If I had to pick one line that is at the heart of the movie, it's this one.
The movie (rightfully) comes right out and asks you to think about Grace, to fill the blank in the way people talk about her and see her as a full-fledged person who was suffering horribly. In contrast, it leans on the Creepy Little Girl aesthetic for young Martha and plays the emotional impact all this had on her close to the chest - until this line.
Prentice was like a father to her, the person she loved and most respected in the whole world. And he killed himself right in front of her, out of spite for his daughter. No matter what devotion Martha would heap on him, she would never be more worth living for than hurting Grace was worth dying for. She's what, 11 then?
Of course she lords this over Grace. This one way in which she can feel like she's been chosen (when it reality she's been very much abandoned instead). She is childishly hanging onto something that makes the loss and the horror feel like it can be Worth something. A way in which she is loved.
Her whole life, she clings to that: the good one, not the bad one. If she's not tied to the image of the 'Harlot Whore', does she even exist?
And maybe she doesn't. It's a running gag that she goes unnoticed. The Church is hers, she runs all of it, but she is unseen. The Good One doesn't seek attention. The Good One doesn't desire.
The Good One is a perpetual child even in her 70s, innocent to the point of parody. The Good One doesn't know what a penis looks like, she is not a whore, she does not desire! (Rocket ships, what a funny scene! Surely not saying anything about her lifelong torment!)
The Good One cannot do anything but sneak a small smile when the man she loves displays his desire for her. But she can't want back.
She has to deny herself, so she can believe her father would still love her. Else, what has it all been for?
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