Chapter 117 Summary & Analysis
Spoiler Notice
This page analyzes a later chapter of All the Colors of the Dark. It assumes you have read through this point and contains full spoilers for everything that has happened so far, including major revelations about Patch, Saint, and the central mystery. If you are not caught up, bookmark this page and return after reading Chapter 117.
Summary
Saint now splits her time between Kansas, where she trains with FBI agent Himes, and weekend visits back to see Jimmy. The chapter opens with her consuming culture—a brutal production of Hamlet—and eating alone. Back home, Jimmy has barely spoken since failing his exams. When she told him about the FBI arrangement, he punched the refrigerator, injuring only his hand, which she bandaged. Norma’s observation that anger is misplaced fear just makes Saint deflect with a joke about Jimmy’s physique.
Alone in Kansas, Saint adopts a rigid routine. She runs at dawn, adds blonde streaks to her hair, and notices the garish fashion of the early 1980s, which only underscores how she herself has been frozen in time. On Sundays she visits the farmer’s market, channeling her grandmother as she inspects produce, and fills her sterile apartment with home-cooked meals that she eats at a round table before cleaning up in solitude. The quiet of her own space is a guilty relief—it is mostly because Jimmy is not there. When she calls him, he rarely asks about her life.
Each evening she settles onto her new sofa, kills the lights, and plays the interview tape. Patch’s young voice says, “I miss her.” The trade with the FBI is simple: Saint will use the resource she once used to find Patch—her uncanny ability to track him—in exchange for the Bureau’s help locating Grace. Himes drills into her that robbing banks is serious business. Over lunch, Saint finally asks why he cares so much about a man who takes so little. Himes confesses he has a daughter; he would want a boy like Joseph Macauley to help her. More than that, he warns if they don’t bring Patch in now, someone else will “put him down.”
Key Events
- Saint watches a brutal Hamlet production and eats alone at a grill in the city.
- Jimmy, still silent after failing his exams, punches the refrigerator when she tells him about the FBI arrangement; Norma comments on his anger.
- Saint establishes a solitary routine: morning runs, a hair salon visit (adding blonde), and observing the passing fashion trends that make her feel stuck in the past.
- She mimics her grandmother at the Sunday farmer’s market, cooking feasts she eats alone, and admits that she prefers the apartment because Jimmy is not there.
- Their phone calls are one-sided; Jimmy never asks about her life.
- Every evening, Saint listens to the tape of Patch’s interview, hearing his voice.
- Himes reiterates the stakes of their trade: Saint uses her tracking ability to find Patch, and the FBI searches for Grace.
- Himes reveals his personal motivation—a daughter—and states that if they don’t catch Patch soon, he will be killed.
Character Development
- Saint – The chapter deepens her compartmentalization. She can bear the ugliness of Hamlet and the loneliness of her mission because she has walled off her emotional life. Her small acts of self-care (the hair, the cooking) are remnants of a domestic self she barely recognizes. Most telling, she finds quiet comfort in being apart from Jimmy—a painful honesty that shows how the search for Grace and Patch has eclipsed every intimate bond.
- Jimmy – His withdrawal has become near-total. Failing his exams seems to have crystallized a larger despair; he reacts with impotent violence and then retreats into silence, never reciprocating Saint’s attempts at connection. His character is now defined by absence.
- Himes – For the first time, he reveals a personal motive: fatherhood. His care for Patch is not purely professional; he sees his own daughter in the hypothetical victim a boy like Patch might save. His warning at the end of the chapter reframes the manhunt as a race against a lethal clock.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
- Isolation and Self-Imposed Exile – Saint’s deliberately barren apartment, her solo meals, and the way she blinds herself to the world when listening to the tape all externalize her emotional isolation. She is surrounded by city life yet completely detached.
- The Interview Tape – The tape is a physical tether to the past and to Patch. By listening to his young voice every night, Saint feeds both her guilt and her obsession. It serves as a secular prayer, a ritual that justifies her sacrifice.
- Stasis Versus Change – The parade of big hair, parachute pants, and neon highlights how Saint has “paused a decade before.” While the world rushes forward, she is stuck in the trauma of the kidnapping and her hunt for Grace.
- Guilt and Obligation – The trade with Himes is framed as mutual obligation, but underneath it Saint is driven by the same force that made her track Patch years ago: a need to atone for failing to protect Grace. Himes’s fatherly logic reinforces the idea that the search is a moral mandate.
- Anger and Fear – Norma’s line that “anger is misplaced fear” applies not only to Jimmy’s refrigerator punch but also to Saint’s controlled fury at her own helplessness. Himes’s blunt assessment—that someone will put Patch down—converts that feared outcome into a pragmatic reason to act.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 117 marks a turning point in perspective. For the first time, we see Saint fully separated from her old life in Monta Clare, operating inside the machinery of the FBI. The chapter strips away any romanticism about her quest: it is lonely, repetitive, and maintained only through ritual. By revealing Himes’s personal stake, it complicates the Bureau’s involvement and adds a paternal urgency to the manhunt. The chapter also lays bare the emotional cost that Saint has yet to reckon with—the relief she feels away from Jimmy is an admission that the search has become her primary relationship. The tape ritual and the final warning together raise the dramatic stakes: finding Patch is no longer just about Grace, but about saving Patch’s life.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Saint find comfort in her Kansas apartment being empty, and what does that reveal about her state of mind?
The quiet space allows her to exist without the weight of Jimmy’s silence and expectation. It reveals that she has prioritized her mission over her personal ties to the point where intimacy feels like a burden. The relief is a painful form of honesty she can only admit to herself, showing how deeply the search for Grace has isolated her. -
How does Himes’s revelation about his daughter change the reader’s understanding of the FBI’s pursuit of Patch?
It personalizes the manhunt, shifting it from a professional case to a father’s wish that someone like Patch exist for his own child. It also hints that Himes may bend the rules or push harder because of this emotional investment, and his warning that someone else will kill Patch makes the chase feel protective rather than purely punitive. -
What role does the interview tape play in Saint’s daily ritual, and why does the chapter end on Himes’s warning instead of the tape?
The tape is an emotional anchor, feeding her guilt and reinforcing her purpose each night. By ending with Himes’s warning, the chapter pivots from private obsession to external threat, making the clock on Patch’s life audible. It suggests that Saint’s nightly ritual is no longer enough; action must follow, and the window is closing.