The giggling and forced over-laughter is so weird to me. Like she cracked up when she asked him to sing about Nashies but she also immediately began to laugh hysterically when he slapped her hard on the top of her head. After the slap she downshifted a bit into "that hurt" territory but her first impulse at being humiliated was to laugh like it was the funniest thing ever. And she didn't hesitate. It's like it's second nature: humiliating thing happens, immediately crack up laughing.
It kind of puts her other instances of manic giggling into a weird focus. At her jolliest, when she's laughing so hard she's wheezing, when she laughs as hard at a dumb song about Nashies as she does when she gets smacked on the head like a dog pissing on a rug, all I can assume is that she is terrified of being humiliated and is cooping the experiencing and labeling it as funny so she doesn't have to look as pitiful if she is in on the joke. That she does it all the time makes me think she lives her life in fear of constant humiliation. At any moment he could smack her on her hump or talk about how much she stinks or similar so she's in a state of readiness, laughing like a lunatic at all times so that any sudden cruelty seems like it's just part of the hilarious extended blooper reel that she wants to present as her real life.
Also WTF at this disgusting hotel. Even if she is economizing a bit, this is low even for her. Chantal wallows in filth but she also wants to be inspirational. Even if she lives in squalor, she still wants to look richer and more sophisticated than she is. She loved that hotel in Toronto, she snarked about renting a room at a Motel 6 as being the best hotel the town had to offer, she loves room service, and she was clearly embarrassed at being caught at that gross motel when Nader was barbecuing with his bare hands.
Why is she flaunting being at such a gross place, even if she gets to be in such a gross place with Nader? Is she that broke? So soon after pay day? Like she has the money for that pitiful new outfit but not enough for a decent motel? Or are people correct that Nader is now forced to live in a cheap place because DeeDee kicked him out and Peetz won't let him come to the luxury villa? Her cash flow has slowed, we know that, but she lives in a feast-famine cycle. Two days after pay day she should still be in the feast part. I feel like something really bad looms, like she will find herself short on rent money, or her car will get repossessed, if she is this broke so early in her cycle.
