Writing Better Stories #2

Coincidentally, this second entry in the Writing Better Stories series will be another case study on Criminal Case: Pacific Bay. (Click here to read the first entry.) This post will be about the Rhine Canyon arc – that is, Chief Andrea Marquez’ arc. Although she is among my favorite characters in the Criminal Case franchise, I cannot bring myself to like fully her character arc for two main reasons. First, I don’t quite enjoy alien stories. This one purely depends on personal taste, so I don’t think more explaining is needed. Second, I believe it would be better if her arc didn’t end like that.

Rhine Canyon is Chief Marquez’s hometown, and it is here that we explore her backstory. When she was a child, Andrea had an encounter with an alien named Randolph. Officials, including Colonel Spangler, were sent to investigate. Although they found Andrea’s experience to be true, they were ordered to prevent the information from spreading. And so the public was informed that Andrea was lying or crazy. This ruined her childhood. Moreover, at the end of Rhine Canyon’s final case, Agent Z confirmed that secret agents wiped Andrea’s memories of the alien encounter (using a device similar to the neuralyzer from Men in Black). Only after thirty-six years – during the events in the Rhine Canyon arc – did Andrea learn the truth. She was not crazy. She did meet an alien. However, her memories (along with most of the team’s) are then wiped again by Agent Z. Though Andrea does claim to feel at ease despite not knowing what happened, I wish this could have ended without having her memories wiped again.

Agent Z (holding a neuralyzer): I'm just going to... modify your memories.

Chief Marquez: Is that what your agents did to me when I was a kid?! Is that why I didn't remember anything after they left?!

Agent Z: Yes. I'm really sorry about this, but there is no other choice. It is for your protection, as much as for ours.

Case #45: No Place Like Home, from the chapter Map to the Stars: Part 7 . 

Agent Z is about to erase Andrea's memories again. We also learn that Andrea's memories, too, were erased in the past. 

To begin with, the arc’s ending doesn’t exactly provide closure. The problem that starts Andrea’s arc is not resolved at the end of the arc. In a nutshell, the root of Andrea’s problem is that she didn’t know the truth. It was kept from her. Though the Rhine Canyon arc allowed her to know that truth, at the end that truth is once again taken away from her.

Narratively, this repeated concealment of truth and wiping of memories will cause the same cycle of pain and confusion to emerge. Even after her memory was wiped as a child, Andrea gradually began to remember things. This provides basis to believe in the possibility that Andrea might regain her erased memories once again. Now, if Andrea does end up remembering what happened in the Rhine Canyon arc, don’t you think she’ll feel angry? She had once found out the truth, yet that truth was stolen from her. This will result in another conflict.

Chief Marquez: As you know, I only had hazy memories of that day. But after I found this article and went to meet Spangler... it all came back!

Chief Marquez: We had an argument. I told him I was that little girl he bullied all those years ago, and as my anger grew stronger, glimpses of what I saw that say came back to me!

Case #44: The Ties That Bind, chapter 3 

Andrea remembers her memories.

Next, ending the arc like that results in conflicting messages. The Rhine Canyon arc (and even perhaps some other arcs in Pacific Bay) has been showing us that it is important to properly process past traumatic events no matter how long ago it was. However, the arc’s ending seems to diminish this importance by saying (on a meta level) that the trauma-processing phase is forgettable once we have found closure.

Andrea gets to process her past throughout her experiences in the Rhine Canyon arc. Instead of continuously denying and repressing her memories, Andrea eventually admits that she still feels angry and hurt over what happened back then. She even admits that the idea of killing Spangler crossed her mind! Admitting things is a good thing to do. I once read a statement that goes something like this: In order to heal, you must first admit that you are hurt.

Chief Marquez: Hannah, this doesn't make any sense! Aliens... Aliens just don't exist! I refuse to believe an alien was on this train!

Case #42: Crystal Death, from the chapter Map to the Stars: Part 4

Andrea denies the existence of aliens.

Chief Andrea Marquez: <Name>, I can't believe Spangler claimed he helped an alien escape from the army. AN ALIEN!

