Rent Question. *Spoilers*

[Radford]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:54pm

I recently saw Rent for the first time and am having a plot debate with my sister. Here is the question: *SPOILERS* Does Mimi know that Roger has Aids? Does she know through mutual friends? Cause it seems like she wouldn't be coming on to him if she knew she would give him a life-threatening disease. Roger pushes her away for that reason.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:56pm

Mim has AIDS herself... they are both infected. They find out about each other having it during La Vie Boheme when their beepers go off for them to take their AZT (AIDS meds)

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:57pm

I think she finds out right at the end of La Vie Boheme. When her beeper goes off and she says "AZT break" and Roger says "You?" and basically he never says to her that he has AIDS as well, but at that point they both know that the other has AIDS.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:57pm

She finds out he has Aids in a song and Mimi has Aids from the beginning of the Musical. They both got it from injecting themselves with the cocania. Roger pushes her away because his girlfriend commited suicide because of him (he gave her Aids) and he doesn't want another relationship.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:57pm

oops broadwayguy beat me to it.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:58pm

And broadwayguy and broadwaygirl beat me too it.....hey, you two have similar names.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:59pm

It was sarcasm......I ain't dumb or anythin'

[mominator]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:59pm

You mean there is AIDS in Rent? Oh God the whole show is so totally ruined for me now!

Updated On: 7/7/04 at 08:59 PM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:59pm

LOL

[TorontoBoy]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:59pm

broadwayguy2 is real fast with a keyboard :)

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 9:01pm

in person too!

[TorontoBoy]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 9:03pm

I am going to be a good boy and not say a word :) lol

[Radford]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 9:04pm

I've read enough of this board to know you gotta type *Spoilers* for anything or get chewed out and ran out of town on a rail. I understand Mimi has Aids, but Roger doesn't know she has aids. It's clear that Roger found out that she has aids there at the end of La Vie Boheme. But, It seems to me like she is trying to get him to understand without wanting to directly tell him. Like, she sings the song "no day but today" that they sing in the Life Support meeting, it's like she is trying to tell him, "Wake up, I understand what you are going through, and I'm right here." When she responds, "Me" at the end of La Vie Boheme, it almost sounds like she is saying it like, "I didn't want to tell you like this, but you wouldn't listen."

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 9:08pm

Well, until "La Boheme" neither of them know that the other has AIDS. That point in the musical is when they come to realize that they are in the same boat.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 9:35pm

That's why they both keep singing "I should tell you..." neither wants to admit to it. Then you know they go off to have some lovin' after La Vie Boheme cause they know they're both infected.

[Teacher510]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:03pm

Here's another question- Spoiler??? As many times as I've seen it(going tomorrow to see Jai) I don't get the whole Benny /Mimi AIDS connection. Why does Benny go back with Mimi (knowing that she has AIDS)? Do we assume that he has AIDS by the end of the show? Just a plot hole or am I missing something?

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:05pm

Benny more than likely doesn't know. He probably dated Mimi before she got Aids.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:11pm

I've always wondered this: do we know that Roger and Mimi got AIDS from drugs? I know that Roger's girlfriend, April had it too, but is there ever mention of how they got it? Roger very well could've gotten it from April, or vice versa. It's not really a big thing, but I remember seeing this discussed when I was reading the Compulsive Bowlers board one day.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:12pm

Benny gets back with her cause he likes her, thinks she's hot etc. (he's still marrieD) but they never say that he has AIDS nor is it really assumed. Some of the plot has holes b/c J.Larson died before it opened.

[Teacher510]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:12pm

But then he gets back together with her in the show-after she stops seeing Roger and everyone knows she has AIDS.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:14pm

AND, they only broke up three months before Mimi started dating Roger. The chance that she contracted AIDS in those three months and *knows* about it is kind of small, isn't it? I could be way off, but doesn't it take longer than that? If yes, then she probably did have it when she was dating Benny. Maybe neither of them knew, but she probably did have it.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:15pm

I think it is a unspoken thing. I mean, Roger used to use drugs and Mimi does do the drugs (and by the same dealer I might ad). I think that is why Roger was trying to get Mimi to quit in the beginning of the musical, because he did not want her to go through what he has. And when the realization came that Mimi already had aids, it opened his mind and heart. They both share the same bagage. Sappy, I know, but that is what I think.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:16pm

You're probably right. I was always confused because it's never actually stated. Thanks.

[meagan9848]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:17pm

wait a minute, Roger gave April AIDS? I thought April gave Roger AIDS...in 8 years I've completely missed that he was infected by shooting up?

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 10:19pm

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it possible to have be HIV+ and not tranmit it to others? If that's true, is it the same with AIDS?