Matched

In the morning, Cassia blames herself for Ky’s situation because of her sorting. She watches as everyone around her forgets the past several hours and decides to head to the City to start looking for Ky. Her mother finishes a call and informs the family that they’ve been “Relocated to the Farmlands” (332) effective the next day. Outside, Cassia sees an Official air car outside of the Markhams’. Em tells her that Patrick was given a new job in the Central Government, but she wonders where he and Aida truly went.

Cassia takes the air train to City Hall but sees armed guards and decides to go across the street to the Museum instead. The new display in the Hall of Artifacts is empty, so she goes to the “Glorious History of Oria Province” section where she is approached by a uniformed man asking if she wants to learn more about the history of Oria. Cassia suddenly decides that she doesn’t want to trade her poem and declines the man’s offer. She finds Sisyphus River on the map and assumes Ky must be from one of the two Outer Provinces that surround it. When she asks the man about the river, he says the lower part is rumored to have become toxic. Cassia determines that Ky and his family likely lived in the part that was spared.

Cassia’s Official waits for her outside. Cassia says she “made a mistake” (340) sorting Ky into the higher group. However, the Official claims “it was the right decision” (340), and that their experiment with her and Ky needed to end anyway. She explains that everything about Cassia and Ky’s relationship was controlled. Ky was entered in the Matching pool and Matched with Cassia. The Official is upset that the experiment wasn’t seen through to the end as it would have fully validated the Matching System. She wants Cassia to remember everything about Ky so she can make a fully informed decision about her future (thus, why she let her forego the red pill). She claims Xander doesn’t know anything about the experiment—which isn’t true, as Cassia told him the truth on her end. Cassia realizes that the Official doesn’t know everything—which restores her confidence. She also realizes that the Official is lying when reiterating that Ky was added to the Matching pool by Officials.

Cassia returns home to find Xander waiting for her. He heard that Cassia’s family is moving and puts an arm around her. He whispers that he remembers everything from earlier because red pills don’t work on him—or Ky. Xander explains that he once dared Ky to take a red pill because he was jealous of how Cassia “looked at him” (350). Cassia hopes it’s true—that she loved Ky before the Society orchestrated their Match. Xander admits that he threatened to expose Ky’s artifact. Ky ended up stealing the tablets from Xander’s parents, earning them a citation. When Xander angrily confronted Ky, the latter simply told him not to “play with other people’s lives” (352). He told Xander that they could take the red pills and start fresh. Ky knew they wouldn’t work on him, and assumed if Xander took one, he would have no memory of his cruel behavior. However, Xander discovered that they don’t work on him either.

Xander hands Cassia an envelope with some keepsakes, as well as several blue tablets for nutrition. Cassia knows they are for her journey to find Ky—and that Xander is on her side. She tells him that Ky thought he might be able to help her with his artifact, the compass. Xander bitterly notes that he’s helping the girl he loves be with someone else but agrees to help. He then asks if Cassia would ever choose him. She says “yes,” remembering her desire to be with him, even after Ky’s face had appeared on the microcard. She asks if they’d ever taken the red tablets before, and he tells her that they have—but hesitates to explain why. Cassia doesn’t push Xander, as she has her own secrets. He wants a kiss but she refuses, so they hug instead. She and her family head to the Farmlands. On the trip, Cassia’s father tells her that he knows “Something is wrong” (361) with the Society—that they seem to be losing their war. He’s also noticed Cassia’s love for Ky, and he and her mother want to help her have a life where she can choose whatever she wants.

Cassia labors in the soil, planting seeds, as she endures the pain of missing Ky. Her parents requested that she be sent on a three-month work detail because she “showed signs of rebellion” (363). Her father recommended she be sent to the Western Province surrounding the Sisyphus River. Cassia knows she could have been with Xander and “it would have been beautiful” (364), but instead, she toils without chains. The goal is to make her tired—and she is. She thinks of Ky’s final note, which included a picture of him smiling and reaching out to her. It declared that his life with her is his “real one now” (364) and ended with him telling her that he loves her. Though Cassia had to burn the note, it continues to give her hope, along with messages from her family and Xander detailing their own search for Ky. She continues to practice writing in the dirt and on napkins that she later burns. Her words are fleeting, but they live on in her memory. When Cassia is finally reunited with Ky, she will tell him her words and they will turn from “nothing into flesh and blood” (366).