i will talk about the bellamy scene from 4x04 in more depth soon, so i wonât go into deep character-analysis mode now, but can i say how wild it is when you look at it from the eyes of other characters? I wanna talk about echo here.
there is this jarring shift from the already existent hopelessness that bellamy feels prior to the revelation, which we witness through kane, to the utter despair he is faced with once he hears about octaviaâs âdeathâ. and what caught my attention, aside from the emotional transition and his breaking point, is that bellamy and echo seem to interact with each other on a very personal level, too.
when the broken sword clatters to the ground we get these two shots:
the very interesting thing about these close-ups is that bellamy looks at echo, not at roan and then says ânoâ, while shaking his hand - and echo looks right back at him. obviously, his tongue is too heavy with the weight of what is unfolding in front of him, which his why his reactions establish this crazy build up, since he canât grasp the reality of that situation. but then we see one word come unstuck anyway, because ânoâ. and here is how i read the moment.
eyes already underscored by a devastation we have never seen before, the ânoâ - almost faint in its sound - sounds like a plea to me. a plea in which he needs echo to deny that this has happened. that this is something that took place. but there is no answer. echoâs devastation is clear and she canât change what happened (even if it was an accident). so, when roan says âI am sorryâ, bellamy feels the need to turn around and away from them and that reality - a very immediate move - because it hits, fast and hard. even if echo doesnât say anything, roanâs words have an effect on him that ring as true as echoâs silence.
and when echo does answer and says
(i think the âgoodâ is meant to comfort him) he breaks.
and here is what i find interesting about echo. she stays.
echo stays and watches him. she doesnât immediately turn around when roan gives an order, she doesnât cover her ears to shield herself away from bellamyâs screams, she doesnât blink, she doesnât move at all. instead, she watches him head on. watches him wail out in grief and repeat ânoâ over and over again with that rather devastated exression on her face, reflecting shock and sadness.
this is a very disturbing experience, because thatâs how echo witnesses war on an entirely different level. this is why bellamyâs words, before he hears about octaviaâs âdeathâ, âechoâ in this scene: âWeâll always end up here⌠in the brink of warâ, because he is not on the brink of it anymore, but tipping over the edge and falling right into the madness - not with weapons, but emotions - and echo sees all that and canât do anything, but watch. with his teeth blunted and eyes dimmed, and a primal scream that reveals his insides. this is what war looks like when someone who wears his heart on his sleeves can only scream.
its just pain. and she feels every bit of it.
bob definitely delivers here. he literally transforms and unleashes the full extent of bellamyâs grief in spades, and it hits you from all angles, through all characters in different ways, through every corner of the setting. itâs soul-shattering and an unforgettable traumatic experience - for many, but mainly bellamy.Â
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