bobby saying “be yourself” to cliff and then kissing him and then the scene immediately following it beginning with “you have to understand the way i am, mein herr / a tiger is a tiger, not a lamb, mein herr” … sally (fully integrated into the cabaret life of germany) accepts herself while cliff still acts embarrassed about engaging in relationships with other men right up to the point when he starts his relationship with sally. it’s nearly impossible to read that as something natural, something not born out of his sensitivity and his inability to do just as bobby suggests – to be himself – because cliff spends the entire show making himself and sally out to be people that they are not no matter how much she protests. sally is exactly what cliff is not, someone who can be confident in who she is; this isn’t a lesson that cliff ever learns, and maybe he never learns it

I think a good way to describe depression is like SpongeBob when he lays on the floor and cries a puddle of tears, soaks it up, and cries it back out.