The Goldfinch: Part 4, Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Eight years pass. Theo is walking up Madison Avenue, feeling “upset and preoccupied,” when he hears someone call his name. The man is wearing shabby but preppy clothing, with the look of “privilege gone wrong.” He reintroduces himself as Platt Barbour. Whereas previously Platt had an arrogant, boisterous look, he now appears anxious and exhausted. When Theo asks about Platt’s life, Platt replies that he is living in the city and has just started a new job at an academic publishing house. Theo asks after Andy, saying the last he’d heard was that Andy had an astrophysics fellowship at MIT. Platt replies that Andy is dead—he and Mr. Barbour drowned in a sailing accident five months ago.

Theo is dumbstruck. He had often thought of calling Andy, but never got around to it. Platt apologizes for telling Theo so bluntly on the street, and suggests they get a drink nearby. He takes Theo to an almost empty bar, and explains that Mr. Barbour had bipolar disorder. His first manic episode happened while he was at Harvard Law; he’d started a fire on the street and was arrested. After he married Mrs. Barbour and started taking medication his condition stabilized. As a younger man, he’d spent enormous sums of his family’s money and got into “trouble” with underage girls. Yet after being better for a while, he became ill again, behaving in an erratic, destructive manner. 

Platt explains that the true nature of Mr. Barbour’s condition was kept hidden from the children. They sent Platt off to boarding school at an extremely young age, pretending it was to benefit his own growth. While Platt was away, Mr. Barbour spent time in a mental institution, where he received electroshock therapy. The problems developed again “a few years ago.” He became intensely paranoid, and frequently created public disturbances. He spent more time in a mental institution, and after being discharged “was never quite the same.” Six months ago he took a leave of absence from work to spend time in Maine, and because Andy was nearby in Boston he went to spend time with him.

Platt explains that Mr. Barbour’s condition led him to go out sailing in dangerous conditions. He reminisces about how Mr. Barbour was obsessed with the water, then mentions that Mr. Barbour’s own sister—whom Kitsey is named after—also died by drowning. Platt reflects that Mr. Barbour felt “immortal” on the water. At the time of the accident, Andy and Platt were both staying with Mr. Barbour in Maine. When Platt had arrived, Mr. Barbour was already deep into a manic episode and Andy had locked himself in his room to avoid him. 

On the day of the accident, Mr. Barbour, Platt, and Andy all went out on the boat together. Mr. Barbour fell in the water first, followed by Andy. Mr. Barbour’s mania meant that he’d grown skinny from not eating, which led him to die of hypothermia in the water. Andy, meanwhile, somehow escaped his lifejacket and drowned. Now, Platt miserably reflects on how cruel he always was to Andy and says he’ll “never forgive [him]self.” Theo thinks about the “torture” to which Platt subjected Andy, and how Andy was convinced that Platt wanted to actually kill him. Platt asks that Theo come to see Mrs. Barbour, and although Theo is hesitant, Platt insists.

When they arrive at the Barbours’ apartment, Platt steers Theo away from the living room, explaining, “We’re very informal now” and directing him toward Mrs. Barbour’s bedroom. Theo goes to greet Mrs. Barbour, who is lying in the enormous bed. She embraces him tightly. She observes that Theo has become handsome, putting down the canvas she’d been embroidering. Two Yorkshire terriers jump up and begin yapping at Theo’s feet. Looking around, Theo observes that this is where all the objects that don’t quite belong elsewhere in the apartment end up. Mrs. Barbour offers Theo something to drink, but he declines. She says, “I’m so glad you came,” and Theo offers her his condolences.

Both of them struggle to speak, and Theo holds Mrs. Barbour’s hand. She tells him that when he died, Andy was engaged to a Japanese woman. She then mentions that the two little terriers had been a gift brought by a friend after the funeral, and that she’s extremely grateful for them. When Theo tells her that he's working as an antiques dealer, she lets out an exclamation of happiness. Mrs. Barbour laments that none of her own children ever developed an interest in antiques, or the arts in general. She says she noticed Theo looking at the small Rembrandt drawing that hangs in her bedroom. Mrs. Barbour asks Theo to stay for dinner. Although he says he has to leave, he promises to come back for dinner another time.

