Last time, cult of the cheese god.

My fingers brush over the trigger, and my throat tightens like I am having an allergic reaction. I withdraw my hand and kneel on the edge of the bed, taking hard swallows of air until the feeling subsides.

I like this whole thing, and not just because it’s yet more fodder for my theory only outside of simulation memories can get written in PTSD.

What is wrong with you? I shake my head. Pull it together. And that is what it feels like: pulling the different parts of me up and in like a shoelace. I feel suffocated, but at least I feel strong.

I’ve seen some criticism of her for being able to push past trauma too well, but personally I think that’s the point, it’s a power fantasy of being able to power through. She’s visibly impacted by what she goes through, but she’s also able to hold together by force of will if she needs to. And if nothing else, it’s just nice to have another option than turning into an emotional black hole.

Tris then continues to be a good character by seeing Johanna and Marcus are out walking and immediately slinks off to stalk them. Excellent.

“… been confused about is the timing of the attack,” says Johanna. “Is it just that Jeanine finally finished planning it, and acted, or was there an inciting incident of some kind?”

To which Marcus doesn’t respond. Like I said, this actually fits pretty well with just the events we saw – the Erudite put their plan into motion well before the kinks were worked out. If they thought they just couldn’t do anything further to winnow the divergents out, or worse, continuing the killings might make people suspicious, then sure, acting without eliminating every last one makes sense. But Jeanine was trying to crack the problem and almost has it. Whatever she whipped up in the few hours after the initial injection probably would’ve done it, since Tobias only comes out of it with concerted effort and if both of them were under, neither would be pushing things like that.

So what was it? Abnegation doesn’t seem capable of doing much – they control the government but not the government’s army. Their power lasts precisely until other people don’t want to obey it. And if it’s say, secret robot army beneath the city hall, it doesn’t seem like you’d need to force Dauntless to help you carry out a coup.

Johanna can tell he does in fact know why because she’s a former Candor. My faction depends on me to advise them, and if you know information this crucial, it is important that I know it also so that I can share it with them.

This suggests that the factions really need the kid-trading part to function. They even seem to embrace it at points, with Dauntless appreciating cleverness in tactics and Tobias saying Abnegation’s selflessness can give you a well to draw on for courage. (Perhaps it’s not so surprising Al the Candor is the one to self-destruct. It takes courage to be honest, but honesty doesn’t help you be braver.)

It’d work much better if divergence meant something else, rather than having mixed traits. If they’re supposed to be unpredictable, the way the movie was going with it, it could be that they pick responses that don’t fit any faction. That would register as lacking any of the valued virtues.

A long time ago, the Abnegation were entrusted with some sensitive information,” says Marcus. “Jeanine attacked us to steal it. And if I am not careful, she will destroy it

Nukes? Robot army? Normally I’d try to narrow it down based on the other factions’ values vs Abnegation’s, like, say, biotech velociraptors wiped out the world and they know of a surviving biotech lab and Erudite would obviously go OMG SCIENCE and start tinkering if they knew. But we’ve established Abnegation hates every other faction, so they don’t need any specific reason to keep other people in the dark about this. They probably keep people in the dark about everything possible, because every faction that isn’t them is stupid and wants stupid things and makes stupid decisions.

We seem again on the Abnegation is evil train, but I’m suspicious since the first book went back on that at the last minute.

Well, simply taking this at face value, this would suggest Abnegation is making decisions based on information that isn’t available to everyone, and that alone should likely lead to there being situations where people are unhappy with their judgements so even if we learn they have great reasons for this I still declare their mass murder totally on their own heads for not even realizing this would be a source of ever-building frustration. Just because your insane government was designed to give you unilateral control doesn’t mean everyone else would put up with it forever.

