If you tell people to watch poi for the f/f, you can’t just leave out the fact that Shaw is a woc. Yes, shoot is a very well written f/f relationship. Yes, the writers treat the women well. But it’s so important that Shaw is a woman of colour whose ethnicity is never ignored. She has never been whitewashed. And Sarah Shahi is a Persian woman just like Shaw. They didn’t just make her a generic brown woman (like tlw did) or whitewash her (like Fairly Legal did). The show constantly talks about her parents, her Iranian heritage, and we are shown how proud Shaw is of it all. Sameen Shaw is a bisexual, neurodivergent, woman of colour. Every part of that representation is important. Not just the fact that she’s part of a f/f pairing.
The pain Root felt when she thought she saw Shaw die has been discussed a lot so far. But the same cannot be said for Shaw’s reaction to seeing Root die in the simulation. Or should I say hearing-because this is Shaw. Shaw knows guns, knows the sound of one being fired better than she knows the sound of her father’s voice, at this point.
She knows something is a bit off with Root, with all that talk about a future together, because one thing about Root is that sure she flirts and she’s playful, but she never actually pushes, not really. She respects Shaw’s boundaries and always lets Shaw control the pace of their relationship, backing off if it gets to be too much.
And Root’s voice is a little bit shaky, trying a little too hard at seeming to be happy. She hears Root’s cries and the sound of gunfire-and this is Shaw, she very well could know simply by ear what Martine’s preferred firearm sounds like when it’s shot.
And look at Shaw‘s face. It just freezes. The self-proclaimed sociopath goes from seemingly indifferent to caring in a heartbeat. “Root?” she asks the first time, after hearing “That’s good enough for me,” a hail of bullets and the sounds of Root’s short, pain-filled groan. Shaw’s voice is almost soft, filled with disbelief and fear, hoping against hope that she’s wrong, that what she heard wasn’t what she knows it to be, that Root will make some stupid flirty innuendo that she’s grown so fond of.
And then the last “Root,” urgent and panicked and concerned, her fears confirmed but she will try one more time, but in her voice you can hear it. She doesn’t think Root is at all ok. And now, now Sameen truly knows what it means to feel fear.
You know what small thing about this scene has always fucked me up?
This, right before the simulation ends:
The Machine’s box for Shaw moves around a lot in this perspective shot. Those boxes move along with their subjects, and given that Shaw’s box covers basically the entire car, for the box to move as much as it does means that Shaw had to be moving around a lot. Every time I see it I get this mental image of Shaw thrashing around in anger and desperation, needing to get out of her cuffs and out of the car and get to Root.
And it kills me.
I was wondering if anyone would bring Shaw’s part up, and I’m glad fandom provided!
Because you know what? This? This is the saddest and darkest timeline.
Because not only does Shaw lose Root, she loses Harold, John, and Fusco.
She’s the only remaining survivor with the US economy down and only the Machine and Bear for allies.
Like it or not, but Shaw in Samaritan captivity was actually the best outcome for everyone, at least there was still hope that sometime in the future the Team would get Shaw back.
Shaw doesn’t tell you she loves you. She checks to make sure you’re in one piece. She checks the bandages on your bullet wounds are up to her incredibly high standards. She jumps on a bike and makes her way to New Jersey to make sure you survive your stupid suicide mission. She makes sure all your limbs are intact and you don’t have too big of a knock on your head.
And then, she will be awkward and dismissive, all eye rolling and ‘I don’t care, you just need to not die. For the mission.’ Because like the tags say above: it’s not that she doesn’t feel, she just doesn’t have the language to express it. So, she says and shows it in keeping you safe, in poking and prodding to keep you from getting too serious in your own dark (Root and Reese). In handing you a gun (maybe two, or maybe an entire fucking bag) or calling you a stone cold fool. She will call you out on your stupidity and self-sacrificing bullshit because she wants you around. She might tell you to put your damn seatbelt on, but probably not, because if you’re going to be that stupid then she’s just going to slam on the brakes a few times. (She might love you, but you’re still an idiot and she’s still a brat.)
But I think what really kills me is watching Root speak to her in her own language. Because just try and tell me that tossing Shaw breakfast and feeding her isn’t basically the same god damned thing. Feeding people is a classic sign of showing them you care for them.
Kirkwall Was Totally Built On a Hellmouth 