Chapter 65: 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

The chapter opens at three in the afternoon on the last day of finals. JW sits on a bench, deliberately wearing the same flowy skirt and cream blouse she wore the first time she met George. She receives a text from George confirming their five o'clock meeting, and she replies to confirm.

An hour later, she drives to the coffee shop where they agreed to meet. In the parking lot, she crushes the three remaining Ambien pills she took from Alexis into a powder. Inside, she orders two black coffees, paying with coins, and prepares them the way George likes—three containers of cream and five packets of sugar. She adds the powdered drug, tastes a sip, and adds extra sugar to mask the bitterness. She also pockets extra creamers and sugars.

At 5:01, George's truck pulls into the lot. JW opens the passenger door and gets in, shoving the drugged coffee into his hands. George is surprised and claims he's supposed to meet a client, but JW reveals there is no client—she arranged the meeting. She tells him she just wants to talk and offers the coffee as a peace offering. After some hesitation, George drinks.

JW confronts him about the phone call she overheard, in which he insulted her and her sister. George initially denies it, but when JW presses him—mentioning that he called Ji-hyun a slut and that Ji-hyun is a child—George admits it dismissively, saying he's a man who does what all men do. He toasts her with the coffee and takes a long drink.

The drug begins to take effect. George becomes dizzy and nauseated. JW offers to drive him home, and he agrees. She helps him into the passenger seat, buckles his seatbelt, and drives—not to his home, but to an empty construction site. She tells him they're home when he asks where they are.

With George unconscious, JW takes Umma's paring knife from her bag. She lowers his seat and begins to cut into his eyelid, describing her fascination with his eyes. But George's eyes fly open. He attacks her, choking her and beating her against the ground. JW screams for her mother.

Geoffrey arrives in a car, screaming JW's name. She points to the knife on the ground, but Geoffrey instead picks up a rock and begins slamming it into George's skull. George releases JW and slides to the ground, then stops moving entirely. Geoffrey sinks down, pale and trembling, crying. In the distance, sirens sound, and everything goes black.

Key Events

JW wears the same outfit from her first meeting with George and confirms their 5 PM meeting by text.
She crushes three Ambien pills and laces George's coffee with the powder.
She confronts George about his insulting phone call about her sister; he admits it dismissively.
George becomes sick from the drugged coffee, and JW offers to drive him home.
She drives to an empty construction site instead.
She attempts to cut out George's eyes with Umma's paring knife.
George wakes and attacks her, choking her.
Geoffrey arrives and kills George with a rock.
Sirens sound in the distance as everything goes black.

Character Development

JW (Ji-won): This chapter shows JW fully committing to her plan. She is methodical—crushing the pills, preparing the coffee to George's taste, masking the bitterness with extra sugar. She wears the outfit from their first meeting, suggesting a deliberate ritual quality to her revenge. Her confrontation with George reveals her protective fury toward Ji-hyun, and her obsession with eyes reaches its peak as she prepares to cut out his. Yet her plan nearly fails when George wakes, and she is overpowered. Her scream for her mother reveals the vulnerability beneath the calculated exterior.

George: George's predatory nature is fully exposed. He dismisses his insult of Ji-hyun, calling it normal male behavior. He is condescending toward JW, calling her a good girl and obedient. His admission—that he does what all men do—frames his behavior as entitlement rather than wrongdoing. His violent reaction when JW attacks him shows the danger he represents.

Geoffrey: Geoffrey arrives as JW's rescuer. He screams her name, picks up a rock (not the knife she points to), and beats George until he stops moving. His trembling and crying afterward suggest the psychological cost of the violence.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Revenge and family protection: JW's plan is framed as retribution for George's predatory behavior toward her sister. Her confrontation is not just about the insult but about the way George looks at and treats the women in her family. The chapter frames her violence as protective, though the method—attempting to remove his eyes—is distinctly personal.

Eye obsession: JW's fixation on George's eyes reaches its climax. She describes his eyes in detail—the lines, rings, furrows, specks of gold. She is engrossed in them. The act of cutting out his eyes is the culmination of her obsession. The consumption metaphor is explicit: she calls his eyes the meal she has been waiting for.

Consumption metaphor: The drugged coffee is a literal consumption—George drinks the drug that disables him. JW's description of his eyes as a meal extends the metaphor. The coffee shop scene, with the pig drinking from a trough painting that reminds her of George, reinforces the idea of George as an animal to be consumed or disposed of.

Deception and manipulation: JW deceives George at every step—the fake meeting, the peace-offering coffee, the offer to drive him home. She mirrors the deception George has practiced on her family.

Predatory male behavior: George's admission that he does what all men do is the novel's indictment of normalized predatory behavior. His condescension toward JW and his dismissal of his insult to Ji-hyun reveal the entitlement that JW is punishing.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is the climax of the novel. JW's plan—built over the course of the book—comes to fruition, and the consequences are violent and irreversible. The chapter resolves the tension between JW's obsession with eyes and her desire to protect her family. It also raises questions about justice, revenge, and the cost of violence. Geoffrey's role as the one who actually kills George complicates the moral picture: JW's plan goes wrong, and Geoffrey is the one who delivers the fatal blow. The sirens at the end suggest the authorities are coming, leaving the aftermath ambiguous.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does JW wear the same outfit she wore when she first met George?

JW's choice to wear the flowy skirt and cream blouse from her first meeting with George is deliberate. It creates a symmetry between the beginning of their relationship and its end. The outfit is a costume for the performance she is about to give—the good girl George expects her to be. It also suggests a ritual quality to her revenge, as if she is closing a circle.

2. What does George's admission—that he does what all men do—reveal about him?

George's admission reveals his belief that predatory behavior toward women is normal and acceptable. He frames his insult of Ji-hyun as a natural male instinct rather than a moral failing. This is the novel's critique of normalized misogyny: George doesn't see himself as a villain, but as a man behaving as men are expected to behave. His condescension toward JW reinforces his view of women as objects to be managed.

3. Why does Geoffrey use a rock instead of the knife JW points to?

JW points to the paring knife on the ground, but Geoffrey picks up a rock instead. This detail suggests several things: Geoffrey may not have seen the knife in the chaos, or he may have instinctively grabbed whatever was available. The rock is a more brutal, less precise weapon than the knife—it suggests raw violence rather than the ritualistic precision JW intended. It also means that George's death is not the result of JW's eye-removal plan, but of a desperate, improvised act of rescue.