Ah, yeah, that's frustrating. That happens, sometimes, when I write long e-mails, and then it won't send, and all that.

I do hope you enjoyed the story, though.

I'm glad you liked the story. With the premise of the series being what it is, with the crew isolated on the very edge of explored space ... I think the danger that things could go wrong needs to be palpable. And I hope that was the case here. I don't think this was my darkest episode or anything, cause there were a few brutal Yellowknife episodes. But this was the hardest one I'd done in a while.

Cause it is hard for me to write such dramatic scenes. As emotional as I am, I tend to feel what the characters feel as I'm writing for them. And if they're in pain, then I get all misty-eyed as I'm writing it. I love the banter, the romance, and it's tempting to want to stick with that and only that. But, now and then, I think something tense and something of sharp consequence has to happen, because that's how life works, and ... that keeps the story from being an ideal caricature. It gives it further pathos beyond the surface pathos already (hopefully) there. I don't want it to happen just for the sake of happening, but for a reason.

And that reason here: is that we see just who Prancer really is. The first scene she's in, is simple, cute, reassuring. With Peregrine and the cheese intolerance. She's kindly, has a good bedside manner. But we don't see just how she really feels about her job until the second scene she's in, when, in her internal thoughts, it's seen that: she views this as an outright, bloody battle versus death itself. She's prey. And she's fighting the ultimate hunter. And, beneath her education and her in-the-moment focus ... is a certain terror.

We know that other characters (Peregrine, Petra, Milka) have bad pasts. We don't know much about Prancer's. She hides her problems very well. I think she may be so intent on making others feel better (emotionally or physically), that she neglects herself. But, thankfully, she has Nin, and I think it was very poignant what he whispered into her ear before leaving ... and how that came back into the conversation when the mouse asked her what he'd said. It's her romance with Nin and her faith in God that is keeping her from sinking into despair from ... the death she's seen, and the lives she couldn't save.

And I hope the fun banter (about the milk, which I thought was very cute ... and Petra wanting to show Peregrine just how much a mouse he is), and the almost love scene with Amelie and Wheldon (which I tried to make very poetic) offset the drama of Prancer's plot ... and make the story, as a whole, both entertaining and thoughtful.

I liked that all the characters on the cast got some solid time here. It felt like a true ensemble.

I just wanted this episode, I guess, to be ... to feel, rather, alive. In theme and execution.

I'm very glad you enjoyed it. Again, thanks for reading. God bless.