If you've been watching a certain US TV show, you'll remember a recent episode that made the audience hold its collective breath. That was because a door opened and…

A character whose funeral everybody had attended turned out not to be dead. Wow. Fun moment. It's called The Reveal.

Reveals are great fun, and – if done right – provide immense satisfaction to reader/viewer and writer alike. There are a couple of do's and don'ts, though.

First, a great example from Public Domain. Reveals have been around for a long time. Watch this one:

"You are very near your end, Holmes. I will sit here and I will watch you die."


Holmes's voice had sunk to an almost inaudible whisper.


"What is that?" said Smith. "Turn up the gas? Ah, the shadows begin to fall, do they? Yes, I will turn it up, that I may see you the better." He crossed the room and the light suddenly brightened. "Is there any other little service that I can do you, my friend?"


"A match and a cigarette."


I nearly called out in my joy and my amazement. He was speaking in his natural voice – a little weak, perhaps, but the very voice I knew. There was a long pause, and I felt that Culverton Smith was standing in silent amazement looking down at his companion.


"What's the meaning of this?" I heard him say at last in a dry, rasping tone.   –   'The Adventure of the Dying Detective' by Arthur Conan Doyle.

How very satisfying to find out that Holmes is not dead (again). How doubly satisfying to see the evil poisoner hoist by his own petard (whatever that is). And how we chuckle at poor Watson's astonishment (and joy).

Pre-modern or post-modern, this trick is so much fun, we can't resist. It's a denouement, dramatic moment, and frame-of-reference shift all in one. We feel clever, the characters look clever, and the audience is somehow absurdly proud of itself.

So how do we pull it off? There are a few fairly easy steps to follow. Be sure you keep to the recipe.

1. Set up the deception. Come up with a reason for the hero to pretend to be a) hopelessly confused, b) dead, or c) gone over to the Dark Side.
2. Keep the hero's best friend in the dark. Let him/her agonise quite a bit.
3. If possible, let the bad guy gloat a fair amount. This makes it more amusing when he has to eat crow.
4. Most importantly, keep the audience in the dark. Go on as long as you have to convince them that the character is a) a fool, b) dead, dead, dead (or dying), or c) really, really evil.
5. Make sure the audience has followed the story so far. Don't make it too complicated. Eschew surplus age, as Twain said.
6. At the right moment, pull away the curtain. Make absolutely sure that the sidekicks AND the audience learn the truth at precisely the same moment. If the villain learns it at the same time, give yourself plus points.

That's really all there is to it. Simple, eh? Just one thing to look out for. Do NOT try to pull off The Reveal before you've made sure the audience can follow that last step. If any explanation at all is needed, beyond 'how in heaven's name did you pull it off, Holmes?', then you aren't ready for The Reveal. Go back and insert clues in the backlog. Trust me on this. If they don't go, 'Aha! I knew it all along! (even though they didn't), you're not doing it right.

How much fun is The Reveal? Catch these quotes from TV reviewers:

Well, that was a relief.

Freddie being alive, I mean. And Alana beginning to wise up…   Noel Kirkpatrick, TV.com.

I knew, as an informed viewer of television …that Freddie Lounds was not dead. I laid it out all out for you guys…. Yet, when Freddie Lounds showed up and asked Alana how her funeral was (she’s even smug in witness protection), I experienced a shock. Not relief, but genuine shock.   – Molly Eichel, AV Club.

…Which is to say, he is indeed luring Hannibal in! Yes, it wasn’t shocking in and of itself that Freddie was alive, but it was incredibly cool how it was revealed.   – Eric Goldman, IGN.com.

See? They love reveals. And they like to be fooled. Just play fair. And make sure the reader or viewer is having just as much fun as you are. That's the nub of the device. There's a kind of childish glee experienced in The Reveal that is like what you see in a baby's face when you play 'peekaboo'. With a good Reveal, you feel that every time you revisit a well-crafted story.

So be glad, Freddie's not dead. And Will Graham is a clever, clever detective. So is Sherlock Holmes. Somebody get him a match and a cigarette, will you?

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Dmitri Gheorgheni

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