This season had more pain in its creation which was caused by one thing – I took it to production too fast. The outline and the scripts didn’t have time to simmer. Season 1 had been rushed just as fast but while it turned out pure gold, the initial results of my Season 2 writing did not. I’ll go into this more in Episode 10’s show notes, but suffice it to say, when I heard the first cut of Episode 9, we went back and added some stuff, such as:

• The Elixir Sabbat sequence in the first scene
• An extension to Lorea’s real estate talk about Sparrow Apartments

And some other miscellaneous stuff. I also had Aurora re-record a lot of her Episode 9 materials to improve her performance, which wasn’t gelling with me at the time. I had a lot of hopes for this season. I am after all a perfectionist with my work.

The cast and I had a lot of tension in this season – I felt that I had taken the scripts to production too early and they were invested in their performances and didn’t want to change too much. (We did change and re-record quite a bit, which turned out well for everyone.) I got severely stressed this season and thank you to my partners and lovers who put up with me during it.

What I’m trying to say is that we learned a lot and Season 3 will be better for it.

Now, where was I? Ah. I wrote Cassandra’s “Predator of Humans” speech late last year and that didn’t change much in its final iterator. Rachel liked it so I knew it was a good direction in which to start the show. I was inspired to begin the episode exactly where we left off from last season by Killing Eve‘s start of their Season 2. My initial draft of the first scene had more conversations like Amanda and such but Rachel correctly noted that this didn’t bring much to the scene so I made cuts. The Elixir Sabbat was added later when it seemed as if the beginning of the show was a slog and needed some action to pump it up.

Early in drafting the outline I knew that Cassandra would be reticent to talk about her kills. I thought it would be a good motif to continue throughout the season. Cassandra’s “fuck. Fuck!” scene on the hillside was also an early-developed scene that I was glad made it to the final production. I wanted to show her desperate not to become like every other Kindred and just go along with the drinking and killing etc.

I think about Episode 9 as the “dealing with everything set up in Episode 8 so we can get onto the new stuff” episode. That’s probably why it’s a little long – it’s all resolution and setup. I had a long list of plot points that needed addressing.

Samael’s request to tell Lorea that they love Cassandra was a callback to a line from Episode 4 in which Samael tells Lorea, “the second I tell you I love her, I have to kill you.” But now there’s nothing Lorea can do about that, so Samael intends to rub it in. (Soleil, Samael’s VA, has mentioned that Samael doesn’t have a lot of agency this season, which, granted, is the case. I had a lot of balls to juggle this season and I’m dedicated to juggling less next season. But wow, do I have some ideas for Samael’s agency next season.)

These show notes are a lot about a season I haven’t written yet, aren’t they. To be honest, I’m very burned out from this season and am looking forward to one that I’m more excited about, with the issues from this season resolved.

Hank was a one-shot mook in Season 1 and I wanted to expand on his role in Season 2. (Hank’s VA also said he liked Hank better than Ed Astra from Brittle Tourniquet, who he also played, because Hank was a more believable anarchist.) I wanted to start a Leftist Schism(TM) within the Anarchs and so he and Siobhan were to represent one side and Lorea the other. As a leftist anarchist, good gods I’ve seen some schisms in my day, and I wanted to reflect those in my show. And it seemed an interesting way to spread conflict within the show.

I introduced the concept of torpor early with Cassandra as it will come up later in the Season with other characters.

I’ve read the whole schtick in the VtM manuals about a diablerized Kindred taking over the body of the one who diablerized them, and so that gave me the excuse for having Samael “speak” through writing.

Cassandra’s first “hunt” is facilitated by Lorea and I wrote it as a comedy to undercut the horrific nature of it. It probably plays into the whole “lesbians as temptresses” narrative but I really don’t give a fuck. I needed to show how ill-prepared Cassandra and your average Kindred is to hunting prey and needs a tutor and Mermaid had a good time being the victim.

