107 pages • 3 hours read
Trenton Lee StewartThe Mysterious Benedict Society
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 35-39Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 35 Summary: “The Great Kate Weather Machine”
Kate hears a honking noise and understands that she and Constance are being told in Morse code to go to the tower.
Constance refuses to get out of bed, and Kate considers leaving her. Kate remembers that Mr. Benedict said the success of their mission depended on all four team members, so she forces Constance to get dressed and carries her to the secret entrance.
The entrance is guarded by Martina, who is startled by the girls’ sudden appearance. Kate turns and runs away. Jillson arrives, and Martina suspects that something is going on, so Jillson hurries to find Jackson.
Kate finds a ladder then climbs over the wall on the hill. Jackson runs up to the ladder and starts to climb. Kate fills her bucket with water from the nearby brook and drops it on his head. Jackson falls backward into Jillson and Martina.
Kate makes a lasso with her rope, flings it over the flagpole, ties the end of the rope around Constance’s waist, and climbs up the tower wall. Martina is seconds away from grabbing Constance, so Kate slips the lasso off the end of the flagpole, jumps backward, and acts like a pulley to haul Constance to the top of the tower.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Stands and Falls”
Reynie sees that Sticky can no longer resist the Whisperer. S.Q. interrupts them and Mr. Curtain, impatient with Sticky’s performance, says that he and Reynie will begin the Improvement.
Mr. Curtain tells Reynie to sit down at the Whisperer, which asks what Reynie fears the most. Reynie thinks that betraying his friends would make him more alone than ever. The Whisperer assures him that he will never betray his friends, but this encourages Reynie to resist.
Reynie feels a great sense of well-being, but it is genuine, not an illusion. The Whisperer says that it is time to begin, but Reynie keeps thinking of each of his friends, thwarting the Whisperer.
Constance’s voice breaks through his thoughts. She is outside the window, yelling to be let in. Mr. Curtain tries to ignore her, but she is too loud. Reynie opens the window and pulls Constance into the room. Mr. Curtain realizes that he had not sent Constance away because of Reynie’s suggestion. Infuriated that he was deceived, Mr. Curtain stands and strides across the room toward the team.
Meanwhile, Kate is battling for her life. Jillson catches her, and Martina prepares a final attack. Suddenly Jackson, Jillson, and Martina all fall to the ground, struck with tranquilizer darts. Milligan stands there smiling, having escaped from the Waiting Room. He calls Kate “Katie-Cat,” revealing that he is her father.
Chapter 37 Summary: “The Best Medicine”
Mr. Curtain accuses Reynie of betraying him. Reynie taunts him, and Mr. Curtain roars with anger. He lunges toward Reynie, then topples to the ground, fast asleep. While laughter makes Mr. Benedict fall asleep, it is anger that has that effect on Mr. Curtain. He and Sticky tie Mr. Curtain up.
Mr. Curtain wakes and furiously breaks the sashes tied around his arms and legs. Constance shouts insults at him, enraging him again, which makes him fall asleep.
Kate appears at the window and tells them that Milligan is her father. Putting on the red helmet, Reynie tries to control the Whisperer, but it refuses him.
Mr. Curtain, awake again, tells Reynie that the Whisperer cannot be fooled. Reynie tries putting his head into the blue helmet, but Mr. Curtain says it will not activate unless he is wearing the red helmet.
The team positions Mr. Curtain under the red helmet. Reynie’s vision seems to flicker. Mr. Curtain triumphantly tells them that due to his adjustments, it is no longer necessary to be connected to the blue helmet to feel the effects of the Whisperer. Mr. Curtain can now broadcast mental messages and brainsweep people directly.
They all feel Mr. Curtain attack their minds. Constance sits down at the Whisperer, and the blue helmet snaps into place. She shouts the names of the other children, confusing the Whisperer. Reynie’s mind clears as Mr. Curtain concentrates on Constance.
Constance successfully resists Mr. Curtain, but she weakens over time. Mr. Curtain says that soon she will be gone.
