Readers and viewers come with a variety of tastes when it comes to tropes. Some people hate love triangles; some love them. And many readers live for the friends-to-lovers; others avoid them when they can.
But there’s one trope that I have never seen anyone talk highly about: It’s the surprise/secret child trope. You follow a TV series or a book (series), and suddenly there’s a child or a teenager that the main character (or a significant character that heavily impacts the main character) has had. Oops. Now the audience has to sit back and watch all the conflicts unfold, all because of a kid we never signed up for.
There is nothing wrong with writing about characters who are parents. But if we suddenly have to deal with a child that comes out of nowhere after 5 or more seasons (or books), we start to complain.
Here, I’m going to remind you how certain shows lost or lowered their appeal, and two shows that did it right and how.
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Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers about Buffy, Gilmore Girls, Lucifer, Ally McBeal, and Virgin River.
Let’s start with a good example.
Grandfathered starring John Stamos and Josh Peck
While it only aired for one season, this Stamos comedy was a sweet and fun one. A handsome, successful, and happily single restaurant owner gets a double shock when the adult son he didn’t know he had shows up with his granddaughter.
It’s a fun concept and a welcome twist on the good old trope. And the best part? We were ready for it as an audience.
Where the fandoms didn’t welcome the surprise child.
Buffy starring Sarah Michelle Gellar
Here we are, happy Buffy fans until season 5, knowing that our favorite vampire slayer is an only child… until there is suddenly a teenager and she’s Buffy’s sister. And she has been Buffy’s sister this whole time.
Technically, Buffy’s mother is not blindsided by the sudden existence of her child. Neither is Buffy. It’s only the audience.
Buffy is a supernatural show. We can accept a lot of things. But of all the things Buffy fans disagree about (“Angel or Spike?”, “Is Riley an undeserving man unworthy of Buffy or is he a decent guy who dealt with the crazy world the best he could? ”, etc.), there is one consensus. I never heard a Buffy fan happy about the arrival of Dawn.
Gilmore Girls starring Lauren Graham
I love this show. I resisted it for a long time because everyone seemed to love it, and I didn’t think it could be that good. I was wrong. It really is that good. Except season 6. I’d like to pretend Season 6, from episode 9, never happened. Because you guessed it, the main male character of the show, our beloved TV boyfriend Luke Danes got a 12-year-old daughter. And both a character and a romance for the ages were ruined.
But first, let’s give a short recap for those of you who never watched the show:
Lorelai is an independent, fast-talking, gorgeous single mother in her early 30s. She manages the hotel in the small town Sleepy Hollow and raises her book-smart and pretty teenager Rory. The two are more besties than mother and daughter. However, the picture-perfect life Lorelai built here will be disturbed when Lorelai has to ask her estranged parents for money so that she can send Rory to her dream school.
There are many storylines, character arcs, and relationships we don’t see eye to eye as GG fans. But we do agree that Luke Danes is awesome.
Luke owns and runs the diner in town, which is his dream job. He’s handsome, honest, dependable, and fun in his own way. Luke is so well-written and portrayed that he almost seems more real than other men we see on TV.
It takes a long time for Lorelai and Luke to get together. Like four entire seasons. Then we still have to wait a bit more for the first official date. But when the romance starts, we are thrilled. These two are made for each other.
And the proposal scene in season 5, as well Luke’s reaction… Well, I think I watched it like a hundred times. Cuteness overload.
And then during season 6, we get a child, and it all goes to hell from there. I have nothing against the child herself as a character. While I’d rather Luke never had a kid, she is okay. It’s the man/fiancé Luke turns into that I hate.
He neglects Lorelai so badly that she goes nuclear when she ends it. And I don’t blame her one bit. She hung on a lot longer than I’d have, and she only did because this was Luke.
Don’t worry, they fix things in season 7. But man, what an unnecessary bumpy ride we didn’t need.
The reason Luke gets no sympathy from us is he had no excuse. His daughter wasn’t problematic. She wasn’t terminally ill. She got along fine with Lorelai. Lorelai was also sweet and welcoming.
I’d like to pretend Luke was temporarily replaced by an alien or android. If GG had a fight club, the first rule would be we hate season 6 Luke.
Ally McBeal starring Calista Flockhart
Ally McBeal will always have a special place in my heart. I was supposed to be studying for college entrance exams, but had a bunch of health issues so I watched a lot of series. One of my favorites was this quirky comedy drama, and to this day it remains one of the quirkiest, most fun shows I’ve seen.
Ally is a young lawyer who accidentally ends up working at the same company as her college boyfriend Billy and his wife while Ally not being the quirkiest character… You just need to watch it. The show was David E. Kelley, who has a track record of creating addictive legal comedies and dramas.
But if I had to choose my least favorite Ally McBeal storyline, the award goes to season 5 (the show’s last season) where a 10-year-old shows up at Ally’s door and says she’s her daughter. Turns out, Ally joined a fertility study, they made a mistake, and when the girl’s father died, she came looking.
Now, in one episode, Ally decided she was meant to be a mother. One episode. What???
Though not at the same level as Gilmore Girls, I am still not sure a daughter was the be-all-end-all solution to all of Ally’s problems. It’s like almost impossible for a woman to find what makes her complete without a romantic partner or a kid. (Eye roll.)
Oh well. At least season 5 had James Marsden, Josh Hopkins, Regina Hall, Jon Bon Jovi, and Tim DeKay as guest stars.
Based on the DC comics Lucifer, Lucifer has one of the most fun concepts ever: The devil gets bored in hell, and moves to Los Angeles where he runs a piano bar and assists the LAPD with solving murders. Tom Ellis is never anything less than perfect as Lucifer. And while some storylines, seasons, and character developments are more interesting than others, he is always a joy to watch. The song and dance numbers on the show are also priceless.
What sets Lucifer apart from other in(famous) comic characters is that he never tries to hide his identity. He tells everyone he’s the devil and no one believes him, which adds more hilarity.
So while I recommend anyone give Lucifer a try, I am also not going to insist you watch season 6. In episode 2, we meet a petulant young adult from hell. With wings. In episode 3, we find out – along with Lucifer – that she is his daughter.
What????? Why?
The rest of the storyline is hazy because I never could give my full attention after this. As you know, this is not my first surprise child character.
I prefer Lucifer’s episodic stories over serial ones because serial stories usually get more convoluted as they try to up previous seasons.
A neutral example: Virgin River starring Alexandra Breckenridge
While I don’t watch shows eagerly waiting for a surprise child to turn up, Virgin River’s use of the trope didn’t bother me. For one thing, “the child” didn’t belong to Mel or Jack, our main characters.
At the end of season 3, a handsome college-aged guy named Denny walked into the town’s B&B and declared he was looking for his grandfather, the town doctor.
Since then, Denny’s been a regular on the show. While initially he has a secret, his presence didn’t hurt Doc’s relationships. It didn’t cause a personality change. Denny was a likable character on his own.
When should you consider using this trope?
I believe as a writer you should be able to write whatever you want. Because you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) spend months laboring over something you aren’t excited about. So while I am not a fan of this trope in most cases, only you can know if your story needs it.
You should also consider your target market. If you have asked your readers and they seem to love and expect this trope, then you have nothing to worry about.
Just like any trope, you can make a decision by asking yourself some vital questions.
- Does this trope work for my genre, particularly for this story?
- How does my audience feel about this trope?
- Does this reveal (of the surprise child) feel organic, or was I really just looking for an easy way to create conflict?
- Am I staying true to my characters when I write their reactions?
- Do I have a fresh, or a lesser-used take on this?
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There you have it. What about you? Which surprise child reveal annoys you to no end?
