we are siblings. we are not friends.
fleabag (2x03), 2016 / succession (04x10), 2023 / the bear fx (01x08), 2022 / the darjeeling limited, 2007 / succession (04x10), 2023 / succession (02x10), 2019 / sherlock (01x01), 2010 / little women (2019) / antigonick, by sophocles, anne carson and bianco stone / boy meets world (07x19), 2000
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i don't think we, as a society, talk enough about the scene at the piano in season 4, episode 22 (i'll be waving as you drive away part 2) of little house on the prairie, which is, in my opinion, one of the most romantic scenes in television history for so many reasons. it reminds me so much of the phone scene in it's a wonderful life, with its quiet intimacy, with the way you can really feel the longing between mary and adam, how they're sitting so close, but they can't quite touch. they're sort of hovering, being very careful with one another, until it becomes too much, and i just love the hesitation, the slow burn, the pining!!! but also it's the first time they really allow themselves to realize what they mean to one another.
it starts like any other lesson, with her doubting her ability to learn how to play piano because she's blind and his reassurance that she can do anything she wants to do; he offers to teach her, and his sitting so close to her isn't that unusual in this context (he sat right next to her and touched her hands when teaching her Braille earlier), but then the context changes when she admits that it isn't just her being blind that's dissuading her from learning how to play. there also isn't the time. and you can see his face fall, you can see the sadness on his face when she reminds him that her family is coming to take her home. because before this, they spent so much time together, and they always had so much more time to come. but for the first time, they're faced with the idea that they won't be together anymore. and we, the viewers, can see how her leaving is affecting him, but obviously she can't, so she tells him that she's scared. and she's scared explicitly because he won't be there to help her.
and for a moment, he's back in teacher mode and tells her she can't depend on him forever (which we, the viewers, obviously know isn't true), but this only lasts a moment, because he knows this isn't Mary's usual self-pity and self-deprecation. this isn't her usual way of trying to get out of something she finds too difficult, that she's too afraid to try, and she doesn't need tough love; this is a moment of real vulnerability, and, as if in effort to make her feel better, he reveals he'll be leaving too (which i genuinely believe that he would not have gone to winoka had she stayed at the burton school but i digress).
to which she responds that she's glad she's leaving, if he won't be there anymore.
and then we get The Moment, where, faced with both of their impending departures, they can't hold their feelings in anymore. and she laments, so quietly and gingerly, the fact she's never seen him. and he takes her hands and tells her to look at him. and he brings her hands to his face!!!! the way he closes his eyes and leans into her touch! her little smile! the way her voice cracks when she asks what color his hair is!!
the music swells and then it ebbs and we hear adam, his voice barely above a whisper, ask what she looks like. because, he tells her, he's never seen her, either. and she takes his hand and brings it to her face, and there are tears in her eyes! and she's holding his hands even as he caresses her face! and his fingers linger over her lips! and he laughs in disbelief at this revelation, that his feelings are requited!
but it's more than that for mary! because this is the first time she realizes that adam is also blind! that he actually does understand her!! and not only does he understand her, but all of his preaching, all of his lectures on how blind people are just as good as anyone else, how they can do anything they set their mind to, how important it is for her not to make excuses for herself, were not the condescensions of a sighted man, but lessons he wanted to share with her from his own years of struggling with himself and his blindness!! and that offers her hope, that she will also overcome her current struggles, and that she can achieve self-actualization just as he has! i don't think it's just love of adam that allows her to reconsider her dream of becoming a teacher, though obviously his support is helpful! but she moves to winoka without being engaged!
and it's also just so tender! the way they caress each other! how happy they are! and the new understanding they gain of one another through this scene!
it's the first time they're "seeing" each other, and it's also the first time they're seeing each other. and i wish so badly that tumblr was around when lhotp was airing because i want so many gifsets of this scene
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