Almost Plausible

Ep. 47

Egg

11 April 2023

Runtime: 04:03:03

A woman in her twenties is surprised when she suddenly lays a large egg. As if that wasn't strange enough, the egg hatches to reveal a tiny human... With wings. The woman raises her daughter under a watchful eye, careful to make sure the secret of her child's wings is never revealed. But what happens when her rebellious teenage daughter yearns to fly?

References

Transcript

[Intro music begins]

[Shep]
I was thinking that after it hatches and it’s a person, she would bond with it and then be secretive about its origins, not telling people that, “Oh, yeah, this person came from an egg, but I’m raising it.”

[Emily]
That makes more sense. Her name is Eggatha.

[Shep]
Wonderful.

[Thomas]
Shelley?

[Shep]
No, wrong. Too far.

[Thomas]
That’s the second one.

[Shep]
(Laughs)

[Intro music]

[Thomas]
Hey there, story fans. Welcome to Almost Plausible, the podcast where we take ordinary objects and turn them into movies. When it comes to creating stories about containers, we’ve struggled in the past. Today’s object is an Egg, which is kind of a container. We’ll see how it goes. Hatching stories on today’s episode are Emily-

[Emily]
Hey guys.

[Thomas]
F. Paul Shepard.

[Shep]
Happy to be here.

[Thomas]
And I’m Thomas J. Brown. Eggs are a very popular topic of discussion right now, what with the price in the US steadily climbing over the course of the last year to an all-time high. But forget all that. How do you two like your eggs?

[Emily]
So anyways, I like them hard boiled, still hot, mashed with salt and butter.

[Thomas]
Oh, that’s a- with butter. I’ve never done that. That sounds great.

[Emily]
Oh, it’s the best thing. On some toast.

[Thomas]
Oh my God.

[Shep]
I mean, I like hard boiled, but sliced up in a salad, or over easy, or scrambled with cheese and bacon pieces.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
I make eggs quite a lot. They’re low cost. Well, they used to be low cost.

[Emily]
They used to be.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
Now you can’t even find them. Costco was all out of them when I went this weekend.

[Shep]
Yeah. If you need five dozen eggs, where are you going to go?

[Thomas]
How do you guys feel about runny yolk?

[Shep]
It depends. It depends on how you’re having it.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
If you’re having it with toast or with hash brown patties, then I like an over easy runny yolk, but other than that, scramble it up with cheese.

[Emily]
I used to hate the runny yolks.

[Shep]
Oh, yeah.

[Emily]
I thought it was disgusting and foul. And then I became an adult and decided it was delicious and wonderful.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Emily]
And I like it on burgers. On pizza.

[Shep]
Whoa. Pizza?

[Emily]
Oh yeah. There’s a place around here that does an egg in the middle of the pizza. It’s insanely delicious.

[Thomas]
I mean, give me an egg pretty much any way. I love them sunnyside up, over easy, hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, scrambled, whatever. Actually, just for dinner, I made tamagoyaki. I got a tamagoyaki pan for Christmas. And I’ve been working on my technique, which is still terrible, but I’m doing my best. Well, it sounds like we all love eggs, so I guess we’re just normal people.

[Shep]
Yeah, eggs are great.

[Thomas]
Eggs are great. All three of us have a particular affinity for deviled eggs, though, don’t we?

[Shep]
Oh, yes.

[Emily]
Yes!

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Although I like mine on the super vinegary side. I mean, I like all deviled eggs, but when I make them for myself and I’m not feeding them to other people, I put a lot of vinegar in it.

[Thomas]
All right, well, we should crack on, and I will start us off. I have two pitches for us today. The first is: some kids in a small town see a bright object fall from the sky one evening and impact in a field not too far away. Thinking it might be a meteorite, they go over to see what they can find. What they discover is the wreckage of an alien ship. A dying alien hands them an egg. The authorities turn up and spot the kids as they’re running away, but they manage to escape. Now they’re trying to outwit the government and keep the egg safe. Complicating matters are the other alien species that was chasing the first alien, and they also want the egg. I imagine one of three endings. More of the original aliens show up and the egg is returned. The new aliens eventually get the egg, which was theirs to begin with. Or the egg hatches and the kids raise a baby alien.

[Shep]
Is this set in the 1980s, and is it directed by Steven Spielberg?

[Thomas]
It definitely feels like it.

[Emily]
Does it have Ethan Hawke in it?

[Shep]
I mean, dying alien giving the protagonist something is straight out of Green Lantern or Lazer Team. Did you ever watch Lazer Team? The Rooster Teeth movie?

[Thomas]
Oh, no.

[Shep]
Maybe it wasn’t dying. I guess it’s been too many years since I’ve seen it.

[Thomas]
My other idea is of the 52 Imperial Fabergé eggs, six are missing. Our story begins when one of those missing eggs, the Alexander III commemorative, is rediscovered and set to go up for auction or be put on display. We follow a group of criminals who are hired by some billionaire to steal the egg, despite its high profile status and the copious security surrounding the event. The heist goes flawlessly right up until they open the safe the egg is stored in at night. Much to their surprise, the egg isn’t there. It turns out they weren’t the only ones trying to steal the egg that night. Now they must stop the other gang, get the egg, and escape the authorities.