Incidentally, the government acting on secret info is great and I hope that’s what’s behind this and not something with no real bearing. What if they don’t actually give a fuck about the Dauntless oppressing the factionless, what if they know there’s other groups out there and so they built the fence and then moved the Dauntless into position when the time was right? Going on the idea there’s some biotech horror, what if it’s set to some cicadalike cycle and we’re approaching the next death wave? What if the reason the food shortages keep happening is they’ve been storing vast quantities in secret bunkers?

Marcus raves about how MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD keeping this secret, and like fuck he’ll tell some stupid Amity/Candor. She just says she’s sad she hasn’t been trustworthy enough, which is probably pretty meaningless since we know Amity lies to smooth anything over.

“The last time I trusted a faction representative with this information, all my friends were murdered,” he replies.

Wait, so everything is his fault?

I mean, theoretically it could’ve been a group vote among Abnegation and he just took part in it, but he sure seems to be claiming responsibility for spilling the beans himself.

This seems really pointless. “Revealed info that turned out to prompt murderous coup” is, hatred-wise, much less than “deliberately abused son for much/all of the kid’s life”. Maybe some people might hate Marcus marginally more for it, but it seems an innocent mistake. The only thing I can think of is that the author isn’t intending this to have any character impact but needs to get it out there for plot reasons. But he doesn’t need to take responsibility at all – it would just be “The last time a faction representative found out this information, all my friends were murdered.” and sidestep blame entirely.

Tris reports that she’s amazed by how tired Marcus is (so maybe this is intended to make him look better? Perhaps the book goes with the idea Abnegation keeping the secret wasn’t such a great plan either) and how furious Johanna looks.

But her face softens, and she touches Marcus’s arm again, this time with a light caress. “In order to have peace, we must first have trust,” says Johanna. “So I hope you change your mind.

And knowing what we know of Amity, and how Johanna seems to be saying whatever it takes to keep the conversation amicable…could she be saying whatever it takes for other reasons as well? She seems to be continuing to push for the full story even though we were told last book that Candor’s issue with Amity is they are, in fact, quite willing to paper over the truth if that’s what peace takes. So she either sincerely believes that peace = trust and the lack of info is just an issue for proving there’s a lack of trust, or she could be using that as her cover to push for the secret info for her own use.

The second seems particularly fishy given she ends with:

Remember that I have always been your friend, Marcus, even when you did not have many to speak of.”
She leans in and kisses his cheek, then walks to the end of the orchard.

This seems less about being hurt he doesn’t currently trust her and more about trying to guilt-trip him into doing what she wants.

Also, when did he lack friends? We’ve only ever seen him as the most popular Abnegation and it’s not clear why it’d be otherwise. He might have gained his current level of superpopulatity slowly, but that’s a far cry from few friends. Maybe he’s a Candor transferred to Abnegation? Candor are the only faction we’ve seen bullies from, for whatever reason, so they should also be up for some shunning and other dickery that’d leave a kid isolated.

The revelations of the past half hour buzz in my mind. I thought Jeanine attacked the Abnegation to seize power, but she attacked them to steal information—information only they knew.

What? No no no, just the fact they had information doesn’t explain the aspect of why she felt she needed to attack right then. That suggests something was changing. At the minimum, she’d have to be concerned they would hide the information somewhere new and she’d lose track of it. More likely, it suggests they were about to act on it somehow. That’s usually what pushes the opposition toward desperate and violent plays.

Then the buzzing stops as I remember something else Marcus said: Most of the leaders of this city risked their lives for it. Was one of those leaders my father?

Better point: Marcus is apparently not including himself in that statement if we assume this is true, because remember, you inexplicably used your dad as a meat shield while letting him stay safe.

I have to know. I have to find out what could possibly be important enough for the Abnegation to die for—and the Erudite to kill for.

Really, the only question with Abnegation is why they’re not finding stuff to die for all the time. That doesn’t narrow it down at all. We know Abnegation must have some safety mechanisms to go with their mutely accept violence from fellow students behaviors, because they kept their power this long, but we’ve never been told what those are and unless they’re extensive, dying for a cause should be common.

