The Most Cursed Of Hands / Who Am I?

The Most Cursed Of Hands / Who Am I?
The devil went down to the river
And he came to fall; to lose it all;
To fool the fool too quick to call
While the gambler’s stacks grew bigger;
He had lost his sights through narrowed eyes;
Too tempted by his wry desires

Damned across fated paths
The time to fold had come to pass

With gambler’s glory delivered
He had thirst for more; a bigger score;
A trophy no one could ignore
And the devil’s wealth had withered
So with cunning class he offered fast his soul;
The wager had been cast

The gambler called, the river fell
And now the hand from out of hell
The devil smiled, looked in his eyes;
He knew the loss was glorified

The devil said “Revel in your victory;
You’ve earned your damning, pack your things and leave.”
But, the gambler only stood and stuttered
Stammering on words in disbelief
“Now you’ve won a new vocation
Pray to me that you can stand the heat!”
And that, the gambler saw
Meant he had gone and finally set the devil free

Damned across fated paths
The hand he played would be his last

Who am I? Who am I?
Just a gambler, holding aces in the devil’s eyes?
What is wrong? What’s the sin?
Where’s the answer? Where the hell do I fit in?

Or could it be, there’s just a little demon lost in the debris
And I, should idly bide my time until a wager releases me?
Hey! It can’t remain unknown…

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Seeing Hunter in attendance at Church, TP&P gives a special sermon to demoralise him and mock him for his foolishness during Act IV, characterising him as an arrogant ‘gambler’ who unwittingly destroyed himself and traded places with the Devil. Hunter, still conflicted about his identity, is so deeply affected by this story that he wonders if he himself may be a ‘Devil’, capable of pulling shady tricks against TP&P.

What’s in a name?
‘The Most Cursed Of Hands / Who Am I’ — Another two-parter, like Moon / Awake.

The Most Cursed Of Hands follows the hands motif from His Hands Matched His Tongue and Red Hands. If HHMHT reflects innocence and integrity, and Red Hands reflects a turning point into sin, then TMCOH reflects a state of corruption and evil, showing the long-term moral degradation of Hunter’s life. Basically, ‘Hunter, You Know You Didn’t Want This, But You Are Evil Now.’

It also refers to hands as in a hand in a poker game, which is how the song frames Hunter’s attempt to fight evil in Act IV, drawing on the motif of ‘folding’ from Act II. Hunter didn’t ‘fold’ to corruption back then, making him the gambler who stays in to contest and ultimately get outsmarted by the Devil.

‘Who Am I’ is a straightforward what-it-says-on-the-can title; Hunter having another moment of introspection about his identity, though this one is a turning point in the sense that Hunter is drifting away from the conception of himself as a pure victim, and flirting with the thought that he himself might be evil, and able to pull underhanded tricks.

Whose viewpoint?
TP&P and Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:08 King of Swords (Reversed) Echo
TP&P takes the pulpit and looks over the congregation. Seeing Hunter in attendance, groggy and barely cleaned up after his trip in The Moon, inspires TP&P to the sadistic sermon that he’ll give today. Hunter has been growing somewhat disobedient lately, with these trips to the opium den igniting nascent but existing ideas of resistance. TP&P sees fit to twist the knife into him deeper by reminding him of the hopeless situation he’s in and how his own hubris got him there, while ostensibly giving a positive, cautionary tale about the dangers of gambling.

This is a very ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’ type of song, though darker as in this one the Devil wins the wager, but satisfying in how it carries on that mythos of the Devil tempting and wagering people to destroy themselves over mundane things. How important is a violin bout or a poker game? Not as important as beating the Devil, especially on his own terms, which is exactly the prospect that wound up undoing Hunter.

We have the reprise of the tune at the end of King of Swords (Reversed), though probably the right way to conceive it is the other way around, that KoS is pointing to the evil and corruption Hunter risked falling into as a consequence of his TP&P-sponsored mayoral run. So here it’s illustrating that the potential to evil and corruption has been realised, Hunter’s sin and arrogance has put him in a position subservient to the the Devil.

>The devil went down to the river
Lol no wonder it feels so ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’, it’s explicitly drawing on it to establish that ‘common folk myth’ vibe for the story TP&P is telling.

The devil goes down to ‘the river’. This points to Hunter being the target of the Devil’s schemes today, as Hunter’s home is the River and it’s by following the river one might flee from corruption. So whoever would be doing their business at the river would be someone with a tie to the outside, specifically a tie outside of the Devil’s sphere of corruption; a soul that still has some good in it. We can see why the Devil would want to clamp down on such a person, and why the prospect of the Devil going to the river is so threatening: it severs that escape, and keeps people trapped in the darkness he controls. Basically echoing how Hunter almost busted TP&P’s gig in Bitter Suite V by not giving TP&P money, which is what stoked TP&P to target Hunter — he was a power threat.

