58 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingRevival
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A 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 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Reading Obituaries in Bed. Cathy Morse Again. The Latches.”
Jamie and Brianna begin a casual sexual relationship while continuing their research into Jacobs over the next year. They keep track of the people whom Pastor Jacobs healed, including Robert Rivard. Rivard is readmitted to the hospital after suffering a series of headaches. His parents refuse to admit the true reasons for his hospitalization. Soon, Rivard is transferred to a psychiatric hospital called Gad’s Ridge, where his behavior is described as “semi-catatonic.”
Jamie interviews another person cured by Jacobs: Ben Hicks, a history teacher who became religious after being cured of his injuries. Hicks claims that he hasn’t suffered any of the known aftereffects. Meanwhile, others have experienced violent episodes in the wake of their cures, most of them involving self-harm.
Jamie and Brianna also look up obituaries as part of their research. They learn that Cathy Morse died by suicide. Jamie is convinced that Cathy’s death is related to the aftereffects of Jacobs’s lightning portrait. He worries that something violent could happen to him and Hugh and resolves to find Jacobs to make him stop administering his electric cures. He prevents Brianna from accompanying him but asks her to help him locate Jacobs.
Brianna finds Jacobs’s address under the name Daniel Charles; he is living at an estate in upstate New York called The Latches. By this time, Jacobs has indefinitely paused his national tour and television appearances, which suggests that he isn’t healing anymore. Jamie suspects that Jacobs has enough funds to move on to the next stage of his experiments. Although Jacobs isn’t hurting anyone anymore, Jamie wants to confront him over the people who suffered because of him. Georgia asks Jamie to stop involving Brianna in his research, knowing how much it upsets her and Hugh.
Jamie travels to The Latches in October. While driving, he loses his way, so he asks the children at a vegetable stand for directions. He pays them extra for a pumpkin to convince them to help. The Latches is a large private property with a security gate. Jamie is initially denied entry, but when he recognizes Al Stamper’s voice from the security intercom, he tells him to remind Jacobs about the miracle he performed for Conrad. Hearing this, Jacobs welcomes Jamie inside.
Jacobs is now a white-haired man still wearing his wedding ring. He and Jamie catch up briefly over Jamie’s family and work and then move to the library to talk. Jamie alludes to the suffering Jacobs has caused others, so Jacobs asks him to speak plainly about his intentions. Jamie implores him to stop healing, explaining the aftereffects that he, Hugh, Robert Rivard, and Cathy Morse have experienced over the years. Jacobs argues that the people who came to him accepted the treatment in spite of its unknown risks. Jamie realizes that Jacobs keeps track of the people he’s cured to study their aftereffects as though they were “lab rats.” Jacobs admits to sensationalizing his healing performances, but he largely focused on treating people who did not want to suffer the agony of their nonfatal illnesses for the rest of their lives. In any case, Jacobs declares that he has stopped his revival show to let the bad press around his revival persona fade away. He will soon retire from being a public pastor.
In the kitchen, Jacobs and Jamie pass by Al, who is reading through the letters of people asking for Jacobs’s healing prayers. He collects their money offerings and expresses his dissatisfaction over Jacobs’s policy of withholding any responses, but Jacobs reassures him that they are still doing God’s work.
Jacobs takes Jamie to his laboratory, which he describes as the premier facility for electronics research. Jacobs has fulfilled his energy requirements by tapping into enough geothermal electricity to supply the Hudson Valley. The electricity he wants to use, however, is the secret electricity that was first discovered by Scribonius. He cites a 15th-century text, De Vermis Mysteriis by a man named Ludvig Prinn, to describe this kind of electricity as “the force that powers the universe” (309). Jacobs discusses the progress of his research by comparing it to the progress of nuclear energy research. As the 20th century saw nuclear energy rise in popularity, interest in electrical energy waned. Jacobs believes that an opportunity exists to inspire interest in electricity once again, describing it as an unseen door leading to unending, unknown chambers.
Jamie challenges Jacobs’s understanding of his own research. Jacobs retorts that most people don’t even understand how light switches work, yet they operate them with the faith that it will turn on the lights. Jamie asks Jacobs to explain his ultimate goal. Jacobs responds by discussing how the transfer devices have evolved from the time he healed Hugh with large gold-palladium rings. With his revival show, he succeeded in shrinking the rings to help him sell a compelling story to his congregation.
Jamie asks why Jacobs lied about how Patsy and Morrie died. Jacobs explains that most of his congregants are ignorant believers who don’t deserve to know what really happened. They don’t really want to know what Jacobs went through because all they want is to experience a healing miracle.
Jacobs offers Jamie a job, expecting that Al will soon leave The Latches. Jamie reiterates his question about Jacobs’s ultimate goal. Jacobs refuses to answer until Jamie starts working with him. Jamie declines and admonishes Jacobs for choosing to hurt sick people because he can’t get back at God for letting his family die. A furious Jacobs promises that they will meet again.
