Hello!
This is the blog series where I (the writer) write commentary on each episode of Roy Kaplan. These are all written with the assumption that you’ve listened to the episode (and the ones preceding), so if you haven’t listened to (or read the transcript for) Random Access Memory, check it out here!
Onwards!
So here we have Random Access Memory. Random Access Memory is kind of a weird episode in that it was based on a concept more than a specific plot. Usually, when I write these episodes, I figure out what kind of crime I want the episode to be, then figure things out from there, but in this case, I knew from the outset that I wanted this episode to a) mark the return of our mystery psychic, b) feature Notion getting targeted, and c) involve memory-wiping technology. From that point, I had to somehow figure out a crime scenario that would let me do all those things.
In an ideal world, we would have more time for Notion to interact with Roy so we can get a better feel for their relationship before Notion gets their memory wiped. Unfortunately, Out of Sight only has 12 episodes, and 30-35 minutes is not a whole lot of time, so there’s a limit to how much I can show Roy’s relationship with others outside of cases, especially with a secondary character like Notion. All we have time to see of Roy’s relationship with Notion is that they’re friends with a decent amount of history, and that they talk to each other when Roy’s off the clock, as well as Notion helping to build props and tools for Roy. Is that enough to make this psychic targeting Notion a big enough deal? I don’t know. I did what I could with the time and space I had.
This is a pretty important episode because it’s where this whole psychic thing escalates from “messing with one-off characters” to “messing with recurring characters” as well as straight-up murdering people. The threat of this mystery psychic steps up in prominence for the season, not to mention that they have finally stepped out of the shadows to make an actual appearance–one that Roy no longer remembers. The mystery psychic is a problem that’s here to stay, and Roy’s going to have to figure out how to deal with it or suffer the consequences.
This is also an important episode because Roy sees someone get murdered right in front of him and is understandably very upset about it. Despite Roy’s typical reckless personality and glib approach to ghosts and his penchant for annoying people on purpose, we see glimpses of him getting somber and serious. He’s not an invincible foolhardy hero, he’s just some guy, and the point where people are getting murdered right in front of him is where he reasonably gets scared.
One of the things I’ve noticed over the course of writing these episodes is that Roy is generally very calm. He gets annoyed sometimes, and he’s way too quick to antagonize people, but he hardly ever gets angry and he almost never shouts. Except for two occasions (so far): Bait and Stitch and this episode. In the first case, Roy’s angry because of Locke setting him up for the second time, and in the second, well, he’s talking to someone who literally committed a murder in front of him ten seconds ago. It doesn’t matter that Kingsley was a terrible person, that doesn’t mean she deserved to get shot three times and die horribly, and Roy certainly wouldn’t wish that on her.
The other reason this episode is important (this is an important episode, apparently) is because we see just how far Roy’s trust in Wes goes–he calls for Wes when things are going to shit and they work together to get him out of it, and when it comes down to it, Roy literally trusts Wes more than his own memory. Without Wes’s help, Roy wouldn’t be able to solve this case or find the psychic behind it.
One last thing of note is the mention of old era robots. We’ve had some allusions to the post-apocalypse setting before now–the closed city and the hazard zones outside of it–but now we get a brief glimpse of the past through the excavation of a robot graveyard. This was actually not something I was planning to do from the outset–I knew that I needed a plot involving a device stolen from Notion and people who were getting their memories erased so they would forget the work they were doing, and I had to come up with a scenario that would fit that situation. Digging for some kind of object was the first thing that came to mind, and when I tried to decide what was being dug up, I decided that perhaps it would be a good time to introduce the concept of the old era. Which isn’t to say that the choice to involve robots was an arbitrary one–it’ll be relevant later on, though not necessarily within this season.
In all, this episode is one that sets up a lot of future plot points. We originally had this episode a little later in the season but moved it up because of certain changes we made to the whole psychic plot. But it’s not necessarily a bad change–with all the elements involved with this episode it’s definitely not bad to have it earlier.