Run away into the woods, little girl! Stiff them their water AND never deal with them again! You don't even need a coat in the present fictional weather!

(It's pretty unclear! Fantine sold her hair for ten francs, and her locket for five of an unspecified currency, and the Thénardiers are complaining that Fantine only sent them ten francs, but it seems like that was part of an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time payment. Valjean offers 1500 of an unspecified currency for Cosette, so if all of those are the same currency he probably paid about three hundred times the cost of a locket, but the musical doesn't actually say for sure.)

Yeah, Laia wasn't nearly that expensive. Has Valjean considered stealing Cosette.

Yeah, Cosette, you had your out! Just run away into the woods and avoid all of this insanity!

Cosette should toughen up. Boo hoo, nobody loves you, everyone abuses you, are we supposed to feel sorry for you?

Ah, there's a Law and Good thing going on. With a bunch of ordinary Neither to be the backdrop.

Why would you be married to someone you hate. What is Javert on, that he thinks it's a bad thing for someone to not change from...being really determined to feed their family...

There's another timeskip,¹ and now we are in Paris, France! (Those among the audience more familiar with Galtan architecture may recognize "Paris" as a particularly unsubtle stand-in for Isarn.) Gavroche, a child even by Chelish standards, introduces the audience to the Paris streets, which are full of desperate beggars. There are unclear references to some sort of previous revolution; however, with the exception of a single man, who has apparently taken ill, the new leadership doesn't seem to particularly care about urban poverty either. Some wealthier students, who as of yet do not have names, speculate that there might be another revolution soon.

The Thénardiers, who apparently live here now, attempt to plan a robbery, with the help of Eponine (who is now an adult) and some miscellaneous other people. Eponine flirts with one of the students, who as yet does not have a name. Valjean and Adult Cosette enter. The student bumps into Cosette and gets distracted by her appearance. Meanwhile, Thénardier starts attempting to con Valjean, before recognizing him, attacking him, and ripping his shirt, exposing the number branded into his skin. Javert shows up to disperse the fight and promises to see justice done to Thénardier and his gang. While he berates Thénardier's gang, Valjean and Cosette sneak away. Javert is confused about why such a fine upstanding gentleman would have disappeared, but Thénardier informs him that the man must be a criminal, given the brand he saw. 

Javert speculates that Valjean might secretly be Valjean in disguise. He sings a solo about his general philosophy and his unwavering dedication to seeing Valjean arrested once again.

Eponine, having recognized and remembered Cosette, sings about their childhood together. The student from earlier asks Eponine about Cosette, and for her help finding her again. Eponine initially attempts to deflect, but eventually agrees.

¹ This performance also includes some lyrics from here that are not present in the previous link.

...She's pretty sure she's supposed to disagree with Javert, for some reason, only does that mean she's supposed to support the city-bandits? Maybe she's supposed to believe that stealing is Good, but she's not sure if she can.

Ooooooh they're setting up a love triangle!

Blai is not clear on what the narrative would like the politicians to think/feel/do about poverty? What are Lamarque's actual policies that are so populistically appealing here? Is he trying to do something to address whatever led apparently stable if dishonest innkeepers to move to the city and become thieves even after their tremendous financial windfall? Maybe this is all clearer if you're Galtan and know who Lamarque is a stand-in for.

If you're hoping to accomplish anything by branding criminals why are you doing it on a part of the body it's completely socially acceptable to cover up at all times?

Why does Eponine recognize Cosette and not vice-versa? There's startlingly little information about their relationship here considering that it's clearly about to be a big deal; they got a faceful of the parent Thenardiers and their attitude toward Cosette and not a thing about whether the two girls are - sisters? Rivals? Indifferent to each other and Eponine just never forgets a face? Perhaps it'll come clear.

The students from earlier, led by an attractive young man named Enjolras, gather in a café and sing about their imminent planned revolution. The student who was flirting with Cosette, whose name is apparently Marius, shows up and starts talking about his crush on Cosette. The other revolutionaries make fun of him for caring about romance when they have a revolution to fight. (Whoever wrote this musical must have really failed to think through the symbolism; the revolutionaries clearly aren't Asmodean but there's a whole motif about their colors being red and black.)

While they're doing that, Gavroche arrives and informs everyone that Lamarque has died. The students decide to treat this as the spark igniting their revolution. They sing about how the people are rising up for freedom and call upon them to risk their lives for the revolution.

Why is the archmage encouraging people to commit treason?

Okay, their songwriter was really good even if the rest of it was a little confused.

Oh, they're so Good — her heart is crying out in support for them, for them to fight back against their Evil nobles—

He recognizes the feeling sweeping them up and all he can think is no, no, stop—

Oh, this is great. You wouldn't think a bunch of singing could be as fun as lions but this is really a lot of fun. He hopes there's some good fight scenes coming up.

Laia can see all the tropes lining up like dominoes but she doesn't know, here, which ones are real and which ones are false friends, so she's on tenterhooks on about five levels of meta.

The guy playing Enjolras is really hot.

"Fight for the right to a night at the opera"? Kind of small potatoes but if you can get a revolution's worth of people together about it, sure, he guesses it must matter a lot to some folks.

Complicated feelings that happen every time he gets to the celebratory revolution part of an opera. Augh. 

This revolution thing seems all fun and exciting, with all the coffee and the singing. Kind of unfair of the archmages to win everything in three days without letting the people do any of it.

Wait wasn't this supposed to only be for characters with faces? 

Yes, but Lisandro has an annual membership with the opera, comes with a private box and license to bring a +1. Who, in this case, is his delegate.