The Power

The girls in the convent watch another girl (Roxy, it is later revealed) wade into the ocean at high tide and send her power out. It seems to go on endlessly. The girls send word to Eve that someone has come. After Roxy killed Primrose, she had to find a place to lie low for a while. She had chosen South Carolina, thinking that she would try to find Mother Eve. Her brother Ricky had tried to set her up with a place to stay, but Roxy insisted that she didn’t need anyone to look after her.

Allie walks down to the water, and she and Roxy introduce themselves. Allie is surprised to hear that Roxy is British. Roxy is even more surprised to realize that Allie is exactly the person she has been looking for. “It’s a miracle!” Roxy cries. They sit together, talking; Allie senses Roxy’s power and finds it is nearly infinite. Roxy jokes about the number of fish she must have killed in the water. Allie laughs, then thinks it’s been a while since she laughed “without deciding beforehand that laughing was the smart thing to do.” Allie quiets the voice in her head for a time.

Roxy explains that she wanted to come to America because she saw Eve’s videos and understood that Eve is thinking about what the power means for the future. Roxy admits that she thinks everything will change—she is most excited by the things men and women will be able to do together with the power. Allie admits that she sees things a bit differently; she has no interest in working with men.

The narration flashes back to Terry’s funeral. Barbara, Terry’s mother, had sobbed. Roxy had taken more cocaine. Roxy realized that she’d gotten in a bit of trouble over what she’d done, as none of the mourners knew how to talk to her, or even how to look at her.

At the convent, they give Roxy food and warm clothes. Eve leads a lesson in Scripture. They’re finding Scripture that “works for them, rewriting the bits that don’t.” Eve talks about the story of Ruth, calling it the “most beautiful story of friendship in the whole of the Bible.” She says that like the story, the women in the convent have each other to rely on.

That night, Allie visits Roxy in the room that they’ve given her. Allie admits that she has a good feeling about Roxy—that Roxy’s strength will help her “save the women.” Allie gets a text and explains that people keep sending the convent money, but only Sister Maria Ignacia has a bank account. Roxy offers to help Allie and set up new bank accounts for her. The next day, a man arrives with seven passports for Eve and a new set of bank accounts.

Another flashback: Roxy and Darrell are together in the garden. Darrell asks Roxy what it felt like to kill Primrose. She admits it felt good to get vengeance for her mother. Darrell says, “I wish I could do it.”

Roxy and Eve talk a lot in the next few days, and Roxy makes friends with the other girls as they practice their powers together. She teaches them a trick where she throws a bottle of water in someone’s face and electrifies the water as it leaves the bottle. They practice the move, laughing as they throw water.

One afternoon, Allie notices that being with Roxy quiets the voice. Roxy makes her feel safe. Allie tells Roxy some of her actual background: that she came from foster care and was passed around a lot when she was younger. Roxy listens sympathetically. Allie asks if Roxy has killed someone. When Roxy doesn’t deny it, Allie admits that she’s also killed. Roxy says the person “probably deserved it.” Allie replies, “He did.”

Roxy tells Allie another story: when she was seven, her piano teacher stuck his hand down her pants and told her not to tell Bernie. She did anyway, and her dad beat the man and even chopped one of his balls off. She says that after that, every time she saw the man he ran away from her. Allie says, “that sounds good.” Allie tells Roxy that one of the girls in the convent has a father in the police force, and that they’re coming to shut down the convent in a few days.

Another flashback: two weeks after Primrose’s death, Bernie has killed the rest of Primrose’s gang as well. When Roxy hears the news, she thanks her father, hugging him. He tells her the story of the night she was born, and how he was so surprised to have a girl. When he held her for the first time, she’d peed all over his pants—and that’s how he knew she would be good luck.

Twelve armed policemen approach the convent, having been told by a nun who’d escaped that the girls were threatening and violent. It’s been raining, and the girls have made the gardens a sopping mess with hoses and barrels of seawater. And so when the police approach, Eve only has to put her finger in the water from the back steps. With immense control, she deadens their arms one by one, making them drop their guns. Roxy then jolts the water, making the policemen drop to their knees.

Upstairs, one of the girls has been filming this. Eve records a message to go out over the footage, saying that she doesn’t want people to give up their beliefs. She says that God has “changed Her garment merely” and explains how people of various faiths should turn to the female figures in their respective religions and worship them rather than the male figures. Seeing this miracle, people continue sending money and offers of legal help.

After this incident, the police force is humiliated, angry, and afraid. Twenty-three days later, a girl named Mez arrives on the convent doorstep in tears. She and her mother Rachel had been coming home from the grocery store when they were stopped and roughed up by the police. When Rachel had retaliated with a bit of power, they pulled out their nightsticks and guns and beat her seven on one. Mez tells the girls that they’ve taken Rachel to the police station.

Sixty women go to the police station, filming everything along the way. Allie asks the policemen standing outside with rifles to let her see Rachel. When more women start to arrive in support, the police grow nervous, and agree to let Allie see Rachel. Her skull is cracked and her hair is matted with blood. At Allie’s insistence, the police agree to send Rachel to the hospital. Allie returns outside, triumphant, telling the women that they have done good work. Half an hour later, Rachel is being treated and the other women have all gone home.

By the time Roxy has been at the convent nine months, Allie has gained followers globally and there are over six hundred women attached to the convent, to the point where they need a bigger building. Roxy, however, is ready to return home. Allie is upset that she is leaving. Roxy tells her that she has an idea about how they can continue to work together even when she’s gone.

Allie speaks to the voice in her head for the first time in a long time. The voice says that the only way Allie can be safe is if she “own[s] the place.” Allie asks if she can own the whole world. The voice replies, “You can’t get there from here.”

Neil includes an image of a device found in Thailand, about fifteen hundred years old, for learning to control one’s power. The operator would hold one side of a metal pole and try to set a leaf or piece of paper on fire on the other end. The size suggests that the device is meant for 13- to 15-year-old girls.