The Lake and The River
Everything you’d live and die for
Reasons leading you through here
Perished matriarchal bonds, failing innocence of love
When the world beckons your approach, it swallows you whole
You’ll believe what you’re meant to believe
In the hands of ghosts, we’re never responsible
Wait to see what you’re meant to see
The veil lifts when you expose your soul
Prayed I would leave this place someday
Joined to alarm from long ago, now unconcerned
Euphorically floating upon wax wings, where is the sun?
I still see her face; her beauty, her grace
Transfixed like a light in front of me
It follows my soul, and swallows me whole
You’ll believe what you’re led to believe
In the hands of ghosts, we’re never responsible
Wait to see what you’re meant to see
The veil lifts when you expose your soul
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, left, right
(unintelligible vocalizations)
His branches reached so far before
His leaves were bold extremities with great control
Wasted along; he died alone
You’ll believe what you’re meant to believe
In the hands of ghosts, we’re never responsible
Wait to see what you’re meant to see
The veil lifts when you expose your soul
She’s inanimate, bloodless elegance
Fatal fascination breeds a bloom of misery
Helpless hiding tongues, bathed in revulsion
Here lies possibility, wilting premature
But the right hand hates the left
And the sea’s upset with the sky
So we press on, press on, press on, press on
In spite of the spite
Happiness is a knife
When the world rolls on its side
And your mind’s on fire
Don’t you know that happiness is a knife?
When the world rolls on fire
Trying to find the trouble with the trouble I’ve found
Begging my god to make the wheels go round
Eat so much but I never get full
Earth opened up and swallowed us whole
Trying to find the trouble with the trouble I’ve found
Begging my god to make the wheels go round
Eat so much but I never get full
Earth opened up and swallowed us whole
🌲🌲🌲
What happens?
Hunter, determined to learn more about himself and still shaken by the death of Ms Terri, leaves the Lake and boards a train to the City.
What’s in a name?
It’s the process of going from the lake up along the river. Last time we’ll be at this setting, short of something bringing us back here in act VI, so for Hunter’s story it’s nice to acknowledge the place with a goodbye.
Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.
🌲🌲🌲
>0:00 – 0:46 Instrumental
Main melody feels like it’s referencing something from 1878, but can’t pinpoint what. Either way, Hunter packs his bags and sets out along the road to leave the Lake, with the sky bright and water shimmering.
>Everything you’d live and die for / Reasons leading you through here
Now we’re definitely referencing 1878, and Hunter’s angsty mood is ruining the pleasant ambiance. Previously, these lines coincided with Hunter’s realisation that he knew himself and his mother less than he thought. With the absence of ‘…you thought…’ in this reprise, now he absolutely knows why he is taking the action he is: he is making not a passive, but an active effort to find what he let escape from him in 1878, the real identity of himself and his mother, and to that end embarking up the lake as he did in 1878.
The element of him doing things for Ms Terri becomes bitterly ironic now — she’s already dead. What’s left to live and die for there? May still carry the implication that he’s looking to vindicate her, or uncover whatever force it was that brought her to misery, but fundamentally, ‘It’s time to be true to who I really am.’
>Perished matriarchal bonds, failing innocence of love
Of course, his principal reasoning in departing is his mother’s death. ‘Failing innocence’ suggests that the end of Ms Terri’s life, and the actions she took out of love for Hunter, did not end on any note that would keep his life as clean as she desired. Reading this as another nudge towards the idea it was a suicide. Could also be a general statement that she wasn’t able to keep things hidden from him in the end, but given he still doesn’t really know anything… what could reveal everything, but tell nothing?
From Hunter’s end, suggests that his feelings towards Ms Terri have become very complicated. He presently isn’t able to subsume his resentment towards her beneath his innocent adoration for her, which would let him to defer to her judgement and stay at the Lake. Rather, deep spite blocks him from trusting that judgement.
