In Chap­ter 210 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the set­ting is a stark prison cafe­te­ria where inmates eat from brown trays and reflect on their harsh real­i­ties. The chap­ter opens with Tug pick­ing at his unap­peal­ing meal, high­light­ing the abysmal food qual­i­ty that is under scruti­ny in a class action law­suit led by Lar­ry Medeau, a dis­graced lawyer. Tug casu­al­ly dis­cuss­es the impend­ing exe­cu­tion of a fel­low inmate, Tooms, demon­strat­ing a resigned atti­tude towards prison life and its injus­tices.

Patch, anoth­er inmate, lis­tens intent­ly to Tug’s mus­ings about read­ing as a means to com­bat igno­rance. The atmos­phere thick­ens when Tug notices the pres­ence of men asso­ci­at­ed with the Brand gang, their crude tat­toos sig­nal­ing dan­ger. Patch acknowl­edges them but shows indif­fer­ence, reveal­ing past inter­ac­tions with the gang that have left a mark of hos­til­i­ty.

Tug warns Patch that the gang mem­bers hold grudges, lead­ing to the real­iza­tion that vio­lence is ever-present. As the con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, it becomes appar­ent that Patch is weighed down by the con­se­quences of his past actions. He strug­gles to fin­ish his meal, anx­i­ety creep­ing in as he con­tem­plates the inevitable con­flict ahead.

The ten­sion esca­lates when Tug observes the gang mem­bers approach, not­ing their youth and fear, espe­cial­ly in one indi­vid­ual. Patch’s mind races with thoughts of pos­si­ble escape or con­fronta­tion, but he rec­og­nizes the futil­i­ty of evad­ing the gang’s wrath. As he reflects on his ances­try and the inher­ent vio­lence in his life, he under­stands that he can­not out­run his fate.

Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a vis­cer­al moment. As one mem­ber of the gang pulls a weapon and anoth­er pre­pares to strike, Patch, dri­ven by a mix of instinct and des­per­a­tion, reacts by pick­ing up his tray and swing­ing it—a defin­ing act of defi­ance against the loom­ing threat, sig­ni­fy­ing his refusal to be a pas­sive vic­tim any longer. This moment encap­su­lates the chap­ter’s themes of sur­vival, fear, and the relent­less cycle of vio­lence with­in the prison envi­ron­ment.