- The narrator tells us that people will remember their time as hostages in two halves: before the box of music came, and after.
- Why is the box of music so important? Because it shifts the balance of power. Before the box, the terrorists are obviously running the show. Once the music arrives, Roxane Coss is in control. Opera is mightier than the sword, apparently.
- And it's not just who's in charge. It turns out Roxane and Carmen are becoming friends.
- We get a bit of backstory: Roxane Coss says that she's tired of sitting around, and if the terrorists shoot her, they'll have to do it while she's singing. According to the narrator, once she starts singing every day, the beauty of her voice dominates the room so much that the power shifts to her.
- The terrorists actually seem to enjoy the singing, plus it calms down all those noisy demands from the street. Apparently the people outside are listening too.
- Would this really happen? Maybe not. But the narrator sure describes it beautifully.
- Two of the Generals debate whether they should tell Roxane what to sing, but General Benjamin thinks that you can't dominate a musician like that, even with guns. He says threatening Roxane would be like threatening a bird: neither one would understand your authority, and you would just wind up looking silly. Sylvester and Tweety Bird could've told them that, but hey, they only just discovered TV.
- One morning as Mr. Hosokawa is getting some water for Roxane Coss, he thinks about whether this is the happiest period of his life. That's right: he means the being-a-hostage period. It sounds absurd, but he realizes that he's spent so much of his life building and running his company that he hasn't really thought much about happiness before. That's one focused career.
- He does have a wife, and she's excellent and dutiful and all those nice adjectives, but he wonders if he really knows her. He decides that the most he knows about happiness is when he's listening to opera. Now he has the chance to experience both the beauty of music and the presence of the person singing it.
- Mr. Hosokawa comes back to earth. Oops, this cup of water is in his hands because he was supposed to take it to Roxane before he went off woolgathering.
- He apologizes for keeping her waiting, and she says the water is perfect and perfect takes a longer time. No wonder Mr. Hosokawa is having all these reflections on happiness.
- Gen is translating for them, but he's a touch distracted by a conversation he had with Carmen in the middle of the night.
- Beatriz asks Gen when her soap opera will come on. Gen gives her his watch and tries to teach her how to use it, which is a steep task for her. Still, Beatriz likes getting a gift from Gen and likes him a little too (that's right, she like-likes her hostage). But she realizes that he's waiting to meet up with Carmen, which she resents a bit. Apparently being a translator is almost as good as being in a boy band.
- Gen excuses himself and goes to stare out the window, waiting for Carmen. (Beatriz told him earlier she was on guard duty.)
- One of the Russians comes up and talks to him. This dude, Victor Fyodorov, is extremely polite and can't bring himself to directly ask Gen about whatever's on his mind.
- While they're talking, Gen catches a glimpse of two sentries out the window. It's hard to tell from this distance, especially since it's raining, but he thinks he might see Carmen. Dude's really got it bad.
- They keep talking, Fyodorov trying to work his way around to something, and Gen trying to listen but also to catch a glimpse of Carmen out the window.
- Fyodorov finally gets to the bottom of things. Like basically everyone else in the room (except for Gen, who's busy staring at Carmen), he's got some admiration going on for Roxane Coss. He admires opera and Russian opera singers, but he thinks she is the only true genius singing today. He wants to speak to her, but doesn't know English, so he asks Gen to translate.
- Gen says they can talk to her now, but Fyodorov isn't ready. What he has to say sounds really important.
- Fyodorov decides he will speak to Roxane in the morning, right after her morning practice, but without moving too fast. Talk about overthinking. He asks Gen if that's okay with him.
- It is.
- Fyodorov says he will be up all night thinking about what to say, and compliments Gen's Russian. Then he leaves.
- Next, we see Ruben Iglesias in the kitchen. The government has stopped sending in prepared food and has sent them raw chicken and vegetables. Ruben doesn't know how to cook, and he's trying to figure out who would.
- He asks Gen to translate and asks Roxane for advice. He would never ask her to do the cooking, he says, but if she would be willing to advise him, that'd be fab.
- Roxane can't cook at all, so why's he asking her for advice? Ruben says she's a woman, so she must know a little bit about cooking. Roxane takes a cultured view: she'd be offended if Ruben were also American, but she decides his belief that all women can cook is a cultural difference rather than sexism.
- But she still can't cook. And it's still kind of sexist.
- Ruben asks Gen if he can cook. Gen says Simon Thibault has been complaining about the food, and French people know how to cook. Just in case you thought the stereotypes would end with the woman thing.
- They ask Thibault, who is positively thrilled that they've been given raw food. At least some stereotypes work out, after all. Top Chef: Bel Canto edition is on!
- Slight problem: the hostages aren't allowed to use knives. Thibault sends Gen to ask the Generals if a few of the terrorists can chop things up for them.
- After some complicated negotiations, it's agreed that General Benjamin will send them some help with the knives. In exchange, he wants to play chess with Mr. Hosokawa. General Benjamin has apparently been looking for someone to play chess with for a while. We also find out that he has children, and he taught them to play chess.
- Gen sees that General Benjamin has been cutting out sections about the hostage situation from the newspaper so that the hostages won't see them. Gen sees a little bit of the paper with the headline "Little Hope" (6.157); it's a fair guess that it is about them. At least they have higher hopes about not having to eat raw chicken for dinner.
- As Gen heads back to the kitchen to get the Bel Canto Cooking Channel going, he notices that Roxane Coss is teaching Mr. Hosokawa something on the piano. They look happy, so Gen decides to wait on telling him that he has to trade his chess game for cooked food.
- Beatriz, Carmen, and the boy named Ishmael turn up to help chop vegetables. He's the one Ruben thought about adopting earlier.
- Simon Thibault tries to give Ishmael lessons in chopping up an eggplant. When Thibault takes the knife to demonstrate, Beatriz pulls a gun on him. Talk about your competitive cooking shows.
- He wants to show them the proper way to peel an eggplant so badly that he says they can keep their guns trained on him if they'll just let him demonstrate. He says they can shoot him if he does something other than cooking lessons. This guy really loves his cooking.
- Thibault also says they can shoot Gen if Thibault does anything out of line. Gen isn't so keen on this idea.
- Thibault successfully demonstrates, and no one is shot. Whew.
- Carmen refuses to train her gun on him and keeps mincing garlic, but the other two terrorists aim at him while he demonstrates.
- Lesson finished. Gen quietly asks Thibault in French why he said they could shoot him. Gen worries about how to ask this politely. Thibault says all the terrorists love Gen and there was no way they would shoot him, and he invites Gen to visit him in Paris when all this is over. Now that's confidence.
- Ruben says it's impolite for Thibault and Gen to speak French, since everyone in this room speaks Spanish. Everyone suddenly realizes that they can all speak a common language, which is almost unheard of in any given grouping in this house.
- Ishmael points out that Gen could take a break.
- Carmen looks up. She really doesn't want Gen to leave. She's been feeling shy, but she prays to Saint Rose of Lima to get over it. Cute.
- Gen wants to stay, too. He points out that he can wash vegetables and stir things. He may not be ready to take on Mario Batali on Iron Chef, but he'll give it a shot.
- Thibault comes back and says that Gen better stay. Thibault has to make dinner for 58 people, and he can't give up anyone who's in the kitchen. Saving the day for the wannabe flirters.
- Thibault and Beatriz bicker, and Gen moves over to to Carmen, trying to overcome his nerves. He asks if she wants to learn to write Spanish, and they agree to meet that night in the china closet to work on language. That sounds as much like a steamy date as a language class ever could.