Fan Forum - Daniel/Betty #7: Because even Eric can't explain their amazing chemistry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~ Janet ~ (Post 13515084)

I'm a little late in coming to the party but theirishgirl that was an awesome post. Also, I would be very happy for her to go find Daniel at Alex's grave. :nod:

Thanks Janet :D

Now...it started as a fave moments list but it's kind of ..um..escalated? :blush: I swear..it's 'special' ship fever..when it grabs me I can't stop writing and analysing until everyone sees my vision! These two have me in a thrall! :lol: It's like I just have to get it out of my system so basically it's less just moments..more...The 'Evolution of Daniel and Betty' I guess...

Episodes 1-4...

Episode 1:

Their very first scene together is so funny and sweet all at once. Betty literally arrives with a bang by walking into the glass, catching Daniel’s attention…he looks simultaneously bemused and concerned. Note that he’s the only one to ask if she’s okay while everyone laughs and try as he might to continue he can’t help but watch and wonder who the hell this bizarre person is who’s just walked into his life. I love how there’s this idea of him all alone for a moment wondering how on earth he’s ever going to do the job that’s facing him when Wilhemina walks out. Betty is pure Betty from the get go and his look of incredulity is classic when she reveals she’s his assistant…Daniel is a man in need of help on so many levels, to find out who he really is...she taps him on the shoulder and like they say behind every great man is an even greater woman. She’s going to be the making of him and he doesn’t even know it.

Betty takes it on the chin when she finds out why she was hired and that automatically sets up a road block in her mind towards her ever even really contemplating Daniel as anything other than her boss. And being Betty the fact that he’s her boss would automatically stop her from thinking that anyway...but it’s cleverly placed Daniel in her eyes as someone who’ll never see her as anything but ‘ugly Betty’. And Daniel? He spends most of the episode either dismissing her or trying to get rid of her because he’s Daniel Meade, shallow, footloose and fancy free, he needs to look as if he can do this job and that’s all that concerns him right now. Right?

However the moment she appears in the photo shoot outfit you can see there’s more to him than that. The regret and guilt flashes across his face at what he’s done to her…and unexpectedly respect, there's respect for her...this girl has more guts than probably anyone he’s ever met before, a bravery he in fact needs to have himself to do his job and she puts him to shame. He tries to be like everyone else in that room and not care but just as in the first scene his concern overrides any ‘entertainment’ value and he calls a halt to everything. He runs after her because try as he might he’s not that person….like all the rest of them...on the surface he might act like it and try to convince himself he is but the very fact that he couldn’t just let her leave without trying to explain says a lot. Betty, through the hurt and humiliation makes him fully aware that she’s got the measure of him. Daniel can’t just leave it at that and have her think bad of him, he knows he was wrong, about her, about what he’s trying to do, what he's trying to be and so he comes to see her to put things right.

I think it’s a great parallel that he knocks on her door just as she’s having it out with Walter, out with the old and in with the new so to speak,and so the episode begins it’s end as we began, she walking in one door into his life, him walking into another into hers. Even in the midst of all that’s happened to her in one day she jokes deadpan and he’s amused...she really is unlike anyone he’s ever met and she will change how he sees the world, does he but know it. There’s such a great honesty in that scene where she hears him out and then just holds a mirror up to who he is, he responds, opening up to her about his own problems and there’s just this moment where you can see this ‘connection’...indefinable now…but it's there. And so he lays it all on the table and the ball is in her court. It has to her decision to take this step and so she does into this brave new world.

Already in the space of one episode Daniel has come much further than you might expect. He sees the potential of her and suddenly Daniel Meade, playboy, is humbled by this little plain Jane from Queens as far removed from him on the surface of things but ultimately underneath so much the same. Two people, unsure of themselves, each seeing the best in the other person, doing their best to try and move forward, to make their mark, to be who they want to be. As we can see by the initial awkward flow as they try and explain the Fabia mother/daughter concept to Fabia...it sets the pattern for their relationship, a few stumbles at first but in the end, Daniel respects her, Betty protects him. They finally really smile at each other, they’ve connected and so they find their rhythm and have found that they are stronger together than apart. Daniel the playboy is still there and evident in their final scene, another day, another model waiting for him just like always but as he says to Betty tomorrow is soon enough to begin, his smile as he watches her walk away is telling, she’s had an impact on his life already and he can’t help but show it on his face, she makes him feel good about himself…even if he doesn’t quite know why...yet ;)

Episode 2:

You can already see the beginnings of them striking up their own unique rapport by the start of episode 2...he tries to guide her as to ‘how things work’...but ultimately it will be her who ends up teaching him something once again. The shallow traits all still in place with Daniel....the ‘no idea’ phone call...the shoe issue and yet he still sees enough to try and give her an in on the interview when he sees her interest...he reminds her they’re a team but there’s still an element of she’s just Betty as he asks her for coffee…his assistant...he’s distracted and unfocused…irresponsible...Betty will change all that. He’s almost unafraid to let Betty see him as he is…both sides of him...the playboy side because he doesn’t consider her a conquest so he has no need to impress her and as we’ll see latterly his vulnerable side because she somehow opens up that side of him that he rarely shows to other people.

Adversity forces them together and the one thing Daniel does teach her is that while ‘twisting the truth’ is one thing she should never lie to him...as he re-iterates…they’re on the same team. They have such a great dynamic when they disagree about something...she’s not afraid to question him about the pictures...she’ll do the job but it’s clear she’s not going to be someone that will smile and nod all the time...this girl will stand her ground when she thinks he’s wrong which is probably something Daniel’s never faced before.

And so when they’re at Gina’s and Walter is pursuing her again…Daniel again steps in just as in the first episode...a subconscious affirmation that he comes first in Betty’s life now. Daniel finds himself revealing more of himself to her in the car later, namely his fear that he’s not up to the job, Betty is selfless and is willing to sacrifice herself for him, he learns a lesson from her, to face up to his problems and take responsibility. By the end they’re finding their feet with one another, he shares her corrected name check with her almost as if to show her she has a place in his life, that she’s necessary, that he needs her, while she gives him the new shoes to show she understands the man he needs to be and she’s helping him to be that man.

Episode 3:

Daniel's already started on the road to change...he wants..needs to prove himself…so he enlists Betty to help him. And so she does in unexpected ways, unsure of herself as she is, Betty cuts to the chase with him and his need to prove that he’s just as good as Alex...she tells him the truth of the matter...that being himself is enough and that he’s not his brother and should essentially stop trying to be him. Over Chinese take out (tres adorable) he finds himself opening up to her again about Alex and his father and how sidelined he feels. His words on ‘favourites’ could almost foreshadow what is to come with them…‘sometimes it’s something small but you can see it…a smile a little brighter when he walks in the room…a laugh a little louder when he tells a joke’…little signs that this person brings just a bit more light into your life.

Just when Daniel’s trying to retract some from that intimacy and put Betty back in the slot where she should fit…his assistant…she surprises him again when Bianchi calls for her and she gets them a meeting…he’s learnt he can’t underestimate her and that she’ll get the job done. There’s a part of him still a little embarrassed and doesn’t know what to make of her but one thing’s for sure she’ll always surprise him. That he immediately stands up for her and tries to stop Wilhemina humiliating her shows that there’s no way he would willingly hurt her and that he will try and protect her as she so often does him. He cares enough to seek her out to see if she’s okay...he’s honest with her but still tries to make her feel better and coax a smile out of her. Even in the face of her own misery she still tries to ensure everything runs smoothly for him telling him not to forget the proposal. As he reluctantly leaves it seems like part of him feels like he’s let her down...like he’s let himself down when she convinces him to go to the lunch without her...like he wants to fix things but doesn’t know how.

Betty doesn’t hesitate to save Daniel when she realizes he’s forgotten the proposal, even at the risk of humiliating herself, ensuring that he doesn’t mess up is paramount to her. Her little showdown with Marc shows she’s gaining confidence and showing her backbone, Betty has spunk ;) Daniel does the right thing at the meeting and again faces the consequences also showing that just as Betty will protect him, he will cover for her, and take the heat. Both of them helping the other. ‘She says she’s with you’; ‘She is’ Daniel categorically responds to the Maitre ’D..they are truly becoming a team and he wants her to feel a part of everything just as she should be and he gives her credit where it’s due. He finally gets what she’s been telling him and is able to finally say ‘I’m not Alex’ to his father; she’s helping him to accept himself as he is...just as he’s helping her to do the same.

Episode 4:

So while Betty’s loyally bigged up Daniel at the party and Amanda tries to defame her, Daniel’s ‘That doesn’t sound like Betty’ shows he knows her well enough by now to believe the best of her.

That he trusts her enough to share the mystery phone calls with her (a kind of reverse of Willi and Marc) is telling of their relationship. He trusts her. She looks after him and makes sure he eats. He praises her (incidentally I missed the import of Daniel’s ‘you can take off...’, comment first time round with the ‘I’m sure your nephew’s sick of the closet’ lol. But I digress.. )…but she can’t lie to him...mostly because she’s Betty and partly because he asked her not to. When he tells her ‘I don’t need to know about everything...especially if knowing about it means I’d end up losing you’, he’s acknowledging for the first time that she’s worth the fight and that he wants to keep her in his life.

She immediately senses that the music box has affected him somehow, she tries to aide him however she can and Daniel once again finds himself opening up to her like he does with no one else. When he realizes she’s essentially in ‘danger’ with the Wilhemina meeting he cares enough to stop and ensure that she watches her back...he’s not going to lose her if he can help it. He reiterates this again later after the meeting’s outcome. There are so many levels to his ‘Y’know sometimes it’s okay to keep things hidden...’…some things will remain hidden away until they’re found…just as they will find each other. The clincher being …‘especially if not hiding it means I might lose you’. She means something to him, even if he’s not completely sure what it is yet. She’s concerned enough to keep her eye on him throughout the music box reveal and shoot as she knows how much this is all affecting him; she’s instinctively looking out for him just as he now is for her.

*****

Oh btw can I please be added? I hope I've earned my slot! ;)