Retromorphs: Animorphs #6: The Capture

                             

To say the Animorphs have been lucky thus far is an understatement. Outside of Cassie almost being an unwilling host to a controller, none of the kids have actually had to worry about being controlled by a yeerk. Well, that is going to change here. Because Jake is about to unwillingly rent his brain out to a yeerk. It's time to get up close and personal with the controllers as we enter Jake's second narration in book #6: The Capture.

After the regular preamble, we open the book with Jake learning that Tom is going to clean up the park with the other members of the sharing. After he leaves, Jake goes to his room where he had a cockroach kept in a matchbox. He acquires the roach's DNA and when it's safe, he morphs. We get some grizzly details about how Jake's body hardens, his guts fall out and other creepy crawly factoids. Thankfully the roach morph is far easier to handle than the ants from the last book. But before he can get a grip, he hears the sound of footsteps and goes through the house via cracks in the wall. He makes it under the fridge in the kitchen, only to get caught in a roach trap. But before Freddy Krueger can crush him, he still managed to escape.

Why did Jake morph roach? He tells the others that he's learned that Tom's yeerk is now in a higher rank, just below Chapman, and he's been talking to several doctors. The assumption is that controllers have infiltrated the local hospital, ready to infest unwilling patients. The next day, Jake and the others go to the new apartment of Marco and his dad. It turns out that he indeed got his engineering job back and they're doing much better than before. The others morph roach and learn how to understand the speech of others. They need this for their next mission. That mission is to sneak into the next leader meeting of The Sharing and find out what's going on. Jake is hesitant to bring the others to this mission, but is more worried that he may eventually have to kill Tom, as that's now becoming a part of his nightly dreams. They hesitate on the idea (Cassie is especially against doing it if it bothers Jake), but decide that this is just going to be a spy session. What could possibly go wrong?

They morph roach and make it inside the Sharing building. Tobias warns them about a limo pulling up to the building and a man entering. The man is Visser Three in human morph. He commends the yeerks for infiltrating the hospital and this could lead to at least 200 new controllers a month. He also brings up that the governor is set for a hospital stay and they plan on infesting him. This is bad enough, until the kids remember that their governor is running for president, meaning they could have to deal with a yeerk in the most powerful position on earth. A controller spots the roaches and Visser Three immediately assumes that it's the andalite bandits. All the controllers try to stomp the ground, but most of the animorphs make it out in time. However, Jake gets blasted with some bug spray and is on the verge of death, until Tobias makes the save and drops him off atop a Boston Market. Jake demorphs in time, and laments on the bad news they've learned this evening.

So, with the roach thing a bust, they still need to go to the hospital and find any sign of a yeerk pool. The suggestion: morph flies. And despite the grossness of the morphs themselves, the fly morph may be their best insect morph yet. They can see well with the compound eyes and can fly super fast. Comes with a lot of talk about poop though, but that's to be expected. They hitch a ride on the back of Tobias and make it inside the hospital. While the five split up, Jake, Cassie and Ax find an entrance to the yeerk pool under the hospital and demorph. They spot a therapeutic jacuzzi that's being used as a makeshift yeerk pool. Jake decides it's wise to turn it back on to boil the yeerks, but just as he turns it on, suddenly two controllers show up with guns. In the fracas, a gunshot sends Jake tumbling head first into the yeerk pool. The other animorphs save him and escape, but Jake begins to suspect something's wrong. Something is in his head and it's learning everything about him and his friends. And Jake has no way to tell the others. There's a yeerk in his head. Jake is now a controller.

As the others try to revive Jake, he learns of this yeerk in his head. It goes by the name of Temrash One-One-Four, and it was the former yeerk of Tom, who has now been given a lower ranking yeerk. Temrash has been given the greater task of acquiring the governor, before this all happened. He delights in torturing Jake some more over all the knowledge he's already acquired about the animorphs. The others seem to see no ill effects that would throw them off, until Ax immediately catches on and says that Jake has been controlled. It takes a while for the others begin to think so as well. Since a yeerk needs Kandrona every three days or it dies, they work on how to keep him captive until then. They also decide that Ax will morph Jake as to not arouse suspicion. As he goes to acquire, Temrash screams "Keep your hand off me, Andalite filth!" and there's no mistaking it anymore. You know, for a higher ranking yeerk, Temrash has got a crappy poker face.

