You (Plural) and the Pool Motif

The story "You (Plural)" from Jennifer Egan's book A Visit From the Good Squad is a flash forward from another story that revolves around the friend group of Rhea and Jocelyn, although they're all 40 and either happy, dying, or just disappointing. A large theme of this chapter is resentment towards people due to the past. Jocelyn seems to be slightly jealous of Rhea and her happy life, angry at Lou for many things regarding herself and Rolph, and then angry at herself for not being successful.

There is also the idea of the pool, which was a motif throughout the story, seeming to represent life and good times. As Rhea walks through the house to visit Lou on his deathbed, looking back at the memories she had, especially the pool. Plenty of parties were held there and Jocelyn, along with Rolph, enjoyed themselves throughout their teen and young-adult years. Later in the chapter, Lou requests to be next to the pool with the girls by his side. He seems to want a final look at his happy memories, a lot of which belong in or beside this pool. At one point, Jocelyn has a hallucination of her pushing in and drowning Lou in the pool in a fit of rage over everything he's done to her as well as other people. In this hallucination, the tubes and wires connected to Lou come undone from his veins and spray colors everywhere into the pool. This may represent how Lou ended up tainting Jocelyn's life and therefore happy times with his shenanigans and manipulations. After this hallucination fades, Jocelyn looks Lou straight in the eyes and tells him he deserves to die.

Poor old (or not so old) Rolph. He shot himself because he was incorrectly inserted into the postmodern world, and was one of Jocelyn's last remaining ties to Lou other than Lou himself. Memories go in and out throughout this chapter, ranging from happy ones at parties, curious ones of inspecting each others' bodies, and sad ones of suicide. It seems to be implied that Rolph was the only child of Lou's that he actually cared about, and being reminded that he killed himself 20 years prior to when this story takes place still hurts/haunts him. Lou may be ruthlessly manipulative for his own personal gain, but it shows that he does still have feelings.