Vital Vessels Vindicate

Vital Vessels Vindicate
Salt in the sky in the sweet summer air while mammoths depart
Abandon despair with thirsty affairs of the heart
But the chances of escaping my heart are inadequate
And when all is said and done, I’m left with my history

Goodbye, my eyes shed heavy tears
One for every soul still sitting on the fence between pain and arrogance

Ebb to the left flow to the right the exit’s unflawed
The boys on the train, the almighty tongue with prose spilled in vain

Goodbye, my eyes shed heavy tears
One for every soul still sitting on the fence between pain and arrogance

We fall beneath the sea of dreams
And fail to breathe, until we resurface
We fall beneath the sea of dreams
And fail to breathe, until we awaken again

Sing softly, sing me to the lake, sing softly, bring me to the lake
(The flame is gone, the fire remains)
Sing softly, sing me to the lake, sing softly, bring me to the lake
(The flame is gone, the fire remains)
Sing softly, sing me to the lake, sing softly, bring me to the lake, sing
(The flame is gone, the fire remains)

Through all of this I’ve felt just the same
The flame is gone, the fire remains

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Hunter, on the military steam ship departing to war, reflects on his time in the city and relationship with Ms Leading. Feeling that he has grown wiser from the experience, he looks forward to the fresh and ideally better future that awaits him overseas.

What’s in a name?
Oh boy VVV, the tune of many titles. It’s questionable what this song’s name even is, having been labelled with no less than five different variations (some being obvious misspellings) of ‘Vital Vessels Vindicate’ over decades of releases and reissues. The two real candidates, though, are ‘Vital Vessel Vindicates’ and ‘Vital Vessels Vindicate’. Which is it?

Well we know there are multiple steam ships that come to the City port (’big steam ships / exits illustrate the flaw’, ‘while mammoths depart’), which makes me lean towards vessels being the plural. But you can also take it as the specific ship that Hunter boards being the one that vindicates him, which would make vindicates the plural. I feel like either way works, but default to using vessels since there’s more concrete lyrics about the scene backing that read up.

SO that aside what does it actually mean. Not much more than what’s on the tin, this one is pretty straightforward however you read it: ‘Hunter’s Ability To Start A New Life For Himself Overseas Supports His Decision To Ditch Ms Leading As Right’, vessels being the ships and vindicated being Hunter’s aggressive rejection of Ms Leading.

‘Vital Vessels’ gives the image of blood vessels, too, but I’m not quite sure how that ties into this. ‘The blood / how it paints such a scene?’. Maybe it’s just saying that running away is in Hunter’s nature.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:23 Instrumental
Alright slow down Casey. First line in and there’s already a lot going on here.

So we can take the scene, first of all, as the ship out in the harbour bobbing along after its departure in Black Sandy Beaches. We’re using the same melody in the main tune here as in the ‘she-ee-ee-eee’ from Black Sandy Beaches as well, so right off the bat that’s a reprise — ‘Let’s just say she is better off somehow / let’s just say she’s never been happier than she is now’ — we can take this tune as representing ‘smiling through the pain’, ‘finding happiness despite pain’, or ‘trying to get away from what’s hurting you by instead fixating on the positives of a bad situation’. That kind of area.

That said, the altogether mood of it this time is a lot more blithe than in BSB (and also a lot more nautical sounding). Hunter is more able than Ms Leading to shove aside his hurt, or rather hasn’t realised the stakes of the decision he just made in dumping her the same way that Ms Leading was conscious of the stakes of losing Hunter. Hunter thinks he can put the pain of the relationship behind him and try again — Ms Leading knows she has zero hope of finding anything as good as what she had with Hunter.

It’s crazy how solidly you get the image of Hunter standing on the deck of this big ship from just this little passage, too. That trombone (?) at 0:16 especially, then you have the steamboat willie silly cartoony type percussion coming in…

>Salt in the sky in the sweet summer air while mammoths depart
‘Salt in the sky’ -> Hunter is one of: at the port, about to board, or already on a ship and observing things from the deck.

‘In the sweet summer air’ -> It’s summer. One of those tiny little info nuggets that I like knowing even if it’s not super important (unless?).

‘While mammoths depart’ -> The ships are now leaving.

>Abandon despair with thirsty affairs of the heart / But the chances of escaping my heart are inadequate / And when all is said and done, I’m left with my history
Slow DOWN Casey. Hokay

‘Abandon despair with thirsty affairs of the heart’ -> Hunter is embarking on this voyage to escape the pain of a failed romance. We can hear from his cooler (if still rather I-know-everything tone) that he’s not in as much of a fiery state as he was in Red Hands or Dear Ms. Leading, and the sentiment he’s holding onto seems less to be resentment for anything Ms Leading did, than Hunter avoiding his inability to face the problems of the relationship because they were simply too overwhelming for him. He’s aware he screwed up and is terrified of trying to solve it, so he’s not going to. He’s just going to put some miles of distance between himself and his mistakes until he can pretend they never happened.

Zooming in on ‘Thirsty affairs’, Hunter needed that romance as desperately as he needs water. ‘The well has gone dry and I with it’. What Hunter is fundamentally looking for is love that might substitute for Ms Terri’s absence, which he did find with Ms Leading, but considering how that went, he’d also rather pretend that he isn’t that desperate.

‘But the chances of escaping my heart are inadequate’ -> Still, Hunter knows himself to be sensitive and knows the investment he put into Ms Leading was deep, so he expects to still be hurting emotionally even if he crosses the whole world. He’ll still be thinking of that romance, of his missteps, and of her. And, wherever he winds up, he knows he will still be desperate to find love. He is reasoning himself capable of finding love of similar calibre elsewhere. (’And my heart’s a liability’ / ‘came all this way just to find love’).

We have those ‘bah-bah-bah bah’s appearing here again. Still not sure what those are.

‘And when all is said and done, I’m left with my history’ -> Hunter recognises that fundamentally, he’s running away. He can’t erase his experiences with Ms Leading; they happened, they’re going to influence him, he can’t unmake the mistakes or the feelings… the long emphasis on history (’it’s hard with such a history’, Ms Terri vibes here? / ‘her history is left behind’) gives me the impression he’s talking about everything that’s caused him pain thus far, that being both his breakup with Ms Leading and the death of Ms Terri.

Hunter’s life is still pretty painful and still sucks and unfortunately all this pain is becoming foundational to who he is, which he isn’t happy about. He’d rather have a future.

>Goodbye, my eyes shed heavy tears / One for every soul still sitting on the fence between pain and arrogance
After all his fury in Red Hands and Dear Ms. Leading, and from the safety of a boat where he never has to face her again, Hunter finally lets himself just be properly sad about losing a relationship with someone he loved. Of course, he still is rather pretentious and makes it about himself, but at least he’s voicing these ideas consciously now.

‘Sitting on the fence between pain and arrogance’ -> Hunter identifies ‘pain’ and ‘arrogance’ as the two forces pulling at him in regards to this decision. He was deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply hurt by everything regarding Ms Leading, but was too proud to admit that and consequently admit his powerlessness. As a result, he couldn’t confidently choose whether to risk the pain of her not really reciprocating&/of embarrassing himself again, or to preserve his ego by writing her off. Rather, as we saw from Red Hands across to Dear Ms. Leading, he’s been careening between both extremes of ‘I am so hurt. I love you. How could you?’ to ‘Oh, you think you’re great? I wasn’t even serious about you. You dumb whore,’ in two seconds.

With this all being past tense, though, he feels the relief of having put this dilemma behind him. Not that he’s really solved anything, but it’s not something he needs to address anymore, hence, these aren’t overbearing emotions he has to deal with anymore. Obviously, though Hunter’s denying it, he is still hurt enough to be running away, and still arrogant enough to think he can find a better life by running away, but that’s not his problem now is it.

‘One for every soul’ -> Hunter’s predominantly talking about himself here, but similar to BSB, it’s comforting to imagine he’s not the only one who has faced such a predicament, and that others would empathise with his situation, too. I also think Hunter is hesitant to just, like, cry for himself being sad about Ms Leading, so he frames it as being for hypothetical others who happen to be just like himself.

Callback to Oracles on Delphi, also — first of several. Feels appropriate given they’re both songs where he’s on a vehicle to his next major destination…

>Ebb to the left flow to the right the exit’s unflawed / The boys on the train, the almighty tongue with prose spilled in vain
‘Ebb to the left, flow to the right’ -> Describes the bobbing of the ship under him, but also evokes the idea of dancing. As we know, the sentiment may be passionate and the intention may be pure, but what Hunter is doing conflicts inherently with his goals — he’s trying to find somewhere less painful… by deploying to war.

‘The exit’s unflawed’ -> Still, Hunter is convinced this is not just the optimal path, but actually a really good one. Since he’s still extremely naive, he cannot see the obvious problem of how war might be horrible, and just sees the bright hopeful sparkling opportunity of restarting somewhere else that hasn’t been ruined with personal baggage. This is an explicit rejection of the Oracles’ words, too — ‘exits illustrate the flaw’. Captivated by possibilities, and desperate for something less painful, Hunter genuinely doesn’t see how he’s erring here.

‘The almighty tongue with prose spilled in vain’ -> Explicitly highlighting the Oracles’ warning. Hunter has thought back on their words and nonetheless dismisses them as unimportant or at least as not personally relevant. This, again, solidifies that Hunter had the option to choose a different course than running, (such as forgiving himself, as the Oracles advised him to), but refused to take it. ‘Almighty tongue’ emphasises the word-of-god quality of the Oracles’ warnings, being Casey’s mouthpiece to Hunter.

>We fall beneath the sea of dreams / And fail to breathe, until we resurface
Reprise of Bitter Suite III.

‘We fall beneath the sea of dreams and fail to breathe’ -> Ms Leading and Hunter had married themselves to their collective fantasy of a perfect relationship. The happiness they had initially was the perfect dream they wanted forever, hence why Ms Leading hesitated to divulge her prostitution. They both wanted to believe it could last, and were both utterly immersed in it.

‘Until we resurface’ -> But reality hit, and Ms Leading’s a prostitute. The relationship was never what Hunter quite thought it was, and they were never going to hold onto that immaculate honeymoon forever.

>And fail to breathe, until we awaken again
Hunter asserts that he has ‘snapped out’ of that mindset, or rather that dream, and is now focusing clearly on better alternatives.

>Sing softly, sing me to the lake, sing softly, bring me to the lake
This reprise is the same as it’s always been — ‘Let me have a better future’. Hunter is entreating to find a better, happier, and less painful life for himself as a soldier. Also brings attention to the central focus of the story again, which is the plot threads set up in Act I with Ms Terri, looking to find a life of peace despite of a history of pain.

>Sing!
‘Let the story continue!’

>Through all of this I’ve felt just the same / The flame is gone, the fire remains
And here’s a good ol’ flame/fire whammy to close off the album. This is probably both referencing the overarching flame/fire of Ms Terri/Hunter, again as a reminder that there’s a wider narrative going on beyond this album’s relationship drama, and the new flame/fire dynamic of Ms Leading/Hunter, that is, Hunter’s relationship with Ms Leading is ‘gone’ for all purposes but the feelings that drove it remain.

First time we hear Hunter acknowledging this flame/fire dynamic too, isn’t it? Pretty cool.

>4:10 – 4:39 Instrumental
We hear the waves, seagulls, ship bells, and chatter of fellow passengers as Hunter excuses himself from his spot on the deck.

>4:40 – 5:05 Instrumental
Get the impression from the drums here that this is something to do with the army — perhaps a briefing to the soldiers, which Hunter naturally attends?

>5:05 – 5:36 Instrumental
Hunter’s involvement in the majestic, military side of this venture — perhaps his training sessions, or meeting his squadmates — proceeds…

>5:37 – 5:44 Instrumental
Woah, chaotic! Everything okay there Hunter? Guessing no, and that the stress of all this military stuff (alongside everything with Ms Leading and Ms Terri) is getting to him a little.

>5:45 – 6:36 The Lake South Reprise
Hunter fantasises of a better place that will give him a better future. I envision this as Hunter in his cabin in his bed kind of exhausted but hopeful, then of the ship as a blip on the ocean, then of the ship coming in to the port in Europe.

>6:44 – 7:09 Ambiance
The ship has come into port at its destination.

Black Sandy Beaches | Act II
Act III | Writing On A Wall

Black Sandy Beaches

Black Sandy Beaches
Messages from broken bottles fall on black sandy beaches
Ink in vein across the page now run from morning dew
Hands which chance upon it lead to eyes which strain to read
Hearts which pound from love long overdue
Lips which press together, stifle rhythmic, heavy breaths

Oh, how she smiles from vicarious love from the one he writes about
She must have been so glad for him to throw it out

Further steps lead to yet another broken bottle
Again, the words contained have bled the page
Whose tears were these which ran the ink?
From whom they poured to make this streak?
Were they his, by chance, from telling her?
Or hers, by chance, from reading it?
They could have been collective
They could have been from someone else
Why don’t we see what’s at the bottom?
Why don’t we see what comes next?

Oh, how she cries from vicarious pain, from the one he writes about
She must have been so sad for him to throw her out

Let’s just say she, she is better
Better off somehow
Let’s just say she, she has never been
Happier than she is now

We couldn’t fake it, so why even try?

