So here weare, at what was theoretically going to be the end of the story – but I've asked Virgin and MySpace to let me have two more pages so we can spread out for the climax and coda. This episode is therefore written as the penultimate one, with the aim of tacking a two-page coda on at the end.
As with last week's episode, I've intercut between the Ruthven/Aratun scene and the Quail/Celia scene: last week had the two reveals that Ruthven had recovered and that the weapons were not what we thought they were. This part has the pay-off for both of those things and the villains getting their come-uppance.
And at this stage you sort of feel "man, it is what it is." Everything that's already happened presses down on these scenes and constrains them into a certain shape. We have to see Aratun and Quail brought down, we have to do it so it makes sense in terms of what we already know, and there has to be a price so it doesn't all seem too neat and clean.
But I'm wondering if I've given too much space to the Celia/Quail side of the coin, and I'm wondering whether Quail and Ruthven should come face-to-face again before he dies. That would be difficult to arrange, logistically, but not impossible – and it would have a certain rightness about it. The two halves of the question are sort of mutually exclusive, because adding in a Quail/Ruthven beat would make it very hard to shorten that scene. But it WOULD be possible to have Ruthven just come in for that last panel on p20 and give Quail a valedictory beat. So the options read like this:-
Should we alter the structure of these two pages?
- No, keep them as they are.
- Give more room to Aratun/Ruthven.
- Allow Ruthven and Quail to meet.
- Bring Ruthven in at p20 panel 5.
As always, fuller feedback, opinions, suggestions and stuff like that should be posted on the message board…