Allison Apologizes to Dale, Explained：misjudge

What's really going on

This is the chapter where the misunderstanding finally gets said out loud. Allison, who has seen both sides, tells Dale the plain truth: "We misjudged you, Dale." It should be a relief, and instead it lands on a man who has already decided he is the problem. His answer, that if a guy like him talked to a girl like her somebody would end up dead, is not self-pity so much as a lifetime of being read as dangerous finally confirmed. The scene is quietly devastating because Allison is trying to repair something and Dale cannot let her, and the two of them keep talking past each other even as they grow closer.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• A severed finger and a note raise the stakes fast.
• Dale's guilt turns an insult into a death sentence.
• Allison finally admits the first impression she had.
• Escalating is exactly what Dale wants to do.

発音のポイント

• bowlin' fingers — The g in bowling drops, giving bowlin', which links into fingers.
• talk to — Talk to links up, with the t flapping between vowels.
• somebody'd — Somebody would contracts to somebody'd before end up.