The elevator scenes this week were great.  Definitely has a place among my
favorite Passions moments, for a few reasons:

1) The tech work was exquisite.  The lighting, the direction, the camera
work...all of it.  They really did a great job of capturing that claustrophobic
feeling with those shots looking down and taking in the whole elevator from the
ceiling, or the tight shots of Ben and Brooke sitting in a corner, or the high
shots that included the ceiling, which really showed how closed in they were.
The lighting was really flattering, esp. for elevator lighting.  The direction
was commendable too...really great subtle stuff--I loved the shot when Whitney
and Julian talked about the woman he'd lost--Julian filling the foreground with
Whit leaning against the wall over his shoulder.  I would never expect a bunch
of scenes confined to an elevator to be such a springboard for creative tech
work, but it was top-notch here.

2) The acting.  The *acting.*  Some great stuff.  Ben was, of course,
magnificent.  Yet another facet of Good Julian.  We saw him almost as a father
figure, comforting Whitney as if she might have been his own (though I really
don't think she is).  No one can say it wasn't moving when he put his arms
around her.  It's great to know that if he weren't to come out of the elevator
alive, his last moments would have been spent as the *real* Julian.  And
Brooke, whom I'd always pretty much thought of as just 'okay,' really impressed
me, especially on Friday.  Had anyone realized what a big difference there was
between the real Whitney and the Whitney everyone else sees?  Friday when she
started out as the former and then suddenly snapped back to the latter, there
was a big change there, and Brooke handled it with skill, I thought.

3) The writing.  It was GOOD.  THIS is what soap writing should be--pure, 100%
character-driven material.  This proves, once AGAIN, what I have always
maintained--the daily writers can do great work, if only JER would give them a
REASON to.  They can only do so much when they have to write the same stuff
again and again each day.  But when they get something good, they run with it,
and we get stuff like this.  AND the WONDERFUL scenes from the Bennett house.
Yet in the meantime, the Loser scenes--where there was (as usual) no movement
whatsoever--the writing was exactly as good as the situation would allow.  It
was bad.  And who can really blame the writers?  For the last how many weeks
now? the writers have had to basically recycle the same group of scenes each
episode for the Losers: Sheridan gets into a predicament, Luis rages, threatens
to tell Antonio everything, Sheridan pleads not to because it will kill him,
Antonio has another Tony Soprano attack and falls over, we find out it's a
false alarm.  The show doesn't HAVE to be as spotty as it is.  If there were
good events to write for all the time, we'd have a good show.  These scenes
gave that opportunity.  And for once, it wasn't just a Big Disaster Event
arc--it wasn't played up for the tragic drama of two people in a life-or-death
situation--it was played to bring out the humanity and vulnerability of two
adverse people in a bad situation.  It wasn't about the doomed elevator with
two people in it; it was about the two people in the elevator.  These scenes
were a rare instance, a bit of really good post-Bermuda Passions that everyone
should be proud of.

4) For me, a lot of the charm of these scenes was in the little things.  Lately
I've been reading up on communication through body language.  It's really
interesting; I had no idea how much a person can say without even speaking.
The books I've been reading break things down into specific movements and
gestures that mean certain things.  There was a whole lot of this stuff to be
analyzed in these scenes.  When Whit and Jules first found out they were stuck,
they were both facing the front of the elevator.  They didn't look at each
other, not even when speaking.  There was lots of closed-off body
language--stony faces, folded arms, etc.  They were standing as far apart as
possible.  Then as the situation became more dire and they talked more, they
began to turn their heads and look at each other, even if they did look away
again when they were done.  Arms were unfolded, hands came out of pockets.

Just the night before I saw Friday's episode, I'd been reading about how
people, when comfortable, begin shedding layers, no matter how hot or cold the
room is.  It said that in viewing a recording of a business presentation, those
who were taking to the idea presented had first unbottoned their jackets, then
eventually removed them.  It also said that you know you haven't gone over well
if at the end of your presentation everyone's jackets are still buttoned.  As
Whitney and Julian became more comfortable with one another, they began to come
out of their clothes.  Julian unbuttoned his jacket, Whitney unzipped hers.
They moved closer, into each other's personal spaces, and they were completely
facing each other.  The tie was loosened, and I think he may have undone his
collar button.  In time, they both shucked off their jackets altogether, and
soon half of Julian's shirt had come untucked.  Then--unexpectedly--Julian was
holding Whitney and comforting her!

Then they began talking about the woman Julian lost.  Julian broke away and,
for a while, turned his back--he obviously wasn't so comfortable talking about
this.  He turned back to Whitney for a bit, then went and stood in the corner
and faced forward when they started talking about TC.  Julian would not look at
her anymore.  This man, her father, is the man who won Eve's heart.  Julian can
barely face the issue--he certainly couldn't look Whitney in the face while
talking about him.  They talked more about TC.  By this time, Whitney stood
with her back to the wall, tense, her hands behind her, and she wasn't friendly
anymore.  Then Julian offended her--and what's the first thing she did?  She
put her jacket back on!  She left her spot on the wall, and walked across the
elevator just for the purpose of grabbing her jacket.  Why?  What reason could
she have possibly had?  They'd been standing very still, there couldn't have
been any shift in temperature.  She simply didn't feel comfortable anymore.  I
don't know if this was Brooke's idea, or Ben's, or the director's, but it was
terrific, and it made me cheer.  It was REAL.

Really commendable work on everyone's behalf in these scenes this week.

HamActor1
"I just couldn't take time to park..." - Ivy, after crashing her car through
the church, 7/19/01
"You deceitful, duplicitous BITCH!!!" - Julian to Ivy, 1/31/01
"Miguel!  Don't you have a shirt?!" - Sam, 4/16/02