Page 37 of The Ending is the Best Part

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The email is short, of course it is.Xander has always believed in that old bit of writing advice, ‘Show, don’t tell.’

Finale.It will only be better with you.

It’s small and ridiculous, but the smiley face warms my heart.It’s so unlike Xander, or so unlike the Xander I knew a few weeks ago: serious, self-conscious, avoidant.A silly, sweet smiley face makes me realise how much my understanding of him has changed, how much our relationship has changed.

I bite the bullet and open the file, trying to ignore the pounding in my heart.

EV Gigafactories: Building Electric Cars at Planet Scale

Pumped-Storage Power: How the World’s Biggest Batteries Keep Our Lights On

Floating Wind Platforms: Engineering the Future of Offshore Energy

Three Gorges vs Hoover: Comparing the World’s Most Iconic Mega-Dams

And then I begin to read…

I scan through most of the episode, already familiar with it as it’s what we had come up with… together.Xander hasn’t changed anything that we agreed upon up until our fall-out in the café.Then there are the scenes we shot back and forth over email.He’s done a great job linking them, although they’re not as good as what we wrote with each other.

My gaze halts at the start of the last scene.This is it.

Our two main characters, Layla and Atticus, are standing on opposite sides of the room.The meeting must take place in secret in the dead of night.As far as Layla knows, Atticus has betrayed her by having Elaria, her closest advisor and best friend, killed.She’s heartbroken in more ways than one.She’s grieving not just the loss of her friend, but the possibility of ever rekindling her relationship with her childhood sweetheart.But in reality he has only damaged his own cause, because Elaria was a double agent working for him.He has scuppered his own chances in the war to save Layla, his love’s, life.The tension, anger and regret in the scene are palpable.The air is thick with words unspoken between the two of them.

The last thing Xander and I discussed about the finale was that Layla would never discover the noble intentions for Atticus’ betrayal.A climactic, tragic end to the season that put their future romance, which the fans so loved the idea of, in jeopardy.

The conversation starts off slow, their words clipped.I’m struck again by just how good a writer Xander is, and howgreata writer he has become in the past few weeks.Even without actors and costumes and elaborate sets, I can feel the emotional power of the scene.I carry on reading.Something in the conversation breaks.They start to open up to each other, to exchange barbed words.Gone are their aristocratic niceties and subservience to convention – these are two people in beautiful, complicated love, with jaded pasts, who’ve hurt each other in so many ways.

Tears gather in my eyes and the words begin to blur.

This scene feels different from the rest.I realise I know these characters, intimately, deeply.This isn’t just Layla and Atticus… it’sus.

It’s all there.Everything that has led up to this moment, every sharp exchange, every hesitation, every moment of vulnerability between them… betweenus.

The ache in my chest deepens as I continue to read the last few lines of this scene.

33.CASTLE SET INT.PRIVY COUNCIL CHAMBERS DAY 30.20:35

Atticus:

I have to confess something.Elaria.I know you’re hurting.But she was not your friend.She wanted to have you killed.She had to be eliminated.

Layla places a hand to her chest, forced backwards with the weight of this reveal.She recovers herself, stands taller, trying to force some authority into her voice.

So, Xander changed it.He thought Layla should know what Atticus did for her.Interesting.My eyes scan the page furiously, desperate to discover the rest of the story.

Layla: