CANNOT stop thinking 'bout that 'I wish you'd call me Harry scene'. Before Silna, we see that Harry really doesn't have any friends/partners on board - Fitzjames has Franklin, Crozier has Jopson, Tozer has Heather, Hickey has Gibson; hell, even Collins has Orren, it seems. Dr Stanley, the man Harry works closest with, seems to have nothing but distain for him. But Harry's a people-person, you can tell he has all these things he wants to say, and nobody to say them to. And he's been traumatised!! He was the one who saw Gore get got!! He was the one dismissed when he described the attack! He got laughed at by not just the Marines, but also Franklin, when he tried to put himself forward!
And then here's MacDonald, who we already know Harry admires from the second episode, and Harry tells him about his theory and MacDonald listens! He takes him seriously - even more, he debates with him, considers him smart enough to bounce ideas off! And as much as Harry obviously loves Silna and her company, their interaction is limited not just by language, but also Silna's precarious position on the ship; her being a woman, a native woman surrounded by white men who killed her father - he's still gaining her trust, accommodating her trauma and fear rather than dealing with his own.
But here's a senior surgeon, with similar interests, who seems to respect Harry, who seems to enjoy and appreciate his work. And as Harry turns you can see that he starts to speak but cuts himself off the first time - he's so used to being dismissed and rejected by his peers that he hesitates!!! With making a simple friendly overture! But he gets through it - he wants this so much, that he pushes past his discomfort and actually asks MacDonald to call him by his first name. And he doesn't ask for the return - MacDonald is his social superior and he doesn't ask to call him Alexander, doesn't expect that.
But MacDonald doesn't accept. Maybe he thinks the title of 'doctor' would mean more to Harry, or he's just uncomfortable with Harry's quiet desperation. But he says what he says, and you can see how hard it hits Harry. Like, I've seen people interpret Harry's little smile as pleased, and I get that, but I think that's only a secondary thing. It pleases him in some way, because it's still a big compliment coming from a veteran like MacDonald, but mostly there's an expected disappointment. That look down, and turning bodily away, and that first minute twitch downward of his lips...he's really out here silently saying 'you've been stupid, Harry, to expect a friend'.
@the-terror-appreciation-week - Wednesday, March 27: Favourite Main Character “He’s certainly an open-hearted soul and a curious individual – and that is what drives him, I think. His desire to understand different cultures, his desire to understand even the surgery he’s doing. He’s still an assistant surgeon. Back in the day, there wasn’t any formal training. You observed how surgery was done and you learned on the job. His inquisitive nature is at the heart of who he is, but he’s not just a good sir. Ambition is important. He doesn’t always follow the rules. He has to break them where he can, subtly. When his superiors are telling him that this is none of his business, to keep his nose out, he still continues to burrow and find out what he needs to find out. Even though he’s a good fellow, I’d say he doesn’t always play by the rules, and I think that’s important as well.” - Paul Ready
Survival is a nasty piece of business. But we do what we have to do. We reconfigure. We reinvent. We rearrange. Episode 7 “Horrible from Supper” — THETERROR(2018)
'Harry Goodsir wrote to his uncle from Greenland that, "we have got 10,000 cases of preserved ready cooked meats on board the Erebus alone so you see there is no chance of starving."'
Excerpt From: "Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition" by Owen Beattie. Scribd.
naedsart
vonlipvig
lacnunga
theterroramc
fandomsnerd
lady-arryn
afrosarah
valveillen
incomplete-coincidence