DEGRASSI: AFTERMATH - SEASON 2 EXPLANATIONS
The explanations are back. You had to wait a while for them, so I´ve thrown in few extra tidbits down at the end. This also as thanks for all the support the series is getting from you guys out there. In the 16 days since the first episodes were posted (as of this writing) it´s already at nearly 600 Views and has had almost 150 Visitors. The US accounts for 229 or those views and Canada for 106, so thank you, North America!. Italy accounts for 90 views, so a big Mille Grazie to you guys as well. I also see that there´s 6 superfans out there who read every chapter, within an hour or two of it coming out. A special thanks to you guys goes out from me. I also have to thank Lemondrizzlecake for providing me with some great reviews. You should check out some of her stories too. There´s some really great stuff there as well. I see that a few of you have even delved in to my very old fanfiction, AKA my old "Freddy vs. Jason" script from 2006. It´s a fun read, if you want a look at my early work. There´s a small "Buffy" crossover as well in it. Anyway, I hope to keep you all happy with my writing in the future.
Overall I thought that this was a stronger season than season 1. Maybe it didn´t have a single storyline that was as big as the Spinner/Emma break up storyline from season 1, but the ones that were there, I thought all worked out well.
Episode 1:
Storylines:
Maya in Prison - I knew that this would be the biggest storyline of the season, along with Chrissy and Manny´s. The inspiration for how it played out, I think mainly came from three sources. Two movies: "The Shawshank Redemption" and the lesser known "Animal Factory". The old HBO TV series "Oz" was another big influence, since it was one of my favorite series back in the day. Val and Amy are based in great part on Vern Schillinger and Tobias Beecher (hence Amy´s last name) from "Oz". Ellen is another character based on a character from "Oz", a man named Tim McManus (herce her last name). With Janine a lot of the influence came from the character" Alpha" from "The Walking Dead", one of my all time favorite characters. I was watching TWD and thought to myself "what if she´d been thrown in prison before the outbreak?" and Janine was created. She´s not as psychotic as Alpha (since she hasn´t had to survive a Zombie Apocalypse), but she´s a sociopath on nearly the same level. As for me putting Alex in there, I knew that in order for the storyline to be believable, Maya would need an ally to help her. Alex was one of my favorite characters, back when she was with Paige and I thought it was a shame how she was written out. It´s also far from unthinkable that she´d end up a jail bird and it helps make the story more relateable to old time fans, in stead of it just being Maya and a bunch of new characters.
Chrissy´s hard new life - Chrissy has become my favorite character to write, no doubt about it. She´s my girl and I wanted to take her to almost as low as she could go and then be really nice to her. I´m very happy with how her storyline turned out and thought she had some good character development as well.
Manny´s journey - She´s come a long way since she was a failing actress in LA. hasn´t she? Maybe I should have thrown more segments in there to show how her new passion was hurting her relationship with Eddy, but I still think I got the message through. To me it made sense that she should end up in a job, where she helped young people in particular. She became pregnant at a very early age, got thrown out from home, didn´t have it easy in school, had an abusive boyfriend and I could go on and on. I also thought back to how she helped Emma and Darcy in the series. There were many reasons why I put her with Marco and Bianca. I wanted Marco to have a bigger role, but I didn´t want it to be about his sexuality. That was pretty much his entire character for the last part of his run, so I felt like it´s been done. He´s very much a caring type, so it made sense. Bianca I put in there first of all, because she fit the part and with me ending the Zoe work storyline, I didn´t have anyone else from that generation of Degrassi in the series. It´s far from my favorite era, but her, Adam and Imogen were three big bright spots.
Using "Somebody´s Watching Me": Maybe a little hokey, but it sure fit how Maya was feeling at that moment.
Using: "Original Prankster": James doesn´t have a big part, but at least he got a song this season. I´m also a big Offspring fan and I think it´s one of their best songs.
Episode 2:
Names:
Simon Moon: He gets his last name from the legendary drummer from The Who, the late Keith Moon.
Jack Hudson: He gets his last name from the guitar player, that inspired me to start playing more than anyone else: Saul Hudson AKA Slash.
Storylines:
Why did I bring Frankie back? - 1: Keeping a certain rotation of characters going will be necessary to keep the series dynamic going forward. 2: The Hollingsworth family was one of the most interesting parts of the last years of the series. 3: There´s only so much you can do with a two person dynamic. Adding Frankie into Lola and Zoe´s little bubble (especially considering her´s and Lola´s past) opens up a lot more opportunities as far as what I can do with them in the future.
