Multifamdom

A beautiful man glaring at him? He’ll start trying to buy him a plane

like we see ruth, max and frank amongst them and we see them touch paul with movements that we would associate with them

max smacks his butt ('we're all giving the buttslaps' - in 'go go nighthawks [nerdy prudes must die])

ruth pinches his nipples ( 'we're gonna cut off his nips' - bully the bully & 'i just cut off his nips' - bury the bully)

and frank tickles his belly which is the whole thing with wiggly in black friday

This time I feel like we see more visceral emotions that feel genuine and heartbreaking instead of uncanny and manipulative from the possessed characters, and overall it gave me the impression that instead of straight up replacing the original person’s consciousness with its own, Pokey’s infection takes control of their “want”, causing a *death of self* so to speak, an existence where they can only somewhat remember what they truly want/care about when Pokey deems it necessary for *the show*, and they snap back to thinking they want what Pokey wants the next moment. (Ultra controlling theater kid vibes, which I personally think are fitting for Pokey.)

For example, this time in the brilliant new choreography and Mariah’s very different and TRULY heart wrenching performance, I think we see Pokey allowing Alice to remember herself a little in the first verse (but only her rage) and a little more in the second (the deeper feelings she masks with anger - her depression of feeling abandoned by Bill) where she loses all aggression and doesn’t even try to infect Bill when held by him, before Pokey takes away that bit of lucidity towards the end and Alice snaps back to being ruthless and robotic.

Jeff also plays that moment of Sam recognizing Charlotte and calling her name differently - the real Sam is confused and freaked out by his hand forcing the sunglasses back onto his face and reaching for the gun, for a moment.

And of course, Jon’s extremely fascinating choice of having *the real Paul* sing “I’ve never been happy… wouldn’t that be nice? Is this the secret - singing and dancing through life?” Instead of having him constantly fight a “false musical Paul”, the infection this time as slowly takes control of him by manipulating him into questioning if what he wants actually *aligns* with what the infection (aka Pokey) wants. Personally I think on top of Jon’s amazing vocal growth, *Let It Out* hits SO much harder this time because of how it’s played.

Like this is infinitely more horrific than any actual interpretation of a massive beast, no matter how scary the design

Just having the design of the beast be made from the set is genius and leaves the actual look of it in the minds of the viewer

It also helps Wiggly and the rest of the Lords in Black because their only designs are this for wiggly, the toys they’ve made, and the human designs from Nerdy Prudes Must Die. I’m fucking obsessed with this design

Cuz in the first version, we have Hot Chocolate Boy, who we later learn is Peter Spankoffski, dancing around Downtown Hatchetfield. Later on, Ted gives his "alive or dead" speech and we can kinda presume that he saw his little bro dancing around Downtown and that's how he learned Peter was taken.

In this version, we see Ruth and Max dancing around Downtown. We can presume that Ruth and Max go to school and turn the nerdy prudes and jocks (respectively).

In this version, Ted likely has mounting anxiety that grows and grows and grows until it boils to a head after Bill gets his call and he never does.

Bill, whose daughter doesnt even *go* to Hatchetfield High, gets a call telling him that the school is overrun and asking him to come rescue her.

Bill gets a phone call. Ted gets nothing but a pit in his stomach that goes empty and hollow when his phone never rings.

Bill has friends who will go on a suicide mission to save his daughter who's as good as dead, but Ted can't even get comfort from the one person who usually holds him in the dark cold night, cuz she's too busy worrying over her dead husband, and then she dies too.

Ted gets nothing, except the eventual peace of being reunited with his brother in death and in the hivemind.

for the most part reactions are similar, laughing at jokes, cheering at characters. y’know. normal stuff.

at the end, when paul comes back out, after emma had been told he’s dead

in the 2018 proshot, you can hear the audience get excited, people loudly gasping.

in the new version? they already know.

I’m so used to hearing a reaction at that part, i didnt even realise i was waiting for it. and it doesnt come.

it’s hauntingly silent.