This is, in fact, the second version on Episode 10, mostly rewritten and rerecorded from scratch. The first version, which may find its way to the show’s Patreon someday (once I find time to start it), was more somber, more measured, and less exciting than the one posted on our podcast feed. To me, it brought about a great deal of stress, as anyone close to me can tell you.

For the rest of the cast, it was an incredible opportunity to come back to an episode with a season’s worth of practice and excitement under their belt. The recording sessions buzzed with energy as the actors dove into the rewritten or revised material, making it their own. It was refreshing and exhausted me in a way that this show never had before. Recording is only one part – having to re-edit a whole episode added an extra few weeks to the production schedule. But it all came together in the end, fortunately.

Episode 10 is about more introductions, before the plot fully gets rolling. We meet up with Elijio again as Cassandra is learning to fight with nothing but her body – no weapons, no powers aside from her enormous strength. Elijio is still grappling with the fact that his lover is back in writing but not in flesh. He’ll be dealing with that throughout the season.

The next scene in the forest with Cassandra and Ruth was an early concept of mine. I go out regularly on hikes and mushrooming so a D/s scene in the middle of the wood’s night made sense. I wrote a test bit of it in Tony’s writing class which took place on a mountainside before I moved it into the forest as the sheer amount of walking needed to get up a mountain would bore a listener and require a brief cut-away. Shortly after I finished the script, Foxfire and I went to Bridal Trails State Park in Kirkland and recorded a bunch of the foley ourselves. We got:

• Walking on dirt
• Walking on brush and bramble
• Laying down a coat on brush
• Moving around on a coat on brush, potentially sexually

And so forth. Yes, this was during the day and we had to be careful not to get airplane sounds in my H4N. There were also other visitors to the trails walking by and we had to stop and wait for them to pass. It was a lot of fun. We got some other foley bits too like Foxfire walking on a wooden bridge that sounded great, but I don’t know when we’ll be using those. Anyhow, now you know how we got those wonderfully crunchy sounds.

So as originally written, the scene was more about giving Ruth a small fright and then Cassandra confessing that she just wanted to have fun with her. In the rewrite, Cassandra is trying to terrify Ruth and is succeeding. Ruth is utterly powerless and alone with Cassandra in the darkness and it’s okay if y’all write fanfiction about it because that’s what I’m doing too. I also wanted to use the rewrite to give Ruth more agency. Originally, Cassandra asked Ruth how freeing Mara was going but in the rewrite, Ruth volunteers that information. Rachel said that it’s her favorite sex scene this season, but more importantly, I think it shows both Cassandra and Ruth’s dedication to each other.

Next is Rose’s bootblack scene. The foley is me scrubbing my boots, yes, but just with a cloth. D was a late addition to the cast but she rocked it. I love how she always performs as if she has the biggest smile on her face. This scene didn’t change much between versions – it’s mostly for Rose to drop the upcoming investigation onto Cassandra.

The next Lorea and Cassandra scene was new because I moved Josephine’s junkyard scene from the climax of Episode 10 to the end of the first act. So it’s a little bridge and another opportunity for Katherine to act her heart out.

So originally, Josephine introduced herself to the Anarchs after a short highway chase sequence with Hank and Siobhan, which was fun but kinda dragged things out. I moved the junkyard scene here to give the episode more energy here. It’s also nice to see Josephine start out as a tremendous badass. Again, having a Thin Blood brand a Sheriff was an early concept for Season 2. I was thinking about having Josephine become Prince of Seattle at one point until I couldn’t figure out a believable way to pull that off. The scene also gives Cassandra an opportunity to save Rose’s ass and put some leverage on her. And damn, it was fun to sound design as well. The metal creaks are all hand-placed, etc. I absolutely adore Dee’s improv on the lines I had given her, like the preposterous line of Italian names she gives Josephine.

Now that Rose and Josephine are introduced, Mara gets her turn. All of Cassandra’s philosophical discussions in Season 1 were Western-based and I wanted to throw Cassandra a monkey wrench into the dark thoughts her unlife had led her to. Perhaps her very mindset isn’t particularly healthy! Every time Cassandra gets comfortable I need to mess with her life again, often in a positive manner. I conceptualized Mara as a Tzimisce fleshmancer because she needed to be profoundly self-actualized. She undid a lot of her training and was apt at teaching others how to do the same. Tony pointed me towards two Buddhist teachers whose names escape me (but I’m sure he’ll tell me who later and I’ll add them here) who provided insight into how Mara would treat her place in the world. Mara is perhaps the most confident Kindred in accepting her life and her place in the cosmos. She’s done the work in contemplating how her mind works as an undead killer and knows how and when to restrain or release it. She knows she’s on a journey and is in no rush to complete it.

Also, no secret that Mara was named for the Buddhist temptation demon but also for its incarnation in Doctor Who.

Originally, Mara was more traumatized by her re-introduction to life outside incarceration, and was kinder to Cassandra and Ruth. For the rewrite, we gave her some bite. She is not merely accepting what happens in her life now that it has been returned to her. Her sending Ruth away was new to the revision – originally she was looking to Ruth for reassuring but then we thought it would be more interesting if she immediately took control and did not accept her former jailer on the outside.

The rescue sequence with Josephine is pretty much the same between the versions. I cannot gush enough about Julia’s performance as Mara. This was her first voice acting role and she is calculating when she needs to be, and reassuring when she needs to be.

Originally, we had another boot blacking session with Rose but, given the chance to revisit the script, I skipped it and just had Rose show up in Cassandra’s penthouse. I also appreciated Rose getting a chance to drop on the audience that Mara was originally Sabbat. Mara doesn’t get a minute to herself, as she’s come to expect. She has an opportunity to espouse her philosophy to Rose and Samael, confusing them but she’s used to that.

The first half of the final scene is actually a conversation that Mara had with Cassandra in Episode 12, transposed here because it made more sense than it’s original location. She’s trying to answer Cassandra’s questions as she has done with a thousand other Kindred before her, while she gets dinner and prepares for the inevitable. I loved her twist in cheering up Cassandra with “Fate cannot exist if imperfection does. You’re welcome.” Cassandra does get rather gloomy at times and needs to remember these things. The scene is also improved immeasurably by the foley of Mara chopping up her prey and tossing the pieces in the dumpster. Julia wasn’t sure that she should be grunting in the studio as part of the scene but it sounded so terrific in the end.

The scene also slowly reveals how Cassandra and Mara differ in their own core beliefs with the understanding that they can be friends but must accept each other’s differences.

We end with an inevitable fight between Mara and Rose’s Enforcers. Rose cuts it short and gives Mara some rope in exchange for her promising the kill the Fire Brigade, putting Mara in an uncomfortable choice. We’ll see how she handles it in future episodes!

Overall I’m far happier with this revision of Episode 10. It rescues what was formerly a mediocre episode and the actors took off with it. It also taught me not to rush episodes in the future, and that after I’ve written a season, to give myself a month to go over the scripts again and make sure they have the needed tempo and drama needed for a season of Blood Doll. Live and learn, I guess.