#director tee never disappoints me

[respectthepetty]

Director Tee is always going to give me the shot with the barriers and boxes. I know that for damn sure.

[blablaganov]

So apparently I set myself up for a disappointment by treating Dead Friend Forever as a mystery thriller and expecting to get at least some answers, but in my defense up to episode 11 it looked like one, swam like one and quacked like one.

DFF incorporated a lot of mystery elements, planted numerous clues and encouraged us to theorize, only to ultimately take all (or almost all) of it back in the finale; which is a choice considering it’s also what its ending relies on: fans theorizing and speculating about what really happened and what might follow.

That's the kind of ending I really would have enjoyed had we gotten a clear answer about what really happened to Non. The series decided to stick with a gory horror/thriller ending and expects us to simply believe that Non is dead, despite one of the first rules of horror being never to assume that someone is dead just because you saw the body? Especially with the mysterious ninth person lurking in the woods??

The entirety of Phee’s hallucination is just glorious, starting with him seeing himself as a director landing a project immediately after graduating and continuing with Jin, who explicitly stated not planning on coming back to Thailand ever after graduating, flying back after only two years just for the sole purpose of seeing Phee. And of course Phee being a petty bitch and giving Tee most hopeless ending ever.

Also, a character whose socioeconomic status partly granted him the privilege of staying “morally superior” to others till the end is now mentally stuck in an idealistic fantasy-turned-horror while his physical body is slowly dying of dehydration and blood loss? Chef's kiss, if done correctly.

It’s also why it’s even more baffling to me that the series, which has a commentary on society and power dynamics within it, ultimately decided to drop every plotline concerned with the police? politics? mafia? and carried out punishments on an individual level only, acknowledging the external forces behind the decisions made but never going anywhere with it. If we are ending the series as a revenge thriller, then I want to see everyone get punished. Uncle Joe's off-screen death doesn’t cut it, sorry.

But my biggest problem with the finale is the fact that it does look like a sequel hook, so not only did I not get my answers, but now a second season that never happened will haunt my dreams. Because it would be such a treat for DFF to go full on Blair Witch Project and do a true crime style second season. I mean, if you have "Uncovered version" in your title, I expect you to fully commit and let someone uncover it.

Maybe some college kids having heard about the Janta cult and the murder? mass suicide? cult sacrifice? that happened at the house decided to shoot a documentary about it, only to stumble upon one of the New’s cameras left behind. Let them investigate and finally give me all the answers.

How was uncle Joe caught? How did he die?

CONFIRMATION THAT TEACHER KENG IS SIX FEET UNDER

Who was the mole? Did they helped Non escape somehow?

WHO IS BEHIND THE MASK?

Who was man in power who shut down the investigation? Was it Por’s father? Is he involved in money laundering?

FOOTAGE OF NON DRINKING MARGARITAS ON THE BEACH

Why does Por’s father tolerate a cult temple on his doorstep? Is the Janta cult a Scooby-Doo Hoax designed to hide his involvement with mafia/organ trade?

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Even despising Michael Jackson, Jungkook looked fucking hot in that get-up. Like, wow. The low cut white tee, the thigh hugging pants, even the white socks... I thought it was a bit awkward that he filmed with a mic though. Like, lipsyncing in MVs is normal, but when you add the mic it just feels weird? It also limits his dancing a bit. But the performance really depends on the mic and the mic stand so they had no choice...

The second look, the sparkly suit, wasn't very great imo. I don't think it suited Jungkook very well, not the set and the vibe. It was too loose and party-like for an abandoned building or whatever that was, and sadly most of the MV was in that outfit. I thought he'd change outfits and sets again or switch between the two, but he didn't, so it was a bit boring and unbalanced. It was 1 min in one set/outfit and then twice as long in the other set/outfit. The MV should've been a lot more dynamic and balanced. So I was a bit disappointed in the choreo MV, but I didn't dislike it. It was good, but could've easily been better. The director again fails to impress.

Also, I noticed this in the Jimmy Fallon performance, but I don't really like his dancers. Seven had that problem for me too. His dancers are good and famous, and seem sweet and I have nothing against them, but they all have distinct styles as well as appearances, so when they come together they don't look particular great, next to Jungkook or each other. The variation in heights, weights, facial expressions, dancing styles, etc. is great in theory, but doesn't look the best in the end. I think Jungkook shines more than them and when I see them up close I think they look weird - not because they're bad dancers, but because everyone seems to be doing a different choreos and it looks messy and uncoordinated. In general BTS's back up dancers never stand out too much and 3Js look better dancing than them, but, here, Jungkook's team is technically great, but the result isn't that good imo. It's very different from Sienna's team who worked and looked good together, for example, though they didn't dance too closely to BTS.

[petulantz]

⸻  CYNTHIA ADDAI – ROBINSON. SHE + HER / have you ever heard of LIVED IT TWICE by rachel grae, well, it describes VELIANE OSEI to a tee! the forty-one year old, and DIRECTOR OF FINANCE was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say SHE is more aloof or more CHARISMATIC instead? anyway, they remind me of a lonely mansion on top of a hill, scattered rose petals left to rot, the loud clacking of a keyboard, and newspapers draped across half-eaten breakfasts, maybe you’ll bump into them soon!

STATS.

name: veliane osei nickname(s): lia  birth date: may 3rd  zodiac: taurus  age: forty-one gender, pronouns: cis woman , she/her  orientation: bisexual  relationship: married, recently separated ( see wc ) 

HISTORY.

born and raised in waltham forest, london has always been veliane's home. her father immigrated from ghana in the 70s, though they returned only for occasional visits during special occasions and holidays. as such, veliane never came to see the country as a second home though she felt a kinship with its people. 

instead, she built a home in london — attending college and uni in the city before settling into the nine to five grind of corporate life. love came and went until she met who she thought was the one, marrying him at only twenty years old.

for many years, life was happy if stressful but she chalked it up to being the nature of things. she chased promotions while caring for her children and managing the household. he did the same, though at times she wished he was more help around the house ( a desire she never shared and instead dismissed as unfair ). 

and then with their younger child off to college suddenly it became even more obvious how many holes there were in their relationship. and veliane couldn't find the motivation to patch things up after years of always being the one to do so. after many disagreements and disappointing attempts to rekindle the romance, they decided to separate.

it's only been six months since then and the two have been bickering about who will get what pretty much non-stop, with them both notably refusing to move out of the house they own together. so, obviously, veliane has been spending even more time out of the house when possible to avoid seeing him. 

TRIVIA.

she's also a certified accountant, so veliane will look over your taxes for you or answer any questions you have — assuming that you're friends or at the bare minimum friendly.

CONNECTIONS.

coming soon

[nottinghillhq]

welcome to notting hill mel, we’re super excited to have you here, you’ve got twenty-four hours to send in your account!

⸻  TOMMY MARTINEZ. HE/HIM / have you ever heard of EVERLONG by foo fighters, well, it describes JACE ESCARRA to a tee! the twenty-nine year old, and CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROFESSOR was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say HE is more verbose or more CANDID instead? anyway, they remind me of a praised mind that never stops turning, always looking out for danger, a pen poised behind his ear to grade papers & hair neatly pulled back in a sleek bun. maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ]

⸻  GEMMA CHAN. SHE/HER / have you ever heard of COMPLEX by katie gregson-macleod, well, it describes DR. AURELIA ZHANG to a tee! the thirty-eight year old, and THERAPIST was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say SHE is more withdrawn or more CONSIDERATE instead? anyway, they remind me of a sturdy shoulder to cry on, professionalism in their dna, an internalized sadness & a closet full of business wear, maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ]

⸻  SANDRA OH. SHE/HER / have you ever heard of SULLEN GIRL by fiona apple, well, it describes EVELYN “EVE” NAM to a tee! the fifty-one year old, and FILM DIRECTOR was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say SHE is more guarded or more PASSIONATE instead? anyway, they remind me of long hours on film sets, a shelf of film excellence awards but a heart that feels empty, rarely ever taking a moment of leisure & snide remarks as a defense mechanism, maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ]

⸻  AYÇA AYSIN TURAN. SHE/HER / have you ever heard of ALL THE THINGS THAT I’VE DONE by the killers, well, it describes TALIAH POLAT to a tee! the thirty-one year old, and MECHANIC AT PIT STOP was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say she is more temperamental or more INDEPENDENT instead? anyway, they remind me of well-loved overalls coated in a thin layer of motor oil, chipped nail polish, the glint of a sober chip against the light & a pile of unpaid medical bills, maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ]

⸻ NATALIE DORMER. SHE/HER / have you ever heard of GOLD DUST WOMAN by fleetwood mac, well, it describes THEODOSIA “THEO” DONOVAN to a tee! the forty two year old, and OWNER OF BADGER AND BOAR PUB was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say SHE is more ruthless or more SELF-CONFIDENT instead? anyway, they remind me of moonlight hitting an empty whiskey bottle in the center of the living room accompanied by a half-empty glass, being used to being the disappointment, scratches of ware along a well-loved motorbike & lipstick-stained cigarette butts, maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ]

⸻ BENEDETTA GARGARI. SHE/HER / have you ever heard of DOOMSDAY by lizzy mcalpine, well, it describes VIOLA GALLO to a tee! the twenty six year old, and CELLIST was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say SHE is more self-destructive or more RESILIENT instead? anyway, they remind me of messy notes against well-loved sheet music, a mind that never goes quiet, dancing on top of bars by night and being professional as can be by day & the whisper of a kiss left behind, maybe you’ll bump into them soon!

⸻  MELISA ASLI PAMUK. SHE/HER / have you ever heard of COLORBLIND by counting crows, well, it describes MELINA SADIK to a tee! the thirty-three years old, and PHOTOGRAPHER was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say SHE is more distrusting or more CREATIVE instead? anyway, they remind me of the flash of a camera capturing a moment, finding it in her to give the love that she never received, red lipstick printed on the rim of a coffee cup & black turtlenecks showcasing gold jewelry, maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ] // replacing sawyer !

⸻  PHOEBE TONKIN. THEY/SHE / have you ever heard of SPACE ODDITY by david bowie, well, it describes BOWIE LYNN to a tee! the twenty-eight year old, and MANAGER & LIVE EVENTS COORDINATOR AT HAMMONDS PUB was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say THEY/SHE are/is more short-tempered or more RESOURCEFUL instead? anyway, they remind me of  releasing a breath you didn’t realize you were holding , a uniform of baggy clothes and well-loved combat boots , the dirt collecting on the soles of your shoes as you run & brunette locks with a mind of their own, maybe you’ll bump into them soon! [ MEL ]

[wizkiddx]

work with me

this is for @worldoftom 'lolbrosgetsicktoo' challenge event thing - go check it out bcos lots of much better writers have got involved too✨! I'm v new to these things but I tried :) the prompt was: 'would you quit whining and just get in the bath' . (also look at me acc posting sort of regularly, who'd of thought?!?!)

warnings: sickness / fever (more dramatic than it needs to be) / LOTS of medical inaccuracies

summary: when tom doesn't take advice and ends up very ill, very far from home, there's one person whose stuck dealing with it

“Please Tom… I need you to work with me!”

It wasn’t his fault he was being a complete nightmare, though your patience was wearing off somewhat.

For context, you were in Morocco, where he had been filming part of his next film, which only made trying to take care of him that bit harder.

Everyone got ill sometimes. It wasn’t his fault.

That was the mantra ringing through your head, even if you had a more challenging time believing it. Tom wasn’t stupid, as much as he liked to joke about it. HOWEVER, what he was less good at was heeding warnings. He was a white boy in Morrocco; the health and safety briefing had literally been aimed at him. Had he taken the advice not to eat any dodgy looking meats at the market?

Of course not; that’d be boring.

Everyone else was fine. You’d all sampled Morroccos culture without giving yourselves the worst case of food poisoning you’d ever witnessed. But not Tom - possibly one of the only ‘indispensable’ people on the set. If you, or one of the minor characters, or even the director, had got ill - the show could continue.

When you’d been rudely awoken by your phone going off, you’d known instantly. It was as if you’d told him not to take a bite out of the weird burger once you were away from the eager view of the street vendor. Sure enough, with bleary eyes, you hissed at the brightness of the phone screen before seeing ‘Tom H’ on the screen.

“Y/n?” His voice was croaky, but just from the single call of your name, it was clear he was feeling sorry for himself.

“Are you okay? It’s late T.”

“Um I… can you come over? You…you might need the key I’m - um- in the bathroom.”

As his stylist, it technically wasn’t part of your job description to also be mother when he was sick, but (unfortunately for you) after the 3 years working side by side with him - you were also friends.

Which you were almost regretting by the second time rinsing the toilet bowl clean after he’d evacuated what seemed to be the majority of his vital organs into it. Honestly, it was impressive how he managed to keep going.

That had been at around 4 in the morning- the doctor had been called at 8, coinciding beautifully with his 5th toilet extravaganza. Once the doctor had confirmed your original, if completely unqualified, diagnosis of food poisoning - you hadn’t been able to bite your tongue. Perhaps an ‘i told you so’ might’ve slipped past your lips, but Tom was a bit too out of it to argue back.

You’d been given firm advice from the doctor - he said little sips of water, rest and control his temperature. It all had seen pretty simple - though the action? Not so much.

It wasn’t his fault, yet Tom was not super compliant. You and Harry had both been taking turns in practically forcing him to take sips of water, having to turn off ‘modern family’ till he did. The blackmail had put you both in his bad book.

Honestly, thank the lord Harry was here too. You’d woken him up at seven, begging for help and since then, you’d tagged teamed. While one was looking after Tom, the other was phoning the director, the doctor, and the crew to inform them of the current situation.

Again, of all people. Why’d it have to be Tom?

Mainly because you knew how mortifying he found this. He didn’t like people fussing over him, never had. He liked to work hard, liked to make people happy - definitely didn’t like to feel a burden. Perhaps what made him feel ten times worse was that he knew he was inconveniencing the whole production team massively.

And yes, as you’d unhelpfully reminded him, it was ‘his fault’.

The lavish hotel room, big bathroom and pretty efficient AC still didn’t manage to mask the pungent in-the-back-of-your-throat smell from the bathroom. At the doctor’s advice, who had been a little concerned at Toms fever, Harry had cranked the AC on high. It had forced you to steal one of Tom’s big hoodies and a pair of joggers- you hadn’t left his room since he first called you, still wearing your tiny pyjama shorts and an old tee.

“Please turn the air con off.” His little voice whined from where he was lying, huddled up under the covers. Perched on the other side of the double bed, but over the covers with your laptop on his lap, you could actually feel him shivering with the chills. It felt like you were torturing the poor boy.

“T you know I can’t. It’ll make your fever worse.” The way he looked up at you, like a little Labrador that you were refusing to pet, actually pained your heart.

Okay, so yes it was his fault, but you weren’t mad, you just felt so awful for him.

“Please I’ll- I’ll pay you more.” His voice was hoarse; though he denied a sore throat, it sounded like the constant sickness was burning his windpipe.

“Tommm” you pouted, sticking your bottom lip out “I don’t want your money, want you to get better.”

Apparently giving up, brown eyes shot you the filthiest look in disappointment, rolling to face away from you. You thought he was giving you the silent treatment in a huff, but instead, he was praying on the weaker one.

“Harry, I’ll buy you that set of golf clubs-“

“NO!” You had to interrupt before Harry would say yes - because from the way his younger brother shot up from the arm chair, he was about to. Scowling eyes slowly focused back on you in annoyance, making you huff - shutting the laptop and kneeling on the bed to face him. After pressing the back of your palm to his forehead, which was scorching hot, you sighed. “I know you feel shitty and I’m so so sorry but I’m trying to make you better. So shut up, drink this and go to sleep!”

Like a child scorned, you received another death glare however, then he complied, taking a sip of the water you offered before lying back - huddling even tighter.

And it had been relatively peaceful for a few hours; Tom seemed to be getting some sleep - even if he was tossing and turning. Eventually, a prescription that the doctor had requested worked its way through the system, Harry getting a text to say he could go pick it up. The nearest pharmacy was probably a 30 minute drive from the hotel, so he left as soon as.

This left you alone with Tom, where the situation only descended into more chaos.

Almost as soon as Harry had left, Tom had stirred with a grunt. All it took was one look at his face for you to know. Both of you leapt up and flew into the toilet, Tom once again getting very familiar with the Moroccan toilet bowl.

This time though, when he had leant backwards, he’d sort of lost control and flopped most the way - you catching him before he could hit his head on the tiled floor.

“Woah, easy there!” It wasn’t like he’d passed out, but the look in his eye as he slumped into your lap… he wasn’t all there either. “Hey Tom… you with me? Tom?”

Lazily he blinked up at you, not really replying except for groans of half-formed words.

Deciding this had all got a bit direr, you almost sprinted back into the room, grabbing your phone and returning. He was still on the floor, his thumb and first finger pressing into each eye - groaning again.

“Hey Tom? I’m gonna call the doctor you need anything?” He whined in response, stopping only when you stroked his sweaty hair back, most of your attention on dialling the correct number.

The solution he’d given wasn’t pretty: Tom’s fever was too high hence why he was all woozy and groany. Until the doctor could get over with the stronger medications, you needed to lower his temperature in other ways or take him to hospital. He’d absolutely hate hospital, but the other choice? Boy, was he not going to like it either.

Ignoring Tom’s croaked question of what you were doing, you busied yourself switching on the bath taps. You let the water run until it was the right (very mild) temperate, then turned back to Tom, who’d managed to work himself up to sit against the sink unit.

“The doctor says you need it.” His brain was foggy, his mind was slow but your tone told him enough to know something was wrong with the bath. “Just take your clothes off and then I’ll help you-“

“Absolutely fucking not.” Good. He was still with it enough to argue.

“I am just as uncomfortable as you are Tom, but we both know you can’t stand up without fainting, so you are going to need my help.”

“Y/n!”

“Keep your boxers on and it’s just like a fitting! I’ve seen you have those before!”

It was clear as day just how emasculated he felt, especially because he knew you were right. Sitting up at this current moment was a push; there was no way he was getting in the bath without some help. Defeatedly he nodded, but gave you a piercing look to turn around before he started wiggling himself out of the flannel pyjama trousers and light cotton t-shirt. Most confusingly, he still felt freezing cold, yet he had long since learned not to argue with you - especially when your justification came from the advice of a doctor.

Your cue to turn around came in the form of an extra angry-sounding grunt- the look you got when you did wasn’t much better either. It was a weird contrast, though, having someone who physically appeared so indestructible (a superhero for crying out loud); to have been absolutely beaten to a pulp by a few mouth fulls of weird meat. You had seen his bare torso before, although it still wasn’t something easy to get used to - making you clench your teeth together just slightly. A very welcome view.

Perhaps you looked just a little too long at the man who was technically your boss, hunched angrily on the floor in nothing but his calvins - another grunt shaking you out of it. By now, the bath was almost full and you hurried to shut off the water, feeling your cheeks heat up as you cursed silently to yourself.

“Okay come on, gimme your arm.” Begrudgingly Tom followed your request, slinging his arm heavily over your shoulder as you crouched beside him. As strong as he looked, you knew right now he felt powerlessly weak - all that muscle was just going to be almost dead weight.

Now it was your turn to grunt and groan as you pulled Tom up to stand, him focusing on blinking away the headrush he got.

“Come on T work with me here.” Getting him to the side of the bath wasn’t too difficult, the issue came when he stepped with one foot into the bath and yelped, instantly withdrawing as if it was a literal ice bath.

The sudden movement had you both losing balance, ending with Tom sitting on the edge of the bath and you leaning over him, in between his legs, and slapping your hand on the wall opposite purely so you both didn’t end up in the bath.

“Tom!”

“It’s like ice water!”

“Its lukewarm like the doctor said!”

“It is not its from the fucking arctic!”

“Oh for god sake!” Exasperated, you paced up and down the bathroom shaking your head at his ridiculousness. This was ALL. HIS. FAULT.

You came back to him with an ultimatum.

“It’s this or the doctor said I had to drag your ass to hospital.”

“Nooooooo.” The 25 year old seemed to convert into a whiny three year old again.

“Those are the two options. So will you PLEASE quit complaining and get in the bath.”

Keeping up the toddler persona, Tom huffed but reluctantly nodded in agreement - you had come up trumps. It didn’t stop him yelping when you helped to lower him in. His breath was shaky, as a response to the ‘cold’, but he was firming it. At least when you felt his forehead after a couple of minutes, it certainly seemed as though the fever was starting to ease off .

“You can go if you want.” His voice was murmured and as you looked up at him, he did his very best to avoid your gaze.

