Charlie Thorne And The Last Equation

“She saw them in her mind, etched onto the landscape of the earth before her. The numbers were the equations she had worked before, back on the ski lift. They told her how she needed to move, where she needed to land, what she had to do to survive. Better yet, they told her what she needed to do if she wanted to make this look awesome.”

As Charlie skis down the dangerous Deadman’s Drop, she can visualize the math in her head that will help her gracefully navigate the slope. This moment is the reader’s first introduction to both Charlie’s genius and her reckless, thrill-seeking nature. This moment is also recalled in the final chapter when Charlie must once again use the numbers to survive a dangerous drop from a snowy cliff.

“In the cockpit, Milana Moon perked up at this exchange, trying to understand Dante’s connection to Charlie Thorne. There was apparently more to it than he had let on. He obviously hadn’t learned about this kid’s existence recently. He knew her somehow.”

This passage is the first of several hints that Dante and Charlie are siblings. It also shows that Milana is observant and perceptive, able to hold her own against Charlie’s genius, and a fitting match for her similarly intelligent partner, Dante.

“[T]he story goes that at some point in his life, Einstein proposed there might be a shortcut: another equation that would make the process of converting mass to energy considerably easier. He called it Pandorabuchse—or Pandora’s box, though it’s usually just referred to as Pandora.”

Dante explains what Pandora is—an equation meant to make atomic power more readily accessible—and the symbolism of the name. Though Einstein believes his mysterious equation could bring hope to the world, he also fears it will release evil into the world, just like the myth of Pandora’s box.

“They went about their lives in blissful ignorance, assuming they were safe, thinking that the punishment Alexei had imagined would never come.

But it would. Alexei would bring it to them soon.

Not to these people, of course. Limassol was too small, a mere maritime crossroads. No, when Alexei and his men set off the real bombs, they would target much larger cities, places teeming with people of inferior races. Cairo. Tehran. Karachi. Tel Aviv. Bombay.

He would destroy them all.”

The reader’s first introduction to Alexei underscores the violence, fanaticism, and self-righteous hatred of his white supremacist ideology. Alexei daydreams about setting up nuclear bombs in populous cities throughout the Middle East and Asia, proving the depth of his rage and confirming that Einstein’s worst fears could easily come true.

“Most terrorist cells aren’t exactly full of Einsteins. They tend to be mostly angry young men who just want to lash out at the world […] And their methods tend to be blunt and primitive. They use pipe bombs and other rudimentary explosives. The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, was carried out with box cutters. But just because these people aren’t brilliant doesn’t make them any less dangerous. In fact, you could argue that it makes them more dangerous, because they don’t realize the full consequences of their actions.”

Dante describes the Furies and terrorists in general, giving Charlie and the reader a basic understanding of terrorist methods. Despite depiction in popular media, most evil actions do not come from devious criminal masterminds but from people of average (or less) intelligence who have more anger than sense.

“Carter had been uneasy all along about Charlie’s involvement, but beating the enemy to Pandora was the priority here, and Carter was prepared to do whatever it took to ensure that happened. But once the CIA had that equation, Charlie would need to be dealt with.”

CIA Director Carter does not trust Charlie and, unlike Dante and Milana, does not change her mind about Charlie’s character in the end. She believes that Charlie is a criminal and criminals do not change. Her determination that Charlie will need to be “dealt with” foreshadows her actions later in the plot.

“‘He was also a thief,’ Dante said. He kept staring out the window, looking away from Charlie as he spoke. ‘He stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. Prometheus thought what he was doing was a selfless act, but the gods didn’t agree. As punishment, they condemned him to have an eagle rip out his liver for eternity.’”

After Charlie declares that she wants Prometheus to be her codename, Dante believes he understands why. He, like Carter, initially only sees Charlie as a criminal, a thief, and therefore believes her association with Prometheus is based on this characteristic. Milana later proves that she understands the symbolism more fully than Dante does.

“Charlie’s sense of anticipation grew stronger. Jerusalem was the city that had been luring people to the region ever since its founding, five thousand years before. Pilgrims, crusaders, prophets, and tourists. Charlie had once heard that the city was known as the navel of the world, since all life seemed to spring from it. At the time that had seemed silly to her, but now she felt it might be true.”