Let’s just say she is better
Better off somehow
Let’s just say she has never been
Happier than she is now

Let’s just say she is better
Better off somehow
Let’s just say she has never been
Happier, happier, than she is now

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Ms Leading goes to address Hunter in person, but realises she is too late. Recognising that Hunter has rejected her, Ms Leading is left to mourn the happiness that could’ve been.

What’s in a name?
‘Black Sandy Beaches’… honestly, not many ideas for this one. I think it’s just to establish the imagery of a desolate beach, where messages might wash up — from there you get the image of two people on two distant islands throwing bottles back and forth, but the people have left and what remains is the bottles, since their correspondence is over. It is also literally set on a black sandy beach.

Whose viewpoint?
Ms Leading. “Isn’t this third person?” you ask. And I can’t deny that, but—

This song is maybe the most abstract in the Acts, even moreso than Where The Road Parts or Blood of the Rose. I don’t think you can take much of what’s here as literal, in the sense of the letters sent in Dear Ms. Leading having wound up in bottles on the beach for an onlooker to read. Rather, we have some hints that the ‘onlooker’ is aligning herself with Ms Leading — firstly, the onlooker is female, secondly, it’s Ms Leading’s perspective in the correspondence that she empathises with, third, the narration explicitly shifts to first person in the bridge to say the onlooker was part of the relationship, and fourth, the song concludes concerned with the happiness of Ms Leading. I think it’s feasible to read this as Ms Leading’s rather poetic and dissociated way of processing that the good times are gone and she’s been dumped, as well as a retrospective on the relationship as a whole.

So I’m going to be flagrantly breaking here my assumption of things the characters describe being literal, with the things that don’t really make sense being reflections of the emotional impact events have had on Ms Leading. You can still read it, and it still definitely works (more intuitively, even), when taken as a third person though, I’m just curious to see what happens when you filter it like this.

🌲🌲🌲

>Messages from broken bottles fall on black sandy beaches
Ms Leading, aware of the steam ships coming to take Hunter to war, runs to the beach to try and speak with him before he’s gone. But she is too late, and she sees the ships already departing the harbour. Defeated and stunned, the letters of their correspondence she has brought fall from her hands to the black sand of the beach.

‘From broken bottles’ — So the prevailing imagery we have in this song is one of two lovers, communicating over a very long distance by way of message in a bottle. This is of course reflective of the way Ms Leading and Hunter have been communicating over the end of their relationship, by letter instead of in person, but there is more happening than that. It suggests that each of the lovers is stranded, throwing out sentiments to the ocean, reflective of how empty the world is without the other.

Since the bottles are broken, though, we know the messages were received, just as we know Ms Leading and Hunter did, against odds, find each other. (The broad images of broken glass and funeral-black sand reinforce this as being a sad song, though. I mean, aside from how sad it sounds in general.)

ALSO there’s a beach (and harbour) near the city. Let’s get out that ol’ map I miss it.

>Ink in vein across the page now run from morning dew
‘Ink in vein across the page’ — The letter that she is about to read has been folded and unfolded many times, that is to say, read many times. Ms Leading often reminisces on the memories, feelings, and experiences of the relationship she is about to again relive, as it occupies a lot of her mind.

‘Run from morning dew’ — Morning dew literally places this as happening in the morning. Metaphorically, it means the dreams of the night are over (’we fall beneath the sea of dreams’), scoured out by the clarity of a stark, crisp morning. The incisive reality of their breakup has struck, smearing the memories of the past (and Ms Leading’s ability to clearly ‘read’ those memories — dissociating). Still, there’s a kind of purity in the image of dewdrops running over the letter (Ms Leading and Hunter’s relationship was scummy but still had good in it (?)), and a dissociated dreaminess in the idea of Ms Leading standing here long enough for the early morning to pass and for the dewdrops to form, and then noticing the letters she held as if she’d never seen them before.

Probably a subtle thing going on here with ‘morning’ dew as a homophone to ‘mourning’ to reinforce the feeling of bereavement that comes with the ending of a cherished relationship, alongside the black sand imagery. If you want to be really oblique you can read it as ‘mourning dew’ to mean tears but yeah that feels like stretching it.

The letter being in a condition where dew will run the ink also gives the image of it being quite old and tattered, but more in the sense of being ‘well-used’ than ‘worn out’. This was not a superficial relationship.

>Hands which chance upon it lead to eyes which strain to read / Hearts which pound from love long overdue
‘Hands which chance upon it’ — More dissociation; we aren’t given a clear view of the character that finds the letter, though she is our narrator. The way she describes finding the letter sounds only half-conscious, as if she were already sitting beside it, then after a while noticed it, and coincidentally reached out to it, ‘what’s this?’.

‘Lead to eyes which strain to read’ — The narrator has to squint to read the text. Literally, it’s because the ink is smeared from the dew. Metaphorically, taking the narrator as Ms Leading, because she’s still dissociated and has to focus for the words and scenes in her memory to even register, though she continues not to place herself as someone actually involved in these scenes, instead finding it more bearable to process these feelings from the distanced perspective of a sympathetic onlooker.

‘Hearts which pound from love long overdue’ — We’re getting the start of some dual meanings here. The ‘hearts’ ostensibly would be Ms Leading and Hunter, and while it’s true to the island imagery that they’d be isolated prior to finding each other, Hunter’s life has truthfully always been full of love. As the passion of the relationship is recounted in the letter, the ‘hearts’ that pound from these loving scenes are more precisely those of Ms Leading depicted in the letter (as she transitions away from her mercenary mindset into one of love — you can envision it as a still heart warming to beat ferociously) and… also Ms Leading, as she reads this!

After all, Ms Leading is the one whose life has had a persistent paucity of love. As she’s dissociated herself enough not to consider herself as the same person described in these letters, she experiences a vicarious fulfilment of her deepest desires, which excites and enraptures her with a deep investment to the story unfolding. The irony is that the person she’s vicariously rooting for, and wishing she could be, is herself, illustrating how her life with Hunter was fundamentally, everything she ever wanted.

>Lips which press together, stifle rhythmic, heavy breaths
Another dual meaning — we simultaneously get the image of Ms Leading and Hunter kissing and having sex, but also of the narrator Ms Leading struggling to keep herself from crying.

>Oh, how she smiles from vicarious love from the one he writes about / She must have been so glad for him to throw it out
‘Smiles from vicarious love from the one he writes about’ — Phrasing is finicky, but the narrator is smiling owing to Ms Leading’s feelings towards Hunter. It’s making the narrator happy to think about how much Ms Leading loves Hunter. Removing the filter of dissociation, it’s Ms Leading wanting to think and feel warm because of how much she loves Hunter, as she goes over those earlier parts of their relationship.

‘She must have been so glad for him to throw it out’ — Super tricky. Taken literally, it’s saying the letter the narrator is reading was written by Hunter (then how is she aware of Ms Leading’s feelings enough to be stanning her?), and was happy to find the letter on the beach — either because she’s thankful to vicariously experience this loving relationship through the letter discarded on the beach, or because the letter was cruel to Ms Leading and it comforts her to know he didn’t send it to her.

Given the narrator finds another letter that is cruel to Ms Leading, and is moved to cry for her at finding it, I’m wobbly about it being the latter, though it is kinda what feels to make the most sense. The ‘letter’, or memory or words or feelings she’s reminiscing on right now are broadly positive, but that read is pretty jarring against the aggressiveness of ‘throw it out’. Whichever way, it mostly sounds like Ms Leading trying to focus on the good times and comfort herself through the grief of losing this relationship. Like she’s convinced herself through dissociation that yeah this letter (being one of the Dear Ms. Leading correspondences, probably the first one?) is mean but Hunter did throw it out (and she knows how Ms Leading felt because she is Ms Leading and understands what Hunter’s alluding to as ‘promises of love’ or ‘make-believing everything was true’ was actually 100% genuine and thinking about how much she loves him is comforting her). Hard line in general.

>Further steps lead to yet another broken bottle / Again, the words contained have bled the page / Whose tears were these which ran the ink?
Uptick in energy here; the dissociation is fading a bit and the emotions involved are getting more intense. Ms Leading continues along the beach and spots another discarded letter, perhaps blown from its initial place, which she is again moved to inspect, albeit more proactively than the first one.

The words here are still smudged — Ms Leading is still hesitant to recollect these exchanges with clarity. This time though, it’s with tears; somebody cried on the final Dear Ms. Leading correspondence, where Hunter henceforth cut all contact with her.

>From whom they poured to make this streak? / Were they his, by chance, from telling her? / Or hers, by chance, from reading it? / They could have been collective / They could have been from someone else
More hints of dissociation; the narrator meticulously considers every single party that could have possibly been moved to tears at the tragic ending of this relationship. She already knows how this letter goes — she’s read it before, and is in denial about it. The exhaustive listing of everyone who could’ve been sad about it sounds like Ms Leading miserably stalling as the dissociation slowly eases.

Probably comforting to think that there are more people than just her who would be torn apart to know Ms Leading and Hunter’s relationship failed. The significance she’s putting on this relationship is so much you’d think they were soulmates.

>Why don’t we see what’s at the bottom? / Why don’t we see what comes next?
You can hear that edge of cynicism again here. Narrator definitely already knows what comes next, but is denying it.

>Oh, how she cries from vicarious pain, from the one he writes about / She must have been so sad for him to throw her out
Aaaand now the whammy hits. Ms Leading is forced to again consider the abject agony of knowing Hunter has left and the relationship that gave her everything she wanted from life is over, though with just enough insulation that she can consider the premise, ‘Hunter and Ms Leading will never be together again’ without totally collapsing. It feels better when she’s crying for someone else; it also feels nice to think there’s someone out there who’d be crying for her. Super lonely line.

>Let’s just say she, she is better / Better off somehow / Let’s just say she, she has never been / Happier than she is now
Still using the framing of being an onlooker, but not really dissociated anymore, Ms Leading authors for herself a slapdash attempt at consolation — something, anything that she could say to help her move on. The track she takes is somewhere between ‘don’t cry because it’s gone, smile because it happened’ and ‘but then she lived happily ever after!’.

It’s nonsense and she knows it; she’s not even really pretending to convince herself. Though it’s true that meeting Hunter has been a fundamentally positive experience for her life, and rekindled her faith in love as a concept, to have briefly acquired exactly what she wanted, and seen hope of escaping the city’s corruption, only to lose it so utterly, probably feels even more torturous than if she never met Hunter at all. But what she experienced with him is too great for her to wish or pretend it never happened, either.

Being practical through her agony, she declines to wallow in pity about it. She can’t get him back. The relationship is over. That’s how it is, so screw it. Mourn the whole thing, pretend it’s fine, and go forward.

Really strong verse.

>We couldn’t fake it, so why even try?
The dissociation completely drops; Ms Leading reveals herself as the narrator. With a sharp bout of cynicism, she concedes the relationship was always doomed and that there’s no point in holding onto it.

>Final Chorus Repetition
Might be a switch to Hunter, sounds like his intonation but could also be just a side effect of Casey getting intense lol. Definitely get the image of him telling himself that Ms Leading is somehow in better straits now than she’s ever been, to clear his conscience of the guilt of abandoning her and shove any worries about her out of his mind, on the conceit that she’ll be fine. Almost as if he’s able to ‘hear’ her telling the world not to worry about her and is picking up the wavelength.

Get a really strong image of Hunter with his bags all packed as he gets on the ship here, too, for some reason.

‘Never been happier than she is now’ — Reprising ‘until we resurface again’ melody from Bitter Suite III. Ms Leading and Hunter’s paths separate from each other, breaking them apart again into two individuals.

>3:42 – 3:57 Oracles on the Delphi Express into The Church & The Dime Transition Reprise
Solidifying the switch from Ms Leading to Hunter’s viewpoint, maybe? We last heard this little tune when Hunter was wandering around the City for the first time, discovering it after getting off the train.

Not sure what it’s representing here specifically though. Maybe just the exploration of a new environment, or a big camera shift, or mirroring Hunter and Ms Leading parting ways with the same melody on which they first encountered each other (Ms Leading leaving the beach?/zooming out of the beach scene to open ocean?).

>3:58 – 4:13 Instrumental
Scene illustration: we’re on the docks, with harbour bells ringing, seagulls squawking, and the waves whispering. Hunter’s ship has departed.

