Dissect - S7E8 - The Party / No Exit by Childish Gambino

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

We continue our season-long examination of Because The Internet with “The Party” and “No Exit.” Here Gambino’s existential crisis comes to a head. After going berserk at a party at his house and kicking everyone out, he goes on a late-night drive to clear his head and gain clarity. Stuck in a loop and unable to break free, he attempts to take his own life at the end of Act 3. Shop limited Season 7 merch: https://bit.ly/36ClxIV Dive deeper into the world of Because The Internet with our episodic visual guides (https://bit.ly/30EKbF1), where you can also read the BTI screenplay in full. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @dissectpodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, just a quick heads-up that today's episode discusses suicide throughout the show, so listener discretion is advised. From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Because the Internet by Childish Gambino. On our last episode, we dissected 3005, a song that found Gambino and the boy crying out for connection, dissatisfied with his friends who are using him for his money, tired of his meaningless lifestyle, Gambino lamented that lasting connection seemed possible for others, but that it doesn't feel

possible for him. Despite the outward brightness and poppy sounds of 2005, when we really unpack what Gambino is saying, we understand that the Hook's verbal declaration of commitment is really a cry for help, a desperate plea for connection amidst his existential loneliness. after what you say, what you do. When I'm alone, I'd rather be with you. Fuck these are the niggas, I'll be right back inside till 3,05. Hold up.

Hold up. Hold up. The script cuts to the boy playing piano at his mansion as people start to arrive for yet another party. It's here that we're instructed to play the beginning of Act 3, the aptly titled track playing around before the party starts. The script continues to describe the party scene growing at the mansion. While the boy plays piano, his crew is goofing off,

chatting about something the script notes that they, quote, will not care about or remember it a month, year, 10 years, 100 years, the age of the universe, unquote. The house is starting to get messier and messier, and apparently the cleaners have stopped showing up because they weren't being paid. There's trash everywhere, surfaces are sticky, and you can't slide around on the floor. The script mourns for a moment saying, quote, The boy really loves sliding into the kitchen when he's a kid. It was the closest thing you can get to having powers, unquote.

In this short scene, the stage is set for Act 3. The boy is trying to figure himself out, thinks that everyone else is focused on meaningless things that won't matter in the future, and laments that he has lost the innocence or power of youth. As we've noted throughout the season, the mansion is an extension or representation of the boy himself, and so when we hear descriptions of the condition of the mansion, we know them to be descriptions of the boy. Case and point, the house like the boy is a mess, and specifically the floors are now

sticky, and the boy is unable to slide, something that the script notes he really enjoyed. Many of us likely know the joys of running and sliding in your socks on a smooth kitchen floor when we were kids. The metaphor here is that the boy is stuck, like a fly on those sticky paper fly traps. He's no longer able to coast or slide through life like he once was. But we also recall that we've seen this word slide appear somewhat mysteriously in the script before this scene. It came during the song Dial Up, where the boy was lying in his bed and brown spiders began talking to him. Specifically, they said, where are you? Who is this? Don't slide. This latter command of don't slide seemed to be a response to the existential questions that the spiders posed, encouraging the boy not

to run from them. This is something we should keep in the back of our minds for now, as spiders and their symbolic significance in BTI will be fully revealed by this episode's end. In the script, there's an embedded video that were instructed to play in tandem with the pre-party scene. This film clip fades in and out of focus on a series of close-up shots of the boy playing piano. We pay special attention to the boy's outfit, different shades of white, brown, and black. The walls and piano maintain the same color scheme. As a moment of contemplation and introspection, it behooves us to take some time here to explore the boy's outfit

and how Glover uses it to craft the boy as a universal figure. We've previously noted Gambino's commitment to the boy's outfit. The same clothing items worn by the boy in the film were worn publicly by Gambino and Glover for more than a calendar year. Through the entire roll-up process, tour dates, shows, interviews, and release of the Kauaii sequel project, Glover wore some variation of the following wardrobe, a white pocket t-shirt from acne, Hawaiian shirts, floral shorts, brown corduroy pants, a pair of cream Nike Cortezes, a vintage brown

shirling coat from APC, a black sweater and a pilot's hat. The colors of the boys' outfit are the same color palette used in the film clip we just discussed, a mixture of whites, browns, and blacks. These seem to serve as symbolism for the different colors of human skin. There are few other symbols throughout BTI that featured this color palette as well, most notably s'mores and cows. The floral shorts and Hawaiian shirts add natural elements to the ensemble, completing the outfit's portrait of Earth. When asked about his outfit choice, Glover said that clothes are, quote, not necessary, like a lot of things, like art, like us. That's kind of what makes it special. We use clothes to make a statement about ourselves. That's what

their four, and my clothes right now are me, unquote. Given this perspective, it seems that his outfit functions as an indicator of universal application. That is, the boy is a figure that represents all of us, a symbol we can all find ourselves in, something we can use to project our own perspective and experiences upon. This is the same reason he is referred to only as the boy in the script, and when other characters use his real name, it's edited out. The boy is the internet generations every man. You don't remember me well. And that's fine.

