I was right! The password to the cryptex that Sophie and Langdon found is S-O-F-I-A, which is her name spelled in Hebrew, as well as the Greek meaning for wisdom. Sophie's grandfather seemed way to involved and obsessed (in a non-creepy way) about his granddaughter to not have the password be her name.
This section could possibly be the climax of the book--Fache and Collet almost...yes ALMOST! catch Langdon and Sophie, Silas could have turned things 180 degrees the opposite direction that they are, and we as the reader learn new insight into Bishop Aringarosa's cowardice and fear buried deep beneath his glamorous ring. Aringarosa becomes less and less of a moral person the more that I read on. At the conclusion of this section, he is in deep trouble. Somehow, I theorize that Silas contacted him from his hostage position and told the Bishop (or possibly even the Teacher), which resulted in the Bishop offering the pilot of his plane headed to Paris that they must now proceed on to London (which is the prospected whereabouts of Langdon and Sophie). "Alone in the small cabin, Aringarosa twisted the gold ring on his finger and tried to ease his overwhelming sense of fear and desperation. Everything in Paris has gone terribly wrong. Closing his eyes, Aringarosa said a prayer that Bezu Fache would have the means to fix it." (295) To me, this means that Fache is on Aringarosa's side, who is on the Teacher's side, who is on Silas's side. This means nothing but trouble. Nothing but the fact that these four people (the Teacher, Aringarosa, Silas, and Bezu Fache) all want Robert Langdon's throat cut.
I hope that Bezu Fache goes down hard, and feels himself hit the ground. Yes, Langdon has done several things wrong, such as running away, but his intentions are good. The key was not his to use, however he is in company with the Grand Master's granddaughter! I don't know if the news released the fact that Sophie is the murdered man's granddaughter, however that would make me sympathize for the two victims rather than the police.
All the while, I found the character of Leigh Teabing the most intriguing character yet. He is intellectual, and curious. He has the best sense of humor out of all of the characters in The DaVinci Code!
A character whom I do not trust is Remy. He is like a rat to me--small, sly, and too smart to be working for some Knight. When Teabing said "'Well, Remy,' Teabing chimes happily. 'The lights are on. Our lives are in your hands.'" (307) This quote made me shiver a bit. As I mentioned in my last post, Remy and Teabing could be the absolute best of friends when on ones good side, however they could stop the whole country of France if need be to find their enemy.
Aviation connection of the day: "'Elizabeth?' Langdon said. 'My plane. She cost me a Queen's ransom.'" (309) Another connection... "The Hawker 731's twin Garret TFE-731 engines thundered, powering the plane skyward with gut-wrenching force." (317)
This section is the one that really starts bringing the seperate storylines together. When Silas shows up at Château Villette along with Collet I was starting to feel anxious for the characters inside the house. I was really surprised when Sir Leigh Teabing knocked Silas down and proceeded to tie him up, throw him in the back of the car, and then be nice and take off the tape on his mouth. I did not expect this from Teabing because of his medical condition and because of how nice he was to Langdon.
ReplyDeleteThe first time that I saw the "strange writing" that Jacques Saunière put on the wood I actually noticed that some of the letters looked like backwards F's and Y's, but I did not think of Da Vinci's handwriting. I have seen many of Leonardo's designs and explanations in a compiled book and I remember the handwriting being backwards just like Dan Brown depicts. I think that this shows a good quality in this book along with all of the other facts because he is teaching things through a fun story and even people who knew a lot about Da Vinci might find that they learn something new.
The depth that Saunière went to make sure only someone worthy would find the holy grail was really far. It was also ingenious because of how he connected one thing to something only a few people would find out. For example he said that an ancient word of wisdom would open the cryptex and that word turned out to be S-O-F-I-A which is the name of his granddaughter. He really made sure that it would be Sophie who found the Grail.