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of course you as the audience can't help emma even as she begs for you to, it's just a show, and it was fucking phenomenal so you are cheering. BUT so are the actors, who in the context of the story are the infected. and in the context of the story YOU are there too, cheering along with them. YOU are infected.

i think this is why inevitable and the ending as a whole make me sick to my stomach in a way my words will never adequately describe. we watch as the apotheosis strips paul and the others of their individuality, turning the world into one big musical number, and we are comfortable viewing it all from an audience perspective. but when emma cries to YOU, something shifts. the wall is broken. everything about the show is perfectly set up so that by the end you will be whooping and applauding at a character that so desperately needs your help.

it's set up so that you can initially feel you are in line with the heroes of the story, only for it to put you in the same position as the villain. because maybe in reality that isn't as uncommon of a circumstance as you might think. how often do we dismiss ourselves all the while viewing tragedy from a comfortable audience seat, treating it as a spectacle? i think this is the question the show wants you to walk away with.

from emma's perspective in the original TGWDLM production its a moderately sized crowd of us against her (still terrifying), but in the west end theater it's this gigantic surging ocean of people all laughing at her desperation.

mel haunted by the memory of who she used to be…