“Not a chance, if you drown on my watch, Nikki will never forgive me.” At the very least he seemed to appreciate your joke, scoffing a little with a small nod. “If you don’t want me here I get it. As soon as Harry’s back, I’ll swap with him.”

“No! It’s not that its… I’m just an ass when I’m ill.”

“A self aware ass, though.” Again he chuckled a little, as you folded your arms on the edge of the porcelain tub, resting your head lying to one side. “You had me pretty scared there for a moment, you know?”

He nodded a little, creating a wave of ripples in the water which you watched to avoid his gaze - which you knew was tracing all your features inquisitively.

“Hey it’s in the job description, always a bit dramatic... I’m sorry though I should never of called you- don’t know why I didn’t just get Harry.” In response you tutted, taking a moment to lean up and push his sweaty curls back a bit.

Just because you could, it was allowed in this moment.

“’m glad you did.”

“Yeh me too” He sighed, eyes fluttering shut in the easy silence of the bathroom. You kept a vigilant eye on him for the next 20 minutes, checking the temperature of his forehead using the back of your hand, whilst he seemed to finally get a bit of proper restbite, appearing like the worst had passed. You had no idea what was taking Harry so long; in fact it was the doctor that arrived first- who you ran to let in (not wanting to leave Tom asleep in the bath one bit).

Whilst the doctor did all his checks, taking his temperature properly this time, satisfied that it was much more manageable. He still wanted to set him up with some oral rehydration rescue packs to get his hydration status a bit better and give some anti-sickness tablets and antipyretics.

Having actually been getting some rest before all the prodding and poking, Tom was back to being a grumbling dick - now not wanting to leave the bath (the irony was real - making you roll your eyes). Once again, he appeared embarrassed to have you see him like this, so you left the doctor to help him get out and changed- instead going down to reception to get a fresh set of sheets, as he’d done a pretty impressive job of sweating through the old ones.

Even if tired and grumpy, when Tom exited the bathroom, he looked much better - he was walking himself without the doctor’s help. Which honestly was such a relief because when he had passed out on you, you genuinely were terrified. Thankfully the doctor stayed for the next 20 or so minutes, which was just when Harry returned with a bag of medications - which were now wholly redundant, given the doctor had already supplied everything.

“What happened?” Harry asked you in a hushed voice, whilst Tom was distracted with getting his medications. Recounting the story of Tom pretty much passing out, Harry grimaced for you, then launching over to give you a tight hug.

“Are you okay?” That was a novel idea, you hadn’t really thought about yourself at all - but honestly, you were a bit shaken, having been running on adrenalin for most of the night.

“I-uhm… yeh I think so… just-just was a bit scared, I guess? Felt bad too because he didn’t want me there but-“

“I can promise you Y/n, he did want you there. Just probably embarrassed he wasn’t all manly and that…” With a nod, you smiled softly at the frizzy-haired boy.

Whilst working with Tom, it also meant getting pretty close to his younger brother. The two Hollands were almost attached at the hip, which you were very much okay with.

It was weird though... your relationships were completely different. Harry was just your brother, through and through. He wound you up like a sibling but also knew you as if he had your whole life. With Tom… it wasn’t that. Arguably, you were closer to Tom, but on a different level. It was more exciting, more nerve-wracking and heartwarming all at the same time. Honestly, you couldn’t get your head around it properly.

“Hey, you’re probably shattered. Why don’t you go back to your room and get some sleep? I got it in here.” You knew Hary was trying to offer something nice, and now all the excitement had worn off, you were unbelievably shattered. But you didn’t like the idea of not being there, as a just in case.

“Uhm, I think I might just stay, you know?” And he did, with a deliberate, knowing smile, he nodded.

He knew you were worried. He knew Tom had really really scared you. He also knew how much you cared about his brother.

Just like how Harry knew Tom wanted you there, even if he felt embarrassed. Well, anyone would- when you are passing out half-naked in front of the one person that really matters.

It was just at this point that the doctor was done, giving Harry instructions about the rest of the day, when you made a beeline for the bed. Tom was propped up against the headboard, still with a pale sullen look and tired eyes, but a bit less clammy and more human. He cracked a smile as you crawled up onto the other side of the bed, kneeling next to him.

“How’re you doin’?”

“All drugged up, just feel fucking exhausted.” Instinctively you reached up to feel his forehead, really appreciating the fact it felt almost normal.

“Join the club mate, I had a 5am wake up call too.” You almost whispered, intending to make Tom laugh, but instead only getting a pout.

“I am sorry, a-are you going to go back to your room?”

“Nah” Tom’s eyes didn’t light up, except the fact that they very much did. “Can’t trust you not to get into trouble while I’m gone Holland.”

“Thanks.” He laughed weakly before shimmying down on the bed, so he was much more comfortable. “And thankyou, I-I’m sorry I’m a dickhead and made your life-“

“Shut up Tom!” Laughing, you lightly slapped his arm, also leaning down on the bed, so you were lying facing him. “You’re all feverish; go to sleep before you say something stupid.”

There was a long pause, Tom just gazing deep into your eyes, because he was pretty sure what he was thinking was nothing to do with the dodgy unidentified meat he’d had the evening before.

“What... like asking you out?”

…..

