Klara and the Sun

Josie, Klara, and the Mother go to Mr. Capaldi’s studio. The Mother is tense because the Father is coming to see Josie. The Father is late arriving in his taxi.

At last, the Father arrives. He gives Josie a present: a small mirror that shows her face how it actually looks, not in reverse like most mirrors. The Mother interjects to introduce Klara, and the Father greets Klara curtly. The Mother insists they all have to hurry along, or they’ll be late for the appointment with Mr. Capaldi.

In the car, the Father and the Mother argue about their careers and about the portrait. Meanwhile, Klara notices that they’re near her old store, and she sees the Cootings Machine, which is still spewing pollution. As it turns out, the store has moved somewhere else. Josie promises they can find the store’s new location tomorrow. Before going in to meet Mr. Capaldi, the Mother reminds Klara that he will have a couple questions for her.

Klara, Josie, the Mother, and the Father enter Mr. Capaldi’s house. The Mother asks to see the portrait, and Mr. Capaldi agrees, but when Josie also asks to see, he refuses. The Father asks why, but Mr. Capaldi just explains that it makes the portrait worse if the subject gets too self-conscious by seeing the results early. The Father says he’d like to finish up quickly, so he can go alone with Josie to get a meal.

Mr. Capaldi says he has a questionnaire for Klara to answer. He leads Klara to a separate room. While he does, they can hear the Father and the Mother having an argument about something being “not consistent.” Klara begins the questionnaire.

The questionnaire starts with questions that need very short answers but moves to questions that require longer answers. As she’s doing the assignment, she notices Mr. Capaldi leading the Father somewhere on the opposite balcony. The Father looks suddenly ill. They go into a room, and when the Father comes out, he looks not ill but angry.

Klara overhears the Father, the Mother, and Mr. Capaldi arguing, with the Father taking issue with Mr. Capaldi’s ethics. Klara gets up and goes to the other side of the balcony. She goes through a door, using a code she watched Mr. Capaldi input. Inside, she sees something that looks like Josie suspended in the air. While it has a very close resemblance to Josie, small details like the hair suggest that it’s not the real thing.

Klara carefully goes back to where she was and finds the mood is even more tense. The Father is trying to make Josie leave immediately. Mr. Capaldi says to just let them go, so they leave without Klara. With them gone, the Mother confesses that she had misgivings about Josie’s “portrait” even before the Father raised objections. Mr. Capaldi tries to reassure her.

Mr. Capaldi invites Klara down. He asks if he is doing a good job. Klara says yes, the “portrait” (meaning the lifeless Artificial Friend replica of Josie) looks accurate. She confirms that she completed the questionnaire and has stored the answers. The Mother asks Klara to describe what she thought she saw.

Klara explains that for a while, she suspected that Mr. Capaldi’s “portrait” was not a painting but in fact an AF. She confirms that it looks accurate but suggests narrower hips. The Mother still seems doubtful and mentions how things didn’t work out in the past with Sal.

Mr. Capaldi suggests that what they did in the past with Sal was much less advanced, no more than a “bereavement doll.” What he’s working on currently is something that actually will be Josie, a true continuation of her. The Mother doubts whether she’ll ever be able to believe that.

Klara interrupts to suggest that they might not even need the new Josie. But she also says that she understands why she’s been asked to observe Josie so closely, and that she will use everything she’s learned to train the new Josie to be as much like the old Josie as possible.

Mr. Capaldi and the Mother confess that the real purpose of the day’s appointment has more to do with Klara than it did with Josie. Mr. Capaldi explains that he’s not asking Klara to train a new Josie but in fact, to become her. Mr. Capaldi believes his survey will give scientific proof that Klara is qualified to continue as Josie. The Mother concludes by saying that she’s still on board but needs a break for the day. The Mother drives away with Klara, saying that they have things to discuss.

The Mother drives Klara to outside the burger place where Josie and the Father are, but the Mother decides that Josie and the Father could use some time together. The Mother says that, ultimately, it’s not Mr. Capaldi asking Klara to be Josie but the Mother herself. She blames herself for Josie’s illness—she got sick as a result of being lifted. The Father was against the idea of Josie being lifted, since Sal had already died.

