Line #10 Fridge/DearEvanHansen


1	'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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3	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
4	* During the Murphys' breakfast, Zoe exclaims that Connor has finished the milk. There is a good reason for that; Connor was high in the morning; he drank all the milk. [[ShownTheirWork Milk naturally helps curb highs.]].
5	* The reprise of "You Will Be Found" where Connor's social media fandom turns against the Murphys reveals that their view of the situation is extremely [[{{troperiffic}} tropey]], deciding with very little evidence that Connor's parents treated him like a TrophyChild, his dad is an AmoralAttorney, etc. The ''biggest'' assumption they make, and the one that hurts Zoe most, is treating her relationship with Connor and Evan as a classic LoveTriangle, and deciding Evan's actions are the result of his conflicting loyalties between his best friend and his girlfriend. What's telling is that everyone seizes on this narrative -- instead of the actual truth, that Evan ''didn't know Connor at all'' and the whole thing was driven by his crush on Zoe -- because that makes for a much more interesting story. The funny thing is that this is ''also true in RealLife'' -- which is why almost no DEH FanFic actually takes place in the canon timeline and they almost all imagine Connor and Evan having had a real relationship and/or Connor surviving his suicide attempt so drama can emerge among Evan, Connor and Zoe.
6	* According to this [[https://www.reddit.com/r/DearEvanHansen/comments/welvex/to_break_in_a_glove/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Reddit post]], Larry’s so-called “right” method of breaking in a baseball glove - shaving cream, rubber bands, mattress, repeat - is actually far from the right or preferred way to break in a glove. According to the post, shaving cream used to contain lanolin which was useful for breaking down the leather, but very few shaving creams nowadays contain lanolin, and in much lower amounts than they used to, and the leather would likely be damaged by the other ingredients. Also, sleeping on it under the mattress would only crease it down the middle, which isn’t ideal. However, as other Redditors have pointed out in the comments, it makes sense for Larry’s advice to be outdated and old school - because he’d likely got it from his own father!
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9	* When Cynthia gives Evan a tie for Connor's memorial assembly, she reminisces about buying clothes for his potential Bar Mitzvah parties when Connor started seventh grade; before sadly revealing that he was never invited to one. Assuming that at least one person from Connor's elementary school also went to the same middle school as he did, it's possible that they could remind classmates not to invite Connor due to his unpredictable behavior -- such as when he threw a printer at his second-grade teacher because he wasn't elected the line leader). This means that KidsAreCruel could have been one of the catalysts for his hatred towards the world.
10	* Zoe's and Evan's DistantFinale leaves a lot to be desired. Has the social media abuse towards Zoe's family stopped? It's made even worse when Zoe begrudgingly admits that it's "been a hard year".
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13	* During the final part of "Waving Through a Window", the entire cast is walking around Evan and not noticing him, seemingly symbolizing his social anxiety preventing him from making meaningful connections with anyone. In a FreezeFrameBonus, '''Connor''' can be seen waving slightly to Evan while the latter doesn't notice. When that happens, Connor angrily storms away. It's just complete {{irony}} that two people who can't get along well with others cannot even notice their similarities!
14	* In "For Forever," Connor says "follow me" to Evan -- Consider that Evan says this while running towards the tallest tree in the orchard. -- With the added context that Evan broke his arm by letting go of a branch, the song suddenly becomes a million times sadder with the interesting [[RuleOfSymbolism moments of symbolism]]:
15	** "And there he goes, racing towards the tallest tree." -- Here, Evan's social anxiety -- Connor -- gives him the idea to commit suicide.
16	** "From far across the yellow field I hear him calling 'Follow me'." -- Yellow is used to symbolize cowardice, and is also the color used for suicide prevention. Evan decided to commit suicide rather than talk to his mother or friends about his problems. In saying 'follow me', Connor represents Evan's social anxiety -- persuading him to climb the tree and let go of a branch.
17	** "Wondering how the world might look from up so high." -- He didn't climb because he wanted to see the view from the top of the tree; he wanted to die and see the entire world from the skies -- in other words, from '''heaven'''.
