I am an early riser and was down to breakfast almost as soon as it opened. As often happens at these events, there were other Switches there at that early hour so we joined up for breakfast and to share stories from yesterday and our travels.
Saturday at Switches Gathering 2 started early, with more pass withdrawals. Despite having booked a slot for yesterday, I hadn’t managed to get mine done. So, I arrived on the 7th floor early. I was the first one there. I got the welcome desk set up and then booked my place at the front of the (as yet non existent) queue to get my pass – and a large envelope of extras cards and merchandise. It took a long time. As all the extras are linked to the pass, I hope that next year it will be possible to just scan the pass. And hopefully, there will be no last-minute guest problems.
So we had the opening ceremony, where we finally got all the guests for the day on stage. Arlen and Olivia had been at the Friday evening events, but were not present on Saturday.
All comments are my recollection of what was said. Some recollections may differ.
Lyne told us how devastated Jess was not to be able to be with us. She had applied for a European visa and this had been granted, but her passport hadn’t arrived back and appeared to be lost in the Canada post system.
Taylor said that she had never expected this when she started the show, she didn’t expect the chance to get to know us [the fans] and even our pets. Lauren had brought her dog Sindy for the second year. So did a couple of the local Belgian fans. She thanked us for keeping the show alive when ‘the suits won’t’.
Ashley was clearly very excited to finally be here. She introduced herself with a dad joke. ‘How did the barber win the race?’ ‘He knew a short cut’. Cat told the audience to hold her [Ashley] to a higher standard. ‘Thanks Mom’ was Ashley’s response and Cat said ‘I raised you better than that’. They really do have a mother / daughter type relationship and they both played up to that through the weekend.
Amalia said she was tired but happy, claiming it was nothing to do with alcohol and she did sleep last night.
Cat expressed her awe of the translators who handled long complex translations brilliantly. She also wanted to give a shout out to those who were not ‘here’ but were still participating. She was honoured to be part of this, even thought they haven’t shot a frame in years. She still felt a part of it. She said that she used to talk about the show in the past tense as something that she had done, but she has to change that to the present tense as the show is still alive and the journey continues. She thanked people for sharing their stories with her last night.
And so we got to questions.
Question. Season 3 ended with everyone becoming a witch. What was their idea about how their character would have developed in season 4.
Taylor said there was an overarching vision. Jess would become a general.
Lyne pointed out that she is dead.
Cat ‘But I still have a job’.
Taylor wants to run away and have a duck farm.
Ashley felt that Abigail would be in the resistance. She wanted her to have a bad streak.
Lyne wanted Sarah to be retired and distilling her own whisky, but living near the duck farm
Cat wanted Petra to stand for election as the first witch president of the United States. Her platform would be about equal powers and using those powers for the benefit of all. [This became a recurring topic for the weekend. And I came home and literally got the T-shirt].
Amalia said that the people in the writers room had stayed in touch. She wanted a future with no more pain for Raelle. Scylla could take it. She wanted Scylla to do an internship with the new President Bellweather, while Raelle was on maternity leave.
Question. Eliot and the writers had a lot of material. So you know what was planned and didn’t make the cut?
Taylor said that by the end of season 2 they knew they were looking at a shorter story arc. They had been hoping for 5 (?) seasons. There was an overarching idea, with opposing ideas growing each season. Season 1, the opposition was in the military. Season 2 it was political opposition and classism. Season 3 it has spread worldly. So we saw the ideas, but they were condensed. Olivia’s character was introduced as a result of Taylor’s accident.
Lyne explained that this is the beauty of making TV – it changes. Initially Alder was called a ‘frictional character’, but they saw opportunities for growth. Eliot had the idea to make her more than the original.
Ashley told us that Abigail was supposed to have a baby in season 3. Taylor asked her if she was supposed to have 3 dads? Ashley told her ‘No, just Tony’. Then told Cat, ‘Mom, give me the 3 dudes’. It was a union of Earth and Sky thing.
After each section there was the French translation. At one point Lyne interrupted the translation to clarify a point. It was really a joy to hear her in fluent French.
After that panel, there was plenty going on, with lots of photographs in the morning as well as group meets. My next event was the group meet with Cat and Ashley. We were delighted to have them at Switches Gathering 2 and made a point of telling them so. They were both very happy to be there.
Cat told us that this was not her first convention. She had been in Once Upon a Time and she had done a con for that in London. She had really enjoyed the experience and meeting the fans, so she had been really happy to be invited to come here. Ashley spoke again about that fact that she had never been invited to a con before. Those who had not been at the cocktail party last night were hearing that for the first time.
I asked a question about the final scene in the helicopter. We knew that, especially in the final 2 episodes, material was filmed that didn’t make the final screen version. In the helicopter scene Abigail has no dialogue and Raelle only has two words. I asked if this was the way it had been filmed or if some had been cut out? Ashley said that was how it was written and that was what they filmed. I voiced my opinion that this was wrong, the leader of the Bellweather Unit should have had some dialogue in that scene.
So, I had to ask her opinion on the question about whether she thought that Scylla should have been on the helicopter. Ashley said she saw it as coming full circle, it started with the 3 of them and ended with the 3 of them. She didn’t actually say ‘no’ but that was clear from the idea of going full circle back to the start. For the record, Amalia was asked this at Witchbomb and she felt that Scylla should have been on the helicopter.
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