# Flashback Episode — Series Format

> Episode that takes place primarily or entirely in the past. Reveals backstory affecting present.

## Format basics

- Length: matches series
- Mostly or entirely past
- Reveals backstory
- Recontextualizes present
- Often emotional / character-focused

## Why flashback episodes

### Reveal hidden truth
- Why character behaves this way
- Origin story
- Past trauma that explains present

### Provide context
- New audience can catch up
- Refresh existing audience
- Cultural / historical setting

### Emotional payoff
- Audience invested in present
- Past moment hits harder

### Plot necessity
- Information audience needs
- Character motivation revealed

## Structure types

### Full flashback
Entire episode in past.

### Bookend
Present opens and closes; middle is past.

### Intercut
Past and present alternate throughout.

### Single character's past
One character's history examined.

### Multi-character past
Different characters' pasts in same time period.

## Famous flashback episodes

### Lost — "The Constant"
- Time-jumping romance episode
- Past + present intercut
- Emotional payoff massive

### Breaking Bad — "Negro y Azul"
- Walt's past briefly shown
- Heisenberg origin glimpse

### Game of Thrones — "The World of Weiss and Benioff"
- Various history flashbacks throughout series
- Single episode episodes rarer

### Better Call Saul
- Many flashbacks throughout series
- Slippin' Jimmy origins

## Structure

```
COLD OPEN (0-5 min)
- Hook in present (often)
- Or jump straight to past with date title

ACT 1 (5-15 min)
- Establish past time period
- Show younger character(s)
- Setup key event

ACT 2 (15-40 min)
- Past unfolds
- Character development revealed
- Decisions that shape present

ACT 3 (40-55 min)
- Pivotal past moment
- Character changed forever
- Connection to present

TAG (55-60 min)
- Return to present briefly
- Audience sees character with new context
- Emotional resonance
```

## Sample flashback episode

```
TITLE: "Karavan" Episode 9 — "The First Bag"
(Flashback episode — 1973)

LOGLINE: The story of how their father Arif Aliyev, then 23 years
old, started the coffee business that would define his children's
lives.

COLD OPEN (0-5 min):
- Present: NIGAR (38) opens an old box of her father's papers
- She finds a yellowed business plan, dated 1973
- She begins to read

CUT TO TITLE CARD: "Baku — 1973"

ACT 1 (5-20 min):
- 1973 Baku
- YOUNG ARIF (23), rough working-class background, works at the docks
- Sees a Soviet trade ship arrive with a new shipment
- Among the cargo: experimental coffee beans from Yemen
- Most workers ignore them
- Arif is curious

ACT 2 (20-40 min):
- Arif, fascinated, smuggles a small bag home
- Tries to brew them
- Ruins it the first time (no equipment)
- Visits the only cafe in Baku that brews real coffee
- The OLD MASTER (70) sees his interest
- Becomes apprentice
- Year passes
- Arif learns
- Develops his palate
- Identifies blends, origins, qualities
- Old Master dies
- Wills him the cafe equipment
- Arif sets up small operation in his apartment
- Begins selling Friday mornings
- Customers grow

ACT 3 (40-55 min):
- A CITY OFFICIAL arrives at his door
- "You are operating without permit."
- Threatens to shut him down
- Arif: "You like coffee?"
- Brews him a cup
- Official sips. Closes eyes.
- Long silence.
- Official: "What do you need?"
- The deal is made
- Arif gets his first warehouse
- Karavan Coffee begins

TAG (55-60 min):
- Cut back to PRESENT
- Nigar finishes reading the business plan
- She is crying
- Her father's first dream — the same business she now runs

CLOSE ON: a faded photograph in the box — young Arif at his first
warehouse, holding a single coffee bean.

(Score: emotional, period-appropriate music with modern emotional weight.)
```

## Key principles

### Show, don't recap
Don't just tell us backstory. Show us being there.

### Past must connect to present
Flashback exists because it ILLUMINATES the present.

### Emotional payoff
Past beat hits harder because we know who they become.

### Period accuracy
- Costume, set, language, music
- Specific to era
- Avoid anachronism

### Younger versions of characters
- Cast carefully (look-alike)
- Or different actor (and acknowledge)
- Or never show present version

## Common flashback mistakes

- Just exposition (no real story)
- Disconnected from present
- Inconsistent with established backstory
- Period inaccurate
- Too long for what it reveals
- New characters who never appear again
- Out-of-character past (doesn't match present)

## When to write flashback episode

- Audience needs context
- Character backstory important
- Theme parallels in past + present
- Production benefits (limited present scenes)
- Anniversary / origin episode
- Mid-season character episode