I was gone before we really got to know each other. I wish I had something important to say about how you're feeling right now. I'm probably can't really all right. Can you hear me? Yeah. During live performance, playing around before the party starts opened Gambino's set and was preceded by a voiceover from Gabrielle Union, playing the role of the boy's mother, and visualized on stage as a quivering projection of a white orb resembling the moon.

She says, You don't remember me, though, that's fine. I was gone before we really got to know each other. I wish I had something important to say, but how you're feeling I know you probably can't even hear me. Can you hear me? The boy longs for exactly the sort of connection and appears his mother is trying to make from beyond the grave.

Playing around on the piano, thinking about everything, it seems the boy is looking for a connection with himself, or his memories, we can only hope that he hears her before it's too late. Act 3 of Because the Internet continues with the party, produced by Childish Gambino, Ludwig Gorinson, and Pop Levi. We first hear people chattering as the party begins, and the track warps into a grimy synthesizer accompanied by light-shuffling percussion. Gambino croons, We Don't Have a Party, singing in a high falsetto,

almost as if channeling some alluring specter. Perhaps Gambino hears personifying the party itself, seducing us with all the excess, indulgence, and mindless escape it has to offer. Following the invitation to indulge, Gambino's siren call becomes more enticing as he croons, because if you don't, don't come over here. In other words, if you aren't here to party, to indulge, then you might as well stay home. This isn't a place for anything but excess. He then offers temptation. We got smoking, blue dream, drinking, cocaine, fucking, I want to show you what it is. Evoking a haze of vices with the croon of a siren, the scene is a blue dream,

referring to the strain of weed that appeared earlier on crawl. It's alluring, inviting, and Gambino calls us to join in, echoing the enticement felt by the boy and everyone else in the narrative as he pulls back the curtain. Thought I was dumb, but that wasn't the case. Got a new stack that I threw in your face. Got a new girl and she looked me, lacoonus, infinity pool in a statue that's booties, got bottles and bottles of greeno. Saw I was rich, now they fucking with Beano. Now rapping, Gambino says, Thought I was done, but that wasn't the case.

Got a new stack that I threw in your face. Despite his newfound revelations, he can't resist indulging in yet another party, likely because he hasn't found any alternative activities that would provide a meaning. And so he falls back yet again on what he knows, hosting parties at his mansion, stunting, inescapably stuck in the loop. He then raps, got a new girl, she looked Mila Kuhn. Infinity Pool and the statue that's Buddhist. Got bottles and bottles and bottles of Greeno.

Saw I was rich now they fucking with Bino. Yet again, he attempts to move on from the lost love of his exes by bragging about his wealth and a new girl that looks like actress Milakunes, who at the time was constantly topping sexiest women alive lists. We then get a reference to the Infinity Pool, Buddhist statue, and a fridge full of Pellegrino sparkling water at the mansion. Recall that the mansion represents the boy himself. high and isolated on top of a hill, a symbol of wealth and loneliness.

In sweatpants, he literally referenced the house as his aka his also known as. We also recall that the Infinity Pool and Buddha statue were emphatic images in the short film clapping for the wrong reasons. And it was here that Gambino rapped another lyric about Pellegrino. Mouth to a Pellegrino bottle color of envy. Who the fuck is Gambino? I hand a waitress of Benji to act like she never met me. He wraps,

Mouth to a Pellegrino, bottle color of envy, a hand the waitress of Benji to act like she never met me. Given its appearance across multiple mediums in the BTI world, it appears that sparkling water

is a symbol of wealth and envy, an interrogation of the way we estimate material goods to be an indication of status, something the boy has no problem utilizing to his advantage. Specifically in this track, the wealth on display

is what leads the partygoers to fuck with Bino. He's being used for his money and the experiences it provides, which he then details wrapping, brown leather bag, the vacation, Messina, boat in the harbor, I rule the marina. This refers to Messina, a beautiful coastal city in Italy, and Gambino's claim of ruling this place when he pulls up into the dock

is a boast of magnificent opulence. Again, like we saw in sweatpants, the boy and Gambino feel a need to constantly up the ante on their boasts and stunts, almost like an alcoholic who needs to constantly increase their consumption to maintain that same high level of inebriation. Gambino suddenly begins turning on the people around him, and now they say I'm insane. Gambino suddenly begins turning on the people around him, rapping 10K for the drinks, now they say I'm insane. He then pivots off the criticism he receives about his sanity, pointing out, It's been that for a minute now, Heidi Slaman.

This references Kanye West's now infamous 2013 interview with Zane Lowe. Speaking about a perceived slight from the fashion designer Heidi Slaman, West exclaimed that rap ran culture, and his position on top of rap meant that he, Kanye West, ran culture. Rap the new rock and roll. We culture. Rap is the new rock and roll. We the rock stars.