Dear Ms. Leading | Act II | Vital Vessels Vindicate

Dear Ms. Leading

Dear Ms. Leading
Dear Ms. Leading, I hate to tell you that I no longer need your services
The bitter fabricating manufacturer of lust you have been presented as
Doesn’t do a thing for me, I now know your identity
A black widow who tempts her prey with promises of love
If ignorance is bliss, wish I were blissfully ignorant, but I’m not
I’m enlightened now, light has been presented to me
In spite of you

Come now, Ms. Leading, I regret to inform you
I’ve fallen out of lust
It must be so hard to understand
(Oh no, I don’t think so, oh no, I don’t think so)
Did you really think me a fool enough to play along?
Make-believing everything you said was true
Push your pouting lips on other unsuspecting lovers
(Oh no, I don’t think so, oh no, I don’t think so)

Dear Ms. Leading, in response to your response, I’m simply unavailable
I hope you got the message in the message that I sent
(Shame on me for falling for someone so dense)
In different times, I might’ve fooled around for something warm
Something with security
As fleeting as the momentary rapture and the pleasure of
Collapsing in arms so welcoming to others just like me

(Go take another life
Go take another life
Go take another life)

Come now, Ms. Leading, I regret to inform you
I’ve fallen out of lust
It must be so hard to understand
(Oh no, I don’t think so, oh no, I don’t think so)
Did you really think me a fool enough to play along?
And make-believing everything you said was true
Push your pouting lips on other unsuspecting lovers
(Oh no, I don’t think so, oh no, I don’t think so)

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Rather than meet with Ms Leading, Hunter drunkenly writes her an angry letter to cement their break-up. Severing her from his life, he decides to pursue something totally different for his future, and instead looks to joining the military.

What’s in a name?
Dear Ms. Leading. That’s to indicate Hunter’s writing a letter to her, of course, but also parallels with the band’s name overall: ‘The Dear Hunter’.

Going on a tangent for a moment, the Dear Ms. Leading demos are also named for this song (or at least go out of the way to highlight it by sharing its name), it being the ‘lesson’ of the story in those demos. There, it presents a double meaning. The first half of the demo presents Ms Leading as a figure Hunter loves, something endearing — Dear Ms Leading — but the song where the relationship culminates and where that title appears is this one, where he ferociously disavows Ms Leading as a manipulative whore. So the demo title gains the second meaning, essentially, of ‘getting burned by a whore’.

That duality is lost in the Acts, but you can still see the contrast between the title of this song and the overall title of the band as The Dear Hunter. ‘My dear Hunter’ is what Ms Terri called Hunter as a term of affection; now those words have been twisted into one of distance and detachment by Hunter’s confrontation of Ms Leading via letter. This is also where Hunter begins truly straying from the principles Ms Terri taught him — he’s made mistakes in Red Hands, and made the mistake of leaving the Lake at all, but now he’s actively choosing to reject the peaceable option and his own feelings of love.

Another aside, I think you can read ‘The Dear Hunter’ in a literal way and have it fit, that is to say, ‘person who ‘hunts’ ‘dear’’, or in less abstract words ‘someone looking for affection’. (’Traveled all this way just to find love’). While also designating him as someone beloved (by Ms Terri) (and from that love is able to destroy evil). Not sure how much stock I put in that last read I just think it’s neat.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:22 Instrumental
Hunter is in a bar, faced still with the problem of how to respond to Ms Leading’s offer. Unable to come to any solution while sober, he drinks, and as he drinks, his energy becomes more determined and angry. Finally able to make a decision, Hunter takes a pen and begins furiously writing a letter…

The lyrics in this song overall are pretty straightforward, so there’s not too much to comment, aside from a general statement on Hunter’s mental state. He’s trying to deny that he had any investment or affection for Ms Leading, or rather that if he did have any affection, it was for a lie that didn’t exist and so Ms Leading should piss off with her attempts to manipulate him back in. He is very anxious about being manipulated, hurt, and losing control over his life again.

Given that he’s insecure, he is also looking to put himself in a superior position and comfort himself by brutally insulting her, drawing on the same basic destructive/vengeful/fiery energy we saw in Red Hands. It’s far more aggressive and targeted here, as he takes her as a far more actively malevolent figure. By totally dismissing any chance of a future with Ms Leading in this manner, and burning the bridge as thoroughly as he can, he’s able to avoid addressing his pain and commit himself to escaping to a new life entirely, though this aspect is maybe not conscious.

>Dear Ms. Leading, I hate to tell you that I no longer need your services / The bitter fabricating manufacturer of lust you have been presented as / Doesn’t do a thing for me, I now know your identity
Alright, so starting off, Hunter denies wholesale that he ever had a serious investment in Ms Leading. Moreover, he doesn’t care to stay with her anymore, as he has higher standards for himself than cynical, mercenary prostitutes looking to control him with pussy.

>A black widow who tempts her prey with promises of love
Hunter zeroes in on ‘love’ as the thing that enables Ms Leading to control him, indirectly confessing that he did have affection for her and was desperate to see it returned. It also cements, again, that the aspect of her prostitution that upsets Hunter so much is the fundamental idea that she doesn’t care about him, or that she would put his devoted feelings for her on an equivalent or inferior level to the cash and sex she gets from her clients.

His solution to Where The Road Parts, also, is cemented here as an attempt by Ms Leading to reel him back in so she can continue misusing him. I’ll also note his rhetoric for why he’s justified to insult her has changed slightly since Red Hands. Before, he was mad she loved other people — now, he’s accusing that she doesn’t even love the men she cheated on him with, but that she was just maliciously manipulating them for money, which is both somehow closer to the truth and even more totally wrong.

>If ignorance is bliss, wish I were blissfully ignorant, but I’m not / I’m enlightened now, light has been presented to me / In spite of you
Hunter now claims that this experience has painfully shed him of his naive innocence, hence she cannot take advantage of him anymore. The reality is that he’s still very naive, and will only begin to truly lose this naivety in Act III.

Once again, he is also blaming her explicitly for his pain and misfortunes, with the implication that she owes him some kind of atonement.

>Did you really think me a fool enough to play along? / Make-believing everything you said was true / Push your pouting lips on other unsuspecting lovers
Hunter rejects the idea that Ms Leading ever loved him, and insists any claims otherwise were just manipulations, using the fact she never told her of her prostitution as evidence of her untoward motives. Though the fact Ms Leading is a prostitute would be obvious to literally anyone except Hunter, embracing the perspective that she routinely tricks people away from learning so lets him save his ego, and retroactively lessens the sting of his failure in Red Hands.

Note the uptick of anger on ‘fool’ and ‘true’: Hunter feels like an idiot for not figuring things out earlier, and is terrified of confronting the idea that Ms Leading really wasn’t lying about her feelings for him. The drawn-out forlorn tone on ‘lovers’ also suggests than even though Hunter’s saying all this, he is seriously uncomfortable imagining her with someone else after he’s gone.

>1:50 – 1:57 The Procession Drums
Having finished and sent off his letter(s?), Hunter is left with a bit of a conundrum of what to do next. However, he chances upon an ‘out’ — an advertisement for young men like him to join the military, represented by these drums first heard at the end of The Procession (signifying the frustrated resolution to leave his current situation, and preparation to do so). He files an application to join the army.

>Dear Ms. Leading, in response to your response, I’m simply unavailable / I hope you got the message in the message that I sent
Ms Leading has received Hunter’s letter (letters?) and replied to him. However, Hunter doesn’t even read her latest reply, having made up his mind to instead stake himself on the army without problems from his current life affecting him. This doesn’t mean he’ll neglect to get the last word, though, and he writes to assert he will have no further contact with her from this point.

There’s an uptick of energy in this verse, being a little less impotently angry than the ones before it — Hunter has a direction to pursue, now.

>In different times, I might’ve fooled around for something warm / Something with security
Man, he’s really talking like one breakup makes him some wizened old man. I think the fact he does have a new direction without Ms Leading now allows him to confess these genuine vulnerabilities of his, though he dresses them up as if they’re not a big deal/he’s moved past them. But he is fundamentally admitting he glommed onto Ms Leading because she offered him the warmth and stability he desperately needed after the death of Ms Terri.

>As fleeting as the momentary rapture
Again he is indirectly confessing that he’s still looking for comfort and security, but that his experience with Ms Leading has burned him too severely for him to trust her as his pillar again. He wants something safe and permanent.

>and the pleasure of / Collapsing in arms so welcoming to others just like me
‘I fell into her arms’ / ‘she welcomed me in’ — line as a whole is pretty self explanatory, just wanted to bring attention to these callbacks. Hunter’s thinking back on his first encounter with her in Embrace and has grimly realised Ms Leading invited tens or hundreds of people to coitus in the exact same room in the exact same manner, undermining the very reason he fell in love with her, apart from making a general statement on the cheapness of the comforts she offered (and offers to nobodies).

>Go take another life
Interesting contrast with ‘sacrifice another life’ — that was him and Ms Leading resigning to forfeit their possible happy life together, now this is Hunter determining to choose something new. I envision this as Hunter going through the processes to get officially instated in the military, going through the tests, having his application accepted, getting sorted into his regiment, the date of his shipment being secured…

It’s a very turbulent sequence though, isn’t it? Of course, with his new life being one in war as a soldier, there’s inherently going to be a lack of peace, but I think there’s a little more than that. First of all, Hunter isn’t really enthused to be joining the military, and doesn’t even have any particular purpose he wants to achieve there as he did in leaving the Lake, so much as he just wants to get as far away from this life as possible and slam the reset button. He doesn’t sound to particularly have doubts about what he’s doing, but it’s inherently a negative kind of decision where he’s not really showing agency (which is what he’s looking for, control and comfort) so much as throwing himself at whatever new thing he can and being swept up in that course.

Next there’s a double meaning in ‘take another life’ — Hunter is metaphorically killing himself (’I’m a killer / But I was killing myself all along’) by choosing to run from Ms Leading, (remember the Oracles advised that Hunter and Ms Leading staying together was the key to their salvation), and the turbulence of this sequence illustrates the grim destruction of the naive Hunter who came to the city. Not that Hunter isn’t still naive, but his readiness to discard himself for comfier pastures (yes Hunter legitimately thinks running to a war front will be less agonising than staying on the same continent as his ex) is already pretty concerning. This guy’s discomfort tolerance is low. Like, low-low-low-low Low.

There is also the literal element, in that, as a soldier, Hunter will be killing people. Hunter does not realise how terrible of a decision this is yet.

>3:09 – 3:44 Instrumental
Chilled out a bit. Not sure that this signifies anything particularly, but I can read this as him coming up to the day of his deployment, not nervous about it or anything, but knowing he’s going forward now, and soon will not have to think about Ms Leading.

Might be in Oracles, also?

>Final verse repetition
Hunter cements his ultimate rejection of Ms Leading, resolved to try something new.

Where The Road Parts | Act II | Black Sandy Beaches

Where The Road Parts

Where The Road Parts
It’s ironic how I’d fall just to get back up again
A fix to cure this ailing bitter agony
Meet me where the road parts
You remember where we first met
So tongue-in-cheek with stale irony
If it pleases you, it pleases me

Just an innocent call, a telephone call
Just an innocent call

Now, if you were in bloom I’d pluck your petals clean
Although it won’t seem so, I can promise you, my ego’s running me
Then I’d be cold, you were the only one that didn’t fold
But I just broke right down for you in an attempt to gain control
Maybe I’m a waste of time waste of time, waste of time
Sacrifice another life, sacrifice another life

You were the only one that didn’t fold
You were the only one that didn’t fold
You were the only one that didn’t fold
You were the only one that didn’t fold
You were the only one that didn’t fold
You were the only one that didn’t fold

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Left with mixed messages on Hunter’s feelings towards her, Ms Leading invites Hunter discuss the future, or non-future, of their relationship. Though she recognises things are slanting towards a break-up, she is eager to continue with Hunter. Meanwhile, Hunter considers the invitation, but is troubled on how to respond.

What’s in a name?
‘Hunter and Ms Leading break up’, basically. Technically they haven’t yet but the writing is very on the wall.

Ms Leading identifies ‘where the road parts’ as the place where she and Hunter first met, and is waiting there for him, but by the fact he doesn’t show up, he signals to her that he’s not willing to talk through what’s happened.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter? Ms Leading? Both? Really, really hard song to interpret on this front since most of the language carries Ms Leading themes, but the overall tone feels extremely Hunter.

In the end I went crawling back to the Dear Ms. Leading demos to see if that had any hints. Actually let’s pause a moment here to talk about those demos. The Dear Ms. Leading demos are the rough draft of ideas — mostly ones concerning Hunter’s relationship with Ms Leading — that would eventually become the starting point for the story of the Acts, with many of the later songs on Act II coming directly from the demos (Where The Road Parts, Red Hands, Evicted, Dear Ms. Leading, Black Sandy Beaches).

The world of the acts, with the Lake and the City and Ms Terri and TP&P, wasn’t fleshed out yet. From that, neither were the story’s central themes fully developed, and Ms Leading herself is presented as a much more antagonistic and foolish figure than she is in the Acts (and the tone overall is a lot more preachy). There is a complete story, and complete character arcs for both Ms Leading and Hunter however, which roughly goes like this:

Hunter is characterised as ‘innocent’, though he’s really kind of not, owing to him being just a nice guy/good person. He discovers that Ms Leading is a prostitute, but because he’s sensitive and vulnerable, stays with her while informing her that she’s doing herself an indignity by being a prostitute. Despite that advice, she continues doing sex work, and Hunter discovers this (Red Hands). The censure and love (?????!) she receives in Red Hands leads Ms Leading to realise Hunter was right and there’s better options than being a prostitute (Evicted). She decides to have more self-respect by making money through a more legitimate means, and becomes a photographer. This does not work to win Hunter back, however, as he is too wise to her manipulative nature (Dear Ms. Leading). Ms Leading is left to mourn the happiness that could’ve been (Black Sandy Beaches). FIN.

