Flowers for Algernon Progress Report 13 Summary

  • Nemur, Strauss, and Charlie head off to the Windy City for the conference, though Charlie's not too pumped about it. Algernon's tagging along for the trip too, because who doesn't want a mouse sidekick?
  • Charlie starts to dictate his progress report into a tape recorder, because he's technologically savvy like that.
  • Flying on the plane to Chicago is no fun for Charlie, because he has to put on a seatbelt—safety first and all that, but Charlie really doesn't like being confined.
  • One hundred points if you guessed it had to do with his childhood. Flashback to Charlie's experience with one Dr. Guarino, who straps him to a table and tries to shock him into getting smarter.
  • Dr. Guarino knows what's up—there's no way he can make Charlie smarter, but he sure can make some money while he's at it.
  • Charlie's mom, Rose, is on board, but his dad would rather put all that cash toward his own barbershop. In your dreams, Matt.
  • Getting back to the present, Charlie finds himself chatting up big-shot scientists before the big conference.
  • Charlie hangs with the scientists in conversation, and even puts Nemur to shame with his knowledge of gene therapy. He's a regular Einstein.
  • Charlie realizes that Nemur's not nearly as smart he thinks he is—he only knows six languages, after all.
  • Burt tries to smooth things over with Charlie, but it's a little too late and Charlie now knows way more about the experiment than any of those other doofuses.
  • Burt gives his paper on Algernon, and Charlie has a light bulb moment: it turns out there's a major flaw in the experiment and Algernon's intelligence could slip away at any time.
  • While waiting for Nemur and Strauss to present their big findings, Charlie gets fed up with it all and flies the coop with Algernon.
  • The gang tries to track them down, but Charlie and Algernon pull off the great escape and head back to the Big Apple.