It's been like that now for a minute. It's been like that for a minute, Hedyslam. It's been like that for a minute. We're the real rock stars and I'm the biggest of all of them. Referencing this specific moment, one that highlights Kanye's polarizing public presence, is perfect for the narrative moment we're in. Recall that Glover often described himself as the son of Kanye West in interviews at this time, and he even borrows Kanye's lisping delivery of Shlemagne.

All of the associations of Kanye's wealth, artistry, brashness, contemporary media and hubris come into play here. The boys experiencing a rising tide of Bragadocio, much like Charlie Sheen or Kanye West. Simply put, he's blowing up, triggered by a perceived slight to his hierarchical status. Gambino then follows this line rapping, I've been black lucrative since Danity Kane. Danity Kane is an American girl group that formed on MTV's making the band in 2005, the same time period when Glover was graduating from NYU and beginning to write for 30 Rock, hence his line about being lucrative around this time period. In 2013, Dan and D. Kane announced that they were staging a reunion comeback,

but they never reached the same heights that they did during the mid to late 2000s, inspiring the line, who came back for a minute, now everything changed. Gambino then wraps, high as a kite, lime in the light, y'all N-words might whine every night. This pun-heavy sequence of lines refers to smoking weed, whether it be burning the green or lime, with a lighter or the green light emitted from the Pax vaporizer Glover was frequently seen with during this time. He also comments on his high status of fame, of being in the limelight. Having completed a series of brags,

he ironically puts down others who would whine every night if they're in his situation. But then, out of nowhere, Gambino flips. In an outburst similar to sweatpants, Gambino builds to a shout. I didn't invite all these people to my motherfucking house. Get the fuck out of my house. It's the sweatpants outburst magnified, and now inside the boy's home. As we know the mansion to be representative of the boy himself, this outburst is really him lashing out against the influence of others

as he literally evicts them from his home, attempting to remove them from his constructed self. We then hear the partygoers say, chill man and disperse. Like the sweatpants outburst, Glover aligned this moment across multiple BTI platforms, including in live performances of this track. On the stage set of the boys' mansion, a crowd of fans and team members would be on stage, drinking and chatting. When Gambino arrives at this moment, he would turn on them. All these people on my motherfucking house, get the fuck holy shit! Get the fuck out! The boys attempt to expel others and cement his loneliness in the

exterior world is found even more intensely in the screenplay. In the script, the mansion starts to fill up with people, so many that the boy can't think. Fam sells some kids weed out of the closet. Misala eats some mores with a random guy on top of the pool table, and Emily and Steve jump around the fire pit like idiots. Crucially, the script offers this description of the scene, quote, there are people saying things, giving opinions, feeling interesting. Everyone has a purpose tonight.

it's a great time, unquote. But then a powerful thought comes across the boy's mind. This is a waste of time. He tells everyone to get out, but no one can hear him, so he gets up, starts yelling, and then takes a pool stick and smashes the iPhone plugged into the speakers. The music stops, everyone stares. Then the boy goes berserk, violently smashing everything around him. An onlooker shouts, World Star, and others start to run out. As the boy starts, starts the swing at another phone, a hand in a cast reaches out, and the boy stops from hitting it just in time. The hand belongs to a girl. They make eye contact, and while the boy is trying to look mad, the script notes that his eyes say, I'm sorry. The girl maintains eye contact,

grabs her phone and leaves, at which point the boy goes back to smashing everything in sight. Some people run, some people laugh, but eventually everyone leaves. In the aftermath, the boy takes a bottle of saracha sauce and squirts it on the pool table, spelling out Rosco's wetsuit. Fam, who's been sitting around unnoticed, says, nice, but shakes his head and the boy leaves. Amidst the party, the boy found himself alone, seeing everyone else engage with others, doing something, having a purpose. It's exactly what evades the boy, and he's driven mad at the notion that no one else seems to think this is a waste of time, that no one else seems to be going through what he is. Gambino and the boy's.

his resultant rage creates a spectacle, one that's enough to expel the partygoers from his home. Since witnessing the World Star shooting, we've seen the boy lash out a number of times, at the Jazz Club directly after the shooting, at his ex-Nyla's boyfriend in Oakland, at the late-night diner during sweatpants, and now a full-blown Blitzkrag in his own home. The boy is stuck in a loop and he's trying to break free. Each outburst has escalated in intensity, and until he's able to escape the loop to find meaning and connection, it seems this escalation is destined to continue, causing us to fear for the safety of others and himself. Notably, his outburst at the party is briefly interrupted by a woman,

