Captain America: The Winter Soldier Discussion Thread - SPOILERS

[Silvercrest]

I was just glad to see Batroc at all. They even managed to work in the colors of his costume. You'd think Nightshade and Capwolf would be ahead of "Batroc zee Leap-aire" in terms of priority.

I dunno-- did anyone miss his terrible French accent?

As to that, plus his occasional French oaths and references ... I saw an article a few years ago saying Batroc apparently doesn't speak French any better than he speaks English.

I'm a Spanish not French guy, and so I don't have experience in French accents, but maybe you perceive it that way because Georges St-Pierre is from Quebec.

Sorry, I was referring to the comics character, not the actor. I tried to make that clear by mentioning his costume and an article from several years ago. Not to mention his title "the Leaper", which no one called him in the movie.

The comics Batroc is known for speaking English with an outrageous accent which is more an awful stereotype than the way anyone really talks. He's also straight-up French (from Marseilles).

I didn't have a problem with St-Pierre's speech. However, I admit I don't have enough experience to distinguish between accents from Marseilles, Algeria, or Quebec.

The fact that Batroc spoke in French and Cap replied to him in kind was a nice touch.

That true. Now I wish that in Captain America: The First Avenger, the Captain spoke to Red Skull in German.

That would have been cool. But realistically, in the first movie he jump-started his own career after they didn't want to send him into action. German wouldn't have been part of his training.

Edit to add: I take that back. He spent enough time with the Howlers that he could have picked it up then. Or the Army might have given him later training for any undercover missions.

Or I guess he could even have taken it in high school. Anyone know if German was part of a typical high school curriculum back then? Maybe not. I imagine the speaking of German in the U.S. during wartime would be pretty much verboten. (So to speak.)

I didn't even realize that was supposed to be Crossbones until I saw the credits.

I didn't realize it until I went home and looked it up! I'm not a huge Marvel comics fan, though I've heard of Crossbones. I figured that Brock Rumlow must be somebody from the books, since they spent a scene showing him in the hospital, badly scarred, being loaded onto a gurney.

Yeah, that's when I realized it as well. I vaguely knew of Crossbones, but not enough to truly appreciate it. Of course, my lack of knowledge on who Rumlow was didn't help preserve the surprise of him being a turncoat either because that elevator scene was promoted to death.

That's right, I remember now-- the credits called him by his actual name, not Crossbones. Fortunately I did know who Brock Rumlow was. I'm sure they called him Rumlow in the movie proper, but I missed it.

Gruenwald did imply his face was badly scarred. I haven't seen the character since then and don't know if they ever actually showed it. Anyway, I'd say this guy is well on his way to becoming movie Crossbones.

 

[Sci]

German was very common in the curriculum of much of the American Midlands up until World War I, IIRC. As a first-generation American born of Irish Catholic immigrants in a working-class New York City neighborhood circa 1918, however, I think it's unlikely that Cap had German in high school. (Assuming that Cap even finished high school; I believe it would not have been uncommon for working class high school students to drop out to get a job to help support their families during the Depression.)

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Finally, an action heroine acknowledges the obvious. How many characters really ought to be covered with scars and aren't? You'd think that would have come up years ago ... especially with the heroines where a bikini is their costume.

Should Steve even know what a bikini is? The term was coined postwar.

It's odd that a rather small scar on her otherwise flawless body would make her ditch bikinis. Trust me, Natasha. No one's going to notice! As for Steve and bikinis? He's been out for a year or two, I'm sure he's learned by now what a bikini is.

The way I took that comment, she had been an agent for like half her life, and apparently was so good, she didn't have a torso full of scars. The comment was to show that WS was the only one who managed to hit her.

 

[Sci]

Finally, an action heroine acknowledges the obvious. How many characters really ought to be covered with scars and aren't? You'd think that would have come up years ago ... especially with the heroines where a bikini is their costume.

Should Steve even know what a bikini is? The term was coined postwar.

It's odd that a rather small scar on her otherwise flawless body would make her ditch bikinis. Trust me, Natasha. No one's going to notice! As for Steve and bikinis? He's been out for a year or two, I'm sure he's learned by now what a bikini is.

