The Immortalists

by

Chloe Benjamin

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The Immortalists: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Daniel arrives in West Milton at 10:30 p.m. He scans the neighborhood and can’t find the RV—but he sees a nearby gorge that could serve as a good hiding spot. He gets out of the car and takes the gun with him. As he walks toward the gorge, he slips on a slick rock and is soaked in a stream. He wonders why he thought this was a good idea and realizes that he could turn around and tell Mira he fell asleep at the office. Instead, he decides to continue on toward the gorge and sees an RV.
Daniel recognizes his ability to choose a different outcome when he slips and falls. And yet his obsession with trying to force a confession out of the fortune teller compels him onward, illustrating both the harm in obsessive thoughts and the fact that knowing one’s fate can deeply affect one’s actions.
Themes
Fate vs. Choice Theme Icon
Obsession Theme Icon
The door to the RV is unlocked. Daniel walks into the RV’s bedroom and sees Bruna asleep. He tells her to get up and says he has a gun. He brings her into the living area. She recognizes him from when he was a child, and Daniel tells her that Simon and Klara are dead. He asks her why she tells fortunes. When Bruna refuses to say anything, Daniel fires two gunshots into the floor and asks about her upbringing.
Daniel’s threats of violence reveal how his obsessive thoughts have completely overtaken him. Initially, he thought that it was crazy to think that the fortune teller had anything to do with his siblings’ deaths. Now, he is so convinced that she was the reason for their deaths that he might kill her for it.
Themes
Obsession Theme Icon
Bruna tells Daniel that she left home when she was young because she didn’t want to be a wife or mother. While she wanted to be a nurse, she didn’t have any education, so instead she did what she knew how to do: she gave readings. Bruna wanted to help people, like nurses do. She says that nurses help people who suffer, because people don’t know what’s going to happen to them. But, she says, if they know when they’ll die, then they can live.
Bruna’s reasoning echoes what Daniel said when he and his siblings were deciding whether to go to the fortune teller: that he’d rather know when he would die so that he could do all he wanted to do beforehand. They both understand that knowledge of fate allows people to make choices accordingly.
Themes
Fate vs. Choice Theme Icon
Death, Meaning, and Legacy Theme Icon
Quotes
Daniel says that Bruna should have turned him and his siblings away—they were children. She says that he can just live like he doesn’t believe her. He affirms that he does live like that, but his head starts to grow cloudy—he’s exhausted from the drive. He asks her if she knows her own death, and she says no. He tells her it could be today and aims his gun at her. Bruna realizes then that it’s Daniel’s predicted day, and that’s why he came. Daniel suddenly worries that he didn’t come intentionally but was compelled by the same forces that led Simon and Klara to their deaths.
While Daniel has up until this point been completely certain that everything he is doing has been of his own volition, now he begins to doubt. He would not have come to find Bruna if she had not told him that he would die on that day, and therefore he is just as much affected by fate as his siblings, even if he doesn’t believe it.
Themes
Fate vs. Choice Theme Icon
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Suddenly, Daniel and Bruna hear footsteps outside the RV. Eddie’s voice calls out to Daniel, and he realizes that Mira must have found Eddie’s business card and Daniel’s search history. Daniel grows furious, and he slams a folding table into the wall. Daniel is very afraid, but he can’t stop himself. He knocks some religious icons from the counter beside the sink. Daniel grabs Bruna and points his gun at her.
Daniel’s thoughts have so overcome him that he no longer seems in control of his body anymore. His fear of being out of control of his fate has ironically made him so distressed that he becomes completely volatile.
Themes
Fate vs. Choice Theme Icon
The door of the RV swings open, and Eddie appears with his gun drawn. He tells Daniel to drop his weapon. Daniel shakes his head; he feels for the first time that he is acting with courage. Killing Bruna would be an act of faith—faith in his own agency, faith in the idea of choice. Eddie threatens to shoot Daniel, and Daniel raises the gun to Bruna’s temple. Eddie tries to reason with Daniel, but instead Daniel cocks the gun. Bruna says a prayer as Eddie fires.
Daniel’s assessment that he is acting with courage harkens back to Raj’s statement that Klara was more fearless than Daniel. The irony in this statement is that Daniel’s bravery, like Klara’s, is the very thing that kills him. And like Simon and Klara, Daniel’s knowledge of his fate leads him to fulfill it, illustrating how both fate and choice led to his demise.
Themes
Fate vs. Choice Theme Icon
Obsession Theme Icon