as a reader of mysteries, it’s the plot twists that make for a sensational story. Yanking your readers down one path only to have it blow up, leaving them feeling like there is nothing left and then opening a new path. That is tough work. I know, I’m trying to do just that in my mystery. Get those red herrings in as soon as I can and then spread out the suspense as to how important those little devils are.
As a fan, I’m delighted there are two TV shows doing this very thing. One, Once Upon A Time, the story of no happy endings has pulled back a curtain [not ‘the’ curtain because it’s not the Brothers Grimm who are doing the revealing] on the ‘rest of the story’ as Paul Harvey used to say on his old radio show. The story has shown how all the different characters of Fairy Land, now in Storybrook, Maine, interacted outside the confines of the story. This week, it was Little Red Riding Hood’s turn to have her story told. We learn of Red’s true love for Peter [and seriously, could they not have come up with a better name, because I kept thinking about Peter and The Wolf Glory Be! I grew up on Sergei Prokofiev’s composition] And What a Twist! So, do not read here, if you’ve DVR’d the episode and don’t want to know. But…Red is the big bad wolf. Whoa! And the red hood is to keep her from changing. And Granny never told her about her, well, what shall we call it, her gift? her ability? her curse? That was interesting because a number of OUAT blogs were thinking that the mysterious stranger, the writer, was the Big Bad Wolf! Instead in a great reversal coupled with amazing feminism, and it’s Ruby.
The second series [Awake, the series about a man who’s been in an accident and is living in two realities. Well, he thinks they are two realities. One is which is wife is still alive and one in which is son is still alive. And, the therapists are trying to make him choose. And you can so understand his answer, ‘how can I choose who lives and who doesn’t?’] has done the plot twist far more subtly, mainly because we don’t have any recorded memory to give us backstory so we are amazed by the twist. And, we’re moving back and forth between two worlds and we still don’t know which one is a reality and which one isn’t. But in the second episode, and this is the reality where his son is alive, his police captain has a very terse conversation with someone who looks nasty and wants to make sure that it’s all under control. She assures him it is, and mentions that they didn’t have to take out the whole family. Whoa! All of a sudden you wonder what else is going on in the confused and befuddled brain of the main character. Now. That is truly a twist.