Story MapSEASON SPINE · 11 BEATS
All threadsBy episodeBy characterSecrets only
THE PREMISE
UNDERTOW S1
Nine years after the ferry Larkspur sank, salvage diver Mara Vane comes home to raise the wreck her brother supposedly drowned in — and the town's story doesn't hold.
WORLD · Slate Harbor, a small Pacific-Northwest port town that survives on the water that took fourteen of its people.
TONE · Slow-burning coastal noir; grief handled with procedure; secrets kept politely.
ENGINE · Every episode, a piece of the Larkspur's story is raised — a body, a manifest, a payout — and the town has to decide whether to let it surface. Someone with a reason to keep it down acts; someone with a reason to know pushes; the water gives back exactly one thing and takes something else. What surfaces changes who knows what, and who knows what changes who Mara can trust.
QUESTIONS
- Did Joel drown, and if not, who has known all along?
- What did the Larkspur carry, and who was paid to forget?
- Can Mara raise the wreck without raising the town against her?
E01 · RETURN
A memorial with no body
E01 · DECISION
Mara takes the salvage contract
E02 · DISCOVERY
Finds the rewritten manifest page
SETUP → pays off E07S16
E03 · ATTACHMENT
Lena joins the dive crew
E03 · REVEAL · CANON-0140
Teo saw Joel surface alive
E04 · DECISION
Mara hides the sealed hold
E04 · ESCALATION
Night divers strip the wreck
E04-05 · CROSSING
Falsifies the dive report
! DEBATE-005 OPEN
UNRESOLVED EDGE
Beat 7 does not causally produce Beat 8
Red Team: motivation gap
SECRET · DORMANT
Joel's unopened letter
E01S09 · NO PAYOFF ⚠
PRESSURE SOURCE
Insurer reopens the claim (planned E05)
PROPOSAL · NOT CANON
+−FIT
━ CAUSES╍ PAYS OFF╍ WEAK / MISSING