12. Act two: the Outline phase

4 April 2025

Alison Rocket Ross

Aaron (35) Landscaper needs some action in his life.

Ah, yes. The treacherous Act Two. This is often where I get tripped up. No worries though, I’ve been doing a little studying, trying to master it. I’d like to try separating it into two parts.

What do we need to happen in Act Two as a whole?

Battle Royale!

In all seriousness, we need the murder victim’s mother to come in and shake things up. I don’t think the murderous daughter or clueless brother are going to care much about Aaron and Brooke. The only leverage our protagonist has is that he could call the cops and show them the body. But that’s boring.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Aaron’s more curious than anything at the end of Act One. He doesn’t know how long the skull has been there. Maybe it’s an archaeological find! He could knock on the door of the yellow house and just… ask. But is that something Aaron would really do? No.

So here’s my thought… Brooke gets it in her head that something nefarious happened. She’s the one that does research. Looks for missing people, maybe ancient civilizations. Looks into rate of decay, orbital bone shape, etc…

Ooh! We should have Aaron take a picture of the skull before he plants the tree!

Excellent. So that’s what Brooke has to go off of. A picture. Evidence. This will also give them more leverage when the confrontation happens.

Note: I do not want to write nor does anyone want to see a scene in which Brooke is at the computer doing research. Since she’s a supporting character, I’m think she can do that off screen and we can convey the information in a different, more interesting setting.

So… Act Two: Part One

• Brooke does research on missing people and does her best to determine if this is a murder or an archaeological find.

• She conveys to Aaron that it’s a murder. And she’s putting the pieces together, but needs more information.

• Suggests they talk to the Vengeful Mother about her son’s disappearance.

If they talk to the Mother Corbin first, we could really get the ball rolling.

I want Aaron to fight Brooke for this first part of Act Two. It’s none of his business and he wants to keep his little life nice and tight. No extra drama. But he is choosing to humor her in an attempt to connect. As often as he tries to talk himself out of it, he can’t ignore her. She’s persistent and interesting. And his best friend.

So they talk to Mother Corbin. They discover that Fred (the dead body) was her only child. She’s convinced the yellow house neighbors did away with him. Always suspected them. But the cops never followed through on their leads. The yellow house neighbors have a higher status in the community than the Corbins. How could it be them?

Note: The Yellow House Neighbors might be a good title for this script….

Time and grief has taken a toll on Mother Corbin. She let her anger simmer down to sadness. Until Brooke and Aaron show up, which ignites the rage once again.

Someone has to pay for her tragedy.

She makes threats against the yellow house neighbors.

Great! Ok… this will lead us to another inciting incident.

The Catalyst for Introduction

Aaron and Brooke take Mother Corbin seriously. She has described, in great detail, exactly what she’s going to do to get revenge.

This is why Aaron and Brooke approach the yellow house and the brother. They go over there to explain the situation. The brother has no idea about the murder or any of it. Aaron tries to tell him that they’re not calling the cops or anything, they’re more concerned about his safety. Mother Corbin is out for revenge. It’s time to maybe skip town.

The brother is just… he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know about a murder or a body in the backyard.

Brooke urges him to call his sister. The body is allegedly the yellow house daughter’s high school boyfriend. The Brother throws them out. Tells Aaron that he and his landscaping crew is fired!

Cool.

So Brother isn’t calling his sister, Mother Corbin is out for revenge, and it appears that there is nothing Aaron and Brooke can do. This is when they briefly retreat.

Aaron’s upset that he got his crew fired. Brooke is disappointed that their adventure is over. So how do we restart this story?

Mother Corbin shoots the yellow house brother. Shotgun style. Flash in the window style.

And that’ll be our end of Act Two: Part One

It lets us start Act Two: Part Two with the sister coming back to town. Cops flooding the neighborhood. But Aaron, Brooke, and the yellow house daughter are the only ones who know where the body is. It doesn’t matter what Mother Corbin says, she doesn’t have any proof and now she’s under arrest for a murder of her own.

Act Two: Part One Rough Outline

• Brooke does research on missing people and does her best to determine if this is a murder or an archaeological find.

• She conveys to Aaron that it’s a murder. And she’s putting the pieces together, but needs more information.

• Suggests they talk to the Vengeful Mother about her son’s disappearance.

• Their talk sparks a renewed vengeance in Mother Corbin’s heart. She threatens the yellow house brother.

• Aaron and Brooke warn the yellow house brother of the threat. He has no idea about any of it and throws them out. 

• Mother Corbin takes her revenge and murders the yellow house brother.

Had to trim the bottom half of Act Two

Alright, we’re starting to fill out that beat board. I’m waiting to throw in the slug lines on the script because I haven’t decided the best way for Brooke to give Aaron the information. We may have to sit on that for a minute. I’m sure something cool will come to us.

Next time, let’s figure out the second half of Act Two. I know it’s a long road, but we’re getting there folks. We don’t want to rush the story. And hell, we may even hit a point where we have to stop and start again from scratch. We’ll see how it plays out.

-Rocket