David Cerreta <72630.3433@compuserve.com> asks:
> Do you have big plans for him later in the season?
> How much do his operatives know?
> Can he get some to honor their commitment to help him when the
> time comes if they don't know what they will be fighting or whom?

Thanks. Yeah, Exo is the last non-arc episode for a long time,
and the last chance to catch one's breath before the big fall.

My personal evaluation of the episode is that it's okay. The
second half, I think, isn't as strong as the first half. Halfway
through writing the episode, we had a problem come up in production
that unexpectedly took me away from the script for about a week.
(Nothing major, but it had to be dealt with and it took time.)
Usually, I write copious notes on a script before I begin writing it.
In this case, the story was so crystalline clear in my head that I just
dived in, and was blasting away terrific when the hit came midway
through. By the time I got back, I'd lost some of the fingerprints of
the story, and had to kind of re-find them again. Mainly, I think the
expository sequence at the end could've been done better.

Needless to say, that's the last time I trusted myself without
notes, no matter how well I "see" the episode in my head. It'd be a
great script for second or first season, but we have to keep raising
the bar, every aspect has to be better than the last thing we did, so
for my money it's not quite up to that standard. Happily, it's the
*only* episode this season that I feel that way about...the rest are
all just nifty.

That said, I think it has some great moments for Marcus, Franklin
and others...and yes, there's a lot more planned with Franklin coming
up this season, particularly toward the latter third of the season.

jms