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Of all the characters, Filippa is the greatest cipher. She shares little about her background with her peers and, when the group’s “types” are listed, she matches no fixed role. She is tall and slim, lacking the clear feminine gender characteristics that are associated with Meredith. Pip is cast variously in male or female roles, a fluidity both her name and nickname suggest. Late in the novel, readers learn that she knew James was responsible for Richard’s death from the start, as she stumbled upon him immediately after the attack. Even in his despair, James marvels at her ability to remain unfazed no matter what. In fact, Filippa is not unfazed, but rather copes with her desperation differently. The group is the only real family she has ever known—she shares that her father has been in prison since she was thirteen—and she will do anything to protect it.
Filippa’s most important quality is her loyalty to her friends. Pip is the person who calls Oliver’s parents, and, across the many years of his imprisonment, she is the only one of his former classmates to visit regularly. She keeps tabs on everyone, even if they are not in regular contact. James entrusts his final note to Oliver to her. Her loyalty extends to Dellecher, the place where she first felt at home. She is in a relationship with Camilo, one of their former instructors, and works with him at the conservatory, noting to Oliver what they are planning to assign to the students in the upcoming year. As Filippa drives Oliver from prison to Dellecher, she plays an audiobook of Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, the Sea (1978), a novel that circles loosely around the theatre and that takes egotism and selfishness as key themes. Given Filippa’s ongoing loyalty to Oliver, this choice represents a comment on the forms of selfishness and egotism that shaped their shared trauma ten years earlier.
