Spencer Maguire (Steve Pemberton) is a writer on a very famous, beloved fantasy show, The Ninth Circle, that has just had a badly maligned last series. But, after seeing Spencer punch a fan, his biggest fan Simon (Reece Shearsmith) doesn't think that has to be the end of the story.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Subverted. Simon makes Spencer believe that Gavin died a Death by Falling Over after Spencer pushed him during a heated argument. The story falls apart when Gavin shows up at Spencer's doorstep.
- All Just a Dream: In order to continue the series, Simon plans to explain away the original ending as a dream by one of the main characters.
- Ascended Fanfic: In-universe. Gavin's notebooks lay out the continued The Ninth Circle that Spencer ultimately uses, crossing over with Ascended Fanon. (It's not made clear how closely they overlap.)
- Ascended Fanon: In-universe. Simon doesn't seem to do much actual writing, but most of the ideas for the next series come from him.
- Audience-Alienating Ending: In-universe. The Ninth Circle's final season 7 wasn't well received by the fanbase which caused fanboy Simon to take things into his own hands and try to pressure the creator into adding a Postscript Season to undo the events of the original ending.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Simon's re-enactment of a scene from the show during their podcast. Played with by his later performance when he kills Gavin. It's hammy but is so aligned with Simon's behavior up until then that Spencer believes it.
- Blackmail: Simon uses video footage of Spencer's alleged manslaughter of a fan to force him to continue his series. It doesn't end well for Simon.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Gavin got punched by Spencer, and he and Simon faked his death. Then Simon pretended to stab Gavin with an award. Then, after Gavin came back from the dead, Spencer killed him for real (offscreen).
- Chekhov's Gun: Simon picks up one of Spencer's many trophies early on, commenting on how easily it could be used as a murder weapon. He later uses it to pretend to stab Gavin as part of his "audition", while Spencer finally uses the same trophy to beat Gavin to death after killing Simon.
- Creator's Apathy: In-Universe. Part of the reason behind Season 7's lacklustre reception was Spencer's desperation to just finish the series so he could move on to other things. He quickly grows tired of both Simon and Gavin's questions about the series, often admitting that he doesn't care or even remember the moments and details they're referring to.
- Death Faked for You: The first time, anyway. While the second requires Spencer to find Gavin's "body", Simon does most of the heavy lifting in convincing Spencer that he killed him the first time.
- Death Is Cheap: Gavin's script brings one of the characters back who originally died in The Ninth Circle's season 6 finale.
- Disposing of a Body: It's suggested during Spencer's call to his agent at the end that he dumped Simon and Gavin's bodies in the Thames... another idea he stole from them, as it's what Simon initially says he did with Gavin's body.
- Fan Dumb: Played with in-universe before being subverted. Spencer is annoyed by all of Simon's technical and detailed questions about The Ninth Circle which he sees as being hung up on meaningless details. However, when Spencer actually adopts Simon's fan logic, the results are extremely highly praised and seen as being right.
- Fix Fic: Simon blackmails Spencer into rewriting the events of the last season to suit his own liking.
- Foil: Gavin and Simon represent the two different sides of the stereotypical fan base. Gavin passionately loves the series and dislikes its ending, but he means no harm and still respects and admires Spencer despite his misgivings, only hoping that Spencer would care to read his alternative ideas. In contrast, Simon is portrayed as deranged and entitled, being unhealthily obsessed with the show and Spencer to the point where he resorts to coercion and blackmail to force his way into Spencer's life.
- Footprints of Muck: Spencer notices that he left bloody footprints behind when he entered his apartment.
- Forced Creativity: Loony Fan Simon forces Spencer Maguire, the creator of the hit fantasy show The Ninth Circle, to write and produce a
Postscript Season based on Simon's ideas that undo most of the controversial original conclusion (the entire thing being an obvious reference to the contested finale of Game of Thrones). - Foreshadowing: When he seemingly kills Gavin, Simon's language is suddenly much hammier, similar to the earlier scene where he read a scene from the show on his podcast. This blatantly hints that he's just in-character.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Simon starts off as quite a meek and awkward individual but gradually reveals himself to be a cunning Manipulative Bastard whilst integrating himself into Spencer's life.
- Gone Horribly Right: As part of his 'audition' for the part of the Baron, Simon pretends to murder Gavin right in front of Spencer and then use the incident to reinstate the blackmail against him. Spencer is completely convinced by this - to the point that he now has a motive to murder Simon to cover his tracks.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Spencer (and the audience) see Simon murdering Gavin only from behind a glass brick wall. Turns out there was a reason for that.