As Theo is leaving, Platt mentions that he’s seen Tom Cable a lot recently, who Platt recalls was a “pothead” and “thief” as a teenager. Platt grimly implies that Tom and Kitsey have been dating. Walking away from the Barbours’, Theo feels stunned. Theo recently had a brief affair with a girl who was once one of the most popular kids in his and Andy’s school, and she mentioned that Andy was still a geek, but in a way that was almost “retro and cool.”

Although Theo had liked the idea of catching up with Andy, he was too fixated on the business to properly think about anything else. Thanks to Theo, the shop is now turning a huge profit, and in gratitude—and despite Theo’s protests—Hobie has made him partner. The reason why Theo was so reluctant to accept is that he’d “intentionally sold a fake to a client,” who is now furious. For some time, Theo has been running a cunning scheme: he sells a fake to a client and, if the client finds something wrong with it, buys it back at a loss. This makes him look upstanding and trustworthy, and most of the time customers are then assured that the antique is genuine.

A handful of times, the customer has accepted Theo’s offer to buy it back. Yet simply by virtue of having been (however briefly) part of an esteemed client’s collection, the fake object has acquired greater value. Theo is then able to sell it for far more money than it had gone for in the first place. Every time Theo has tried this scheme, it has worked—until now. The client who is causing trouble is “a prize Upper East Side swish” named Lucius Reeve. Reeve knows that he's been swindled, and even worse, he thinks Hobie is part of the scheme. Although Theo has repeatedly insisted that he is entirely to blame for the “mistake,” Reeve isn’t buying it. 

The two go to lunch at the Harvard Club, and as Theo begs Reeve to listen to his explanations, Reeve insists that he has been intentionally deceived by both Theo and Hobie. Theo plays it cool, but in reality he is in a state of total terror that Reeve has still not deposited the check that he gave him twelve days ago. He doesn’t know why Reeve is holding out or what he wants. The pieces Theo’s been selling are what Hobie calls “changelings,” extremely damaged pieces that Hobie fixes up (albeit to a drastically altered state) and which had previously been sitting in the storage unit, untouched and forgotten. Sometimes these are inventive “Frankensteins,” but other times they convincingly replicate the norms of the piece’s era.

It has never occurred to Hobie to sell the changelings, even though a fortune could be made from doing so. Theo used the money from selling them to pay the shop’s debts. Now, Reeve says that Theo’s insistence that he takes care of the whole business side of things is suspicious. Theo indignantly claims that he’s not going to stay and listen to this, but does not move. He has developed several “tricks” to encourage clients to buy the changelings, including selling them for a little under market price (thereby convincing clients they are getting a deal), or hiding them at the back of the shop and letting clients “discover” them themselves. The operation is risky; Theo once had to abruptly terminate a purchase because Mrs. DeFrees happened to walk in. 

Theo goes to the Pond in Central Park to meet Jerome, the drug dealer from whom he buys Oxycontin, Dilaudid, and other opiates. Stealing the pills from Xandra back when he left Las Vegas triggered a dependency in Theo that has lasted all this time. Theo finished the early-college program in six years rather than the usual four, without achieving anything of note. However, this didn’t matter, as all along he knew that he wanted to work for Hobie’s antiques business. Grisha’s predictions about how Hobie was driving the business into the ground had been correct. The first time Theo made a sale at the shop, he hiked up the price of a silver teapot from $250 to $850. Although the customer looked mildly surprised, she still bought it. 

Theo soon learned that there is no such thing as an “objective” price for an antique, because “any object […] was worth whatever you could get someone to pay for it.” Having discovered this, he raised the prices of most objects in the store while keeping a minority of them low, because he knows that the bargains in the shop have attracted a loyal customer base. Theo is not only motivated by saving the shop from debt, but also because he finds the whole enterprise fun and satisfying. He enjoys the challenge of selling a piece, and tailoring his pitch to each customer. 

