Hillary and CC's Final Fight, Explained：land of the living

What's really going on

The fight is the film's most honest scene because Hillary stops being noble. She says the thing a dying mother is not supposed to say: 'I'm the one who won't live to see my daughter grow into a woman,' and then the smaller, uglier truth, that she resents how much Victoria prefers CC. CC's reply, 'You're not dead yet, so stop living as if you are,' is meant to be bracing, but it also refuses Hillary the right to grieve. The talk show that follows makes the contrast sharper: asked publicly who CC Bloom is, she hides behind smooth phrases and 'run out of time.' Only at home, when Victoria asks her to braid her hair, does CC stop performing. The chapter moves from the hardest truth to the softest gesture.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Land of the living is a wry phrase for being alive
• Pull out all the stops means hold nothing back
• Run out of time politely ends an overlong talk
• As if you are drops the repeated adjective

発音のポイント

• want it to — Want it flattens the t into a soft d.
• as if you are — As if races by and you are nearly becomes yur.
• First and foremost — The d in first and is usually dropped.