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Chapter 84
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The 5th Wave, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trust and Belief
Survival and Perseverance
Warfare and Dehumanization
Family
Summary
Analysis
A Silencer-type soldier takes Sammy away, while another brings Ben and Cassie to be executed. Vosch explains to Ben and Cassie that the aliens have been watching humanity for 6,000 years to learn how they think. Vosch says he’s going to kill Ben, but first he wants to find out from Cassie who helped her get into the base, since she underwent Wonderland and apparently hid her true memories—something only an alien could teach her to do. Vosch mentions how the aliens often use false memories, like those of owls, when they insert themselves into the fetuses of pregnant mothers.
Vosch’s explanation about the dreams of owls finally explains the novel’s mysterious prologue with the pregnant woman. This passage presents the aliens as similar to a malevolent version of the Christian God (who always watches over humanity and who also takes on a partly human form as Jesus). This reflects how Vosch takes the positive faith of people like Ben and Sammy and twists it into something that suits Vosch’s evil purposes.
Themes
Vosch says there’s still another intruder in the camp who killed a couple guards at the same time Cassie was killing Dr. Pam. He shows that Sammy is in a chair through a one-way mirror into another room, and he promises he won’t kill Sammy if Cassie gives up the intruder’s identity. But Cassie refuses, so Vosch presses the button to kill Sammy.
The prevalence of rooms with one-way mirrors in the camp reflect how the aliens have been watching humanity unseen for generations, as well as tying into the novel’s larger exploration of how extreme surveillance leads to distrust. When Vosch pushes the button to kill Sammy, this is another sign of how he sees humanity as disposable, treating them like files to delete on a computer program.
Themes
