the only bad thing about the terror (2018) is that we didn’t get the book scene where crozier and fitzjames go on the world’s worst date (drinking whiskey in melancholy silence together during carnivale)
I was looking through Terror screencaps lately and was struck by this frame from e3, which comes directly before Crozier emerges from Franklin's cabin and catches Fitzjames eavesdropping.
It's not a long shot - the camera stays there for maybe a second - but it's long enough that on the screencap website I use, there's 3 consecutive caps of just James staring at the empty spot where Dundy used to be until half a second ago.
Of course this scene serves several purposes, one of which is to show that both James and Dundy possess the same information about the friction between their commanders - knowledge which no doubt plays into Dundy's arguably strained relationship with Crozier, as he is an Erebite and receives none of James' later insight into Crozier's character development.
But I think it also shows us that this boy's self preservation instinct is alive and well. He yeets his body up that ladder like the football. And then, of course, a moment later, Crozier comes out, and James is left to catch all the stinkeye for eavesdropping.
Is this a strange thing for Dundy to do here? Not at all. He's directly outside the door; he doesn't have even a shred of plausible deniability if he's caught by Crozier.
But of course, neither does James. And operating on the assumption that nothing in this show is random, I do suspect that small lingering shot is there for a reason, which is to show us Dundy looking out for number one. I think there's an element of foreshadowing to it: showing us in a small harmless way something that will come back later with much higher stakes, and much more devastating consequences for James than just being left behind to deal with Crozier.
This is probably a good time to say: this isn't a Dundy hate post! The morality of Dundy's choices isn't the point here. On a rational level, his later solution to the desperate situation they find themselves in makes perfect sense.
(On an emotional level, it still breaks my heart - because I suspect that James "best walker in the service" "dives into rivers to rescue strangers at the drop of a hat" Fitzjames would have carried Dundy if need be, if their positions were reversed - but ultimately there are no right choices in this situation, and that's what makes it compelling.)
I think Dundy is representative of a position that applies (in various ways) to all the lieuts: he's privy to just enough information to know how screwed they are, but has no real power to do anything about it. The lieuts are all in this uncomfortable middle position, watching their shipmates divide into two equally alien groups: on the one hand, there are the ones who, as horror and deprivation chip away at them, turn out to be gold. They rise to the occasion and in some cases emerge as larger-than-life and almost saintlike. On the other hand, there are the ones who are either actively agitating for, or not strongly opposed to, outright mutiny. And in the middle, there are the lieuts, unable to join either.
All three of them are put in this difficult position and arguably all of them crack under the pressure in different ways (I say 'arguably' because while many feel that Dundy did nothing wrong, the narrative frames his choice as unfortunate). And this doesn't make either of them villains - it makes them human, and flawed. I don't think Dundy ever thought that if it came down to it, he was the sort of person who would leave a close friend behind or incite men to disregard his Captain's (implied) orders. I'm sure he thought he was as loyal a friend and officer as anyone. But the situation is impossible, and eventually all the lieutenants are sort of faced with the fault line or hairline fracture in their own character which they probably weren't even aware of themselves until Shit Got Real - but which, because the writing on this show is god tier, has always been there.
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