From what I can remember, that plotline is pretty much entirely cut? The only remnants currently are Nicky’s case worker mentioning his parents passed in mysterious circumstances to Lucy, Dick and Andy before Andy gets called away to the Great Northern, and the Doc briefly calling Nick, Andy and Lucy into a room (we don’t see the scene wrapping up the whole subplot). Both of those scenes I only kept in because there would be rough audio transitions otherwise. Other than that, the entire subplot is gone. Unless there’s something else I missed?
The scene with Andy taking Dick and Nicky out for Malteds is intact. It is the end part of the scene with Roger (the FBI agent) Ernie Niles, Hank and Norma at the Double RR 20-25 minutes in. The scene with them making the plans to get Malteds is also present.
Would cutting out the scene with the case worker be that difficult? I mean, you’d have to take some liberties with the soundtrack to make it work audiowise, but then I wouldn’t know if it’d actually work unless I personally sat down and tried it editing it myself.
I’m all for trimming down the runtime as much as possible, so could you clarify where exactly the information appears elsewhere?
Well, the manner of the stabbing is mentioned in the scene with Albert, Cooper and Truman, and it’s identicality to Caroline’s murder is also mentioned elsewhere (but whether it’s in that particular scene or not, I can’t remember.) Also, I feel that the following scene where they’re taking the body away also retreads some info (“If it was Earle, he didn’t miss a beat…” “No fibers…” “I found that car on the logging road, just like he said…”) but in a less direct “Cooper explaining things” way and more of a possible implied, unseen conversation way. But now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure if it’s mentioned outside of this scene if Windom orchestrates the power outage. It may not be feasible to cut it the scene, but that’s up to you to decide if it could and/or should be cut.