Episode #4.42, the second half of the two-part episode "Broken Blossoms," has been posted. Heavy focus on Tristan / Beth, as we see a pair of flashbacks to important moments in their relationship.
Clark's rage at Tristan elicits suspicion from the police;
Del discovers a potentially deadly piece of evidence;
An on-the-edge Martina blows up at two men in her life;
Jem receives a terrifying message that sends him to a dark place;
Jonnie's distraction and guilt may lead him to a fatal mistake;
...and Tristan questions his sanity as he remembers falling for Beth.
A teaser from the ep:
Spoiler
The twilight turns everything in the desolate parking lot a ghostly pale blue, including Jonnie Adair’s face as he stares almost resentfully at Jem. Jem can’t move; his arms are held behind him by the man he knows only as Dean. He can only blurt a final plea to Jonnie not to do what Dean has just ordered him to do. Jonnie’s clear eyes—blue or gray, it’s impossible to tell in this light—seem vacant, lifeless. As if he’s turned on some autopilot and is no longer in control of his own actions. And it’s in that second Jem finally realizes how terrifyingly helpless he is.
Jonnie blinks and pulls back his right arm, then delivers a blow to Jem’s gut that sends his stomach up through his throat. Jem gags and coughs and Jonnie lands another punch, perfectly aimed at the same target. Two more blows and the crack of his ribs sends unspeakable pain through him. Jem’s knees buckle and his body slumps. If it weren’t for the huge man’s grip on his arms behind him, Jem would’ve collapsed to the ground. Instead he remains in place, unable to avoid the unceasing attack.
ASF's URL is http://www.skyfalls.com. There's a full recap and a printable episode, as always. In addition, you can still vote in the Viewers' Voice Survey, which allows you to choose the direction of a specific plot point. Voting's open until October 1. And take the frontpage poll asking: who's your favorite younger ASF character.
Thanks very much for reading and sharing your feedback.
Yeah, I'm slow on the read, but I finally got to both episodes (it's nice not to have to wait for the second part!)
"This is the most unhelpful bunch of victims I've ever seen." ~ I love this line!
Oh what a disappointing defusing between Tristan and Martina! We were going somewhere with that and then you snatched it away at the last moment! I feel like there was a lot of spinning with Martina in this episode, unfortunately. Her round and round with Alex ~ didn't we already know this info? I could be faulty in the memory department (or maybe made assumptions based on Martina's behavior at the hospital before?) but it feels like we didn't get anything new in that particular scene.
I also had to wonder why you avoid calling the phone a phone in the initial scenes (when it's first discovered and when Lou buys it). Also, just as a technical nit pick, I don't think you need the "Lou listens as someone picks up and starts right in with a few angry words" line. We were just there and got to see it happen. Ye olde showe/no telle.
Lastly, I enjoyed the Beth/Tristan flashbacks, but would have liked to have seen (particularly the last one) a bit tighter or, for pacing's sake, more parceled out rather in big chunks. That's a style choice, though, so maybe not helpful. On the one hand, a flashback is always great to see moments of genesis or to reevaluate key decisions, events, etc., but on the other hand, a flashback is still the past, unchangeable, and therefore the reassessment can only have so much impact on the future or current events except in an epiphanal (made up word?) fashion. So yeah, love the flashbacks, but wonder if they couldn't have a little more bang for their buck (dramatically, think about it: Tristan spends the whole episode arguing with Martina and then brooding).
All that nit-picking aside, I enjoyed this two-parter very much. The stakes are rising and I love the juxtaposition of the emotional/personal crises intercut with the PlayCity explosion bigger/darker/more dubious affairs. You do that extremely well ~ normally I just glaze over at the larger issues, but I'm equally invested here in the romantic parts of the plot as well as the thriller parts.
My favorite character this episode was Jonnie. His double dealing is getting almost the same as interesting as Tristan / Beth. I did not expect the "lost phone" turn of events. He's in a lot of trouble, and it's ironic that his occasional good intentions will be his downfall. It was nice to see a little bit of his inner feelings, and showing his light background with Rena added depth to the character. I've never felt him to be one-dimensional and I've never considered him a bad guy at heart, just misguided and he's definitely made some wrong choices along the way.
