1878

1878
We’ve got a way we got away and survived
Stunned by the shock and fearing what’s behind

Everything you thought you’d live and die for
Every reason leading you to hear all of the sounds
That trickle past your introspective ear
An attempt to discover what’s behind

Branches twisting reaching for the sky
Hands extending reaching for the…

Fell in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Loss of control
(For the knife, for the knife)
I’m in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Bleed myself dry
(Save my life, save my life)

The river
The lake…

Fell in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Loss of control
(For the knife, for the knife)
Hands conflicting clearly point their way
Stunned by the sign and fearing what it says

Everything you thought you’d live and die for
Every reason leading you to hear all of the sounds
That trickle past your introspective ear
An attempt to discover what’s…

Fell in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Loss of control
(For the knife, for the knife)
I’m in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Bleed myself dry
(Save my life, save my life)

The river
The lake…

Fell in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Loss of control
(For the knife, for the knife)
I’m in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Bleed myself dry
(Save my life, save my life)
The river
The lake…

Fell in another hole
(For the knife, for the knife)
Loss of control
(For the knife, for the knife)

🌲🌲🌲

What Happens?
Hunter, having discovered there are things Ms Terri isn’t telling him, considers leaving the Lake up the River to find answers. He goes to the bounds of the Lake, but ultimately turns back, intimidated by vastness of the world outside.

What’s in a Name?
The time period of the story is now established — the late 1800s. 1878 specifically is the year the Dime was founded, so these events with Hunter and Ms Terri will be taking place some years after that. Given that act II is set in the mid-1910s, and Hunter is in his late teens then, act I should be set in the late 1890s or early 1900s.

AKA, ‘Hunter Tries To Figure Out Everything About The Dime (The Source Of These Troubles), Without Knowing Anything About The Dime (Including That It Exists)’.

Whose Viewpoint?
We’re in Hunter’s head now! First of many times that’ll be true. He’s finally old enough to be having some independent thoughts and opinions about things, hence why we’re able to hear his narration, though he’s still a child.

🌲🌲🌲

>We’ve got a way we got away and survived
So! To begin, Hunter’s figured out some things about where he came from. Whether he’s put clues together on his own, or whether Ms Terri let something slip (feels more likely this, as the intonation feels like someone repeating information told to them), Hunter now knows that he and Ms Terri relocated from elsewhere to escape from some kind of troubled situation. (He might specifically know the ‘elsewhere’ is the city, as he beelines to it on the Delphi Express, but I’m not certain).

>Stunned by the shock and fearing what’s behind
Of course, this information is a shocking revelation to Hunter. Up until now he’d have no reason to think he was born anywhere except the lake, and the idea that there’s some kind of darkness to his and his mother’s life, and what exactly it could be, scares him.

>Everything you thought you’d live and die for
Now here’s a tricky line that gets reprised a bit. Not diving into any particularly involved rumination, my basic kneejerk thought is ‘Hunter does things for his mother’, that is, Hunter loves his mother and will do whatever he can to support her and make her happy. Though he may have figured that (or not had to consider that) the things he does for her — hunt, grow, be happy, and play — are already enough, it seems that’s not quite true. He may need to make a more concerned effort, and go out of his comfort zone, if he’s to help his mother with the darkness she faces.

It might also be like, ‘you can’t know the purpose to anything you do if you don’t understand yourself’, and Hunter is realising that maybe, he doesn’t know himself.

>Every reason leading you to hear all of the sounds / That trickle past your introspective ear / An attempt to discover what’s behind
Hunter is paying attention to the subtle cues Ms Terri unconsciously gives that things are not entirely right — maybe a sigh, a stifled groan, any offhand allusions to foreign places. Though he’s scared of the darkness and secrets, he’s also curious, and eager to know what exactly it is that’s troubling his mother, so that he might fix it, and for clues to his own identity.

>Branches twisting reaching for the sky / Hands extending reaching for the…
Hunter stands before the Tree that marks the northern bound of the lake, gazing up at its sprawling branches. Going past this tree will bring him towards the city, in the direction Ms Terri goes every time she leaves, but she’s forbidden Hunter from crossing this boundary. The great size of the tree, too, is so awesome as to be intimidating to young Hunter, and in itself feels to tell him to turn back, which he cannot help but heed.

Hunter considers the vastness of the world outside his little corner, stricken with a desire to reach out and claim it. However…

>Fell in another hole / (For the knife, for the knife)
Every time it feels Hunter is coming close to the answers he seeks, he finds himself at a dead end. Any direct questions he asks of Ms Terri lead nowhere or are smoothly deflected, and any other clues he could follow don’t particularly cohere into anything. Though he’s pursuing as many leads as possible, he feels stuck in a state of ignorance, and his inability to resolve answers out of the clever tracks that he pursues with hope only underscores to him how ignorant he really is.

When he actually does leave the lake, this principle still holds true. His overwhelming ignorance of the world’s evils leads him to get more and more deeply stuck in difficult situations.

The knife here is two things: first, the knife works as a symbol of Hunter’s ability to provide for Ms Terri. He is in part pursuing these answers out of concern for Ms Terri. Second, the knife works as a symbol of Hunter’s ability to provide for himself — his self-agency. Hunter is thirsty for more independence and to take more control over his life.

The constant repetition of this line (with variations, and this verse in general) illustrates Hunter’s obsessive pursuit of answers, continuous preoccupation with these thoughts, and repeated attempts and failures to find the truth. It also makes for a very nice song.

Also depicted in the comics as Hunter literally falling into a trap-hole after dropping his knife into it.

>Bleed myself dry / (Save my life, save my life)
Less sure about this line. Does Hunter feel his life (or ‘self’) is in danger if he can’t achieve more strength and agency? He might be feeling like he’s not able to be who he wants to be, and a bit helpless.

>The river / The lake…
Hunter imagines himself at the junction of the river and the lake. He looks up north, along the river, then back south, to the lake, weighing each as an option.

>Hands conflicting clearly point their way
Shaky on this, but Hunter knows that the only way to get proper answers will be to leave the lake and go north. Maybe he’s looking at a signpost, with lots of different directions coming off the pole.

‘But the right hand hates the left,’ maybe it’s also that he can see what his two choices are: stay or go, and the broad implications of each. He can stay coddled in safety and ignorance with Ms Terri at the lake, or go into danger and truth all alone up the river, and is torn between these options.

>Stunned by the sign and fearing what it says
Unsure on this too. If it is literally a signpost, I’m not sure why it would scare him. Maybe he’s intimidated to learn that so many places exist outside the lake, how large the world is, and how small he is in comparison. I think there’s more here but can’t figure it. (’There was a silver circle sign?’).

>4:06 – 4:42 Instrumental
Unsure but interesting. Sounds nice too. Same for the next instrumental passage to the end.

Lots of stuff on this song gets brought up again in the Lake and the River — this song is setting up that’s he’s considered the option of leaving the lake, but didn’t, so when he does finally do that, it’s nice to see the same images come up again.

The Inquiry Of Ms. Terri | Act I | The Pimp and The Priest