>When the world beckons your approach, it swallows you whole
Hunter doesn’t feel like he was bullied against his will into the course he’s taking, so much as given a high-profile summons into darkness (a suicide driven by factors in the outside world) that he’s not able or inclined to refuse. He can see the option of staying at the Lake, but to do so would defy his own desire for answers, deny his own fated dark link to the outside, and undermine his desire to grow into a more ‘complete’ person as he didn’t in 1878. Still, now that the current of intrigue and possibility has caught him, he can’t step away from it. His potential has obsessed him.
It’s also overwhelmed him: if his first taste of ‘reality’ outside of his sheltered glen is the death of the person he loves most, how bad could the rest of it get? Worse than Hunter thinks, is the answer, but for now he’s asserting it won’t break him.
>You’ll believe what you’re meant to believe / In the hands of ghosts, we’re never responsible
Tricky lines. Hunter is resenting that he was never told the truth, and resenting that Ms Terri opted to kill herself before she would confess anything to Hunter (there’s no conscionable response to that but to forgive, forget, and be mournful, as if this wasn’t a massive issue that was eating at Hunter for years — she’s escaping responsibility), but also showing contempt at himself for even thinking of going along with Ms Terri’s charade. Sure, he could go back to life at the Lake and pretend Ms Terri’s death was some random tragedy, totally unrelated to him, entirely on her hands, nobody would blame him, he could be innocent…
But it was this exact line of thinking that might have killed Ms Terri in the first place. What if he had pushed harder, and left the lake in 1878? What if he hadn’t humbled himself, by leaving matters to her in HHMHT? If the truth had come out sooner, would she had killed herself to hide it? There was an onus of responsibility on him, once he realised things weren’t right, to act. He didn’t. He hates that he didn’t. So now he is.
He was never really innocent. Ms Terri’s attempts to bring him up otherwise were a lie.
>Wait to see what you’re meant to see / The veil lifts when you expose your soul
But of course, the truth comes out in the end. Lies can only last so long, and though you might craft an intricate life under a deceptive persona, everything that false self built will crumble the instant the real you shines though. This is true of Ms Terri, and true of Hunter later. (And Ms Leading too).
>Prayed I would leave this place someday / Joined to alarm from long ago, now unconcerned
Hunter thinks back on the feelings he shelved in 1878: the desire to self-actualisation, and desire to see more of the world. His alarm back then was the fear of a threat to Ms Terri, and fear of a mysterious darkness, but now that she’s already dead, and the darkness has already battered Hunter over the head, that’s not a concern anymore. Plus he’s still standing, so he can handle it, surely.
>Euphorically floating upon wax wings, where is the sun?
In that lack of concern, there’s an element of intoxicating power and freedom. Finally he can indulge in reality, gorge upon the world, build himself, find himself, be himself… but, fatally as it will come to be, Hunter doesn’t know his limits. He has never had to face danger or darkness before, nor even been told of what to look out for, and so cannot defend himself against it. Ms Terri was the one who always did that, and now, she’s not here. How can he be expected to do this?
>I still see her face; her beauty, her grace / Transfixed like a light in front of me / It follows my soul, and swallows me whole
For all of Hunter’s mixed feelings about Ms Terri right now, fundamentally he loves her. The image of her haunts him, and the loss of her torments him. Why, why, why did Ms Terri die? What was this darkness so strong, it was able to destroy someone so beautiful? Who was she? Where is she?
This is the first time we’ll see Hunter make references to lights as guides of where to go towards. That it’s Ms Terri’s face appearing denotes something he desperately runs to pursue, like a lost child seeking comfort. Hunter might be making these bold claims of freedom and near-omnipotence now that Ms Terri’s not here, but the reality is he’s a dumb sheltered kid who very, very desperately wants his mom back and thinks throwing himself into the unknown might solve the pain of losing her. That’s maybe underselling Hunter a little, but given how he drops everything he’s doing once he finds a mother surrogate in Ms Leading, (and then gets tossed around like a pinball on his own impulsive responses when that goes south), whatever ‘life mission’ or ‘journey’ he feels like he’s embarking on now is not one he’s entering in any kind of composed or confident way. He has ideas of where the problem starts, but he’s fundamentally running from pain.
