Drew Hancock’s new dark comedy Companion is right to compare itself to The Notebook and Barbarian in its promotional material. What starts off as a cute little romance with a couple on a weekend trip, transforms into a disturbing thrill ride about choice, control, and what it means to be human. And it’s done with a cast that kept me at the edge of my seat because I wanted that incel dude bro Josh to go down and for Iris to give the killing blow. But just because I admire what Companion has done when it comes to telling a story of AI and a woman’s choice, doesn’t mean that Companion doesn’t have problems. It does. And it’s the Bury Your Gays trope.
WARNING: Major spoilers for Companion ahead.
Sophie Thatcher & Her Iris
Sophie Thatcher’s role as Iris was one of duality as Iris. She had to be demure, nervous, and all the words that describe someone who makes herself small and quiet as a mouse. She was what Josh made her into. And once she started fighting for her life, a switch was flipped and she transformed into someone resourceful, sure of themselves, and desperate for freedom. And you felt all of that when it came to her Thatcher’s Iris.
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Iris’s transformation in Companion feels almost like a fast run through women’s eternal struggles with the patriarchy. It’s one of men thinking they deserve us because of reasons and us realizing that we don’t need them to survive. They’re an addition. If we choose. And I understand that Iris is a robot. But in the context of Companion, Josh used her as he would any woman. So I’m going to refer to her as a woman. And in that scope, she liberates herself with a ferocity that destroys his fragile ego. But it also sets the stage for what could be her liberating others just like her.
For some, the thought of Iris seems too sci-fi. But sci-fi is a blueprint for our future. And with men realizing that the bare minimum isn’t enough, I could see this happening. I could see men creating robots that they can control. It’s another form of power over women. And it delves into a conversation about what makes someone human. Because for someone like Josh, it’s about flesh and blood. But Iris isn’t flesh and blood and she still felt this need to survive and be free. She had her own thoughts, wishes, and fears. She was a woman.
Jack Quaid Was the Perfect Person to Play Josh
Jack Quaid has always had this sort of twitchy little nerd aura about him that makes you lower your walls. Basically, he gives “nice guy.” And if you add a drop of incel into that, he transforms into a disaster in the making that will destroy any woman in the vicinity because that kind of man thinks they deserve a woman instead of them working on being someone that adds something to a woman’s life.
Quaid’s Josh is the most terrifying villain I’ve seen in a really long time because he’s the kind of villain that lives in our world. We all know insecure men like Josh. In 2025 alone, some of them have ended up in powerful positions that could define the rights of women for decades. That’s why I got the ick the first time he made Iris doubt herself. Josh is the kind of man who doesn’t want to put the work in to being someone’s partner. He wants to take take take and for women to accept him for who he is. It’s all about him.
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When Josh takes control of Patrick, it further solidifies his villainy. He doesn’t want to be with Patrick. But he wants to show Iris that it’s about control and that he has it. It’s about destroying her agency. And he makes her suffer by watching how easily he could destroy Patrick’s entire being because he can. It’s cruel mind games delivered by a seemingly cute nerdy bro face thanks to Quaid. So seriously, kudos to Companion for making me cheer for the demise of Josh with an enthusiasm I haven’t experienced in years.
Then There’s Eli and Patrick
I loved Eli and Patrick. There are problems in their relationship. There’s no denying that. Patrick is a robot and Eli purchased him. Eli used his power and his wallet to create a partner for himself. And in loving these two, I had to ask myself what makes them different from Josh and Iris. In the end it had to do with love and respect. Patrick knew that he was a robot and he stayed because he wanted to. And when that revelation was made, Patrick and Eli shared this moment of intimacy that we don’t often see when it comes to queer people in sci-fi adventures. One grounded in wanting to face the world together. Josh just wanted Iris to take the fall and did everything he could to destroy her, even if he had to destroy someone like Patrick at the same time.
In my love for Eli and Patrick I also have to express my disappointment in Companion as a whole. Harvey Guillén is a wonderful actor and I wanted to see him get his happily ever after. That’s especially true after watching him for years on What We Do in the Shadows without getting that fairytale romance or romance in general. As for Lukas Gage, ever since he was the Cat King in Dead Boy Detectives, I’ve been on the lookout for more of his career. So when I saw these two actors together, playing this gay couple, I felt like a spark of hope blossomed within me. It was an unconventional romance with plenty of problems they had to talk to with a therapist, but they chose to face the world together. Then Eli died. Then Patrick was basically reset, another kind of death.
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Companion is giving the Bury Your Gays trope. I didn’t want to admit it to myself because I loved the movie so much. But that’s what it is. I get that this movie is twisted and it’s about control, power dynamics, and self-determination. But love can still happen in that. And I can’t help but feel like even in a sci-fi thriller dark comedy like Companion, the gays still can’t be happy and are expendable. They still can’t survive. They can’t make it through the day. And again, I get that they aren’t perfect. But we get plenty of dark romances with people that are twisted. But they’re always heterosexual couples. And for once, I almost got a queer romance with some questionable and dark elements to them. But apparently in 2025, that’s still too much to ask for.