But as for TP&P’s story, it’s also a literal pointer to the poker game the gambler is playing. The type of poker being played is Texas Hold ‘Em, and this game is in its last round (the river) when the Devil enters the scene to prey upon the gamblers.

>And he came to fall; to lose it all; / To fool the fool too quick to call
The Devil goes into the game with an insidious plan already in mind. He will appeal to the gambler’s ego, and make the gambler think he has won, then pull the rug out from under him.

‘To fool the fool too quick to call’ -> ‘Too quick’ in the sense of ‘too smart’ or ‘too skilled’; the gambler is a slick gambler who neither folds nor calls; he boldly raises and raises and raises… and wins. Reflective of how Hunter would never settle in to what he was given and kept striving to find something better, though Hunter didn’t win.

Get the image of the Devil watching the previous round wrap up and taking a seat, being dealt in to the next round, in this quiet and smoky pub.

>While the gambler’s stacks grew bigger; / He had lost his sights through narrowed eyes; / Too tempted by his wry desires
The poker game proceeds. Others at the table soon fold, knowing the Devil is a participant, but not the gambler. The gambler sees himself capable of beating the Devil, and indeed does — round after round, accruing great stacks of chips. This success leads him to tunnel-vision, tantalised by the prospect of winning the whole pot while beating and bankrupting the Devil. He has become so ambitious as to lose his caution and sense.

As far as links to Hunter goes, this is alluding to his incredible success as a mayoral candidate in King of Swords, maybe to his general desire for an idealistically good life as well.

>Damned across fated paths / The time to fold had come to pass
‘Damned across fated paths’ -> Alluding to Battesimo Del Fuoco and Hunter’s fate in general. Hunter was doomed the moment he was born because of his intrinsic antagonistic link to TP&P. Inevitably, driven by his hatred for the force that harmed his mother, he would entangle himself with TP&P and so fall into darkness. Hints of ‘but the right hand hates the left’?

‘The time to fold had come to pass’ -> ‘You were the only one who didn’t fold’; ‘Consideration or pause had their time come and pass’. Pointing to the junction at the end of King of Swords where Hunter could have, at the very last moment, dropped out of the running and humbled himself to an average life in the City while turning a blind eye to corruption. Blinded by his ambition, and his hatred for TP&P (and corrupt actors like him), Hunter didn’t.

>1:10 – 1:36 Instrumental
Man! Love this. Things kick into high gear as the gambler unwittingly crosses the threshold of no return, (Hunter wins the Mayor position), and the Devil gleefully knows he has won.

>With gambler’s glory delivered / He had thirst for more; a bigger score; / A trophy no one could ignore / And the devil’s wealth had withered
The gambler has won the pot, but still wants something more to say that he conquered the Devil. The Devil, however, has no chips left to bet in, as the gambler has already won them all.

For Hunter, points to how he won fame and success and the position of Mayor, but this in itself still wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to be a defender of justice who would destroy and undo all the corruption of the City, including and especially that of TP&P.

>So with cunning class he offered fast his soul; / The wager had been cast
With no chips left to bet, the Devil enters one last round with his own soul as the wager.

For TP&P, points to how he put himself into an ostensibly weak position whereby he could be destroyed, by encouraging Hunter to become Mayor in the first place and giving him enough support to actually start weeding corruption from the city. Basically all of Bitter Suite VI. “Wanna kill me Hunter? You can!!”

>The gambler called, the river fell
The gambler accepts this final wager and stakes his chips against the Devil’s soul. The game proceeds to its last round, the river.

‘The river fell’ -> Hunter’s way out of the situation collapses; points to his embrace of his mayoral position and actions down the path of proactively using it as shown in If All Goes Well and The Line. He is now locked into a place of sin.

>And now the hand from out of hell
The gambler reveals his cards: two sixes. He wins by playing the devil’s hand, a three-of-a-kind of sixes.

>The devil smiled, looked in his eyes; / He knew the loss was glorified
The Devil may have lost the poker game, but he’s won much more. Further, he sees that the gambler himself is not that much different from the Devil, and has achieved his victory through means that glorify the Devil. He seems to have found a fitting protege to fill his role and sees some level of vindicating familiarity to that.

Pointing to Hunter’s aggression, potential blackmailing and shady business in securing his role as the Mayor. Or just his identity theft since that was pretty shady in itself too.

>2:42 – 3:27 Instrumental
Man, love this too. Things are pleasant for the Devil in this short period as the gambler collects his winnings, failing to realise what he has just done.

