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Alright, sit down folks, I should be writing fic but instead I’mma tell y’all how the rooftop scene in episode 5 of Bad Buddy is a masterpiece in emotional scoring. Hold on to your butts, cause I bet this is gonna get long (if it does I’ll put a cut somewhere, to save dashes). There’s plenty to say about the fight scene before it too, but listen, I have like four fics I’m avoiding writing by doing this, I do not have time to do all of that. So, for our purposes, cue up your Bad Buddy 4/4 at 7:15 and let’s gooo
[aka, listen, they’re amazing actors and I am not disagreeing with you, but the scoring highlights that, and in this essay, I will…
show you how. No really, here’s the essay.]
Okay, so we’re coming from shower pining (which, okay, can we talk about Pat, Mr. I’m going to talk to my crush, but he always says I stink, so I better shower first, right, not this post, sorry) which features some kind of synthetic keyboard vamping on a chord in the octave below middle C (fairly low for non-music people) and a piano line that is… not quite as mope-y as I’d expect given the shower pining, but more like it’s moving towards a decision, something that’s going to change everything. And, as we all now know, we are.
So that’s where we’re coming from, and then Pat comes out on the rooftop and sees Pran. He’s still in that headspace for a few seconds, but then he sighs, and that music evaporates into a new cue in a much higher register, and much much quieter. The effect is that this new cue grows out of the old one, as if it had always been there underneath the surface. See where I’m going with this?
But it’s fragile. It’s a perfect fourth, which in terms of intervals doesn’t have the instability of a second, tritone, or seventh, but it’s not got the stability of the unisons, fifths, and octaves (which are steady, home, solid). The sound of the instrument changes to something more reedy (though still synthetic), and the pitches are high enough that it feels like it is missing a support line, something in the bass to help it stand up on its own.
Instead we sit here floating in it. If you’ve listened to the original track (Cold Light of Day by Across the Great Valley) this part is way shorter… about 24 seconds as opposed to an entire minute and forty two seconds (7:30-9:12) that we’re forced to marinate in uncertainty. There’s so much uncertainty in this scene that it could be referring to, and it doesn’t really matter which, but what it does is it pushes the viewer into that “heart in the throat, about to confess” headspace right along with Pat (whose perspective we’ve been in all episode).
There’s 2 significant moments within that minute plus, each marked with at least one (if not two consecutive) cymbal crescendos. First, at 7:54, Pran attempts to leave, and Pat stops him. This is a decision moment. If Pat lets Pran go, then none of the rest of the episode happens, so the cymbal marks Pat’s decision that this must happen, that they have to talk. The second is at ~ 9:00, during Pran’s “You’ve got to stop doing this to me” speech. It crests during “We are not a thing” - a particularly significant moment because it turns the conversation to them not just to the song (though, of course, it’s always been about them, even if neither was willing to say it). Again, we’ve been in Pat’s headspace this whole time, so even though the camera is on Pran, the music tells us that this particular line is significant to Pat. It sets him up for his rant about the possibility of being friends.
Then, finally, at 9:12, we get one final cymbal crescendo as he seems to make a decision (so perfectly acted, well done Ohm) and it moves into the next section of music. No longer holding a single note, there’s a guitar line as well as an electric bass providing harmony. The guitar line is still easily looped (part of why this whole scene works so well is because they chose a song that could easily be stretched to fit whatever space they needed) but it’s going somewhere instead of just sitting in uncertainty.
The next major event comes at 10:12, just after Pat says “It was so depressingly lonely.” Ugh, this one makes me cry, it’s so perfectly timed. Pran had looked away, and as the meaning of Pat said registers he slowly looks back and a set of low drums (timpani?) play a set of 8 sixteenth notes, leading up to and landing on the downbeat, and perfectly timed so that the downbeat is the moment that Pran’s eyes meet Pat’s.
The guitar line goes away briefly, after that, clearing out for just the uncertainty tone with Pat’s “What we have now, what should we call it?” I mean, it’s probably clear why we’re uncertain here and this is already *checks notes* almost 900 words long so let's move on.
And then. AND THEN, OKAY. Pat asks “If we weren’t enemies, do you think we could be friends?” and then the camera cuts to Pran. At that exact moment, we get something completely new - a high guitar line that ostinatos much faster than the other one did, just asking the same question over and over again, never resolving. I like to think that that guitar line represents Pran, for a variety of reasons that will become clear as we go further, but for now - Pran is finally here in the scene with Pat. He’s been listening but not participating, for the most part, he’s not in the same emotional headspace, he’s not thinking about them becoming something more… until this very moment, when he gives Pat an opening with “Do you want us to be friends?” He’s beginning to hope that maybe, just maybe, his feelings are requited, that Pat wants just as much as he does, and so he leaves the tiniest of openings.
The shot cuts back to Pat, who is clearly having an internal struggle… for all of 5 seconds, before there’s another cymbal crescendo into the return of the electric bass. That moment, right there. The music is telling us that that moment is the moment Pat truly makes his decision. We can see it, too, because Ohm is a good actor, and we can see his shoulders lowering, releasing tension, because the decision is made, he just has to act on it (ca. 11:08, and of course he re-tenses immediately, because he realizes that means he’s gotta do something about that decision he just made).
The rest of the space between then and the kiss is just further build, the way that they have to build up to this big step between them. There’s another slight cymbal crescendo with “No” - another decision/step taken care of, and then the music swells. Interestingly, the mix changes here, going from music + ambient sound effects (mostly cars and distant city noise) + the boys to music + the boys only. It’s narrowing our focus, inviting us to join them in the private world that they’ve entered, where none of the rest of the things around them matter, and combined with the extreme close shots that make up the majority of the kiss scene, it’s very effective.
And then the catharsis. Just before the kiss, for the first time the whole scene the drums kick in and carry us over into the next section. All of the previous pieces are still there, but now there’s a full drumset (an instrument that Pat canonically plays, and it sets the whole thing off, like he kisses first), along with a robust electric guitar/bass guitar line. Pran’s line (the high guitar ostinato) is still clearly audible over the whole thing. As they pull back, and then Pran goes in for another, there’s a slight hiccup in the rest of the parts, directing our focus back to his line - this time it’s his initiative moving them forward, keeping things moving.
They kiss, and it’s lovely… and then reality hits Pran. His guitar line gets buried in the music that they’re making, and it’s the first thing to go as the parts fade out leaving just a single held note, a bit like the uncertainty tone transferred down to Do, or home - the most stable note in any key. We’re still in Pat’s head here, he’s feeling home and stable and right because he’s admitted that he loves Pran, and they kissed. He wants everything to be okay now. The mid-guitar line tries to come back in and keep things going, much in the way that Pat’s smile says that he wants to keep them in this world of just them, but now on its own, it feels lonely.
And then, Pran walks away. Pat’s face falls, and as it does, the series of sixteenth notes in the drums comes back, this time for Pat’s realization. In that moment, he realizes that things are far more complicated than they feel. They cut out the middle guitar line, leaving a single tone again but this time instead of Do, the most stable tone in any key, they leave us hanging on Sol, which is one of the least stable - specifically because it wants to return to Do. Pat wants to go back to the moment after the kiss, the moment of being together with Pran and being in love, and everything being right with the world.
Instead, he’s left there, with only longing.
Excuse me while I just go cry buckets.