However, it has all gone wrong with Lucius Reeve. Reeve is a mysterious figure; Theo can find little information about him aside from his “respectable Fifth Avenue address.” Theo stands at the Pond, feeling troubled. Each of the benches in the area bears the name of a benefactor, except Audrey’s favorite bench, which was sponsored by an anonymous donor and inscribed with the words, “Everything of Possibility.” When Theo gets back to the shop, Hobie observes that he is “white as a sheet.” He is standing with the Vogels, a couple whom Theo doesn’t like much because of how many pieces they purchased for next to nothing from Hobie. Now they buy from Hobie directly in order to avoid Theo’s raised prices.

Hobie invites Theo out to dinner with them, but he politely declines. As they are walking out, Mrs. Vogel mentions Pippa’s boyfriend, Everett. Theo himself was horrified when Pippa brought Everett, a “shoddy” English music librarian, on her most recent visit from London. Theo found him “innocent, bland, infuriatingly cheerful” and hated spending time around him. Pippa had been warm and affectionate with Theo, but this only tormented him further. The best part of the visit was when Popper bit Everett on the thumb. Theo was horrified to learn that Pippa and Everett were living together in London.

Theo, meanwhile, is involved with two women, both of whom are themselves in other relationships and neither of whom know about the other. He thinks about Pippa constantly, and is “torment[ed]” by the photos of her dotted around Hobie’s house. Pippa is not considered beautiful by most people; many find her “odd-looking” and “spooky.” To Theo, she represents the innocent, perfect past that existed before Audrey’s death. Theo even considers bribing Everett to leave Pippa, imagining himself writing a check for $50,000 or $100,000. He is convinced that he and Pippa belong together, and obsesses over anything connected to her in a “stalker”-ish manner. He’s tried to kiss her twice, and both times been gently rebuffed.

With Hobie and the Vogels gone, Theo crushes an OxyContin pill into powder and draws it into lines, which he then sniffs. He is overcome with pleasure and relief. Days later, he goes back to the Barbours’ for dinner. On the way, he buys three bunches of lilies, but the smell reminds him of Audrey’s funeral and he throws them in the trash soon after. When Theo gets to the apartment, Toddy embraces him so warmly that Theo feels “awkward.” Toddy explains that he’s in college at Georgetown and only back for the weekend. He says that living with Theo when he was younger inspired him to work in the nonprofit sector, helping “disadvantaged” young people. 

Kitsey comes in and hugs Theo. In the years since he’s seen her, she’s become very beautiful. She is followed by Platt, who apologetically says that Mrs. Barbour would like them to come and eat in her room. Kitsey enthusiastically offers to make Theo a drink, and Theo asks for a Stolichnaya on the rocks, which surprises Kitsey. She admits that she was worried Theo “hated” the Barbour children for being cruel to him when he lived with them. 

The dinner is a strange mix of past and present, and Theo is struck by how much it feels as if he has returned home. He notices that Kitsey watches him throughout most of the meal. After, Platt—who seems quite drunk—tells Theo that Kitsey is on anti-depressants, and that he hopes they work better for her than they did for him. Platt explains that, of all the family, Kitsey was closest to Andy.

Now Kitsey is taking a leave of absence from Wellesley, and isn’t sure if she’ll go back at all. Kitsey was also good at handling Mr. Barbour, and was usually the one to go and see him. Yet in this case she had begged Andy to go instead. She feels extra guilty because she is a skilled sailor, and thus perhaps could have saved Andy and Mr. Barbour from death. Platt asks Theo to take Kitsey out for dinner, saying it would “thrill Mommy senseless.”

Leaving the Barbours’, Theo reflects that Andy’s death was both a terrible shock and seemed pre-destined somehow, as if Andy was cursed as a child. Jerome has warned him that “an every-other-day habit [is] still a habit”—and Theo does not always even stick to the every-other-day part. The smallest inconveniences can trigger a desperate craving for pills. The pills Theo had stolen from Xandra—Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin—lasted until his 18th birthday, at which point he started buying on the street. He now spends thousands every few weeks on pills, and has had to change drug dealers in order to avoid judgment.

