#brigid picks it bc it's wholesome. naive. she's so innocent and worried. and not about her but someone else she's so KIND

[whoslaurapalmer]

✨️✨️portable plot wall poster board✨️✨️

[whoslaurapalmer]

okay. so i have maltese falcon thoughts that have to go somewhere (and some fic planning/plot board thoughts at the end)

-this is not 1:1 at all by any means at all but brigid only appears in 11/20 chapters, there are 5/20 chapters where people say to sam 'wow, sucks about miles, huh?' and three of those five chapters are chapters with brigid. like i know this is basically nothing but i think it's interesting still in some way that most of the chapters where miles being dead is brought up are chapters where his killer appears

-especially bc goddd brigid spends just under half the book NOT BEING THERE...........almost like a ghost. flitting in and out of this story, especially in those first few chapters

-when the cops and the DA bring up sam's volatility it's not only that he's gotten away with shady things before. it's the implication that bc there's all these vague references to sam doing terrible things and the clear violence we see from him during the story and it being in third person objective that the audience has to consider, until the very end, that sam really could've killed miles or thursby

-i want to think sam knows from the beginning that brigid killed miles but i am also unsure. idk idk idk. i think when miles is killed in the beginning sam at least knows something went wrong. they knew thursby was violent (in some way) but there's also no reason to think thursby would've killed him, sam especially doesn't think that. and if only two other people were around at the time, thursby and brigid, then sam has two suspects. thursby is killed, and he has one suspect. and it's one he almost likes.

-i love how iva's role in the narrative is, regardless of sam not suspecting her, her being a suspect, until she reveals what she did that night and it turns sam into more of a suspect

-the scene where he asks brigid to strip is like, rightfully reprehensible, it's a horrible thing for sam to ask (while brigid has no qualms using her body, this time sam is making her show it so she has less control over it) but sam has spent the whole book doing horrible things, but i roll it around in my head a lot bc of their dialogue --

"I don't think you did," he said, "but I've got to know. Take your clothes off." [...] "I'm not ashamed to be naked before you, but--can't you see?--not like this. Can't you see that if you make me you'll--you'll be killing something?"

like they're very much not talking about her killing miles but i think. there are pieces of it in there. some version of that scene could have been more clearly about miles

-i've brought this up before but just, brigid going into sam's office and spinning this lie, it's the most wholesome lie she could've picked. that's why she picks it. it shows her as naive (but not too naive), innocent, the last person who could ever be doing any wrong herself, who just needs help so desperately, worried about her family but not HERSELF. bc brigid's actions are never about her. they're always, this is what she had to do, this is what was unavoidable, because of how other people acted. brigid can't be guilty, under any circumstances. she was just doing what she had to. she had to attack cairo because of course he attacked her first. she had to arrange for thursby to die because she was scared of him. she could never have threatened cairo. she could never be the one that was really a threat to thursby, because she could never use men and throw them away, why would you even say that about her?

(-and i have no idea if hammett intended that meaning behind her initial lie, when he wrote it. if he built it that way, if he knew then that she killed miles. but the fun thing about writing is that sometimes pieces happen and fit together whether you intended it or not!!!!! because it's in the story, it has to function to some end, and against the narrative as a whole, this is what brigid's story does)

-and it's by chance that she goes to his office. she asks for a good detective nearby and he's recommended to her. it could've been anyone. it could've been sam himself if miles didn't show up. brigid doesn't care who dies, as long as someone does, as long as it puts Something between her and thursby.

-but that's what i love about stories, too!!!!!! it was by chance. and it also wasn't. there is no other way this story could've worked out. there is no other option where she doesn't walk into sam spade's office in particular. it has to be sam's office, bc sam is the only one capable of putting her in jail, bc BOTH of them want the exact same thing -- complete, uncompromised control over themselves and their lives, and only one of them could've walked out of the ending

-and, backtracking, that's exactly what she's doing when she goes to sam's office, arranging for thursby to die. she needs him out of the way, so she needs him either dead or in jail for someone's murder. it is so fucking ruthless. she walks in there knowing someone is going to die.

-my favorite sam+effie moments --

"Uh-huh, the whole damned Perine family's wonderful," Spade said, "including you and the smudge of soot on your nose." "He's not a Perine, he's a Christy." She bent her head to look at her nose in her vanity-case-mirror. "I must've got that from the fire." She scrubbed the smudge with the corner of a handkerchief. "The Perine-Christy enthusiasm ignite Berkeley?" he asked. She made a face at him while patting her nose with a powdered pink disc. "There was a boat on fire when I came back. They were towing it out from the pier and the smoke blew all over our ferry-boat."

The Worst Man You Know Still Really Fucking Loves His Secretary. idk it's just such a silly little thing to say.........

"On the La Paloma?" "The La is a lousy combination," he said. "Stop it. Be nice, Sam. Tell me."

look. look. that's a lemony line if i ever heard one, i tell you what

He called another number--his office's--held the receiver to his ear for a little while without saying anything, and replaced it on its hook.

this line drives me crazy. it's right before the events start rolling towards the final meeting. i don't know if it's supposed to mean, he calls his office and there's no one, bc the next time he calls effie he calls her mother's house, or if, maybe, he calls just to hear effie's voice for a second, or to know there's one person in the whole world he can count on. and in twenty-four hours he's going to betray her trust in him irreparably. the only person in the whole world who trusts sam. and that's effie's real mistake, trusting sam. not seeing him for all that he is, despite him constantly saying he's no good. but he says it so jokingly. and he's so good at what he does. so what if he's a little crooked? he's not as crooked as he appears. ("don't be too sure i'm as crooked as i'm supposed to be.") but he is, just not the kind of crooked people expect

-oh you know what other line drives me crazy??????

