The Grand Writing Adventures of Victor Chang

(Spoilers conclude! Episodes 7-9 below!)

Well, if I remember anything about this story, it’s the conclusion. I had planned the ending for this in 2018 and I stuck to it, for better or for worse. I sure do like depressing endings with lots of death, don’t I?

2016: John’s story ends when he goes to East Grand Forks and finds Marty’s dad, a cop, and figures out that his son was burned to death by none other than Erin. Erin had died in 1998. He breaks the news to Kelly and goes home. He thinks about not telling Molly, but he has to so they can all move on.

1980: Molly finally breaks free from Tim, even threatening him with a gun, but Erin is too far gone now, having learned bad ways from her friend Hannah. Erin finally takes revenge on Tim, burning his house down, faking her death, and moving with Hannah to St. Cloud, temporarily. Molly is devastated, goes to a mental hospital, and Dan tries to save her. She is gifted with a baby, from none other than her own daughter, in 1988. We realize that this baby is John, and Erin is actually John’s mother.

1998: We see the seeds of hatred grow in Erin and it finally takes over her when even Max resorts to violence. She goes back to Marty to see if all men are like this, and when he inevitably does, she burns him and herself, for good.

This summary does not do this justice but I think this ending is good. I think Erin’s ending is a bit of a stretch but I needed to convey the fact that Erin is beyond broken after being raped by Tim in 1980, and she cannot do anything to fix herself. All the men in her life are terrible to her, and she just breaks. My thesis is that Molly failed as a mother, and we see her struggle to connect with her daughter, but her circumstances and her weaknesses make her fail. When she sees that house and assumes Erin is dead, it also breaks everything in her, and she’s only saved by the baby at her doorstep, John. John is Molly’s redemption. Molly thinks Erin is alive somehow, only to discover that even that last glimmer of hope is gone.

Holy shit, that is sad. My mind was fucked up. The mom daughter twist was always planned. The abuse and fire was also always planned. Getting there and writing it during the height of the pandemic was very surreal, as this had been sitting in my head for years.

Enjoy!