The Dark Tower

Roland Deschain and Eddie Dean (a man from 1980s New York) search for the house of author Stephen King, who lives on Turtleback Lane in Lovell, Maine. Roland, sensing that events are growing out of control, feels an urgent need to find King. As they are in their car, a sudden wave of cosmic energy hurls them into a space that resembles a todash (a place between universes). As their physical forms are “floating” in the car, Roland and Eddie’s spiritual forms see the room where the Wolves, robotic agents of the villainous Crimson King, took children from the town of Calla in Wolves of the Calla. They see Mia in bed, surrounded by doctors as she prepares to give birth. They see Susannah beside her. Spotting her friends, Susannah is able to communicate a single word with the help of one of the Dark Tower’s Beams, or supports: “Chassit.” Roland understands that chassit is an old word for 19.

As Mia’s labor continues, Roland is cast out of this space. He next sees Callahan and Jake in the Dixie Pig, surrounded by “misbegotten things” who work for the Crimson King. Projecting himself into Callahan, urging him to save Jake “while there’s still time” (22), he intervenes directly, putting his voice in Callahan’s mouth before being cast back to his physical form.

Eddie returns to his physical body beside Roland in the car of John Cullum. Eddie and Roland both feel Father Callahan’s death; Roland assures Eddie that Callahan has won, as he died by suicide before the vampires could turn him into one of them. Roland explains their spiritual visitation as “like a tidal-wave that runs along the Path of the Beam” (26). The Beam transported them to aid in its protection.

Eddie is desperate to go to Susannah but has a moment of clarity: He suggests that they must finish their business in this world “because this world is one-way” and they may not be able to return (28). He suggests that they track down Moses Carver, the head of Holmes Dental Industries and Susannah’s godfather. They can merge the Tet Corporation into Holmes Industries, starting a “corporate giant” charged not only with protecting the lot but also with combating the Crimson King at every opportunity by thwarting any business involving Sombra and North Central Positronics, which serve his interests. Roland hopes that Cullum may be able to help them, provided he has not yet left town. Roland believes that ka (fate) may have kept Cullum nearby.

With change found in Cullum’s car, Eddie sends Roland to buy medicine and food. As something explodes in the distance, Eddie calls Cullum from a payphone and learns he has not yet left town. He agrees to meet them in a place near Turtleback Lane for “a little more palavering” (37). At the meeting, Roland and Edie agree, they will ask Cullum to seek out Carver. They will give him the name of Aaron Deepneau and secret information that only Susannah would know so that he can convince Carver that the plan is real and that his goddaughter is still alive somewhere. On the way to the meeting, they meet one of the notorious walk-ins: a being from Roland’s world. When Roland announces himself as a gunslinger, the Child of Roderick (a mutant, or former human exposed to the pollutants of a past civilization, dying of radiation sickness) kneels before him. Roland puts the mutant out of its misery. Watching this scene, Eddie realizes that Roland has become a father figure in his life.

As Eddie and Roland appear above her, Susannah counts the enemies around her, just “as Roland had taught her” (43). They include low men (humanoid creatures that work for the Crimson King), low-ranked vampires, mutants, and animalistic “low folken [in] humanizing masks” (44). Susannah organizes them according to which she should take down first while they try to deliver Mia’s baby. As Mia’s pain intensifies, she summons the last of her energy to say a single word to Susannah, who has promised Mia that she will kill both mother and child if she cannot help them escape. Susannah passes along Mia’s “password”—chassit—to Roland and Eddie. As Roland and Eddie vanish, she briefly hears Jake’s voice, followed by gunfire. Susannah puts aside her fears to focus on Mia and her enemies. Mia gives birth to a baby boy; he has Roland’s blue eyes and a crimson mark on his left heel, just as a prophecy foretold. Susannah stares at the supposed “destroyer of worlds” (49), who seems like any other crying baby. As Susannah is about to lunge for one of the enemies’ guns, the baby changes form. The baby human becomes a spider and suckles from Mia. She coos at the spider, named Mordred, even as he begins to consume her for his first meal. Hearing the British accent of a serving robot, Susannah breaks out of her trance. She snatches a gun and shoots at the Crimson King’s minions. She blinds the robot, shoots Richard Sayre (a high-ranking low man) to avenge Mia and Callahan, kills the low men, and shoots off one of Mordred’s legs, though he escapes. Addressing Nigel the robot, she asks to be taken to whatever magic door will transport her to New York. Dismissing Nigel, she then waits beside the door with her gun.

