Looking at their recent photoshoots and videos, I can't shake this feeling that the dynamic has somehow shifted.
For years, it always seemed like SH was the one completely captivated, the one whose admiration was impossible to miss, who looked at CB as if she hung the moon. That was such a familiar part of their story that I almost took it for granted.
Now, though, I find myself noticing the opposite. The lingering glances, the little touches, the way she gravitates toward him... and for the first time, it feels like CB might be the one wearing her heart a little more openly.
Maybe I'm completely wrong, and of course none of us really knows what goes on behind the scenes. But sometimes I wonder if something changed along the way. If after so many years of waiting, hoping, and living in the in-between, SH simply found a different kind of peace with it all. Not because he stopped caring, but because eventually even the deepest feelings learn how to quiet themselves when they have nowhere to go.
That's what makes it feel bittersweet to me. I've been around since the Jess's blog days, and I remember how utterly enchanted he seemed by her. Seeing that spark look softer now, while she appears more openly drawn to him than ever, gives me this strange sense of nostalgia, like watching the tide turn after years of flowing in the same direction.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But lately that's the feeling I can't quite shake.
Finally a fun topic to discuss, and I’d really love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on it too.
I’ll start by saying I completely agree. I just don’t think this is new. If anything, it was even more noticeable during the 7B promo than it is now.
For anyone who’s forgotten, in 7B Sam did everything short of sitting on his own hands just to make sure he wouldn’t, God forbid, touch Caitriona. He also made a real effort to avoid any eye contact with her.
Honestly, if we hadn’t gotten the red dress shoot, that entire promo run might have ended on a much more sour note.
And she was the exact opposite extreme. She looked at him like he was the sun. She touched him constantly. Squeezed his bicep more than once. Rested her head on him. Used his thigh as an eraser. And again, the red dress shoot… have we already mentioned how understanding Tony is?
So to me, what we’ve seen in this current promo is actually a softer version of what was happening back then. The difference now is that Sam also has this layer of stress, the blinking, and the general sense that he might not be in a great emotional or mental place.
But the truth always lives in the way they look at each other. It’s a look they don’t give anyone else. It lives in how comfortable they are with each other’s bodies, in the way her hand disappears into his hair like it’s the most natural thing in the world, in the way he watches her when she speaks and the way she bites her lip when he speaks. The truth is in the small things: the little knee squeeze, the way he stares at her lips like they’re the most interesting thing in the universe, the way his hand automatically finds her back, the way he looks back and waits for her. The truth is in the million tiny, authentic moments, not the big picture and not the talking points.
I do feel a shift in the dynamic. Caitriona seems to allow herself to be more open, while Sam has been playing a character any time he’s on camera for the last few years. A character that, if I’m being honest, can be pretty hard to tolerate. But still a character. We only see the real Sam in brief flashes, and in those flashes it’s obvious there’s a lot of love there.