The way I took that comment, she had been an agent for like half her life, and apparently was so good, she didn't have a torso full of scars. The comment was to show that WS was the only one who managed to hit her.

I think it's safe to say that Natasha's "bye bye bikinis" comment was meant facetiously -- likely as a bit of impromptu flirting with Steve -- and that Steve, having been unfrozen for three years now, knows what a bikini is.

 

[Yminale]

A bikini wouldn't have shocked Captain America. As an artist he would have worked with nude female models and studied art with nude female forms. Just because he was shy with woman doesn't make him a prude.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

German was very common in the curriculum of much of the American Midlands up until World War I, IIRC. As a first-generation American born of Irish Catholic immigrants in a working-class New York City neighborhood circa 1918, however, I think it's unlikely that Cap had German in high school. (Assuming that Cap even finished high school; I believe it would not have been uncommon for working class high school students to drop out to get a job to help support their families during the Depression.)

There's actually a Supreme Court case from around that time upholding the right of parents to teach their kids German (in spite of state laws that tried to ban it).

 

[Star Wolf]

A bikini wouldn't have shocked Captain America. As an artist he would have worked with nude female models and studied art with nude female forms. Just because he was shy with woman doesn't make him a prude.

I don't know There is a difference between the studio and levels of public acceptance.

 

[Sci]

The above reference to Captain America's birth year -- based on his claim to be 95 in The Winter Soldier -- inspired me to put this together. It's Cap's ages at various important moments in 20th century history. Some information from Cap's life or on historical events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are taken from the MCU Wiki's timeline.

I went completely overboard in trying to include what I thought were interesting or insightful pieces of information about real historical events during Steve's life. But I found as I went on that it made for a very interesting look at what kind of life Steve led, and how truly lost in time he is upon awakening.

Spoiler: Steve Rogers's life

9 May 1918: Joseph Rogers, father of Steve Rogers, is killed in action during World War I

4 July 1918: Steve Rogers, the future Captain America, is born.

11 November 1918, World War I Armistice: 4 months, 7 days.

Start of Prohibition in the U.S.: (16 January 1919): 6 months, 12 days

Seattle General Strike (6-11 February 1919): 7 months

Red Summer Race Riots (May-July 1919): 10 months to 1 year

First Red Scare/Overman Committee Final Report (June 1919): 11 months

Women gain the right to vote in the United States (18 August 1920): 2 years, 1 month

1918 Flu Pandemic's end (December 1920): 2 years, 5 months

Mussolini becomes Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy (31 October 1922): 4 years, 3 months

Establishments of the Irish Free State (6 December 1922) and of the Soviet Union (30 December 1922): 4 years, 5 months

Nazi Beer Hall Putsch against the Weimar Republic (8-9 November 1923): 5 years, 4 months

Death of Soviet Premier Vladimir Lenin (21 January 1924): 5 years

Rise of Joseph Stalin (1924-1929, depending on when you think he consolidated final control): 5-10 years

Steve's mother dies and he is sent to an orphanage (6 June 1924): 5 years, 11 months (Captain America: First Vengeance comic)

Fall 1924: Steve begins Kindergarten (assumes standard K-6 elementary education and a high school graduation in Spring 1936)

Publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (10 April 1925): 6 years

Scopes Monkey Trial Decision (21 July 1925): 6 years

Hirohito ascends to the throne as Emperor of Japan (25 December 1926): 8 years

Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic (20-21 May 1927): 8 years

Publication of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (14 October 1926): 8 years

Executions of Sacco and Vanzetti (23 August 1927): 9 years

First "talkie," The Jazz Singer, released (6 October 1927): 9 years

Premiere of Disney's Steamboat Willie, first appearance of Mickey Mouse (18 November 1928): 10 years

Stock Market Crash, start of the Great Depression (October 1929): 11 years

Mohandas Gandhi leads the Salt March (12 March 1930): 11 years

Dust Bowl (1930-1936): 12-18 years

Fall 1930: Steve begins middle school (assumes Spring 1936 graduation)

