P1 - NARRATIVE ARC

NARRATIVE ARC
OF EACH EPISODE

1st STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT:

The narrative arc of Croak is currently quite difficult to distribute between episodes - I've given it another go below.

2nd STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT

Edit notes

The edits I have made after taking on feedback from my pitch are in blue. I thought that it would be interesting, as mentioned in the retrospective I wrote before Unit 22, to turn Croak into a murder mystery rather than just a story about losing a frog and a conspiracy. 

• EPISODE 1 (PILOT) - Everything goes a bit wrong    +

It’s yet another Sunday and Fen is investigating her biggest case yet - a thief. That is to say, a stationary thief. The worst kind.

In which Fen is a journalist, not a detective.

1. A young girl stumbles across a body in an alleyway. She rushes off to her mother, who works in the clock shop, and tells her (and a customer she's talking to) what she found. The clocks all chime 12. They rush off, the mother murmuring about fixing those clocks so that they don't go off at twelve every day. The three find the body again - it is a councillor of the town. They all go off to get someone else, like the police.
   Once they have left, Fen Marsh slinks into the alleyway and looks at the body, very conscious of other people coming back and finding her there. She followed the child, her mother and the customer at the mention of a dead body. MAYBE END PROLOGUE HERE. (She goes up to the body and investigates around in a hurry, snapping pictures of things, and then she runs away.)
2. Fen gets to the club - meets lotus on the way
   Fen Marsh gets ready for journalism club, throwing on a jumper and stuffing things into her backpack. She has notes and stationary littered about everywhere - in particular, she has notes on the recent murder. She picks these up and folds them carefully, tucking them into her coat pocket. Watering one of her plants with her water bottle, she hustles out the door and shuts the door - she forgets to lock it and has to turn back around to do that. Then, she's off.
   
   
   Along the way, she gets held up by Lotus - she wants to chat and Fen is very antsy. They have a brief conversation before Fen can leave (rather impolitely) and go to her club. We learn that the university campus is mostly empty because it's a school break.
3. 
   
   Fen gets to her club and startles everyone, she mumbles her sorries and bundles into a chair by her friend, Aster. She's bursting to tell her and cryptically reveals that she has a 'big story' in the works. In the meanwhile, aster asks her to help with a story she has to write up - it's about a stationary thief. Fen reluctantly agrees.
   
   
4. 
   
   Fen cuts it close and nearly gets caught, chased by security 
5. Fen gets back to the clubroom, bangs on the door etc

• EPISODE 2    +

1. FEN AND PINE INVESTIGATE 
2. FEN GOES TO THE BOGS AND GETS MUDDY
3. FEN COMES BACK AND FINDS HER APARTMENT OPEN
4. SHE FINDS OUT ABOUT THE UNDERGROUND PASSAGES - SOMEONE BROKE IN AND LEFT HER A KEY

• EPISODE 3    + AN UNEVENTFUL DAY

1. ASTER CONVINCES FEN TO HAVE A DAY OFF, WHICH FEN PROMPTLY IGNORES. BEHIND ASTER’S BACK, SHE GOES TO INVESTIGATE THE TUNNELS UNDER THE SCHOOL
2. SHE HAS QUITE THE TIME AND EMERGES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN
3. DAMP AND MUDDY, SHE TREDGES BACK TO HER APARTMENT AND GREETS PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY
4. SHE HAS A BATH AND PRETENDS THAT SHE WAS THERE ALL ALONG

• EPISODE 4    +

1. FEN OPENS HER DOOR TO FIND MOSS HAS COME HOME FROM THE GEOGRAPHY TRIP IN ICELAND HE WAS ON EARLY
2. FEN TAKES MOSS TO A CAFE TO CATCH HIM UP
3. THEY GO BACK TO INVESTIGATE THE ROOMS FROM BEFORE. FEN FINDS A COUPLE OF ARTICLES SHOVED INTO THE BOOKSHELF IN OSCAR’S ROOM ABOUT ‘WITCH HUNTERS’. THEY LOOK REAL. SHE ASKS MOSS TO TAKE A PHOTO OF THEM AND HE MAKES FUN OF HER FLIP PHONE. THE TWO COME OUT OF THE ROOM AND BUMP INTO LOTUS (SHE SAYS SHE’S VISITING SOMEONE)
4. THEY BOTH FEEL LIKE THEYRE BEING WATCHED ON THE WAY HOME, BUT LOTUS WALKS WITH THEM - IT CAN’T BE HER 

• EPISODE 5    +

1. FEN, ASTER AND MOSS GO TO MEET UP IN THE NEWS CLUB ROOM AND DISCUSS WHEN THEY FIND IT CLOSED BECAUSE IT’S BEING PAINTED, FEN SLIPS AWAY FROM THE GROUP BECAUSE OF AN INKLING
2. FEN MEETS LOTUS IN THE CAFE FROM BEFORE, WHERE SHE’S DOING WORK. THEY HAVE A CRYPTIC TALK ABOUT THE PAINT AND THEN FEN SEES OSCAR, THE MAN WITH THE LOST CAT, AND SHE SCOOTS OFF TO TALK TO HIM