who we will later recognize as Naomi, played by Jenae Ayako. She sticks out her hand broken in a cast over her phone, preventing the boy from smashing it. Recall that the previous track 3005 contained the line, and if I lose my mental, just hold my hand even if you don't understand. While Naomi will return later in the story. At this moment, her hand is broken. She can't hold the boy, but there's clearly some kind of connection between them that provides a brief reprieve from the tantrum. Finally, the boy sprays Roscoe's wetsuit on the pool table. Why? Maybe it's a spiteful nod to the meaninglessness he sees in all the partygoers. Maybe it's that nothing makes sense to him. Maybe he thinks by pushing everyone away, he can grasp some idea of what it means. It's

still not clear. Ironically, as soon as the boy ends the party and everyone leaves, he too leaves the mansion. He's going for a drive. Given his current mental state, we begin to worry where he might be going or what he might do next. That's right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we witnessed Gambino and the boy go berserk at the party. After the boy leaves the mansion, the screenplay instructs us to play the album's next track, the final song of Act 3, No Exit. Don't go. No exit was produced by Childish Gambino and Ludwig Gorensen.

The song's verses center on what Gorensen described as a quote, Metallica-esque guitar riff that he manipulated and pitched down, eventually creating a loop. As for the song's hook, the production is very minimal, just a simple drumbeat and vocals from the artist Miguel. The first word sung are, don't go, got to know, please don't run away. This is notable because we just heard. the boy scream at everyone at the party and demand that they leave. After singing Don't Go, God or No, please don't run away. The hook continues, I'm a murderer, what can I say?

And later, what does that change? These appear to be the boy's most inner thoughts, reflective of how, even though he was acting out of rage, his eyes revealed that he was sorry for his berserk rampage. The murderer description fits the boy killing the vibe of the party and foreshadows the upcoming scenes of the script. Can't sleep. 3 a.m. stare at the ceiling. Murder to feel in spite of the cross. As Gambino states, Can't Sleep, the tranquil production of the opening hook becomes distorted, and he wraps, 3 a.m., stare at the ceiling, murder the feeling. These lyrics reflect the boy's frenzied thought pattern, painting an impressionistic scene.

He's lying awake at 3 a.m. And murder the feeling reflects both his destructiveness at the party, as well as an apparent desire for him to rid himself of the feelings he has. 3am is also a reference to a song by Eminem of the same name, where an M describes a string of murderous crimes, reinforcing the darkness and mortality present in the track. 3am also holds symbolic significance in wider culture, as it's often referred to as the witching hour, the time of night associated with demons, darkness, and witchcraft. Gambino continues, spider crawl in the corner, brown recluse. He then comments, so appropriate,

a recognition of the ironic parallel between the boy and the spider, since they're both brown recluse is. The brown recluse spider is native to the southeastern states of North America, perhaps most notably Georgia. Of course, this is the home state of Donald Glover, adding a layer of connection between the spider and our protagonist, interwoven between reality and fiction. We're going to dive deeper into the spider symbolism later, but for now we should just note how Gambino feels a connection between them. Gambino then wraps cornucopia, so be it, say I'm over it. Here he uses a cornucopia, the so-called horn of plenty, an ornamentation that overflows with produce as a symbol of abundance and wealth. Unlike his past boasts about wealth, Gambino is now over it, as he's lost interest in the hedonism and self-pleasuring pursuits that wealth affords.

Gambino continues, playing Little Dirk, This Ain't What You Want. Look at my feet, I put my sneakers in the trunk. We then hear the sound of the boy putting his shoes in the trunk, and the sounds of Chicago rapper Little Dirk's track, This Ain't What You Want, playing from his radio. This early hit from Little Dirk was likely chosen to reflect the boy's lack of pleasure from his cornucopia. from his wealth. This literally isn't what he wants, reflecting the idea that regardless of socioeconomic status, there is still an existential loneliness, a feeling that we can't be understood, that others wouldn't want to be in our shoes. Something else important about those sneakers? Well, what do you normally kill a spider with? It seems Gambino has decided to spare the spider to put his sneakers in the trunk. Given the connection between the spider and the boy,

and appears this is a metaphor for sparing his own life, for now. Atwater Village Laughan' Last for a minute Couldn't cry for the life of me Park by the bridge Sit on the hood Look at the car

Stir at my hands Look at the moon I can't find it It's gone What's wrong Didn't respond When I texted you last night You all right

Gambino raps Pass a Fat Burger Through Atwater Village Laugh for a minute Couldn't cry For the life of me Driving through Atwater Village A neighborhood in Los Angeles

Gambino passes a fatburger Yet another fast food chain That now joins The List of Places The Boy and his crew have stopped to eat at. Though he's clearly not happy, he laughs, and this reminds us of the line in 2005, kind of sad, but I'm laughing. Crucially, he then says that he couldn't cry for the life of me. Here we get an interesting and worrisome relationship between expressions of emotion and mortality.

