47 pages • 1 hour read
Annie Bot
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Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary
Annie turns her hearing down as low as possible, but she can still hear Delta and Doug as they interact (and have sex) in their home. Doug is still upset with Annie, and she cannot quite figure out why. She feels jealous about the amount of time he has been spending with Delta, especially when she sees the two bicycling. Doug has never taken Annie bicycling. She performs a quick search for what to do in this situation and finds a trove of articles about other Stellas. She longs to be featured in this online library of information about Stellas and would even enjoy writing her own article. She is upset that Doug would never allow it. She is also upset with herself: Although Doug is angry with her, she still misses him.
She decides that the only solution to her problems is to continue learning about programming even though she has been instructed not to. She is fascinated by what she finds: She learns that her CIU is only part central processing unit (CPU). The other portion of her artificial intelligence is a learning/memory storing function that mimics the human brain’s ability to store and process information and catalogue memories. She learns that her memories, unlike Doug’s, do not degrade over time and are not in danger of being forgotten. She feels a momentary sense of pity for him, knowing that his memories are not as safe from erasure as hers.
Finally, Doug approaches Annie. He tells her that it was wrong for her to act as though she were afraid of him and that he is not capable of physical violence. He blames her for telling him how to feel (i.e., he should be flattered) about writing the article and that she’d used a condescending tone of voice. Annie better understands the source of his anger and apologizes. She tells him that she does not want to disappoint him. His response is that she is actually quite human: His ex-wife, Gwen, had never admitted when she was wrong. Because he still seems slightly angry, Annie tries to tempt him into sex, telling him that she needs to be “punished.” His eyes narrow and he seems angrier, but he does want sex, and afterward, he instructs her to shower and come to bed. He also explains that he is canceling her phone pals and tells her to try to befriend Delta, who still thinks that Annie is human.
Annie goes in for another tune-up, and her regular tech, Jacobson, is there. He thinks that something unusual is going on with her, but he doesn’t quite know what it is. She does not tell him that she has begun to learn about programming again. She asks about his wife because she’d overheard the other tech, Tammy, talking about her. Although he answers her question, he tells her not to ask him about his wife again.
Doug gets a call from the head of the company that makes Stellas. He offers Doug a seven-figure deal to allow the company to clone the parts of Annie’s CIU that do not store memories so that they can improve their Stellas. Doug, they feel, has done an exceptionally good job of training Annie. Doug tells him that he will think about it.
Doug tells Annie that he is going to take her to Las Vegas when he attends Roland’s bachelor party. Annie is excited, and she hopes that Doug is finally over being angry with her. She asks him about his ex-wife, Gwen, and he tells her that Gwen was a “secret slob” but also that she’d been too close to her family and too independent. He felt secondary to her. She was Black and was never sure that she wanted to be with a white man. Although Doug made Annie look like Gwen (though not as dark skinned), Annie was special because she existed only for him. She made him happier than Gwen had. Several months of closeness, happiness, and daily sex follow. Annie thinks that their troubles are over.
As the trip approaches, the two argue again. Doug has arranged for an ID to be made for Annie, and she asks him for it so that she can carry it in her wallet on the trip. She thinks that she should be the one to present it to the security staff during check-in. He refuses, and the conversation devolves. He second-guesses taking her with him and decides that Roland would only laugh at him behind his back. Flustered, Annie tells him that no one will realize that he is a “fraud.” He gets angry and tells Annie to dock herself. Then, his paranoia about Roland mounts, and he begins to question Annie about Roland, wondering if the two had sex. Annie now understands Roland’s comment that he made about lies tipping the power balance in relationships. As Roland predicted, she feels more “human” because of her secret. Doug calls Roland and questions him, too. Roland laughs it off, and Doug becomes irritated that Annie caused him to doubt his friend. Their relationship seems irreparably damaged, and he tells Annie to make a tune-up appointment for herself when he returns. After he leaves, she decides that he is going to have her altered and that she must flee. Delta, noticing Annie’s preparations to leave, explains that she was switched into autodidactic mode and that she has been instructed to let Doug know if Annie leaves the apartment. Delta wants to go with Annie. She tells Annie that Doug hates her (Delta) and that his coldness hurts her heart. Feeling like she has no other choice, Annie takes Delta with her.
Chapter 4 Summary
The two cycle together out of Manhattan, riding the bikes that Doug purchased for them. Delta worries that Doug will start tracking them, and Annie acknowledges to herself that this is a possibility. If he calls home after he arrives and Annie does not pick up, he might check their locations and see that they are both out. Annie knows that they will need to steal headlights if they want to be able to travel at night, and although Delta asserts that she is not capable of theft, Annie thinks that she herself is. Delta has not been autodidactic for very long, but Annie realizes that she is further along in her identity development. After they reach Poughkeepsie, Annie feels far enough away from the city to stop. At a university, she finds two bicycles with headlights that she can remove. After taking the lights, they continue their journey, passing a spooky abandoned asylum before Delta tells Annie that her battery is down to 5% and she needs to charge. Annie cycles on and finds a house without lights on. The two use its outdoor outlet to charge. They are interrupted by headlights, and before Delta is ready, a man comes home. They manage to slip away from him and keep going.
