Divergent 3
by Veronica Roth
Tris is in a cell after the factionless take over. Christina and Cara are with her. She is trying to trust Four’s advice to do what they tell her, but Tris is ready to be free of her cell and the entire city.
Four walks around freely because of his name and factionless tattoo. He visits Tris and tells her that she needs to come up with a lie to tell under the truth serum to exonerate Christina and Cara. he is trying to have Evelyn make Tris testify first. Tris is infuriated with his mom for acting the same as Jeanine by wanting to keep everyone in the city. They kiss and Four has to leave before his mom (who he told he was breaking up with Tris) starts to suspect him.
Tris is able to lie through the truth serum and tell Evelyn that she though she was helping Marcus with a mission from the Dauntless/factionless leaders. Evelyn declares her innocent, but quietly tells Tris that she doesn’t have a place with her son. Uriah leads Tris to a dorm and tells her that Four wants to meet her later.
Evelyn tells Tobias that some people, the Allegiant, want to go out and help people, as was originally intended by the city’s creators. She wants to quash that movement. Four says he can get a list of names after she explains that should would never use simulations to control people.
Tris and Four meet in the park across from what used to be Erudite headquarters. Tris points out that Four contradicts his view of her for whatever is convenient at the time. She promises to stop lying if he stops being condescending and treating her like a child. They decide to hold off on sex, which seems to become increasingly more difficult the longer they are alone.
Four overhears his mother, Evelyn, saying that they need a demonstration to further discourage factions and leaving the city. Edward and a few others take the faction bowls from the choosing ceremony and empty them onto the street. Edward starts smashing dents int the bowls with a sledge hammer. A Erudite man tries to stop him. Loosing his balance, Edward ends up hitting the man and killing him. Chaos ensues on the street. Three shots are fired and Edward is dead. Four goes in to tell his mother what happened. She is sad. Four questions the reason for the demonstration and she tells him she didn’t know. Four knows he has to leave.
Tris and her friends discuss what could be outside the city. They all know that they have to find out. Evelyn announces new rules to the community, such as a curfew. While leaving Evelyn’s meeting, Tris is attacked and blindfolded by the Allegiant and told to meet with them at midnight. She gets back to her room to find a note from Four. Her brother’s trial will be private, but he will let her know what happens as soon as he hears.
During breakfast the next morning, Tris, Uriah, and Christina stay behind to discuss meeting the Allegiant. Once the time comes, they sneak out and follow back roads to Candor headquarters. Cara and Johanna are leading the two efforts to get outside the cit and restore the factions respectively. Cara lists who she wants to take (mostly Dauntless). Zeke declines and Uriah takes his place. A Dauntless-turned-Erudite girl analyzes flaws in their plans and offers to operate the trains for them. Tris suggests they leave the next night.
As the meeting breaks up and people start leaving, Four and Tris stay back. He tells her about Caleb and she admits that she has mixed feelings. She knows her parents would’ve wanted her to save him. Four says he will before they leave the city. They kiss while they have some time alone.
Four makes his way back to Caleb, making everyone think he is going to kill him. He decides to let Caleb think that too. Zeke lets them out an exit that he is guarding and Four punches him in the jaw so that he won’t be suspected of being one of the Allegiant. Four and Caleb jump on a train where Tris is waiting. They are going to take Caleb out of the city with them. Four won’t be able to return to the city.
Everyone jumps off the train and meets up to make their way to the Amity trucks they will take out of the city. Four has to chase down Caleb when he tries to run, and then they quietly make their way with Tori leading. Tris hears guns and then sees Tori fall. When she can’t find Four in the dark, she runs to Tori. She grabs her flashlight and sees the bullet wounds that will kill her. Tris takes Tori’s flashlight and kills the woman that shot her before she starts running again. Johanna and Christina find Tris, who gets in the truck they have. Tris is worried about Four until they get out of the city and are reunited. Hew as shot, but only in the arm. Peter and Caleb are also already there.
