“If he has loosed in their marriage the passion her leaving had provoked, they might have had a chance together.” 

As Shira anxiously waits to hear the result of her custody hearing, she provides an insight into the collapse of her marriage to Josh. The lack of passion can be read as a reflection of the cold, distant, and emotionless technological world in which they find themselves. Despite her tech-orientated profession, Shira craves passion and raw emotion, something that technology will never replicate. 

“Now her life felt like a crystalline structure shattered into bright dangerous shards that left her bleeding.” 

The departure of Ari from Shira’s life has hit her hard. She is struggling to bring together the now disparate tendrils of her existence and has decided to return home in order to reassess who she is. This search for an identity in a world so regulated, so beset by cosmetic surgery and body modifications, is seemingly endless. Shira has decided to return to her past to resolve her future. 

“You love too hard. It occupies the center and squeezes out your strength.” 

With Shira distraught over the betrayal by Gadi, Malkah tries to offer her shreds of comfort. Her words are immaterial, however, as Shira does not want to listen. Amid the futuristic sci-fi world, the elderly, informed advice of a grandmother to her granddaughter remains a universal constant. Shira’s teenage grief is not unique but could come from any time in history, to the point where it seems almost anachronistic.