It's a little too late for that now.
Maybe Woody still thinks you can have a conversation. But this is what used to be called renunciation: the public, almost ritual disavowal of a great shame, like the casting out of a demon. To some extent it's no longer rational.
People used to understand there were some things you could not talk your way out of, even if it was not quite clear it was entirely your fault. Lord Jim was about precisely this situation. But the concept of dishonor is alien now.
The word that used to be applied to the state Woody now finds himself in is damned. He's damned, and if you don't believe in the religious sense of the word, then at least the social one. His problem is whether he can find redemption.
