House Rules: I Hope You Dance

"Dear Shane, get your head out of that computer, and dance a little."

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"Dear Shane, get your head out of that computer, and dance a little."

Little did Theresa know, the music had already started.

For Shane, the dance truly started the minute Oliver revealed his wife left him in the Pilot. From then on, Shane was literally, and figuratively, engaged in a very delicate and very complicated dance that would find her out from behind her computer, but also vulnerable to everything the safety of the digital world shielded her from. What’s remarkable about it is that once Shane got the hang of things, she not only embraced dance, but began to share it with the people around her!

Literally

In Signed, Sealed Delivered, dancing and ShOliver go hand in hand. But it’s how Shane embraces dancing, and eventually lessons, that demonstrate her ownership of Theresa’s directive to get out from behind her computer and “dance a little.”

The first time Shane dances with Oliver in the Pilot, it’s her who initiates. But by the time Oliver drafts her to be his partner in “Soulmates,” Shane seemed a little hesitant at their first lesson. Oddly enough, Oliver teases her over the exact thing Theresa had challenged her to do: “Can you last an hour without your precious internet?” With a few words of reassurance from Oliver, their lessons began.

For all intents and purposes, the literal learning of the dance steps seemed to go just fine. When they danced together in “The Masterpiece,” it seemed Shane and Oliver had fallen into a comfortable and rather beautiful rhythm, only disrupted by the emotional undercurrent that neither of them quite anticipated or knew what to do with, but led to Oliver ending their lessons. It caused Shane to retreat back behind her computer, eventually leading her to drop a bombshell on Oliver about his wife in “The Edge of Forever,” courtesy of her iPad. As a result, dancing remained a sensitive subject until Oliver asked her to dance at Ellie and Bobby’s wedding in “The Future Me,” an act of reconciliation for the pair.

Taking the leap.

What I find interesting about dancing from this point on is how Shane seems to constantly reference it from “Something Good” on. Shane admits to Oliver at the beginning of the episode how she regretted their dance classes ending. In “The Treasure Box,” the first thing she wishes for Jonathan and Katherine is that they’re “dancing under the stars,” this after reflecting on her and Oliver’s previous dancing encounters for the majority of their time in the vault.

Beyond this point it seems that Shane has also gone from being the dance student to the dance teacher, a truth no more evident than when she taught Jordan Marley a few steps at the Postal Ball in For Christmas, much to Oliver’s displeasure, and which Oliver quickly corrected. Little did either know at the time she was dancing with an angel! How about that? And who could forget she and Oliver teaching Norman and Rita at the end of the film?

These were just the literal markers of Shane’s decision to fully engage in the world around her, which, consequently, came through dance. But it’s truly only half the story.

Figuratively

From a figurative perspective, the implications of Theresa’s directive find expression in the infamous push/pull of Shane and Oliver’s relationship, where Shane is constantly forced to contend with her evolving feelings in a complicated reality she is ultimately powerless to control, which is the exact reason it becomes the challenge it is for her.

“Same tempo, same steps, just a different song.”

In a lot of ways this seemingly innocuous line, spoken just before that after-hours dance in the DLO, is the crux of how Shane approached her relationship with Oliver in its early stages. Somewhere in that crazy heart of hers, Shane thought Oliver was ready to move past Holly with a “different song,” which, at the time, couldn’t have been further from the truth. This point is reinforced by how she describes the situation to Rita in “The Edge of Forever,” lamenting Oliver’s decision to pull her into “boring dance classes only to get cold feet and dump [her].” I don’t know about you, but the word “dump” immediately strikes me as a term typically used in the context of dating.

Unfortunately for Shane, she was operating on asymmetric information, lacking the valuable intel that the day of the showcase corresponded with Oliver and Holly’s anniversary. Shane’s ill-informed attempt to "pull" resulted in probably the most drastic push of their relationship. It took them a good two whole episodes to recover the ground they lost, and not before Shane took another step to make it worse by looking Holly up and telling Oliver about it.

