#brushstrokesmcgee

[themeyeristmovement]

brushstrokesmcgee replied to your video

Weird to see him in shorts and T shirt.

I for one welcome the seasonal appearance of Workout Cal. 

[theyellowsnake]

brushstrokesmcgee replied to your post “The Path” Symbology (3)”

Where are these promo images of which you speak?

These ones: 

Every character seem to have been depicted with something that is directly linked to them, that is about them and that have an impact on them. 

· Cal with a skull while holding a shard and being surrounded by dead leaves.

The skull and the shard are clear references to Silas’ death. 

Dead leaves indicate a period of mourning and unproductive work or misfortunes. Colourful but wilted or dried leaves stand for disappointments, failures and sorrows or buried hopes, feelings and thoughts for which we have to say goodbye. (x)

· Sarah with a deer fawn while being surrounded by moss. 

The death of the baby deer marked Sarah’s descent toward darkness this season.

Moss represents maternal love and it usually grows in shady places.

· Eddie ‘wrapped’ in ivy and the yellow snake crawling beside him. 

Ivy symbolizes fidelity, eternal life, protection, growth ,clinging attachment and undying affection. In some cultures it is also a symbol of survival and determination. The spiraling ivy represents the wandering of the soul in its search for enlightenment.

The yellow snake appeared to Eddie in his vision about Steve that started everything. And it was the vision of the snake crawling over him that prompted Eddie to finally go to Peru where he found Steve awake and received the mark.

Eddie’s storyline this season has been about him try to not lose his family, struggling to accept his role and beginning his “spiritual journey”.

So, if we consider that snakes can represent our inner light, the color yellow is symbolic of the light of the spirit, in Hinduism the serpent symbolize the Kundalini - our dormant energy - and by awakening it we can reach enlightenment...   

It seems to make sense if the yellow snake is The Light or something related to it.

But, anyway, any symbol can represents many things at the same time so there is nothing to say that it could not symbolizes Cal too. Especially if we consider that in Eddie’s eyes Cal is the enemy and cause of all his problems.

[themeyeristmovement]

brushstrokesmcgee

replied to your photoset

“You’re not a commodity to me.  Hugh Dancy as Cal Roberts, Emma...”

@kronette I don't think he wants to be touched at all. Notice he never allows her to touch him. And his aversion to intimacy ( physical and emotional) has damaged his relationship with Mary. She doesn't think she matters to him. So asking her what she wants is a huge step for him. He's putting her needs first. Which he's never done before. Even when he was trying to do the right thing with Sean back in S1.

@brushstrokesmcgee​ I agree with your reading of how his distance has affected Mary and how important it is that he, for the first time, is putting her needs first. 

But I disagree with the interpretation that Cal doesn’t want to be touched. I think he very much wants to be touched, and to touch. 

But because of what Steve did to him (and his father, through physical abuse), he needs to feel in control of that touch. 

Hugh’s spoken of Cal being basically celibate in the years leading up to S1. What changed that? I think part of his inability to keep himself away from Mary in S1 was entirely that longing for touch, something he’d denied himself, something she offered to him, something Sarah would not. 

I can’t stop thinking about the contrast between the masturbation scene in 104 and this scene. 

There, Cal used Mary talking about someone else touching her, forced her into the performant role she’s always had to play, doing whatever the man in power tells her to do. Feeding into that sense that she’s just a commodity to him, something he can use when he needs to, regardless of her needs and wants and feelings.

Now, the complete opposite. He lets her know that he needs her. He asks her to guide him in how she wants to be touched. He makes it clear he wants touch her, not because he can, but because he wants to please her and comfort her.

I like that his move back when she laughs can be read in two ways. Yes, he’s embarrassed that he’s opened himself to her and her response is to laugh. But he’s also giving her space to respond as she needs to. 

I think the scene was pretty perfect as it was, cutting as we see them in a tender hug. 

[themeyeristmovement]

brushstrokesmcgee replied to your photoset “livingthegifs: Hugh Dancy interviewed at the Paley Center for Hulu's...”

I don't know if any of you noticed but he's not ugly. :-)

[themeyeristmovement]

brushstrokesmcgee replied to your photoset “kiwimidnight: - No one’s ever really, like, kicked somebody’s ass for...”

I'm betting the Christian kids dad isn't going to like this.

I’ve been wondering if they’re going to do a conversion therapy plot line. 

Especially with Hawk having shown up at dad’s church and had the intuition to say, “Hey, guy who totally didn’t try to kiss me, stop toying with my very female cousin’s heart, OK?” 

Hawk seeing how horrible it is for Caleb would be forced to think about the use of similar techniques in the programs that the Movement does, and his own experience in the white room.

[themeyeristmovement]

brushstrokesmcgee replied to your photoset

Anyone else get the feeling that despite everything Cal has yet to hit rock bottom?

Absolutely. Cal hasn’t begun to honestly think about what he’s done, or what has been done to him. In S2 interviews, Hugh would refer to Cal as compartmentalized - and that’s really it. He’s locked away everything - his abuse by his biological parents and Steve, his abuse of Mary, his murder of Silas, his adoration of Sarah, his envy of Eddie. He thinks he’s addressed it, but it’s just festering in whatever compartments he thinks his hidden them in.

I’m really hoping we’ll see at least some of this in the coming season. 

Let’s see Cal in the dirt with his emotions and really beginning to understand what he’s done and what was done to him.

[themeyeristmovement]

ancatdubh777 replied to your photoset “livingthegifs: "Are you bleeding?” [Requested by...”

@brushstrokesmcgee That’s a great question. I feel like the mystery of “is he/is he not” a legit prophet or crazy one of the most intriguing parts of the show, and I feel like it would jump the shark at this point if they resolved that. I don’t think they should reveal this until the last season. What do you think?

I don’t think they should ever reveal it, not even in the last season. 

Fundamentally, this show is about faith - asking us as viewers to think deeply about faith, whether we come to the show as someone with it or without it. 

If you give a definitive answer, you entirely undercut the deeper value of the show. 

I hope that whenever and however the show ends, it leaves enough ambiguity for viewers to have a discussion with themselves about faith. 

Did Hawk really levitate or was he just delirious from sleep deprivation? 

Did the Light send visions to Eddie to arrive in time for Doc to tell him he was the Chosen Son, or was it just happenstance?

Did Eddie’s prayer’s save Abe’s daughter - or did the medicine work?

Did Felicia burn her hands on the Ladder - or on the campfire? 

At this point, I hope they figure out how to tell the story that any combinations of these can be true 

[themeyeristmovement]

brushstrokesmcgee replied to your photo “Ever since I left I have been seeing things.  Aaron Paul as Eddie...”

@elephantandthedove I've been trying to sharpen it with Photoshop without much success. But could it be Paradise Lost?

I’ve tried Photoshopping it several times to no avail. Mostly becomes an experiment in recreating the feeling of being at the optometrists - which is better, 1 or 2? What letters do you see?

I even tried to sharpen the bar code, but no joy.

So I’ve decided it’s a made up book. They already have an art department to make up the Meyerist literature, after all.

The author’s name appears to be Elizabeth...something with probably four letters?

My best guess on the title is something close to “Feeling the Bottom.” 

It would be fun if they brought the author/book back this season as an easter egg for those of us who try to pay attention.