3 September 1930: Steve, aged 12, meets Bucky Barnes

Release of Universal Pictures's Dracula, starring Bela Legosi (12 February 1931): 12 years

Opening of the Empire State Building in New York (3 May 1931): 12 years, almost 13

Empire of Japan invades Manchuria (19 September 1931): 13 years

Release of Universal's Frankenstein (21 November 1931): 13 years

The Statute of Westminster, establishing legislative equality between the U.K. and the Dominions (11 December 1931): 13 years

The Bonus Army arrives in Washington, DC (17 July 1932): 14 years

Fall 1932: Steve begins high school (assumes Spring 1936 graduation)

Franklin D. Roosevelt elected President (8 November 1932): 14 years

Release of Universal's The Mummy (22 December 1932) and King Kong (2 March 1933: 14 years

Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany, establishment of the Nazi state (January-March 1933): 14 years

Establishment of the Dachau concentration camp (22 March 1933): 14 years

The New Deal in the United States (1933-1936): 15-18 years

Repeal of Prohibition (5 December 1933): 15 years

U.S. Sen. Huey Long's "Share Our Wealth" Speech (February 1934): 15 years

30 June 1934: Johann Schmidt assassinates Ernst Kaufmann, head of the S.A.'s special weapons program, and seizes control of the program for himself, thereby founding Hydra; Steve is just about to turn 16 (Captain America: First Vengeance comic)

Adolf Hitler declares himself Führer of the German Reich (1 August 1934): 16 years

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Smedley Butler testifies to Congress about a "Business Plot" to launch a coup against U.S. President Roosevelt (November 1934): 16 years

Swing music becomes popular (1935 onwards): 17 years

Assassination of U.S. Sen. Huey Long (10 September 1935): 17 years

14 September 1935: Johann Schmidt, head of the S.A.'s special weapons division which will become Hydra, captures Dr. Abraham Erskine as he and his family attempt to flee Nazi Germany, and sends Dr. Erskine's family to the Dachau concentration camp in order to coerce him into providing Schmidt with the Super-Soldier Serum; Steve is aged 17 years

Fascist Italy invades the Empire of Ethiopia (3 October 1935): 17 years

12 December 1935: Dr. Erskine's family perishes at Dachau

"Great Purge" in the Soviet Union (1936-1938): 18-20 years

Spring 1936: Steve graduates high school (assumes he graduates shortly before turning 18)

Spanish Civil War (17 July 1936-1 April 1939): 18-21 years

Crash of the Hindenburg (6 May 1937): 18 years

Opening of the Golden Gate Bridge (27 May 1937): 18 years

Opening of the censored WPA musical The Cradle Will Rock (16 June 1937): 18 years, almost 19

Amelia Earhart disappears (2 July 1937): 18 years, 11 months, 28 days

Publication of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21 September 1937): 19 years

Premiere of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (21 December 1937) 19 years

Annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany (12 March 1938): 19 years

Signing of the Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain proclaims that there will be "peace for our time" (29-30 September 1938): 20 years

Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938): 20 years

Invasion of the Sudetenland by Nazi Germany (16 March 1939): 20 years

Publication of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (14 April 1939): 20 years

Release of MGM's The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland (25 August 1939): 21 years

Nazi Germany invades Poland, starting World War II in Europe (1 September 1939); the United Kingdom and French Republic declare war on Nazi Germany, signaling the start of World War II (3 September 1939): 21 years

Nazi Germany invades Denmark and Norway (9 April 1940): 21 years

Auschwitz concentration camp established (May 1940): 21 years

Nazi Germany invades Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (10 May 1940): 21 years

France falls to Nazi Germany (May–June 1940): 21 years

Evacuation of Dunkirk (27 May-4 June 1940): 21 years

Empire of Japan announces the existence of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" for its occupied territories and puppet states (29 June 1940): 21 years, almost 22

Establishment of Vichy France regime (July 1940); start of the Battle of Britain (10 July 1940): 22 years