Sparrow Apartments, Cassandra’s new penthouse lair, is based on Munger Hall, an infamous 2023 project in which “94 percent of the students would not have had windows in their bedrooms. The building’s design was conceived by Charlie Munger, who based the design philosophy on the interior rooms of a cruise ship.” The idea of the Hall was that students would be fine experiencing only LED light and I thought, that would be perfect for Kindred too. As mentioned above, this scene was expanded to address why Lorea thought of Cassandra as a good candidate for this space.

Next we have the introduction of the Fire Brigade who will be far more important in future episodes. My original thought was to get a Thin Blood on the Prince’s throne but that seemed difficult to justify in-world so, well, you’ll see. I definitely wanted to show the Duskborn as not putting up with the Camarilla’s shit, and fire being the most effective weapon of terror. I also needed Cassandra to justify her diablerie as consensual and the only way to pull that off was to show Samael giving her information willingly. The warehouse scene is a fun little action sequence in a show that is all about fun little action sequences.

Finally we get a moment for Cassandra and Samael to relax and talk to each other about what might have been – what if Samael hadn’t been taken in Episode 5. Things might have changed between them. And Samael gets to open up about their trauma, which they need to do to heal. I love doing little trauma bonding scenes like this. Then, they have sex*. Originally, I wanted to have a mirror in the room so Samael would watch Cassandra enjoying herself but I eventually dropped that. I thought it would be fun to have Samael’s dexterity improved by their sexual prowess.

* Okay, elephant in the room. I keep having this discussion with other audio drama creators so let me reiterate why I have sex in Blood Doll. First and foremost I want to do HBO Prestige Drama (like The Sopranos, The Wire, and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire) only with trans/queer people. These are shows with sex but not shows explicitly about the sex that’s in them. Second, I am opposed to the No Kink At Pride type movements. LGBTIQQA2S communities have always found togetherness and identity in sex which is why society at large tries to ban our sexual visibility first and foremost without doing the same to cis straight sexual visibility. “Think of the children” is the cudgel that they use. And I see you in the chat about to type “but we need child and ace-friendly spaces too” and yes, I entirely agree with you, those spaces should exist and cis straight people are not the ones to build them. Third, Blood Doll is avant-garde. Nobody’s done the mix of sex, romance, and action adventure in the audio drama format before. You wouldn’t give Blood Doll’s content a second glance if it were in print but because it’s performed by actors, suddenly it’s the Coming of the Antichrist. Audio dramas with sexual content such as Deep Dream State and Yuki, Space Assassin are generally exiled to the SubscribeStar Mines, safely away from anyone who might find them objectionable. But sex is less than 1% of Blood Doll. It’s not the focus. And as far as I know, no other audio drama is trying this. So it’s frustrating that I have to continually be driven from opportunities to promote the show when gatekeepers say “does your show have sexual content in it?” Yes, of course it does, but that’s not the question being asked. The question is less “is your show objectionable to the crowd our community caters to?” and more “will it get us in trouble with the authorities who want us to please think of the children?” In these days where trans visibility is actively being beaten down and trans people are used as the kindling for the bonfires of the rise in fascism, I deny them the opportunity to say my show is safe. It is transgressive and I will not have it any other way, nor will my cast. Yes, it is transgressive for a very specific moment in history, but its activism is extremely necessary and I will fight tooth and nail to have it break into the modern discourse.

Now, where were we?

Oh! You’ll notice that the MP3 files for this Season of Blood Doll have chapter markers! I don’t know which podcast distributors actually care about them, but if you run the MP3 files through your average Apple or Android player you’ll be able to skip between chapters now. They were a pain in the ass to implement but they should be useful to you now.

The very brief scene with the Cassandra’s second victim, also Mermaid, was actually recorded outside with a Zoom H4N to make it sound more raw than you get in the studio. It’s short but I’m proud about how it came out.