[Shep]
Have you seen Ocean’s Twelve?

[Thomas]
I mean, when it came out originally, yeah. And I haven’t thought about it since then.

[Shep]
Okay.

[Thomas]
Is that the plot of Ocean’s Twelve.

[Shep]
I think so.

[Emily]
Is it specifically a Fabergé egg too?

[Thomas]
Oh, God damn it. “…so challenges Danny to steal the Imperial Coronation Fabergé egg…”

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Okay, well, it’s a different egg. How about that?

[Emily]
You know, when we selected eggs for this episode I completely forgot about the existence of Fabergé eggs.

[Thomas]
I mean, it sounds like that’s for the best, because-

[Emily]
Yeah, clearly.

[Thomas]
All right, well, those are my pitches. Shep, what do you have?

[Shep]
A snake is eating eggs, when one of them begins to hatch. Out comes an eagle chick, which the snake raises as its own. But eagles eat snakes.

[Emily]
Would it be animated?

[Shep]
Yeah. I was thinking it’s, snake wants to be a mom but can’t have kids or whatever. It’s about found family, but also, you don’t necessarily get along with your family.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
Emily, let’s hear from you.

[Emily]
Alright, first I have: Samantha’s a young woman in her early twenties, living on her own for the first time. She has sudden and painful cramps. She rushes to the bathroom where something unexpected happens. She lays an egg.

[Thomas]
That is very unexpected.

[Emily]
Yes. She’s confused and scared, obviously. So she goes to the local clinic and the doctor thinks she’s just some crazed psych patient and tries to convince her to seek some mental health treatment. So she goes to seek a second opinion, but no one believes her story and they’re all starting to make her wonder if she isn’t crazy. So she starts scouring the Internet to see if there’s anything where this has happened before. All she finds are ancient myths and legends and her best friend just tries to convince her to throw it away and pretend it never happened. But she can’t bring herself to do that. Instead, she decides to care for it until it hatches.

[Shep]
I’m immediately intrigued.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Does at some point, she go on a date with Cabbage Head?

[Shep]
What?

[Thomas]
Kids in the Hall reference.

[Emily]
Oh my-

[Shep]
So how does she lay it? And yeah, how does she lay it? What is the situation? She goes to the bathroom…

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
Is she on the toilet?

[Emily]
Okay. Yes.

[Shep]
Does she lay it into the toilet? Does she fish it out of the toilet?

[Emily]
Yes! So originally I was going to propose this as a fairly graphic beginning. Just like these horrible cramps and not knowing whether it’s a number two cramp or if it’s period cramps and then running to the bathroom and then just like basically having contractions and hearing a big plop but knowing it did not come out of her anus. And then goes and sees there’s a fucking egg in the toilet.

[Thomas]
Did it come out of her cloaca?

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
So is this like a chicken egg sized egg or a larger one?

[Emily]
That was something I thought we could decide together.

[Thomas]
Emu sized.

[Emily]
I was thinking not emu sized because that’s just-

[Thomas]
That’s too big.

[Emily]
Yes, but maybe like a goose egg.

[Thomas]
So she goes to the doctor, and she’s like, “I’ve got a goose egg.” And they’re looking on her head like, “No, you seem fine.”

[Emily]
Yes, but she brings the egg and it’s like, “I laid this egg” and they’re just like-

[Shep]
“That’s crazy talk.”

[Emily]
“That’s insane.”

[Thomas]
“Ma’am, you’re wasting our time.”

[Emily]
“How many drugs did you take?”

[Thomas]
“We’re just going to send you a bill because your insurance will absolutely not cover this visit.”

[Emily]
Right, but I want her to have actually laid the egg.

[Thomas]
All right, well, I’m very intrigued by that story. What’s your other pitch?

[Emily]
All right. My other one: speaking of the egg shortage, Jared is an egg farmer in Mississippi. He’s been wildly successful his whole career. When there is an egg shortage in the country, he and his hens are miraculously unaffected. He now has an opportunity to make a killing in the egg market. But some nefarious players in the agricultural world are trying to steal his hens, and a local USDA scientist is trying to unlock the secret that kept his chickens safe. Jared agrees to help the scientist, and their discovery could change the world.

[Thomas]
So I have a proposed title for this film, Chicken of Men.

[Shep]
(Pained groans)

[Emily]
That’s it. That’s what I got for you guys.

[Thomas]
Well, of these, the women laying the egg one is leaping out at me.

[Shep]
Yeah, same. That magical realism.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I think we should pursue that one because I think we’re all really interested in that.

[Shep]
Yep.

