Here’s what Leo actually drew of Grace in Netflix’s The Body – and why he did it

Leo’s disturbing drawings of Grace are one of the first mysteries in Netflix’s The Body, but it takes a while before we find out exactly what’s in his sketchbook. And there’s more to them than you might think. 

In the very first episode, a tutoring session between Leo (Jackson Kelly) and Grace (Sofia Wylie) soon turns flirty and, for a moment, it looks like they might kiss. Leo clearly likes Grace, but due to his extreme religious upbringing, he bolts out the room in fear of his impure thoughts. 

What he didn’t realise is he left his sketchbook out there in the open. Grace discovers Leo’s hidden drawings and is so horrified by what she sees that she throws him out of her house. He tries to apologise and begs her not to tell anyone, but she simply tells him to “leave”. 

Although a couple of the drawings fall on the floor, we don’t really see what’s in the book until later in the Netflix series. But a lot happens before that point. 

The night of the discovery, Grace and the rest of the students at St. Mark’s Catholic School head to a Halloween party. Grace had tried out for the Lions dance team, and she got in. As part of an initiation they stage a mock satanic sacrifice and take ecstasy, as you do.

However, after taking the pill, Grace becomes seriously ill and collapses. Anya (Kristina Bogic) and Lisbeth (Geena Meszaros) attempt to take her to hospital, but when she appears to die on the way, they panic and take her home instead.

The following morning, Grace is found alive but unconscious, and nobody can explain what’s happened to her. As the community searches for answers, suspicion falls on Leo. 

He’d been at the Halloween party hoping to apologise to Grace about the drawings. He later turned up at her house, where he discovered her unconscious and called for help. 

And when Grace’s uncle Father Franklin (Nnamdi Asomugha) finds one of Leo’s stray sketches underneath her dresser, the suspicion surrounding him only gets worse. 

What did Leo actually draw of Grace in The Body?

The first drawing we see properly is the one Father Franklin discovers. It shows Grace lying on her side, with her wrists and ankles bound together. 

The sketch resembles Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), a famous painting by Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán depicting a lamb with its feet tied together. The painting itself also appears in the series, but we’ll come back to that later. 

When Leo shows Lisbeth his sketchbook in The Body episode 3, we discover there’s a lot more where that came from. The first pages contain several sketches of Grace incorporated into more religious imagery. 

One shows Leo and Grace as Adam and Eve, while another shows her crying blood and holding a skull. There are also a few cherubs, a bow and arrow, and Leo praying. 

The next pages are covered in handwritten notes, revealing just how much Leo is struggling with his feelings. Although not all of the writing is clear, he repeatedly questions whether he’s a good person, asking: “Am I wicked or am I good?” 

He also begs God to “take these wicked thoughts from my mind” and worries that something inside him might be fundamentally wrong. At one point, he asks whether he’ll still be worthy of heaven if he can’t “tame these urges”.

On the opposite page, there’s another drawing of Grace wearing a robe, kneeling beside a person’s legs. Here, Leo’s thoughts turn more explicitly towards her. He describes her as “beauty incarnate”, and questions why he feels this way about her. 

He also wonders whether she could ever look at him the same way. Leo finishes with a biblical passage about God bringing hidden things to light and exposing “the motives of the heart”.

As Lisbeth turns the pages, she finds more images of Grace, with one showing her with a halo around her head. Another resembles a traditional Catholic religious painting but with a sexualised twist, showing Leo leaning over a partially naked Grace. 

Then the drawings take an even darker turn. One particularly unsettling image is a recreation of the famous 1781 painting The Nightmare by artist Henry Fuseli. Only the woman is Grace and the demonic incubus is Leo. 

The next page depicts Grace with a halo, reaching towards a winged, angel-like figure, with both connected by what looks like strings. 

But not everything in the sketchbook is quite so religious. One cartoonish drawing shows Grace as a devil-horned character holding a knife through Leo’s head. 

On another page, Grace is shown with her eyes closed, surrounded by her braids that are filled with disembodied eyes. 

