59 pages • 1 hour read
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
During April’s stay in the hospital, many people visit her. The first visitors are NYPD officers, who ask April questions about the attack. When they tell her that Andy’s camera is missing its memory card, April pretends to be shocked and exclaims that they need to find it. Her parents call to inform her that Robin got her note and needs her to confirm that she won’t call or text anyone about it. April is shocked that neither Andy nor Robin came to visit her, but she doesn’t know about the mad rush to keep the footage safe and secret. She isn’t processing Bellacourt’s death as something weird, and she assumes that her attempted murder won’t make front page news after the attacks.
Without warning, the president visits April. She asks April about the footage. Though she can’t forcefully take it or stop her from broadcasting it, she asks for a favor. She is aware someone tried to kill April the night before, after which April kept it secret, walked out of her building unguarded, and created a new history where alien technology allowed hundreds of people to die while intentionally killing a man to protect April. While April’s video will be good, it will not have the nuance the government needs. When she gives April permission to post her video after 24 hours, April tells Robin to bring a copy for the president.
The president then requests that April stay another day at the hospital so she can return with the press. She then debriefs April—Bellacourt was alone financially but was part of a coordinated attack. Carl is able to do things far beyond human ability and will be tried in court because Bellacourt’s chemical conversion to grape jelly is legally classified as a homicide. The president then asks April if she communicates with the Carls. April admits that she doesn’t know why Carl saved her. She shares the 767 sequence but keeps her visit from Carl’s hand a secret. The president thinks April did the right thing and makes her promise not to take action on the completed sequence without consulting her. April finds this reasonable, as she is not trained to be the emissary of her species. The president says she is thankful that April is alive and has seen her as an ally from the start.
When Robin arrives, he reads aloud responses to April’s tweets from that morning until she falls asleep. She wakes up to find Andy there, wondering if he killed Bellacourt. April realizes that, despite being terrified, Andy was the first and only person to defend her. The next morning, her parents, Putnam, Andy, Miranda, and Maya are all present for the president’s visit. Robin tells April that when the news comes out, people will question why Carl saved her and not others. The only possible answer is that she is important to Carl’s plan either to help, or hurt, humanity. Though Putnam panics because April looks like a teenaged orphan, April wants to look how she feels. Before talking to April, the president schmoozes with April’s parents and friends for the camera. While federal agencies indicate that Carl killed Bellacourt, the pictures of the concerned president eliminate the legitimacy of the Defenders movement.
Chapter 19 Summary
The days following the attack are great because April has no responsibilities. People are preaching her message, and she can now blame the awkwardness between her and Miranda on the knowledge that people want to kill her. Though she can’t go back to her apartment and search for Carl’s hand, people let her get away with irrationally refusing to return or let anyone else go there. Since Andy has moved to a nicer place, April stays in his guest bedroom. Even when Robin finds her a new place, she realizes she doesn’t want to live on her own and decides to stay with Andy. April is bothered that she has yet to solve the 767 sequence. Despite having messed up a lot of things, Maya continues to be nice to her.
April finally decides to make a video about the 767 sequence. In the video, she explains her situation and details about it. She clarifies that she is aware that Carl saved her life and that she supports the legal proceedings indicting Carl. Within an hour, Dreamers in the Som figure out that the hexagon layout on the 767 resembles that of an accordion. It becomes clear that the hexagon patterns are a representation of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen. After falling asleep, April runs to the 767 and sings the song until the landing gears open and the wheels come down. She searches the inside of the wheel bays and is frustrated when she can’t find anything. She only sees bunches of lines and circles that usually appear in the Dream when someone is off track.
As she walks away from the plane, she suddenly realizes that the engraved shapes aren’t indecipherable scribbles, but lines and dots from the Mayan numeral system. Rather than waking herself up to research the system with Andy, she wants to do it on her own. She recalls what Miranda taught her at and figures out the sequence. Remembering the seven dials on the side of the door, she rushes to set each of the dials to the corresponding numbers. When the hatch comes down, she slips and falls, waking her up. When she shouts, Andy comes to check on her. He laughs and tells her that there’s no time constraint since she is the only one who can access it and that there are likely more clues. Maya texts April and thanks her for the video.
