Can someone help me with this question?

I haven't read the third book yet, have just finished reading the second. Maybe I missed something or this will be cleared up in the third book, but I was confused with the prologue in the second book. It seems as though someone is being held captive, secured to a bed and goes into great detail about this. I thought that it would come back to this at some point during the book but it doesn't. The prologue also discusses the gasoline/car event but I don't understand how these two events are linked or who it was that was being held captive? Can someone explain this to me? Thanks!

Posted by J i Calgary , 20 July 2010

It's Lisbeth Salander who is strapped to the bed by Dr. Peter Teleborian in St. Stefan's psychiatric clinic.

Posted by Ken Graham in Tadworth, Surrey, UK , 20 July 2010

Is this "The Evil" which occured to Lisbeth? Sort of Like a flashback?

Posted by j klein in california , 20 July 2010

I agree with Ken!

Posted by J Klein in California , 20 July 2010

"She was twelve when she was transported by two policewomen to St. Stefan's. It was a few weeks after "All The Evil" had occurred. She remembered every detail." .... Chapter 21

Posted by Ken Graham in Tadworth, Surrey, UK , 21 July 2010

Thank you, that completely makes sense, I agree.

Posted by J in Calgary , 21 July 2010

These events are crucial to (and fully explained in) the third book!

Posted by , 21 July 2010

the bed was the stimulus free room @ st stephens childrens ward and the man who ties lisbeth down is peter telborian (doctor type fellow who declared her probably phsycotic) the gas and matches is her imagening the day she set zalachenko on fire.

Posted by benwasheare , 23 July 2010

She wants to set Telborian on fire as she did her father- Zala which she did when she was 12 after he beat his mother and gave her brain damage and the police ignored her mother until hours later they bothered to go in the house. This is one of the many reasons Lisbeth is so damaged.

Posted by Clea in London , 23 July 2010

J, if you are still not completely clear on that then read the second book again before you start the 3rd. It's important to have it clear in your head before the climax

Posted by Ray in Normandy , 27 July 2010

In the second book, it doesn't make clear how Lisbeth got her prints on the Colt 45.......the whole point of the book was that her prints were on the gun that killed the couple and the evil lawyer....in the movie, it showed her taking the gun out of its box and threatening Evil Lawyer with it, but if I hadn't seen the movie, I wouldn't have known how the gun got her prints.....

Posted by Virginia in Vancouver BC Canada , 28 July 2010

If you stick with the book, you'll figure out it's Dr. Teleborian who has strapped her to the bed as punishment and sensory deprivation. The same motif is carried forward when Bjurman restrains her.

Posted by Mambisa in Florida , 31 July 2010

Don't try to double think the books, read all three books and take the ride, and then savor all the different levels there are in them. Unfortunately his untimely death left us w/ only 3 of the outlined 10 so lots of questions won't be answered but the obvious ones will be. There's a reason he submitted the three books at one time. They go together and you need to read them in order and read all three!!! It's a great ride he takes us on.

Posted by OnawaCy in Onawa, IA , 4 August 2010

In the second book, it doesn't make clear how Lisbeth got her prints on the Colt 45.......

When Lisbeth goes to Bjurman's apartment to check up on him, she goes through his office to see what he's been up to. She finds the box with the Colt in it, opens it, picks it up and looks at it. That means she handled it... Larson doesn't tell us whether she put it back or kept it. The scene ends with her having the gun in her hand. She obviously felt secure enough that in her control over Bjurman at that point because she did not wipe her prints off the gun (like she meticulously did everywhere else).

The giant found it when he went to see Bjurman and used it in the 3 killings. Lisbeth had no idea the gun or her gaurdian were that much of a threat, but we learn later she did, in fact, leave the gun.

The Giant didn't know her prints were on it, but later, it plays into Zala and the giants hands perfectly.

Posted by Carrie in Milton , 4 August 2010

why does lisbeth not take the gun like she does with the 1911 goverment? this mistake does not make sense given the meticulouse nature she cleaned martin vangers torture chamber or the prints in other situations why is this????

Posted by benwasheare , 5 August 2010

When do Salander and Blomkvist meet face to face? I cant remember

Posted by M Muir in Victoria , 6 August 2010

At the very end of the second book, he comes to the farmhouse after she has been shot, and gets himself arrested, but she is airlifted to the hospital, where the 3rd book picks up.

Posted by mb in anytown, USA , 6 August 2010

why don't you just relax and enjoy the 3 books? some of you are putting too much brain power into the best story and character Larsson offered to us. what a magnificent storyteller, and what an interesting main character, who grabs your heart. enjoy and stop dissecting.

Posted by gloria in omaha, ne. , 10 August 2010

As to the fingerprints, Lisbeth's visit to Bjurman, when she handled the gun, was before connections had been made between him and the Section and Zala; right before Dag and Mia's murder and the investigations of the conspiracies commenced. She "reached out" to Bjurman from time to time to keep him in check and might well not have thought her fingerprints in his apartment was cause for concern. That all changed when she saw her face splashed across the front page of the paper.

Posted by Nansi in USA , 7 November 2010

Firstly carrie has got it right..

secondly mb in anytown...in my book Blomkvist gets to cabin...took out his mobile and dialled the number for emergency services" ...thats it ...you say he got arrested and she was airlifted...are there differenr versions!??

Posted by TB in Aus , 14 June 2011

@ Gloria in Omaha. Some people enjoy pulling the threads of the story together - it is part of the overall experience. My suggestion is to relax and let people enjoy their own thinking processes. I, for one, mull over a brilliant story, such as this, marvelling at Larsson' s imagination and his ability to spin such a good yarn to understand the links that he, himself, made. Yep. We are all different and Viva La Difference!!

Posted by Merran in Surfers Paradise , 28 January 2012