Tristan is going down the wrong road. I'm sorry for him but given his occasional past emotional instability, it's inevitable I guess. I just hope he's not going to ruin everything for him and Beth. It was also very interesting to see Amanda / Samantha each showing in Beth's personality. As far as I know the other members oh the household are not aware of this relationship, am I wrong?
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Yeah, I'm slow on the read, but I finally got to both episodes (it's nice not to have to wait for the second part!)
"This is the most unhelpful bunch of victims I've ever seen." ~ I love this line!
Heh. Sad but it's true.
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Oh what a disappointing defusing between Tristan and Martina! We were going somewhere with that and then you snatched it away at the last moment! I feel like there was a lot of spinning with Martina in this episode, unfortunately. Her round and round with Alex ~ didn't we already know this info? I could be faulty in the memory department (or maybe made assumptions based on Martina's behavior at the hospital before?) but it feels like we didn't get anything new in that particular scene.
Don't worry, this won't be the start of another rift between Marty/Tris, at least I don't intend it to be. As far as the Marty/Alex scene, you're absolutely right that the audience already knows what Martina was saying -- that she was tested, etc. -- but the new info in that scene came from Alex. We hadn't heard his version (fake, obviously) of just how he and Martina supposedly ended up in a yacht together. He needed a plausible story that he could plant in Marty's mind to explain her presence on that tape. And for that matter, Alex needed to know that she was being tested and is so certain she was raped that she sought medical help... and perhaps even more important, Martina needed to tell him.
So basically my rationale for that scene, which alas seemed redundant to you, was that it's a combo of character stuff, narrative to catch up the audience, and some dribbles of new details. Not that it matters if it was boring to you! I was hoping Marty's semi-violent reaction would be interesting.
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I also had to wonder why you avoid calling the phone a phone in the initial scenes (when it's first discovered and when Lou buys it). Also, just as a technical nit pick, I don't think you need the "Lou listens as someone picks up and starts right in with a few angry words" line. We were just there and got to see it happen. Ye olde showe/no telle.
Heh, well, you probably got me there. The phone thing was a little bit of suspense for the two people who might not have realized what it was, and also who wouldn't connect it with Jem's comment about having lost his phone. Not really necessary but why spoil their fun? A gimmick, 'tis all.
As far as showing Lou on the phone w/Jonnie, I kept going back and forth on that. In truth I moved the Lou scene around so much (it wasn't originally split up to bookend the Jonnie scene, and in fact it started out attached to the Del scene early in the segment) that I just lost track of what I was telling or showing. The Jonnie POV scene in the hospital was an extremely late addition to the episode -- as in, while the rest of it was written during WeSeWriMo, the Jonnie scene was written last Sunday right before the ep was posted. I only included it because after showing Jem's flashback to the beating, I thought, "damn, Jonnie comes across horribly here! Better show him being affected by Jem and Rena's situation."
So after inserting the Jonnie bit, I should've removed a couple of lines in the final Lou snippet. Reading it now, I don't think it's egregious or anything, but yeah, it could have lost the part where we saw Lou listening to Jonnie.
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Lastly, I enjoyed the Beth/Tristan flashbacks, but would have liked to have seen (particularly the last one) a bit tighter or, for pacing's sake, more parceled out rather in big chunks. That's a style choice, though, so maybe not helpful. On the one hand, a flashback is always great to see moments of genesis or to reevaluate key decisions, events, etc., but on the other hand, a flashback is still the past, unchangeable, and therefore the reassessment can only have so much impact on the future or current events except in an epiphanal (made up word?) fashion. So yeah, love the flashbacks, but wonder if they couldn't have a little more bang for their buck (dramatically, think about it: Tristan spends the whole episode arguing with Martina and then brooding).
