Mythic Quest
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In the pilot ofMythic Quest, Ian urges his employees to respect C.W.
Longbottom, the head writer who happens to be a Nebula Award winner.
That was 1973, Brad points out.
I mean, you met him at a state fair when he was selling rotisserie chickens.
When Rachel chimes in to mention C.W.s constant drinking and sleeping in the office, C.W.
We finally get that backstory in, well, Backstory!
(Shelley Hennig).
we know, for all his faults, can be quite easy to like.
This version, though, almost totally lacks those qualities.
Carl thinks of himself as a once-in-a-generation talent and expects to be rewarded for his brilliance.
Hes egotistical, to say the least, and condescending.
That might be the main reason Backstory!
Still, like A Dark Quiet Death, its a fascinating change of pace.
We know that Carl will eventually win a Nebula Award forTales of the Anaren, and Backstory!
tracks that story as it goes through four different permutations.
Later, while A.E.
never took his novella in to show Saul because she wanted to save [him] the embarrassment.
Finally, Carl does what he thinks he has to: He takes all of Asimovs suggestions.
We immediately cut to a year or so later, as Carl now C.W.
wins his first (and, we know, only) Nebula Award.
He schmoozes, clearly loving the attention he feels hes always deserved.
now Anne shows up with Peter to congratulate him.
Im sure it comes off like a poor mans Asimov, C.W.
says, faking humility as he rationalizes, but my idea was to get something published.
This way Ill have more opportunities to publish work thats a bit more me.
It readexactlylike Asimov, Anne says, staring him right in the eye.
As she walks away, he returns to his schmoozing.
But suddenly all of it feels so hollow.
has everything he always dreamed of now but at what cost?
Does acclaim really mean much when so few of your own ideas are recognizable in the finished product?
What is fame if you no longer have the respect of the few people who actually cared about you?
In the final scene, we see C.W.
as he was in 2015, selling rotisserie chickens at a state fair in Anaheim.
This final moment is when Backstory!
reaches its emotional apex: a close-up on F. Murray Abrahams face as C.W.
smiles with astonishment, confusion, wonder, hope, all at once.
Maybe at a state fair in Anaheim, of all places, C.W.
could be glimpsing a new legacy.
Maybe everything before this was just backstory.
Finally, a substantial C.W.
story … although this one still utilized very little F. Murray Abraham.
Hes also credited as the writer on this episode.
Im fascinated by those weird glasses A.E.
wears, with the end pieces protruding near the bottom of the lenses instead of near the top.
But they look good, somehow.
Im always delighted to see more of Hennig, after enjoying her inTeen WolfandUnfriended.
Same goes for Cassidy, who I first saw inThe O.C.last year as sweet Zach.
But the actual award we see C.W.
win here is Best Debut Novel of 1973.
Throughout the episode, readers mispronounce Anaren and think C.W.s title indicates crying-tears when he really means rip-tears.
He finally decides to just change it when Asimov himself gets it wrong.
Is it implied that C.W.
was originally inspired to abbreviate his name because of A.E.?
If so, its a fitting ending that A.E.
starts going by Anne right around when C.W.
takes up the abbreviation, illustrating how far their trajectories have diverged.