[Emily]
All right, before we get too far, I do want to preface this in case somebody else picks up on, this was inspired by a Saturday Night Live skit with Kristen Stewart, where she’s at an AA meeting or an NA meeting, and she’s like, “Yeah, I got fucked up the other night, and I laid an egg.” And everyone’s like, “Tell me more about this. Where did it come from? How did it get there?” But that was just a small inspiration for it.

[Thomas]
So are we going to get Kristen Stewart to play the woman?

[Emily]
Oh, my God. That would be amazing.

[Shep]
She’s like, “Oh, I’m typecast.”

[Emily]
The woman who lays eggs.

[Thomas]
So is she at work when this happens, or is she at home?

[Emily]
At home. Maybe, I think, let’s have her be getting ready to go do something, like a normal 20-something thing. She’s prepping for the night to go out, have some fun, and then she just kind of starts getting crampy and lays an egg.

[Shep]
Who else is in this movie with her?

[Emily]
She has a friend. She has a best girlfriend.

[Shep]
Okay.

[Emily]
There’s the medical professionals that she seeks. I did have an idea of maybe before she decides that she’s going to care for it and hatch it, that she would end up going to, like, a naturopath who’s, like, got some theories about it and wants her to keep the egg. Because maybe the egg, based off of all these ancient legends and myths, is the future of the world. Who knows what could come out of this egg?

[Shep]
What does come out of the egg?

[Emily]
What does come out of the egg? That was, I was saving that for us to brainstorm together. My initial thing was we just don’t, we never find out. It hatches and the movie ends.

[Shep]
No. Refused. I don’t want any more movies that don’t have a payoff.

[Emily]
I don’t know. What do you guys think would be a good thing to hatch out of the egg? Would a bird, a weird bird be a thing? A teeny, tiny human baby?

[Thomas]
A tiny elephant.

[Shep]
What?

[Thomas]
I don’t know.

[Emily]
I don’t know how magical realism do you want to go with it? Does she hatch a star? Is that too-

[Shep]
That’s too out there.

[Emily]
Too far? Okay.

[Shep]
Yep.

[Thomas]
She hatches an everything bagel. I mean, I suppose it would make the most sense if it were a person.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
It would be a very small person, though.

[Emily]
Very teeny, tiny baby. Even if it was in a goose egg.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
If it was, like, an ostrich egg or emu egg, it would be-

[Thomas]
Still be rather small.

[Emily]
Yeah, but not as ridiculously small.

[Thomas]
So it looks like an emu is about halfway between a chicken and an ostrich.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
So that might make the most sense. I mean, it would be big still.

[Emily]
Yeah, but it wouldn’t be so big.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Would it be too big to flush?

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
Then it’s perfect, because then she has to fish it out of the toilet. She can try to flush it and it doesn’t go down.

[Thomas]
Right. And actually it’s dark, so it looks like it’s a weirdly shaped, big, smooth poo, maybe.

[Shep]
So what did we settle on for what comes out of the egg?

[Emily]
I guess a tiny person.

[Thomas]
Little person.

[Shep]
Okay.

[Emily]
Is it a baby person or just a little tiny person?

[Shep]
I say a baby person because then you have it hatch halfway through the movie, and then she’s raising this tiny baby in the second half.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that makes sense.

[Emily]
Okay. What are the challenges of raising a baby hatched from an egg you laid?

[Thomas]
Oh, man. It wouldn’t have a belly button.

[Emily]
It would not have a belly button.

[Shep]
Great detail.

[Emily]
She wouldn’t nurse it. She wouldn’t produce milk.

[Shep]
You just get some formula from the store.

[Emily]
Formula.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So she raises this baby somehow.

[Emily]
Yeah. I mean, it’s super tiny.

[Shep]
Right. It’s tiny to begin with. Does it grow into a normal human size?

[Emily]
Yeah. I want it to grow into a normal human size. I want it to grow into a normal human person.

[Shep]
But does it stay a normal human person? How does the movie end?

[Thomas]
I was just going to ask.

[Shep]
How normal is this human?

[Thomas]
I think another good question is what is the overarching conflict here? I mean, obviously in the beginning, it’s that she has this egg, nobody believes her, and she has to figure out how to raise the kid. But what is that second half of the movie’s conflict? This kid doesn’t have paperwork because she didn’t give birth to it in a hospital. And everyone’s like, “Okay.”

[Emily]
Well, that’s easy to take care of. You could just lie and say birthed it at home. You didn’t know you were pregnant. They made a whole TLC show about it.

[Thomas]
I mean, that’s not a lie.

[Shep]
Right. But if there is this record of her having a psychological break and thinking she gave birth to an egg-

[Emily]
Maybe she raises it and it’s time for it to go to school. So that’s when the conflict happens, is they’re like-

[Shep]
You say it.

[Emily]
Well, we haven’t decided if it was a boy or a girl yet.

[Shep]
Is it a boy or a girl?

[Emily]
Girl.

[Shep]
Okay, what I was saying was maybe the government would be coming after her for some reason because they do believe that this person came from an egg, and maybe they have some reason to be wary of the egg baby.

[Thomas]
There’s some tinfoil hat person who’s, like, “I told you lizard people were real.”

