The Boyfriend Chapter 63 – Summary & 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
In a flashback set eight years before the main events, Tom Brewer walks home with his girlfriend Cindy after seeing Blood Lake 2. Cindy rants about the movie’s gore, but Tom is secretly disappointed it was not more violent. He reveals to Cindy that he decided against applying for a surgery residency and instead chose pathology. After dropping her off, Tom walks home alone, thinking about his late father’s disappearance and his mother’s unspoken knowledge of what happened. Back at his apartment, instead of searching for the movie’s gory scenes, he obsessively views Daisy Driscoll’s public Facebook profile. He composes several text messages to Daisy—confessing he misses her and cannot live without her—but deletes each one. He tries calling Cindy, but she does not answer, leaving him unsettled.
Key Events
- Tom and Cindy leave a screening of Blood Lake 2; Cindy is disgusted by the gore while Tom appreciates the realistic special effects.
- Tom tells Cindy he has applied only to pathology residency programs, abandoning his lifelong dream to become a surgeon.
- Tom walks Cindy home but does not stay the night; he returns to his Philadelphia apartment alone.
- At home, Tom repeatedly checks Daisy Driscoll’s public Facebook page, noting a selfie with a marquee for Blood Lake 2 in the background.
- Tom types and erases three texts to Daisy: a casual greeting, “I miss you,” and “I don’t think I can live without you, Daisy.”
- He decides to focus on Cindy, calls her, but gets no answer—leaving a hint of unease.
Character Development
This chapter deepens Tom’s interior conflict. He outwardly tries to build a normal life with Cindy—a “nice” girlfriend who does not understand his dark tastes—but his emotional and sexual obsession with Daisy Driscoll (now calling herself Gretchen) remains intense. Tom’s decision to switch from surgery to pathology reveals a discomfort with living patients, yet he remains fascinated by graphic violence. His compulsive checking of Daisy’s social media and his near-texts show that he has not moved on from their high school connection, despite eight years of separation. The calm, analytical way he recalls his father’s disappearance hints at a hidden capability for violence or cover-up.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Violence as Entertainment / Complicity: Tom’s disappointment that Blood Lake 2 was not gory enough, paired with his medical school experience of cutting into patients, blurs the line between horror fiction and his own reality.
- Obsession and Stalking: Checking an ex’s public profile frequently and composing unsent messages illustrate the early stages of compulsive, one-sided attachment.
- The “Normal” Mask: Tom dates Cindy to pursue a conventional future (marriage, kids, dog), but his true desires pull him back toward Daisy—a woman he describes as a “psychopath” yet cannot resist.
- Isolation: Tom feels disconnected from everyone except his mother; his only close friend died in high school. Walking alone at night and preferring solitude underscores his alienation.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 63 is a crucial flashback that explains Tom’s psychological foundation. It shows his moral pivot from wanting to be a surgeon to choosing a career with the dead, his unresolved fixation on Daisy, and his willingness to feign normalcy. The unanswered call to Cindy foreshadows a possible event (perhaps the drowning mentioned earlier) and reinforces Tom’s pattern of losing or harming those he claims to care about. Readers now see that Tom’s obsession with Daisy has lasted nearly a decade, making his present-day actions more understandable and disturbing.
Study Questions & Answers
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Why does Tom decide not to become a surgeon?
Tom explains that after experiencing an operating room firsthand—seeing a chest cavity fill with warm, pulsating blood—he realized the surgeon’s path was not right for him. He instead applied only to pathology residencies, where his patients are already dead. -
What does Tom’s repeated checking of Daisy’s Facebook reveal about his state of mind?
It shows he still harbors intense, unresolved feelings for Daisy and cannot stop thinking about her, even while dating Cindy. The fact that he composes then deletes three messages indicates both desire and restraint—but also that he may be on the verge of acting on his obsession. -
How does Cindy’s reaction to Blood Lake 2 contrast with Tom’s, and what does this suggest about their compatibility?
Cindy finds the movie disgusting and fears nightmares; Tom is disappointed it wasn’t more gory and praises the special effects. The contrast highlights their fundamental mismatch—Cindy represents normalcy, while Tom is drawn to the macabre and violent.