A wry smile twisted the lawyer's mouth. He moved his shoulders wearily and said: "That's right--I'm selling you out. Why don't you get an honest lawyer--one you can trust?" "That fellow's dead."

hey. hey. what the fuck is that supposed to mean

-oh, speaking of that chapter, this line literally RIGHT AFTER --

"Getting touchy, huh? I haven't got enough to think about: now I've got to remember to be polite to you. What did I do? Forget to genuflect when I came in?"

-i have a post about this from while i was rereading but i don't think i ever actually posted it. sam spends the whole book, and this chapter, arguing with people and not apologizing to them and storming out, and then the very next thing he does, is go to his office, grab effie and argue with her, storm out, turn around and come back and apologize to her, the closest he gets to a real apology about himself, to the only person in the book he really truly cares to honestly apologize to

"Stay here till I'm back or you hear from me. For Christ's sake let's do something right." He went out, walked half the distance to the elevators, and retraced his steps. Effie Perine was sitting at her desk when he opened the door. He said: "You ought to know better than to pay any attention to me when I talk like that." "If you think I pay any attention to you you're crazy," she replied, "only"--she crossed her arms and felt her shoulders, and her mouth twitched uncertainly--"I won't be able to wear an evening gown for two weeks, you big brute." He grinned humbly, said, "I'm no damned good, darling," made an exaggerated bow, and went out again.

and no, he won't kneel to sid. but he'll bow to effie, even jokingly. just effie.

-oh i love this part with brigid and cairo

"Yes," she agreed and laughed. "Yes, unless he's the one you had in Constantinople." Sudden blood mottled Cairo's face. In a shrill enraged voice he cried: "The one you couldn't make?" Brigid O'Shaughnessy jumped up from her chair. Her lower lip was between her teeth. Her eyes were dark and wide in a tense white face. She took two quick steps towards Cairo. He started to rise. Her right hand went out and cracked sharply against his cheek, leaving the imprint of fingers there.

brigid: you're gay, cairo!! cairo: so gay you could not seduce me OR my partner!!!!!!!!! brigid: !!!! 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️

-i love that it reveals her propensity for violence. that shade of ruthlessness in her. the part of her that will kill, especially when some piece of her control, her mask, is broken off, how much she actually uses people is shown, bc one of the reasons she had to get rid of cairo was clearly bc she realized she couldn't seduce him either. oh oh this part too --

"If you don't--I dare say you'll give her some money in any event, but--if you don't give her as much as she thinks she ought to have, my word of advice is--be careful." Spade's eyes held a mocking light. He asked: "Bad?" "Bad," the fat man replied.

bad................

-it's like. god it hints just enough, enough to get you nervous. it's so well done like that. i'd like to do that more

-anyway. some fic thoughts -

-ramona's the character i'm stuck on right now bc her arc in this fic is not like effie's. i don't think kit and ramona have the relationship sam and effie have. i have a scene marked out for her where Something Pivotal happens between them but i just haven't figured out ramona's real role up until that point to even know what THAT conversation does.............

-i want kit to have spent the night bertrand dies with dewey. but that shakes up the second chapter/third chapter and i'm following them not strictly but. generally. so if i don't do that i'm like, well, what happens there, huh? iva shows up in the third chapter bc 1) we don't know what she did that night until chapter 12 2) we NEVER know what sam did that night 3) it's the first reveal that sam was with iva. iva coming into his office is that reveal.

-so, idk what to do with that one right now. also i have a great ending to the first chapter (like, don't misjudge me here, i have like literally .5% written of this, i am plotting. but i did do some of that opening scene a while ago, and some little lines here and there) with lemony narrating but it means that, no one knows kit was with dewey that night, bc lemony won't reveal it. i think kit has no shame about her relationships but i do think she's also a very private person. so it's also a struggle of, what do i know happened, what would lemony actually legitimately reveal about these people he loves? and then, WELL I MEAN HE'S GOTTA SAY SOMETHING, OTHERWISE, WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING HERE, HUH???????????

-i have some sketches of vague lines he gets to deliver about things he's hiding, bc lemony does that too, so that's, yknow. available.

-there's things lemony's honest about in his narration and things he is not. he is honest about saying he's going to kill someone. but he hides who hangfire is when he realizes it in ?3, in a truly heartbreaking scene where you know he's not telling you something pivotal but that he's realized something too horrible to truly acknowledge. so that's available, too.

-god that scene though. uggg

-i know sort of how the ending works out and i know it goes past the ending of the book but not quite, how, just yet. bc there is no parallel scene w ramona at the ending like there is with effie.

-somehow i did get jacques in there. potentially, idk if he'll stay. it goes back to, what exactly gets revealed. oh no wait, even if that one thing doesn't get revealed, jacques would still show up, i'm sure. but some dialogue he might say depends on, again, WHAT GETS REVEALED.

-i built a lot of backstory that might just. not make it in. but it's relevant for why they're all doing what they're doing in the au, so i had to know it, and it's something i Do want to show in the fic bc, it's the motivation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by god!!!!!!!!!!!! it's just, how do i reveal it in a way that's not like, extreme nutshelling exposition, yeah???????????? again, especially with lemony narrating like this

-and i didn't know if that reveal w jacques is too much..........

-anyway, he will still be there. good for you, jacques, you made it.

-and i can't let go of lemony narrating like this, by the way, especially bc he wound up being relevant to the story, too, in a way i'm really thrilled with so far. i am, excited about that.

-related: do i maybe make too big a deal about miles? maybe. but you can't tell me it's NOT a pivotal piece of sam's motivation. so, yknow, have i written fic of them fucking? maybe. (no they DIDN'T love each other but there is an UNDERSTANDING between them about What It Means To Be A Detective) that's between me and my libreoffice document. potentially. sex is so hard to write, i tell you what.