“Maybe that wouldn’t be so stupid.”

~~~~im really not sure how I feel about this one, let me know what you thought ;) ~~~~

tagging: @lovehollandy12 @hallecarey1 @crossyourpeter@hollandfanficlove

[cheapthrillsbeca]

(let’s try this again) bechloe week day 6: famous au

since i initially posted the moodboard of my actor au wip on the wrong bechloe week day bc i’m dumb here’s a snippet of the next chapter on the correct day!

Just when production in LA is supposed to be winding down, the director throws them a curveball. He wants to film an additional song for Chloe in order to have options in the editing bay, so the schedule gets pushed back by a couple weeks.

Beca is of two minds about it. On the one hand, she’s disappointed that her break from filming is now delayed. But on the other, this buys her more time to steel herself to film the kissing scene.

Plus, Chloe needs to record her vocals for the new song and, now that Beca’s a music consultant, she’ll join her in the studio.

***

The recording studio is located in a nondescript building on an out-of-the-way street in Westlake. You’d never guess from the exterior what it’s like inside, and Beca appreciates that detail, too. She loves when things that appear mundane turn out to be spectacular.

Beca makes sure to get there first and is waiting in the front reception with a box of artisan donuts when the rest of the music production team arrives. It’s a tactic she’s developed over the years and, while it initially felt forced, it’s served her well. Showing up early tells any skeptics that she’s serious about the project, and handing out donuts helps to put the star-struck at ease. It’s hard to be nervous around Beca Mitchell after she warns you to be careful with the jelly donut because the first time she tried it she wound up with a trail of strawberry jam down the front of her shirt.    

The schtick works its magic today, and Beca has a good rapport going with the small group as they discuss their approach for the session. It’s so refreshing to talk music with likeminded people that Beca almost forgets the main goal of the day.

But then Chloe walks in five minutes before her scheduled arrival time, balancing two trays of iced coffees in her arms.

“I bribed a PA for everyone’s Coffee Bean orders,” she says. “Hope I got it right!”

She’s wearing ripped jeans and a cropped black tee and seems to be makeup-free, aside from a bold red lip. Her hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun -- like she just twisted it up in the car -- and something about seeing her like this is incredibly endearing. Beca can just picture this Chloe getting groceries at Ralph’s and running into Sephora to stock up on lipstick.

She hangs back and watches as Chloe doles out the drinks, charming the pants off everyone. When Chloe hands her the last cup -- a cold brew with extra almond milk -- she leans in and presses her lips to Beca’s cheek.

“Hey you,” she says when she steps back. “Miss me?”

“It’s been 48 hours, Chloe,” Beca says (instead of ‘yes’).

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 15, The Maltese Falcon Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Dean: Hi I'm Dean Devlin, Executive Producer and Director of this episode.

John: I'm John Rogers, Executive producer and Writer.

Chris: I'm Chris Downey, Executive Producer, and this is the Maltese Falcon Job. Part two of our season two finale.

John: And this is a lot of fun, this was- this was born of an episode we never wrote. Just- we really wanted to just put them on their pins.

Chris: Right.

John: Just really knock them on their ass and so- were you handheld there? Handheld whenever there's a problem, right?

Dean: Well this is actually a 360 steadicam. And what we're trying to do is let- their entire world is spinning out of control, so we just wanted this just to keep spinning around. They don't know where they're gonna land.

John: This is a fast, hard reset. The second- the second half of the season finale last year, we kinda eased into it, we reset the locations.

Dean: Here we throw you right into it.

Chris: Right.

John: Yeah, you best be paying attention and you really see when, you know- they're the uber team. You know, you really need to put them onto the wall, and the FBI and Interpol in this situation, they're utterly lost. And Interpol, it was interesting, it was something we were saying last- cause it was Mark Sheppard credit in the last episode. We were looking for a villain, and the problem is we kept coming up with this recurring, separate villain. We’re like, ‘We've never met this person before, we don't care. The person you really want it to be is Sterling! But he's an investigator.’

Chris: ‘He's an insurance investigator, what does that have to do with insurance? We have to find a way to make this about insurance?’

John: Oh man, we killed ourselves.

Dean: Do you remember what you said John? The night-?

Chris: It was between you two, right?

John: It was us. I Skyped you at like 11 o’clock at night, you had come back from scouting-

Dean: And we were talking, and the idea came up, ‘What if we just made him interpol?’ Do you remember what you said?

John: No.

Dean: You said, ‘We are either coming up with the best idea we’ve ever come up with, or we’re both reall,y really tired right now.’

[Laughter]

Chris: And it was.

John: It was great.

Chris: As soon as I heard it, I said, ‘That’s a great idea.’ Because we needed to give him a wider mandate.

John: Yes, if we're gonna keep them as a recurring bad guy-

Chris: Great idea.

John: And what was great is, we already shot the episode that he was in before, so we had to go back and reshoot that ending.

Dean: Here's my favorite Tara bit, of her whole arc.

John: Oh, that's right.

Dean: And this man was actually our local assistant.

[Laughter]

Chris: That was AJ.

John: Yes. And a fine actor by the way.

Dean: He did a great job.

Chris: Oh look at this shot, look at this.

John: Look at just the look he's doing. Just a good 1960s Zero Mostel take there. Yeah, ‘Oops.’

[Laughter]

Chris: Mrs. Robinson.

Dean: Comedy frame.

John: Comedy frame. We got like nine takes of Christian reacting to that by the way.

Dean: And my favorite is they both originally put their heads back, and then only Christian’s head came back out again, but we didn't have time for that. 

Chris: Oh I love that.

John: We can't break for comedy too much here, cause you've got the momentum going. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: And you're like, you have to keep resetting - they are in trouble. This, by the way, great hack taught to us by Apollo Robbins.

Chris: Yes.

John: Our thief consultant took us through how you can get access to the hotel computer system through the back of your television.

Chris: Yes.

John: This is a real thing. Please don’t-

Dean: Please don't try this at home.

Chris: Please don’t try this.

John: Don't try this at home, but most hotels have internet enabled televisions now, and that allows you a backdoor into the- 

Chris: It's a good example, too, of our team is so good at what they do, that we always try and look for ways to take away all their tools and find a clever way they have to use whatever's around them to-

John: Yeah

Chris: -you know, get their information.

John: Yeah, and that's again, constrained in time, constrained in space.

Dean: And that little porno name here, we had to get clearance on. 

John: I know. We came up with so many pornos that were real. That we came up with the most ridiculous porno name, ‘Nope that's a real one, that’s a real one.’ What did we land with, Indie Panties Day?

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, there's also- I wonder if we got it on the DVD, a really creepy, awkward beat after they’ve watched the porno that Aldis and Beth did, just very. 

Chris: That's a nice little viral video.

John: Yeah we’ll have to find that. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: Oh, and a beautiful three way pass, by the way. That was a tough shot, you know, in a crowded-

Dean: And it's a callback from the Zanzibar Job. 

John: Yes.

Dean: Where they did a similar three way.

John: Yeah. 

Dean: And I love this local actor.

John: Oh man, he's fantastic.

Dean: Harold rocked it.

John: ‘Yes, it was delicious.’ Yeah no, Eliot's impatience. This, by the way- getting a hotel key without your ID, I was a little fuzzy on whether it would work or not. I had written it, and I was like ‘Ah, am I kinda cheating?’ So I went to a hotel and did it. 

[Laughter]

John: Two days before we actually did this.

Chris: You did?

John: Yes. I won't tell you what hotel because they shouldn't have done it, but I got a hotel room key that way.

Chris: That's great.

John: Yeah. It's amazing what you can do if you have no fear of prosecution.

[Laughter]

John: ‘Oh, I'm doing a television show.’ And this was tough. We had to split them up, we had to figure out what the geography was- oh he hates Sterling so much.

[Laughter]

John: And Mark Sheppard just teeing off, just- 

Dean: Mark is delicious in this part, man. 

John: Yes.

Dean: I'm telling you, I could just watch him play this guy all day long.

John: Yeah, and what's great is Richard Kind, kind of, really kind of justifying, really doing the evil speech of evil, ‘He's a good mayor.’

Chris: Yeah.

John: And he was the one who came up with, ‘I’m good for Bellbridge.’

Chris: ‘I was good for Bellbridge.’

John:  ‘I'm- no matter what I did, I did my job, you know.’

Chris: I like, too, that we have Nate and the mayor both- 

John: Both drinking.

Chris: Both drinking.

Dean: Yeah.

John: I think that was on the day we came up with that, where Nate would get the booze from. 

Dean: Right.

John: Same place. I think we were just- cause this is the same hotel room. That was the fun of this episode, it was figuring out all the identical space- the fact that all hotel rooms are identical.

Chris: Right.

John: And that we suddenly realized, ‘Wait that means we can shoot in one and just redress.’ This is a long ass speech, this was a tough day.

Dean: And again done in a one-er.

John: Yes.

Dean: So the degree of difficulty for poor Mark was very, very high, but he knocked it out again.

John: He's really abused in television. Cause I will tell you right now, a lot of show runners will be like, ‘I have two and a half of impossible bullshit, get me Mark Sheppard in here.’

Dean: Right.

Chris: He's- I think he went from here, he was- he did the- I guess that three part CSI-

John: Yeah.

Chris: Where they had all the CSIs in one link and he was the bad guy in that, and he works.

John: He's a great- he really in that British actor tradition, yeah. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: And this- this bio of this arms dealer is pretty much just a bio of an arms dealer we took. I'm not gonna tell you who, because it was Chris’s idea and if you're angry, you should take your vengeance on him and his family.

[Laughter]

John: And not me, I am a big fan of arms dealers.

Chris: Paul Blackthorne, great- what is he-?

John: Well he had done Dresden Files, I knew him from that. 

Chris: Dresden Files.

John: But he's, you know, nailed the accent, and he's also really tall, he's got a physically imposing presence. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: And Tim’s tall, and it's really hard sometimes, to find the villains that can kind of, you know. And this was a great scene, and really one of the few times that the team lays into Nate. And I like, by the way, Nate’s getting more and more rumpled. Everyone else is kind of pulling it together, and he's just getting rougher and rougher looking.

Chris: Didn’t we have some weather here?

Dean: On the outtakes reel that's actually on this DVD, you'll see some funny outtakes from this scene.

Chris: With the weather right?

Dean: With the weather and Tim’s hair.

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh wow.

John: Oh right, even Chris is having a problem here and he's in a ponytail. Yeah the wind- the whole day we were shooting this we had thunderstorms coming through. 

Dean: Right.

John: So we were literally, ‘It's sunny. Go, go, go!’ And running down and getting the exteriors, yeah. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah we banged this out fast, man.

Dean: And yet they really nailed it. Again, when our actors dig in, they find gold.

John: And this was a big moment, this was- this is something I think that people sometimes ask, ‘Why does Eliot do this?’ Eliot has made himself a promise, this is his job, he will keep them safe.

Chris: Right.

Dean: And Nate realizes-

John: That's all he has.

Dean: Nate realizes for the first time he's actually let his team down.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And now he feels like he has to make it up to them.

John: Well, you know, when Parker does it. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: I mean that's the thing, Parker never gives- expresses- she’ll tease, she’ll express sarcasm, but disappointment- you know, ‘Be the person we came back for.’ She's referencing the season opener.

Dean: Right.

John: And that's the problem, is addiction- he's allowed himself to be- he's no longer the guy who used to chase them.

[Silence]

John: That's me drinking my Guinness, don't mind me.

[Laughter]

John: Oh god. What would I do without booze? 

Dean: So now we come back to the hotel.

John: Was that on mic? Alright.

[Laughter]

John: So we’re back on the hotel. 

Dean: And again, our clue from the previous episode of the Maltese Falcon.

Chris: Really key to watch these two back to back folks.

Dean: Oh, now this is-

Chris: I mean, maybe get a sandwich, but don't do much more than that.

Dean: This, I think, is one of my favorite bullet time shots that we've ever done. 

John: This was not as- not quite as insane as- and America thanks you for Beth in the French maid outfit.

Chris: The french maid.

Dean: It’s after this gag.

John: Yeah. Not quite as insane as the- by the way, this moment is based on a comedy club in Winnipeg, when- where the comics would go perform, it was a contest amongst them to see how long they could go without leaving the hotel room, and without letting the maids in.

[Laughter]

Chris: Cause there was no-

John: There was nothing to do. 

Chris: Nothing to do.

John: So it was like, ‘I went 40- I went 72 hours; the maids left the towels at the door.’

Dean: Great passing out scene.

Chris: Oh there we go.

John: That man is passed out. And that looks like my bed in every stand up club I ever went at.

Dean: This was the bullet- this was a very complicated bullet time shot.

John: Is this as bad or worse than the pilot, where you did four different directions?

Dean: No, it's not as bad as the pilot, but the timing of it is hard because of the extras and the switching of directions.

John: Yeah. So we start with one-

Dean: And we were using a different steadicam artist who had never done this before. 

John: Oh, that’s right.

Dean: So we had to teach Norbert how to do it while we were doing it.

Chris: Oh, that's right. 

Dean: It was very tough.

Chris: Cause our camera guy had a-

Dean: It was the one day Gary Camp was actually sick.

John: Yeah.

Chris: His tooth exploded or something.

John: Yeah, and he still showed up for work, by the way. 

Chris: He did.

John: With a face that looked like somebody had worked him over with a bat.

Dean: Now originally you had a much more complicated gag to stall, and then you came up with this gag, and we were on the floor laughing.

Chris: Yeah, this is funny.

John: You said, you were like, ‘I can't shoot that gag, all I have is the elevator’ I was like ‘Alright, well we’ll do this.’ And it's funny cause it was really a throwaway, and then the more we talked about it, the funnier it got.

Dean: Yeah.

John: As you realize it's just comedy beat, after comedy beat, after comedy beat. Also: Mark Sheppard.

Dean: Yeah.

Chris: Mark Sheppard does the- he takes you through the- 

John: The fives stages of death and dying.

Chris: The array of reactions.

Dean: This is-

Chris: Puts on a [unintelligible].

John: And by the way- same elevator, we’re just changing the floor number on every shot.

Dean: And the plants.

John: And the plants.

[Laughter]

John: So yes. And we- but we did run Tim up the stairs a lot that day.

Chris: We did.

Dean: I'll tell you this may be my- the funniest gag we've ever done.

John: Just cause both actors- oh this- just the seething.

Dean: The rage.

John: And both actors kind of really digging in on it.

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh.

John: And then... 

Chris: Just kidding this right on his reel, this is all the different, kind of, reaction to it.

John: And I like, he's almost too tired to keep doing it. And up.

Dean: But what sells the whole gag for me is this last one. Because at this point now they've done everything they can, and they just don't care anymore.

[Laughter]

John: They're just. 

Dean: They're done.

John: They’re done, they’re just exhausted. And now- now Nate can give up. Yeah, he's bought them enough time to do what they need to do. And also this was a nice beat, cause Mark made a point of it, it's like if he just had one more second he would've figured it out.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Right.

John: You know you can never- Sterling- you always have to play fair with him. 

Dean: Right.

John: You know he's always this close to figuring it out. These guys were great as the vaguely resentful FBI agents. 

Dean: Exactly.

John: Because he's very insulting. And a timing joke. Mark carries a lot in this episode.

Chris: Door- door closed, there you go, door closes, door opens.

Dean: Mark had his work cut out for him this episode.

John: Door opens. ‘Hey, Bob.’ Yeah, these two had a lot of fun. There’s about 900 different takes of this. And oh this was tricky, because when we got up there, we were shooting on the top floor, but that meant we couldn't double the corridor.

Dean: That’s right.

John: Because we had the skylights.

Chris: Oh, hm.

Dean: So we had to find other corridors. 

John: Yeah, and sometimes people were sleeping, sorry about that.

Dean: This is a very simple bullet time shot, but a very effective one, I think.

John: Yeah, the big reveal.

Dean: Just the, ‘viola.’

John: And you're out.

Chris: How did they do that?

John: A lot of fun. And a wink, which would distract any normal human. And this is- I'm trying to remember where we came up with this bit. Oh the carts were brutal, trying to find the cart we could put a dude in.

Chris: Oh yeah.

Dean: But this bit here is a call back to the episode with the kids-

John: Yes. Yeah That's right- where Hardison and- 

Dean: Cannot rappel.

Chris: That’s just great.

John: Rappelling just does not fit well, he's just not left as- and by the way, it really- real risk of Aldis Hodge strangling there. Sorry about that, Aldis. 

[Laughter]

John: And he's figured it out. Yeah and that was a lot of fun. Nashua, New Hampshire, near where my sister lives, by the way.

Chris: Right that's where they're sending it.

John: That's actually where they are sending it- they're sending that trunk to my sister’s front lawn. What little I can do. And this is- what's fun is that we- the camera work is very energized, the game's afoot, and the second half- it’s interesting, the two previous seasons, the two episodes both had their own internal structure. This really just plays as a movie because all the set up is the first half.

Chris: Yes.

John: This entire episode is the rock that's been pushed down the hill, and we’re just chasing it.

Chris: And everything is paying off.

John: Yeah. And again, drawn from my experience in standup years, all the hotel rooms look alike. If you were to wake me up in any random hotel room, I woke up and my trash was there, I'd assume that that was my room.

Chris: Sure. I mean as any business traveller can tell you, they'll wake up and not know what city they're in.

John: And Richard Kind, by the way- poor Richard Kind spent a week in that bathrobe. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: On docks, on oil tankers, in hotel rooms.

Chris: Yeah, it’s true.

John: That was- he formed a very unhealthy relationship with that bathrobe.

Dean: And had to be in the bathrobe the whole time.

John: Yeah. This is my favorite bit- they're just the type of people who cut up people in tubs, that's their job.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: But this little look of Eliot's right there tells you everything.

Chris: ‘Alright, I'm gonna cut her up.’

John: ‘Alright, this is my day.’ Aldis’s character Mr. Joshua, of course, named after the Gary Busey character from- 

Chris: Lethal Weapon.

John: Lethal Weapon. If we need a killer's name, why not-?

Dean: Go to the best.

John: Why not reference the best? Bunch of different versions of this. And I love them playing good cop, bad cop. But it was interesting, we had a version of this speech- and I will give this up to you as director, that explained everything. And you really looked at it and said, ‘Alright, here's the actual three things we need for this to make sense.’ Cause as the writer you never know, but you come at it from a storyteller like, ‘Here are the points the audience needs to be emotionally engaged to move forward.’

Dean: And it was a tough call, because Richard did such an amazing job with this speech. 

John: Yes.

Dean: You almost didn't want to lose anything. But, you know, we have time that we have to come in at the end of the show, and we needed to lose some time, so we really boiled it down.

Chris: Oh was this something that came out in editing? Or in-?

John: Yeah.

Chris: Oh it did, I didn't even notice.

John: You didn't notice, exactly. 

Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: The speech was about twice as long. Because really there's a whole mini scene between Richard and Tim there. 

Dean: Right.

John: And it really was- you know, you got it, he's bargaining for his life. That’s all you need to know.

Dean: And Richard is so knocking it out, you're actually learning a lot more with even less.

John: Yeah. His relationship through his attitude. No, there are times- even a writer would admit-

Dean: And that's all real sweat, by the way, no sweat bottle came in there; he earned each drop.

John: Boom. I like Aldis’ vague resentment at not being allowed to punch the guy.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Because again, everyone has their niche. And also the great expression Beth chooses there. ‘Eh, I've been in the tub waiting while you beat up a mayor. I'm out now.’

[Laughter]

John: ‘What are we doing next?’

Chris: Yeah, completely blank affect.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Dean: Day at the office.

John: Yeah.

Dean: But the subtle look of feeling like she's on a sinking ship. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: That we get out of Tara at the end of this scene, is really very great for setting up the turn.

John: And even- It's interesting, to watch Chris choose- Aldis is having basically Hardison question dad, while Eliot is instead watching the interplay between the two of them to see how Nate treats Hardison. 

Dean: Right.

John: Knowing that's the better indicator of what the relationship is. He does a similar thing in 207, actually, between he and Sophie- between Gina, with the bomb scene. 

Dean: Right, right. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: And then here we drop our red herring. Has Tara jumped the shark?

John: For a minute or half we considered doing it. For a minute and a half, what would- the problem was, it's Jeri Ryan, and you like her and you're hanging out with her and working with her and it was like, ‘Nah, I don't want the- I like the character.’

Chris: Well it sets up the- the act where it all pays off is one of my favorite acts we’ve done.

John: It’s one of my favorite bits ever. This, by the way, it seems like it's just an act break, it's horrible. Sterling has used his- the fact he used to be best friends with Nate Ford, to know that he is going to use his child’s- dead child's art to trap him.

Chris: Yeah.

John: This is a moment that was kind of thrown away, and the two actors, I saw them actually talking about it on set and they really dug in on it.

Chris: Yeah.

John: It's like, that is a horrible moment. You know, because he knows he won't leave town without that, and Sterling is the only man on earth who knows he won't leave town without that. 

Chris: Right.

John: Yeah. And it's one of the few times we’re behind the desk there.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Yeah. It's a weird place to shoot; it's just got that picture behind it, it's just trough to frame

Dean: But we wanted to get there and we found a place. Now this scene is unusual in that we've gone now to our handheld, which we do when our characters are either in physical or emotional jeopardy. But unlike other scenes, we went musicless here.

John: Yes.

Dean: Because the performances were so strong and so right on-

Chris: Oh that’s great.

Dean: -we didn't want to tell the audience what to feel. Just- we just wanted them to feel it.

John: Also in the tradition, that's the same glass.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Nate and- 

Chris: Oh that's the same glass from- from Nate in-

Dean: Season 1.

Chris: Season 1. That’s great.

John: Nate and Sterling have one glass they pass back and forth between each other depending on who’s winning.

Chris: That's great.

Dean: Right.

John: And the fact he's brought it to give it to him is sort of a signature of the deal they're falling into. And again, by the way, the idea that you would protect a witness that might’ve killed a cop. When you do the research? Oh man. This was kind of the Whitey Bulger thing in costic.

Chris: Well I mean, you know, we- it gave us a chance to explore- it was a whole different episode from the point of view of the FBI. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: About the compromises that people make when they get confidential, you know- 

John: Informants.

Chris: Cooperating witnesses, of looking the other way of other things they're doing. All they are focused on is their case.

John: That mayor is giving them 20 good busts.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

John: They're not going to follow rumors. Also Mark Sheppard is a- man, this is a great scene. There's two versions of this scene. This is the one we used, the one I like. One where he's angry and superior, and one where he's genuinely hurt that Nate Ford had become this man. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: That he's genuinely hurt he has to offer him this deal. And this is the take we used. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Which was an oddly vulnerable moment for that character. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to be giving him this offer. Wow, this is all close up, too, which we almost never do.

Dean: Yeah. But this is- there's a lot of things that we did in this two part season finale that we don't normally do, that were out of the box, but necessary, it was very interesting.

John: Yeah, and this is him telling him this is his last chance. No, and- I always wonder- I gotta- I need to ask Tim when does- cause I know Tim in his head knows when Nate makes the decision what he's gonna do. Is it here or is it after the phone call? Is it after the phone call?

Dean: I think it's after the phone call.

John: Yeah. But there's alot going on.

Dean: But the twist here was cause Nate always is two steps ahead. Until he said, ‘And my team,’ and the guy- and he says, ‘No, just you.’ And there's a look on his face and it's one- it’s again, a rare vulnerable moment for Nate where he didn’t see that one coming. 