Finally, Cassandra returns to Court, and I add a subtle reverb behind Sophia’s voice to give her more gravitas. The scene is very utilitarian but I got to use the term “devil-swiven” in it. To swive is a Middle English word for “fuck/copulate” which I learned while I was reading The Canterbury Tales in college. I always wanted an opportunity to use it.

We briefly introduce Rose the Sheriff here, who I wanted to do more with but ended up…. not. Wonderfully played by D Dargis, she was the third actor we cast for the role. The first couldn’t do Season 3 and the second, in her own words, didn’t have a dominant bone in her body. And Rose needed to be a good top so Rachel recommended D. Look, I cast through my various polycules and so does Rachel, lol.

Next, we have Cassandra’s death before Stephanie and I was talking up this scene all last year, when I was selling the cast on the Season 2 ideas I had. I wanted this to be a traumatic moment for Steph and I knew Becky, her VA, could sell it. Becky wasn’t sure the CPR counting would work but when I played it back for her, she absolutely got that it had. It was such a sad moment and deliberately manipulative by yours truly. I hope it worked for you.

So now we get the introduction of Ruth. Last season, I wanted to set her up so I had her appear in the Kitsap escape sequence in Episode 8. Aurora needed a lot of work. She had never voice acted before and Rachel and I had to direct her very specifically at first. Rachel ended up being the better director for her, which is why Rachel is credited as the assistant director of Season 2 and officially the co-director of Season 3. Aurora did a lot of just reading from the page at first without embodying the character, but eventually she got there. I had her redo all of her opening scenes because the voice difference was so noticeable. I still had my doubts until my most recent relisten to Episode 9 and by doubts were unfounded. She nailed it.

Anyhow, we have established a break between Samael, who wants Ruth dead for excellent revenge reasons, and Cassandra, who wants Ruth alive for more selfish reasons. More drama! I like the trope of Samael taking control of Cassandra when they are more emotionally driven and I planned for them to slam Ruth against the wall early in development. But I wanted Ruth to be trapped in a situation she couldn’t control, and that submitting to Cassandra is a form of control that she does have a choice about.

Once back at Sparrow Apartments (all the apartments in Seattle have stupid names like The Owl or The Enclave or The Rocket), Ruth goes off on another Alicia’s Patented Autistic Overshare. I wanted to have Cassandra look at the question of “what is a Kindred” from the spiritual/philosophical perspective and Ruth from the scientific. (Aurora also learned the hate the words “orthonasal olfaction” in her retakes.) I put a lot of thought and not as much research into this conversation with Cassandra, particularly the idea that gods exist but they don’t make scientific sense. Cassandra and Ruth love this conundrum of Kindred’s existence so much, they bond over it. Cassandra gushes over the idea that she’s a storybook monster (which she is) but then, well, I’m going to hit her over the head with Buddhism in the next episode so she can’t rely on that crutch as an excuse for her existence anymore.

Cassandra’s relationship with Ruth mirrors that of her early relationship with Samael, and so Cassandra sets her free (with the one condition). I intended for them to do more discussions about the nature of Kindredism but I kind blew my load on that first conversation to make it work and it was hard to develop more. From here on it’s more D/s games. Which I like a lot, and I hope you do too. They help Cassandra establish herself as a Commanding Top Vampire too.

And finally we have Cassandra and Elijio’s trial, which goes better than either probably expected. Samael knows their way around Court. I finally had an opportunity for Samael to call out the Court’s bullshit and lack of trying to help them. I do admit that Sophia folded a little easier than you would expect, but Samael is very good at bullying. And huzzah! Cassandra is authorized. For now. We also get a peek at Cassandra’s ex-girlfriend Nichole, who will show up a couple more times this season. She’s cool and I wanted to do more with her, but the Seasons are only so long and I feel like I overstuffed this one.

Anyhow, Episode 9 finishes its setup for the season and we’re finally ready to get the show on the road.

So next episode is where our production completely fell apart.