How It All Goes Down
- In the morning, Jacob is surprised to see the apple has disintegrated overnight.
- He leaves before Dad wakes up, and returns to 1940.
- Miss Peregrine is waiting for him in the entryway, and she tells Jacob to stop telling the kids about all the amazing technology of the future: "They cannot leave, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't make them want to" (8.28).
- Why can't they leave? Miss Peregrine explains that they will wither and die if they spend too much time outside the loop.
- After their chat, Miss Peregrine tells Jacob to go find Emma: "I'm sure she's dying to see you" (8.46), she says. Bad word choice, Peregrine.
- Hugh, the bee boy, tells Jacob that Emma is gathering supplies in the village. (If everything resets each day, what is she gathering?)
- He takes a nap, and is woken up by a little clay creature poking his foot.
- A boy named Enoch comes up and explains his homunculi to Jacob.
- They're little clay soldiers, and he powers them with real hearts, like from mice and other animals.
- Enoch asks Jacob if he's going to come live with them, and Jacob says he doesn't know yet.
- Enoch gets all conspiratorial and whispers, "Emma told you about Raid the Village, didn't she?" (8.79)… Uh no, buddy, she didn't.
- And Enoch won't tell him.
- Enoch also won't stop Jacob if he goes upstairs to the room at the end of the hall. Nudge nudge.
- He says his friend Victor is in there. (You might remember Jacob wearing Victor's clothes his first night in the house.)
- Jacob finds the key to the room above the door and enters; Victor is on the bed, not moving.
- He's not moving because he's dead.
- Bronwyn enters the room and yells at Jacob for being in there.
- Then Enoch shows up and says he could wake Victor up with one of the cow hearts he has pickling in the basement. (There's a recipe for that.)
- Bronwyn almost tells Jacob how Victor died, but Enoch keeps her from blabbing; they get interrupted when they hear Miss Peregrine coming up the stairs.
- Bronwyn runs to hide, but Jacob blocks Enoch's path—he won't let him pass until he explains "Raid the Village" to him.
- Enoch agrees, and they hide from Miss Peregrine.
- It seems that "Raid the Village" is a game where the kids run in and destroy the village. Sometimes they hurt villagers, although they're not allowed to kill them.
- The village resets the next day, and no one remembers.
- Enoch says that Emma doesn't play it, though, and that she "Says it's evil" (8.142).
- They part ways, and Jacob hears Miss Peregrine coming again.
- He ducks into a room, which turns out to be Emma's bedroom.
- She has a box tied up and labeled "Private Correspondence of Emma Bloom. Do not open" (8.152).
- So Jacob opens it.
- Inside are pictures and letters from his Grandfather. One of the pictures is of Grandpa and Aunt Susie at four years old.
- That's the last letter.
- Emma catches Jacob, and even though she's mad that he's snooping through her stuff, she tells him about her relationship with his Grandpa.
- "He said he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he sat out the war while his people were being hunted and killed" (8.172), so he left. And never came back.
- Jacob thinks it would be a little creepy to make out with his grandfather's ex-girlfriend, so he decides to leave.
- Emma asks him to meet her later that night, after everyone falls asleep, and Jacob agrees to return.
- Back in the present, Dad tells Jacob that a new ornithologist showed up. The competition discourages Dad from his work.
- Speak of the devil, or at least the rival bird-watcher, the other man stomps into the tavern.
- He orders a couple steaks. Rare.
- After Dad falls asleep, Jacob sneaks out again.
- Emma wants to take him to a special place, and she leads him to the harbor, near the lighthouse, and gives him a snorkel.
- They wade out to a canoe hidden among the rocks and paddle out farther.
- Emma gets out of the canoe and starts walking on water. What, is she Jesus, too?
- No, she's standing on a shallow shipwreck, and they're going to dive inside.
- They swim deep inside, using a plastic tube to breathe, until they get into a room of total darkness.
- Jacob is amazed at all the glowing little fish swimming around under there.
- When they surface, Emma explains they're flashlight fish: "They hide" (8.283), she says, and they're "peculiar" (8.285).
- We guess that's enough for Jacob to forget the whole Emma-is-eighty-years-old-and-Grandpa's-ex-girlfriend thing because then they make out.
- After coming up for air, Emma asks Jacob to stay.
- He says no: "It's him you want, not me. I can't be him for you" (8.297).
- She says no, and she says that Jacob isn't as common as he thinks.
- Bombshell (1): "Common people can't pass through time loops" (8.304).
- Bombshell (2): "Abe had a rare and peculiar talent, something almost no one else could do. […] He could see the monsters" (8.306-8.307).
- Holy cow.