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Act 3, Prologue
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If We Were Villains, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate vs. Free Will
Identity and Disguise
Love and Sexuality
Theatre and Corruption
Summary
Analysis
In 1997, the six fourth-years see Richard convulsing in the water. Immediately after he realizes that he’s alive, James starts to run down the dock. Oliver runs after him and tackles him down, worried that he’ll jump in the water and Richard will kill him. Oliver pulls him back from the edge, and Alexander tells the group to stop panicking and think. Filippa and Meredith theorize that a drunk Richard hit his head and fell into the water. James is still frantic, wanting to help Richard—but Alexander tells him that he needs to think it through. Is helping Richard the best choice, after how he’s hurt them all?
When James jumps into action and tries to save Richard, it’s one of his last actions as the “hero” archetype. He’s clinging to his sense of self, but the group won’t let him be Richard’s savior. Alexander’s words are reasonable but cold—they’re the sentiments of a conspirator, like the one he just played in Julius Caesar. It sounds rational to urge his friends to stop and think, but when Richard is dying in front of them, is it really so rational to stand back and do nothing to intervene?
Themes
Richard has been violent with all of them—even Wren, whom he threw across the yard in a violent fit just before he stormed out of the party. Alexander reminds them of how he’d raged against Oliver outside of Meredith’s door and tells him, “If [Richard] wasn’t in the water right now, you would be.” Silently, the group comes to terms with the fact that they were relieved when they thought Richard was dead. James still protests, but Oliver and Meredith quietly urge him to let Richard die. James asks Wren, and when she nods, he finally agrees. Oliver feels comfort in their collective resolve. Richard’s hand opens and closes, and then he becomes still.
Although Oliver didn’t see it unfold, this account completes Richard’s string of violence: finally, he’s physically hurt and bruised every single one of his friends, even his gentle cousin. Alexander frames the situation as life or death, and although it’s a false dichotomy, the threat that Richard poses to them is still very real. They all remember how easily Richard seemed able to kill on Halloween.
Themes
The group tries to decide what they’re going to tell the police. Oliver downplays the necessity of an alibi, saying “it’s not like one of us did this,” which Filippa agrees with. But the others point out that it’s suspicious for them to not know where they were and not have a reason why they didn’t follow Richard after he stormed off. When James points out that Meredith also needs to stay quiet about her fight with Richard and sex with Oliver, Oliver feels a pain in his chest. The group finally agrees to say as little as possible, and nothing at all about what happened with Richard leading up to that night. They wonder if Richard is really dead, since they want to be sure he is before they call the police. Meredith volunteers to make sure, but Oliver takes her place. He enters the water.
It doesn’t even occur to Oliver that his friends might be capable of killing Richard—even when the six of them have just collectively decided to let him die, which amounts to the same thing. The pain Oliver feels implies that he already cares about Meredith enough to want to be open about their relationship, although the fact that James is the one urging them to keep it quiet also opens the possibility that Oliver is struggling with seeing James’s negative reaction to him and Meredith together. Oliver’s consent to verify Richard’s death in Meredith’s place is another sign of his growing affection for her, and it’s brave, even “heroic”—if Richard isn’t dead, he could drown Oliver.
Themes
