[DW] Ep. S4x08 - "Silence in the Library"
Jun. 6th, 2008 06:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiI guess I'll stop being so damned lazy and finally get around to posting this (because there's nothing like taking two page of notes BY HAND and not doing anything with them):
My blow-by-blow thoughts on the eighth Doctor Who episode this series, Silence in the Library. Written in actual paragraphs and such this time. Only for Moffat (even if he's made me all nervous this time around).
Okay, first things first: the Library (an entire world of books! so big it just needs a "the!") is absolutely stunning. The first few minutes - the overhead shots with the girl, the shots from behind the Doctor and Donna - they're all just gorgeous.
It would have been so easy to have made the Library nothing but towers with windows through which you could see millions of books - that seems to be a thing with CGI these days, the idea that simply adding as much detail as the computer can handle, massive amounts of tiny detail, will give the image the reality and impact it needs. Not always so, and here we have lots of sky, and spires only faintly visible in the distance. It has scope. I could stare at screencaps of this world for ages.
So to begin the episode, we establish the mystery of who the little girl is, and why DoctorDonna are in her head.
Something which struck me just now is that I have not seen a single person suggest that this is somehow not the case. I've certainly seen people offering that the GIRL is actually in the LIBRARY...but NO ONE has suggested something completely different, such as...the girl is just getting psychic visions of the library or somesuch. Granted, later dialogue would seem to solidify the idea that this girl is somehow intrinsically connected to the Library; but even prior to that point in people's reaction posts, I did not see any other idea considered. Maybe it's just because the girl is SO insistent that this is HER LIBRARY?
Anyway. Mystery girl in therapy with a, "Dr. Moon." (Noting the name here for a reason.)
Following the credits then, we have what WOULD have been a perfectly smooth transition between, "The Unicorn and the Wasp," and "Silence," ("Books! People never really stop loving books,") were it not for later plot developments. DoctorDonna step out of the TARDIS into an expansive room, although why it's so large is one of the few things about this set design that still puzzles me, since it seems to be empty of nearly anything except a reception desk. Presumably, it should be full of people? I mean, there's not really even any bookshelves, or computer terminals or whatever. Maybe this will be cleared up later.
The Doctor leads Donna outside, and we have what is, in my opinion, one of the best exchanges these two have had yet:
Doctor: We're near the equator, so...*holds up finger* BIOGRAPHIES! [Donna jumps.] I love biographies!
Donna: Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end.
Doctor: You need a good death! Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size!
Donna: *picks up book*
Doctor: Oiya! *snatches book back* Spoilers!
Donna: What?
Doctor: These books are from your future. You don't want to read ahead, spoil all the surprises. No peeking at the end.
Donna: Isn't traveling with you one big spoiler?
Doctor: I...try to keep you away from...major plot developments. Which...to be honest, I seem to be very bad at, 'cuz...you know what, this is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone?
And I'm quoting the whole damn bit, 'cuz...you know what, I'll bet my right pinky that EVERY SINGLE WORD of that exchange (which has been seen mainly as a shout-out to fans or a dig at fandom, depending on who you're talking to) has underlying meaning within the context of this story. Not just the "spoilers," part. All of it means something.
So then we get the Doctor and Donna trying to determine why there are apparently billions of lifeforms on the planet but no other humanoids. And Donna has the same first thought that I do, i.e. the books. For a moment, I think this episode might go terribly Pagemaster on us, but then it's played off as a joke. Again, I think this joking exchange was put in for more than one reason.
After receiving the creepiest telegram ever via. one of the "Nodes" ("count the shadows, CLICK SNICK,"), DoctorDonna proceed into the shadowy stacks. Good plan, I like.
The Doctor finally explains that he received a note on his psychic paper, which Donna mocks ("Call for help...with a kiss?"). Personally, I think she could be spending more time mocking the greenscreen bookshelves behind her and the Doctor's heads, but that would be calling attention to the fact that the production team spent so much money on the pretty misty spires that they didn't have enough left over to CGI some backing on the bookshelves. OOPS BUDGET FAIL LOL. I guess we'll just pretend it's green velvet or something; that would be appropriate for a library.
Nevermind Library!Girl; can we get an answer to the mystery of how people send the Doctor messages on his psychic paper? Martha should be pissed she had to get herself a new mobile.
