53 pages • 1 hour read
Something in the Water
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Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Interview One”
Erin has the first interview for her documentary at Holloway Prison with Holli Byford, whose five-year sentence for arson is almost up. While she’s there, Mark calls with “panic in his voice” (34). His boss fired him because someone snitched Mark was thinking about changing companies. After she hangs up, Erin puts his situation out of her mind because “it’ll all be fine by tomorrow” (36).
Holli relays how she got arrested for setting a bus on fire during the London Riots. Erin asks if Holli would do something like that again when she’s out of prison. Holli says she won’t, but it’s an obvious lie; it’s clear she thrived off her crime. When Erin asks what Holli’s plans are once she’s released, Holli’s demeanor shifts. In a blink, she becomes “a normal twenty-three-year-old woman” (42). Unsettled by the sudden change, Erin speeds through the rest of the interview.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Giving Me Away”
Chapter 6 picks up a week after Mark is fired. He isn’t taking the loss of his job well, and they’re throwing a dinner party because “we need a night off” (45). Tonight, Erin plans to ask an old friend to give her away at her wedding. This sets Erin off thinking about her parents. Her mother died in a car wreck, and her father’s been absent ever since. Erin fears her friend will bring up her parents when she pops the question. Mark says they’ll deal with it together, and with that, they decide to “dinner-party the hell out of this” (48)
Chapter 7 Summary: “Wedding Dress”
A few days later, Erin gets her wedding dress altered. Though the dress is perfect, she’s still upset about Mark’s job and is “detached and unsure of how to feel” (49). After alterations, Erin and Caro go for lunch. Erin explains how Mark’s company forced him into resigning and then rants about how poorly Mark is dealing with the situation. She wants to help but doesn’t know how. Caro offers generic advice and comfort, and Erin realizes “there’s no point in this conversation” (53) because she and Caro aren’t that kind of close friends.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Food Tasting”
A week and a half later, Erin and Mark attend the food tasting to select the menu for the wedding. It feels strange to do things for the wedding in the midst of Mark’s job loss, but they “can’t put life on hold” (55). They agree to have fun and try all the options but to go with the cheapest choice for the wedding. Mark confesses he canceled a week of their honeymoon to save money. Erin doesn’t know how to react but concludes it’s fine because he’s only looking out for their best interests.
The food tasting goes well until they come in under the minimum spending limit and must purchase an additional course. When they get home, Mark yells about how they should cancel the wedding because they can’t afford it without his job. He launches into a lecture about money, how they’ll have to change their lives and sell the house now just to survive. Erin can’t believe he’s saying any of this. This isn’t her husband: “a stranger is standing in my living room” (61). Even after Mark explains everything, Erin doesn’t understand, but she tells him everything will be fine, no matter what happens. Exhausted from arguing, they curl up on the couch and fall asleep.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
Mark loses his job in Chapter 5, precipitating the book’s major conflict. Fear takes over, blinding him to solutions and pulling him away from Erin. Later, the bag represents the light at the end of Mark’s proverbial dark tunnel. He sees a future for himself, one he’ll do anything to achieve. Fear is Mark’s tragic flaw. It leads him to make rash and dangerous decisions and, finally, to his death.
Erin’s realization about Caro in Chapter 7 foreshadows how Erin’s life will change. Even before they find the bag, Mark’s job loss affects Erin’s mindset on their relationship and the wedding. Sharing her troubles with Caro ends poorly. Caro represents Erin’s life before Mark lost his job—a carefree, upper middle-class woman who lives in a nice house with a handsome, wealthy husband. With the loss of Mark’s job, Erin is no longer that person, and her relationship with Caro does not bridge the gap.
Chapter 8 is the first time we see Mark act differently. Up until now, he’s been despondent or upset about his job, but now, he is angry, bordering on violent. He yells at Erin, making her see him as a different person than the Mark she knows. His change foreshadows his gradual pulling away from and manipulation of Erin. Mark also lies for the first time in this chapter. He reveals he cut their honeymoon short, the first in a long line of details he hides from Erin. He finally confesses to this secret, which he does not do with later ones, showing he hasn’t started really changing yet.
Erin’s response to Mark shortening the honeymoon shows how much of a people-pleaser she is. Initially, she gets upset. The more she thinks about it, the more sense she applies to Mark’s decision. She rationalizes the choice based on Mark’s needs, something she does throughout the book and that Mark uses against her. Erin fills the stereotypical role of dutiful wife/girlfriend, bowing down to her boyfriend/husband’s desires because she believes he probably knows best.
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