>3:33 – 3:50 Instrumental
The story enters its climax where the twist of the gambler’s folly is revealed. While being the most intense part of the story, it’s also the part of the story TP&P wants Hunter to be paying attention to most, and so the part TP&P delivers with the most open spite and passion, practically spitting it at him. Hey Hunter, listen up.

>The devil said “Revel in your victory; / You’ve earned your damning, pack your things and leave.”
The Devil abruptly gets up from the table, pointing his finger, and castigates the gambler for his hubris.

>But, the gambler only stood and stuttered / Stammering on words in disbelief
The gambler is caught off-guard, not understanding this abrupt shift in tone or how he has been tricked. In terms of Hunter, this is Ouroboros.

>“Now you’ve won a new vocation / Pray to me that you can stand the heat!”
The Devil reveals his trick. By claiming possession of the Devil’s soul, the gambler himself has become the Devil! All the wicked duties and punishments that formerly bound the Devil, the gambler now must suffer and fulfil in his stead! For Hunter, of course, this is his current position as Mayor: he is the ruler of a kingdom of sin, bound by TP&P’s blackmail to enable the corruption in the city to fester, while becoming undeniably broken and corrupt himself.

‘Pray to me that you can stand the heat!’ -> Love this line. ‘I feel the heat of a thousand breaths upon my neck’. Obviously TP&P mocking Hunter for his failure and for his attempt to contest TP&P in the first place, but also a bit more. If you were in such a terrible position as Hunter or this gambler, the figure you would want to pray to is God — TP&P is taunting, and driving in the point, that Hunter is not allowed to do this and moreover so deep in sin as to be beyond any redemption. This is of course because TP&P literally controls the Church and hence the pathway for a sinner to find redemption by God — ‘pray to me’ is a cruel taunt emphasising how Hunter’s fate is entirely in TP&P’s hands, and if he wants to survive, he will have to play by TP&P’s rulebook.

‘Stand the heat’, this is the heat of hell but also the pressure of being caught and ousted. TP&P is familiar with this heat as, despite his charisma and control of most situations, he does have that persistent fear of losing his veneer of legitimacy and being caught. TP&P is challenging Hunter to adapt in a similar way that TP&P has, driving in the point that Hunter must become corrupt (probably modelling himself after TP&P, or at least taking lessons from him) if he’s going to survive in his present position. You can hear it in the emphasis on ‘you’ — like, it’s not just revealing that the gambler has become the Devil, it’s challenging that gambler with the weight of all the Devil’s burdens and telling him exactly what boots he’s filling here.

And this is probably reaching, but just a note on the Devil. People who fall prey to the Devil, such as the gambler in the story, may not be very devout or may not regard themselves as having much connection to God — the Devil, however, has extreme regard and connection to God. Maybe not in a positive sense but I mean, of course he does, right? Then he rubs it in his victims’ faces how they could have escaped their fate by being more devout, but no, they’re scum and sinners, too weak to resist him, too proud for salvation, they always took the Devil as their God over God, so they better enjoy their reward. The judgemental aspect of TP&P coming out again; ‘you got yourself in this mess’.

>4:23 – 4:29 He Said He Had A Story Reprise
TP&P’s insults have hit their mark. Hunter, listening along from the pews, is extremely angry and wounded at hearing the events of Act IV relayed to him in this cruel manner, and moreover at the accuracy by which TP&P has aggravated his present insecurities. Hunter does feel like he’s become trapped as a servant of evil, does feel like he’s been cut off from redemption he yearns for, and does feel the extreme pressure of being unmasked as a fraud.

Since inflicting this message was the reason TP&P told this story, we can say TP&P has been successful at demoralising Hunter.

>And that, the gambler saw / Meant he had gone and finally set the devil free
The gambler realises in dawning horror that he has swapped places with the Devil. Now that all the Devil’s bindings are placed on the gambler instead, the Devil is free to be as wicked as he wants. Because it’s not like the Devil’s going to stop being the Devil just because he pawned his soul off to some rube.

Which is the exact same situation Hunter’s in. Now that the City’s highest authority is under TP&P’s thumb, TP&P can do whatever he wants without fearing any reprisal. Rather, he’ll get support for it, and probably funding from the City’s coffers, too. It’s the exact opposite of what Hunter wanted when he set out on this path.

>Damned across fated paths / The hand he played would be his last
Hunter is now a slave to the ‘Devil’ and cannot take any actions of his own will, much less ones against the Devil. Thus, moving against the devil, or pursuing the seat of Mayor, was the last action he made and could ever make of his own will. After that point, Hunter is powerless. He has no cards to play.

Or so TP&P wants Hunter to accept, as he caps off his story to the congregation with this moral.

>5:04 – 5:09 Instrumental
The church service ends.