[Shep]
(Laughs)

[Thomas]
Is the mother sexually active, or are these just Jesus eggs?

[Shep]
That’s why it has to be a girl, because she only has X chromosomes.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Emily]
Not only does she have to go through the doctor saying, “Okay, but that’s impossible. Women don’t lay eggs.”

[Thomas]
“But men do?”

[Emily]
That creates even more confusion. Like, “How did this even happen? I haven’t had sex. I’m on the pill.” You know, that kind of thing.

[Shep]
Why is she on the pill if she’s not having sex?

[Thomas]
Be prepared.

[Emily]
In case she does.

[Thomas]
She wants to have sex.

[Emily]
She had had sex previously.

[Thomas]
She wants that clear skin.

[Emily]
She has PMDD and just really needs the mood swings to go away.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
I was thinking that after it hatches and it’s a person, she would bond with it and then be secretive about its origins, not telling people that, “Oh, yeah, this person came from an egg, but I’m raising it.”

[Emily]
That makes more sense. Her name is Eggatha.

[Shep]
Wonderful.

[Thomas]
Shelley?

[Shep]
No, wrong. Too far.

[Thomas]
That’s the second one.

[Shep]
(Laughs)

[Emily]
Okay. So she’s secretive about it. Who does she let in on this?

[Thomas]
Well, the best friend, surely right?

[Emily]
Yeah, that’s who she’s told. The best friend’s, like, “How do you have a baby? I didn’t even know you were seeing someone.”

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
And that’s where she has that explanation. But otherwise she’s like, “I don’t-“

[Thomas]
“Did you steal a baby?”

[Shep]
Well, the best friend’s got to be there after it hatches or maybe during its hatching, who sees it as a very, very tiny person.

[Thomas]
Yeah, because she needs an ally, I think.

[Shep and Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So what is that second half of the movie conflict, then?

[Emily]
Is it the government trying to seize her egg baby?

[Thomas]
It could be. It feels a little far-fetched because people would have to- At what point do other people believe her besides the friend?

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Unless this is not the first time this has happened.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
And so somehow the government knows.

[Emily]
How do the government agents know? Is it just the omnipotent government that knows everything that we’re doing? Because-

[Thomas]
Well, obviously, they saw it through the television.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
She has an Alexa. And they were-

[Emily]
Man, I’m in trouble.

[Shep]
What was the comic that’s like people before and people now, like, “The government could be wiretapping our house.” And then people now is like, “Hey, wiretap, do you have any recipes for pancakes?”

[Emily]
So what has triggered the government to investigate her and her egg?

[Shep]
Maybe they were always investigating and they just didn’t get around to it.

[Emily]
Have they always been kind of keeping an eye on her and she just hasn’t known-

[Shep]
Ooh. Ooh.

[Emily]
Because there’s something about her that she’s not aware of that the government is aware of.

[Shep]
So they were keeping an eye on her before the egg?

[Emily]
Before the egg.

[Shep]
Is her friend in the government?

[Thomas]
I mean, obviously now. Right?

[Emily]
Yeah, that could be the twist.

[Shep]
That is a pretty big twist.

[Thomas]
‘False ally’ is a good twist to have. All right. So is she, like, a government experiment type of thing?

[Emily]
Sure, let’s do that. That’s an easy storyline.

[Thomas]
Was she hatched and doesn’t realize it?

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
Does she have a belly button?

[Thomas]
Sure. They would have surgically given her one. Wouldn’t they have?

[Emily]
Because she’s hatched from, like, this weird whole program where there’s several people who were hatched and they were all given belly buttons and given to families.

[Thomas]
“The Chicks from Chechnya”? I don’t know. I don’t know. I was trying to make a Boys from Brazil reference.

[Shep]
Boo.

[Thomas]
Is she an alien? Is that what’s going on here? They’re humanoid aliens?

[Emily]
Yeah, let’s do that.

[Shep]
Why are they humanoid? Why do they look like humans? Why do they pass for humans?

[Emily]
They’ve evolved that way. If they’re predators.

[Shep]
Oh, wait, what was the movie with the-

[Thomas]
Species?

[Emily]
Splice.

[Shep]
Yes, but no. The cuckoo bird metaphor.

[Thomas]
Alien?

[Shep]
No, the couple that is looking for a house. They look at a house.

[Emily]
Oh, I know what you’re talking about.

[Shep]
What’s the name of that actor? Jesse Eisenberg. Right?

[Thomas]
Oh, Vivarium.

[Shep]
Yes, that’s it.

[Thomas]
That was a wild movie.

[Shep]
So part of the problem I have with the mom not being a regular human is that it answers the mystery of the egg. So the egg is not just a magical realism whatever. It’s like, “Oh, this happened because you weren’t a human.” I’m not saying not to do it. I’m just saying that it’s a different type of story than a magical realism story.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Right, right.

[Shep]
It’s now a science fiction story.

[Emily]
The original intent was magical realism. Like, she was a human woman and she laid an egg, but she doesn’t know why.