Given the apparent depression and existential angst Gambino and the boy feel, it would seem like they would have plenty of reasons to cry, to express and release some of the inner turmoil they bottled up. His inability to express his emotions has his life at risk, as he seems to have no other alternative course of action, foreshadowing things to come. There are extra vocal layers added, as if more voices are speaking in his head. Parked by the bench, sit on the hood, look at the cars, stare at my hands, look at the moon. He's disassociating, and he sits on the hood of his car by a bridge as his thoughts scatter and he tries to cling to things that he can see. Given the suicidal ideation that's led him to this point, we're tense to see him on a bridge, but he focuses on the cars passing

by, his hands, and the moon. The cars are reminders of other people, zooming by, and his hands are reminder of himself, as he tries to gain a sense of focus. He then looks at the moon, the feminine celestial body, and we remember that the boy's deceased mother appears in live shows in the shape of a moon, offering guidance. He's now looking for this guidance, but then he discovers, I can't find it, it's gone, what's wrong. He's losing his guiding light, unable to see any more in the darkness. Gambino's attention is then directed to what's likely a text message that reads, didn't respond when I texted you last night. You all right? It appears the light from his phone or the outreach from someone checking in on him has

provided a momentary distraction from the darkness and loss that was overtaking him. He soberly responds, yeah, but we know things are not all right, that the boy is feeling existential doom, unable to escape his loneliness and lack of purpose. In the script, the opening verse of no exit scores a parallel scene that matches directly with its lyrics. It starts with the boy lying in bed, which we last saw him do during the song Dial-up. It was there that he looked up at the ceiling and saw spiders falling towards him as they whispered existential worries in his ear. Quote, Where is this? Who are you? Don't slide. Given this introduction, as well as they're tie to all of Glover's identities, we recognize these spiders as central symbols of existential dilemma

in the age of the internet, the web. Here in no exit, the boy again sees a spider while lying in bed. This time it's in the corner of his room, sitting in its web. The script notes that the boy is generally indifferent about spiders, but this particular one strikes a chord with him. He can hear it, just sitting there, and the script says, quote, I'm going to describe it as emotional tinnitus, When everything is silent and quiet, you can see the empty web you're in. It is annoying, which is the slowest form of torture, unquote. As the spider is representative of the boy, we recognize here that he is in his own empty web, suggesting meaninglessness, isolation, and entrapment.

Now he's going to look for an escape. So the boy gets up and the script cuts to him driving until he reaches a bridge in some industrial area of L.A. we get both a film clip and description of him sitting on the hood of his cars as others drive by. This mirrors the lyrics of the first verse exactly, and given the suicidal ideation exhibited by the boy, we are put on edge. We are then again reminded of existential dilemma as the boy sees that someone spray-painted Roscoe's wetsuit on the side of the bridge. The script notes, quote, The boy is not surprised, is not making more sense, but is becoming dependable, which is always nice, unquote.

The boy realizes that he hasn't eaten all day and thinks maybe that's what's wrong. In other words, maybe his meta needs only feel unfulfilled because his basic survival needs haven't been met, so he heads to Fat Burger, another direct match to no exit's lyrics. When he opens the bag, he looks at the burger for a second, and then he throws it out the window. At this point, we start to wonder what's going on with the growing list of fast food that's appeared in BTI. We've seen the boy and his crew visit In-N-Out twice in the script, already, and now he visits Fat Burger. Later in the song, he'll visit McDonald's.

Fast food might be a metaphor for the type of instantly gratifying practices that rob the boy's life of true sustenance, of true meaning. But we also have to consider the extended motific appearance of cows and eating in BTI. In Telegraph Avenue, the boy passed a slaughterhouse and thought that the cows look sad. He had once thought of those cows and laughed, but this time at Fatburger, he throws his burger out. Perhaps at the the thought of the plight of those cows. This relates to the conversation between Steve and Swank at the Sweatpants Diner about whether or not it's right to eat animals since humans have free will. We viewed this conversation to really be a discussion about wealth and the power and opportunity

that it affords. You could let cows live, i.e. used wealth to uplift lower socioeconomic classes, or you can kill the cows because accumulating as much wealth for yourself is the goal. and if that means you have to take it from others, then so be it. It's a dog-eat-dog world, every boy for himself. In this way, the cows of the slaughterhouse are a metaphor for humanity. Remember, their colors are reflected in the boy's outfit, a stand-in for their symbolic presence as a universal symbol. The boy is beginning to see himself in the cows, so to speak.

He could no longer live so selfishly, no longer willing to hurt others for his own gain, so he throws the burger out. Verse 2 finds Gambino continuing to describe his late-night drive. As we'll see in our analysis, this second verse is a near perfect parallel to the first verse, that is, the events described in verse 1 occur here in verse 2 with slight variations. They are dark reflections of each other, exemplifying how the boy and Gambino are stuck in a loop, stuck in the empty web, unable to escape.