So then the scary stuff starts with the lights going out set by set. Very classic, and I can't criticize; there's really not much that's actually scarier than lights mysteriously going out on you. Team Awesome Hair run like hell, naturally, and end up escaping into another room by having Donna kick open the door, as the sonic thingy apparently doesn't do wood and the Doctor doesn't do concrete solutions.
(Slabs of marble, yes. Wood, no. Whoniverse, never change.)
So now we come full circle to the moment prior to the credits, i.e. DoctorDonna breaking into Library!Girl's Library. Except that from their point of view, she's a [living] security camera. Hmmm.
Not much happens for a few minutes; the Doctor just tortures cam/girl with the thingy and Donna freaks out when she finds out the faces of the Nodes are actual faces donated by the deceased ("It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like?!"). But THEN we come to my favourite moment of the episode (OH GOD SO SHALLOW), the part where the Doc realizes Donna is backing into a fresh shadow and grabs her. And holds her, long enough that she smacks his arms ("Hands!"). I totally didn't back this up a few times, because I just couldn't wait to find out about the shadows, really.
Then the Doctor figures out what's going on, although not before yelling that he's too old, his head's too full of stuff, "I NEED A BIGGER HEAD!" Which might just possibly be the best line ever, becaused I lol'ed and backed it up and lol'ed again.
Aaaand the library being "breached" and all:
Enter River Song.
Hoboy. Have I got issues with this character. And by extension...Moffat, I hate to say. But I'll get to that very shortly.
The Doctor reveals that the monster this time around is the "Vashta Nerada" (which is how most sources seem to be spelling it), which gets its own cool theme song. Dangit, I think this theme is better than the one the Daleks get, what gives?
Then we get the "pretty boy," exchange, another one of my favourites, because, a) someone actually called the Doctor that in canon, b) he pretends not to know it's him (wanker!), and c) Donna is forced to tell him he's pretty ("Ooh, that came out a bit quick,").
Okay, back to River Song.
First of all, the Doc is terribly slow here on the timey-wimey, "This is where we met, for you," uptake. For pete's sake, Doc, she's got a TARDIS-shaped diary, get with the program. I'm confused as to why he doesn't take this more in stride, even given the romantic subtext.
And my god, fandom! Stop saying there is no evidence of anything romantic here. Even Rose didn't get to scruffle Ten's sideburns.
On the (again shallow) plus side, it's kind of hot, even if I don't like River Song much. And the Doctor/Donna subtext here gets terribly blatant; in fact, I'm so used to finding non-shippy interpretations with this pairing that I gave Donna more credit than Moffat did for how quickly she picks up on the situation. As much as I saw subtext in my head, I figured that the next thing Donna would say to the Doctor is, "So where are you planning to drop ME off?" In fact, she doesn't seem to quite get that far along the thought process until later in the episode.
Which makes the reaction shots of Donna potentially VERY shippy for this series. Interesting.
People have criticized this as being OOC for Donna, but they're forgetting that Donna is not all kick-butt, all episode. She frequently has softer moments, and I can still see her being crushed (even in a non-shippy way) to see another woman getting this close to the Doctor in a way that clearly excludes her...particularly when Donna has no intentions of leaving the TARDIS right now.
However Moffat still doesn't really use her much...not that this is odd for him.
Okay, skipping along a bit through the rest, as it's mostly just chills and thrills:
Miss Evangelista kicks the bucket. The fake plastic skeleton she leaves behind does, as some have pointed out, looks like the ones that hang in biology classrooms everywhere, and that seems like an oversight from the props department. Surely we should see bite marks, scratches, SOMETHING.
Still, the moment where we see not just the skeleton, but the skeleton plus the shredded spacesuit absolutely chilled me to the bone. It's THAT sort of implication of some terrible, faceless foe that Moffat does really well.
And Donna get her obligatory compassionate!companion moment which...I'm getting cynical with exhaustion here or something...seems like it was thrown in just to give Donna something to do which Moffat deems her worthy of. Which is not to say that it's not IC - it's note-perfect, in fact.
AND THE DOCTOR. Trying to zap her to the TARDIS! He's figures she's just going to sit there waiting to see if he gets back alive? And of course, she's captured - in a sense. (Well, we know she can't really be dead.) The Doctor should know by now that his companions are nearly always better off with him, and they resent being sent away, anyway.