In all, in that story, Ms Leading is the author of her own misfortune because she prioritised money over herself and failed to realise how much Hunter loved her. It’s rough, is the word I’ll use. In the Acts, meanwhile, the one mishandling things is explicitly Hunter, and Ms Leading’s struggle away from a mercenary mindset is portrayed a lot more charitably (actually you’re really rooting for her to finally get out of that mindset/escape the city’s corruption, + she’d be a powerful ally in undoing TP&P. She’s also established to actually love Hunter before he flips at her for not caring about him enough in Red Hands, instead of Red Hands being the turning point of her realising Hunter loves her). So why bring up the demos when what the songs represent changes significantly once rearranged and contextualised in the Acts?

Because Where The Road Parts is the Battesimo Del Fuoco of those demos (first song, in media res, cyclical beginning, theme establishment) and that’s why it’s so hard to read. And over there, ‘you were the only one who didn’t fold’ isn’t ‘you didn’t fold to corruption’, it’s ‘you didn’t give up on me’. And it’s a Hunter line. So what is it here? For Hunter to say ‘you didn’t give up on me’ doesn’t make sense in the Acts, but to say ‘you didn’t fold to corruption’ doesn’t make any sense either. So did the song’s narrator shift in the Acts to be Ms Leading instead, and that’s why it smells Hunter-y? Is this Hunter recounting things Ms Leading has said to him? Is the narrator changing as we flip between Ms Leading waiting for Hunter and Hunter agonising over how to respond to her invitation? Is it both of them talking simultaneously?

I’m opting to say mercy, I have no idea who’s narrating this.

🌲🌲🌲

>It’s ironic how I’d fall just to get back up again / A fix to cure this ailing bitter agony
Alright I need to get the demos out of my head because they’re not relevant to what’s happening here. Not a cyclical beginning song just a good ol’ sequential event: Hunter has rejected Ms Leading on an incorrect basis almost to the point of raping her, but in realising the gravity of his error, is too mortified to face her. When we last left him, he was practically begging Ms Leading to believe him when he said he didn’t mean to hurt her, that yes he still loves her more than anything, and that he’d just been so overwhelmed with emotion he didn’t know what to do.

And it seems his begging worked, because he’s been given a second chance — Ms Leading has reached out to him via telephone, offering to meet him and talk.

These lines can work for either of them: Ms Leading ‘falls’ by being so aggressively rejected, but can get back up because Hunter rescinded the rejection and left room open for her to hope he still loves her enough to speak with her again, so there is maybe a chance they can work this out (the fix).

Hunter falls by losing his illusion of an idealised future with Ms Leading. But just as much as he fell and got back up after losing Ms Terri, tomorrow comes and he has to find something to help him move on and deal with yesterday. Hunter’s idea of a fix is more vague — I’ve seen someone read it as him drinking at a bar, which works enough (the next song is set in a bar, so this sets up the image of him already being there while contemplating Ms Leading’s offer, and the wording parallels with him using opium as a ‘fix’ later). I’m pretty happy to take it as that.

I think it’s also alluding to how his relationship with Ms Leading in itself was a ‘fix’ for the pain of Ms Terri being dead, and now he needs a fix for his fix: something that will take away the pain. (’I keep looking for a quicker fix / But I’m afraid of finding what it is’). In the short term, that would be an indulgence like alcohol, in the long term, that does mean addressing the problems of this relationship, which he proceeds to think about doing over the song.

>Meet me where the road parts / You remember where we first met
This is Ms Leading speaking, or at least, they’re Ms Leading’s words. Some time has passed since she spoke them, too. So this is one or both of them reminiscing on the offer, and hence the possibility of working out the bumps and giving this relationship another chance. Kind of interesting juxtaposition here; to meet where the road parts leans towards a future of a breakup, but the next line focuses Hunter’s attention towards the reasons they got together in the first place, implying a desire to return to that.

Note that ‘where we first met’ is ‘where the road parts’; Ms Leading and Hunter first encountered each other in a space with multiple paths coming off it, which is why I keep visualising the area of the city Ms Leading is in during The Church & The Dime as a square, though it could also probably be like, an intersection.

>So tongue-in-cheek with stale irony
The narrator comments on the manner that Ms Leading has given her offer, being self-deprecating if you take it as Ms Leading, and kind of exhausted if you take it as Hunter…

>If it pleases you, it pleases me
…which was this; these are Ms Leading’s words again. This is how she framed the offer to reconcile things with Hunter: ‘if you want to do it, I’m down.’

This is likely the exact same sentiment, and maybe even the exact same words, she presented to him when they first hooked up, which is where the tongue-in-cheek irony comes from. Back then, this was just the attitude she had to facilitate her work as a prostitute, that being the exact thing that’d led them to have this relationship breakdown in the first place, and the exact thing they’ll have to address if they do see each other again.

We know last time though, Hunter took these words at face value and wound up being burned for them. Reading the subtext, she does want to reconcile, but isn’t certain Hunter will. Either way, the ball’s in his court, and it’s on him to decide whether to take up the offer or just break up. Reconciliation will be difficult, however, and will require facing the mistakes and the extreme expectations he’s made across this relationship. Being that he’s still hurting from Red Hands, he’s hesitant about how to approach this.

>Just an innocent call, a telephone call
Two things going on here. Firstly establishing the manner in which Ms Leading has contacted Hunter to give this offer: by telephone. Some time has passed since Red Hands, and they likely haven’t seen each other in person since then. Hunter recognises that her offer is well-intentioned; Ms Leading hopes this sentiment of vulnerability communicates.

Secondly this characterises Hunter as an ‘innocent call’; Hunter and Ms Leading can look back at how they met, and see that Hunter was just that, naive. Though he’s made a huge mess as of Red Hands, there wasn’t any malice or ill will in his intentions up until then, and he didn’t want to become malicious, either. Hunter probably wants to go back to how things were originally, and seems to recognise that in pursuing Ms Leading he’s fallen into a difficult world he wasn’t ready for. Quite a tone of sadness and pain on this.

>Now, if you were in bloom I’d pluck your petals clean
‘In bloom’ is a phrase that’s so far been exclusively used to reference Ms Terri and Ms Leading — we can figure the speaker here is Hunter. Equally, the way he uses it tends to be describing these women in a state of absolute exaltation and beauty. Basically he is saying that if Ms Leading were a less troubled person, and had actually been more like the persona she presented to him, he would be agonising over ways to stay with her (going full she loves me, she loves me not). He wishes to indulge himself on her positives. I think this might also be a very poetic way of Hunter saying he still wants to bang her? We know, Hunter. But fair enough.

Basically, he wants to accept the call, but is nervous that anything that isn’t sunny might hurt him again.

>Although it won’t seem so, I can promise you, my ego’s running me
Again this line sounds extremely Hunter. ‘It won’t seem so’? Hunter, it’s been quite clear that you got into this mess because your ego got battered. Hell, the reason he’s not accepting the call is because it means he has to admit the city he came to conquer got him in over his head. And he wasn’t smart enough to see the inconsistencies on his own. And he wasn’t stable enough to handing difficulty without snapping. And he messed up and he failed and to be confronted with a reminder of that is excruciating. He’s proud, and immature, and hungry for only good things.

>Then I’d be cold, you were the only one that didn’t fold
Now we do a 180 into Ms Leading territory. I’m going to read this again as Hunter quoting things that Ms Leading has told him. With that view, this suggests that when Ms Leading called him to offer they speak again, Hunter cited to her that he was a selfish prick as reason not to even consider continuing the relationship and probably went on to say that from his side of the relationship, it’s never really been about her, but about what he could gain from her. Ms Leading countered this by saying that if Hunter was really that terrible, she wouldn’t be so happy to be in his company, and notes that he’s the only one who’s ever made her feel this way or treated her like a real person.

It feels kind of weird that Hunter would actually confess all this to Ms Leading though. Maybe he’s just imagining (accurately) the kind of counter-argument she would make, off of things she’s said before?

>But I just broke right down for you in an attempt to gain control
Hunter considers her words and rejects them, instead noting his own poor behaviour and characterising his motives again as selfish. Not sure what he’s referring to specifically as his breakdown — there’s Red Hands obviously, but I think it can be taken more generally as how malleable/invested he became within like two seconds of meeting her to try and get some semblance of order back in his life, which is why he exploded as hard as he did in Red Hands.

I can also read this whole verse as being an active conversation between them (maybe Hunter does meet her where the road parts and this conversation ensues? Or maybe this is the telephone call?) that ends with them parting/hanging up here, but the idea of this basically being Hunter and Ms Leading worrying alone to themselves about whether the relationship’s worth it in general, with the offer of reconciliation sitting on the table, then pivoting into Hunter’s hard rejection in Dear Ms. Leading, feels way more appealing structurally than them having this little waffle moment where they talk to go ‘I suck’ ‘No I suck’. Like it’s one thing to think about your doubts and failures in private, it’s another to comprehensively address them in front of the person you hurt.

>Maybe I’m a waste of time waste of time, waste of time
This is both Hunter and Ms Leading talking. As Hunter has reflected, he’s an absolute prick that only cares about people insofar as they make him feel better about his life. As Ms Leading reflected, she’s a mercenary vampire who tried to hold onto this idea of innocent happiness that she knew was founded on lies. In both cases, they don’t think they’re worth the investment of the other.

>Sacrifice another life, sacrifice another life
Both of them are braced to forfeit the happiness they could have had with each other. They accept the ideal life they both wanted will never happen…

>You were the only one that didn’t fold
But all the same, the sentiment remains: Hunter made Ms Leading happy, and she didn’t leave Hunter. She even still wants to stay with him. Given how ashamed Hunter is of his missteps in Red Hands, and how injured he still is from learning of Ms Leading’s prostitution, this makes knowing where to go next extremely hard. There are still enough positives to make the case that they try again. But is this relationship worth its problems if it’s not going to be perfect? Could they still try to make something that maybe isn’t perfect, but is okay? Is okay really enough?

Can they even do it? Are they even worth it?

Red Hands | Act II | Dear Ms. Leading

Red Hands

Red Hands
Even if you never strayed from me
I’d question your fidelity
There’d always be a shroud of suspicion
And my heart’s a liability
With your hands marooned so freshly red
You’d wrap your lips around my neck
Try and forced to love the thought of me
Simple motions make me ill

Was it bitter when you tossed and turned on his under cover mattress?
Did it feel so good? Hope it felt so good
Don’t know what I’d do if you lost sleep over little old me
He’s so much better, they’re all much better
Take off your sweater, your shoes, and your shirt, and get to work

Maybe this is just a work of art
Scripted players in a play of lust
Hope the end is well worth waiting for
Everything you wished it be

Was it bitter when you tossed and turned on his under cover mattress?
Did it feel so good? Hope it felt so good
Don’t know what I’d do if you lost sleep over little old me
He’s so much better, they’re all much better
Take off your sweater, your shoes, and your shirt and get to work

Oh my god, what have I done?
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on
Oh my god, what have I done?
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on

Because you can’t be caught red handed if you’re not red handed
My darling, I would never say those words to you
I was pulling out my heart so I could pin it to my sleeve
On display for you to see I’m on display
Because you can’t be caught red handed if you’re not red handed
My darling, I would never say those words to you
I was pulling out my heart so I could pin it to my sleeve
On display for you to see I’m on display

(Oh my god, what have I done?
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on
Oh my god, what have I done?
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on)

Because you can’t be caught red handed if you’re not red handed (Oh my god, what have I done?)
My darling, I would never say those words to you (Now, my darling, put your clothes back on)
I was pulling out my heart so I could pin it to my sleeve (Oh my god, what have I done?)
On display for you to see I’m on display (Now, my darling, put your clothes back on)
(Now, my darling, put your clothes back on)

(Oh my god what have I done?
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on
Now, my darling, put your clothes back on)

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Hunter, hurt and furious, lashes out at Ms Leading for neglecting to tell him that she’s been a whore this whole time. Though he soon realises this was rash and takes it back, Hunter feels he’s crossed a line.

What’s in a name?
‘Red Hands’ – from being caught red handed, meaning you’ve done something wrong. Hunter accuses Ms Leading of doing wrong, but then realises he is the one acting poorly. Following the theme of hands from His Hands Matched His Tongue, Red Hands is where Hunter stops acting in line with his intentions or with integrity — the way he responds to Ms Leading here is the domino that bounces him to three more acts worth of wrong decisions.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:12 Instrumental
Right after walking in on Ms Leading with her client, and a very awkward drive to somewhere where he and Ms Leading can speak in private (probably Hunter’s place), Hunter, still numb from hearing Ms Leading’s confession, tries to find the words to start his part of this conversation.

Gives me the vibe of a hospital ward, almost (I think it reminds me of Kettering), they’re not in a hospital of any sort of course but it has that same kind of gentle-but-precarious tone.

>0:13 – 0:28 Instrumental
The words begin to cohere, as Hunter’s energy builds…

>Even if you never strayed from me / I’d question your fidelity / There’d always be a shroud of suspicion
Aaaaaaaaaaaand oh my god Hunter you idiot.

