Welcome to our last section of the Insurgent Read-Along! Everything finally goes down in these chapters so buckle up and get ready for some intense action!
Catch up on previous weeks here:
Chapters 1-7 Chapters 8-13 Chapters 14-20 Chapters 21-27 Chapters 28-34
Chapters 35-40
Chapter 41
The trucks from Amity finally arrive in the city, and Tris hears gunshots. As they get out of the trucks near the scene of the battle, Fernando gives Tris a new name.
Next they distribute weapons. Tris takes the stunner because she still can't fire a gun. All the while, she is overcome with fear.
They begin to walk towards the battle when all of the sudden they see a group of Candor under simulation control surrounding Erudite HQ.
Tris knows they have to get into Erudite, so she leads the group to a neighboring building with the idea of crossing from one window to another in the HQ.
Chapter 42
In the building next to Erudite HQ, the group looks for a ladder or something to cross from one window to the next. During this time, Tris learns that the Candor soldiers don't respond to noise.
Christina finds a ladder that is just long enough and brings it to the third-story window. She accidentally bumps Fernando with the ladder, knocking his glasses off.
"Oh! Sorry, Nando."
He smiles at Christina and takes the glasses off, shoving them into his pocket.
"Nando?" I say to him. "I thought the Erudite didn't like nicknames?"
"When a pretty girl calls you by a nickname," he says, "it is only logical to respond to it."
They proceed to break the glass of the two windows with their fancy Erudite technology, and then Tris volunteers to go across the ladder first.
A breeze blows through the alley, pushing me to one side, and I think of scaling the Ferris wheel with Tobias. He kept me steady then. There is no one left to keep me steady now.
She almost falls, but narrowly makes it into the Erudite window. Christina, Cara, and Marcus follow, leaving Fernando with the difficult task of crossing last.
As he awkwardly crosses the ladder, his glasses that he took off earlier slip out of his pocket.
I scream, "Fernan-"
But I am too late.
The spectacles fall, hit the edge of the ladder, and topple to the pavement.
In a wave, the Candor below twist and fire upward. Fernando yells, and collapses against the ladder. ...
Fernando stares at Christina, his face ashen. Christina surges forward, through the window, about to reach for him.
"Don't be an idiot!" he says, his voice weak. "Leave me."
It's the last thing he says.
So depressing...
Chapter 43
It has started raining. They leave the bathroom with Cara in the lead. Tris soon realizes she left the stunner in the bathroom.
They go upstairs until they get to what Tris recognizes as "her floor." They enter the control room only to meet Caleb, with a gun in his hand.
He and Marcus argue about what needs to be done with the info until Tris kicks the gun out of Caleb's hand.
In the meantime, Cara is looking on the computer but Caleb tells her she won't find what she is looking for here. Tris knows it must be on her personal computer in her lab. Marcus knocks Caleb out with the butt of the gun and they move to go to the lab.
When they get to the top floor, they meet Edward on the stairs. He won't let them pass so Tris tackles him and he fires, hitting Christina in the leg with his second shot. But Christina shoots him in the side.
They are forced to leave Christina behind because they have to stop Jeanine.
Chapter 44
Tris and Marcus come to two doors on the top floor and are forced to split up.
Tris enters the room and the door locks behind her. Then blinding bright lights begin to shine.
"Beatrice Prior, second generation. Faction of origin: Abnegation. Selected faction: Dauntless. Confirmed Divergent."
How does this room know who I am?
And what does "second generation" mean?
"Status: Intruder."
The room informs her that she has five minutes to reach the next door before the poison kicks in. The room turns into the Dauntless training room and then someone else appears in the room.
It's Tris.
She realizes she has to defeat herself to get to the door. Tris makes several attempts to get past, but simulation Tris knows everything the real Tris is going to do. They continue to struggle as Tris tries to figure out how to do this.
The second I want something, she also wants it. She and I can only be, at best, at a standstill-but I need to beat her to get through the door. To survive. ...
The logical puzzle: In a fight between two perfect equals, how can one win?
The answer: One can't. ...
Therefore: we must not be perfectly equal. So what is different about us? ...
We have different goals. I have to get through that door. She has to protect it. But even in a simulation, there is no way she is as desperate as I am.
Tris, very confused from the poison, runs to a table in the corner and spawns a gun on it, just as the simulation Tris does too. Real Tris has a moment of panic as she picks up the gun and sees Will.
"I..." I choke, and tears smear my cheeks, run into my mouth. I taste salt. "I'm sorry."
And I do the one thing my double is unable to do, because she is not desperate enough:
I fire.
Chapter 45
Tris gets into the lab. She outsmarted herself.
Inside Jeanine's lab she sees diagrams and charts of everyone she knows that is Divergent along with lists of chemicals. She is fascinated until she hears voices ahead of her. Tori's voice.
Jeanine says she didn't kill her brother. She was working for the greater good. Tori has a pointed at Jeanine.
Tris yells at Tori to stop and then tackles her, causing Tori to shoot Jeanine in the leg. They struggle until finally Tris gets the gun and has it trained on Tori.
"I didn't take you for a traitor, Tris."
Tris tries to explain to Tori that they have to let Jeanine live so that they can get the information off of the computer. Tori refuses to be convinced and before Tris can think, Tori stabs Jeanine with her knife.