Jewish Germans are ordered to begin wearing yellow stars (1 September 1940): 22 years

Jewish Poles living in Warsaw are forced into the Warsaw Ghetto (October 1940): 22 years

11 November 1940: Johann Schmidt, head of Hydra (originally the S.A.'s special weapons division), is transformed into the Red Skull by Abraham Erskine's Super-Soldier Serum; British agent Peggy Carter rescues him and recruits him for the Allies; Steve is aged 22 years

Lend-Lease is introduced in the United States (10 January 1941); Charles Lindbergh recommends to Congress that the U.S. sign a neutrality pact with Nazi Germany (23 January 1941): 22 years

Premiere of Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1 May 1941): 22 years

Sinking of the S.S. Robin Moor by German submarine U-69 prompts Roosevelt to declare a national emergency (21 May 1941): 22 years

Nazi Germany begins unsuccessful invasion of the Soviet Union (22 June 1941): 22 years

All U.S. men above age 21 required to register for the draft (1 July 1941): 22 years, about to turn 23

Hermann Göring, under Hitler's instructions, orders the S.S. to begin planning the so-called "final solution;" Empire of Japan accuses U.S. of intruding into Japanese waters at Sukumo Bay (31 July 1941): 23 years

Atlantic Charter signed by Churchill and Roosevelt (9 August 1941): 23 years

U.S.S. Greer fired upon by German U-boat (4 September 1941): 23 years

Gen. Hideki Tōjō becomes Prime Minister of Japan (18 October 1941): 23 years

11 sailors aboard U.S.S. Kearney killed when U-568 fires upon it (17 October 1941); U.S.S. Reuben James torpedoed by U-552, killing over 100 sailors (31 October 1941): 23 years

Hull note ultimatum delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States; Japanese fleet sails for Hawaiian Islands (26 November 1941): 23 years

Empire of Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, invades Thailand and British Malaya, and declares war upon the United States and United Kingdom (7 December 1941): 23 years

7 December 1941: In art class, Steve and Bucky learn of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Bucky begins training Steve at a boxing gym. (Side-note: If Steve graduated high school in 1936 and entered college the next semester, his course of study would have been Fall 1936-Spring 1940; if he graduated in 1937 and entered the next semester, his graduation would have been expected in Spring 1941. His presence in a college course in the winter of 1941-42 strongly implies that he either entered college later in life, dropped out and re-entered, or otherwise pursued a non-conventional enrollment status, perhaps as a result of economic circumstances.)

United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and New Zealand declare war upon the Empire of Japan (8 December 1941): 23 years

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declare war upon the United States; United States reciprocates (11 December 1941): 23 years

24 December 1941: Steve is rejected from U.S. Army service as 4-F for the first of four times

25 December 1941: The Strategic Scientific Reserve completes the Project Rebirth Chambers in New York; Howard Stark remarks it should be called the Brooklyn Project, as a counterpart to the Manhattan Project

Vidkun Quisling becomes Minister-President of the Kingdom of Norway, establishing a Nazi puppet state (1 February 1942): 23 years

3 March 1942: In Tønsberg, Quisling-controlled Norway, Johann Schmidt locates the Tesseract

President Roosevelt orders the evacuation of the Phillipines (22 February 1942): 23 years

Internment of Japanese Americans begins (25 February 1942): 23 years

Bataan Death March (9 April 1942); Doolittle Raid on Tokyo (18 April 1942): 23 years

First reports in Allied countries of the use of gas to murder Jewish persons on the Eastern Front (1 June 1942); Nazi Germany massacres entire population of village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia (9 June 1942): 23 years

Battle of Midway (4-7 June 1942): 23 years

14 June 1943: Dr. Erskine offers Steve Rogers the chance to join Project Rebirth after encountering him at the World Exposition of Tomorrow in Queens, New York; Bucky Barnes is mobilized for service in the U.S. Army

Manhattan Project started (18 June 1942); U.S. Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes head of U.S. forces in Europe (25 June 1942): 23 years

Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of over 13,000 Jewish French by the Vichy regime (16 July 1942); deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto begins; Treblinka concentration camp opens (22 July 1942): 24 years

Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942–2 February 1943): 24 years

Premiere of the film Casablanca (26 November 1942): 24 years

Katyn massacre (16 March 1943): 24 years

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (19 April 1943–16 May 1943): 24 years

22 June 1943: Steve Rogers successfully undergoes Erskine's Super-Soldier treatment; Dr. Erskine is assassinated by Hydra agents who had infiltrated the SSR; he is about to turn 25

June-November 1943: With Erskine's research lost, Steve unwilling to be used as a research subject, and the public made aware of his extraordinary powers during his pursuit of the Hydra agent, he is made part of a wartime propaganda campaign as "Captain America" by the USO; Steve is 24-25 years old

The Allies bomb Rome for the first time (19 July 1943); Mussolini is deposed in Fascist Italy (25 July 1943): 25 years

Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy (8 September 1943); German troops occupy Rome (19 September 1943): 25 years

3-4 November 1943: After a failed USO show, Steve Rogers goes behind Nazi lines to liberate Bucky and Allied POWs from a Hydra facility; the returning POWs and Steve form the "Howling Commandos" (Note: The MCU Wiki identifies the USO show as in Allied-occupied Italy and the Hydra base as in Austria. In real life, the Allied lines in Italy were south of Rome, so I think this particular geography is somewhat implausible. Perhaps the Hydra base was in Nazi-held Italy.)

November 1943-July 1944: Captain America, the Howling Commandos, and the SSR attack numerous Hydra bases as the Allies continue to advance into Nazi territory

Sometime between May 1944 and July 1945: Capture of Arnim Zola and apparent death of Bucky Barnes

Invasion of Normany (6 June 1944): 25 years

Failed July 20 Plot (20 July 1944): 26 years

Liberation of Paris (25 August 1944): 26 years

FDR wins an unprecedented fourth term as U.S. President (6 November 1944): 26 years

Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945): 26 years

Warsaw taken by the Red Army (17 January 1945); Auschwitz is liberated by the Soviets (27 January 1945): 26 years

Iwo Jima liberated by U.S. forces (16 March 1945): 26 years old

Red Army enters Austria; Allies take Frankfurt (29 March 1945): 26 years

President Roosevelt dies suddenly; Harry Truman becomes U.S. President (12 April 1945): 26 years (FDR would have been president since Steve was 14 -- almost half of his life!)

Bergen-Belson liberated by the British Army (15 April 1945); Dachau is liberated by U.S. Army (29 April 1945): 26 years

Berlin is encircled by the Red Army (27 April 1945): 26 years

Mussolini, dictator of the Italian Social Republic, a Nazi puppet state, is captured and executed (28-29 April 1945): 26 years

Adolf Hitler commits suicide; Joseph Goebbels becomes Chancellor of the remnants of Nazi Germany (30 April 1945): 26 years

Joseph Goebbels and his wife kill their children and commit suicide (1 May 1945): 26 years

Battle of Berlin ends with German surrender (2 May 1945): 26 years

Nazi Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies (7 May 1945): 26 years

V-E Day: Ceasefire begins (8 May 1945): 26 years

German troops continue to surrender throughout the rest of Europe throughout May 1945: 26 years

Liberation of the Philippines (4 July 1945): 27 years

4 July 1945: SSR forces capture Hydra Headquarters in the Alps; Steve thwarts the Red Skull's last plan to bomb the world's capitals and seize control for Hydra using weapons based on Asgardian technology; Steve is frozen in the Atlantic until 2011 on his 27th birthday

7 July 1945: Howard Stark discovers the Tesseract but fails to locate Steve Rogers's body

19 July 1945: United States forces begin Operation Paperclip in an attempt to recruit Nazi and Hydra scientists for the U.S.; Zola is among those recruited; Zola uses the opportunity to begin secretly rebuilding and recruiting for Hydra within Allied forces, and eventually within SHIELD

26 July 1945: United Kingdom General Election sees the Labour Party win a large landslide, and Clement Attlee becomes Prime Minister

