Before the Fall

An artist and former champion swimmer, Scott finds himself pushed to the limits of endurance after accepting an invitation—on a whim—to fly to New York on a private jet. Burroughs lives largely off-the-grid—he doesn’t have a cell phone or use the internet—and wants simplicity in his life and the freedom to create his art.

Scott is emblematic of Fate’s impulsive and erratic nature. One simple choice, a choice he almost didn’t make, changes his life forever and binds him, a single, childless man, to a young boy, making him, by default, JJ’s most trusted guardian. Scott’s survival is also a testament to the power of redemption. As someone who has struggled with alcohol misuse and is currently sober, Scott is keenly aware of the pitfalls that await him when he engages with the world too eagerly. Scott paints disaster scenes, and having endured two major traumas in his life (his sister’s death and nearly his own), his work can be viewed as a way to process that trauma. He spends most of the narrative grappling with his grief and seeking ways to communicate it to the outside world. He finally reaches a milestone in that process when confronted by Cunningham and his libelous accusations.