So, Ms Leading has confessed to Hunter that yes, she’s a prostitute, but her relationship with him is genuine. But Hunter, doubtful and generally insecure, is unable to accept her at her word. He cannot imagine her possibly sleeping with other men and not either liking them more, or ultimately not being serious about him.

Which is a fair thing to think when you catch your partner cheating… the problem Hunter’s missing is that Ms Leading isn’t cheating; she is destitute and this is her job. It’s been her job the whole time. They freaking met through her job. And despite what Hunter may think, she loathes everyone else she’s met through it!

Note his tone — he’s not lamenting ‘I’m sorry, I wish it weren’t true but this is hard for me, I won’t be able to trust you again’, he’s very much accusing her already. If there was room for them to find a solution to this dilemma, Hunter has already slammed it straight closed.

>And my heart’s a liability
Alright, now’s time for some self-pity. Hunter’s such a sensitive, loving person, he simply can’t handle the pain of knowing he’s been cheated. He ‘wishes’ ‘he’ ‘could’ trust Ms Leading, and forgive Ms Leading, but the pain… It is too much… how could you…

>With your hands marooned so freshly red / You’d wrap your lips around my neck
He has the image in his mind of her returning from a client, still dirty, only to seduce him with affection and kisses the same way. The thought he’s nothing more to her than another punter, or another man she can exploit with her carnal charm, makes him feel like he’s dying. Same idea goes for him thinking about how he’s investing his honest love into her, and the response she gives back being the exact same one she freely sells to faceless nobodies.

>Try and forced to love the thought of me
Now he’s flatly doubting that Ms Leading even really cares about him at all, and only entered a relationship with him because it was an alternative to getting railed on call. You don’t like me, you like having a boyfriend, Hunter accuses.

>Simple motions make me ill
‘She moved’; those same easy, beautiful motions that transfixed Hunter back in Bitter Suite I now disgust him, because, well… he fell for it. Realising now that he fell for it, a note of bitterness rises…

(Note the air of yearning as he trails off on this line here. He’s crushed.)

>Was it bitter when you tossed and turned on his under cover mattress? / Did it feel so good? Hope it felt so good
DDDDDDDDNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO HUNTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOOOOOOOOP aaaaAAAAAAAAAAUGH

Alright so we’ve graduated from ‘you cheated and I’m hurt, I can’t trust you now’ (fair enough, he didn’t express himself in the nicest way but if it’s going to bother him, it’s going to bother him) to ‘you are a whore, whore’. Struggling to comment on the wordplay here (not that it’s subtle lol) beyond the wall of second-hand cringe (and appreciation for how right the first breakup teenage pettiness here is, Hunter’s like 18 and sheltered) but.

Alright, yes, so of his options forward Hunter has chosen pettiness. The way he’s mocking and taunting Ms Leading here is probably him externalising his own fears and disarming them by belittling a malevolent version of her in these fantasy scenarios when the reality is, she doesn’t like her job and she’s confessed as much to him. He does not feel secure right now and is trying to find some control by damaging her weak points until she’s torn down worse than him. So two birds with one stone, he can mock his genuine fear that she does care more about her clients than him, while legitimately hurting her by hitting the accurate point that yes, she did feel bitter about it and no, it didn’t feel good, and yes, she knows this occupation didn’t give her what she wanted, but…!

The fact Hunter can bring up bitter as a keyword to use against Ms Leading suggests she’s confided her own struggles about how she’s come to be bitter. Bitter is kind of like Ms Leading’s equivalent of Ms Terri and her misery. That’s her word you sneak. All of this is a very low blow.

‘Tossed and turned’ -> emotional turmoil from deceiving hunter, but also the throes of wild fun sex

‘Under cover mattress’ -> undercover = her sneakiness in keeping it hidden, but also literally under the covers since it’s sex. ‘If you cared so much, you wouldn’t have done it.’

‘Did it feel so good?’ -> she’s confessed she’s not proud of it, so it doesn’t feel good, but Hunter is anxious that it’s good enough for her to choose it over him. Hunter, the last thing Ms Leading is thinking about when she’s working is if she likes the sex, she’s too busy making sure the client does. You realise this enough to accurately jab her for it.

‘Are you proud of the choices you’ve made, whore?’, in a nutshell. On this first iteration of the verse the mood is still somewhat subdued, so I imagine he’s saying it without it registering how mean he’s being, and doesn’t think these insults are actually hurting Ms Leading. He’s too busy babying his own ego to be thinking about her.

>Don’t know what I’d do if you lost sleep over little old me
Haha, you funnyman, Hunter! (Genuinely a fun line though lol)

‘Lost sleep’ continues the string of double entendre jibes; mocking the idea of Ms Leading being worried about how Hunter would take the news (which she was, for justified reason, so this stings), and of her perhaps not taking so many jobs because Hunter’s existence was an obstacle impeding her (Hunter’s actual fear, which is stupid).

>He’s so much better, they’re all much better
Hunter explicitly voices his insecurity that he’s not good enough for Ms Leading, and that she must think he’s a boring easy lay sheltered gullible idiot.

>Take off your sweater, your shoes, and your shirt, and get to work
Not much to say, just wanted to highlight it for being a fun line. Carries a kind of bitter resignation that feels like Hunter properly realising that Ms Leading does this as a job, all the time, for money.

>Maybe this is just a work of art / Scripted players in a play of lust
Now Hunter’s getting meta. Or existential? Either way now he’s starting to try and downplay the pain of the cheating by framing the whole relationship as one big joke, not serious or consequential at all, while maintaining that aloof, condescending air where he gets to decide if the emotions involved were love or lust. He’s denying now that he even loved her.

>Hope the end is well worth waiting for / Everything you wished it be
Well Ms Leading, hope you like the punchline. (Hint: the punchline is you. Hunter will rub in how badly she messed up then dump her.)

Carries a feeling of genuine questioning too. Hunter probably hasn’t thought far beyond that and is unsure of what he’ll do once he doesn’t have Ms Leading. (Going by his track record though, the answer is, ‘run to somewhere less painful’.) Same as before, he seems to be figuring whatever he goes towards next can’t be worse than this, but if he does find himself facing misfortune he’s ready to blame that on Ms Leading (he could’ve had a happy ending if she didn’t cheat).

Since these lines are also meta, I read it simultaneously as an invitation to look forward to the climax of Hunter and Ms Leading’s story overall in Act V, while hinting that this is not the ultimate end of things between Ms Leading and Hunter.

>Chorus Repetition
Having conceived that Ms Leading is to blame for the end of Hunter’s happy life, Hunter’s anger ramps up. He’s not just venting to comfort himself now; this time, he’s aiming his energy outwards to attack Ms Leading, taking her as a Jezebel who he’s justified to hurt, humiliate, and punish.

Guess I’ll note here to say, Hunter was using this relationship as a bandaid for his Dead Mom problem. More than just the pain of being cheated on (though it’s still 90% that), Ms Leading’s probably getting hit by the splashover of his earlier resentment for Ms Terri’s suicide, even if that aspect’s not conscious. In general I think Hunter (at this stage) is touchier than most would be about losing relationships, especially when the other person loves him, especially because the other person lied, and that’s part of why he jumps to these extremes so quickly when dealing with Ms Leading here. He’s terrified of losing her too, the idea of her cheating is stressing him, and Hunter being immature when he’s overwhelmed has his emotions set to ‘KNIFE’. (’happiness is a knife / when the world rolls on fire’; ‘the world burns / but still we breathe’).

Fun to have a bit of a power high, isn’t it? Hunter’s really bad at reining himself in once something bumps him into an emotional ‘flow’. He’s just not thinking.

>Repetition: Take off your sweater, your shoes, and your shirt, and get to work
…And this time, this jibe isn’t a jibe, it’s an order. As the ultimate humiliation, Hunter decides to get his revenge and put himself back in control by treating her like what she is: a whore. He throws some money at her, instructs her to strip, and fucks her.

>2:59 – 3:12 Instrumental
…Or, well, the words leave his mouth at least. Given how undramatic this passage is, and that Hunter’s able to even try taking this back, I don’t think things escalate that far before Hunter snaps out of it. (If they do, then bro, Hunter).

Rather, I think it’s more like this: Ms Leading suppresses her anguish and strips, so now Hunter has to properly… do something to turn it into sex, or has to let Ms Leading touch him so she can turn it into sex, and that’s where Hunter realises hey woah he doesn’t want this. I could also imagine that Ms Leading starts crying or is otherwise obviously distressed/not her usual bedroom self during this.

>Oh my god, what have I done? / Now, my darling, put your clothes back on
Hunter snaps out of his vengeful arrogance as the realisation of how terribly he’s hurt Ms Leading hits him. Horrified at himself, and remembering that he loves her, he guides her to get dressed so as to humanise her again, as herself, Ms Leading.

These lines repeat a lot over the rest of the song — Hunter is mortified by his actions and cannot stop thinking about it. He’s always been rather emotionally volatile, and prone to animosity since Ms Terri’s death, but this is the first time that’s ever translated into him trying (doing?) something so unambiguously wicked. This is not what a good person acts like, not how Ms Terri raised him, and moreover, not how he should treat anybody, especially his girlfriend.

Equally, narratively, this is where Hunter crosses the line into no longer being totally innocent. Hence, red hands. It won’t be until Act III that misdeeds like this start becoming routine, so were he to stop and properly address this first error, that would probably course-correct him away from a boatload of trouble. Of course, since forgiving himself for this mistake is something the Oracles advised him to do, he won’t do it. He thinks he’s screwed this relationship irreparably.

>Because you can’t be caught red handed if you’re not red handed
Because Hunter finally realises — Ms Leading wasn’t cheating!!!

Which is she’s been saying, the whole time. She wasn’t lying about the job just being a job. As it follows, others may have had her body, but she was honest when she said her heart belongs only to Hunter. The entire basis for him getting so mad at her that he’d reduce her to meat, without ever pausing to think ‘wait’, was completely unfounded.

Because let’s be clear. Ms Leading’s actions haven’t been spotless, but the thing about her confession that bothered Hunter so much wasn’t that she waited so long to divulge her occupation (the actual wrong thing that she did), it was the prospect that her love wasn’t exclusive to him, that she didn’t care, and that she only kept him around because he was too naive to know better.

What really makes this line hit as hard as it does, though, and what it represents when it’s reprised, is that aspect of empathy for Ms Leading’s situation. It’s not necessarily that Ms Leading has not done anything wrong, but more that her circumstances are such that she couldn’t have reasonably done anything different.

>My darling, I would never say those words to you / I was pulling out my heart so I could pin it to my sleeve / On display for you to see I’m on display
Hunter tries to take back all the terrible things he’s said, scrambling to find some excuse to justify the fact that he did say them. What he settles on is ‘I was trying to be open about how I felt’… which I’m sure is basically true, but there’s a difference between emotional openness and emotional incontinence. Hunter did the latter, getting completely swept up in and carried away by his feelings, to the point of doing things he regrets. Still, his ego’s still far too tender to cope with such a blow as admitting that, so he spins it like it’s some kind of positive. (It’s also more important right now for him to comfort Ms Leading than pontificate on whether he’s a good person — you can still hear him straining to convince himself of what he’s saying, though).

I suppose the last thing to say about Red Hands is that it’s the place where we see one of Hunter’s bigger but less ‘loud’ personality traits on open display — he’s really selfish. I don’t mean that to say, he’s cruel, or uncaring, or exploitative, or cold, but rather to say that he has a strong, automatic drive to consider things in terms of their effect on himself, and from there do what’s most convenient for him. I don’t think that’s an inherently negative thing (it saves his life from the Tank later), but combined with him being reactive and quite sensitive, it does make him prone to impulsively doing or saying things purely to avoid feeling hurt, which in this case manifested as him dumping that pain on someone else, to his shame. Hunter does not seem sure how he can even show his face to Ms Leading, now.

>5:43 – 6:08 Instrumental
The conversation ends, and Ms Leading, dressed again, leaves to go home alone.

Blood of the Rose | Act II | Where The Road Parts

Blood of the Rose

Blood of the Rose
Dance, dance your decay
All the while unknowing that you’re led astray
Sleep, sleep through your woe
While your voice slowly withers and melts away

Sing, sing unto me
The pleasure and the pain
Reveal to me
The reasons my love’s not in vain

Sangre, sangre de la rosa
Sigue en paz sin el pasado
Recé, recé por su alma
Ella morirá en el battesimo del fuego

Sing, sing unto me
The pleasure and the pain
Reveal to me
The reasons my love’s not in vain

The world burns, but still we breathe
The iron chambered heart a sieve
That sifts through honest elegance
And suffers from the wrong defense
The world burns, but still we breathe
The iron chambered heart a sieve
That sifts through honest elegance
And suffers from the wrong defense

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Hunter and Ms Leading’s relationship continues. Hunter comes upon Ms Leading with a client, and learns she is a prostitute.

What’s in a name?
‘Blood of the Rose’ — evocative but hard to grasp, isn’t it? The song as a whole is like that, where you can kinda feel the vibe but don’t have many landmarks to cling to. Our hint from Q&A sessions is ‘Blood of the Rose is about Act V.’; I don’t think that’s true in whole, though, which makes this song extremely hard to read.