>Who am I? Who am I?
We shift into Hunter’s head, reeling in confusion after hearing that horrible story. He gets up from the pews and leaves the church, consumed with existential thoughts. Hunter’s sense of identity is horrifically fragile so he is vulnerable to this kind of thing, questioning his self-concept based on a mean-spirited story.

>Just a gambler, holding aces in the devil’s eyes? / What is wrong? What’s the sin? / Where’s the answer? Where the hell do I fit in?
Hunter questions his place as it would be in this story, and how exactly the lessons from that story translate into real life. TP&P may have characterised Hunter as a gambler, and from that Hunter would be just an unlucky rube who wasn’t vigilant enough to devilish tricks… but is that all Hunter’s desires and efforts amount to?

See, in reality, Hunter didn’t know he was facing the devil. He only learned the Priest was the Pimp in Ouroboros, and his contempt for the Church before then was a consequence of Act III. Sure, he wanted to undo the city’s corruption. Yes, he wanted to beat evil forces. …Is that wrong? What aspect of that desire is, in itself, a sin? Well apparently TP&P sees issue with some part of it, and is implying hubris from Hunter. How, exactly? What was hubris? Remember that Hunter had to be goaded into the Mayor idea and like half of why it worked was because he was in the middle of an existential/identity crisis (’I never wanted to be your City’s Son’), and the reason TP&P thought to goad him was because Hunter didn’t give an offering at church and this prospect of resistance scared TP&P. That’s all. That’s it. Hunter cannot trace the link between that — wanting to escape misery and be a better person — and being a gambler who thought to boost his ego by getting a win on the Devil.

We know what TP&P was thinking during Bitter Suite V, though, and can see why he saw a threat in Hunter. Probably, that was a reasonable threat — it’s hard to imagine Hunter’s life taking any course where he doesn’t ultimately find out the truth and become ignited against TP&P, but Hunter’s big thing in Act IV is that he was trying to ditch his attachment to things like that. It’s not like he entered Act IV burning with vengeance against TP&P. If he’d been left to his own devices… who knows, maybe he would’ve spiralled, realised this Son thing wasn’t working, and quit to do something else again.

But now Hunter can’t even be sure of his own motives. Was he just trying to find a stable identity as a better person after the trauma of the war, the revelation of Ms Terri’s secrets, and his bad breakup with Ms Leading, or was he an arrogant and egotistical reprobate who stepped into Satan’s turf and honest-to-God thought he’d win? (‘Happiness is a knife’, after all).

>Or could it be, there’s just a little demon lost in the debris
Contemplating all this, Hunter’s thoughts shift in another direction. Part of TP&P’s story is framing the gambler as, in some way, on par with the Devil.

Maybe there is an aspect of truth in that. Hunter did have a desire all the way back in The Lake and the River to destroy the wicked forces in the outside world that hurt Ms Terri, and he did get drunk on the power high of successfully campaigning for Mayor so he could clean up the City. So maybe there is an inherent scumminess in his character that he can’t escape, and that keeps leading him down the bad decisions he makes, that is damaging or exploitative or a little bit evil.

Obviously Hunter doesn’t see himself as being as bad as TP&P — Hunter would only be a ‘little’ demon, weak, easily rebuffed, barely an imp next to the real devils — but certainly of the same breed.

>And I, should idly bide my time until a wager releases me?
And so Hunter contemplates, maybe he should approach his situation through a scummier lens. That is, rather than agonise over his defeat and powerlessness, or fantasise about being a hero moving against a villain, he should concede that he is also a villain and wait until he can use his own scummy tricks to reposition himself out of his situation at the expense of someone else. Otherwise said, wait for someone else to make a mistake he can take advantage of and use as a foundation for his new out.

This naturally means allowing wickedness, corruption, and villainy to spread in the meantime, but with the nuance of ‘playing along, waiting to act’ rather than ‘broken and helpless puppet’. It’s really bleak and grim but it does restore a sliver of agency, albeit passive agency, to Hunter.

>6:17 – 6:24 Ouroboros Reprise
Previously Hunter’s misery at realising he has stupidly fallen into the hands of evil and become a pawn of evil, this time it’s more refined and confident though still sad and melancholic. Like some kind of sophisticated jazz you’d hear playing in the private high-rise apartment of a well-groomed but sleazy politician who goes there to brood over a glass of liquor about the state of the city and WOW that is a really specific image but, yeah, that’s the wavelength I get.

Basically suggesting that Hunter is flirting more with the idea of ‘embracing’ the evil figure he is, not in the sense of enjoying it, but of recognising that’s where he is and that’s the footing he has if he wants to have any footing at all. Resignation to evil with a small bit of hope.

>Hey! It can’t remain unknown…
Hunter is willing to try scummy tactics against TP&P, though he is still hesitant to move yet.

Cascade | Act V | The Revival