the eclipse ep 2 - the reprieve
i cannot tell you how much i absolutely love the moments in this ep where it’s like akk is considering and testing out his feelings for ayan. im talking mainly about the series of scenes from akk with ayan’s hoodie to when they’re in the bathroom together after feeding the dog, it’s the sweetest moment in the whole show so far, bc we actually get to see akk at ease around ayan. that’s so rare and so surprising, it makes me wonder what prompted this softness, but you can see it when he approaches the hoodie, when he picks it up and feels it in his hands, analyses it, smells it, you can see his brain ticking thinking “what is it about this boy that’s getting to me like this? what is that i can’t stop thinking about? what is it that’s making me confused?”.
but it’s not like he even approaches those thoughts in a hostile way, it’s more genuine curiosity, you see it in how wide and wondering his eyes are, and even more in the expression he makes when ayan catches him, there’s no initial anger or annoyance to it, it’s wide-eyed and caught out, like he’s been snuck up on in a moment of innocence and vulnerability.
and then of course he puts on that anger, let’s the harshness to return to his voice and words, which just makes it even better when he’s confronted by ayan’s innocence and sweetness. he tries to insight an argument but there’s no argument here, just ayan doing something kind, and that face returns, the wide eyes, the genuine shock, bc oh fuck he’s not fighting, he’s just being cute.
It’s the pin all over again, except this time he doesn’t run away, he lets himself slip into this rare moment of being relaxed and real and genuine. they feed the dog, they mess and joke with each other and at no point do either of them try to start something, they don’t get hostile, and notably they don’t bring up anything about the school or rules or morals, it’s them without all that exterior stuff that fuels their fight, without it there’s really nothing to fight about.
and then the bathroom. i adore this scene. like seriously, genuinely, with all my heart this scene is my favourite so far. ayan looking up and across at akk tentatively, almost as if he’s thinking “he’s being nice… why is he being nice?? what kind of move is he trying to make??”.
but then akk looks back and again he’s so wide eyed, idk just something about how big and shining akk’s eyes are in these scenes, it makes it genuinely feel like he’s opening himself up to feeling something, giving it a chance. and he doesn’t even look away, doesn’t do that classic thing of being caught staring and avoiding it, he just openly stares for so long with so much boldness and curiosity.
and I don’t think ayan knew what to do with that, bc instead of taking the interaction somewhere else, he offers up something familiar to them, he tries to start an argument, comes at him with an argumentative tone, like saying “come on, let’s do what we always do”. it’s a chance for akk to back off, to explain away these subtle things he’s doing, this different way he’s acting, ayan gives him that out.
but akk doesn’t take it. instead he considers ayan for a while, eyes flitting around but still not leaving him, and then he says “nothing”. if he wanted to start an argument, if what was on his mind was something hostile, he’d voice it, we know he has no problem doing that. so by saying nothing, it’s not just him for once backing down, not going in to attack mode, it’s almost giving away that he’s not here for that, not even thinking about that, this interaction is so removed from this back and forth fight they’ve had going on.
and that’s only made more clear when he says the dog is cute and then splashes him with water. that’s such an un-akk thing to do. we’ve maybe seen him have more fun when he’s in his dorm with his friends but we’re so used to seeing him straight laced and and controlled, considered, that this free smile, this silliness, this compliment, it’s so shocking, to us and to akk.
and that’s not even getting into the line about the dog, bc we all know what that means, us, akk and ayan. he compared ayan to a dog and then called the dog cute, it couldn’t be more obvious. what has my mind reeling is what was going through akk’s mind when he said that, was it spur of the moment, an impulse, was it considered, did he have to work up the courage to it. what made him 180 so much, feel so free and relaxed in himself and so bold and confident to say that, it’s insane, bc this isn’t some huge turning point, all their other interactions carry the same tone of tension and hostility, this doesn’t change anything, it’s almost like a reprieve, an oasis, some kind of aside, it’s so polar to all else and so interesting bc of that, bc you have to wonder why. akk and ayan’s interactions to me are very much dictated by how they’re both feeling coming into them, is akk partially frustrated, has he just spoke to a teacher or his friends about needing to crack down on rules, is ayan particularly focused on uncovering stuff about his uncle or equally are they just not in the mood to fight, they just wanna have some space and not have to deal with it. to me, this interaction is almost like they found each other in a rare moment where they both weren’t fixed on their goals or morals, where they were both off guard and more them than the things they represent, and that’s what gave us this moment, and that’s how all the external factors made it this isolated thing that didn’t continue after.
but then my final thing about this scene is the way ayan looks after akk leaves, bc you see the initial confusion, the way it goes from “wait he’s not fighting back??” to “wait did he just call me cute?” like did he understand wrong, did that just happen?? but it’s like as he accepts that it did happen, his mouth creeps up more and more into this smile, this grin, and that’s what I wanna know.
I wanna know if this smile is one of those “this school is gonna be fun” smiles, where he’s kind of delighted that he’s affecting akk and making him act this way and getting to see this side of him, almost like the joy of actually being surprised by him. or is it a genuine “that was cute, I liked that” smile, bc how akk feels is already pretty obvious, it’s his ability to accept how he feels and let it out that is gonna be his set back and how he grows. ayan is different, bc he has no issue voicing things, he’s bold and in your face, he’s not holding himself back, the thing is we don’t know how he feels, we haven’t had a sign yet that tells if he does like akk too. all his flirting in ep 1 was always combative, and he dropped that vibe as soon as akk walked away from him, stopped smiling, cold reset to what he was thinking about before. he doesn’t do that here, mainly bc he wasn’t trying to get akk to get off his case, he wasn’t up to anything, and the fact that instead of one of them walking away and ending the interaction, the fact that ayan says “hey, wait”, he’s going after him.
this is the kind of tiny, subtle storytelling I adore bc as I said, we don’t know how ayan feels, bc in a way he voices so much and puts on such a front with what he says that we almost can’t trust his words, there’s no knowing what’s true and what’s just to get a rise out of akk, to cover his truth, to get what he wants. so how do we get an impression of how he really feels? by how he acts. and when you look at their past interactions, through all of ep 1 and 2, the scene always ends when their interaction ends, either bc one of them walks away or bc they stop talking, we always see the conversation end. this is the only time we get any kind of allusion to an interaction continuing after the scene cuts, as well as the only time that one of them leaves and the other one pursues, tries to carry it on. and it says so much that it’s in this single scene where they don’t fight, that when it’s all dropped they seek to be around each other more, and that it’s ayan who is going after him. mr ‘mind your own business’ is trying to make this fun, relaxed interaction go on longer.
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