Summary
Charmaine rides to the funeral with Ed, who pats her arm and offers condolences. His voice and stature differ from what she heard and saw on TV. She sees his interest in her and wonders what he’d be like in bed. He tells her she can rely on him. She figures that, if she must give him something, as the situation dictates, he’ll need to grovel a bit first.
Meanwhile, Stan receives a pat on the shoulder from Budge—a signal. He shows him all the Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley bots that get sent to Las Vegas. Stan learns that the blue teddy bears are included with the “kiddybots.” Stan says it’s disgusting, but his coworkers say it might actually prevent real children from being sexually exploited. Plus, the line sells well and provides jobs.
Budge takes Stan away from the other workers for his “test run” in a private room. Instead, Budge takes him to his office and explains that he has to ship Stan out of the facility. Budge himself was snuck inside in a box of torso parts with ID. He says he and Conor go way back. Budge won’t say how they got involved or who is paying them. He’ll make Stan look like an Elvis bot and smuggle him out that way. Budge explains that a woman will guide him; their other line is wiping people’s memories of attachment to people so their minds can imprint, like a duckling. A man can order a woman, and then she is shipped to him. She wakes up in his bed and is devoted to the man forever. His “guide” is a woman for whom the experiment went wrong because the timing of her waking up was off.
At the staged funeral, Charmaine wonders what would happen if she asked to have the coffin opened to see her husband one last time. Ed holds her arm. When he briefly leaves her side, Aurora offers to bring Charmaine home and give her more “grief therapy,” insisting, against Charmaine’s protests, that she needs it. Meanwhile, Stan meets his guide: Veronica, from PixelDust, who has been transformed by plastic surgery. She can’t remember him. He is attracted to her, but she shows no interest. They are in one of the suites where customers are supposed to meet their “customized individuals.” Veronica explains that after the operation, a nurse gave her a teddy bear that she imprinted on. All men leave her frigid now, but she keeps her love in her purse. Stan thinks it’s a waste.
Back at home after the funeral, Jocelyn reveals her identity to Charmaine while Aurora is in the room. Jocelyn explains that she didn’t really kill Stan, but her grief had to be genuine. She plays Charmaine a recording of Stan saying he is safe and that she should listen to what they tell her to do. Charmaine learns that Ed ordered a sex robot version of her. Jocelyn says he’ll want the real thing soon enough, and when he gets tired of her, she’ll be tossed aside. They want her to cozy up to Ed and report back with any information they can use against him. She agrees on the condition that she can play the modest widow and not actually have sex with him.
Veronica instructs Stan to get dressed as an Elvis robot, which includes a black wig and chunky rings. She dresses as Marilyn Monroe. They let Budge load them into boxes to be shipped that night to Vegas. She gives him a pill to knock him out, but he doesn’t want to take it. Once packed, Veronica communicates through a walkie-talkie and reassures him they’re loaded and ready to go.
Ed takes Charmaine to dinner at Together, the restaurant she ate at with Stan the night they arrived in Consilience. Ed toasts to a brighter future. As Ed talks about Stan, Charmaine realizes he knows that she killed him and is holding the truth over her; he doesn’t know that Stan is actually alive though. Charmaine reminds herself to be “vulnerable, but inaccessible,” as Jocelyn instructed. Ed offers her an easier job being his assistant. She feels his knee nudging hers under the table. Meanwhile, Stan wakes up while in transit, needing to pee. Veronica reassures him the flight will be over soon. He hears her seemingly having sex with her blue teddy bear.
Charmaine reports on her evening date with Ed to Jocelyn and Aurora. They are glad he’s hiring her. Charmaine then starts her job sitting at a desk outside Ed’s office. There is little work to do. She knows the job is just an excuse to keep her close. She reports to Jocelyn that three state governors called Ed, exciting him because each wants a project in their state. On the second week, Charmaine asks what he’s doing with her. Jocelyn says she isn’t sure, but his sex robot of her is almost complete. She feels a chill of terror when watching surveillance footage of Ed checking out the robot. Jocelyn says he’s afraid of rejection, and the bot will never reject him like the real Charmaine might.