Anyway, blood of the rose would be the blood left upon a rose when you touch its thorns. In the context of Hunter and Ms Leading, it represents something going wrong and someone getting pricked. Specifically, this would be Hunter discovering that Ms Leading is a prostitute.

Could have a double meaning in ‘the rose’ being Ms Leading, and ‘the blood of the rose’ foreshadowing her death.

Whose viewpoint?
Hhhhhunter? It’s vague but it’s either him or an omniscient narrator. Maybe him as an omniscient narrator.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:18 Instrumental
So right off this sounds like a tango, a tense and tragic song of more than just love, but romance. Things are not all well between Hunter and Ms Leading, and the friction will soon reveal itself…

>Dance, dance your decay / All the while unknowing that you’re led astray
This line grounds us to Hunter — he was the one who was dancing when we last left him off, and he’s the one being misled in this relationship. Gives me the image of us looking down on Hunter smiling and retrieving Ms Leading from a session with a client, and though she smiles back and he remains oblivious to the truth of the situation, we know exactly what’s going on.

‘Love decays while call girls perform’. I can read this like, Hunter is losing his agency because he’s being fooled by Ms Leading (who obviously isn’t telling him anything about what’s going on), so he doesn’t have the ability to make informed decisions, but it’s probably more like… he’s falling deeper and deeper for Ms Leading and devoting himself more and more to her, so when the revelation comes that she’s not who he thought, it’s going to sting him much worse than it would have otherwise and lead him to react much more rashly, thoughtlessly, and impulsively than if this were somebody he weren’t serious about.

>Sleep, sleep through your woe / While your voice slowly withers and melts away
Hunter is numbing himself to his grief over Ms Terri by pursuing this relationship. Simultaneously, because he’s using this chance to run from his grief instead of address it, he’s straying from his search to find answers to his history and letting himself be lost in that regard. The individual things that make Hunter Hunter are becoming subordinate to him being Ms Leading’s boyfriend, with no particular baggage.

Double entendre with sleep, since he’s literally sleeping with Ms Leading, still.

I can also read this line as referencing Ms Leading, but the song generally feels more readable when taking the subject as Hunter, so that’s how I’ll go.

>Sing, sing unto me / The pleasure and the pain / Reveal to me / The reasons my love’s not in vain
‘Sing’ has so far been used as a shorthand, or command, for the progression of the story. This sounds like Hunter, as a semi-omniscient narrator who has realised he’s being misled, asking for the story to continue so that he can understand why he had this relationship with Ms Leading. It wasn’t all a pointless nothing, was it? The purpose wasn’t simply for him to be fooled, hurt, and betrayed, was it?

>Sangre, sangre de la rosa / Sigue en paz sin el pasado / Recé, recé por su alma / Ella morirá en el battesimo del fuego
(Blood, blood of the rose / Follow in peace without the past / Pray, pray for her soul / She will die in a baptism of fire)*

So the purpose of the relationship is revealed to Hunter: he’s to be hurt by this romance so that he can move to discard his whole self, setting into motion act IV. But following that, in act V, Ms Leading will be martyred and die in the fire that Hunter was destined to start — the burning of the Dime. The reason for this relationship is so that Hunter’s fate can be fulfilled and the Dime can be burned.

Ms Leading technically doesn’t die in the fire, though, but that’s splitting some hairs.

Mentally, I think the name for the event of the Dime’s burning is the ‘Baptism of Fire’.

*I don’t speak Spanish, so I don’t trust how I read this, but gave it a shot. Translation yoinked from Genius.

>Chorus Repetition – 2:16 Instrumental
In this repetition, the process of the ‘pleasure and the pain’ is revealed; IE, the moment that Hunter realises Ms Leading is a prostitute occurs.

Ms Leading forgets her scarf in Hunter’s carraige while visiting today’s client, so Hunter helpfully follows her to return it. He is shocked to find her in the midst of sex with another man. The client kicks Hunter out, Ms Leading hastily finishes up, and upon her return, Hunter, struggling to process what he’s seen, asks her to explain herself with the desperate hope that she wasn’t just wilfully cheating on him.

>The world burns, but still we breathe / The iron chambered heart a sieve / That sifts through honest elegance / And suffers from the wrong defense
First iteration of this verse feels broad, more connected to the overarching narrative than this one scene, and in that sense more focused on Hunter. I’m not sure how to read it though, so moving on to the second iteration, where we hear Hunter coming in and growing more angry as he puts the situation together.

With the discovery of Ms Leading’s infidelity, Hunter’s life feels like it has ended. Obviously it hasn’t actually, they’re both still fine, but after investing so much into this relationship, Hunter cannot feel anything but pain, betrayal, anger, and the loss of the happy peaceful future he could’ve had with Ms Leading.

Since both he and Ms Leading can be kind of closed-off, I’m not sure who the iron chambered heart is, but I think it’s Ms Leading… in which case Hunter is saying that Ms Leading has simultaneously been emotionally closed (she told him nothing) and way too romantically loose (she’s slept with tons of men).

‘That sifts though honest elegance’ -> Despite this discovery that Ms Leading is a prostitute, the fact that she’s beautiful and charming is genuine… which in itself is what facilitated her work as a prostitute. If she didn’t have those qualities, she wouldn’t have been all that successful. Really abstract line though, unsure.

‘And suffers from the wrong defense’ -> Ms Leading finally comes clean about her occupation, defending herself by informing that she was only sleeping with this man because it’s her job, and it’s not personal. But, unlike what Ms Leading may have hoped in Evicted, Hunter does not take this news well…

>3:30 – 3:49 Instrumental
I like imagining this as them leaving the client’s house and Hunter flatly inviting Ms Leading into the carriage, for what proceeds to be a really quiet, really awkward drive home where Hunter is struggling to find the right angle to approach the upcoming conversation.

Evicted | Act II | Red Hands

Evicted

Evicted
I have been evicted
From a soul constricted
By the flameless fire
Can we all just go cold?

If you need a little cash you sell yourself
To everything
A dollar in exchange for failing hearts
So loudly say

Oh, how I surely know that frame of mind
Sleeping softly curbside
Comfortably abroad on a stolen ticket
None of this will last, all of this will pass
When bed sheets are broken glass
I know your hearts will skip a beat in empathy

If you need a little cash you sell yourself
To everything
A dollar in exchange for failing hearts
So loudly say

Oh, how I surely know that frame of mind
Sleeping softly curbside
Comfortably abroad on a stolen ticket
None of this will last, all of this will pass
When bed sheets are broken glass
I know your hearts will skip a beat in empathy

It’s just that easy, pick yourself up
And go give the world a great big smile
(Hey, hey, kid, hey, kid, get a job
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, kid, get a job)
Wash your mouth out, ditch those morals
Sleep your way right to, right to the top
(Hey, hey, kid, hey, kid get a job
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, kid, get a job)

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Ms Leading considers the difficult position she’s in — she’s found real affection for Hunter, and wishes to keep their relationship going, but fears it will collapse once he learns she’s a prostitute. She looks back on her life and resents how she’s come to be in her occupation, but also finds herself too poor and desperate to quit.

What’s in a name?
‘Evicted’, aka, ‘Forced out of your comfort zone’. Ms Leading has to adjust to the idea that maybe the world isn’t totally cold, and there could be worth in pursuing happiness in something other than the life she has now.

Whose viewpoint?
Ms Leading.

🌲🌲🌲

>I have been evicted / from a soul constricted / by the flameless fire
Once again we have a dramatic tonal shift as we return to Ms Leading’s gloomy world, though compared to before in The Church and The Dime, things now sound a little more melancholic than cynical. Well, Ms Leading’s life has had a significant change since then — she’s entered a relationship with somebody who loves her, and who has shown sincere care for her.

‘I have been evicted from a soul constricted by the flameless fire’. ‘Flameless fire’ is the feeling of anger and boiling contempt Ms Leading held toward the world back in the Church and the Dime, a mindset that she’s had for so long that it’s become her default approach to life. In other words you could call it her ‘home’. That she’s been evicted from it means she’s been forced to separate from it; she bemoaned in the Church and the Dime that the world is exploitative and that love has become sparse, but Hunter’s innocent affection has rattled that view.

She’s been enjoying her time with Hunter, accepts that he genuinely loves her, and knows that his investment towards her has zero ulterior motives — he seriously just likes her. That she says her soul was ‘constricted’ before her relationship with him is her confessing that the spiteful, cynical manner she regarded the world with before was making her distrustful, miserable, and hopeless. She could not see her life improving in any meaningful way from what it was. Now, despite herself, she is beginning to feel happy, hopeful, and excited at the prospect of a future with Hunter — or hell, even a current with Hunter. He just makes her happy.

‘By the flameless fire’ -> Since she’s been evicted from the flameless fire, we can figure that what she has now is a ‘fire with the flame’ or a ‘fireless flame’. Either way, there is a small but powerful light that partially severs Ms Leading from the City’s corruption, which Hunter has ignited inside her. It’s this flame driving the shift in Ms Leading’s worldview. She’s fallen in love with Hunter.

Narratively speaking, Ms Leading now ‘holds’ the flame.

>Can we all just go cold?
But, though Ms Leading recognises herself invested in this relationship, she’s reluctant to surrender her caution and chance herself on this love. Things would be much easier if Hunter were the same as any other client, somebody who doesn’t really care about her, so somebody she could dismiss. She knows he’s not, and she’s glad he’s not, but she can’t help being suspicious. Her newfound warmth and love is overriding her doubts, but they linger, and it’s frustrating her to see herself change like this.

Because, after all, there’s no way this relationship can work.

I envision this verse as her in her room after a fun day out with Hunter, blanket balled in her hands, finally forced to recognise that there might be something to this relationship.

>If you need a little cash you sell yourself / To everything / A dollar in exchange for failing hearts / So loudly say
Ms Leading recovers some of her usual edge as she reflects upon how she got here and what has made her so cynical.

Ms Leading views the world as mercenary in large part because she is mercenary: she’s given up any kind of principle, hope, or aspiration she had to instead entertain punters she loathes because flat-out, she really needs money. The world enabled this with corrupt actors as TP&P and the Dime’s clients, but ultimately she did decide to throw whatever other options she had away for those prostitution bucks.

Equally, she finds that love is rare because she’s in an occupation that presupposes there’s no real love. That is, to get the satisfaction of a lover without the commitment or responsibility is the appeal of a prostitute, so just as much as Ms Leading has enabled the withering of her clients’ relationships, she’s allowed herself to lose faith in love because she’s associated it so deeply with monetary transactions. If she finds love is cheap, it’s because she sold it for cheap.

We can figure that she isn’t charging Hunter for any of their bedroom liaisons.

>Oh, how I surely know that frame of mind / Sleeping softly curbside / Comfortably abroad on a stolen ticket
Though Ms Leading’s reflection of her choices and circumstances sounds accusatory, she can certainly empathise with how she got there, with a glimpse into her own past.

Ms Leading was homeless, living on the street, after illegally immigrating to the country where the story takes place (USA?) aboard a ship. Though it’s unclear what her life was like in her old country, she certainly seemed to have hopes of finding something better, or maybe safer, for herself in America. It also sounds like her initial time spent homeless wasn’t as oppressive towards her as the Dime is, or was somehow familiar; it was certainly not ideal, but not enough to make her bitter.

This makes Ms Leading another character who ended one life for another, and opens the possibility of her adopting a fake name (that of the person whose ticket she stole) to use to reinvent herself in America. I’m doubtful she did, though, because we never see her focus on her identity as a major thing, but it’s neat to see her as fitting in the death/rebirth cycle of new lives, personal reinventions, etc.

But the big takeaway from all this: Ms Leading was penniless when she came to the City, with no friends or contacts or guidance to help navigate her in this new world, having left everything behind.

>None of this will last, all of this will pass
This sounds like Ms Leading breaking out of her reminiscing to urge herself not to invest too much into Hunter; she is warning herself the relationship will fail as much as her new life overseas failed. She isn’t the rich cheery socialite Hunter thinks she is; she’s a bitter prostitute desperate for money, and once he realises who and what she really is, he’ll realise that she deceived him and leave her.

I can also read this as her mindset towards joining the Dime. She wasn’t massively keen to, but figured she wouldn’t be staying there long. Well, it didn’t work out like that.

I get the feeling this is an attitude she’s had towards a lot of things in general — her circumstances won’t last, so don’t get attached to them.

>When bed sheets are broken glass / I know your hearts will skip a beat in empathy
Continuing from the read of her expecting herself to leave the Dime quickly — she had the rather calculating thought that one of her clients would take pity on her situation sooner or later, and love her so much that they’d get her out of there. This didn’t happen. More generally, too, she expected to receive a lot more sympathy than she did for being so poor she had to resort to this.

This is definitely a thought she had around the time she joined the Dime, but it sounds like she’s repeating it to herself in denial in reference to Hunter despite knowing this isn’t how things worked out: maybe, when the truth comes out, Hunter will be understanding…?

>It’s just that easy, pick yourself up / And go give the world a great big smile / Wash your mouth out, ditch those morals / Sleep your way right to, right to the top
Aaaand there’s the moneyshot. How on earth did Ms Leading come up with such a strange, manipulative, and mercenary plan, whereby she’d get herself off the street and become independent by becoming such a compelling prostitute, everyone would fall in love with her?

