the way aj was talking to becky in that segment makes me so insane. it's like she's been just playing around all this time, but then she SAW the look on becky's face, and understood exactly what was going on in her mind in that moment, and suddenly she just. switched to aggressively reminding becky that she's proud of her. this woman that has openly and loudly hated her, attacked her so many times, and all aj can see is a little girl. a little girl, no older than 12 maybe, lashing out because she's so scared and she's so insecure and she can tell she's losing and she can tell nobody likes her anymore and she doesn't know why. becky stares her in the eyes so full of hatred that it's seeping from her form, and all aj can see is that desperation, despair, misery; how badly she's hurting, and more than that, how badly she's hurting for aj. for her approval, for her praise. aj lee is the blueprint, the ideal, that seemingly unattainable peak that becky's always reaching for. aj KNOWS that no matter how much she hates her, no matter how far she's willing to go to hurt her, a simple "i'm proud of you." from aj lee will always hit becky somewhere deep and soft and vulnerable and pathetic.
so make no mistake, aj telling becky she's proud of her is cruel. it's mean. it shows her just how deep into her core aj's already seen, how little power she has in this situation, when aj can break her apart with something as simple as "i'm proud of you."
