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A Jericho Fan Fiction Archive
How perfect was that ending and the reveal of the third spirit!?! When the men were lamenting the unfairness of Dale's murder and saying he never killed anyone, I thought to myself, 'Little do they know.... ' So that got me thinking about Mitch Cafferty and wondering if he would fit into the tale in some way. I guess I got my answer.
Being familiar with Dickens's tale, I knew that Dale would eventually realize the identity of the murdered man; nevertheless, I found myself in suspense as Dale went on this journey of discovery. I enjoyed reading the twists and turns of this discovery. You do such a good job with characterization, Penny. I just love reading your work!
Thanks for the great compliments!
I enjoyed playing with the mysterious and creepy spirit here, and I was lucky as I had the perfect spirit to haunt Dale in his future. It was fun to use the irony of what his workers didn't know in the scene whre they discussed Dale's murder and whether he had ever killed anyone.
It was fun exploring Dale's character through this story, and I had a lot to work with. Thanks for reading!
Very well done! This part especially had a really haunted, really creepy feeling. It's fascinating what you can do just with word choice and with what you reveal -- how and when.
The crackdown on Jericho's citizens was ominious last year, but after seeing season 2 it seems almost quaint. Still, I really felt for the Greens and their grief over Gail's death. The world around them might not be quite as bad, but their loss was certainly more profound than we saw on the show (even if we hardly saw Gail).
It's interesting that Jake was willing to go to retrieve Dale's body, and that as always the only ones who would go with him were Eric and Stanley. I was surprised to hear that some of Dale's employees came to his "funeral" without the lunch (that line was great...it's always so snide in the original, and it was perfect here, too). I'm left wondering what kind of "respects" they were paying.
I think I remembered Mitchell as the uber creepy Ghost of Christmas Future, but I still have to say that he was the perfect choice. Since I either guessed or remembered right from the beginning, it was even more chilling as I read this part and then when Mitchell told Dale that he was just like him I wanted to protest along with Dale. I thought Dale's bargaining and promising to remember and learn from what he'd seen, and to "keep Christmas in his heart" was very in character for who Dale is as a teenage boy. In some ways he's mature -- has always been, probably -- and he ended up old (and crotchety) before his time. But in other ways he's immature and his speech illustrated this perfectly.
Finally, just a comment... we didn't see Emily in this one (or Skylar for that matter). Having picked up on the fact (this time) that Dale is interested in what happens to Emily, I found this interesting, and I am wondering what Christmas Future was like for her. Just an observation/aside.
Well done, Penny! Quite faithful to the spirit of the original, but still this story has such a Jericho-y feel.
Thank you!
This was another fun part to write, delving into a darker future than any part I had previously written. Though you are right, it definitely doesn't seem dark compared to the world that season two of Jericho showed us, though when I wrote this, I was envisioning a slower build to the chaotic climax the ASA's hold over the town reached in the short season. So here, everyone is still on edge. They're starting to feel uneasy about how their rights are being threatened, some incidents are starting to spook our townspeople, but things haven't quite reached a fever pitch yet. Gail as Tiny Tim posed a slightly different feel, as the original story's Cratchit family mourn the loss of a child who never gets to meet his full potential, but the loss of Gail affects her family in a profound and different way, and they feel it especially as they remember what she gave them and all the things they had hoped she would still share with them in their lives. I think she's also at the heart of their town, and losing her means losing the hope she brought.
Dale wasn't forgotten completely by the people he knows in town, and though they don't mourn him as deeply as the people they are close to, it was important for Dale to see that he wasn't completely disconnected from this town. I did always love that 'if there's a lunch provided' line in the original, and couldn't resist paying homage to it here.
The ghosts were the most fun to cast, and the easiest really. It meant I could cast someone familiar yet not close to Dale to show him his past, someone he had a relationship with and respected to show him the present, and someone with a very unique relationship to Dale as his future, haunting him and tying together all three really, his past actions, present misery, and ominous future.
Emily and Skylar were, I suppose, not deemed important to the future in the spirit's mind as he showed Dale where the error of his ways would land him in the future, and since this spirit is so creepy and not friendly like the others were, Dale doesn't feel he can exert power over who they visit. And I think, on some level, Dale doesn't want to see where they end up, in this slightly bleaker holiday time.
Thanks again for reading and commenting!