Not to be predictable, but hey, the parallels, they do just keep paralleling.
There's something about the choice to lay back with one hand pinned behind the head like this, the way it limits one’s range of movement and keeps the chest (heart) open and vulnerable to whatever the other person wants to do to them.
I love that Fadel’s version isn’t as thoroughly pinned because he still has some reservations at this point, and throughout the scene Fadel's right hand is always free and ready to defend if the need arises. As much as he wants to trust Style, Fadel's past and his training and his trauma won’t fully allow him.
In contrast, Style’s hand is thoroughly pinned behind his head. In fact in this scene he puts his hand BACK underneath his head after Fadel attempts to drag him out of bed. His other hand is also either always stroking Fadel's thigh or resting on his own stomach in a way that would be easy to trap or incapacitate if Fadel wants. And then later in the scene that very same hand is used to cradle Fadel even closer, an effortless welcome.
The choreography of this scene is so intentional and it broadcasts wordlessly the way Style has fully abandoned himself to his feelings for Fadel.
Which is why there is a visible and visceral change in Fadel between the end of episode 5 and the start of episode 6. Style presses his lips reverently to Fadel's scar, pushes Fadel's shirt up, and gives himself over entirely to Fadel's pleasure. If we take clothes as a metaphor for armour, Style half stripping Fadel was him taking the step on Fadel's behalf because he recognised that Fadel did not have the strength to do so himself. There is nothing selfish or self-serving in Style in the end of episode 5 and it is precisely this that was the unmaking of Fadel; so thoroughly that we see him bared in a way he's never been before.
The biggest frustration is that both times that Style has managed to finally step behind a major wall in Fadel’s heart, the progress he makes is almost instantly reset because of a painful and unwanted revelation that renders the decisions and promises made in that precious moment of vulnerability suddenly meaningless.
And until and unless they come to a place where they are both willing to go beyond communicating only with actions and words hidden behind layers of meaning, their journey will be nothing more than the sharply desolate story of what could have been.