The answer is that she didn’t. The Pimp came upon her, saw her vulnerable situation, and tempted her to think that prostitution would make her powerful, independent, well-loved, and rich. If she was lonely, many men would come to adore her, and if she was wanting for shelter or food, she’d have more than finances enough for that. She could absolutely succeed in the City — she just had to clean herself up, put on a good face, and be willing to manipulate men ruthlessly.

But of course, that never happened. Nobody fell in love with her, nobody pitied her, nobody really cared about her. ‘Her history is left behind’. She was only one of many interchangeable hookers. But now she was deep in it, and she wasn’t wealthy enough to change jobs. Moreover, she’d come to doubt that there was any point in trying for anything else. The world was cold and the people were ugly. Ms Leading, too, had probably let herself become rather ugly in how coldly she used people’s hearts.

As she looks back on all those amazing possibilities she thought she’d get through this work, she angrily curses herself for being so foolish, and the Pimp for being so slimy.

>(Hey, hey, kid, hey, kid, get a job Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, kid, get a job)
Driving in that this was the Pimp’s pitch to hire her, knowing she was desperate for work and somewhere to go. Also note that unlike Ms Terri, Ms Leading probably met TP&P in his Pimp guise rather than his Priest guise first.

>2:56 – 3:12 Instrumental
But her anger soon subsides as she clears her mind and sets to her day, having something to genuinely look forward to…

>3:13 – 3:45 Instrumental
…Ms Leading feels herself becoming more determined, and more sure, that this relationship with Hunter is bringing her happiness, and that she shouldn’t cast him aside.

Smiling Swine | Act II | Blood of the Rose

Smiling Swine

Smiling Swine
I woke alone, put on my coat, ran for the door
Down the stairs, and made it to the second floor
Stopped by the squeaky wheel, a smiling swine
Stunned by the sight and fearing what’s behind

“Hey there,” he pleasantly began
“Good day,” he telescoped his hand
“Is there a service I can possibly propose?
Ms. Leading seems to me to be a proper butterfly”
“Then I suggest you pack your bags and learn to drive”

Tucked in my shirt, and finally made my way outside
He broke the scene, a Machiavellian dandelion
Blissfully plucked from the bloom of another

But all the while
She was still fresh in my mind
And though this might be premature
But ambition strikes just when the mood is right
The mood is right

Now all the while, now all the while
She is still fresh in my mind, she’s fresh in my mind
And though it might sound premature
But ambition strikes just when the mood is right
The mood is right
Oh

Now all the while, now all the while
She is still stuck in my mind, she’s stuck in my mind
And though it might sound premature, oh
But ambition strikes me when the mood is right, the mood is right
And the mood is right, the mood is right
Oh

Now all the while, now all the while
She is still stuck in my mind, she’s stuck in my mind
And though it might sound premature
But ambition strikes me when the mood is right, the mood is right
And the mood is right, oh

Now all the while, now all the while
She is still stuck in my mind, still stuck in my mind
And though it might sound premature, oh
But ambition strikes me when the mood is right, when the mood is right
And the mood is right, and the mood is right

Now all the while, now all the while
She is still stuck in my mind, she’s stuck in my mind
And though it might sound premature, oh
But ambition strikes me when the mood is right, when the mood is right
And the mood is right
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight
One, two, three, four
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight
One, two, three, four
One, two, three, four

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Hunter wakes up in Ms Leading’s room the morning after, but Ms Leading is absent. As he goes to depart the Dime, he is intercepted by the Pimp, who offers Hunter a job as Ms Leading’s chauffeur. Understanding that this will help him remain close to Ms Leading, Hunter accepts the job and pursues a relationship with her.

What’s in a name?
‘Smiling Swine’ — this is the Pimp, who happily takes advantage of Hunter’s attachment to Ms Leading. Hunter’s head is in the clouds through this whole song, but the image of the Pimp grinning grounds us, the audience, with the reality that things are not wonderful.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:12 Instrumental
It’s the morning (day? I get the feeling Hunter slept in) after, and we’re still in Ms Leading’s room at the Dime! Daylight is shining in through the window, rousing Hunter…

>I woke alone, put on my coat, ran for the door / Down the stairs, and made it to the second floor
Hunter wakes up, still in a wonderful mood after his night with Ms Leading. She’s not here, though, and Hunter runs, eager to find where she’s gone.

We get some more description of the building of the Dime — it has at least three stories, and Ms Leading’s room is on the third or higher. Pretty big place.

>Stopped by the squeaky wheel, a smiling swine / Stunned by the sight and fearing what’s behind
On his way down, Hunter encounters something that takes him aback for how wrong and strange it is — a man in a pig mask, smiling. This is TP&P, wearing the mask that cloaks his identity when he is in his Pimp guise. That he’s chosen a pig for his face says he’s aware of his own greed and proud to celebrate it. He might also be literally overweight? Unsure on that.

Anyway, seeing him stuns Hunter. He is instantly put on guard, sensing that this is not a good character. Reprise of this line from 1878 works to convey what Hunter’s feeling, but also reminds that the darkness Hunter feared back then, and the antagonist of this story, is right here in front of him.

>”Hey there,” he pleasantly began / “Good day,” he telescoped his hand
And there goes TP&P, being all welcoming and friendly, this time, to Hunter. Mostly wanted to isolate this line to say how much I love the verb choice of ‘telescoped’ here.

>”Is there a service I can possibly propose?” / “Ms. Leading seems to me to be a proper butterfly”
The Pimp asks Hunter if he needs help with anything, since he seems lost. Hunter responds that he’s looking for Ms Leading, who he figures to be an upper-class socialite given how busy she is visiting people, and now that he has overslept and missed her, he is unsure how to find time with her again.

Interesting that the Pimp is here to intercept Hunter with the upcoming offer — it seems he knew in advance that Hunter had become so attached to Ms Leading, and also knew that Hunter hadn’t realised Ms Leading is a prostitute. I can imagine him sussing this out with good intuition just by talking to Hunter in this hallway, but I wonder if Ms Leading told the Pimp anything (or even was the one to give him the ‘hire a driver’ idea? Either way she left this guy in her room overnight) before she left for work.

>”Then I suggest you pack your bags and learn to drive”
Hunter is troubled to learn of Ms Leading’s busy schedule, but the Pimp assures Hunter he can still find time to see Ms Leading — a lot of it — if he accepts a job as Ms Leading’s chauffeur. This investment works fine for the Pimp, since the quicker Ms Leading can get to an appointment, the more appointments she can have in a day.

He can probably also smell Hunter’s naivety and see that he’s easily manipulated, which appeals in TP&P’s workforce. Hey hey hey kid, hey kid, get a job.

>Tucked in my shirt, and finally made my way outside
Self-explanatory, just including it to note…

>He broke the scene, a Machiavellian dandelion / Blissfully plucked from the bloom of another
…that the Pimp joined Hunter and chatted with him all along the walk downstairs and out of the Dime. Whatever dialogue ensued, it seems it was enough to give Hunter an accurate read of the Pimp’s character: charming, but invasive, manipulative, and mercenary.

‘Machiavellian dandelion’ is an incredible line, wow. Physically, it gives the image of how smoothly he departs Hunter, as if whisked away on the wind. Symbolically, it’s a great description of what he is to Hunter: a fanciful but pernicious weed, shoving himself in Hunter’s life because of his relationship with Ms Leading.

Either way, there’s definitely reason to doubt any job offered by this man, and Hunter does pause to consider before…

>But all the while / She was still fresh in my mind / And though this might be premature / But ambition strikes just when the mood is right / The mood is right
…nope nevermind, he doesn’t do that at all actually. Hunter’s infatuation with Ms Leading, and desire to be with her more, pushes whatever wariness he had aside and he signs up for the job immediately.

This happy chorus repeats incessantly — both showing how fixated Hunter is on Ms Leading, but also works as a kind of montage of him going through all these steps to get hired and transition into a life as Ms Leading’s driver. Accepting the job, getting his license, his first day of work, his first paycheck, getting his own place, going official with Ms Leading, dating, falling into the routine of it, etc etc etc, all the while overjoyed that he gets to spend this time with Ms Leading. He’s deeply in love with her.

>2:19 – 3:05 Instrumental
Man, listen to him floating on cloud nine. This might be him reuniting with Ms Leading as her driver, and/or them deciding to make themselves official (and/or another night together)?

>One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…
Hunter’s dancing, now! Though he’s putting a lot into it, being genuine, and enjoying himself, this is our reminder that Hunter’s efforts amount to a futile performance that inherently conflicts with its stated goal. That is, we know that Ms Leading is a prostitute, and Hunter is facilitating her work as a prostitute, while Hunter doesn’t, and there’s going to be inevitable problems with this happy life as Ms Leading’s lover once the reality of her job comes to the fore.

At some point over these repetitions, Hunter and Ms Leading properly become boyfriend and girlfriend, with Hunter under the impression that he’s Ms Leading’s single dedicated partner.

Bitter Suite III: Embrace | Act II | Evicted

The Bitter Suite III: Embrace

The Bitter Suite III: Embrace
Darkness, hesitation
I fell into her arms
Breathe in, this is amazing
Breathe out, this is amazing
She removed her clothes, and all of the world shined
Now that we’re alone, all of the world shines

First hot breath, then cold hands
Intrusion, but aware
The fire inside was all light, and she bloomed
And I never knew life could ever be this good
The distant sighs, the clothes on the floor
The bedding a mess, she sings for more

We fall beneath the sea in the back of our hearts
And fail to breathe until we resurface again

She had the summer’s smile with winter’s skin
And all along, with words beyond me, she welcomed me in

We fall beneath the sea in the back of our hearts
And fail to breathe until we resurface
We fall beneath the sea in the back of our hearts
And fail to breathe until we resurface again

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
In Ms Leading’s room at the Dime, Hunter and Ms Leading have sex. Being Hunter’s first time, the experience leaves him euphoric, and he falls in love with Ms Leading.

What’s in a name?
It’s some intense cuddles.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>Darkness, hesitation / I fell into her arms
Most of the lyrics here are pretty self explanatory about what’s going on, to the point that trying to un-lyric them into a flat description of what’s happening makes this intimate moment turn into some raunchy plain ol’ coitus (my voice here doesn’t help), but. I continue.

Hunter and Ms Leading are in Ms Leading’s room now, the lights low. Ms Leading has guided Hunter to tumble upon the bed, where they are now, with Hunter over her. He’s hesitating, but…

>Breathe in, this is amazing / Breathe out, this is amazing
‘Breathe in / Breathe out’ has been established as a sex motif; here I read it as Hunter’s strokes literally in and out, very even and slow. Hunter’s still discovering what this sex business is all about but so far it’s incredible, presently casting out all the doom and gloom Hunter’s been dealing with up to meeting Ms Leading.

>She removed her clothes, and all of the world shined / Now that we’re alone, all of the world shines
Hunter recounts how he came to be in this situation: Ms Leading removed her clothes! Gosh. Hunter was not expecting it, but he’s happy she did. Very happy. Maybe overselling how much of a momentous thing this was, type of happy.

You get a sense of how innocent Hunter is by his reverence for this first experience of sex. He’s especially glad to be having it with this nice lady, Ms Leading, specifically.

>First hot breath, then cold hands
Hot breath from Ms Leading’s summer smile, cold hands from her winter skin, both on Hunter’s body. The rhythm here picks up a bit, and Hunter sounds more confident in how to proceed with what’s going on.

>Intrusion, but aware
He goes inside her. You think this could be uncomfortable, or objectionable, but she’s happy with it and welcomes it, turning this into an intimate thing. She’ll let him intrude, like this…!

>The fire inside was all light, and she bloomed
‘Magnify and maximise your inner fire’. I guess the Pimp wasn’t lying for once. Well, being fair, Hunter’s been marked with ‘the fire’ since birth, and it happens that Ms Leading works to ignite that fire into its brightest form: a euphoric, happy fire that is not damaging, but nourished as a beacon of love. Kind of a hokey way to phrase that, but fundamentally this is a ‘bright’ or ‘light’, happy form of the Fire. That it’s being invoked here is our reminder that the core of Hunter’s character was/is founded on love, the selfless love of Ms Terri, and convey that Hunter is approaching Ms Leading with that kind of familiar love.

In response to this warmth emanating from Hunter, Ms Leading ‘blooms’ — you can question how accurate of a narrator Hunter is right here, and how reliable Ms Leading’s actions in the bedroom are as a marker of her real feelings, but I think there is some sincerity in Ms Leading’s reaction to Hunter’s approach.

>The bedding a mess, she sings for more
The pair have been going at it and move to ramp it up further. “More, more, more, more!” goes Ms Leading… not sure I’d call that singing, but however you want to say it went, Hunter. She’s encouraging him (as a good prostitute might), and he obliges.

>We fall beneath the sea in the back of our hearts / And fail to breathe until we resurface again
Interesting lines. Basically, conveying that the sex that happens here isn’t aggressive or exploitative in the way Ms Leading is used to, but carries them both in such a great tide, that they collaboratively become immersed in the intimacy of the act. Proper love-making, as it were. The boundaries between them disappear for a moment, and in that moment they’re one, drowning in genuine love.

