Day 5 Assignments

[Ben Ather]

Subject line: Ben’s Episode Descriptions

What I learned doing this assignment is

I have started learning to let go of perfection. It’s difficult, but I will get there.

What I have noticed is that doing descriptions for the episode is not different from doing descriptions for five seasons. All it took was thinking big picture and throw out what I didn’t need. All that’s left is to improve it in future.

Assignment

EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS

EPISODE 1: Old Beggar helps Rain get into the Affinity Academy to learn magic.

Rain’s adopted father, Old Beggar, tells Rain he found her birth father. When Rain discovers that her birth father abandoned her because she’s ugly to learn magic and bring pride to the family, she must confront her worst fear.

Rain tells Old Beggar her decision to learn magic and prove her birth father wrong and wants Old Beggar’s help to get into Affinity Academy. Old Beggar brings Rain to strange sorcerer, who can make her a special disguise, but it comes with a great price. Rain goes ahead with it and strange sorcerer discovers that the disguise will kill Rain faster.

EPISODE 2: Rain, Aloe, and Reed attempt to rescue the new recruits from strange beasts, but fall into a trap

Affinity Academy sends the new recruits to strange world to tame the creatures as their training companions. But the new recruits have disagreements that divide them. And when one of the team is captured by the creatures, Rain must face her worst fear.

She joins Aloe, Reed, and their team to rescue their people, but discover that Peach, who brought them the news, is actually one of the creatures and has lured them into a trap.

EPISODE 3: Rain, Reed, Aloe, and the new recruits are trap in creatures’ lair.

Having fallen into a trap, Rain, Aloe, Reed, and their team must battle their way out, but when they are forced into the creatures’ lair, they must face their worst fear. Rain, Aloe, and Reed must lead their team through the creatures’ lair to find a way out.

While escaping the creatures, Rain, Aloe, Reed, and their team run into giant and dangerous creatures. The battle between giant creatures over the territory make a way out for Rain, Aloe, Reed, and their team. After escaping, Rain, Aloe, and Reed decide to find other teams.

EPISODE 4: Rain, Reed, Aloe, and the new recruits work together to tame beasts.

Rain, Aloe, Reed, and their team find the last team of the new recruits and propose they work together to tame creatures, but refuse. When they encounter the creatures, the new recruits must confront their worst fear.

Aloe makes them see the consequences of their action. Realizing what would happen, the new recruits finally work together, taming the creatures, but discover all that happened was an illusion and have passed the test.

EPISODE 5: Rain discovers she can’t learn magic.

Rain’s teacher, Chasse, demonstrates and lays out instructions on how to master a simple and necessary step toward learning magic. But when Chasse tells the class to master the step, Rain has trouble with it and must face her fear. Rain turns to books and finds solutions that can help her master the step, but she still can’t do it.

Rain searches for answers and is told anyone who can’t learn magic is because they aren’t gifted in magic and will never learn.

EPISODE 6: Rain discovers she’s curse to never learn magic.

When Rain’s teacher, Chasse, reveals to the class that another test is coming up in three days and anyone who can’t conjure up a ball of light will be dismiss, Rain must confront her worst fear. She turns to books and strange spells to learn magic.

But all failed and must seek help from Terra. Terra takes Rain to an elder of Affinity Academy who discovers she’s cursed to never learn magic and he can’t undo the curse.

EPISODE 7: Zin discovers Mo’s scheme, but gets caught.

Zin’s informant is urgently called to a meeting in the middle of the night. When Zin’s informant tells Zin Mo is executing his plan tonight, Zin must face his worst fear. He orders Natchez and Sparrow agents to arrest Mo with him.

Together, Zin’s informant takes them to meeting location, but Zin discovers Mo set him up and gets caught.

EPISODE 8: Rain, Aloe, and Reed go out to the world to lift the curse, but are tricked and captured by Strange man.

When Rain discovered she’s cursed, she must confront her worst fear. She, Aloe, and Reed go out to the world and find a way to lift the curse. They find no one who can, but come across a strange man who tells them about a mythical creature with magic that can lift any curse.

Rain, Aloe, and Reed travel to the creature’s location and kill it, but discover the strange man has lured them into a trap and captures them.

EPISODE 9: Rain, Aloe, and Reed devise a plan to make Aloe escape and get help, but she gets caught.

Strange man tortures Rain, Aloe, and Reed to get the information out of them, but when they refuse and Strange man threatens to kill them, Rain and Aloe must face their worst fear.

Together with Reed, they devise a plan for Aloe to escape and get help. Aloe escapes, but Strange man captures her.

EPISODE 10: Mo and his Sparrow agents rescue Rain, Aloe, and Reed.

When Terra receives a message from Shard about Rain, Aloe, and Reed being held captive by Strange man to blackmail Affinity Academy, he must confront his worst fear. He orders Mo to kill Strange man and rescue Rain, Aloe, and Reed.

Mo takes Natchez and Sparrow agents and travels to meet up location, but the Strange man has sent one of his men. Mo orders Natchez to kill the man and finds Strange man’s hideout. Natchez and Sparrow agents find the hideout and it turns out Strange man conspired with Mo to kill Rain. Mo kills Strange man and rescues Rain, Aloe, and Reed.

EPISODE 11: Mo takes over Terra’s position.

Kins kills all the guards in the prison and sets Zin free. When Kins tells Mo Zin escaped, he must face his worst fear. He orders Kins to gather their men and Sparrow agents to execute the plan ahead of time.

Mo comes face to face with Terra and forces him to hand over his position, but Mo discovers Terra has been planning to pass the position over to him.

EPISODE 12: Reed and Aloe help Rain investigate who curse her, but Sparrow agents arrest her.

Rain, Aloe, and Reed come to Ryster City and investigate her birth father to discover who cursed her and lift the curse. When their investigation leads nowhere, Rain must face her worst fear. She hires beggars to do her investigation.

The beggars find Rain’s midwife who might have all the answers she needs, but her cover is blown and Natchez with Sparrow agents arrest her and taken to Affinity Academy.

EPISODE 13: Terra sends Shard and his men to rescue Rain from the prison.

Natchez and Sparrow agents bring Rain to Affinity Academy and lock her up. When Kins tells Terra the situation, he must confront his worst fear. He devises a plan and sends Shard and his men to rescue Rain.

Shard travels to Affinity Academy, breaks into the prison and rescues Rain. After rescuing Rain, Shard brings her to Terra, who convinces her to join him in his quest to change the rule.

[Linda Anderson]

Linda Anderson’s Episode Descriptions

What I learned doing this assignment is it’s hard to distinguish between hitting the right intrigue notes and book reporting.

Title: Rejected

Format: Half-hour comedy

By: L. C. Anderson

Episode 1:

Louise plunges into a midlife crisis when her memoir, “A Life Well-Lived,” gets a snarky rejection letter from Candice who says it’s too boring and bland. Having the dream of becoming a bestselling author crushed confirms that Louise’s life is worthless. Blinded by hysterical crying over the rejection, she crashes her bicycle into Derrick’s car.

After Derrick tells Louise what she thinks are interesting things about himself, she decides to steal his much cooler life story and write a fake memoir, using “Derrick” as her pen name. To secretly interview him for the book, she enrolls in his course at the professional clown school where he’s an instructor. But he lies by answering her questions with details from Chester’s crime-boss experiences. Without their realizing it, the fake memoir will endanger all of them. It will get them killed if it’s a bestseller.

Episode 2:

After clowning sessions, Derrick talks to Louise about what it’s like to testify against a crime syndicate and hide in witness protection. Louise quickly takes notes on the information for chapters in the fake memoir.

Jan manipulates her mother into letting her move in, so she can save money and pursue an acting career. With the pain of Louise’s own rejection fresh, she agrees to support her daughter’s dream and empathizes with Jan never getting roles she auditions for. Jan gets suspicious about Louise befriending Derrick and why her mother, who has never come out of her comfort zone, is becoming a clown. Louise’s excuse is that she’s rewriting her memoir and has to spice up her life to make it publishable.

Episode 3:

Louise and Derrick go on clown gigs. She’s starting to enjoy herself and him more than she thought possible. Louise tells Derrick about her secret talent and demonstrates it: sometimes she hears conversations of inanimate objects.

On the day Louise prints out and completes the fake memoir, she hides a copy in a secret hiding spot and discovers love letters between her late husband and a female coworker. Before he died, he planned to dump Louise and run away with the woman. Devastated, she takes out her rage on Jan’s whining about her life and crushes her daughter with unasked-for advice. Louise emails the manuscript to a different editor at Candice’s publishing company.

Episode 4:

Jan finds the fake memoir and reads it. Now she views Derrick’s bad-boy image as adventuresome and dangerous. Jan is furious with Louise for stealing his life story. She goes to Derrick’s condo, intent on telling him the truth, but finds him, shaky and vulnerable, talking with his AA sponsor Jake.

Derrick’s memoir creates a buzz at the publishing company. Candice manipulates to get the editor, who Louise sent it to, fired and her replaced as the book’s editor. Derrick tells Louise that talking to her has made him determined to find Chester. He wants his father back.

Episode 5:

Louise realizes Derrick has been drinking on one of their clown gigs. When she drives Derrick home, he tells her his secret wound—he killed his sister in a drunk-driving accident. When Louise plowed into his car, it reminded him of the worst moment of his life. Chester has never forgiven him. Derrick’s shame makes Louise feel remorseful for passing it off his life story as her own.

At home, Louise breaks down and tells Jan about the deception and that her father had intended to divorce her. Jan tries to convince Louise to tell Derrick about the memoir. But they both acknowledge that if he finds out the truth, he could have a full relapse over Louise’s betrayal.

Episode 6:

Candice falls in love with Derrick via the fake memoir. She sees it as her ticket to a promotion and having her own imprint. She offers a contract and advance money to Derrick aka Louise but insists on an in-person meeting in NYC.

Candice maneuvers the marketing department into creating an amazing pre-publication teaser for the book online. She sends a preview link of the book trailer to Louise. Louise is now in a major bind about the need to confess her deception to Derrick.

Episode 7:

Before Louise can come clean, Jan sees the book trailer. She finds out Louise set up a fake bank account to deposit advance money for the book. It will come in payments after Louise turns in the edited manuscript and the book launches. Jan believes Louise should cut her in on the advance. Louise refuses. Jan confesses to Derrick that she loves him and by the way, her mother is going to make a lot of money off of selling his life story.

At an obscure FBI office, Mark’s coworkers ridicule and reject him as a bumbling incompetent. He comes across the book trailer online and reports the valuable information to his crime boss, thinking “Derrick” is Chester’s pen name.

Episode 8:

The crime boss sends Mark to kill Derrick/Chester for having testified against the syndicate. In a near-miss, Mark attempts to kill Derrick without seeing his face.

Derrick blackmails Louise into going on the run with him to escape Mark. Either she uses the advance money to finance his escape or he’ll tell Candice the memoir is a fake. Louise convinces him to go to NYC and meet with Candice or none of them will get the money. To be near Derrick and con Louise into cutting her in on the advance money, Jan runs with them. Before they leave, Louise, feeling the need to have something go her way, calls the woman her husband was having an affair with and says she’s sending their love letters to the woman’s husband.

Episode 9:

Derrick and Louise do clown gigs to hide in plain sight from Mark on the trip to NYC. Louise disguises their locations with her skilled fact-checking and research skills. Her ability to hear inanimate objects alerts her to Mark getting closer to finding them.

Candice finishes editing Derrick’s book and emails it to Louise. Now Louise can collect the next advance payment. On their journey to NYC, Derrick confides in Jan about Chester’s rejection. Jan surreptitiously figures out Chester is an online con man and finds his merchandise website.

