Chapter 70 Summary: The Fight with Shauna Bulger
⚠️ 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 waiting in tense stillness, Driver charges Shauna Bulger when her rifle jams. He tackles her, feeling her ribs break, but she fights back with startling ferocity. During the struggle, Driver experiences a vivid flashback of past victims—including a woman named Georgette—and sees their faces in Shauna’s eyes. Shauna throws dirt to blind him, but Driver catches it. A distant boom distracts him, and in that instant she strikes him in the eye with a rock. Stunned and bleeding, Driver stumbles backward onto a dirt road, only to be blinded by the headlights of an approaching vehicle.
Key Events
- Driver holds his breath as Shauna Bulger tries to fire her rifle, but it jams.
- He rushes forward and tackles her, breaking ribs and knocking the wind from her.
- Despite her small size and injury, Shauna scrambles and fights with relentless energy.
- Driver experiences a psychological flash: the faces of past victims, including Georgette and others, appear in Shauna’s gaze.
- Shauna grabs a handful of dirt; Driver intercepts her hand and pins it.
- A loud boom in the distance turns Driver’s head, leaving him vulnerable.
- Shauna uses her free hand to smash a rock into Driver’s eye socket.
- Driver reels back, bleeding, and steps onto a dirt road.
- He is suddenly blinded by the headlights of a large vehicle just yards away.
Character Development
- Driver: The chapter reveals his internal pattern: whenever he kills, he is visited by memories of previous victims. This suggests a ritualistic or psychological dependence on past violence. His momentary distraction—turning to look at a distant boom—shows that even a seasoned killer can be caught off guard by the unexpected.
- Shauna Bulger: Despite her age and physical disadvantage, she displays extraordinary resilience and combat instinct. She does not pause after being tackled with broken ribs, but continues to attack with improvised weapons (dirt, a rock). Her resourcefulness makes her a formidable opponent, even against a trained killer.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- The Ghosts of the Past: Driver’s flashback of Georgette and other victims underscores a recurring motif: the lives he has taken haunt him in moments of violence. The past is never truly buried; it resurfaces at critical junctures.
- Survival Instinct vs. Calculation: The fight between Driver and Shauna contrasts brute force with desperate cunning. Driver relies on strength and experience, while Shauna uses whatever environment offers—dirt, a rock, even a distant sound—to gain an advantage.
- Distraction and Consequence: A single boom in the distance breaks Driver’s focus, leading directly to his injury. The chapter suggests that in life-or-death struggles, the smallest external event can tip the balance.
- Blinding Light: The chapter ends with Driver blinded by headlights—a literal and symbolic loss of control. Light, usually associated with clarity, here becomes an overwhelming threat.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter Seventy is the physical climax of the confrontation between Driver and Shauna Bulger. It shifts the power dynamic: Shauna, despite her age and a jammed weapon, wounds Driver and forces him onto the defensive. The arrival of headlights introduces an unknown third party, raising the stakes and setting up the next chapter as a potential turning point. The flashback also deepens Driver’s characterization, revealing a psychological pattern that may foreshadow his ultimate weakness.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Driver experience a flash of his past victims during the fight?
Driver recalls Georgette and other people he has killed because, in his own words, the lives he has taken “came to him” when he takes a new life. This suggests a ritualized connection between murder and memory, possibly indicating guilt or a narcissistic need to relive conquests. -
What gives Shauna Bulger the upper hand despite being injured and smaller?
She uses two key advantages: first, she throws dirt to blind Driver (though he catches that hand), and second, she exploits a momentary distraction—a loud boom in the distance—to strike him with a rock in her other hand. Her refusal to stop fighting after the tackle demonstrates a ferocious will to survive. -
What does the final image of headlights imply about the chapter’s outcome?
The headlights belong to a large vehicle only a few yards away, and they blind Driver just as he is recovering from the rock strike. This introduces an unknown element—a potential rescuer, a new threat, or an ally of Shauna—that will almost certainly alter the course of the confrontation in the next chapter.