The relative softness of Hunter’s voice all through this verse gives me the impression that this is him being very honest, and very in tune with his ‘self’.
Also going by one of my assumptions in reading, I’m cornered into saying he’s literally hallucinating Ms Terri. In the absence of an opium den, I’m not sure I really want to put all my chips into that, but what the hell. Sure.
>You’ll believe what you’re led to believe
Noting the repetition change from ‘meant’ to ‘led’ on this line as maybe foreshadowing for Ms Leading, and how she accidentally mirrors Ms Terri to Hunter? Also carries the stronger implication of being purposefully mislead.
>Left, Right
Mirroring the dichotomy of ‘the river / the lake’ in 1878, though far more pronounced, aggressive, and angry. While letting his anger march him past the junction of the lake and the river, Hunter remembers his old dilemma as he passes the sights he did before: does he go back towards the lake into safe ignorance, or up the river into the hazardous unknown? Unlike the last time he did this, this time he forces himself to think that there isn’t a question, that he isn’t at all scared, and scorns his past self as an idiot for stopping. (HEY, HEY!)
>(unintelligible vocalizations)
lol thanks genius. It’s true though, these sound like lyric-y but I can’t make them out
>3:58 – 4:26 Evicted Melody
‘I have been evicted / From a soul constricted / By the flameless fire / Can we all just go cold?’ — Evicted is Ms Leading’s announcement that her view of the world as a harsh and empty place has been shaken, while fearfully trying to process her breakaway from longheld cynicism (and futilely rationalise herself back into it). Applied to Hunter here, he’s managed to shake off the longstanding fear he had of leaving the Lake, commit himself to the possibility of purpose outside it, and successfully leave despite lingering pain/reservations. (Or well he will in the next stanza.)
>His branches reached so far before / His leaves were bold extremities with great control
Hunter stands again under the Tree that marks the northernmost bound of the region of the Lake, as he did in 1878. This time, though, Hunter’s older, and the tree looks far less impressive or imposing. Rather, it’s a bit feeble and scraggly. Certainly, not strong enough to bar Hunter in anymore.
>Wasted along; he died alone
Or beyond feeble and scraggly — the tree is actually dead.
Note Hunter’s anthropomorphisation of the tree again, and the mournful admiration he has for it: the tree is an actual person for him. The thing’s his father figure, and though this obviously doesn’t hit as hard as Ms Terri’s death, it’s sad that Hunter lost his mom only to find his ‘dad’ dead and looking miserable too. Everyone in Hunter’s life is feeling a grim wind, huh? Boy’s certainly fixated on death.
After that moment of emo contemplation, he shoulders on past the tree, going into completely new territory.
If the first chorus was applied to Ms Terri, and the second Ms Leading, I wonder if the third one here might be applying to the tree. Hunter’s life is so full of liars!?
>5:29 – 5:37 Left/Right Instrumental
Hunter continues marching on, forcing himself to think of nothing but the hurt and anger propelling him onward…
>She’s inanimate, bloodless elegance / Fatal fascination breeds a bloom of misery / Helpless hiding tongues, bathed in revulsion
But the pretence doesn’t last, and the emotions of sorrow and grief below come through in a small breakdown. He misses his mom so much, why did she go, where has she gone…
(Note the spike in contempt on ‘bathed in revulsion’ specifically, he hates thinking of people even implicitly badmouthing his mom).
>Here lies possibility, wilting premature
…and why wasn’t his happy life with her allowed to be?
