Best Pilots Scene: Round 3

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Thanks everyone for voting, yesterday, I think today might be a little bit harder because we're getting down to the best of the best. I'll get an extra discussion post up later, but feel free to debate like crazy. Here are your next 4 matchups. (If you haven't figured out the pattern, this round is the best one for each season.)[Poll #1570475]

Also, just so you guys know, I'm being whisked around at strange hours tomorrow, yipes. So today's DPP is going to be a sorta two day thing... and the Round 4 poll will probably be posted around 10 or 11 EST tonight.

Comments

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. It's interesting to vote in these things, now that it's getting down to a smaller and smaller pool. Yesterday I wound up voting with the majority in almost every case, yet now from the small sample so far it seems I'm back in the minority about half the time. It'll be interesting to see how the results turn out! And since I love basically all the scenes left in contention, it's pretty much a win-win scenario.

Season Two was the toughest for me to decide on. I adore both of those scenes. "No takebacks" seems like the more iconic scene for pilots, and it gives the most beautiful sense of their early dynamic, that strange mixture of friendship and love and childishness and maturity all wrapped up together in an aura of overwhelming potential. Everything seemed possible. In an odd way, I feel like that scene was both the apex and the end of their Season *One* relationship. After that, they moved on to the next stage, which was naturally angst (and ever more self-aware angst, at that). To me, 'no takebacks' defines Season One and Scar defines Season Two. Odd.

And for all that, I voted for the Captain's Hand "Are we OK?" scene because it is so beautiful, and in its way a perfect echo and escalation of the no takebacks scene. They are at a more difficult stage of their relationship, here. In 'no takebacks,' they have been separated a long time and have both been through hell, and their sheer relief and joy at seeing each other again makes it easier to forget all about the fight they were in the middle of when Kara left. But I feel like they never really dealt with those injuries, they never apologized, they just moved right on. Lee reached out to her, and she couldn't open up to him directly, but she found a way to let him in by acting like a twelve-year-old. The "Captain's Hand" scene is extraordinary because 1) Kara reaches out to Lee, which is always breath-taking, since she finds it so much harder to do, 2) it's coming in the midst of a lot of anger and anguish (she rejected him in Scar, he rejected her without quite realizing it in Sacrifice, they have been fighting furiously over their recent emotional and physical wounds, they are both trying to move on and focus on other - supposedly safer - lovers), and yet THIS IS THE SCENE WHERE THEY DON'T TAKE IT BACK. This is where they walk the walk as well as talk the talk; they don't just glide over their previous arguments, and they don't just promise to love and forgive each other in a flush of happiness and hope and potential; they actually discuss their earlier problems and then they *do* love and forgive each other at a moment when both know that their relationship is far from perfect, and that they are separating for the immediate future, and that they've been broken for a long time both individually and as a couple. In the Captain's Hand the honeymoon that was Home One and Two is long over, and they are STILL reaching for each other. And this time it's Lee who finds a way to tell her they're okay by regressing to the teasing of a twelve-year-old. I love this scene so much. The look on Kara's face at the end, when she's safe in his arms again...it's so amazingly grateful and relieved and happy. I feel like I never saw more of Kara's heart than at that moment. She really put herself on the line in this scene, she opened herself up in a rare and beautiful way, and Lee knew exactly how to handle her in that moment of vulnerability. This is what the two of them look like when they're in sync. Sadly, we wouldn't see it again for a long time.

OK, I'm done for now :)

[lapsedprof.livejournal.com]

No don't stop! As always, you make me see more and better appreciate the significance of their scenes.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Wow. You go girl!

I'm actually torn about how far I would vote for "Are we OK?" for just those reasons. Is it better than the Brig scene if it came to that? It might be. The look on Kara's face in that hug in CH is just IT for me sometimes. And so them. Always able to get past the bad times, but never able to get beyond OK. *sigh*

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

"The look on Kara's face in that hug in CH is just IT for me sometimes. And so them. Always able to get past the bad times, but never able to get beyond OK."

I so totally love the way you put that. It's so, so true. It makes me happy and sad at the same time.

Thank you!!

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

For me too, season two was the most difficult to decide on. I was kind of leaning towards the "Are we OK?" scene because it reflects the development of their relationship and how, despite their misgivings, they can't help but reach out and forgive each other, whereas in the "No takebacks" shot, their conversation is lighter and less angst-ridden (I really love their playfulness and teasing) but, they still held back. Your reasoning, linking both scenes by stating that "THIS IS THE SCENE WHERE THEY DON'T TAKE IT BACK" helped me dispell any doubts I might have had. So, now, I have to vote for "Are we OK?".

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Yay! I have unreasonable love for both scenes, but I think "The Captain's Hand" runs deeper. And since it will be facing off with the Brig scene soon, I think this may be our last chance to express our appreciation for it :)