Reasons why I’m now lowkey obsessed with Marissa, a character who has ONE SCENE in the ENTIRE BOOK:
She’s the first person Grace remembers from his past. He remembers her before he remembers he’s a teacher, before he remembers Stratt, before he remembers HIS OWN NAME.
He mentions no other people who he’d consider a friend that he’d hang out with.
The first thing Grace tells us about her is that she and him have steak and beer together every Thursday at the same time at the same place, at the same TABLE because the staff immediately recognize them every time and know their orders.
They met in grad school because Marissa dated Grace’s roommate for three months. They have no inkling of romance between themselves at all.
They’ve known each other for TWENTY YEARS.
She works at the DOE and learned about the Petrova Line absorbing the sun’s energy before Grace did—she’s the one to tell him about it. The information weighs on her enough that she drinks four whiskeys.
Every other named character calls Grace “Grace,” “Dr. Grace,” or presumably “Mr. Grace” in the case of the students. But Grace calls Marissa by her given name (doesn’t mention her surname), suggesting she’s the only character who would call him Ryland.
The dialogue in their one scene together suggests Grace is used to joking around with her without feeling judged
The book never brings her up again after this one scene. This makes me feel CRAZY.
WHY did Weir make them seem so close only to give Marissa one singular scene? Her only tangible role appears to be to give Grace exposition about the Astrophage Problem, but there’s plenty of ways to write a scene like that without specifying that she’s also apparently his closest human friend?
Did Grace ever call her to explain why he can’t show up to dinner anymore? Did he have cell signal on Stratt’s Vat? Did Stratt LET him call people after signing him onto the Project? She seems to have taken care of his job, but she wouldn’t have any reason to know about Marissa and the Thursday dinners unless Grace and Marissa left evidence on social media or something.
What happened to her after her one scene? Presumably she kept doing her job at the DOE and having a harder and harder time due to the crisis, maybe she worked on trying to get energy to warm people’s homes.
Did Stratt know about her at all? Did anyone know she was Grace’s friend, did anyone know she had dinner with him every week, did anyone know she would miss him?
Petrova Taskforce Guys: Oh yeah Grace is a loser he has no family or friends to miss him
Me: DO THEY KNOW
How did she feel hearing that Grace became the science officer of the Hail Mary? Without telling her, without saying goodbye?
Did she think Grace just suddenly cut off their friendship, or did she get suspicious of the government and Stratt because she knew Grace wouldn’t just do that to her?
I see posts sometimes of people being like “oh Grace didn’t have meaningful relationships before meeting Rocky,” and I feel like I’m waving the book around like DOES ANYONE WANNA TALK ABOUT MARISSA HELLO MARISSA THE GRAD SCHOOL FRIEND SHE EXISTS SHE’S REAL
Maybe she wasn’t someone Grace would die for—he couldn’t overcome his fear of death even for his kids, and they’re why he joined the Project in the first place. But she was someone he cared about. And she only gets one. Scene.