Why have a band? - It doesn´t feel like Degrassi to me, if there´s not kids playing a band. Playing in bands was a big part of my teenage years, so for that reason alone I wanted it in there. I also needed a way to give Julie and Lisa their own separate storyline with a couple of young boys and I thought this was a good way to set it up.
Using "Dead End Justice" - The whole storyline started when Lisa became a fan of Lita Ford. Her playing lead guitar on a Runaways song (like Lita did), is already her first dream achieved. She´s most likely pretending that she is Lita when she´s playing, just like Lita herself has said that back in her teenage years, she pretended that she was Richie Blackmore from Deep Purple, when she played. Of course there´s also the chorus, which is just perfect for a bunch of kids their age to name their band after.
Using "Chemistry" - It´s just a cool little song about the first experiences with love. which fit what was going on perfectly. Semisonic were another band I liked a lot. They had their own laid back, but still rocking style and wrote some very clever songs.
Episode 3:
Names:
Jamie Burnquist - I never did much skating, but man did me and my friends play a lot of Tony Hawn Pro Skater on Playstation back in the day. Two of the skaters you could choose were Jamie Thomas and Bob Burnquist.
Charlie Howerton - A small tribute to the best American comedy series, there´s ever been: "It´s Always Sunny in Philadelphia". It´s a combination of Charlie Day (who plays Charlie) and Glenn Howerton (who plays Dennis).
Deb and Seb Likens - I always want to keep it so that people can easily remember who the characters are and giving them rhyming first names in this case helps achieve that. They´re victim´s of circumstance and therefore I gave them the last name Likens after Sylvia Likens, a 16 year old girl, who was brutally tortured to death in Indianapolis in the mid 60´s. It´s been called "The worst crime ever enacted on a single human being". If you have a strong stomach, check out a Youtube documentary, one of the movies ("An American Crime" with Ellen Page as Sylvia is a very good one) about her or read the Wiki page. It´s probably the most horrifying real life story I´ve ever heard.
Storylines:
Putting Chrissy in "The Rubber Room" - I needed to "broaden" Chrissy´s world, so to speak and give her some new characters to interact with in order to keep things fresh. It´s a bit of a callback to both Maya and Emma´s characters as well. Maya having it change her life in a positive way too and with Emma it´s more about the choice of boy. I wanted there to be a bit of a "like mother, like daughter" feel to it, but still keep in original. There will also inevitably be a bit of a callback to Zig and Maya, but Chrissy and Jamie are very different from the way they were.
The Skatepark - Skating is one of those things that´s not going away anytime soon. It´s also a callback to my own youth, where I sometimes hung out with friends over at a small, local Skatepark close to where I lived. I actually had my own first kiss sitting on the half pipe there, with a girl named Signe.
Using "Punk Rock 101" - Bowling For Soup are in my opinion one of the most underrated bands ever. If you like catchy rock with some very clever and often very funny lyrics, you should check them out. It´s also a really good song to skate to.
Episode 4:
This one and episode 7 are probably my personal favorites.
Storylines:
Using "It Takes Two" - It fit the scene perfectly. The whole point was to show how good Jamie and Chrissy are together and I thought this was a better way to get it across, than by having them talk a lot. "Show, don´t tell" is an old rule in scriptwriting and this was an example of that.
Bringing back "The Ravine" - The Ravine was a fascinating part of the "Degrassi World", that I was surprised they didn´t explore more. It´s like "The Forbidden Zone" and a place where you can have almost anything take place and it won´t seem too far out.
Episode 5:
Names:
Georgia McBeal - "Ally McBeal" was one of the series me and my ex-girlfriend watched regularly in the late 90´s and it was generally pretty good for most of the time I watched it. She´s named after two of the female lawyers from the series, Georgia Thomas and Ally McBeal.
Jason Cage - Again named after (in my opinion) the best "Ally McBeal" character, John Cage.
Lois Cronkite - This one was maybe a little too obvious. She´s named after Lois Lane from Superman and legendary American reporter and war correspondent Walter Cronkite.
Anthony Montgomery - He got his last name from another lawyer character, Greg Montgomery from "Dharma and Greg".
Storylines:
Why not show the hearing itself? - I´m not really a big fan of court room drama, for one thing. I also thought that the reactions would make for a much more interesting episode.
