Just thinking about how different Season 3 Kieran is from Season 1 Kieran tonight.
Season 1 Kieran would have never shared cake with Lauren or looked that relaxed around her. He saw her as a means to an end, primarily. He saw her lie detecting ability and her detective skills and how useful she is, not much else.
He is also far more tense in Season 1. Less free. Less at peace.
It starts to change, right before the Tower Incident. Kieran and Lauren have a brief moment of vulnerability, but they’re still pretty standoffish. Kieran is less settled because he still cannot see a way out of being an assassin, even though they did a lot of work against the Phantom Scythe.
In Season 3, though, he is more genuine, more open, and he has hope. He has hope that his assassin days are at their end. He had hope that he might be free from the Phantom Scythe. And he has someone to be genuine with, someone who will help him and someone he can be more free with.
Through Season 2, Kieran came to see Lauren as more than what she could do for him and his mission. He came to see her as a person worth protecting, a person worth knowing, a person with whom Kieran could let down his guard with, even if it’s only slightly.
That change is so evident in that scene in episode 148.
In the memory, Kieran has his devil may care mask on, smirking and enjoying the scene in front of him, but not at peace, with no hope, and with no connection. He was only an observer. In the present time, he has connection, he has hope, he is working towards freedom and peace.
He has something to live for.