I am simultaneously irritated and fascinated by lit crit. So I wrote this story as if I were going to have to analyze it to death. You might notice parallels between certain scenes - repeated lines/settings. That was deliberate. There's an extended metaphor with the wall. You know, stuff.

But basically I wanted to work through my frustrations with two of my favorite characters, sweet Phil Coulson and badass Melinda May. Here Coulson engages in an asshat habit of his (at least lately) - blaming stuff on May. In the story I tried to show that they have this interaction where they are going through the same motions over and over again:

She is locked up (emotionally, physically, whatever,) he tries to break her out, he blames her for not getting free, she blames him for blaming her, etc. It looks like this time there might be progress - the actual physical wall is actually taken down with a chainsaw - thanks Blake! The next scene has Coulson looking down on what he thinks is her dead body. Wow. Drama. If anything could knock them loose from the cycle, its this.

But then we see him start to "pin it" on her - "don't do this to me," etc. She hears him and wakes up to register her irritation at that. In the end, its kind of up in the air if any major change has happened between them. Coulson is happy - maybe this time he really was "there" when she "came out of it?" Does he really get why she called him a jerk? But then we find out Agent May is asking for a transfer.

Basically I see them as star-crossed people who despite being cool, confident, totally independent and capable individuals, are helplessly drawn to each other like magnets, inescapably, over a lifetime.

Let me know what you think and what you "see." That's the thing about lit crit - sometimes readers can see even more breadcrumbs there than what the author "knows" she included.

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