He looks disappointed or ashamed (looking down, not at her) and the bed is made, so nothing happened this time and it never will again. She's getting dressed, being careful with the buttons, so this is after the end, not in preparation for a last time or anything like that.
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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Thats good
With the affair as the background:
She was ready for some fun, but he said his wife found out and wants him to end it quietly. He's too much of a coward to leave her, so he's ending this even though it's not what he promised.
The table reflection shows him unchanged, yet she's less clear. Possibly a representation of the inner turmoil, where there is one.
Pretty much exactly what I see.
Nice catch on the reflection.
Titty
Valid
Three paintings on the wall, one larger than the other two and over them. There is another persona unseen playing a role here.
Very good noticing that. I hadn't. Ofc the affair implies a third too.
Also of interest, he’s fully clothed and facing the door, he is all ok but she is vulnerable. The table reflection is a chance to see deeper into their identities, he looms much larger in the reflection than she does. We see neither of their faces, which makes me feel they will have to be forgetting each other.
Here's a take:
This is the 1950s/60s (look at the fashion and style cues, interior decor color scheme), the 'affair' was a highschool relationship leading up to prom night, of which this is the culmination.
('Affair' did not used to be so strongly correllated with cheating on someone, it used to be used much more broadly, generally, neutrally, to just describe basically 'a thing that happened, that involved people'.)
Lady was/is head over heels in love with the dude... romantically, sexually, all kinds of attraction.
Guy loved her too... as a very close, best friend.
Turns out he's gay though, and has no sexual intetest in her.
And she genuienly did not realize that.
So, this is the woman buttoning up after having presented herself, and having been... something like rejected... and possibly she is very angry at Guy for rejecting her, possibly she is very angry at herself for not realizing it, possibly she has immediately gone into 'its ok, this is fine, we can handle this' mode...
While the guy feels like he has been lying to her this whole time, even though... he may never have directly, explicitly lied to her... and he is also now staring down the inevitability of this moment, as well as realizing that at least she now definitely knows he is gay, which means that his fate is very much tied to her.
You could also potentially justify this interpretation with where the character's faces and posture are in relation to both the viewer, and the lighting source of the scene.
Guy has his back to us, he's not open to us, the viewers, the public... but he is staring down the 'light of truth', his face is illuminated by it, though we cannot see it.
The Lady on the other hand, well, is facing us, is literally exposed... but her face is in shadow as she tries to lie to herself, or possibly now come up with some kind of lie to protect the Guy's now revealed truth.
The posture toward the viewer implies that we, the public, will be looking at her in the future to see if this secret is kept, we won't get an inkling from this otherwise in the closet man...
But the facial ighting implies that as he now lives in truth that he has shared with at least one other person, she must live in a lie, if ... his? their?... secret is to be kept.
Very good. Thats a good argument
Thanks!
I do have to say that... I feel the table being so reflective must have some relevance, it takes up a large part of the image... and either I really need to replace my lost glasses, or... the woman's reflection seems to have either one or two spots of... a red blur?
That is incongruous with the non reflection?
It could just be nothing, maybe just a smudge that is a bit more uh... saturated in color than the 'actual' reddish highlights on the woman's face/hair, which seems to be a general element of how the reflection is done, with more highly contrasting colors, but it just stands out to me as visually... yeah, odd, incongruent.
Internal pattern recognition wetware goes brrrrrrr...
Yes that is very important
Interesting interpretation but that's not a prom dress, no matter the era.
They either broke up before any action, or they made the bed while naked...
OR didnt fuck in the bed. Theres gotta be a chair to the right
There's a nightstand!
Is that Mike Johnson?
No. You can tell because his son isn't there as an accountability partner.
Yes he is 😈
They fuckin
Big if true
And she's into it if she's dealing with an entire dress of buttons to undo and then redo.
And stockings/pantyhose, but not a bra of any kind? That strikes me as odd, like the desire to paint that nipple precluded common sense.