The expression of power

The gaze

All of Roy’s characters have a shadow over their gaze. All of them without exception. Sometimes it lightly colors the depth of the gaze, other times, this shadow is much denser and opaque. But none of the other characters have as much unease in their expression as does Ross Desbiens. There is an ever-present, poorly mastered, fear in his eyes. Ross endures suffering that is draining his strength. Something haunts and undermines him. He has the look of a wounded predator and what is terrifying is that beneath the agony and the hurt is hidden a devastating violence that can spring up at any minute at the least turn of fate. He has that expression from the series’ first images. Ross watches intently, he is wary, and he continually worries about what surrounds him. He knows that anything can happen, and worse rather than better. It’s the look of those who have walked with death and who have suffered because of it. Those who know all its subtleties and arts, its evils and its inevitability. Knowing this makes Ross apprehensive but also demands that he be aware of his strength and his dominance over others.

He attained that by making his mark among the bikers. His brothers respect him because he is aggressive in even the toughest fight. You have only to see him move among other men, his shoulders lightly braced to open a path for himself, head high, his glance taking all in, carefully evaluating the situation as well as the intentions and actions of his peers. If Bob is a shrewd fox, Ross is of the caliber of the great wolves. An alpha wolf, a pack leader, and no one doubts it. When he turns his blue gray gaze on the pack, they eye him up and down, shut up, and rally to him.

The fist

In this circle of warlike and savage men, to impose one’s will is not an easy task. All is negotiated through sweat and blood, testosterone to the max. First off, by using the strength of your fists on your packmates. Two examples: first, between Ross and Ricky Jones in Ross’ bar. They are supposed to conclude a treaty of alliance with a handshake but this becomes a pretext to measure their strength. Ricky Jones is twice as big as Ross. Elbows resting on the bar, palm to palm, Ricky’s translucent eyes are fixed on the crystalline green ones of Ross, who locks forearms as well as eyes with his opponent. Ricky gives up, satisfied with the determination he feels in Ross.

In the second example, the fist as a method of reasoning: The scene takes place in an auto graveyard. Ross, totally blinded by his desire for vengeance, explains to Dany, his only remaining ally, his plan to blow up Bob and his associates with a rocket launcher. Dany tries his best to reason with his friend but to no avail. At the end of the argument, he finishes by landing a solid right to his jaw, as much to fix the ideas in place as to let off steam in the face of a Ross who never stops raving. In a masculine milieu, you don’t help friends through gentleness. You punch them. Rather than make them cry, you make them bleed. It’s necessary that something flow down the face, no matter what the color.

Firearms

From blows we pass to revolvers. A weapon which extends the hand. It’s the weapon of defense par excellence. The gun is at the same time an instrument of persuasion and of execution. Men always carry them on or near them. Ross has one in his right hand in the scene where he tattoos Wendy’s name on his stomach. When the doorbell rings, he puts it up quickly. The same thing a little while later, when Dany enters the house. Ross, hidden behind the partition of the living room wall, follows as Dany walks through the house, gun in hand.

A refinement in style: a rifle for shooting someone. A tool for accuracy. With a sight which adjusts to the wolf’s eye. So that he won’t miss his shot. So that we can judge his skill with it, and see him close his left eye, thus sharpening the precision of the right.

The scene where Ross, crouching in an empty house across from Bob’s, wants to assassinate the latter: It’s a pleasure to watch him assemble the weapon, fitting one section inside the other, loading it, then taking aim, pivoting slowly as if to follow a moving target. After a long night of waiting, we find him stretched on the ground, his body one with his sniper rifle, the rifle’s barrel resting on a can of paint lying on its side, a lit cigarette between his lips, right eye staring through the gun’s sight. He awaits his moment.

When at last Bob leaves his house and gets into his car, the camera angle which captures Ross busy adjusting his shot is very successful. His face stands out against the spaces of the weapon, playing with light and shadow. Light on his face and hair, shadow on the sight and the butt.of the rifle. Dark blue right eye wide open, the left resolutely closed, his features calm, almost serene. In the process of executing Bob, Ross found a powerful outlet for his grief in envisioning images of it. That’s why when his plan is aborted by the intervention of the police who come to arrest Bob in the seconds that follow, Ross is doubly frustrated. Squatting, his back resting against the wall, he holds his gun between his legs, upright, rifle butt on the ground, supporting the gun’s silencer against the top of his head. The measure of his frustration is heard in his Fuck.. fuck…fuck… ostie, which he pronounces softly as he strikes the silencer against his forehead. The sigh he gives to calm himself says so much about what’s going on inside him. In the space of an instant, his eyes shadow and his features again close over. His suffering is completely restored.

In the gradation of a weapons system, the culmination is reached with the bazooka. It’s also with this weapon that we measure the degree of madness that Ross has attained by the end of the series. It’s the scene that I talked about earlier, the one in which Dany tries to bring Ross back to his senses. This scene, filmed at night, closes the circle which opened with the scene of Wendy’s murder.

