Ideas for “fun in the sun, surf, and sand” were starting to feel thin on the ground, so Flo conceived this switch in focus. At this point in the story, JJ’s been introduced and is closing in on Xan and Shanna, but it’s too early to include Lia, Daniel, and Chrissie.

The trick in these is to make them out of continuity, but just close enough to continuity to “feel right.” It’s harder than it sounds sometimes…but the fact that this is set poolside, with our two underdogs looking on disapprovingly while the Hurricane team enjoys the party, feels like a nice genre-to-genre translation of their in-story dynamic. (Though it’s a lot easier to imagine JJ and Carol flirting with each other when they’re like this than in their usual continuity.)

There’s also something right about HR, in his most unpredictable, almost bipolar days, cooking up burgers on the grill the way he normally cooks up schemes that are going to affect the course of everyone else’s afternoon. I imagine that grill is big enough to hold five patties. (We missed an opportunity, though, by not giving him a purple lei.)