Gambino wraps, Man is a star bound to a body inside of me, 20 million degrees burn a man to his knees. This line is a parallel to the feminine moon that ended the first verse. Glover here uses the masculine celestial star as a metaphor, reminding us of the tension and world star between desires for greatness and the dangers of self-combustion. Stars quite literally destroy themselves as they burn,

and it seems this self-destructive pattern is reflected in the boys existential exploration. He's running in circles without purpose, destroying himself, and that total destruction could put an end to his aimlessness. Reflecting the Fatburger of verse 1, Gambino wraps, late night in a hurry, bought a McFlurry, and a half an apple pie. This time it's McDonald's, and the frenzy state of Gambino's delivery is accentuated by warping panned extra vocal lines, as well as the energy of hurry and McFlurry. Turns out McFlurie with an apple pie in it, blended or not is a secret menu item at Mickey D's. In terms of nutrition, such a concoction doesn't offer much substance beside a momentary sugar high, definitely not something to abate the

hurry and flurry that's whirling inside the boy. In the background during this section, we hear Glover say three separate phrases, hard pan left and right. He says, let it bleed, breathe, and what it means. These competing vocal layers sound like voices. These competing vocal layers sound like voices in the boy's head, and point towards existential tension, the decision of whether or not to commit suicide. Gambino and the boy have just left the bridge, but the suicidal thoughts aren't leaving as they head home, and we feel them continue to grapple with the mortal coil. Just like the first verse, a fast food reference is followed by lines about laughing, as Gambino raps, when I'm laughing, I'm satisfied. The only times we've seen the boy laugh so far

are when joking about police brutality or when thinking about cows in the slaughterhouse while eating a burger. So if he's satisfied only when he's laughing, he hasn't been satisfied much. Laughter seems directly correlated to issues of mortality, of an inability to escape death. Perhaps Glover's favorite philosopher,

Soren Kirkagard, once said the following, quote, the only intelligent tactical response to life's horrors is to laugh defiantly at it, unquote. It seems he and the boy are of a similar mindset here. Gambino then, notes the paradox inherit in our existence, rapping, When I'm dying, I'm still alive, strange position.

The processes of both living and dying are intertwined, as from the moment we are born, we are dying. It's a strange position, indeed. Gambino raps, I'm in a good mood, so good I'm going to kill that spider. Given the already established ties between the boy and the spider, this is a direct indication of his suicidal intent. Gambino then wraps, and spider the kind of things that they told me, alone don't mean that you lonely. Alone means you finally get it, admit it. Speaking both directly to the audience and himself, he grapples with the loneliness explored on 2005

and reckons that truly understanding loneliness is synonymous with understanding the existential it of the conditions of life itself. Being alone is the natural condition, the natural state that we may remember from World Star when Jay died alone outside the nightclub. Gambino implores us to understand, we are alone. At this moment, it feels the boys refusing to accept this fact and seeks an escape from the feeling. Having come to a conclusion to escape, Gambino returns home, wrapping, go home, lock up the door, fold up the clothes, watch some cartoons, turn off the lights. This is another dark reflection of verse one. when he left home and enjoyed some little dirk.

Now he comes home and enjoys some cartoons, a brief domestic respite as he prepares for his next step and turns off the lights. Gambino's final lyrics on the song note him observing the spider in his room once more. He repeats, look at the recluse, look at the recluse, and finally, look at the wreck. The cutoff here suggests that he did what he said he would, that he killed the spider. Given that the spider parallels the boy,

and that the script will reveal that the boy does indeed attempt suicide, this is the end for Gambino, his final lyrics. He can't even finish the full word, recluse, ending on the shortened rec. This very end lyric actually circles back to the very first lyric Gambino began the album with, Rec League on the opening track, Crawl. Do you understand what happened here? Gambino just closed a loop on the first half. of the album, here at the suicidal moment. The intent behind this connection is cemented when we notice two more things. First, the track No Exit sees the album's runtime past the 50% mark,

and closing the first half of the album in a near-perfect symmetrical loop, linked together by the opening wreck of crawl and the closing wreck of no exit. Second, the title Crawl is exactly what spiders do and what we do on the World Wide Web, revealing a metaphor about an exploration of identity in the internet age. On a smaller scale, no-exits final fixation on the recluse spider mirrors Gambino's first lines of the song, where he saw a quote, spider crawl in the corner, Brown Reclose. This completes the parallel structure of verse one and verse two, and when taken in totality, we understand how they are dark reflections of each other. Verse one begins at home, and Gambino's journey away from home finds him searching for some empty joy. He remembers

is that he has no purpose, and he ends up contemplating suicide at a bridge. His journey back home in verse 2 is a mirror, beginning at the bridge and ending at home contemplating suicide in bed. Verse 1 and verse 2 create a loop, a loop within a loop, and it appears the boy wants out. In the script, verse 2 corresponds with the boys return home from the bridge. He locks all the doors and turns off all the lights. The script notes here that the house's walls are mostly glass. so it's easy to see in at night. When the lights are out, the boy sits in front of the Buddha statue in the foyer, staring out the window at half darkness outside and half his own reflection in the window.