Milligan’s voice calls out from a hidden door. Reynie finds a button that reveals a keypad in the wall. Reynie guesses that “CONTROL” is the code to open the hidden door, but that does not work. Reynie asks Sticky how to spell “control” in Dutch. Mr. Curtain howls furiously and falls asleep. Kate punches in “CONTROLE,” and Milligan, Rhonda, Number Two, and Mr. Benedict stride into the room. Mr. Benedict says the machine is disoriented and he must act now. He tells the rest to hurry and escape.
Chapter 38 Summary: “Escapes and Returns”
The group emerges on the shore, where a motorboat waits. Mr. Curtain unties his bonds and escapes. Milligan tries to shoot him with the tranquilizer gun, but he vanishes into the secret passage.
On the other shore, the team gets in a station wagon. Sticky asks Milligan how he escaped from the Waiting Room. Milligan replies that he dug his way out. While doing this, he remembered swimming at a mill with a little girl. This prompted all of his memories to come back.
Reynie sees Mr. Curtain racing crazily across the bridge in his wheelchair. The Recruiters run behind him. Milligan jumps out of the car, telling Number Two to get moving.
Reynie shouts for Milligan and Number Two to wait. Mr. Curtain stops his wheelchair abruptly and points to the group, crying out that they are the decoys. The Recruiters protest that the group looks like the ones they are after, but Mr. Curtain insists that the Recruiters must return to the island at once.
Mr. Curtain gets out of the wheelchair and runs to the station wagon. Milligan prepares to shoot him with the tranquilizer gun, but Reynie says that it is Mr. Benedict. He knows this because of how badly he drove the wheelchair. Mr. Benedict climbs in and they drive away.
Chapter 39 Summary: “For Every Exit, an Entrance”
Mr. Curtain escapes from the island with a few Executives and several Recruiters. Mr. Benedict persuades the government to raid the Institute. The Whisperer no longer broadcasts messages to confuse people’s minds.
Weeks after their return, the group has a chance to sit down together. Reynie sits next to Miss Perumal, who plans to adopt him. Kate sits next to Milligan, who laughs merrily.
Rhonda pulls a birthday cake out of the cabinet and surprises Constance. Mr. Benedict comments that he forgot to put three candles on the cake, revealing that Constance was only two years old.
The next day Mr. Benedict finds Sticky and announces that his parents are there. After Sticky ran away, his parents felt ashamed that they made a mess of his life. When Sticky overheard his father saying they were better off, he meant that Sticky was better off without them. Now they desperately want him back. Sticky runs downstairs to reunite with his parents.
To round out the happy families, Mr. Benedict decides to adopt Constance. He had adopted Rhonda and Number Two years ago.
Out in the courtyard the Mysterious Benedict Society enjoys a snowball fight. Mr. Benedict laughs so hard that he falls asleep continually. Number Two wants to bring in everyone to dinner, but Mr. Benedict urges her to let them play, since they are children, after all.
Chapters 35-39 Analysis
Kate’s relationship with Constance grows in these final chapters. Kate considers leaving Constance behind as she hurries to help the boys with their battle against the Whisperer, worried Constance will slow her down. In the end Kate remembers Mr. Benedict’s insistence that all four team members were necessary to the mission’s success, so she carries Constance on her back.
When Kate realizes that Constance cannot fight the Executives, she knows she must protect Constance. Though Kate has always maintained her conviction that she can do everything herself, she still harbors some self-doubt. In her heart Kate fears that she is not invincible, so it is a truly brave act of self-sacrifice to pull Constance to the top of the tower while she plummets down to face the Executives.
Sticky’s bravery in facing the Whisperer has its limits, and he loses his will to resist, which serves to Mr. Curtain’s advantage. The fact that Sticky succumbs to the Whisperer’s power does not diminish the bravery he showed in volunteering to go into the machine first and resisting with all his might.
