Sometimes the most difficult part of writing The Witch Who Came in From the Cold is coming up with a good episode title. So, given how often we refer to chess in this series -- both overtly and thematically -- you can imagine how pleased (or relieved?) I was upon realizing we'd made it 11/13 through the season without anybody using a chess term. (Pro tip: when you're desperate for a title, chess terminology always sounds great. Sure, I'm not the first person to dip a bucket in this well, but c'mon: deadlines, people.)Chess is a good metaphor for the experience of writing this episode, actually. When I play chess (quite poorly, if you must know), I gravitate toward "open" games that bristle with sharp exchanges and interesting tactical possibilities. And, in a way, that's how I like my ColdWitch episodes, too: Grave robbing. Golems. Hedge witches. And, of course, the hoary old "counterfeit radio" counter-gambit.But, titles aside, Episode 11 was not a tactical episode. It was a strategic episode. I found it the equivalent of a "closed" game -- this deep in the season, our plot pawn chains are tightly interlocked, leaving little room for daring maneuvers (or for some maverick writer, ahem, throwing random complications into the season). No daring sacrificial attacks and discovered checks (or golems) this time around! Nope. This episode required a slow and careful strategic development of every scene.Sometimes a conversation can be a chess game, too. (Well, I mean, obviously not literally. But you know what I mean.) And there's one in this episode that unfolds under similarly strategic principles. Every move is quiet, its goal not immediately obvious, yet when taken together. . . . Of all the interactions I've written this season, this episode contains my favorite conversation.Somewhat unsurprisingly, when it comes to sheer deviousness, I'd say Sasha -- our resident chess expert -- is the most difficult character to outmaneuver. Sometimes we need the story to go in one direction, but that slimy little weasel frequently has his own plans. And even though he's entirely our own creation, he's surprisingly good at sidestepping the writing team. (But that's a story for a different Behind the Scenes...)Putting the chess metaphors aside -- and about time, because that horse is well and truly dead and the flies are getting thick over here -- I did have fun finding new ways to stick Bullwinkle references into the episode. I originally stuck a Boris Badenov reference into Episode 5 ("The Golem") purely as a throwaway joke that doubled as a convenient period reference. (Rocky and Bullwinkle actually predate our setting by over a decade. But my memories of watching the moose and squirrel date to the 70s. People just don't make Bullwinkle references in everyday conversation like they used to.) But then it sort of turned into a game with myself, as I tried to slip at least one into every episode. This time around, I cast the net more widely, with references to Mr. Peabody and Dudley Do-Right.Meanwhile, the Graham Greene reference that Josh makes at the very top of this episode was a long time coming. I'd been trying to fit that one into the season since Episode 5.
