I’m talking about Morgan Dunleavy’s plotline, dealing with a potential suicide, in The Bridge today in my author commentary. This is a heavy one, so the SPOILER WARNING starts now.

Social Commentary

I’m not big on social commentary. There are times when it is absolutely necessary and times when you just want to beat your head against the wall rather than listen to one more word about something that charged and divisive.

Social issues have their place in fiction. They always have. Relevance is the key, and there was no way in hell I was going to touch on the idea of suicide unless it came from a place of character over shock value.

There were pieces put into place that made this topic vital to Morgan’s character arc. Her status as a physician was one such piece, and the most crucial as we come to learn in The Clearing that she was a doctor. WAS, being the key takeaway from the exchange.

Nothing is ever said without reason, and I knew there would come a time to explore Morgan’s past. The Bridge, already focusing on Lincoln’s through flashback, became the perfect place to bring Morgan’s own troubles to light.

Morgan’s Plotline

Since Lincoln’s past was being worked through by flashbacks, I needed to differentiate Morgan’s own thread. There was no back and forth. No split to bring readers up to speed on her past. That would have been massively confusing.

No, for Morgan, I brought in Zac as a sounding board. It’s verbose, sure, but their discussion in the book about Morgan’s time in the Middle East and the death of her patients at her hands served two functions:

1. Obviously, it tells the reader what happened to her and why she hasn’t been part of her family since.
2. It brought Morgan and Zac together, which created new complications down the line for both characters.

To connect readers with Morgan, I needed to dig into what happened with her and her brother. I needed a raw trauma that couldn’t be excused by either party. Her brother’s brush with death was the first element. Her complicity with the deaths of three other soldiers solidified not only her refusal to practice medicine again, but also why her brother tries to end his own life.

She has her justification for her actions. He has his own for trying to kill himself. Neither can be made to see the world from the other’s POV.

I really enjoyed (if that’s the right word for such a topic) playing Morgan and her brother off each other. I think it is one of the strongest exchanges in the series to date. As I mentioned in the opening installment of this commentary, conflict doesn’t have to be physical. Morgan’s thread in The Bridge was always meant to be an emotional struggle, and one that neither sibling is sure will end well.

Suicide

I tread as lightly as I can on the subject. There is a lot of pain in the world, and some need more support than others to see themselves through it all. If there is one takeaway from this book, I hope it is that there are people out there who will be by your side in an instant. Always.

Be it family or friends, doctors or neighbors, hotlines or support groups, there are resources and I hope those in need reach out. No one deserves to feel isolated, trapped, and caught in a well of despair.

If you feel that way, please be sure to reach out and talk to someone today. Call 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Hotline.

The author commentary for The Bridge continues with a look at Zac Modine and his gradual descent. SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

Zac Modine

When I was originally outlining season one of DSA, I knew I needed someone to flip on the team. I didn’t want it to be an abrupt switch. For readers to feel a genuine shift there had to be some gradual change in the dynamics for the team.

For a while, Ben was on the docket, but in the long term that made no sense for his arc. His isolation was more important as was pulling him back, which you’ll see in Dark Impulses and we’ll discuss more with Spectral Advocate.

Lincoln had his own shift to make, with reasons all his own, so that took him out of the running.

No, the only character that made a lick of sense to me was Zac Modine. The end of Promethean perfectly set up his change, and The Bridge cements his eventual betrayal of the team.

The evolution of his descent

The original drafts made it clear Zac fell in line with Sullivan, but where it failed was in justifying such an action. Sure, there was a bond between the two of them but as previously stated in these commentaries, I never fleshed out Sullivan until later in the drafting process.

So by giving Sullivan more screen time, I was able to cement their friendship. Sullivan gives Zac the attention he’s looking for as well as the respect he’s shooting for with every mission planned and conceived. Building off that, Zac also begins to see Sullivan as the only one standing up for the same values at the DSA that Zac has always tried to uphold.

Every interaction was a chance to build their relationship and really sell Zac turning to Sullivan over Metcalf when it comes to the end of the season.

Introducing Adler

What clinched Zac’s descent was the introduction of Alison Adler to the series. Zac, for all intents and purposes, was king of the hill when it came to the DSA. He controlled the workflow for the research team. He planned the missions and developed the briefings.

Everything flowed through Zac.

Until Adler shows up. Her appointment as his deputy throws him for a loop. His relationship with Metcalf is fractured already thanks to the Henry Reed situation in Promethean, but this moment makes it clear that Metcalf has lost all confidence in him.

Adler wasn’t in any of the original drafts. She didn’t come into play until the opening of season 2, but that felt wrong to me. By adding her in here, I could establish her as a competent member of the team and why she sticks around when everything goes to hell in Broken Loyalties.

The Cost of Secrets

This has grown into a major theme for the series. Secrets have consequences. This is something you’ll see very clearly in Season 2, I promise.

Zac sees Adler’s recruitment as a betrayal, another secret and lie told by Metcalf. The consequence is his shift to Sullivan’s side that becomes apparent over the course of the next few books. It might seem small in the moment, but those slight shifts–those seemingly inconsequential moments in the books–build into huge changes.

That is the true fun of putting together not just one book but an entire season with DSA. Layering in those scenes so they pay off is one of the great joys I’ve found in writing.

I hope you feel the same.