49 pages • 1-hour read
Prodigy
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Chapters 7-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “June”
A Patriot disguised as a Republic soldier leads June deep into the RS Dynasty and leaves her in a room with orders to put up a fight when the Republic’s men find her. When Thomas is led to chase her trail to the room, June fights back but eventually allows herself to be captured. He places her under arrest for “assaulting Republic soldiers, for creating a disturbance […], and for abandoning [her] post” (89), but not for helping Day escape his execution, as the Republic is still pretending the execution was a success. Thomas takes June to High Desert Penitentiary for interrogation. She admits she has important information to deliver to the Elector and asks why she isn’t being taken home to Los Angeles. Thomas reveals all of Los Angeles is under quarantine.
Later, on the same day as June’s capture, Thomas attempts to interrogate her with no success. She tells Thomas she knows he was behind Metias’s murder but discovers through his reaction that Thomas and Metias had romantic feelings for one another. Thomas admits he has tried to look after June’s safety as a favor to Metias, but she still hates Thomas for following the Republic’s orders, especially when it meant killing the man he loved. The next morning, June’s request to speak with the Elector is heard, and she is transferred to Colorado State Penitentiary.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Day”
After arriving in Lamar, Colorado, Razor leaves with his squadron while Day and Kaede sneak off the RS Dynasty to join the Republic’s troops. Day is surprised to discover the Colonies are winning the war and have pushed their borders much further into Republic territory than the news leads the Republic’s citizens to believe.
Kaede leads Day through secret underground tunnel systems the Patriots use for transportation. As they traverse the tunnels, Kaede speaks to Day about Tess, who has grown on Kaede. Though Tess has never shared details of her past with Day, Tess told Kaede how her parents forced her out when they could no longer afford to feed her and her four siblings. Kaede alerts Day of Tess’s feelings for him and urges Day to keep Tess close, which prompts Day to admit that Day and Tess would make a much better match than Day and June because Tess understands his past in a way June cannot. They reach a rest bunker where Kaede issues a secret knock and weekly code to gain admission. Day meets more members of the Patriots, who greet him with distrust because of his affiliation with June.
For the first time, Day sees a world map that reveals more countries and territories than the Republic teaches its citizens about; much of the geography has changed due to flooding caused by Antarctica’s melting ice. After listening to Antarctica news channels, Day realizes the world views the Republic as a “heavily militarized rogue state” and “isolationist country” (119). The Republic no longer seems as powerful to Day as it is always portrayed. Pascao, the leader of the Patriots’ runners, is a fan of Day’s reputation and eagerly details the Patriots’ plans to broadcast the Elector’s assassination to the country. Day is unnerved by the savagery, which rivals the Republic’s eagerness to broadcast assassinations of its criminals. Pascao reveals Razor’s plans to have Day shoot Anden.
Chapter 9 Summary: “June”
Denver, Colorado. 1937 Hours. 24°F.
As June arrives in the capital, many civilians shout for news about Day; a sly smile from her ensures rumors of his survival will spread far and wide. She is shackled, switched from a prisoner’s uniform to an evening dress, and escorted to Colburn Hall in the Capital Plaza for dinner with Anden. His decision to “dress [her] like a doll” makes June indignant but plays into Razor’s theory that Anden is attracted to her (128). Anden continues to flatter June throughout the dinner, and they bond over school antics and family losses, causing June to doubt whether she will be able to go through with his assassination when the time comes. He seems to genuinely want to make changes in the Republic that his father did not.
June is selective with the story she tells Anden, admitting the truth that she allowed Day to escape his execution because he did not kill Metias but lying about the Patriots’ assassination plot and how she managed to escape their grasp. She warns Anden about two soldiers in his personal guards who might be Patriot sympathizers; Anden agrees to trust her if her suspicions turn out to be correct. June leaves the dinner confused as to whether Anden or Razor deserves more of her trust. The next morning, a guard wakes her with a whispered message that reveals the Patriots are watching her closely. June is uneasy at not knowing who among the soldiers is a loyalist or a Patriot.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Day”
Day continues to have nightmares, this time about his father being called to the warfront and never returning. Alongside many Patriots, including Tess, Kaede, Pascao, and Razor, Day watches the recent live feed of June. He cannot help the bitterness that rises to the surface when he sees June dressed in finery having dinner with Anden. Even more so than before, Day resents the class divides between him and June.
Afterward, Tess reveals that Los Angeles has been quarantined, not because of the plague but because of riots against Anden on Day’s behalf. Day balks at the responsibility of having so much sway over the actions of the public against the Republic. Tess mistakes Day’s reaction for jealousy over June and Anden and accuses Day of falling victim to Stockholm Syndrome, in which victims fall for their captors. When she asks Day whether he would choose to save her or June if it came down to a choice, he indicates he would choose Tess but only because June wouldn’t need his help. The answer hurts Tess, who starts to wonder if Day might end up betraying the Patriots.
