Round 2: Track Four: Tangerine Beach

ROUND ONE: 1 ⎔ 2 ⎔ 3 ⎔ 4 ⎔ 5 ⎔ 6 ⎔ 7 ⎔ 8 ⎔ 9
ROUND TWO: 1 ⎔ 2 ⎔ 3 ⎔ 4 ⎔ 5 ⎔ 6 ⎔ 7 ⎔ 8 ⎔ 9

Twice-Folded: The song kicks off with the shot of Quick Wendy reacting to being asked about Tony’s origins, which will lead to those horrible realities. Similarly, Dead Jack is reacting to his rush of realizations about Grady’s origins, and perhaps sensing a kindred spirit. Jack thought that Grady suffered the ultimate fate of suicide, but in fact, he’s alive and well in this fanciful, glorious, eternal place. Maybe he too could outrun the shame he feels about abusing his family!
The flip side to the other two sets of action are backward Dick interrupting Jack’s chopping spree and backward Danny interrupting Jack’s sleepless spree. As for the action we haven’t discussed yet, Tangerine Beach starts as Danny is saying “Then why don’t you go to sleep?” in response to Jack’s claim to be “just a little tired”. In Rain Race Jack will go on to say that he can’t sleep because he’s got “too much to do”. If Danny has any concept of how little Jack has been getting done, that gives a nice little ironic flourish to Rain Race. The rest of the Jack and Danny talk from here to the end of this scene is just super slow pleasantries, basically.

Twice-Folded: This is one of those things you almost have to see to appreciate, but the entire time forward Quick Wendy is telling the tale of Jack’s abuse of Danny, Danny is withdrawing from his father, and leaving the room. The strains of Tangerine Beach are appropriately sombre here, and remember, this song plays over the part of the doc where we’re seeing about all the drivers who’ve died racing. And Jack is quoting dead girls on one side, and accusing the man he’s talking to of being their dead murderous father on the other side.
What’s more, there’s a box of sewing cards on the table behind zombie Jack here, and the last time we saw these, they were on the shelf beside Danny’s bed in Boulder at the exact opposite of the Wendy/Doctor scene (which ends the moment we see CLOSING DAY). Sewing cards were little playing card type things with holes in them that help children learn how to sew, I guess, but what’s neat is the way they’re invoking the way Kubrick placed items in seemingly random places at seemingly random times to help justify our sense to view the film as this sequence of parts that fold in on themselves.
Also, how neat is it that zombie Jack’s head is fitting in Wendy’s scream mouth? Especially since the next scene is about cannibalism.

Twice-Folded: Fans of my Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are theory will be delighted to know, given how that theory eventually leads to a better understanding of how the hotel ultimately wanted Jack to kill Hallorann, that Q Jack says “come out, come out, wherever you are” during the phase of Dead Jack and Grady trading n-words about Hallorann.

Also, backward Q Jack quotes this line while backward Dead Wendy and Danny are watching Summer of ’42, so that got me thinking. The time codes for where both Summer of ’42 and Carson City start playing in this film are significant. Summer of ’42 starts playing 24:37 into that film, and 24:37 into The Shining is Ullman saying, “Oh Dick!” as Hallorann joins the group (which is extra significant in the Redrum Road context). Carson City starts playing at 51:51 into that film, and 51:51 into The Shining is Danny a few seconds away from interrupting Summer of ’42 with his urge to get his fire engine (itself connected to his favourite show, Emergency!). So I wondered, what are these time codes (24:37 and 51:51) in Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are? And they’re the codes for the below instances, which are the two instances of someone going through Cathy More’s luggage. The 24:37 instance is one of the police officers starting to rummage through her things to see that her story checks out, and the second is Cathy starting to pack up to leave the hotel, seconds before the truth is revealed about her master plan. And the connection to luggage is interesting, since we’re about to see a huge pile of luggage when the Torrances arrive at the Overlook, exactly 1 minute after backward Quick Jack says the name of the show.

As the song comes to an end, there’s this very appropriate slow bit of harpsichord music as the camera pushes in on the TV screen. During this passage, Dead Grady is saying, “Your son…has a very great talent…I don’t think you are aware how great it is…” I’ve long thought this was a reference to the filmmaking process, since he’s saying this over Summer of ’42, Kubrick’s favourite film. But this could also be a reference to every other film alluded to by The Shining, given its proximity to the Come Out, Come Out business.
What’s more, Tangerine Beach ends a second later and transitions to Superstar, which is all about how awesome drivers are, and, as we saw in round 1, the lyrics seem to refer to Danny’s awesomeness. So having Grady introduce this new phase with this dark praise for Danny is perfectly apt. His next dialogue, which overlays Superstar, is “But he is attempting to use that very talent…against your will.”

OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS