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 25-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary: “Half a Riddle”
S.Q. comes to the boys’ room that night and announces that Mr. Curtain wants to see them. The boys are alarmed by the summons, since Martina must have told Mr. Curtain that she did not cheat.
Mr. Curtain explains that he made Martina an Executive due to Reynie’s advice to keep those he distrusts close to him. Since there are now two Messenger positions open, Mr. Curtain is making both Reynie and Sticky Messengers. The boys are stunned and relieved.
Sticky sends a report via Morse code, and Mr. Benedict starts to send a reply: “With open eyes now you may find/A place you must exit to enter. Where one—” (310). Before he can complete it, Mr. Curtain wheels out onto the plaza, and Mr. Benedict is forced to stop. The team cannot guess what the fragment means.
Chapter 26 Summary: “The Whisperer”
Jackson wakes the boys. He blindfolds them and takes them to Mr. Curtain, who shows them the Whispering Gallery. There is a machine that resembles an old-fashioned hair dryer, with a blue helmet bolted to an armchair and a red helmet protruding behind the chair. Mr. Curtain explains that there is nothing in the room that can be used to damage the Whisperer. Its computer system and power supply are protected, and only he can open the door.
Mr. Curtain tells the boys that he controls the Whisperer, which can perceive thoughts as well as transmit them. Mr. Curtain says that he has been using the Whisperer as an “educational” tool but soon plans to make it a healing device. His thought messages must first pass through a less sophisticated mind, that of a child, before entering the Whisperer.
While seated under the helmet, the boys will hear phrases whispered to them. They must think those phrases back. Reynie realizes that Mr. Curtain is concealing that he has already been transmitting messages, by telling Messengers that they are merely “inputting data.”
Mr. Curtain says that the lessons students receive in class put a “package” of information into their minds that can be triggered by a single phrase. He says, “Poison apples, poison worms,” and the boys instantly recall the entire lesson associated with that phrase.
Mr. Curtain puts the red helmet on his head, and the blue helmet lowers onto Reynie. Metal cuffs pop out of the armrests and clamp over his wrists. Reynie hears the voice of the Whisperer, which asks his name. It hears his mental reply. The Whisperer asks what Reynie fears most. Reynie lies and thinks spiders, but the Whisperer responds to his unspoken answer, which is that he is afraid of being alone.
Reynie feels a great sense of well-being wash over him, as the Whisperer tells him that he is not alone. Reynie comes back to consciousness feeling tired and happy. All he can remember is hearing phrases and dutifully repeating them in his head.
Sticky takes Reynie’s place in the Whisperer and replies that his greatest fear is not being wanted.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Open Sesame”
At lunch the boys share their experiences and say that the Institute will close soon. A Messenger comes to their table and invites the boys to eat with the other Messengers. Reynie thanks him but says he and Sticky have had a stomach virus and should not join them.
Reynie knows that he should leave the island before his turn for the Whisperer comes again. He begins to tell the others, when Constance snaps at him to stop talking. She apologizes and says that it is his voice coming through on the boosted broadcast, and she cannot stand to hear two of him at once. Reynie realizes that Mr. Curtain recorded his broadcast.
Reynie now understands the meaning of Mr. Benedict’s last message and thinks that the boulders by the traps must contain secret entrances. Sticky remembers exactly how many steps they took while blindfolded, and Kate judges the distance they traveled.
The team sees the outline of a hidden entrance in a boulder but cannot figure out how to open it. In frustration, Reynie kicks the entrance and it opens. The team follows a passageway and finds a locked metal door.
There is a note from S.Q. with a clue to the door code. Kate punches in the code and the door opens.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Practice Makes Perfect”
The team enters a room full of printing materials. Sticky looks through the printouts and sees that they are government press releases, all dated in the future. They refer to Mr. Curtain in positions of global power.
Reynie determines that Mr. Curtain made up the Emergency to generate fear among the public that everything is hopelessly out of control. The next step in the plan is to soothe that shared fear using the Whisperer. In the end, everyone will love Mr. Curtain because his secret messages will quiet their fear and imbed benevolent impressions of him.
Reynie finds another press release claiming that Mr. Curtain is the best choice to solve the “amnesia epidemic.” Mr. Curtain plans to brainsweep those who oppose him, then bring them to the Institute for “treatment.” Reynie sees that the Institute has been an experiment for Mr. Curtain to refine and practice his methods.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Know Thine Enemy
Sticky sees that the pamphlets are printed in several languages, with maps of Sanctuaries all over the world. Kate finds the door to a warehouse with long rows of Whisperer machines.
The team returns to the dormitory and sends a message to Mr. Benedict. The reply is “Know thine enemy” (353). Kate sees a Recruiter standing under the bridge and realizes that it is Milligan, an “enemy” that they know. The team rushes out of the room and toward the bridge. Milligan wears a fine suit and silver watches, but he is not smiling, so they know he is himself. Milligan says he is there to take them away.
