Dorian and Phillip’s Shift from Opposition to Cooperation

Dorian and Phillip’s relationship changes from opposition to cooperation at the point when the war’s losses can no longer be treated as irreversible. Phillip presses Dorian to help bring the dead back and alter the Fates’ design; Dorian resists, then acknowledges that love is what makes the choice unbearable. Phillip’s proposal for a time reversal converts that emotional confrontation into a shared plan, and after it succeeds he invites Dorian to join Hero Society and help build a better future. Their renewed alliance is not presented as simple absolution: it rests on a difficult bargain, Dorian’s decision to give up his villainous ways, and the group’s willingness to offer him a place among them.

From opposition to an appeal

Phillip confronts Dorian after the war has left Esme dead and the possibility of restoring the victims seems beyond reach. Dorian says there is nothing more to do and tries to end the discussion. Phillip rejects that resignation, insisting that they can change what happened and bring everyone back. When Dorian tells him to mourn the dead and be free, Phillip makes the appeal personal: Dorian might have another chance to love Esme.

Dorian does not immediately accept. He fears that Esme would see him as a monster because of what he has done, and that she would no longer love him. He keeps walking rather than take up Phillip’s offer. Phillip follows and urges him to stop running from his feelings and help change the Fates’ design. Dorian finally shouts that he loves Esme, then admits he cannot bear the thought of seeing her look at him with knowledge of his actions. His resistance is therefore not indifference to Phillip’s proposal but fear of what a restored relationship might reveal about him.

A shared plan and its price

Phillip and Dorian watch as Dorian struggles with the decision. Phillip argues that their divine blood, combined with Asher’s magic, could turn back time. He explains that Asher’s presence is inconsistent in his future visions, and that a conversation with Asher about magic and his people has led him to believe the feat is difficult but possible. The proposed reversal could return events to a point before the war began, before Rose came to Dorian’s hideout, or before Dorian and Esme became involved.

Dorian asks what the plan will cost. Phillip explains that Draco would become mortal and that the people brought back might not remember the months that had passed; some memories could survive, while others might not. The consequences make the proposal more than a promise of restoration. It asks the survivors to accept changed lives and uncertain memories in exchange for a chance to undo the catastrophe. Dorian’s movement toward cooperation takes place with this cost in view, rather than through an assumption that the past can be erased without consequence.

Cooperation after the reversal

After the reversal, Phillip tells Dorian and Draco that everyone is alive, then tests whether Dorian intends to return to his former ways. He presents their new circumstances as a chance to begin again and learn from their mistakes. Dorian confirms that his villainous course is over and agrees to give up immortality as well. He does not want to outlive Esme, and he is still uncertain whether she will remember their relationship or see him only as the doctor he had been before.

Phillip explains that they have returned to Seahill one year before Dorian left the city in chaos. People without Gifts remember nothing; among those with Gifts, memory varies. The earlier Dorian no longer exists separately because he and his body from that time have merged. Phillip advises Dorian to resume the life he had and says they will work to make Hero Society better, explicitly including Dorian in that effort. The invitation is open rather than compulsory: Dorian regards it as an offer he can consider, not an obligation already settled.

Public recognition and a conditional alliance

Later, when Leon asks why Dorian is present, Dorian answers that he goes where Esme goes. Phillip then explains the group’s new circumstances and their next steps. He credits Asher, with help from Dorian and Draco, with breaking into time and reversing it to a point before the trouble began, when everyone was alive. He tells the others that Dorian has let go of his villainous ways and became the hero who saved them, and that he has invited him to join their family if he wishes.

The account marks a change in how Phillip relates to Dorian: the person he had to challenge and persuade is now publicly included in the future he is helping to build. Yet Phillip frames that inclusion alongside the need to learn from past mistakes, not as a claim that those mistakes never mattered. The group’s second chance becomes the basis for cooperation, while Dorian’s membership remains an invitation and the work ahead remains collective. Their relationship thus moves beyond the immediate bargain of the time reversal into a tentative alliance organized around accountability, renewed purpose, and the possibility of belonging.