The Smoke's Secret Weapon In Uglies Explained

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Uglies

Spoilers are ahead for the Uglies book trilogy.

In Netflix's Uglies, a rebel faction known as The Smoke possesses a top-secret weapon that could dismantle the system Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox) installed in the dystopian world's main city. Based on the first entry in Scott Westerfeld's YA book trilogy of the same name, Uglies' is set in a future where 16-year-old denizens are forced to undergo government-mandated cosmetic surgery to be transformed from "Uglies" — that is, normal people — into "Pretties," beautiful-yet-vapid folks who don't seem to care about anything that isn't superficial. As in any dystopian story, there are rebels.

Led by Joey King's Tally Youngblood, an "Ugly" who's about to come of age, Uglies' cast of characters is full of those who choose to live outside the oppressive, image-obsessed city. Tally's new friend, Shay (Brianne Tju), decides to peel away from Dr. Cable's city and live among the rebels, who are led by a mysterious figure named David (Keith Powers), in a far-off community called The Smoke. Using Tally's former best friend-turned-Pretty, Peris (Chase Stokes), as leverage, Cable convinces the Uglies' protagonist to infiltrate The Smoke and learn more about the rebellion's secret weapon.

The Smoke's Weapon Is A Cure For The Pretty Surgery

David's Parents Have Been Working On A Cure For The Pretty Surgery For Two Decades

When Tally agrees to embed herself among The Smoke's rebels, the teenager seems to believe that she will find a conventional weapon. Before tasking Tally with her mission, Dr. Cable insinuates that The Smoke's weapon has the power to topple the city, the Pretties' way of life, and society as they know it. At first, the rebels seem pretty peaceful and insular. Although they disdain the city's way of life, they aren't rallying troops or anything like that. Instead, David and his peers destroy the city's fields of orchids, which create renewable energy by leaching toxins into the soil.

...the lesions formed on the patients' frontal cortexes, hampering their ability to care, think, or exercise any form of agency.

Eventually, David brings the ever-curious Tally to meet his parents, Maddy (Charmin Lee) and Az (Jay DeVon Johnson). Tally learns that David's parents once underwent Uglies' Transformation and had surgery to become Pretties. Before living outside the city limits, Maddy and Az were state-employed cosmetic surgeons. While Maddy was part of the Morphological Standards Committee, Az worked more directly to make the Pretty surgery safer. All of their research led David's parents to realize that their colleague, Dr. Cable, was more interested in the surgery's main side effect: harmful brain lesions.

To her horror, Tally learns from David's parents that the lesions formed on the patients' frontal cortexes, hampering their ability to care, think, or exercise any form of agency. "They're sedated into a false sense of happiness," Az explains. Maddy and Az ended up being a few of the lucky ones; the talented surgeons were purposefully given cures, which undid their Transformations and allowed them to become thinkers again. After they fled the city, Maddy and Az established The Smoke, where they've worked for the last 20 years to replicate the cure — the best weapon against Cable's control.

Why The Smoke's Weapon Would Destroy Cable's Society

Az & Maddy's Cure Could Heal The Transformation's Damaging Brain Lesions

If Maddy and Az are able to successfully replicate the formula that was used to treat them post-Pretty surgery, The Smoke could undermine Dr. Cable's authority and destroy the city's core principles. Unlike the city, The Smoke commune values self-acceptance and free thought, so it's likely David and the rest of the rebels want to remake the city in that image. Since the Transformation dulls the Pretties' minds and erases their individuality, Dr. Cable can more easily control them. The brain lesions aren't an unfortunate side effect, but the very reason for the surgery.

In theory, healing patients' brain lesions would also restore their sense of self, as well as their ability to think freely and feel deeply. As Tally has seen firsthand, Peris has lost everything that makes him unique by undergoing the Pretty surgery. Even so, the Smoke's weapon isn't a straightforward cure-all. Maddy and Az express concerns about testing the formula on human subjects, fearing that it could worsen a Pretty's brain damage or, in extreme cases, result in death. Still, the anti-Pretty serum seems to be the only weapon capable of thwarting Cable's power.

Does The Cure Work In Uglies' Book Series?

Maddy Eventually Finds A Sustainable Solution With Tally's Help

Laverne Cox as Cable puts a necklace on Joey King's Tally in Uglies

Unfortunately, Netflix's YA adaptation of Uglies doesn't reveal whether Maddy and Az's cure is an effective or long-term solution to saving the Pretties and stopping Cable. As Uglies' movie ending explores, Maddy needs a test subject who can provide informed consent before being given her cure. After all, it works by eating away at brain lesions, which is an incredibly risky procedure. Tally's sacrifice at the end of the film is all about testing the cure, though the movie doesn't provide clear-cut answers — not yet.

In the books, there are two cures — the old and the new. The old method eats away at a patient's brain lesions; another component of the cure then stops all that eating away before the patient's brain is damaged. Later on, Maddy creates the so-called "new cure." Based on the cure that Tally's brain discovers, this second option "rewires the user's brain, bypassing the lesions" (via Uglies Fandom). Put simply, a cure does ultimately work to heal the Pretties by the end of the Uglies trilogy.

Source: Uglies Fandom

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