i do find the contrast between body language/nonverbal communication and verbal communication with these two so fascinating.
especially as carmy and sydney navigate each other in a space where there's clearly something that exists between them that one, or both of them, aren't conscious of yet.
as they struggle so significantly with verbal communication, we see the way they use nonverbal communication via their bodies and mannerisms and facial expressions to convey how they feel and what they want.
what sticks out to me is the way that carmy shakes and nods his head when he and sydney are having a serious, intimate or important conversation.
as if he knows himself well enough to know that his verbal agreement or response would fall short so he simply moves his head in affirmation. letting his energy convey the rest.
this is also part of why he uses his gaze and eye contact the way that he does. he's speaking to her without words.
they often stand so close to one another. like... all the time.
in many of their scenes, one could say this is a stylistic or director's choice for the shot but that makes zero sense because the shots with everyone else don't have that level of physical closeness except for some of the obvious kitchen (behind!) scenes. carmy and sydney's closeness is almost tactile even though they only touch a handful of times.
which is why the wall tear down scene is so amusing because they literally had no reason to be in each others face like that.
carmy got in her space, looked at the demo/the guys before he turned back to sydney, but she only moved away from him after they made eye contact and she said "yeah, exactly".
as if it was super normal for him to be that close to her, whether he was looking at her or not.
the under the table moment is incredibly intimate for a number of reasons. they're already incredibly close because there's not a lot of space under there, but not only do they situate and move their bodies within the confines of that space notating physical proximity, carmy reaches out and fiddles with her side of the table, which posits her energetically directly underneath him. not just beside him.
conceptually, that is almost the closest he could be to her without actively touching her.
nevermind that moments later his fidgeting hand starts to quicken when she looks up at him and they have that moment of prolonged eye contact.
again, a form of nonverbal communication practically shouting. she can't see his hand, but we do.
the wordlessness of that particular moment, especially after they had managed to say some of the most vulnerable, affirming and comforting phrases they'd ever uttered to one another up to that point (their best verbal communication yet), is pretty extraordinary.
when they're talking about the veal fat in s1, and she's reaching over her head and says the right answer and he turns to look at her, they're SO physically close.
when they're cooking at his apt and he's cutting tape, he's so physically close to her, his shoulder is practically leaning into hers when she teases him about the chef's whites.
even in the meeting with cicero, if you look at the three of them sitting behind the table, sydney is closer to carmy than nat and carmy has his arm out, mere centimeters from sydney's elbow.
before they start their back and forth about stars, when sydney says "we're going to be better", their arms are practically touching.
even when she's walking out after saying goodnight and carmy gitches, she walks so close to him to leave. his body fully turns to accommodate and follow her energy, she almost literally physically brushes past him.
claire kind of moves out of the way but sydney walks into carmy's space and he moves his focus/attention with her as she exits.
if you watch it happen, he acquiesces to her energy and presence like a human revolving door. again, nonverbal communication.
the doorframe isn't that narrow. she could have easily said whatever polite thing to claire and not gotten THAT close to carmy to say "i'm saying goodnight."
there are a bunch of examples of their physical closeness that doesn't make sense outside of gravitational pull, a desire to be that close to one another and nonverbal communication.
sydney's body language after the under the table moment and before receiving her gift is also a huge tell, even though it's not directed at, or meant to be communicative towards, him. she's clearly impacted by what occurred.
of the two, i think sydney is the closest to realizing that what exists between them is far beyond professional likeness, purpose or partnership.
the way she's obviously trying not to get mad at him when she says "well tell claire thanks then", you physically can see her stuffing something down.
even carmy can see it, he says something about it. sydney actually does this alot with carmy specifically, ayo is so damn skilled at it.
we've seen her get mean or be reactionary with richie, tina and marcus.
but never carmy. even when she walked out on him s1, in the midst of a highly emotionally volatile scene, she didn't raise her voice.
that's why she doesn't argue with or lash out at carmy, even though it's often warranted, she doesn't want to hurt him. doesn't want to make him feel bad. doesn't want to be angry or annoyed with him.
but why? she has no problem being upfront and direct and again, even argumentative if she needs to be. but never with carmy.
to me, it seems like she doesn't want to display too much emotion with or in front of him.
but why? does the range and depth of those emotions scare her? are they messy? are they warranted? are they illuminating?
sydney is very protective of carmy (and of herself emotionally). see how she reacts when richie talks shit or when her father questions her trust in him. or even when nat makes that snide remark after he gets locked in the walk in.
she cares a lot about carmy's emotional and mental fragility and feelings.
when she came back to "get her check" they don't hash it out or fight. he just stares at her, with this unbridled relief that he can't articulate but we all see it! it's so obvious he can't even start speaking right away.
and then he launches into talking about the dining space for a new restaurant and she forgot why she was mad.
it's like when the person you have a crush on does something cute or sweet and the dumb or mean thing they did right before it completely leaves your mind.
none of this is written in the dialogue of this show. it's all nonverbal communication, toward each other or to us, the audience.
baratheonpilled
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
kaledo-art
gummygunk
