Director's Notes: Ep 249 - "Rifts"

I’ve technically written for Night Vale for years, but I’m brand new to writing for the more plot-based episodes, the pieces that are part of the bigger story. It’s both exciting and intimidating to dive into a world that has such deep lore and so many moving parts. I’m always kind of worried that I’ll get something wrong or not fully understand some crucial dynamic or backstory. But in the end, there’s always a character or a theme to anchor with my own experience, and that’s usually the more important thing to focus on anyway. In the case of this season’s arc, I find myself relating to Mother Lauren in strange ways. 

I’m one of those people who becomes weirdly serene in chaotic environments. I’m not saying I enjoy chaos in real life—I absolutely do not. But there’s something chemical that happens in my brain, an overcorrection that kicks in when there’s a high stress situation or emergency event. It’s a survival mechanism, maybe. It’s dissociation, maybe. I don’t know. But in times of chaos, you will usually find me nodding slowly and speaking in a slightly too-calm voice. You will find me doing some methodical organizational or administrative activity to help chip away at the chaos—whether that activity is actually useful or just a soothing pantomime. At the same time, I don’t actually feel calm. I feel like I’m holding tightly onto the leash of a dog that really wants to run away. But I have a good grip on the leash, it’s fine, totally fine.

Mother Lauren, for all her nefarious power, is also holding onto a version of this leash, I think. Only hers is attached to entire universes of straining, thrashing, fighting dogs. She is calm. She is methodical. She can control the chaos, she thinks. It’s fine, totally fine. But the trick of chaos is that it can’t be controlled—even if you’re the one creating it. It will always get away from you eventually. To me, this episode is the moment where those dogs start to break free from her. And even though I don’t enjoy chaos in real life, there’s real pleasure for me in writing it. Because I’m the one controlling it. Or maybe like Mother Lauren, I only think I am. 

-Brie Williams