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It's here!!!!!!

Full report: slides / pdf (desktop viewing recommended for both).

"Hey loser, I don't have time to study 195 slides, I have kids and a mortgage and-" okay okay abridged version: slides / pdf. A mere 34 slides, just the responses to the survey questions.

Feel free to send questions, requests for additional charts you'd like to see, thoughts, hate mail... I'm also happy to make individual posts for charts if you'd like to reblog/start a specific discussion. You're welcome to repost charts to start your own - all I ask is that you link to this blog and/or to the full report.

It was not a surprise to anyone. She had done well for a time after the death of her husband, but eventually came down with a sickness that the town’s doctor couldn’t name and no sort of medicine seemed to cure, even the ones that merchants brought in from out of town. On the day they dragged her body out of the small little shack she lived in with her daughters, only one of them was crying. Even though they were twins, the one kneeling down in the mud seemed a lot younger than her sister. That one was Becca. Her sister was Melissa, though most people in town called her Mel. 

Frank watched Becca for a time from where he stood beneath the awning of his father’s butcher shop and was absently wiping his bloodied blade on his apron. Then turned his attention to Mel. She had bent down but was not crouching nor kneeling, taking care not to get her skirts dirty. She pulled at Becca’s shoulders and then started brushing her hand over the other girl’s hair, but it was no use - Becca was not getting up from the ground, and would be stuck there for a while yet, like a horse bogged down in the river. Eventually Mel stood up and wiped at the tears under her eyes, but in her efforts to raise her sister she had gotten mud on her palm and thus smeared it across one of her cheeks. Seeing it, Frank’s hand twitched.

He had known Mel all his life but couldn’t recall saying more than ten words to her. His mother had ingrained it into him that it was always polite to wish someone a good morning, but she lived at the end of the street, close to a thicket of trees that Frank had avoided ever since Dennis had been bitten by a snake there and died, and their paths never crossed long enough for him to wish her a good morning. The only time he ever saw her was when she was in the clinic talking to Robby about her mother’s condition, the two of them bent low over a table, and whenever Frank entered, she left so quickly that his entrance and her departure were in the same jingling of the bell. Though he also saw her at church every Sunday, her family usually sat at the back, and since his mother had ingrained it into him that he should not be disruptive during church, he never worked up the courage to crank his head around and get a good look.

He was getting one now, though. While Becca stayed kneeling in the mud, Mel followed her mother up the street. She had handfuls of her skirts in her fist and was squinting at the group of men who carried the body to wherever they would keep her before the burial. The closer she got to the butcher’s shop the more Frank racked his brain for something to say, but he had never dealt with a loss of a parent before, let alone two. In fact most days he wished he could lose his father. Least then both he and his mother would be a lot happier. As it stood, he had nothing to say to her, but he kept staring at her because he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

Her mother’s body disappeared into one of the low-slung buildings while she stood there in the middle of the street. Eventually the rest of the town started moving again, aside from her. And aside from Frank. As cowboys and farmers and buffalo hunters started their walk up and down the muddy road, he began to lose sight of her between their horses and guns and swinging arms. Then, after what felt like a long time, a man rode between them on his horse, and when the horse passed by, Mel was turning and looking right at him.

kinda peaceful out here when there's no incoming...

Find Part 1 here, with full details of where the scripts are from

Let's finish up the highlight reel in chronological order

When Dana calls Frank over to assist with Becca he says "need something?" and in all caps Mel says "YES"

"Mel stands at the door as Langdon sits at Becca’s beside. He’s gentle and attentive" HELLO??? He's gentle and attentive???

When Frank asks Mel to dim the lights when she leaves the room she is "pleased"

The script has Frank telling Mel that Becca is "in good hands" BUT did not have the line from the episode of Mel replying "I know"

The script has Becca telling Frank "Mel says lots of nice things about you" but initally has Frank and Perlah sharing a smile versus the little smile that Frank does afterwards so they intentionally changed it to make it about him being flattered

In the episode we get this lovely moment of Mel being taken aback and confused with Frank asking about her, and while the dialogue is the same in the script, there's no direction or notes about her acting like that or stammering

When Becca tells Mel that she can "see why you like him" the script says "Mel blushes. Slightly embarrassed"

In the episode, when Mel is getting upset with Becca, Frank says "Dr. King, why don't you get some air?" but in the script the line was "Why don’t you get some air, Dr. King? And I’ll stay with Becca"

The ambulance bay scene dialogue was basically exactly what we saw in the finished episode, and there were no interesting directions or other notes

After Frank feels like he made a mistake with Grady (the kid with asthma) we have the direction notes of "unnoticed, Langdon slips out the door and Mel picks up on his funk" and "Mel moves to throw out her gloves and looks out the trauma doors, watching Langdon disappear into the North Corridor"

In the break room the script has Mel saying "We don’t always get everything right immediately" while we get "we don't always get everything right the first time" in the episode

After the Kelly Clarkson joke they are "sharing a much needed smile"

After the final scene with Grady we get this incredibly buzzy moment of Mel and Frank leaving the room together while looking at each other, which was not in the script!!

What we get is "Off Langdon, heading out to Central and not feeling on top of his game" they intentionally decided to make a change to have the two of them leaving together happily, rather than Frank leaving by himself dejected

Then we get to the finale ambulance bay scene, which is very very different in the script. We know from a still that there was a high five that ended up getting cut, but the original script didn't even have them standing and watching fireworks together

The ambulance bay scene starts with Frank walking outside and seeing that Mel is sitting in the back of an ambulance (think the Rollins s1 scene)

Frank asks if Mel is staying for fireworks, and she tells him that she was supposed to watch them with Becca, but now Becca's watching them with Adam, and then Frank sits down next to her in the ambulance

They have a slightly more condensed version of the conversation that happens in the episode, and after "I could have paralyzed that guy" "but you didn't" "no I didn't" there's the direction "She offers a high five. He offers a fist. They both adjust to the other. Well, it was the thought that counts" what do you mean "they both adjust to the other"

i'll be here in the morning

or: Palm Springs: the fic of the au of the movie

mel king/frank langdon | 42k | complete | palm springs (2020) au

‘That doesn’t answer my question,’ Mel grits through her teeth, hoping if she allows her frustration to take precedence it’ll mask the fear that threatens to take control. ‘What’s happening?’ ‘What’s happening is that today is yesterday and yesterday is today. And tomorrow. And the day after, and the day after that.’ Frank keeps on gesturing as he trails off, a continuous motion that makes Mel feel sick. ‘One of those infinite time loops, Groundhog Day kinda situations,’ he shrugs. Her vision blurs for a moment, everything in sight doubling before suddenly snapping back into place in aggressive sharpness. ‘Am I hallucinating? Are we both hallucinating? Are open air gas leaks a thing? I know we’re not too far from the hot springs, maybe they're emitting mass amounts of carbon monoxide. We should probably evacuate the area, just in case.’ ‘I think the odds of mass psychosis are pretty low, so… no.’

for @fromiftowhen

just a couple of 'platonic besties'*