Gately and the wraith on figurants
And either the wraith is saying or Gately is realizing that you can’t appreciate the dramatic pathos of a figurant until you realize how completely trapped and encaged he is in his mute peripheral status […] No way for a figurant to win. No possible voice or focus for the encaged figurant. Gately speculates briefly about the suicide statistics for bottom-rung actors.
Context
The wraith (JOI) lecturing intubated Gately about figurants, the mute background bodies of 'Cheers!'-type sitcoms: encagement in mute peripheral status sliding straight into suicide speculation — the theme's cage apparatus applied to the voiceless, and a bridge to the wraith's confession a few pages on that his own son was becoming a figurant.