The 5th Wave

After focusing on Ben in several lonely moments at the beginning of the novel, Cassie finally comes face to face with her crush. Ben has no memory of Cassie, but her crush remains relevant as she works with him to get Sammy out of the base. She doesn’t seem to retain strong feelings for him (or at least, not to the extent she did prior to meeting Evan), but he is familiar to her. He is a piece of her past that reminds her she is still alive and hasn’t lost sight of the person she was before the Arrival.

As foreshadowed earlier in the novel, Cassie and Ben run into Vosch again. Although they both have reason to dislike Vosch and want revenge, this is not the time to pursue vengeance. Vosch is still very much in charge and knows that neither Ben nor Cassie buys his people’s story as human militia. He’s also aware that Cassie had help from an Other in infiltrating the base. This suspicion—Evan’s promise to help Cassie—is confirmed for Cassie when Vosch attempts to kill Sammy and fails because someone has hacked the base mainframe. While this is the last time Cassie and Ben see Vosch, he returns in the following books of the trilogy.

Evan arrives and instructs Cassie and Ben how to escape, warning them to run as soon as they see the base plane take off. The tension is high as Cassie, Ben, and Sammy struggle to escape the underground building and find freedom on a surface that also begins to disintegrate. The climax of the novel is intense with the ground literally falling beneath their feet, but Ben’s squad shows up just in time to rescue them. This highlights the idea that humans working together are stronger than those who fight alone, something Cassie struggled with at the beginning of the novel. She though she couldn’t trust anyone and had to be alone, but now finds herself a member of a group that has won their first battle against the Others.

Cassie believes Evan died in the destruction of the base, but during the escape, notices a glowing object fly away from the base like a falling star. This suggests that Evan might have used one of the escape pods he told Cassie about; the Others’ technology is expanded upon in the following books of the trilogy. At the same time, Cassie revels in her victory: She fulfilled her promise to Sammy and enjoys an intimate moment with Ben Parish that she dreamt of since her crush on him in middle school. By the end of the novel, it is clear that her feelings remained intact despite their time apart, perhaps accentuated by his familiarity. Cassie notes Ben’s relationship with Ringer—but there is maturity in her assessment of their own shared moment that shows she has grown since those days. The children have all grown, a fact proven by their ability to think for themselves and work together.