This would actually be a great time for Tris to lay out precisely how the selfless faction manages to live as well (possibly better) as any other, and far better than the factionless. Tris could easily see Al’s suicide as cowardly. Do Abnegation view it as selfish? Do they say it’s selfless to eat well so you’re healthy enough to continue to serve others? Their diet of plain chicken and peas suggests they’re quite fine with grandstanding about denying personal pleasures, and they actively oppose prosperity to the point their brainwashed children respond to any mention by insisting it’s a zero sum game and the prosperous will only be so by taking from others. Why don’t they give up more of what they have? What’s in place to keep them in power? What guards them from ever sacrificing themselves? They seem to be a very specific type of selfless, but we’re never given the rules for it.

She goes back to visit Tobias, who’s throwing knives into cheese. Maybe Tobias actually did pick up the knife planning to eat the cheese and is bitter the test went right to “murder the dog” over it.

Can I ask why you’re throwing knives at cheese?”
…
“Caleb came by to discuss something,” Tobias says, leaning his head against the wall as he looks at me. “And knife-throwing just came up somehow.”

“Or did you mean specifically the cheese part? That’s because I’m mad at the cultists and I can’t stab them so I’m mangling their precious idol.”

“Anyway, I should be getting back to my room,” Caleb says, looking from Tobias to me and back again. “I’m reading this book about the water-filtration systems. The kid who gave it to me looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to read it. I think it’s supposed to be a repair manual, but it’s fascinating.” He pauses. “Sorry. You probably think I’m crazy too.”
“Not at all,” Tobias says with mock sincerity. “Maybe you should read that repair manual too, Tris. It sounds like something you might like.”
“I can loan it to you,” Caleb says.
“Maybe later,” I say. When Caleb closes the door behind him, I give Tobias a dirty look.
“Thanks for that,” I say. “Now he’s going to talk my ear off about water filtration and how it works.

Water filtration is actually a very interesting subject, and that’s even more true given Amity’s got signs up saying not to shower to long which is the first real evidence we’re seen of there not being infinite resources. It’d also give us an idea of relative technology. Yet they’re by a massive body of water! I mean, okay, the lake has turned into a marsh, that’s an issue, but still, that’s more than enough for people to work with, especially given that means the water table in general must be relatively high and they should be able to have wells and such. More than enough they really shouldn’t need to worry about wastewater. (Come to think of it, there shouldn’t be any issue with wasting shower water regardless, with all the plants that need watering. Extra-long showers just mean a greater proportion of the water is reused shower water.)

UNLESS the water is toxic. Unless they have to filter every drop they get to make it safe. Maybe rainwater is mostly okay these days – nothing is putting fresh toxins into the air, the poison is in the dirt by now. Amity may have flushed out what they could to create their farms (and if the toxins get more concentrated as you go toward the city, that’s why the farms are so far away. Fits with how the center has bare dirt, the edge dead grass and hours past the gates farms have thriving orchards.

It may be that the plants are far hardier than the humans, to the point that water for showers has to be much purer than water for watering. That’d give good incentive not to waste the stuff. They might even have particular tanks just for showers, that are filtered and reused, depending on how hard it is to remove the original toxins.

In conclusion, god Tris you scored Erudite now shut up and learn about filtration!

(Also don’t they know Caleb’s Erudite? Why would anyone be surprised an Erudite liked textbooks? Why are people constantly shocked and amazed anyone, even the people whose entire hat is about learning, want to learn things?)

Though I guess I might prefer that to what he wants to talk to me about.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” Tobias quirks his eyebrows. “Aquaponics?”
“Aqua-what?”
“It’s one of the ways they grow food here. You don’t want to know.”

I FUCKING HATE YOU

Aquaponics is the Lovecrafian horror of “hey, let’s grow fish and plants at the same time”. What bugs the author about it? The part where it’s waste from the fish fertilizing the plants? The part where it’s science? I am honest to god at a loss here.

