yknow i think about this tiny little scene so much it's probably criminal
because for one, i read this scene as like, a glimpse into who jopson is off duty, when he isn't tending to his captain. he's hunched over, eating directly out of the can, not particularly concerned with appearances. it's a side of him crozier has probably never seen.
and on top of that, the way jopson and little exchange this knowing glance with each other when that bell rings—because jopson is needed again, and they've all probably heard this bell ring dozens or hundreds of times by now. a steward's duty is never quite done, and jopson just scoops a last bite of mystery meat into his mouth and rushes off to his captain's side without hesitation. his expression seems to say "welp, here we go again," but there's no malice in it. if anything, he looks fond.
it just lives in my brain rent-free because it's such a different jopson than we get for the rest of the series: relaxed, casual, easygoing. when he's around crozier, which he is in nearly every other scene he's in, he's more alert and caring and gentle, consumed by crozier's presence. and between crozier's jopson and hickey's jopson ("my aim's fine, mr. hickey") and this unclaimed jopson, he just drives me insane. i don't even know how to express the point i'm trying to make really, i just think the genuine thomas jopson underneath his rank and role is so interesting to look at. and also how eager and willing he is to come running to crozier at any moment's notice.
Ok but the Jopson scene I think about more than anything is of course his death scene, which admittedly is so very different, and yet still hits me the same way this one does, because Jopson clearly loves the captain and cares in a way Crozier is never going to fully see.
Look at this man. He's sick and dying, he's clearly out of it, has no idea the captain has just been kidnapped, and believes he is being abandoned, not just by the men he can see but by his captain.
And he just looks sad.
Even at his most desperate, as he is dragging his dying body across literal rocks towards his captain the crewmates abandoning him, he still doesn't have an ounce of anger on his face.
He's focused, he's desperate, he's clearly in pain, but he doesn't have any betrayal or hate.
The captain would never see the side of Jopson that was relaxed and hunched over a can in a moment of rest, and the captain would never know that Jopson dragged his dying body across rocks, pushing food his body needed so badly he was hallucinating it aside, just to reach his captain he believed was abandoning him without having the courtesy to even say goodbye.
And I don't know how to live with that fact actually but I have to now.
