the ironist's one sincere prayer is to not be seen

Trapped in a room where grown men perform raw, hysterical need out loud, Hal does the opposite of connect: he mentally decamps, alphabetizing far-off places he'd rather be — Aruba, the Appian Way, the Azores — putting an ocean of interior distance between himself and the contact all around him. And the one time in years he prays with genuine desperation, the prayer is not to be reached but to stay invisible, to not be recognized. His most sincere communicative act in the whole scene is a plea to remain unseen.