Part Two — Chapter Six

Theo arrives at an empty, silent flat and decides to smoke marijuana, a habit he had largely abandoned for Kathy. He recalls Kathy’s exhausting Othello rehearsals and judges the risk of indulging while she is out.

As Theo rolls and smokes, he narrates his history with marijuana—its comforting containment of anxiety, Bion’s theory of containment, and Ruth’s therapeutic stance of acceptance over forced abstinence. He recounts quitting when he fell in love with Kathy, then relapsing at a party and, later, buying from a dealer in Camden during Kathy’s trip to New York.

Back in the present, Theo smokes too rapidly and becomes intensely stoned. Searching for the TV remote, he knocks Kathy’s open laptop, which reveals her email inbox. Subject lines with sexual language and repeated messages from “BADBOY22” catch his eye.

Compelled, Theo reads multiple emails between Kathy and BADBOY22, ranging from explicit to confessional, implying late-night secrecy while Theo slept. The realization that Kathy is having an affair shatters him.

The shock snaps Theo into painful sobriety. Overwhelmed by nausea and betrayal, he runs to the bathroom and vomits, ending the chapter in visceral devastation.