#simone vivane

[itmightbehere]

Art done by Isabella Watling, shared by Rian Johnson

[tboy-molloy]

Okay but as an ambulatory wheelchair user I loved how Rian Johnson portrayed Simone. He didn't have her be miraculously healed, but had her learn to live and deal with her chronic pain.

Abled people really don't understand how big that is. Like just having an ambulatory wheelchair user is big!!! (I cackled at the scene where she gets out of her chair and someone says it's a miracle and she just goes "I can walk, it just hurts.") But also having her angry that she's in constant pain and trying anything to feel better is so realistic. A lot of disabled people, especially newly disabled people, fall into the idea that they need to be "cured" and that they need to get back to "normal".

Having her accept her disability and making her learn how to still do the thing she loves while still having chronic pain is amazing! Like, the idea that you can continue living after becoming disabled is so rarely shown! Like believe it or not, disabled people can lead fulfilling and happy lives doing things we love!

[lumi-of-the-universe]

Love how Martha cleans the church and the rectory, sews the testaments, files the paperwork, and even feeds Jefferson Wick.

That Vera took over handling his legal matters, and then (unknowingly) raised his son even as people spread rumors about it.

How Simone’s donated money is “his” church’s main source of funding.

Even Grace provides the bedrock myth his distorted church stood on.

But Jefferson Wick is so incredibly misogynistic he doesn’t even have a statue of the Mother Mary.

[river-of-wine]

Wake Up Dead Man does an excellent job at every turn of displaying the misogyny of the Catholic Church and I really can’t stop thinking about it.

The first thing we learn about Martha is that she runs EVERYTHING, and she truly does, down to feeding Wicks. She keeps the church running smoothly, she keeps Wicks alive and presentable for his entitled, hateful sermons. The church only functions with Martha there to make it so, and yet, only Father Jud seems to recognise how much she does for the church itself.

Simone funds everything. Out of the very few regulars that Wicks has whittled his congregation down to, Simone is the only person we hear of making such substantial donations, giving the church all of her savings for the promise of healing that Wicks cons her into believing that he can provide. Simone is seemingly the only person willing to give enough money to keep the church alive.

Vera raised Wicks’ heir for him, did exactly what her father wanted, and is given absolutely nothing in return by any of the three men she has devoted her life to. Cy is thrown at her, given no choice but to raise him, a boy who she first believes to be her brother who she later finds out has no connection to her at all. Motherhood is forced upon Vera no matter what affect it may have on her life. Vera’s life has always been used by the men around her as a tool for their own gain, yet even she knows she has not done enough to earn her father’s approval, only pleased with her, never proud.

And Grace, that poor girl, has been characterised as a greed driven beast who desecrated a church in a fit of shrieking demonic rage, shown against a blood red night sky. Grace, who was, in reality, a young single mother shunned by her small town, by her father who was no doubt turning her own son against her, who had her only chance to escape her prison of judgement stolen from her.

Her existence is what actually motivates Wicks’ sermons as a whole, the memory of “the harlot whore” ultimately the root of what drives him, raised on hatred and judgement that he inflicts upon anyone he can rather than the kindness and understanding he ought to practice and preach, the utter opposite of Father Jud. Arms up instead of out. Even somebody like Doctor Nat is only driven by his growing hatred of women after his wife left him.

Misogyny is so woven throughout the church that I think it makes it all the more powerful for Jud to rename the church after Grace. Perpetual Grace, not Fortitude against the twisted retelling of her existence, but preserving the one thing she was never afforded. It is only the women who find happiness in the end. Vera is free of Wicks, her father, Cy, all of the men who took her life and used it for themselves. Simone plays her cello again. Martha finds forgiveness, she finally lets go of the hatred that drove her entire life. Grace is given redemption and honour. Those poor girls

[empire-of-light]

CAILEE SPAENY as SIMONE VIVANE in WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) dir. Rian Johnson

[neo--queen--serenity]

Rian "I grew up Evangelical but I chose Catholicism as the setting because the aesthetic was cooler" Johnson nobody is doing it like you

[punk-speedchunk]

can i say, "i can walk, Martha, it just hurts" was v important

for the disabled, there are so fucking many nosy ass people obsessed with catching disabled people "faking" and a ton of people don't know there are wheelchair users who aren't using the chair due to total inability to walk but as an aid so they aren't needlessly overstressing and hurting themselves. and it's not whatever weird hangup the able-bodied have about it, overtaxing yourself when you do not have to is not noble, it's capitalist brainwashing

[ethereal-w0lf]

Things I noticed about Wake Up Dead Man from rewatching it again:

-When Wicks was “Burning the flock” he went for personal attacks against the women and career attacks against the men. This could have to do with his sexism believing the women’s careers aren’t important enough to attack or him feeling deeper hatred for the women in the group. It’s a noticeable difference between “I’ll make sure nobody will ever trust you as a doctor again” vs “You don’t deserve healing and you’ll die in pain”

-Wicks doesn’t insult Martha when he was burning the flock, maybe because he thinks higher of her slightly or maybe because she told him where eves apple was.

- Jud renamed the church after Grace, “Our lady of Perpetual Grace”

- Eves apple, which in media is often used to point out women’s sins and wrongdoings was used to reveal the sins of almost every man in the church.

-Nats last name is Sharp. Which is really funny to me