[Shep]
Okay. So she’s just a regular person who just laid an egg, and it’s unexplained.

[Emily]
Right. But then there’s no conflict, it’s just this weird-

[Shep]
Right. So.

[Emily]
It’s just this weird just this weird Swedish movie with a woman who lays an egg.

[Thomas]
If this were a weird Swedish movie, what would happen?

[Emily]
Well, if it was a weird Swedish movie, she would think she’s going insane. She’d be convinced by the doctors that she’s, in fact, crazy. And she did not lay this egg, but there is an egg there, so she can’t explain that. She doesn’t know where it came. So she must have had some kind of weird psychotic break where she purchased an egg, brought it home, does have no memory of it because she disassociated so greatly, and then the egg hatches, which it shouldn’t do because she’s just bought a random egg. So this clearly couldn’t happen because she’s obviously insane. But the egg hatches and then out pops out a miniature version of herself, and then the movie ends.

[Thomas]
Well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on- All right. Well, it sounds like we want to stick with magical reality. So let’s take a quick break, and when we come back, hopefully we’ll find a conflict for our story about an egg.

[Break]

[Thomas]
We are back. We’re going with magical reality, but we need a conflict. What are your thoughts?

[Shep]
I still think government agents coming in when the child is school aged.

[Thomas]
Okay, how do they know?

[Shep]
They don’t know for sure. They’re just investigating.

[Thomas]
How do they know they need to investigate, I guess, is my question. How do they find out about the situation?

[Shep]
You don’t need to explain that. You don’t need to explain where the egg came from or how this person gave birth to an egg. You don’t need to explain how the government knows what’s going on, because that’s classified.

[Emily]
Well, I mean, if we take it from her perspective, she doesn’t know how the government knows, so why do we need to know how the government knows?

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
We just know that the government knows.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
I do like the idea of the mom asking the government agents, like, “How did you even find out about this?” And they’re just like, “That’s classified, ma’am.”

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And that’s it. We just never answer it.

[Emily]
Perfect. Okay, so tiny five-year-old,

[Shep]
So is it still small, or did it grow up?

[Emily]
Did we decide on the size of this egg baby?

[Shep]
That’s what I’m asking, because I, again, would prefer regular sized person.

[Emily]
All right, so if we’re going with the government is interfering route, that’s our conflict. Normal sized person.

[Thomas]
What is the government’s goal?

[Emily]
To capture and study and dissect this tiny, this weird baby.

[Thomas]
Whoa!

[Shep]
I mean, you’re going, “Whoa,” but wasn’t that the plot of D.A.R.Y.L.?

[Emily]
The plot of a lot of movies.

[Thomas]
So why don’t they just snatch her?

[Shep]
Maybe they do. It’s the government. You just grab her out of, as she’s leaving school.

[Thomas]
How does the mom track her down?

[Emily]
Are they using her as a ruse to get the mother? Because really, who do you want to study? I mean, you do want to study the product, but don’t you want to study the source as well?

[Thomas]
That makes sense. They would probably kidnap them both. So maybe I think the easiest thing would be to come to her and say, “Oh, we’re from (whatever agency). Your daughter has been taken. We’re going to take you to her,” or something like that. Like, “She’s in danger, and we’re going to take you to her.” Being a concerned mother, she would probably willingly go with them, and then they could take her to some black site to study her.

[Shep]
The end. So if they are both taken by the government to some black site, I don’t see them coming out of that. Like, are we sure that’s the direction we want to go in?

[Emily]
How pessimistic are we now?

[Shep]
None. We’re none pessimistic.

[Emily]
Okay,

[Shep]
Movies are a fantasy and escape from reality.

[Emily]
Then should there be a benevolent male agent who knows that this is wrong and helps them escape?

[Shep]
Oh, it turns into a rom-com. There we go.

[Emily]
Yup. Yup.

[Shep]
We got magical realism and a rom-com. Let’s not dwell on depressing things. What is the happy ending of our movie? Let’s figure out what the happy ending is.

[Emily]
Yeah. Okay, so we want a happy ending. We want them to be restored.

[Shep]
Or we want the daughter to go off and whatever.

[Thomas]
Does the daughter have some special power?

[Shep]
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. Like E.T. At the end.

[Thomas]
Right. Or the cat that’s a Martian and has that magic collar or something.

[Emily]
Oh, yeah. The Cat from Outer Space. He’s got a collar and he can talk as long as he’s wearing the collar.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
But when he loses the collar, he can’t talk and then he can’t help the kids.

[Thomas]
And then he has, like, a flying saucer that he pilots later in the film or something. So what is this special power that the daughter has?

[Shep]
She can fly.

[Emily]
Perfect.

[Thomas]
That sounds good.

[Emily]
How does her flight save the mother?

[Shep]
I don’t think that she saves the mother.

[Emily]
She just flies away. Okay.

[Shep]
I think she just flies away because they’re really after the daughter.