Jake follows Callahan’s command. With Oy at his side, he runs into the kitchen of the Dixie Pig. Through the threat of violence, he extracts information from one of the kitchen workers and learns that Susannah was taken through the Dixie Pig to Fenic, a town in the desolate region of Thunderclap. Oy picks up her scent, and Jake follows the billy-bumbler into the back corridors. They reach a staircase, but in a vaulted area far below, Jake realizes that he is being chased. He must close his mind to Susannah lest he expose himself to danger. He runs through the underground passages, reciting lines from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by the Tokens. He knows Callagan is dead, and his tears “[make] him once again look like a child” (71). Weeds and plants grow along the corridors; the walls are graffitied with references to the Crimson King.

The corridors seem to transform into a jungle, and Jake hears lions and dinosaurs. Oy urges Jake to put his fears aside and follow Susannah’s scent. Jake is thrown into a bout of nostalgic fear; the corridor is a trap to read his mind and confront him with his deepest fears, which come from the jungle scenes in a scary movie Jake watched when he was young. Thanks to Oy, Jake realizes that the scary dinosaur is not real. He can mentally “change places” with Oy, and, together, they escape the mind trap. Their pursuers chase them right into the trap, which transforms to reflect the fears of the new arrivals. As the Crimson King’s men try to navigate the trap, Jake reaches a magic door. He prepares to make a last stand, if required. Susannah reaches out to him and shares the password, allowing Jake and Oy to slip through to safety.

A storm threatens to break over western Maine as Eddie and Roland meet John Cullum. Eddie worries about Susannah and Jake, though he believes that they will be safe once they are together. Cullum is pleased to see them. He leads them to a small, empty house beside a lake. Cullum says that Jack Andolini, assistant to a crime boss hired by the Sombra Corporation, and his companions have been arrested by the local police, Cullum says. As per their agreement, Eddie tells Cullum everything, starting with the moment when Roland first came into his mind. Outside, night falls and the storm continues to threaten as the men are caught in a state of “queer suspension.”

Eventually, Eddie reaches the current point in the story. Cullum believes everything. He understands the importance of protecting the Rose (a nexus of reality that helps maintain the Dark Tower) in New York. There are two remaining Beams left: One is being protected by the Rose, and the other is being protected by Stephen King. Roland explains that they need Cullum to set up the Tet Corporation and contact Moses Carver. They give him a cross and a story from Susannah, sigils that will convince Carver that she is still alive. They also give Cullum stock tips so that he can make a fortune by investing in upcoming technologies, thus funding everything the Tet Corporation needs to accomplish.

Everything is agreed, but Eddie is confused as to why Cullum is so willing to do as they ask. Cullum feels that Eddie and Roland “want all the right things” (101). He is fascinated by the potential for what they want him to do, even though he admits to being scared. As they part ways, Cullum surprises the gunslingers with their weapons, which he recovered from the shootout at the drugstore. Roland makes a point of handing Eddie his gun; they have work to do against the men who threatened Callahan and Jake. They drive to Turtleback Lane, which is infested with walk-ins (creatures from another world). Eddie and Roland pass through the magic door.

Flaherty is the leader of the small band of the Crimson King’s men who chased after Jake and Oy. Having missed his target, he is distraught. He takes out his anger on his men, particularly a taheen (humanoid creatures with animal heads) named Lamla. Roland and Eddie appear through a door and shoot them all. Eddie calls out to Susannah, and the ka-tet is reunited. Jake addresses Roland as “father,” pleasing both of them. Jake knows that Roland has betrayed him before and may again. For now, however, being with Roland is enough.