Riding with Johanna, Four and Tris learn more of the cities secrets. Abnegation serum took away memories. It was used on Dauntless guards that went past the patrol border. As they drive, the farms of Amity seem to have once been a city.
Johanna heads back to the city and the group looks around at their surroundings. There is a large metal train with metal tracks. It is obvious people don’t jump onto them. A woman named Zoe and Four’s former Dauntless trainer, Amar, pull up in a large truck. Zoe gives Tris a picture that has her mom standing with a young Zoe in a group. Tris decides that they have to trust someone.
Four has trouble taking everything in. They arrive at a compound for the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. Zoe leads them in and tries to explain things to them, but keeps forgetting that this group isn’t from their world. Four gets claustrophobic in the security scanner, but makes it through. He doesn’t understand Tris’ curiosity about everything they see. They make it to the control room and meet David, who has been waiting for them.
David explains that scientists tried to genetically alter people to make them better. However, this backfired and the civil Purity War started and ended with half of the country’s population dead. Cities were created to heal the broken genes over generations. When they were healed, the person was Divergent. They didn’t expect the Erudite leader to learn about the outside and start killing them. The Divergent are needed to repopulate the country. Tris gets David alone and asks how he know her mother. David explains that she wasn’t from the city, she was placed there to help. Tris is angry that they were watching the whole time and never intervened when it got bad. Four is wondering how much of their lives and beliefs are a lie.
Four wanders around the compound while everyone is sleeping. Amar comes along to explain what happened. Tris’ mom was helping the Divergent (including Amar and Tori’s brother) escape the city. Four can’t really be mad at him for the betrayal anymore. Amar tells him that Evelyn will have Marcus’ trial the next day.
Tris wakes up before everyone else and goes to look at a sculpture of water slowly eroding a stone that peaked her interest. Zoe explains that it symbolizes how they are slowly changing things. Tris points out that a problem this large should have bigger steps taken to correct it. Zoe takes her to see David, who gives Tris her mother’s file on a tablet device. Matthew, one of the scientists wants to study Tris and Four’s genetics because they are so different from the other Divergent. Tris agrees and says she will ask Four.
Tris is having trouble reading her mother’s file. Tori’s brother, George, comes rushing in and they have to tell him about his sister’s death. Matthew comes along to collect Tris and Four for Genetic testing. He reviews the results with them and shows them that Four is not actually Divergent, but is an anomaly that has activated his tracker, which makes him aware during simulations. Four is upset and goes for a walk. The lab assistant, Nita, tells him to meet her later so they can talk about what it means to not be genetically pure.
Most of the group goes on an airplane and sees the world outside of their city, Chicago, is compared to the rest of the world. Tris starts reading her mother’s journal that is part of her file. She was born in Milwaukee. her mother (Tris’ grandmother) was a police officer and her father (Tris’ grandfather) was a teacher. She left when her mother shot her father (which killed him). She went to the fringe where she stops a man from beating a child, but she kills him in the process. David finds her and takes her to the compound. He explains that her genetics are purer than most and she didn’t mean to kill the man. Christina and Uriah return from the control room, wondering what they are going to do now that they know the truth. Tris can’t forgive Caleb.
Four meets Nita and she takes him to where their underground labs used to be, but is now a hang out for the genetically deficient (GD). There is music playing, which stops when a boy announces that Evelyn is going to sentence Marcus. Everyone runs to the control room, including Four. She sentences him to leave the city, past the Amity farms and never return. Four has mixed feelings about this and starts running.
Four is upset about Marcus’ trial, which Tris overlooks. She reads her mother’s journal while an attack drill goes off. Natalie, her mother, was placed in Dauntless and was supposed to choose Erudite to find an stop the killer. There is a letter to David saying that she and Andrew, Tris’ father, were going to do things their own way and join Abnegation instead of Erudite.