Jamie reports his encounter to Brianna and asks her about her life in New York. He sees the pumpkin he meant to give to Charlie in the backseat of his car.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Wedding Bells. How to Boil a Frog. The Homecoming Party. ‘You Will Want to Read This.’”
In 2011, Brianna marries a lawyer named George Hughes. Jamie is invited to play with the wedding band, but he declines, knowing that his guitar skills aren’t as good as they used to be. Jamie compares being in his late fifties to the process of boiling frogs by gradually turning up the water heat. He feels that his life is still manageable but fears that the worst is yet to come.
In 2013, Jamie is invited to return home to attend Terry’s wedding anniversary and the first birthday of Terry’s granddaughter, Cara Lynne. Jamie normally doesn’t think about going back to Harlow but makes an exception for Terry. He reunites with Conrad and Terry. Conrad has brought his boyfriend, a university colleague, from Hawaii. Terry introduces Cara Lynne to Jamie. The baby seems to like Jamie immediately.
The party sees Jamie reuniting with many people from his youth. Norm Irving shows up and tells Jamie that he has had two marriages and three children. Kenny Laughlin has also married and gone into a career in insurance. Paul Bouchard is revealed to have died in a climbing accident. Norm is unable to account for Astrid but has heard that she became estranged from her parents and owns a lobster restaurant. Norm invites Jamie to play guitar with him and Kenny one more time at the party. Jamie accepts.
Jamie feels sentimental about his old home. He finds Terry fixing up a vintage Chevy SS in his barn. They reminisce about their childhood and grieve Claire. Terry invites Jamie to sleep on the couch, but Jamie needs to stay at the inn to meet Conrad and his partner for breakfast. Terry suggests that Conrad’s boyfriend may be scamming him. Before they part ways for the night, Terry recalls Jacobs’s Terrible Sermon. Thinking of Claire, Terry suggests that the reverend was brave for speaking the truth. On the day Jamie leaves Harlow, Cara Lynne is reluctant to part from him.
In 2014, Jamie gets a letter from Jacobs with a return address close to Harlow, Maine. In the letter, Jacobs, now a stroke survivor, implores Jamie to work as his assistant. He desperately needs a witness to his experiments. Jacobs includes a forwarded letter from Astrid, asking the former pastor to heal her lung cancer. Astrid was recommended to Jacobs by her nurse and friend, Jenny Knowlton, after he cured her arthritis. Astrid is at the end of her treatment and is coming to Jacobs in a last-ditch effort to survive cancer. Jacobs guarantees that while conventional medical treatment cannot save Astrid, his electrical treatments can. He will only treat her, however, if Jamie comes to work for him. Jamie calls Jacobs and agrees to come.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Goat Mountain. She Waits. Bad News from Missouri.”
Jamie returns to Maine and drives up to Goat Mountain Resort, which Jacobs has bought to establish his new laboratory. Jacobs meets Jamie at the gatehouse. They drive up to the resort together, discussing Astrid’s arrival with Jenny. Jamie asks why it is so important for him to be there. Jacobs answers that he has always known that Jamie is his destiny but withholds his plans for Jamie’s role in his experiments. Jamie meets Jacobs’s nurse, a large man named Rudy Kelly.
Jamie wants to see Astrid, but Jacobs indicates that she will be preoccupied with dinner and medication. Jacobs instead shows him a list of all the people he’s cured with electrical treatments. His files include another list of the people who have experienced significant aftereffects, amounting to only a small fraction of the larger list. He means to reassure Jamie, but Jamie still wants to see Astrid. After Jacobs introduces Jamie to Norma, another former patient who has come to work with the pastor, Jacobs allows Jamie to watch Astrid and Jenny having dinner through one of the security cameras. Seeing her, Jamie understands that Astrid’s death is truly inevitable. He later has a nightmare of kissing her as a teenager. She turns into a corpse and tells him, “Something happened, and Mother will be here soon” (364). When he wakes up, he finds himself naked and trying to jab a pen into his forearm. He realizes that his and Hugh’s aftereffects are triggered by stress.
The next day at breakfast, Jacobs gives Jamie one more chance to back out of attending Astrid’s treatment. Jamie chooses to stay to ensure that Jacobs won’t trick him. When Jamie reunites with Astrid, Astrid weeps. She tells him how smoking and cancer have affected her life. Jacobs instructs Jamie to open a mahogany box he’s asked him to bring along. The box contains a device with steel rods, reminiscent of the device he used on Conrad. When Jenny complains that it isn’t like the revival show at all, Jacobs assures her that the device emits a safe level of voltage because it utilizes secret electricity. He places the rods on Astrid’s temples and has Jamie activate the device.