Using "Hurt" - I almost used it back in Season 1, Episode 9 for the montage with Chrissy in the park, but I made the right choice in using "Running Up That Hill" in stead. To me, it fits the scenes that are taking place perfectly. I was going back and forth on whether it should be the original or the Johnny Cash version, but I thought the original fit it better.
Episode 6:
Names:
Anthony Hamlin - I watched quite a few episodes of "Chicago Hope". Mark Hamlin (now best known as Gibbs on NCIS) played a doctor, who specialized in sports and muscle injuries.
Sherry Colby - Sherrry comes from Sherilynn Fenn, who played the young vixen Audrey Horne on "Twin Peaks". Colby comes from Alexis Colby from "Dynasty", played by Joan Collins and one of the most iconic female TV characters of the 80´s.
Storylines:
Eddy´s Storyline - This is the most personal storyline for me in the series, since I know exactly what he´s going through. When you have an old injury like Eddy and I do, the cold weather leads to a lot more aches and pains than usual. I know that I´ll probably never play in a band again, but if I were in Eddy´s position with a new band that could be going places, I´d grit my teeth and play through the pain as well. The way the doctor examines him is exactly how they do it. I should know, since my doctor does them on me twice a year. So why CarisoProdol or Soma, as it´s also called? Well, first of all I´m an old wrestling fan and I remember one wrestler after another dying in the late 90´s and early 2000´s. Soma was almost always in their system and heavy abuse was the direct cause of death in several cases. To me it´s kind of insane, when I then read that in the US in 2016 there was over 3 million prescriptions written out for it, when almost the entire rest of the western world has banned it, because of how dangerous it is. You want another crazy fact: It was invented in 1959 and they still don´t know why it works! I know almost 40 percent of my readers are Americans and I´d like to warn you all about it. When you say "Muscle Relaxant" people don´t think of it as something that could be dangerous, but that´s far from the truth. After my accident I took a lot of pills and the muscle relaxants were just as "effective" in making me high as Morphine or Oxycontin. For the record, the drug isn´t legal in Canada, so let´s just say that it was legalized again sometime between now and 2027 in this universe.
Using "You Oughta Know" - It´s the Canadian song of the season and a 90´s classic. I actually saw her live twice in the 90´s (in 95 and 99) and she was really good live as well. I guess Kayla´s still got some issues about how Sean treated her.
Episode 7:
Names:
Al Fish - I was running low on lawyer names, so I had to pull one final one out from "Ally McBeal, that being Richard Fish.
Mick Crane - I watched several episodes of Boston Legal back in the day, almost entirely because of how entertaining Willian Shatner was as Denny Crane.
Storylines:
Using "Burn One Down" - I knew that I wanted to have Chrissy walk in on Spinner, from the moment I came up with Sherry. But I didn´t think that Spinner in a sober state would be up for it, however in a stoned state and given that he hasn´t got any in months, I couls easily see him going for it. The song itself is one of the best "Weed" songs ever written. "Up In Smoke" by Cheech and Chong and "Because I Got High" by Afro Man, were two other songs I seriously considered for the montage.
The "Mason Family Mishap" - I´m just glad that it never happened to me and I pity all those poor kids it did and will happen to in the future.
Episode 8:
Storylines:
Why is Maya reading "The Stand"? - It was, when I read it in my early teens, by far my favorite book. If I had a lot of time to pass in prison, I´d read it again.
Lisa and Jack´s storyline - So, Lisa got friend zoned. At that age it´s usually better for band mates (or boys and girls that age in general) to stay friends anyway. In my first band we originally had a girl as our keyboard player and to be honest she was much better than any of us boys. Then me and her became "steadies", which lasted for about three to four weeks. A few weeks after we broke up she quit the band, because things were getting awkward. We eventually became good friends in our late teens (she also became a lesbian) and even played in another band together, that we played a handful of gigs with. The last I saw of her was a very short lived reality show they had here called "The Band", where they auditioned a bunch of hopeful amateur musicians and put a band together to be led by a professional manager. She played keyboards and rhythm guitar in it. It didn´t catch on and from what I remember it got cancelled after a few months. The manager was a complete idiot with some of the things he said (like "All the best bass players play with a pick") and he was very strict on them, so I can´t imagine it was an enjoyable experience to be a part of. They did release one song, which I remember got played on the radio a few times.