It would be much cheaper to do heroin instead; yet although Theo occasionally does a bump and loves it, he sticks to pills because he hopes their high price will one day make him stop. On a more immediate level, it also motivates him to go to work and sell as many antiques as possible. Theo also doesn’t want to develop an alcohol dependency because of the way alcohol tends to impede people’s ability to function normally. As it stands, his opiate addiction allows him to keep living a stable, productive life. Occasionally he loses control, takes too much, and acts strangely in public, after which he always dials back his doses. 

Theo met one of the women he is currently sleeping with while they were both waiting for Jerome and realized they shared an addiction. He has bought all the health products and supplements he will take in order to be able to quit, and he keeps them in a shopping bag at home. When he gets home from the Barbours’, he takes a slow-acting morphine tablet in order to get to sleep. In the morning, he snorts Roxicodone. Unable to bring himself to flush his pill stash, he puts it in a tin and gets in a cab to leave the pills at the storage facility.

This is only the third time Theo has been to the storage unit since he originally brought The Goldfinch to be kept there. Each of the other times, he has come to pay another two years’ rent. He is overcome by a desire to open the package and look at the painting for the first time since he left Las Vegas. He is also tempted to take it home with him. However, he then thinks about the security camera and immediately leaves, overcome with panic. In the next few days, Theo goes into withdrawal and gets very sick. Hobie thinks he has the flu and urges him to eat, which Theo feels unable to do.

Yet Theo’s physical torment is nothing compared to the mental “horror.” To him, life appears to be nothing more than a series of “hells,” and he cannot bring himself to understand why people keep going. After eight days off the drugs, Theo is able to take Popper on a brief walk and eat the breakfast Hobie has made him. Now Hobie mentions that he didn’t want to say anything earlier, but Theo got some calls while he was sick, from a girl called Daisy Horsely (the invented name of Carol Lombard, the engaged woman Theo is sleeping with). Hobie adds that Theo also got a call from Lucius Reeve—which causes Theo to choke—and Platt.

Theo calls the Barbours’ and speaks to Kitsey, who asks him to come back for dinner. He then speaks to Platt, who asks if he can subtly help sell some of the family’s furniture. Platt doesn’t want to inform Mrs. Barbour, who he suspects might oppose the plan. Platt assures Theo that they don’t need to sell anything, which Theo does not believe is true. Theo then decides to say that he has another customer—Reeve—who is causing a fuss over a piece, and asks if Platt will pretend that the piece used to belong to the Barbour family. He tells Platt what to say if Reeve calls, and Platt happily agrees to help out. Theo then says that out of gratitude, he’ll give Platt a 10% cut of the piece, which is $7,000.

Theo is relieved when he gets off the phone that he feels euphoric. Platt is the perfect person to help him: from a respectable background, yet capable of being intimidating and familiar with shady dealings. Theo calls Reeve, and asks to meet him downtown. Theo chooses a busy restaurant in Tribeca which Theo hopes will “throw Reeve off-balance.” Theo is right; Reeve is uncomfortable with the location, yet reluctantly sits down at the table where Theo is waiting. After their food is served, Reeve says, “I know about the museum.” He asks why Hobie has told everyone in New York the story of how Theo showed up with Welty’s ring, as this allows people to make the “connection.”

Theo feigns ignorance, but Reeve continues, saying that he knows that Theo was the only person to walk out of Gallery 32 that day. He accuses Theo of taking The Goldfinch to Hobie, and concludes that Hobie has been “farming it out” as a way of making money ever since. Theo is now genuinely confused. As Reeve keeps talking about the painting, Theo keeps insisting that he has no idea what he means. Reeve chastises Theo for letting the painting get into the hands of “street thugs” who don’t appreciate its value.

Finally, Reeve says he wants to buy the painting from Theo, offering only $500,000 with the implication that if Theo doesn’t accept, Reeve will turn him in to the police. He says that he wants to preserve the painting, which is something that clearly doesn’t worry Theo “or the people you’re working with.” By this point, though, Theo’s genuine confusion seems to have unsettled Reeve, who retrieves a printed online article about the painting. The article notes that it is believed that The Goldfinch was recently used as collateral in a deal between drug traffickers in Miami. The DEA recently raided a house which they believed contained the painting and accidentally killed an innocent person in the process. 