Nothing seems to happen, so Jacobs instructs Jamie to increase the power. A security alarm goes off, and Jacobs yells at Rudy to turn it off. Astrid starts choking as she loses control of her body. She starts describing a door covered with dead ivy. Behind the door is a broken city that “she” waits above. Jacobs asks Astrid to clarify who “she” is, but all Astrid says is: “Not the one you want” (374). Jacobs slaps her. When Jenny tries to stop him, Astrid regains consciousness and realizes her lung pain is gone. Having lost her memory of reuniting with Jamie, Astrid nevertheless recognizes him when she sees him. Jacobs tries to spark her memory of the door covered in dead ivy, but Astrid fails to remember. Jamie supposes that the “she” Astrid spoke of must have been the “Mother” she referred to in his recent dream.
Astrid recovers from the treatment and is in full health the following day. Jacobs advises Jenny to let Astrid see a physical therapist but also asks them not to speak of his treatment to anyone. Jacobs later confers with Jamie to ensure his end of their bargain. Jamie agrees to work for him.
Astrid thanks Jamie for helping her to secure her treatment. He lies about not promising Jacobs anything in return but tells her he came because she was at one point the most important person in his life. Astrid returns the sentiment. She also warns him to be cautious of Jacobs. They share a kiss.
Jamie and Jenny exchange contact details to share updates about Astrid’s recovery. He tells Jenny not to worry but to let him know if she experiences any aftereffects. After Astrid and Jenny leave, Jacobs instructs Jamie to come the next time he calls. On the way back to Colorado, Jamie learns that Astrid has had a peaceful first night back home. He also gets a message from Brianna informing him that Robert Rivard has died by suicide. His last note indicated that he had visions of an endless line of damned people.
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
In these chapters, the mirroring pattern that King has established between Jamie and Jacobs begins to collapse. Jacobs pulls away from his latest reinvention, disappearing from his public life as a revival pastor. Jamie, on the other hand, no longer feels the need to reinvent himself as he remains settled at Wolfjaw, but he also finds himself revisiting his past lives as he returns to Harlow, underlining The Emotional Costs of Starting Life Anew. Jamie reunites with his old bandmates and his brothers, and in some ways (e.g., playing guitar with Norm and Kenny), it is as though nothing has changed. However, some friends and family members are notably absent, suggesting the losses and traumas that have occurred over time.
In that vein, Terry reflects on the way the meaning of the Terrible Sermon has shifted. Like Jamie, Terry feels that what happened to Claire substantiates Jacobs’s assertion that the world is unfair and cruel. However, Jamie is also conflicted about what agreement with Jacobs might entail, considering what has happened to Jacobs in the time since his last sermon. Ever since the loss of his family, Jacobs’s grief has been the driving force behind all his actions, as symbolized by the fact that he continues to wear his wedding ring during and after his time as a revival pastor. However, that grief has led Jacobs to morally dubious behavior. For instance, he holds contempt for the people he heals because he knows they aren’t there to hear what he really believes but are simply seeking a way out of their suffering; nevertheless, he is perfectly willing to take their money to fund his private interests. This does not bode well for Jamie’s renewed relationship with Jacobs, as Jamie’s grief over the loss of Claire and Laura resembles the pain of Jacobs’s congregants.
In this way, Jacobs’s contempt may extend to Jamie as well, leaving him vulnerable to exploitation. Sure enough, while Jamie seems to get his way when Jacobs declares that he will retire from public life, Jacobs manages to get the upper hand by leveraging Jamie’s relationship to Astrid. Jamie can’t refuse Jacobs when Astrid’s life on the line: As he later reveals to Astrid, he can’t bear the thought of failing to help someone he once considered the most important person in his life. To do so would make him feel as much of a coward as Jacobs is—an ironic sentiment, given that Jamie’s determination to avoid becoming Jacobs brings them into closer proximity.
Meanwhile, the tension around Jacobs’s electrical experiments mounts. More people begin to manifest the dangerous aftereffects of their cures, including death. This raises the stakes of Jamie’s story, though he seems to have been spared the worst of the aftereffects. Simultaneously, King uses these aftereffects to continue to hint at the climax he is building toward. The prismatics that Hugh experienced are clearly related to the broken city and the ivy door that Astrid sees during her treatment. Jamie registers the presence of an entity called Mother, whom he connects to the female entity that Astrid identifies while she is being healed. Chapter 7 of the novel also includes a reference to a female entity whom Jamie senses when he wakes up from his recurring dream. These foreboding disparate images lay the groundwork for the novel’s conclusion.
Fittingly, Jamie finds himself returning to Goat Mountain to visit Jacobs’s latest laboratory, driving home the sense that both his past and Jacobs’s are impossible to escape. Whatever Jacobs has planned for Jamie will likely involve the use of Skytop, as the novel has established that this area generates enough power to fuel his ultimate experiment.
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