איל לאבין

In Trigger Cut (which, I believe, is the last episode that has Eyal).

At the end, Eyal talks about how his ex-wife and he reconciled after she had finally said something about wanting to do so.

There’s a problem though. Jewish Law prevents two people from remarrying each other after having divorced from one another. It’s one of those: ‘okay, you ripped the bandaid off, now let it heal; don’t cut it open again’ type mentalities from what I can gather.

But if you listen to how he relays the story, it’s off-handed, rushed, delivered in the same manner as any other proverb or story he might tell Annie.

It doesn’t seem like it’s honest.

It seems to me like he was just telling her that to make her go on and tell McQuaid what she needed to tell him, the same thing he has done every time she has a new love interest.

Because that’s who Eyal is. When he cares for someone to any great extent, he will do anything for them, including put off his own happiness. I mean, look above at his face when she goes in to hug him and she says, “I’m happy for you, Neshama.”

Look at the man’s eyes!

Eyal––one of the seemingly toughest and most abrasive characters on the show––looks like he is about to just break down in tears. And why? Because he thinks the one good friend he has (and possibly the woman he loves depending on who you ask/how you read it), he thinks that he is never going to see again because she’s on the run from her agency.

If this isn’t a testament to what a great actor Oded Fehr is, I just don’t know what could do it any better. Here is this so very vulnerable moment from the character who, throughout the show, had been cocky and devil-may-care (he has his sweet moments as well, but still). And then we get this moment and it just… It’s flawless. It’s believable. It makes me want to start crying just by seeing it.

THANKS TO THIS BLOG ARTICLE, I FINALLY KNOW WHAT EYAL SAYS IN THIS CLIP.

HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE ARTICLE:

“…לא יאומן! שולחים לי איזה ילדה מטומטמת”  SO NOW I KNOW! :D

WOW. SO EYAL AND I WERE ON THE SAME PAGE WHERE ANNIE IS CONCERNED BEFORE HIS CHARACTER BECAME INFATUATED WITH HER BECAUSE THE WRITERS NEEDED AT LEAST ONE CHARACTER FOR HER TO LEAD ON, MANIPULATE, AND BE AN ASS TO, BUT NOT SLEEP WITH.

WHY DO SOME FANS THINK SHE IS A STRONG AND INDEPENDENT WOMAN AGAIN???

So I’m not here for the shipping with Eyal, but I have a very detailed idea about this.

After a failed marriage and after having been repeatedly played and subsequently rejected by someone for whom he cares a great deal [coughAnniecough], Eyal isn’t exactly as sure-footed with genuine romance as what he would like others to think.

Oh sure, he can romance with the best of them when it’s a facade, when it’s something distant, when it’s not actually him.

Now this isn’t to say that I think that he couldn’t be romantic still. In fact, I believe that if it were with the right person, he would be incredibly so, though perhaps not in the way of the typical “romanticization” of romance.

I feel like, with Eyal, someone who’s in the ‘settling down’ stages of life, romance isn’t sappy poetry or anything like that––although he probably wouldn’t be beyond quoting a sonnet from Shakespeare off the top of his head because, really, the Bard is a master with words––but mostly it’s more downplayed than that.

For him, knowing how his marriage fell apart––because he was too focused on his goals and his “needs” (such as avenging his sister)––a lot of romance would be little gestures, basically just showing consideration for the other person, hence what we see with his actions toward Annie.

It doesn’t matter how many times his feelings for her come back to bite him, he always puts her first. Like when he starts lying to his Boss when she asks for information on Agent Walker. Like when he refuses to sleep with Annie to manipulate her. Like when he tries to distance himself from her to protect her. Like EVERY. SINGLE. TIME that he tries to make his feelings clear to Annie and then finds out that she’s already with some other guy AGAIN, and he masochistically encourages her and gives her words of advice. In all of this, his consideration is to Annie and she doesn’t even halfway return that level of commitment and support.

This, asking a woman if he can kiss her, is exactly something I could see him doing, as much to show consideration to her as to assure himself that he isn’t putting his heart out there again to get torn apart.

Because, let’s face it. With Ranite and with the loss of his sister and of his father and with his very toxic relationship with Annie, I’ve mentioned it before, but Eyal’s heart has basically just been taped back together, armor-plated, and fortified. It’s never actually healed, which is something that would be a challenge to any new relationship to be certain.

Yet, if someone were to get past his armor, if someone were able to get to him, as damaged as he and his heart are, Eyal doesn’t love in half measures. I mean, he was willing to risk his career and his life saving Annie from, what had been touted as, an impenetrable/inescapable prison.

Basically, what I’m getting at is that he has learned from past mistakes. When he loves someone (and not even only romantically, this would be just as true for a dear friend), he will always put them first and he will be extremely loyal, which is why it’s so important for him to find good friends/love interests who won’t take advantage of that.

Season 2, Episode 2: GOOD ADVICES

Here is yet another great moment with Eyal [Oded Fehr] that just absolutely breaks my heart. Here Eyal has been captured, beaten, and likely outright tortured for over an hour, in the back of a van by terrorists. They bring him in to this abandoned place with a video camera (bad news for a spy).

Before this, he had just stolen a memory card from Annie that contained the picture of a terrorist who has never before been photographed. He seldom calls in to his agency, though even if he had, they wouldn’t have known what had happened. So between, by his way of thinking, probably pissing off the one person who was in the field with him, and his agency being unaware of what has happened, he has no expectation that anyone will come to save him.

So as I’ve pointed out before with Eyal, look at the man’s eyes.

In that first picture, he looks so resigned, a blank, empty look to his eyes, just staring into space.

Look at his posture. He’s slumped in the chair, not struggling against his bonds, not trying to escape. He sits there, looking broken.

He knows that they’re going to kill him

Put this into perspective of who he is, he’s likely thinking about the fact that––despite that he seldom is able to see him––he’ll never see his son again. He hasn’t much seen him since his and his wife’s divorce, but this is how it will end.

He just looks defeated and not at all like Eyal.

And then Annie appears to rescue him and he suddenly just snaps back to reality. And then he has something to do. He has hope again and a focus. He starts being snarky again, criticizing the fact that Annie didn’t think through this plan. The rebound/reboot that happens with her presence is so telling of who he is as a person.

This goes back to the post I reblogged a while back that was talking about how you only see who Eyal really is when he’s alone, and this is just…

Eyal’s Hands

I’d just like to take a really weird moment to say that Eyal [ therefore Oded Fehr ] has some of the most graceful-looking hands that I have ever seen on a man.

Seriously though. He’s how old and his fingers are long and slender (whereas most people, when they age, their fingers fill out). What’s more, look at his nails! They look extremely well-maintained, even down to the cuticles, something most men just don’t bother with.

STARTER CALL!