Chapter 37 Summary: Fucking Steely Dan?

⚠️ 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

Chloe climbs through Baron's window and immediately embraces K, still shaken from the old movie they watched. She insists the Magician in that film cannot be real because he looks exactly the same now as he did decades ago, calling it fake. K doesn't share her certainty but chooses not to argue, and he also decides to keep quiet about the cyclist and the man in the wool suit he encountered earlier, not wanting to add to her anxiety.

Chloe spots the wooden box K brought back, and she recognizes the Gatewick symbol on it. K opens it first, shielding her from any potential horror, but inside they find only a photograph and a cassette tape. The photograph shows a brick wall in a back alley—the same wall K discovered behind a dumpster earlier. Chloe finds a cassette player in Baron's apartment, but before they can play the tape, they hear footsteps and muffled voices outside the door. Shadows appear under the crack, and the sound of keys or tools jangling suggests someone is trying to get in. K grabs the box, photo, and tape, and they both scramble out the window just as the door opens.

Once safe in Chloe's car, K finally tells her about the creepy cyclist and the man in the wool suit, and they agree that K's place is probably being watched. They decide to go to the arcade, where they greet Marcus, the evening-shift guy, and head up to the Magician's office. Chloe navigates the cluttered space and finds a working Realistic portable cassette player. They plug it in, sit down, and press play.

The recording captures someone entering a room, walking across it, and placing a vinyl record on a turntable. The person never speaks; they simply set the needle down, and a jazzy lounge song begins. K doesn't recognize it, so he uses an audio identification app, which tells them it's “Third World Man” by Steely Dan from the album Gaucho. The recording ends as soon as the song finishes. They're about to listen again when they hear knocking from downstairs. Chloe pulls up a security camera feed on her phone, and the screen shows three people at the front door: Swan and the twins.

Key Events

• Chloe enters Baron's apartment through the window and hugs K, still troubled by the Magician's unchanging appearance in the old movie.

n- K withholds information about the cyclist and the wool-suit man to protect Chloe from further stress.

n- Chloe notices the wooden box with the Gatewick symbol; K opens it and finds a photograph and a cassette tape.

n- The photograph depicts the same brick wall K saw behind a dumpster, linking the two locations.

n- Footsteps and voices outside the door force K and Chloe to escape through the window, leaving the apartment just as someone enters.

n- In Chloe's car, K reveals the earlier creepy encounters, and they decide to avoid K's place.

n- They go to the arcade, greet Marcus, and use the Magician's office to play the cassette.

n- The tape contains a recording of someone playing a Steely Dan song, “Third World Man,” identified via an audio app.

n- The recording ends with the song, and they are interrupted by knocking; the security camera shows Swan and the twins at the front door.

Character Development

K continues to act as a protector, opening the box himself and withholding disturbing news to keep Chloe calm. His decision to share the cyclist and wool-suit man story only after they're safe shows his growing trust in Chloe and his willingness to let her in on the danger. Chloe, meanwhile, is trying to rationalize the impossible—she insists the Magician can't be real because he hasn't aged—but she's also resourceful, quickly locating a cassette player in the Magician's office and handling the security app without hesitation. The Magician himself remains an off-screen presence, but his cluttered office and collection of outdated electronics reinforce his role as a keeper of obscure knowledge. Marcus appears briefly as a helpful but minor figure, while Swan and the twins emerge as a tangible threat, their arrival at the arcade signaling that the game is closing in on K and Chloe.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

• The Gatewick Symbol: The symbol on the wooden box reappears, reinforcing its significance as a marker of hidden connections and possibly a faction or location within the game.

n- Surveillance: The chapter is steeped in watching and being watched—footsteps outside the door, shadows under the crack, and the security camera feed that reveals Swan and the twins. This motif underscores the constant threat of observation in the world of Rabbits.

n- Obscure Media as Clue Carriers: The cassette tape and the Steely Dan song are the latest examples of how the game hides clues in outdated formats. K's collection of archaic players and his use of an audio identification app highlight the necessity of engaging with old media to uncover secrets.

n- The Photograph: The brick wall photograph connects the alley where K found the box to the current mystery, suggesting that locations are linked in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

n- The Unchanging Magician: Chloe's insistence that the Magician can't be real because he looks the same in an old movie touches on themes of time, identity, and the possibility of supernatural or game-manipulated realities.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter delivers a concrete clue—the cassette tape—and raises the stakes by introducing a direct threat. The tape's content, a single Steely Dan song, is cryptic but clearly intentional, and the fact that it was left in a box with the Gatewick symbol suggests it's a deliberate message. The photograph ties the alley to the larger mystery, hinting that K's earlier discovery was not random. The intrusion at Baron's apartment and the arrival of Swan and the twins at the arcade escalate the tension, making it clear that K and Chloe are being actively pursued. The chapter also deepens the sense of paranoia and surveillance that pervades the novel, while the use of an audio identification app grounds the story in a contemporary, tech-savvy approach to solving the game's puzzles.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does K decide not to tell Chloe about the cyclist and the man in the wool suit when they first meet at Baron's apartment?

K withholds this information because he doesn't want to increase Chloe's anxiety. She's already shaken by the old movie and the Magician's impossible appearance, and K feels that adding more unsettling details would only make things worse. He only reveals the encounters later, once they're safe in her car and he feels she can handle it.

2. What does the photograph of the brick wall suggest about the connection between the alley and the larger mystery?

The photograph shows the same brick wall K discovered behind a dumpster, which is where he found the wooden box. This visual link implies that the alley is a significant location, possibly a meeting point or a site where clues are planted. The fact that the photo is inside the box suggests that the box's contents are meant to point back to that location, creating a loop of meaning that K and Chloe must unravel.

3. How does the use of the audio identification app reflect the game's reliance on obscure media?

The app allows K to identify a song he doesn't recognize, turning an obscure piece of media into a clue. This mirrors the game's broader mechanic: players must access outdated formats—cassettes, vinyl, reel-to-reel—and use modern tools to decode them. The app bridges the gap between old and new, showing that solving Rabbits requires both archival knowledge and contemporary technology.

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