Jacob Portman and Malthus

Jacob Portman and Malthus are joined by a pursuit that ends in Jacob’s first confirmed killing of a Hollowgast. The encounter makes the danger immediate and personal: Jacob must navigate the dark passage while Malthus closes in, and the escape route taught by Emma Bloom becomes the means by which he turns flight into resistance.

The confrontation and its stakes

Before the attack, Dr. Golan tells Jacob that their sessions will end, but says Jacob has already helped him. He suggests that Jacob and the others together might finally change Malthus from the degraded form in which he has remained. The remark links the creature’s condition to Golan’s larger purpose, while leaving the nature of the proposed change ominously uncertain.

Jacob then sees the Hollowgast among the troughs. Its appearance is described as that of a withered, inhuman creature, and its pursuit puts Jacob in direct danger. The encounter is not an abstract contest between opposing forces: the creature follows him into the cairn passage, where Jacob has little room to maneuver and must rely on his knowledge of the terrain.

Pursuit through the cairn

Twice, Malthus comes close enough to reach Jacob, but each time it stumbles and falls back. Jacob attributes his progress to knowing where to place his feet. Emma has taught him the route so thoroughly that he can run it in darkness and storm conditions; her earlier help therefore becomes a practical advantage at the moment it matters most.

The passage does not provide a clean escape. Jacob loses his footing on loose gravel and slides toward the pursuing creature. He tries to use his shears to free himself, but they are too dull to cut through the Hollowgast’s tongue. With the route and tool both proving insufficient on their own, the chase reaches its turning point when Jacob collides with Malthus.

Jacob’s reversal

The collision carries Jacob and Malthus out of the tunnel and down the cairn mound into the bog. Jacob’s shears strike the creature’s eyes, leaving the weapon embedded there. The result is a sudden reversal: the object Jacob had been unable to use effectively during the pursuit becomes the instrument that stops it.

Jacob senses Malthus dying as its hold loosens. The creature finally becomes still and disappears beneath the bog’s surface. Jacob’s fear also begins to ease as the immediate threat ends, linking the creature’s death to a change in his own state: he has moved from being hunted to having acted decisively against what hunted him.

Consequences and significance

Afterward, Jacob tests the conclusion aloud: “It’s dead. I killed it.” The short statement confirms both the outcome and his recognition of his own role in it. Until this encounter, Malthus has been a nightmare made real and a pursuer Jacob struggles to evade; afterward, Jacob knows that a Hollowgast can be killed and that he himself can do so.

The confrontation also gathers several strands of help into one outcome. Emma’s instruction gives Jacob the route, while the shears become effective only through the unpredictable collision at the cairn’s exit. The scene’s decisive change is therefore not a planned victory but a reversal produced by knowledge, persistence, and chance. Golan’s earlier comment about changing Malthus remains unresolved, set against the fact that Jacob has instead killed the creature.