>But the right hand hates the left / And the sea’s upset with the sky
WONDERFUL lines. Hunter collects himself, reminding himself why he’s leaving in the first place. He tried the option of listening to Ms Terri, trusting Ms Terri, and giving himself to her lies, but where did that get him? That’s why he lost his goddamn mother and why he’s feeling this terrible pain. It’s her fault she killed herself anyway. It’s her fault she protected that lie so much anyway.
May also be telling himself that his options here are mutually exclusive — he can only have one or the other, and the simple fact that his life’s not innocent inherently excludes him from any kind of peaceful lie at the lake. (Hunter has no idea what he’s getting into).
>So we press on, press on, press on, press on / In spite of the spite
So let’s try the contrary option, it surely can’t be any worse.
>Happiness is a knife / When the world rolls on its side / And your mind’s on fire
Love this. Lots going on here.
‘Happiness is a knife’ — again, the knife is metaphorically his ability to provide for himself (self-agency) and his ability to provide for Ms Terri. It’s also literally an implement he uses to kill things, and a keepsake from Ms Terri. ‘Fell in another hole / for the knife.’ Hunter has the ‘knife’ now, which is to say the ability to do something about his problems, while literally clutching almost maniacally to this connection to his mother and the possibility of violently killing whatever it was that caused him this pain (made Ms Terri so miserable she killed herself). Hunter himself is probably not conscious to this entire thought process, but he is finding a twisted comfort in the idea of vengeance over this horrible world, and of doing so on his own terms.
Further, the proposition that he is capable of doing things is probably cathartic, after being powerless to save Ms Terri in her death scene.
‘When the world rolls on its side’ — Hunter’s entire life has been upended by Ms Terri’s death, and he doesn’t have anything to ground him anymore but the ‘knife’.
‘And your mind’s on fire’ — ‘flame is gone/fire remains’. Hunter is in full Fire mode right now (and a very immature version of it), barely controlled, seething, looking for something he can destroy that will fix the death of his mother and fulfil the unfinished business of his birth. The whirling energy of his mind is forcing him not to submit or stay stationary.
Absolute hatred and pain in this whole verse. Delicious.
>7:20 – 7:50 Instrumental
Having successfully stoked himself with a sense of purpose, Hunter calms down a bit and continues through the peaceful, scenic forest, where he comes upon an old train station…
>7:50 – 7:56 Instrumental
…and hears a train approaching!
>Trying to find the trouble with the trouble I’ve found
Love this whole verse. Not sure there’s too much to go into here with the train’s thoughts except setting up the work song format and foreshadowing the trouble that’s coming for Hunter.
>Begging my god to make the wheels go round
Not the last time we’ll be seeing a machine’s operator be referred to as its god. Extremely evocative image.
>Eat so much but I never get full
Oh baby, he’s guzzling that coal. Shovelful by shovelful. Backs sweating. Endless. Blazing.
>Earth opened up and swallowed us whole
The train passes through a tunnel. On first instance of the verse, the train comes to a stop at the station. Hunter boards between verses, and it departs on the repetition.
The train’s passage through the tunnel on the repetition marks the last Hunter (or we) will see of the lake, effectively severing us from the setting with the image of a black pit. The idea of the earth opening up to swallow someone, too, evokes the idea of descending into hell, which is apt for what’s coming for Hunter.
Finally, the phrasing mirrors all the things that have been ‘swallowing (Hunter) whole’ during this song — the world he’s entering is going to overwhelm him, and there’s no turning back…
>9:08 – 9:30 Red Hands Violin
Subtle but it’s there — Hunter is doing the wrong thing, but can’t be blamed for it, since he couldn’t have done anything different. The high tension/chaos denotes that this is a particularly doomy ‘wrong thing’.
>9:30 Death and the Berth bweee-BOOOP
RIP Innocent Hunter. Kind of interesting to have Red Hands right before this though, is TDATB playing backwards and there’s a bitter suite melody hidden under there? Not entirely sure on this one.
空劫罰 祟りネコ | JP -> ENG / TDH 