Chapter 20 Summary
Weeks pass as April is unable to make the plane do anything. After two attempted murders and weeks of dull, aching pain, April spends time reflecting and trying to settle into a more private life. While she is active on the Som, she isn’t doing interviews, press events, or even making videos. She makes Robin take away her passwords so she can’t post anything without his approval. He posts relevant things to keep her profiles alive while she methodically researches to solve the 767 sequence. April spends hours on the in-flight entertainment system, is familiar with the cockpit, and has interviewed pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants—all to no avail.
While examining the plane’s interior one day, Robin shakes her awake, Andy and Miranda standing behind him. He has important and bad news—though they believe the 767 sequence will give them the key to unlock the code, the Defenders have apparently solved the sequence and are taking action based on that information. Robin heard this directly from Petrawicki, whose agent is also Jennifer Putnam—something Robin has known for months. Though Robin fought her about it because Petrawicki’s perspective is nasty and dangerous, Putnam said they aren’t in the business of deciding who is right and wrong. Then, she threatened to fire him and legally prevent him from working with April.
When Robin tries to apologize, April fires him. Looking like he might cry, Robin walks out. Andy is disgusted; Robin has done nothing but help her and has been there for her every day without appreciation. Andy too walks out, saying he doesn’t know if he will be excited to see her when he gets back. When Miranda tries to comfort her, April stiffly says she needs to call Maya. Though April explains that it is for the sequence, Miranda isn’t convinced. April asks Miranda to make the program ready for the password before going out for a walk to call Maya.
Maya believes that something about the way the Defenders think helped them uncover it. The Defenders obsess about April—they think either she is an alien or that the Carls have chosen her for an evil purpose. Maya says that Carl did save her and give her a dream no one else can access, implying that he chose her. When April says it gives her the creeps, Maya mockingly asks how April could possibly hate being chosen to be an alien envoy. Angered by the implication that she loves being special, April insists that she hates the situation. April suddenly realizes that when she flew out to meet Putnam, she got upgraded to a seat in row six—just like the Mayan number six on the tail of the 767. Additionally, what she thought was a broken TV actually had hex code written all over it—and she had tweeted it for all the world to see.
Chapters 18-20 Analysis
The president’s visit only highlights April’s importance and power in the situation with the Carls. Her voice matters, and the upper hand the Carls have seemed to grant her is a plus, but it has the potential of going sour. The president’s press shooting displays the reality that the most important people need to craft their personas for the camera. Though most people do so in order to make themselves likeable, people like the president are expected to do so to keep the peace and appease the people she has taken an oath to lead. Though April strikes a deal with the president when she decides to share the footage and be honest with her, April keeping certain things secret is more of a protection of her fame than her own self.
Faced with the reality that Andy is the only person who tried to protect her, April is forced to take a step back from her self-absorbed perspective. Despite the kind of person she has become, there are still people who care for and are there for her. As a result, she finally asks for help solving the 767 sequence. When she moves away from her egocentric desire to achieve big things on her own, she is faced with the truth that it is only when working together as a whole that each individual’s uniqueness can come in handy. Like parts of a whole, each individual alone can never reach the same ends as they can when working with other unique individuals.
The nature of fame and those who run the entertainment industry is revealed in Jennifer Putnam’s stance on the Carls. Right or wrong is irrelevant when there is money to be made, even if it can possibly endanger the life of a vulnerable young adult like April. Despite often acting in this same self-interest, April’s ego inflates to the point of no return when she finds out about Putnam’s duplicitousness. She lashes out and heartlessly fires Robin, even though he never failed to be there for her in every moment of need. Because this drives Andy to leave her, April has once again pushed away those who have put up with her ego and fame.
Unlock all 59 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: