zee

Heated Rivalry — 1x06 ⤷ PHONE BLOWJOB

(sources below)

at the bar where shane meets rose, and he tries to order a ginger ale, and the bartender is surprised

not even judgmental! just surprised. he even says they do have it, and i think goes to grab some for shane.

but his little moment of surprise makes shane remember that you're not supposed to order ginger ale at a bar, that that's weird, and he doesn't really understand why that is

he knows that being weird is not allowed, though. so he asks for a beer, whatever beer, because he knows that's the normalest thing he could possibly do, that's what Men Like To Drink.

it's just such a small detail. and we see it happen more than once to shane. it happens also with the waiter at the restaurant when he's having lunch with his parents who's visibly surprised and a little snobby when he asks for a ginger ale and offers sparkling water instead. and again shane just says it's fine.

everywhere shane goes, he gets these little signals that the things that he wants aren't allowed because they're not normal. and it's obvious that he doesn't understand why, which makes sense because there's no fucking logic to why it's okay to order a coke but not a ginger ale. but he's learned to deal with it by just accepting that he must have missed something, he must have done something wrong, and he should just ignore what he wants, maybe decide he doesn't want it at all, so that no one knows that he's breaking the rule of normal even though the rule of normal is arbitrary and stupid and often applies to things that matter as little as what kind of drink you want to order at a bar. even when the signal is just a little bit of surprise from some guy behind a bar. even when it's about a fucking ginger ale.

Sophokles, from Elektra (trans. Anne Carson)

1. did you eat the baby?

2. are you schizophrenic, louis?

3. and then what?

4. fuck, man, are you the zodiac killer?