In addition to the tense, fast-paced action, the author also includes brief but evocative descriptions of the various settings of the novel. These descriptions include the history of the city and reveal some of Charlie’s appreciation for Jerusalem’s history and mystique.

“Despite her exhaustion and her nausea, Charlie’s heart raced with excitement. She was staring at something Einstein himself had written down and hidden, something that no one else had ever seen except the great man. Something that would change the world.

Her next thought caused her considerably more concern.”

Charlie’s excitement in this moment is palpable, inspiring similar anticipation in the reader. She attaches a great deal of value and significance to anything Einstein has written. This moment also shows how quickly she determines that this equation is not Pandora but just another clue.

“The history of physics has been the search for simplicity. Because the laws of the universe, for the most part, are simple: Newton’s laws of thermodynamics, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, the theory of relativity—you name it. Whenever Einstein—or any physicist—devised an equation they felt was too complex, they were generally sure they didn’t have it right.”

Charlie briefly explains the basic drive of physics toward simplicity. This is a general rule of thumb that has proven true throughout much of the history of physics. Dante points out that quantum theory does not adhere to this rule of simplicity; however, this is precisely why many physicists believe that quantum theory is not yet complete.

“The Old City of Jerusalem was a dramatic collision of cultures. Brand-new cars and broken-down pushcarts shared roads that had first been laid five thousand years before. Men in three-piece suits strolled alongside women in traditional burkas. […] Walled off from the rest of Jerusalem, the old City was a labyrinth of well-traveled tourist routes, meandering alleys, and secret passages known only to locals.”

This passage beautifully describes the Old City, highlighting the contrast between modern and ancient elements. Again, the narration paints an evocative picture while also showing the city through Charlie’s young and romanticized perspective. Through Charlie, the reader appreciates the unique history and beauty of the city.

“No. I tried to destroy it. If the point of this mission is simply to keep Pandora from ending up in the hands of our enemies, then solving the clue isn’t necessary. All we really have to do is get rid of it.”

Believing that Pandora is too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands, Charlie attempts to destroy the clue leading to its location rather than hand it over to the CIA. Her determination to protect the equation connects her more concretely to the symbolism of Prometheus as Pandora’s protector in Greek myth. It also recalls the theme of The Ethical Implications of Scientific Advancement.

“‘All the talent in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you squander it,’ Dante said.”

Linking to the theme of Youth Involvement in Global Issues, Dante summarizes the central message that young people, particularly those with special talents, have an obligation to involve themselves in the problems of the world. People like Charlie, with special abilities, selfishly waste their talents if they do not use them to address global issues and make the world a better place.

“If Charlie had decided to switch to the dark side—or had been aligned with the dark side all along—she would be a very formidable enemy.

An enemy that would have to be dealt with in the strictest way possible.”

Carter believes that Charlie has sided with the evils of the world. Though Charlie is young, Carter believes she must be eliminated and is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that. This passage reveals Carter’s black-and-white thinking, in which there is only good and evil, and anyone who disagrees with the CIA is automatically evil.

“But that’s not because men are smarter than women. It’s because men have had advantages that women haven’t. Throughout history, women have been denied education, prevented from having jobs, or simply been ignored. Families have sent their sons to school and married off their daughters. Being a genius doesn’t mean much if no one will give you a chance to do anything with it. There are probably hundreds of thousands of geniuses who never got the chance to make their mark on the world because they were the wrong gender.”

In her pep talk to Charlie, Milana argues that all the famous geniuses of history were men only because men were given all the opportunities. She thus argues for The Value of STEM Education, especially for girls who have historically been denied such education. An even playing field in STEM education would likely lead to an explosion of genius and innovation.

“Einstein knew there was good in Pandora, the tiny bit of hope, the promise that, if used properly, it could benefit every person in the world. Therefore, he didn’t want to make it impossible to find. So he had taken great pains to construct his clues to its location, hoping that whoever was clever enough to find Pandora would also be intelligent enough to use it wisely.”

Just like the Greek myth of Pandora’s box, Einstein believed that his equation could be used to help the world and bring hope to society rather than only evil. He hoped that whoever found Pandora would be able to balance intelligence and scientific knowledge with a moral center that would lead them to use Pandora to help rather than destroy.

