Set down on outside edge.
Meryl hops - OF COURSE.
onto an outside(ish) edge, still supported by Charlie, but doesn't skate on it because
It's two foot time. Both of them.
And Charlie hops. In place. On two feet. Meryl is pure finesse til the end. Observe her fabulous posture. It's like she's rollerskating out with a plate of burgers.
Meryl's all - the music hasn't stopped yet or anything, but who are we kidding. We've got this. 77 points! Sure, she'll keep her hand on her hip a la polka but no need to get one of her feet off the ice. Charlie feels the same. The program is over.
Oh all right - one last hop. For good measure. On two feet.
And done! Miles apart as usual, cause, you know, chemistry you can cut with a knife.
The next post, we will see Virtue and Moir's exit from their lift.
************
So from the moment Meryl hits her arabesque until the end of the program, Charlie is on two feet and stays that way.
It's another one of those element extension tricks Marina uses (for Davis and White) to fool the eye. He's wide stanced and two footed before the lift starts. She's just hopped into an arabesque and has stopped skating. His feet remain in that stance for the lift. And his feet stay that way until the program is over.
The untrained eye takes it in as of a piece with the lift. It's not. The untrained eye sees what Meryl's doing as a spiral into the lift. It's not.
They're using the lift placement as an excuse to park it on two feet prior to the lift as well as afterwards, through to the program's conclusion.
Blow up their pcs - they've earned it.
P.S.
Once Meryl touched down and Charlie stopped rotating, the lift was over, so no doubt per the ISU the lift itself is the exact same value as what Virtue and Moir will do. Plus Meryl's positions and the difficulty of how Charlie picks her up under his arm so she's across his body obviously rates the highest everything.
Besides, given the base value assigned to Meryl's position, one imagines Meryl's position with her torso against Charlie challenges stability, no?
Her position doesn't make the element MORE stable, does it? What with her core weight and balance distributed diagonally across his shoulder, down across his chest and onto his opposite hip, so that no one part of his body has to absorb Meryl's "weight" and so Charlie's balance isn't challenged by having Meryl positioned on only one side?
Her first lift position actually follows his axis. She's dead across his center of mass, and her diagonal line means not only is Charlie's body not pressed left to right, he's not unduly pressed north to south.
Unlike Scott who has Tessa on one shoulder, perpendicular to his axis, so there's one off-center balance point, away from Scott's center of mass (where the rotation is concentrated) and the success of the move depends on her distributing/carrying much more of her own weight unsupported by Scott. Tessa's on her back, laid out on a perpendicular. Nor does she have her arms and chest draped on Scott, face down, her legs swinging out behind like a carnival ride. She actually has to control her limbs, her balance, her weight. Remember the contraction principle of rotation - if you're contracted - everything close to the body, to your axis - you rotate faster. If your arms (or your partner's limbs) are extended, it challenges the speed you can achieve. Scott and Tessa choose the more difficult position.
That Tessa. Heifer that she is compared to sylph-like Meryl who needs Charlie's entire body for stability, and Charlie, best partner in the world that he is needing to wear Meryl like a poncho or otherwise he'll fall down.
P.P.S. - for all their hopping, leaping, rushing frenzy, nobody kills time and runs down that clock like Meryl and Charlie. Why skate when you can burn seconds with non-skating. It adds up. That is a long assed finish they've got there out of that rotational lift and every inch on two feet. Meryl is just about doing the snow plow out there, and Charlie also has both feet on the ice. But it's okay cause they're still working the hair, and the waist up flourishes. Charlie hasn't stopped tossing his head (hair) back or throwing out an arm, and Meryl's hand on her hip means "style of the dance". But for a short dance, that two foot run out from the lift is an obvious time waster.
That lead into the lift is another time waster. Is there a reason Meryl has to hit that arabesque pose so far from Charlie? The guy has to anchor himself with two feet, jut his butt out behind and tilt his torso forward to get into a sort of lowered center of gravity, ab-clenching tug-of-war stance and then yank her in. That's another (literal) hefty space of time where he's planted on two feet before he ever has to brace for the lift, and she's not skating either - she's being pulled like a little red wagon.
For a couple of skaters who make a huge show of their busyness on the ice, they sure do like to to take frequent breaks to run down the clock and give themselves a breather from actually skating. Or dancing. Or partnering each other.
There's no skating continuity here, segment to segment. They can only skate in separate, individual segments - literally. The entire program is unlinked segments, unlinked because the segments aren't linked by actual skating. So naturally, it's in pcs that DW are defeating VM, who skate in and out of their program segments and elements.
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