I think that depends on what your definition of heavy is.
Plus, we gotta remember, Book One featured such lighthearted moments as:
-the Detective getting kidnapped
-the Detective almost dying of blood transfusion
-a mother losing her son in a undeniably gruesome fashion
-the Detective nearly dying in their RO’s arms
-Rebecca’s h e a r t b r e a k i n g reactions to a nearly dead MC
I think it’s simply that she wouldn’t, erm, dwell excessively on the mental effects of these things, but we must also remember that’s she’s a drama writer and what’s more dramatic than your RO living out their worst nightmare? Otherwise, why would she even have created such a horrible torture device if not to utilize it later in the story?
That’s something you learn in Fiction Writing 101, just look up Chekov’s Gun.
Yeah. My mom’s a writer who loves torment me with angst on the regular, so I know about Chekov’s Gun–if you mention it, there better be a good reason–but I can hope, right? Actually hoped that Garret wouldn’t really be dead, like how the real Dr. Murphy wasn’t, the fool that I am.
With the reveal of the Agency’s punishment methods on supernatural creatures, I speculate that at one point in the story, probably the aforementioned Book 5, the MC will conflict with the Agency, possibly because they want to use their blood as a weapon for the Agency.
Rebecca will oppose this, but the Agency will remove her from her position of power.
The MC may try to escape the Agency clutches with their Vampire RO, and the Agency will treat the vampire as a traitorous criminal. At one point, after hiding the MC, the Vampire RO will be captured and tortured using the gas to reveal the MC’s hiding spot. The vampire refused to reveal the information, but the MC will go to the Agency to rescue their RO. Cornered from all sides, both the MC and RO escape to the Echo World
Probably a long shot, but I feel like the supernatural gas chamber reveal is foreshadowing for future events, hence my speculation
