This week I'm featuring some of the 2021 Emmy winners. Today I've picked one episode of Michaela Coel's Emmy-award winning series I MAY DESTROY YOU.
Premise, Episode 108: After Arabella finds out that the police have closed their investigation into her rape case without finding the perpetrator, she travels to Italy to see her former boyfriend. Meanwhile her friend Kwame tries to get past his own sexual assault by having sex with a woman.
Structure: Episode 108 has a pretty standard narrative structure--we start with a Status Quo: Arabella and Kwame embrace their ways of dealing with their experience, Arabella through her support group, Kwame through a straight dating app. Then, Complications (of their Choices) Ensue--Kwame goes out on a date with a straight girl, and ends up having sex with her only to discover it still triggers memories of his abuse, meanwhile Arabella finds her confidence in herself and reality shattered after her case was closed without an arrest, and decides to go to see her old boyfriend in Italy. And then, Everything Falls Apart--Both of them end up getting thrown out by their partners. At the end Arabella sits on a beach alone and finally walks into the sea. And that ending creates a new status quo going forward, the two of them a mess.
The Scene To Watch: Arabella and Biagio
When I think about I MAY DESTROY, one of the moments I always go back to is the scene here between Biagio and Arabella. Having come into the scene through Arabella's eyes, our take on what is going on there is skewed in a way that we don't necessarily realize. We know she's sad and struggling. And we see that Biagio is surprised, but then he very clearly softens. When the pizza arrives he offers to pay, and we have absolutely no warning of what he's actually planning, that he's going to lock her out, until it happens.
The scene becomes a showpiece for Coel's incredible acting, as we watch her move through denial, bargaining and finally rage--and then on the beach, depression.
But for me the great writing moment is just the choice to have Biagio shut her out without warning, to not telegraph that in any way. Sometimes when I'm writing I think I really need to justify this choice my character is going to make. And so you seed that coming decision in comments and actions that the characters make earlier. But that's not always true. Some of the most exhilarating moments, in fact, happen when a character does something that hasn't been telegraphed.
Part of it is obviously the surprise factor; Biagio's move so totally comes out of the blue. But it's also the Gap of it all, the leap that's been made from what we expected to what actually happens. In order to move forward we the viewers have to make sense of that. Which means we become part of the storytelling process; we in a sense get to fill in that gap for ourselves. Was it that Arabella mentioned staying as long as Biagio liked that freaked him out, as she thinks? Was it his plan from the moment he saw her? Or was it something else? Each of us get to weave our own answer.
Now You Try
Reread your pilot with the question in mind, Is there anything I can take away? Any gap that I might create that will end up surprising and engaging the reader?
