Episode 2 - Whatever Lies Behind The Door
Return Home2016
Oh, hey there. We made it to the end of Episode 2! Congratulations on surviving. Unfortunately, not all of us can be so lucky, as Zayne can attest.
Whatever Lies Behind The Door is really our first foray into the strange world that Melancholy Falls inhabits. Sure, you get a hint of it in Episode 1, but this is where we really pull back the curtain to show you just how strange it can be.
That starts with Jonathan and Buddy’s trip to the city council meeting, where you are introduced to some of the town’s citizens. All seems well and good, mostly, with a few hints of what’s yet to come. There are some strange things peppered in there, but we really wanted something to slap listeners in the face (ears?) as to how weird the town can really get. And what better story-telling device to do so than a portal into another world?
When I first started writing this one, I planned on keeping it to just the portal itself…no mess, no “monsters” per say, and no deaths. The villain, so to speak, was going to be the portal itself, and Jonathan & Buddy’s inability to really wrap their head around it. While laying the groundwork in 2.1 seemed to go smoothly, as I got into 2.2 and 2.3, I realized it needed more. There was no real sense of urgency to just a portal hanging around, and nothing for them to really contend with. So, Jonathan’s first big encounter with the strange went from an easy assignment into a full-blown master class of chaos very quickly.
I’ve always been a big Lovecraft fan, and it wasn’t until halfway through writing 2.3 that I realized how much he influenced this particular story. While we have started getting questions about if the overall story of Return Home is set within the Lovecraftian mythos (and the questions are valid), we never intended it that way. So, yes, while this episode does take its roots in Lovecraft, we will definitely break out of those bounds (as you will see in Episode 3).
The tentacles came much later into the writing process, when I realized I needed to show the madness outside of the house, as opposed to just keeping it contained with the bedroom. On top of that, I’ve always been a huge fan of the LucasArts game Day of the Tentacle, and wanted to throw a bit of that into Return Home.
Zayne’s death did not come lightly, either, though it was something we knew had to happen early on, even when writing Episode 1. Something about not only being thrust into this weird, new position in life, AND having the only person with his finger on the pulse taken away right away really appealed to me. Zayne had the answers, but for now, those questions will never get to be asked. Or will they?
Much like I mentioned in the show notes for Episode 1, I’ve always been a big fan of serials, so having each one of ours end on a cliffhanger has always been the intention. The cliffhangers of Episode 1 and 2 ARE directly related, and will come back into play…some day.
Also, I talked about THE MIST audio book last time, too. Andrew, mix master extraordinaire, made this one his THE MIST with the tentacle and portal stuff. I LOVE what he did, and he really made it feel real. And creepy. And slimy. And gross.
Anyway, thanks for coming back to check out some of the show notes for Episode 2. Episode 3, Running Wild, begins on May 3rd, and is REALLY weird. And again, we’d love to hear from you guys, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.
See you in a few weeks!