John: Yeah. And loses his hand and it's like, you know.

Dean: Again, getting to shoot at the actual docks was fantastic.

John: Except we can't shoot past her right shoulder, cause there was a navy ship there that we started to shoot, and the nice gentlemen came over and told us not to put that on camera, please.

Dean: That’s right.

Chris: Oh really?

John: Yeah.

Chris: Wow.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And briny despair may be my favorite Parker line.

John: Briny despair, old clowns.

Chris: Old clown shoes.

John: Briny despair. And again, there's a mini arc here, and the actresses are very good friends, and they're really found it, of their developing physical friendship and, like, just the fact that she can be- Parker’s physical character, and so the fact she’ll walk in pace with Tara is a big deal.

Dean: And now we've brought back Sophie.

John: There you go.

Dean: First time we haven't seen her on a monitor this season.

John: Exactly.

Chris: And here's the payoff from the scene in-

Dean: 207.

Chris: Well part one also, this-

Dean: But we set up really at the- 

Chris: We did, you're right.

Dean: At the- The Two Live Crew Job that she was going off to find herself. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: Right.

Dean: And then in the next episode, when he tried to bring her back, she says, ‘Do you want me back for the team, or for you?’ 

Chris: Right, right.

Dean: And now he calls that back and says, ‘Not for the team, for me.’

Chris: Right, right.

Dean: ‘I need you back.’

John: It was also subtle, but we've shown her in conveyance in a lot of the other shots when she's away, so you won't be tipped off by the fact that she's in a conveyance. That she's in transport.

Chris: That she's in a helicopter.

John: She's in transit, she’s in a helicopter. We've shown her in cars, she’s done the cell phone in different locations. 

Chris: Yeah, yeah, that’s true.

John: So hopefully you were not like ‘Oh, why are we seeing her in a different context?’ 

Chris: Right.

John: We've seen her in this context before. Now this was- man, this was a great day, this was just- we cleared the set and Tim just parked his ass on the floor. 

Dean: We did three takes, but this is actually his first take. He so nailed it on the first take.

John: Oh, really?

Dean: That the others were really just for safety. But he just came in there, ready to do this part.

John: Yeah. And this is- you know.

Dean: And then the tragedy that she didn't hear any of it. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: It's one of the great things about cell phones. Is that- from a dramatic standpoint- I mean they help you bring characters together, but you can also use them to- 

Dean: Separate them.

Chris: To separate them.

John: Never in 1940s comedy is or 1940s movie is like, ‘Pennsylvania 927: Oh the killer is-!’ ‘Oh I lost him.’

Chris: ‘The line went dead!’

John: ‘The line went dead!’ ‘No sir, the line’s not dead, I'll reconnect you right away.’ Thank you operator.’

Dean: But his feeling of betrayal at losing the connection.

John: Yeah.

Dean: Really again, is a wonderful red herring where we feel like, ‘Oh my god, he's really gonna sell this team out.’

John: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Or at the very least you have no idea what the hell he's gonna do. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: You know, he is drunk, he is pissed off. No he-

Chris: And he's been put- he's been backed in a corner.

John: And you know, which-

Dean: But even the way he said here, ‘I have a plan that will fix everyone.’ It’s like, woah.

John: And having the picture that Sam drew. It's interesting that it's essentially a codependent relationship, but it's a functioning one that they have.

Dean: And here, again, is a strange bit of blocking that we had never done before, where Nate has isolated himself on the stairway. 

John: Yes.

Chris: Well that helps sell everything, too, doesn't it? Separated from them.

John: Well he's not in front of them, he's behind them. He's separated from them, exactly. Fun bit of blocking, too, actually. It's- we’ll use it again, I'm sure.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Cause that's a nice angle. And yes and then everyone- and then her coming around to pull focus. No, it's for a static shot, it's really interesting. But this is one of the few times we don't tell you the plan.

Dean: Right.

John: You know, it's one of the few times we transition. Usually we-

Chris: We did that in part two of season one, also.

John: Yeah, yeah. It’s- we’re usually an open mystery. 

Chris: Yes.

John: At least- and this was one of the few times that you're not- you have no idea- because the rules for the show usually are, you know what's gonna happen and the fun is seeing it go wrong and how they're gonna recover. This one it's like, you’re just gonna have to trust us.

Chris: Who invented the ‘And this is what we're gonna do’ was that Aristophones? The first one.

John: That was Aristophanes.

Chris: ‘Alright everyone, gather around. Grab your togas; let’s go.’

Dean: Now once again we've got the teams separated in different locations, each with different objectives.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: And that's a little bit of a callback to the pilot episode, when she did the burn gag.

Chris: That's true.

John: Yes, the burn scam. Yeah, wow was this a tough shot.

Dean: That's a little bit of scale, huh guys?

Chris: Wow. 

Dean: How about that?

Chris: They let us- now was that digital or do we- let us paint on the ship?

Dean: We digitally put the name on the ship.

Chris: We did, ok.

John: Well, we did paint some of it .

Dean: We did paint some of it. You’ll see a sign later that we actually painted.

John: That was a lot of fun, just trying to figure out like, the whole break into the FBI office. And what's the easiest way? 

Dean: Short fight, but one of my favorites. 

John: Yeah, just brutal. This is a tough- this was a tough day. Chris did all of these fights in one day, straight through, and ran back and forth between the dialogue scenes.

Dean: This really should've been two days of shooting, that we did in one day.

John: He did like a 20 hour day here.

Dean: This was an insane day.

Chris: Oof.

Dean: But we only had use of this ship for two days, so we had to get it all in.

John: Yeah. He's got the samurai ponytail rocking there, that's how you can tell there's gonna be some fighting. And we have money, and we would like to arrange a meeting. ‘I'm a man with a briefcase full of money, I would like to meet your boss.’ It’s a great, classic trope.

Chris: I like this act, this is my favorite act.

John: I also like- I gave them this running bit where he's counting guys with guns.

Chris: Yeah, I remember that from- you came up with that last season.

John: Season one, and we never found a place for it.

Chris: That's a great shot, too.

John: Yeah, that's a great shot. That and- actually on the boat, that's the way you get between decks. This is actually one of my favorite Parker bits, just talking- coming up with the speech about what it's like to die in an air vent. Because the fact that she's always in air vents, is worth addressing, you know.

Dean: And it shows you the way her mind thinks.

John: Yes, exactly. ‘Scratching on the metal.’ She's kinda turned on, I'm not sure where this is going. 

[Laughter]

Dean: Yeah, that’s fair.

Chris: It's the tongue, the darting tongue and she shakes out of it.

John: Let’s go and we’re off.

Dean: She loves the danger.

Chris: We didn't get wet that down folks, that was actual Portland rain.

John: Yes, Beth Riesgraf and Jeri Ryan were on a rooftop, on a skyscraper, with a thunderstorm during most of this day.

Dean: Not dangerous at all.

John: Not dangerous, ignore the lighting, kids. Man, what were we thinking?

Dean: And he pulled out the Scottish accent out of nowhere, which was fantastic.

John: I know, I know. Which was a lot of fun. Because the idea is the mayor has gotten in over his head, and he's dealing with the same sort of businesses that- power drill was the nastiest thing I could think of.

Chris: And that's quite a nasty bit on it, too.

John: Yes, exactly. Well that’s- you know, I mean, if you're gonna mess up somebody's knees, that's the bit you're gonna use yeah. ‘Still counting.’ Oh yeah, then we just reset- it was really tricky because it was so complicated, we had to reset their goal at the beginning of every act. 

Dean: Right.

John: What do they need to get? Yeah. And again, it's like, do these guys really meet in broad daylight to look at their goods? Yes! Yes they do!

Chris: Yeah.

John: And usually-

Dean: And here's where we set up the phone does voice dialing, which is crucial to our final act.

John: Thank you 21st century. Because we enjoyed tying up Richard Kind and we’ll leave it at that.

Chris: Yeah, I'm sure the fact that GPS is in every phone is gonna be our best friend and possibly our worst enemy this coming season. 

John: No, it's a big deal. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: A phone that's on is a phone that can be tracked.

Chris: Yup.

John: Exactly. And yes and Richard, by the way, finding the desperation. ‘They cut her up in a bathtub!’ 

John: Like the murder wasnt the worst thing in the world, but the fact that somehow it was so undignified? Yeah. Nice scream. And that was, by the way, great little comedy beat, just like, ‘Well to be fair, he did most of the cutting.’ 

Chris: Yeah.

John: The two of them- we don't usually have Eliot and Nate doing comedy together, but when they do it's a pure relationship, it's a nice rhythm.

Dean: And if you look closely, there in the distance, we've set up Sophie is actually with the buyers.

John: Yes.

Dean: But you wouldn't notice that unless you watched it again.

Chris: Oh, that's great.

John: And now they've broken in, they've come down through the air vent, she did not enjoy the experience in any way shape or form. Oh man, this was a tough day. That's like-

Chris: Hot? Cold? What was the temperature? Do you remember?

John: Brutal, brutal hot. Cold at night. Hot at- you know what? There's never-

Dean: Back and forth.

John: It's never comfy on an oil tanker deck.

Chris: No- I’m trying- yeah I'm trying to imagine-

Dean: And there again, there’s Sophie in the distance.

Chris: There she is, that's great.

John: Sophie in the distance. And this is a real fusebox we tacked into. Sorry.

Dean: In city hall?

John: In city hall. 

[Laughter]

John: This was actually a fun thing is, this year we shifted to Hardison not using a signature laptop, but using the minis. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Because our hacker consultant, Kevin Mitteny told us that's what they're using. They're using $300 computers and throwing them away if they're gonna get busted. And running stuff off the thumb drives.

Dean: And this was the- in the actual cargo hold of the oil tanker, so this was very confined space to shoot in. It looked great, but it was very difficult to light and move the camera around and because the top of the stairs- that was the only stairs that was the only way in and out of that room. So all the lights, all the cameras all had to go up and down stairs- there was no other way in or out.

John: And remind you, Gina’s in this scene later. Gina at, like, 17 months pregnant.

[Laughter]

John: Came down those stairs like a fricken trooper, man. We were just- we were more scared than she was. She was like going down them, and we were like, ‘Ahhh, oh god.’

Chris: Just kind of like [unintelligible] step.

John: It’s an oil tanker! And she’s in like fashion boots, and a kicky top, you know.

Chris: Wow.

John: This was- you know what’s weird? This speech doesn’t advance the plot in any way, shape, or form. This speech is just him selling his character to buy time, and yet it’s really interesting. 

Dean: Yeah this-

John: Tim’s digging in on the character here. It's his evil speech of evil, you know.

Dean: Right

John: And he never gets to give one.

Chris: Yeah, it's interesting when we can do that. We've done that a few times, the- 

John: Glengarry, Glen death.

Chris: Sophie also- also as the Indian pharmaceutical rep gave an evil speech of evil.

John: Yes.

Dean: And this you wrote in the script as the Bourne fade. 

John: Yes.

Dean: Which I thought was the perfect description.

John: It's a perfect- it’s a good shorthand. He's there, and then he’s not there.

Chris: It's great.

John: By the way, Chris has just stepped three feet to the right into a tool locker.

[Laughter]

Dean: Right.

John: There's no actual exit there. And- was there a reason for the 360? Just to keep it- just to be interesting? Because I don't think it was-

Chris: And how hard was that within that space?

Dean: Really hard. But we felt that it was a great way to, again, the world has changed. We thought one thing was going on here, but now we've spun it by-

Chris: And that's steadicam.

Dean: That's all steadicam. Gary Camp.

John: It's weird, because it's also, kind of, Nate Ford buying into his persona there. That's one of the times you really see him.

Dean: And Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling.

John: Who came in and did a great job for us!

Dean: You know what's funny, is that I thought he was just gonna be a comic that you had to teach how to act. But you know what? He really came in with the character, he committed to it, he wasn't just trying to be jokey. I mean, he really knocked it out.

John: He totally gives us serious takes-

Chris: He’s totally convincing as the evidence locker guy.

John: Slightly more convincing than Jeri Ryan in insanely hot pants as the FBI agent. 

[Laughter]

John: I gotta with Jackie here on the verisimilitude scale. Although we did put Jackie in those pants, that didn't work out for us as much. But no, he's great and the kind of vaguely resentful- you can totally see him doing this character on a- 

Dean: And yet he gave us a great exit line here.

John: ‘Oh no, who wants to talk to the evidence guy?’ 

[Laughter]

John: And that was, by the way, that was him, that was not in the script.

Chris: That’s true.

Dean: And not overselling it either.

John: No, no, it was really nice. You could see him playing that role on a cop show.

Dean: Totally.

John: Absolutely. Nate Ford, international man of mystery and arms dealer.

Chris: Peacoat really working well on the boat.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, nice. It's very much-

Chris: That was a coat waiting for a set.

John: Yeah. Well it's interesting cause- 

Dean: Oh and there's Sophie in the background.

Chris: There’s Sophie!

John: And some people in the first screening kind of caught her, but- 

Chris: Now she's there buying guns? Who’s-?

[Laughter]

John: Well she's- she is buying guns, you know. 

Chris: For her library?

[Laughter]

Dean: Library needs guns, too.

John: Libraries need guns, too. I like to think- I like to think that she is a Swiss buyer.

Chris: No, I mean, it’s a well armed library.

John: She's a Swiss buyer, she’s-

Dean: And here's a nice little turn.

John: Nice swing around. Shot that day on the boat to reveal that they talked. And then over again. Wow, and we all shot this in a real container.

Dean: In a real containter.

Chris: It was for real? Oh, wow.

Dean: Yeah. Now back on the roof, and this is my favorite Parker bit we've ever done. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah it's tough. There's a lot of good ones, but. 

Dean: But.

John: But we never expected Beth to do this.

Chris: This turn here is great.

Dean: This is the first time since the pilot that we brought back how lethal she can actually be.

John: There's a bit in Stork Job, but boom. Oh yeah and she locked in on Jeris throat on that, too. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: And Jeri goes over the edge. 

Chris: Over the edge. 

John: She's wired, but that's Jeri Ryan hanging over the edge. And it was-

Chris: And again, it was raining and windy. 

John: Raining. Yeah no, they were both fearless up there. 

John: They had a good time up there. They really wound up working well together. And now it's all gone to hell.

Dean: But it's a real callback to that pilot line of, ‘Going to my angry place.’

John: Yeah. This is just- because what's happened is- and just for writing thing, Parker has let her into the family. The only people who are human beings are members of the family. Once Jeri’s betrayed them, she’s moved outside the family, and is an object.

Chris: Well, also to betray the family is-

John: Real ship captain.

Dean: Real ship-

Chris: Oh wow, that's great.

John: You were saying? To betray...

Chris: To betray the family is even worse.

Dean: This is a great hit right here.

Chris: Oh!

Dean: Bam! Man.

John: Yeah- man shooting- that's as wide as that space is, guys. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: That was brutal to be down there.

Dean: And these are two guys from the beginning of the previous episode. So again, if you haven't watched them back to back, you might not realize these are the two guys who shot Bonanno.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah, so you know we've linked up, physically, the bad guys.

Dean: Now that one actually- we put that one actually up there.

John: Yeah, that's a real sign. And this is my favorite, this is one of my favorite character reveals ever, and it's because she's doing one of my favorite characters ever. Gina’s doing Annie Croy here.

Chris: Annie Croy.

Dean: Which, again, ties back to the beginning of the season.

John: Yeah it's almost like we think this through. Yeah and- I'm sorry we're all gonna be quiet here because we all love this.

Dean: ‘Bye now.’

John: ‘Bye now.’

[Laughter]

John: That's fucked up, man. I'm sorry, I'm gonna swear on DVD and say that is fucked up.

Dean: That ‘bye now’ is. 

Chris: The ‘bye now’ throwaway.

Dean: Oh boy, ruthless. And then my second favorite reveal of a character all year.

Chris: Oh.

John: Yeah. No, that's fantastic. And the way Tim sells this like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ No, even writing that character reveal I wasn't sure it would work, and even when we shot it I'm like, ‘Yeah, this works.’ Gina- you've been so waiting to be- hear her voice.

Dean: She is so talented.

John: We've also really lined it up like there’s no out here. We- usually the audience- a smart audience member will see a backdoor we put. There is no backdoor, she's the backdoor. 

Chris: Yeah this was a tricky bit of scripting too, right? I mean we had a ship, and we needed to disable it. I mean, what was- right?

John: It was a lot of wandering around on the ship going, ‘Alright, how does this work exactly?’

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: And even though Tim is out of focus here, you get everything right there.

John: ‘The hell’s going on?’ And she doesn't break character, no.

Dean: Cause she is the ultimate grifter.

John: Yeah, no she does a great- and OK, shoot this guy in the face when I'm off the-’ She's impatient and that's actually kind of a nice thing. And now this.

Dean: Terrific little fight scene shot by Marc Roskin.

John: Yes, at some ungodly hour of the morning. And this is where we pay off the numbers. We've been waiting two years to do this.

Dean: And again, in the actual ship.

John: Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to hurt yourself on. 

Dean: And this gun going off was not easy.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Oof. 

John: Yeah, we're spilling brass all over the inside of the ship. The- this is a brutal fight sequence, all these stunties did- you know, they're banging off metal all over the place.

Dean: In this kind of space, it is so hard to do this safely, these guys were champs. And Christian- I’m telling you, he's amazing in these things.

John: No double.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Refuses to get a double.

John: Refused to get a double. There you go, and down, he counts. By the way, we’re not exhibiting superhuman strength here. This is how you break flexicuffs.

Chris: Oh wow, that's a little hulk moment.

John: Yeah, the only thing keeping- if you- if- that's why they flexicuff you behind your back. The only thing keeping you in flexicuffs in front of you is the belief that you should be in flexicuffs. Little survival tip.

Chris: Oh wow.

John: And this is also a favorite bit, because it was really written as a kind of expositional, but Beth found this really weird rhythm near the end of it.

Dean: Oh boy.

John: This is shot with the XD right?

Dean: Yeah.

John: This is all shot with a Prosumer-level camera. 

Dean: She just finds this little bit of evil.

John: ‘Oh, I actually thought you were going to throw me off.’ Yeah, exactly.

Dean: Just this little fake laugh here, just so great. I think it's actually in the two shot, because it has to be in the comedy frame.

John: Yeah the- also the- it's interesting that the- the idea that it's fair enough that they would indeed-

Dean: Here it is.

John: Here it is, coming up. ‘I thought you were actually going to throw me off the roof’. And there she is. The look before hand, the ‘Oh, that's right, this is how humans are supposed to react.’

[Laughter]

John: ‘Eh, I was totally going to throw you off that roof.’ 

Chris: Yeah, that’s great.

John: But the whole understanding that yes we probably- that's actually a favorite line and Jeri really nailed it, which is ‘You would have forgiven him.’ They're all enablers, they're all in this weird broken family, and you know, it's both their strength and their weakness. Also, again, by the way, director thing, I had a whole explanation of how Hardison disarmed the ship, and we had no time to shoot it and you were like, ‘Giant wrench!’

Chris: Giant wrench!

John: You know what he's done.

Chris: When you see a giant wrench, you see that he messed something up.

John: He is a monkey wrencher. You know! It's a term.

Dean: In the comedy frame. so-

John: And by the way, ‘Took you long enough,’ is a recurring theme for the entire back half of the season.

Dean: Right there.

Chris: Oh that's right.

Dean: And she walks by. ‘Huh?’

[Laughter]

Dean: Love it.

John: And then a beautiful over the shoulder. Oh that's a hero shot right there. No, it really is- it’s interesting because it was very scary, because you know, you didn't know how long Gina would be with us going into the season and everything.

Chris: Oh, this is great.

John: And the entire act depends on Sophie being the best grifter on earth.

Chris: Even him-

Dean: And it's just fun to see them all back together again, because we've been starved from it.

Chris: Him being like places where he doesn't know he was all throughout this episode.

John: Yeah, it's a nice running gag actually. And zero. And by the way, it was Chris who caught the count. Chris came up to me and was like, ‘If that's the last guy I'm gonna-’ I was like, ‘Oh, good catch at 2am, nicely done.’ ‘Took you long enough,’ again.

Dean: And this sets up the handcuff bit at the end.

John: Yeah, that was tricky.

Chris: Right he has the handcuffs.

John: Oh god, yeah. Boy this was really easy to keep track of.

[Laughter]

Dean: And both of them really delivered- you know, this is a very short scene that needs a lot of emotions. Because it wraps up really where they are and where they're going next season, and they just did it with looks and with subtext. And it was just terrific.

John: You poor bastard. And also, by the way, what I love about this is, this is the happy ending to most television shows, this moment right here. We then fuck it up.

Dean: Right, exactly.

John: Yeah. They really care for each other, they are really good friends.

Dean: And they're there for each other.

John: And they're there for each other, and he's a broken bastard. And what's great is he walks out of there without really knowing what the rest of the plan is.

Dean: My favorite Richard Kind line right here, ‘I don't know.’

John: ‘I don't know.’

[Laughter]

Chris: That's very Richard Kind. That’s Mad About You, Spin City Richard Kind right there.

John: Yeah, it really is. And by the way, yeah, only two ways out of this. That seems like a design flaw to me. Because that front window is a 40 foot drop onto the deck of the ship; you can't get out through that front window. 

Chris: Oh wow.

John: Yeah if you lock these doors, they ain’t going anywhere. Yeah, and a nice run and gun there, and there's also a little mini scene we blew off there with Paul sort of turning on Richard. Hero moment, hero- the team together.

Dean: By the way, those are some digital effects to remove the pregnant belly.

John: Nice, nicely done.

Chris: Oh really, wow.

Dean: Yes.

Chris: I say it a lot.

John: And nice hug.

Dean: And also just on a small note, we couldn't afford two helicopters. Because we had a helicopter in the scene, and we also needed a helicopter that could shoot the scene. So we used the same helicopter for both and then just digitally erased the camera that was mounted on the end of the helicopter.

Chris: Wait wait, so in other words when you're up there with them you're also shooting- the cameras below it?

Dean: So in other words- yeah, so when you see the helicopter arrive later, there was actually a camera attached to it.

John: A giant camera rig on it, like the size of a VW bug on the bottom of it.

Dean: But we erased it.

Chris: Oh that's amazing.

John: Yeah. Yeah and Sophie’s thought of everything. There's a way out, you hear sirens, it's all coming together. 

Dean: And it's fun to see them back together again.

Chris: And again, not that we do this typically. But this was, in a sense, this scene was kind of conceived of first, this scene and him on the deck. 

Dean: Right.

John: That's right.

Chris: That we were leading up to.

John: The original version of the script is, it opens with him bleeding out on the deck and you have no idea where he is.

Chris: But I'm saying even in the beginning of the season.

John: Oh yeah.

Chris: This scene was kind of where the show was going. How we were gonna get there was the question.

John: You don’t- everyone has their different ways. Before we shot a frame of season two, I knew it ended with Nate Ford saying, ‘I'm a thief.’

Chris: Right. But even- but even on a- also on the deck of a ship remember- I remember that.

John: Yeah, on the deck of a ship.

Dean: Now I think this ending is one of the bigger endings we’ve ever done, and it's really the most emotional ending I've ever done.

John: Really? I dunno you and I-

Dean: More than I was expecting it to be.

John: You and I disagree, because we all have our favorite stuff, but yeah, it-

Chris: It’s certainly a huge hero moment.

John: It's a huge hero moment, and they're all making great choices. Eliot really wants to just tear through these guys, and Nate’s not gonna let him.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Yeah. 

Dean: He's being a good dad for once.

John: Yeah. He’s- and by the way, again, this is not the right choice, he shouldn't have lied to them, he shouldn't have had a plan he didn't tell them, he shouldn’t- he's a control freak. Even in his moment of sacrifice, he's a selfish, alcoholic bastard.

[Laughter]

Dean: That's right.

John: I just wished to make sure nobody makes sure nobody thinks he's being super heroic here. He doesn't really change that much. 

Chris: That’s true.

John: No, and this was fun, we had all different kinds of versions of lockers and found out that yeah, that's how they keep a lot of evidence.

Dean: That’s crazy.