18	** "I climb until the entire sun shines on my face..." -- The sun represents hope, but in this case, it's hope that he'll finally be free from the emotional weight of everything when he dies.
19	** "I look around and I see him come to get me." -- It wasn't Connor who came to help Evan, but rather, the sudden realization that he didn't die from the fall; that he's stuck with his social anxiety.
20	** The way Evan says "He's come to get me" -- He chokes up at this as he has to accept that he can never get rid of his social anxiety at all as his failed suicide attempt showed. Also regarding his fall, he didn't just want to kill himself, he wanted someone to talk him out of it.
21	** "All we see is sky for forever." -- That was the only thing Evan saw as he let go from the tree and fell.
22	** Looking at the chorus for this song, the lines "all we see is sky/we let the world pass by/feels like we could [[SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion go on]]" don't match perfectly. But then the next lines "all we see is light/cuz the sun shines bright/like we'll be alright" do. What word rhymes with "sky" and "by" that could reasonably fit there?[[note]]The answer is '[[DrivenToSuicide die]]'.[[/note]] Evan even pauses for a second as he sings that line, like he's replacing it on the spot.
23	** "Buddy, you and I for forever this way, this way." -- Evan must live with his social anxiety for the rest of his life.
24	* In one of the cut songs, "A Little Bit of Light," Cynthia mentions that Connor used to be on a little league baseball team. Chances are good that Larry bought Connor the baseball glove to try to reconnect with Connor over a shared interest they'd had, but it didn't help because Connor was at a point where that wasn't enough to help him.
25	* During Evan's and Heidi's brief argument in the beginning of Act Two, Heidi questions the idea that best friend, Connor was there when Evan fell from the tree, despite claims that the latter was alone on that day. When Evan quickly refutes with this line: ''"Well, it wasn't true when I... ({{Beat}}) um... when I said I didn't know [Connor]"''. Note the brief hesitation in what he said. In his subdued panic, was he accidentally going to let slip to his mother that he tried to kill himself on that day?
26	* In "Waving Through a Window", Evan says "When you're falling in a forest, and there's nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?" These lines refer to his arm injury. At first, this line comes off as a metaphor for his fears of being unnoticed due to his social anxiety. After watching the play once and learning about Evan's suicide attempt, the line comes off more like Even contemplating if anyone would have cared had his suicide attempt been successful.
27	* After "Connor's" suicide note was published online and the Murphys are subjected to online harassment, Evan is forced to come clean about his lies - the fact that he and Connor were never friends and that he wrote the note everyone believed Connor did. However, given that Evan tells them that he wrote the note for therapy, that Connor took it from him BEFORE he died, and the depressing content of the note itself ... what if the Murphys decided not to reveal the lie because they feared that Evan might go the same way Connor did, and they didn't want to feel/be held responsible for another suicide?
28	** Confirmed in the movie. Zoe tells Evan that her parents didn’t reveal the lie for the fear that he would “do something stupid”. Evan confesses publicly anyway.
29	* Part of what makes the initial lie so harsh on reflection is that if any of the Murphys thought about Evan's story for a literal second, it would've come crashing down immediately. If school starts in late August or early September while Evan breaks his arm in the "end of May or early June", then he shouldn't still be in a cast - it would've come off weeks ago. The Murphys are all so focused on Connor potentially having a friend that they ignore the evidence for the lie that is literally right in front of their eyes.
30	** This potentially has an out if they assume Evan's arm was just broken REALLY badly - a compound fracture, as an example, can take months to heal, and bones can taken even longer to heal if they were broken in two or more places.
31	* Zoe will spend likely years, if not the rest of her life, not knowing if her dead brother loved her now that she knows what Evan said in 'If I Could Tell Her' was all a lie.
32	* There's a [=YouTube=] comment on an animatic for "Good For You" that points out that perhaps Heidi is mad at Evan replacing her with someone better [[HistoryRepeats just like her husband did]].

Context Fridge / DearEvanHansen