Chapter summaries Half His Age Jennette McCurdy

Chapter 23 (Chapter 22): Breakdown and Candlelight

⚠️ 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

After her car breaks down, Waldo endures a tense cab ride home while the driver argues with his wife. She arrives to find her mother, Mom, has a male visitor named Tony. The apartment is filled with the scent of a Bath & Body Works candle—a tell Mom uses when she wants to impress a guest. Mom, eager to keep Tony around, offers Waldo leftover tacos and suggests a board game. But Tony abruptly leaves, dismissing Mom’s attempt to extend the evening with cupcakes. Hurt and rejected, Mom tries to hide her disappointment. She and Waldo then spend the evening watching The Bachelor, both pretending to be fine while deflecting their true feelings.

Key Events

  • Waldo’s car is taken to a repair shop, forcing her to take a cab home.
  • The cab driver berates his wife on the phone; Waldo observes the unhealthy dynamic.
  • Waldo arrives home to an oversweet candle scent, signaling Mom has a male guest.
  • Mom introduces Tony the truck driver, but Waldo is too drained to engage.
  • Tony quickly makes an exit, ignoring Mom’s offer of cupcakes.
  • Mom’s hope fades as she checks her phone for a text that never comes.
  • Waldo and Mom watch multiple episodes of The Bachelor, sharing a cupcake and pretending everything is okay.

Character Development

Waldo: Throughout the chapter, Waldo wrestles with exhaustion and emotional numbness. She craves comfort from her mother but cannot ask for it directly. Instead, she retreats into mindless TV and snack food, avoiding any real conversation. Her observation of the cab driver’s fight and her mother’s vulnerability reinforces her awareness of unhealthy relationships.

Mom: Mom’s pattern of seeking male validation is laid bare. She overcompensates with frantic energy, smeared lipstick, and a candle, then crumbles when Tony leaves. Her phone-checking habit reveals a deep loneliness she tries to cover with TV chatter. She also shows a rare (if incomplete) attempt at caretaking by offering leftover tacos—something Waldo notes her mother has never done for her before.

Tony: Though present only briefly, Tony represents the transient men who pass through Mom’s life. He is rude (leaving a phlegm-filled tissue), dismissive of Mom’s feelings, and leaves without real connection.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Candle (Mahogany Coconut): The candle becomes a visual cue of Mom’s performance of domesticity. The artificial scent masks the home’s reality—a space where emotional needs go unmet.
  • The Cab Ride: A microcosm of toxic partnership. The cab driver’s phone argument mirrors the power struggles Waldo sees in her mother’s relationships.
  • Reality TV as Escape: The Bachelor provides a safe distance for both women to project their own romantic disappointments. They watch other people fail at love while refusing to acknowledge their own pain.
  • “I’m fine” Refrain: Both Waldo and Mom insist they are fine, but their actions—the phone-checking, the fixed TV stare—contradict the claim. This motif underscores the chapter’s central theme of emotional suppression.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter peels back the mask of normalcy that Mom tries to maintain. It highlights the cycle of rejection that both Waldo and Mom experience, even if Waldo doesn’t yet name it. The parallel between the cab driver’s poor treatment of his wife and Tony’s treatment of Mom shows Waldo’s growing awareness of dysfunctional relationship dynamics. It also deepens the mother–daughter bond, not through open communication, but through shared avoidance. The reader sees how each woman mirrors the other’s coping mechanisms, setting the stage for future conflict or understanding.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Waldo react with resentment to her mother’s offer of tacos?
Waldo notes that her mother has never prepared tacos for her before, only for a potential date. The offer feels perfunctory—an attempt to keep Tony around—rather than a genuine nurturing gesture. Waldo wants emotional comfort but receives a reheated meal, deepening her sense of being secondary.

2. What does the detail of Mom checking her phone reveal about her character?
The increasingly frantic phone checks show Mom’s desperation for Tony’s attention and her inability to tolerate being alone. Her “hope slowly draining out” demonstrates a pattern of investing in men who do not reciprocate, leaving her hollow.

3. How does the chapter use the TV show The Bachelor as a narrative device?
The show acts as a buffer that allows Waldo and Mom to avoid honest conversation. By focusing on a contestant who “didn’t get enough time” with the bachelor, they project their own romantic anxieties onto fictional characters. The line about women believing “the one is the one who doesn’t want them” directly comments on Mom’s situation.

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