The script says, quote, he used to be terrified of this Buddha. When he was little, he'd run behind the statue like it would jump on him as soon as he passed, but he slowly became something like a best friend, something like that, unquote. As we've noted throughout the season, the script here is once again highlighting the boy's relation to his house. It's a symbol of his constructed and inherited identities, and specifically here it focuses on the glass walls. When the boy has turned off all the lights, he stares out those walls, seeing half darkness, half his own reflection. This is parallel to the verse structure of no exit, wherein the verses are dark reflections of each other. As the boy ruminates on his dark

reflections, he sits directly in front of the Buddha statue in the same pose as the Buddha. This statue has been a key motivic image throughout clapping for the wrong reasons, the script, and lyrics, and operates as a central figure to understanding Glover's performance art at this time. In interviews where Glover had space to move around freely, he would invariably choose to sit in the Buddhist dance, legs folded crisscross, arms in his lap. BTI's album cover, a close-up of Glover's face, is actually a crop of a larger photo, where he's sitting in the same pose. This is extremely intentional, and it draws a connection between Glover, the boy, and the Buddha. Like the boy, the Buddha, whose original name was Siddhartha Gwitama, was born into a rich family,

and his own crisis of faith in existentialism was spurred by the first time he saw death and famine firsthand. The Buddha became a religious figure, a model for those experiencing their own crisis, and it seemed Glover is positioning the boy as a similar universal applicator. Furthermore, the Buddha emphasized in his teachings the presence of loops, specifically in the idea of Samara, or the cycle of reincarnation that binds us to earthly existence. The script continues by cutting to the boy in his room. He pours Pellegrino into a wine glass. He then twists his weed grinder, opens it, and pours a white powder into the glass.

He then drinks it and gets into bed. Reflecting the boy's fading consciousness, the words in the script begin to have extra spaces at it. it to them until they're almost illegible. The boy, quote, looks at the spider in the corner, only it was gone. Where'd it go? Why would it leave? What about its parents? Won't they be sad? And what about his friends? What about all his stuff? How is he supposed to keep all of his? The script fades out and the scene ends. This is the moment we feared as the boy attempts to overdose on an unnamed drug. Notably he drinks it down with Pellegrino, a symbol we

previously connected to wealth and excess. It's almost as if Gambino attempts to leave this earth via the same practices he become numb to. He doesn't listen to the voice saying, don't go, and as he seems to fade away, he becomes concerned with the spider, which is now gone. He starts to wonder about the spider's parents and friends, and switches from using it to he, solidifying the bond between the spider and the boy. Here in the final moments, he's starting to understand, the connections, the relationships, why leave when those exist? In this critical moment, the boy has finally made a connection. He connected with the spider. He cared about the spider. But tragically, the boy has already made his move to slide, and it might be too late.

Having now reached the end of the third act in both songs and script, we're at a point where we can fully understand the powerful, multi-layered symbolism of the brown recluse spider. As we've mentioned, both Glover and the spider are native to Georgia. Spiders weave webs to catch prey, but these webs are also beautiful tapestries of connection, a home for the spiders themselves. Metaphorically, this presents the internet, the web, as a place of simultaneous danger and beauty.

Spiders also crawl, and we remember that the first full track on the album was titled Crawl, which at the time was most directly related to the idea of human beings being infants relative to the internet age. Now given the spider connection, we see another expression of the web's danger. As were spiders, we're native to the web. We've been communicating and connecting as long as we've been a species. The internet amplifies and multiplies the possible connections, but innately, we do have the tools for it. We can figure this out. The brown recluse also carries specific weight due to its color. As we've noted, existence in the age of the internet

heightens tensions and stresses upon minority populations. World Star noted the disproportionate stereotypical representations of race and class. Telegraph Avenue reminded us of the constant issue of police brutality and racial discrimination, and sweatpants conveyed classes' influence on how we treat each other. Think about your first instinct when you see a spider. For many of us, our first instinct is to kill it. We're scared, we're prejudiced, and we feel that we can wield such deadly past. power. Likewise, disenfranchised populations, and in this instance, specifically black Americans,

face discrimination that prevents them quite literally from living. The brown recluse spider then serves as a reminder of the impact of race and identity on the already stressful contemporary existential threat of the internet. While some may have thought of the internet as a safe haven, a place where you can construct any identity for yourself, nothing exists in a vacuum, and everything will influence everything else. And on top of these universal and communal layers, the spider also has specific symbolic layers on the individual level for Donald Glover. It's near impossible to think of Glover and spiders and not think of the hashtag Donald for Spider-Man campaign, where the internet went ablaze trying to cast Glover in the role of the hero. It was his first real bit of national publicity,

something he's commented on frequently. don't exist, the people don't exist. But, like, I made the album for me when I was third. I made it for black kids, specifically who are told who they are all the time. You know, and that Spider-Man thing, like, it really taught me that it's like, you know, I'm tired of fucking labels. I'm tired of that. Like, I don't want to be, like, rap artists or that.

