearly for the first time.
Episode 4: This is where Marjorie’s dreams make sense.
- Hook/Intrigue: Marjorie finds out about her biological parents just as Nancy is revealing her interpretation of finding Marjorie in the bayou to Gwendolyn’s moms.
- Main Character Journey: Marjorie fully steps into her transformation. She becomes more comfortable with Sin and Nelson. Starts to build less walls around her. More physical touch from Marjorie.
- Major Challenge/Conflict: Marjorie in conflict with Hank and Nancy. Nancy visits Gwendolyn’s moms and reveals that her daughter died and then was delivered from heaven when they first moved to Deslonges (see this in flashback). Marjorie’s other conflict is with whomever is working for John Denbey.
- Action/Reaction: John Denbey’s reaction to Gwendolyn escaping, is to use his money and influence to find and silence her. And to capture Marjorie.
- Cliffhanger: Marjorie follows Nancy to the spaceship that Marjorie arrived in. It’s now a shrine surrounded by flowers. They argue. Nancy suddenly collapses because the cancer’s been getting worse.
Episode 5: Marjorie gets hints that she is from another universe.
- Hook/Intrigue: Marjorie gets Nancy to a doctor and they discover that Nancy has cancer.
- Main Character Journey: The tables have turned on Marjorie and now she is the one being hunted.
- Major Challenge/Conflict: Marjorie is at school, gets called into the principal’s office. Then sees a strange man outside and runs and the man chases after her.
Episode 6: Marjorie learns the truth from Abyon.
Episode 7: Hank and Nancy need Marjorie to stay and help them as Nancy deals with terminal cancer, but she feels conflicted. (Something really important AND believable has happened to make Marjorie want to stay with her adopted parents, even after she discovers they lied to her.)
Episode 8: Sin’s dad is the one that convinces Marjorie to see Hank and Nancy’s actions in a more positive light, thus convincing her to stay with them rather than abandon them.
Episode 9: Marjorie and her friends rescue Gwendolyn, and Marjorie discovers she has a brother in another universe. Marjorie also realizes she can get a cure for Nancy’s cancer in Earth Prime as well as saving her biological parents.
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