#longmire 5x09

[hoidn]

Longmire + text posts 12/?

[velvet-midnight]

“The truth’s gotta count for something, right?”

“It has to.”

All of us @ this election cycle tbh

[hoidn]

Did you ever read Of Mice and Men?

Longmire 4x05 & 5x09

[hoidn]

Never enough Vic 24/?

Longmire + random moments with Walt V

[hoidn]

Doom and gloom

Longmire 5x09, Continual Soiree

[hoidn]

Private conversations

Longmire + Walt closing the office door to talk to Vic

[hoidn]

Longmire + text posts 3/?

[hoidn]

Longmire + text posts 17/?

[hoidn]

Longmire + text posts 4/?

[hoidn]

Every time Vic says 'shit' on screen 2/3

Longmire season 5

[hoidn]

Everybody Knows

Longmire + the obvious

[hoidn]

Ways to say 'I love you'   |   I · II · III

Longmire + antiphony (& tree has a lot to say, below)

I named this set 'antiphony' because I wanted to show a sort of 'call and response' dynamic, which is both rare and significant between Walt and Vic. When it comes to emotional issues, most of the communication between them is only halfway verbalised; it's a call without a response. In the silence of the other half of the conversation, facial expression, stance, and eye contact assume the role of words. While they do okay as limited signifiers, ultimately they're too open to interpretation when everything is already vague and shrouded in masking layers of meaning. Additionally, there's a lack of reciprocity in a silent reaction; the missing verbal response — whether it be due to fear, anger, or confusion — represents an unwillingness, inability, or even refusal to engage. It's a dead end, a cliff edge, something you can only turn from instead of moving forward. The ride comes to a complete stop, as it were. Call and response requires reciprocity, which, to quote William Easterly, "is really at the heart of equality." That's why, I think, it's so rare prior to season 6: Walt and Vic's personal relationship is consistently unequal.

In seasons 1 through 5 it's almost always Vic doing the calling and Walt's lack of response. Season 6 begins the same way; in the opening of 6x01, she tells him, "You have me." He responds with what I like to call his I am having a lot of feelings I don't know what to do with face. It's a beautiful moment but it's also standard procedure. However! The dynamic switches later in the episode. When Walt says, "I trust you, Vic," he doesn't just mean that he trusts her to do her job. We know that he trusts her with much more than that: not only his physical wellbeing (which, let's face it, he doesn't put much of a priority on), but also his strictly guarded inner life. Vic's the one to whom he confesses his guilt over calling Lizzie Ambrose. Vic's the one he tells about Martha's murder before anyone else, aside from Henry.

His trust is evident in his actions, but it's never been acknowledged aloud before. Walt actually verbalising it is a big deal. He's not just saying that he's confident in her ability to solve the case; he's putting his whole future in her hands. For a man who's demonstrated time and again his determination to do everything his own way and on his own, who can be ruthless in his need for control (or at least the illusion of control), his willingness and even ease in ceding control to Vic is huge.

This is the pivot. This is the moment that alters their direction decisively. Of course, there are other important, more explicitly demonstrative and/or romantic, points along their tragectory, but this is the genesis. This, you might say, is the precursive surrender, to borrow Emil Ludwig's phrasing. Both the 'first' and the 'final surrender' in 6x10 are sourced in this moment.

Vic's lack of vocal response to Walt's statement indicates that the dynamic is well and truly flipped (and the rest of the season bears this out; the inequality remains because she's the wary one, now, unsure she can trust him not to hurt her again). When viewed another way, though, what seem to be two separate conversations in this episode are actually one. Walt's response (I trust you) is a belated answer to Vic's call (You have me). Each of them is confirming the importance of the other in their life. It sets up the underlying emotional arc of season 6, which is them inching towards equality and reciprocity with one another. And that's why most of the call and response moments happen here.

They're trying so hard amidst everything else that's going on in their lives. At this point, they're both sure enough to be able to give of themselves; it's the receiving they continue to have trouble with. That's something they don't manage to achieve until the final episode, but to me it's the reason why the scenes at the cabin are so beautiful and powerful. Walt spends the season walking around leaking emotions like he just can't hold them in anymore, although he's still taking baby steps when it comes to acting on those emotions. It's a necessary waiting period, though, because it allows Vic the time she needs to trust that if she puts her faith in his feelings again she's not going to be rejected. That sense of coming full circle, of completion, is one of the things I love about the whole season. It's not just about Walt and Vic getting together at last; it's also about the way in which it happens and how emotionally satisfying it is because of the care that's taken to build to the moment when they can finally meet each other as equals.

[hoidn]

So is he your type?

Longmire 5x09, Continual Soiree

[hoidn]

How are you still single?

Longmire 5x09 | 5x10

[hoidn]

Incorrect Quotes (8/?)

Longmire + Gazing

[hoidn]

Never enough Vic 4/?

Longmire + random moments from season 5