Using "Hazy Shade of Winter" - It´s a cool, but relatively easy song to play. It was originally performed by Simon and Garfunkel, but the Bangles´ more rocking version I thought would fit the kids better.
Episode 9:
Storylines:
Letting Maya "Out Early" - I was really in doubt, whether Maya finding out should have been saved for the last episode, but in the end it was the right call, I think. That way I could concentrate on Manny´s storyline and have Maya´s first steps into freedom be the closing image in the final episode (excluding the epilogue).
Who´s Hannah Sinclair? - For those who haven´t seen the early seasons of "Next Generation", Heather Sinclair was an often mentioned, but never seen character. It´s a bit that had been used many times before. I remember it from "Columbo", where Columbo would often talk about mrs. Columbo; From "Cheers", where Norm often talked about his wife Vera and from "Frasier", where Niles often talked about his extremely weird wife Maris. I named her Hannah, since the Sinclair girls we´ve heard about or seen so far, both had names that started with an H.
Using "You´ve Got a Friend" - It fit the scene. Simple as that.
Episode 10:
This was a tough episode to write. My original plan was that the entire episode would take place the day after Maya got released, with it being a one hour episode. I actually wrote about 2/3 of the episode and decided to scrap pretty much all of it, because it just wasn´t working. The big problem was that the opening was by far the strongest bit and nothing after that could top it. So I came up with the idea of using the opening as my ending and only keeping Manny´s storyline. Once I decided on that, the story came to me pretty quickly. I knew it would be hard to live up to the drama of Season 1´s finale, so this was the closest I could come up with. The only bits that survived from that unfinished script are the ending montage (with small changes) and the post credit epilogue. In the Extras section at the bottom, I´m putting in a few "deleted scenes" from the episode that never was.
Names:
John Riggs: Mix of John McClane from "Die Hard" and Martin Riggs from "Lethal Weapon".
Storylines:
Manny saving the day - This in many ways completes her journey this season, from feeling like an unwanted failure, who couldn´t get a job, to saving a life and getting praise from everyone for it.
Using "Bittersweet Symphony" - One of my favorite classic 90´s movie scenes is the end of the movie "Cruel Intentions", where the bitch sister gets what she deserves and Reese Witherspoon´s character rides off into the sunset, as the victim who had turned the tide on their attacker. Without this song in that scene, it wouldn´t have been nearly as good.
Extras:
How did I put together the series?
I´m guessing that a lot, if not most of the readers aren´t writers. Just fans who want some new stories about their favorite characters, that they can´t get new episodes with. But if you feel like you´ve got some good stories in your head, then why not give it a try? Let´s have some more competition. The only possible outcome is that the fans get more good content to sink their teeth into.
Step 1: Planning the overall storylines.
Before I´d written the first paragraph of the first episode, I already had more or less planned everything that would happen in all 10 episodes. Except for the saga that was episode 10, I stuck to the plan this time, compared to season 1, where I made a lot of changes along the way. First I wrote up in short form for each main character. what would happen to them. For instance, here´s what I wrote for Manny:
"Manny can´t find a job and feels worthless, until she (through Marco) gets in to contact with Bianca. She starts as a volunteer and will get a job in the organization by the end of the season. Eddy and her are still very much in love throughout the season, but her new found passion, combined with the success of the band (that now has Kayla in it) will be taking a toll on their relationship."
After that I planned out in loose detail, which storylines would be taking place in which episodes. For instance, here´s the plan for Episode 1 of the season:
Main Storyline: Maya´s new life in prison with Alex
Secondary Storyline: Chrissy´s hard life
Other Storyline(s): Manny and Emma´s new lives
After I´d done that for all 10 episodes, the pre-planning stage was more or less finished.
Step 2: Preparing to write the episodes.
Before I write the actual scripts, I write out what´s known as a treatment. This is basically the blue print for what will happen in each scene. Let´s use episode 1 as an example again:
1: Maya´s life in prison is miserable, but she´s made a friend in Alex. Janine hassles her, but Alex comes to her rescue.
2: Chrissy is tired and can´t concentrate in school, because she´s had to take over for her mom. She gets a test back and did badly on it, even though she tried her best.
3: Montage (Somebody´s Watching Me) where Alex and Maya have to shower together. Maya is worried that Alex fancies her.
