messymessymessy

The video diaries aren’t just Grace talking to Earth. They’re Grace talking to Stratt. Doing what he always did for her, explaining the science, breaking it down. It’s not clear how much of the rest of his life he remembers over the course of the movie (and beyond) but he absolutely remembers her, she is what he has left of Earth to hold on to up there.

It’s undeniable that she’s the one he’s addressing in the final entry, when he says goodbye. But I didn’t realize it was all of them. She is the “Grace friend” Rocky asks about. It puts her there on the ship with him, as long as he can communicate to her they’re still connected, he still has a sense of her presence with him. And how much more of a gut punch that makes his memory of the sedation, as he grew to trust her all over again through his flashbacks, as he felt closer and closer to someone who was light-years away. Only to remember that she betrayed him, that he failed her, that the friendship he was still relying on as he pieced himself back together was already gone, and even if he went back it could never be the same.

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.