Why Leo Anderson’s Sketchbook Fuels the Suspicion in Netflix’s ‘The Body’

Few details in ‘The Body’ linger as long as the private sketchbook kept by Leo Anderson. Leo is the soft-spoken brother of Lisbeth, a loner who is happiest drawing by himself, except when it comes to his study partner Grace. Viewers who finished the series are still asking what Leo was drawing and why those pages caused such an uproar.

The answer sits at the center of the show’s mystery and shapes how the school turns on him. Understanding what Leo put on paper explains much of the suspicion that follows him, and it says a good deal about the themes of faith and group panic running through the series.

What Leo Was Drawing in ‘The Body’

Leo is bullied by popular students early on because of his strange drawings about the church. The sketches take a more personal turn once Grace Franklin enters his life. Leo visits Grace to work on their thesis, and she finds disturbing drawings in his bag and asks him to leave.

The most talked about piece is a portrait of Grace herself. A drawing of her naked as a sacrificial lamb in his journal circulates as something that connects him to a motive for her collapse. Other pages are described as a collection of drawings of Grace, some normal and others not so normal, with her unclothed in many of them.

The image has a specific source. The drawing of Grace bound in the nude is based on the painting Agnus Dei, which depicts a sheep bound in that same position. That religious reference explains why the sketch reads as devotional to Leo and as damning to everyone else.

Grace Franklin and the Sketchbook Scandal

The drawing does not stay private for long. Grace’s father took the picture to Leo’s mother to show how strange it was that he was drawing her, and Leo’s mother then went to the school. Catherine arrives at school with the naked picture after suffering a breakdown.

Once the image circulates, the student body treats it as evidence. To other students, a boy making strange drawings of a girl in a coma seems like a reason to suspect him. Steven and the other boys even try to force Leo to confess by drowning him in the pool.

The adults react in their own way. Father Franklin discovers the drawing and is left with more questions about what happened to Grace that night. Leo asks to give his confession, but Franklin worries he will not be able to hold Leo accountable.

The Hidden Meaning Behind Leo’s Drawings

Read closely, the sketchbook says more about Leo’s inner life than about any wrongdoing. One analysis argues that Leo sees Grace as an ethereal stand in for Jesus Christ who is worthy of private worship rather than simply a romantic interest. That reading fits the sacrificial lamb imagery, which borrows from sacred art rather than from anything lurid.

The same analysis suggests that drawing Grace is the only way Leo can reconcile his spiritual terror with his earthly yearnings. His upbringing matters here, and so does his mother’s grip on him. Leo and Lisbeth come from an extremist religious background that Catherine is still deeply ingrained in.

The series treats the sketchbook as a lens for something larger. Creator Quinn Shephard has said she has always been interested in group think and mass hysteria as a theme, according to an interview with MovieWeb. The school’s rush to judge Leo is one clear example of that idea at work.

Leo Anderson’s Place in the Ending of ‘The Body’

The creators have been open about how they view the character. Speaking to Deadline, the creators came across as defenders of Leo, who spends the most screen time with Grace before she becomes unconscious. He was also the last person seen speaking with Grace at the party, where he went to apologize for the drawing she had found in his journal.

The finale pushes him toward a decision. Catherine plans a ritual suicide for herself and Leo, but Leo rejects her orders for once in his life and decides that he believes in Grace. He bikes to Grace’s house and joins the crowd praying outside, where he and Maddie join hands and proclaim their belief.

The sketchbook meets a fitting end as well. Abandoned by both of her children, Catherine burns their belongings, including Leo’s drawings. The pages that once marked him as a suspect are gone, yet his faith in Grace remains, which leaves open whether Leo was the show’s most misunderstood believer or simply its most visible scapegoat, and fans of ‘The Body’ will likely keep debating where they land on that.