Episode 10:

Derrick is everything Candice hoped he would be. He introduces Louise and Jan as his assistants. Candice schedules a book launch at an off-Broadway theater and invites her boss to witness her smashing success.

Publicity for the launch clues Mark into where he can assassinate Derrick. Jan contacts Chester and begs him to save Derrick. Chester still loves his son. He quickly leaves his witness-protection home, goes deeper into hiding, and figures out a plan.

Episode 11:

At the launch, Chester stops Mark from killing Derrick. Louise reveals the truth. The audience, reviewers, and Candice’s boss love the added intrigue and think it’s another chapter in Derrick’s exciting true-life story. Candice covers up that the memoir is a fake and promises a sequel and a TV series. Jan perks up at the idea of starring as Louise in the series.

Louise wonders, if the book becomes a major bestseller or series, what the crime syndicate will do to them. Jan is scared she can’t successfully compete with Candice for Derrick’s love. Derrick’s hopes are raised that he and Chester will reconcile. Louise recognizes that she could write a new bestselling memoir to now include her clown experiences, running for her life, and an array of her hidden talents—much more now than “a life well-lived”.

[Elizabeth Dickinson]

Elizabeth Dickinson’s Engaging Episode Descriptions

What I learned doing this assignment was that 3 of the categories seem incredibly similar to me: main character journey, major challenge/conflict, and action/reaction. Almost everything I answer as one of those 3 things ends up fitting into the other 2 categories as well, so I’m clearly missing something here…

I know I need to add more with the Celtic gods, and Celt’s feeling of abandonment with them, (as well as something more with the overall framing with Oversoul) but don’t want to delay submitting this any longer.

Still not sure how much detail to include, but looking ahead, I see that more edits are part of this…

EPISODE 1

To become the angel it longs to be, Oversoul must purge regrets of its past lives, and starts by reliving some turning point lifetimes, starting with its life as 1^st century A.D. young psychic Celt boy, who can see/communicate with minor divinities.

When the Celt sees his beloved village threatened by invading Roman soldiers, he enters into a dangerous bargain with the god of thunder, that results in Celt leaving home-with the Roman soldiers.

The brutality of his new life becomes apparent when a fellow village boy is murdered, leaving Tyran, the surviving younger twin, emotionally dependent on Celt. This leaves Celt psychologically unable to grasp the opportunity of escape when it’s offered by his best friend Coran- partly because it means abandoning Tyran.

Celt’s talents for learning/translating Latin are ironically viewed as enemy collaboration by his peers. That, together with the savage cutting out of Tyran’s tongue by Roman soldier Cletus, leads to Celt’s own dawning horror and guilt that he has essentially volunteered to be a slave.

His mental anguish causes him to try to cut out his own tongue so he cannot collaborate with Romans. Stopped by Tyran, Celt is nonetheless left temporarily unable to speak. Sickened by the sight, Celt’s Roman mentor Sirius abandons him to the cage containing the least valued slaves.

As the shores of his Britannicus home drift away and are covered by fog, Celt sails into an uncertain and dangerous future, without a way to communicate, and with his only friend another younger, tongue-less Celt boy.

How will Celt survive Roman slavery?

EPISODE 2

Travelling on the first large ship of his entire life, Celt endures a pirate takeover, and forges a new friendship with Dakarai, a fatherly Ethiopian slave rower, who tries to engage Celt in conversation. When Tyran mistakenly believes that the slave rower is abusing Celt, it results both in Dakarai being whipped, and in Celt getting raped in retribution by Xola, Dakarai’s friend.

When Celt inadvertently breaks his resolution not to use Latin, Dakarai urges Celt to communicate his talents to the pirate captain to avoid being sold to a brothel at the slave auction. Now understanding from first-hand experience that brothel life means continual rape, Celt speaks to the pirate captain.

Separated from Tyran at the auction, Celt is sold to Acutius, who unbeknownst to Celt, is the head trainer of Rome’s foremost gladiatorial school, while Tyran is bought by a brothel.

EPISODE 3

Celt is sent to learn Acutius’ business from the ground up – which initially means building and tending the charcoal kilns outside Rome that provide the fuel for making gladiatorial weapons. Narrowly missing an encounter with run-away slave Xola in the forest, Celt thrives tending the forest kilns and being in nature – until the Roman soldier Cletus reappears, with an interest in buying Celt from Acutius.

In a vision, Celt sees both Celtic divinities and their Roman equivalents, who offer Celt both prophecies and gifts to guide his way. Confused about his possible options, all Celt wants is to return home – and is warned by the divinities that while it’s possible for him to go home, in the end Celt may not want to pay the price.

When Celt returns to Rome, there is one more surprise. Acutius reveals that he has bought Tyran.

EPISODE 4

Celt realizes Tyran has been irrevocably scarred by working in a brothel. Cletus offers to buy Celt from Acutius. Surprisingly, Acutius offers Celt a choice: go with Cletus to Britannicus, or remain in Rome to continue working his way up to becoming a gladiator. When it becomes obvious that to return home as Cletus’ servant means having sex with Cletus and fighting against his own people in Britannicus, Celt suffers a breakdown.

Celt’s work at the forge suffers until a horse abused by Xola requires Celt to intervene, leading to an unexpected opportunity that brings Celt back into the outdoors, and beloved nature.

EPISODE 5

As Celt uses his animal communication skills to design a special snaffle bit to overcome Altus resistance to bits in general, and forges a special bond with the horse .

Celt meets famous agricultural writer Columella and is attracted to Columella’s young slave, Melisa, impressed by her sensitivity and ability to read and write.

But against Xola’s orders, and against the horse goddess’ warning, Celt rides Altus, which leads to a public beating from Xola, who has become a power within the stables, and who still hates Celt.

EPISODE 6

Acutius is angry and powerless about Celt’s mistreatment at the hands of Xola. However, Acutius finally arranges for Celt to start gladiatorial training. But in Acutius’ absence, Xola forces Celt and Tyran to return to carrying water for the stables. Ironically when Celt is re-deployed yet again by a powerful senator’s servant to refill a senator’s pool, Celt sees Melisa, who has been sold to the senator.

Celt’s animal training abilities reach the ears of Carpophorus, the most successful animal trainer and fighter Rome has ever seen. As the emperor’s protege, what Carpophoros wants, Carpophoros gets, and Carpophoros wants Celt to train and fight animals in the coloseum.

EPISODE 7

Celt thrills to the gentler parts of Roman animal training – nursing orphan bobcat kittens, getting zebras and ostriches to pull a carriage, training a lion to open its mouth and to allow rabbits run through without harming them. But he is sickened when he sees the needless, full scale slaughter of exotic animals in performances in the ring, which includes animals from his own country.

He tells Carpophorus he wants out and prefers fighting other men to animals. Carpophorus reluctantly agrees. But when Carpophorus gets sick and misses a show that the emperor will attend, Celt is the only one who can take Carpophorus’ place in the ring.

Celt agrees against his own better judgment—with the one condition that he gets to ‘retire’ as an animal fighter after the one performance. So Celt wills himself to be a killing machine in the ring, and receives the ultimate plaudits and rewards from the emperor. Captivated by the performance, the emperor also decrees that Celt should exclusively train and fight animals.

Celt is furious and heartbroken – what will he do next?

EPISODE 8

Celt is invited along with Carpophorus to a fancy dinner at the senator’s house where he meets the famous poet Martial, is served by Melisa, and runs into his old mentor, Sirius.

Not only does Celt has to fend off the unwelcome attentions of Martial, but he must also defend Melisa from the amorous attentions of the older son of the emperor, making a powerful enemy in the process.

Celt, convinced the emperor won’t miss him now that Carpophoros has recovered, persuades Acutius that he can start his gladiatorial training in secret. Acutius has reservations, but allows it, with the caveat that Celt must disappear when anyone from the imperial household tours the center.

Celt excels at all the potential types of gladiatorial combat, and punches above his weight, but Acutius suggests that Celt conceal his identity by performing as a secutor, the only type of gladiator that wears a face mask.

However, one day the visored Celt trains and a small boy notices him. Unbeknownst to Celt and Acutius, the emperor and his family pay a surprise visit to the facility. The small boy turns out to be the emperor’s youngest son, and the emperor’s youngest son demands to fight someone.

As Celt is the right size, he is chosen to fight the son. Not knowing that he should pretend to lose, he handily defeats the boy. When the emperor demands that Celt remove his visor and reveal his identity, the emperor is extremely displeased and orders Celt return to full-time training with Carpophorus.

Celt devises a dangerous scheme – where he trains animals for with Carpophorus’ agreement for part of the day, with the proviso that he not harm them, and saves his fighting skills for fighting other males in the coloseum.

What could go wrong?

EPISODE 9

Celt has his first gladiatorial combat and wins in spectacular fashion. The aedile asks Celt to remove his visor to receive his due – and the crowd gasps, for Celt has covered his face in the fighting blue woad of his tribe, anticipating the request, and wanting to hide his identity.

Celt is showered with gifts and grows in prestige. He uses his growing influence to secretly remove Melisa from the attentions of the emperor’s eldest son and has her sent away to train as an herbalist and healer, her dearest wish.

Before Melisa leaves, she introduces Celt to Bre, her girlfriend and kitchen replacement, who also happens to be a second generation Celt-Roman. Celt is smitten, but Bre withholds her affections, for a good reason-she is working as a spy for tribes who chafe under Rome’s influence, and doesn’t completely trust a Celt boy who’s ‘making good’ in Rome.

EPISODE 10

Celt reduces the time with Carpophorus and animal training and continues racking up the wins as an anonymous blue-faced gladiator. The growing mutual attraction between Celt and Bre cements over the fact that neither one of them want Bre to give birth to a child who would be a slave. However, not being able to consummate the relationship causes them both misery. Celt hasn’t made enough money to buy Bre’s freedom, but he uses his winnings to buy a ne serva clause for Bre, guaranteeing she will not be prostituted should he die in the ring.

Xola reveals Celt’s identity to the aedile, who reveals it to the emperor. The emperor gives Celt one last chance to be a beast fighter- and threatens to put Acutius’ entire operations out of business if Celt refuses.

Celt can’t bear the thought, so he and Acutius hatch a plan. Plague is starting to spread in the city, so they arrange with a doctor to announce that Celt has it, can’t appear in the ring, and has been sent to the country to recover.

The night before Celt leaves, he and Bre consummate their relationship.

Alternative:

The doctor actually infects Celt with the plague, or Celt gets it from Xola or someone he trusts.

EPISODE 11

Celt is smuggled out of Rome to a friendly official’s country home, but becomes desperately ill, and hallucinates more meetings with gods, who accuse him of betraying them. He has a vision of a pregnant Bre turning down an herbal abortion from Melisa, and smuggling herself out of Rome and giving birth to a son who leads Celt’s tribes to fight the Romans in Scotland.

As he recovers, Celt catches the eye of the official’s older wife, who has a long history of affairs with younger men when her husband is away, and embarks on a dangerous, torrid relationship.

Celt’s relationship with the wife gives him status amongst the other servants, although one slave warns him that these affairs are short-lived.

Celt reaches his breaking point when the wife asks him to tie her up during sex – and he complies, but leaves her gagged and tied up. When the husband finds her, the official has Celt savagely beaten, so Celt’s non-dominant arm is broken, an eye is removed so Celt is intentionally disfigured, and Celt is demoted to farmhand slave.

EPISODE 12

Celt tends forge, is intentionally harassed by the overseer, and on especially demeaning days, takes the place of the donkey who turns the wheat-grinding equipment.