So we end up with the truly frightening (seriously, that was creepy as hell - did they HAVE to make her look so dead? the other Nodes didn't look that dead) Donna!Node for the Doctor to stroke and nearly sob over. Which has never seemed less appealing. Seriously, ew.
Oooh, cliffhanger, etc.
Now. River Song. Moffat.
What the HECK is up with this character?! Her mere existence is making me worry just a bit about Moffat's reign as a king.
First of all, as I stated, this is not the first time Moffat's underused a companion in favour of his own creation. In fact, he does it quite often, while people fall in love left, right and center with HIS original characters:
-In "Girl in the Fireplace," when Rose spends most of the episode stranded on the spaceship and standing around while the Doctor is going giddy over Reinette.
-In "Blink" when Martha is reduced to sniping at the Doctor (who at least gets to direct Sally) inside a TV set. (Meanwhile, Sally ends up with Larry, sits by the bedside of a dying old man who apparently still clearly remembers hitting on her, and her friend Kathy gets chased down by the first guy she meets when she's sent to the past.)
-And let's not forget his first two-parter. Admittedly, Nancy was a brilliant character and Jack didn't have anyone in canon fall for him. However, the fact that Moffat created the Whoniverse's biggest S(t)ue for the entirety of fandom to swoon over does not escape my notice.
And now this...Donna is literally sidelined, while the Doctor spends the episode time with a very forward woman who claims to be special enough to him that in the future, the Doctor gave her his sonic. Did anyone else cringe at that part?
This REALLY makes me wonder what sort of companion Moffat is going to dream up for the next series. And even if she's an amazing companion (because I seriously doubt we'll see a male companion under Moffat), is she going to get the screen time and credit she deserves? Or will Moffat stop sticking his own creations in when he's running the whole show?
Now, some people found River Song obnoxious. Personally, I think - I hope, anyway - that's she not "normally," as obnoxious as she seems. She seemed emotionally rocked by the idea that the Doctor does not yet know her, and to me, some of her performance from that point on (the constant references to their history) read as her trying to gain some control of a situation in which she feels she is not in control.
I don't know that she's "evil." That remains to be seen. I think she could be played entirely straight.
I want to have more faith in Moffat though, and I am hoping like hell that at least some of these issues are clarified or balanced by the end of this two-parter. I'm wondering if the fact that "Dr. Moon," and "River Song," seem to be such similar names will in fact mean that River Song does not actually exist. (I won't offer my speculation on what she could be instead.) There are ways Moffat can fix this situation, and I really hope he does.
And I hope to GOD this entry doesn't have a lot of errors, because I really don't have time to fix them right now.
My blow-by-blow thoughts on the eighth Doctor Who episode this series, Silence in the Library. Written in actual paragraphs and such this time. Only for Moffat (even if he's made me all nervous this time around).
Okay, first things first: the Library (an entire world of books! so big it just needs a "the!") is absolutely stunning. The first few minutes - the overhead shots with the girl, the shots from behind the Doctor and Donna - they're all just gorgeous.
It would have been so easy to have made the Library nothing but towers with windows through which you could see millions of books - that seems to be a thing with CGI these days, the idea that simply adding as much detail as the computer can handle, massive amounts of tiny detail, will give the image the reality and impact it needs. Not always so, and here we have lots of sky, and spires only faintly visible in the distance. It has scope. I could stare at screencaps of this world for ages.
So to begin the episode, we establish the mystery of who the little girl is, and why DoctorDonna are in her head.
Something which struck me just now is that I have not seen a single person suggest that this is somehow not the case. I've certainly seen people offering that the GIRL is actually in the LIBRARY...but NO ONE has suggested something completely different, such as...the girl is just getting psychic visions of the library or somesuch. Granted, later dialogue would seem to solidify the idea that this girl is somehow intrinsically connected to the Library; but even prior to that point in people's reaction posts, I did not see any other idea considered. Maybe it's just because the girl is SO insistent that this is HER LIBRARY?
Anyway. Mystery girl in therapy with a, "Dr. Moon." (Noting the name here for a reason.)
