I SWEAR I HAVE NOT SEEN A SINGLE PERSON TALK ABOUT THIS SCENE THE WAY I SAW IT AND IāM LOSING MY MIND SO HEREāS MY RANT.
This was THE moment where Valentinoās entire character snapped into focus. NOT because of violence, NOT because of dominance, but because of BOUNDARIES.
Everyone spent the whole first half of the season painting Valentino as āthe weak one,ā the āscared one,ā the one āunder Voxās thumb,ā like he was just this pathetic wet cat clinging to his terrifying TV boyfriend, and this episode proved beyond doubt that Valentino was never physically powerless, ātoo scared to fight back,ā or physically beneath Vox. HE COULD HAVE DESTROYED VOX AT ANY TIME. He is terrifying when he wants to be. He rips the manās HEAD off like heās removing a stubborn jar lid. This is not someone who is ātoo weakā to defend himself.
The gag is this:
He didnāt. BECAUSE. HE. LOVED. HIM.
That was the line he wouldnāt cross. Hurting Vox (seriously) was the one thing he would not do. Until this scene.
Because THIS, AND THIS ALONE, was the thing that finally crossed Valentinoās boundary. Not Vox yelling. Not Vox controlling him. Not Vox being arrogant or cruel or bigoted or insufferably smug. No. Valentino doesnāt freak out over any of that, because thatās just āVox being Vox.ā Heās lived with that for years. He knows that version of Vox. Heās built his life around that version.
What he cannot handle, what cracks him open, is Vox finally admitting, out loud, that he does not care if he lives or dies, essentially saying āI donāt care if I die as long as Alastor goes down with me.ā
Do people understand what a HORROR that is for Valentino?
That is the exact moment he realizes: āOh. You donāt care if YOU survive. You donāt care if WE survive. You would trade your own lifeāAND MINE, AND VELVETTEāSājust to settle a seven-year grudge.ā
THAT is the betrayal. The betrayal is Vox giving up on EXISTENCE. The betrayal is Vox saying āYou donāt matter enough to keep me alive.ā The betrayal is Vox saying āWE donāt matter enough to keep me alive.ā
And THAT is when Valentino stops being gentle. He tries, obviously, he reaches out softly, and it is the softest this man has ever been, and Vox SHOVES HIM AWAY, and thatās it. The moment Vox rejects the olive branch, the moment Vox chooses oblivion over their bond, Valentino flips from heartbroken to survival mode.
Not because he stopped loving him, but because loving him is EXACTLY why he refuses to let Vox kill them all.
So he does the one thing heās never done before: he hurts him. He yanks his entire head off, violently and decisively, not out of anger, but out of sheer terror that the man he loves is trying to die.
This whole time, he wasnāt restrained because he was weak. He was restrained because he cared.
And the ONLY thing that finally pushed him past that restraint was the realization that Vox would rather annihilate himselfāand everyone around himāthan let go of the stupid deer vendetta.
This is not āVox being Vox.ā This is Valentino realizing: āOh. You stopped choosing life. And if you stop choosing life, I have to choose it for you.ā
Valentinoās not naĆÆve. He didnāt āmiss the red flags.ā He walked into the field, collected the flags, waved them around like parade banners, and kissed the man holding them. He knew EXACTLY who Vox was, and he still said yes.
Valentino doesnāt rip Voxās head off to win. Heās not trying to dominate him. Heās not trying to āput him in his place.ā Itās literally the opposite. He takes Voxās head because he has NO OTHER WAY to keep him alive.
Also letās talk about the symbolism because YES, ITāS SYMBOLIC.
Vox loses his HEAD. The part he thinks with. The part he plots with. The part he obsesses with. The part that is STUCK on Alastor like a looping broadcast. And Valentino literally rips off the part of Vox that wants to die. Valentino and Velvette are left holding the part of Vox that matters most to them: the part that thinks, schemes, talks, curses, teases, obsessively obsesses over them. The part that defines him as Vox. The body, all the posturing, the brute force, the physical dominance? Not necessary. Gone.
The audacity of this scene is unreal. This is love distilled to pure preservation of the self he cannot lose, and it hits harder than any overtly romantic scene ever could.
