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The Invention of Hugo Cabret Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary

The Plan

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  • Hugo helps Isabelle into the kitchen and they sit there examining their battle wounds—a crushed hand and a hurt foot—until Mama Jeanne comes to the kitchen.
  • She says that Papa Georges has a fever and that it’s time for bed. Hugo can sleep on the couch.
  • As soon as everyone’s gone to sleep though, sneaky Hugo finds Papa Georges’ ring of keys and walks to the train station.
  • At the toy booth, he starts looking for clues, trying to find out Papa Georges’ secret. He only finds one thing, though, wrapped up in the back of a drawer.
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  • There’s that mechanical toy mouse, and it looks just like the one that Hugo fixed
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  • Hugo smiles when he looks at the mouse, and thinks about how all the pieces from the old man’s toys fit so well into the automaton.
  • Back in the apartment, Hugo pulls out the mechanical man again. He wraps him up again in fabric and lies down, images flashing through his mind.
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  • The first image is a large hand holding a pocket watch. There seem to be clouds floating in the foreground and parts of clocks floating in the background.
  • The second image is Hugo’s dad working. He’s surrounded by floating, broken clocks. There’s also the head of the automaton and a disembodied eye. Yowza.
  • In the next image, there’s a large hand dragging a pen across paper. And we see a side of Papa George’s face. There’s also Hugo and what appears to be flames bursting through the image.
  • In the next image, we see two large faces—Papa Georges’s and Isabelle’s. Plus there are some more broken (or rather, cracked) clocks and the small shadow of a person running.
  • The final image is a large, glowing hand reaching downward.
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  • The hand is the Station Inspector’s. It turns into claws and grabs Hugo—who wakes up screaming. What a trippy nightmare, huh?
  • Hugo goes through his morning rounds with the clock, and then goes to Monsieur Labisse’s shop to ask about books that are about movies.
  • Monsieur Labisse doesn’t have any of the books Hugo wants, but he tells them to go to the Film Academy library and gives him directions. So that's something.