Tris walks back to the Eaton house, all in a funk after finding out that her mom picked her over this mystery information. She tries to go over her memories of the last book to see if it matches up with what Marcus said.

But when I go over the memory of her voice in my mind, it sounds different. I didn’t know what I would do, when I found you. Meaning: I didn’t know how to save both you and the file. But it was always my intention to save you.

I shake my head. Is that how she said it, or am I manipulating my own memory because of what Marcus told me?

So, basically, no, it doesn’t match up, because this is a last-minute addition that the book is straining to connect to the previous installment in the vain hopes of being able to cry “intentional!” Honestly, I think this actually makes the whole scenario worse instead of better.

And while he has done cruel, evil things, our society is not divided into “good” and “bad.” Cruelty does not make a person dishonest, the same way bravery does not make a person kind.

I love this line.

Too bad you apply it to the wife-and-child-beater but not to Evelyn.

When she gets back, she sees everyone gathered around these huge bowls of fire that are just…kind of mentioned as being there and then ignored. Aesthetic? They’re gathered because Evelyn is finally going to tell the Dauntless their attack plan.

You know, all of this would make so much more sense if they’d stop talking about it like it’s a war and model the conflict of corporate espionage or something like that. Even if the Dauntless are split right down the middle, giving the Erudites some firepower, that doesn’t make them some sort of organized army, nor does it make the Erudite headquarters a stronghold. It’s a fucking office building!

“The past few weeks, we have been developing a plan to fight the Erudite […] Our strategy is not pointed, but broad.

So…what took so long, then?

They mention again they plan to destroy all Erudite information because that’s what the Erudite use to keep everyone under their thumb. Um…seems a fishy statement to me, is there any evidence that they ever actually had people oppressed?

No, really, before the quasi-take-over last book, Abnegation was in charge and Erudite’s only response to that was nasty, pointed newspapers. They didn’t seem to actually be in charge of anything or setting down any policy, nor did they influence policies with, IDK, slanted research reports or anything. I mean, they might have, but we don’t know about it. All we do know is that they weren’t happy with the current government, which kind of implies the opposite.

And then they try to take over, using primarily borrowed firepower not “information,” and even that fails, because they aren’t so much in power as they floundering around mid-coup like everyone else.

“A single, large group will attempt to penetrate Erudite headquarters and work its way up through the building, cleansing it of Erudite’s influence.

So…murder?

Yeah, I guess murder. Because after the meeting breaks up (they’ll attack in 3 days), Tris and her group have a very short conversation about whether killing all the Erudite is the same as Erudite killing all the Abnegation.

I know it’s not really the most important point to make in that discussion, but I can’t help but remember that Tris was all “I guess deleting the info is okay, because there’s still people around who know it and can rebuild what’s needed” a few chapters ago, and now that’s not even a concern after finding out that the plan is to just facestab everyone.

Instead of any of that, we get a nuh-uh, yu-huh exchange and pretty much leave it at that.

Eh, everyone is pretty emotional at the moment and it’s not like there isn’t space to talk about it later and make it actually part of the plot. I’ve no idea if the book actually will or not, but stull.

Tobias comes by to talk about attack plans, and Tris realizes she can’t be part of the organized attack and also go after the information on her own. Instead of saying literally anything at all to Tobias because of one argument they had way back at the start of the book, she decides that deception is the much better choice. She says she still can’t fire a gun and they decide she should sit this one out.

“I don’t want to seem like a coward.”

“Hey.” His fingers fit beneath my jaw. They are cool against my skin. He looks sternly at me. “You have done more for this faction than any other person. You …”

Yeah, he kind of has to trail off there, doesn’t he? What else could he say? Last book was all about how she was the best initiate ever…in training, but didn’t really do jack shit helpful, did she? Even at the end, it was still Tobias who shut down the simulation. And in this one, she’s kind of hanging around while other people do stuff, but then…??? She turned herself in that one time, but literally anyone could have done that according to the ultimatum and also no one wanted her to go, so there’s that.

I mean, Tris has been running around a lot and present during a lot of action, but what have her actions actually amounted to? If you took her out of the plot, is there literally anything that either 1) couldn’t’ be done by someone else or 2) would change the course of events if it didn’t happen?

Later, Tris and Christina are in Tris’s parents’ house, and Christina is putting makeup on her for some as-yet undefined reason.

Lipstick, obviously. She touches it to my mouth and dabs it until my lips are covered in color. I can see it when I purse them.

I just tried to look at my own lips this way, and I advise you all to do the same. It’s fucking hilarious.

We find out that both girls are dressed in Amity colors and heading out to meet Marcus for reasons nefarious.

And there’s a knife strapped to the inside of my knee.

