The old woman’s henchman acted the role of her disabled son. The son was slow and could not handle role playing, deceit or complex situations. The old woman sought her henchman’s assistance to masquerade as her son, to ensure that the conversation was controlled and would go towards the desired direction, to produce the goal they had in mind. This would ensure the mentally incompetent son would not be captured, manipulated, or trapped into verbal agreements which are detrimental to his welfare.
The adult is slow to capture stimulations from all senses. When he does, he needs time to assimilate the stimulants, to understand what they mean, and what he should do to respond to stimulations. He needs time to process what are his appropriate responses to react to the stimulations. When he sees something, he cannot capture the stimulus immediately. He needs time for the stimulant to sink into his brain. The next step in the chain of reactions is to allow time for the brain to think and remember what can be the suitable response to answer to couple with the stimulant.
An example would be when he drops something on the ground. He does not pick it up immediately. His brain has to see and process the sight of the thing falling on the ground. Then he needs time to understand he has to pick it up.
The video mentions slow processing speed in kids, but the info is also relevant for adults.
The old woman hired a young man assistant to help the slow man live his life safely. The helper accompanies his boss everywhere, like a shadow.
The slow man was caught by a “clam”, who was actually a human in disguise, who chomped down on a morsel carelessly discarded by the slow man. Now, the “clam” has gotten hold of the secret and won’t release the perpetuator of the dubious act.
The “clam” demanded to speak to the slow man. The old mother didn’t want to honor this request, but she was afraid of the “clam”. She was scared of what the “clam” could do to her and her son. She knew her son well enough to fear that he would not be able to pass through this hurdle.
She devised a plan with her trusty henchman. He was to masquerade as her son. He was to talk to the “clam” indirectly, by relaying his responses through a middleman. The henchman is going to play a double role – he is going to play two men simultaneously. He will talk as himself, the helper of the old woman, and secondly, he will mimic the slow man’s voice and masquerade as him.
The old woman told her son to send a driver back with his vehicle. In this way, the “clam” and other neighbors could be deceived to think that the son has driven his vehicle and arrived home. The old woman thought that the “clam” could be deceived by this masquerade. She thought too highly of herself.
The “clam” felt that he couldn’t effect any change to the old woman’s plans, since she was insistent on carrying out her fraud. He allowed the masquerade to proceed.
The henchman plays himself, in the role of a dialogue partner, casually talking to the slow man. Then he switches his role, now playing the slow man. He speaks for that man. Then he returns to his first role, as himself, speaking to his boss, the old woman. This is followed by the henchman playing the part of the slow man.
After a painfully long conversation, the old woman and her henchman came to a joint decision that the masquerade had gone on long enough. They executed the exit for the fake slow man. He was allowed to leave in a staged departure, where actually the helper drove away in the slow man’s regular vehicle.
This is the painful process of masquerading to hide another person’s true nature, protect him from being exposed as having dysfunction, and protecting him from making serious mistakes.
Masquerade is an offence under certain circumstances. Impersonation of a person with a motive to deceive may be prosecuted if an offence was committed during the act of deception.
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