I’m gonna go on a tangent rn about the one and only,
Pawbert Lynxly
Pawbert, my god, his betrayal comes right on scene with one warning, Judy (and funnily making fun of the betrayal trope that everyone saw coming with him) and he stabs her! His betrayal comes on scene and for a split second I felt like, “aw man, the betrayal came! I should’ve seen that coming.”
But then he catches her
And the entire time he’s apologizing while dragging Gary onto the snow to die, pleading for them not to hate him.
Instantly he becomes such an interesting character, instantly we start to see him in a new light that isn’t “wow ok, twist character what’s new.” He’s conflicting with his role right out the gate! He betrays her but cares for her??? He stabs her with venom that will surely kill her but doesn’t let her fall too harshly??? Fascinating!!!
Judy starts pleading for him that he could still change and Pawbert, looking into her eyes, sad but honest, says “I don’t want to be different.” He instantly transformed from a kid trying to do good despite what his family is, and into a kid who was raised with neglect and fear, wanting desperately to belong. He outright states that actually!
He looks into her eyes and basically tells her, “There’s nothing you can do to stop me from killing your loved one and I’m sorry you had to be caught up in this.” All with his eyes!!! His face!!! He genuinely feels sorry but it’s not gonna stop!
Then it pans over to this glorious scene
I won’t lie, I forgot he was a predator. Yes the first movie made it clear on the racism between predators and prey and the like but during the second movie, I forgot? about it? It wasn’t in the forefront of my mind and it became instead a small part of their characters (ofc I know it’s not small, the movie just did a good job in making me focus on the plot).
It wasn’t until this scene, with him shrouded in darkness, with only his yellow iris’s glowing, stalking towards the light, that I was harshly reminded that he is a predator. The scene succeeded in making me feel threatened at that moment. At that singular, small moment, he wasn’t the awkward dork I was coming to love, a harmless animal who could never harm anybody, he was a predator with the intent to kill. (And technically already did with how he just left Judy and Gary with nothing)
He quickly finds the Beaver and he pulls the awkward, trusting guy act again! Almost easily in fact! It disarms the Beaver just long enough for him to strike. And I especially love the way they did it. They didn’t take forever for him to stab her. He stabs her immediately (we see him moving his arm!!!) and proceeds to keep trudging on, not even looking back!
Another thing I love is how the creators put in is the detail of him continually changing out the cartridges of poison. In a way it further cements the cold hard fact that he is continuously making his choices. He reloads the syringe, (not even looking at it mind you!), and proceeds to hunt for Nick.
Every move he makes, every step he takes is purposeful. He doesn’t feel like a villain who needs a good talking to from the main character to redeem himself. He doesn’t even feel like he’s one step away from backing out. Even though he obviously doesn’t like causing unnecessary harm to Judy or Gary, (or even the beaver,) he has a purpose and it makes him even scarier, even more threatening and it’s beautiful.
There’s a point that’s made when Pawbert is being thrown across the room by his father in the next scene. We saw glimpses of his abuse from his retelling of his relationship with his family and when we first meet them. It’s what I love about this scene, that they don’t shy away from how uncomfortable and sick it is. You even see the two sibling’s in the back not enjoying it. They are victims too. They just were able to get Daddy’s approval. It’s the way Pawbert still seeks out his fathers approval even after getting tossed across the room that pulls at my heartstrings.
The slow descent into insanity is pretty funny, especially with the “The Screaming” reference, but regardless, in the end he doesn’t change. He became the twist villain and he didn’t even fully remove his defining characteristics. He kept his awkwardness, he kept his kindness, and he kept his one true goal; the goal he told us from the beginning in fact; he wants his fathers approval above anything.
Thanks for reading, I made this cause of the one scene of his eyes glowing and I knew I had to talk about it. :>
Oh I just know these two are waiting for papa to kick the bucket and then fight over who inherits all his shit. And we all know Pawbert's not even in the will, but hey that's less competition!
So we all agree that Milton Lynxley totally murdered his wife and made it look like she died in a tragic accident, right?
Or, if she's still alive, he accused her of having an affair and had his lawyers plant fake evidence for it. Which resulted in a massive public scandal, where he took all her money and her three children in the divorce and destroyed her reputation.
All because she saw him corrupting her cubs and turning them into sociopathic monsters, so he made sure she could never interfere with their upbringing ever again. All she could do was watch from a distance as her family destroyed themselves.