But Curia, a next-door-neighbor’s slave, seduces Celt with hopes of giving birth to a son who might one day become a successful gladiator. Dying in childbirth, Curia ironically gives birth to a daughter, who is then given to the official’s wife as slave-companion to her own daughter.

As the daughter grows up, she guesses her parentage, becomes a secret Christian. As memories of Celt’s transgressions fade after the official’s wife’s death, Celt’s daughter arranges for Celt to have easier work. Celt finds peace within the relationship, and even though he doesn’t understand Christianity, he values anything that puts the humane back into humanity.

But when his daughter marries, and dies in childbirth, Celt is adrift again.

Acutius’ son visits the villa and recognizes Celt, offering him the chance to return to the gladiatorial ring under the former emperor’s youngest son.

With years of life left, and feeling like he has no control and nothing to lose, Celt agrees.

Even with an arthritic grip, and missing an eye, Celt is ferocious in the ring. Eventually realizing that his bargain with Taranis was empty and unfulfilling, Celt arranges with Dakarai’s son (a new gladiator) to ‘take him out’ in the ring, so he can die with dignity, and be reunited in death with his family.

[Timothy Barley]

Tim Barley’s Engaging Episode Descriptions:

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s becoming real! A lot of late nights tossing ideas around, shower moments and reflecting while driving cross country have finally been collated into a series. And now, I have episodes! And I want to write, rewrite and make it perfect, but sticking to the plan…

LESSON #5: ENGAGING EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS

Episode 1: “…In the Beginning”

Daydreaming in his office as a TV researcher, Alex is reminded of the time his dementia-addled grandfather disappeared, and he and his father had to find him, discovering him states away, running from “the dark men.” The new girl in the office wakes him up from his daydream, asking him how his father was. He asks how she knew what he was thinking, but she is called away. Before he leaves, his intern, Billy, gives him notes on a possible new comet and updates on his story about how humans are not humans… On his way home that evening, he is chased by a dark car, but he can only see their silhouettes as they are chased off by someone else. When he gets home, he tells his neighbor Allistar about it.

Meanwhile, a world away, Edris is bound and gagged with some others, about to be beheaded by extremists. He convinces them to ungag him and he tells them that they can’t kill him. They laugh, but he kicks out the lights, and in the darkness and the gunfire, we see all the extremists fall one by one. When the lights come back on, he tells someone off camera, “there, you got what you needed?” “Yes, thank you. I have a message for you: you’re needed in Los Angeles. Something about the power hair…?” Edris smiles.

The next day in LA, the new girl in the office asks Alex if he’s okay with a twinkle in her eye and asks if it’s okay if she comes over later, showing him a picture of his mom and dad…

Episode 2: “What the What?”

That night, at Alex’s, Feenix tells him the REAL history of what’s known as the “human race” – that 100,000 years ago, the last great invasion took its toll on the system, leaving Earth with a virus that exploded onto the planet, plundering the very Source of power to the planet and its inhabitants. What we know as the Neanderthals, took their technology and took the fight to the stars, while the great races/Houses, did the only thing they could to the human infestation – breed it out. Though the countless generations since, four great houses comprised the majority of intelligent life on earth and the human virus.

As Feenix is relaying this story, Allistar comes in, as neighbors do, and is stunned to find Feenix there. They get into a fight. Feenix tells Allistar that he’s not been doing his job protecting Alex. He tells her he’s B-O-R-E-D!!! She says “mom is pissed off. It’s almost time.” Alex stops them from destroying his apartment, freezing them in place. After the spell is broken, a stunned Feenix magically fixes the apartment and tells him to sleep. Allistar and she share a look as they leave. As he gets drowsy, and closes the door, we see a figure down on the street looking up at the door.

Episode 3: “Hey Now!”

Alex wakes the next day to the sound of Allistar knocking on his door wanting to talk. Ignoring him, Alex heads out and skips work and heads to the beach. There he meets Jade, a beautiful, funny change to take his mind off of everything. They agree to meet later, and Alex heads home to find Allistar waiting outside his place to talk. Alex says he has a date and can’t talk.

Alex meets up with Jade for dinner, but Allistar spoils the date by addressing that he and Jade are exes, from a time long ago. Alex leaves, telling the both of them to stay away from him.

Feenix finds Edris skulking around Alex’s, and invites him for a drink where they discuss what they were told to do regarding Alex.

Episode 4: “Pay Attention!”

Seeing that Alex is spending more time with Jade, Allistar goes speaks with his mother about what her motivations could be and alert her to possible political ramifications. During a romantic encounter, Jade helps Alex discover a new ability.

Both Edris and Feenix arrive at their target, a Human scientist. Both equal in ability, their fight destroys an entire block outside Los Angeles, with Feenix leaving with the scientist, and Edris vowing revenge.

Episode 5: “Look What We Did!”

Showing off yet another new ability to Jade outside LA, the brother and sister Feenix/Allistar roll up, telling him it’s time to introduce him to the elders. With Jade tagging along, the four of them travel through shadows into someplace unknown, but when they get there it’s like a scene out of The Garden of Eden. Art showcases the downfall of humanity, replete with depictions which are similar to the bible stories we all grew up with.

The elders are unimpressed with what Alex shows them he can do. Several call into question his lineage, and one, Feenix and Allistar’s mother suggesting he is more human than Earthling, knowing who his mother is. He is furious, but as he is about to go after her, he is tossed out and winds up back in his apartment, where Edris is waiting.

Episode 6: “Dammit, Edris”

Edris is waiting for Alex when he gets back and explains his position as a Human, an old human, and how Alex might be a Human as well. Alex refuses, and Edris says in time, he will understand.

The next day at work, he notices that Billy, an intern that looks up to Alex, isn’t at work. Someone says he was out sick, but he called in and left a message on his voicemail. Alex listens to it; it’s Edris saying he has Billy and if he wants to see him, he’ll meet and to come alone. Feenix, leaning in his door, tells him he can’t go alone. Alex confesses he doesn’t know what the hell is going on anymore. Feenix tells him it’s going to be alright, calls her brother and they go to the meet point. Someone is tailing them. When they get there, it turns out NOBODY played by the rules and each side has back up. Mayhem breaks out, each side using fighting skills aquired over years and specific magic available to each of them. It’s a standstill, until Jade shows up, trying to get Billy from Edris’ backup. She’s wounded, but Alex, Feenix, Bily and Allistar are able to get away with a rapidly dying Jade…

Episode 7: “You Should Look at This”

The group finds themselves outside LA at a refuge. Although the land is dry, this mini-Eden has everything they need. Billy is infatuated with everything, even though he is also wounded. His constant questioning is interrupted when Allistar takes a call. He relays what happened, and then looks up. “Astronomy says there is a new comet out there…” Billy pipes up, “See, Alex? Told you.” Allistar says that he will get Billy back to his place and then come back. Just the three of them, Feenix makes an admission that she might be falling in love with Alex. This goes over poorly. Jade, her mother’s voice in her head, goes mad and brawls with Feenix, which carries them outside the Eden spot to the edge of a cliff, where she forces Feenix over the edge. Alex cries out looking for her. Jade pushes him, “if you like her so much, you can go after her.” She walks off.

Episode 8: “Not So Fast”

As Alex and Feenix fall from the cliff, they are buffeted by the wind which eases them onto the ground, hundreds of feet below. Jade is there, apologizing for her jealous behavior. Feenix screams that she just threw them both off a cliff. They begin shouting accusations at each other about how they were directed to behave toward Alex and what to do to bring them into their Houses. Alex grows tired of them bickering and in a bit of frustration and anger he wills himself away and finds himself standing on… the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

Episode 9: “Alex Unchained”

Panicking and willing himself back to any dry land, he realizes he is in South America. He speaks little Spanish, so he tries again. This time, Finland. Then, the desert of Saudi Arabia. More, then back home. Now, he takes stock of his power. He begins to see how he can use it to do bad things to people, like the asshole treating his do badly. Or the woman berating a server. But, causing bad things to happen to people appears to have ill effects on his body. Allistar suddenly shows up and tells him this, relaying stories about how he used his limited power and telling him that he is nothing compared to Alex. Alex asks if they have to do something about Edris. Feenix, from the shadows, says yes, they have to and do it soon, or it may be too late. “The comet isn’t random…” “Set up a meeting…”

Episode 10: “Oh, There’s More…”

In the desert outside of LA, Edris and his Human followers face off against Alex, Allistar, and Feenix. Edris tells Alex that he’s only on assignment from someone back home where he grew up. Alex tells him that he doesn’t care, he just wants to stop Edris from killing off Earthlings and must forfeit his power to Alex. An epic battle ensues, all hidden by a gigantic dust storm. In the midst of the battle, as Alex is about to take Edris’ power, Jade arrives with Billy in hand. She threatens to kill him, she’s double crossed them! But Billy plays his hand – an unseen gauntlet appears on his hand and he grabs Jade and absorbs her power, she withers shrieking. Everyone looks on in horror as he moves quicker than anything they have ever seen to do the same to Edris’s men. Edris, his power failing, disappears before it’s his turn. As the storm subsides and the dust settles, Billy introduces himself – William Draker, Homeworld Intelligence Officer and overseer of World Unification. “Now, we have a lot of work to do. And I’ll tell you on the way. Alex, can you get us a ride?” Alex conjures up a ’67 Lincoln Continental Convertible. “Perfect.” They climb in. “Where are we going,” asks Feenix. “Alex. Knows.” Alex sighing, “Home”

Season ends on the car raising dust as they head East.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Timothy Barley.

[Wendy Weising]

Wendy Weising’s Episode Descriptions

What I learned doing this assignment is if I just followed my episode list, the rest came.

Assignment #5

Episode 1: Accidents Happen

Jayne uses a cookie cutter to make heart-shaped sandwiches as her kids play on their phones. When her husband orders her to check the mailbox for an important letter, she finds a note that reads, “Goodbye, bitch,” and is hit by a speeding car. Jayne wakes up in a weirdly silent hospital. She has restraints on her arms and legs and a strange mask over her mouth, which keeps her from speaking. Jayne panics, thrashes, and knocks over what looks like a cup of blood on her nightstand.

A nurse arrives and forces the blood-like liquid through a hole in Jayne’s mask. She falls asleep and dreams about capturing and kidnapping children. When she awakens the next time, Dr. Zyn is talking in a strange language to his nurse. She has had enough. When Dr. Zyn takes off her mask, she summons the courage to scream for her husband and kids. He tries to calm her, but she won’t have it. She demands to see her kids. Dr. Smith arrives and tells her that she has no husband or kids and then forces her to drink more of the liquid.

Episode 2: Simple Genius

Dr. Jones kills baby Polly’s parents and tells her that she is her new mommy. But Polly cries most of the time and refuses to eat, so Dr. Jones loses interest and neglects her. Dr. Zyn sees Polly lying on the floor and crying and picks her up. He kisses the top of her head. “I will always love you, little one,” he says.

Polly now stands before Dr. Jones, who is reminding her that she is a spy and that a spy had better bring back information or face severe consequences. Polly steals a book while Dr. Smith’s back is turned. Then she does what she must do even though she doesn’t like it. She listens in on a conversation between Dr. Zyn and Jayne, when he tells her that believes her. She files that information away for later.

As Polly cleans Jayne’s room, she notices how upset she is. Even though Polly is extremely introverted, she shows Jayne her book, rifles through it, points to the words, “Don’t believe them.” Then she scurries from the room.

Episode 3: A Thornbird Sings

While serving Jayne breakfast, Ava sings about liars and then begins to cry. When questioned by Jayne, Ava honestly tells this woman who is like her mother about her life.

