Summary
In A Flower to the Rain, Cassie wakes up with Evan by the fireplace. She envisions what she will do to Vosch once she finally meets him again. There is tension between Cassie and Evan, both unsure of how to act in front of the other.
Evan asks Cassie to let him go save Sammy by himself, as it is too dangerous for her to go, especially in her weakened state. Cassie protests and Evan says he doesn't want her to die. They prepare to go together and several weeks elapse before they are ready. Evan burns his house down as they leave to make sure that the Others will be distracted and won't be able to trace them.
Cassie and Evan arrive back at Camp Ashpit. Cassie describes what happened on that fateful day that her father died, again. Evan hears something and they hide in a ravine. They are ambushed by a group of child soldiers, who shoot and throw grenades at them, thinking that they are Others. Evan kills all of them with ease, even though Cassie worries about him. She momentarily thinks he may be dead when a grenade goes off in the ravine where he was hiding.
Evan is alive but riddled with shrapnel, which Cassie picks out with her hands. She treats his wounds and gives him pain medication. Cassie realizes that the people Evan killed were child soldiers and ponders whether he is human or Other or both.
Cassie loses it and hits and yells at Evan, completely confused about what he is and what she should do. She runs away through the forest, but returns soon after, having left all her things, only to find that Evan is gone. However, his stuff is still there. Cassie decides to move on by herself. Evan catches up to her and says he can't let her go. They continue on together, with Evan warning her that if she runs again, he will need to kill her.
Evan confesses that the children taken from Camp Ashpit are being trained as soldiers, just like the ones he killed. They are the fifth wave, the humans who will unknowingly kill other humans. Evan confirms that Sammy is probably alive, but indoctrinated. Cassie and Evan discuss his humanity and he shows her how he feels. He enters her mind and Cassie and Evan are one being for a moment. She opens "to him, a flower to rain" and is filled with warmth (371). Afterwards, Cassie cries.
Cassie infiltrates the army base with the help of Evan, posing as a 12-year-old girl named Lizbeth. She attacks and kills Dr. Pam when she tries to map her in Wonderland. She runs into Vosch but escapes into the ventilation shaft, before realizing that Vosch is about to do the same thing to Camp Haven that he did to Camp Ashpit.
Analysis
In this chapter, we get to see inside Evan's head. The point of view is still Cassie's, but we learn more about Evan than we have ever known before. The lumberjack enigma reveals himself as an Other struggling to subdue the human host inside him.
Evan says that through knowing Cassie, he has become more human than Other. He reveals the agenda of the Others in regards to humanity and how they look at people as a "disease" (366).
This insight is the first we have ever heard of the Others from one of their own kind. So far, all we have had is the suspicion and guesswork of Cassie, whose judgement is colored constantly by fear and distrust. Here at last we have cold, hard facts that we can rely on, from the mouth of an Other, untrustworthy as he might be.
We also find out that the Others may be capable of love. Evan certainly seems to love Cassie, or at least care for her deeply enough not to kill her. He is going against his very nature.
The two share a special moment in which Evan allows Cassie to glimpse what it is like to be an Other before she embarks on her quest to save Sammy. Through this, Evan demonstrates that the Others are not the one-dimensional villains we would like them to be. They are running, trying to survive as well. Humanity is simply in their way.