Klara asks what will happen to her current body if she becomes Josie. The Mother says that shouldn’t matter. What’s more, if she becomes Josie, Klara will get not only the mother’s love, but also Rick’s. 

The Mother goes into the hamburger restaurant, then the Father comes out without Josie. The Father tells Klara that the Mother recommended they drive around. The Father admits that his conversation with Josie was tense because he had to lie to Josie, which he isn’t very good at doing.

The Father begins to drive Klara around, asking if there’s anywhere particular place she’d like to go—like, for instance, her old store. Klara agrees to see the old store. While they drive, the Father asks Klara if she believes in human hearts and if she thinks it’s possible to learn one. Klara thinks it would be difficult, but if it’s the best way to save Josie, Klara is willing to attempt it.

As they approach the location of the old store, Klara admits that she isn’t really there to see the store. She talks about destroying the Cootings Machine to stop its pollution. Since the Father is an engineer, Klara wonders if he can help. The Father is confused, but Klara says she can’t explain more, just that she believes it will help Josie.

The Father is still confused, but he agrees to help Klara disable the Cootings Machine. They make it to the machine. The Father mentions that even though he wasn’t able to explain to the Mother why he hates Mr. Capaldi, he’d like to try to explain to Klara. Part of him is afraid that Capaldi is actually correct—that there’s nothing special about Josie and that she can be perfectly copied. Klara says she understands, and that this just means the solution is to heal Josie so that the portrait won’t even matter.

The Father finally explains that there is a substance called P-E-G Nine that can be put into the Cootings Machine to break it. He explains that Klara actually has P-E-G Nine inside her head, and that she could perhaps still function with only half her supply, but he doesn’t recommend it. Nevertheless, Klara wants to go ahead with it.

The Father warns that, if there is any impact related to removing P-E-G Nine from Klara, it will be cognitive. Klara maintains that she wants to do it. They sabotage the Cootings Machine and then meet the Mother, Josie, Rick, and Miss Helen at a sushi café. Everyone seems happy, although Josie is quiet.

Miss Helen gives Rick advice about what to do when he meets Vance, her old flame with connections to Atlas Brookings, the college that accepts some unlifted students. Miss Helen tells the Father that she’s worried about meeting Vance again because she used to be passionate with him for years.

Miss Helen suggests that the Father and Vance might get along because they both have fascistic leanings. The Father tries to explain that it’s not like that, even though after losing his job, he moved to a community where people are heavily armed to defend against other groups. Miss Helen partly apologizes. They all wait for Vance.

The Father, Josie, Klara, Miss Helen, and Ricky all leave the sushi café. The Sun is nearly setting, and Klara doesn’t think it will send any special help that day. They spot the Mother on the phone nearby. They are all waiting outside a theater for Vance to come meet Rick. Klara overhears the Father hanging back, still complaining about being called a fascist. He says that Miss Helen herself might not be living in such a peaceful area soon.

When they have a moment, Rick asks Klara what’s going on with Josie, whose behavior seems strange. Klara says she doesn’t know but reassures Rick that he has completed the task she began in McBain’s barn. Rick is happy but still doesn’t understand. Klara is having vision problems and takes longer to recognize the shapes of people.

Josie tells Klara that they met a server at the restaurant who remembers her old store, but it turns out that the server doesn’t know where it moved or if it moved at all.

The Mother and Miss Helen talk while they wait for Vance to come out for Rick, which is taking a while. The Mother asks if Miss Helen regrets not lifting Rick, and Miss Helen says she does, despite all the trouble it has caused for the Mother.

Just then, the Father comes up to the Mother and asks if she told Josie everything. The Mother admits that she told Josie that the portrait wasn’t a painting. She says she didn’t tell Josie everything, but that Josie is old enough to remember Sal’s doll and to figure some things out for herself.

Finally, Vance comes out. He and Rick greet each other politely. Meanwhile, a woman outside the theater gets angry because she thinks Klara is going to be taking up one of the seats. The woman eventually goes away, and Klara overhears Josie asking the Mother to make sure that Klara will get sole use of her room. Her mother says they don’t need to think about that, since maybe it won’t even happen that way.

