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Act 4, Scene 5
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
Oliver leaves the infirmary and heads to Alexander’s room. Oliver tells Alexander that he wants to stop feeling the pain in his head, and Alexander invites him inside. Alexander doesn’t look very well, and his room is a mess of rolling papers and matches. Neither Oliver nor Alexander knows where James has been going at night lately, but Alexander speculates that he’s getting lost in the role of Edmund. As Oliver watches, Alexander rolls Oliver’s crushed-up pain medication and another powder into a joint and hands it to him. Oliver goes outside to smoke it and slowly starts to go numb. After a while, Meredith comes outside, puts out his joint, kisses him, and brings him inside.
Alexander seems to be struggling, too, and the state of his room suggests that he hasn’t dialed back on his drug usage since his last conversation about it with Oliver. Oliver doesn’t call him out on it, maybe because in this case, he’s going to benefit from Alexander’s stock. But when Meredith comes to find him and puts the joint out, it’s an important point in their relationship: Oliver is typically the one “rescuing” her, but on this night, she’s the one who’s taking care of him.
Themes