Following the credits then, we have what WOULD have been a perfectly smooth transition between, "The Unicorn and the Wasp," and "Silence," ("Books! People never really stop loving books,") were it not for later plot developments. DoctorDonna step out of the TARDIS into an expansive room, although why it's so large is one of the few things about this set design that still puzzles me, since it seems to be empty of nearly anything except a reception desk. Presumably, it should be full of people? I mean, there's not really even any bookshelves, or computer terminals or whatever. Maybe this will be cleared up later.
The Doctor leads Donna outside, and we have what is, in my opinion, one of the best exchanges these two have had yet:
Doctor: We're near the equator, so...*holds up finger* BIOGRAPHIES! [Donna jumps.] I love biographies!
Donna: Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end.
Doctor: You need a good death! Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size!
Donna: *picks up book*
Doctor: Oiya! *snatches book back* Spoilers!
Donna: What?
Doctor: These books are from your future. You don't want to read ahead, spoil all the surprises. No peeking at the end.
Donna: Isn't traveling with you one big spoiler?
Doctor: I...try to keep you away from...major plot developments. Which...to be honest, I seem to be very bad at, 'cuz...you know what, this is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone?
And I'm quoting the whole damn bit, 'cuz...you know what, I'll bet my right pinky that EVERY SINGLE WORD of that exchange (which has been seen mainly as a shout-out to fans or a dig at fandom, depending on who you're talking to) has underlying meaning within the context of this story. Not just the "spoilers," part. All of it means something.
So then we get the Doctor and Donna trying to determine why there are apparently billions of lifeforms on the planet but no other humanoids. And Donna has the same first thought that I do, i.e. the books. For a moment, I think this episode might go terribly Pagemaster on us, but then it's played off as a joke. Again, I think this joking exchange was put in for more than one reason.
After receiving the creepiest telegram ever via. one of the "Nodes" ("count the shadows, CLICK SNICK,"), DoctorDonna proceed into the shadowy stacks. Good plan, I like.
The Doctor finally explains that he received a note on his psychic paper, which Donna mocks ("Call for help...with a kiss?"). Personally, I think she could be spending more time mocking the greenscreen bookshelves behind her and the Doctor's heads, but that would be calling attention to the fact that the production team spent so much money on the pretty misty spires that they didn't have enough left over to CGI some backing on the bookshelves. OOPS BUDGET FAIL LOL. I guess we'll just pretend it's green velvet or something; that would be appropriate for a library.
Nevermind Library!Girl; can we get an answer to the mystery of how people send the Doctor messages on his psychic paper? Martha should be pissed she had to get herself a new mobile.
So then the scary stuff starts with the lights going out set by set. Very classic, and I can't criticize; there's really not much that's actually scarier than lights mysteriously going out on you. Team Awesome Hair run like hell, naturally, and end up escaping into another room by having Donna kick open the door, as the sonic thingy apparently doesn't do wood and the Doctor doesn't do concrete solutions.
(Slabs of marble, yes. Wood, no. Whoniverse, never change.)
So now we come full circle to the moment prior to the credits, i.e. DoctorDonna breaking into Library!Girl's Library. Except that from their point of view, she's a [living] security camera. Hmmm.
Not much happens for a few minutes; the Doctor just tortures cam/girl with the thingy and Donna freaks out when she finds out the faces of the Nodes are actual faces donated by the deceased ("It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like?!"). But THEN we come to my favourite moment of the episode (OH GOD SO SHALLOW), the part where the Doc realizes Donna is backing into a fresh shadow and grabs her. And holds her, long enough that she smacks his arms ("Hands!"). I totally didn't back this up a few times, because I just couldn't wait to find out about the shadows, really.
Then the Doctor figures out what's going on, although not before yelling that he's too old, his head's too full of stuff, "I NEED A BIGGER HEAD!" Which might just possibly be the best line ever, becaused I lol'ed and backed it up and lol'ed again.
Aaaand the library being "breached" and all:
Enter River Song.
Hoboy. Have I got issues with this character. And by extension...Moffat, I hate to say. But I'll get to that very shortly.
The Doctor reveals that the monster this time around is the "Vashta Nerada" (which is how most sources seem to be spelling it), which gets its own cool theme song. Dangit, I think this theme is better than the one the Daleks get, what gives?