[Emily]
Because there’s really nothing special about the mother other than that she laid this one egg. I think that’s what they discover.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Does the mother know-? When do we, the audience, find out the egg baby can fly?

[Emily and Shep]
At the end.

[Thomas]
It feels a bit like Repo Man, then. Where it’s just like, “Oh, and by the way…” you know? Or Grease.

[Shep]
Yeah, you’re right. Strong Grease vibes.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So does she have wings like a bird or like an angel? And does she always have wings? Because if she has wings, that’s a thing that the mom is trying to keep secret.

[Thomas]
So, again, when would we, the audience, find that out? We’d probably need to know that basically right away.

[Shep]
Right. If she has wings, then we know the whole time, because that’s an issue.

[Emily]
The whole time.

[Thomas]
So the whole time, she’s saying, “You’ve got to hide these. You’ve got to keep these covered up. You can’t let anybody know about them.” But then at the end of the movie, she tells the daughter, “Now is the time to get your wings out.”

[Emily]
“Spread your wings and fly.”

[Thomas and Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So we sort of set that up, so it’s not just random at the end, like, “Oh, and by the way, she can fly.” How mentally old is this child at the end of the film? Is she capable of taking care of herself after she flies away?

[Emily]
Why don’t we make her a teenager? How about she’s been successfully hiding it for a while?

[Shep]
So the daughter is hiding wings for years and years. Do her friends know? Does she keep it secret from her friends?

[Thomas]
I think she has to. Right?

[Emily]
I think the mother would prefer that she does. Now, does she as a child, as a teen, respect her mother’s wishes?

[Shep]
Well, if she’s a teenager, she’s going to be rebellious.

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
Maybe this is where the government comes in.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So the conflict is between the mother and the daughter because they’ve been successfully keeping this a secret for years and years. But the daughter is reaching the rebellious age and goes out flying at night and gets spotted.

[Thomas]
Yeah. So there have been reports, yeah. Of a person flying.

[Shep and Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
So now the government is investigating, where did this person with wings come from?

[Thomas]
So is this, like, an FAA investigation, or is this, like- right?

[Shep]
She didn’t get her pilot’s license, so she’s flying illegally.

[Thomas]
She’s flying in restricted airspace. Or is it, like an X-Files thing where they’re like, “There are reports of a person with wings flying around.”

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
It’s definitely not just some drone. Yeah.

[Shep]
I like, if it’s an X-Files thing. Have a Mulder and a Scully.

[Thomas]
You mean a Sculder and a Mully?

[Shep]
Yeah. Well, then now it’s a sad story because the daughter has to fly away to escape, but also leave her family behind because it’s no longer safe for either of them for her to be with her mom. So her rebelliousness has led to this situation.

[Thomas]
Where is it safe for her to be? Nowhere in the US. They know she exists. That knowledge isn’t going away.

[Shep]
What year is this set in? Because if it’s set in the modern day, then there’s facial recognition software all over the place.

[Thomas]
Man, technology really messes with stories.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
They take her to Area 51, and she steals a spaceship and-

[Shep]
And a cat.

[Thomas]
And a cat.

[Emily]
And a cat.

[Thomas]
There’s a benevolent cat that’s like, “Are you trying to escape? I’m trying to escape. Let’s escape together.”

[Shep]
“Get me back to my UFO.”

[Thomas]
Cat and a bird, though. Natural enemies.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
I don’t know.

[Shep]
What are you not sold on?

[Thomas]
I just don’t know how it should end. I have no idea. I like that she gets away, because I don’t want the government to have her. That would be a huge downer ending. But where does she get away, too?

[Shep]
We don’t answer that. It’s The Boy Who Could Fly or E.T. or whatever. They’re just gone.

[Emily]
Yeah, they’re just off to that happy ever after somewhere else.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
Do we need a certain amount of time where she is held by the government and it’s bad, so that her getting away is this great big- I think maybe we need the mom to not be around.

[Shep]
If the daughter is held by the government, how does she ever get away?

[Thomas]
That’s part of our job, to figure that out.

[Shep]
Yeah, I’m saying we figure it out by not having her held by the government because they’ll discover the wings immediately.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So she can’t fly to safety because she won’t have access to her wings.

[Thomas]
They just put zip ties on her wings so she can’t extend them.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yep.

[Thomas]
So what’s the conflict then?

[Shep]
The conflict is that the government’s after her.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
They don’t catch her, then the conflict is over. If they catch her, the conflict is over.

[Thomas]
But if the government’s after her, then she flies away. And it was not a real conflict. Like, why wouldn’t she just fly away immediately, if they’re trying to catch her? It’s not much of a chase.

[Shep]
Because then the movie is over.

[Thomas]
Right. I mean, if her and the mom are- if they don’t know why they’re being chased but they’re running away together, then the daughter wouldn’t just fly away until the mom says, “This is it. You have to. It doesn’t matter now.”

[Emily]
So the mom has to sacrifice at least her freedom temporarily to let her daughter get away because the daughter wants to stick with her, but she can’t carry both of them with her wings.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
But I just wonder, like, why would the mom be running from the government? What would trigger her to do that? I don’t know what her motivation is.