John: That was fun though too, also, you only had two rows of those evidence lockers, so you staggred them to shoot through them to make it look-

Dean: To make it seem like they went on forever.

Chris: Yeah where was that? Where-?

John: That was on set that was- remember the small soundstage we had?

Chris: Oh, ok.

Dean: It was actually a reworking of the set at the end of 207 at the airport. 

John: Yes. It was the airport, but we just moved it over to the other stage. And I also love the idea again- Nate and Sterling are playing a game that just nobody else gets to be a part of. This is just- this is just nine moves ahead guys. 

Dean: Right.

John: There's another version of the show where Katie O'Grady chases Eliot, Parker, and Hardison for an entire season, yeah, but in this version. ‘I can feel you thinking’ he knows him, he knows him that well. He knows the counter move- no, they really dug in here. And by the way, it's 110 degrees on that deck, Tim’s in a peacoat handcuffed to a rail. He's working his ass off here. 

Dean: With the turtleneck.

John: With the turtleneck, yeah. Oh and just the sheer rage Katie O'Grady is radiating there. 

Chris: Now what time- what day- part of the shooting day was this? Did you make-?

John: This was morning.

Chris: This was, like, first thing?

Dean: Yeah, this was the first shot.

Chris: Is that a challenge to do the most emotional thing first?

Dean: It is, and especially because when we started shooting it we were in cloud cover and then halfway through the scene the sun came out. And so then trying to make that all work was really difficult. 

Dean: This, I thought, was surprisingly more emotional than I anticipated when we were there.

John: Well it was weird because when we were there, we couldn't quite get the staging, and they seemed like they were standing really far away. ‘Cause the deck was bigger than we thought.

Dean: Right.

John: And no- well this is the shot because by shooting this way, you get intimate, it feels like they're right on top of them. The other reverse kind of shows you the space.

Chris: I think it also parallels from season one, also-

John: Yeah it does, it does.

Chris: The scene where they’re standing around, really nicely.

Dean: But they're all disappointed in him, which is great. He sacrificing for them, but that's not what they want.

John: No. And he lied to them. And he's- you’re an idiot, I mean, that's really what Eliot’s thinking right there.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Like, ‘You know what? If you just talk to us.; I really never realized how [unintelligible] this episode is. 

Chris: It is.

John: It’s a big hero sacrifice, but it’s- you know he really broke the family. Again.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: And Gina just nails this scene. I mean, we waited for this kiss for two seasons.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And it comes out, and she's crushed by it. It’s great.

John: Yeah. And again, and- you know this is a big hero moment in his head and she calls him on it. Because she- and this is what's interesting, Sophie Deveraux is a more advanced human being than Nate Ford is at this point. She went away, she took her space-

Chris: Right.

John: You know. 

Dean: And she lets him have it.

John: In the same way he let her have it at the end of season one, she's letting him have it at the end of season two. I love that look, by the way, that Eliot- Chris and Mark really set up the fact that they can't stand each other, really well.

Chris: And here, you know, the relationship between these two kicks in also. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: Between Nate and Sterling.

John: Yeah, the fact that he held it together- and they don't know, by the way. 

Chris: Right.

John: They have no idea when they're leaving.

Dean: That little look with Christian is just great.

John: And there's a camera mount on that helicopter.

Dean: That's been erased.

Chris: That's great.

John: ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ That- this is- you’re right, we wrote the ending first.

Chris: Yeah, I remember, this was-

Dean: He goes, ‘I don’t know.’

John: I remember this was the first thing ever.

Dean: This was the end of the arc. ‘I'm a thief.’

John: ‘And I'm a thief.’ I mean this is a callback to him saying I'm not a thief for two years. 

Dean: Right.

John: Wow. Thank god this is the last episode of the show.

Chris: And we’re not listening- and we can't hear it here in the commentary, but Joe Le Duca did- the orchestration for this is absolutely fantastic.

Dean: It's actually the first time he went and got a real orchestra. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: Went to Salt Lake City and recorded with a real orchestra, and I mean the scale of this is outstanding.

John: It's giant. 35- I think we had close to half a- 50 FBI agents here. And just cars, helicopters, and this is a big- this is a big hero moment, man. This is a film ending, you know.

Dean: Yeah, it really is.

John: This is it. I love his choice here, it's like, ‘And if I die, I'm totally cool with that.’

Chris: Oh here we go.

John: And he's bleeding out, can you see?

Dean: See the blood on the ground.

John: The blood- he's bleeding out. There's no guarantee Nate Ford will make it.

[Laughter]

Chris: Wow.

John: Which was fun actually shooting this, ‘cause Tim really loved this. And two days before we finished shooting, he turned to me and went, ‘Wait am I dead?’

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh that’s something.

Dean: Stay tuned for season three and you'll find out.

John: I know. No kidding, you'll find out.

Dean: Thank you again for hanging in there with us and listening to this commentary.

John: We had a great time and we really appreciate you guys watching the show.

Chris: And thanks again for watching season two; we can't wait to bring you season three.

John: And thank you, Portland.

Dean: Yes.

John: Big thank you, Portland.

[domesticnct]

NCT In a School Play

Hey y’all this is my first set of headcanons for soft boys NCT. Even though it’s not really domestic, these are some random headcanons me and my friend had for them from my school theater days. I hope you guys enjoy them! Warning, it’s kind of long.

Taeil - Supporting Lead

This man has a BEAUTIFUL voice so of course he has a super important role. He originally wanted the lead role (who doesn’t), but there was a specific song that Doyoung wanted him to sing. 

If it weren’t for Haechan’s performance being so extra, Taeil’s voice alone would have stolen the whole show. 

He also takes on the older sibling role and likes to help the other cast members memorize their lines, practice their songs, and warm up.

Doyoung was originally in charge of leading vocal warm ups, but Taeil just sort of took over because people took him more seriously than Doyoung being the oldest. 

He’s the nicest person on the set and always makes sure everyone has what they need and takes the stage and backstage managers jobs frequently during dress rehearsals. 

But the day of the actual performance he let them do their part and focused on his performance and it turned out amazing.

Taeyong - The Director/ Casting Director

Super chill and is really just there to make sure things don’t get too chaotic. 

It was his idea to do a play so they could make new friends and also bond together. 

He organized most of the things for the play like finding and renting a theater, coming up with the budget, picking the actual play, setting up rehearsal times and making sure water was always provided, but he also left a lot of other responsibilities up to the other members like costumes, selling and designing tickets, and designing the set.

He would make an appearance in the play just because the other cast members begged him to so he complied. 

He had the most fun out of everyone because everyone was just having fun together and their happiness is his happiness.

Johnny - Stage Hand

This man is HUGE and has MUSCLES so he would definitely be in charge of all the set changes. 

During practices he’s mostly goofing off and not paying attention to his cues causing chaos and calamity to ensue. 

Him, Haechan, Mark, Yang Yang, and Chenle give Doyoung the hardest time out of everyone. 

The day of the performance he would show up in all black with a ski mask and it would scare tf out of everyone. They thought someone was breaking in to murder them. 

Jisung saw him and DIPPED and probably ran crying to his mom  Taeyong saying there were all about to die but then Taeyong was like “oh that’s just Johnny, I can’t believe he actually went through with wearing it when I said a black tee-shirt was good enough.”

He shows up as an extra in a scene or two and jokes around with Mark on stage and gets the evil eye from Doyoung so he stopped. 

Yuta - Makeup artist/ Costumes

As soon as he heard there was going to be a play he volunteered to do makeup.

Taeyong told him they didn’t really need anything extra, but he still wanted to go all out.

During dress rehearsals he would give everyone really cool and unique looks which of course made Doyoung flip out because the play was supposed to be about the performance, and not the appearance.

He also never shows up to any of the practices, only the dress rehearsals and performances. 

He also designs and makes the costumes and they’re super detailed and absolutely amazing. 

Everyone talked about the costumes for weeks and he was GASSED.

You know I had to do it to him

Doyoung - Producer/ Casting Director

Let’s be real, Doyoung is the REAL director of this play. 

I see him being the producer who has a vision and being really extra about it and lowkey annoying. 

He kind of micromanages everyone involved, but it’s because he really wants everything to be perfect. 

He had like 10,000 breakdowns during production because the boys can be so rowdy and don’t always listen. Taeyong doesn’t help much because he’s usually goofing off with everyone else and tells Doyoung not to take it so seriously because it’s supposed to be fun.

On the day of the play he’s super anxious and everyone thinks he’s going to have a breakdown, but he’s actually surprisingly calm and does a complete 180 from how he was during the rest of the production. 

Everything went according to his “vision” and he probably cried at the end of the show because it turned out better than he ever imagined. 

Jaehyun - Ticket Sales

The love of my life

This man is SO fine they would use him to promote the play. 

Most of the audience are girls because all he had to do was flash a smile and they bought tickets. 

EVERYONE was disappointed when they saw he wasn’t in the play, though he did show up as an extra in like one scene because Taeyong said everyone had to participate, and also they needed someone to sing the low harmonies.

The one scene he was in his acting was really good despite having like two lines because actor Jaehyun  and Doyoung kind of regrets not giving him a bigger role. 

But they knew they needed someone insanely attractive and extroverted to be able to sell tickets. 

The ticket booth was crowded before the show and people showed up to buy tickets just to catch a glimpse of him because he is ethereal. 

Has a lot of fun with Mark and Johnny on set but also tells them to tone it down because he doesn’t want to upset Doyoung too much.

Jungwoo - Backstage manager

Jungwoo didn’t really want to be in the play because he wanted to support Doyoung because he knew how crazy the boys can get. 

He volunteered to be the backstage manager making sure everyone was in their costumes and in the wings in time for their performance. 

During rehearsal’s he usually just sat next to Doyoung trying to get him to calm down, but the second Doyoung stormed out he was joining in with everyone else before Taeyong said they really did need to get serious. 

On the night of the actual performance he was a frazzled bean running all over the dressing room bringing people water, tea, cleaning up clothes that were strewn about, and making sure people were listening for their cues to get ready to go out. 

But he also goofed off a little bit and still had fun. He maybe popped in for one scene as an extra just to appease Taeyong before running back to make sure everything was in order. 

Mark - Extra

Mark originally wanted to be in the play and have a speaking role, but the second he found out it was a musical he tried to back tf out, but of course Haechan dragged him back into it. 

Is one of the main people giving Doyoung a heart attack at every rehearsal. 

He gets bored easily because there isn’t much for him to do except stand around most of the time so he starts goofing off.

Walks around purposely singing the songs off key and terribly during practice annoying everyone and making them into raps, but on the day of the actual performance he sounds like an angel.

Despite not having a very important role, he has a lot of fun with everyone and shows up to every practice to show his support for everyone.

Haechan - Lead Role

This man was not originally cast as the lead, it was supposed to be Doyoung who was lowkey micromanaging the whole thing. However, when Taeyong had a certain vision for Doyoung’s role he left, causing Haechan to swoop in and take it. Though Haechan may or may not have been speaking into Doyoung’s ear about why he should quit because he wanted the role. 

He is a straight up DIVA on set. Like this man is a Gemini he would probably have ridiculous requests and demands such as organic lemon tea with manuka honey at a super specific temperature. When Jungwoo brings him his cup of tea he would spit it out all dramatic like “this is NOT what I requested.” Like Squidward with the lemonade in that one episode of Spongebob.

But he’s really just messing with everyone and when he isn’t being a little bit of a diva, he’s playing around on the set causing Doyoung and Taeyong headaches.

He would be the reason Doyoung walked out on several occasions from frustration saying he was quitting because no one took him seriously. 

Despite not being originally cast for the role, he does an amazing job. We all know Haechan is extra and can lowkey be a bit of a diva and he plays it UP for this role.

Doyoung is actually very satisfied with his performance and everything goes well.

Kun - Stage Manager/ Casting Director

Kun is the calmest person throughout the entire production. 

He’s so used to the chaos at this point that he remains the calmest. 

Since he’s the stage manager, he doesn’t really have much of a role outside of dress rehearsal’s and the actual performance. 

So, he offered to help with casting which he really enjoyed. 

Throughout the process he sort of backs Doyoung and Taeyong up in keeping everyone in check.

He also helps in several other areas whenever support was needed. 

Whether it was helping someone with their lines, helping Winwin perfect the choreography, or setting up the sound system for Jisung and Chenle to use, he does it all.

He also was the main person who assigned singing parts to all the extras and worked with everyone to make sure their harmonies were perfect. 

The day of the actual performance, he makes sure everything runs super smoothly. He makes sure Johnny is aware of when the set changes need to occur and makes sure everyone is on the stage at the right time.

He’s also super proud that his kids pulled it off when the whole thing is over.

Ten - The Star

He doesn’t even have the leading role but he steals every scene he’s in, even from Haechan.

His dancing is so captivating that no one can take their eyes off of him during the musical numbers. 

His acting his a little bit awkward at times because he’d much rather be dancing, but it’s what sets him apart from everyone else. 

He also helped design the sets with dancing and placement in mind so no one would trip over anything or be too distracted by props. 

He also designed the tickets for the show at Jaehyun’s request and made all of the posters. 

He also helped design and make the costumes. 

He was also like EVERYONE’S understudy because they were doing his favorite musical so he already knew all of the songs and most of the lines because he’s seen it a million times.

During rehearsal he mouthed everyone’s lines and hummed all the songs so Taeyoung knew he would be the best understudy for Haechan.

Winwin - Choreographer

Takes his role SUPER seriously and works very closely with Ten to make sure everything is perfect for the musical numbers.

During production he tended to get really caught up in the music and got a bit emotional a few times when he was feeling it too much. 

He has a really hard time teaching the choreography to everyone else when they start messing around because he’s really quiet so Ten takes over a lot of the teaching. 

To prepare for the show, he watched a bunch of other renditions of it to see what type of choreography was used and draws inspiration from several different sources and his result was really beautiful. 

It wasn’t too difficult so no one complained but in the end it looked really good and he received a lot of compliments on how good everything looked.

Lucas - Security

They don’t even need security, he just wanted to be involved in the play without having to perform so this is the job Taeyong gave him.

He helps Jaehyun out at the ticket booth so he can hit on girls and mainly guards the girl’s dressing room, again so he can hit on them.

Flirts with every girl who’s in the play or who came to see it.

He’s in like two scenes of the play but keeps winking at people or messing around with the members where no one can see. 

Yang Yang is the other security guard so the two are definitely SUPER annoying and chaotic.

He also thinks that being on security grants him some sort of authority that he tries to exploit but everyone is like Lucas wtf are you saying rn ??

Xiaojun - Supporting Lead

This man has the voice of God I swear.

He also auditioned for the leading role, but Doyoung thought there was a different role that suited him much better. And of course Doyoung knows best because of his “vision”. 

All of his performances are incredibly emotional.

He takes the production incredibly seriously and doesn’t mess around as much as everyone else. 

He probably wrote a song that was inspired by the play that Doyoung decided to add because he thought it would give it more flavor. 

He’s the one that gets way too into the role and starts lowkey acting like the character outside of practice so just even more like a simp.

He def cried in his room singing his song from it because he was overcome with emotion.

Whenever he sang at rehearsal the whole room just got kind of quiet out of respect because it was SO emotional and during the actual performance he made some members of the audience cry.

Hendery - Props and Costume manager

He is completely CLUELESS as to what is going on.

He just showed up to have a good time and now he has to help secure costumes and pick and make props.

Probably brings the most RANDOM things and he’s like “I thought we could use this pipe as a decoration.” And everyone is like Hendery wtf.

Is always doing and saying out of pocket things just to make everyone laugh. 

He feels like his role is a little useless, but he didn’t want to be in the show and he also didn’t want to be left out. 

Spends most of his time goofing off with Lucas and Yang Yang and as punishment, Doyoung made him an understudy. 

When he actually got serious, he found things that perfectly matched Doyoung’s vision. 

He also helped design and build the sets which he really enjoyed doing. It was a great outlet for him to be creative.

During the actual show he helps Johnny out with set changes a lot and gives cues to Chenle and Jisung in case they forget to turn the lights off or close the curtain.

YangYang - Security

Basically just copy paste everything I said about Lucas for him. 

He flirts with everyone and only took the job because he knew it included zero responsibility. 

He shows up to every practice and knows all the words to all the songs and even the choreography so Doyoung decided to make him an understudy which he absolutely did not want.

Also jokes around and tells girls he’ll give them an autograph and they’re like “Who are you?” and he’s like “I was the dude in that one part that said whatever.” And they’re like “Yeah I don’t remember...”

Renjun - A Supporting Lead who really seems like he should be the Lead

His voice is absolutely gorgeous, his dancing graceful, and his acting performance were all absolutely amazing and Haechan was lowkey jealous of him. 

Renjun is the one who has been doing theater since he could speak so he’s right in his element. 

He auditioned for Xiaojun’s role originally, but got a different important role. 

He’s not focused on being the star of the show, rather he just enjoys performing. 

He also helped design and paint the set because he’s really artistic. He did things according to Doyoung’s super specific vision, but also managed to convince him to give him a bit of freedom.

Even though he doesn’t steal the spotlight and isn’t the star, he’s the most passionate out of everyone while performing and it really shows.

Jeno - The extra that all the girl’s are in love with

He’s really just there because his friends dragged him into it, but then later got on twitter to see a bunch of people from his school asking who he and his friend were.

He literally doesn’t do anything or have any lines. He just stands there, does some dance numbers and some background vocals and yet the girls go wild over him. 

This goes to his a head a little bit and he tries to flex it at the cast party which kind of pisses Lucas and Yang Yang off because they tried so hard and got nothing.

Jaemin - The extra that all the girl’s are in love with’s best friend extra

There isn’t much to say about Jaemin’s role he just came to have fun but ended up being super popular because girl’s were in love with him. 

He’s also kind of the mom of the set and just makes sure everyone has everything they need. 

During rehearsal’s he’s usually messing around with his friends and isn’t really being serious. 

ALWAYS in the sound booth checking up on Jisung and Chenle (and annoying them) asking if they need snacks or anything. 

Always brings snacks to everything. 

He showed up to the first dress rehearsal with a cake and everyone was like ???

He’s also always eating and giving snacks to Jungwoo and everyone is like “Now isn’t the time y’all.” 

The day of the actual performance he comes stocked with a bunch of snacks which Jungwoo distributes backstage and also gets tweeted about because a bunch of girls are like “WHO IS HE WHAT IS HIS NAME.”

Chenle - Lights and Audio

There isn’t much to say about Chenle doing lights and audio other than he kept doing things to purposely annoy Doyoung. 

Flashing lights, playing the wrong songs, or turning the volume up super loud or making it super quiet during rehearsal. 

Does the most EXTRA sound checks.

Always talking into a mic to make really dumb announcements. 

On the day of the actual performance he only played one joke on Doyoung at the end of the show and it was probably just putting a spotlight on him in the audience or something, which Taeyong quickly played off as them wanting to thank him for his hard work. Doyoung was super embarrassed and tried to murder him after.

Jisung - Lights and Audio

The one who made sure things actually went right. 

He kept telling Chenle to stop and they should actually practice and listen for cues. 

The two had originally been extras in the show, but Doyoung realized they would need lights and sound, so he assigned it to him and Chenle.

He also plays a few jokes during rehearsal but way less because he didn’t want Doyoung to kill him.

He had a lot of fun doing the play but is too shy to ask if they can do another one.

Sungchan - Extra/ Assistant Backstage Manager

MY BABY

He originally didn’t really want to do it, but Shotaro and Jungwoo talked him into it. 

Because everyone else was so busy with the production, he and Shotaro planned the cast party.

As the new members to the group they wanted to do something nice for everyone as sort of a thanks for accepting them.

He made sure to get decorations that were fitting for the musical’s concept and convinced his parents to buy a really fancy cake that resembled a prop or something.

He makes sure everyone is having a good time without being too in the way because he’s shy. 

Shotaro - Make up artist assistant/ extra

Sorry I can’t really write much for him as he’s so new and I haven’t seen much Shotaro content yet :(.

He’s new to the group so he mostly follows his role model Yuta around. 

He carries his makeup cases, sewing kits, face paints, etc. 

He watches him very carefully and Yuta even lets him practice on a few people.

When he’s not with Yuta he’s chatting with Sungchan or the dreamies. 

He’s one of the only people who doesn’t give Doyoung a hard time and he praises him for always being the only who listens.

[smallerinfinities]

In His Calvins

a/n: Oh, hey. I was mad at Shawn over this photoshoot so I had to punish him. That is all. Enjoy 💜 Thanks to @pattinsonshawn for some key ideas. Love you, babe. 

| Masterlist linked in bio |

warnings: hahaha this is 3.2k of fucking filthy sub!Shawn smut

“Cut! Let’s check that.”

Shawn exhaled in a gust. It was hell flexing and making it look natural, like his muscles weren’t’ screaming for release every time the director said action! He’d been shooting for Calvin Klein all afternoon and into the evening, doing fifteen push-ups between takes. The pictures were going to look incredible, it was just fact. He took pride in his body, you could tell in the casual way he carried himself, and he’d worked his fucking ass off for it. Hitting the gym almost everyday for five years had led him here, to his body on a fifty foot billboard in SoHo for everyone to see. To standing in front of a camera in nothing but a pair of white boxer briefs looking like a modern Greek god.

“Okay, Shawn. I think we have what we need,” the director called from the booth. Shawn jumped down from the platform he’d been walking on and shrugged into a big, fluffy gray robe. The oil clung to the loose fibers, making it a little sticky. He couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel and shower, maybe FaceTime if it wasn’t too late. He knew you liked to go to bed at reasonable hours and there were three time zones between the two of you. It sucked, especially on a day like today when he just wanted to tell you how amazing it all went and how good he looked.

He showered in the makeshift trailer they had on set and decided to go back to the hotel. Niall had called earlier, said something about maybe going out later, but Shawn was wiped. When he was in the big black SUV on the way, he got a text.

You: wanna talk before I go to bed?

Shawn: sure...wanna do more than talk? 😏

You: omg shut up maybe

Shawn: I can tell you all about my shoot...if you’re lucky maybe I’ll give you a sneak peek *wiggles eyebrows*

You: 🙄 call me when you’re back at the hotel

Shawn smiled down at his phone. Honestly, he’d choose facetiming with you over any overcrowded West Hollywood bar Niall could possibly take him to. He shot his friend a message begging out of plans. The car rolled up to his hotel and he quickly snuck into the lobby, narrowly avoiding being seen by the paps constantly haunting the entrance.

“Shawn?”

I know that voice. Whipping around, he stared at you in disbelief.

“What are you doing here?!” he was so surprised he couldn’t move. You took him in, white Calvin Klein tee barely containing his chest, and sighed. Getting up from the chair you’d been waiting in for an hour, you approached him slow so he could fully accept and process the fact that you were in fact real and standing in front of him.