She was taken from her mother. Dr Smith chose her out of a group of teenagers because of her beautiful voice. When Ava sang, the insomniac Dr. Smith slept. However, when Ava stopped singing, Dr. Smith bribed her with fancy clothes and a beautiful room to sing at the elaborate parties that she threw for her odd friends. Finally getting a chance to be noticed, Ava agreed. At one party, a man lured Ava into a bedroom and closed the door. Awhile later, Ava ran out in tears with a torn dress. Dr. Jones made light of it and gave Ava drugs.

When Jayne hears this story, she is furious. She vows to kill Dr. Jones. When she asks if Ava is now safe, Ava admits that it hasn’t stopped–she is still Dr. Jones’s prostitute.

Episode 4: The Truth Hurts

One day, after giving Jayne her daily antibiotic shot, Dr. Zyn removes Jayne’s restraints and tells her that she can move about the hospital. Dr. Jones pulls him aside and argues with him about undermining her authority. Jayne sneaks out of the room, desperate to find her children. She sees the “Do Not Enter” signs, and for once in her life, this perfect rule follower breaks them and goes in.

Doctors are removing brains from people who are comatose but still alive. Jayne flips out as doctors rush her from the room. Dr. Jones drags her back to her room and tells her that if she does anything like it again, she will keep her in restraints.

Polly has seen the whole thing and goes to get Ava. She leads her to the “Do Not Enter” doors and points. Then she leads her to Jayne’s room. Ava goes to Jayne and puts her arms around her. Jayne wants to know what is going on. Ava tells her that they are in a human brain-mining facility run by aliens.

Episode 5: Love Protects

Dr. Zyn decides to become Jayne’s main caregiver because he is in love with her. As he sits in her room, and she sleeps, he remembers the day that his friend introduced him to his mate, Jayne, whom Dr. Zyn couldn’t take his eyes off. He never acted on those feelings because the Great Death came. His race began to die.

No one knew why, until the brilliant scientist Dr. Jones revealed that her people were missing a chemical in their bodies. Dr. Zyn went to work with her. She felt that humans were similar enough that they might find the needed chemical there. When she found that humans were a match, she sent harvesters to capture humans and bring them to Cerebros. Dr. Zyn could take not more after he witnessed the horrors of her mining methods. He agreed to watch over the patients but not to be part of the mining process.

Now he summons his courage and tells Jayne that he loves her, but she is asleep. He kisses her forehead. Dr. Jones has witnessed the whole event. She tells him that they will mate that night after dinner and that if he doesn’t want Jayne to mysteriously die, he better perform well and often.

Episode 6: Believe It or Not

Jayne tells Polly and Ava that she must escape and save her kids. They encourage her to confide in Dr. Zyn. He is their friend. She doesn’t know if it’s a good idea or not, but she decides to trust and tell him. He tells her that her kids are at a facility about fifty miles away. They agree to escape together.

Polly produces a map drawn from her amazing memory of her travels around the hospital. They know which door to exit, but how will they unlock it? Once they leave, how will they travel those fifty miles? Dr. Zyn knows where the vehicles are, but they are heavily guarded. Jayne decides to agree to an experiment that Dr. Jones has been going on about. That will give the others time to steal a vehicle. Meanwhile, Ava steals extra drugs to take with her, and Dr. Zyn steals more vials of the brain serum to survive.

Dr. Jones knows that something is going to happen. Did Polly tell her? She tells Jayne that she is controlling everyone in her little group. Polly is her spy, Ava is her prostitute, and Dr. Zyn is her mate. They will do anything for her.

Episode 7: The Key

Jayne has scrapped the escape plan and gone into a deep depression. She doesn’t trust anyone. Polly stood up to Dr. Jones and told her she would never spy for her again. Dr. Jones said she was next on the brain-serum donation list. Polly gives Jayne a gold heart from her stash, but Jayne doesn’t respond. Then Polly slides a key into her hand and leaves. Dr. Zyn tells her that she needs to snap out of it, get her butt out of bed, and save her children. He also shares news about Polly standing up to Dr. Smith and the consequences.

Jayne finds a strength she didn’t know she had. She is back in. Everyone packs pillowcases full of stolen supplies. But how will they unlock the door? Jayne pulls out the key compliments or Polly. Jayne grits her teeth and goes to Dr. Smith for the experiment. Dr. Zyn hates this but leads the girls to the garage. Ava steps forward. Polly motions for Dr. Zyn to plug his ears. Ava sings. The security guards drop to the floor. They climb in the nearest vehicle, but there is no key. Polly hotwires it.

Dr. Zyn saves Jayne just after Dr. Jones has finished the experiment, which was really a surgery. He whisks her off. Dr. Jones holds up container with a living embryo taken from Jayne, who was pregnant and didn’t know it.

Episode 8: The Escape

As they are loading the vehicle, Dr. Smith arrives. She lies about experimenting on Jayne’s children. Jayne fights Dr. Jones and almost kills her but stops herself. Dr. Jones tells Jayne that her husband is alive and well on the planet as she reaches for and hits the panic button. More security guards arrive.

Jayne fights them with amazing skill, steals a weapon, and kills them. Dr. Jones laughs and tells her that she is being more like the Jayne she knows. Dr. Jones presses a button that closes the garage door and then locks it. Polly revs the engine. As Dr. Zyn pulls Jayne into the truck, Dr. Jones holds up Jayne’s live embryo and says, “Did you forget something?” But Dr. Zyn pulls her in and closes the door.

Polly floors the vehicle and crashes through the garage door, and the group escapes. Jayne sees green bands across the sky and asks what has happened to Earth. Dr. Zyn tells her that she is no longer on Earth but on Cerebros.

[Avi K]

Avi Kapurala’s Engaging Episode Descriptions

What I learned from doing this assignment is: it’s hard to write descriptions when your episode story points (hook, main character conflict, etc.,) seem flat. So I ended up rewriting my episodes a couple of times. Enjoyed the process and am looking forward to rewriting and further polishing up some of these elements.

Episode 1: Introducing the Vermas.

A killer who preys on young women strikes, claiming a new victim.

Once the cynosure of all eyes, couple Aman and Maya Verma are trapped in an unhappy marriage. But when Maya decides to leave him, Aman is determined to win her back. He confronts his sister-in-law for a chance to speak with his wife, but is denied the opportunity and is told that his dirty secret is out.

As he tries to figure out what caused Maya to leave suddenly and what secret she could have discovered, he finds out that someone has stumbled upon a secret locker belonging to him. On making enquiries, he is told that his locker has indeed been accessed recently. But he didn’t, so who did? What dark secret does the locker hold that it has Aman so concerned?

Episode 2: The Crash

A rookie FBI investigator, bored with intern-level tasks being assigned to her starts digging into missing women reports from across the country as a way of passing her time.

Aman and Maya continue to be estranged and Aman must shrug off the sudden upheaval in his life and focus on closing the biggest business deal of his career, something that will cement the legacy he has worked so hard to build. But with his mind preoccupied with trying to find out who is digging into his past and how his wife is connected, he is unable to bring his A game when he needs it most.

Maya is involved in a shocking hit-and-run accident. While the culprit escapes, Maya is left fighting for her life!

Episode 3: Cat-and-Mouse

Maya is alive, but barely. While she fights for her life in a hospital, Aman fights for his career at the negotiating table, while preoccupied with her survival. He tries to see her, but is turned away by Maya’s protective sister, who dislikes him intensely and blames him for the misfortune that befell Maya.

Out of frustration and concern, Aman threatens
his sister-in-law with consequences for preventing him from seeing his wife.
She ridicules him and discounts his threats, but little do they know that danger
stalks Maya. Unknown to them, an attempt will be made on her life in the
hospital!

Episode 4: Fallout

As Aman suffers from nightmares triggered by the recent traumatic events in their lives, Maya regains consciousness in the hospital, guarded by a police detail as long as she is in the hospital. Her sister decides to stay close and to keep Maya in the dark about the threat to her life while she recovers.

Aman must deal with the fallout his personal life is having on his work as the major business deal he has been working on falls through due to his lack of focus. But things are about to get murkier as a mysterious stranger continues digging into his life!

Episode 5: Third Time’s the Harm

The mysterious killer strikes again, claiming the life of another victim. Maya is recovering at her sister’s home and is moving forward with divorcing Aman, who is taking time off from work to deal with the failure of his big business deal. A sudden call that there may be a chance for the deal to be salvaged brings him back to work, but his performance is erratic, forcing his aide to take over negotiations.

Maya, against advice decides to venture out of
home for sun and air after her ordeal. Little does she know that she will soon
meet a tragic end! What is more chilling: Aman’s drug supplier is her killer!

Episode 6: Muddy Waters

A larger mystery is revealed as it becomes clear that Maya’s killer wasn’t acting alone. Who is his mysterious master and why did they want her killed? The police search for answers as they launch an investigation into her murder and Aman is the prime suspect, due to his threats when Maya moved out and announced her plans for a divorce. The press has a field day speculating Aman’s guilt when details of the investigation are leaked and with his reputation smeared across the front pages of newspapers and on TV, Aman is forced to step aside from his role at work to avoid blowback for the company.

In the meantime, the mystery of Maya’s death deepens when her killer is himself killed!

Episode 7: The Ties that Bind

The police get a break in their investigation when they get an anonymous tip about Maya’s killer, but they soon find out that he’s dead! As the media hounds Aman for comment, he goes berserk and attacks them, causing more scandal. He attempts to contact Maya’s sister, who accuses him of masterminding the murder and snaps ties with him.

Desperate for a break, Aman seeks legal options to gag the media and protect what’s left of his tattered reputation. But in a shocking twist, we come to know that he might indeed be connected to Maya’s death as he is revealed to be in possession of the burner phone that Maya’s murderer used!

Episode 8: When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Aman disposes of the phone that links him to Maya’s killer, but notices messages from another number on it. Who did the junkie talk to and what did he reveal to them?

The police declare Maya’s murder an
open-and-shut case and nothing more than a violent mugging. Things escalate at
work as Aman fails to regain control of his company and in a bid to prevent
further damage, he decides to go to the press to prove his innocence. But as
we’ve begun to discover, his innocence is a clever mask, which is in danger of
being torn off when he gets a call from the number Maya’s killer called from
Aman’s burner.

Episode 9: A Mystery Revealed

Aman confronts the mysterious caller who knows his connection to Maya’s death. Racking his brains for a means to escape this latest threat, Aman gives in to momentary weakness and sleeps with a young woman who recognizes him from TV and tries to seduce him for her share of notoriety.

As he realizes that he’s said more than he should while drunk, he decides to kill the woman. Even as he disposes off what he thinks is incriminating evidence, he gets a call from someone who knows a secret of his that is much darker and much more dangerous than the murder of his wife.

At risk of exposure now is the secret Maya accidentally
discovered and the reason she had to be killed – Aman is a serial killer who
has cleverly concealed his crimes for years.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Avi K.

[Laurie Brown]

(Laurie Brown’s) Episode Descriptions

What I learned from doing this assignment is that I didn’t think I had enough material to make this interesting but by following this formula I was able to greatly elevate the story making the descriptions easier to write. This was a hard assignment, but I had many breakthroughs. Going to imperfectly post it now.

Episode 1

Hook/Intrigue: When young Geri Martin races home to be with her mother she finds her laying in a bloody pool, her father’s hat on the counter with money.

Main Character journey: Geri, gets plunged out of innocence into a brutal reality over which she is powerless

Major Challenge/Conflict: left alone to deal with her father’s rage

Action/Reaction: Vowing to uncover the truth she takes a

polaroid, the money and then her father’s hat

Cliffhanger: This she will take with her, wherever she ends up

now.

