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Eva Stratt who insisted on being the first to be tested for the comatose gene

Eva Stratt who made sure the ship computer knew the crew's exact coffee orders, even Grace, down to the most precise measurements

Eva Stratt who illegally acquired thousands of video games for the hail mary crew, despite the fact they'd be in a coma for the majority of the trip

Eva Stratt who sent a school teacher into space because she knew he was a fundamentally good man

Eva Stratt who would betray the closest thing she had to a friend because she knew there was no other choice

Eva Stratt who would do anything to save the Earth, no matter the cost

Eva Stratt who desperately wished she could be the one to make the sacrifice instead

Eva Stratt who couldn't, no matter how much she wanted to

Eva Stratt who studied history, and had seen the way the world would become

Eva Stratt who was terrified by it

Eva Stratt who knew she would would go without credit

Eva Stratt who knew no statues would be built of her

Eva Stratt who knew she would never be a hero

Eva Stratt who did it all anyway

They wear suits, but they don't even know basic etiquette.

MY LORD?? there is no way I can follow you there!

My Lord, the map

THE MAP, MY LORD

grace: he's the reason i wake up every morning :)

eridian students: aww!

[earlier]

rocky: rocky has seen this on earth portable thinking machine. grace very brave. grace has name, question?

grace, not entirely paying attention: yeah man its grace you know that

grace: it is, but everyone calls me grace anyway so it's fine

rocky: grace is sure, question? grace could pick any name

grace: hmmm... worth a thought, i guess. got any ideas?

rocky: rocky 2

grace: aw :) wait whos first?

but movie stratt/grace. god.

movie eva isn’t cold. she’s guarded. painfully, deliberately guarded. until the mask slips and, for one dangerous moment, she thinks she might get to keep him.

she cares about him. she knows she cannot afford to care about him. and she does it anyway.

she sends him because she has to. and it hurts because it’s right. and it hurts because it’s him.

and his goodbye message being so gentle??? no rage. no cruelty. not even the satisfaction of blame. just this awful, beautiful understanding. he knows she was right. he knows what she chose. and he doesn’t make her carry his anger too.

it's really interesting looking back at both iterations of the story and how stratt and grace's rapport hinges on unrequitedness. there's obviously the karaoke scene in the movie acting as grace's bid for human connection vs stratt's necessary refusal in order to do her job. the book rarely if ever interrogates stratt's interpersonal relationships in the project and how her sense of duty and utilitarianism extends to them (well, aside from grace. more on that in a sec). She's a History major and an administrator and She Loves Humanity, but it's a characteristic that when analyzed deeper rings pretty hollow (possibly because the author thinks social analysis/critique in science fiction is stupid and thus doesn't exactly have much to say about People like someone in the humanities would. SAD!) so that's an addition to her character from the movie that i'm deeply pleased about. what i don't like as much is that the bid for connection starts from grace.

because book stratt and grace? the one sidedness of their rapport is the driving emotional conflict of the entire pre-launch plotline—and of grace's character development throughout the whole book.

like most scientists on the team, grace was brought onto the project by force, but he's the only one who fulfilled his purpose, was allowed to return to his own life, and then came back of his own volition, out of a sense of personal duty and responsibility. which is the reason stratt takes him back on! and why she begins to rely on him more and more, as an administrator, as a mediator, as a scientist, as an advisor. she has all the more reason to do that when she discovers he's coma resistant, but she was already doing all that baby!

grace spends the rest of their relationship half-assing that sense of responsibility. one thing i adore about book phm is how merciless it is with grace's "modesty" "insecurity" and "social anxiety". children are easy to dote on. they're not stupid, obviously, but on an interpersonal level they're not your equal, they have no way to actually demand accountability from you and call your ass out. he doesn't actually think he's a failure, he's not blind he should know damn well he's not like the other scientists. "science lapdog", "ooo i'm just a little guy cmonnnn i'm just a middle school teacher", he downplays his own importance because if he genuinely grappled with the level of responsibility she holds him to towards the people in the project he'd run like a fucking dog.