- Jul 14, 2020
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- 3,053
I agree with you that it doesn't need to be a major portion of the story content, but ...
You don't usually resolve a MacGuffin. Or do anything meaningful with it. There's no need to be invested (though personally I am intrigued, and others may care more than you think.) But as a story catalyst, it must continue to feature because once it's gone the story loses its reason for being. The only way to eliminate it is to first set up other coherent reasons for the story to continue. Which I don't think has happened yet.
A good example of resolving a MacGuffin that caused problems is Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks was never about the murder of Laura Palmer. It was about what happened to and around the people during the resulting investigation. After the murder was solved (I believe due to studio pressure) the series lost focus, and needed to come up with reasons for Agent Cooper to stick around. A lot of good stuff followed, but it took a while to recover.
Up to the last version of Hillside, I don't think the stalker plot has taken up much story time. Perhaps my perception is off, but that's how it seems to me. Did it suddenly take up a lot in this update?
There's also the possibility this interpretation is incorrect and the mystery of the stalker matters to the story. In which case resolving it early isn't really appropriate. It would be unusual (though not unthinkable) for a mystery story to resolve the central mystery before the end. But I would expect the investigation to progress and so feature more, which is why I suspect it's a MacGuffin.
"The Owls are not what they seem!"