You may be right. Those scenes were written for the third season, not originally flashbacks at all. Usually I condense stuff more than that. But I got into writing them and I thought for the Tris/Beth fans out there, they might enjoy the lengthy bits since it ain't like this pair is likely to get any romantic screentime any time soon. Helps that it made sense (to me, anyway) for Tristan, Mr. Obsessive / Intense, to dwell on these moments in such vivid detail. It suits his tendency towards masochistic self-torture.
Really the reason I included them at all was to justify Tristan's view of their relationship. Flashbacks aren't my preferred method of storytelling, but in this case I fell down on the job when it came to showing Tris/"Danielle" falling in love back in the third season, and needed to rectify this after-the-fact. These scenes will be slipped into the third season (a controversial choice, but what the hell, just call me George Lucas). If they'd been there originally, I would've shown less of 'em. But I didn't want current readers to be shortchanged of my glorious, glorious writing the information.
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All that nit-picking aside, I enjoyed this two-parter very much.
AKA "Other than that, Our American Cousin wasn't a bad little night out."
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Originally Posted by Dana
My favorite character this episode was Jonnie. His double dealing is getting almost the same as interesting as Tristan / Beth.
WOW now that is a pleasant surprise! I know you're a big T/B fan so for Jonnie to move up in their realm is something special. Either that or T/B are losing you. Oh dear!
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I did not expect the "lost phone" turn of events. He's in a lot of trouble, and it's ironic that his occasional good intentions will be his downfall. It was nice to see a little bit of his inner feelings, and showing his light background with Rena added depth to the character. I've never felt him to be one-dimensional and I've never considered him a bad guy at heart, just misguided and he's definitely made some wrong choices along the way.
That's exactly how I see him. I've said this before but he's really been my biggest surprise of a character, in that I never expected to like or empathize with him as much as I do now. He began in the first iteration of ASF as a real hoodlum with very little to recommend him, but somewhere along the way during the first season, both Cassie and I started to shade his portrayal, making Vanessa / Bert the worse of the conspirators. I mean, the boy's got issues; he laid into Jem pretty easily and often justifies what he does by blaming the victims (Jem and Tristan). But at heart, if he had his druthers, he wouldn't be victimizing anyone.
If you like Jonnie you should enjoy the next dozen or so episodes, because he's probably going to be the most visible character throughout.
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Tristan is going down the wrong road. I'm sorry for him but given his occasional past emotional instability, it's inevitable I guess. I just hope he's not going to ruin everything for him and Beth. It was also very interesting to see Amanda / Samantha each showing in Beth's personality. As far as I know the other members oh the household are not aware of this relationship, am I wrong?
Actually you are, just in this one instance! (And who can blame your memory for being off, considering how long this storyline has taken to develop?) The only one who doesn't know about the relationship is Beth, poor thing. You can see all the alters discussing this in #4.24, "Shadow Boxing," in particular this scene after Beth finds out about the pregnancy and Bitsy takes over, intending to get an abortion. Molly tells Amanda that the child is an obscenity, and the three adult alters start to argue:
Spoiler
Amanda feels a sob rising in her throat, but she's strong enough to keep the terror at bay. "There's nothing obscene about the child of two people who love each other."
Molly's harsh laughter is like a smack in the face. "Tristan Campbell doesn't love you, my girl. He never even met you. All he knows is that you're a liar and a sneak and a whore."
The words leave Amanda in stricken silence. But a soft ripple of laughter emerges from the other young woman in the room, who's been standing and admiring her image in the tall mirror by the dresser. Samantha then turns around.
"Not really true, Moll," she says with lips curved in amusement. "In all fairness, I was the liar and whore. Amanda was just aiding and abetting. Just like you."
"Like me?" Molly's wrinkled hand tightens on the doorknob. "What are you talking about now?"
Samantha twirls her long, sleek brown hair around her finger as she walks nearer to Molly. "You were with Tristan that last evening at the Lighthouse, remember? Woke up in his arms, those wonderful, strong arms ..." She smiles dreamily. "You could've told him about my little playacting game right then and there. But you didn't."
"That's because it was the wrong time. He wouldn't have understood. You saw how he reacted when he finally figured it out on his own -- the man's sinful, he's capable of anything! I was trying to protect us."
