Summary
The next section begins with another description of the cranes migrating out of Kearney. Then it shifts focus to Gerald Weber, a noted neuroscientist who is in the later stages of his career. He resides in New York City with his wife, Sylvie. Weber reflects on when he first learned about Capgras, as he considers whether or not to travel out to Kearney and meet Mark. He mulls over his options with Sylvie. He decides, with some encouragement from her, to go.
Weber travels to Kearney and meets Karin. Karin explains how Mark has been acting ever since the accident and describes his paranoid thinking. He tells her more about Capgras, explaining that Mark has retrograde amnesia. Karin takes Weber to meet Mark. Mark treats Weber with hostility and suspicion. Weber administers a series of tests to Mark.
The two men talk. Mark tells Weber to bring back his real sister. Weber meets up with Karin in the waiting room after the session has ended. Karin expresses hope that Weber can help Mark. Weber says he likes Mark but that there are no guarantees about his condition improving. He takes notice of Barbara and her calming demeanor with Mark.
Back at his hotel, Weber calls Sylvie. Weber talks about finding the meeting with Mark unsettling, despite having encountered Capgras on numerous previous occasions. They talk about his flight home and say goodbye shortly after. He goes to bed feeling anxious. He listens to the tape of Mark's interview before falling asleep. The following day, Weber interviews a doctor about Mark's crash. The doctors speak to Weber somewhat dismissively about his theories. Weber also interviews Bonnie, asks about what Mark used to be like before the accident.
Weber continues to give Mark various tests. At one point, while Weber is giving one of these tests, Mark rails against Karin, saying that his real sister is his closest ally in life, but that the woman sitting in front of him is obviously not her. She bursts into tears. Mark continues to be aggressive and rejects Karin's defense of her authenticity. Weber broaches the subject of Capgras and Mark rejects this as well. Weber returns to his hotel and speaks with his wife again.
Weber returns to the hospital for the third day and finds Mark playing video games with his friends. Mark is compliant with Weber's tests but still calls his identity into question. Weber spends some time with Barbara and begins to feel an attraction to her. That night, he sleeps poorly and wakes up in a cold sweat at four in the morning. He leaves the hotel and watches a beautiful sunrise make its way over the town. He makes his way to a diner and has breakfast. He makes small talk with the waitress, who expresses affection and concern for Mark.
On the final day of his visit, Weber returns to the hospital to say goodbye to Mark and Karin. Mark says once again that Karin is not his sister. Weber finds it remarkable that Mark so readily rejects Karin but manages to accept him. As he leaves, Weber once again reminds Karin that the illness has not targeted her, but rather that it impacts the closest relations in the sufferer's life. She expresses mild hope he will get better, which Weber hesitates to support or dismiss. Weber flies home.
Analysis
Identity is a major part of this section. As Weber observes Mark, he struggles to feel qualified and competent. At one point, as he reflects on his career, he recalls that he began grouping people into various personality types. As his work required him to meet strangers that he would never see again, he began to lose a sense of people as individuals. He feels this acutely in Kearney as he has sympathy for Mark and Karin but cannot help but feel he is going through the motions while working with them. He feels a doubled loss of identity; he does not think he is capable of helping or even understanding Mark and also thinks that Mark, and the people around him, are entirely predictable variations of different types. Weber's perception puts an interesting spin on Mark's condition: though Weber is a renowned scientist, an emblem of rational analysis, we see him questioning the authentic individuality of other people—a similar doubt, in some ways, to the one that Mark holds.
The mind is also a major theme in this part of the book. Weber remarks to his wife that, even after all of his years of experience, seeing a patient suffering from Capgras frightens him. It is such a devastating and unusual condition that it continues to unnerve him. He has several thoughts like this over the course of his time with Mark. He is mystified by the way that his mind works, particularly in his aggressive rejection of his sister and the medical diagnosis he has received. Weber doesn't see Mark so much as an individual person, but instead as a manifestation of cognitive abnormalities. In trying, and largely failing, to get a sense of who Mark actually is at his core, Weber is only left further astounded by the human mind. Weber's perspective suggests that for all of the innovations in neuroscience, the workings of the human brain remain largely unknowable, even to seasoned researchers.
Love is also an important theme in this section of the book. Weber watches Karin suffer immensely as Mark struggles with his diagnosis. He rejects her repeatedly, accusing her of being sent by some secret organization that is conspiring against him. Weber is depressed by Karin's wishful inquiries about the possibility of Mark improving. He is cautious not to offer her too much hope or reassurance about the matter. He thinks to himself that she, like many relatives of the ill, is really the one who needs care, as she is suffering just as much as Mark, if not more. These observations about Karin indicate how painful it is for her to both love and care for Mark.
Imposters also appear as a recurring motif in this section. While Mark is busy accusing the people around him of being imposters, Weber himself feels like an imposter. His career is at a relative low point, as his previous publications have come under scrutiny and criticism. As he works through Mark's case he feels no real certainty in his findings and instead constantly perceives his actions as hollow and meaningless. While talking to both Mark and Karin, he repeatedly catches himself repeating things he has said or done with other patients and case studies. To Weber, the entire trip feels like an empty exercise. He perceives himself as a fake, merely performing the role of an intellectual. He believes that he is the true imposter, not Karin.
Weber functions as an observer throughout this section, reintroducing the characters the reader has met in the first part. He views them from a clinical remove as he tries to put together a summary of Mark's case. He struggles with his sense of self as he feels detached from Karin and Mark and doubts his own abilities as a neuroscientist. In direct contrast to Karin's hope expressed at the end of part one when she meets him, the portrayal of Weber here is anything but heartening, as he seems to be experiencing a crisis of his own. The narrative voice remains almost entirely centered on Weber throughout this part of the book. Like the previous sections depicting Karin, Mark, and the cranes, Weber's passages act as a reflection of his mind state. His sections are filled with terms from both neurology and psychology, as Weber attempts to dissect Mark's illness while wrestling with his inadequacies as a researcher. This language crops up because he feels himself trying to do his job while also being keenly aware of his limitations. He perceives the emptiness of his assessments and comments, knowing that falling back on technical jargon will do little to help, or even understand, Mark.
