Montesian transcripts: 'Fine, fine. Fine.'

Irony as the reflex mask of wellness, and the body ratting it out. The resident performs relentless fineness — the Program's own upbeat vocabulary ("Happy to be here") turned into armor — while the tooth-grinding and the eyelid tic broadcast exactly what the fineness is built to hide. It's the ironic deflection in its smallest, saddest form: keep the register light and jokey enough ("A jaw-strengthener") and maybe nobody asks the single-entendre question underneath. The performance is fluent and the tell is involuntary, which is the scene's economical way of showing that the ironic mask never actually seals.