• EPISODE 6    +

1. FEN IS SUSPICIOUS OF LOTUS, WHO SHE FOLLOWS INTO TOWN.
2. LOTUS MEETS WITH THE WITCH COUNCIL, AND FEN IS FOUND WATCHING. SHE LEARNS ABOUT WITCHES AFTER CATCHING THEM OUT.
3. LOTUS CALLS HER “MARSH” AND ALL THE WITCHES IN THE ROOM GET CAGEY, FEN IS KICKED OUT AND SO IS LOTUS - LOTUS DIDN’T SEEM COMFORTABLE IN THE MEETING. THE TWO HAVE A TALK ABOUT WITCHES AND FEN IS LEFT CONFUSED AT WHY HER NAME WAS SO POLARISING. THEY TALK ABOUT HOW MOSS, DESPITE BEING ADOPTED, IS VERY MUCH A MEMBER OF THE MARSH FAMILY.

• EPISODE 7    +

1. IT’S A NEW DAY AND, OF COURSE, MOSS IS MISSING FROM THEIR SHARED APARTMENT. FEN THINKS HE’S MAYBE GONE OUT EARLY AND MUSES ABOUT THE FACT THAT GEOGRAPHY, HIS CHOSEN ELECTIVE, SUCKS. THEN SHE FINDS A NOTE PINNED TO HER CORKBOARD THAT SHE HADN’T NOTICED. HE’S BEEN KIDNAPPED.
2. FEN HAS A TENSE WRITING CLASS - IN WHICH SHE HAS A TERSE CONVERSATION WITH LOTUS -  AND THEN SHE’S FREE FOR THE DAY. SHE BUMPS INTO ASTER ALONG THE WAY AND ASTER HAS NEVER SEEN HER PANIC BEFORE. SHE GOES BACK TO THE CATACOMBS, AS THE NOTE SAID, AND TREDGES THROUGH TO FIND HER BROTHER.
3. FEN FINDS HIM UNCONSCIOUS IN A ROOM OFF THE MAIN TUNNEL, SURROUNDED BY CLOAKED FIGURES WHO TURN OUT TO BE PEOPLE FEN KNOWS. ONE OF THEM IS OSCAR - HIS CAT’S AT HIS FEET - AND SHE’S VERY SURPRISED.
4. THEY TALK TO HER AND EXPLAIN THE PLAN.
5. LOTUS WALKS IN NEXT TO HER AND CLOSES THE DOOR. “FEN. THOUGHT I’D FIND YOU HERE” OR SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES.

• EPISODE 8    +

1. FEN TALKS TO THE GANG AND THEY CONFIRM THAT SHE’S THE HEIR OF A WITCH HUNTING FAMILY. SHE ASSURES THEM SHE WASN’T RAISED TO BE ONE.
2. TENSE CONVERSATION ABOUT THE MISSING PETS AND MOTIVE - FEN ASKS WHAT LOTUS’ MOTHER DID TO BE EXPELLED FROM THE COUNCIL. LOTUS DOESN’T KNOW - NOBODY WILL TELL HER, EVEN WHEN SHE BEGS. MOSS WAKES UP.
3. FEN TAKES CONTROL OF THE SITUATION, ACTUALLY ANGRY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WHILE. SHE TAKES THE WHOLE GANG INTO TOWN TO THE COUNCIL TO ASK THEM PERSONALLY WHY THEY EXPELLED LOTUS’ MOTHER. 
4. THEY ALL BURST INTO THE MEETING ROOM AND EACH GROUP STARES THE OTHER DOWN. SHE IS RECOGNISED AS “THE MARSH GIRL” AND SHE TELLS THEM TO LET LOTUS KNOW. SHE’S ALSO SECRETLY VERY CURIOUS. 
5. FEN STARTS WANDERING AROUND AND ROOTING ABOUT IN THEIR STUFF “IF YOU WON’T TELL US, I’LL JUST FIND OUT”.
6. SHE FINDS A PICTURE OF A WOMAN THAT LOOKS LIKE LOTUS IN A DRAWER WHILST BEING YELLED AT, IN THE MIDST OF A DISBELIEVING ARGUMENT. MOSS CROUCHES NEXT TO HER IN SOLIDARITY. 
7. THE COUNCIL END UP TELLING THEM THAT LOTUS’ MOTHER WANTED TO DRIVE NON-WITCHES OUT OF NGAIO, BECAUSE SHE BELIEVED THEY SHOULN’T HAVE TO HIDE.
8. AFTER IT ALL, LOTUS STORMS OFF AND FEN FOLLOWS TO AWKWARDLY COMFORTS HER. THE REST OF THE GANG SHOW UP (LOTUS’ GROUP, BUT NOT THE COUNCIL) AND FEN IS SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE, BUT NOT ANNOYED.
9. SMALL TIMESKIP FOR THE END OF SEASON 1, FEN HAS WRITTEN THE STORY UP - WITH A LOT OF EDITS TO KEEP THE WITCH SECRET - LOTUS GAVE HER PERMISSION TO WRITE ABOUT HER. FEN STEPS OUTSIDE TO WALK WITH HER NEWFOUND FRIENDS (MOSS, ASTER, LOTUS AND OSCAR TAGS ALONG WITH HIS CAT, PANDORA). 

FIN