Contents
Chapter 37: Tris
Overview
Four takes Tris into the Dauntless simulation room for her first fear test. In a harrowing scenario, Tris tries to save her father but misfires and watches him die. Four comforts and assesses her fear as about capability, urging practice. They negotiate a tentative trust, sealed with a cheek kiss.
Summary
Four leads Tris through Dauntless headquarters to the simulation room, whose realistic fire display underscores the guild’s intimacy with fear. He warns that once started, she cannot escape the simulation without facing it. Tris insists on proceeding, and the room dissolves into her test.
In the simulation, a gun lies on a table while Tris’s terrified, bound father stands opposite her. Weaver, a Dauntless woman, presses a gun to Tris’s head and orders her to act. Trusting the unreality of the sim, Tris resists, prompting Weaver to aim at her father. Under a countdown, Tris fires but miscalculates, wounding her father as Weaver executes him. The shock and grief overwhelm Tris.
The scene drops away as Four ends the simulation and grounds Tris, taking her hands and reassuring her. He notes she escaped in record time but advises gun practice to make such scenarios more manageable. Probing her choices, he concludes her core fear is about capability—failing to act effectively when it matters—and calls her remarkable for repeatedly rising to crises.
As they leave, Tris articulates why Four values simulations: they reveal people’s cores. Outside, she proposes a pact—she won’t try to recruit him to the factionless if he trusts her motives. They shake on it. Four admits he almost trusts her and kisses her cheek, inviting her to return before disappearing into his building.
Who Appears
- TrisUndergoes her first Dauntless fear simulation, misfires and watches her father die; seeks capability; forges tentative trust with Four.
- FourGuides and observes Tris’s fear sim, analyzes her fear as capability, advises practice; agrees to a trust pact and kisses her cheek.
- WeaverDauntless woman in the simulation who forces Tris’s choice and kills Tris’s father.
- Tris’s fatherAppears in the simulation bound and terrified; is accidentally shot by Tris and executed by Weaver.