Behind the Scenes: Treasure Island Episode 4

Episode 4, A Gun in Hand, marks a turning point in our retelling of Treasure Island. Until now, Jim Hawkins has been caught in the machinery of grown-up schemes - pursuing women, dodging pirates, and wrestling with questions of loyalty. But in this episode, he takes his first uncertain steps into the wilds of the island itself. And as it turns out, the jungle has its own plans for him.

Into the Wild

In Stevenson’s novel, the island is a mysterious but fairly linear stage for the action. For our version, we wanted to push deeper into the psychological and sensory disorientation of arriving in a hostile, unfamiliar landscape. When Jim finally sets foot on the island, he isn’t greeted with clear skies and swashbuckling adventures - he’s met by heat, bugs, shadows, hunger, and a creeping sense of isolation.

The turning point for Jim comes in his encounter with Ben Gunn, a character who is less of a plot device here and more a cautionary tale. Our Ben Gunn has been left to rot on the island for years, and it shows. The solitude has gnawed away at his mind. We leaned into the idea of a man who’s been half-digested by the island, someone who's clinging to his last threads of humanity. Gunn becomes a mirror for Jim: if you spend too long in this place, this is what you become. But it wasn't just about what the island would do to you. Gunn is the proof of what happens to you if you spend too much time in the company of Silver. We knew Gunn would be the most significant influence on Jim during his time on the island for that very reason and so he was written very carefully with that in mind.

Rethinking the Escape

Meanwhile, back on the Hispaniola, we took some liberties with the source material. In Stevenson’s version, the prisoners’ escape is relatively straightforward - clever, yes, but not especially dramatic. We saw an opportunity to deepen the tension and draw stronger narrative parallels between the ship and the island.

Silver’s situation is deteriorating. His men are falling victim to jungle fever, paranoia, and Gunn’s traps. Supplies are low, morale is lower, and they're short on medical help. Livesey’s value skyrockets, and suddenly, Trelawney and the others become less like prisoners and more like bargaining chips—or resources to be repurposed.

That shift gave us a richer, more morally ambiguous escape sequence. Our heroes aren’t rescued; they’re wanted. Their freedom isn’t earned through heroism but through the failures and desperation of others. It’s a subtle change, but one that gives the episode its edge.

Behind the Scenes: Scoring the Island

Behind the scenes, A Gun in Hand also marked a major tonal shift in the way we approached music and sound design. Up until this point, the audio world of Treasure Island had been dominated by the sounds of the sea - creaking ships, crashing waves, gulls, sails flapping in the wind. The score reflected that too: militaristic percussion, brass stabs, and orchestral swells that evoked life aboard a vessel on the edge of mutiny.

But the island demanded something different.

We pivoted toward a more organic, atmospheric soundscape. The score moved away from its military roots and toward something more primal: flutes, wooden percussion, breathy wind instruments, and ambient textures that reflected the vast, indifferent presence of nature. We wanted the music to breathe and to feel as alive, unpredictable, and eerie as the jungle itself.

Designing the Jungle

Sound design posed one of our biggest challenges. A jungle can be lush and vibrant - or oppressive and claustrophobic. But more than that, it needed to be varied. If every jungle scene had the same ambient loop of birdsong and rustling leaves, listeners would feel stuck in one endless location. Instead, we broke the island into zones: coastal edges with sharp seabird calls and blustering wind; dense interior forests filled with echoing howler monkeys and deadened underbrush; swampy, mosquito-ridden lowlands where the air hangs thick and still.

Each soundscape was crafted with layers—some natural, some distorted—so the audience could instinctively feel when Jim was in danger or when he’d stumbled onto something unknown. Even the silence was deliberate. At times, the absence of jungle life is the most unsettling clue that something, or someone, is nearby.

The Bigger Picture

In many ways, Episode 4 represents the moment when the island itself becomes a character. It’s not just a setting; it’s a force that warps those who live within it, whether it’s Ben Gunn, Silver’s crew, or Jim himself. The episode allowed us to explore themes of isolation, madness, and survival in a more textured, immersive way than we’d done before.

It also pushed us technically, forcing our team to rethink how we structure scenes, build tension, and even where we put the mic - so to speak. Every branch snap, breath, or birdcall needed to be placed with care to create a believable, ever-shifting world.

For us, A Gun in Hand was more than a mid-season chapter. It was a leap. A tonal shift. A chance to let the story breathe in a new environment and let the characters get a little lost in it.

And for Jim Hawkins, it was the beginning of something darker.

Check back soon for our next Behind the Scenes where we explore Episode 5, The Devil's Apprentice.

The OutWrd Team.

Listen to Treasure Island on OutWrd+ and get access to other projects like Broderick: Murder on the Amalfi Coast, At the Crossing and more.