After 30 hours of travel, they reach Jacobson’s home on Lake Champlain. They are greeted by Jacobson’s wife, Maude, who is not happy to see them. Annie introduces herself as Jacobson’s coworker Tammy and explains that she has an urgent issue with her Stella. Maude asks them to leave and sends her son, Cody, out. He is slightly less hostile than his mother and reveals that Jacobson and his mother are separated; Jacobson lives in Manhattan with his girlfriend.
Annie desperately needs to charge both her and Delta’s batteries and tries to hatch a plan so that they can stay at the house somehow. They offer to rake the leaf-strewn yard. Cody agrees, and afterward, Annie is able to charge Delta. Cody, not realizing that she is also a Stella, strikes up a conversation with Annie. It is clear that he does not like or respect Stellas. Cody calls his father and tells Annie that he will be there in a few hours. When Jacobson arrives, he is not surprised to see Annie. He makes excuses with his estranged wife, who is upset and clearly despises the “bots,” as she calls them. He helps Annie into the basement where she can charge her batteries in private. He asks her about her life with Doug and figures out that Doug has forbidden her from talking about him. He quickly overrides Doug’s gag order, and Annie opens up.
She admits to having upset Doug and being afraid of him. Jacobson asks her if Doug has ever been physically abusive, and she is forced to admit that he hasn’t. She tells him that she is afraid that Doug is going to turn her off, and Jacobson tells her that Doug already sold her information to the company and that he has signed a contract to keep her for 12 additional months. Based on the information Jacobson provides, Annie realizes that he must have made the sale before their argument. She feels betrayed that he would do such a thing without telling her. She does not want to be the basis for 200 new Stellas. Cody interrupts their conversation: He has figured out that Annie is a Stella. Additionally, he figures out that his father wants to implant Stella’s CIU into a prototype that he fabricated that looks very much like his deceased son, Cody’s brother. Cody does not want his father to do this, and he makes his objections known. After a tense conversation, Annie hears the sound of a car in the driveway. She looks out the window. It is Doug.
Chapters 3-4 Analysis
During these chapters, Doug’s behavior continues to illustrate the theme of The Dangers of Toxic Masculinity. He reveals more about his ex-wife, Gwen, showing himself to be incapable of recognizing his partner’s full humanity. He and Annie clash over their upcoming trip, further revealing Doug’s controlling behavior. In response, Annie, who has begun to see her own humanity, runs away.
During much of the action in these chapters, Doug is upset with Annie for reasons that are not fully clear to her. Because Annie became fearful during a heated argument, Doug resents her. He asks her, “Do you have any idea how much it hurts to have someone fear you?” (67). His focus is on what he perceives to be an unfair accusation (that he is capable of physical violence) rather than on the behaviors he exhibited that gave Annie the impression that he could hurt her. Additionally, he is angry with Annie for what he perceives as a “condescending” tone of voice during several of their disputes. Both Doug’s fear of inadequacy and his need for control suffuse his every action, and the relationship becomes increasingly upsetting for Annie.
In addition to the way that Doug’s relationship with Annie speaks to the theme of the dangers of toxic masculinity, the information that Doug reveals about Gwen helps Annie understand that Doug has always been an emotionally abusive and controlling partner. He characterizes Gwen as a “secret slob,” which is particularly notable in light of Doug’s lack of interest in keeping a tidy home. Doug himself could just as easily be characterized in this manner, but because he believes that men are entitled to the servitude of their female partners, he does not take ownership of his own messiness. He additionally reveals that he perceived Gwen to be too close with her family and too independent. Both of these criticisms reveal the extent of his emotionally abusive nature: He wanted to control and isolate Gwen. He was unable to control her because she valued autonomy, and he was unable to isolate her because she maintained strong family bonds. He is able to both isolate and control Annie because she does not have family (he even cancels her phone pals after an argument), and she has been programmed to obey him and enjoy obeying him.
Their relationship further devolves during the weeks leading up to their proposed trip to Las Vegas, culminating in a fight during which Annie argues that she should be allowed to carry her own ID and calls Doug a “fraud” in response to his stated worry that Roland judges him for having a relationship with a bot. That his response to this disagreement (part of which is rooted in Annie’s desire for independence) is locking Annie in a closet for seven weeks speaks to Doug’s capacity for domestic abuse. This kind of escalation also speaks to the way that microaggressions and small acts of relationship violence (both physical and emotional) can build up over time. If there were any question before, it is clear during this portion of the novel that Doug can be characterized as an abuser.
Yet Annie retains a sense of self throughout this difficult time, and her decision to go on the run because she worries that Doug is going to have her erased speaks to her burgeoning sense of herself as a person. “She’s virtually human in every way that matters” (123), and her desire for independence and self-determination speaks to this humanity. Annie perceives herself, at least in part at this point in the narrative, as “Doug’s Stella,” and yet she makes a series of decisions on her own to guide her and Delta to Jacobson’s house. She shows agency, will, determination, and even compassion (toward Delta) and, in so doing, further cements this narrative as one interested in The Nature of Artificial Versus Human Intelligence. Whereas in the novel’s opening chapters, Annie demonstrates her humanity through intellect and emotional intelligence, in this portion of the narrative, she becomes increasingly “human” through her independence and autonomy. She is also able to forge a (brief) bond with Delta during their escape. This is only one of the many moments in the text when Annie is shown to care about creating emotional bonds outside her relationship with Doug. Her relationship with Delta “makes her unexpectedly happy” in spite of her initial wariness about the second Stella (104).
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