this moment in 1x04—after walt’s chewed vic out because he thinks she told lizzie ambrose to come down to the station—is one that i find very... illuminating, i guess. so, of course, i’m going to babble about it.
i mean, look at this puppy.
this isn’t the face of a man who’s angry. we’ve seen walt’s anger play out in other situations and it doesn’t look like this. there’s very little tension in his face here; it softens when vic turns away. he continues to look at her with that little furrow between his eyebrows, but again it’s a soft look, not a glare or that penetrating laser stare of his. his mouth is closed but his lips aren’t pursed; his jaw isn’t clenched.
to me, this looks like the face of a man who lashed out defensively because he’s embarrassed and hurt. he feels like vic’s making fun of him, that she’s played a joke on him. not only that, but (he thinks) she’s set it up so that he’d be embarrassed in front of his subordinates. it’s something he might’ve expected from, say, branch, but definitely not vic. she’s not just his employee. vic’s the one who’s always got his back; she’s always on his side. so this feels like a kind of betrayal to him. (also, i submit, because of other confusing and nebulous feelings he can’t admit to and doesn’t want to be having about her.)
the other reason that i don’t believe he’s really angry is how quickly he gets over it. walt’s anger is slow burn and he holds grudges. it takes time for him to regain his equilibrium, even with henry or cady. but there’s no indication of that in the following scene where he and vic are examining the rental car. it actually feels like he’s trying to be conciliatory. and when she tells him she didn’t ask lizzie to come to the station, he believes her easily. he accepts that vic’s telling the truth without question, which is definitely not something he does when angry. because he wants to believe her. (i.e. he wants to believe that she wouldn’t push another woman at him because deep, deep down he maybe kinda sorta hopes she has the same kind of confusing and nebulous feelings about him that he has about her. that neither will acknowledge unless under the influence of an intoxicating substance and/or grave peril, natch.)
so. those are my thoughts, slightly abbreviated because i’d originally planned on segueing from this to some stuff with lizzie, but it kind of just got unwieldy and really i just want to get things out of my drafts so i don’t have to keep looking at them for another two years. this post has been brought to you by me trying to make gifs and then getting hung up on two second shots because FEELINGS.
