So much of “Aftersun” revolves around Calum pretending not to be in despair. There’s a fog around him that Paul Mescal evokes so beautifully that’s in the subtext of the dialogue, but rarely shows up in any direct manner. And this is perfect, considering the context of Calum — this is a part of his life where he can’t break down, he has to be the solid, dependable dad, even if he pulls his own weight in a strange way at times.

This segment opens up in another of grown up Sophie’s rave visions. Except this one is a bit different. In addition to seeing the adult Sophie in the strobed scenes, n turn, we see images of Calum also at the rave, pogo dancing. Was this something Sophie actually saw or is it something she imagines?

The rave scenes also make me wonder if they are an homage to the ending of the Lynne Ramsey film “Morvern Callar,” another Scottish film and one that’s about a young woman trying to move on with her life (in an extremely bizarre fashion) after her partner died by suicide. By inserting these scenes into the film, is Charlotte Wells hinting a similar fate awaits Sophie?

One way that Calum masks is by pretending around Sophie that he doesn’t smoke. They are sitting outside on a very nice patio, lots of parasailors gliding around them. Sophie asks what some other people are doing — they are smoking out of a hookah. Calum begins to explain that it’s just another kind of smoking, but before he can get out his standard anti-smoking speech, Sophie finishes it for him. She then asks when was the last time he visited Nan … and makes a smoking gesture. I assume this means her grandmother is a smoker, but for all I know, it could also be a shorthand for asking him when was the last time he smoked — perhaps it’s something he only does freely when around his mother. (And maybe the tension is so high, he can’t mask in that circumstance.)

Calum then asks Sophie about school, and Sophie tells him that his new teacher the next semester is a woman named Miss Mackel. Calum is aware of her and lets the mask drop to make clear that he finds her very attractive — I took away from this encounter that they might have even had some kind of encounter in the past. Sophie is, unsurprisingly, grossed out by all of this talk.

We then see Calum walking off on his own. Sophie sits bored on one of the video game motorcycles, waiting for him to return with change. At this moment, her old competitor on the bikes, a boy named Michael, sits down and lends Sophie the money to play a game against him. The scene feels a little flirty this time, Sophie making fun of Michael for the fact that she defeated him the last time and says “I hope you were practicing, Michael.” He wins this time to even the competition 1-1. We get the sense that we haven’t seen the last of these two together.

The movie then takes a 45 second break to follow more parasailors on the sky, and then the same reflection on the pool.

We return to live action with Calum brushing his teeth and Sophie on the bed. She admits to being “down” at this moment, and elaborates very specifically and eloquently. She does it in the form of a question — do you ever have a great day, but end it just feeling tired in your bones — your bones don’t work — and you’re sinking?

Calum doesn’t take this opportunity to match Sophie’s vulnerability. But there’s this beautiful little hesitation in Mescal’s delivery, where you sense he wants to answer differently, but instead says “we’re here to have a good time, eh?” But then he quickly spits out the toothpaste not into the sink, but right onto the mirror, as if to cover up the image of himself he’s too ashamed to observe.

He then says to Sophie “let’s go have a nice dinner and then have an early night” and they go out the door. But the camera doesn’t leave with them. It lingers in the room and slowly moves into the bathroom, ending up at the spit stained mirror.