Thinking about Alex’s “Wipe that stupid smile off your face” line to Brian… Do you think he ever said that to him before? Alex is trying to be professional during a shoot but Brian keeps making him laugh and being smug about it and Alex rolls his eyes and says, “Wipe that stupid smile off your face.”
Maybe it happened again after the Operator’s influence began to affect Alex. The air is tense during filming so Brian tries cracking a joke and Alex snaps “Wipe that stupid smile off your face” and sure, Brian has heard that before, but never like this. Never like Alex means it. And it hurts more than he expects so he stops.
Years pass by. Alex and Brian never see each other face to face, or at least, never for long. Alex is lost in a futile crusade and Brian is lost in ciphers and a revenge mission. They’re not the same people anymore.
Alex finds and grabs him— touching him for the first time in years— and demands to know where Jay and Tim went. Brian is grinning. They both Alex is losing their little game of chess and he can’t stop grinning. So Alex tells him to wipe that stupid grin off his face and it’s almost like old times, except Alex means it and Brian no longer cares, so maybe it really isn’t.