Chief Marquez: I'm still convinced he's playing an elaborate joke on us to make us look foolish.

Chief Marquez: And yet...I do have those memories... <Name>, I think we haven't seen the last of these alien theories!

Case #43: Dead Space, from the chapter Map to the Stars: Part 5

Andrea still denies the existence of aliens, but starts to consider the validity of her memories.

Frank: Leaving aside the whole "alien" thing for a second, Andrea... Why now? Why would you suddenly remember that Spangler was behind "this"?

Chief Marquez: I guess I buried everything that happened that day deep inside me. But after seeing that article, I couldn't lie to myself anymore!

Frank: You know we're on your side, but honestly... How do you expect us to believe you? This whole story about the alien... It's nuts!

Frank (sweating): Andrea, just tell us... Did you kill Spangler?

Chief Marquez: I'm not going to lie - there was a moment when I thought about killing the man who made my life miserable... But believe me, that's not who I am!

Case #44: The Ties That Bind, chapter 3

Andrea acknowledges her memories and admits that she thought of murder.

Unfortunately, by deleting Andrea’s memories, the arc’s ending takes away Andrea’s crucial trauma-processing experiences. Sure, Andrea says she still feels relieved. But is that a good way to end an arc that has been exploring the importance of facing past traumas? Moreover, is that how things work in real life? We don’t completely forget our trauma-processing experiences once we are able to move on, do we?

Similarly, the ending diminishes just how important the answers Andrea got was. Personally, I do think that there are a lot of events in our life to which we’ll never have full answers. (In these cases, I believe closure can still be achieved through properly processing them.) However, the story goes out of its way to provide answers for Andrea on whether she really met an alien. After Spangler died, we are still provided with Spangler’s diary. There, he admits that Andrea was not lying or crazy. Andrea also gets to reunite with the alien she meets all those years ago. It can be argued that the story’s decision to provide answers for Andrea speaks of how important it is for Andrea to get those answers. Therefore, by taking those answers away from her, the story appears to go back on its own decisions.

Amy: <Name>, I've heard about what happened and I'm worried about Andrea. Now Spangler's dead, she won't get the answers she so desperately wanted from him...

After finding Spangler’s diary:

Amy: Chief... <Name> found Spangler's diary, and in it, he talks about meeting you as a young girl. He also explains how agents covered up the truth. He believed you.

Chief Marquez: So I was right all along! I wasn't crazy!

Amy: Well... At least Spangler seems to corroborate what you saw...

Chief Marquez: You don't know how good it is to hear that after all these years, <Name>. It was like living a lie all my life, and suddenly, I know the truth!

Case #44: The Ties That Bind, from the chapter Map to the Stars: Part 6

Amy and Andrea express how important those answers are.

Chief Marquez: <Name>, thank you so much for allowing me to reunite with Randolph. It means so much to me.

Case #45: No Place Like Home, from the chapter Map to the Stars: Part 7

Andrea expresses how important reuniting with Randolph was.

My idea to improve the ending of the Rhine Canyon arc is, obviously, to let Andrea keep her memories. Some can argue that it’s a bit hard to believe in terms of story. A top secret organization dealing with aliens would probably want to prevent the spread of classified information as much as possible. But well, we’ve had a lot of things in the story that’s hard to believe (like nation-wide brainwashing and supercomputers, to mention a few)! I think it’s a worthy sacrifice to make so that things are more consistent on the meta level.

Woah, I wasn’t expecting this post to be so long. Although this post is filled with me explaining my dislike of the ending of Criminal Case: Pacific Bay’s Rhine Canyon arc, I still like the Criminal Case series. Perhaps our like or dislike of a cultural product is not only determined by its quality, but also by the time we encounter it. If I’m not mistaken, I saw a post on Tumblr that said “When I say I like X, that doesn’t automatically mean X is good. I like X because it was a part of my formative years”. This is certainly an interesting thing to consider. Anyway! I’ve been rambling for too long. Thanks for reading, as usual :)