"Greetings
and Salutations; are you a Heather?"
Is J.D. really
a Heather in disguise? Not exactly; but there are similarities.
First off, a sort of "sympathy for the Devil," is conjured up in both J.D.'s
and Heather Chandler's cases. Secondly, they both seem like the epitome
of cool from the outset ("you wanted to be a part of the most popular clique
in school") and it's up to Veronica to peel back their facades to expose
the true monsters beneath. The similarities between Heather and J.D.
can be viewed best through Veronica's eyes. We first meet Veronica
after she has already grown sick of the Heathers and their antics (Chandler
most of all). What we gather, though, is that there was a point prior
to the film where she was blinded by the Heathers' popularity much like
the rest of Westerburg is. ("Betty Finn was a true friend and I sold her
out to a bunch of swatchdogs and diet Coke heads"). After the disastrous
Remmington party Veronica "wants to kill" and dreams of a "world without
Heather" where she is free and can regain the part of herself she lost
when she joined the clique.
"Dreadful
etiquette, I apologize."
On cue, like
some sort of deranged Romeo, J.D. comes onto the scene to become
the "world without Heather." In the love scene on the croquet court
he defines such a world ("Heather Chandler is one bitch that deserves
to die.") and the very next morning he creates it. No longer
does Veronica have to deal with the "cool" monster that was Heather Chandler
(despite the fact that Heather Duke rises to fill her place) she now has
J.D. to contend with. And even though Heather seemed like the very
definition of the kind of person that makes Westerburg (and society
in general) a bad place to be; J.D. is even worse. He's the
sociopath, the aggressively antisocial psycho, the murderer. He's
not the best element for society either.
"Cool
guys like you out of my life."
It's
seems to be Veronica's curse that she discovers the true faces of
J.D. and Heather Chandler too late. She longed to latch on to both
of them ("And to think there was a time when I actually thought you were
cool!") and afterwards there's nothing she seems to want more than to get
both of them out of her life. ("I'm not trying to bring anyone back,
except maybe myself.") We have to assume that she is finally free
after J.D. blows up and we see her take the red scrunchy out of Heather
Duke's hair and wrap it in her own. Veronica has decided to no longer
be the lamb following the cool shepherd around the hallways of Westerburg,
she takes charge of her own life and whatever will be will be.
"Cause
nobody loves me!"
Sympathy
for the Devil. It seems cliché for J.D. to say that no one
loves him in his final anit-society speech. Is it a lame attempt
to provide reason to his psychosis? Or is it the only glimpse of
his own despair we truly get to see? He's on his knees bleeding and
ranting, adamant about not telling Veronica how to disable the bomb, and
he hits us with this almost pathetic cry for help after he had exclaimed
earlier on: "Strength damnit!"
If we take his confession as a serious one: that he's lonely, that he believes
no one loves him, that he is despairing because of his feelings; then we
can see the knowledge that J.D. has gained when he decides to kill himself.
No matter how terrible Heather, Kurt and Ram were to the people around
them, committing suicide drew pity, reverence and love to them with magnetic
force. If J.D. wants to be loved, what better way to do it than to
commit suicide?! (I'm not saying to go out and commit suicide).
Heathers' black-comedic theme centers around this half-true misconception
of suicide in general. Even J.D. figures it out. Instead of
killing everyone else, and becoming the ultimate villain, he realizes that
he'd rather kill himself and receive the same kind of positive attention
that his victims did.
J.D.'s desire
to clean the slate is an example of his dissatisfaction with his life.
It's another connection to Heather Chandler. Heather is not happy
with her life either. Even though the concept is deliberately placed
in her mouth by J.D. and Veronica's forged suicide note, and later on comes
up again in Ms. "Phlegm's" class, the idea that is most easily seen in
the Remmington sequence. Again, it's subtle; but during the frat
party we see Heather reluctantly give head to David the college guy, and
then spit at her reflection in a bathroom mirror. Like J.D.'s confession
in the boiler room, it's the only glimpse we have of Heather's own despair.
As paradoxical as it seems there are similarities between J.D. and
Heather. Between the murderer and his victim. Between the character
in the movie we love and the character we hate. How
ironic.
--Elisa
Higgins, 1999
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