Director's Notes: Episode 278 - How to Solve a Murder

About halfway through reading Joseph’s script for Locked Library Mystery, I got the idea for this followup episode and started writing it right afterwards, in a (literal) exquisite-corpsey kinda way. I’m pretty sure WikiHow has step-by-step instructions (with pictures) for absolutely every question, from How to Discover Your True Purpose in Life (With Pictures) to How to Burglarize the Louvre (With Pictures). Why should solving a murder be any different? It would be the first place I’d look (it’s successfully gotten me through changing a valve on my car and replacing the inner workings of my toilet tank). I don’t know how helpful it will end up being for this particular investigation, but hopefully it’s at least a good jumping off point. 

As Joseph mentioned in his last Director’s Note, we were immersed in the mystery-writing world of Unlicensed for the last several years, and I was definitely disappointed when there wasn’t a renewal for Season 4. I’m happy to see a murder mystery arriving in Night Vale, as the possibilities for it are wider and wilder than the realism we always aimed for in Unlicensed. There’s more freedom for side tangents (like the one I took with this episode), there’s a bigger range of suspects and motives to explore, and there’s a broader definition of things like facts and truth (though those definitions seem to get broader all the time everywhere).

I’m excited to see where this one goes, to follow the dead-ends and twists and revelations that may occur. Like most ongoing plots, there are some things we know ahead of time but tons of room to explore the nooks and crannies and back alleys and howling abysses and used car lots and multiverses that only exist in a place like Night Vale. 

-Brie Williams

November 15, 2025

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