Gately, the wraith, and the figurants — "either the wraith is saying or…"
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 […] all that would happen is that one of the audibilizing ‘name’ stars of the show would bolt over from stage-center and apply restraints or the Heineken Maneuver or CPR, figuring the silent gesturing figurant was choking on a beer-nut or something […] No way for a figurant to win. No possible voice or focus for the encaged figurant.
Context
The thought-experiment: a 'Cheers!' figurant makes a bid for attention, and the show's grammar instantly converts the rebellion into a name-star's heroics. "Heineken Maneuver" lands twice — a Heimlich malaprop, and the M.P.'s beer, household brand of Gately's own childhood muteness. And the opening's undecidability ("either the wraith is saying or Gately is realizing") means the doctrine's authorship can't be assigned — the brain-voice rule at work.