The hydrated electron, e - aq , an excess electron embedded in liquid water, is the quintessential system exhibiting solvent-supported electronic states, and has been used as an ideal probe of water's solvation dynamics, since the electron itself has no internal degrees of freedom that might muddy a pump-probe spectrum. Nevertheless, a reasonable question to ask is whether the excess electron is simply a spectator in water's solvation dynamics, or whether it strongly perturbs the electronic and molecular structure of the surrounding water to an extent not thermally accessible in the neat liquid.