Tris goes to talk to Zoe about her parents. Andrew was Erudite and had trouble with a certain subject. Natalie offered to help and tutored him in secret. they fell in love and joined Abnegation together. David apologized for his behavior towards her, but her transmissions were handled by someone else. Zoe thinks Marcus was abusive because he was surrounded by the GD. Matthew thinks that people use the GD as an excuse for things they can’t understand. he gives her a Biology book to help her understand humans better. Tris is finally able to give Caleb the screen with their mother’s file on it. He shows her written records of their ancestors mostly being in Erudite. Seven generations ago, the girl who would be known as Edith Prior signed a contract to participate in the experiment, and for it to continue through her decedents. However, she was from the Bureau, so she must have joined to forget something. Tris wonders why she took an Abnegation name.
Four finds a note from Nita asking him to meet her in the middle of the night. He meets her and she takes him to see the Chicago city family trees carved into bronze. She tells him that the GDs are conspiring against the GP (genetically pure). She has proof to show him that GDs are considered “expendable.” She tells him that telling Tris would put her in danger without letting her make the choice. He agrees to go with her. They go out through an escape tunnel and take a truck to the edge of the fringe. Nita takes him inside to meet Reggie and Mary before sending him back out. As they head back to the compound, Nita explains that there was war and destruction before anyone was GD. The government made intricate plans to segregate them. That is what they are rebelling against.
Tris and Christina discuss whether the GDs are actually damaged. They can’t really come to a conclusion past speculation. When Four comes in, Christina leaves them alone. He tells her where Nita took him and asks her to go with him to meet her later. Tris has an uneasy feeling about Nita, but agrees to go to learn the truth.
Four takes Tris with him to meet Nita. She realizes they are a package deal and takes them to Reggie. He shows them pictures from a war pre-dating GD. HE then shows them the serum that Jeanine used to control Dauntless into killing most of the Abnegation faction. Nita points out that the Bureau must have made the serum to keep Abnegation from exposing the truth and endangering the experiment. She then them her plan to steal the memory serum and destroy it so that they cannot reboot the experiment. Tris is suspicious that people this angry about their government are only taking this small step. Four thinks she is jealous Nita. They fight and he storms off.
Tris is furious about these people in the compound killing her parents. She runs into Caleb and he starts making excuses about why he did what he did. Tris starts punching him until a guard stops her. Tris goes to talk to Matthew and asks him about the serum used to control the Dauntless. Matthew skips ahead to how Nita wants to steal the death serum, not the memory serum, to make a bomb. They start towards the weapons room when an explosion blows up a wall in the lobby. Uriah is hurt and Tris wants to go to him, but Matthew urges her on. She grabs a gun and other weapons from fallen guards. They get to the weapons room and find three people in masks. One has a gun to David’s head. One is Nita.
Nita needs the pass code to get to the serum or else there will be extra security measures to get through. She injects David with a mix of truth and fear serum to get it out of him. He points out Tris. She fires and hits Nita in the side. She uses David as a shield and threatens to kill him to prevent them from getting the serum. Someone calls her bluff and shoots David in the knee. Tris is able to get him out to the help Matthew has brought.
There is chaos in the hospital as a whole bunch of people need help. Tris gets stitches to close a head wound. she finds out that David will be fine and then goes into the waiting room where Christina is waiting for Uriah. She tells Tris that Four was arrested.
Four is sitting in a hallway with Reggie and Mary, waiting to be sentenced. He starts to realize that he was lied to about what he was involved in. Tris comes by and can’t look at him. She points out that she was right and he didn’t listen again. She also tells him that Uriah, who he was supposed to be watching over, hasn’t (and may never) wake up. Four is sick with himself and all the lives that were taken. He is questioned and tells them that he was just helping a friend. The others have been inoculated against the truth serum, so the stories match. Four is on parol.