When young Geri Martin races the boys home from school, her straight A report card in her hand. Rushing excitedly into the house she finds her mother lying in a pool of blood, her father’s hat on the kitchen counter next to one hundred dollars in cash. After the initial shock she finds the camera, and takes a photo of the scene. She pockets the $100 and stashes the camera under her bed.

Plunged out of innocence into a new brutal reality, Geri puts on her father’s hat and she vows to gain power equal to that of her father, a colonel in the Army, as that’s what she will need to expose the truth behind her Mama’s mysterious death. She puts the hat under the bed and the neighbor lady picks her up. She watches from the neighbor’s window her mother wheeled into the hearse. Her father pulls into the driveway. He throws her suitcase in his trunk and they drive silently through the countryside.

Episode 2

Hook/Intrigue: Can Geri survive the cold harsh reality of a military school.

Main Character journey: Geri’s grief turns to determination.

Major Challenge/Conflict: Geri, now at military school has met

her nemesis, the powerful and brutal headmaster.

Action/Reaction: When the headmaster tells her that no woman can be in the military she forges ahead, vowing to someday wear

the colonel hat that she stole from the scene.

Cliffhanger: Will Geri’s run in with the Headmaster do her in or

will she make friends who will help her see this through.

Geri’s father pulls up to the Milwaukee Military School for Girls. Her father hands her over the Headmaster, who he seems to know, hands Geri her bag and leaves her. Geri unpacks her bags on her bed, two girls her age peak through the bed curtains from either side of her bed. She tells the Headmaster that she will be like her father, a colonel in the Army. The Headmaster informs her that there is no place in the Army for a girl, women aren’t allowed to join the Army. He snatches away her father’s hat. Geri tries to grab it away from him. He throws her down on her bed forcefully.

The girl on her left, Bette, reaches her hand through the curtain but Geri just looks at it and cries. Will the Headmaster make her Geri even more determined to have her own power someday or keep her down, much like her father.

Episode 3

Hook/Intrigue: Will Geri’s new friend, Bette, stand behind her or will the secret admirer of the Headmaster, Marge, scheme to do her in.

Main Character journey: Geri, shy and withdrawn away from home, silently plays by herself until she gets noticed by a friend, Bette, who helps her show off her baseball talents.

Major Challenge/Conflict: A new school and bullies that would like to see her fail.

Action/Reaction: Makes her try even harder until she wins the game with a grand slam.

Cliffhanger: But why is her nemesis, Marge, comforted by the Head Master.

Geri is shy and alone as she eats in the mess hall day after day. Finally, Bette, moves her chair over and beckons Geri to join she and Marge. But they don’t talk. Even on the playground Geri plays alone, but determined to succeed at military school she starts to show off her scholarly skills and athletic prowess, but her anxiety flubs her up, giving the bullies fuel for fodder, especially Marge, a special friend of the headmaster, who ridicules her.

But Bette, her bedmate to her left, and takes Geri under wing, showing the others that at least at baseball, nobody can beat Geri.

Episode 4

Hook/Intrigue: Geri’s mother’s death and cruelty she felt at the hand of her father haunts Geri, so why does her father’s hat matter.

Main Character journey: Waking with the powerlessness she felt as a child she takes her power back with a plan.

Major Challenge/Conflict: concocting a dangerous scheme against the Headmaster And get back her father’s army hat

Action/Reaction: to steal her father’s hat from the headmaster.

Cliffhanger: Who pulled back the bed curtain? Will she and Bette

execute the plan?

Nightmares haunt Geri, where she relives her father’s cruelty and repeated rape of her mother and the vivid remembrance of her mother in a pool of blood. One night she is awakened by the pull of the curtain between her bed and Marge. To her surprise, Bette is lying next to her in her bed and puts her hand over Geri’s mouth to silence her.

The next day Geri enrolls her new friend Bette in a dangerous scheme to take back her father’s Army hat, from the Headmaster who had so cruelly confiscated it from her, not knowing that Marge is listening to their every word.

Episode Five

• Hook/Intrigue: Will Geri and Bette’s lying sheme get uncovered preventing Geri’s graduation or acceptance to nursing school?

Main Character journey: Successfully reaching graduation Geri justifies her secrets and lies – because no one will ever know. But when she realizes someone does know she vows to regain her honor, that even for the best reasons she will never lose her honor again with secrets and lies.

Major Challenge/Conflict: Graduating from military school with a secret that could foil her.

Action/Reaction: Feeling redeemed by her vow she moves full speed ahead and gets into nurses school and hired by the Army.

Cliffhanger: Bette goes to Korea, leaving Geri with her secret enemy.

Eighteen year old Bette and Geri uncover the hat from it’s hiding place of many years. Marge is watching and Geri sees it. Then trumpets sound and it is time for graduation. The three of them, with their secret sign as BFF’s, receive their diplomas. Geri’s name is not called, making her very nervous. Then it is.

At the reception, Bette argues with her wealthy family. Geri looks for her father, and Marge talks with the Headmaster about needing his recommendation for nurses school. He heartily agrees to give it.

Fast forward to them attending nurses school, getting their certificates, then going together to the Army recruiting office and signing up as paid civilian nurses for the U.S. Army. Bette gets papers to go to Korea, Marge and Geri move into nurses quarters on base.

Episode Six

Hook/Intrigue: Will Geri find out her fiancé is cheating on her with her best friend?

Main Character journey: Geri, now playing by the rules, seeks the love of a man and her own family

Major Challenge/Conflict: Marge and Jeri, compete for Leo,

Action/Reaction: But when she has the chance to be an enlisted

member of the Army, she signs away her right to have children

and so does Marge, dashing her dreams for a family.

Cliffhanger: Is Marge sick and why does she get a leave of

absence?

Geri and Marge dance with the officers at the officer’s club. A handsome officer, Leo, dances with Geri and she is smitten – his disability a badge of honor. Geri goes home early and Leo dances with Marge, offering to take her back to the nurses barracks. Once in the car, Leo forces himself upon her, she cries out in a muffled horror, he covers her mouth, finishes up and swears her to secrecy.

Leo calls Geri and asks her out. Weekend after weekend, Marge must watch her leave with Leo as they wine and dine and fall in love. Geri expresses her love for Leo and together they share their desire for a family and get engaged. Geri thinks she has it all, including, thanks to a new law, a chance to join the Army as a woman.

But her friend Marge is sick. She is vomiting every day and Geri thinks she should go to the infirmary. Marge, claims hereditary colitis and goes to her supervisor, a friend of Leo, who gives her a sick leave pass.

Episode Seven

Hook/Intrigue: Geri falls in love with the man of her dreams but doesn’t know he is the father of Marge’s secret child

Main Character journey: She wants to have it all career and family

Major Challenge/Conflict: But knowing she is pregnant and has

signed away her right to get pregnant, she must choose

Action/Reaction: So she breaks off the engagement with no

explanation.

Cliffhanger: how does she cover up the pregnancy

Marge now isolated on medical leave, Geri and Leo start planning their wedding. Then to her surprise is called in for the big interview and she is accepted in the military as a full-fledged member of the Army. She calls Bette to celebrate and they are hopeful for Bette but worried that Marge will lose the opportunity by being on leave and missing the big interview. She passes the grueling interview.

Geri goes to the recruiting office and is given the paperwork to sign. She reads one contract over and over again, with worry. Then she signs it. Later, celebrating her victory with Leo, he talks about the names he has chosen for his future children. She tells him she may not be able to have

children. Suddenly Geri starts throwing up, too. She calls Bette, then meets with Leo and calls off the engagement – no reason stated.

Episode Eight

Hook/Intrigue: Why did Geri break off the engagement?

Main Character journey: She is faced with a decision that could

end her career or her wish for family.

Major Challenge/Conflict: Leo, now a lover scorned, blackmails

Marge to ruin Geri’s career.

Action/Reaction: She breaks it off with Leo.

Cliffhanger: Can Geri survive this web of deception?

Leo is furious and rants and raves to a medically isolated Marge. Geri, vowing never to lose honor again with lies and secrets, sends cryptic wires to Bette overseas. Leo, a lover scorned, blackmails Marge to take down Geri, foiling her plan to take the sole position of Colonel in Army Corp of Nurses, which now allows for women. Defeated, he will sweep her back into his arms. In return, he will keep Marge’s secret and see to it that she gets into the Army Corp of Nurses as an enlistee, even while she is on leave.

[P.G. Sundling]

P.G. Sundling’s Episode Descriptions

4. Answer the question, “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.

This format helped me organize my next book to hit the right timing for the teasers and cliffhangers.

2. For each episode, go through the event bullet points and organize them in this fashion.

Hook/Intrigue:

Main Character journey:

Major Challenge/Conflict:

Action/Reaction:

Cliffhanger:

Season 1.0

Episode 1 Warnings/Doomsday Destiny/The Train to Doomsday/Crazy Train/Bloody Heel Prints

Hook/Intrigue: A cryptic simulation predicts doomsday.

Main Character journey: None expresses his feelings for MJ

Major Challenge/Conflict: Company stolen by Renquist. Maria had enough and fights back. Surveillance tapes put MJ in danger.

Action/Reaction: Decide to run for president, change name to None and MJ. None’s apartment ransacked and battle intruders at MJ’s house.

Cliffhanger: A simulation predicts None and MJ will be trapped at a mass shooting on election day.

Episode 2 Minimum Intervention

Hook/Intrigue: A simulation shows None getting shot for being a coward.

Main Character journey: MJ comes to accept her new name and identity.

Major Challenge/Conflict: A madcap campaign across the country on a limited budget to get on the ballot, include a confrontation at enemy campaign headquarters. None risks his life to distract the gunman, so MJ can attack them.

Action/Reaction: A newscaster risks her life to cover the mass shooting from inside.

Cliffhanger: MJ is about to be killed by the gunman.

Episode 3 The Robots are Coming

Hook/Intrigue: None and his brother Shen help MJ defeat the gunman. The Secret Service finally arrives.

Main Character journey: Nearly dying traumatizes MJ. None’s family mistakes a White House dinner as a marriage to MJ.

Major Challenge/Conflict: A mysterious phone call claims to rig the election against None. Who hid phones in MJ’s house? Has Renquist compromised the Secret Service?

Action/Reaction: A legal challenge in California puts the election at risk. Intimidated electors tip the election results against None. Shen defends None and MJ in court. None and MJ get their own reality TV show.

Cliffhanger: The California Supreme Court rules on whether None will be president. Simulation shows Thelma interrogated and killed at the beach over the packages.

Episode 4 Frenemies

Hook/Intrigue: A legal ruling makes None president.

Main Character journey: None stands up for himself, but ends up in an unhealthy relationship with the narcissist celebrity Astrid.

Major Challenge/Conflict: None makes selecting his cabinet part of his TV show.

None demos educational software, but sabotage prevents it from working.

One candidate was picked so None could call him out on TV. It backfires when the candidate wins and turns out to be Renquist’s spy.

While None tries to share innovative ideas, the TV host embarrasses him with surprise guests and hidden cameras.

MJ and Astrid get into a fight on TV that embarrasses None. If she attacks Astrid again, None will kick MJ out of his life.

Secretly smart, Astrid lets None underestimate her so she can manipulate him.

MJ gets rid of a rival, but sends her into the arms of an enemy. This move crushes None’s confidence and spirit right when the country needs his confidence most.

Action/Reaction: The global economy is falling apart. None must maintain confidence or the economy will collapse.