[Shep]
Because the government’s coming after this winged person that she knows is her daughter.

[Thomas]
So do they get interviewed and then she decides, “Uh oh. They’re on to us, we need to get out of here.” And then they try to run and are immediately spotted, because of course they’re going to run after the interview. Like the government agents know. So they’re watching her. So as soon as they get in the car and try to drive, they’re being chased by police or something, or FBI agents in their vehicles.

[Shep]
Again, they would be caught immediately.

[Thomas]
Right. Should the government be involved at all then? Because it sounds like the government is way too coordinated and powerful of an enemy.

[Shep]
Powerful. Okay, so who is after them?

[Thomas]
Is anyone after them?

[Emily]
Then what’s the conflict?

[Shep]
Okay, what’s the conflict?

[Thomas]
Yeah, it does feel like other people need to find out.

[Shep]
Right. But not the government.

[Thomas]
We have a scene where they’re like, “Aren’t you going to do something,” and the cops like, “What law are they breaking?” “The laws of nature?”

[Shep]
Is this like a religious conservative that’s after them, but then she looks like an angel, so, mmm.

[Thomas]
But not if you’ve read the Bible.

[Shep]
You’re right. “Only two eyes?!”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Okay. One of the conflicts that we have is between the mother and the daughter. The mother wants to keep the daughter safe, and her way of doing that is to keep her wings secret. The daughter loves to fly, and it’s something the mom can’t understand because she can’t do it herself. So asking her not to fly is stifling. So the daughter wants to fly, but that will reveal her and her ability.

[Emily]
That’s a good conflict.

[Shep]
But what does it lead to?

[Thomas]
Her whole life, her mom is kind of… not necessarily hiding her away, but hiding her identity away and keeping her really, like, under lock and key, or is very overbearing and whatnot. And at the end of the movie, the daughter comes out as “I’m this person. I have wings. This is who I am.” And people end up accepting her.

[Emily]
It’s just, yeah. Because we could have it be that ending where people are just-

[Shep]
Teen Wolf.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Right. Yeah.

[Shep]
Have her join the basketball team.

[Emily]
I mean, she was born from an egg. We’re not explaining the egg. We don’t have to explain why people just accept her.

[Shep]
I’m completely on board. I want to see the picture at the end where all her friends now know she has wings and she has them open at school.

[Thomas]
There’s a group photo, and she’s using her wings to wrap all the way around her group of friends like a giant hug as they all look at the camera.

[Emily]
Maybe the big reveal can be she uses them to save somebody.

[Thomas]
I was just going to say that. Yeah.

[Shep]
Well, if she saves someone, I don’t think that should be the big reveal. I think that should be maybe one of the times that she flies and is spotted.

[Emily]
Yeah, that’s what I meant by the big reveal. It’s like the big reveal to the others knowing not us as the audience, we already know.

[Shep]
No, not to the others knowing, is what I’m saying. It’s just one of the “I didn’t have any choice, mom. I had to fly because someone was going to fall from the clock tower.” Whatever. And now there’s this newspaper story about an angel saving this kid from falling.

[Thomas]
I like that if it’s a kid who falls from some high place and they’re just falling, and everyone’s like, “Oh, my goodness!” And she swoops by and catches the kid and puts him down and then flies off really quickly because she’s trying to help but also trying not to be seen.

[Shep and Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
And so the kid is like, “Oh, yeah, I was saved by an angel.” And of course there are people who are like, “Yes, of course he was saved by an angel.” And other people are like, “Uhhh…. what?” Like, “Kids in their crazy stories. Like, I don’t understand how he survived, but I’m glad he survived. But the whole angel thing is weird.” But he’s like, describing this woman with wings who caught him and put him down on the ground.

[Shep]
And told them “Everyone gets one” and then flew off.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So how are her wings revealed? It’s got to be- because I’m picturing a lot of movies where something like this happens. Splash. How do you force the wings out?

[Emily]
Does somebody suspect that it’s her because she’s always wearing these bulky weird sweatshirts?

[Shep]
She’s got a big trench coat she wears to school.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
I mean, is she put in a situation where- or is that the climax of the film where she’s put in a situation where she has to rescue her best friend on a camping trip or something like that? There’s no way anyone else can help. It has to be her.

[Shep]
It’s a blimp accident. It’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. So she rescues someone at the end. That’s the big public reveal. So Kiki’s Delivery Service, it is her best friend.

[Thomas]
Should it not be? Should it be some school bully?

[Shep]
The mean girl that keeps picking on her for wearing that bulky trench coat.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
What is the situation that the girl is going to fall if she’s not rescued?

[Thomas]
That sounds like a problem for the writers.

[Shep]
No, I mean, we just say we’re doing Kiki’s Delivery Service ending, but if she rescues the bully and then the bully is nice to her, the bully is nice to her because she was rescued. Whereas if it’s revealed that she has wings for some other reason, the bully could be nice to her and accept her the way she is. And for not hiding it.

