hoechlin:

Can we just talk about the little jaw tick here for a moment. Because here’s the thing, this is the moment right before Steve opens that folder and finally sees proof of all that has happened to Bucky. I mean he knows what happened in an abstract sense. He knows that Bucky has been tortured and manipulated and brainwashed and turned into something else, but this folder is concrete proof. This folder is specifics. This folder has kill-lists and specific methods used to force the asset to comply. This is the diary that Bucky couldn’t write, the years that Steve has missed out on.

And so having this in his hands, he knows that reading this is going to hurt. He knows that the few sheets of paper in his hands are going to cut right through him, and this moment, this spare second before he has to dive in to all this, Steve is calling up heroic, square-jawed figure he’s supposed to be, that he needs to be .A deep breath and a slight shift of his jaw to steel his nerves is all he allows himself before plunging forward. Because there’s no other choice is there? He has to know. Because he can’t let Bucky down this time.