From “Anagrams” [iii]

Cain tended to break rules and saving the introduction of a principal character for episode 3 was the most signifcant early decision. Previously associated with both Cain and Fr. K, Adah had been away on a busi-
ness trip for three months, returning to find diplomatic relations between her country and its bellicose neighbor in tatters. Staff writer James Ingram recalls the atmosphere in the room when they realized that
the letters b, i, t, c, h, d, i, t, t, o were left over after Fr. K’s feverish definitions. “We just started opening windows and whooping at the world,” he says. “It was character defining. This was Adah in her own words

wresting control idiot with her Whatever I’ve I’m probably that.” Not unlike accident” of later (punctuation free-for-all), we that the writers signifcance of      a coincidence. charged with
a hysterical joint the male leads, desires for Adah, name her with

back from the first breath. worked on since proudest of
the famous “B- season favorite is naturally a may reflect now overlooked the so terrifying The episode is sexual tension, chorus from their hopes and their need to many names,

<Doorbell.>   Adah in Burberry, bathed in hall light. Adah, rosebud torturer, co-author of overset thermometers. Adah, outshining hydrogen trinketry. Soothe their wrathful orphanhood then come hither, nutrient. Heavyweight statuette. Handbook for esh data & VAT theft; the lighthouse den where redemption inducts honey. Brunette A.D.D., ol’ mouthwash. Adahhhh! Tetchy demon & conventional Frenchwoman. Death, wishbone, horse- shoe.

“Ditto, bitch.”

to take ownership of her in some way or in one very specific way. Indeed there is an unabashed eroticism to the episode, albeit entirely set in the corridor, which saw early accusations of gratuity. The show would grow accustomed to courting controversy in this way, occasionally falling foul of the Bechdel test (a scene cut from episode 12 featured Adah in conversation with herself about the two male leads for half an hour). Halberg remains impenitent. “Adah isn’t just the love interest — that’s exactly what we wanted to send up in this show. She’s supposed to be the rudder, the only one with a handle on the situation who might do something about it. Of course Cain and Father K just spend the whole time drooling and lusting after her: they’re imbeciles.”

Notes:

This poem is part of a larger sequence. You can read the rest in the June 2016 issue of Poetry.