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i just think the voir dire in particular is beautiful. i mentioned it briefly last night, but i’m watching the way they shift between barba and carisi, i’m watching the way that carisi says it’s not about charisma, i’m watching the way barba appeals to the jury, to the audience, i’m watching the way they look at each other, weigh each other with looks and words. i’m watching the way we see their pads.

barba’s - colored index cards, huge markers, crumped legal pad pages discarded so easily

carisi’s - tiny post its, light pen strokes, paper balls so small they’re barely noticeable

i’m watching the way it feels kind of like a dance or as warren leight said, a boxing match — but it feels more elegant than that even with the crumpled paper and quick cuts — going round for round, and while carisi says it was the rafael barba show for twelve straight hours, we can’t ignore that carisi was there and weathered the storm.

it builds. and we see barba remove his suit jacket, roll up his sleeves but carisi doesn’t strip down until after, the after effects of a long, long day. what does that say about them? how much have they changed since they saw each other last? carisi is really a lawyer now. hardened. and i think barba has softened - he’s looser, for sure, more smiles, and words come easy once again. carisi calls barba his mentor, and god, that’s been so evident. he went to all of his closings, and now they’re facing off.

do we think carisi stayed buttoned up because if he cracked the walls would come tumbling down? his squad is against him, and even with rollins behind him, he’s a lone fighter against the storm and charisma and charm that is rafael barba? and he doesn’t hold it against him, but he’s come a long way since he sat and watched all of barba’s closing arguments.

do we see how proud of him barba is? we see it in every look, every time he talks to him. “you have an office now,” “you’re really a lawyer,” “let’s see if you learned anything.” does he see carisi making the mistake he did? becoming too hard, seeing black and white, not shades of grey?