“Think we could remember the steps?”

Given her trespasses, it seemed for a moment that the distance between Shane and Oliver might take much longer to overcome. But when Oliver re-initiated their “dance” at the end of “The Future Me,” it was his attempt to “pull” Shane back in. It was a difficult lesson for Shane to learn, but it taught her how to become a better partner for Oliver. She learned his limits and became painfully aware of how not to breach them. Consequently, Shane quietly steps back, allowing Oliver the space to pursue her in For Christmas and From Paris with Love.

This isn’t to say that Shane doesn’t get tempted to “push” again, she just attempts to do so gently or in secret. In “The Treasure Box,” she quietly asks him during her word game if “Christmas” reminded him of “Holly the plant or Holly [his] wife,” with a subtle look to the letter he’s writing. Oliver seems to acknowledge her attempt to probe, but he seems amused by it rather than apprehensive. She is tempted to “push” once more when she comes upon Oliver’s addressed letter in his desk. Ultimately she decides not to open it, but Oliver catching her snooping creates a tension between she and Oliver for the remainder of the episode.

“...Earn[ing] the right to dance with...”

I mentioned before that Shane stepping back allowed Oliver to take steps towards her. I don’t think that was ever more evident than in the Christmas film. We see Oliver envying Jordan’s time with Shane on the dance floor, and even confronting Shane about teaching the steps she learned with him to someone else. This is the first of many moments of Oliver “pulling” Shane towards him throughout For Christmas, without a single “push” on her part.

From being charged with delivering Shane’s wayward letter to God, to being directed by Jordan to “Take good care of that little letter writer,” the answer delivered ultimately causes Oliver to place himself among those Shane can consider family, a huge leap from where Oliver was not too long ago. He took great care to keep his distance with Shane in more ways than one, like calling her Ms. McInerney, which, for the duration of their conversation in For Christmas actually finds Oliver calling her “Shane" for once. Before they seemingly part ways for their holiday plans, however, Oliver is careful to re-establish his boundary with Shane as “Ms. McInerney,” but she seems to take his decision to do so in stride, responding with “Mr. O’Toole.” The dance continued.

In From Paris with Love, even as the circumstances Shane finds herself in are “pushing” her away, Shane, through her steadfast support of Oliver in the midst of his wife returning, demonstrated her mastery of their complicated dance, which ultimately led to the greatest ShOliver “pull” to date.

In this film, the literal and figurative aspects of dancing collide for Shane. Take for instance that moment on the rooftop. With Holly’s letter in hand, Shane reflected on she and Oliver dancing in the DLO. For me, this was the first time I really got a sense of how hard Shane has fallen for Oliver. Dancing is now exclusively associated with her feelings for Oliver, which seemingly get betrayed when she happens upon Holly and Oliver dancing at the Mailbox Grille.

Little does she know that her advice to forgive, pulled from Oliver’s cannon, made an impression upon him. It was at that moment that Shane, much like in the literal context of dance, transformed from student to teacher in a figurative sense. And, in the end, Oliver ends up buying Shane that porch swing as an early birthday gift, the most unmistakable and intentional "pull" he has ever executed. Though a struggle for Shane, stepping aside and putting Oliver first, despite the unknown outcome, was an act of surrender from which Shane ultimately earned the relationship she tried erroneously to force with Oliver in the beginning.

Suffice it to say, though a short piece of advice from Theresa Capodiamonte, "danc[ing] a little" proved a complex instruction. With both literal and figurative aspects, Shane was forced to navigate practical and emotional challenges that, when mastered, ultimately earned the relationship with Oliver she tried to force in the beginning, allowing it to come to her right when she needed it the most.

Reminds you how complex and beautiful life is, doesn't it? So.Much.Hope.


Waiting For Her Oliver,
~C

Houes Rules: Introduction | Rita | Norman | Shane | Oliver