Sam

like it starts with sharing passwords and whatnot, but then they have the keys to each others' rooms. grace is glued to her side like they're conjoined twins. she brings him along to meetings to science translate like he's her emotional support dog. he brings her lunch because she always forgets. they both fall asleep working in one office or lab or another all the time.

eventually they straight-up form their own way of communication. grace can say something on the same level of incomprehensible as "carl and i made a baby" and stratt will respond with some obscure hand gesture, and both of them will completely understand. they hold entire conversations like that. one day ilyukhina pops her head in the door to ask grace a question, witnesses this, and wordlessly backs away. she'll ask dubois.

there's a betting pool going on on whether they're hooking up, but one day someone finds out that grace is aroace or something, and it becomes immediately and violently clear that something much more concerning is going on with them.

In the book, Eva most probably gets thrown to the ground by the explosion. As soon as she recovers, the very first person she calls out to is Grace, asking if he's okay.

Alright, maybe that's just because she knows he's the closest person to her.

But that's not what sticks with me.

What sticks with me is what she does next.

She physically goes to him before reaching for her radio to find out what actually happened.

And I kept asking myself: why?

Grace already answered. He said he was alright.

So why not grab the radio immediately? Why not assess the situation first?

Why did she have to go to him?

Because she needed to make sure he was actually okay.

Because she needed to see with her own eyes that he was still there.

Because maybe, no matter what had just happened, she knew she could deal with it as long as he was still there.

Before anything else, she needed to know that Grace was safe.

I actually can't with Eva.

Then there's the movie.

There's a small movement Sandra Hüller makes that you could interpret as Stratt checking on Ryland for a split second before she runs toward the explosion.

But what really gets me is Ryland.

Stratt takes off running without a second thought. It's dangerous. They don't even know what happened yet, but she runs toward the explosion like her life depends on it.

And Grace follows her.

This is the same man who's defined by his fear. The same man who believes he's a coward. The same man who couldn't willingly sacrifice himself for humanity.

Yet when Eva runs straight toward danger...

...he runs after her.

It's the first time we see him willingly throw himself into a dangerous situation without her forcing him or cornering him into it.

It's his own choice.

His instinct isn't to run away.

His instinct is to follow her.

You're not alone out there

Let's write a song, make up the melody

If you're looking for me baby

You know you can find me

Following the sun

book grace: rocky would you still love me if i were a worm

I think about him slowly starving a lot

their relationship is special to me

she needed. a chair

But I will walk down to the end with you

If you will come all the way down with me