One day after work, Charmaine returns home to find Jocelyn there. She offers Charmaine a scotch and tells her that Ed is in the hospital infirmary because he had an accident with his Possibilibot. Jocelyn cryptically confesses to sabotaging the bot so that it would have an electrical short while Ed was testing it. He ordered the bot to be destroyed. Jocelyn says that he’ll be on his feet again soon and will want the real thing—her. She suggests Charmaine continue to lure him, but not go through with actual sex. Charmaine is pleased when Jocelyn calls her smart, having thought until now that Jocelyn thought she was an idiot.
Stan is unpacked from his satin coffin shipping box by a group of Elvis impersonators. Based on the way they speak, he infers that they’re all gay men. They say Veronica is with the Marilyns. They instruct him how to sound like Elvis, saying they serve different roles, such as Wedding Elvis, Escort Elvis, and Retirement Home Elvis. They decide to start Stan as one of those, because it’s least demanding. They get him settled in the Elvisorium and explain that Budge is paying them to be Stan’s cover. They encourage him to go out and about in Vegas dressed as Elvis. He does so, learning to blend in. No one comes to collect his belt buckle and the flash drive contained within. He keeps it under his pillow. He meets Veronica on the street one day and she briefly checks in to make sure he’s alright. He then starts work at the Ruby Slippers home handing out flowers to elderly female palliative care patients. He finds that he genuinely enjoys bringing joy to the dying women.
Analysis
The theme of exploitation arises as Ed turns up at Charmaine’s house to accompany her to the funeral. While Ed knows that Charmaine killed Stan, he is using the opportunity of her feigned grief to swoop in and attempt to seduce her. Knowing Charmaine is being manipulated into going along with the grieving widow act, Ed sees nothing wrong with exploiting Charmaine’s situation and insinuating himself into being a shoulder to cry on.
Atwood continues building on the themes of greed and exploitation with Budge’s and Veronica’s explanation of Positron’s latest venture: a non-consensual neurosurgical operation in which a person’s emotional attachments are erased and they imprint like a duckling onto whomever they see first upon waking. The scheme involves abducting women and performing the surgery on them without their consent, effectively turning them into sex slaves for any man with the money to pay for the evil service. In an instance of situational irony, Veronica’s surgery went awry when she woke up to see a blue teddy bear’s face and became hopelessly devoted to the toy.
After days of misleading and manipulating Charmaine, Jocelyn finally reveals that Charmaine didn’t kill Stan and he is safe. Ready to exploit any situation she can, Jocelyn realizes that she can bring Charmaine in on her plan and make use of Ed’s interest in Charmaine, instructing Charmaine to spy on Ed as he tries to get close to her. As a favor to Charmaine, Jocelyn uses her surveillance network and access to make it so Ed’s genitalia is injured while he has sex with the Possibilibot version of Charmaine.
However, in an instance of situational irony, the plan to injure Ed to keep him away from Charmaine backfires. Angry with the malfunctioning Possibilibot, Ed now wants the real Charmaine. But even this can be turned to Jocelyn's advantage, and she uses it as an opportunity to get Charmaine even closer to Ed. Despite the fact she is still being used as a pawn, Charmaine shows once again her suggestibility by feeling genuinely flattered when Jocelyn compliments her intelligence. In reality, Jocelyn is exploiting Charmaine’s need for approval and susceptibility to dominant personalities. Despite no wish to have sex with Ed, Charmaine agrees to continue drawing him toward her.
Meanwhile, Stan also continues to go along with Jocelyn’s elaborate plan. Disguised as an Elvis Possibilibot, Stan travels in a crate to Las Vegas, where he is given shelter by a group of Elvis impersonators who who perform various functions like officiating weddings and delighting elderly female care-home patients. Despite the bizarreness of the situation, Stan goes about his work as an Elvis impersonator, wondering when—and to whom—he will be able to deliver the damning information hidden in his belt buckle.