I just want to fucking make shit. And to have people be like, yo, there's no black Peter Parker's out there, you know, who are, you know, neurotic or who just, like, you know, it's really bothered me. Glover had to grapple with the bevy of racial implications, as well as the onslaught of internet chatter and trolling, all elements of the brown recluse spider symbolism we've already noted. Glover had to endure a wide array of projections upon him and his potential,

ultimately teaching him to hate labels and creating a desire to be seen as an artist instead of a rapper or actor or something specific. In this sense, we understand the brown recluse is a symbol of, of the existential dangers of the internet. The internet warps our sense of self, increases the frequency of connection with others in a volatile matter, and is something that we don't really have control of.

Now, having discussed the connections between the identities of Glover and the spider, we can take another look at the loop structure of the first half of the album, with these connections in mind. Recall that Gambino's final words on the first half were, look at the recluse, look at the wreck, while Gambino's first rap lyrics on crawl were,

Rec League. But as you might remember, Gambino actually sings a little something before this line. Gambino asked, Who am I? And then says, Rec League. Given all we discussed today, we can justifiably contend that Rec actually stands in for Reclose League. Who is he? Who is Gambino, the boy, Glover? They're an amalgamation of the recluse spiders. This potential answer to a question central to BTI's world is a hint at revelations to come. Who Gambino is, who we are, is a product of connections, parts of a web that binds us all. As we'll come to see, the boy's suicide attempt has an implication of ego death. As the boy tries to obviate himself from the loneliness he feels, he will realize the

interconnectedness of us all. As Glover himself said in his Instagram notes, quote, We can't be lonely though, because we're all here. We're all stuck here. Conclusions The title No Exit comes from a 1944 play of the same name by French existentialist John Paul Sarcha. In the play, three strangers named Garson, Inez, and Estelle are escorted to a hotel room after their death as the afterlife takes the form of this place, where they are stuck together.

They try to get to know each other, and there are no mirrors in the room, and so they rely on each other to offer reflections and perspectives. The play's most famous line is Garcant's ultimate proclamation that hell is other people, as they torture each other by merit of their conversations, projections, and actions. This parallels the boy's current situation as he's tortured by those around him and lashes out, ultimately leading to his suicide attempt at the end of Act 3. This is reflected in Sartre's no exit as well. By the end of the play, the three characters are driven mad,

Estelle attempts to kill Inez, but since they're already dead, she's unable to do so, which Ines further demonstrates by failing to commit suicide by stabbing herself. Here we can't help but think of Glover's own suicide attempt in real life. Going through a depressive existential crisis in which he didn't see the point anymore, Glover said, quote, I tried to kill myself. I was really fucked up after that, because I had this girl that I thought I was going to marry and we broke up.

I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing, unquote. As Glover has explained a bit further in recent interviews, quote, When people become depressed and kill themselves, it's because all they see is the algorithm, the loop, unquote. We're reminded here of the multiple loops throughout BTI, including the looping structure of the first half of the album, as well as the two verses of no exit, dark reflections of each other that show that wherever the boy runs,

he cannot escape his feelings and dilemma. He sees no exit, just inescapable loops. In the play, the three characters ultimately realize that no matter what they do, they are stuck together forever, hence the title no exit. If you haven't figured it out already, the play is an allegory, a depiction of the existential dilemma. Garcone's ultimate response to this dilemma is enacted in the final moments of the play. After all three characters laugh hysterically at the realization they're stuck together forever,

Garcon famously says, quote, well, let's get on with it. As we'll see, the boy's option is the same as Garsohn's. He must get on with it. Move on. Grow up. This connection between Garsohn and the boy's situation is cemented when we realize what the name Garsohn actually means. It's French for a young man. You know, like the boy. And as we've come to understand that the boy is a universal applicator, a symbol for us all, we have to ask ourselves some tough questions at this pivotal moment of because the internet. If we can't escape this feeling, if we're all here and all lonely, why should we stay? Why not choose to leave? And what do we find meaning and purpose? Well, as hinted at

in the brown recluse spider symbolism, the answer may just be the web itself, the realization that we're all stuck here connected, that there is, as Sartra contended, no exit, that all we have really is each other. We'll follow the boy experiencing death as because the internet continues with death by numbers and flight of the navigator. Songs will examine note by note, line by line, next time on Dysect. Today's episode of Dysect was written by Camden Ostrander and me. Remember, you can go deeper into the world of Because the internet through the supplementary guides on our website, Dysectpodcast.com. Be sure to check out our limited season seven merchandise, and also be sure to follow us on social media at Dysect Podcast.

Today's episode was edited by Eric Bass and me, Song Recreations by Andrew Atwood, theme music by Bureaucratic. All right, thanks, everyone. Talk to you next week.