I’m used to media where when a betrayal happens it casts every previous friendly moment in the shadow of that future betrayal, every close conversation and word of encouragement becomes tinged with the fact they were keeping secrets, this was the plan from the start, you can see in their eyes now, but with Eva Stratt it’s different. Somehow, her betrayal doesn’t erase the friendship they had. It doesn’t make the relationship any less real or tangible, it doesn’t even really end it, or twist it into something else in hindsight. What makes Stratt still feel like Grace’s friend at the end of the movie despite the betrayal is her honesty. Eva Stratt never pretended to be anything else than what she was, she never hid her methods or what she was willing to do or what she was willing to sacrifice— anything, anyone, for billions, for the world—and Grace knew this about her. This betrayal wasn’t the plan from the beginning, she had her plan and her scientists. And the moment they’re gone she sits Grace down and she tells him. She explains it, she gives him as much information about the reasoning as she can. She sends him to save the world and then die, and she doesn’t lie to him about it to make it easier for herself or for him or for anyone, and lying definitely would have made it easier. She betrays him and it doesn’t change the fact that they were friends, it doesn’t warp the softer scenes beforehand, it’s a long-shot to save the world, the lives of billions weighed against the life of one friend, Ryland Grace knew who she was. Eva Stratt was always going to pick the world over anyone, including herself. And, because of who she is, the moment where she made him think he had a choice doesn’t feel like cruelty, it feels like the proof they really were friends. Up to this point everything she's done has been for the world, but this… this was Eva Stratt’s only allowed bit of selfishness, giving her friend three hours to choose to go so she wouldn’t have to choose for him. I’m fine about Eva Stratt I swear—