[Thomas]
I mean, we don’t even need to have the bully be nice to her. The bully could be mad because she’s the popular girl, and now all of a sudden, wings girl who she’s been picking on is the popular girl, and she’s like, “God damn it. Now a legitimate reason for me to dislike her.”

[Shep]
How magical do we want our reality?

[Emily]
I’m good with very magical. I mean, we have a woman hatch- laying an egg and the offspring having wings.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
So let’s just keep going.

[Thomas]
Lean into it.

[Shep]
Well, if we’re going to go full magical, I’d like another student at the school to have, like, cat ears or something. Some other thing that they hide under a hat because they also keep it secret. But then when she comes out with her wings, she comes out with her ears.

[Thomas]
It’s a bit like an X-Men thing where all of a sudden, several instances of these mutations are cropping up roughly around the same time?

[Shep]
Right.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Don’t have to explain that.

[Thomas]
Yeah, we’ve seen the one, so we just understand later when we see another one.

[Shep]
Yep.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Emily]
I like that.

[Thomas]
And so what is the purpose? What are you thinking for having that other character?

[Shep]
Just more magical reality.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
Just more people being comfortable, being themselves.

[Emily]
I like that ending. Everybody should just be comfortable with who they are and everybody else should just suck it up and accept it.

[Thomas]
And there’s one person who has no mutation, but there’s, like, something about them that they feel uncomfortable about. And they’re like, “And I’m this way,” and everyone’s like, “Okay…?”

[Emily]
“Cool.”

[Thomas]
“But I’m okay with it now.” “Oh, all right. Great. Cool.”

[Shep]
So no government anything?

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Emily]
No government at all.

[Shep]
Just school bullies.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And intergenerational conflict between mother and daughter, which has never been done before for.

[Thomas]
All right. Should we go over the story here? Since we changed so much.

[Emily]
We changed a lot. This one definitely requires a recap.

[Thomas]
I’m not sure I can keep this one straight.

[Shep]
Okay.

[Thomas]
So we know it starts with a woman, a single woman living alone, who lays an egg one morning-

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
In her toilet. The egg is roughly the size of an emu egg. No one will take her seriously that she has laid this egg, and she decides she’s going to try to nurture the egg and get it to hatch.

[Emily]
And see what happens-

[Thomas]
And it does. And there’s a tiny person inside-

[Emily]
With wings.

[Thomas]
With wings. And somehow we fast forward a dozen or so years, and now we have a nascent teenager with wings who’s been told her whole life not to fly. “Hide this.” “People will judge you.” “The government will come,” perhaps.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And so she does hide it, but doesn’t like hiding it. So she sneaks out sometimes and flies. Are we keeping that? Is that still part of the story?

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Okay. She uses her flight to save people or to help people in certain situations.

[Shep]
Or at least one situation.

[Thomas]
At least one situation. Right. And so she’s spotted and, like, the rumors are starting to get around about this. Then what? The camping trip? Is that the next thing that we have?

[Shep]
Ah, is that the emergency where she has to rescue someone?

[Thomas]
Right. Yeah. And now it’s sort of in front of everybody. She has no choice. There’s no way to hide it this time. Everybody sees it, but that seeing it inspires other students (who have things about themselves that they don’t like, perhaps it’s a mutation like hers, or perhaps they just feel uncomfortable with their bodies or whatever) to, I don’t know, reveal the truths about themselves and feel comfortable with who they are. Was there anything else? Did I miss anything?

[Emily]
I think that boils down to what we decided.

[Thomas and Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
I think there’s definitely going to be some other conflict in there that gets us between those major points, but I think those are the major story moments. Right? All right, well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s show about an egg. Was it golden or rotten? Let us know by leaving a comment on our website, reaching out on social media, or sending us an email. Links to all of those can be found at AlmostPlausible.com Have you left a five-star rating for us on Apple podcasts? ryemanes has. They said: Witty, thought-provoking, and just plain good goofery. Basically the best thing for artists who need to get out of a creative rut. Good goof-off fun for the non-artists too. If you leave us a five-star review on Apple podcasts, we’ll read it on the show at some point in the future. Sure as eggs is eggs. Emily, Shep, and I will return with another episode of Almost Plausible.

[Outro music]

[Emily]
So we want the lady laying the eggs.

[Shep]
Yes. Wait, did you say eggs? Plural?

[Emily]
Egg, egg, egg. Just the one.

[Shep]
Egg. Egg. Egg.

[Emily]
We’re just going to focus-

[Shep]
That’s three eggs already.

[Emily]
We’re just going to focus on this one egg.

[Thomas]
There’s a woman in an egg shortage with some pretty special powers.

[Emily]
Good way to make a living these days.

[Thomas]
She has this one weird trick. Egg farmers hate her.

[Emily]
Like that scene in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but with eggs instead of ping pong balls.

[Thomas]
(Laughs) They’re like, “Let’s go egg that guy’s house.” She’s like, “Come on.”

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