Spoiler alert: This post contains details from11.22.63episode The Truth.
Read at your own risk.
Who better to break down the adventures of Jake Epping than the woman behind it all, right?
Credit: Sven Frenzel/Hulu
Thats why Bridget Carpenter, the showrunner of Hulus11.22.63, is writing weekly blogs.
This episode was also the one I had to warn my mom about.
Youre not going to be okay watching all of this, I said.
Courtesy of Bridget Carpenter
I hope she listened.
And you, Constant Viewer?
How many times did you cover your eyes?
Courtesy of Bridget Carpenter
The truth: I was anxious about this episode.
But lets face it, Jake is in almost every scene of our entire series.
This made me jumpy.
Courtesy of Bridget Carpenter
I dont know, decide to wing it.
Or that hed change his mind about some location and suddenly the shooting day would be lost.
Or that hed take forever.
Courtesy of Bridget Carpenter
Look, Im not proud of all the UH-OH scenarios that my brain created.
Constant Viewer: he pulled it off.
We knew we wanted to sustain Hitchcock-level tension.
We knew we needed suspense and emotion.
a calm, creative, prepared, and engaged director.
And he turned in an incredible performance to boot.
One other thing about Francos direction: He knew that Im a sucker for a oner.
(Otherwise known as one-shot.
The camera moves, the actors move, things happen, the camera keeps shooting.
Sometimes mannered; sometimes awesome.)
I wont say any more youll see it.
It grips you and it doesnt let go.
Very exciting (and upsetting).
What would you do to change the past?
Jake asks his students in 2016.
The answers: variations on a theme.
When you title an episode The Truth, youre asking for scrutiny.
Sadie speaks her own truth in the first scene: Everything that you say is a lie.
Does it matter that Jake is doing what hes doing for all the right reasons?
When youre the one being lied to, the reasons dont matter.
You just feel like a chump.
This episode takes a sharp turn into the heart of classic Stephen King territory horror and heartache.
Yes, it is brutally violent.
Yes, it is horrific.
But Jakes mission is to prevent the horrific, violent assassination of a president.
He lives in a brutal world.
Frank Dunning wasnt wrong when he told Jake, theres a price to be paid.
Jake is SO CLOSE to witnessing who shot at General Walker with a Carcano rifle … and yet …
When faced with the choice of accomplishing his mission versus saving Sadie Jake chooses Sadie.
He tells her hes from the future.
Here is one photo from his book that I insisted that we recreate in this episode:
T.R.
Knight and I have been friends for a loooong time.
When were were babies we did theater together in Minneapolis.
Was it amazing to work with him now that he is a Famous Person?
Yes, Constant Viewer, yes it was.
Then the crew came in and we shot it.
Sarah Gadon was the calmest, funniest actor I have ever worked with with a slashed face.
Scenes like this are why I come to work in the morning, he said in a choked voice.
I would have answered him, but I was busy crying into my sleeve.
Me and my director at the end of a long, bloody shooting day.
A very special birthday is coming up, Constant Viewers.
Ill look forward to seeing you next week at the party.
Until next week,
Bridget
For more insight, follow Bridget on Twitter@BridgetCarpen12.