Miss Helen comes and announces that she’ll be taking Klara because the Mother has to go back and have a private conversation with Josie. Josie whispers in Klara’s ear to reassure her that it’s OK to go. As she walks away with Rick’s family, she begins to regain some of her orientation.

Rick, Miss Helen, and Vance all get a booth at a restaurant, and Klara sits at a booth across the aisle. Rick tells Vance about how he’s very generous and how his mother has always spoken well of him. He explains how he has a talent for engineering, like making drones, and that he’s trying to get a place at Atlas Brookings. Vance cautions that he chairs the scholarship committee and that Atlas Brookings doesn’t show favoritism, but Rick says he only wants help if he’s deserving of a place.

Rick shows Vance his notebook of drone schematics, some of which he has already created but many of which he’s planning to create. Vance asks if his drones, which look like birds, have surveillance capabilities. Rick says yes, but that they could be used for good purposes, like security. Vance asks if there are potential ethical issues with this surveillance, and Rick says that’s up for regulators to decide, which pleases Vance.

Vance says Rick has done well, but that because there are so many unlifted applicants to Atlas Brookings, after hopeless prospect students are weeded out, it becomes a lottery. He asks again what Rick is doing with him if he doesn’t want favoritism, suddenly changing the mood. Rick is surprised, but Miss Helen intervenes to say that they are asking for favoritism, even as Rick tries to object.

Vance says this is a problem, both because Miss Helen has openly acknowledged the favoritism and because it’s her asking, not Rick. He says it’s also a problem that Helen didn’t communicate with him for 27 years. Miss Helen says she treated him poorly but also that she treated everyone poorly back then.

Vance says Miss Helen used to be like a queen, and that he’s both sad and glad to see that she hasn’t been able to keep it up forever. Miss Helen asks what’s so terrible about her current life. Vance says it’s that she’s become fragile. Helen agrees and begs forgiveness. Vance isn’t satisfied with her apology, which he feels is too broad and vague. He rehashes specific things she did to embarrass him.

Rick interrupts to say that maybe they should leave and that maybe he doesn’t actually want Vance’s help. Miss Helen says Rick doesn’t know what he’s saying. Vance agrees maybe it’s best to leave. He tells Rick he likes him and his drawings, then leaves.

Rick asks Klara to come sit with him and Miss Helen. Miss Helen wonders if that was enough to satisfy Vance. Rick says he’d never have come if he’d known that’s how things would go. Klara wonders if Vance and Miss Helen were ever as gentle as Rick and Josie, or if Rick and Josie might ever become as unkind as Vance and Miss Helen. Miss Helen asks Klara what she thinks, and Klara tells her she believes Vance will help Rick.

The Mother comes back and finds the group’s booth. The Mother has left Josie alone at the apartment where they’re staying, and so she’s anxious to get back. She drives Rick and Miss Helen to their hotel and then goes back to the apartment, where Josie is asleep. Klara tells the Mother that it’s possible to hope that things might get better when the Sun rises tomorrow. The Mother warns Klara that she just had a strange conversation with Josie and that, because of this, Klara shouldn’t pay too much attention if Josie wakes up and says anything strange.

Josie stirs when Klara comes into her room. She is half asleep but starts to wake up. She tells Klara that the Mother offered to quit her job so that she could always be with Josie, but Josie told her she wanted to keep Klara. Klara wonders if the Mother was just trying to make Josie feel less lonely, but Josie says it was just a bad idea that’s not going to happen anyway.

The Mother, Josie, Klara, Rick, and Miss Helen all drive back from the city. Miss Helen says she’s more hopeful than before that Vance will help and speculates more about his motivations. The Mother suggests to Helen that she and Rick did their best, so they may as well just wait and see.

As the car keeps going, Klara is disappointed to notice there is another Cootings Machine, even bigger, that creates more pollution than the first one. The Mother says there are probably other options for Rick if Atlas Brookings doesn’t work out, but Josie asks if she’ll be allowed to follow Rick there. The Mother says young people can keep in touch. Klara is disappointed and believes that the new Cootings Machine is why the Sun didn’t intervene to help Josie.