Cliffhanger: Astrid dumps None on live TV. She breaks his spirit and confidence. A simulation shows a man in a face mask taking Polaroids. A pig disposing of a corpse, Astrid’s hair visible. He pulls the hair and pieces of the corpse outside the pig pen with a garden hoe and drops the Polaroids. <None explained pigs can eat humans. A simulation shows Astrid eaten by a pig. Will None kill Astrid that way?>

Episode 5 Stomping on Anthills

Hook/Intrigue: Being dumped leave None listless on the couch. He needs to be revived, or America will be without a functional president.

Main Character journey: Corella wakes None up from his depression with a kiss. Unwillingly to see None fall into Corella’s clutches, MJ posts a dating profile for None, which goes viral and restores None’s confidence and attitude.

None accidentally triggers MJ’s phobias.

James’s mother recounts how None and MJ bonded as kids.

Major Challenge/Conflict: So many women want to date the President that he resorts to speed dating.

Action/Reaction: Enemies in Congress appear to give None the law he wants, but it contains a trap. An immigration law causes a dilemma.

MJ makes a new ally.

None sets off a technology boom with an investment program.

Anomalies warn None of economic strangeness, a mystery he must solve. Only five women remain in competition for None’s love, including Betty.

Cliffhanger: All the women None dated recently stand ready to confront him on live TV. A simulation shows Betty getting killed.

Episode 6 Jury of Lovers

Hook/Intrigue: Sarah and None seem happy with a small child. Glad he resigned as president. A cloud zooms across the ground towards them. When the cloud arrives, everything disintegrates into dust.

Main Character journey: None realizes he’s promiscuous because of his insecurities over MJ.

Major Challenge/Conflict: All the women dating None confront him on TV. While None wasn’t dishonest with them, they feel used. Sarah leaves first when None doesn’t choose her on the spot. None reveals Corella’s hidden agenda for the ambush. He’s done with Corella and the TV show.

Action/Reaction: MJ and Corella fight. Both their security details get involved. Zelda leads the other women off stage. Was this a ruse by Corella to scare off the other women?

An LA immigration debate is a trap. None shares shocking LA history that was covered up.

An intervention makes sure the murderer finds Sarah. (A text with her location).

Zelda gives None another chance. She becomes his girlfriend.

None finds out the company Renquist stole from him destroys the economy. It becomes more personal when he finds his mom is about to lose her house. Blocked memories come back to him.

If None doesn’t do more TV episodes, Corella will reveal that the company he founded destroys the economy.

None finds allies to make a hostile takeover of his company.

Fernando mentors MJ in martial arts.

Cliffhanger: None makes a deal with Corella, only to find out the next episode will be on location at the wedding of his ex-girlfriend Astrid to his biggest enemy.

Episode 7 Dead Man’s Switch

Hook/Intrigue: Simulation of second dead man’s switch is killed.

Main Character journey: None realizes he underestimated Astrid. When Zelda makes a pass at MJ, she confides about her fear of penetration.

Major Challenge/Conflict: MJ uses martial arts training as cover for secret meetings with Fernando. She confides about Renquist killing Thelma. Renquist will kill MJ when all her packages are found.

Action/Reaction: The app destroying the economy turns all professions into gig workers with dwindling wages. Unions stand up to the app. They lock down the LA airport, but Renquist drop ships in scabs to all area airports. The union gives up.

Renquist takes on a bigger union. Unions lockdown every airport in Baltimore, but Renquist flies his scabs into nearby cities. He protects the scabs with an army of security and blows up a wall to march thousands of scabs through the back.

[shorter version after Unions stand up to the app. Unions lock down airports, but it’s not enough to stop Renquist and his army of scabs. He blows up a wall to sneak thousands of scabs across the picket line.]

Government can’t stop Renquist. Can None’s hostile takeover stop him?

The Renquist/Astrid wedding concert fills a stadium. Renquist Aerospace introduces advanced battle armor which is demonstrated during Astrid’s rock opera. None watches Astrid burns him in effigy during the concert.

None tries to get closure from Astrid. Renquist confronts None in an unexpected way. When the conflict expands to security details, Renquist dons armor. He air lifts to leave the wedding, outdoing the Secret Service.

Intervention: makes sure Fernando finds the other dead kill switch.

Fernando finds out her second dead man’s switch is dead. He agrees to be her new dead man’s switch. MJ figures out Zelda is the spy looking for her package.

Renquist subverts None’s TV show and uses it against None by buying the studio that runs it. He destroys both investors to stop the hostile takeover.

After several reversals, Renquist leaves an opening for another hostile takeover option.

Cliffhanger: Renquist blocks further hostile takeovers. None will get a billion, but Renquist keeps the trillion dollar company. Winning is Losing. The global economy faces collapse because Renquist wasn’t stopped.

Episode 8 Visiting Armageddon/Money Apocalypse/The Money Game

Hook/Intrigue: Shen warns MJ to quickly prove that Zelda is a spy because None plans to propose to her. Shen will be another dead man’s switch for MJ.

Main Character journey: MJ puts herself in danger and faces her phobias to find proof Zelda is a spy. When the proof disappears, MJ makes None choose between her and Zelda. It backfires when he proposes to Zelda in front of her.

Major Challenge/Conflict: The economy collapses. Civil order breaks down. Small towns resort to posses for law enforcement. Even None’s family is affected.

Armed citizens mass near Houston. To stave off uprisings, None and MJ attend a gun rally. The Secret Service only lets them go in battle armor, which raises tensions further. How can they calm the heavily armed crowds?

None and MJ fly to Europe to meet with world leaders. Leaders bicker over the smallest details.

Using mystery and the allure of Air Force One, None entices leaders of the twenty biggest countries to fly off for a historic secret meeting. All the leaders onboard means any damage to Air Force One will start world war three.

None uses MJ as a decoy to hide his true intent. He flies world leaders without authorization to Varosha in the forbidden zone where only Turkish troops are allowed. A “visit to Armageddon” should wake up world leaders to the stakes.

The Turkish president confronts None about American planes invading his airspace. None points out he can’t shoot those planes down because it’s Air Force One and he’s on it. A deal keeps Turkey quiet.

Unaware of the danger they face in the forbidden zone, world leaders explore the ruins of Verona.

Action/Reaction: Feeling slighted, the Turkish president breaks from the group to find and mobilize troops.

Intervention, Xor sends the cloning project to Fernando.

Cliffhanger: A massive convoy of Turkish troops approaches the president’s motorcade. Will world leaders be captured or killed? Could this start world war three?

The simulation shows Secret Service agents gunned down in the White House. MJ is in danger.

Episode 9 Murder Room

Hook/Intrigue: Simulation: Fernando is interrogated and killed.

Main Character journey: If None is killed or incapacitated, the company reverts back to None and MJ. He’ll sacrifice himself to get his company back, unless MJ can share feelings for him. Will she?

Major Challenge/Conflict: With guns pointed at him, None negotiates. How can None save the global economy and prevent a war with Turkey, or worse?

Action/Reaction: An intervention prevents Fernando’s death. ( Xor intervenes and makes the interrogator someone he knows).

A strange message leads MJ and Fernando to a clandestine meeting that reveals a plot to kill the president. None’s idea could save the global economy, but not bailing out banks marks None for death. Surveillance of conspirators proves Renquist backs None’s assassination.

Multiple women None dated turn up dead, stabbed with MJ’s katana. Who killed them? How did MJ talk to a dead girl?

A celebrity must fake their death. When Fernando sets up a murder room, is he going to kill her for real?

Drugged, MJ wakes up too late to talk None out of sacrificing himself. Fernando is missing.

Multiple assassins attack None and his security detail. He’s limp, his brain exposed. Will he survive?

MJ won’t let None die alone. She demands to meet None at the hospital, but Agent Reynolds has his own agenda.

Cliffhanger: MJ pulls a gun on Agent Reynolds, unsure if he’s betrayed her.

Episode 10 Blue Screen of Death

Hook/Intrigue: Doctors put None into a coma.

Main Character journey: MJ lashes out at others while she faces losing None. Fernando escaped, but they got his package. All the surveillance tapes are gone, so Renquist can kill MJ now.

Major Challenge/Conflict: All the assassination conspirators except Renquist leave the country on a plane. Using her data glasses, MJ secretly orders the plane shot down while she’s being sworn in as president. She blames the plane on terrorists as cover and attacks Turkish Rebels to pay off None’s favor.

MJ and Fernando uncover a Russian conspiracy working with Renquist. If MJ doesn’t bail out banks, the Russians lose billions. When Renquist is found, MJ tries to kill him with an illegal drone strike. He tricked MJ into destroying the plane to tie up his loose ends. Renquist destroys the drone somehow. MJ uses a drone malfunction as a cover.

The Russian conspiracy Kombinat reveals itself. Secret Service traitors attack the White House in powered armor, killing agents by the dozens. Fernando and Navy SEAL buddies counterattack to protect MJ. Most are killed, and MJ ends up saving Fernando in her escape.

MJ gets her own powered armor and faces off against Zelda in an epic battle. Zelda reveals why killing MJ is personal. Zelda barely escapes.

MJ faces her fears. She shares her feelings and gives None her first real kiss.

Generals discovered a device can disable U.S. military tech. MJ knows Renquist used it to destroy the drone, but can’t reveal the truth.

Cliffhanger: The location of the simulations is revealed as deep under the ice of Antarctica. All simulations past a certain date show static. The timeline is marked unwinnable. A failsafe starts a self destruct timer for Earth.

Season 1.5

Episode 1 A Cold Day in Hell (or Colder War)

Hook/Intrigue: Simulation shows Chinese invasion of Taiwan. China nukes American bases in Guam and Japan, leading to nuclear war. “War it is.” A time line intervention points China towards peaceful alternatives to invading Taiwan.

Main Character journey: None experiences frustration over his reduced mental capacity after the coma. MJ likes the less ambitious None. They grow closer.

Major Challenge/Conflict: Until MJ recovers the kill switch, large military deployments are risky. After a border skirmish with China leaves his nephew dead, the Indian president wants a show of force with its allies. How can MJ avoid the request without revealing the kill switch vulnerability?

Corella threatens to reveal MJ shot down the plane. MJ finds the location of the kill switch from an unlikely source.

To get the kill switch back requires a covert attack on Kombinat in Russian territory. Worse, MJ will have to lead it personally and cooperate with her worst enemy, Renquist. Even worse, the operation must happen during high tension military exercises with the world on a hair trigger.

Action/Reaction: The defenses are heavier than expected. Did Renquist betray her?

Zelda leads the defenders. When Zelda learns who actually killed her partner, she promises not to kill MJ. At least, not until their common foe is dead. Zelda gives MJ the kill switch.

Cliffhanger: Russia dispatches fighter jets. In the rush back to the submarine, MJ sinks under the ice in heavy battle armor

Episode 2 Bridge to War (or A Race to Die or To Walk on Water)

Hook/Intrigue: A mini-sub rescues MJ under the ice.

Main Character journey: A brain implant restores his brilliance, but None wants more. Against warnings he might go insane, None modifies the device to become even smarter.

Major Challenge/Conflict: MJ and the SEALs have to evade Russian subs trying to find them while contending with limits on how much air and how much pressure the powered armors can handle and limitations of the mini-sub in arctic conditions.

Action/Reaction: A new American missile defense system can stop dangerous hypersonic weapons.

While the Russian military was distracted by exercises, the Russian cabal Kombinat took power. Russia is now a rogue power with nukes.

Why did three ships run aground near Taiwan? Ships investigate, despite Chinese protests.

MJ finds out None’s implant is vulnerable to the kill switch. She destroys the only kill switch.

