Chapter 32 Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Con follows Cabigail deeper into the underground complex, wary of what her aunt is about to show her. They reach a locked door, and Cabigail gives Con strict instructions: no loud noises, no emotional peaks, and no mention that the year is actually 2039. Inside the antechamber, Con opens a second wooden door to find a small, dimly lit room. On the bed lies a man who rolls over—it is Zhi, her boyfriend who died over a year earlier. But this Zhi is physically damaged: his right side is atrophied, he uses a walker, and his speech is childlike. He believes he survived the car crash and that Con is the original version of herself. They talk briefly about a jigsaw puzzle and music; Con plays an old Big Star song on a guitar. When Zhi falls asleep, Con leaves and confronts Cabigail in her office.
Con pins Cabigail against the wall, demanding to know what she has done. Cabigail reveals that she obtained Zhi’s consciousness upload from a Johns Hopkins study on traumatic brain injuries. She has been creating clones of Zhi—this one is the third—to try to repair the damaged upload and restore him to his original state. Con is horrified that her aunt treats the clones as disposable lab cultures. Cabigail then explains her real purpose: she needs Con’s body to become her niece, because Abigail Stickling is legally dead and she must assume Con’s identity to continue her work without detection. She promises that if Con agrees, she will fix Con’s own body rejection and bring back a healed Zhi. Con initially refuses, but after considering that her original self sacrificed her freedom for this chance, Con agrees on one condition: that Levi Greer be released from prison. Cabigail reluctantly consents. Just then, an alarm blares through the complex, and Cabigail announces they have a visitor.
Key Events
- Cabigail leads Con to a locked room where a clone of Zhi Duan is being kept.
- Con learns the clone believes it is still 2037 and that he is the original survivor of the accident.
- The clone suffers from physical and cognitive impairments due to micro-strokes caused by flawed downloads.
- Con plays a guitar song for Zhi and agrees to return the next day, knowing she will not.
- Con confronts Cabigail, who reveals she has been creating multiple Zhi clones to perfect the process of repairing traumatic brain injury uploads.
- Cabigail admits she intends to take over Con’s body to escape detection and continue her research.
- Cabigail offers to heal Con’s rejection and restore a whole Zhi in exchange for Con’s cooperation.
- Con accepts the deal with the condition that Levi Greer goes free.
- An alarm sounds, indicating an intruder has arrived.
Character Development
Con D’Arcy experiences a turning point. Her encounter with the damaged clone of Zhi forces her to confront the cost of her aunt’s ambition and the depth of her original self’s sacrifice. She feels a sisterly bond with the first Con D’Arcy and cannot let that sacrifice be in vain. Her demand that Levi be freed shows that she still holds onto values of justice and loyalty, even when facing her own dissolution.
Cabigail Stickling is revealed as more ruthless and calculating than ever. She justifies the creation and disposal of sentient clones as “lab cultures,” revealing a nearly sociopathic detachment from the humanity of her creations. Yet her genuine drive to solve the mind-body problem suggests a fanaticism that blurs the line between genius and madness.
Zhi Duan’s clone is a tragic figure—a broken echo of the man Con loved. His presence highlights the moral ambiguity of Cabigail’s work and raises questions about identity and personhood. Con’s reaction to him shows her capacity for empathy, even as she struggles with the horror of what has been done.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Sacrifice and solidarity. Con’s decision to accept Cabigail’s offer is motivated not by self-preservation but by a sense of responsibility to her original self. The chapter underscores that some debts cannot be ignored.
The nature of humanity. Cabigail’s philosophical argument that “there is no such thing as unnatural” challenges Con’s intuitive sense of right and wrong. The debate over cars being natural (as products of human nature) frames the central conflict: is cloning and consciousness transfer a perversion or a logical extension of what humans do?
Memory and trauma. The clone Zhi is trapped in a static memory of the past (2037), unable to process his true situation. This mirrors Con’s own fragmented memories and the way trauma can freeze a person in time.
The jigsaw puzzle of Jimi Hendrix serves as a symbol for the difficult, piecemeal work of reconstructing a damaged consciousness—slow, painstaking, and incomplete.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is the emotional and plot climax of Con’s journey in the underground facility. It reveals the full scope of Cabigail’s plan and forces Con to make an impossible choice. It also provides closure to the mystery of how Zhi’s clone came to exist and what happened to the original Con. The cliffhanger of the alarm raises the stakes for the next chapter, as an external party arrives.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Con agree to let Cabigail take over her body?
Con acts out of solidarity with her original self, who sacrificed her freedom to give Zhi a chance at recovery. Con cannot bear to let that sacrifice be meaningless, so she accepts the deal despite her own desire to live as herself. She also hopes that Cabigail might truly heal both her and Zhi.
2. What does Cabigail’s argument about “natural” behavior reveal about her worldview?
Cabigail believes that human adaptation of the environment—including technology like cloning—is inherently natural because it stems from human intelligence. She dismisses the concept of “unnatural” as a semantic contrivance used to make humanity feel special. This philosophy allows her to justify any means in pursuit of her scientific goals.
3. How does the clone of Zhi challenge Con’s understanding of identity?
Con sees both the familiar Zhi and the stranger in the same person. The clone has memories and mannerisms of the original but is physically and cognitively diminished. Con struggles to reconcile her love for the man she lost with her revulsion at the artificial copy, forcing her to question whether identity resides in consciousness alone or in the body’s history.