Rather, the genuine love’s coming from Hunter’s end, and Ms Leading’s riding and getting to feel it. (Though in turn, I can imagine her responding to a feeling of genuine love with genuine love of her own, since she seems to value love and sees it to be rare. This is also the kind of experience she needs to be selling to her clients, and having Hunter match her wavelength probably catches her off-guard). When they ‘resurface’ (separate back into awareness as their individual selves), she’s left with a flicker of that love still within her chest. Hunter for his part is full-on ‘iloveheriloveheriloveheriloveher’.

>And all along, with words beyond me, she welcomed me in
Hunter still doesn’t really know what Ms Leading was trying to communicate to him, but this time is voicing his appreciation that Ms Leading trusted him to love her in this intimate way, which renders the miscommunication irrelevant.

>4:45 – 5:54 Instrumental
Unsure but interesting — sounds pretty sweet though.

>5:55 – 6:39 Instrumental
Not as sweet, still pretty gentle.

>6:40 – 7:46 Instrumental
Higher energy. Bit with the ‘ooo’s sounds almost prophetic but lol basically for all these verses I’m struggling to envision any specific actions. Hunter falls asleep and Ms Leading leaves the room sometime after they’re done with their business here.

The Bitter Suite I & II: Meeting Ms. Leading/Through The Dime | Act II | Smiling Swine

The Procession

The Procession
The blood, how it paints such a scene
Foul routine, pedigree
Mouth agape, stuttered hands attempt to flail, and finally agree
Her heart ceases its rhythm
Somewhere, trumpets decay
In the front by the well, wishing wishes that deny the stale smell in the hay

There, no one cry
Place these over her eyes
We are broken, alone
We are broken, alone

She’s inanimate; bloodless elegance
Fatal fascination breeds a bloom of misery
Helpless hiding tongues, bathed in revulsion
Here lies unfinished beauty, wilting premature
You can’t be too sure
No, you can’t be too sure

Reserved, always playing the part of a boy left alone
He proceeds to the road beyond the home he’d learned to call his own

She’s inanimate; bloodless elegance
Fatal fascination breeds a bloom of misery
Helpless hiding tongues, bathed in revulsion
Here lies unfinished beauty, wilting premature
You can’t be too sure
No, you can’t be too sure

One life for another

She’s inanimate; bloodless elegance
Fatal fascination breeds a bloom of misery
Helpless hiding tongues, bathed in revulsion
Here lies unfinished beauty, wilting premature
You can’t be too sure
You can’t be too sure

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
Hunter comes upon Ms Terri dying, but can do nothing to save her. The community of the Lake then holds a funeral for Ms Terri, but Hunter remains troubled by her passing. Tormented by Ms Terri’s secrets, he sets out to leave the Lake.

What’s in a name?
‘The Procession’. This is the aftermath of Ms Terri’s death, including Hunter’s reaction and a funeral. That there’s enough people around to hold a funeral procession for Ms Terri suggests there is a community around the Lake.

Whose viewpoint?
Hunter.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:01 – 0:15 Instrumental
Broken out of his routine, Hunter realises something is wrong and rushes to the scene of Ms Terri dying.

>0:15 – 0:32 Instrumental
Through absolute panic, Hunter tries to intervene, but…

This feels like it’s reprised somewhere, but I’m unsure where.

>The blood, how it paints such a scene
Gee, I assert I’ll read things literally and then run into this. The literal read would say that the scene of Ms Terri’s death is bloody, so we could figure she sustained a violent injury.

Metaphorically, which I think this line is more pointing towards, it says that the scene of Ms Terri’s death is graphic. There may not necessarily be blood all over the walls, but what Hunter comes upon here is so traumatising that there may as well be.

Also, with this being the first line from Hunter since act I, note the remarkable change of tone in his voice. Time has passed since act I, of course, and he’s now in his late teens, but sheesh Hunter where’d all that spite come from! Oh is it something to do with your dead mom? Took it pretty hard, didn’t you…

>Foul routine, pedigree
So how did Ms Terri die?

Murder, right? She was afraid in City Escape that pursuers might… well, no. Casey’s gone on the record to say Ms Terri wasn’t murdered, so we can shelve that idea. That TP&P gave her job back without a fuss, too, suggests he doesn’t hold very hard feelings about City Escape.

So what are the other options.

An illness? She conceivably could’ve caught something in her line of work, or had an underlying illness that was never treated, but with her death characterised as graphic and without warning, it likely isn’t something that would progress slowly or that she would have advance warning about. Perhaps a heart attack, or a bad fall could’ve done it…

Or an accident? Extremely possible, but there’s something here that makes me want to instead suggest my favourite pet theory…

…I think it was suicide.

To start, Ms Terri’s always been characterised as someone who struggles with a life of profound ‘misery’. She thinks a lot — ruminates a lot — and is prone to questioning whether what she’s doing is right. She has moral compunctions around prostitution period, and likely has low self esteem. This is without touching the hellishly rough treatment she’s been enduring at the Dime. The strength she had to face this brutality in Inquiry has long faded, such that even Hunter recognised it in His Hands Matched His Tongue. Finally, she’s been suppressing her pain for years, been living dual lives and dual lies for years, to the point it’s been having spillover effects on Hunter. It would not be surprising if Ms Terri had fallen back into depression and flirted with the idea, or simply reached a limit where she couldn’t take it anymore. This also works as an explanation to the appearance of Red Hands in the Death and the Berth.

I can also envision her becoming so depressed or self-loathing that she could rationalise her presence as a ‘stain’ on Hunter’s otherwise pure life, now that he’s old enough to be looking after himself and doesn’t ‘need’ her as an essential provider. How can she keep her lies going when he’s not a little kid anymore?

So consider this line, ‘foul routine, pedigree’. There is some heritable or cyclical element to Ms Terri’s death — how does Hunter die? Well, he commits suicide.

If this reading is right, and both Ms Terri and Hunter’s deaths were suicides, then I also wonder if there was a history of suicide in Ms Terri’s family, too. It would tie in to her references to how miserable her life has seemingly always been. Wouldn’t put too much into that idea but it’s interesting.

I’m going to be going ahead with this reading, warning because if so then it influences a lot of Hunter’s mindset/motives going forward. Particularly, the noticeable edge of contempt and spite Hunter seems to have towards Ms Terri (and himself) while recounting her death now (and thinking about it later) makes a lot of sense if it was a purposeful action. Why mom? How could you do this to us?

I will note though. I could be completely, 100% wrong about this and the read is way more straightforward: she just had a genetic illness. ‘Foul routine’? People from this family die from this illness a lot. ‘Pedigree’? Literally, it’s in their genes. It works to kill off Ms Terri without being too garish. But let me say, the music is garish. Very, aggressively so. THE BLOOOOOD HOW IT PAINTS SUCH A SCEEEENEEE… I call that the stuff reserved for walking in on your mom hanging by a noose in the living room.

>Mouth agape, stuttered hands attempt to flail, and finally agree
Reading the subject as Ms Terri, she is gasping for breath and reaching for something, only for her hands to slump lifeless.

Reading it as Hunter, his jaw drops in paralysed shock, and he reaches to intervene to help Ms Terri, only for him to resign that he’s too late.

>Her heart ceases its rhythm
Hunter is able to recognise the moment she actually dies, so she’s still alive when Hunter comes on the scene. He may be attempting CPR, he might otherwise be touching her body and be able to feel her pulse, he might be able to see her bleeding slow as her heart stops pumping, or to be less literal he may just be able to see the last vestiges of life generally leave her as her body becomes just that, a body.

Note the tenor change — Hunter isn’t thinking about his anger towards her death anymore, but sadness.

>Somewhere, trumpets decay
The joy in Hunter’s life dies with Ms Terri. Hunter is somewhat dissociated as the reality of what’s happened sets in.

>In the front by the well, wishing wishes that deny the stale smell in the hay
Hunter brings Ms Terri’s body to the front of the house and lays it on a bed of hay, begging God or the universe to bring her back to life, or to let her not actually be dead in the first place. Tough luck, Hunter…

Also gives us a bit of detail to Hunter and Ms Terri’s residence: they have a well in the front garden, and hay lying around. Not sure if he’s literally using the well as a wishing well but if he did then that’s rather cute/sad/whimsical. I wonder if he threw a dime in the well first? Kind of darkly funny if so.

>There, no one cry / Place these over her eyes
Trying to console himself through the immediate grief, Hunter falls back into simple routine/tradition as a guide of what to do, quietly cursing his impotence. These lines sound like something someone’s told him in the past, when he was much younger.

>We are broken, alone / We are broken, alone
When did you become a king, Hunter? He’s probably still a bit dissociated, and extending the ‘we’ in a general sense, if not to himself and Ms Terri. Characterising both of them as ‘broken, alone’ would be Hunter conceding some awareness (as in HHMHT) that Ms Terri was a far more troubled person than she wanted him to believe.

Hunter feels absolutely lost in the world now, without anything to cling to. Can envision the ‘camera’ zooming out and tilting, looking down at the scene of Hunter and Ms Terri’s body in the front garden, or of it cutting to him assembled at the funeral procession.

>She’s inanimate; bloodless elegance / Fatal fascination breeds a bloom of misery
Ms Terri’s body has been cleaned and her funeral service proceeds. The image of her beautiful, pristine corpse in the casket sticks with Hunter, being the first time he’s seen her since her death, and the last time he will ever see her.

‘Fatal fascination’ — How come Ms Terri killed herself? Contemplating this thought makes Hunter edge into depression (’bloom of misery’ is a very Ms Terri phrase, and if Ms Terri was prone to depression, it wouldn’t be surprising if Hunter was too. May also be him coming to realise just how depressed Ms Terri was), but he instead channels this pain into anger and action. YEEE-AAH!

>Helpless hiding tongues, bathed in revulsion
Hunter asks people of the Lake why Ms Terri might have killed herself. They know that she was a prostitute, and that circumstances around that were likely the reason, but are reluctant to tell Hunter anything.

>Here lies unfinished beauty, wilting premature
Hunter stands at Ms Terri’s grave, resentfully contemplating her death. Hunter was and is convinced that Ms Terri had a good long life ahead of her, and the fact she’ll never experience the idealised life Hunter envisioned for her angers and depresses him. He may also be feeling a bit snide that the lake people would give her the formality of a proper funeral, eulogies, and headstone, but become disgusted when directly questioned about her.

Likely has a double meaning in ‘lies’ — the woman was full of them, chief of those being her happiness in the weeks or months before the suicide.

Also note how he has no spite towards the idea of Ms Terri being ‘unfinished beauty, wilting premature’ — though he’s touchy and hurt right now, he still adores, idolises, and misses his mom.

>You can’t be too sure / No, you can’t be too sure
Hunter questions if he was a factor in Ms Terri’s death. That is, if there was anything he could have done that would’ve prevented it, or something he should have noticed earlier that would have let him intervene before she was actively dying.

>Reserved, always playing the part of a boy left alone
Slight timeskip. Though Hunter is truly brimming with anger and spite, his outward mannerisms have become quiet, meek, withdrawn, and rather self-pitying. He feels pressured to behave in this way, either to conform to how the Lake people see him, as ‘the poor boy whose mother died’, or to conform to Ms Terri’s implicit desire that he stay in the cabin.

Hunter deeply resents this. Living in this way is emphasising thoughts that he’s been abandoned, that nobody can help him, and that the damage done is irreversible. It is bending his self-concept into something powerless, pitiful, and self-pitying in a way he can’t stand.

>He proceeds to the road beyond the home he’d learned to call his own
Dismissing the possibility of moving past Ms Terri’s death by integrating with the people of the Lake and leaving the matter be, Hunter instead decides the Lake holds nothing for him anymore, and sets out to leave.

‘Learned to call his own’ — Hunter’s awareness that he was not born at the Lake has been rekindled, and more than just find answers (with resentment for the fact Ms Terri never told him anything), he may naively be looking for somewhere where someone as ‘dark’ as him ‘truly’ fits in (or just for something that’ll take the pain away).

>2:27 – 2:33 Instrumental
Reprised somewhere? Main chorus rhythm sped up and isolated. Interesting but not sure what this is. Might just be Hunter being angry and emo, or thinking back and hating his impotence during Ms Terri’s death.

>One life for another
Ms Terri’s death facilitates a new life for Hunter, where he is the one calling the shots. It marks the end of his sheltered childhood and the start of his life as a self-determined man, whose identity will be shaped by his own actions and decisions. Hunter is declaring that he is free to start a new life as himself (and before that, find out who he is).

This cycle of death and rebirth is also a major general theme for the acts, hence why it’s repeated so much, aside from this moment’s extreme personal importance for Hunter. One thing dies, and a new thing can be born.

>Final chorus repetition
Hunter decides his first mission after leaving the Lake will be looking for the answers that Ms Terri never told him — Who am I? Who were you? What brought you to this? Could I have done anything? Why did you hurt me, and choose to leave, without telling me anything?

The Death and The Berth | Act II | The Lake and The River