5x08 birthday party blocking, again
Expanding on this post I made about the blocking of the final birthday party scene in The Original Beef of Chicagoland, another very interesting thing was brought to my attention.
As I noted, Carmy is facing away from the camera and towards Claire during this scene:
Facing backwards, facing his past.
However, @beuck_ on twitter pointed out (to @ambeauty who passed it along to me...thank you again!) that at the very end of this shot, you can actually see someone standing at Carmy's right side, with braids and the same gold earring Syd is wearing in other shots. So Carmy isn't talking to Claire by himself, he's talking to Claire with Syd at his side.
And then, of course, the rest of the scene follows and we see Carmy, facing forward making extreme anime heart eyes at Syd as she cuts the cake, in his last shot of the show:
Facing forwards, facing his future (Syd).
Also highly recommend watching this, which is the same scene scrubbed of music so you can hear the dialogue, almost entirely between Syd and Carmy, much more easily.
To me, this is incredibly conclusive, in the way that the show shows very intentionally and layers in meaning and subtext and symbol and everything else. Claire is the past; Sydney is Carmy's present and his future. It's all here. And I just love that so much.
