I was thinking today about Jacob Stone and Eve Baird.

In the season 1 finale when they skip through alternate timelines Stone kisses Eve and she goes “no, no, nope, no, no” (side note: I love it when she does that) and so it made me wonder how they were together for 10 years in that timeline, but our Eve can’t even contemplate it.

So I do what I do when I’m thinking about things, I half remember stuff and then have to rewatch to firm up my memory. First thing – Santa’s Midnight Run!

Eve says that she spent 12 years in 12 different countries, and that doesn’t count the army bases she grew up on as a child. Santa says that maybe this is why she feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere (side note: thematically the desk in the library constantly resetting is a great angle on this, making Eve feel like she doesn’t belong).

Second – The Crown of King Arthur!

It’s first meeting time! This is the critical thing, this is what mostly makes the difference I reckon. When our Eve met Stone he was on the ground, she protected him and then he was instantly folded into a team structure. All those years in the military with the anti-fraternisation rules meant her mind considered him off-limits.

Whereas meeting 10 years earlier, when Stone said that Eve was fresh out of military intelligence training, that’s a whole different scenario. Eve wouldn’t have been so hardened, more used to taking orders than giving them AND most crucially they would have met as equals.

It’s that equals thing – that first meeting and putting people into boxes – that ultimately made all the difference I reckon. Our Eve met Flynn, was confused by Flynn, there was the push and pull and challenging one another. They talked in the forest, there was empathy, both of them lived for the job, they are both lonely. Eve is used to control and Flynn defies expectations but he’s genuine.

“I like the librarian, he’s weird but he’s interesting.”

Flynn might push Eve out of her comfort zone but he says what he thinks – quite literally “henge” anyone? – and so Eve trusts him enough to contemplate feeling feelings. Once open to the possibility it develops. Whereas in our reality with Stone she was never open to the possibility.

Also I can’t ignore a key fact in that Stone was different in the alternate reality! It wasn’t just that they met at a different time and place in their lives – 10 years earlier – but Stone made a different choice.

In our timeline he never showed up for interview, in the alternate reality he did. He took a chance, he didn’t just say that “I got a job, family business, responsibilities” and spend another 10 years writing under pseudonyms. Stone must have had more hope in his heart – been more open himself, he’d had 10 fewer years of hiding his true self after all.

Conclusion?

I ship Flynn and Eve so hard BUT I could totally see how Jacob and Eve could have worked in this alternate timeline. In fact I can actually see the potential in our timeline should Flynn ever have permanently been out of the picture.

As time went on Eve became less of a leader and more of just a team member. That was because from the very beginning, their first mission together “we’re not soldiers. we’re partners” – so Eve had to transition to treating them as equals. It would still need something to smash the box that Eve put Stone in, so she could actually see him in that light, but it’s definitely possible.

Stone is the most like Flynn in terms of his knowledge and his approach. He’s a bit more physical and a bit less scatty but no less passionate. Eve never picked a tethering partner after Flynn apparently quit, the most she said on the subject was “why not Cassandra?” after Stone and Ezekiel asked her to choose between them.

I thought a lot about who would be the best candidate to be essentially a librarian for a couple of thousand years (or until eternity). I went back and forth because I was thinking about balance. The library chose Stone, Cassandra and Ezekiel because they are all different. Like the finale said, the library lived in all of them for different reasons.

I wondered for a while if perhaps Stone was too much of a traditional librarian but I think ultimately that just solidifies him as the best candidate. He said it himself, as long as he was around the library would always have a librarian.

Eternity is a long time to be lonely. If Flynn really had quit and Eve had picked Stone to tether with. Yeah I think they would have transitioned from supportive best friends to lovers eventually.

(still prefer them as platonic best buds though, this was just a thought exercise)

#have I said how much I love this show today? because I love it#one day I will stop flailing over this show but that day is not today