"All the Pretty Faces"

In a lot of ways, Silvia reminds me of my best friend - she works with dead bodies, has tons of geek knowledge to spare, and is proud of her geek knowledge, which makes her adorkable IMO. But what I love most about Silvia is that, like my bestie, she wears her heart on her sleeve. Silvia does an excellent job of expressing herself without ever uttering a word - she can convey a variety of emotions with a simple smirk, or a raised eyebrow, or crossed eyes. She can tell an entire story just through her facial expressions, which, of course, is a testament to just how superb of an actress Marian Aguilera really is. And I like that, because it makes Silvia more real, more genuine. If she says something - good or bad, critical or uplifting, in anger or in happiness - you know she truly means it, because it's not just in the tone of her voice or the words coming from her mouth; it's written on her face.

One of my favorite Silvia moments is the frisking scene in Ep. 95. I know most people like that scene because of the hotness factor, which is definitely present (seriously, if anyone ever asks me what chemistry is, I'd point them to that scene). However, what I really love about that scene is the story that's being told through Silvia's facial expressions (and a few words). Pepa obviously takes her by surprise, but when Silvia makes a hint of a smile and gives a small sigh before closing her eyes briefly in resignation, it made me wonder whether PepSi played this little frisking game before. While Pepa is frisking her, her eyes are completely closed and her mouth is slightly open, giving the audience a sense of the lust Silvia's experiencing and how it's slowly building every time Pepa's hands move to a different area of her body. When she opens her eyes and lets out a small gasp just before Pepa grabs her ass, it looks like Silvia's trying to convince her mind not to give into what her body is definitely feeling. We see her attempt at self-control start to go out the window when Pepa's hand moves towards the front of her jeans, and Silvia's eyes open again and she simply utters, "Pepa," almost pleading with Pepa not to continue, because she knows she definitely won't be able to stop herself from reciprocating if Pepa proceeds. And as Pepa tells her that they're done talking because talking got them into the mess to begin with, from the look on Silvia's face, I doubt she was even paying attention at that point anymore. There's obviously no need to explain the passion plastered all over Silvia's face as they're making out, but in a span of 7 seconds (as Silvia's back hits the car), her face changes from passion, to confusion (as Pepa stops and looks at her breasts), to glee (when she finds out that Pepa was staring because she liked her bra), and finally, to slight amusement (when Pepa asks her where she bought the bra). Then, in my favorite moment of the whole scene, we see the focus on Silvia's face when Pepa pushes her head down and she grabs the buttons on Pepa's jeans change into total confusion 0.2 seconds later when Pepa swats her hands away. And of course we can't forget the inaudible "ahh!" Silvia wants to say when Curtis asks to speak to Pepa - she's definitely got a "you gotta be kidding me" expression on her face.

There's more parts to that scene - Silvia's expressions during and after Pepa's discussion with Curtis - but in that initial 2 minutes and 27 seconds, at least 12 emotions were conveyed almost entirely by the expressions on Silvia's face. And that's what I love most about Silvia: her ability to make you want to smile a million-watt smile just from seeing a glint of happiness in her eyes; her ability to make you vow never to disappoint her so that you never have to see her mouth droop in sadness or tears form in the corner of her eyes. Even when she's upset, her face is kind of beautiful, because the emotion on it is so raw, so real, that her anger stings you just from looking at her face. Come S9, I'm really going to miss all the pretty faces that Silvia could make, but I'm glad I got to see them many, many times before she left.

kalike

*The title for this lecture is based on the song "All the Pretty Faces" by The Killers.