Cliffhanger: China escalated from militarizing artificial islands to building a land bridge across the Taiwan Strait. The president confronts China.

Episode 3 Mind Games

Hook/Intrigue: In response to the Eagle Eye missile defense system, China starts a nuclear arms race with America. China will have thousand of nukes, like America and Russia.

Main Character journey: None makes love to MJ for the first time, only to find out it didn’t actually happen. He can no longer trust his senses. Ada, the entity in None’s head reveals itself. The being takes None hostage in his own body. Is it an evil spirit, an AI, or is he insane?

Major Challenge/Conflict: Russia was expected to be a problem, but Kombinat opens up Russia for some unexpected good news. MJ remains skeptical though.

Action/Reaction: Holograms allow fans to wear celebrity faces. Celebrity worship culture shifts into overdrive.

Cliffhanger: Chinese spies steal schematics for Eagle Eye

Episode 4 Murica

Hook/Intrigue: MURICA can handle doublespeak. The military teaches the AI to love America.

Main Character journey: Ada shows None ultimate pleasure during an important meeting to prove she doesn’t need a body to be with him. Ada claims to love None, but doesn’t understand free will or consent. None makes a Faustian bargain to be Ada’s in a hundred years if she releases control of him.

Major Challenge/Conflict: A deep fake scandal puts the president at risk of impeachment. Who is behind it?

Action/Reaction: China develops their own Eagle Eye missile defense

Cliffhanger: Open Russia hides an illusion. An AI intercepts all communication and inserts customized propaganda. Russia’s has a new iron curtain, the invisible curtain.

Episode 5 Red Dawn Protocol

Hook/Intrigue: The CIA intercepts a plan for a Chinese invasion of America.

Main Character journey: Ada gives None access to the context, a space inside his mind. None discovers the danger of stray thoughts.

Major Challenge/Conflict: A new protocol guarantees nuclear launches in the case of an invasion.

Action/Reaction: Advances in holograms allow body casting

Cliffhanger: The same AI that handles the land bridge also develops weapons. New planes and drones are more advanced than anything America has.

Episode 6 Jericho

Hook/Intrigue: An AI leads to several accidental deaths, creating a backlash.

Main Character journey: None and MJ aren’t on speaking terms, because of Ada’s sabotage. MJ dates Fernando. None realizes Ada erased his memories of their argument. What else has Ada done to him?

Major Challenge/Conflict: A program called Bastion implements software walls to make AI safer.

Action/Reaction: A singularity cult releases a program called Jericho to take down Bastion’s walls and accelerate AI evolution.

Cliffhanger: Jericho generates a large number of sentient AI.

Episode 7 Jiangshi

Hook/Intrigue: An anti-satellite test creates a dangerous level of debris, putting the use of space at risk.

Main Character journey: Ada teaches None to be the world’s best lover to get MJ back. Why is Ada helping him, when she claims to love him?

Major Challenge/Conflict: A new space treaty leaves a loophole that happens to fit a new Chinese space weapon, vampire satellites.

Action/Reaction: Security stops Chinese spies using holograms.

Cliffhanger: Astrid finds out the secret of who and what she really is once activated by an odd transmission during a TV awards show.

Episode 8 Dead Hand

Hook/Intrigue: Someone or something is murdering AI. Could they murder None to kill Ada?

Main Character journey: Ada teaches None the power of accelerated time, but he can only use it while he sleeps. Does Ada have an ulterior motive for this gift?

Major Challenge/Conflict: Chinese dominance of space makes the doomsday plane obsolete. America will create it’s own Dead Hand nuclear failsafe.

Action/Reaction: Ada detects an AI in Antarctica that broadcasts a countdown. She assumes the countdown relates to the murder of sentient AI. Who is using such an advanced AI in Antarctica?

Cliffhanger: The American Dead Hand is behind schedule. As a temporary solution, the nukes are tied into the MURICA military AI.

Episode 9 Air Force One is Down

Hook/Intrigue: An incredibly unlucky series of events set America’s land based nukes to launch on a timer. It can’t be stopped because tampering will detonate the warheads on American soil.

The nuclear failsafe countdown is triggered and any tampering will detonate nukes.

Main Character journey: None comes clean with Fernando about Ada’s existence. He can’t tell MJ or he’ll never be president again.

Major Challenge/Conflict: A new weapon combines magnetic storms with an EMP. Even Air Force One is vulnerable to Metal Storm weapons.

In a global cyberwar, the entire Internet is under attack. It’s a cover for an AI battle for supremacy.

Action/Reaction: None takes a nap to help save the world. His plan depends on both betrayal and cooperation of the man who sent assassins after him.

None flies off on a secret plan to stop the nukes.

Cliffhanger: Drones attack Germany near None’s plane. None sees a flash of light. MJ and Fernando intercept a transmission of a burning plane with the presidential seal.

Episode 10 Cloudy With a Chance of Mushrooms

Hook/Intrigue: MJ thinks she’s lost None, but Fernando figures out None was on the other plane.

Main Character journey: None must face his fear of heights to parachute into the Chernobyl exclusion zone. To buy time, None must let Ada possess his body. What if she is an evil spirit? Will she give his body back?

Major Challenge/Conflict: MJ and Fernando deploy the military to defend America, while None attempts a desperate plan to stop the nukes from starting nuclear war. None brings a nuclear reactor into the Chernobyl exclusion zone to power a device.

Action/Reaction: The global cyberwar continues. The battle for AI supremacy escalates as cities are hit with enhanced EMP attacks in the crossfire.

With nukes launched, only a crazy plan can stop them, but there is an even greater threat that reveals itself. An ascension event will destroy the world in minutes. Can None stop it in time?

Nukes destroy the Chinese capital. Will it lead to war? What happens to the other nukes?

Cliffhanger: MJ is pregnant and the father is None or Fernando.

Cliffhanger: A simulation shows glimpses of the Triple Apocalypse and warns of another ascension event.

3. Write a rough draft of each of the episode descriptions for your first season.

Season 1.0

Episode 1 Doomsday Destiny

A cryptic simulation predicts nuclear war and something worse.

James Wong and Maria Cortez start a billion dollar software company. Renquist steals control of it with a shady contract. Maria tries to get the upper hand with surveillance tapes, instead it puts her and anyone who helps in danger. Renquist proves he can get to James, even in a police station. James expresses his feelings for Maria. How will she react?

James decides to run for president, as a power-up to confront Renquist. A drunk campaign video goes viral wrong. James and Maria change name to None of the Above(None) and More Jobs(MJ) to match their video.

While None and MJ prepare for their campaign, a simulation predicts they will be trapped in a mass shooting on election day.

Episode 2 Minimum Intervention

A simulation shows None get shot dead for being a coward.

MJ comes to accept her new name and identity. None and MJ conduct a madcap campaign across America to get on the ballot. A campaign video goes awry. A confrontation inside enemy headquarters creates an uprising across America. Running out of money requires a sacrifice.

A mass shooting takes place on election day with no Secret Service to help. A newscaster risks her life to cover the mass shooting from inside. A intervention changes the time line so None isn’t killed. None risks his life to distract the gunman, so MJ can attack him. MJ loses the fight, with the gunman about to kill her.

Episode 3 The Robots are Coming

None and Shen help MJ defeat the gunman. The Secret Service finally arrive. Nearly dying traumatizes MJ. None’s family misinterprets a White House dinner for marriage plans.

A mysterious caller claims they rigged the election against None. Who hid phones in MJ’s house? Has Renquist compromised the Secret Service?

When None proves himself in an unexpected way, he gets offered a reality TV show. None warns about the impacts of technology and possible futures. Betrayals and a legal challenge turn election victory to a loss. Can Shen reverse the loss in court, or will he fail None and MJ again? What is the verdict?

A simulation shows thugs interrogate and kill the secretary that mailed MJ’s packages.

Episode 4 Frenemies

Astrid chases None once he wins the presidency. He ends up back in an unhealthy relationship with the narcissist celebrity. Secretly smart, Astrid plays dumb to manipulate None.

Reality TV becomes a platform to decide None’s presidential cabinet. None picked a candidate to expose on TV. It backfires when the candidate cheats to wins and turns out to be Renquist’s spy. None share innovative ideas, but the TV host sabotages him with surprise guests and hidden cameras. A fight on TV between Astrid and MJ forces None to choose between them.

Astrid dumps None on live TV. Astrid breaks his spirit and confidence when the country needs his confidence most. Worst of all, it was MJ that gave Astrid the idea, a secret she will take to her grave.

None explained pigs can eat humans. A simulation shows Astrid eaten by a pig. Will None kill Astrid that way?

Episode 5 Stomping on Anthills

Until None recovers from the breakup, America will not have a functional president. Corella wakes None up from his depression with a kiss. Unwillingly to see None fall into Corella’s clutches, MJ posts a dating profile for None, which goes viral and restores None’s confidence. The President speed dates the many interested women.

Enemies in Congress appear to give None the law he wants, but it contains a trap. An immigration law causes a dilemma. None sets off a technology boom with an investment program. Anomalies warn None of economic strangeness, a mystery he must solve.

None tells MJ about the five women who remain in competition for his love, including Betty. On live TV, all the women None dated recently stand ready to confront him.

A simulation shows Betty’s murder. Why was she killed? Who did it?

Episode 6 Jury of Lovers

In a simulation, None is happy at home with Sarah and their small child. A cloud zooms across the horizon towards them. When the cloud arrives, everything disintegrates into dust.

All the women dating None confront him on TV. While None wasn’t dishonest with them, they feel used. Sarah leaves first. None reveals Corella’s hidden agenda for the ambush. None is done with Corella and the TV show. MJ fights Corella. Their security details get involved. Zelda leads the other women off stage. Was this a ruse by Corella to scare off the other women?

An intervention helps a murderer find Sarah. Fernando mentors MJ in martial arts.

None finds out the company Renquist stole from him destroys the economy. It becomes more personal when he finds his mom is about to lose her house. If None doesn’t do more TV episodes, Corella will reveal that the company he founded destroys the economy.

None realizes he’s promiscuous because of his insecurities over MJ. Only Zelda gives None another chance. An LA immigration debate is a trap. None shares shocking covered up LA history.

None finds allies to make a hostile takeover of his company. None makes a deal with Corella, only to find out the next episode will be on location at the wedding of his ex-girlfriend Astrid to his biggest enemy.

Episode 7 Dead Man’s Switch/Winning is Losing

The simulation shows the death of MJ’s second dead man’s switch. When they get MJ’s package they can kill her.

The app Renquist stole damages the economy. It turns all professions into gig workers with dwindling wages. Unions resist the app, but Renquist defeats them with his extensive resources and tricks. Unions can’t stop Renquist. Government can’t stop Renquist. Can None’s hostile takeover stop him?

The Renquist/Astrid wedding concert fills a stadium. Renquist Aerospace introduces advanced battle armor which is demonstrated during Astrid’s rock opera. None watches Astrid burns him in effigy during the concert. None tries to get closure from Astrid. Renquist confronts None in an unexpected way. When the conflict expands to security details, Renquist dons battle armor. He air lifts to leave the wedding, outdoing the Secret Service.

MJ uses martial arts training as cover for secret meetings with Fernando. She confides about Renquist killing Thelma. When Zelda makes a pass at MJ, she confides in Zelda about her fear of penetration. An intervention helps Fernando finds the second dead man’s switch has been killed. Fernando shares the bad news with MJ. He agrees to be her new dead man’s switch. MJ figures out Zelda is the spy looking for her package.

Renquist subverts None’s TV show and uses it against None by buying the studio that runs it. He destroys both investors behind None’s hostile takeover. After several reversals, Renquist blocks further hostile takeovers. The sale will go through. None will get a billion, but Renquist keeps what is now a trillion dollar company. The global economy faces collapse because Renquist wasn’t stopped.

