The Outsider

The Edgar Allan Poe story “William Wilson” introduces the first hint of the supernatural doppelgänger. In this first reference, Jeannie tells only enough to suggest that Terry may have a look-alike accomplice. Later, she will tell the story in more detail, and we will see that there is an implied supernatural explanation for the double. A reader who is already familiar with “William Wilson”—or with Stephen King’s work—can assume at this point that the double has a supernatural origin.

King has been criticized for his handling of female characters in this and other books. For example, Ralph’s wife Jeannie acts mainly as a sounding board for Ralph. However, she does demonstrate significant strengths. By discussing the case with her, Ralph shows a high degree of trust. He treats her as a professional as well as a domestic partner. He puts a lot of weight on the opinions of someone who doesn’t hesitate to disagree with him when she thinks he is making a mistake, which shows that he values truth over ego.

Destruction continues to ripple out from the tragedy of Frankie’s murder. Ollie Peterson’s coping strategy—taking on an adult role and caring for his parents—is fine in the short term. It gives him a sense of control and security, but it’s unsustainable for an adolescent. His mother’s death and his father’s further deterioration create an unbearable burden. If he’d been able to lean on parental support, his final break—when he shoots Terry Maitland—might not have occurred. Whoever murdered Frankie has deprived Ollie of even the part of his family that is still alive. The strain is breaking him, which will lead to his killing Terry. Later in the story, Holly Gibney will point out that this collateral damage is part of the outsider’s pattern. It feeds on negative emotions—those of its victims, its targets, and of everyone associated with them.

The other characters continue to wrestle with the question of justice. The knowledge of Terry’s innocence should relieve both Terry’s and Marcy’s fears, but their anxiety arises partly from the fact that they have no control of the situation. The justice system is fallible, and the evidence against Terry is inexplicably solid. Terry could still be convicted in spite of everything. At least Ollie Peterson can exert some small control over his environment by vacuuming floors and cleaning the kitchen for his parents. Terry and Marcy are dependent on Howie’s skill as a lawyer and Alec’s as an investigator, and Terry’s fears in particular feed off of his simultaneous sense of guilt and shame—as if he had committed the crime he’s accused of. Terry’s feelings may have to do with his link to the outsider, which (we will learn) has been drawing knowledge and memories from his mind. The link could work in the other direction as well. Some of its memories might have leaked through without Terry consciously recognizing them.

When the videotape of the conference proves that Terry was in Cap City at the time of the murder, Samuels, who is motivated as much by career ambition as by his sense of justice, contemplates cutting their losses and dropping charges. Ralph, driven by justice and the need for truth, sees Samuels’s motives as immature. Ralph is less put off by the unshakable alibi because he still has faith that the evidence unequivocally proves that Terry committed the crime. Meanwhile, keeping Terry in custody will protect future potential victims.

The conflict between the two men’s stances escalates when Samuels suggests that they suppress evidence. If this new evidence results in Terry’s acquittal, it will be a blow to Ralph’s career, and if Terry is actually guilty, it will put a vicious psychopath on the streets. Ralph so far has shown that he values his professional standards. The fact that he has even considered violating those standards undermines his image of himself as a good cop and an honorable man. The shame of that lapse will add to his future sense of culpability in Terry’s death. Samuels raises the stakes for Ralph by offering him a choice between two metaphorical “deaths”: the death of his career if Terry is acquitted, or a moral death if he decides to save his career at the expense of his principles. Ultimately, Ralph decides the moral death would be the greater loss, reaffirming that he is worthy of the reader’s loyalty.

Some damage has already been done, however. By taking shortcuts and making the arrest in the public way that they did, Ralph and Samuels have dug a hole for themselves. Losing their case would be a disaster for both their careers. Ralph, at least, has the benefit of his certainty in material reality. He is sure that a rational explanation will eventually present itself. Ralph’s predicament creates a double bind for the reader. Ralph has proved himself worthy of winning, but so has Terry, and as things stand, the success of one necessarily means the failure of the other. By going to Cap City, Ralph is finally doing the kind of investigation he should have done before the arrest. After the temptation to suppress the fingerprint evidence, he needs to backtrack and do his job right. He needs to prove to himself that he’s not the man he was briefly tempted to be.

Specifically, Ralph is looking for anything to tip the question of Terry’s guilt or innocence one way or another. Every contact he has with Terry confirms Terry’s innocence, or at least doesn’t support a guilty conclusion. He confronts Terry face-to-face in the hope of at least having some certainty in his own mind, but Terry’s answer leaves him just as stuck as before. His rational mind tells him Terry has to be guilty and that therefore Terry’s claim of innocence is meaningless.