Director's Notes - Episode 87

(NOTE: As always, Director's Notes contain spoilers)

The trial of Hiram McDaniels has mostly been played for a laugh. But we always knew where it was going. 

The world of Night Vale is a surreal one. It’s sometimes silly and it’s sometimes creepy. Rarely is it mundane. 

Because of that, mundanity has a special power in the writing of Night Vale. It’s something we deploy only when we really, really mean it. 

The verdict in this trial is mundane.  People get convicted and sentenced to death all of the time. The method of execution was also chosen to be as divorced from the surrealism of Night Vale as possible. 

Even Gold, the unshakably charming head, can't take it. I think the moment that Gold crumbles is the most difficult detail in that scene. There are certain people in our lives we expect to take even the worst news well. When they are shaken, it can destroy us.

So that was the trial of Hiram McDaniels. This is justice, I guess.

Other notes:

There are a number of references to older Night Vale characters and plots that haven't come up in recent years. Going through old scripts to put together the script volumes (coming out this September!) has reminded me of all sorts of interesting odds and ends we haven't talked about in awhile. 

In this episode we see the return, for the first time since episode 17, of Martin McCaffry, local representative of the TSA, and his...problem. And the return, 78 episodes after it was destroyed, of the Beatrix Lohman Memorial Meditation Zone. I hope it sticks around for awhile.

There is also, as many people spotted, a reference to another popular podcast in this episode. If you did not spot it, I recommend listening to every other popular podcast until you notice it. Good hunting!

- Joseph Fink
May 1, 2016