When Ross unveils to Dan both his weapon and his diabolical plan, his soul is already making its way through the depths of hell. The décor around them also reflects that. An auto graveyard, a scrapyard...however, Ross has regained a sort of calm, his conscience numbed by the power bestowed on him by the weapon that he cradles lovingly on his shoulder. His head resting on the cylindrical barrel of the rocket launcher, he casts a serene look at Dan as he describes for him, as if it were real, the death scene that he envisioned for Bob and his whole chapter:

Dan: And how do you think you’re going to make that happen?

Ross: Ah..easy. There’s a big party for Bob on the weekend. We go there in the van, open the back doors then BOOM. After that we get outta there.

Dan refuses to go along with any such plan. Ross doesn’t care, he will find another partner. Dan moves away as Ross adjusts his view through the gun sight. The lighting behind him gives him a halo around his hair that makes the image surreal. He fires and a gigantic explosion follows. A close up of Ross’ eyes which have turned turquoise under the effect of the flames. He gives a victorious shout. Dan, disarmed in the face of his friend’s craziness, then strikes Ross. The impact spins Ross around and bends him over. When he straightens up, he’s wiping a trickle of blood that runs from his mouth. Fire, blood. The tragic image of Wendy’s death, resurfaces inside Ross in all its original sharpness.

Expression of despair

The two scenes that follow are beautiful examples of what can be done when you have at your disposal the talents both of actors and of an ensemble of technical craftsmen to express emotions that are strong, complex and not always easy to render on a TV screen.

Despair, infinite sadness without the capacity for resignation, mixed with a fear which skates close to panic, finally burning itself out in a sentiment split between relief and impotence - these two scenes take us across that whole range of emotions.

Sadness and despair are already everywhere when we again meet Ross, stretched out in the middle of his living room. The camera is careful to show us the room’s disorder before focusing on a Ross destroyed by his pain, who tattoos himself while whispering to his lost love about what he is busy doing: Look..I’m doing exactly like you asked me….A little heart.. Wendy forever, forever Wendy…Ross is navigating these deep and troubled waters when the front doorbell rings. His reaction is so instantaneous that it seems to me that we can nearly hear his heart beating faster as he comes to his senses in the time it takes him to zip up his leather vest and to put his hand on his gun.

The entire remainder of the scene, filmed at the front door, is in the same spirit, despite the fact that it’s a minor scene. A messenger has just delivered a package. He has to answer, sign, accept the package. But all these things demand a superhuman effort from him. Seized with panic, he has an animal reaction that is perfectly in keeping with his character. He grimaces, hides, reluctantly shows himself, ceaselessly scrutinizes everything around him - his fear is palpable. The final look he gives the package that he didn’t dare pick up, which remains on the doorstep, is tinged with mistrust.

Creating an atmosphere: night has fallen. Music: from the opening of the door to the opening of the package, music similar to the beating of a heart. It’s very successful. Our heart joins the tempo. When Dan enters the house, the unfortunate package in his hand, an even more crazed Ross points the revolver at his nose. Wet hair sticking to his forehead, a stupefied and feverish air, body sweating, hollow eyes that gleam in the shadow, Ross indicates the package with his eyes and his right hand. The glance of a drowning man, but one that is still beautiful, an expression clouded over with just enough light for us to be able judge the extremely vulnerable state that Ross is in.

When Dan opens the package and hands over Zip’s vest as if it were the head that is traditionally dispatched to testify to the elimination of an enemy, Ross’ fear gives way to a sentiment of relief mixed with disgust. We hear him breath. IHe breathes harshly, slowly, jerkily, as if to take what may be a new affront or something that he hadn’t imagined. I don’t really know how to decipher what’s going on in his head at that moment. In the presence of this trophy, Ross seems more bitter and disillusioned than appeased.

Conclusion

The sixth hour ends with the possible murder of Ross. A pretend assassination since we now know that the series continues and that Ross is still alive. The sequel could well be interesting. We’re going to measure the power of the alpha wolf against the cunning and intelligence of the fox. Thus the saga between Ross and Bob will continue.

As far as I’m concerned, Ross managed to seduce me, which is even more remarkable since I didn’t have much affinity with him at the beginning. I was assailed by doubt in the first minutes of TLC. To discover a new character interpreted by an actor or actress whom one knows well, demands that you take a new look at them. Ideally, on their end, the actor or actress must wipe the slate clean. Roy and I have both done our homework. After viewing the first six episodes, I believe that we have both earned much more than a passing grade since I’m attached to him to the point where I’m looking forward with pleasure and a smidgen of impatience to the sequel to this series. Especially to know what the future will hold for this man whose instinctive intelligence drives and protects him. It will be interesting to see how he will avenge himself if he decides to do so and how he will succeed in taking back his place in this violent world in which money functions as the only source of satisfaction and happiness.