All repeated names are highlighted in specific colors to hopefully provide some fun relief (and it looks cool).

This was the most awkward dinner party I have ever experienced in my life. It starts with Wallace recounting a time when he made meatballs at a party that was mostly plant based: another instance of him being ignored. He’s learned from this faux pas that he should only bring plant based foods to these dinner parties to avoid the scorn. When Wallace arrives, the party has basically already begun with the whole gang there already. Through a brief interaction, Taylor alerts the audience to tension between Wallace and Roman, a character we already know to be “meddlesome”. There’s a bit of relief, though, when Wallace tasks himself with finding Miller and they have a moment to themselves before they have to go back inside.

The First Incident: After once again reliving the conversation that Wallace feels like leaving the doctorate program, Roman takes it upon himself to tell Wallace that it would be a shame if he did leave as the university did him a favor accepting him even with his “deficiencies”. This causes Wallace to feel attacked and rightfully so as he is being told that not only is he deficient because he isn’t white, he should be grateful that he is getting any opportunities at all. Things are more awkward as NO ONE stands up for Wallace so they are all forced to sit in the silence of what Roman has said and the implication of his words until someone changes the subject.

The Second Incident: Reeling from his interaction with Roman, Wallace decides to put the spotlight on the weak spot in Cole and Vincent’s relationship. When afforded the opportunity to talk about his tennis match with Cole, he maliciously asks Vincent about his presence on the dating app heavily implying that Vincent was looking to cheat. When the conversation is explored further, we find out that Vincent actually already did cheat on Cole with Roman (a fear that Cole has had since seeing Vincent on the app and perhaps since meeting Roman). This causes the dinner to go haywire. All of the couples are mad at each other, Emma has been getting increasingly drunk to forget her problems with Thom, and everyone is annoyed at Wallace for stirring the pot. Interestingly, Wallace just starts to binge while everything hits the fan. First, Emma comes over to tell him what he did was wrong and Wallace tries to negate it by saying that Roman had a go at him and no one stood up for Wallace, but Emma doubles down and tells him that he still shouldn’t have gone at Vincent like that. Then, Miller comes up to soothe Wallace. He’s less reproachful than Emma, but he’s still just as lost as to where all of this came from. Miller continues to sit with Wallace who has begun laughing which has then turned into crying.

The Fallout: The “party” has moved outside and Emma makes coffee to assuage everyone. Out here more messiness ensues. Yngve and Lukas are acting like lovers in front of their actual partners, Cole and Vincent are still talking, Roman is implying that he knows that Wallace didnt see Vincent on the app AND something is up with Wallace and Miller, and Wallace is watching Miller bond with Zoe. The food that Wallace consumed earlier makes its way back up and Miller comes to offer him his room. Here, they talk more about what Roman said to Wallace and how it really hurt that no one spoke up. Miller apologizes and says he’ll be better, but the damage is already done. The two remain in Miller’s room while everyone else remains in the garden. To end the chapter, Miller asks Wallace to share details about himself. Wallace contemplates this question for a while going into a long inner monologue about how it’s been a long time since people have wanted to know him and how he’s not sure he wants people to know him anymore. In the end, he obliges.

Things I Liked:

• I loved the entire dinner scenes. They’re a very common dinner trope in media and I think this one takes the cake. It has drama and awkward moments that make it so compelling. It’s almost like a car crash I couldn’t look away from. This isn’t to say the “fun” of it diminishes the importance of what Taylor brings to light in this chapter, though. There are long paragraphs that go into the idea of “good white people” and how they’re complicit in a lot of the actions of bad white people. Taylor through Wallace makes a great point that these people are supposed to be his friends, people who care about him, yet no one jumps to his defense when he is being talked down to very harshly by Roman.
• I can now see more clearly how Wallace is deciding to assert himself (something we talked about in class) even though his methods may not always be the best. After being told he will basically always be deficient, he lashes out and puts the spotlight on the problems in Cole and Vincent’s relationship as if to say “they are deficient, too”. Also, I use the term lashing out very carefully here. Wallace doesn’t ask the question angrily, but it definitely holds malice. It’s interesting because we have seen Wallace directly respond to someone being negative to him before (Dana) and I wouldn’t consider that as lashing out. But him putting the spotlight on Cole and Vincent is lashing out as he doesn’t direct his anger and negative feelings at Roman (as he should and as Emma points out) but he turns it to an innocent party and even tries to justify it. I don’t think this action makes Wallace a bad person since he was correct in knowing that Cole would probably never address this problem he had with Vincent but if Cole decided to never forgive him I think he would be fully in the right to feel that way.

Things I Didn’t Like:

• Nothing. This was a chapter that really shows what human interaction is like. None of the characters seem like caricatures and all of the interactions that occur seem realistic to the situation at hand. I think Taylor did a good job at capturing what a fight at a dinner party with your closest friends is like without it feeling like a soap opera.