The final chapter.
Alone, broke, tormented with self-hatred, Raoul finds a sort of peace at last in his final resolution. But he doesn't yet know the worst; and when his son comes back once again -- beyond belief -- into his arms, it will shatter what little hope remains and force upon him the hardest decision of all...
Had horrid misgivings as to whether the reasons for Christine's reaction after the song are actually going to be clear here, given that — because of the structure of the story (quite apart from the symmetry of the Raoul/Christine/Raoul layout, Christine doesn't get any more 'off-stage' moments in the musical!) — we don't actually get to see her point of view at that juncture, or indeed see anything of what goes on after Raoul leaves the scene...
So I made a couple of little changes to this chapter and possibly the next, in the hopes of making that part of the story's plot a bit clearer. I'd appreciate knowing whether this comes across as a plausible interpretation of what we see on stage... which I always did feel needed a bit of explaining. It's just that I'm not at all sure the theory that I've used here is actually apparent.
Endless tinkering on this to try to pitch Christine just right (and because I'm terrified of the fans' howling "But it wasn't like that!")
The choice has got to be absolutely balanced, so that she can swing one way and then another without either seeming implausible -- this is a very different Christine from the wife of the "Choices of Raoul" who was ready to fight for her marriage like a tiger. In the revised version we have a relationship that hasn't so much gone spectacularly wrong as ebbed away into tired habit: and this time it isn't Raoul who is offering a way out...
So ages of fiddling away at it, to boost first one man and then the other into an option that from her point of view she might actually want to choose, without overthrowing the balance too far on either side. Plus the usual edits for inadvertent repetition (how many times can one use the word 'possession' in one chapter?)
After the promise he can't keep, it's time for Raoul to make his really big mistake... with the very best of intentions, the poor man.
(Note: In the French game of hazard, the player throws dice against the house, and if he rolls the number stipulated (the 'main') then he has won on the spot. But in the card game vingt-et-un, the reverse is true: the gambler makes his play, and then the house plays last to see who wins...)
Now working on the third of my five potential Raoul-plots; this one was sparked off by some of the specific changes made for the Australian version of "Love Never Dies", so the cast here are somewhat different from the versions of the characters seen in "The Choices of Raoul". Notably, this Raoul hasn't been put through the furnace yet and is somewhat cockier in consequence.. although, alas, this is going to change in the course of the story. (The provisional chapter titles I have so far are Euphoria, Encounter, Entr'acte,Ebb-tide and Elegy, so the downward trajectory is fairly apparent...)
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