heaven ain’t close in a place like this

The first few minutes of The Musical Car are incredibly rich with exposition, characterization, and symbolism. These four shots in particular are extremely meaningful, explaining how Grace and Simon relate to the Apex and to denizens.

Both Grace and Simon elevate themselves and belittle other people, but Grace’s focus is on glorifying herself, and Simon’s is on putting other people in their place. Grace’s personal space is a big, stylish throne room arranged for visual effect. Simon’s personal space is a rigidly organized space where everything is small and under his control.

Grace chooses to head to the stage, into the spotlight, when she’s on a raid. Simon willingly heads backstage, up onto the catwalks that control the hidden infrastructure.

People. What we saw was not indoctrination. It was two kids, one with a desire to be wanted/looked up to, meeting each other, and she came up with some explanation as to why her number was bigger than Simon's that made her look cool. The actual cult aspect of the Apex, worshipping the Conductor, is a shared responsibility between Simon and Grace. Casting Grace as a mastermind from the start is completely contrary to the text of the show.

The whole point of Book 3: Simon and Grace were more or less in the same place at the start, and each had opportunities to change their views. Simon refused to take the chances: granted, that's partly a result of his trauma, but that's still his responsibility to accept he's wrong when proven wrong, which he refused to do.

So, context: Jesse and Future-Lake (still called MT at this point) have just met Grace and her gang of lost kids in a carnival, where Grace (by her own admission) was only there to cause trouble so she could get free food. Jesse and MT only just stepped out of that Train car. They know absolutely nothing about the crazy shit going on with the kids cult that Grace is leading. Neither do we.

On the gangway, Jesse pretends to like some candy Grace offers him, then he quickly admits it actually tastes bad.

Grace IMMEDIATELY gets a read on the guy, on the fact he's clearly trying to stop being a people-pleaser and start doing what he wants instead. And she uses that to start recruiting him the SECOND he's done talking.

The negociation tactic being used was nicknamed "the foot in the door" by the guy who did a lecture I went to back in 2010. The idea is to get the negotiation started with a very small thing when the other person wouldn't have listened to you otherwise, and as a result, a lot of people will see the negotiation through to the end instead of ignoring you. Basically, the idea is to get a tiny, insignificant thing so you can get way more later. The other person says "yes" to something once, and they're conditioned to say it again. Like, "Hey, do you have ten seconds to listen to me? Yes? Well, then you’ve got a minute, right?"

So yeah, what Grace suggests is small, logical, and seems reasonable.

She gives Jesse what's technically an order, but disguised as a suggestion, while making him believe that 1) if he does it, it's on his own initiative, and 2) if he does it, it's liberating and cool!

And Jesse has already admitted the candy wasn't good, so why not?

Since he obeyed, he needs positive reinforcement to encourage him to do it again, so Grace gives him a little praise: "Look at you! :) I like what I see! :)" He smiles in response! Of course he does. Someone liked it when he did something he wanted to do! He doesn't have to be a people-pleaser to be liked by people! Cause that was his own decision, right? right? That was "the foot in the door" in action: he learned a new concept (kicking to the wheels what he doesn't like), he said yes to it once, he's happy he did it, the reaction was positive, he's conditioned to do it again.

Of course, the first time we watch that scene, we don't yet know that the Apex does waaaay way worse than just tossing food to the wheels, but that's also how effective cult recruitment works; you say yes to things that seem totally acceptable at first, and it's only once you've been conditioned for long enough that the less acceptable things start happening, before moving on to the really unacceptable stuff after a while, once you’ve gone far enough And all of this under the guise of "it's your choice, you do what you want" and that it’s empowering and liberating, when in reality it's absolutely not

Both Amelia and One-One are almost always very physically and emotionally closed off and held apart from others. They hide in the engine, or inside of robot “suits”, or behind force fields, and they have very little in their lives besides their “jobs”.