The Turning: Defender Summary & Analysis

Vic and Gail are driving up into a valley on country roads, past vineyards and trees. Gail is driving, while Vic is resting on pillows; both of them are escaping the house for the first time in a while. Vic starts to reminisce about his days playing basketball in Angelus with Aboriginal boys from other schools. Vic was not a very good player and could only do defense. He then tells Gail that, much to his surprise, he saw one of the Aboriginal boys again a year ago; he is now a schoolteacher. Vic wanted to buy him a drink, but did not, feeling too awkward. Gail reacts strongly, not understanding Vic’s hesitation and annoyed by it. She quickly backs down, however, as Vic is clearly unwell and is suffering from neuralgia.

Gail tells Vic that she thinks that he is living in the past and needs to confront it more directly. She asks him why he did not come with her to Angelus the year before. She directly attributes his physical state—he has had shingles twice in two months—to his unresolved trauma. Vic changes the subject, asking if Gail has started going to church again. She has, to an Anglican church, not an Evangelical one. Vic is dismissive of religion, but as their argument heats up, he begins to feel unwell. Gail starts to cry and pulls over, and Vic apologizes. Abruptly, Gail admits that she had an affair during her trip to Angelus the year before. Vic is stunned, gets out of the car, and then gets back in silently.

Vic and Gail arrive at their destination: Gail’s friends Fenn and Daisy’s farmhouse. Fenn, a large, exuberant man, is washing their children with a hose. Daisy comes to greet them, and as Vic gets out of the car he realizes intuitively that Fenn and Daisy both already know about Gail’s affair. Daisy sets out tea and biscuits, and Vic observes their home. Daisy grew up on the farm and has taken it over from her father; she and Fenn are both veterinarians. Vic wonders how they can economically sustain themselves caring for a large property like this. He thinks that Fenn, while kind and amiable, is not practically minded. Exhausted after only a few minutes, Vic excuses himself to go lie down.

After Vic leaves, Fenn goes back to the children and Daisy and Gail sit and converse. Gail is seeing a female priest at the Anglican church. While she does not think she goes entirely out of guilt over her affair, she is full of deep regret. The affair was with the manager of the motel she was staying at. They discuss Vic’s need to feel that he is defending people, his childhood trauma, and his need to be “the dutiful boy” for his mother and others. Gail considers how deep she has followed Vic into his past, traveling to Angelus like she was conducting research. Gail concludes, however, that she loves Vic and will probably stay with him regardless.

Vic lies in bed, still mulling over the financial precarity he believes must underscore Fenn and Daisy’s beautiful home. He also considers Gail’s revelation; the fact that she told her friends before him makes him feel weak and powerless. Equally fear-inducing is his physical condition. He concedes that Gail is right: he is close to collapse. He sees himself once again as a frightened boy, waiting at the window with a rifle, but now knows that going on like that is unsustainable.

When Vic wakes up, the neuralgia has passed. He walks outside, reflecting on the drive. Strangely, what he is stuck on is not Gail’s confession, but his story of the Aboriginal basketball player. He is more hurt by Gail’s implying that he is racist than he is by her affair. He sees how strange this is, even finding perverse humor in it, but cannot let go of the idea; nevertheless, he knows trying to explain himself would make things worse. Lost in thought, he screams in surprise at one of Fenn and Daisy’s children, who falls and starts to cry. Vic quickly apologizes and takes her hand to find Daisy—her name is Keira. As they walk through the orchard she asks about his face, and Vic lies and says he fell off his bike.

Reaching the bottom of the ridge, Vic meets Daisy and Gail. Daisy takes Keira, and Vic and Gail are left alone. Vic asks Gail if she regrets not having children, but she reminds him that she is only 34—10 years younger than him. He then tries to explain to her “about that Aboriginal bloke.” What he tells her, and neglected to say before, was that that boy he knew from school had a younger brother heavily involved in crime. Once, Vic’s father was tasked with taking him to prison, and Vic went with him, not realizing how close Bob was to his breakdown. The boy escaped, and Vic had to chase him down for his father, catching him successfully. Though he saved his father’s career, he could not face his Aboriginal friend again knowing that he was responsible for his brother’s incarceration. Gail does not know what to say, confused by Vic’s lack of a straightforward response to her confession.

Back at the house, Fenn has set up a skeet trap and invites Vic and Gail to shoot. Vic admits that he was a cadet and is familiar with guns but is wary of the shotgun; he tells them he has not fired a gun for 30 years, and that he “was a little creepy about it, once.” Gail is also nervous around guns, but Fenn reassures them that nothing gets hurt in skeet shooting. Fenn shoots first and misses; he is a bad shot. Daisy and Gail go inside, and they discuss Gail and Vic’s conversation. Fenn cheated on Daisy in the past, and they compare the circumstances. They stop, however, to notice Vic outside with the shotgun, hitting all his shots as Fenn cheers him on.

Vic reloads the shotgun and asks Fenn if he can keep shooting; Fenn encourages him to do so. Keira watches Vic closely as he shoots. Despite his success, Vic has never fired a shotgun, only rifles. He reflects on his time as a boy and cadet, and the weapons the state trained him to use. He notes how they used to train with human-shaped targets then, in preparation for war. He thinks about how he used to wait by the window with his rifle, close to a dangerous breakdown; thankfully, Vic’s father took the rifle with him when he ran off. This is the first time Vic has held a gun since then. Vic asks Fenn to pull, but does not shoot, following the targets across the sky instead. Then he asks him to pull again, hits the targets, and smiles broadly. He keeps shooting, again and again, until he realizes it is dark out, and he feels happy.