The Power: Chapter 24: Roxy Summary & Analysis

Roxy receives a message that her brother Ricky has been hurt. When she arrives at Barbara’s place, she finds Ricky with a blanket over his knees and bandages under that. Roxy’s seen this before: someone used her power to castrate him. Ricky will heal, but she knows it will be hard psychologically.

Ricky tells Roxy what happened. He was drunk and out dancing with friends. Three girls approached him and started to flirt. He looks ashamed as he tells the story, worrying he should have done something differently. One gave him a blow job outside the club. When she was finished, the other girls used their power to arouse him—something that hurts a lot if a person doesn’t want it. Ricky kept saying he didn’t want it. They took turns on him, aiming to hurt him and shocking him in the throat so he couldn’t make any sound. They left him on the ground.

Roxy understands why they called her and not Bernie: Bernie would hate Ricky for this. “This is not what happens to a man,” Bernie would think. Ricky describes the girls to Roxy, and she locates them easily. She calls a couple of girls to help her—using the power is easier than using guns. When she goes to leave her apartment, Darrell insists on coming, too.

Roxy and her companions find the girls in a pub, and wait until they leave. They follow the girls into a park and Roxy stuns one of them. Roxy introduces herself, saying that they met her brother Ricky in a club last night. Darrell knocks a second girl out with the butt of his gun. The third girl, Sam, tells Roxy that Ricky was “asking for it.” She tells Roxy that he wanted the girls to hurt him.

Darrell tries to hit Sam, but she’s too quick for him. She grabs his gun as he swings it at her and shocks him. His eyes roll back and he shakes. The girl threatens to kill Darrell if they come toward her. One of Roxy’s companions sneaks behind Sam and takes her out with an electric baton. She falls to the ground, blinded in one eye. Roxy scars the three girls’ faces and takes pictures to show Ricky.

Roxy returns to the house. Barbara thanks her for what she’s done, even though Roxy knows she’s never liked Roxy. As thanks, Barbara gives her three small black notebooks—information on how the business runs. She says she knows that Bernie would never leave the business to Ricky now, and that she will tell Bernie that Roxy should be its rightful heir.

Roxy stays up the rest of the night, poring over the books of contacts, which are people Bernie’s been blackmailing or bribing, or connections he’s been developing. But then a name catches her eye: Detective Newland, a cop. She remembers Primrose’s words about Roxy’s mother’s murder: “Newland said you weren’t going to be home.”

Roxy quickly finds Detective Newland on the internet; he lives in Spain. As Roxy prepares to leave for Spain, Darrell comes to thank her for what she did for Ricky, and for saving his life. He asks if there’s anything he can do to help her, and Roxy understands that he means in the business as well, now that she is inheriting it. So, she tells him about Newland, and he insists on coming too.

Roxy and Darrell find Newland’s place. They wait in the bushes until he comes out of the house, and Darrell hits him on the head and pushes him into his swimming pool. Roxy sits at the edge of the pool, and Newland realizes who Roxy’s mother was. Roxy gives Newland a hard jolt, admits she intends to kill him, and tells him she only wants to know one thing: what Primrose gave him to work with him. Newland reveals that it was actually Bernie who told him to sell the information to Primrose. Bernie wanted Roxy’s mother dead. Roxy kills him, making it look like he had a heart attack. On the plane home, Roxy says she wants justice.

Back at Bernie’s, Darrell points a loaded gun at him. Bernie tells Roxy that he loved Roxy’s mother, but that someone paid her off to leak information about his operation, and so he had to have her killed. He apologizes to Roxy, saying he never meant for her to see it. Bernie sits there, waiting for her to kill him. But Roxy tells Bernie instead that he’s going to retire. He can have a safe place somewhere, and no one will come to get revenge on her. Bernie nods, calling her a “clever girl.”