Insurgent Chapter 28

When we last left off, Tris had reassured Fourbias that she wouldn’t put herself in danger by giving herself up to Erudite. Tris tells us she’s lying, which I can’t blame her for because it did get Four to finally shut up. [Matthew says: The only good decisions Tris ever makes are ones that make Four briefly stop talking.]

Tris falls asleep in Four’s arms, and her thoughts about this pretty much sum up my thoughts on their relationship:

When he starts to fall asleep, he keeps his arms around me fiercely, a life-preserving prison.

Not so much with the life-preserving, but definitely with the prison. I also can’t decide if this is another reference to Tris’ death wish – damn his unshakeable, life-preserving arms!

Tris sneaks off and wakes Christina up to ask her to do something stupid/important. But first, vague conversations:

“The timing of the simulation attack wasn’t random. The reason it happened when it did is because the Abnegation were about to do something—I don’t know what it was, but it had to do with some important information, and now Jeanine has that information….”

“What?” She frowns. “You don’t know what they were about to do? Do you know what the information is?”

“No.” I must sound crazy. “The thing is, I haven’t been able to find out very much about this, because Marcus Eaton is the only person who knows everything, and he won’t tell me. I just … it’s the reason for the attack. It’s the reason. And we need to know it.” I don’t know what else to say. But Christina is already nodding.

I know Tris’ Divergent-brain is meant to be able to see situations from 5 different diverging viewpoints or something, but how does she come up with these things? Does getting in Jeanine’s head really mean figuring out that that mysterious and vague bit of information Marcus apparently knows has something to do with the timing of the attack? Does it really mean that she’s Divergent or just that she’s psychic? Because I’m not seeing how she figured all this out based on nothing.

[Matthew says: In addition to how Tris constantly pulls plot development out of her ass, the book doesn’t even try to hide it, because Tris is always making shit up as she goes along. I mean, in this chapter alone:

• “What is it?” she says. “Are you going somewhere?” “Yeah, I’m . . .” I have to lie, or she’ll try to stop me. “I’m going to see my brother.”
• I didn’t think about how far I would have to walk when I set out.
• I don’t know what I will do when I get there. Demand to see Jeanine? Or just stand there until someone notices me?
• If I can make a plan, I won’t be so afraid. But there is no plan. No escape from deep in Erudite headquarters, no escape from Jeanine, and no other escape from what I’ve done.

Why didn’t she think about any of this beforehand? I’ve talked about this before, but why does Tris keep engaging in situations BEFORE thinking about what she intends to do in them? How am I supposed to believe that Tris has a super duper superbrain if she doesn’t think about why she started a conversation with someone until after she went out of her way to start it?]

“The reason Jeanine forced us to attack innocent people,” she says bitterly. “Yeah. We need to know it.”

I had almost forgotten—she was under the simulation. How many Abnegation did she kill, guided by the simulation? How did she feel when she awoke from that dream a murderer? I have never asked, and I never will.

I don’t think you need to ask how she feels in order to guess. Tris, use your magical Divergent brain of Understanding of Different Perspectives to realize it probably feels pretty fucking shitty. No need to be like, “So how did it feel to be mind controlled and then wake up and realize all the bad things you did? Not great, huh, buddy? :(” [Matthew says: Maybe she forgot like how she forgot why she was talking to her.]

Tris leaves and walks all the way to Erudite headquarters (which she helpfully points out is defying their government’s laws by having lots of lights on. It seems like using mind-control to force one faction to kill another was when Erudite demonstrated that they give no fucks about these laws.)

After turning herself in to the man at the front desk of Erudite headquarters – seriously, they basically have an Erudite receptionist – Peter shows up to take Tris to…a room

The room is small, maybe six feet long by six feet wide. The floor, the walls, and the ceiling are all made of the same light panels, dim now, that glowed in the aptitude test room. In each corner is a tiny black camera.

I finally let myself panic.

It’s hard to sympathise with Tris or to feel scared for her when she’s willingly put herself in this situation when everyone has explicitly told her not to. Instead, she lies and says she’s going to find her brother so Christina won’t stop her from leaving. I know that she believes that this will somehow stop more deaths…but it’s really unclear why she thinks Jeanine will actually stop hurting anyone, or why she thinks turning herself in alone will achieve anything. So again, not really feeling anything at the moment except like maybe Tris should feel grateful that there aren’t any cockroaches in the room.

No, really, what did she expect to happen? OF COURSE THERE WILL BE MORE SIMULATIONS! If they want to perform tests on/study Divergent people, the only way to do this is pretty much with simulations! [Matthew says: Because this whole book is only ever simulations, which is funny, because it reads like somebody was only ever simulating writing.]