#obtheory

Messenger: ‘His altruism saved you’. 

Delphine: ‘That wasn’t what it was’. 

Going back to last year, I interpreted this exchange to signify a shift for Delphine, one that ultimately came down to her saying, ‘love saved me’. To be honest, it could still very well be the case, and I mean, I wouldn’t complain because that’s some ‘pit of the soul’ kinda love right there. 

But now after having watched 5x01, I’m feeling differently about that exchange. To me, in 4x10, Delphine was already rather defiant and dismissive of the Messenger but in 5x10, I feel like her animosity towards him was tenfold. And after watching this episode, it’s so apparent that there is something big going on with her there, something that she seems extremely conflicted, concerned and consumed by. 

So now, I’m thinking perhaps something was used on Delphine in her treatment, something that she is perhaps afraid of. She clearly believes in the science happening around her, she says it’s real, but she clearly does not believe in the cause. Think back to that exchange with the little girl seeking ‘The Fountain’ to cure her cancer. The look on Delphine’s face was troubled and we’ve seen that kind of expression before especially in instances where she has been burdened by information she is made to keep secret. Whatever this ‘Fountain’ is, whatever it is set to achieve, (prolongevity, eternal youth, perfect health etc etc), she is clearly not on par with it. 

So, now going allllll the way back to that 4x10 exchange, I feel as though Delphine may have been, against her consent, treated by science that she does not believe in or that she has come to discover can be damaging. 

The line ‘his altruism saved you’, implies Westmoreland saved Delphine to no advantageous gain of his own; that, by definition is what altruism is. How can we believe that though? At first I assumed altruism might have be the case because she is somehow directly linked to him, through lineage or something but it doesn’t add up; when she is summoned to meet him, her demeanour shifts instantly to one of skepticism and perhaps fear. Rather, what Westmoreland probably considers altruism, is in fact his definition of perfecting the human race; a - this isn’t just for me, this is for us all - kinda thought process. It isn’t a matter of saving one individual life but rather, selflessly sharing and applying his science to bettering mankind. Delphine’s interpretation though, is that he has used his science, his methods, his rationale on her, against her wishes, to propel his science further outwards. That in itself, is not an altruistic gesture. That, is robbing her of humanity, autonomy and freedom. 

So, here’s the deal about oppression.  It’s insidious.  And we, as queer folk are often asked, or even unconsciously choose, to be complicit in our own oppression.  One of the ways this happens is that we become spokespeople for an entire community.  And we sometimes feel like we have to come to the aid of the very people who are oppressing us because maybe they just happen to be oppressing us a little bit less than that other guy.

So, sweet Jordan’s response here rings so hollow for me, and I actually feel bad that he was put in a place (or took the place) to talk about this as the “token” gay on the panel.  In fact, I feel like he fell into a trap that he, himself pointed out in an earlier interview (at 1:35) in which he roasts a reporter for saying “as a gay man, I’d be offended” by replying “that’s not fair, because you’re not and you don’t understand.” Because I don’t think he understands fully the way lesbians get played for ratings constantly.  I hate to break it to him, but it’s not an attack to critique the Bury Your Gays trope.  ESPECIALLY when your writers have acknowledged its existence.

You don’t get a free pass just because you’ve created characters who are more than their sexualities.  In fact, that’s what makes it all the more heartbreaking.  The creators made a multi-faceted character that fans grew to love, who ALSO WAS QUEER.  And having her be multifaceted and not having her sexuality be “the most important thing about her.” is important, but guess what?  In this particular character’s arc, especially this season, it WAS the most important thing about her, because that’s how she was written. The viewers are told that all of the sacrifices she’s making- the drastic personality change, etc. is because of her love of Cosima. 

So yeah, I’m going to go ahead and critique that through this lens, because that’s how the writers wrote her.  She wasn’t a scientist who happened to be gay this season, she was a queer woman, on the verge of a mental break (also a trope), trying to live up to a promise she made to the woman she loved. That relationship was central to all of her decisions. I have to consider it as the most important thing about her in this moment, because it was the driver of her character.

I still believe that Delphine will live, because I simply cannot fathom that they’d be so tone-deaf as to treat the trope- that they’ve even acknowledged is a thing-and their writing choices so flippantly.  I don’t want them to be dudebros of that caliber, not when they’ve given us so many strong female characters.