49 pages • 1 hour read
Christina LaurenThe True Love Experiment
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A 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 41-51Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 41 Summary: “Fizzy”
It hurts Fizzy to look at Connor. She decides she hates love and outlines a book about a woman who, after a rejection, throws herself off a cliff and into a bed of pillows. The date with Isaac and her parents is great, and on mic, her mother tells Fizzy that she should date Isaac. Fizzy is looking forward to her confessional with Connor so she can be alone with him, but he cancels. She collides with him on the way to the second date with Evan and realizes that she has been left questioning her identity; she feels Connor appreciates her simply for herself. Liz, her makeup artist, guesses that Fizzy wishes she could pick Connor.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Fizzy”
Fizzy enters the trailer for her confessional with Connor. She tests her mic by saying “Down with the patriarchy, up with romance, let women love who and what they love” (329).
The conversation is painful for her. When Connor asks how she’s feeling about the final date, she says she’s relieved: “I can stop pretending I want someone other than you” (331). Connor turns off the camera, and Fizzy says she misses him. He confesses he’s not over her.
Fizzy and Evan go on a double date with Jess and River, and it is fun and easy. However, Fizzy wishes it were with Connor.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Connor”
Connor has to go to Fizzy’s to pick up Stevie, who is hanging out there with Juno. He steels himself to see Fizzy and reminds himself to protect his heart. He is brusque and refuses to stay for pizza; he feels “like [he is] a weather system, under pressure, about to crack wide open” (338). Stevie calls Fizzy “Auntie Fizzy.”
Chapter 44 Summary: “Fizzy”
Juno asks Fizzy about how she feels about the last Heroes and if she likes Mr. Prince. River comes to pick up Juno and mentions the debacle about North Star’s other TV shows. Fizzy realizes the pressure that must be on Connor to make their show work.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Connor”
The numbers for The True Love Experiment are record-setting, and Blaine makes Connor an offer to produce a second season. Connor says he has to think about it, and Blaine thinks that means he wants more money. As he prepares to edit footage for the final episode, Connor feels overwhelmed by seeing so much Fizzy. All he can see is her falling for him.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Fizzy”
Jess comes into Twiggs, her and Fizzy’s favorite coffee shop, and is surprised to find Fizzy there. Fizzy is writing again and suggests to Jess that they’re getting their mojo back. Fizzy’s agent told her they expect her books to hit the bestseller list, and she feels motivated: “Being reminded that my words really affect readers made me want to get back to it immediately” (355). She thinks, “[I]f I have to give up Connor, I want to at least hold on to what makes me me” (356). She gets a text from Alice, who has gone into labor.
At the hospital, Fizzy holds and bonds with her niece, whom she loves instantly. Their mother reminds Fizzy that she speaks of marriage and children because those things have made her so happy, and all she wants is Fizzy’s happiness. Fizzy realizes she has to get to the show’s wrap party, and Alice instructs her to tell Connor she loves him.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Connor”
Connor is worried when Fizzy is late to the party, and when she shows up messy and tired, he is concerned until she announces that she’s an auntie. The crew’s response to this reminds Connor of how much they’ve all bonded. He is sure the magic is all due to Fizzy. He feels that she has him wrapped around her finger.
Chapter 48 Summary: “Fizzy”
Fizzy chats with the Heroes, including Isaac, as she wants to warn him about how she feels. Isaac has sensed she’s holding back and admits he is too because an ex-girlfriend got in touch with him. Evan also says he’s fine with things not working out. Fizzy talks to Connor and tells him again that she loves him, describing all the qualities she appreciates. She says she loves him unconditionally. Brenna approaches saying she needs to talk to Connor about the viewers’ votes.
Chapter 49 Summary: “Fizzy”
Fizzy prepares for the finale, which includes a reunion with all the Heroes. She’s surprised by how big the show has gotten. Off stage, Fizzy watches the introductory montage of the Heroes, including their first reactions to her. Connor approaches her, and Fizzy realizes, “He is everything in one man, every hero right in front of me” (379). She tells him she will never regret him, and he kisses her. Then she has to go onstage.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Fizzy”
Fizzy is nervous as the show plays out and wonders if and how she will be able to maintain a relationship with Connor after this is done. Then Lanelle, the host, surprises everyone by mentioning there is another fan favorite. Connor comes out to huge cheers and sits on the loveseat next to Fizzy.
