Every Ending Is Brand New
The Defendant Has Seen This Episode Before
I was sitting next to Charlotte on the couch while she watched some Donald Duck show when she delivered one of her classic impossible combinations.
“This one’s my favorite.”
Then, almost immediately:
“I wonder what happens.”
No. Absolutely not.
Those two sentences do not belong in sequence. They are natural enemies. They should hiss at each other from opposite sides of the couch. If something is your favorite, I expect at minimum a working familiarity with the plot. I am not asking for a graduate-level defense of Donald Duck. No one needs footnotes. Still, you cannot declare something beloved canon and then treat it like breaking news.
The Favorites Are Breeding
She does this with movies too, which only deepens the investigation. Mulan is her favorite. Hercules is also her favorite. I am fairly certain Frozen has been her favorite. Moana has definitely been her favorite. At this point, “favorite” has lost all legal meaning.
Charlotte hands out the title like a toddler emperor distributing land grants. Everything she loves in the moment is immediately elevated to the highest office in the kingdom. There is no hierarchy. No final ruling. No shame. Just a rapidly expanding constitutional crisis of delight.
Strictly speaking, Mulan and Hercules cannot both be your favorite.
Emotionally speaking, I understand her completely.
Suspense for the Fully Informed
The stranger part is not even the favorite thing. The stranger part is the suspense.
She will sit down in front of something she has seen what must be a thousand times and watch it with the intensity of a person waiting for a jury verdict. I know for a fact she knows what happens. She knows the songs. She knows the turns. She knows, at least in some deep bodily way, that the movie is not going to suddenly choose a different ending because she happened to sit on a different cushion.
Still, there she is, locked in. Wondering.
Meanwhile, I am beside her, trying to preserve the basic structural integrity of language, and she is living in a richer system. In her world, “favorite” does not mean “ranked first after careful comparison.” It means, “I am happy this is here.” “I love this now.” “Begin again.”
Maybe that is not confusion. Maybe that is wisdom with popcorn on its hands.
To me, repetition makes the ending familiar.
To Charlotte, familiarity seems to make the ending worth reaching again.
I’m sorry, but no
You don’t get to have all these
Dude, fine. Whatever.
