The Humans

Isobel and Andrew return to bed and discuss Gulliver. Isobel is concerned about him and says that she doesn’t know him anymore. Andrew asks her existential questions about what it means to truly know someone or to know yourself. Feeling vulnerable, Andrew is grateful to have Isobel’s company in the bed with him. They turn off the lights, and Isobel goes to sleep. Andrew ponders the human fear of the dark; he realizes that humans need one another to get through the dark night.

Andrew communicates with his home planet to ask for more time to gather information on the humans. When his leaders remind him that humans are primitive and therefore he doesn’t need more time to get to know them, Andrew tells them “You are wrong. They exist simultaneously in two worlds—the world of appearances and the world of truth” (209). Andrew proposes that humans live in a conscious state and a subconscious one, such as when Gulliver attacked him in his sleep. Andrew believes that they can better understand how to deal with humans in the future if they can develop a better working knowledge of how humans live. He assures them that Gulliver’s mind has been erased—he won’t remember anything about the Riemann hypothesis. 

The next morning, Isobel speaks with Gulliver about the night before. She tells him he must have had sleep psychosis but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with him. She’s puzzled to see that Andrew’s face has completely healed from the attack. She encourages Gulliver to take the day off from school, but he insists he’s okay. Later, Andrew finds a manuscript of a novel Isobel has written and hidden away. In the pages, the narrator depicts an unhappy housewife craving a more fulfilling life. He doesn’t read the whole manuscript, feeling it’s an intrusion. He tells Isobel he found the book and wants to get to know her better. Isobel is confused and perhaps angry at this newfound interest in her. The phone rings, interrupting their conversation. On the other line is Ari, supposedly Andrew’s best friend. He asks Andrew to go out with him and talk about the “secret” Andrew told him about a week before. Andrew agrees to meet with Ari, worried that he will have to eliminate another human life.

Human life is becoming more and more comfortable for Andrew. He no longer finds his own reflection in the mirror repulsive, and he is starting to see how beautiful Isobel is.

Andrew’s home planet communicates with him again. They remind him that his mission was never meant to take this long, and though they acknowledge that it can be easy to adapt to a different planet, their expectations for Andrew haven’t changed. 

Andrew reflects that humans avoid the question of their mortality through hobbies and other such distractions. He discovers that for the human Andrew, football is a distraction. Though his team, Cambridge United, doesn’t win a lot of matches, Andrew believes that the sense of loss is good for humans. He realizes: “The truth is, you see, however much they would beg to disagree, humans don’t actually like to win. Or rather, they like winning for ten seconds, but if they keep on winning, they end up actually having to think about other things, like life and death” (229).

He meets up with Ari to watch Cambridge United play. Ari asks him how he’s doing, and he’s taken aback when Andrew quotes Emily Dickinson when talking about Isobel. Though Andrew is concerned that Ari knows about the Riemann hypothesis, the secret Ari wants to talk about is Andrew’s affair with a student. As they leave the stadium, a man tries to pick a fight with Ari and Andrew. Andrew subdues him with his supernatural abilities, surprising Ari. When it starts to rain, Andrew runs away—he has learned how to adapt to many aspects of life on Earth, but he still fears rain.

Back at home, Isobel struggles to change a lightbulb. When the new bulb falls and shatters, Andrew can see how stressed she is. While she’s not looking, he uses his abilities to turn the original bulb on again. They embrace and hold one another in comfort and support.

At Daniel Russell’s funeral, people cry, and Isobel comforts Tabitha. Andrew finds Tabitha older, even though it’s only been a week since he last saw her. Isobel offers to help Tabitha, and later she holds to the promise and does Tabitha’s grocery shopping with her. When she comes back from shopping, Isobel remarks to Andrew that he’s starting to look more like himself again.

Andrew returns to work. In his office, he finds a small book titled The Zeta Function, which details the human Andrew’s attempts at discovering the Riemann hypothesis. Though humans have made many technological strides, it is notable to Andrew that they haven’t been able to discover the secrets of living forever. Of course, once human Andrew did figure it out, he was killed. As Andrew contemplates the futility of human endeavors in mathematics, the phone rings. It’s Isobel, reminding him that he’s late for his lecture. A voice from Andrew’s home planet warns him that they are listening, and to be careful.

Andrew arrives late to his lecture, where 102 students watch him silently until one finally makes a loud joke about Andrew being clothed. The students laugh, and Andrew makes jokes about himself as well. He realizes that the laughter makes him feel warm. He finds that he enjoys talking mathematics with the students. They are easy to amuse, which he does by challenging the notion that if there were aliens, humans would know because they would have made contact. Andrew jokes that aliens wouldn’t want anything to do with Earth. After class, a young woman with attractive features who did not participate in the jokes against Andrew approaches him. He notes that she doesn’t keep the usual distance between human bodies. Her name is Maggie, and she alludes to a conversation they had had earlier. She tells him it’s not the kind of conversation they can have in a lecture hall, then she walks away. Andrew is confused by the interaction and decides that he doesn’t like Maggie.

Andrew meets with Ari later for a snack. He tells Ari about the conversation he had with his students about aliens. Ari’s opinion on extraterrestrial life is that aliens definitely do exist, but they wouldn’t want to come to Earth. He goes on to analyze that humans think they want to find out about other life in the universe, but they don’t really because then they would have to admit that they’re not the center of the universe. As they talk, Andrew notices flashes of violet in the corners of his eyes. Just as he is about to tell Ari that he is an alien living among humans, the violet color takes over and excruciating pain cripples him. He fights through it before Ari can call an ambulance. When he comes to, he changes the subject.

Later that day, Gulliver comes home with a black eye. He doesn’t answer questions about what happened. Andrew says that they must let Gulliver make his own mistakes, but Isobel is upset by this response, shocked that Andrew could speak so casually about people inflicting pain on other people, especially on their son. Andrew realizes that he does in fact care for Gulliver. He believes this realization has come from the violet attack—that the possibility of pain is where love grows out of. He senses that this is a very bad realization for him.

Andrew looks for Gulliver. He sees that he’s hanging off the gutters in the rain. Andrew fights through his own fear of the rain and follows him out. When Gulliver sees him, he tells him to go away. As Andrew slowly approaches him, he realizes that Gulliver is trying to die by suicide. Though this would solve a major problem for Andrew, he doesn’t want Gulliver to die and tries to convince Gulliver not to jump. Gulliver tells him the last time he was happy was when he was a child learning how to swim with Andrew in France. He tells him it’s not easy to be his son, and Andrew then notices that Gulliver is high on diazepam. Gulliver starts to tilt over the roof, the diazepam setting in and putting him to sleep. When Gulliver falls off the roof, Andrew grabs his body and falls with him. Andrew breaks his legs upon impact and tries to reconstruct his bones through his pain. Gulliver lies on the ground, blood leaking from his ear. Andrew must heal himself before he can heal Gulliver, but by the time he is able to start with Gulliver, Gulliver appears dead. Andrew remembers the message of hope in Isobel’s book and attempts to revive Gulliver.

Reviving Gulliver is a difficult and painful process. As Andrew continues to hope for his recovery, he imagines Emily Dickinson poetry. Finally, he feels Gulliver’s heartbeat returning. The color violet clouds his head again, but Andrew fights through the pain to save Gulliver. Andrew hears footsteps behind him as he begins to collapse to the ground, while Gulliver slowly wakes up.