#i can see small reynie in the orphanage saying to himself “if i learn how to play all the games then the other children will play with me”

[sophieswundergarten]

Okay, but where did the kids even learn to gamble?

Kate probably was taught by her circus family, and they'd play without real money, just for fun and to mess with each other when it inevitably dissolved into wild cheating.

Sticky I'd imagine picked up a book purely for the strategy, and enjoys getting to have a certain win at a game most people think is chance because of math.

Constance picked it up some indeterminable time before she came to be with Mr. Benedict and regularly cheated people. She'd walk right up and challenge someone/invite herself to play, and now she's banned from every bar, casino, and casual game in Stonetown.

Reynie I honestly don't think has ever played before in his life. He may have read about it at some point, but he has a very loose grasp on how to practically apply it, even though he has all the rules memorized. (He probably went through a phase of learning a bunch of games in case anyone ever asked him to play.)

[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

rewatching “Depends on the Wagon” and Curtain and Reynie’s scene is SO much better written than I realized on first watch. Pretty much everything Curtain says is subtle manipulation to get Reynie to trust him, and it’s creepy as hell.

For starters, he walks in and says he’s “so glad” that Reynie “decided to come,” and then pauses, as if confused, after Reynie corrects him and says he was summoned; this does plant the idea in Reynie’s head that he WANTED to come, and also that Curtain is a safe and friendly person to casually go to; in fact, Curtain would be totally chill if Reynie just showed up to hang out. If you’re a safe person to hang out with, and confide in, whoever’s talking to you is more likely to... let things slip.

Throughout the scene, he doesn’t acknowledge SQ at all (only mentioning him once later to the chef), barely acknowledges the chef, and focuses all his attention on Reynie, (with one exception, noted later) making Reynie seem very important to him, as well as, again, trying to make him more comfortable talking to him. Considering he knows Reynie’s an orphan (his paperwork listed him as transferring from the orphanage), this could easily be a setup of “nobody else listens to you, but I do.”

The conversation starts with simple small talk (basically “did you get here alright”), then immediately moves onto a compliment (”your test scores were quite impressive”)... and then also immediately, Curtain starts sowing seeds of doubt in Reynie about how much he should trust anyone but the headmaster. He throws out there, basically for no reason, “I don’t see you as bland or unremarkable at all,” and before Reynie can question that, he presses on with his compliments, then again says “Unlike others I don’t find your scores surprising...” This is not only basically hinting to Reynie that people are against him, talking about him rudely, possibly trying to sabotage him, but it also frames Curtain as the good adult who knows that Reynie is Special™ and Smart™. In his compliments, he also compares himself to Reynie a lot (”people call me a maverick”), obviously as another ploy to gain trust.

Curtain also drops the potential promise of Messengership, as another “look how cool/nice I am to you, you’re so special I’m already planning to put you in the inner circle.” To also note, he says this right after he says he doesn’t find it “ethical” to make overpromises, giving Reynie the impression that he’s SO special and smart that he’s an exception, and Curtain can already see that. Add more compliments, making Reynie like him more- “you’re destined to do amazing things in this institute” was an interesting line for example, as it’s implicitly saying “you’re destined to do amazing things for me.”

Then... he moves onto Sticky. He quickly tries to make the topic casual, joking about his name, then asks about their relationship. When Reynie mentions that they’re friends, you’ll notice Curtain gestures for the chef to bring over their salads- intentionally interrupting the conversation, making it a little awkward. For the first time since he entered the room, he ignores Reynie, instead talking to the chef about SQ. Without directly saying anything, this easily could make Reynie feel like he said or did something wrong- “oh no, he was paying attention to me before, but now when I talk about my friend I’ve lost his interest. sticky must be a bad subject. bad sticky.”

Does this work on Reynie? I don’t think so, as when Curtain turns back to him he’s ready to continue the conversation as if they hadn’t been interrupted. (Not to shove my autistic!Reynie headcanon in, but the “not understanding social cues” trait is very present there.) Curtain then compliments him on being “intuitive”, then becomes more direct, advising him to “not let [his] guard down with anyone,” saying that the school is competitive and people’s motives might not be clear- now, Curtain’s motive with that sentence was clear, to tell him that people are going to try to stab you in the back.

He then once again compares Reynie to himself, as well as throwing in a pity card for the obviously empathetic child, saying “I had to learn that lesson the hard way [read: so I’m teaching it to you now, because you’re so clever and amazing], because my brother betrayed me [read: isn’t that sad? But I rose above it, which makes me the hero in the situation.].”

We know from the book (unless they changed it?) that Curtain doesn’t know at all that the MBS are spies, so what’s this manipulation for? What it is, is simple abusive tactics. The implicit message in the entire conversation is “It is bad for you to trust anyone except for me.” Once a victim is isolated, they’re easier to control. And as we know, control is very important to Curtain. So when Reynie turns up with amazing test scores, meaning he’ll likely be promoted to messenger "faster than any kid in the school,” Curtain’s ready to start the manipulation just as fast.

Also, a prop department note: while Mr Benedict’s study is filled with books, so much so that you can barely see anything else... Curtain’s books are all fake. The shelves on the wall are photographs. Visual cue that there’s no real knowledge valued here.