Kaplan's camera angles were completely off target for that last scene. In the next episode 1150, Swift is directing and sets the camera angle up just right so you see Roxanne with the cross behind her. Kaplan had his moments, but they were few and far between IMHO.
Lela Swift may not have been a good acting director but I've noticed her episodes seem to have exceptional camera work. I rarely pay attention to such technical things or who directed which episode, but whenever I notice some little extra special touch and I check to see who directed that episode it inevitably turns out to be Swift.
The "close talker" thing annoys me (lol - I remeber that Seinfeld episode). It seems awfully unrealistic, especially in the case of man-to-man conversations. Any ordinary guy would back off and go "Whoa, personal space!" When Barnabas and Quentin were talking the other day their faces were about 2 inches apart - it looked for all the world like they were about to kiss! (Hey, who knows, maybe that's what the director was going for!)
It's probably a camera thing more than anything else- the director wants to get as tight a close-up shot of the two principals as possible, thus requiring the actors to be in each other's faces like that.