- Hard-Work Montage: There's a montage of Simon and Spencer working on the new season's script.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Invoked. Simon hugs Spencer on his bed after apparently killing Gavin. Gavin reveals that Spencer's "seduction" was part of the audition, for a scene in their episode that was going to revolve around a man seducing a woman.
- Ho Yay: In-universe. Apparently, The Ninth Circle had a Suck Out the Poison scene involving two male friends which fans interpreted as Ship Tease, even though Spencer had intended for both characters to be heterosexual.
- I Made Copies: Spencer feels secure after deleting the compromising video from Simon's phone but later Simon reveals that the clip has already been uploaded to the cloud.
- In Medias Res: We enter the story after the incident with Spencer and Gavin.
- Ironic Echo: Spencer scoffs when Simon suggests he make this new season "for the fans", claiming that his own creative vision is more important than appeasing the demands of his viewers. After killing both Simon and Gavin, and using their ideas to make a full series revival, Spencer is just as popular and successful as ever, and now plans to use Gavin's notebook to write out the events of the renewed seasons. The episode ends as Loretta asks him for a statement over the phone.Spencer: Tell them that I'm doing it... for the fans.
- Is That a Threat?: Spencer asks Simon this after denying him a podcast session to which the latter replies that he could upload the video footage to his website instead.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While their way of going about it was highly unethical, everybody except Spencer actually agrees with Simon and Gavin that the final season was a terrible ending, to the point where even those involved with making the show hated it, according to Loretta. After he kills Simon and Gavin, Spencer's revival of the show using their ideas is significantly better received.
- Karma Houdini: Spencer appears to get away with everything.
- Loony Fan: Simon. And Gavin, the "murder victim", who was willing to go to all the trouble of fake-dying so that Spencer would read his ideas, but Simon gets more of the loony emphasis due to being onscreen more.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Inside No. 9 writer and co-creator Steve Pemberton plays showrunner and writer Spencer.
- One-Hit Kill: Simon pretends that Spencer did this to Gavin.
- Promoted Fanboy: In-universe. Simon wants to get co-writer credits for the new season. Later he even strives for getting an acting part.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Simon and Gavin get exactly what they wanted - a rewritten ending to The Ninth Circle with Gavin's notebook and Simon's ideas - but both die and neither gets any credit.
- Romancing the Widow: In-universe. One of Simon's ideas for the revival is a storyline where an evil Baron seduces the wife of one of his victims. He suggests playing the role of the Baron himself, and later pretends to murder Gavin in front of Spencer as his "audition" for it.
- Rule of Three: Gavin "dies" three times in all, the last of which is real.
- Shout-Out: The agent mentions how Dallas once pulled an All Just a Dream season ending.
- Smash to Black: The scene cuts to black when Spencer kills Gavin with the trophy.
- Stalker with a Crush: Simon for Spencer, possibly. Gavin mentions that Simon owns photoshopped pictures of Spencer without clothes on. He also "seduces" Spencer later on, though this is just an "audition" for a part on the show.
- Stereo Fibbing: When the agent asks if the new content will be replacing the season seven finale, Spencer replies "no" while Simon says "yes".
- Stress Vomit: Spencer runs to the toilet to vomit after learning that Gavin died thanks to him.
- Take That!: Both obsessive fandoms and arrogant creators have potshots taken at them.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gavin gives one to Spencer, reminding him not to be so dismissive of the fans. After all, they're the ones who made him famous.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Spencer sports an incredibly haunted expression when he believes Gavin has been killed by Simon for real.
- Trophy Violence: Simon kills Gavin with Spencer's trophy. Subverted when it turns out it was a staged murder, then played straight when Spencer actually does kill him with it.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story:
- On the backlash after Game of Thrones' controversial Season 8 ending, with hints in dialogue that both are high fantasy shows with a lot of characters and magical creatures.
- There is also the infamous online petition
, signed by over 100,000 fans, demanding to remove the eighth instalment of the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi, from canon and re-make it "properly".
- Vorpal Pillow: How Spencer finally kills Simon.
- Would Rather Suffer: The agent wonders about Spencer pitching her the idea of continuing the series since he previously said he would rather cut off his dick and sit in vinegar than go back to Ninth Circle.
