Discussion WebAnimation / GenLock

Okay, I asked on the Is This An Example? forum thread if this was an example of Wham Episode. Things aren't Wham examples if (for example): the storyline has been building up to this, if there have been events that have been foreshadowed, or if the audience has been able to predict certain reveals in advance of them.

So, the suggestion is to work out what is relevant to the trope and rework the entry with that information. The entry in question:

• Wham Episode: Episode 6. To recap: The Chase we've been following since the end of episode 1 isn't the real Chase, but a backup made by Weller and uploaded to the original's body. The original Chase? Captured by the Union during a mission, along with his Holon, and turned into Nemesis. After this revelation, the Anvil is attacked by a Union Behemoth, which floods the base with nanobots. Colonel Marin, Migas, Jodie, Leon, and Miranda are likely all dead. Dr. Weller? Dead, having sacrificed himself to keep the Union from obtaining gen:LOCK technology. gen:LOCK One and Caliban? Alive, but with no base of operations or backup their situation isn't looking too good.

My issues with the current write-up are as follows:

• Fans predicted Nemesis was Chase a few episodes before Episode 6. The groundwork was laid out in those previous episodes. Nemesis's identity is therefore not Wham.
• Focussing on the dead/alive status of characters is WMG. The relevant trope is Uncertain Doom.
• The Union hitting the Anvil has been set up from the beginning:
  • Promotional trailers covered the fact the Union want Weller and his research. The final trailer even has the Union locate Weller and close in on his location.
  • Early episodes discuss the extreme risk of putting the Anvil, Weller and the GL programme in the same location given how much the Union wants all of it. Especially since the Polity expects to lose North America in six months and at least one Union spy managed to infiltrate both the ESU and the Anvil.
• The Wham factor seems to be the fact that the end-of-season climax the fandom was expecting with the Union and Nemesis occurred in Episode 6, leaving the fandom confused and puzzled as to what the season's true end-game and climax will be.

There's no denying that Episode 6 was shocking for the fandom, and the general reaction was that the suddenness with which the storyline escalated into the battle was unexpected in the sense that the episode felt like a season finale event rather than a mid-season climax. What we need to do is split off what isn't relevant to the trope and rewrite what is.

Suggested rewrite (feedback and/or alternative rewrites welcome):

• Wham Episode: The story builds up a Union threat to the ESU and the Anvil from the beginning of story and pits them against the Union mech, Nemesis, in what starts to become a very personal enemy for the gen:LOCK recruits. However, instead of the expected build-up towards the season finale, Episode 6 consists of a full-scale Union assault on the Anvil to obtain the gen:LOCK project, recruits and Dr. Weller. With the Anvil overrun and the Vanguard's fate unknown, the GL Team are forced to go on the run, isolated from everyone they know and ill-equipped to face the level of danger they're in. With the mid-season climax altering the way the plot line is unfolding, the audience's perception of the season's end-game and the climax that it's building towards is completely changed.