48 pages • 1 hour read
Ally CarterI'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
One night, maintenance men show up at Cammie’s room, asking where the girls want the fourth bed. The girls point to an empty corner and then go ask Cammie’s mom why they’re getting a fourth bed at all. Macey passed the entrance exam for the school and will be joining the sophomore class. Cammie and her friends try to argue, but Cammie’s mom brings them to a picture detailing the family tree of Gillian “Gilly” Gallagher—the woman who founded the school. Cammie is shocked to see that Gilly married a man with the last name McHenry and that Macy is Gilly’s descendant. Cammie’s mother ends the conversation, saying that if Macy McHenry wants to attend the school, “we'll find a place for her” (44). Since she’s coming to the school late, she’ll take classes with the seventh-grade first-years.
A week later, Cammie, Bex, and Liz are called to the headmistress’s office for Macey’s introduction to the school. Macey is disrespectful until Solomon throws a letter opener across the room, almost hitting her. Macey freaks out and makes a run for it but doesn’t get out of the room. Cammie’s mom gives her the history of the school, ending with the promise that no one will ever know what goes on there, “Especially your parents” (51). Cammie sees Macey smile for the first time.
Chapter 5 Summary
A couple of weeks later, school is in full swing with classes, homework, and trying to find out as much about Macey as possible. One day, Cammie and her friends go to Covert Operations, where they find a note telling them to meet outside later and not wear their school uniforms. The girls go to lunch and are shortly joined by the seventh-grade class, including Macey, who sits at the sophomore table—something she’s never done. Macey insults Liz, and Bex attacks her, brought up short by the arrival of Mr. Solomon. Bex releases Macey, and Mr. Solomon rebukes her for attacking a classmate. If Bex is so eager to show off her skills, “you and your friends can take point tonight” (57). Cammie and Bex are thrilled because leading a mission is a Gallagher dream.
Later that night, the sophomore class goes into a frenzy of primping and picking out clothes—all wanting to look pretty in front of Mr. Solomon. A few girls run into Cammie’s room seeking fashion advice, and to everyone’s surprise, Macey helps. With the girls decked out in jewelry and push-up bras, they head outside, where Solomon pulls up in a delivery van and tells the girls to hop in the back. He climbs in with them while another professor drives and provides Cammie, Liz, and Bex with surveillance equipment in the form of jewelry to tail one of their professors at a carnival. The girls try to argue that the professor is paranoid and never leaves the school, but tonight he did because he has a weakness for funnel cake. The girls’ mission is to “find out what he drinks with those funnel cakes” (67). Anxious and feeling doomed to fail, Cammie, Bex, and Liz exit the van.
Chapters 4-5 Analysis
These chapters show Mr. Solomon’s no-nonsense attitude, which becomes a staple throughout the novel. Though Cammie’s narration is lighthearted and fun, Mr. Solomon’s skill with knife-throwing and his willingness to send the girls into the field against much more talented operatives shows he takes his job as their professor seriously. It also suggests that he’s seen and survived a lot of close encounters in the field, and he’s dedicated to making sure the Gallagher girls are as prepared as possible. By contrast, Bex and Cammie’s excitement about taking point reveals their lack of experience. They want to show off and believe they can conquer any task Mr. Solomon puts in front of them. Their youthful swagger and belief that a few years of school has prepared them for real spy work shows the folly of inexperience.
The girls primping in Chapter 5 reminds the reader that, while spies-in-training, the Gallagher girls are also teenage girls, many of whom are attracted to Mr. Solomon. It also shows the difference between an average American high school and the academy. While the girls of the sophomore class might be able to hack into a government computer or flip a grown man over their shoulder, they are clueless about fashion or making themselves pretty. This is the first place where Macey’s outsider status makes her valuable, which foreshadows Cammie going to Macey for questions about Josh in later chapters. Macey has a completely different knowledge base than the other girls, giving her an even more unique skillset and showing how truly diverse Gallagher girls are.
Mr. Solomon interrupting Bex’s attack on Macey offers insight into the school and also the Gallagher sisterhood. As in most schools, fighting between students is not encouraged. Where the Gallagher Academy has exceptions, as shown during the career fare in a later chapter, average American schools do not. At first glance, it seems like Mr. Solomon is rewarding Bex for fighting by giving her a mission and a chance to show off, but really, he’s setting her up as an example for the other girls. Mr. Solomon’s actions show he understands the Gallagher code, despite not having attended the school. The girls don’t use their skills against one another, and the fact that Bex gets close enough to do damage shows that Macey is still considered an outsider, at least among the sophomores.