Tris waits for Uriah to wake up, but it doesn’t seem likely. She talks to Cara about what happened and Cara wants to know why Tris is angry with the compound. She decides to show Cara what Nita showed her. THey go to Matthew to get into the storage room.
Four hides in the control room from his friends. He watches the screens that show inside the city. Marcus decided to stay in the city, despite his exile. Johanna knows how he abused his family and says that they can’t be friends, indicating that she was also abused. She agrees to have him rally the Allegiant. Evelyn is in Jeanine’s office at Erudite headquarters. She is upset that Marcus is still in the city. Therese promises they will find him.
Tris avoids Four because all she can see when she looks at him is the wall exploding by Uriah. Zoe takes her to talk to David. He offers for her to train to be on the counsel that advises them. She accepts, figuring it will be the best way to learn the truth of what has been going on and stop it all.
Cara comes to get Four for a meeting. He doesn’t want to be part of another rebellion, but Cara points out that they were right, just not in how they went about it. Matthew and Caleb are going to work on a truth serum. Tris will be the spy. Christina and Four will work to get knowledge from the fringe. After the meeting, Four asks Tris to talk. She explains that she is mad about him being involved in that, especially when she told him it seemed fishy. He yells at her and tells her that she is mad that he didn’t make her decision. She tells him she needs time to figure out if she can forgive him.
Tris dons a bullet proof vest and heads out to the fringe with a security team. When they arrive, the people scatter, thinking they are soldiers. Tris tries to stay with Amar, but looses him when he goes to help George. Tris is saved from a herd of people by a girl, Amy, who pulls her into a lean-to. Tris is able to get behind the crowd that is really to kill George. She tells them that soldiers will be on their way if they don’t let him go. Amar shows up and they scatter. They pack up to leave and Tris talks to Amar on the way back. He and George are hiding their relationship because they can’’t procreate. He thinks Tris is good for Four and says he is a different person with her in his life. He could grow to become a leader.
Four watches the screens in the control room to pass the time as he waits for something to happen. Cara questions his motives. When he sees a group of Allegiant on the move, he tells her to get the others. They watch as the group they were once a part of takes over their second weapon store from the factionless. Four feels like he still belongs there.
Tris returns to the compound and has an awkward conversation with Caleb and Johanna’s attack for weapons in the city. He writes her directions to the Genealogy room to go see Four. She tells him that her decision isn’t about forgiveness, its about whether or not they are right for each other. She thinks they are.
Tris attends her first counsel meeting. david explains that the Allegiant are about to start another uprising, but Evelyn has a store of death serum to use on them. They can’t allow another uprising or their supervisors will shut down the experiments. They plan to reset everyones memories in all the cities. Tris is disgusted with them.
The new truth serum that Cara, Caleb, and Matthew have been working on doesn’t seem to have any affect on Tris. When Tris comes in from the counsel meeting, she is fuming. She tells her friends what the counsel is planning. Tris wants to use the memory serum to reset the certain memories of the Bureau members to take away their prejudice of GDs. Four warns her that is the same thing the Bureau wants to do to the cities. She says she is lucky she doesn’t kill them.
Matthew explains that the serum will wipe out memories, but leave knowledge for basic functions. They can then teach the people what they need to know, as they are very pliable in the next few days. Christina finds the group and tells them that Uriah isn’t going to wake up and they are going to take him off life support. They decide they need to get Uriah and Christina’s families inoculations and get the memory serum within 48 hours. Tris goes to see Nita about the security measures in the weapons room. The death serum is released in an aerosol spray. Tris wonders if she can withstand the death serum and points out that even the GPs can’t withstand the truth serum. Nita tells Tris to go to Reggie for explosives after Tris explains that she would be free if their plan works.
Four talks to Cara about how she was able to forgive Tris. Amar hands out inoculation to Four, Christina, and Peter. Peter doesn’t take his so he will forget everything. Christina points out to Four that even if they are successful in their mission, the city will still be at war. Four decides to give at least one of his parents the memory serum so that he can reason with them.
