I went through Season One of Bookburners just like all the rest of you: as a captivated reader, without any insight into how the sausage got made. In my eyes that makes this episode, "Webs," basically a work of fan fiction. I got to write the episode of Bookburners I was hoping most to see. Great!That meant I could do all the things I love fiercely in a Bookburner episode: Sal's dry humor. Grace's badass fight scenes. Liam's moody nihilism. Father
Menchú's deep unflappability. Asanti's evocative tidbits of arcane knowledge. ...Buuuut this also happens to be a real, officially sanctioned episode, too, which turns out to be a much higher-stakes endeavor than just writing the fanservice you crave. Eep! Bookburners Season One was pretty incredible. How could I possibly come up with enough weird, enough funny, enough drama? I'd have to bring my A-game and then cross my fingers it would be good enough.Still, my fan-status for Season One didn't just mean that I was out of the loop and had to hustle to catch up. There was an advantage, too, both for me and for the team: I brought a pair of fresh eyes to the table. I'd only seen the ideas and plot threads that actually made it onto the page. Naturally, that meant I had a lot of questions. Questions I desperately wanted to have answered—and if I wanted that, it's a pretty fair bet that some of you other readers wanted it, too. Which brings us to Episode Two. When I read through the first season, one thing in particular captured my imagination and wouldn't let go again: Team Four. There was just enough information in the first season to be sure there was a big story lurking between the lines, but not enough to guess what exactly had happened. Our clues included that mysterious door down the hall from the Black Archive, closed for centuries. The unspecified "bad thing" that Team Four had done. The current absence of a Team Four. The total lack of any other information. I had to know more. What happened back then? What exactly did Team Four do? Why had the Vatican turned against using magic to fight magic?Most of all, what was behind that door?I never dreamed that I'd get to be the one to come up with an answer to any of it. Of course not everything can be revealed in one quick episode... but we do start to get our curiosities satisfied. In Webs, Team Three enters the long-abandoned quarters of Team Four in search of information that will help them to repair a malfunctioning Orb. That long-closed door will finally creak open.There have already been hints here and there that the relationship between the Vatican and magic isn't quite as clear-cut as the rules would have it. After all, Team One enjoys a number of very obviously magical battle enhancements. Team Three has its Orb and the modifications it's undergone over the years. But aside from some grandfathered exceptions, the Vatican isn't interested in using magic, long chalking it up to being much too dangerous. So in Episode Two, we finally get a peek at what "too dangerous" might look like. Team Four's quarters aren't just centuries of dust and crumbling papers. There is magic present in the very heart of the Vatican. It's alive, and it's been waiting all this time.That no-longer-mysterious door is closed again at the end of the episode. Team Three (and the readers) have had some burning questions answered. But these answers only give rise to new, more dangerous questions about magic, about the past, and most of all about the future. Do we think Team Three will stop short of seeking out the truth?No. No we do not. Team Three is going to plunge right into the thick of it, come what may. And that's why we're fans, isn't it?
