[TW's trailer. TW is busily typing on a laptop when someone knocks on the door.]
TW: Busy, go away...
[knocking continues]
TW [sighs]: It's open!
[ED enters]
ED: Tom...I...what the hell just happened?
TW [still typing]: Someone lost their mind, Erica. That's what just happened.
ED: Seriously! I mean, damn--pregnant Lois? I told him I wasn't--
TW [stops typing]: Allison was just fired, Erica. I think Lois ending up pregnant is a distant second to that.
ED: ...okay, okay, yeah, you're right. How the hell do we deal with this?
TW: I went right over his head. I just sent an email to Dawn Ostroff, explaining that bringing in Bryan Singer to produce Smallville was...as politely as I could put it...a good idea that went bad very, very quickly. And that his vision for the show is contradictory to its established history and--
ED [nods]: The bitch is crazy.
TW: ...yes. And...as much as I didn't want to do it...I asked her to bring back Al and Miles.
[ED considers that for a few seconds]
ED: Isn't that sort of like "We had to destroy the show to save it"? This already happened once...
TW: Come on, Erica. Allison's been there from the beginning. Chloe's been there since the beginning. She deserves a hell of a lot more than to go out in a damned ratings stunt.
ED: I'm not sure Dawn will listen to reason, Tom. This is the lady who hired Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, after all, the first time Al and Miles left...I mean, hey, I got some great outfits out of that, but the rest of it...
TW [pauses]: Dammit. I hate to admit it, but you're probably right...she probably won't even read the message.
ED: So what do we do now?
TW: Try to appeal to Bryan's better and more sensible nature as a storyteller. We just killed off Lana, so wouldn't it be overkill to kill off Chloe as well?
ED: And if that fails, we can always threaten him with physical violence!
TW [frowns]: No, we can't.
ED: We can't? Why not?
TW: You didn't see Annette and John the other day, did you?
ED: Huh? Oh, wait, you mean when Annette had that gigantic bump on her head and was carrying around an ice pack all day?
TW: Bryan did that.
ED [stunned]: No shit?
TW [nods]: No shit.
ED: I thought he just had a bouncer or something! [snaps fingers] God, I wish I could have seen that...
[TW stares at ED]
ED [after a moment]: What? Annette's always threatening us with violence!
[TW shakes his head and goes back to typing on the laptop]
ED: Working on another email to Dawn?
TW: No, this is something for the next episode. Bryan's little bombshell forced some...hasty rewrites.
ED: Oh.
TW: Actually...since you're here, Erica, I really need some help with part of this. I could probably use a second opinion on some of it.
ED: Can I see?
TW: Yeah. [turns laptop to face ED] That's the teaser.
ED [scans screen]: No announcer voice?
TW: Nope. Don't need it for what I'm trying to do.
[Fade in on a slight variation of the usual establishing long shot of Metropolis. Suddenly Chloe flies across the skyline and arcs above the camera's POV, out of frame.]
Lois [voiceover]: "Lex, you're not getting away with this."
[Cut to a shot of a building surrounded by Metropolis Police Department officers and vehicles. The front of the building explodes.]
Chloe [voiceover]: "Do you think you can trust him?"
[Cut to Lois running in slow motion past one of the vehicles in front of the building as it also bursts into flames.]
Lex [voiceover]: "Not as far--"
[Cut to a speed-ramped half-circular pan up someone's body to their face, revealing them to be James Callis.]
Lex: "--as I can throw him."
[Cut to a shot of Clark holding up a broken piece of crystal in the FoS. Martian Manhunter is behind him, slightly out of focus.]
MM [ominously]: "There are worse things in this universe, Kal-El."
Lex [voiceover, fading in over the end of MM's dialogue]: "You lost control, Chloe."
[Cut to a black-and-white view of Lex's office at LuthorCorp, an alternate-angle view of the scene where Chloe killed Lana. Lana's head is conveniently out of frame, but her body falls to the floor. Cut from that to a close shot of Chloe, in color, with a shocked expression on her face.]
Lex [voiceover]: "You lashed out."
Chloe [in a whisper]: "I..."
[cut to black screen]
Chloe [echoing]: "...I killed Lana."
[The Smallville logo fades in in the middle of the screen, then fades out]
ED: Artsy. I love the slow motion part. And what's up with James? How did we get him?
TW: Above scale pay. Now, the part I need your help with is later in the episode. There's something specific I want to do...and it involves Chloe.
ED: Considering that if Bryan has his way she'll be dead in four episodes, what's the point?
TW: That's exactly the point. We're going to plead our case, but if that fails...I'm not going to let this go, dammit. The hell with the ratings.
ED [surprised]: You're planning something big, aren't you? Something he won't like?
TW [shrugs]: More like...one or two little things, which will be in place no matter what. But I do need help...so are you in?
ED: Do I get a writing credit?
TW: Yeah.
ED: Okay! Down for whatever!
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