Question: I don't understand Georgina's fondness for the "Wizard of Oz" series. Was it somehow connected to her being a pathological liar?
Answer: I think it does play a part. She prefers the fantasy worlds to real life. Look when real life happens, or they hear about something... She looks so distraught and unable to really cope. Telling lies lets her create her own reality that she CAN deal with and be happy in with a sense of control.
Answer: I got the impression that she was presented as a "bookworm" (or bibliophile). When Susanna first entered her room, Georgina was reading "The Patchwork of Oz" and had four other books on her bed, plus a notebook with a pen (apparently to take notes for comparison/contrast purposes and/or remember passages). Soon after their introduction, Georgina returned to reading (and ignored her new roommate, for a while). Georgina probably found comfort in reading what might have been her favorite books and reading may have been a way to deal with loneliness, fear, distress, etc. in such an institution. Whether she was obsessed with or fixated on "The Wizard of Oz" series is questionable; having favorite books is not necessarily pathological! But, no, I don't think it was related to pathological lying.
Question: Why did Polly get a panic attack in the middle of the night?
Answer: If you listen to her yelling when they try to subdue her, she yells out "I'm ugly". This is most likely stemming from earlier when Angelina's character makes a comment about Polly never finding love because of the way she looks.
Answer: Polly freaked out because she had seen Suazanna kissing her boyfriend earlier that day. Polly realised that is something she will never have.
Answer: When Suzana's boyfriend came, Polly realised no one will ever love or kiss her.
Question: Why was Daisy keeping the old chicken dinners under her bed?
Answer: It is very common for bulimics, as Daisy was, to be embarrassed by the food they eat. It's only natural for her to want to hide her eating habits. She states that when she gets 5, she has to throw them away. You can imagine the smell of 5 rotting chicken carcasses under your bed after 2 weeks. Her father seemed to be a very powerful man so therefore she has some special treatment and is allowed to indulge a little. As long as she's eating, they'll let her have the chicken.
Question: At Daisy's apartment, when Lisa asked if there was a bathtub upstairs, why did Daisy lie and say no?
Answer: Daisy didn't particularly like or trust Lisa, plus hesitated to let Lisa enter her apartment. (Lisa apologized at the door for "being a bitch.") When Daisy came downstairs from getting blankets and pillows for Lisa and Susanna to sleep in the living room, Lisa was already snooping around the kitchen (looking in the refrigerator and cupboards) and was "making herself at home" by planning on making pancakes. After Daisy told Lisa where the bathroom was, Lisa didn't even need to use it. Daisy told them that she'd come downstairs in the morning when she was ready. Daisy was basically telling Lisa and Susanna that the upstairs was "off-limits" to them. Lisa and Susanna were uninvited "guests" and already invading her personal space - for them to go upstairs into her bedroom or personal bathroom would pose an even greater threat to her privacy and sense of security. Besides, even family members within the same household don't like getting into a dirty bathtub after someone else used it.
Question: In therapy, Susanna says that her parents are having a "Christmas party crisis." What does she mean?
Answer: She thinks that her parents are mostly concerned about their social image. They don't want people to criticize and avoid them, because their daughter is in a mental institution. They are probably wondering what to tell the guests at their next party.
Question: According to the counsellor at Susanna's school, she is the only student who isn't going to college. In the 1960s, wasn't it still common for female students not to attend college? And also young men who came from low-income families? Surely Susanna would not be the only one.
Answer: In that era, college was less common for middle-class females and also males. However, the movie is based on author Susanna Kaysen's memoir. She was raised in an affluent, well-educated New England family and attended private schools. Girls from upper-class society generally attended college. Many attended a women's Ivy League school like Smith, Radcliffe, Wellesley, etc. A prevailing joke was that girls attended college for the "MRS" degree, meaning to find a husband. It was also typical that prominent professional men had educated, refined wives.
Question: Why did Daisy tell Georgina she had two tubs in the apartment but we only saw one, and only heard of one? (00:53:00 - 01:24:10)
Answer: She tells Georgiana, "One bedroom, two baths." In the USA, we typically say "bathroom" even if the room only has a toilet (odd, I know). When talking about buying/renting property, people often shorten the word to "bath," as Daisy does. When talking to Georgiana, she referred to both of the bathrooms/toilets in general - regardless of one not actually having a bathtub in it.
In the US, a bathroom without a tub/shower is called a half-bath. I think it's meant to show she gets things mixed up. She was talking to Susanna when she mentioned one bedroom, two baths, and an eat-in chicken. It's more likely her dad got her a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment (or a "one and a half bathroom") and she switched them around.
Good point. I think she badly wanted to feel superior to the other women, thinking she was different than them and could "get better." She was probably so eager to rave about the apartment and her new chapter in life that she did get the details confused.
Answer: She was walking on top of a snow drift without sinking, due to being so light from starvation.
MoonFaery ★