Viva Las Vegas

After the death of Jason’s brother Kent in a tragic car crash, the whole family is devastated. Before everyone finds out about the crash and death though, Barb (Kent’s husband, Jason’s sister-in-law) convinces Jason that she always wanted a child with Kent, but they were unsuccessful. Barb has the idea that if on the same day as Kent is killed, she and Jason have sex to pro-create, no one will ever suspect Kent is not the father. Barb’s worry is that people would begin to figure out that any further child she has isn’t Kent’s because it would be longer than 9 months since his death. Barb asks Jason to be the one to create a child with because of the similar genetics of Jason and his brother. No one would ever know that Barb’s child is not actually Kent’s, and that is the only thought that has consumed Barb’s mind at this point. In my mind, it does make sense that she would want one last thing to hold on to a memory of her husband Kent, but I personally think I would be grieving too much to even think about having sex with my husband’s brother, even with a plan like hers.

Starting on page 142, Barb and Jason make their way to Las Vegas because Jason only agrees to have sex with Barb if they are married first. In my mind, Jason gets a strange thrill out of getting married in the same church as Cheryl. Personally, I would never want to compare a second marriage to the first one, and I would do everything in my power to avoid the similarities, whereas Jason appears to be drawn to them.

After the wedding of Barb and Jason, they run into a mutual friend Rick Kozarek. Jason panics now Rick has seen the two together, but doesn’t immediately act upon his realization. Barb is the one that takes matters into her own hands without the knowledge of Jason. Barb kills Rick (Coupland 144) so that there was no possible way that they could blab about seeing Jason and Barb together and ruining their child plan. I must admit, I was absolutely shocked that Barb killed Rick. The events in that part just happen so fast that I barely even considered murder as an option, but then again, I wasn’t sure how else they were going to get themselves out of it. I’m amazed that Barb never got caught. She got away with murder.

Picture 1: http://tinyurl.com/4x2e5ur

Picture 2: http://tinyurl.com/3coz7vj

Update: No one ever finds out that Barb's children (who turn out to be twins) were Jason's, and not Kent's. In Reg's part of the novel, he discusses the remarkable resemblance between Jason and the twins (although Reg never specifically says that he is suspicious of Jason being the father). "And then last year [Jason] vanished, and all that remains are the twins - the spiting image of you, I might add." (Coupland 238) It isn't hard to believe that no one suspects Jason to be the father, but in reality, why on Earth would he be? It's not like Barb and Jason actually had feelings for eachother to be together, their soul intention was a child for Barb. Any resemblance relating to Jason would just be connected to his brother Kent.