Winters/Nixon Picspam Part 3 - "Crossroads" and "Bastogne"
Crossroads
Another episode that utilizes the flashback... But unlike "Currahee", it doesn't start and end in the present with everything else in the middle being linear. Noooo, this episode has to jump around like a Lost episode, which might make this picspam confusing. I'll try to keep it in order.
So we open (well, not really, this is actually the second scene) with Winters all, "Nix, BB, wake up we have to go to work now." (Which someone needs to explain to me because I thought the whole perk of him being XO was private quarters, but he's sharing with Nix? Not that I'm complaining!) Nix is all, "I'll meet you down there" but looks quite comfortable in bed, so Winters grabs the pitcher of water and dumps it on him but then ewwwwww, that's not water! So Nix is pissed off (badumdum), throws his pillow at Winters, who finds it fairly funny, and then there's flailing, and according to the book they go look for showers so excuse me if I twist that for my own uses with these two. I've included an abbreviated GIF of the flail because I love it so.
A (hopefully) clean Nix yapping about...something strategic involving the Rhine and invading Germany maybe....on the ride to Battalion HQ and when they get there he's like, "Are you even listening to me?" and Winters says he's, "Hanging onto every word" which he might've been even if I wasn't.
In HQ, Nix gets straight to work, and I think this is the only episode we actually see him doing his job? Anyway, Winters pretty much watches him work and feels out of place because he only just got moved up to HQ when Sink made him XO where before he was CO and in the field fighting with the men. Now he has to do paperwork. Boring!
We meet Lieutenant-Colonel Dobey (the Red Beret in the, um, red beret...) who is very British and charming and he hits on Nix, so Strayer's all, "Dick, I need to talk to you about writing those reports" but Winters is like, "That Brit is stealing my boyfriend!"
So Winters goes and writes the reports (which is what the flashbacks are for - to show what he's writing about), and who shows up but Nix. Nix uses the classic bad pickup line, "Would you like to come back to my place for liquor and sex? What's wrong - you don't like liquor?" Winters goes and opens his footlocker, which is where Nix stashes his...stash and is all, "LOL - me give up drinking!" Then he sucks on his finger not once but twice, which kinda kills me (probably Winters too - he is looking), so I GIFed it.
Still same scene as above... Nix tells Winters the report doesn't have to be a novel or an essay or whatever it is he says exactly. Because Nix is kinda like a puppy and needs to be entertained when he's bored or he gets destructive.
Here's that flashback I was talking about... Only the end of it is Winnix applicable. Nixon shows up after the battle/skirmish/shooting fish in a barrel incident and asks where Captain Winters is. So he goes and finds him looking out at the field of all the dead SS, making sure he's okay and telling him that only one fatality in Easy was pretty damn good for what they did (I think so too! No offense, Dukeman). He gives Winters some water (after smelling it to make sure it actually is water), and they go back to where everyone else is.
Sink's saying how Major Horton got killed and then tells Nix he's gonna steal his BF away for a moment. This is when Winters gets promoted to battalion XO, which is what he was doing in the beginning and such. And that's it for the flashbacks.
Winters finishes the paperwork and Nix comes up again with Moose Heyliger (probably not how his surname is spelled), Easy's new CO. Winters gives Nix the report; Nix makes Winters's orderly shit himself (not literally); Winters practically interrogates Moose because he wants his Easy boys to be in good hands; Winters tries to pawn off some paperwork on Nix, who laughs devilishly about it and pulls the most adorable faces that looked creepy in caps.
Winters stares longingly at Nix, and then Moose and Nix go to leave, but Winters calls Nix back once Moose is gone, but he just wants to make sure Easy really is in good hands and the intelligence for Operation Pegasus is good because Winters is like a worried momma sending his children off to fight without him.
They're in the second battalion office when Guarnere shows up. He'd been at the hospital and escape from there to go back on duty, so he's technically AWOL, but he clearly doesn't care. Harry's all, "Wow, this is awkward with Guarnere here" and then Guarnere starts to seem awkward - LOL. Guarnere says how he never thought he'd see Winters behind a desk, and Winters is kinda like OMG I can't believe it either, this sucks, and Harry continues to look amused about how awkward this entire thing is.
Guarnere leaves and some mysterious hand appears and shuts the door. Nix gives Winters a piece of paper, even though Winters doesn't want to see anymore paper, and it's a 48 hour pass to go to Paris before he loses it because Winters has clearly been disconnected with this whole promotion. At least Nix claims it's a pass - for all I know it could really say, "Do you like me? [ ] Yes [ ] No." ;)
So Winters goes to Paris and is a hot ass in his dress uniform (srsly), but Nix isn't there, so I don't have it. HOWEVER, I will balance out the GIF of Nixon sucking on his finger with Winters climbing in the bathtub. (Which always has me torn between a) I'll take what I can get and b) come on, HBO, I know we can get more out of you! I've SEEN Oz!)
Winters comes back, shit happens so they have to move out to somewhere really fucking cold where they're undersupplied and have no ammo, which the series reminds you about at least 4 times. They arrive at Bastogne and Nix jumps out of the Jeep - you'll have to trust me when I tell you that's Winters behind him - and they go and listen to what Sink has to say about where they are and what they'll be doing there.
Then random Jimmy Fallon is random, showing up to give them some ammo, and that's "Crossroads."
Bastogne
This episode has maybe a handful of words exchanged between the two, so to find the Winnix, you kinda have to go looking for it.
Like after Winters and Roe take the German prisoner who just wanted to take a dump but wandered too far across the line. Winters (who was trying to shave, hence the soap on his face, but if anyone can explain to me why his hair is so dark in this scene, please do) is talking to Sink and some other guy whose name I don't remember because I can't remember seeing him before, but then Nix pops out of his foxhole because he thinks Winters should come back to bed looking hungover, talks to the man in charge, and then we follow Roe who is talking to Winters in his...I don't know what that would be called...less deep foxhole, which is probably only 30 feet or so from where Nix popped up. I haven't gotten this far in the book yet, so I don't know if it's RL or fanon with the foxhole sharing, but I'd say it's a safe bet. :)
Sink shows up again to read the letter on Christmas. Nix doesn't even talk in this part but he's in Winters's vicinity, so I'll take it.
Winters is walking on Christmas (unarmed for some reason) and then he comes across Harry and Peacock (I think?) who have lit a fire, which is really bad and stupid, but Harry says they're in a dell, which makes it okay. Then Nix comes up all, "What is this fuckery? I smell a fire - oh, that's why." So they hang in the dell for a few seconds with the fairies and the gnomes (Dick mentions the fairies and gnomes, right? See I really need to be doing these immediately after watching the episode, not 10 hours after the fact - my brain is a sieve when it comes to quotes), and then, because they lit a fire in the dark on the line, something bad happens, and Winters made me flail a bit when I noticed he pushes Nix to the ground. GIF below!
Then Nix is on the phone to get a Jeep and Dick is all "MEDIIIIIIC!" because word, Harry, there were no fires for a reason, even if it was Christmas! Then Doc Roe shows up all hot and glorious, which completely makes up for the lack of Winnix in this episode, and again we have Nix and Winters at least on screen together for a few seconds as they worry over Harry.
Then the last time we see them in the episode, we have Nix talking to someone and it pans over and Winters is seemingly waiting for Nix to join him.
