Work Text:
“This is a stupid plot,” Stan said. “Amnesia doesn’t really work that way.”
“Shhh!” Peggy hissed. “At least wait until the next commercial break.”
A few minutes later, a commercial break had begun.
“Now then, what’s wrong with amnesia?” Peggy asked.
“I was reading-”
“Really?”
“Oh, hush… I was reading something about amnesia, and it’s never clean like that. People either end up with brain damage or they have trouble remembering things in the future. On the show, this person is going to be fully recovered by the next episode.”
“Well,” Peggy sighed. “It’s how the plots work. It’s like when people used to expect the god to come into the opera at the last minute and fix things.”
“So you’re saying amnesia is the god fixing the plot?”
“No, not exactly-”
The show started up again. At the end of the hour, the episode had ended on a cliffhanger.
“I’m calling it, he’s going to be all better at the end of next week and they’ll never bring this up again.”
“You’re probably right. But like I said, it’s what people expect. Would they really want a sympathetic character faking amnesia? I don’t think so.”
“Do you really think these characters are sympathetic?”
Peggy laughed. “You’re also not supposed to think about that too much.”