Then we get the "pretty boy," exchange, another one of my favourites, because, a) someone actually called the Doctor that in canon, b) he pretends not to know it's him (wanker!), and c) Donna is forced to tell him he's pretty ("Ooh, that came out a bit quick,").
Okay, back to River Song.
First of all, the Doc is terribly slow here on the timey-wimey, "This is where we met, for you," uptake. For pete's sake, Doc, she's got a TARDIS-shaped diary, get with the program. I'm confused as to why he doesn't take this more in stride, even given the romantic subtext.
And my god, fandom! Stop saying there is no evidence of anything romantic here. Even Rose didn't get to scruffle Ten's sideburns.
On the (again shallow) plus side, it's kind of hot, even if I don't like River Song much. And the Doctor/Donna subtext here gets terribly blatant; in fact, I'm so used to finding non-shippy interpretations with this pairing that I gave Donna more credit than Moffat did for how quickly she picks up on the situation. As much as I saw subtext in my head, I figured that the next thing Donna would say to the Doctor is, "So where are you planning to drop ME off?" In fact, she doesn't seem to quite get that far along the thought process until later in the episode.
Which makes the reaction shots of Donna potentially VERY shippy for this series. Interesting.
People have criticized this as being OOC for Donna, but they're forgetting that Donna is not all kick-butt, all episode. She frequently has softer moments, and I can still see her being crushed (even in a non-shippy way) to see another woman getting this close to the Doctor in a way that clearly excludes her...particularly when Donna has no intentions of leaving the TARDIS right now.
However Moffat still doesn't really use her much...not that this is odd for him.
Okay, skipping along a bit through the rest, as it's mostly just chills and thrills:
Miss Evangelista kicks the bucket. The fake plastic skeleton she leaves behind does, as some have pointed out, looks like the ones that hang in biology classrooms everywhere, and that seems like an oversight from the props department. Surely we should see bite marks, scratches, SOMETHING.
Still, the moment where we see not just the skeleton, but the skeleton plus the shredded spacesuit absolutely chilled me to the bone. It's THAT sort of implication of some terrible, faceless foe that Moffat does really well.
And Donna get her obligatory compassionate!companion moment which...I'm getting cynical with exhaustion here or something...seems like it was thrown in just to give Donna something to do which Moffat deems her worthy of. Which is not to say that it's not IC - it's note-perfect, in fact.
AND THE DOCTOR. Trying to zap her to the TARDIS! He's figures she's just going to sit there waiting to see if he gets back alive? And of course, she's captured - in a sense. (Well, we know she can't really be dead.) The Doctor should know by now that his companions are nearly always better off with him, and they resent being sent away, anyway.
So we end up with the truly frightening (seriously, that was creepy as hell - did they HAVE to make her look so dead? the other Nodes didn't look that dead) Donna!Node for the Doctor to stroke and nearly sob over. Which has never seemed less appealing. Seriously, ew.
Oooh, cliffhanger, etc.
Now. River Song. Moffat.
What the HECK is up with this character?! Her mere existence is making me worry just a bit about Moffat's reign as a king.
First of all, as I stated, this is not the first time Moffat's underused a companion in favour of his own creation. In fact, he does it quite often, while people fall in love left, right and center with HIS original characters:
-In "Girl in the Fireplace," when Rose spends most of the episode stranded on the spaceship and standing around while the Doctor is going giddy over Reinette.
-In "Blink" when Martha is reduced to sniping at the Doctor (who at least gets to direct Sally) inside a TV set. (Meanwhile, Sally ends up with Larry, sits by the bedside of a dying old man who apparently still clearly remembers hitting on her, and her friend Kathy gets chased down by the first guy she meets when she's sent to the past.)
-And let's not forget his first two-parter. Admittedly, Nancy was a brilliant character and Jack didn't have anyone in canon fall for him. However, the fact that Moffat created the Whoniverse's biggest S(t)ue for the entirety of fandom to swoon over does not escape my notice.
And now this...Donna is literally sidelined, while the Doctor spends the episode time with a very forward woman who claims to be special enough to him that in the future, the Doctor gave her his sonic. Did anyone else cringe at that part?