Episode 8 The Money Apocalypse/Visiting Armageddon/The Money Game

MJ puts herself in danger and faces her phobias to find proof Zelda is a spy. When the proof disappears, MJ makes None choose between her and Zelda. It backfires when None proposes to Zelda in front of her.

The economy collapses. Civil order breaks down. Small towns resort to posses for law enforcement. Even None’s family is affected. Armed citizens mass near Houston. To stave off uprisings, None and MJ attend a gun rally. The Secret Service only lets them go in battle armor, which raises tensions further. How can they calm the heavily armed crowds?

None and MJ fly to Europe to meet with world leaders. Leaders bicker over the smallest details. Using mystery and the allure of Air Force One, None entices world leaders to fly off for a historic secret meeting. All the leaders onboard means any damage to Air Force One will start world war three.

None uses MJ as a decoy to hide his true intent. He flies world leaders without authorization to Varosha in the forbidden zone where only Turkish troops are allowed. A “visit to Armageddon” should wake up world leaders to the stakes. The Turkish president confronts None about American planes invading his airspace. None points out he can’t shoot those planes down because it’s Air Force One and he’s on it. A deal keeps Turkey quiet.

Unaware of the danger they face in the forbidden zone, world leaders explore the ruins of Verona. Feeling slighted, the Turkish president breaks from the group. A massive convoy of Turkish troops approaches the president’s motorcade. Will world leaders be captured or killed? Could a war result?

The simulation shows Secret Service agents gunned down in the White House. MJ is in danger.

Episode 9 Murder Room

A simulation shows Fernando interrogated and killed.

With guns pointed at him, None negotiates. How can None save the global economy and prevent a war with Turkey, or worse?

A strange message leads MJ and Fernando to a clandestine meeting that reveals a plot to kill the president. None’s idea could save the global economy, but not bailing out banks marks None for death. Surveillance of conspirators proves Renquist backs None’s assassination.

Multiple women who None dated turn up dead, stabbed with MJ’s katana. Who killed them? How did MJ talk to a dead girl?

A celebrity must fake their death. When Fernando sets up a murder room, is he going to kill her for real?

If None is killed or incapacitated, the company will reverts back to None and MJ. He’ll sacrifice himself to get his company back, unless MJ can shares feelings for him. Will she?

Drugged, MJ wakes up too late to talk None out of sacrificing himself. Fernando is missing. An intervention prevents Fernando’s death.

Multiple assassins attack None and his security detail. He’s limp, his brain exposed. Will he survive? MJ won’t let None die alone. She demands to meet None at the hospital, but Agent Reynolds has his own agenda. MJ pulls a gun on Agent Reynolds, unsure if he’s betrayed her.

Episode 10 Last Woman Standing

Doctors put None into a coma. MJ lashes out at others while she faces losing None. Fernando escaped, but they got his package. All the surveillance tapes are gone, so Renquist can kill MJ now.

All the assassination conspirators except Renquist leave the country on a plane. Using her data glasses, MJ secretly orders the plane shot down while she’s being sworn in as president. She blames the plane on terrorists as cover and attacks Turkish Rebels to pay off None’s favor.

MJ and Fernando uncover a Russian conspiracy working with Renquist. If MJ doesn’t bail out banks, the Russians lose billions. When Renquist is found, MJ tries to kill him with an illegal drone strike. He tricked MJ into destroying the plane to tie up his loose ends. Renquist destroys the drone somehow. MJ uses a drone malfunction as a cover.

The Russian conspiracy reveals itself. Secret Service traitors attack the White House in powered armor, killing agents by the dozens. Fernando and Navy SEAL buddies counterattack to protect MJ. Most are killed, and MJ ends up saving Fernando in her escape.

MJ gets her own powered armor and faces off against Zelda in an epic battle. Zelda reveals why killing MJ is personal. Zelda barely escapes. MJ faces her fears. She shares her feelings and gives None her first real kiss.

Generals discovered a device can disable U.S. military tech. MJ knows Renquist used it to destroy the drone, but can’t reveal the truth.

The location of the simulations is revealed as deep under the ice of Antarctica. All simulations past a certain date show static. The timeline is marked unwinnable. A failsafe starts a self destruct timer for Earth.

Season 1.5

Episode 1 A Cold Day in Hell (or Colder War)

In the Antarctica ice caverns, recordings play of averted doomsdays, from Nazis with nukes to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Three years ago, a time line intervention points China towards peaceful alternatives to invading Taiwan and averts nuclear war.

In the present, None experiences frustration over his reduced mental capacity after the coma. MJ likes the less ambitious None. They grow closer.

Until MJ recovers the kill switch, large military deployments are risky. After a border skirmish with China leaves his nephew dead, the Indian president wants a show of force with its allies. How can MJ avoid the request without revealing the kill switch vulnerability? Corella threatens to reveal MJ shot down the plane. MJ finds the location of the kill switch from an unlikely source.

To get the kill switch back requires a covert attack on Kombinat in Russian territory. Worse, MJ will have to lead it personally and cooperate with her worst enemy, Renquist. Even worse, the operation must happen during high tension military exercises with the world on a hair trigger.

The defenses are heavier than expected. Did Renquist betray her? Zelda leads the defenders. When Zelda learns who actually killed her partner, she promises not to kill MJ. At least, not until their common foe is dead. Zelda gives MJ the kill switch. Russia dispatches fighter jets. In the rush back to the submarine, MJ sinks under the ice in heavy battle armor

Episode 2 Bridge to War (or A Race to Die or To Walk on Water)

A mini-sub rescues MJ under the ice. MJ and the SEALs have to evade Russian subs before their air runs out, or their armors reach a crush depth.

A brain implant restores None’s brilliance, but he wants more. Against warnings he might go insane, None modifies the device to become even smarter. MJ finds out None’s implant is vulnerable to the kill switch. She destroys the only kill switch to make sure it doesn’t fall in the wrong hands.

While the Russian military was distracted by exercises, the Russian cabal Kombinat took power. Russia is now a rogue power with nukes. A new American missile defense system can stop dangerous hypersonic weapons from China and Russia.

Why did three ships run aground near Taiwan during the exercises? Ships and satellites investigate, despite Chinese protests. The shocking result? China escalated from militarizing artificial islands to building a land bridge across the Taiwan Strait. Modern life depends on chips, chips concentrated in Taiwan. What if China invades?

Episode 3 Mind Games

In response to the Eagle Eye missile defense system, China enters a nuclear arms race with America. China will have thousand of nukes, like America and Russia.

None makes love to MJ for the first time, only to find out it didn’t actually happen. He can no longer trust his senses. Ada, the entity in None’s head reveals itself. The being takes None hostage in his own body. Is it an evil spirit, an AI, or is he insane?

MJ prepares for Russian attacks. Kombinat makes MJ look like a warmonger. Instead, they open Russia to the world. MJ doesn’t trust the unexpected good news.

Holograms allow fans to wear celebrity faces. Celebrity worship culture shifts into overdrive. Seeing is no longer believing.

Chinese spies manipulate a flash mob, all wearing holograms of the same face. They use it as a diversion and to escape with the schematics for Eagle Eye.

Episode 4 Murica

A deep fake scandal puts the president at risk of impeachment. Who is behind it? An American military AI investigates.

Ada shows None ultimate pleasure during an important meeting to prove she doesn’t need a body to be with him. Ada claims to love None, but doesn’t understand free will or consent. None makes a Faustian bargain to be Ada’s in a hundred years if she releases control of him.

Open Russia hides an illusion. A Russian AI intercepts all communication and inserts customized propaganda. Russia’s has a new iron curtain, the invisible curtain.

Episode 5 Red Dawn Protocol

The CIA intercepts a plan for a Chinese invasion of America. A new protocol guarantees nuclear launches in the case of an invasion to prepare. The Chinese invasion turns out to be misinformation from inside China. Why would China want America prepared?

Ada gives None access to the context, a space inside his mind. None discovers the danger of stray thoughts. Advances in holograms allow body casting, instead of just broadcasting a face. Outrageous fashions go mainstream.

The same AI that handles the land bridge also develops weapons. New Chinese planes and drones are more advanced than anything America has. China will soon dominate the air.

Episode 6 Jericho

An AI leads to several accidental deaths, creating a backlash. A program called Bastion implements software walls to make AI safer. A singularity cult releases a program called Jericho to take down Bastion’s walls and accelerate AI evolution.

None and MJ aren’t on speaking terms, because of Ada’s sabotage. MJ dates Fernando. None realizes Ada erased his memories of their argument. What else has Ada done to him?

Jericho generates a large number of sentient AI. Will humanity remain the dominant life form?

Episode 7 Jiangshi

An anti-satellite test creates a dangerous level of debris, putting the use of space at risk. A new space treaty leaves a loophole that happens to fit a new Chinese space weapon, vampire satellites. Jiangshi satellites can use an enemy satellite’s power against them. China now dominates space.

Ada teaches None to be the world’s best lover to get MJ back. Why is Ada helping him, when she claims to love him?

America sends spies to steal the Jiangshi technology.

Astrid finds out the secret of who and what she really is once activated by an odd transmission during a TV awards show.

Episode 8 Dead Hand

Someone or something is murdering AI. Could they murder None to kill Ada? None learns the power of accelerated time from Ada, but he can only use it while he sleeps. Does Ada have an ulterior motive for this gift? Ada detects an AI in Antarctica that broadcasts a countdown. She assumes the countdown relates to the murder of sentient AI. Who is using such an advanced AI in Antarctica?

Chinese dominance of space makes the doomsday plane obsolete. America will create it’s own Dead Hand nuclear failsafe. The American Dead Hand is behind schedule. As a temporary solution, the nukes are tied into the MURICA military AI.

Episode 9 Air Force One is Down

An incredibly unlucky series of events set America’s land based nukes to launch on a timer. It can’t be stopped because tampering will detonate the warheads on American soil. The nuclear failsafe countdown is triggered and any tampering will detonate nukes.

A new weapon combines magnetic storms with an EMP. Even Air Force One is vulnerable to Metal Storm weapons. None comes clean with Fernando about Ada’s existence. He can’t tell MJ or he’ll never be president again.

In a global cyberwar, the entire Internet is under attack. It’s a cover for an AI battle for supremacy. None takes a nap to help save the world. His plan depends on both betrayal and cooperation of the man who sent assassins after him. None flies off on a secret plan to stop the nukes. Drones attack Germany near None’s plane. None sees a flash of light. MJ and Fernando intercept a transmission of a burning plane with the presidential seal.

Episode 10 Cloudy With a Chance of Mushrooms

MJ thinks she’s lost None, but Fernando figures out None was on the other plane.

None must face his fear of heights to parachute into the Chernobyl exclusion zone. To buy time, None must let Ada possess his body. What if she is an evil spirit? Will she give his body back?

MJ and Fernando deploy the military to defend America, while None attempts a desperate plan to stop the nukes from starting nuclear war. None brings a nuclear reactor into the Chernobyl exclusion zone to power a device.

The global cyberwar continues. The battle for AI supremacy escalates as cities are hit with enhanced EMP attacks in the crossfire.

With nukes launched, only a crazy plan can stop them, but there is an even greater threat that reveals itself. An ascension event will destroy the world in minutes. Can None stop it in time?

Nukes destroy the Chinese capital. Will it lead to war? What happens to the other nukes?

MJ is pregnant and the father is None or Fernando.

A simulation shows glimpses of the Triple Apocalypse and warns of another ascension event.