The article explains that it is not uncommon for stolen artworks to be used as collateral. There is a quote from a spokesperson for the art crimes division of Interpol, who laments that thanks to the botched operation, “this painting has gone underground, and it may be decades until it’s seen again.” Theo puts down the article and bursts out laughing. He calls Reeve “delusional,” and when Reeve threatens to call the art crimes police, Theo tells him to go ahead. He asks that when he wants to discuss the piece he sold, Reeve should call him.

As Theo leaves the restaurant, he is shaking and his mind is spinning. He thinks about calling Jerome, but then decides not to. He reasons that he will have to tell Hobie about stealing the painting, which will surely lose him his job. Although Reeve was wrong about Theo being connected to the drug traffickers, who are clearly using a fake version of The Goldfinch, Theo still feels nervous about the fact that Reeve knew he took the painting in the first place. If people found out that he took it, Theo thinks he would likely face five to ten years in prison. He believes he “deserve[s]” this fate.  

Theo approaches Hobie in the workshop and admits that he’s gotten “in a jam.” Theo tries to stress the seriousness of the situation, but Hobie does not seem to imagine that it could be anything particularly grave. Theo tells him about Lucius Reeve (though he omits the detail about Platt), and then keeps talking, continuing his confession until Hobie asks him to stop talking. Theo apologizes, and Hobie drily comments that Reeve is clearly stupid to have been fooled into paying $75,000 for an antique that clearly wasn’t authentic. He is horrified that Theo tried to buy the piece back, as this could put them in serious legal trouble. Hobie admits that sometimes “the edge between puffery and fraud is very cloudy indeed.”  

Hobie says he’s not going to “scold” Theo, but Theo then explains that the piece he sold to Reeve wasn’t the only time he pulled this trick. As he explains the whole scheme, Hobie is shocked into silence. When Hobie asks how long Theo has been operating the scheme, Theo claims it’s only been one or two years, when in fact it is over five. Horrified, Hobie says that Theo will have to tell all the clients he lied to that he has doubts about the authenticity of the pieces, and offer buy them all back for the same price at which he originally sold them.

When Hobie asks how many of the fake pieces Theo’s sold, he says a dozen, when in reality it is three times this number. Theo then admits that he doesn’t have a full list of customers to whom he sold fakes. In some cases, it doesn’t matter, as Theo never claimed that the pieces were authentic anything; however, there are many customers to whom he straight-up lied. Hobie is shocked that he managed to pull off the scheme, exclaiming, “They’re not even good fakes!” This isn’t true, but Theo thinks it isn’t the right time to say so. Wearily, Hobie points out that the entire reputation of the business is on the line.

Theo is miserable. He and Hobie trusted each other absolutely; Hobie is the closest thing to family he has. He apologizes again, and Hobie notes that in a way, what he has done is remarkable, and that he is clearly a “genius” salesman. Hobie also admits that he is partly to blame, as he let Theo start working for the business and expected him to perform financial miracles. Hobie also remained willfully ignorant about how Theo managed to turn their financial situation around so dramatically. Now he sees that it was obviously “too good to be true,” and that without Theo’s scheme the business likely would have sunk. Hobie asks that Theo try to fix it, and that they don’t speak of the matter again. 

Theo walks upstairs, knowing he won’t be able to tell Hobie about The Goldfinch. Over the years, there has been much speculation as to the fate of the painting. Some believe that it burned in the fire caused by the explosion. Theo, meanwhile, claims to have been in another gallery entirely from the one where the painting hung when the explosion took place. There are even witnesses confirming that he was with Audrey in the same gallery where she died.

Theo sits in his room, staring out of the window, when he notices a person standing on the opposite side of the street. At first the person is still, then turns and walks away quickly. Theo concludes that he must be “seeing things,” though he isn’t completely sure. He pours himself some vodka and calls the Barbours. Mrs. Barbour and Platt are both out, so he opts to ring back later. He thinks about Reeve, reasoning that Reeve has nothing to gain from turning him in to the police. Moreover, as long as Theo doesn’t go to the storage unit, Reeve cannot prove he has any connection to The Goldfinch.