Three scenes left. Bill, Ash, and Jay have one chance each to get out of this trap of their own making.

Bill’s time is up. His cover is blown, his best friend betrayed and after him, and nowhere to go on this moving train (and let’s not forget about that bomb). Him and Ash ran away from Jay at the end of last scene, after a struggle and a gunshot. They’re running toward the end of the train, the bomb. Maybe Bill just wants to wait it out, hide, until they reach the next station. Little does he know that Ash made sure that the police will be waiting for them. Whether that’s good or bad for him is yet to be seen.

It’s time to look at Bill’s final card for this Fiasco. Side note, I had my wonderful spouse draw this card in an effort to break the curse of Hug The Crocodile. I swear, if that reptile shows up one more time…

#39 Fly Paper

“Sticky and sweet.”

A giant fly rubbing its, er, hands while looking at a strip of fly paper to which several tiny people are sticking.

Another card presenting a sort of trap, and once again it came up for Bill. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and work down the text of the card.

This sweet, sticky strip lures flies in, then holds them in place as they struggle to break free.

Similarly, many heroes find themselves stuck. Perhaps a villain knows the perfect bait, or your hero is caught in a loop of harmful or addictive behaviors. Can they escape by themselves, or will they need help?

Fly paper can be a tool for the hero as well. How can they lure in the villain, turning temptation into a trap?

Bill is stuck and struggling; it’s clear that Bill is still trying to figure out how to call in this job, while also protecting Ash from the consequences. Maybe he even wants Jay to get out of this, though that bridge may have been burned.

But there are few other ideas that come to mind with this card. For one, maybe Ash has been a setup the whole time. We never actually learned the details of her job, specifically. She claims she didn’t know about the bomb, and her actions thus far support that. But maybe she knew about Bill, and her job was given to her by her aunt to manipulate him, keep him off balance. Or, at least, this is how Bill reads the situation now, that’s how he sees her.

Another idea is that Bill is the one with the Fly Paper: The Boss’s phone. He has long suspected that it will hold everything he needs to take her down. He just needs to get it to his superiors, so they can make use of it. But, what if Bill is using this phone as leverage, as bait? Trade his and Ash’s freedom for it?

Try This

What’s irresistible to your hero? How could pursuing it delay or sidetrack their journey?

Getting Ash and himself out of this. Remember their need: To get away and start over. This shared need is what has kept Bill from doing his job up to this point, and it might yet slow him down more.

What are three of your hero’s behaviors that get them into trouble?

1. Doom-saying. He sees the worst possible outcome of a given situation, gets stuck in endless what-ifs and what-abouts. I don’t think he’s a bad cop, and they wouldn’t put him undercover if he wasn’t cut out for it. But the combination of the job, the bomb, the presence of his friends, and the threat of the Boss led him to crack under the pressure.
2. Passivity. He tried to keep a low profile, gather evidence, build a case. This led him to a fatal inaction during this job.
3. Lies. Comes with the job, I guess, but his web of lies, this wall he built around him, leads to the showdown on the train with Jay and Ash. In order to maintain his cover, give him time to figure out a way out of this for himself and his friends, he let the job go too far. And now that his cover is blown, Jay is hurt, so is Ash I’m sure. It made everything worse.

Who knows your hero’s greatest temptations? How could they use this information?

The Boss. If she knew he was the rat, she used him to break in Jay and Ash. The Boss put the three together precisely because she knew how important they each are to Bill. That he would do anything in his power to protect them. And then she created this scenario: a bomb on a train. To any sane person, let alone an undercover cop, it’s a no-brainer: prevent this job from happening. She wanted Bill to crack, to break, and for Jay and Ash to witness it all. After Bill’s betrayal, she would swoop in and solidify Jay and Ash within her organization. Pure manipulation, and it all starts with Bill, his duty, and his love for his friends.

Final Thoughts

This is Bill’s last scene (not counting the Aftermath), and he has a lot of loose ends to tie up if he wants to make it out of this.

Jay is chasing him with a gun, and he has the detonator (which is part of their shared Object).

He wants to get Ash out of this, keep her out of reach of the authorities and the Boss.

He must deal with the bomb somehow.

He has the Boss’s phone and needs to do something with it—hand it over to his superiors or use it as a bargaining chip.

Lastly, I think Ash is a wildcard here. What does she want out of all of this, now that she knows the truth, and they’re running out of time? While her scene is next, I think she also has to make a move in this scene.