Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, child abuse, child death, addiction, and animal death.

The ka-tet is in the Extraction Room, where the kidnapped children were kept. They examine the remains of Mia, who nearly ended their mission through her obsession with having a child. They catch up on their journeys thus far. In doing so, they notice many coincidences, which Roland suggests that Stephen King inserted into the story as deus ex machinas to keep his characters safe. King is a “telecaster,” working on behalf of the Beam he is associated with. However, Susannah has been shown a vision of a future in which King is “struck and killed by a Dodge minivan” before finishing his Dark Tower books (116).

Nigel the robot returns, now blind. Once they figure out how to temporarily shut off the annoying robot, they wonder what they should do next. They must travel to Thunderclap and protect the Beam from the Breakers (telepaths enslaved to serve the Crimson King), either by killing the Breakers or freeing them. While the man in black, Walter, may once have been in charge, Roland suspects that