“Not even a ‘happy to see–”

You couldn’t even get your sarcastic comment out before his lips were on yours. They were full and wet and covered in cherry flavored chapstick. God, you’d missed him. His arms came around you and enveloped you in his warmth. You ran your hands up his chest, noticing the way he gasped a little into your mouth when you grazed over his sensitive nipples, and threaded your fingers into his damp curls. He smelled like sandalwood and bergamot and boy. It was intoxicating. His tongue ran along the lower seam of your lips, begging for deeper entry but you stopped him, breathing heavy against his mouth.

“Shawn, we should go upstairs.” His head popped up and swiveled as if he’d completely forgotten that you were in full view of the public and not in the privacy of his room. He blushed hard, pink rising in his cheeks down to his jaw and disappearing into the neck of his t-shirt. You giggled behind your hand, reaching up to ruffle his curls.

“Come on, big boy, tell me about the shoot,” you grabbed his hand and made for the elevator. By the time you reached his suite, he was buzzing with energy, so excited about how the day went.

“God, babe, I wish I had some proofs or something you could see. I just felt so confident all day.” He shut the door behind him, sighing in disappointment at not being able to share it with you. Turning back toward him, you stalked over and slipped your fingers underneath his t-shirt, fingering the sparse hair under his belly button. He tensed beneath your touch, flexing his fingers to claw at his sweatpant-clad thighs, itching to touch you but afraid if he started he wouldn’t be able to stop.

A devilish idea crossed your mind when you saw an instant film camera sitting on the nearby desk, surrounded by Polaroid cartridges. He’d been playing around with cameras a lot lately, taking it as an opportunity to bond with Connor. You caught his eye, smirking, and his own widened.

“What if we have our own photoshoot, baby?” Leaving him panting, you walked over to the camera and picked it up, quickly inserting a fresh film cartridge, “you can show me all your hot moves.” You smiled all toothy at him and shook the camera in one hand, ignoring his jaw hanging somewhere on the floor. He’d been nodding since you’d called him baby.

“Pick your jaw up off the floor, Mendes. Time to strip.”

You’d never seen someone disrobe so fast. His sweats and sneakers were shed in a puddle on the floor, the white tee quickly following. All that was left was a very tall, very fit curly-haired boy in a pair of white Calvin Klein boxer briefs. Fuck, is he really all mine? It was astounding sometimes, the reality of him. All that skin. His abs rippled in the low light of the room. He cleared his throat.

“Uhm, babe, are you gonna use that camera?” the corner of his mouth lifted, “or are you just gonna look at me?” You shook your head to clear the fog, much to his amusement. Putting the camera down for just a moment, you evened the playing field, slipping your black skater dress up and over your head. His breath caught in his throat mid-chuckle when you revealed a matching hot pink lace bra and panty set, the demi bra hiding just enough to make his heart race.

“Now that we’re even,” you picked up the camera again, “get up on the bed and pose for me.”

Shawn blushed, that pink tint in his cheeks sending blood rushing between your legs. The ache almost doubled you over, acute and intense. He crawled up toward the pillows, situating himself in his best underwear model pose. Starting with a casual look to the side, his arms crossed over his bent knees, you snapped the first photo. The camera spit out the white square and you fanned it out like they did in the movies, barely able to rip your eyes away from him.

“Very nice, Mr. Mendes,” it developed quickly, the lower saturation evident in the lighter blue edging of his waistband, “let’s try another one.” Getting up on your knees on the edge of the bed, he looked over and spread his knees a little, widening his arms to hug the backs of the pillows. His skin glowed in the light, naturally or from a slight sheen of nervous sweat you weren’t sure. Honestly, you didn’t care.

“Look at me, baby,” Shawn followed your direction and you snapped the shutter again, barely able to keep your hands from shaking. His eyes looked black, darkened with lust, the usual light brown traded in for a dark molasses. At this point the camera was just a prop, the roleplay a farce in light of what was about to happen. You dropped the developed Polaroid and moved forward, crawling on your hands and knees toward his spread legs. He stretched out his legs to accomodate you, letting you straddle his hips, hovering just over where he wanted you most.

“One more...a smile this time,” you grinned to encourage him, lifting up the eyepiece to your face as he stretched his arms behind his head, his lips splitting into a radiant, heart-stopping smile that took your breath away. Somewhere a shutter snapped. It might have been in your hand, but you weren’t sure because it wasn’t there two seconds later.

Shawn had thrown it down the bed.

He pulled your face into his, immediately groaning into your mouth as he pushed his tongue inside. Licking into you, he played with your tongue, remembering how good you tasted. His hands were in your hair, on your waist, running up your shoulders. They were everywhere. He was everywhere. Your tongue, your nose, he filled your senses. You ran your hands down his chest and this time he gasped when you focused on his nipples. Smiling against his mouth, you trailed a line of kisses down his jaw to his neck, over his developed chest, and down to the tiny pink peaks that screamed at you through his shirts all the goddamn time.

You circled one with your nose, enjoying the feel of goosebumps that rose up in response. His breathing was ragged, a contrast to the silence in the room. He combed his fingers through your hair, an encouragement but not a command to just fucking devour him.

“Tell me what you want, Shawnie,” you whispered against his skin, your breath flowing over his straining nipples. The sound that burst from him, somewhere between a whine and a moan, was glorious. His fingers shook in your hair as he pieced together enough control to form a broken sentence.

“Mouth...on me….”

“Oh?” you pressed a close-mouthed kiss to his hardened bud, “like this?” He whined again, his chest lifting up off the bed to prolong the contact.

“More.” His voice was straining, raised an octave above his normal pitch. You locked eyes with him, a serious set to your brow.

“You’ll take what I give you.” His face fell. Brat. You lifted up and settled back against his thighs, close enough for him to feel the heat radiating from you through the thin cotton of his poster boy underwear. Pushing him back with a spread palm, you leaned down again, flattening your tongue and licking a wet stripe through the center of one defined pectoral.

“Oh, fuck,” he mewled, spurring you on. Taking his pert nipple into your mouth, you flicked and licked and sucked, his hands braiding into your hair to hold you against him. You ground hard into his lap, moaning into his chest when you felt him impossibly hard against you. He squirmed underneath you, bucking, grinding, trying to feel something, anything more than what you were giving him. His hands started to roam, to grab, to try to control. Trailing your tongue in one last loop, you bit down.

His cried out, his body going rigid and stilling immediately.

“Good boy,” you purred, shifting against him, your wet panties leaving a damp spot on the fabric that still contained his straining cock, “now don’t move again until I say.”

He nodded, his curls whipping in and out of his eyes with the vigorous movement. Gripping the expensive hotel comforter, sweat collected on his brow, the heat from his body deepening the gorgeous blush creeping down his chest. He was a vision under you, chest heaving, his mouth hanging open, panting, with the effort of staying still. You could tell that he’d like nothing more than to rip your panties off and fuck you into oblivion, but you weren’t going to let that happen. Not until you said so.

Unhooking the pink lace behind your back, you arched back to give him a show. A little extra torture in his current state. He whipped his head to the side and closed his eyes, overwhelmed and unable to look at you.

“Ah, ah, baby,” you leaned down to whisper in his ear, “I want you to look at me when I take you inside my wet cunt.” Shawn moaned at your filthy words, opening his eyes. They were so fucked out, dark and glassy with lust. You grabbed his chin and pressed a searing kiss to his lips before sliding back down his legs, keeping your eyes locked.

You slipped your hands beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs, fingering the brand name stitched into the elastic. He was so fucking hot like this. You wondered what Calvin Klein would think having their big new ambassador writhing and moaning incoherently in their underwear. What an ad that would be. Grabbing hold, you ripped his Calvins down his legs. He sprung to life before you, resting, weeping against his lower abdomen. You crawled back to his hips and exhaled, wet and hot, along his length. He flinched, a long, low moan cascading from his chest.

“I can’t...I need…” he muttered disjointed phrases. His hips were digging a hole into the mattress, resisting the urge to seek friction where he wanted it. His phrases soon turned to low whimpers. Watching him, you couldn’t be sure he was coherent. In fact, when you settled back above him, panties forgotten, and pressed your dripping wet heat against his cock, you watched a tear travel down his temple and into his hairline.

But before you’d let him fuck you, you wanted to play with him first. Instead of taking him inside, doing exactly what he wanted you to do, you brought your hand down your stomach, lower, through the little thatch of hair, and rubbed soft circles around your swollen clit. He looked down at your hand and groaned, his cock growing harder beneath you. You continued to rub, applying firm pressure, grabbing and pulling at your own nipples, head thrown back. Moaning. Moaning so hard he could feel them through your lips wrapped around him. The fire in your belly stoked, coating his cock with your warm wetness. His mouth hung open like his voice was caught in his throat.

“Tell me what you need, baby,” you shifted, your voice fucked out, pulling a hiss from him before he could answer, “I know you wanna please me.” His whole body was wound up tight, biceps straining against the pillows where he clasped them to keep from moving. You could tell he wanted to move, needed to move, or he was going to lose it before ever feeling inside. He wasn’t going to last long, but the night was so very long.

“Shawn,” you commanded and he blinked, coming out of some place deep inside himself, finally seeing you. “Answer me.”

“I...want you…” he paused to draw a ragged breath, “to ride me.”

“Oh, I’m so glad,” you lifted a few inches off his hips, gripping the base of him and ignoring his gasp, “because that’s exactly what I want, too.” You sank down, all the way down, and felt the pleasure-pain of him stretching you, felt his pulse inside you. Leaning back, almost far enough for your hair to graze his thighs, you braced yourself and slowly shifted your pelvis in a circular motion.

“Jesus, fuck,” you breathed, “Shawn, you feel so good.” His eyes were closed again, savoring the moment. Instead of a command, you used a much more effective tactic. You reached up, thanking the gods for daily stretching, and pinched his still bite-reddened nipple.

His eyes blew open, the pupil almost completely consuming the iris, “ohmygodohmygodohmygod.” You loved it when you rendered him wild and irrational. It was the perfect time to lift up, separating your hips from his, and quickly slam back down, your skin slapping in the wettest, filthiest sound.

You established a rhythm that way, hard and fast and wet and smooth and totally obscene. Shawn’s hands came to rest on top of your thighs, massaging your muscles while your fingers took purchase in his hair. He never tried to take control, not once. Not even when you took his hands and guided them over your abdomen to your breasts, his rough fingertips grazing your fucked sensitive nipples. The veins in his neck stood out from the strain of his complete restraint. He was fighting so hard. You could tell from the sweat pooling in the valley of his chest, the scrunched set of his brow, the fucking sound of his rough and uneven breaths, coming in bursts now.

“Shawn,” you shook your head in pleasure, “Shawn, fucking move with me. Take me now.”

The sound that came out of him. A growl….no, a snarl. It was the sexiest sound you’d ever heard.

He lifted off the bed at the waist and brought his arms around you tight, pressing you firmly against his chest. You kept a firm grasp on his hair, forcing his face up to yours and taking your fill of his mouth as he rutted up into you. Over and over and over again he hit that place inside you that only he ever had.

The noises that filled the hotel room were lewd, vulgar. Wet skin against wet skin, curses that strung together. You were close and you knew he was too. You could feel his body twitching in his shoulders, his abdomen, his thick cock thrusting in and out of you. The ocean threatened on all sides. The wave was coming. There was only one thing you had to do to make it all come crashing.

You moved in close, taking the tiny silver hoop in his ear and tugging a little before whispering, broken and rough but sugary sweet.

“Are you my good boy?”

He couldn’t fight it anymore.

His back arched and he yelled his release, gripping your hips tight to still them against his. The pulsing sensation of his thick come inside you sent you over the edge, a moment of complete white, followed by oversaturation. He collapsed backward onto the pillows, you following on top of him, breathing asynchronously. His chest lifted you up in progressively longer intervals as his breathing evened, fingers tracing patterns on your back.

“Holy fuck, babe,” he let out a chuckle, “I wasn’t expecting that.” You propped your chin up on his chest and smiled, blowing a piece of hair out of your face.

“You never answered my question,” you fingered his chest hair, scratching lightly at the skin with increasing pressure, eventually leaving a set of livid red marks in the center of his chest.

“Are you my good boy?” you asked, like it was the simplest question in the world.

He twitched inside you at the implication, the promise of what was to come no matter what his answer. They had all night. And he recovered quickly. He smiled into her strawberry-scented hair and tried to make his voice as level as possible.

“What if I want to be bad?”

😈

permanent taglist: @justanotherfangurl272  @siennarossi @trustfundshawn @alone-in-madness @rodneywaber @harryandmolly @thatindiannerdygirl @the-claire-bitch-project @mendesromano @fromthicctosticc @esoltis280 @thotfulalena @softmendesss @sinplisticshawn @nedthegay @september-lace @itrocksmysocks @disaster-rose @mendesoft

[bananaofswifts]

When Taylor Swift made the decision to post her first-ever political endorsement on Instagram in Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, a new Netflix documentary that premiered at Sundance Film Festival on Thursday night, the audience burst into applause. They applauded again when she told her publicist “f*ck that, I don’t care,” about the possibility of the president attacking her, and then again when a news clip announced Swift’s post significantly increased millennial voter registration. For a pop star whose reputation has been up and down and down some more, it seems Miss Americana has her poised for an upswing.

From director Lana Wilson, who won an Emmy for her 2013 doc After Tiller, and produced by Academy Award-winners Morgan Neville and Caitrin Rogers (20 Feet From Stardom) and Christine O’Malley (Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A.), Miss Americana presents the world with a new Taylor Swift.  By “new Taylor Swift,” I don’t mean a Taylor Swift who’s willing to tell Kanye West where to shove it—we already know she’s willing to do that. No, this is a Taylor Swift who’s willing to tell the American government where to shove it, and that’s very new indeed. Whether haters will be willing to hear the new Taylor out remains to be seen, but if they do, they would certainly find someone worth listening to.

Titled after her recent song, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,”  the film begins where a lot of music documentaries have gone before: the trials and tribulations of being a world-famous artist. We open with Swift playing piano in her house, dressed down in simple overalls and a tee-shirt, perusing her old songbooks. From there Wilson launches into a fairly standard but still enjoyable rundown of Swift’s career.  It’s got everything you want and expect a music documentary to have, from adorable clips of Swift as a charismatic 13-year-old girl to a recap of her public feud with Kanye West. (Swift calls West’s infamous interruption at the 2009 VMAs a “formative experience” and “a catalyst for a lot of psychological paths I went down.”) Wilson also spends extensive time with Swift in the studio, giving fans an intimate look at her songwriting process as they’ve never seen before.

The second, more interesting half of the film is dedicated to Swift’s political awakening as an increasingly liberal activist. In 2016, while her famous friends were campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Swift stayed silent on the election. Some assumed that meant Swift was a Trump voter, an assumption she more or less blew to shreds in the 2018 midterm election when she came out—as a Democrat—in favor of Senatorial candidate Phil Bredesen, and strongly against Republican Marsha Blackburn in her home state of Tennessee.

Her decision to post that endorsement on Instagram—the first time she ever truly voiced a political opinion publicly—is easily the best scenes in the film. Her dad, a former Merill Lynch stockbroker, as well as several other members of her team, aruge with her, and tell her not to post it. They’re worried she’ll alienate half of her fanbase, and they’re also worried about her safety. She does it anyway, citing her regret for not taking a stand against Trump in 2016 as a reason why—as well as her recent, unpleasant experience going to court, countersuing a DJ who groped her, and then sued her when he was fired, something she says “no man in my family or organization can ever understand.”

“I’m sad I didn’t two years ago, but I can’t change that,” she tells her dad sharply in the film, on the verge of tears as she struggles to explain why this matters to her. “[Blackburn] votes against paid leave for women … It’s right and wrong at this point.”

Watching defy her father and her closest advisors through tears, it’s hard to feel that Swift did so for any reason other than believing it was the right thing to do. Here is the proof that so many have been asking for that her feminism is genuine, rather than something to be indulged in when it’s convenient and profitable for her. Following Bredesen’s loss in the 2018 midterm, we see Swift writing a new song, “Only the Young,” urging young people not to give up on politics when elections disappoint, which has not yet been released. (The song plays over the film’s credits and will be released with the film.)

Speaking of insights into Swift’s personal life, fans hoping for an update on Swift’s mom, who the pop star revealed was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 might not get the answer they’re hoping for. Andrea Swift, 62, is present in the film and at one point jokes about bringing her “cancer dog,” into a family of cat lovers. Unlike the Instagram scene, it doesn’t dig in deep or get teary. Perhaps Swift feels that’s not her personal story to tell. (Last week the singe revealed her mother had also been diagnosed with a brain tumor.)

Swift’s public confrontation with former record label owners—Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records, who Swift claimed were preventing her from using her older songs on television, including in this documentary—is never mentioned in the film. According to Wilson in an interview with Variety, that’s because that drama went down too close to the film’s wrap. (Variety also reported in December that all of Swift’s songs were cleared for use in Miss Americana.) But the controversy fits neatly in with the film’s theme: No more Mrs. Nice Taylor.

I’m hardly Taylor Swift’s No. 1 fan, and like many of her non-fans, I’ve let my opinion of the pop star ebb and flow with the narrative of the moment. Miss Americana is undoubtedly a pro-Tay narrative, but it’s a good one. Wilson and her team captured moments that felt personal, vulnerable, and deeply authentic, and they did so with a skill and artistry that Instagram Live stories just can’t match. I was convinced that Swift is thinking deeply about issues of gender, sexuality, and politics in ways she never has before. To me, that’s a good thing.

I’m sure some will feel differently. How could an educated, privileged woman living in America in the 21st century be this slow on the uptake? It’s a fair point. But I’d argue many men before have had their awakening much later in life, and were applauded for doing so. One hopes it’s never too late to come to the light side.

Miss Americana will play in select theaters and on Netflix on January 31.

[watusichris]

Leon Russell Au Naturel

When Les Blank’s A Poem is a Naked Person, his long-suppressed feature about Leon Russell, was finally exhumed some years back, I wrote about the film for the Night Flight web site. The story has since been scoured from the web. The film is airing Monday on TCM at the ungodly hour of 7:15 a.m. PT, as part of its Labor Day music movie marathon, so I decided to dig up my old piece and re-post it to supply some back story. It’s quite a picture, but it is not for the impatient or the squeamish. ********** Virtually unseen for more than 40 years, A Poem is a Naked Person, Les Blank’s portrait of Leon Russell, receives a formal Los Angeles premiere on July 8 with a screening at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel; a week of showings at Cinefamily, under the auspices of Allison and Tiffany Anders’ Don’t Knock the Rock Festival, commences on July 10. The reason for the picture’s long suppression is simple: Russell and his Shelter Records partner Denny Cordell commissioned Blank to make a promotional movie, and he gave them an art film, and not a flattering one at that. Therein lies a very interesting rub.

Some slightly convoluted back story is necessary. By 1972, when Blank was hired to create his portrait of the musician, guitarist-keyboardist-songwriter Russell had risen to a position of commercial eminence after years as one of L.A.’s top studio guns. Graduating from work in the house band of the weekly TV rock showcase Shindig! and record dates with such diverse clients as Phil Spector, the Byrds, and Herb Alpert, the Tulsa-born musician moved into the spotlight as musical director for Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett’s stomping R&B- and gospel-infused group and Joe Cocker’s huge, circus-like Mad Dogs & Englishmen unit.

Dubbed “The Master of Time and Space,” Russell began a fruitful label partnership with British producer Cordell with the inauguration of Shelter in 1970, a year before a high-profile appearance in the house band at George Harrison’s Concert For Bangla Desh. He bumped into the U.S. top 20 with his second solo album in 1971, but the 1972 LP Carney soared to No. 2 and spawned the No. 11 single “Tight Rope,” which was animated by Russell’s rolling keyboard work and rough yet affecting singing. The three-LP concert collection Leon Live would reach the top 10 and cement his position as a solo star in 1973.

Russell and Cordell doubtlessly envisioned a conventional feature surveying the musician’s stage show and sessions for a forthcoming country album when, on the recommendation of the American Film Institute, they commissioned Blank. By then active in Northern California for a dozen years, the director had made his rep with earthy short features about a pair of Texas musicians, bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins (The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1968) and songster Mance Lipscomb (A Well Spent Life, 1971).

For nearly two years, Blank and his collaborator Maureen Gosling set up shop at Russell’s home and studio complex on a lake outside Tulsa, where they filmed the performer at work and play, and also cut their footage of Louisiana zydeco musicians Clifton Chenier and Boisec Ardoin into the pungent short films Hot Pepper and Dry Wood. The filmmakers humped their gear to gigs in Anaheim, New Orleans, and Austin, and to studio rehearsals at Bradley’s Barn in Nashville for the album Hank Wilson’s Back, the sincere and soulful 1973 country project that bewildered his core fans, essentially marking the end of Russell’s tenure as a top-flight rock attraction.

After an abortive attempt to screen A Poem is a Naked Person at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival – the print wasn’t ready – Russell and Cordell basically put the feature on semi-permanent ice, allowing it to be screened only by permission, with Blank in attendance. It remained an elusive commodity until the director’s death in 2013. At the urging of Blank’s son Harrod, Russell reconsidered the matter of its availability; a screening at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival prefaced a national theatrical release, and a DVD from the Criterion Collection, distributor Janus Films’ home video line, is anticipated.

Russell has long been mum about his reasons for keeping the picture out of circulation; queried in recent interviews, he has glibly replied, “I don’t know,” or “I don’t remember.” But it seems obvious that the producers’ intentions and the filmmakers’ execution were widely divergent. If Russell and Cordell thought they were going to get a puffy documentary that would push their product, they were sorely disappointed.

A Poem is a Naked Person bears a striking resemblance, in style if not entirely in content, to a pair of quite radical contemporaneous films. The most obvious analog is Cocksucker Blues, Swiss-born photographer and indie filmmaker Robert Frank’s notorious backstage look at the Rolling Stones’ 1972 U.S. tour; a jumpy saturnalia of sexual escapades, heroin abuse, and hotel-room boredom, with occasional concert footage, it scandalized the band, who have enforced restrictions similar to those imposed on Blank’s movie upon its exhibition. Photographer William Eggleston’s long-gestating Stranded in Canton, which features pianist Jim Dickinson and musician/bank robber Jerry McGill among its cast of Memphis and New Orleans weirdoes and eccentrics, was shot on portable video equipment ca. 1973 and finally cut into something resembling finished form by Bluff City writer-documentarian Robert Gordon in 2005. It’s an incandescent rebel depiction of life on the distant fringes of art and music.

Frank’s and Eggleston’s highly personalized, jaggedly edited, impressionistic features, brimming with often appalling extra-musical incident, don’t fit the description of what we’ve come to call “music documentaries,” and neither do Blank’s pictures. The best-known films the director made before his encounter with Russell, though they boast musicians (Hopkins and Lipscomb) as their central figures, likewise operate well beyond the parameters of conventional music docs. Though there is a good deal of music-making and ass-shaking in them, they are at heart about the communities in which the music was made, with their indigenous landscapes, customs, cuisines, and spiritual concerns. An observer of folklife at heart, Blank was an unlikely, even incongruous, candidate to make a movie about a rock star – essentially, an industrial film for music consumers.

