That makes a lot of sense, thank you! You’re completely right, I’m trying to make a object be transparent but not see whats behind it. I can now see the paradox in that statement.
I figured out that I was seeing the back of the front as you put it, but it didn’t occur to me that Backface Culling or the Backfacing node wouldn’t work there. I couldn’t figure out how to mask those faces out. How can I do that?