After the "Lot's Wife" sequence ("Sunday Morning"/"Lot's Wife"/"Salty Teardrops"), the Epilogue is my favorite part. It's the perfect ending, it emphasizes Caroline's true heroic nature without being sappy or unreal. Yes, Caroline goes back to the house and probably will keep working as a maid for a while, but it pays off because she has paved the way for a future generation of fighters who WILL have chances and WILL take those chances.
Emmie's revelation that she took down the statue is so empowering. I believe Tonya Pinkins said that Emmie is just as Caroline, the difference is Emmie is growing up in a completely different time/context.
Also, George C. Wolfe told Pinkins that if Caroline lived in today's world she'd be running a small South American country, but due to the time's constraints she is stuck 16 feet below sea level.
Anika Noni Rose's "Emmie's Dream" is too good to be described with words. I particularly love the way she sings the last line: "Down to Larry, and Emmie, and Jackie, and Joe: the children of Caroline Thibodeaux." What a brilliant ending.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
