Hereditary

Come on, Peter.

Wake up.

Peter.

Wake up.

Here's your suit.

Do you know if your sister slept in her room last night?

I don't know.

Come on, Peter. Get up.

Oh, Charlie. For God's sake, come on.

It was freezing last night.

That's how you get pneumonia.

That's okay.

Okay, come on. Let's go. We're late.

Your mother's in the car already.

Um...

It's heartening to see so many strange, new faces here today.

Um, I know my mom would be very touched

and probably a little suspicious...

um, to see this turnout. So...

My mother was a very secretive and private woman.

She had private rituals,

private friends, private anxieties.

It honestly feels like a betrayal

just to be standing here talking about her.

She was a very difficult woman to read.

If you ever thought you knew what was going on with her,

and, God forbid, you tried to confront that...

But when her life was unpolluted,

she could be the sweetest, warmest,

most loving person in the world.

She was also incredibly stubborn,

which, maybe, explains me.

You could always count on her to always have the answer.

And if she ever was mistaken,

and, well, that was your opinion...

- -And you were...

wrong.

There aren't nuts in that, huh?

-No. -Good.

Does that have nuts? 'Cause we don't have the EpiPen.

I know.

Hello, Rexy!

Good dog.

Shoes off, everybody.

Charlie, shoes off.

It does feel weird.

Yeah.

Should I be sadder?

You should be whatever you are.

It'll come.

Hey, how's it going?

Mmm, just working.

Taking a break from avoiding the show.

So, you still toiling away at the hospice?

Yeah, between this and the, uh, preschool.

So what's our deadline now? Seven months?

So what's our deadline now? Seven months?

-Six and a half. -Ooh, coming up.

Any ideas for titles?

- -

Come in.

Hey...

-Good night, kiddo. -Good night.

Are you, uh...

Are you feeling okay about everything?

Yeah. Fine.

A little sad?

Mmm...

Yeah, I get it.

I know.

-Good night. -Night.

Love you.

Who's this?

That's Grandma?

You know you were her favorite, right?

Even when you were a little baby,

she wouldn't let me feed you because she needed to feed you.

Drove me crazy.

She wanted me to be a boy.

You know, I was a tomboy when I was growing up.

I hated dresses and dolls and pink.

Who's gonna take care of me?

Um, excuse me.

You don't think I'm gonna take care of you?

But when you die.

Well, then...

Dad will take care of you.

Or Peter.

You never cried as a baby.

You know that?

Even when you were born.

Did you feel like you wanted to cry today?

You think it might feel like a relief?

Good night, sweetheart.

Mom?

I just scared myself in the workshop.

With... With what?

No.

Are you done?

Almost.

So, maybe we finish the toy after the quiz.

What do you think?

-Okay. -Okay.

- -Oh, my God! What was that?

So, if we go by the rule that the hero is undone by his fatal flaw,

what is Heracles' flaw?

Arrogance.

Okay.

Why?

Because he literally refuses to look at all the signs

that are being literally handed to him the entire play.

Okay, interesting.

- -So he thinks he has control.

But let's all remember,

Sophocles wrote the oracle so that it was unconditional,

meaning, Heracles never had any choice, right?

So does that make it more tragic or less tragic

than if he has a choice?

- Less. -Okay.

-Why? -Because.

Care to weigh in, Peter?

Um, about which part?

I think it's more tragic because, if it's all just inevitable,

then that means that the characters had no hope.

They never had hope

because they're all just, like, hopeless.

They're all like pawns in this horrible, hopeless machine.

- Hello! - Hi!

Did you go up in my mom's room?

No.

Mmm. Door was open.

Hello?

Sorry. I know it's irrational.

-No problem. -Thank you.

Hey, Dad. It's the cemetery.

About what?

Let me see.

Hello?

Yes.

What does that mean?

Desecrated?

But it's only been a week.

Yes, okay, yes. Sure.

All right. I understand. Yes...

Uh, why don't I call you back? Yes. Goodbye.

What was it?

Uh, just some billing crap.

Okay, well, I'm, uh... I'm gonna go see a movie.

Okay.

He would say,

"I'm a burden, I'm a burden, I'm a burden."

And I would tell him, "No, no."

But yes, he was a burden.

Now we've set aside some time for any newcomers

who might like to speak.

So, anyone.

If it's your first or second time with us, the floor is open.

Yes. Would you like to...

Maybe not.

Okay.

No pressure.

My name's Annie.

Hi, Annie.

My mom died a week ago.

So I'm just here for...

trying it.

I have a lot of resistance to things like this,

but I came to these a couple years ago.

Well, I was forced to come and I guess it, um...

I guess it helped. So, um...

My mom was old, and she wasn't all together there at the end.

And we were pretty much estranged before that,

so it really wasn't a huge blow.

But I did...

love her.

And she didn't have an easy life.

She had DID, which became extreme at the end.

And dementia.

And my father died when I was a baby from starvation,

um, because he had psychotic depression

and he starved himself,

which I'm sure was just as pleasant as it sounds.

And then there's my brother.

My older brother had schizophrenia,

and when he was 16,

he hanged himself in my mother's bedroom

and of course his suicide note blamed her,

accusing her of putting people inside him. So...

That was my mom's life.

And then she lived in our house at the end, before hospice.

We weren't even talking before that.

I mean, we were, and then we weren't.