54 pages • 1 hour read
Freida McFaddenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The group looks for Michelle. Claire stumbles upon a tree with five gashes that resemble claw marks, which look eerily similar to the claw marks she saw earlier with Lindsay. At the base of the tree is even more blood. Claire feels as though she’s being hunted, seeing a dark shape in the bush and hearing growling, so she cries out for Noah. He quickly comes to her aid, though he sees no shadow, and he tells her that he thinks Michelle must be dead since they still haven’t found her and the amount of blood in the woods is concerning.
They decide to look for Jack and Warner. When they find them, Jack wants to keep searching for Michelle, but Warner thinks they should find a water source so that the rest of them don’t die of dehydration. Jack agrees, as long as they look for Michelle afterward. Warner rolls his eyes, and Claire agrees with his sentiment.
Jack tracks a rabbit’s footsteps to a muddy pond. He strains the water through a pillowcase to get rid of dirt and then adds a tablet to the bottle that kills bacteria. The tablet takes an hour to take effect, which upsets Claire. She misses her children and wants to get out of the woods desperately. As they wait for the water to purify, the group decides, at Warner’s suggestion, to return to the map and try to find the inn. Warner argues that they have been unsuccessful in finding Michelle and that calling the police from the inn would be a better option. Jack is emotional, but he doesn’t want to talk about it with Claire.
Claire asks Warner to help plan Lindsay’s funeral, but he refuses, saying he was planning on breaking up with Lindsay. He then disparages Claire’s job as a teacher, which enrages Noah. Noah pulls Claire away from Jack and Warner and tells her that he thinks they should split off from the others, as he thinks Warner’s map and Jack’s compass are both wrong based on his observations of sunrise and sunset and the familiar landmarks he keeps noticing, meaning they keep walking in circles.
Claire does not want to leave the group, as she’s worried that they could meet the same fate as Michelle. Noah agrees to stay with the group for her sake, which surprises Claire.
The unnamed narrator returns. They recount a memory of returning home from school with lice, which prompted their mother to burn all their clothing and shave their head bald. At school the next day, a student named Bryan taunted the narrator about having “cooties” (171), so the narrator pulled back to punch him.
Hours later, the group is still lost in the woods. Warner goads Jack to shoot a bird to roast over the fire for dinner, but Jack is uneasy and misses both times he tries. Jack and Warner fight over the gun until Noah takes possession of the rifle to calm the tension as the group continues walking.
During their second day in the woods, Claire starts to think that she’ll die in the forest and will never see her children again. She confesses her anxiety to Noah, who promises to get her home safely.
They stumble upon a disemboweled coyote, which further scares Claire, as something larger and more dangerous than a coyote is lurking in the woods. As the group keeps walking, Noah again promises to get her home.
The group starts to make camp for another night in the woods. As they go to gather material for the fire, Jack pulls Claire aside. Claire reminisces about her crush on Jack in college, a crush that lingered for years until the start of their affair. Jack tells her that he’s looked up at the sky and noticed Polaris, which is the North Star, and that his compass is not pointing correctly north. His compass is inconsistent; sometimes it’s correct, sometimes it’s not. He thinks that either Warner or Noah has a magnet in their possession that is throwing off the compass.
He also tells Claire that he misspoke about his friend whom he thought worked at the same hospital as Warner, meaning Warner claimed to know someone he couldn’t possibly know. They both become suspicious of Warner, especially in light of Michelle’s disappearance, but Jack is also suspicious of Noah. Claire asks him about Michelle, and they argue over Jack’s affectionate treatment of Michelle after she sprained her ankle. Claire thinks their entire affair—built on Jack’s supposed lack of love for Michelle—was a lie. She gives him back his sweatshirt and storms back to camp.
The group settles in for the night at their camp. Claire is cold after returning Jack’s sweatshirt, so Noah gives her his hoodie to keep warm. Warner and Jack fight over Jack’s continual poking of the fire, which devolves into Jack confronting everyone about their apathy toward Michelle’s disappearance. Warner tells Jack that Michelle is dead, and Jack needs to accept it. They argue, and Jack reaches for the gun. Noah keeps the gun away from Jack and Warner and tells them to calm down. Jack leaves to take a walk.
Warner further lambasts Jack and Michelle, but Noah defends them. Warner says they should go north in the morning, and Noah agrees. As they go to sleep, Noah cuddles Claire for warmth. She feels the urge to tell him she loves him, but she doesn’t. They fall asleep before waking up to the sound of gunshots.
As the group continues to stumble through the woods, Claire and Noah’s relationship changes. After Lindsay’s “death,” Noah tells Claire he’s happy she didn’t also eat the purportedly poisoned berries. Claire is confused by his reaction, given the difficult state of their marriage. Considering Noah’s reaction, she thinks, “Noah told me he was glad I didn’t eat the berries, but I can’t imagine him crying if I had died yesterday. The kids would care, my parents would care, Penny would care, but Noah? I don’t know” (164). Though Noah is her husband, Claire is not even sure if he would care if she died painfully on the forest floor, which speaks to her lingering lack of trust in him in these moments.
When Noah seeks to talk to Claire about splitting off from the group, Claire is uneasy, thinking that Noah wants to confront her about her relationship with Jack. She contemplates being honest with him but thinks, “I don’t want to lie to him, but a revelation like that is going to make the next week very uncomfortable” (166). Claire knows she’s continuing to deceive Noah even in a life-or-death situation, but she cannot bring herself to tell him the truth. This complicates the theme of The Complexities of Deceit and Trust, as Claire has begun to trust Noah while continuing to deceive him, even thinking to herself, “Maybe I’ve grown to hate him, but I trust him” (169). Though she has negative feelings about her relationship with Noah, she still trusts him to keep them physically safe.
Jack’s notions of trust are more complicated. Claire thinks about how her relationship with Jack has possibly tarnished Jack and Noah’s relationship: “He and Noah have been friends for a long time. I know that he trusts Noah. Of course, Noah trusted him and look what happened” (176). Claire understands that Jack has also deceived Noah and that could negatively influence the trust they have in one another. The consequences of deceit in a relationship are reflected in the increasing fragility of trust; Claire and Jack’s deceit is slowly tainting their relationships with others, including their relationship with each other. When they argue in the woods, Jack tells Claire, “I don’t trust anyone right now’” (185). Even though they are romantically entwined, when it comes to a dangerous situation, Jack tells Claire that he does not trust her to her face.
This moment is a turning point for Claire’s character development. She realizes that Noah still trusts her, as he approaches her and asks her to leave with him. Jack, however, does not trust her in the same way. Romance is something Claire values when safely nestled in suburbia, but in the wilderness, trust matters more than romantic feelings. However, McFadden couples the ideas of trust and romance together: Once Jack reveals that he does not trust Claire, Claire turns back to Noah and finds herself wanting Noah to be close to her again. Once they make camp for the second night, Noah holds Claire, which shocks her, especially given that she likes it. She thinks, “But now something has changed. I want him next to me. I want his arms around me while we drift off” (193). Her trust in Noah thus helps reignite her romantic feelings for him. Their close bond is essential to their survival in the climax of the narrative.
By Freida McFadden