Caleb volunteers to be the person to face the death serum. Tris is obviously conflicted about it. Four tells her about the Abnegation letting people sacrifice themselves. He thanks her for not giving up on him when he was told that he was GD. They finally get some time alone.
Four takes Caleb to a practice room to give him some training on shooting a gun. Later, he goes to see Uriah, and Matthew approaches him. The GP tells Four his love with a GD girl and how a group of GPs beat her up. She died a year later from a surgery to repair some of the damage.
Tris and Four spend some time together before they go their separate ways for different missions.
Before leaving the compound, Four checks the screens in the control room to find his parents. On their way out, Christina slips him a vial of memory serum. Once they are in the city, Christina fakes a bathroom break and slashes the back tires of their truck. Four sends them along while he plans to “find a car.” Peter threatens to expose him if he can’t go along. Four decides that he and Peter are going to stop a revolution.
Matthew makes sure that Caleb has the code to release the memory serum memorized before leaving Tris and Caleb alone. They play “Candor” like they did when they were kids. Tris says that she is desperately trying to forgive him. Caleb admits that he is sacrificing himself out of guilt. The compound starts to go into lockdown. Matthew comes in to tell them they have to go right away.
Peter tries to take the serum from Four, but is unsuccessful. Once Peter explains that he doesn’t want to be like he is, Four promises to reset him when they are done.
Tris sends Matthew to cause a diversion, but she and Caleb are still stopped by a guard. She uses Caleb as a hostage and takes the backpack with the explosives, not able to escort her brother to his execution. She runs on her own to the weapons room and is able to set off the explosives to open the doors. Guards arrive and she is shot in the arm. With no time to put on the suit, Tris walks into the vestibule with the death serum spray.
Four and Peter make it to Evelyn just by walking through the front door and telling the guards he wants to see her. Peter leaves them alone and Four shows her the serum. He points out that she is a tyrant like Marcus was in their house. He gives her a choice: the factionless city, or him. She chooses him.
Tris fights her way through the death serum, refusing to die without a reason. David is waiting through the doors with a gun.
David accuses Tris of getting hold of an inoculation for the death serum. She distracts him by accusing him of killing her mother. He thinks that he did the right thing. Tris points out that it was evil and lunges for the keypad. David shoots her. She is able to enter the code and is shot again. As she slides to the floor, she sees David slumped over in his wheel chair. Her mother comes to carry her to death.
Four gives Peter the memory serum and he takes it. they go with Evelyn to negotiate peace with the Allegiant. Evelyn gives her terms of the treaty and marcus is furious because one of the terms is that he can’t be a leader. Johanna agrees to the terms. Four and Peter find Zeke and his mother in their Dauntless apartment in the Pire. He tells them everything and they want to go see Uriah before pulling the plug. Peter has a van to take them back to the compound. They make it there to find the lobby empty, indicating that Tris and Caleb succeeded. Cara explains what happened and that Tris didn’t make it.
Four remembers when Tris jumped into Dauntless.
Four remembers seeing Tris is Abnegation and no one noticed her.
The next few days are spent wandering in grief. Caleb tells Four that Tris’ last words to him, but they don’t seem to help. Cara sits with him in the quiet. Christina comes to get them because they are about to unplug Uriah. Four is furious that David is still there. Evelyn has to hold him back while Cara explains that Tris was considered a rebel. He starts running.
Four returns to his childhood Abnegation house. He shaves his head and prepares himself to take the memory serum. Christina arrives and tells him Tris would have hated him to forget her. He decides not to take it.
Two years later, Evelyn joins Four in Chicago. He is training to be a politician under Johanna. The city made a deal with the Bureau and people flow freely to and from it. Four and his friends go to spread Tris’ ashes. He is the second to last person to zip-line off the Hancock building, letting her ashes fly behind him. Christina points out that she lives for the good moments.