User blog:Johno1995/Season 2

I figured I'd share some things about Eden Rising's second season. It's one of the toughest bunch of episodes I've ever had to write. There was a point (after the lackluster episode 2) where I told myself the season's arc wasn't working out. Here's what was the same between both outlines:

-The idea of the airport being the season's major setting was always part of the season. -A saboteur being involved in everything, connected to an extremist group that wants to destroy Eden, and the identity of that saboteur has always been the same. -Tom and Gwen's split decisions over where to take the group in the future and clashing due to different ideas has stayed. -PJ's fight with his epileptic hallucinations and the recurring flashbacks of his mother were always intended to occur as well. -The entire Last Chance Society storyline has always been the same. Nothing major has changed about that storyline since the season's early planning.

Now, from the original outline, the overall season arcs at the airport were much different. This is why much of the middle episodes seem to focus on trivial things, as much of the airport storyline's "meat" was removed.

-Michael and his group of soldiers was a very slow-burn storyline that would take up a majority of the season. They would attempt to kill Tom and his group and drive the scientists out of the airport, leading to many conflicts over the season. -There was going to be more internal conflict in the group. Manila and PJ are fairly new, so I wanted to keep that in there and have Michael try recruiting them out of Tom's group and try turning them against them. I feel like having this would have been nice, just because it was the original intention (they joined the group as outsiders and former enemies anyway). -There was going to be the implication that PJ was one of the soldiers that attacked Glenley and he was haunted by being forced to murder innocent people. This was cut because it had little bearing on the overall plot and was part of the plot where Michael tries to manipulate him and Manila into joining his group, by telling PJ that because he had a part in the destruction of their town, these people would never open up to him. -Sidney would have played a more major role. Her split from Tom was actually not part of the initial plan. They were to remain together. Sidney was going to get bored of sitting at the airport and start experimenting with the zombies (which still happened, but weren't as big of a deal in the re-written season) wandering outside of the gates, leading to another layer of conflict with Michael and the soldiers as they did not want zombies on their grounds. -Because of Leigh's identity at the traitor, she was caught in the middle of this conflict because she really had no true affiliation with both of them. She was never loyal to Michael's group in the first place, and their plots to get rid of this group - her chance at getting to Eden and destroying it from the inside - was going to make things fall apart for her. So she starts aiding Tom's group and eventually leads to the downfall. -Sidney was not going to die in this outline. Instead, the big sucker punch of Leigh's reveal as the traitor was going to be "well, she helped us this whole time, how could she be evil?" And the majority of the traitor plot was going to revolve around everyone thinking it was Michael or someone else from his group of soldiers. -Not every soldier was going to want to get rid of Tom's group. There'd be plenty who go ahead and show compassion, but end up getting attacked/murdered by Michael, who grows more barbaric and unhinged in their territory war with Tom's group over the massive airport as the season goes on.

My problems with this storyline were: A) Michael was not an interesting character or one that was easy to root for, B) I wanted Leigh's reveal to tie into her falling in love again and it being tough so I decided to have her hook up with Tom, C) It seemed like it made the season too bloated. There's already so much going on at this point, and I didn't want it to seem disjointed.

So I ended the Michael storyline early, rewrote the season outline, etc. It's been a challenge working around the major rewrites, but I think it worked out for the better in the end. It would have just made things too complicated/bloated throughout the season.