They take Jake to an abandoned shack in the middle of the woods. Plan is for Ax to take Jake's place while the others keep Jake tied up for three days, taking shifts whenever needed. While this happens, Temrash continues to torture Jake, showing him memories of Tom, captive by the yeerk. That night, Temrash tries to escape using the tiger morph, but has a hard time seeing and gets lost. He tries the falcon morph, but gets attacked by an owl. Cassie in morph. Temrash, who was once so prideful of his chances for escape, is starting to get worried. He morphs wolf and runs off, but ends up in the same area as the wolves from The Encounter. With the threat of real wolves, as well as Rachel in elephant morph, and even Cassie as a flea on his back, Temrash gives up and they return to the shack.

But Temrash is undaunted. Getting desperate, but still undaunted. He tries to morph ant the next day, but we get another incident of ants tearing him apart, so he demorphs and returns. He tries falcon again, but Tobias grabs his head in time, threatening to claw his eyes out. Eventually, the last couple hours arrive and Temrash informs Jake of the history of the yeerks. From their first infestation of an an apelike creature known as the Gedd, to the first time the Andalites met the yeerks. But that he leaves that last tidbit open to Jake's imagination. Eventually, the final hour comes and the fugue begins. Jake feels the intense pain of the dying yeerk as he relives the memories of every creature he's taken, including Tom. We learn that Tom joined the sharing because of a girl he was into, and accidentally stumbled into Visser Three and the yeerks, to which he was then forced into the yeerk pool. Temrash then finally concedes to Jake as one final strange vision befalls Jake. He sees a strange, armless creature with an eye for a head. But before he can understand what's happened, he's snapped back into reality. Jake and the others see Temrash on the ground as he withers to death.

That night Jake returns home as his parents are surprised he's not eating like a crazy person, like he was the previous nights. Ol' Ax had his food spells again. Tom still seems suspicious, but doesn't act on it. Jake has more thoughts on the eye he saw in his visions, as well as his tiger dream. The next day, they learn on the news that the hospital has closed down, a sign that the yeerks fear their cover's been blown. At Cassie's barn, the animorphs do something crazy. They phone Tom, telling him to never give up. They just hope the real Tom got the message.

The Capture, while not as gut punchingly rough as the last book, is still a strong one nonetheless. It gives us a lot more insight on the yeerks. Some bits of their history and the sensations that come with being a controller. Temrash, despite his position of power though, is surprisingly bad at hiding his controller nature, I'll say that. Though why Ax needs Jake's DNA if he already acquired it for the amalgam morph is a bit befuddling, but I guess it was needed for that final confirmation to the others about the yeerk in Jake's head. Despite his stupidity, Temrash does serve as a great villain for the book, constantly mocking Jake that he and his friends are doomed, and torturing him with everything involving Tom. Showing us that the yeerks have a massive hubris since they've been so successful in their conquest of the universe. Of course, despite that hubris, he wasn't very good at escaping as the other animorphs were super competent at keeping him subdued. Showing how organized this sextet of crime fighting teens is getting.

It's a strong Jake book as well. We get a lot more on his issues involving Tom as a controller and his fears that someday it may come down to him actually having to kill his brother to save the world. It's some deep stuff that plays into the mental stress he's acquired since book one. I see some complaints that there's a lot of filler with Jake playing basketball, the kids making The Fly jokes and such, but I dunno. Despite the Animorphs being mentally scarred so far in this mission, they are still teenagers, so having them still need to live an active life or be goofy doesn't seem like that big of an issue. Overall, this book, while feeling a bit rushed to handle both the first half with the hospital story and the second half with controller Jake, still manages to be a good book that continues the general story. Not as much as most might want, but it still satisfied me. And don't worry, we'll get our answers about the eye creature very soon. The Capture gets a A-.