# Setups, reveals & who knows what

> Track every promise to the audience.

Part of ScripTao ([all features](https://scriptao.com/features), group: Break & outline).

Log setups, payoffs, mysteries and secrets as threads with the episode they're planted and paid off in. For secrets, a knowledge matrix shows when the audience learns it and when each character does, which is where dramatic irony lives.

## What it does

- Threads are setups, open questions or reveals, each with the episode it is planted in and paid off in, and a status (open, paid off, dropped)
- Open threads are counted so nothing is forgotten at season's end
- A knowledge matrix: for each reveal, the episode the audience learns it and the episode each character does

## How to use it

1. Setups & reveals → add a thread
2. Choose “Reveal / secret” to put it in the knowledge matrix
3. Set who learns it in which episode

## Step by step

Screenshots of the app, on the sample series.

1. Setups & reveals tracks every thread you plant and whether it has paid off yet.

   ![Setups & reveals tracks every thread you plant and whether it has paid off yet.](https://scriptao.com/features/shots/setups-and-reveals/01-threads.jpg)

2. Add a thread; set its status as it pays off. Choose “Reveal / secret” to put it in the knowledge matrix.

   ![Add a thread; set its status as it pays off. Choose “Reveal / secret” to put it in the knowledge matrix.](https://scriptao.com/features/shots/setups-and-reveals/02-add.jpg)

3. The knowledge matrix: who learns each secret in which episode, so dramatic irony stays straight across the season.

   ![The knowledge matrix: who learns each secret in which episode, so dramatic irony stays straight across the season.](https://scriptao.com/features/shots/setups-and-reveals/03-matrix.jpg)

Try it: [see it in the sample series](https://scriptao.com/app/sample/threads). Start free, no sign-up: [open the app](https://scriptao.com/app) or [write a pilot now](https://scriptao.com/app/pilot). Your work stays in your browser; export it any time as Fountain or JSON.

## Related

- [Characters & relationships](https://scriptao.com/features/characters)
- [The story board](https://scriptao.com/features/story-board)