One More Thing

There was so much about UTV that was left unsaid. Last night as I reposed all snuggly and wine-buzzed beneath my soft blue blankie waiting on the Slumberland Express (Choo! Choo!) I thought, "Jesus, we didn't even mention the fact that the Consul blew up at Yvonne and Hugh at the Café Ofélia!"

Prepare thyself for a barely coherent rambling.

OK - so here goes: In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, being aware of Polonius' shenanigans (which were to exploit his own daughter, Ophelia, to show King Claudius why Hamlet’s acting funny), convinces Ophelia that he's actually crazy, kinda unintentionally, or at least that wasn't his primary intent, which was for Claudius to think him crazy. Ophelia gets real sad, because she kinda digs on Hamlet and vice versa. Then Hamlet kills Ophelia's dad (oops!), thinking he's killing Claudius (who killed Hamlet’s own dad, who was king before Claudius) and Ophelia goes bonkers-for-reals and drowns herself. It was at her funeral that Hamlet finds Yorick's skull, which was his connection to a time of innocence and boyhood, before he became obsessed with revenge. And in the end everyone is dead.

Remember in that Kevin Kline movie Soapdish when Kevin’s character starts talking about a one-man production of Hamlet? That it’s all in his head? Well, it’s kinda like that – but not exactly. See, the Consul, being drunk and proud and ashamed and in love all at once, misallocates his emotions, shall we say, and, since blind drunk, is both Polonius and Hamlet (father and lover to Ophelia, right?), and he’s maybe King Hamlet too, who is Prince Hamlet’s father who haunts the young Hamlet and tells him to avenge his murder (or at least, as they are both the victim - the ones in need of vengence. The difference being that the Consul wants revenge for wrongs done to himself.). The Consul, being aware of Yvonne’s shenanigans, convinces Yvonne that he is crazy (incuarbly drunk. No return to the good ole days), as revenge for her indiscretions. (Or, at the Ofelia, was the Consul really trying to punish Hugh, and Yvonne was a consequence, as Hamlet was trying to fool Claudius, and Ophelia was the consequence?) Anyway, playing the part to a fault, the Consul then goes to the Farolito and finds Yvonne’s letters (Yorick's skull) that represent a time before he became obsessed by his own cuckoldry and Yvonne’s infidelities (with his half-brother no less – incestuous as Hamlet’s mom taking with Claudius after King Hamlet’s murder!). At the Farolito the Consul also gets Yvonne’s father figure and lover (himself) killed. Yvonne gets frantic, convinced that the Consul’s crazy, drunk and doomed, and then dies under-hoof (The horse is not thirsty!), as Hugh (Claudius) is by her side.

See, Hamlet was accidentally the cause of the deaths of both his mom (by the poisoned goblet (mescal – the extra drink Hugh and Yvonne had in honor of the Consul on their way to the Farolito; without that drink they could have saved the Consul’s life)) and Ophelia. Mom and Ophelia are the only people in Hamlet’s life who Hamlet loves. Hamlet, Mom, and Ophelia all get killed due to that very love; or rather, Hamlet's obsession with revenge so taints his love that it results in the deaths of not only the only people he really cares for, but also himself, just as the Consul’s obsession with Hugh so taints the Consul’s love that it results in both Yvonne’s death and his own. Et voilà.