Summary
Theo gifts Kitsey his mother's diamond and emerald earrings for Christmas, fantasizing that she'll wear them to their wedding. Within two months of the dinner party the Barbours organize for Theo, he starts dating Kitsey, and she asks him to marry her, knowing it would make her mother very happy. Theo agrees, knowing that he can't continue to obsess over Pippa, though he still feels the misery of being in love with her. Despite this pain, he sees that Mrs. Barbour is overjoyed by their engagement, and she tells Theo that she feels as if he is one of her own. He also enjoys Kitsey's company, though he doesn't like that she seems unbothered by the death of her father and brother, and wishes she would talk about it with him, or at least display some grief.
For months, Theo has ignored Lucius Reeve's constant letters, including his letters to Hobie. Lucius has hired several men to follow Theo, Hobie, and all of the workers around the shop, and Theo knows that the lease on the storage container where he has stashed the painting needs to be renewed in three months. He also doesn't want to implicate Hobie in his illegal activities. Panicked about the painting, he decides to go to a bar and buy some pills from a local drug dealer.
Instead of finding the drug dealer at the bar, he runs into Boris and his business partner, Myriam. Boris tells him that he came by the shop when Theo wasn't there, and asks Theo to sit down with him so they can talk. Boris tells Theo that he has a wife and three kids in Stockholm, whom he doesn't often see. He mostly works in the US with a company called Polish Cleaning Service, which is also involved in several illegal ventures.
After Theo left, Boris never sold any of the cocaine he stole from Xandra, but started taking some of Theo's father's opiates. Because Boris took all of Xandra's cocaine, she gets in trouble with her dealers. Boris moves in with Xandra after his father is transferred to Australia, and he starts selling coke, paying off Xandra's debt to her creditors in the process. He eventually develops an addiction to coke, but comes off it and starts working again. He asks Theo to start working for him, but Theo refuses and takes him to Hobie and Popchik, who Boris picks up as they drive to a club together.
When they leave the club, Theo notices Boris's star of David tattoo, which he got in an attempt to work for Namaan Silver. Theo also notices the needle marks on Boris's arm. They head to a bar, and Boris tells him that he stole the painting from him after Theo showed Boris the painting while he was blackout drunk. Since then, Boris has used the painting as collateral for his drug deals, leading to the shootout in Miami which Lucius accuses him of being involved in. Boris promises to return the painting to Theo, and when Theo unwraps the package he has kept in storage, he finds an old textbook.
Boris brings Popchik back to Theo's house, and apologizes for stealing the painting, promising to get it back. He isn't sure of its exact whereabouts, but knows that it is somewhere in Europe. Theo is angry that Boris lied to him, and they agree to discuss the matter in depth later.
Theo meets with Mrs. Barbour before they plan to head to dinner, and they talk about Tom Cable and Andy's bullies. Kitsey is delayed and they push the dinner back to 10 PM. Boris insists that Theo travel with him to meet someone involved in the loss of the painting, so he heads uptown with Boris to meet Horst. Horst lives in a large house on 5th Avenue, and they enter the house to find a large collection of black-market paintings that are for sale. Horst claims that the painting is in Ireland, but Boris doesn't believe that to be true. They quickly leave Horst's house when one of his housemates overdoses, and Boris tells him he suspects Sascha, another person involved in the deal, of taking the painting, and promises to ask one of his partners to find out if this is true.
On his way back, he tries to see Kitsey but her roommate bars him from entering their apartment. Outside, he sees her walking with Tom Cable, and realizes she is cheating on him. Boris comes by and tells him that he is close to tracking down the painting, and that it is in New York, but Theo is too distracted by Kitsey's deceit to listen closely. When he confronts her about it, she initially denies it, then insists they are perfect for each other, and should stay together because they are compatible, her mother loves him, and she knows about and accepts his drug use and bad friends.
Theo comes home to find Pippa, and he is overjoyed to see her. He asks her to go to a movie with him, but she doesn't enjoy the movie and he barely talks her into getting a drink with him near the movie theater. At the bar, they talk about the explosion, and Pippa shares the emotional and psychological weight of Welty's death, and how she blames herself for it. Theo feels very comfortable around her, and they bond, but they both seem to know that they cannot be together.
For Theo and Kitsey's engagement party, Anne de Larmessin, a family friend, organizes most of the event and plans their wedding. Theo shows up to the party drunk, and regrets the hundreds of people crowding the hall, as it prevents him from seeing the fine architectural details of the building. At the party, Theo darts around and is introduced to Havistock Irving, who knows Lucius Reeve and says that Theo should respond to his messages, as Lucius is looking into Theo's other fraudulent sales. Theo tells Hobie about the interaction, and learns that Havistock is not his real name, and that he used to go by Sloan. He and his partner, Lucian Race, were caught by Hobie and Welty, as they tried to exploit elderly people and illegally sold their antiques. Welty testified against them and sent Lucian Race to jail, but Sloan departed. Theo realizes that Lucian Race is Lucius Reeve, then finds Boris at the party and tells him. Boris asks him to leave the party and to bring his passport and cash so they can go to Amsterdam for three days and retrieve the painting. Theo kisses Kitsey, then leaves his engagement party with Boris.
Analysis
Though Theo is engaged to Kitsey, he is still in love with Pippa, and he is forced to accept the fact that he may never get over her. Theo knows that his affection for Kitsey is mostly empty, but he does still care for her more than the other people he was briefly entangled with, and he enjoys being close with the Barbours. But, as Theo finds out that Kitsey is in love with his old rival Tom Cable, he realizes that his engagement is a sham, and both he and Kitsey are trying to keep up appearances and settle down. They both keep secrets from each other and love other people, so they agree to stay engaged.
The stress of his love life and Lucius's constant calls leads Theo to start using again. Similar to his run-in with Platt, Theo runs into Boris unexpectedly while desperately looking for drugs. He goes out with Boris later that night, and learns that his anxieties and fears were largely unwarranted, that Boris's plea for him to stay was an attempt to return the painting. This realization is jarring, especially since Lucius's attempts to destroy Hobie's shop are based on Boris's illegal activities. But Boris vows to help return the painting, and Theo is forced back into Boris's orbit, reconciling a broken friendship.
Theo's reluctance to open the package and look at the painting after his father's death is also telling, as he avoids interacting with the painting and tries to forget it, despite being overwhelmed by constant anxiety over it and the metaphorical weight that it carries. When he returns to New York, Theo tries to look away from his past and distance himself from the bombing, but his attempts go wrong, and he numbs himself instead of facing his wrongdoings and his emotions. This destructive behavior is even more tragic because if he had faced his fear and tried to unwrap the pillowcase and see the painting, he would have learned that he didn't have it, and most of his anxiety would have been assuaged.
Boris's return forces Theo to confront his past and fight for the painting. As his engagement is disintegrating, Theo agrees to go to Amsterdam. Lucius's threats, Kitsey's deceit, Boris's return, and his enduring love for Pippa completely upend the structures Theo has built for himself, and he leaves for Amsterdam knowing that he has to find the painting, the one constant item in his life, and get it back.
Before he leaves for Amsterdam, Theo learns that Lucius is a criminal who Welty helped to imprison. His vengeance motivates his desire to take down the shop and secure the painting. This realization also gives Theo an opportunity to reconcile with Hobie after his return from Amsterdam, as Hobie knows that Lucius is trying to hurt the shop.
