Pirjo Tries to Pay Malena to Leave the Academy

Pirjo Abanshamash Dumuzi’s attempt to pay Malena to leave the Nature Absorption Academy turns a hospital visit into a contest over belonging, desire, and trust. Pirjo offers eight thousand euros and a packed suitcase, but Malena refuses both the money and the departure it is meant to buy. Behind Pirjo’s worried manner lies a deliberate concealment: she knows that Atu’s feelings have always been for her, even as she tries to make Malena trust her warning about him.

The Hospital Visit

Pirjo finds Malena in a gynecological ward on the fourth floor of Kalmar Hospital, where Malena looks paler than the nurses’ white coats. Pirjo knows Malena had hoped Atu would come to show compassion and care, but thinks that hope reflects how little Malena understands him. Her own appearance of concern therefore carries an edge: she arrives as the person offering attention, while implying that Atu has failed to provide it.

Pirjo tells Malena to go as far away as possible once discharged. She produces eight thousand euros, describing the cash as enough to keep Malena going for a few months, and says she has packed Malena’s things in a suitcase in the corridor. The offer is specific and practical, but its purpose is unmistakable: Pirjo wants Malena to leave before returning to the Academy.

Rejection and Rivalry

Malena reads the offer as an effort to get rid of her. She pushes the money away and rejects Pirjo’s attempt to arrange her departure. Instead, she insists that Atu is hers and says he described Pirjo as his skivvy, someone who bows and scrapes wherever he spits. Her words make clear that she sees Pirjo not as a disinterested benefactor but as a rival whose offer exposes the conflict between them.

Malena says she will be back at the center in a couple of hours, resuming the position she has fought her way up to, and adds that she can get there by herself. The planned exit thus fails before it begins: she will accept neither Pirjo’s money nor Pirjo’s authority to decide where she belongs.

Concealment and Stakes

Pirjo suppresses what she knows about Atu’s enduring feelings for her. Rather than answer Malena’s attack with that knowledge, she maintains a fixed, worried expression and tells Malena she has been happy for her and Atu. She presents her own feelings as something that changed long ago, while preparing Malena to trust her account of Atu’s dark side. The performance is calculated to make Malena believe her before, as Pirjo anticipates, Malena’s world crumbles.

The scene ends not with a settled separation but with Pirjo’s attempted intervention still dependent on Malena’s trust. The cash and suitcase make her plan concrete; Malena’s refusal makes its limits equally clear. Pirjo has tried to purchase distance while disguising rivalry as concern, but Malena remains committed to returning to the center, and Pirjo’s warning has yet to be heard.