Worst Case Scenario

Joss is a dynamic protagonist who changes significantly throughout the course of the novel. She grew up in Waketa but moved away after college to pursue a career in Washington, DC, working on the political aspects of nuclear energy. As she tells Ethan, she fought against the “suits” who did not care about small towns like Waketa. After several years, she moved back home, but she still works for the National Emergency Support Team as a regional representative. She feels as though she is “stuck in the middle, never fully fitting into either side while seeing and understanding both—and being considered an outsider by each” (156).

When she goes to the Clover Hill Power Plant, she has an ongoing conflict with Ethan due to their differing views on how to handle the crisis. Because she always looks at the bigger picture, she insists that they vent the gas to prevent an explosion, and she also opts for the hard choice of sacrificing people to turn on the pump. By contrast, Ethan thinks of the people of Waketa first and wants to prevent the community from experiencing exposure to radioactive material. He therefore works through every option before committing to sacrificing personnel. These two conflicting views develop the theme of Heroism and Leadership in Times of Crisis, as each protagonist represents a different leadership style. While Ethan waits until both generators fail, delaying the tough choice of whether to sacrifice someone, Joss immediately jumps to the more drastic decision without considering the other options first.

Joss’s greatest internal change occurs when she realizes that there is validity to Ethan’s leadership decisions. After the two briefly dated in high school, she left to pursue a job in Washington, DC, while he stayed behind. As Joss notes, “she wanted to change the world. He wanted to have a family. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t do both. She didn’t get how he didn’t see they couldn’t” (204). These frustrated thoughts exemplify the primary conflict between the two; Joss is concerned with the bigger picture, while Ethan cares more about his community. However, when she tells Ethan that the world “is only worth saving if it’s full of people whose first impulse is to protect the ones they love” (206), this declaration reflects her own internal development. She now recognizes the value of building a life around loved ones, even though she was adamantly against having a family in the past. In her final moments as she dies in the basement, she thinks again of the idea of having children and realizes that “there [i]s something profoundly sad in realizing, too late, that inside her […] [i]s the equally human desire to create” (291).

Ethan is the power plant’s manager. He has a wife and a daughter whom he texts immediately after the crisis, warning them to evacuate. He dated Joss years ago in high school, but they broke up when she moved away to work in Washington, DC, and he stayed behind to work at the Waketa plant. He serves as a foil to Joss, and their interactions highlight different versions of leadership in a crisis. While she focuses heavily on the bigger picture, he worries more about his family and the citizens of Waketa. 

Unlike Joss, Ethan is a static character. While Joss begins to understand the importance of family, he maintains his focus on prioritizing the people of Waketa over broader concerns. As they say their goodbyes at the door to the basement, he repeatedly yells at her to “let [him] be the one” to sacrifice himself (282); however, the narrative states, “They both knew he was only saying that because it was already done. It was her, not him” (282). In other words, Ethan may be able to understand Joss’s perspective, but he is not able to sacrifice himself for the greater good, as she does.