After Sticky’s session ends, Reynie knows that everything rests on him now, and he feels inadequate to the task. His own desire to submit to the Whisperer causes him to think thoughts that he attributes to the machine. His mind is completely scrambled: “And who had been talking to him before that? Wasn’t it the Whisperer? No, he realized. Unfortunately not. It wasn’t the Whisperer at all. It was Reynie himself” (441). He fears that he has never truly been brave at all.
However, the love and commitment Reynie feels for his friends gives him the strength he needs. His greatest fear is being alone, and Reynie now understands that “[y]ou could never be more alone than if you betrayed your friends” (442). The Whisperer tries to use this against him by insisting he could never betray his friends. Rather than breaking Reynie’s resistance, this provides the reassurance he needs to take on the Whisperer. To confound the machine and Mr. Curtain, Reynie thinks phrases associated with his friends each time the Whisperer tries to start their session.
Reynie searches for Mr. Curtain’s weakness, but it is Constance who finds it simply by being herself. She stokes his anger, saying, “you’re scared to death of us! You’re like a tiger afraid of mice! Why else would you stand there shaking in your boots?” (451). It makes sense that Mr. Curtain falls asleep when angry, since Mr. Benedict falls asleep when happy. And where Mr. Benedict respects and values the cleverness and feelings of children, Mr. Curtain dismisses their intelligence and belittles them. The twins are polar opposites and perfect foils.
Despite the team’s successes, there is no quick, final blow against Mr. Curtain. His narcolepsy is temporary, and the team still cannot figure out how to disable the Whisperer. Mr. Curtain delights in taunting Reynie, who he feels is his greatest equal and therefore his greatest foe: “I’m afraid my Whisperer is foolproof, Reynard. Or perhaps I should say childproof—they amount to the same thing” (454). Again, he elevates his own superiority while disparaging children. This narcissistic ignorance contributes to the failure of his plan.
The experience of being brainswept is completely terrifying, “like shouting, […] an overwhelming shouted silence, above which you could hear nothing else” (457). The Whisperer’s ultimate power obliterates the minds of Mr. Curtain’s targets, but Constance’s incredibly strong mind preoccupies him to the point that he must stop brainsweeping the other children.
In the end Reynie and the rest of the team turn Mr. Curtain’s narcissism and egomania against him to solve the puzzle of the keypad’s code. Reynie’s expertise with puzzles and codes, coupled with his memory and analytical skill, triumphs as he guesses the keypad code.
One of the story’s mysteries, Milligan’s identity, becomes an example of the mind’s enduring power to hold onto its memories, despite Mr. Curtain’s efforts to hide them from their owner. In the heat of Milligan’s escape, his very name becomes the trigger that restores his memory: “Mill again—Milligan. Do you see? It wasn’t my name at all. It was my last, unkept promise to my daughter. I had only to realize this, and all of my other memories came flooding back” (468). Milligan’s love for Kate proves to be more powerful than the brainsweeping. With his identity restored, he loses the sadness that cloaked him for years; “Milligan now acted as if he were the happiest man alive—and perhaps he was” (476).
At the end of the story, despite Mr. Curtain’s escape, the team saves the world. The Whisperer’s effects subside, the Emergency fades away, “and minds long closed to truth were opening again, like flowers craving sunlight” (474). This is demonstrated through Sticky’s parents, as they express regret for their behavior and reunite with their son.
The team also discovers why Constance has a bad attitude and deficient vocabulary: She’s a toddler. Constance may have seemed immature, clumsy, and lacking in knowledge, but for a two-year-old she is clearly a genius. This also explains Mr. Benedict’s indulgence toward Constance. His genuine fondness for her and his understanding of how she thinks leads him to adopt her, though he lets her believe it is her choice.
Along with their global triumph, the team finds that they are each granted their strongest desire: a family. Each child is reunited with their parents or adopted by a new parent. The scene at the end, with all the children and their respective families sharing in the fun of a snowball fight, symbolizes their connection to each other as one big extended family.
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