grapery.

Untitled (self portrait) – William Finn, 1975

Carol is both Correct and also acting from a place of privilege— the way this plays out is that she has no fucking idea how to talk to the other survivors. She doesn't fundamentally understand the appeal of the hive mind so she can't convincingly refute its claims. Her failure to empathize has removed her ability to be convincing. More than that, she is Bad At Being Manipulative. She can't say the words "it killed my wife". She can't do it. All of those people might have understood her better if she could, but she can't! She can't do it! And so she is doomed to present herself as a blind arrogant rich white woman, and that is all the others see her as, because she can't express the missing pieces. She can't explain herself.

Likewise, when she excludes the non English speakers, she doesn't understand how that LOOKS. she doesn't understand optics. She doesn't understand that she's standing in front of the American flag telling people from other countries that her way is the right way. It's no wonder they don't want to talk to her! Think about how she LOOKS! but I think we are supposed to understand that this isn't how she IS. it's just how they see her, because she has failed to make herself understood, because the hive is better at optics. She makes a shaky conspiracy home video, it makes an infographic presentation explaining the same thing but sounding extremely pleasant. She looks hysterical because the hive is so good at pretending everything is normal.

Tobias B-plot:

“March of the Falsettos” & “Falsettoland” at Hartford Stage, 1991. (Photo by Jennifer W. Lester) ID in alt text

After a quarter century, let me divulge. Grazie and set designer Ed Wittstein chose to completely open up the vast stage at Hartford to its walls, using no set pieces other than interchangeable cubes—and a bed. The lyrics were scrawled randomly on the entire floor (visible due to the theatre’s arena-like seating), and across the Broadway theatre-sized back wall. To be honest, in shades of black, grey, and white, they largely disappeared, allowing audience members to concentrate wholly on the handful of people singing intimate stories, with no distraction. But at the very end of the show, as Mendel intoned the final lines, a small square suddenly appeared through the drop that masked the rear wall. On it was simply the name “Whizzer.” Then the drop was revealed to be a scrim as the entire back wall dissolved into a ghostly section of the AIDS quilt. A lever was tripped, rather loudly, and the front drop wafted slowly to the floor, fully and clearly revealing the quilt for just a moment before the lights went out, and the show ended. While the quilt at Hartford Stage was not part of the real AIDS quilt, it replicated panels from that extraordinary expression of loss that once covered the National Mall in Washington. Because members of the company had been asked if they had family and friends who they had lost and wished to see included, audience members who worked in theatre quickly discovered they knew people on the Hartford quilt facsimile. While much of the audience was in tears, those who saw the names of those they loved and lost were often overcome.

and there was no mendel there, so they could have just stopped at "my friend", but instead they went right into "falsettoland (reprise)" like on the "falsettoland" cast recording and in 1992settos

and marvin sings "we're a teeny-tiny band"

and he and whizzer both sing "lovers live and die fortissimo"

and marvin sings "this is where we take a stand"

and they finish "welcome to falsettoland" together