Zelda Goldman

I think there's another casting choice in there.

I don't know the actor's name, but the character of Zelda Goldman.

Lambert wanted to cast a male in this role, and she won that argument as well.

She just thought it would be creepier to have a dude play someone who's deformed from spinal meningitis.

Yeah, what I'll also say, yeah, because this would be like, you know, hitting little Gage who'd be like 20 pounds, less than 20 pounds.

Like this is like hitting a raccoon or a porcupine, frankly.

But at any rate, one other thing I want to say on sort of the backstories here that Even though it has a little bit of a squirm and horror value, the business of having the Zelda, like the sisters, the sister subplot for Denise Crosby's character, it really doesn't hold up.

Like it might add something to the horror beats, gives you something to sort of squirm over or to be unsettled by, but it doesn't really hold up in any way.

Yeah.

Like, what was her reaction? Also, she thought it was Zelda at first.

I was like, girl, see, you are demonic.

Something is wrong with you.

So like you're saying, when Mr. Goldman called Lewis and was telling about Ellie and he says that she said Oz the Great and Terrible.

I said, fuck that.

And he's like, but the way Zelda used to say it.

And then it was a Pascal says it's too late.

That was a horrible death for Rachel.

We also have some mentions of Zelda in that section.

And Louis, in his grief, again, takes Rachel's body to that cemetery.

And at the very end of the book, Rachel is back.

right right because that's it's that is our society right we want that we want that hidden from us um That's a key point

of the story when he's dealing with his wife because his wife had a – I guess we should mention Zelda who had spinal meningitis.

Spinal meningitis.

Got me down.

And consider the, how you were talking about how, um, he was so familiar like saying how natural it was but like when it happened to gauge how he was just like he like he wasn't as prepared like you said and i was just like

damn that

hits like yeah in a whole different way like i can i thought about the death part and like his sister and how her experience with Zelda really reflects their daughter's experience with Gage and losing a sibling at a young age and how that affects you for your whole entire life and how it's like something that has been weighing on rachel so much so that she can't even confide in lewis well i think until she does but so she's

completely pushed to yeah

The first one is the death of Norma.

And of course, the second one is the details over Zelda's death.

and its effects on Rachel and why she has reacted the way she has with death and other topics in that arena and now we understand more of why she has such a reaction to when people pass.

The second question is what are you noticing about the characters This one I think we're noticing more about Louis.

So everyone deals with death differently, and everyone has a different way of looking at it and a different thought process.

Everyone's different, but I think this is, again, a reminder that this cycle is inevitable, at least if you're not buried in a pet cemetery.

the fourth prompt to the fourth question what images places or ideas keep returning again i think it's the um the the cycle this life and death inevitability and of course with zelda her death and i do wonder for those of you reading along or have read this book before is so when zelda was choking and Rachel turns her over, did she inadvertently kill Zelda? Because Zelda, she turned her over onto her stomach, tried to hit her back.

Did she on accident suffocate Zelda when she was turned over and was unable to move? And was she smothered in the bed? Or did Zelda's choke as a natural progression of what she was doing before? So I wonder if Rachel is responsible in some inadvertently or on accident responsible for Zelda's death I'm not sure that doesn't not very clear but I do wonder if she did in an attempt to help Zelda actually kill Zelda or at least speed up the process of her death because it didn't sound like it was something that she would recover from and also Zelda is pretty the fact that she was becoming very angry and very hateful towards the end of her life, and very resentful of Rachel.

He's got things patted down, and his ducks in a row, in a row.

Not like his wife, who's afraid of death because of, you know, Zelda and all the stuff that she's carrying.

He has no baggage, and that's what the Wendigo uses to draw him in.

Then there's that, that little carrot or that little sampling.

Next one is, what images, places, or ideas keep returning? Again, the pet sematary, death, birth, grief, you know, recovering from a loved one's death, that kind of thing.

With Zelda dying, and it affecting Rachel.

So that's... those themes seem to be pretty constant with Rachel grieving the death of Zelda, and i- it's affecting other parts of her life and other parts of her marriage.

Of course, 'cause it's her sister, but...

Uh, next one is, what questions do you have? Think...

Like when...

Zelda, with that backstory.

Yeah.

I think that's a really good sequence of Rachel's backstory.

I think the painting is very creepy.

Yeah.

Did you know Zelda is played?

by a boy really

Yeah.

And I, I remember, I remember all the business with her sister, Zelda being far scarier.

right that those scenes always start like in my memory were far creepier and always like my memory of it gave me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about i was like you know and now i was just like oh and i and i don't know why i always thought amanda plumber played that role but it's actually a dude so sorry sorry

oh yeah