I pretty much get the whole movie and thanks to some of posters here for pointing out things I hadn't noticed like there being 3 of them in the bar scene at the beginning. Won't explain for spoiler purposes but if you know, then you know.
My little niggle is why did barkeep seem so surprised when John said ' when I was a little girl'? He knew that!
He was acting. Not only did he know what John said, he remembers saying it himself. And he remembers the Barkeep acting surprised when he said it.
shareHe did not remember saying it himself, because he had no memory from before he was burned, also it would not be until after the bar scene that he would make his 2nd attempt at stopping at the bomber and seeing his burned face still resembling John/Jane. It was at that moment that he realised he hadn't been sent back to recruit John, he actually WAS John and was sent to recruit himself.
I do however think it unlikely that he wouldn't have known that John was born female because he had too many details about the mission to recruit him, such as the name of his orphanage. He must have been acting, trying not to offend John by saying "Ohh, yeah, you totally look female!"
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov
I think your memory loss theory is interesting, but there's really no evidence for it in the film.
After being burned, John resumes his obsessive hunt for the Fizzle Bomber. But I suppose the Bureau could have filled him in, had him listen to the tape recording, look through John's case files, told him he's been chasing the FB for years, etc. As you say, he'd still be pretending surprise in the bar at the case details, but the dialogue would flow organically instead. We do see John and Jane having conversations that John would surely remember having from the other side, so it's not like he doesn't have experience recreating conversations, even if he remembers them.
I do think Barkeep remembers his life as Jane and John. Barkeep claims to John that he also loves Jane, but was it just a line the Bureau fed him for some inexplicable reason (seems unnecessary to the mission)? He also seems to remember the hurt when Baby Jane was kidnapped, causing him some internal struggle before Robertson comes to keep him on task.
Still, an interesting thought.
I suppose he said it the first time because he thought it was the expected response. Thank you.
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