This REALLY makes me wonder what sort of companion Moffat is going to dream up for the next series. And even if she's an amazing companion (because I seriously doubt we'll see a male companion under Moffat), is she going to get the screen time and credit she deserves? Or will Moffat stop sticking his own creations in when he's running the whole show?
Now, some people found River Song obnoxious. Personally, I think - I hope, anyway - that's she not "normally," as obnoxious as she seems. She seemed emotionally rocked by the idea that the Doctor does not yet know her, and to me, some of her performance from that point on (the constant references to their history) read as her trying to gain some control of a situation in which she feels she is not in control.
I don't know that she's "evil." That remains to be seen. I think she could be played entirely straight.
I want to have more faith in Moffat though, and I am hoping like hell that at least some of these issues are clarified or balanced by the end of this two-parter. I'm wondering if the fact that "Dr. Moon," and "River Song," seem to be such similar names will in fact mean that River Song does not actually exist. (I won't offer my speculation on what she could be instead.) There are ways Moffat can fix this situation, and I really hope he does.
And I hope to GOD this entry doesn't have a lot of errors, because I really don't have time to fix them right now.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-06 02:29 pm (UTC)I've not read any speculations, because I want to stay as unspoiled as possible, and you never know what spoilers the people who offer speculations have read. That said, I don't get how people would mainly think that the Library is in the girl's head, and not that her non-descriptive flat is actually an imaginary environment she built for herself, probably while her mind and body are being held captive somewhere else. Not gonna say more; I wrote more about this in my post on my journal.
Also, where's her mummy? Why is she with Daddy? *wild speculation start* Is River Song her mummy? And maybe Daddy her step-dad? It would explain why Little Girl looks like she could so be DT's daughter. I would not approve of this development, though. *wild speculation end*
Martha should be pissed she had to get herself a new mobile.
Maybe you need fancy 51st century technology to page the Doctor on his psychic paper. So far, only the Face of Boe and River Song have done that, no?
Surely we should see bite marks, scratches, SOMETHING.
Not necessarily. There are ways to strip flesh off bones without damaging the bone. Maybe the Vashda Nerada use very focused sonic waves.
THEY SHOULD BE A LITTLE LESS SONIC.
*clears throat* Sorry about that.
First of all, as I stated, this is not the first time Moffat's underused a companion in favour of his own creation.
I don't think we'll have that problem when he's the one who came up with the companion. Because, as you said, he likes his own characters. Which the new companion would be. He'll probably give us a well-written, well-thought up typical female Steven Moffat character, and since she'll be his, I don't think he'll feel compelled to push her to the side lines. He'll probably want to explore her character more thoroughly instead.
the Doctor gave her his sonic. Did anyone else cringe at that part?
Actually, I lol'ed.
River Song: You gave it to me.
Doctor: I don't give my screwdriver to anyone. *awkward pause* That came out wrong.
Anyway, I really wanna know where they're gonna be taking us with the Doctor and River Song. I won't pass judgment on her before I don't know that.
And now: PLZ IS IT CAN BE CATURDAY?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-07 02:41 pm (UTC)Mmm, not too many people think it's literally in her head, no, just that no one thought (even right at the beginning) that she's not really a core part of the Library somehow.
Maybe you need fancy 51st century technology to page the Doctor on his psychic paper. So far, only the Face of Boe and River Song have done that, no?
Oh, I think you're right. Hmm.
Not necessarily. There are ways to strip flesh off bones without damaging the bone.
The problem is that it looked way too plastic. I think if we saw teeth scratches, that would sink in the "piranhas of the air" bit a bit better.
I don't think we'll have that problem when he's the one who came up with the companion. Because, as you said, he likes his own characters.
Yeah, I wouldn't THINK he'd be sidelining his companion. It's just...he likes his own characters a little too much, and that's just all-around vaguely worrisome to me.
Doctor: I don't give my screwdriver to anyone. *awkward pause* That came out wrong.
OMG IS THAT WHAT HE SAID?! I missed that! That is funny.
And I totally missed your post earlier. I was sitting around going, gosh, t_eyla hasn't posted about this ep, odd. Oops, 'cuz I just found it.
And I'm really not sure that DT's temple looks at all greyish to me. I mean, I want to believe you, because GUH, but I'm not sure I'm seeing it.
I'm now going to be watching his temples like a HAWK, though.