6 August 1945: The Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing between 90,000–166,000 Japanese; subsequent bombing in Nagasaki on 9 August kills 60,000–80,000

15 August 1945: Emperor Hirohito announces the surrender of Japan; worldwide celebration of V-J Day

2 September 1945: The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay

8-9 May 1946: Agent Peggy Carter has a falling out with SSR superiors, and co-founds SHIELD along with Howard Stark

14 April 2012: The crashed Hydra aircraft Valkyrie is discovered by the crew of a Russian oil tanker; when SHIELD operatives arrive later, they discover the frozen body of Steve Rogers

17 April 2012: Steve Rogers is revived by SHIELD in New York City, aged 94 years, 9 months

1 May 2012: Loki arrives on Earth and destroys Project PEGASUS

4 May 2012: Chitauri invasion of New York

Some time between 4 July 2013 and 4 July 2014: Battle of the Triskelion (age 95)

 

[Sci]

A bikini wouldn't have shocked Captain America. As an artist he would have worked with nude female models and studied art with nude female forms. Just because he was shy with woman doesn't make him a prude.

I don't know There is a difference between the studio and levels of public acceptance.

I mean, we know exactly three things about Steve's attitudes towards sexuality:

- He had not, apparently, had sex before he was frozen, as he was waiting for the right person (references to not having danced being a clear allusion to sex)

- He fell in love with Peggy Carter

- He has kissed someone after being revived in 2012 and before kissing Natasha while undercover, as he says, "I'm 95, not dead."

So... we don't really know how he feels about things like women wearing bikinis outside of the studio. The canonical evidence allows for him to be interpreted as very sexually conservative, or as being merely conservative in his own lifestyle choices but nonjudgmental about others.

 

[CaptainCanada]

- He has kissed someone after being revived in 2012 and before kissing Natasha while undercover, as he says, "I'm 95, not dead."

I'm pretty sure he was lying there, from what we've seen of his post-revival lifestyle.

 

[Sci]

- He has kissed someone after being revived in 2012 and before kissing Natasha while undercover, as he says, "I'm 95, not dead."

I'm pretty sure he was lying there, from what we've seen of his post-revival lifestyle.

I think it's entirely possible he could have gone on a date or two, had a kiss or two, and just decided he wanted to be single for a while.

 

[TemporalFlux]

- He has kissed someone after being revived in 2012 and before kissing Natasha while undercover, as he says, "I'm 95, not dead."

I'm pretty sure he was lying there, from what we've seen of his post-revival lifestyle.

Knowing the character of Cap, he probably kissed old Peggy on the cheek and is counting that.

 

[shivkala]

A bikini wouldn't have shocked Captain America. As an artist he would have worked with nude female models and studied art with nude female forms. Just because he was shy with woman doesn't make him a prude.

I don't know There is a difference between the studio and levels of public acceptance.

Great, now all I can think of is Natasha begging Steve to draw her like one of his art studies girls.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Hal Lindin said on 2 Broke Girls the other other night: "Have you ever had sex with a woman with no teeth and two plastic hips?"

Don't count Peggy out so quickly.

 

[Aldo]

Looking at Peggy's mental state from the movie, it probably wouldn't be very satisfying:

-After the deed is done:

Steve: Was it good for you too?

Peggy: Steve you're alive!

 

[Noname Given]

Could have sworn that it was Three Days of the Snowman.

No, it was "Three Days of the Falcon and the Snowman"

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Nah, they're keeping that for the MCU/X-Men team up.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Steve was kissing the blonde file room clerk, and Peggy walked in, which preserved his virginity. Thus he kissed one other girl than Peggy.

 

[Enterprise1701]

He didn't go see Peggy for almost 2 years. Maybe while he was conflicted over that he kissed someone else to try and get over Peggy.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

He didn't go see Peggy for almost 2 years. Maybe while he was conflicted over that he kissed someone else to try and get over Peggy.

What makes you think he didn't visit her before? For all we know he does it every other week and patiently accepts that she can never remember that he's alive.