“What Did I Miss?” in Hamilton does such an excellent job at immediately setting up a juxtaposed dynamic between Jefferson and Alexander as characters.
Think about it: The whole musical has been carving out Alexander’s story like a scarred monument to grit and clawing from nothing—a bastard orphan, immigrant, war vet with zero pedigree, hungry as hell and with a chip on his shoulder bigger than the Hudson River. We see him busting his ass, scheming, sacrificing, suffering just to grab a foothold in the merciless world of politics and power. His entire narrative is about grinding up from the dirt, the raw hustle of someone who had no seat at the table and basically made one by sheer force of will.
And then here comes Jefferson, fresh off his Euro-trip, with all the status and privilege already folded neatly into his welcome package. He doesn’t have to claw for a cabinet spot, he just strolls right in like it’s his birthright, practically handed to him on a silver platter. Jefferson is already in a world where people expect him to be somebody important.
Jefferson’s talk about Paris, meeting “lots of different ladies,” and returning to Monticello oozes elite privilege. He’s the aristocrat, the worldly diplomat, the man with the pedigree. Alexander? A bastard orphan immigrant who had to fight tooth and nail just to get noticed.
Literally, Jefferson hasn’t even unpacked but he’s already been Senate-approved and given the gig:
“It says the President’s assembling a cabinet / And that I am to be the Secretary of State, great! / And that I’m already Senate-approved / I just got home and now I'm headed up to New York.”
And it’s not just the positions or the backgrounds, but how their political philosophies are set up in opposition, even before they’re thrown into the fray. Jefferson’s return immediately ignites the ideological battle, the soul of the young nation. As in, their values clash, setting the ideological fire, from the get-go:
“Can you get us out of the mess we're in? / Hamilton's new financial plan is nothing less / Than government control / I've been fighting for the South alone / Where have you been? / ...We have to win.”
Madison literally introduces Jefferson to Alexander with a kind of, “Hey, btw, this guy is shaking everything up and you’re gonna hate him.” Jefferson immediately jumps on Madison’s side, and just like that, the duel lines are drawn. Jefferson doesn’t find out about Hamilton from some public news or overheard gossip, he’s told by Madison, and immediately takes a stance. This sets up Jefferson and Madison as a faction, directly opposing Alexander’s vision from the moment they meet.
This song also shows just how out-of-tune Jefferson was with the state of America (“I guess I basically missed the late eighties...”). Like, bless his diplomatic heart, but he’s living in a completely different reality and the musical is not subtle about it. You can see how his singing style changes from “What Did I Miss?” to literally “Cabinet Battle #1.” He shifts from smooth, jazzy swing to aggressive, fast-paced rap. It reflects his journey from distant diplomat to a player fully engaged in America’s gritty political fight.
Hell, in that song, Alexander will snap at Jefferson and mock him for being so out-of-touch:
“Thomas, that was a real nice declaration / Welcome to the present, we're running a real nation / Would you like to join us?”
The musical’s brilliance here is that it uses Jefferson’s arrival to dramatize just how out of sync he is with the country’s reality, AND it is the opening salvo in the ideological war that will define the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.
Lin, you musical genius, you.
