Can we talk about this moment inĀ āHeart of the Lionā for a sec??
Iāve seen a lot of posts about this scene floating around, specifically about the expression on Lanceās face prior to Red showing up. A good majority have equated it with the expression that Keith had when he was preparing to sacrifice himself at the end of S4:
Thus, the conclusion is that Lance was also sacrificing himself/accepting he was going to die, and that Red arrived on its own to Lanceās surprise.Ā I was onboard with this train of thought too, but after rewatching the episode a few more times, I think thereās a better scene we can use for comparison, since it also revolves around Lance.
In S5E3 aka āPostmortem,ā when Lance was training by himself, we saw him get similarly overwhelmed by heavy fire, though not in the same life-or-death kind of way. Compare his expression here:
With the one fromĀ āHeart of the Lionā again:
Same energy. And inĀ āPostmortem,ā Lance didnāt give up or accept a loss against the training drones. Instead, he fucking evolved.Ā
This is how Lance operates. HeĀ aināt a quitter. Whenever heās pinned down, heās able to focus and let his inner quintessence shine through, allowing him to adapt and become exactly what he needs to be in the moment.Ā I think he did the same thing in āHeart of the Lionā as well.Ā
Thereās a lot of meta guessing that Lance initially couldnātĀ call for Red because his interaction with Allura caused confusion in his heart (hence the episode title āHeart of the Lionā), and I completely agree.
But in the heat of battle with his sisterās life on the line as well as his, Lance was able to clear his head and finally get his call to Red through.
In summary,Ā Redās appearance at the last minute was no surprise deus ex machina twist ⦠it was exactly what Lance had expected.
(Shout out to @pidgeonblocks, @falsechaos, and @klance-meta for being awesome buddies and sounding boards.)