If Scott/Jessica were, for those who bought it, a WTF, every time Bryce speaks, the awareness that he was with Jessica personally as well as professionally reasserts that love is one of life's biggest mysteries. Bryce is driven, analytical, reflective, straightforward, insightful and generous. I miss his skating.

In this interview he is retired, but there's a feeling he could unretire, or at least that maybe in his heart he hasn't put to rest the possibility. If he never competes again, I'd kill to see him on BOTB and that show better get it done. I bet he'd win.

My points of note from this interview. One, he says he wishes he'd gotten into coaching sooner because it would have helped his skating/competing. Coaching helps you see elements technically, puts your focus on the mechanics and not just on performance.

I don't know what tricks Bryce's memory is playing on him but I recall from numerous media quotes that he always deconstructed the mechanics of his and Jessica's skating, always focused on both components of his job - the technical and the performance. He didn't need experience as a coach for that. It was easy to see that Bryce kept himself ferociously fit, that he'd applied himself to his double axel to keep his left hip under control when landing, and that, as David Pelletier said, even though Bryce was more slightly built than many pairs guys, his lifting technique was flawless and secure. You know he was always as aware of what was going on with the nuances of Jessica's balance and stability as much as his own job, that he was sensitive to how well she was doing hers and compensated when needed. You can see the difference in her face today when she's lifted by Sebastien Wolfe. Bryce had said he's not the biggest guy out there but he uses every bit, and we could see that too.

Hindsight is futile because it wouldn't have changed anything. He wasn't the person who would have benefitted from dispassionate focus on technique. That was Jessica. I remember when she was splatting her salchow in the Olympic season, Bryce deconstructed the mechanics in the media and explained what needed adjusting. It seemed pretty basic for someone like Jessica, who'd been doing the jump for years. Not that it helped. Maybe he really feels if he'd had experience coaching, he'd have been able to help her focus on that stuff.

I just hope he doesn't mean he could have improved his own work. I think he pushed himself as far as he could push HIMSELF. As driven as he is, to literally skate for two is impossible. To push the team further, he needed more cooperation from Jessica.

The second point of interest for me is Bryce refers to the intense financial pressures/stress of a skating career. Bryce comes from a skating family. The Davisons appear to be reasonably comfortable - they have a place in Muskoka where Jessica and her family were guests of the Davisons (the Davison place in Muskoka has had a bunch of skater guests, obviously). But still, finances were a challenge.

There's an annual Jessica Dube golf fundraiser in Drummondville to help defray the cost of her skating. Jessica has worn that red strapless skating costume into the ground - costumes are expensive. She and Bryce had some local sponsors; don't know what she has now. She comes from fairly modest circumstances, perhaps more modest than the Davisons, and even taking into account the combined resources of both families during D&D's career, the financial pressure was there.

Hard to reconcile these realities with the fact that in 2009 the three Dube siblings were able to muster up the money for a 4 star Dominican resort vacation getaway fitting in with Jessica's training break, splashing out for $89-$100 additional excursion fees like ziplining and catamaran trips. Even though the DR is cost-effective for Canadians (there's an invisible pipeline in the air from Canada to DR, no lie, don't even need passports, I believe), it was still interesting how room remained in their budget for vacations with their own friends (Jessica's brother vacationed in the sort of set-up where a bunch of guys bunk in per room in the resort).

Hard to reconcile Jessica's parents being in Paris in 2009 for TEB (an expensive time of year to travel to Paris) then returning to France (Nice) in 2012, and Monte Carlo and Monaco. That money could defray a lot of skating expenses.

Maybe I'm overlooking something but there were no reports of the Davisons at TEB 2009, and I don't think they routinely traveled to see Bryce compete overseas. Hell, neither family was in Colorado when Jessica's face was slashed, but Kate Virtue was, and she was the one who was on the phone to the Davisons to pass the developments to the Dubes. If Jessica needs fundraisers to offset her skating expenses, where did the funds to fly three people to the Dominican, two people to Paris (plus hotel and meals) and at least three people to Nice come from?

Is Jessica Going to Skate Canada No Matter What?

This is a placeholder so I can look back and see how it played out. It's speculation.

But - I wonder if the tbd spot at Skate Canada is already earmarked by Skate Canada for Jessica and Sebastien - part of the quid pro quo for her role in the game of "Scott and Jessica are dating." 

Jessica and Annie have declared Dube/Wolfe's goals for the season  --  same as Jessica with D&D. A podium finish at Nationals, an international assignment and the available berth at Skate Canada. Meantime Skate Canada reported - apparently erroneously - that Bryce had retired for good.

True, she and Bryce had the Olympic podium as a goal and didn't get it, and there was a rumor that unlike the defending champs in the other disciplines, she and Bryce were not guaranteed a trip to the Olympics no matter how they finished at Nationals 2010. There's nothing wrong with setting your goals high. But I'm curious. This is a somewhat resurgent time in pairs, and Sebastien/Jessica are by no means leading the charge.

Fans could always count on seeing D&D at Skate Canada along with Virtue/Moir. But now that Moore-Towers/Moscovitch are the champions, the champions don't get Skate Canada. Maybe Dylan needs to fake-date Tessa.

In the outing at Liberty, winning the long, Sebastien doubled his sbs triple flip (so the team got credit just for the double), Jessica fell out of a death spiral and they both splatted on the second half of the double axels. These aren't "new team" mistakes. They beat Americans Donlan/Speroff by just five points. They did just a split double twist. Girls new to pairs as well as other girls in brand new teams are doing the triple - girls with no world medal who have never been to the Olympics. What the hell with Jessica?

In a good showing in their Quebec short, Jessica and Sebastien both splatted the triple flip. In the long Jessica aborted two lifts.

Sebastian also again doubled the flip, and singled the first axel. And again with a split two twist.

Jessica's pairs combination spins have been sloppy the past few years but here she even had to hop a few times to get aligned for the same combinations she's done for years with Bryce. They were slower than at Liberty and had a heavy descent from the one lift they accomplished.

Jessica making like a Christmas ornament.

Jessica did not appear to have any intention of doing either press lift and while hanging off Sebastien's back aborting the second she seemed to glance over at Annie. She did not seem chagrined or disappointed at any point.

(Perhaps Sebastien needed to be made to feel insecure so she can reassure him and have the upper hand.)

Going by her performance in the ladies short, the Dube/Wolfe long program performance did not suffer from Jessica's focus on those singles skills she's claimed restored her "spark" for figure skating. 

This is a lot of equanimity combined with some pretty desultory skating for a girl we're supposed to believe hopes to earn her way to Skate Canada. Unless it was earned before she and Sebastien ever competed this summer.

This team has been together over six months; she's a World medalist, he's a junior nationals medalist and the long program has degraded since we saw it at Liberty.

Not to mention that while skating to an explicitly non-romantic Phillip Glass score, at Quebec Jessica randomly seemed to believe she was skating The Way We Were. The eyes would close and the head would swoon, the shoulders lifted and sighs were heaved. She zoned out. This was not her performance mode at Liberty. It was the weirdest.

Way We Were-ing it