trying to write book grace, and the way I'm approaching him is that he's capable of feeling extremely sympathetic towards stratt on the rare occasion where she drops her professional façade and shows vulnerability around him (which seems to be more often than anyone else on the project, if we take the coma gene decision as an example). he's a fundamentally good guy at heart and he wants to help. the problem is that socio-academic death can do a number on a guy's ego, so he is mentally and emotionally hardwired towards self-preservation and building up elaborate narratives to protect himself. man loves his narratives #hisnarratives. and unfortunately the one he built for stratt cannot include weakness or remorse or her needing to rely on him in any way. which can make him flip flop between how he treats her very fast because seeing her in pain makes him instinctively go both "here, how can i help" and "huh. that's not right. What's wrong with you" at the same time. infuriating dynamic to be on the other end of, alas.