The events following the second fall emphasize the separation between the roommates now that Finny knows Gene's responsibility in the original accident. While Finny can no longer believe in his friend, breaking the unity between the two boys, Gene, in turn, understands his guilt, and that knowledge nearly drives him crazy.
The night of the second fall, Gene suffers a kind of emotional breakdown that recalls Leper's hysterical hallucinations. For example, as Gene lurks outside the infirmary trying to see Finny, he resists an irrational impulse to steal the doctor's car. Later, when he spots Finny and the doctor inside the room, he imagines absurd conversations and weirdly comical remarks that bring him — like Leper in Vermont — to laughter and tears.
Later that night, Gene suffers from "double vision" — a kind of hallucination that also recalls Leper's breakdown. The gym, for example, seems familiar, yet "innately strange," a "totally unknown building" with a significance that Gene cannot fathom. The whole world, in fact — and especially the gym which he associates with Finny — seems apart from Gene, as if everything around him is real, but he is a dream.
Clearly, Gene's nightmare vision of himself comes from the knowledge of his guilt — and the separation that he now feels from Finny. Indeed, Gene fears that he no longer exists, and so can never be a part of Finny's world again. Even his attempt to visit Finny that night in the infirmary room seems to prove this beyond a doubt. Angry at the sight of Gene, Finny tumbles out of bed.
