| #7: The Stranger |
Detailed Plot: After seeing elephants mistreated at the circus, Rachel decides to use her elephant morph to threaten the trainer and makes him promise to stop using cattle prods on elephants. Cassie is not pleased that she's doing something so risky, but she was unable to talk her out of it. Jake gives Rachel a little talking-to the next time the Animorphs are together, but they are mostly focused on Marco and Tobias's news that they have found a new entrance into the Yeerk pool. They decide a good course of action would be to destroy the Kandrona which is supplying the Yeerk pool with the Yeerks' nourishment. But everyone dreads going back to the Yeerk pool because that's where Cassie almost got infested, Tobias got trapped as a hawk, they had to witness involuntary hosts in despair in their cages, and they all had to avoid Visser Three. It's a nightmarish place and Ax has yet to see it. At home, Rachel finds out that her dad is coming over for dinner, which is weird because her parents are divorced. Turns out there's a reason behind the visit; her father needs to tell his children that he is moving a thousand miles away for a job. However, it's more complicated than that for Rachel; she has a very close relationship with her father since they have all the same interests (including gymnastics), and her dad suggests that she could actually move WITH him. Her dad even offers her the chance to take gymnastics with a very well-known teacher in the area he's moving to. Despite the fact that she loves being part of the forces to save the planet, Rachel starts fantasizing that she is just an ordinary girl who does gymnastics and goes to ball games with her father, and wonders who she's become if being normal sounds appealing. Rachel talks her feelings over with Tobias, but doesn't tell him what's really bothering her. Being with him makes her think it's ridiculous to think about leaving. She flies in owl morph out to The Gardens and acquires a grizzly bear for a battle morph, thinking over her problems both personal and world-shaking. The Animorphs meet up at the mall and turn into roaches to follow a Controller who's getting into the Yeerk pool using a Gap dressing room. Once down there in roach morph, they try to decide where the Kandrona might be, and Ax expresses that he wishes he could see more clearly so he could know what was going on. The other Animorphs know better than to wish they could see it again. But suddenly, they're licked up by a Taxxon! Then something bizarre happens. Time stops with no explanation, and only the Animorphs can move. They morph back to their natural shapes, but it happens to them without their willing it. They start to leave the immediate area and see that people and things are frozen in place, up to and including steam rising from coffee cups but going nowhere. And suddenly Tobias is there too, but in his human form, also with no explanation. Rachel runs to hug him and he reacts like a bird automatically before letting her touch him. And soon, a voice begins speaking to them inside their heads, but in a very different way from how thought-speak sounds. Ax recognizes this as the doing of a creature he calls an Ellimist. The Ellimist shows himself in a humanoid form and explains that the Animorphs must decide the fate of the human race. He says that now the humans are an endangered species, which he thinks is a terrible shame, and to illustrate his point he uses apparently omnipotent powers to show the Animorphs various beautiful scenes around the world. And then he says the Yeerks are going to win and take over their planet, the Andalites aren't going to succeed in beating the Yeerks, and humans would be lost forever. He says it in such a way that they know he is not just guessing. He knows the future. The Ellimist offers the Animorphs a chance to become preserved members of a human zoo so that the humans won't go extinct when the Yeerks win. They have to take a vote, and all but Cassie want to continue fighting no matter what. During the period while time is stopped, they notice a dropshaft that they can use to escape. They tell the Ellimist that they are not interested in being preserved endangered members of their species, and so the Ellimist says he's putting everything back the way it was and letting them go back to their roach morphs (except Tobias, who was outside flying as a hawk of course). He tells them he will ask one more time if they live, at some point in the future. Then they're back in the roach bodies that are getting eaten by a Taxxon. To escape being digested, they morph back to their natural bodies (and Ax's tail proves useful in slicing their way out of the Taxxon's stomach). Then they make a break for the dropshaft but Rachel and Ax get separated from the rest. Ax fights while Rachel morphs her grizzly bear. She begins decimating the opposition. Rachel gets a little out of control but saves everyone's butt, and the group escapes. Jake talks her into morphing back to herself. She goes home, succumbs to exhaustion, and wakes up in the morning being chided by her mother to get her sisters off to school. She decides to skip school herself after everyone's gone, and just ponders her family issues when balanced with the huge issues she faces as a warrior. She has no idea what she's going to do. She morphs a bald eagle and distracts herself by flying away. At an Animorphs meeting (minus Ax), they discuss Rachel's weird behavior and she levels with them about what her dad is asking of her. She reveals that the more exits she sees, the more frightened she becomes. Marco announces that if the Ellimist were to ask him now, he's going to vote yes to being taken to another planet to be preserved, and Cassie is with him. Since Jake and Tobias still vote no (and Ax had said it wasn't his decision to make since he is not a human), Rachel becomes the deciding vote. And suddenly the Ellimist speaks to them again about making their choice. He says he will show them what they need to know to make their