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Chapter 20: Brendan Espinoza
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Restart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity, Memory, and Responsibility
Reputation vs. Reality
Masculinity
Social Hierarchies and Bullying
Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
As Aaron, Bear, and Chase wait for principal Dr. Fitzwallace outside his office, Chase demands to know why Aaron and Bear just pulled a prank that could get them kicked off the football team. Bear, grinning, points out that they didn’t smack Joel Weber. When Chase protests that that was an accident, Bear says that Dr. Fitzwallace won’t believe that—and the video club won’t confirm Chase’s story.
This conversation confirms what readers likely already suspected: Aaron and Bear engineered this situation to show Chase that none of his new friends will loyally believe his innocence in a situation where it looks like Chase is bullying Joel Weber again.
Active
Themes
Chase accuses Aaron and Bear of “fram[ing]” him and of getting themselves in trouble just to spite him. Aaron says that they’re Chase’s friends and that they’re the ones who will protect him—he just has to follow their lead. When Dr. Fitzwallace ushers them into his office, he’s furious and disappointed. Before Chase can say anything, Aaron claims that an electrical short in the video equipment in the band room caused a fire as he and Bear were walking by. They ran in with fire extinguishers. Chase, hearing the noise, came to help. When Dr. Fitzwallace says the video club members describe the incident differently, Bear suggests they’re scared they’ll be punished for starting a fire.
Chase is correct that Aaron and Bear are “fram[ing]” him, but their subsequent lies to Dr. Fitzwallace make clear that they don’t want to get Chase (or themselves) in official trouble. They simply want to alienate Chase from his new video-club friends by showing that said friends will discount Chase’s personality changes and attempts to take responsibility at the first hint of new bullying. Because Aaron and Bear judge actions in terms of loyalty and disloyalty, not right and wrong, they assume that Chase will abandon his new friends if they are “disloyally”—yet justifiably—suspicious of him.
Active
Themes
Dr. Fitzwallace asks Chase whether Aaron’s story is true. To Chase’s surprise, the principal’s expression suggests that he wants Chase to say yes. Chase deduces that seriously punishing students is a lot of work—and suspending or expelling Aaron, Bear, and Chase will ruin the school’s football season. Reluctantly, Chase says Aaron is telling the truth.
Active
Themes
Dr. Fitzwallace gives Chase, Aaron, and Bear a lecture about calling for adult help, but no punishment. As the boys wait for their parents to come get them, Bear gloats over Aaron’s successful lies, and Aaron celebrates how Chase “came through.” Chase, miserable, reflects that lying and getting away with bullying must have been a pattern in his pre-amnesia life. After Aaron and Bear’s parents have taken them away, Frank shows up, grinning, and praises Chase. When Chase tells him the situation “wasn’t great,” Frank retorts that avoiding punishment is “pretty great.” Truthfully, Chase isn’t sorry to have avoided serious punishment, but he hates how it happened.
Active
Themes
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The next morning, the video-club faculty advisor Ms. DeLeo finds Chase and tells him he’s no longer in video club. When he asks whether Brendan explained that he’s “innocent,” she tells him that that’s not exactly how Brendan described it—and that supporting Aaron and Bear’s lies has made him look bad. Chase realizes that by lying, he’s convinced the club that he’s up to his old, nasty tricks. He promises Ms. DeLeo, shakily, that he’ll avoid the club. Angry at Aaron and Bear, he avoids them all day—easier that day, because Frank is picking him up early for his appointment with the new doctor. Brendan is avoiding Chase in turn, and Shoshanna, when she sees him, gives him a death glare.
Active
Themes
The new doctor clears Chase to play football—though, privately, Chase thinks he would “clear a dead man.” As Frank drives Chase back, he celebrates Chase returning to the team. Chase reminds him that, according to the rules, he has to practice for three weeks before playing a game. Frank is pumped anyway. Chase isn’t—he doesn’t want to be the person he was when he was a football star—but he feels like he has to return to the team because he’s lost the video club. Frank tries to tell Chase that the video club doesn’t matter; he even praises the “statement” Chase made with Joel. Chase doesn’t bother to explain that that’s not what he was doing.
Active
Themes
Frank drops Chase off at home, reminding him to go to football practice later that afternoon. Chase agrees listlessly. Back in his bedroom, he looks out his window onto the roof and feels as if he can remember sitting there. Impulsively, he climbs out onto the roof. From there, he can see the school, the football field, the assisted living facility, and the park where he and Brendan filmed Leaf Man. This last memory chokes him up: he preferred his new video-club identity to his old one, but it’s been taken from him.