…did you possibly mean thigh? Because your option sounds rather painful, actually.

God, where was the editor? Even a lazy one should have caught a lot of these. It’s just plain old awkward word choice, not character-arc changing stuff.

Peter catches them sneaking out, and then they chase him off again, and absolutely nothing comes out of that scene. Wow. Riveting.

Why is Peter still around? They taunt him for not being part of the impending attack, but he’s already turned on both sides of this conflict, why would you want him to fight with you?

You have no other choice, I tell myself. There is no other way.

I probably wouldn’t mind Tris being an idiot if it weren’t one of the vanishingly few things she’s actually tried to do so far. I mean, she watched her parents die a couple of weeks ago and her whole world is being turned on end. Thinking she doesn’t have a choice before she even considers any other options? Stupid, but understand and totally normal in this situation. But when all she does is “stupid” and “go with the flow”? That’s a meta problem. Bad book, no cookie.

They meet up with Marcus and a klunky old pickup truck that he stole, then head out for Amity while Marcus dodges around potholes and assures Tris that he knows how to drive a car.

“I’ve done a lot of things before, but that doesn’t mean I’m any good at them!”

That’s not what Divergent said! As I recall, that book said you can have a half a day of firearms “training,” absolutely zero follow-up training, and then still be an expert forever and ever after that.

They make it to the fence and get stopped by Dauntless guards.

I squint into the beam, and force a smile at the man like I don’t mind bright lights in the eyes and guns pointed at my head in the slightest.

The Amity must be deranged if this is how they really think. Or they’ve been eating too much of that bread.

Or – and this is just a thought – they aren’t smiling because they’re happy but just because they don’t want you to shoot them and this is literally the only method of de-escalation they’ve been taught.

You know, this book wants to be about how the lines between traits aren’t always clear and you can be many things and yadda yadda, but it sure does take some pretty un-nuanced views on everything except bravery.

The gate guards buy that they’re Amities heading home and let them through.

“Except,” says Marcus, “Joshua is not an Abnegation name.”

“Whatever. As if anyone knows the difference.”

How do you even have faction-specific names if people change all the time? Like, that doesn’t seem like it would even be possible to keep those any kind of separate. And how did certain names become associated with certain factions, anyway? You’re not an ethnicity; you’re an arbitrary designation that’s less than a century old.

“When you are entrusted with all the information, you have to decide how much other people should know,” says Marcus. “The Abnegation leaders told [the Amity] what we had to tell them [about what’s beyond the city].

Hey, so, SPEAKING OF GROUPS OF PEOPLE OPPRESING OTHERS THROUGH THE SELECTIVE USE OF INFORMATION, got any thoughts on this right here, Tris?

Nope?

Nothing?

Shithead.

They meet up with Johanna and sit down to chat with her about why they came to visit. Tris (in summary, thankfully) explains to her all about the plot since they left Amity way back so many chapters ago.

When I finish, I realize I haven’t told her why that has anything to do with her or her faction, but I don’t know how to say it.

“I’m confused, Beatrice,” she says. “What exactly do you want us to do?”

Um…editor? Editor, where are you? Why couldn’t you delete at least one of these repeat sentences?

“I thought you should know that a lot of people are going to die, very soon. And I know you don’t want to stay here doing nothing while that happens, even if some of your faction does.”

…how do you know that?

Tris says really she wants to talk to the Erudite defectors, and Johanna says that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

So everyone goes to bed.

an Erudite whisper

…?

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Tris wakes up at dawn the next morning, apparently for shits and giggles because what other reason is there for getting up that early, and wanders outside to accidently overhear a religious service. I…am not going to comment.

MOVING ON.

Which is easy to do, since the book does, too. Later that morning everyone goes in for a meeting, where Johanna announced to everyone what Tris told her last night. Johanna thinks that they should go into the city as non-violent opposition, although what exactly that would entail I have no idea. Again, the only conflict resolution we’ve seen these people practice is needle-to-the-neck. This might have more weight if they were actually good at nonviolence, but as it stands…meh.

Cannon fodder is about all you’re good for, I’m afraid.

Rain dusts the glass panels above our heads.

???????

Tris does her best to ignore the ensuing discussion and heads for Cara and the other Erudites, asking them for their help. Cara, though initially confused as to why someone would want to help one of the only two factions that keeps the city running, does agree to hear out their plan and says to meet her and the others later. Which means we have to wait to hear this plan, too.

Which means this whole chapter is just so much padding, ugh.

Johanna announces that the majority decided not to go, but then says that her conscience demands she try to help, even if it means leaving her faction to do so.

I kind of love it every time someone is braver than Tris in this book, even if the book is kind of spotty about acknowledging/praising it.