PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 1/8/25; 1/14/25)
-I don't remember exactly when I decided to cover "The Blood," but I knew it was meant for 2023. What inspired the idea is me finding out that NBC was considering airing "The Blood" as a Halloween episode because of the subject matter, so I thought it would work on the show. However, it took months before I found a suitable version.
-Originally, I had plans for an anthology episode called "Intro to Black Magic." It was going to have three stories just like "Halloween XIII: The Unauthorized Tales" and "The Blood" was going to be the first segment. Sparky was also in RK's role. I started writing it in August 2023, but I thought that it would work better as an entire episode. I had plans to write it, but I abandoned them and for a while, I had no interest in covering "The Blood" anymore.
-Another thing is that this episode wasn't my original choice for the third Halloween episode, it was a replacement. I don't want to give away details, but my original idea had to do with Ghostbusters. I just felt like that episode needed as much time as possible to make work, and I was already behind on season ten. I was still iffy about "The Blood," but it was the best replacement at the time, so I made the swap. I'm not giving up on the Ghostbusters episode, not by a long shot. It just needs more time.
-What made "Sanguis Res" work for me is that I replaced Sparky with RK, and the potential started rising. The idea of RK being injected with his worst enemy's blood and Bitch Clock taking advantage of it was too good for me to pass up. I always had the idea of Bitch Clock's blood changing the personality of whoever has it, but it became a lot more interesting with it being RK. What he becomes after the blood transfusion was him giving into his worst tendencies. It's an example of what RK could be with no filter, no inhibitions, and no humanity. Someone just as dangerous as Bitch Clock, if not more so. It led to the episode being more dramatic and intense than I thought it would be, but if there was any time to go that route, it would be Halloween.
-In this episode, RK plays Jerry and Bitch Clock plays Kramer. Sparky also plays Jerry at times, specifically when talking to Bitch Clock about the blood. I just thought it made sense for Sparky's character to be disgusted by bodily fluids, specifically blood. It gave him an important role in the episode despite not being the protagonist. I had to find a way to incorporate as much of the original episode as possible, but it would have been difficult to do that if only one character did everything Jerry did. Sparky was a way to make that happen so things are still consistent with the universe of the series.
-It took me a week to finish the first draft in September, but the episode required more rewriting than I thought it would. I needed everything to line up and there were some scenes near the end that were difficult to edit because of what had already been established. Unlike other episodes this season, this one didn't exhaust me or use up too much of my thinking time. The fact that it was a cover episode did make the work easier, but after RK gets the blood, it goes in a different direction than the original episode did. RK's purification ends, and then the story takes a darker turn while still having to use elements from "The Blood" (the blood being put in the radiator to stop the car from overheating).
-I came up with the title in September. I didn't want a repeat of "Winner Takes Off" where I didn't change the title, but I couldn't think of anything for a long time. For some reason, I wondered what "The Blood" would sound like in another language, and that's how I ended up with "Sanguis Res" (which means "the blood episode" in Latin). Something distinctive so that when you see it, you wonder exactly what the hell the episode's about.
-Buster's idea for drinkable ice cream was something I saved from the original segment in "Intro to Black Magic."
-RK stating that he might take a gap year after graduating middle school is a callback to his plans in "Young Black Prepubescents," where he tells Principal MacGregor that he might take a gap year after graduating elementary school.
-Jaylynn references RK's book How to Live to Eat, which is a parody of Elijah Muhammad's How to Eat to Live book series. It was first mentioned in "Cancel Thanksgiving" and helped serve as a plot point in the standalone episode "Chill."
-This wasn't my intention when I started writing the episode, but RK constantly sees his abstinence from unhealthy food in a similar way that people abstain from sex. When he gets Bitch Clock's blood, he makes a big deal out of being impure, like he lost his virginity and doesn't want his religious parents to find out.
-RK references Lance Armstrong's doping scandal, with allegations that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs during his career. This led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles from 1999-2005, and receiving a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code. Wade referenced the scandal earlier this season in "The Trouble with Ghostwriting."
-Whenever RK uses the JPP acronym around Buster, Buster excitedly says "JPP!" in the same way that the JTP announces themselves on The Goldbergs. Barry frequently calls meetings with his friends from the JTP (Jenkintown Posse), which leads to them shouting their name in unison.
-Last year, Drew McIntyre's goal was to win a world championship at WrestleMania in front of a live audience, which he didn't do when he won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36 because of COVID-19 (WrestleMania 36 ended up being moved to the WWE Performance Center without fans present). McIntyre won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XL, but after being attacked by CM Punk, he lost the title to Damian Priest who cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase. McIntyre achieved his goal, but he was champion for less than six minutes.
-Around the time I wrote this episode, I read an article that said that the Tupperware company was filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was one of the strangest coincidences I've seen in a while, and I decided to reference the bankruptcy during the rewrite.
-Bitch Clock references his job as an anti-drinking spokesman in "These Drinks."
-RK references the production quality of Disney Channel shows after the late 2000s, which started consisting of brighter colors in the lighting.
-RK's use of the word "demure" is a reference to the "very demure, very mindful" TikTok meme popularized by Jools Lebron. Later, he compares the lunchroom noise to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. The stadium holds the Guinness World Record for loudest stadium.
-RK references the Janet Jackson song "Nasty," specifically the spoken-word lines "My first name ain't Baby, it's Janet/Miss Jackson if you're nasty."
