The One

Christopher is driven by narcissism and a desire to be noticed and remembered. His motive in registering with Match Your DNA is an interest in himself. He wants to know what kind of person would be his Match—information valuable only for how it redounds to his image. It is also a desire for self-knowledge. Christopher appears to have a relatively accurate self-concept. He understands that he craves attention and is aware of his efforts to get that attention. He researches psychopathy and human behavior not only to understand how to manipulate others but to understand himself.

Christopher’s motivation for the serial murders is attention, not compulsion. His plan is to kill 30 women—a number that is impressive yet achievable. When he’s finished, he plans to stop for good, leaving behind a legacy like that of Jack the Ripper, whose identity remains shrouded. This, he believes, will immortalize if not deify him through myth, ensuring that he will be remembered for centuries as one of the most prolific killers to evade identification.

Amy challenges Christopher’s self-concept. He believed himself unable to form human connections, but he can’t deny that his attachment to her resembles that of any ordinary person. He always interpreted his psychopathy as superiority, and he dislikes the idea that he might be, or become, “normal.” As he spends more time with Amy, he continues to pursue his ambition, but he takes less and less pleasure in it. In addition, he is increasingly plagued with empathy even for people beyond Amy.

Amy shows little character development until the final scenes in Christopher’s storyline. When Christopher asks her why she didn’t turn him in to the police, she replies that it’s already hard enough earning respect, much less advancement, as a woman in the police department; if she turns Christopher in, she will always be the woman cop whose boyfriend murdered 30 women without her noticing. She would be humiliated, her career over.

When Christopher tells her how she changed him, Amy is very nearly persuaded to release him. She pauses, however, to ask him why he continued killing if he no longer had a compulsion or enjoyed it. He admits that it was a deliberate decision and that he feared if he didn’t finish his project, he might come to resent Amy and possibly harm her. She realizes that while he could have controlled himself at any time, he still deliberately murdered. When Amy considers that their Match may be among the false ones, she realizes she can’t count on their Match to curb his violence. Because turning him in would destroy her career, the only thing she can do is kill him.

Aching with grief over Christopher’s death, she methodically cleans up the murder scene, burns his body, and walks away. No one will ever know about their relationship. Afterward, she wonders how she could have been Matched to a serial killer. She concludes that it must have been a false Match and that she merely talked herself into falling in love with him. Even choosing to fall in love with a serial killer seems better to her than the possibility that they might have been Matched because she is somehow like him.

She has more in common with him than she is willing to believe. They both have a compulsion toward control and the ability to kill in cold blood. She kills Christopher with his own weapon, symbolically confirming that she shares some degree of his violent capacity. Afterward, she is able to control her emotions enough to methodically strategize covering her tracks.

Like Nick, Jade illustrates the virtue of choice over biology. She feels trapped in a job she hates. She longs for a life of travel and discovery she can’t afford. In reality, it isn’t lack of money that stops her so much as lack of courage. She has fallen in love with her (supposed) Match, Kevin, but she sees no way to ever be with him. She must be persuaded by friends that she has no real excuse not to cross the earth for him.

The test of Jade’s character comes when she first learns about Kevin’s terminal illness, then falls in love with Mark—her true Match. She loves Kevin, but not as intensely as she loves Mark. Kevin is her best friend, and it feels like a betrayal of him to not feel that intense love for him. She resolves to redouble her efforts to love him the way he deserves. When Kevin proposes to her, Jade conceals her conflicted feelings and accepts. The decision is half altruistic and half motivated by guilt.

Jade conforms to typically female socialization by suppressing her own desires in order to nurture someone else. It is both a deeply loving sacrifice on her part and a lack of courage to respect her own needs. Even without her attraction to Mark, Jade knows that she is allowing Kevin to believe a lie and that he would be hurt deeply to learn the truth. Despite its moral ambiguity, the deception is a genuine sacrifice made out of love.

Jade is ultimately inspired by Kevin to pursue her own dream to travel. Having sacrificed her own feelings entirely to give Kevin the happiness she felt he deserved, she earns the strength to give herself what she deserves as well.

Nick’s character changes very little throughout the story. He remains steadfast to his values, veering from them only on Sally’s insistence. Nick embodies the author’s own belief that all relationships demand commitment and effort. From the outset, Nick’s motives are the least selfish of all the protagonists. His greatest failing is his obliviousness to Sally’s true nature. Had he sooner recognized her essential selfishness, he wouldn’t have been engaged to her and probably never would have registered with Match Your DNA.

The entire process of Nick’s Match registry reflects his integrity. He’s committed to Sally and has no interest in finding his soulmate, and he only registers with Match Your DNA to reassure Sally. Then, when Nick learns that he does have a Match, he feels no desire to pursue the connection. Again, it is Sally who pushes him for her own secret reasons.

At every crossroads, Nick tries to hold to his values. He doesn’t leave Sally until she breaks their engagement, and when he learns that Sally is pregnant with what he believes to be his child, he stays with her. Nick’s efforts to uphold his moral principles are repeatedly derailed by Sally’s deception, but through strength of will, Nick surmounts every obstacle.

For all Nick knows, he has lost Alex forever, and he’s committed to staying with Sally and their son for the rest of his life. In reality, losing Alex forever would probably be his reward—or punishment—for moral virtue. The author, however, intervenes in Nick’s fate, leaving him free to be with both his soulmate and beloved son.

Nick embodies the principle that, in relationships, strength and character outweigh biology. He continues to love Sally after meeting Alex, and when Dylan is born, Nick loves him paternally without any genetic relationship. In contrast, Dylan’s biological father, Deepak, feels nothing for his own child. However powerful the pull of biology, Nick illustrates that we can overcome it for the sake of higher principles.

Sally is the only secondary character whose development is distinct. This is arguably necessary because Nick has so few personal failings; he needs a strong antagonist to introduce conflict to his storyline.

Sally increasingly shows herself to be weak, petty, and manipulative. Her every decision is driven by a desire to deceive others and maintain a respectable image. Though she claims that her desire to register with Match Your DNA has to do with her parents’ marital failures, the reader learns that she is sleeping with Deepak—whom she (falsely) believes is her Match. Connecting Nick with his Match will, she hopes, allow her to leave Nick for Deepak without taking responsibility for the breakup. However, by the time Nick finally admits to his feelings for Alex, Sally’s affair has waned. She and Deepak weren’t Matched after all, and though Sally has no choice but to let Nick go, she contrives to make him feel that the breakup is his fault.

When she learns she is pregnant, Sally knows it is equally possible that either Deepak or Nick is the father, but Deepak is back with his wife and their new twins. He has no interest in Sally’s baby. Sally manipulates Nick into staying with her, both by threatening to terminate the pregnancy and by blaming Nick for leaving, although it was she who pushed him toward Alex.