How It All Goes Down
- The next morning, Tris showers in the dark, "barely able to tell soap from conditioner" (37.2) We hope she can tell the difference between toothpaste and Soft Scrub when she goes to brush her teeth.
- Tris goes downstairs and all her friends are there—Christina, Lynn, Uriah, the professor, and Mary Ann.
- Tris is shocked—shocked—to discover that they are… are you sitting down for this?… playing a card game with the factionless. "This is not what I was taught to expect of factionlessness" (37.23), Tris thinks, remembering that textbook that showed the factionless staring blankly at a wall for fun.
- Anyway, they all have a jolly conversation until Edward enters, wearing a jolly eye patch.
- Peter and Edward fight, and Peter goes to cower in the corner.
- Tobias smooches Tris in front of everyone, and Tris is astonished at how comfortable he is with the factionless. "The only common ground they have, as far as I know, is failure" (37.67), says Tris at her most judgmental.
- Tris enjoys spending her time with all the failures.
- Later, Marcus sits next to Tris on a bench and reveals the existence of a super-secret file that the Abnegation were going to reveal to everyone in the city.
- Marcus won't tell Tris what's up, but he says thinks that "we were all placed here for a specific purpose" (37.103), and he alludes to the fact that the file is why Tris's mom and dad died.
- Marcus leaves Tris wondering whom she should trust: Marcus, or all those failures that her boyfriend is friends with.