4: After school Chrissy is invited to a play by Julie and Lisa. but can´t because she has to babysit her brothers. She reveals that both her and Spinner have to work constantly now, so that they can afford to keep the house.
5: Manny and Emma meet before up before going to the theatre and discuss events in their lives.
6: Another girl tries to mess with Maya, but she finds out that just using Alex´s name can get her out of trouble.
7: Montage (Original Prankster). Montage of Chrissy´s new life.
8: Manny and Emma go to the theatre. They sit with Eddy, Marco and Carlos.
9: Spinner comes home to find Chrissy asleep on the couch. He´s obviously sorry about the situation she´s been put in and wants to make things better for her. After she´s gone off to bed, he smokes a joint.
10: Alex and Maya get ready for bed. Alex messes a little with Maya, but agrees to protect her.
After that I begin the writing phase. Once I begin writing, it usually takes me between 6 to 8 hours to write a full episode. There are difficult episodes as well though, where what I´d written wasn´t working for me and I had to take a day or two to re-think the original plan. So there you go. If feel like you have a writer in you or you already are a writer and want to try something new, give it a try for yourself.
The "Deleted" Scenes:
This first one was set to happen right after Maya and her friends left the prison:
Ext. Parking Lot. Day.
Maya and the others come out of the prison in high spririts. Lois Cronkite was waiting outside with a photographer. He takes a picture, before they even notice that they´re there. Lois and the photographer comes up to them
Lois:
Maya Matlin, my name is Lois Cronkite. I´m the one who started covering your trial.
Maya:
So I guess it´s you I can thank for all the attention.
Lois smiles.
Lois:
You could say, I got the ball rolling.
Maya:
I can´t wait to read the article, I hear it´s really something.
Lois:
I was rather proud of it.
Maya:
Especially the part where you disclose everything about my career in the adult film industry.
Lois isn´t smiling anymore. Maya looks at her angrily.
Lois:
We only stated the facts. Look, it´s a juicy story. Ex-singer turns pornstar turns murder suspect.
Maya:
All I wanted was a fresh start. A chance to live a normal life. Because of you, I´ll never have that. When I walk down the street, people will stare at me. My entire family and all my old friends know what I did. Do you think I wanted that?
Jay steps up behind her.
Jay:
It´s time we leave, Maya. You just got out of there, don´t do anything stupid.
Lois:
Maya, you could make a lot of money on this. A book, reality shows, maybe a TV movie. You could be known for this forever! You at least owe me an interview!
Maya:
I´ll give you an interview.
Lois:
You will?
Maya:
I´ll give you one that´s two words: Screw You!
She grabs Jay´s hand and joins her friends as they head towards their cars.
The second one is a cute little one with the Matlin family:
Int. Maya and Lola´s Apartment. Day.
Maya and Katie are saying good bye to their mom.
Margaret:
You two have a good time tonight.
Maya:
We´ll do our best.
Katie:
See you on Sunday.
Maya:
I´m coming too.
Margaret:
Every day when I went to bed, I prayed for you. Then I´d lie there for hours, thinking of what could have happened to you that day.
Maya:
It´s okay, mom. That´s all behind us now.
Margaret leaves.
Katie:
Do you think it´s changed you?
Maya:
I´m not as afraid of things as I was before. A lot of the stuff that used to get to me, I couldn´t care less about now.
Katie:
So you´re ready to take on the world again?
Maya:
It doesn´t know, what it´s got coming!
The last one is with Lola, Maya and Frankie.
Lola gives Maya another big hug.
Maya:
Lola, I love you. But that´s like the twentieth hug you´ve given me since I got out.
Lola:
I´m just so happy right now!
Frankie:
Come here, sweetie.
Frankie gets her to break it.
Frankie:
I hope that we can be friends too, Maya.
Maya:
You´ve done a lot for my family, without even knowing us.
Frankie:
Just like you, I did some questionable deeds here and there. You did it for an addiction, me and my ex-husband did it for greed. Our greed cost a lot of people their jobs and hurt a lot of families. Let´s just say that it felt good to finally help one that deserved it in stead. Maybe like you I can become the person I was again, in stead of the person I became.
Maya:
Lola, I think we have another member of the "Messed Up Girls Of Toronto Club" here.
Lola:
We´re proud to be as undistinguished as we can be.
Frankie:
What do I have to do in your club?
Maya:
Be yourself.
The three girls smile at each other.
So that´s it. See you all in Season 3!
