
Synopsis/Details
EPISODE ONE
A beautiful Southern Belle, Victoria, waits beneath a moss-draped giant oak. The air is thick with a sunny fog, which makes for a dreamy, almost surreal setting. Victoria fans herself. We HEAR a typewriter clacking. “Let me do that for you.” A handsome, dark-haired man, CHARLES, steps out from behind the tree, his chest bare. He drops his scythe. The typewriter again clacks away. “Let me do that for you, ma’am.” Charles, now a strapping black man, drops his scythe. Victoria steps closer to Charles, hands him the fan. He drops that, too. She reaches out, presses her palm against his chest. Their eyes lock. Charles reaches out and rips her dress down. There’s a SCREAM. Fai, reading glasses on, sits at her IBM Selectric typewriter in the backroom/office at the Gemini Club. She listens. Another SCREAM and BREAKING GLASS. “God damned sonofabitch, Wade.” She looks out through a window (two way mirror) and from her POV we see WADE, sleeves rolled up, five day growth, pummeling a bar patron. Fai pushes away from her IBM and pulls open a metal desk drawer, retrieves a stubby black jack.
Inside the club, Wade’s onslaught continues. A dancer, TAWNY, tugs at him from behind, SCREAMING, CRYING. A small crowd gathers around. The other dancers stand on the stage. Roy, the bartender, behind them, shaking his head. Fai pushes her way to fray, rears back, whacks Wade in the back of the head hard, twice. Wade falls onto the patron. Tawny pulls Fai back,
“Don’t hurt him.” Fai tells her she’s had enough, wants him out before the bus gets here and wants Tawny to go get some makeup on that cheek. Things seem to have simmered until Wade pulls a knife on Fai, brandishes it threateningly. We hear a CACHUCK, as Roy racks a shotgun at the bar. “I’ll cut you in half and it won’t be clean. Get out.”
Fai makes nice with the bar patron as Wade makes his violent exit. Tawny watches Wade leave, pulls out a pill box, takes a pill, heads for the dressing room.
Outside the Gemini, Wade climbs into his pickup, blows up a ton of dust and pulls away, just as the yellow school bus grinds to a stop and Opal climbs out. The bus chugs off. A boy leans out the window and yells something nasty to Opal, who is unfazed as she walks into the club.
DENNY’S STUDIO. DENNY’s turning the hand crank on a film viewer. We see tiny flashes of two people having sex flying by. Some tacky porno music in the bg. “Damn, very nice stuff. I am good.” He gets back to work, but is interrupted by a KNOCK on the door. He leans back pushes it open. A very chesty, half-naked blonde leans in. “I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. Dunhill,” she giggles. “Lester here yet?” A big black man pokes his head over her shoulder. “Sorry, got stuck with a delivery down in Titusville.” “You ready?” “Always ready, Mr. Dunhill.”
Story & Logistics
Story Type:
Rite of Passage
Story Situation:
Ambition
Story Conclusion:
Bitter-sweet
Linear Structure:
Linear
Moral Affections:
Approbation, Bad Man, Good Man, Innocence, Selfishness
Cast Size:
Several
Locations:
Several
Characters
Lead Role Ages:
Female Adult, Female over 45, Female under 13, Male Adult, Male Teenager
Hero Type:
Anti-Hero
Villian Type:
Criminal
Advanced
Subculture:
Biker, Dark culture
Action Elements:
Hand to Hand Combat
Equality & Diversity:
Female Protagonist, Minority Protagonist, Race Relations Focused
Life Topics:
Childhood Adventure, Near Death Experience
Drug Topics:
Illegal Drugs
Time Period:
The Seventies (1970–1979)
Country:
United States of America (USA)
Relationship Topics:
Child, Domestic
Writer Style:
Joel and Ethan Coen