Hey remember that brief story beat from like three chapters ago?? This . . . this is the payoff. This is the payoff for that beat.

Um, here’s a weird literature reference to have in a science fantasy dramedy: Moreau’s style of haunting is inspired by a passage from the Toni Morrison novel Sula. After discovering something terrible, the main character becomes convinced that there is “a ball of muddy strings, but without weight, fluffy but terrible in its malevolence” floating near her, just out of sight. She can never turn to look at it, but she knows that it is always . . . there. I only read the book once and I was definitely too young to appreciate it properly, but that description of terrible knowledge or emotions that you can’t bear to look at but are just always there really stuck with me. (Also, “fluffy but terrible in its malevolence” is just a fantastic phrase.)

Unrelated: I started watching A Very English Scandal and on top of it being extremely On Brand for me (class struggle! internalized homophobia! really pretty hallways!), it reminded me that Love Actually-era Hugh Grant is a big influence on Jekyll’s look.