The Drawing of the Three - Television Tropes & Idioms

Preceded by The Gunslinger

Book 2 of The Dark Tower series brings the action from a post apocalyptic other world to ours — Roland Deschain, The Gunslinger, tries to draw a ka-tet of three to join in his quest: a drug addict, Eddie Dean; a woman with a Split Personality, Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker; and a man named Jack Mort.

Followed by The Waste Lands

This book contains examples of:

Alas, Poor Yorick: Eddie does this with Henry's severed head.
Asshole Victim: See Pocket Protector below. Jack Mort definitely had it coming.
Being Watched
Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Roland does this to gangster Jack Andolini. The gun, however, explodes into Andolini's face. Later, he shoots a gun and a knife out of different people's hands in the same encounter.
Cluster F-Bomb: Jarring after the first book's use of Precision F-Strike.
A Date with Rosie Palms: Detta and Jack Mort celebrate their mischief managed with a little Did-a-cheek.
Debut Queue
Decapitation Presentation: During the gunfight, one of Balazar's men throws Henry's head into the room to distract Eddie.
Did Not Do the Research: A doctor refers to Odetta as "schizophrenic" after seeing two of her personalities. Anyone who's graduated medical school should know full well the difference between schizophrenia and disassociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder).
- In the 1960s (Odetta's when), multiple personality disorder was often confused with schizophrenia.
The Eighties: Eddie is pulled from the eighties by Roland.
Epiphany Therapy
Fingore: A lobster-like creature bites off Roland's right index and middle fingers at the beginning.
Fall of the House of Cards: Balazar's carefully constructed house of cards collapses without him noticing when Eddie begins talking about Henry.
Full Frontal Assault: Eddie's naked gun skills earn Roland's praise.
Going Cold Turkey: Eddie involuntarily ceases to be a heroin addict when he's drawn into Roland's world, because there's no heroin there.
Half the Man He Used to Be: Roland drops Jack Mort under the same train that'd severed Odetta's legs. He gets run over the same as his victim, but several fatal inches higher up.
Handicapped Badass: Detta Walker, and, at the end, Susannah.
- From this book on, Roland himself, as he loses two of his fingers.
Have a Gay Old Time: Odetta objects to being referred as "black", because in her time, the neutral word was "Negro", and "black" was offensive.
Law of Inverse Recoil: Subverted.
Love at First Sight: Eddie almost immediately falls in love with Odetta shortly after meeting her.
The Mafia: Balazar is a big crime boss in New York. When Roland "draws" Eddie, Balazar is using Eddie's heroin addiction to manipulate him into smuggling cocaine.
Malaproper: Roland can't pronounce words like "aspirin" or "Keflex" correctly.
Meaningful Name: Jack Mort, a Serial Killer.
More Dakka: Deconstructed all to hell when Balazar's Mook tries to kill Eddie with a machine gun, whereupon King explains the real-life reasons why shooting automatic weapons at a specific target is inefffective.
Mundane Luxury: The taste of tuna and soda overwhelm Roland. (He's amazed that people smuggle drugs when sugar is free and abundant.) He's also shocked by people wasting paper, which is very rare in his world.
One Degree of Separation: Jack Mort is the guy who dropped the brick on Detta's head. And pushed her in front of a train. And pushed Jake in front of the car that killed him. Very pushy, our Jack.
Pocket Protector: A lighter saves Jack Mort. Unfortunately for him, the fluid then catches fire. And Roland, controlling him, makes him jump on electrified tracks. In front of a train.
Rasputinian Death: Jack Mort. In the following order, he is: Shot. Set on fire. Thrown onto electrified train tracks. And bisected by a passing train.
Red Herring: The title. The third to be "drawn" is not Jack Mort, but the split Detta/Odetta personality.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Roland is able to save Jake from both deaths in the first book by stopping Mort from pushing him into traffic.
Serial Killer: Jack Mort.
The Sixties: Odetta is from 1964.
- Probably. Maybe. (See "Writers Cannot Do Math," below)
Short Range Shotgun: A truly horrendous example pops up during the shootout in Balazar's office. One of the crime boss' mooks fires a shotgun at Eddie, and not only is the length of an office enough for the spread to be ineffective, but those pellets that do hit him merely sting. That's right, someone just on the other side of the room shoots Eddie in the chest with a shotgun, and it just stings a bit.
Split Personality
Writers Cannot Do Math: The dating of the segments with Odetta and Jack Mort is inconsistent. First, Odetta thinks that it's been three months since the assassination of JFK; that means it's February 1964. Not much later, it's stated that August 19, 1959 (when she lost her legs) was five and a half years before; that means it's February 1965. It's first stated that Roland entered to Mort's head at most a few weeks before he would've killed Jake; that means it's 1977. Later, it's said that a character saw The Terminator nine years later; that means it's 1975. Later, it's stated that Odetta lost her legs three years ago; that means it's 1962.
- Also, Henry, Eddie's brother is a Vietnam vet despite still being a teenager in 1977 (two years after the war ended). This is possibly justified in-universe, since in later books, it's implied that this version of Earth is slightly different than ours.