Entry

Entry is the fifth episode of Chapters.' second season, subtitled Atrocity Exhibitions. Written and directed by Mike Barkhoff, it stars himself as a journalist who tries to cope with the mourning of his dead family when faced with writing an article covering similar circumstances.

Opening Poetry
"to grief fully is to extinguish yourself from your personal full,"

Plot
A journalist is tasked with writing an article on a recent bombing, but encounters writer's block. To try and fight it, he drinks coffee and takes a fresh look at himself in the mirror. Regardless of his efforts, nothing works. To try and plan out where the story is going, he goes from laptop to notebook, but finds a message in his notebook written to him from the fallen family member. They begin to talk through the notebook, and the family member tells him to mourn so he can continue writing, his dream. The journalist ends up in tears because it was a message he needed to hear.

Production
Entry was the first episode of Season 2 to be rewritten due to COVID-19, and the second filmed, after Nightmarish. Barkhoff was going to originally film something with Dylan Van Hauen here but settled on this, which was "similar in themes" to their idea.

Release
This episode was initially set for a release in May, with "Nightmarish" following in June, but due to "Windfall"'s speedy execution to finalization, Barkhoff delayed both episodes back a month in a timely manner.

Themes
The episodes addiction is coffee. It is a very subtle layer of the entire episode. Barkhoff admitted that he forgot about what he was doing with themes until last minute and added it in.

The overall themes of this episode are propaganda from news sources, mourning, one sided examination of a general problem, and how journalism can effect a person.

Continuity
- This episode features similar scenery from Doppelgang. Both capitalize a scene with mirrors and a scene of coffee being prepared.

Reception
The episode received praise from the online audience, calling it one of the most emotional films of Barkhoff's, and declaring it a welcoming entry in the second season of Chapters. Many have noted the absence of an actual "drug" in this episode, instead being coffee at the beginning, which was appreciated due to the story's content by many.