Chapter 64 – Dinner and Revelations
⚠️ Spoiler Notice: This analysis contains full spoilers for Badlands and assumes you have read the previous chapters. If you haven’t, you may want to start from the Book Hub.
Summary
Four months after the confrontation in Gallina Canyon, Nora, Skip, Corrie, and Homer Watts gather for an upscale dinner at Piscator in Albuquerque. The legal proceedings have petered out, and the media never connected the bizarre pieces of the story into a coherent whole. The evening begins with light conversation that carefully avoids the recent trauma, until Skip announces he has been researching cults and finds theirs unlike any pattern.
Corrie then shares classified FBI intelligence in confidence. Oskarbi’s path began with a Totonteac shaman named Don Benicio, who expelled him when he became obsessed with dark powers. Returning to the United States, Oskarbi wrote a bestselling book, became a professor, and developed a theory that the Gallina were Totonteac exiles who practiced evil, prompting the Chaco people to exterminate them. The archaeological expedition that discovered the great kiva turned into a cult that reenacted those rituals. After Oskarbi’s death—possibly at Bromley’s hands—Bromley led the group toward human sacrifice and a ceremony designed to summon a demon. The body in the Chama River was that of a would-be looter who stumbled on a ritual.
Corrie also announces that Sharp is the new SAC and, more important to the table, she has been promoted to full special agent. The mood brightens, but Skip presses the group on what they actually believe. Watts dismisses the experience as hallucination, but Nora, Skip, and Corrie acknowledge a reality they will never put in an official report. Laughter unites them in a shared, unspeakable understanding.
Key Events
- Skip breaks the silence by bringing up his research into cults, noting that Oskarbi’s group never recruited and consisted of high-functioning members.
- Corrie discloses Oskarbi’s history: expulsion by Don Benicio, bestselling book, theory about the Gallina, and the gradual slide into ritual darkness.
- Bromley’s takeover and push toward human sacrifice is revealed, along with the fate of the murdered looter.
- Professional news: Sharp is promoted to SAC, and Corrie becomes a full-fledged GS‑11 special agent.
- The “what do you believe” exchange pits Watt’s skepticism against the shared conviction of the three who were inside the kiva—all of whom intend to keep the truth out of reports.
Character Development
- Nora Kelly: Her protectiveness toward Skip deepens; she recognizes in him echoes of their father and of her late husband Bill Smithback. At dinner she leads the quiet, knowing glance that seals their secret.
- Skip Kelly: Having recovered after two months of convalescence, he returns to his wisecracking self but channels his trauma into obsessive research. His direct question about belief shows he can no longer dismiss what he saw.
- Corrie Swanson: She has matured into a confident agent willing to bend her oath of secrecy for the people who saved her. Her radiant face at the promotion, and her refusal to confess the supernatural in her report, balance professional ambition with personal truth.
- Homer Watts: Still the grounded cowboy, he provides the rational counterpoint—dismissing the ceremony as drug-induced hallucinations—yet shows deep affection for Corrie and a willingness to be the butt of the Shakespeare joke.
- Oskarbi and Bromley (in absentia): The backstory paints Oskarbi as a charismatic egoist who compartmentalized his darkest knowledge; Bromley as the narcissistic deputy who discarded restraint, escalating the cult into human sacrifice.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Secrecy vs. Official Narrative: The chapter contrasts what must go into FBI reports with the secret the three witnesses carry—a motif of buried truth that runs through the novel.
- Belief and the Supernatural: Skip’s question and the subsequent silence mark the book’s final word on whether the demon raising was real. The characters choose to believe without ever articulating it, turning the supernatural into a private bond.
- Trauma and Recovery: The four-month gap and the careful avoidance of the topic show how each character processes horror differently—Skip through research, Nora through protectiveness, Corrie through career drive, Watts through denial.
- Hamlet’s “Horatio”: Skip’s quotation underscores the limits of rational explanation and ties the novel’s mystery to the broader literary tradition of things beyond philosophy.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 64 is the story’s emotional denouement. After the chaos of the canyon and the bureaucratic aftermath, the dinner table becomes a clearinghouse for unsaid truths. Corrie’s FBI briefing retroactively connects all the novel’s fragments—the Totonteac lore, the Gallina kiva, the looted body, Bromley’s madness—into a coherent backstory that satisfies the mystery while preserving the uncanny. The promotions give readers a sense of earned reward, and the final exchange over Hamlet dispels tension with laughter even as it affirms that some experiences cannot be explained away. It is the moment the survivors silently agree to protect each other forever.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Corrie share confidential FBI information with the group despite the risk to her career?
Corrie believes Nora, Skip, and Watts “deserve to know” because they almost died in the kiva. Her choice reflects a new hierarchy of loyalty: the bond formed in trauma outweighs institutional protocol. It also shows her growth from a by-the-book trainee into someone who values personal integrity over rigid rules.
2. How does Watt’s skepticism contrast with the others’ experience, and what does this reveal about their relationships?
Watts wasn’t in the kiva and sees only drug-induced hallucinations. Nora, Skip, and Corrie, who were present, share an unspoken certainty that something otherworldly occurred. This divide demonstrates how first-hand trauma creates an exclusive circle of understanding, while those on the outside remain attached to rational explanations. Yet Watts’s love for Corrie—and his willingness to be teased—keeps him inside the emotional family, if not the secret.
3. What is the significance of Skip quoting Hamlet’s “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”?
The quotation serves as the chapter’s thesis statement. Skip uses it to tell Watts (and the reader) that the universe is larger and stranger than any official report can capture. It encapsulates the novel’s central tension between explainable crime and inexplicable horror. The joke about Watts’s missed Shakespeare assignment also defuses a potentially bitter argument, cementing the group’s friendship through shared humor.