The Orphan Master's Son Part 2, Pages 407-417 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • The Interrogator heads to the night market to trade his new Pubyok badge for first-aid supplies for Ga's chest.
  • As he travels to Division 42, the Interrogator wishes that there was a place in his society for a biographer—something that he doesn't even know exists in other places.
  • When he reaches Ga, the Interrogator tells him he's going to get him out of there—as long as he doesn't care about the destination.
  • The Interrogator takes Ga to an interrogation room, where he's going to hook him up to the autopilot. He thinks that after he wipes Ga's memory, they'll send him to a farm or something.
  • Ga is ready to trade it all in—he doesn't want a new identity. But the Interrogator does. He offers Ga a diaper, just in case he's worried about soiling himself, and he also takes one for himself.
  • Finally, Ga tells the Interrogator about Sun Moon: she's defected with her kids.
  • The Interrogator thinks that Ga is still lying. Ga tells him that the photos on the phone are from her. The Interrogator's still not willing to believe it. He erases the photos on the phone.
  • The Interrogator apologizes for not finishing Ga's biography. He feels it could have been useful when he made it "to the other side" after torture, to remind him of who he was.
  • Ga tells him not to worry: "she" will be on the other side and will recognize him.
  • The Interrogator tells Ga that they've been telling his and Sun Moon's story on the loudspeaker every day. At least the two of them are going to stymie the planned soccer stadium ending.
  • The Interrogator hooks Ga up to the autopilot and laments the state of interrogation in North Korea. Now, they will be killing people and their stories.
  • The Interrogator wants Ga to tell him how intimacy works again. Ga does, and it helps.
  • The Interrogator sets the dials on Ga's autopilot and them hooks himself up to one next to his new friend. Ga's last words are: "My mother was a singer."
  • The Interrogator flips his own switch and experiences the electricity for the first time. He describes his frenzied, unconnected thoughts—but he doesn't see the white flower he expects.
  • And then the Interrogator sees Ga come free of the restraints and reset the dial to a fatal dose of electricity.
  • The Interrogator is too far gone to care. All he can think about is reaching his own special place, a quiet village where a wife and family await him.
  • Jumping back in the timeline, we get the story of Sun Moon's last day and the meeting with the Americans.
  • Sun Moon wants Ga to know how important she is to the Dear Leader. When he realizes that she's gone, there will be hell to pay. So Ga can't stay behind, if that's what he's thinking.
  • Ga gets all evasive with his "I'll always be with you" rhetoric, but she sees right through it.
  • Ga's nervous about the punishment that awaits, but there is also something great in having advance notice. It's also charming to know that he had a hand in bringing it about, too.
  • Sun Moon tells Ga that everything she's loved has been taken from her, and that it would be irresponsible of him to leave her now.
  • Sun Moon says goodbye to the real Commander Ga by addressing the Golden Belt. They drive past the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery (Sun Moon does not actually have a relative there).
  • Ga contemplates what his punishment will be and tries to hold on to the best-case scenario, which is prison mines. He knows this will be his last drive, so he treasures it.
  • It turns out that Sun Moon hasn't even written the farewell song for the rower, so she and Ga start to improvise in the car.