Chapter 17 of 21 · 2'26"
Masha isn't making small talk. Over crystal glasses bought just for the occasion, she tells the man she addresses as "Jer" that she loves him, imagines him on a golf course, and suggests they clear the dinner table and make love right there. It's a confession dressed up as a date.
❝ Monologue · 31 lines Masha's Table-Side Confession
Masha Wants to Be Tina Turner
At home, Masha has the man she adores all to herself. She feels "completely impulsive," offers him wine, shows off crystal glasses she bought for him, recounts daydreams of driving his golf cart, tells him she loves him, and proposes making love on the dinner table. He barely says a word.
Masha has spent so long watching Jerry from a distance that she can't tell devotion from intimacy. She bought crystal glasses "just for you," as if hosting him were a ritual she'd already rehearsed. She pictures him in his bath, worries that "something terrible's gonna happen," and casts him as the partner in golf-course daydreams even though she has never really played. The confession peaks when she says she loves him, then she immediately admits, "I've never told my parents that I love them." She wants to clear the table and make love "right here," but the giveaway is the line about never having anyone over for dinner. Every romantic gesture is really a confession of loneliness.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“I've never even had anybody over for dinner, let alone made love on the table.”
A confession that climbs from dinner guests to intimacy reveals how isolated she really is.
Informal
“I've never told my parents that I love them.”
The quiet admission of an unsaid family truth lands harder than any speech about love.
Neutral
“I wish I was Tina Turner, just dancing through the room.”
Wishing to be a star is really a wish to escape herself, and the dancing image makes it visible.
Informal
“That would blow your mind. It would blow my mind. I've never done anything like that.”
She repeats blow your mind, then blow my mind, confessing she has never done anything like it. Loneliness leaks through the thrill.
Informal
I have so much to tell you. I don't know where to start. I wanna tell you everything about myself, everything you don't know. Do you like these glasses? Crystal. Beautiful. I bought them just for you. There's something about them. Just the simplicity of them. But if you don't like them, if there's even an inkling, even a doubt in your mind... Sometimes during the day I'll just be doing the simplest things. I'll be taking a bath and I'll say to myself: "Heh, I wonder if Jerry's taking a bath right now." And I just hope, you know, you're not drowning or something, heh. I just get really worried about you, like something terrible's gonna happen. And I have these daydreams that I'm out with you at the golf course... ...driving your cart, just driving around. "You need a putter, Jer?" You know? Heh-heh-heh. "Need an iron?" I don't even know how to play golf. I played with my parents once, my dad, but... I love you. I've never told my parents that I love them. They never told me they loved me either, which was fine with me. But I love you. Want some wine? No? Okay. I'm not in the mood to drink either though. But I'm sure in the mood to be alone with you. Why don't we just clear off the table? I was thinking why don't we go upstairs, but that's so predictable. Let's just take everything off the table and do it right here. That would blow your mind. It would blow my mind. I've never done anything like that. I've never even had anybody over for dinner, let alone made love on the table. But I just wanna do that. I just wanna dance. I just wanna, like, put on some Shirelles. I wanna be black. Wouldn't that be insane? God. You know who I wish I was tonight? I wish I was Tina Turner, just dancing through the room.
Up next · 18authorized personnelThe scene: Rupert Bluffs His Way Into the StudioShe never asks him anything. She narrates her daydreams, offers him wine, and says "I love you" without waiting for a reply, so the scene reads as one-sided. Whether she believes it or simply needs to say it out loud is left open.
She says she never told her parents she loved them, and that they never said it to her either. It explains why telling Jerry matters so much: she has found, at last, someone she can say it to.
A 1960s American girl group behind hits like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow." Masha reaching for their records signals the warm, romantic evening she is trying to conjure.
She calls upstairs "so predictable." The table is her way of turning a routine hookup into something that would "blow your mind" — a first she can claim, rather than the safe, obvious move.
