2000s (Noughties)

The 2000s (Noughties) are invoked as a social alibi in advice to Sarah Trafford: recreational drug use, the speaker argues, is ordinary enough to explain away, but the recent death of Lizbeth Moss makes the timing dangerous. The period label therefore marks not only an era but a tactical calculation about what the police and public might accept.

The period as an alibi

The speaker claims, “It’s the noughties, nobody’ll bat an eyelid.” In the proposed account, Sarah Trafford has been out of work and depressed, and the cocaine can be described as hers, for personal use, with therapy presented as a responsible next step. The claim about the decade makes that explanation sound plausible; it does not establish that drug use is consequence-free.

Timing and narrative function

The advice is immediately qualified by the circumstances: less than a week after Lizbeth Moss has died after taking a happy pill, the speaker warns, this is no moment to ask a court to take a progressive view of recreational drugs. The police, the speaker says, want someone they can present to the press as responsible for Lizbeth’s death. Sarah is urged to identify Silvermann as her source and accept the role of a fortunate victim rather than resist the investigation. Thus “the noughties” works as a narrow rhetorical shield, set against the urgency of a recent death and the authorities’ need for a public culprit.