Annotated Chapter 39 Cover
The grimoire here turns out to have a lot more symbolic significance than actual plot significance. In our early outlines, that wasn’t necessarily so. The obvious route, which we did consider, would’ve been for E-Merl to find a spell in it that’d “bring back Rachel.” But there’d be a catch… and you know how this sort of thing goes. “People come back…wrong,” as Buffy put it. He might’ve produced Zombie Rachel, or Gigundus-style-puppet Rachel… or Rachyl-with-a-y who’d be very similar but just not quite right and have no memory of E-Merl or Peacemaker allegiance. The cycle of false hope and disappointment is worse than the grieving, sometimes.
Flo and I also discussed that the prospect of such a spell might lead E-Merl to take a few more steps toward Cultism, until Frigg shouted and clubbed him off that path. The irony of Rachel’s death driving E-Merl into the arms of the movement that killed her appealed to us, but that idea died after we realized something important. There’s no way E-Merl wouldn’t know the Cultists were responsible for her death after his scenes with Gravedust. And we just couldn’t see E-Merl ever being able to overlook that detail, no matter how desperate he got.
Free the spider!
I see, but “What good is magic if it can’t save a unicorn?” – Peter S. Beagle
… the book comes off as a red herring after say that… not to mention the tone shift regarding E-Merls drinking in this chapter is questionable.
The real red herring is that goatee.
You know, one of the things I appreciate the most about this retrospective is learning how good writers will leave themselves ambiguous portents like this that can be written in later as needed. Do you need to know exactly what that book is, or what the spider is doing there? Not just yet. I appreciate your openness about doing little favors for Future You.