tay🐾

There’s something so fascinating about watching Abby take on the role of a healer instead of a destroyer.

This ruthless, militaristic woman shifts so easily into someone care driven, and it’s beautiful to watch.

Abby has always been someone who understands that survival isn’t easy. Pain is often the cost of staying alive. But she instinctively calculates everything to help keep Yara and Lev as calm as possible. It’s not just about what Abby has learned in books or on the field either, it’s the bedside manner of someone who grew up watching a surgeon care for others.

It reminds me of the zebra flashback with Jerry—helping something that was trapped and hurting, when most would have left it behind.

I find it to be symbolic, Abby holding the weight of everything she has been told about the Seraphites and in this moment, choosing to reject it. From coaching Yara how to breathe as she carries her to the trailer, to the way Abby uses her entire body to brace this injured girl and set her down on the couch as gently as possible. The way she steadies Yara with her thigh as she lowers her is so telling.

There’s no cruelty in her actions. She is being so damn careful. We get to see Abby as a protector, outside of being a soldier, and it’s breathtaking.

The most violent act in this scene really, is when Abby kicks the chair apart to create a splint. It stands out to me only because it contrasts so sharply with the care she’s about to show.

I seriously can’t get over how gentle she is here.

I also love that she offers Yara a second to brace herself, process what’s happening and be an active participant in what’s about to shake out. This girl, this badass little warrior, is in excruciating pain and Abby makes sure she still has a say in what happens to her body.

The beauty of Abby and Lev's journey sometimes distracts us from the point where I think the significant transformation actually began.

Abby has been at the forefront of so many moments of cruelty.

She has viciously taken agency from others.

But here?

She is giving it back.

Two people (well, three technically) on opposite sides of a war, choosing to believe in each other when it's the hardest, scariest thing to do.

And when Yara asks her name…

Goddamn if that’s not the most profound bit of storytelling I’ve ever seen, compounded into this soft, quiet, crushing slice of healing. To be seen through new eyes, with no rank, no affiliation, just the most stripped down version of Abby.

Yara allows her to just be, but it’s more than that. Yara allows her to decide. And maybe it helps Abby see herself differently for the first time in a very, very long while.

I’ll never get tired of witnessing Abby’s arc, the brutality she was raised in versus the person she is becoming.