-Buster references the Sopranos episode "Walk Like a Man." In that episode, Christopher feels ostracized by Tony due to his sobriety, despite the fact that Tony forced him to go to rehab and clean himself up. At an AA meeting, Chris says that Tony is the worst kind of enabler because he pours you a drink with one hand, and judges you with the other if you take it.
-Wade references the Justin Bieber song "Sorry," specifically the line "I'll take every single piece of the blame if you want me to."
-While playing with the pocket knife, RK quotes the opening line from the intro for "Horny Lil' Devil" by Ice Cube.
1/14/25
-Originally, "Need You Now" was playing in the scene where RK throws away the junk food. But during the rewrite, "Rise and Shine" was playing in my head and I thought it was more appropriate. That's when I decided to move "Need You Now" to the scene at Bang Bang Chicken.
-There was a deleted scene from "The Blood" where Jerry orders a Reuben sandwich with extra cheese. When Elaine asks him about his purification program, Jerry replies with "That's oat bran compared to what I got inside of me." I thought it would be a good idea to reference it.
-RK references the song "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz when lamenting the end of the JPP.
-The scene where RK watches TV was extended during the rewrite. Originally, he just looked at the TV when it wasn't on, then started talking about Jack Daniels. Later on, Bitch Clock called him a weirdo for not watching the TV.
-Chandler's line was taken from an actual Friends episode ("The One with the Cuffs").
-Buster references the line "That's that me espresso" from the song "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter, wondering what it means. When Jaylynn replies that it's just nonsense, Buster believes she's talking about another Sabrina Carpenter song "Nonsense," telling her that it was on Carpenter's 2022 album Emails I Can't Send.
-What makes RK's transformation into Bitch Clock funny is that they share similar traits and viewpoints. It could easily be mistaken as RK choosing to act out because of the blood transfusion, not because his personality is altered. I wanted to write a version of RK that's more aggressive and short-tempered so the transformation was easier to see.
-Bitch Clock not only mispronounces symbiosis, but is unable to refer to the correct term for his relationship with Albie (mutualism).
-The scene where RK assaults Albie with the baseball bat was inspired by a scene from the Sopranos episode "Employee of the Month" where Jackie Jr. assists Ralphie in his collections.
-In the episode "14 Candles: Up All Night," it was mentioned that RK brutally assaulted KG with a baseball bat and sent him to the hospital. This was after KG uninvited RK and the guys from his birthday party. I'm bringing this up because it highlights a big difference between the series then and the series now. In season three, the idea of RK beating up KG was a throwaway joke. In an episode like this, it's played seriously and helps show RK's transformation.
-RK disguising himself as a Federal Boobie Inspector is a reference to the American Dad episode "Faking Bad," where Steve did the same thing to get women to expose their breasts.
-In the rewrite, I needed an explanation for how Sparky was able to get Bitch Clock's blood when as far as he knew, all the blood was in Jim's meat freezer. That's when I decided to put in the line of him pricking Bitch Clock's finger.
-In the original episode, Kramer borrows Jerry's car to take his blood back to the blood bank. But when the radiator overheats, Kramer is forced to use the blood to cool it down. I needed a way to have Sparky driving Bitch Clock's car, so it led to the idea of Bitch Clock taking Sparky's keys by mistake.
-RK's dialogue after he hits Bitch Clock with the lead pipe is a reference to the March 25, 2024 episode of WWE Monday Night RAW where The Rock assaults Cody Rhodes in the parking lot. RK's lines are directly quoting The Rock.
-Originally, the fight scene was going to have "Guilty Conscience 2" by Eminem as the background music, but I didn't think it fit the scene at all. Rhythmically, it was too slow and didn't have the intensity I was looking for. I thought "To a Friend" was much closer to what I wanted, and the scene ended up being more dramatic than I planned for it to be, so I just went with it.
-To add to the Drew McIntyre references, RK uses McIntyre's finishing move against Bitch Clock, the Claymore Kick.
-Bitch Clock telling RK he knows what he did is a reference to what Rey Mysterio told Logan Paul after their match at Crown Jewel in 2023. Paul defeated Mysterio to win the United States Championship with an illegal use of brass knuckles. After the match, Paul told Mysterio that he was just doing what he had to do, and Mysterio yelled at him that he knew what he did to win the match.
-"I Will" was the closing track to Music to Be Murdered By, and it also had a Halloween vibe to it, so I knew it would be used in the end credits. I didn't have any other song in mind.
-The post-credits gag was a way to call back to the cold open from "I, Truman," connecting all three episodes even though they're not related to each other.
-The post-credits gag was written to be as ridiculous and over-the-top as possible. In the beginning, it started out as a parody of an old Burger King commercial starring characters from The Simpsons, then turned into a bizarre musical number that was also inspired by The Simpsons.
-The boys' tongues turning black because of the grape strawberry ICEE is a direct reference to the commercial. Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse are eating Burger King in Bart's treehouse on Halloween, and Bart and Milhouse's tongues turn black because of the Frozen Black Cherry ICEE they were serving at the time.
-RK references the intro from "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson when he talks about the force having power. Later on, he references the intro again right before the musical number.
-I had visualized the musical number for months. I always thought "Discombobulated" would be a perfect song to use in a Halloween episode and I thought about the idea of using it for something weird and random. Whatever I used it for, I thought it would be the finale to the episode.
-The guys performing a musical number as skeletons was inspired by the ending to the Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror V." A mysterious fog turns the Simpsons inside out, and they end up performing a parody of "One" from the 1975 musical A Chorus Line.
-The freeze frame of Jaylynn looking at the empty cup was supposed to give off the feeling that you're at the end of a horror movie, with the possibility that the story's going to continue in the future.