So we had just seen that conversation between Quentin and Eliot, and Eliot had just re-experienced it, so of course, we’re all thinking about it, knowing it’s important. But can you imagine how that following moment felt to Quentin?
That moment they had, there’s no way it’s at the forefront of Quentin’s mind right now. It’s been months since that conversation. Months since he’d been rejected by Eliot. Months since he heard that Eliot didn’t want him back, and he had to accept that and suppress his feelings, try and get over it. A lot has happened since then. A full season worth of things. Which includes being told (and believing) that Eliot is dead, being forced to watch a monster inhabit Eliot’s body, and accepting that he has to kill something that looks like Eliot. All this with the guy who he has fifty years worth of memories with and feelings for, the guy who he wanted to give it a shot with.
And then, they’re getting ready to kill the monster. Right as they’re about to do it, their plan is set, Alice is ready... Quentin isn’t invigorated or nervous, the way he sometimes is before an important moment in a quest. He’s more resigned and hopeless, because even though he knows it isn’t Eliot, it’s still going to hurt.
The monster is walking over. Quentin is swallowing his pain at having to prepare to essentially watch Eliot die, trying to cover how fucking awful it is to see the monster possessing his friend... And then the monster says he’s Eliot. Quentin first thinks it’s a joke, because of course, Eliot is dead. But then.
Eliot chooses to prove that it’s really him by referencing their memory-life together, referencing that conversation they had about it. Fifty years. Who gets proof of concept like that? Those are Quentin’s words. Quentin’s words from when he was saying that they work together, that he wanted to try again, in this timeline. How could the monster know what those words mean to Quentin? And Eliot is walking towards him, looking so goddamn relieved that Q is who he sees, that Q is who he gets to talk to with his few seconds of control, and he repeats Quentin’s words back to him. Because it’s his turn to confess.
And Quentin’s face in that moment.
Because it’s Eliot. He’s alive. The look of disbelief, of hope, of awe. Eliot’s alive. He can still be saved. And. He’s telling Quentin this with the words from Quentin’s confession. The confession that, honestly, Quentin has probably tried to avoid thinking about because it’s painful. But peaches and plums, motherfucker. Eliot’s alive, and maybe, just maybe, he loves Quentin, too.
“I’m alive in here.” And Quentin is instantly ready to go to the ends of the earth to try to get him back.