decision, and suddenly they are swept into the future. The group wanders around in a future Earth taken over by Yeerks. Taxxons crawl in and out of buildings that have become their hives, and large areas have been destroyed or changed. The sky is a different color and the trees are dying. The kids find a Yeerk pool of extraordinary size. There, a human-Controller bumps into Rachel and she makes a sarcastic comment, picking a fight. Rachel claims that they're the wrong people to mess with because Visser Three is with them (prompting Ax to morph into his Andalite form), but the woman is confused and says it's Visser One who has an Andalite host body. Ax is able to use his supposed reputation as the Visser to make people get out of their way, but then the real Visser One (who used to be Visser Three in their time) arrives in a Bug fighter and has an older version of Rachel with him, whom he credits with telling him when and where the Animorphs would be. Rachel realizes her older self is being controlled by a Yeerk lieutenant, and that this is her future if they stay and fight. The Visser claims that in the past, after they discovered and caught the Animorphs, they roasted and ate Tobias. They decide they aren't interested in being taunted and turn to leave, but when the older Rachel comes too close and Ax threatens her with his tail blade, the Yeerks realize something is not going according to plan, and the Animorphs aren't sure what's going on, but they decide to attack. In the middle of the attack they're brought back to their own time. In an attempt to avoid that future, they announce that they choose to accept the Ellimist's offer, but nothing happens. Cassie and Rachel have a weird experience in history class when they're back in school, being told by their history teacher that events are entwined in ways we can't anticipate and that a single butterfly's wings can cause a tornado. They wonder whether the Ellimist's way of "not interfering" also functions to show them escapes (like with the dropshaft option during their first encounter with the Ellimist when they were about to be eaten by the Taxxon). After pondering, dreaming, hallucinating, and worrying, Rachel makes a connection between all her experiences and realizes that their vision of the future has sneakily shown her where the Kandrona is in their own time. She immediately goes into action to bring the others together to destroy it. The group, in morphs of grizzly bear, tiger, gorilla, wolf, and Ax as himself, go into the building where they believe the Kandrona to be, and they attack anyone in their way. Rachel takes on ridiculous odds (five against eight) because she can't tell through her weak bear eyesight that the dangerous Hork-Bajir aren't humans. They get severely injured during the battle but they survive, and morph out to fix their injuries. Rachel assumes the body of an elephant next, and uses her power to push the Kandrona out the window once they find it. The fall destroys it. The Ellimist does not appear, but he speaks to them again and acknowledges that small things can change the future; a replacement for the Kandrona will be there in three weeks, but it is enough to make a difference. He is pleased that they are capable of learning. The book ends with an epilogue of Rachel helping her dad pack, clearly not planning on taking that escape route either even though it is available to her. After all, she has to stay and save the world. Narrator: Rachel New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: None Marco: None Rachel: Grizzly bear Ax: None Notable: Rachel goes up to her room and locks the door behind her, only to have her dad knock and ask to come in right after she does so. When she says "Come in," he does so, with no mention of how he managed if the door was locked. Cassie is said to have "a look" she can give other people so they'll be shamed into listening to her. In this book we see it work on Rachel as it's worked on Jake in previous books. Now that the war has escalated somewhat and Rachel has become more reckless and violent, it's interesting to see how she feels about her attitude, from her narrative. She believes that she is not doing this for the thrill of battle; she gets off on being part of something that will help save the world. But she'd rather DO something than just talk about it. Cassie points out that she got a scar from helping a raccoon a long time ago. But morphing is supposed to reconstitute your body from DNA, and she's morphed since that happened. It's possible that things like tattoos, piercings and yes, scars, are supposed to be reformed with your body, but that wouldn't explain why in a much later book Tobias's mother was healed of old injuries (including scars) and had her vision restored, or why in another later book a teenager with damaged legs from an accident at age four would be repaired by morphing. Rachel's family life--with her divorced parents and two younger sisters--is highlighted in this volume. Seems everyone except Cassie has something dysfunctional happening at home, and Rachel's having to deal with her father either leaving her or taking her away from her home is part of her family drama. Ax says that humans smell like an animal from the Andalite home world called a flaar.
Best lines: Marco: "I'm telling you, Ax and Rachel belong together. The two of you are sick. Someday you could get married while bungee-jumping into an active volcano."
Ellimist: "This is a very beautiful planet. A priceless work of art." Jake: "Don't give me your sarcasm, Rachel. You are acting really weird. That's everyone's business, because if you do something stupid, we could all end up paying the price." Rachel: "I'm not some stupid TV character. I'm not some comic book, Marco. I'm scared of what almost happened to me last night. I'm scared just knowing that place exists down there. I'm scared about what happens to me." Rachel: But how is the butterfly supposed to know when to beat her wings?
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