Chapter 63 (Chapter 62) Summary & Analysis – The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden

⚠️ 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

Sydney’s head spins from the wine she drank at Gretchen and Randy’s engagement celebration. Gretchen lets Tom into the apartment. Tom immediately notices something is wrong and asks Gretchen what she did. The truth comes out: Gretchen poisoned the wine with oleander leaves, a toxin that makes people drowsy when mixed with alcohol. She admits she kept the leaves for emergencies and that the dose won’t kill but will incapacitate. Tom is horrified and calls her “Daisy,” her childhood nickname, revealing their past connection. Gretchen explains that she used Randy to get close to Sydney and Tom, and that she has been the one killing Tom’s romantic interests all along. When Tom pleads with her to stop, Gretchen picks up a knife and stabs Randy multiple times in the belly, killing him. She claims Randy was a pervert who deserved it and that she planned to frame him for all the murders by hiding hair locks in his toilet tank. She then reveals that Tom has a blood fetish—he is attracted to Sydney because of her nosebleeds and bleeding accidents. Gretchen tries to convince Tom they are meant to be together, and Tom does not pull away from her touch. Sydney, still drugged but terrified, must find a way to escape before Gretchen makes her the final victim.

Key Events

Gretchen’s ulterior motive exposed: She reveals she poisoned the wine with oleander to incapacitate Sydney and Randy.
Tom recognizes Gretchen as his high-school love Daisy: He calls her by the nickname only he uses, confirming their history.
Tom’s past with Gretchen: He had told Sydney he never got over the only girl he loved in high school—that girl is Gretchen/Daisy.
Gretchen stabs Randy: In front of Sydney and Tom, she repeatedly stabs the unconscious Randy, killing him.
Frame-up plan revealed: Gretchen explains she will plant hair locks from previous victims in Randy’s toilet tank to make him appear to be the serial killer.
Gretchen’s obsession with Tom: She confesses she wants Tom for herself and that she believes they are “so much alike.”
Blood fetish revealed: Gretchen tells Sydney that Tom loves to watch her bleed, referencing their first date after a nosebleed and other bleeding episodes.
Tom’s conflicted reaction: He does not reject Gretchen’s advances or deny her claims about his blood fixation.

Character Development

Sydney: Realizes her earlier suspicions were wrong. She had thought Randy was the killer using Gretchen as an alibi, but now sees that Gretchen is the mastermind. Sydney’s physical weakness from the poison contrasts with her mental alertness; she begins planning an escape.
Gretchen/Daisy: Fully unmasked as a manipulative psychopath. She is cold, calculated, and obsessed with Tom. Her love for Tom drives her to eliminate any woman he becomes serious with. She shows no remorse for killing Randy and is confident in her frame-up plan.
Tom: His character is morally ambiguous. He appears horrified by Gretchen’s actions but does not reject her when she touches him. The revelation of his blood fetish complicates his relationship with Sydney and suggests he may have darker impulses.
Randy: Killed by Gretchen. Earlier evidence showed he engaged in creepy behavior (entering women’s apartments and touching underwear), but he did not deserve to die. His death solidifies Gretchen’s role as the true threat.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Deception and hidden identities: Gretchen’s alias as “Daisy” and her fake engagement to Randy mirror her earlier lies about being dead. The motif of false names (e.g., Tom using a fake number, Gretchen calling herself Daisy) underscores how the characters hide their true natures.
Toxicity and poison: The oleander in the wine symbolizes the insidiousness of Gretchen’s manipulation. It is a slow-acting, hard-to-detect poison that renders her victims helpless without killing them immediately—a metaphor for how she gradually inserts herself into their lives.
Obsession and control: Gretchen’s obsession with Tom drives the plot. She controls his relationships by murdering his partners, and she tries to control Tom himself by appealing to his dark desires. The blood fetish introduced here ties physical vulnerability to romantic attraction, a disturbing dynamic.
The frame-up as a motif: Gretchen plans to make Randy the scapegoat, using planted evidence (hair in the toilet tank). This echoes the earlier misdirection where the reader (and Sydney) suspected Randy. The theme of planting evidence recurs in crime narratives, here showing how the real killer manipulates the investigation.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is the climax of the novel’s central mystery. It definitively reveals the killer’s identity and motive, shattering the reader’s previous assumptions. Gretchen’s confession and her murder of Randy in front of Sydney and Tom escalate the stakes to life-or-death. The blood-fetish twist complicates Tom’s character and introduces moral ambiguity about his innocence. Sydney’s vulnerability is at its peak, making her eventual survival uncertain. The chapter also sets up the final confrontation: Sydney must escape from a psychopath who has already killed multiple women and is now targeting her.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Gretchen poison Randy and Sydney but not Tom?
She wants to incapacitate Randy and Sydney so she can frame Randy for the murders and kill Sydney as his “last victim.” She does not poison Tom because she needs him as a witness and because she hopes to win him back. The oleander dose is intended to make Sydney drowsy, not kill her, so that Gretchen can later stage the scene.

2. How does Tom’s past relationship with Gretchen affect his actions in this chapter?
Tom is clearly conflicted. He reacts with horror when Gretchen stabs Randy, but he does not stop her. When Gretchen touches him and claims they are meant to be together, he does not pull away. His failure to reject her suggests that his love for her—and perhaps his own dark desires—still holds power over him, making him complicit in her crimes by inaction.

3. What evidence suggests that Tom may share Gretchen’s violent tendencies?
Gretchen reveals that Tom is attracted to Sydney specifically because she bleeds easily—their first date followed a nosebleed, and their first time having sex occurred after Sydney cut her finger. Tom does not deny this claim. His fascination with blood and his inability to leave Gretchen imply that he may have a similar psychosexual obsession, though he has not acted on it himself.