Like the subjects of Blank’s earlier films, Russell is witnessed at home a good deal, and the director slathers his film with super-saturated images of local color shot in and around the musician’s Oklahoma base – a pow-wow of the Tulsa Indian Club, a tractor pull, a holiday parade, a literal wild-goose chase, the implosion demolition of Tulsa’s ancient (and perfectly named) Bliss Hotel. But Russell – prematurely gray, long-haired and bearded, always bearing a glazed, slightly stoned mien -- appears before us as a man without a country, almost an alien, dislocated from his roots, ferried to his far-flung gigs in long limousines as black as hearses.

As a protagonist, Russell most resembles the central figure in a later Blank production, 1982’s Burden of Dreams. That unsettling feature follows the chaotic production of German director Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. The reckless and megalomaniacal filmmaker is seen slowly coming apart as, cut off entirely from civilization, he single-mindedly pursues his quixotic and extremely hazardous project, which entails the climactic hauling of a 20-ton boat up a steep incline; by the film’s end, Herzog appears as mad as the lunatic hero of his saga, who longs to build an opera house for Enrico Caruso in the middle of the jungle. Though Russell is never depicted in extremis, as Herzog is, Blank implies that, unlike the Southern musicians the director depicts so affectionately and respectfully, the Oklahoman is like Herzog also a man who has drifted too far from his native shore.

Music plainly is what brings Russell alive; it is at the heart of A Poem is a Naked Person, and it is often splendid, a saving grace. There are lovely cameos by George Jones (playing “Take Me” solo in Russell’s home studio) and Willie Nelson (essaying “Good Hearted Woman” at a gig in Austin, and accompanying fiddler “Sweet” Mary Egan on “Orange Blossom Special”). Several truncated yet forceful performances by Russell’s road band – augmented by a gospel-styled quartet, Blackgrass, led by Rev. Patrick Henderson – are on view. In one simple yet eloquent sequence, Russell’s deeply felt cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” plays under footage of clouds drifting across the face of the moon, as they do in Williams’ lyrics; it’s obvious, but nonetheless affecting.

One of the bleaker streaks in the film can be found in some of the sequences shot during the sessions for Hank Wilson’s Back in Nashville. These scenes are not totally bereft of a certain joy: Russell takes obvious delight in the expertise of his A-Team accompanists. One delicious scene finds him in an awed duet with Charlie McCoy, a secret hero of Bob Dylan’s Nashville-based albums from Blonde On Blonde to Self Portrait; the bespectacled McCoy looks like an accountant on his way to a tee time, and he plays and sings his ass off. But some of the other Music City studio gunslingers’ envy of and contempt for their contractor – like themselves a session guy, but one who has hit the jackpot – is scarcely concealed. Hotshot pianist David Briggs – whose obscene rendition of the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” was expurgated in later prints of the film at Russell’s insistence – says at one juncture, in a blatant dig at his session boss, “I’m the guy they call when you can’t do your own fucking piano work.”

There is also an ugly confrontation in the Nashville studio with folk singer-songwriter Eric Andersen, who was apparently barred from entering the facility for his own session by Russell’s security staff. Russell belittles and insults Andersen with an arrogant rocker’s noblesse oblige, drily telling him, “You write some very beautiful goddamn songs,” which prompts the reply, “You’re jiving.” For his part, Andersen voices skepticism about the legitimacy of Russell’s onstage thunder: “I couldn’t tell if you’re a revivalist man, trying to put something over, where it was coming from.” You find yourself asking if Blank may not harbor the same doubt.

Blank ladles further darkness, grotesquerie, and bile over the proceedings throughout. Using non-linear, densely layering techniques pioneered in the ‘60s by French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard – whose ironic quote, “The day of the director is dead,” is seen on the film’s concluding title card, below Blank’s credit – the filmmaker atomizes the action, or comments on it, using a vocabulary of startling jump cuts, head-spinning juxtapositions, and dialog rendered as on-screen legends (“GET THOSE GOD DAMN CAMERAS OFF US”).

Thus, in one extraordinary sequence, footage of a wasted concertgoer being ejected from one of Russell’s gigs is intercut with shocking shots of a boa constrictor killing and devouring a baby chick. (The snake is the “pet” of artist Jim Franklin, who is seen elsewhere adorning the bottom of Russell’s swimming pool, after coolly collecting scorpions off its walls.) In another scene, a snippet of fiddler Johnny Gimble improvising a lively solo in the studio is abruptly interrupted by the screaming freakout of a bare-chested young man on a very bad acid trip in an unidentified hotel room.

Blank seems to imply that for all the tambourine shaking and Chautauqua-tent fervor of his sound, Russell makes music that only mimes the spiritual core of its sources. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a ragged jump cut from minister-musician Henderson playing at a Pentecostal church service to his group Blackgrass rocking the praise at one of Russell’s shows. The first performance, Blank suggests, is about true religion of the most devout order – the real thing, as it were -- while the second is no more than entertainment.

In the end, Blank says without a flinch, this music is about the dollars. At one point he trains his camera on a teenage hitchhiker outside one of Russell’s shows; with a guitar slung on his back and a cardboard sign reading, “Oklahoma City” in his hand, the deluded kid says, “I wanna make it in Hollywood like Leon does – make a million dollars playin’ gee-tah.” The most damning exchange in the entire picture comes when an acquaintance poses a question to Russell after his performance at a friend’s wedding. Russell repeats the question – “If I didn’t get paid for singing, wouldn’t I sing?” – and leaves it hanging in the air, unanswered.

One can easily understand why Russell and Cordell were mortified, even horrified, by Blank’s film and sat on it for four decades. A Poem is a Naked Person used the language of cinema to subvert the film’s intended purpose as a self-glorifying sales tool. Instead, it ended up being a probing and dialectical work that used Russell’s music much as Godard himself employed the Rolling Stones’ music (far less effectively or coherently) in his Sympathy For the Devil. As it often has over the course of time, great art – and Blank’s movie definitely qualifies as such – operates at cross-purposes to a patron’s wishes.  

[sebastianshaw]

Rando Munday ramblings! For new followers, on Munday sometimes I just post a bunch of personal stuff I normally wouldn’t. Not usually anything intimately personal, more like random thoughts and news that just isn’t relevant to the blog in any way, not related to X-Men or RP or writing in general, etc. ....there’s a lot of Hannibal today, sorry, I’m rewatching it.

- I definitely wanna have a pair of critters named Hannibal and Hasdrubal at some point, maybe if there's a third I'd name him Hamilcar. I know everyone will think I named them after Hannibal Lector but actually these are really common names from Ancient Carthage. Like if you look at Carthagian history and records, everyone is Hannibal, Hasdrubal, or Hamilcar, it's like John, James, and Jim. I'd prefer the pair, though, since Hannibal and Hasdrubal were a pair of brothers and famous historical figures, so it would feel much more like a "set" that way (whereas they did not have a brother called Hamilcar) - Speaking of Hannibal Lector, I knew he was based on a real person, but I did not realize that person was a gay Mexican man. That’s...an interesting example of gay history, for sure. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Thomas Harris (the writer of the books that the films and later the TV series were based on) based Hannibal on a surgeon he met while interviewing an inmate at prison for another novel. This surgeon was so intelligent and charismatic that Harris implicitly assumed that he was a doctor in the employ of the prison. Nope---the doctor was an inmate himself. Harris was so shaken by the encounter that it inspired him to create Hannibal Lector, who, in contrast to the typical media portrayals of serial killers as uncontrolled lunatic slashers like Michael Myers or Leatherface, is a charming, culture, charismatic intellectual. To protect the man’s identity, Harris called him “Dr. Salazar” in interviews, so that was always how I knew him. I just now learned not only was his real name Alfredo Balli Trevino, but his victim was Jesus Castillo Rangel, his male lover. Harris describes him as a small, lithe man with dark red hair and, unsurprisingly, “a certain elegance about him”. Though Trevino was given the death penalty for his crimes, his sentence was commuted to 20 years and he was released in either 1980 or 1981. He died in in 2009 when he was 81 years old. He reportedly spent the last years of his life helping the poor and elderly, and he expressed deep regret for his “dark past”---which I suppose makes sense, since his crime was that he killed a lover in a fit of rage during an argument, whereas Hannibal simply killed people in cold blood whom he had no attachment to because he liked eating them (something Trevino never did) and to punish them for rudeness. - I’ve decided to stop buying silk, unless it's from a thrift store and thus my money won't go to supporting sericulture. Ahimsa silk isn't an option either, the bugs aren't technically killed but they're not treated well either. I know it might seem weird to eat meat and wear leather and yet not want to purchase something that hurt moths and larva, but...I have to eat meat for medical reasons, and my leather purchases is limited to boots that I then keep for YEARS AND YEARS so it's very sparing. There's really no such thing as a cruelty-free diet or lifestyle, whether that cruelty is suffered by animals or by other humans, but I can still make choices that at least lesson some small aspect of harm. I need to eat meat, I don't need real silk. ...Haven only wears bamboo silk for this reason and when this came up with Shaw, he absolutely thought she was fucking with him, like even SHE can’t be THIS insane, NO ONE ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT BUGS WTF - The books nearest to me right now are “Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype ” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period, “X-Men: The Legacy Quest Trilogy” by Steve Lyons, two  horror anthologies, the script for “M. Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang, “The Spanish Riding School of Vienna: Tour of America 2005″ book I got from when I went to see the Lippizanner horses perform, and a big beautiful leatherbound English translation of “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire. This is...this is a summary of my whole personality, sans rodents. Also god I need to clean my room. - Something I've noticed is that many sci-fi horror films that do the whole "science went too far against nature!!!" thing....don't actually have the problem result from the lack of ethics involved or because the scientists did something "unnatural", it happens because they didn't follow basic safety precautions, lab protocol, common sense, etc. "Splice" for instance, is a really good example---the problem isn't that they made a part-human hybrid, that's not why shit goes wrong, shit goes wrong because the two scientists act like idiots, adopt the creation as a child, hide it in their barn instead of a sterile controlled environment, and then one of them HAS SEX WITH IT. Or in "The Fly" the problem isn't that Brundle invented a teleporter, it's that he tested it ON HIMSELF while he was ALL ALONE. Even in "Jurassic Park" the issue is less that dinosaurs are breeding and more the result of a disgruntled worker who was given way too much power over being able to run things, and thus shut them down when he wants to. So many "science gone wrong!" movies end up not really being condemnations of science itself, so much as depicting scientists as utter dumbasses. Which, on the one hand, I do like, because I dislike the notion of condemning scientific progress just because it seems icky or creepy or "goes against nature" (so do vaccines, I still like those!) But on the other hand, the movies don't FRAME it as "this is the result of failure to practice science safely and sensibly" they frame it as "they should never have attempted such an unnatural thing and this disaster is punishment for a moral sin" even though the issue doesn't happen because what the scientists did was "wrong" it happens because they do something DUMB. - Bringing it back to Hannibal, I reached the episode where Margot Verger first appears, and if I have one big disappointment about the Hannibal series, it's Margot. In the books, she's a huge butch lesbian, literally and figuratively. In the TV series, she's a pretty femme fashionista like all the other women, and she fucks Will in order to get pregnant. At the time this came out in 2013, I tried to be all resigned and fair-minded about this. I was like "ok, well, they didn't want to be offensive with a stereotype, and I guess that's fair, I guess not hurting people matters more to me than getting the horseback-riding bulldyke hearthrob of my high school years on-screen at last" but you know what? No. Firstly, butch lesbians deserve representation too. How many have you ever seen onscreen, let alone in a mainstream media production? Sure, it's a stereotype, but it's not an inherently negative one, they just get treated that way in media because society sees it that way. But the way to handle butch lesbians and femme gay men and so on isn't to erase them from the screen, it's to start writing them as human beings and not caricatures or jokes or monsters. Margot is a fleshed-out human being, she's nuanced and twisted and hurt like everyone else in this series, she would be PERFECT for that. She wouldn't be just a butch lesbian, she'd be a CHARACTER who just also happens to be a butch lesbian. I don't really think she was changed to avoid "hurting" lesbians, I think she was changed because the director, gay man or not, clearly has a way he wants the women in his series to look (they're all fashion plates, all have long hair, all very sophisticated, etc) and book Margot didn't fit his aesthetic, his design if you will. Because god forbid we just make her a DAPPER dyke, right? Back to having sex with Will, which most certainly did NOT happen in the books...that's not bad itself in a VACUUM, fucking men to get a baby is something real-life lesbians do, I had a friend in college who was actually conceived that way, but like...no media exists in a vacuum, and there is very little depiction of lesbians in media that doesn't feature them fucking men for SOME reason or another. They want a baby, or they start the story with a boyfriend, or they're actually bisexual, or they're even raped, but there's always SOME reason we have to watch a guy fucking them and it's frankly distressing. Like, remember Irene Adler in BBC's Sherlock? It's a pattern. And I'm not saying lesbians who have had a sexual past with men, or who were the victims of sexual violence by men, don't deserve representation, I would never say that, those are very common experiences, I'm not saying "gold stars only", I'm saying that there is a strong pattern in media where it seems almost obligatory that a lesbian has to have sex with or be attracted to men at some point, while comparatively the opposite case, where a lesbian is depicted as exclusively and only attracted to and "with" other women, is seldom there. And it's just kind of a kick in the nads for me, as I think it was for a lot of other lesbians, butch or not, that a gay director took an opportunity like Margot Verger and turned her into just another attractive lipstick lesbian that is okay with having sex with the male protagonist as a treat tee hee (Spoiler: She does end up with Alana though, which I appreciate)

[kimmyiewrites]

Case Closed ~ Chpt 7

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Mike stood at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Bex’s apartment. She hadn’t allowed him to follow her the entire way up since he needed to get another cab to go back to the brownstone the bureau put him in for his current assignment. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay? I don’t have to be back on capitol hill until tomorrow.”

Bex sighed as she laid her bag down by her door so she could unlock it. “Yes, Mike. I’ll be fine. I promise.” She looked down at him with the best reassuring smile she could muster. Truth be told, she wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to be. This was far from her first kidnapping while on assignment. It was a risk she took working with the mafia. She, however, had been kidnapped by the same man who killed her sister. Now that he was behind bars, she didn’t know how to feel but she knew she needed to call her parents. She needed to let them know that she was okay and that Hailey could finally rest in peace.

“Bex…” He trailed off, not really knowing what more he could say. He had been arguing this since they landed back in DC.

“I’m just going to call my parents and then take a shower until my hot water goes out then go to bed. I’ll come see you in the morning.” She opened her door, tossing her bag inside. “I really appreciate everything, Mike. I just need some time.”

He let out a sigh and nodded his head. “Okay, but if you need anything, call me, please.”

“I will. I promise. Good night, Mike.”

“Night, Bex.”

Once her apartment door was closed, Bex immediately tore off the scrubs and made her way into her bathroom. She stood under the spray of the hot water, letting it rinse off all the dirt and grime from the past few days. Soon the weight of everything grew to be too much and she placed a hand on the shower wall to brace herself. Tears mixed with the water running down her face as her sobs wracked her whole body making her appear to be shivering despite the hot water.

He had remembered her sister. He even knew who she was. But he was going behind bars now. She had finally caught him. No one else would feel like this because of that killer. She could now do the same for others if the bureau allowed for her transfer. She didn’t want to be around serial killers all the time when her sister’s had still been out there. Now that he was behind bars she wouldn’t feel as much as a failure and be able to do what she set out to do when she first joined the FBI.

She took a few shaky breaths before pushing herself up from where she had been leaning against the wall so she could wash her hair. She took her time, only hurrying when she felt the water’s temperature change. Wrapping herself in a fluffy towel, she made her way into her bedroom and pulled on some sweat pants and her sister’s favorite band tee.

Padding her way into the kitchen, Bex made herself a cup of tea before calling her parents. She curled up under a blanket on her couch, mug held close to her chest to feel its warmth, and her phone nestled between her ear and shoulder as she waited for her parents to answer.

“Rebecca? Please tell me that’s really you.” Her mother sounded worried beyond comparison that Bex didn’t even roll her eyes at hearing her full name.

“Yeah, yeah mom, it’s me. I finally did it. I finally caught him.” She had thought she had cried herself out in the shower but her voice cracked at the end and tears pooled in her eyes. Hearing her mom cry made her cry even harder and the two Morris women cried it out together over the phone.

“Oh, honey. Your father and I were worried sick when we saw the news.” Her mother told her through sniffles before calling for her father.

“Hey, dad.” Bex said when he got a hold of the phone.

“I can’t tell ya how good it is to hear your voice. You’re okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

Bex shook her head despite him not being able to see her. “No, nothing I can’t handle anyway. Just some bumps and scrapes but I’ll be fine. I’m back home and I’ve got some really good friends here to help me out.”

“Good, because you know we’d come up there if you needed us.”

She sighed, laughing softly. “Yeah, I know but you don’t need to. I’m going to be hanging low for awhile anyway before I put in for my transfer out of organized crime. The guy who helped me out on my last case has a pretty bizarre case but it’s nothing too taxing so I figured I’d offer my assistance especially after he put it on hold to come help find me too.”

“Just don’t over do it, Bex.” Her father warned.

“I won’t, trust me. If anything this will just be good ol’ fashioned detective work to help him out since his cover can’t really leave a senator’s side. Plus the original agent that was supposed to be helping him out is being weird now.”

“Okay, sweetheart. Call us if you need us. Oh, and your mother wants to know when you’ll come home next?”

A small smile tugged at her lips. “I’ll make it down for Thanksgiving. Tell mom that I expect a pecan pie and her mac and cheese.”

She heard a bit of shuffling on the other end of the phone before her mother’s voice was once more in her ear. “You’re really going to make me wait until Thanksgiving? After you’ve put us through this?”

“If I come any sooner, I’m afraid you won’t ever let me leave. Besides, I don’t know when the trial will be yet so I don’t know when I can actually take off from work. Just because we caught him, doesn’t mean I can rest just yet.” She tried to explain. Her mother had never been keen on what Bex decided to do for a living.

Once more there was shuffling heard and her father’s voice came through the phone again. “Bex, you do what you need to do. Be careful and maybe we can give that facetiming thing a try again soon. We’d at least like to see your face before Thanksgiving.”

Bex smiled, her dad always swooped in and saved the day. “Yeah, we can most definitely do that. I’m gonna head to bed now though but I’ll be in touch, promise. I love you and give my love to mom.”

When the call ended, she tossed her phone beside her and let out a deep breath. Slowly but surely, she was feeling a little lighter. She stood from her blanket cocoon after she finished her tea and placed the mug in her sink. The weight of her exhaustion was now beginning to hit her. She crawled into bed, taking the picture of her and her sister from her nightstand with her. She held out the frame so she could see the picture it protected. She and her sister wrapped in each other’s arms, standing at the end of the pier as the sun set, grinning at the camera. Hailey was only 16 and Bex 19, spending their last day of summer vacation together before going back to school. It wasn’t the last day that Bex saw her sister before the tragedy, but it was the last picture they had taken together. “I did it, Hailes. He’s not going to hurt anyone else. You can rest easy now.” A lone tear fell against her cheek as she kissed the glass before returning the picture to its home.

“I can’t decide if I’m surprised to see you in my office Morris or not.” Director Marchant said as he walked into his office after grabbing a refill on his coffee. Bex sat with one leg crossed over the other as she waited for him to return, smiling at him as he sat down at his desk. “Shouldn’t you be taking some time off? I would be taking some time off after you not only accomplished what you did but after what you went through to do so.”

“I appreciate that director, but Agent Warren is still working on his case and since he’s helped me with my last two cases, I had to see if there was something I could do for him.” Bex told him, hoping that he would just give her the go ahead so she wouldn’t have to sneak about.

Marchant stared at Bex for a few moments, weighing his options. Onofrio and Blades seemed to have switched their stories about whether or not the head explosions were related to a terrorist attack. Congress was not quite on his hide yet but he could feel them inching closer and closer. Senator Wheatus changed to where he actually was doing his job now so Mike couldn’t investigate like he needed to. “Okay, fine. You’ll be brought on as Warren’s liaison but I need you to not get caught up in the politics. I need someone actually running an investigation.”

Bex gave a small salute, nodding her head. “You can count on me, director.”

“Good,” he stood just as his phone dinged to remind him of a meeting. “You can come with me to meet the other agents and they can fill you in on our side of the investigation before you go meet Warren.” He gave her a knowing look as he passed her. Of course, he knew that she would help Mike regardless of what he said. He knew after the Capello case that the two had formed a bond. If Bex hadn’t been so focused on catching her sister’s killer, he was sure that he would have seen a disappointed look like he saw on Mike’s when he had given them their latest assignments.

“Where is Onofrio?” Director Marchant asked as he and Bex sat down in Agent Blades office.

“He called to say he was running behind. Guess traffic’s bad. He didn’t give a whole lot of details.” Blades shrugged.

“Very well. Let’s go ahead and begin since I have a meeting right after this one.” Marchant nodded before motioning towards Bex. “This is Agent Morris. She has just returned from her latest case and she’ll be serving as Warren’s liaison since Onofrio seems to have forgotten about that part of his assignment. They’ve worked together before and took down the Capello family with ease.”

“I heard about that take down. Impressive. It’ll be good to have a new set of eyes on this. I know Warren’s been working with a hill staffer that’s involved but hasn’t gotten into any theories with her. She’s working with the daughter of the first head injury victims though, so I think if we could somehow get you connected so that Warren can keep his cover. We originally thought that it was a terrorist group but -”

“We still think it’s a terrorist group.” Anthony said as he entered the room. When he noticed Bex he looked her over, trying to figure out who she was. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

She certainly didn’t like the way he looked at her as if she was intruding. Before she could say anything Marchant introduced her and told him to sit down. “Continue, Blades.”

“As I was saying -”

“Is she really necessary, sir? We’ve been doing a good job without her.” Anthony interrupted once more.

“She’s here because I brought her here.” Marchant told the other agent, hoping that it was all that needed to be said.

“But she’s a woman. Has she even dealt with terrorist? No offense.” Anthony argued. Bex was a fresh face and that meant another hassle for the bugs.