“Throughout history, whenever a civilization has gained a military advantage, their first instinct has never been to share it. Instead, they’ve used it to try to wipe out everyone else. It happened with the longbow, the machine gun, the tank, the nuclear bomb. Whoever invents the next great military advance becomes the most powerful nation on earth.”

Charlie summarizes one of the central struggles in scientific advancement: the seemingly universal human drive to use any new advancement or technology to destroy rather than to help, in direct contrast with Einstein’s hopes for humanity. This drive is at the core of science’s ethical dilemma and raises questions about whether it is a moral good to devise new science if one knows it will only be weaponized.

“John didn’t believe in God. He considered Alexei’s constant interpretation of events as God’s will to be mere rationalization for bad behavior. As for his own bad behavior, he knew exactly what the root of that was: He no longer wanted to be John Russo. But to become someone else, he needed money. And Pandora was worth millions.”

In this passage, John compares himself to Alexei, his proxy throughout much of the plot. Where Alexei makes his excuses for his malevolence, blaming God, John is willing to own his violence and “bad behavior” and attribute it to simple greed and selfishness. He neither excuses this nor apologizes for it.

“Most government employees are like me. They’re good people, trying to do the right thing. To help others, keep them safe, make their lives better. With Pandora, we could solve all our energy problems. The world’s energy problems. Climate change could become a thing of the past.”

Dante tries to convince Charlie that CIA agents and other government employees are not bad by nature despite an occasional corrupt agent like John Russo. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Dante insists that the government will use Pandora wisely, indicating that he is either lying or naively idealistic.

“‘The house of Hubble,’ Charlie said, with awe in her voice. ‘I’ve always wanted to come here. […] For the same reason Einstein visited. To pay my respects. Almost everything we know about the universe—like astrophysics and the big bang theory—we know because of this observatory. It makes more and more sense that this is where Einstein hid Pandora. A big idea like that would be in good company here.’”

Charlie is awed by the Mount Wilson Observatory, reinforcing its importance in the history of science and discovery. Her strong emotions may inspire similar strong emotions in the reader and highlight the importance of learning about science. Furthermore, the idea that Einstein’s “big idea” is appropriate here implies that big ideas often inspire other big ideas.

“‘Prometheus was punished for stealing fire from the gods by having an eagle tear out his liver every day,’ Milana explained, ‘but Jupiter decided that still wasn’t bad enough. So he came up with a really cruel way to make Prometheus suffer: He created women. Pandora was the first, and Jupiter assigned Prometheus to watch over her. To keep her safe. You imagined yourself as Pandora’s protector, Charlie. And you can still be. It doesn’t have to be the Furies that come out of that box. Hope can emerge as well.’”

Returning to the symbolism of Prometheus, Milana demonstrates that she understands Charlie’s affinity for the myth better than Dante does. Charlie does not merely identify with the thief but rather with his status as protector. Unfortunately, Milana uses this to trick Charlie into doing what Milana wants her to do.

“‘If you want Pandora, I’ll let you have it,’ Dante said. ‘Just help me save the girl.’ He wasn’t sure until the moment he said it, but he wasn’t lying. Little more than a day earlier, when he had first dragged Charlie into all this, he had been thinking about Pandora, not her. But things had changed. Dante had come to care for his half sister in a way that surprised him. He realized he would do anything to protect Charlie, even if it meant sacrificing his career.”

Dante has been singularly focused on securing Pandora and using Charlie however necessary to do so. He has largely treated her merely as a criminal under his control rather than as family. However, this moment shows how much his feelings and relationship with his sister have changed. To his surprise, he cares more about saving her than about Pandora or his career with the CIA.

“His spine had broken when he had been thrown into the tree. The only part of his body he could move was his neck. He rolled his head slightly and saw Charlie Thorne through the haze of smoke. Charlie had Pandora again; John had watched her grab it a second before it blew over the edge of the cliff. For all John’s hard work, for all his intricate planning, he had lost. And to a girl, no less.”

Echoing the moment when Charlie beats the pool cleaner who laughs at her, John realizes that he, too, has been bested by a girl. Even more than her young age, John (and other men, like Isaac Semel) focus on Charlie’s gender to justify their belief that they can win against her, but they are wrong every time.