The children ask why they are leaving, and Milligan replies that their mission is complete. Mr. Benedict wants the children safely off the island before the Improvement. Milligan says that there is no way to stop it, so they must all go into hiding. Kate demands to know what will happen to Constance when Mr. Curtain boosts the power to maximum, but Milligan does not know.
Reynie says that he cannot leave the island, feeling ashamed that his desire to get away from the Whisperer’s temptation makes him want to flee. Kate says she is staying too. Sticky knows that they are the only ones who can fight for Mr. Benedict.
Milligan says that Mr. Benedict sent a message to remind them that each of them is essential to the success of the team. They can leave Milligan messages in a nearby drainage culvert if they need help.
Chapters 25-29 Analysis
Reynie and Sticky go through a transformational experience in this section of chapters. They find themselves brought before Mr. Curtain, who looks more threatening than ever before. Mr. Curtain understands that the boys are terrified, and he enjoys manipulating their emotions. Reynie and Sticky are delighted by the news that Mr. Curtain plans to promote them to Messengers: “Here they’d been afraid something terrible was in store for them—instead, their mission had leaped forward! Messengers at last!” (308).
Mr. Curtain’s ego is highly inflated, and he expects everyone around him to recognize his superior intellect. He reveals his high opinion of himself when describing the Whisperer: “It has been fashioned with the human brain as a model—my human brain, in fact, which as you might suspect is quite an excellent one. And it is my brain that controls it!” (318).
Reynie and Sticky learn why Mr. Curtain needs children for his plan to take over the world. Mr. Curtain downplays the limitations of the Whisperer while touting its brilliance, but it appears that his own thoughts are too complex for the Whisperer to process directly. They must be filtered through a child’s mind, after which they are “more easily processed” (319).
Mr. Benedict had wondered how the seemingly simple subliminal messages could affect people so strongly, and now they know: “Mr. Benedict’s Receiver was able to detect the ‘package’ phrases, but not the information contained in them” (321). Each phrase encapsulates an extensive amount of information that can be delivered in a short amount of time.
Once he experiences the pure pleasure of connecting with the Whisperer, Reynie understands why Messengers desperately watched the classroom doors, hoping that Jackson would arrive to escort them for a session. When they children cooperate, the Whisperer rewards them by soothing their fears, and this relaxed feeling is incredibly addictive. As soon as he relinquishes the seat to Sticky, Reynie misses being connected to the Whisperer.
Sticky also experiences the profound effect of the Whisperer. His greatest fear is being unwanted, since he feels unwanted by his parents. The Whisperer makes Sticky feel wanted and changes him in ways that he finds disturbing. When the other Messengers invite Reynie and Sticky to join their lunch table, Sticky is eager to abandon his true friends for the company of others who have experienced the Whisperer. Though this reaction is involuntary—Stick notes that it “was as if the Whisperer had opened a door, and now Sticky couldn’t close it again”—afterward he feels so ashamed he can barely face his friends.
Once the team finds the hidden printing room, they discover the full extent of Mr. Curtain’s plans. His desire for control extends beyond the local area to the country and the world. Mr. Curtain is so sure that his grandiose plans will succeed that he has already authorized printings that reflect the elevated positions he plans to assume as he takes over the minds of the general populace. These press releases again reveal his egomania: “ESTEEMED SCIENTIST AND EDUCATOR APPOINTED TO IMPORTANT POST” (346). From there Mr. Curtain intends to move on to increasingly global positions of authority. All the puzzle pieces of the various mysteries surrounding Mr. Curtain’s hidden messages fall into place, but this discovery does not soothe Reynie: “he’d finally succeeded in translating hieroglyphics only to discover he’d translated a curse” (347).
Having discovered the mechanisms and proof of Mr. Curtain’s designs, the team hurries to report back to Mr. Benedict. It is ironic that they uncover all of the Institute’s plots just before these plans are set into motion. Reynie can’t help but think they are too late, “[m]uch, much too late!” (353).
The team learns that Mr. Benedict also believes that it is too late. Fearing for the children’s safety, Mr. Benedict sends Milligan to call them back. Kate is incensed that they are being compelled to give up without a proper fight, especially since they all know what will happen to Constance once the transmissions increase to full power; Milligan is silent when Kate asks him what will happen to Constance because there is nothing to say. Despite their earlier antipathy, the team has come to love Constance and feels the need to protect her.
Though he was relieved at the thought of leaving the island before facing the Whisperer again, Reynie realizes that he cannot abandon his duty. He must put the salvation of the vulnerable ahead of his own personal fear. Although “Mr. Benedict would never ask it of him, […] he must ask it of himself” (361). This conviction demonstrates that selflessness and a strong sense of morality comprise the core of Reynie’s being.
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