Marchant was about to say something when Bex placed a hand on his back as she stood. “All the offense taken, Onofrio. I may not have dealt with terrorist but I have shared the same bed as some of the biggest mafia lords so I could get close enough to cut off their operations to keep America safe. I just got back from going under with a serial killer who has been close to the top of the most wanted list. I have dealt with domestic terrorism here so do not once undermine me because I’m a woman. I was willing to work along side you, to make sure I didn’t step on any toes because I have just returned from a case but you’ve just lost that privilege. I’m going to show you how a woman closes a case.”

She then turned to Blades, her expression turing from a death glare to an easy smile. “Would you be so kind to send me the case file. I’ll look over it soon.” When Blades nodded, she made her way to the door, turning to address the group. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some real investigating to do.” She gave Anthony a pointed glare before exiting, shutting the door a bit more forceful than needed but by no means, slamming the door shut. She only had to prove a point to one agent after all.

Both Blades and Marchant started laughing after Bex left. “Where did you find her?” Blades asked between his laughter.

“She’s not one of the bureau's best agents for no reason.” Marchant chuckled as he stood. “I’d take notes Onofrio. You just made the wrong woman upset. I won’t be surprised if this case isn’t finished in a week or two. Blades, I want you working closely with her. Let her know how your department operates. I want a report on my desk by the end of the day about updates.”

Blades looked over at Onofrio after Marchant left with a small smirk. “I’d get going if I were you or you’re really going to get chewed up and spit out. It seems like you messed with the wrong person and I cannot wait to see what she does to you.” He chuckled, dismissing Anthony.

Anthony slammed the door on his way out, frustrated and flustered. This Bex was a new variable in their plan that they didn’t know about. They needed to assess her and figure out if she needed to be converted or gotten rid of. They couldn’t have another Laurel on their case.

Bex stuck her head into Gareth’s office despite the intern’s protests but when she found him in a meeting with Red, she grimaced. “Oh, god, I’m sorry. I wanted to surprise you since I got back this morning. I’ll wait out here.” She motioned behind her but before she could leave, Red invited her inside.

“Nonsense, come on in. You came by just in time. Gareth just got back last night and boy did I miss him.” He gave Mike’s shoulder a squeeze before offering out his hand while still looking towards Mike. “I’m assuming this is Rebecca?”

“Yes, this is Rebecca.” Mike smiled at her as she shook hands with Red. “Did you even unpack your bags or did you come straight here?” He asked as they hugged.

“I’ll have to pick up my bag from the office but since I was this way, I figured I would see if I could steal you away for lunch?” Bex smiled as she looked between the two men for the answer.

“What is it that you do?” Red asked instead.

“I’m a curator for the Smithsonian.” Bex replied with ease. It was her go to cover story. She didn’t want Mike to potentially get made as an agent himself so she figured she would go with it.

Red nodded. “Keeping America educated, very good. Enjoy your lunch, buddy. I hope to see you around the office more, Rebecca.”

They shook hands once more before he went back to his office. When the door closed, Bex turned to Mike, an eyebrow raised trying so hard not to laugh. Mike snickered, not being able to hold it in, as he motioned for her to leave. The moment the pair stepped out into the hallway, they both began laughing. “That was something else.” Bex said in between her giggling.

“That was a calmer interaction than what I’ve seen. I’m just glad he didn’t ask you about the One Wayers.” He shook his head with a chuckle.

“That’s the extremist grassroots group, right?”

Mike nodded. “Yeah. I’ll probably have to look into them more after all of this. Did you really go into the office this morning?”

“Sure did. Marchant told me I could be your liaison.” She grinned over at him as they walked down the steps of the Capitol building.

“Thank god.” Mike laughed. “I haven’t been able to do anything since Red decided he actually wanted to be a senator. After we eat, I’ll see if I can introduce you to Laurel. There’s something I feel like she’s hiding from me when there’s talk of the head injuries but she won’t tell me so maybe you can try?”

“Yeah, of course. You can introduce me as an agent with her. I just didn’t want Red to get suspicious.”

“I was going to ask you about that.” He chuckled. “Thanks for that and sorry for the Rebecca thing. With him being so extreme now, I didn’t want him to try and do something because he thought Bex sounded weird.”

She laughed before giving him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it. So explain to me from the beginning, what’s all happened. I had the pleasure of meeting Blades and Onofrio this morning and Blades is all for me joining while Onofrio’s lucky I didn’t punch him in the face.”

Mike chuckled, shaking his head slightly. He didn’t even want to know what Onofrio said to Bex to warrant such a response. After ordering their burgers, Mike and Bex sat on a bench, a larger order of fries sitting in between them. “So,” Mike launched into his explanation, “a meteor crashed in Russia and brought over here. The people on the ship transporting it came back completely different. One of the wives went to Laurel Healy because her brother was the one who signed off on it being brought here for testing. The government shut down and the scientist who was researching this meteor gets infected, head explodes in the ambulance which Laurel is also in. A couple more people have experienced this same fate or have changed completely. Laurel is working with the daughter of the scientist and some unknown but I feel like they’re working on a theory that I don’t know about. Laurel called me last night but when I called her back, she gave the excuse of a drunk dial so I don’t really know what that was all about.”

She nodded, humming thoughtfully as she chewed her latest bite of her burger. “Sounds to me I need to meet this Healy girl then. You think she’d open up to me?”

He gave a small shrug, popping a fry in his mouth when he saw the woman in question walking up behind Bex. “Only one way to find out.” He murmured as he smiled over at the brunette. “Laurel, hey. You feeling better?”

“Hey. Yeah, I am. I guess you’re back in town. Did you find your friend?” She slowed to a stop, trying to figure out who the woman sitting next to Mike was.

Mike chuckled and motioned towards Bex. “I did. Even got to bring her home. Laurel, this is Bex Morris. Bex, this is Laurel Healy.”

The two women shook hands, smiling. “Welcome home. Gareth was really worried so I’m glad to see that you don’t even look like you went missing.”

Bex laughed. “You didn’t see me last night.”

“So how do you two know each other?” Laurel really hoped that she didn’t sound jealous. She didn’t even know where she and Mike stood. She just knew that they had been dancing around each other and now here this friend of his was.

“We met in college. I decided to go the political route while she went the crime solving route. Now she yells at me when she has to deal with red tape and I ask for favors.” Mike answered with a chuckle.

“Like getting information on Anthony?” Laurel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Actually that was all me. I had already pulled up his file to look into him since he’s now a partner of mine on my latest case. Gareth had mentioned him and after reading his file, I just grew worried and passed along the information. I’m sorry if I interfered in anyway.” Bex spoke up, trying to save face.

Laurel looked between the two, trying to figure out if what Bex said was the truth until it clicked. Bex was Anthony’s new partner. She had to warn her about the bugs somehow, so she wouldn’t get infected too. “Are you working with him on his current case?”

“Yeah, I am actually. I know you’re a major player in this case and he’s not exactly the most forthcoming on any information, so I’d love to talk sometime, hear your take on the events.” Bex smiled.

The other woman nodded. “That’d be great. I’m meeting a couple of my friends for lunch but stop by my office in a few and I’d be happy to tell you what I know.” Laurel then gave a small smile and wave before continuing on her way.

“Well, that went even better than I’d hoped.” Mike sighed, eating another fry.

Bex nodded, popping one in her mouth. “Mmhmm, now hopefully she’ll truly tell me everything.”

Once they finished their meal, the pair walked back towards the capitol building. “I don’t want you to think I’m not glad that you’ve been placed on this case but -”

“Have I really been cleared for it?” Bex finished Mike’s sentence with a small laugh. “Yeah, I truly have. I went for my eval before I even went to sit in the director’s office. I’m field ready but will have check ins periodically especially once the trial picks up since I’m so connected to the case. That wasn’t my first rodeo with an unsub. But thank you for checking.” She smiled over at him. “I even promise to follow the same rules I make you follow.” She chuckled, bumping his arm with her shoulder.

Mike chuckled and draped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side and placing a kiss to her temple. “Good because you’ve quickly become someone really important to me.”

Bex had looped an arm around his waist so she was nestled into his side despite the summer heat. A small blush tinted her cheeks as she looked at their feet coincidentally taking similar steps, their left feet stepped forward followed by their right. “Me too.” She agreed before she thought that it sounded odd. “I mean, you’ve quickly become someone really important to me too. I really don’t know if I could ever thank you enough for stopping things here to come help find me.”

“You did it for me once so how could I not?” He smiled down at her as he gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“Well, still, thank you. I truly appreciate it.” She smiled back up at him.

“Just don’t make a habit out of it.” He teased her resulting in them both laughing as she nudged him towards the stairs.

[nicolemagolan]

Two Cities, One Galaxy: How Star Wars Connects And Divides Us

Early in 2019, I wrote a personal essay about Star Wars. It centered around SWCC (Star Wars Celebration Chicago) and my experience of watching the live stream in my living room at 4am, when the episode IX teaser and title was unveiled. 

It’s about fandom, the internet, and isolation. It’s about how Star Wars impacted my life, and about my relationship with my brother.

It also, eerily, foreshadows the disappointment I would eventually feel about The Rise of Skywalker. So here it is, under the cut. Please give it a read, and let me know your thoughts!

***

My phone blinks 3:30am, April 13th, 2019. In Chicago it’s 10:30am, yesterday. I should be asleep. I should stay present in Auckland, where no one else is awake except the moths gathering on the kitchen window.

My brother is slumped beside me, eyes closed, lost somewhere between sleep and boredom. We sit in the darkness of our living room, outlined by the grey glaze of the television. I’m wearing pyjama pants and yesterday’s T-shirt. An empty bag of chips is screwed up on the carpet, a half-drunk can of Lift Plus sits on the mantelpiece.

I stare at the TV. Waiting. My knee bobs up and down. I glance at my phone, and refresh Twitter. The tweets are coming in a blur: people yelling in caps lock, streaming without punctuation, some of it indecipherable, some of it from me. It’s happening kids / MERRY IXMAS, EVERYONE / I'm trying to remember it's called Star Wars Celebration not Star Wars oh my god I'm so stressed-ebration / I AM READY TO BE EPISODE IXed. The world around me is asleep, but the world under my thumb has never been more alive.

I take another sip of Lift Plus and feel its energy tingle through my bloodstream. Or maybe that sensation is the force.

When I was in class earlier in the day, wearing a Star Wars tee, writing in a Star Wars notebook and drinking from a Star Wars bottle, I was already stewing in anticipation. My mind was in another galaxy; speculation ran through me like shooting stars. My dedication to the Star Wars universe is fuelled not by the incessant marketing or the cheap merchandise, but by the passion I have for stories, space wizards, and the cute-yet-creepy alien bird race known as the Porgs.

 Star Wars Celebration Chicago is set to begin livestreaming on YouTube in just a few minutes. A countdown slowly ticks on screen. This will be the first big panel of Celebration, and the one I am most eager to see. The panel is for Star Wars: Episode IX, consisting of a Q&A session with cast members. Our first real, palpable look at the film, at beloved returning characters, and the new additions, to hear from returning Director J.J. Abrams what his vision for IX is.

But the real reason anyone is staying up all night to watch the livestream isn’t to see Abrams dodge spoilery questions. It’s to be amongst the first to witness the Episode IX trailer. The very first teaser trailer. Imagine a choir singing angelic sounds behind that one word and maybe you’ll begin to understand. What I really want is to catch a glimpse of the upcoming film, to learn the title—oh my goodness, the title—along with thousands of far, far away fans; some watching live in the dead of night or crack of dawn. The lucky few are crowded into the panel room itself. I swipe through pixelated and blurry selfies posted with #SWCC. It’s a big auditorium, packed with media, families, and cosplayers, and many are swinging lightsabers above the crowd’s heads. Purple, blue, green, and red beams of light. The stage itself is lit up with a bright blue backdrop.

 When I told my parents I was going to camp out in the living room to watch the livestream of Star Wars Celebration, they rolled their eyes. When I asked my brother if he wanted to join me, he cried, ‘Whyyy,’ before revealing his true colours when he showed up on the couch at 2am.

He was all too keen to eat my snacks, but now as time crawls forward, he seems to have come to the conclusion that it is ridiculous to stay up for something you can watch on your phone, from your bed, when you wake up. I have come to the conclusion that he is lying to himself. On the path to the dark side, perhaps.

He’s always joined me on my silly adventures, making fun of me along the way. But the fact that he’s willing to be there is enough, as he is now. Star Wars has been a part of his life as much as mine; we grew up roaring Chewbacca impressions and fighting with cardboard lightsabers; He’d be Darth Maul and I’d be Obi-Wan (so I got to chop him in half every time). Kids would tell me I was a weirdo for liking Star Wars, for playing with Barbies and Darth Vader figurines, blurring the lines between allocated girls’ or boys’ toys. But my brother and I knew: Star Wars is a fun space adventure for whoever wants to enjoy it.

We got older and the movies lost a touch of their magic: the internet revealed the intense hatred shovelled at the prequel trilogy. Little-me had loved the ridiculous Jar Jar Binks, but the middle-aged fans who grew up with the original trilogy saw him as an offence to their childhood obsession. (JUSTICE FOR JAR JAR is the hill I will die on.)

Then Disney bought Lucasfilm and ushered in a new era. I have a series of selfies from midnight premieres—me grinning from ear to ear, my brother with eyes closed and discontented frown (his go-to photo pose)—in the blurry light of the Imax screen on Queen Street. But one glance at his smiling face during the film and you know he loves this galaxy as much as the next fan.

Sometimes that’s the problem: our love for this story is so great and so ingrained, that it can bubble over into endless online debates. Debates become heated, become personal, become hateful. In this era of social media, everyone has a voice, but the ones who spit poison are the loudest. We struggle to find common ground sometimes. But it’s always there, beneath out feet and on our TV screens. We love Star Wars. We love to watch it, re-enact it, dissect it, wear it, read it, and write about it. Whether the common ground we stand on looks like the sands of Tatooine or the lake country of Naboo, it’s all the same galaxy. Even though the galaxy-shattering film The Last Jedi threatened to destroy us, we can find a way to stand together. Because when the fans unite, at movie premieres, or conventions, the fandom can become something worth celebrating.

Like today, right now, 3:59am in my living room.

I look up from my phone. The countdown reaches zero. I hold my breath. A soft echo of music trickles through the speakers, and John Williams’ familiar score wraps around me like a blanket. Goose bumps pop up on my skin.

The Star Wars logo vanishes and the screen cuts to black. I snap up and nudge my sleeping brother’s arm with my toe. He jolts awake, looks at the black screen and scowls.

‘Nothing’s hap—’

He’s cut off by a roaring applause as the blue-lit panel stage lights up the screen. The room around me fades. I’m in Auckland with my brain fuzzy, and I’m transported to Chicago with heart thumping.

My brother jumps up and stands in front of the screen. ‘I’m going to the bathroom.’

I babble, ‘butthepanelisabouttostart,’ craning my neck around his legs.

‘Oh well,’ he says. He walks off.

Stephen Colbert is pacing around the stage, babbling on about Dagobah and S-foils, trying to work the crowd up—unnecessary, since we are all waiting for the cast and crew.

I’m leaning forward, straining my eyes, and wondering if anyone actually finds his ‘jokes’ funny. Twitter tells me, yes, they do. The excitement level is high, making everything fresh and exciting, even if it’s a Star Wars pun heard years ago. I almost feel like I could twist my neck and hear people whispering behind me, instead of tweeting alongside me.

 The closest thing to this feeling in my own city is Armageddon Expo, the annual convention at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane. Nerds I’ve never met become my best friends. We jam the halls like squashed-up skittles. I don’t know their names but I know who they are. When I’m dressed in Rey’s dusty scavenger outfit, with staff in hand and hair bunched in three bobbles, young girls point and giggle. I wave at them, their eyes wide with wonder, and my heart is full.

The internet fandom space is a mix of tweet-before-thinking garbage and fun bite-sized meta. The real-world fandom spaces, such as Armageddon, are a big geeky party; no one hiding behind an anonymous wall, and no one left out.

This livestream is somewhere in between. I am connected online from where I sit in Auckland. Reading tweets and writing tweets and liking gifs. Yet I am in Chicago, oblivious to the sleeping city around me.

Stephen Colbert brings out Director J.J. Abrams and head of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy, and the content we’re all waiting for finally begins. I take in every detail, every non-answer. I enjoy it. I loathe it. Stephen Colbert asks unanswerable questions, like the fate of Daisy Ridley’s character, or how the relationships develop. No word is uttered more than ‘spoilers’.

The cast members are introduced onto the stage; first is Anthony Daniels who plays C-3PO—one of the remaining few original cast members from 1977. He waves hello to the crowd before looking for the cameras. In his charming British accent, he says, ‘On tweets today people were, all over the world, saying “wish I could be here”. And I know we’re on camera, so I don’t know where the camera is, but whoever is in Australia or…’ He pauses for a flicker of a second, ‘…all the other countries around the planet; I wanna give you a big wave, and you are here in spirit. Okay?’

I grin a little wider. Of course he would mention our neighbour, Australia. So close, and yet so far.

 In New Zealand, despite the growing connections through social media, I feel isolated. Even in the vast Auckland city, where I easily get lost in the busy roads and busy people. New Zealand is separate. And that’s part of what makes it special.

But the isolation is also part of what makes being part the Star Wars fandom special.

It’s a larger world. Out there in space; out there in the world wide web. Legendary or anonymous, you can be a part of something. You can tell your story; you can make one up. After movie premieres, there is a sense of privilege and power in that none of my fellow fans in America have yet seen the movie. The Last Jedi came here a few days early, and I knew all the things before anyone else. We were isolated again. And it felt so good.

Did I go and post spoilers? No, because I’m not an asshole (you know who you are). But I told people they’re gonna love it. I told them the film is exciting and unexpected and dabbles deliciously in subtext in a way that’s fresh for Star Wars. I sign off with eagerness for the upcoming dissection and discussion of the film.

 The next day I’m shocked to learn that many many many people felt it was a ‘betrayal’ of Star Wars. A disaster of a movie. A cluttered mess of a story, an anti-climactic sequel that instead of building on what came before, tore the past to shreds. My brother is one of them.

And the fandom split in two.

But not today. Not tonight. I refuse, and so does everyone on my Twitter feed, because we’re tired of defending Rey, who is not a Mary Sue; and Vice Admiral Holdo, whose purple hair does not make her a lesser fighter; and Rose Tico, who fell victim to dude-bros saying she’s the worst character ever, she ruined their childhood, and Asians don’t belong in Star Wars; until eventually the actress, Kelly Marie Tran, deleted all her social media.

When Kelly walks onto the panel stage, she gets a standing ovation. There are tears in her eyes, and there are tears in mine.

 They introduce the new cast members, and display behind the scenes photos, and babble on about the brilliant practical effects. There’s a touching tribute to Carrie Fisher, an awkward bit about Adam Driver’s chest, and the introduction of new droid D-O. When the duck-inspired droid rolls onto the stage, you can hear cash registers ring.

My brother comes back in the room as the panel is winding up. He flops into the chair and sighs. ‘So, did I miss anything?’

‘You missed everything.’

‘So I didn’t miss anything then,’ he smirks.

Stephen Colbert asks J.J. Abrams if there’s anything he wants to leave with the fans. I lean forward. ‘This is it,’ I screech.

This is it. It boils down to this simple, repeated moment in time: the day, or night, or very-early-morning that a Star Wars trailer is about to debut. I am alone, and yet so very not alone, united in a nerdy passion that doesn’t call for such depth of devotion. But here we all are. Here I am. And here’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (omg).

 I switch off the TV. The darkness eats my eyeballs.

‘How am I supposed to sleep after that!?’ I yell. ‘Palpatine. Freaking Pal-pa-tine! NO! YES! Why?!’

Silence.

My brother is asleep.

I throw a pillow at him. ‘DUDE! Palpatine is back!’

He mumbles, ‘Haha, lame.’ His eyes don’t open.

I slide down the couch until I hit the hard floor. The Rise of Skywalker. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I sit there in the lonely living room, and let my thoughts trail off into the dark.

[anticipatingevaporation]

Marriage Story

Moral of the story: Don’t get married, that way you’ll never get divorced. 

Hello everyone and welcome to my fourth annual Oscar Movie Mission! I will once again be endeavouring to watch and review all the nominees for Best Picture, all the acting categories and Best Screenplay. So without further ado...

Marriage Story was one of the nominated films I was more excited to watch, mostly because I had heard the screenplay was truly fantastic stuff, and as an aspiring writer myself, that is something I am always keen to see.

However if I’m being totally honest, as I started watching this movie, I was a little worried that I had let it be overhyped and was about to be inevitably disappointed. 

But I needn’t have worried, because Writer and Director Noah Baumbach along with Scarlett Johanson and Adam Driver brought this movie home. By the end I was extremely impressed.

Let’s start with that screenplay that has been so raved about. The accolades are more than merited in this case. Baumbach has a superb talent for capturing the essence of normalcy. These feel like real conversations that ebb and flow the way normal people talk. The dialogue here is just so smooth and natural, people jump from topic to topic in that disjointed but interconnected way they often do. Things escalate and people argue and disagree the way you expect them to. People are quirky and weird and uncertain just the way they often are. It is just so brilliant the way these dialogues are written. I found myself replaying certain scenes just to catch every single word, because they all mean something. This movie often felt more like theatre than film, both because it is so dialogue heavy but also because of how raw it was. These characters weren’t characters, they were people. And I loved watching that.

The subject matter here: a divorce proceeding, is a brilliant choice here on the part of the filmmaker. Because it is in these times of frustration and stress that you see people’s true personalities emerge. It was so fascinating watching these two people wrestle with what is ultimately a truly difficult procedure. Baumbach portrays this story in a manner that doesn’t have “winners”, but is just really tough to go through and can bring out the worst in people at times. Throughout this film, it struck me just how awful divorces are. (I wasn’t kidding in the intro...)

Baumbach also cleverly includes a number of bait and switches in his script. There were several moments where I found myself shocked at a revelation, because the film had led me to believe one thing when the actuality was something else entirely. It was really well executed and kept me on my toes.

Of course, none of this splendid writing would mean much without the absolutely powerhouse performances of the two leads. It’s roles like this I imagine actors absolutely love. These are some meaty roles, with long monologues, snappy back and forth and even singing involved. And both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson more than deliver. They keep the performances from being too flashy or forced. The acting lines up with the style of the dialogue in that it is really pulled back and natural. Consequently the emotions that inevitably arise during the story feel earned and real. It is so exciting to watch two extremely capable actors take on such dynamic roles and pull them off so well. These two are more than deserving of their acting nominations.

While Marriage Story depicts the tragedy of divorce to a tee, it also states that life without marriage, without a companion is lonely and meaningless. Baumbach decides that while being married can be difficult and yes can result in a messy divorce, it is ultimately worth it for the joy and feeling of being alive that you only get from being with another person.

This film is so interesting and the more I think about it, the more I like it. I am so glad it did not disappoint and so happy it got so many nominations. I would love to see it win in some categories too!

I ultimately go to a movie looking for something that tells me more about people; how do we act, how do we fight, how do we love, how do we live. This film exposes the human condition so brilliantly in a frighteningly real way that I think anyone can relate to. 

So while I’m still not convinced if marriages are worth it, this movie definitely is.