A Scanner Darkly

The testing reveals a “competition phenomenon” between the two hemispheres of Fred’s brain in which neither hemisphere is dominant, so they are in conflict over how to interpret information. They attribute this to overuse of Substance D. Recovery depends on quitting the drug entirely. Facing the possibility of brain damage, Fred swears to quit immediately. They explain that, in terms of perception, Fred experiences the world “reversed,” as if looking into a mirror. As the psychologists engage in a complex examination of neurology and perception, Fred hears a voice proclaiming that seeing reality in reverse reveals its true nature, that “we shall not all sleep in death” (171). While the psychologists consider the possibility of a “new cosmology” based upon recent brain research, Fred confronts the unpleasant reality of withdrawal.

Fred sits in the cafeteria and fears he will be pulled from the Arctor case before he can finish the job. The thought that he may never see his friends again, especially Donna, saddens him. The holo-tapes, he realizes, are all he has left of his/Arctor’s life. He considers stealing the holo-scanner equipment so he can continue to monitor his friends’ lives.

Back in Hank’s office, Barris plays a recorded conversation—he identifies the voices as Arctor and Donna—detailing a plot to steal weapons from Vandenberg Air Force Base and to pollute the local water supply with a “disorientation drug.” As a formality, Barris is charged with giving false information so they can keep him in custody for his own “protection.” Hank then sends Barris’s “evidence” to be evaluated for authenticity. He informs Fred that his psych report indicates severe impairment. He suggests that, instead of a rehab clinic, Fred seclude himself in a remote cabin somewhere until the addiction passes. He also advises him to bring his gun along in case the withdrawal becomes unbearable. While Fred decides where to spend his detox time, Hank reveals that he knows Fred is really Arctor. Fred is stunned by the revelation.

Fred decides to detox at Donna’s, and Hank arranges for Donna to meet him there. While waiting for a car, Hank tells Fred that the real target of their surveillance is Barris, who is “into something heavy. Heavy and sick, and it has to do with guns” (182). Fred realizes the agency was using him to get to Barris.

Donna drives Arctor to a New-Path clinic as he goes into serious withdrawal. She pulls off the road and takes out her hash pipe, but Arctor is too lost in the pain and nausea to notice. She relates a story of a man who sees God while tripping on acid, but after the vision passes, he becomes deeply depressed because he knows he’ll never see it again. Donna holds Arctor’s pain-wracked body, consoling him, assuring him that a time of restoration is coming. A police officer appears without warning, asking for ID. Donna quietly reveals herself to be an undercover agent as well.

As she drives Arctor to the clinic, she reflects on the world as being “cursed” and grossly unjust and having wreaked havoc on so many lives. She leaves Arctor at the clinic, bids him goodbye, and, back on the freeway, she shoots at Coke bottles in the back of a delivery truck. Distraught over the state of the world, she rams her car into the back of the truck. She veers onto the shoulder, front end smashed, radiator hissing. She gets out and walks.

George, a New-Path staff member, leads a patient, Bruce (Arctor), through his duties: cleaning bathrooms and washing dishes, with the possibility of transferring to a facility in the country sometime in the future. During “Concept time,” patients discuss various topics like “passive life” and the competing drives of “living” and “unliving things”; but Bruce, still in withdrawal, tunes out the discussion to keep himself grounded in the here and now.

Later, another patient, Mike, counsels Bruce to ask for help, to not endure withdrawal alone. He tries to inspire Bruce by telling of his own recovery, of his newly awakened awareness of the world. However, he explains that he can never leave New-Path for fear of relapsing. He is engaged to another patient and invites Bruce to the wedding.

Bruce, curled in a fetal position, endures verbal abuse during “the Game,” a therapy meant to create an emotional “vacuum” in him. He’s a “little glad” for the feeling. Later that day, he is introduced to the children in the facility (children of patients), and he finds that feeding them fills him with warmth. One child, Thelma, asks his name, but he doesn’t respond. He thinks there must be a better name than Bruce.

Mike is sent on an errand, but he secretly meets with Donna to discuss the likelihood of Bruce being able to infiltrate a drug operation within New-Path. Donna deeply regrets how he has been used by the agency without his consent and the high toll it has exacted. She wants to end her involvement as soon as possible. As she leaves, Mike sees what attracted Arctor to her. Perhaps, he thinks, Arctor is lucky to be severed from his love for her.

Arctor tells Thelma a story of a wolf that, after preying on a farmer’s flock, is shot by the farmer and his sons. When Thelma clumsily tries to act out the story, he realizes she has an impairment, and that saddens him. Later, as Arctor searches for a vacuum cleaner, he encounters an old woman, cackling and toothless and juggling. Another patient identifies her as Donna. He has a moment of anxiety until he realizes that it can’t be the Donna he knows.

Arctor is scheduled to be transferred to a New-Path farm facility. Mike hopes that working with plants and tilling the soil can provide some measure of healing. He wonders if New-Path exists solely to create the conditions under which people will be forced into their facilities. Indeed New-Path’s Executive Director tells him that their mission has “nothing to do with drug rehabilitation” (210). He wonders if their funding comes from the production and sale of Substance D. He also knows that the drug is grown, not synthesized, and he thinks that maybe the “dead,” like Arctor, can take some small satisfaction out of serving the living.

Arctor has a vague memory of living with two other men and a pet rat named Fred, which they tell people they had to eat when they had no food. He then eavesdrops on a conversation in the lounge. The patients describe a hypothetical world with one phone number that reaches everyone, one doctor that treats everyone with aspirin (which cures everything), one law with one punishment—the death penalty. Eventually, society burns out. Arctor hears the story but finds a humorous spin on it, and gradually, the other patients recognize him for his humor in the face of tragedy.

Arctor is transferred to a farm in Napa Valley, CA. The manager escorts him around the facility—a “closed” operation—where they grow hybrid crops. Arctor seems unable to do more than simply repeat what the manager says, so he decides to assign him something simple. As the tour continues, Arctor notices small blue flowers growing among stalks of corn. He asks about the blue flowers. The Executive Director says, “You’re seeing the flower of the future” (216), but forbids him from touching them. Arctor understands he’s seeing the organic form of Substance D. When the Executive Director and farm manager aren’t looking, he slips a flower into his shoe, “a present for my friends, he thought” (217).