Tori mumbles the name "George Wu" and stabs Jeanine again.
Chapter 46
All Tris' efforts and sacrifices... all for nothing... Or so she's convinced.
Then Tobias and Uriah come in. Tori tells them that Tris is a traitor and Uriah wants to know what happened.
But I look only at Tobias. A sliver of hope pierces me, strangely painful, when combined with the guilt I feel for how I deceived him. Tobias is stubborn and proud, but he is mine-maybe he will listen, maybe there's a chance that all I did was not in vain- ...
"I trusted you. I trusted you and you abandoned me to work with him?" ...
"I wanted-I needed to know the truth."
"The truth." He snorts. "you think you learned the truth from a liar, a traitor, and a sociopath?" ...
"I am still the person who would have died rather than kill you. ... I am exactly who you think I am. And right now, I'm telling you that I know... I know this information will change everything. Everything we have done, and everything we are about to do."
Tori orders Uriah to take Tris downstairs. On the way down, Therese, Evelyn's helper, takes Uriah's gun and they learn that Peter's dad died in the attack. Apparently Peter came in the aftermath.
Tris sits with Christina among the prisoners and has to break the news to her that she didn't succeed. Christina sighs and puts her arm around Tris, almost causing Tris to cry.
They watch the chaos ensue around them until Tobias comes in. He grabs Caleb and asks him to disarm the security system in Jeanine's lab.
Christian tells Tris that Jeanine activated all of the simulation transmitters and then Tris tells Christina what happened after she got shot and they contemplate how a simulation like the one in the lab would work. Tris wonders how Tori got through it if she wasn't Divergent. Unless she is and won't admit it.
Later they hear a yell and see Uriah running towards a wounded Lynn. Uriah begs the nurse in the room to fix Lynn but she only says that Lynn's condition is too advanced.
The guards let Tris get by Lynn's side too.
Uriah tries to tell Lynn that she is not going to die but Lynn knows she is.
"Don't be stupid," she says. "Uri, listen. I loved her too. I did."
"You loved who?" he says, his voice breaking.
"Marlene," says Lynn.
And then Lynn closes her eyes and dies just moments later.
Tris returns to Christina.
Chapter 47
After a little while longer, Tori and Harrison come in. Another Dauntless brings Jeanine's body in.
Johanna steps into the lobby and talks to Tori. Tori gets on her for her and her "little band of peacekeepers, getting in everyone's way." Johanna remarks that it was intentional and Tori tells her that Amity will be excluded from the new political system that will be put in place. Johanna acknowledges this and asks permission to tend to the wounded. Then she says...
Shortly, Evelyn walks in with Edward. Tris wonders where Tobias is. Evelyn announces that the faction system will now be disbanded (much to Tori's shock) and that if anyone wants to take up arms against the factionless, they won't be able to find any.
The factionless have surrounded the room with all the guns.
Evelyn continues that those who assisted them in taking Erudite down will be rewarded and those who resisted will be tried and punished according to their crimes.
Suddenly, Marcus, Tobias, and Caleb come in. Tobias walks over to Tris.
Then all of the screens in the Erudite lobby come on.
"What is this?" Evelyn demands.
"This," he says only to me, "is the information that will change everything."
My legs shake with relief and apprehension.
"You did it?" I say.
"You did it," he says. "All I did was force Caleb to cooperate.
I throw my arm around his neck, and press my lips to his. He holds my face in both hands and kisses me back. I press into the distance between us until it is gone, crushing the secrets we have kept and the suspicions we have harbored-for good, I hope.
Suddenly a woman named Amanda Ritter begins to talk on the screen. She says that she is from an organization fighting for justice and peace because of "this." Images of death and war and depravity flash across the screen. She says that their own neighbors committed those terrible acts they saw in the pictures. They are fighting a battle against human nature itself.
This is what Jeanine was willing to enslave minds and murder people for - to keep us all from knowing. To keep us all ignorant and safe and inside the fence.
Amanda continues that they devised a society in order to recreate a moral sense that many humans have lost- i.e. - the faction system. The purpose of the video is so that the leaders know to open the fence when there is a large number of Divergents among them. Divergent people can help them.
And that is what my parents wanted to do: to take what we had learned and use it to help others. Abnegation to the end.
“The information in this video is to be restricted to those in government only,” Amanda says. “You are to be a clean slate. But do not forget us.”
She smiles a little.
“I am about to join your number,” she says. “Like the rest of you, I will voluntarily forget my name, my family, and my home. I will take on a new identity, with false memories and a false history. But so that you know the information I have provided you with is accurate, I will tell you the name I am about to take as my own.”
Her smile broadens, and for a moment, I feel that I recognize her.
Prior.
The video stops. The projector glows blue against the wall. I clutch Tobias's hand, and there is a moment of silence like a withheld breath.
So that's it, Initiates! Insurgent!
What do you think of this section? Are you as happy as I am that Tris and Tobias finally reconciled? What about that nasty cliffhanger?
Also, now that we've read the entire book together, what scenes are you dying to see in the movie?
Discuss in the comments!
Thanks so much for reading along all this time and getting ready to see the movie with me! I'm super excited for this movie and can't wait to hear what you all think of it!