I didn't write about 104 last week, in part because it felt like it might be better to wait and see 104-105 as a unit. They're an interesting choice for a story to tell following 103.
As I wrote about last week, 103 seems like it's a game changer for the series. Its standalone queer love story suggests that THE LAST OF US is interested in something different than a post-apocalypse adventure story, or even than a Joel and Ellie story, that it might be about all of the people in this world, and more specifically perhaps about different kinds of love.
One way of proceeding coming out of a story like that is to give us a more standard Joel and Ellie story. It's a classic genre way of proceeding to move back and forth between plot stories, that is stories that get us from point A to B, and mythology stories.
And 104 certainly starts that way. About a third of the episode is moving the ball (aka the characters) farther across the United States.
But once we get to Kansas City, after they're attacked, we suddenly find ourselves in an interrogation room with a woman we've never met before, Kathleen, who is looking for someone named Henry. And from this point forward we cut back and forth between Joel and Ellie's story and Kathleen's hunt.
And then 105 starts with neither of them, but instead ten days earlier with Henry and his brother Sam, who suddenly showed up at the end of 104 with their guns drawn on Joel and Ellie.
So rather than sort of "mix things up," as some genre shows do, THE LAST OF US starts with something like that, as a way of keeping us feeling like that story is progressing, but then once it's accomplished that, weaves in first one and then another story of completely new characters, and does so in the way established in 103, that is, rather than say having Joel and Ellie meet these characters and so we come into their stories through our heroes' point of view, the show literally cuts away from Joel and Ellie to these new characters and gives them an entire major moment of their own.
Introducing them in this manner is a way of once again underlining these other characters' independent value and subjectivity. Kathleen's story is not here to support Joel and Ellie's; she is a subject in her own right, the protagonist of her own story. And the same is true with Henry and Sam.
I'm struck by the fact that these new introductions are not jarring, either. Sam and Henry are introduced at the start of an episode; that's actually a great moment to try something new, because it's the moment that you most have the audience's attention. They've just started the stream; they're going to give you at least a minute. Plus Henry and Sam were introduced at the end of 104, so they are not total strangers.
But in 104 we're literally halfway through an episode and suddenly we're supposed to just roll with a whole new set of characters. That does not go down so easy. And in both cases the way that the writers make that work is by putting the character in a compelling moment and then taking their time. It's sort of counter intuitive, but if you're going to introduce someone new in the middle of what you think is someone else's story, you need to give the enough time for us to invest in them.
So first we get some establishing shots outside, telling us we're going someplace else. Then we're outside a room, hearing a man talking to someone, saying he doesn't know anything. And only then do we go inside and watch the scene play out between Kathleen and the doctor, with her threatening to kill him if he doesn't give her the location of Henry, who apparently was responsible for the death of her brother. (Note how that is actually exposition meant to tell us important stuff about Kathleen, and yet it works because it's hidden by the high stakes of the situation.) And the scene establishes Kathleen's immediate problem: is she the kind of person who is going to kill the doctor who brought her into this world because he won't tell her where Henry is. And in the end, yeah, she is.
It's not a long sequence, maybe 5 minutes. But that's plenty of times to give us her story, her character, and a problem which she eventually solves.
The opening of 105 with Henry and Sam is much longer, 15 minutes. And part of that is again about establishing the characters and their relationship, which is so central to where the story goes; but it's also about establishing what happened in KC; it's about explaining the doctor and the attic hidey-hole that Kathleen found at the end of 104; and it's got to get Henry and Sam to Joel and Ellie.
But as a unit it, too, is built out of a problem that needs solving. We start with Henry and Sam hiding and trying to figure out a way to get out of the city. And he spends ten days trying to figure out how to do this on his own and gets nowhere. The lack of food and disappearance of the doctor drives them out, but still without a great plant. But then Henry sees Joel and Ellie and realizes, this is his ticket. Problem solved.
This is a long post! What can we take from the way that the episode introduces Kathleen and Henry/Sam? First, Teach and then Trust. In 103, Craig Mazin teaches the audience to think of the show in a different way. And then in 104 and 105 he trusts that they now understand how the show works. He doesn't overdo it; 104 starts with Joel and Ellie. But he's not afraid to jump into Kathleen's story in the middle of the episode.
Second, When You Introduce a New Character, Take the Time You Need. Really this is a subset of trust. If you're going to introduce someone new, particularly in this "everyone is a subject" way, then you need to give yourself and the audience the runway for them to take off. Otherwise the audience won't know what the hell it is.
Third, The Secret Sauce to Introducing a New Subject is Giving Them a Problem. It's screenwriting 101, really. At the heart of your protagonist is a problem (which could also be described as a desire that they need to fulfill). Kathleen needs to get revenge for her brother's death. Henry needs to get Sam out of the city.
I've got more to say this week about 104 and 105. I'll be back tomorrow with how to do texting in post-apocalypse.