Chapter 11 Summary: “June”
Almost 24 hours later, June is brought to a lie detection room to undergo testing. Aware that they will use her weaknesses against her, June mentally prepares herself to pass while hiding the truth about her affiliation with the Patriots. She manages to skew her results by practicing shallow breathing, pausing between answers, and switching between indifference and anger during her test. June’s answers manage to sway Anden’s officials to alter his route on his planned journey to the warfront in Lamar, ensuring another part of the Patriots’ plan falls into place. When Anden asks one last question about June’s loyalty to the Republic, she worries about this final lie being her downfall, but fortunately, the machine does not detect a lie when she says yes.
Later, June worries that her increasing doubts about Anden’s assassination mean she is truly still loyal to the Republic; that would explain why the machine did not sense a lie. Anden visits June and reveals two guards have deserted, giving him ample reason to believe they are the Patriot spies, and Commander DeSoto has replaced them with his own soldiers.
More pieces of the Patriots’ plan slide into place. Anden offers June a full pardon of her crimes if she can contact Day and offer an alliance to stop the rebellion so Anden can begin implementing changes to the Republic, starting with releasing Eden along with the other children being used at the warfront. June is excited by the possibility and agrees to try to contact Day. Anden hopes he can gain both Day’s and June’s trust and kisses June, which she both enjoys and regrets.
After Anden leaves, June reels at the new development. She doubts the payoff of going through with the assassination if Anden can enact the same changes on his own and without bloodshed. Deciding she cannot trust Razor to hear her out, June signals the cameras with her and Day’s secret signal they discussed back in Vegas—two fingers to her brow meaning stop—hoping he will be watching.
Chapters 7-11 Analysis
This section of chapters develops internal conflicts in both protagonists. For example, as the Patriots begin in earnest to recruit Day to their cause, he falls easily for their promises and eagerly accepts their agenda. The Patriots’ promises are like flashing lights to Day, blinding him to reason with promises of a better world “without the Republic—without the Elector, the Trials, the plagues […] too good to be true” (105-106). When they give him the lead role in their assassination plot, Day is so blinded by the hope for a better life for him and Eden that he participates—despite “the savagery of the plan,” which “sends chills down [his] spine” because “[i]t reminds [him] of the way [the Republic had] taped and broadcasted John’s death—[his] death—to the whole country” (121). The Patriots give Day a glimpse of a world outside the one he has always known in the Republic. Their world maps show places he had not known existed and the news they broadcast from other nations tears apart the ruthless and unstoppable reputation the Republic has meticulously crafted and displayed to its citizens. Their supposed transparency about the true state of the world outside the Republic further blinds him to the more suspicious happenings within their cause, and their leadership.
By contrast, June is not so easily swooned and is suspicious of the Patriots from the start, from their suspicious amount of funding to their emphasis that Anden is just like his father—when quite clearly to her, he is not. As she begins to learn that Anden is not who the Patriots claimed him to be, the theme of To Trust or Not To Trust returns with full force. Not only does June distrust the Patriots, but she distrusts her own judgment because she must be sure of Anden’s intentions before she asks Day to betray the rebellion on her hunch. In this section, June constantly questions her own loyalties and struggles to differentiate her own lies from truth. Back in the Republic, she “still feel[s] that deep-rooted commitment trying to resurface, a familiar blanket [she] want[s] to wrap [her]self with” (126). After spending weeks without the comfort of her wealth, home, military job, and the routine of her day-to-day life, June yearns to snatch it all back. Yet despite missing the comforts and luxuries of her past, when she now has the chance to wear excessively expensive items, she is disgusted with herself. June’s perspective is shifting due to observing those harmed by The Privileges of Wealth upon which the system is built.
The romance arc between June and Day regresses in the aftermath of the events seen in Legend. En route to Vegas, Day “doesn’t try to hug [June]. He doesn’t reach for [her] hand. He doesn’t scoot closer to let [their] shoulders touch” when she cries, which makes her feel very distant from him (7). Even when Day admits to loving her later, June becomes confused about her own feelings, wondering if “[she is] here because [she] love[s] him, or because [she] owe[s] him” (36). As they navigate internal and external conflicts throughout the novel, June and Day must decide whether they want a future together, or whether they are too different after all.
Lu highlights that looming decision in this section by introducing alternative romantic interests for June and Day: Anden and Tess. The interactions between Anden and June, June and Day, and Day and Tess in this section provide a glimpse of the advantages and disadvantages of each pairing. When Tess’s feelings toward Day are revealed, he admits that they “are a good match” because “[s]he understands intimately where [he] came from. She can cheer [him] up on [his] darkest days” (112). On the other hand, while the thought of June makes him breathless, Day’s first reaction when asked if he and June are a good match is “no.” Yet still he cannot stop what he feels for her. During her early interactions with Anden, June reminisces about school and is “stunned by how easy it is to talk to him, this discussion of familiar things in a time when so much strangeness surrounds [her] life, a conversation where [she] can’t accidentally offend anyone with an offhand class-related remark” (135). Unlike her interactions with Day, June can talk freely and be unashamed about her past without fear of causing Anden offense. Similar to how Day can relate to Tess, June relates to Anden as they’ve both recently lost a close family member who served the Republic.
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