They show a montage of the two of them, and the crowd watches them fall in love. Lanella reveals that they, as a couple, have fans who call them “Cizzy.” Connor says he is putting himself forward as a Hero. Fizzy thinks this is the grand gesture. Another montage of them is followed by another in which others remark on their obvious attraction, showing Fizzy looking constantly for Connor and Connor reacting when the Heroes flirt. It includes the footage from their last confessional when she admitted she cared for him.
Chapter 51 Summary: “Post-Finale Confessional Transcript”
This script shows Fizzy questioning why they need a post-finale confessional since the show already aired. The conversation reveals that Connor and Fizzy are an 88% DNADuo match, that the finale party was a blast, and theirs is a true love. They outline their future together and then agree to get started on it.
Chapters 41-51 Analysis
As the last act of the dramatic narrative, this section requires high tension to keep the story moving forward. The more the protagonists suffer and the more unlikely a reconciliation looks, the bigger the payoff from their resolution. The happily ever after is a technical requirement of the romance genre, but the suspense lies in not knowing how they will achieve it. By putting up multiple obstacles to a bond between them—the concern about Connor’s job at North Star provides an external obstacle, while his sense that Fizzy violated his trust is the internal obstacle—tension is high for the finale. Additionally, their interrupted conversation at the wrap party seems like a preliminary breakup while planting the question of what the results of fan voting are.
Fizzy’s character arc comes to a resolution in a way that stays true to the independence she has demonstrated throughout the book, especially in her comment applauding the romance genre for letting women love who and what they want. She has found joy because she has come to know genuine love—in addition to great sex, which is also a value of hers—and while she feels sad about losing Connor, her writing has been reinvigorated by the reminder that her books are poised to become bestsellers and readers love her work. The fandom works here to remind her of the rewards of doing what she loves, and this helps her reclaim a sense of self even before the reconciliation. This means that she doesn’t need Connor to complete her identity; she has one of her own. This is reinforced in the hospital scene that shows her adopting the role of the loving auntie and learning that she’s not a disappointment to her mother. Regarding romantic love, Fizzy discovers that she does love Connor unconditionally, caring for his happiness even if it comes at the expense of her own. This is the sign of a mature, generous love and sets them both up for a rewarding and fulfilling relationship.
These sections also applaud the power of fandom in the way the finale is staged with audience participation. The True Love Experiment, the show, proves integral to the personal true love experiment that Fizzy and Connor have been scripting between them. The two narratives enable and complement one another as the TV footage plays a part in telling their story for the audience. The portmanteau “Cizzy” indicates the public interest in their relationship, and the language of “shipping” and being a “Cizzy stan” uses pop culture terms, generated by social media, to describe fans’ investment in their narrative. Like Fizzy’s novels, her own love life has become a story that fans invest in, relate to, and respond to.
Fizzy also thinks in the conventions of romance when she realizes Connor’s appearance at the finale is his grand gesture, a beloved signature of the romantic reconciliation in books and film, and when she realizes that Connor is every favorite hero archetype rolled up into one man. Their continued sexual attraction is the seal and confirmation of their emotional bond, illustrating The Power of Physical Attraction. However, these chapters also touch on and wrap up all of Fizzy’s friend and family relationships—with Jess, Jess and River as a couple, her parents, her sister, and Juno—confirming an argument the novel has made throughout: Love doesn’t happen in a vacuum but in the context of friends, families, jobs, and lives, an entire community. That the entire viewership of the show has become Fizzy and Connor’s community reflects the grandness of their feelings and the proportion of their devotion to one another. The last chapter is a denouement after the climactic finale, adding the requisite happy ending by having both lovers foresee a committed and fulfilling future together. Their individual Pursuit of Joy has led them to each other and their very own happy ending.
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