Falling action

Falling action is "the sequence of events that take place between a story's climax and resolution." In Freytag's pyramid it is the return or fall, the slope down from the climax toward the catastrophe or denouement, and Freytag gave it working rules: limit the number of characters, let the hero's fall span fewer scenes than the rising movement did, and, if the phase carries a moment of final suspense, foreshadow the catastrophe so it does not read as a non sequitur. During the fall the counter-party's hostility presses on the hero while the outcome stays in doubt.

The craft problem is proportion and consequence. The falling action is where the story collects what the rising action spent: alliances break, verdicts land, and the costs of the climax travel through the surviving characters. Cut it too short and the ending snaps off at the peak; stretch it and the story keeps running after its questions are answered. The denouement entry covers the pair this term completes: the fall itself against the untying afterward. In a serial, the falling chapters are also where cliffhangers quietly change job, holding attention without promising escalation.