The conflict at the Formal and Ava kisses Lincoln

The conflict at the Formal and Ava kisses Lincoln is a turning point in which a tentative reunion between Ava and Lincoln becomes a confrontation with Gideon, her boyfriend. A brief apology and invitation to dance give way to jealousy and violence; when Ava kisses Lincoln to interrupt the fight, the gesture instead ends with Gideon running from the room. The scene’s force lies in that rapid reversal: a dance that seems to offer a safe way back to Lincoln becomes the event that breaks the fragile ease Ava has found with Gideon.

Background and First Contact

Before the confrontation, Ava and Gideon arrive at the hotel laughing after an uneasy car ride. On the dancefloor they stay within their own bubble, making each other laugh with deliberately foolish dancing and singing. Gideon is intensely invested in being there with Ava, yet recognizes that he cannot make her distress disappear. That mixture of closeness and helplessness frames the scene: their shared happiness is real, but it does not resolve what is troubling her.

Ava later sits at the edge of a chair in the darkened room, catching her breath and watching the dancefloor while Gideon is away. The room has loosened into a communal party: teachers dance, many girls have taken off their heels, and a group of boys move together in time. Lincoln is among them, looking happy. Ava laughs at the group just as Lincoln steps away from the dancefloor; they meet each other’s eyes, and he nods while she grins. It is their first interaction since Kelly Waititi’s birthday.

That encounter carries the weight of an earlier, unanswered attempt at contact. Lincoln had sent Ava a brief text a few days after the birthday, which she ignored. Now he holds up his phone, prompting her to check hers. His message is an apology, but its brevity leaves the source of regret unspecified. Ava is divided between wanting him to explain what he means and feeling glad that he has reached out at all. A second message asks her to dance. She smiles, looks up, and agrees.

The Dance Becomes a Triangle

Lincoln approaches with a dance step, offers his hand, and spins Ava around. He tells her she looks beautiful, speaking with a slight slur; Ava recognizes that he is drunk and acknowledges the compliment without treating it as a reason to refuse the dance. Their exchange is intimate but still limited: the invitation creates a moment of contact, not an agreement about what their relationship should become.

Lincoln stops dancing and draws Ava into an embrace, though they keep swaying together. She experiences the closeness as simultaneously strange, safe, wrong, and comfortable, and knows she ought to pull away but cannot make herself do so. Lincoln then tells her that he has missed her. Ava studies his face, expecting him to retract the admission, but he appears serious. Before she has to answer, he spins her out; the sudden movement makes her laugh, and she sees Gideon watching from the edge of the dancefloor with a pained expression.

Ava lets go of Lincoln as Gideon approaches. When Lincoln asks who he is, Ava begins to introduce him, but Gideon cuts in and calls himself her boyfriend. Lincoln looks to Ava for confirmation; she nods. He responds with amusement and scrutinizes Gideon, turning the declaration into a challenge. Gideon takes Ava’s hand and pulls her toward him too forcefully. He realizes immediately, apologizes with his eyes, but keeps hold of her. Lincoln insists that he and Ava are only friends dancing and takes her other hand. Ava releases both men and steps back, refusing to remain physically between their competing claims.

Confrontation and Kiss

Gideon moves close to Lincoln and pokes him in the chest, saying that he knows all about him. Lincoln pokes him back and asks Ava what Gideon means. The exchange makes their attention shift from the dance to a contest over what each knows and what place each has in Ava’s life. Gideon says that Ava does not need Lincoln anymore because she has him. Lincoln presses his chest against Gideon’s; Gideon does not retreat. Ava orders them both to stop as they stand face-to-face, and she begins trying to pull Gideon away.

Lincoln’s next taunt changes the scene. Ava describes everything seeming to fall away: she cannot move or hear anything except a rushing sound, and her heart pounds. Gideon is speaking directly to Lincoln when Lincoln pushes him. Gideon stumbles, steps forward again, and punches Lincoln. Lincoln falls to the floor. When the moment snaps back into motion, Ava sees Lincoln trying to get up and Gideon standing still, staring at his own hand. She places herself between them as Lincoln, bleeding, launches toward Gideon and threatens him. Ava tries to make Lincoln focus on her, holding his face and urging him to stop, while Gideon remains motionless.

As Lincoln keeps pushing past Ava’s attempts to restrain him, she is frightened, unable to think clearly, and unsure what else will interrupt his attack. She kisses him. Lincoln is tense at first and tries to pull away, but then moves toward her and kisses her back. The account presents the kiss as an urgent action in the middle of a dangerous confrontation, not as a settled reconciliation: its immediate consequence is that Gideon hears Ava sobbing and runs away from the dancefloor.

Aftermath and Significance

The scene continues outside the hotel from Gideon’s perspective. He is crouched on the footpath, sobbing and trying to understand what has happened and what he has done. He says that seeing Ava and Lincoln dancing made him feel out of control. Ava appears after him, panting from running, with mascara streaked across her cheeks. Gideon stands and holds her tightly, clinging to her as if everything depends on the embrace. The physical closeness that began the evening as easy, playful companionship has become an attempt to hold on after the rupture.

The Formal brings several unresolved tensions into a single public space. Lincoln’s apology and admission that he misses Ava reopen a connection that had been silent since Kelly Waititi’s birthday; Gideon’s claim to be Ava’s boyfriend makes that connection a direct source of conflict. Ava tries first to step out of the men’s contest, then intervenes when it turns physical. Her kiss stops neither the emotional damage nor Gideon’s departure: instead, it becomes the final, unmistakable break in the dancefloor scene. The return to an embrace outside does not erase what happened, but shows how quickly the characters move from closeness to loss and back to a desperate need for contact.