Giggling, Samantha shakes her head. "Now who's the liar? Why don't you tell the truth for once?"
Molly doesn't back down. "What truth?"
"That you liked being there with him. Old and dried-up as you are, I bet you enjoyed having Tristan beneath you, his arms holding you." Samantha moves in, her movements sinewy and slow, a rattlesnake approaching its transfixed victim. "I know Bitsy used to sneak around, spying on me and Amanda whenever we were with him. What about you, Moll? Were you there all those nights too, watching?"
And it continues on, showing that even Bitsy and little Lizzie know about the relationship.
Spoiler
Samantha laughs and goes on as if Molly hasn't spoken. "I bet you regret not having that for yourself, don't you? You left so early that night at the Lighthouse, but you could've stayed around and given him a try. That's what you're really angry about, isn't it? Not letting yourself be with him, the way Amanda and I did?" She lowers her voice. "Never allowing that sinful man to fuck you senseless?"
Shocked by Samantha's vulgar words, Molly reaches out to strike her, but although her hand connects with its target the older woman doesn't have the strength to smack away Samantha's triumphant expression.
"You make me sick, the pair of you," Molly spits out. "Amanda's living in a dreamland, thinking she'll end up with Prince Charming -- and you're no better than a bitch in heat!"
As the two continue to argue, young Bitsy slips away from her position outside the room, walking slowly downstairs to join the smallest member of the household. Lizzie, who's now in control and panicking in her corner of the elevator, has her hands over her ears.
"Stop it," she says aloud, her voice echoing in the now-empty elevator. "Stop it, stop it, stop it! I don't wanna hear any more!"
Shoving her wild, frazzled red-brown hair away from her face, Bitsy stares contemptuously at the younger girl. Why are you even listening to them? They can't help us. And neither can you. I'm the only one who can fix all this, I'm gonna fix everything! Just let me through again.
"Molly said I shouldn't. She said you were gonna do something bad." Lizzie takes a deep breath, concentrating hard. "What Samantha was saying. Did you do what she said you did?"
What?
"Did you ... look at them? Y'know. When they were -- what they did with that man."
Bitsy smirks. Yeah. I saw.
"Oh." Lizzie shudders. "That wasn't right. You shouldn't look."
Shouldn't do a lot of things. Neither should they, but they do. Bitsy's small face makes a grimace as she mulls over what she's seen, and then she shakes her head. It's none of your business, Lizzie, you just keep out of that stuff. You're not ready. Not near ready. Anyway, you shouldn't be listening to what Molly says in the first place, that old ugly witch.
(Bitsy's thoughts are in italics because the latter half of the scene is from Lizzie's POV, as the alter currently in control of the household; as such, Bitsy's lines are really just thoughts. Cripes that's complicated!)
Anyway, Tristan is indeed going in the wrong direction, but you're so right, that's his natural journey, sad to say! Beth needs to get whole and he's not going to be very helpful, not yet, anyway. These are two highly damaged individuals. Hence the name of the episode. It describes pretty much everyone in town. (And the ep is named after the beautiful, tragic silent movie about an abused daughter, BTW. Definitely worth watching for Lillian Gish's gripping performance alone.
Thanks both of you for sharing your thoughts about the episode! Truly a pleasure to read.
I kinda figured you'd done the Martina/Alex scene as a refresher, which I ought to have more patience with perhaps. I also think Alex disgusts me (for what seemed to obvious to me: his treatment of Martina), so I didn't want to spend the time with him being a creepo and feigning innocence. If this were The Globe Theater, I'd've thrown an orange at him.
I wondered about the flashbacks, Mr. Lucas (ha!). You never want to waste good scene material, though. It may just be that your writing is generally so cinematic and in this case it felt all in the face of convention. Again, it's a style thing, so there's nothing "wrong" with it ~ just felt heavy for the pacing you'd previously established.
Mrs. Kennedy also said to tell you she very much enjoyed the parade.
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A gimmick, 'tis all.
