Setting: In Hank’s office; in Donna’s car driving towards New-Path; In a forest on the side of the road, out of sight from cops; New-Path residence in Santa Ana.

Character:

Arctor: Arctor is now a mess, he doesn’t know who he is, what his past was and has trouble just thinking. Withdrawing from Substance D has made him very ill and leaves him with little energy. While at New-Path, he is given the name of Bruce and blindly obeys orders that he is given. He’s unable to think for himself much anymore, but every now and then acts upon his own thoughts.

Donna: It turns out that Donna is actually an undercover federal agent, this explains why she wouldn’t get close to Arctor. She feels terrible for pulling Arctor along and wishes she could be with him.

Plot: Fred goes back to talk with Hank and Barris about Arctor and after some tapes are played, evidenced is gathered and Barris is taken away. Hank talks to Fred about his results and how he is Arctor, Fred is in disbelief. Hank suggests that he should go withdraw in the mountains alone, but Arctor decides he should go to New-Path and Donna picks him up outside. She takes him to a forest while on the way to New-Path to talk to him, the pain of withdrawing made Arctor vomit and soil himself. They discuss about Tony Amsterdam, a man who shot up and saw God and could never live with himself after that because he knew he’d never see him again. A cop comes and Donna saws that she’s an undercover agent for the federal police and shows him her badge. The cop leaves and Donna takes Arctor to New-Path. After leaving him, she drives onto a freeway to tail a Coca-Cola truck and shoots at the bottles it has on it.

Arctor is instructed to clean the bathrooms of the residence. Arctor just does what he is told and barely talks to anyone. New-Path gives him a new name, Bruce, so he can start a new life. He later meets Mike, a man who was once like Bruce and says that he can help him if he ever needs it.

Theme: A theme that has been growing over the course of the novel is how the mind is what forms reality and it’s willingness to bend and accept things is truly amazing. As Arctor has abused Substance D, his perception of what is real has changed. He took on different identities to do what he needed to. After D had split his mind, he saw everything “reversed” but didn’t know whether what he was seeing was real or if what he used to see was real. The mind is able to accept what it sees so it can continue to function, just as how Arctor became Bruce to continue living.