“He always asks.” This is the first time he’s invited Simon in person, though. Usually the invitation arrives in the form of a message in the group chat Alex keeps re-adding him to. “He invites the whole cast, but he knows I’ll say no.”
Charlie’s parties are probably loud and crowded, filled with various kinds of smoke and appetizers that’ve been left out too long for food safety purposes; the kind of parties where if you open the wrong door, you find your actual coworkers having sex with one another. Simon’s policy about all these things is a firm no thanks.
“I’ll come along if you want company,” Jamie says, as if there’s any question of Simon attempting a social event without him.
If the past is anything to go by, Jamie is right on time for a rebound. There is literally nobody on the cast or crew ofOut Therewho would be a worse choice than whoever Jamie will pick if left up to his own devices.
“Okay,” Simon says. “We’re going.”
In the last episode of the season, Charlie’s character tries to rescue Simon’s character from a hostage situation. Something’s wrong with the escape shuttle, and Jonathan Hale is insisting that Luke West leave him behind and save himself.
“Just—just shut up,” Charlie says while heroically shouldering open the shuttle door. He’s wearing a whole entire shirt and his light brown hair is carefully disheveled. “I’m not leaving you here. I’m not getting in this damn thing by myself.”
“I won’t let you die here, you—”
“Let?”
Charlie grabs Simon’s collar in a way that’s fifty percent menacing, fifty percent affectionate, and will be cherished forever and GIF’d immediately by queer spaceship enthusiasts. It goes on like that, as it does at least once a season. Luke and Jonathan angrily-slash-sexily attempting to sacrifice themselves for one another is a core part of the show.
Nobody ever explicitly told Simon to play this kind of thing romantically, and so he doesn’t. His character is too buttoned-up to play anything romantically, including actual romantic scenes. But sometimes he thinks Charlieisplaying it romantically. Then again, there isn’t anything Charlie could do to make the sentiment “I’drather die with you than live without you” more romantic than it already is.
Occasionally, interviewers who think they’re being clever ask Simon what he thinks about all the gay fanfiction being written about his and Charlie’s characters. He always says he’s thrilled fans feel inspired to write stories aboutOut There. Which is true enough—the fact thatOut Thereis a show fans have that kind of relationship with is part of why he’s stuck around so long.
For general sanity purposes, Simon doesn’t let himself think too hard about what goes on in the writers’ room. They do their job, he does his. But they’ve spent years writing lines and entire story arcs for him and Charlie that are pretty romantic. And yet, their characters keep getting paired with women.
He knows plenty about the history of movies and television shows depicting characters of the same gender in unusually close friendships, acting in a way that can only be described as romantic, but then becoming involved in straight romantic relationships. Somewhere in the bowels of the internet is all theLord of the Ringsfanfic he wrote in middle school, and also all theSherlockfanfic he wrote in high school. Simon basically has an honorary master’s degree in dubious homoerotic tension.
At the time, he had no problem recognizing that tactic as textbook homophobia. Now, though, he’s less sure.
There’s no shortage of queer talent on the show. For all intents and purposes, Simon is out at work. So is Alex, who’s brought partners of various genders to events. Two of the writers are nonbinary. Lian has a bi pride sticker on her laptop and an ex-wife in Palo Alto. There are queer characters and a couple of storylines that are fairly overt metaphors for trans rights.
But it’s network television, and a queer romantic relationship between main characters is probably a step too far. From the beginning, Lian’s been negotiating a delicate balance between doing what she wants and making the network happy.
Simon doesn’t think he’d ever recover from having to shoot a romantic scene with Charlie, so whatever’s going on with the writers has worked out pretty great for him. And less great for, like, equal representation on slightly above-average science fiction shows. But Simon isn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth.
The point is, he’s done this before, this romance-but-with-plausible-deniability scene. This time, though, when Charlie’s knuckles skim Simon’s throat as he grabs Simon’s collar, Simon hesitates before delivering his next line. When they lean together, their bodies fitting the way they always do, Charlie smelling like coffee and mints and whatever shampoo was probably on sale at Costco, it hits Simon that this is the last time.
Simon will be so glad to be done with this show. He doesn’t know where this nostalgia is coming from.
“Don’t you dare tell me to leave you,” Charlie says, and Simon rolls his eyes. It’s familiar and kind of dumb. As they reset the shot, Simon can’t believe he isn’t going to do this ever again.
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From anOut Therefan Discord
SpacePope: There is no plausible heterosexual explanation for “Don’t you dare tell me to leave you.” I will not be hearing any arguments at this time
SpacePope: Are you telling me someone wrote those words and expected me to hear them with my own gay ears and not come to some conclusions??
SimonDevereauxsCheekbones: My cousin’s a PA (not on Out There but on another show at the same studio) and he says a third of the Out There writers’ room is like. Very gay.
HowlsMovingSpaceship:Okay sorry to be Like That but you realize that queerbaiting is worse if it’s done by queer writers who know exactly what they’re doing, right?
SpacePope:How is that even queerbaiting? It’s just plain queer.
HowlsMovingSpaceship:It’s the literal definition of queerbaiting. If you judge by the words coming out of their mouths, Luke and Jonathan are basically in love. Meanwhile, Luke is always—ALWAYS—involved with at least one woman.
SupervillainApologist:guys, mom and dad are fighting