More relevantly, aquaponics tends to show up as an intensive cultivation method – not enough space, or poor resources. Because it can be done as a closed system, it actually uses minimal water. It’s something that’d show up if the main water is tainted and has to be extensively purified before use, as well as if there’s soil quality concerns.

On the other hand, done properly it’s just a very effective way of growing plants and meat. So it could just be the Erudites getting their filthy progress and prosperity everywhere. If Tris and Tobias didn’t hate knowledge so much, they could find out which was the bigger factor and we’d learn something about how the world works. Tris?

“You’re right, I don’t,” I say.

Yeah, fuck knowledge! The fact you’ve been screwed over by secret information prompting a secret coup using secret technology doesn’t matter. And who cares that there’s a fence around the place and your faction is supposedly guarding it and you don’t even know why it’s there. Who needs information?

I feel warm everywhere. He wraps his hands around my hips and presses me gently against the door. His lips find mine.
I don’t remember why I came here in the first place.
And I don’t care.

God damn you Tris. I praise you for sneaking out and getting plot relevant information, and this is how you repay me? By forgetting it even happened?

Tobias manages to intuit that he should explicitly ask, just in case, if also there’s something super important to tell him. She still tries to avoid the question in favor of makeouts. He insists that really, no info? You just said information is for nerds, Tobias. Anyway, Tris finally decides to pass on the relevant info.

He does not look shocked or curious. Instead, his mouth works its way into the bitter pucker that accompanies any mention of Marcus.
“Well, what do you think?” I say once I finish.
“I think,” he says carefully, “that it’s Marcus trying to feel more important than he is.”

Tris is pretty sure this doesn’t fit with what she saw, and I like the novelty of this – Tobias just isn’t rational about his dad.

I frown. “I don’t think you’re right. He didn’t sound like he was lying.”
“You don’t know him like I do. He is an excellent liar.”

He’s so irrational he can’t even see he is. And this makes particular sense because in addition to having every reason to hate the guy and think the worst of him, his dominant associations with Marcus probably include lying to sound better than he is after beating Tobias. Of course he’d generalize that to here.

Even the fact this means Marcus is fooling a former Candor probably matters little – after all, from Tobias’ point of view, no one ever noticed what Marcus was really doing, even her. (It may not occur to him that maybe people did know, and they let it happen.)

She doesn’t want to argue she’s right, and it seems more because she doesn’t have a good argument than because she can’t argue with a boyfriend, since she just switches tacks to “but shouldn’t we find out what’s going on? Just to be sure?”

Tobias, of course, is totally willing to agree that they deal with the thing he’s terrified of dealing with, just, you know, later. At some point. When all of this is done.

“Go back to the city. Find out what’s going on there. Find a way to take Erudite down.

Uh. You did last book. The majority of Dauntless weren’t in favor of it, because if they were they wouldn’t have needed to be brainwashed. Freeing them not only removes Erudite’s power, it means the one armed body in your city is now aimed at them. Your biggest concern now is that Dauntless may be the new people in charge. Also, I guess, that they turned around and slaughtered Erudite, but if so it’s probably finished by now so there’s not much that can be done at this point.

No, returning to the city is most likely to just be chaos, the Dauntless and Erudite leaders killed, maybe the factionless finally snapping and making their own bid for power (if Abnegation really were the only ones giving them food, they may not need to hear Jeanine or other factions to specifically plan to wipe them out – they’ll starve without their halfhearted protectors). Come to think of it, without Abnegation holding Dauntless back, maybe some of them will decide it’s time to massacre factionless.

Tris forces herself not to think about the fact leaving when they did makes no sense and hiding makes little sense when we have no idea who they’re hiding from and just thinks to herself that I don’t believe it’s more important to move forward than to find out the truth. and how The truth has a way of changing a person’s plans. This seems pointed enough that it looks like foreshadowing that the Abnegation’s secret will do exactly that.