The next sketch appears to resemble classic paintings of the Madonna and Child, only it’s Grace holding what appears to be a baby dragon or demon in her arms. 

The following page shows Grace against a tree, with two arrows in her chest. She’s holding one of the arrows and has a sad look in her eyes.

Finally, there’s perhaps the most disturbing drawing of the lot. Leo depicts Grace naked and crucified, her arms stretched across a large cross. She’s surrounded by monstrous figures, while a huge hand reaches towards her. It’s an unmistakable reference to the crucifixion of Jesus, with Grace placed in Christ’s position.

Now you know, it’s easy to see why Grace reacted the way she did. 

So, what do these drawings actually mean?

Ultimately, Leo’s drawings of Grace are an outlet for his repressed sexual feelings and the intense religious guilt that comes with them. The teenage brain is already complicated enough, but Leo’s strict religious upbringing has caused him to mix normal feelings up with his fears about sin and God. 

For context, Leo and his older sister Lisbeth grew up in an extremely strict cult-like environment, and he’s developed an almost obsessive fear of doing something wrong. To him, even sinful thoughts are bad. It seems to be a constant battle in his head. 

This is particularly clear in the writing in his sketchbook. On the first page, Leo is practically begging God to take his thoughts away. He repeatedly questions whether he’s wicked and worries that he won’t be allowed into heaven if he can’t control his urges.

On the next page, his tone changes. He’s describing Grace as “beauty incarnate” and wondering whether she could ever feel the same way about him. But then he returns at the end to a biblical passage. 

The way Leo mixes religious imagery with his sexual feelings suggests he can’t separate the two. And no moment makes this clearer than the beginning of The Body episode 3. 

While mopping the floors of the school chapel, he stops to admire Francisco de Zurbarán’s Agnus Dei – the lamb lying on its side with its legs bound together. This is clearly the same image Franklin had found the night prior, only instead of the lamb, Leo drew Grace. And he sees his twisted version as he stares at the painting. 

The lamb in this painting traditionally represents Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. By drawing Grace in the same position, Leo appears to be placing her in Christ’s role. You see this throughout the rest of his sketchbook too. Grace appears as an almost saintly figure with halos, as Virgin Mary and even as Jesus on the cross. 

But these images are mixed with nudity and violence, with Leo often depicting himself as the evil or demonic figure. There’s a real sense of self-loathing here. It’s as though he sees Grace as something pure and himself as something sinful.

Creator Quinn Shephard has actually spoken about this in an interview with Deadline. “He is somebody who is so tortured by his scrupulosity. He has a bit of an OCD compulsion around morality that is really hard for him,” she explained. 

“We weren’t trying to make a show that was hyper-critical of religion. Obviously, religion is a theme in the show, and it touches on it in a lot of ways. 

“But I think his character is a necessary and important exploration of someone who takes things quite literally, even more literally than his priest wishes him to, which is like where we get that nice bond where Father Franklin is like, ‘Hey, you’re taking you’re this to be a little too hard on yourself.’”

Of course, none of this makes the drawings any less disturbing. Particularly for Grace, who had every reason to be horrified when she discovered them. But it does help explain why he created them. 

His sketchbook seems to be somewhere he tries to process feelings he doesn’t know how to express in a healthy way. And this becomes important when Father Franklin comes to realise Leo isn’t the person who hurt Grace. 

Initially, Franklin is deeply suspicious of Leo. But after Leo is confronted and attacked by other students, it becomes clear that his guilt isn’t because he caused Grace’s condition. It’s because of his drawings and his sexual desires. 

Rather than punishing him further, Franklin tries to help Leo understand that he doesn’t have to interpret the Bible quite so literally.

Shephard added, “That was important to us to show, that he has these very normal, human impulses, as a teenage boy that then he turns, in his own sense of fear, into something really perverted and out of control. 

“I actually think it’s quite nice that we see a moment from his priest, rather than an oppressive priest, a moment of friendship between them, and we see the nuance of religion.”

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Featured image credit: Netflix