Arlen Ploog

Arlen Ploog
Full Name	Arlen Ploog
Gender	Male
Status	Deceased
Cause of Death	Groin bitten off
Occupation	Laundromat employee
First Appearance	Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand
Last Appearance	Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand

Arlen Ploog is a character in the novel Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand. He was a lowlife who had a gambling problem and a survivor of the elevator accident in Merlin's Tower.

Biography

Arlen works at the Big Apple Laundromat from 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM before heading to Merlin's Tower to eat dinner. After that, he'd sleep and head back over to the tower (where he'd usually lose a fair amount of money in poker) before eating lunch and heading back to his job. Occasionally, he'd spend some time with an Asian prostitute named Tina at The Imperial's Tower. After spending time with her one day, Arlen goes to the Tower and loses a game of poker to a cowboy named McMurtry. Once he's finished with the game, he heads over to the buffet line, only to find that he's three dollars short on cash since he lost most of it betting. Arlen winds up finishing his day with a regular cup of coffee instead.

Sometime later at the laundromat, Arlen comes into contact with Roberto Diaz, a man on the run for killing a child, and politely asks the man to leave. When he puts a hand on his shoulder, Roberto punches Arlen in the stomach and slaps him around a bit before threatening to kill him. However, one of the customers points out that he's on camera, and Roberto quickly leaves the store, warning Arlen not to call the cops. Although he told himself he was going to, he never got around to it and spent his time cleaning his pants (he urinated in them when Roberto attacked him) and thought about treating himself to something nice for all the trouble he went through. So, Arlen decides to head off to Merlin's Tower that night, eating clam chowder and drinking expensive coffee before heading into the elevator. While inside, Arlen encounters Allie Goodwin-Gaines, who was creating a stir after witnessing a horrible premonition of everyone dying, and she desperately rushes outside with a detective, his girlfriend, and her husband. In the process, the elevator doors slams shut and almost cut her in half, but Arlen quickly releases the panels, and they were all free. As they wait in the lobby, they looked outside and witness the elevator indeed crash and kill everyone inside.

Arlen and the other survivors are interrogated by Special Agent Hotz and McGavin before being transported out of the police department via police van, and Warren finally figures out that Roberto happened to be the one hiding out in his store and gets mad at him for not speaking up in the first place. During the time, a stoplight swings from above and crashes into the van, killing the driver and injuring a few of the occupants, spraying blood everywhere. As the van begins to swerve out of control, Warren assists Allie in stopping the van once he shoots her seat belt off, and she presses the brakes before the van hits a tank truck. While in the hospital, Arlen explains to Warren what really happened in the laundromat, making him feel ashamed of himself for not speaking up about the man who killed a kid. However, he eventually gets over it and heads back to The Imperial Tower to see Tina.

Arlen is the third survivor of Merlin's Tower to die.

Death

After making love to Tina several times, the prostitute slips under the sheets and starts to give Arlen fellatio. Out of nowhere, a neon sign slams into the wall, and a startled Arlen clenches his knees together, hitting the prostitute in the head. As a reflex, she bites down and spits something out when she comes out of the sheets. Screaming, Arlen looks down and is horrified that Tina just bit off his penis. He tries to stop the blood flow, tumbling off the bed and begging Tina to help him, but she runs out of the room so she wouldn't get in trouble when the cops arrived. Arlen lies on the floor and dies from exsanguination.

Signs/Clues

• According to Arlen's bank account, he was Death Incarnate.
• While playing with McMurtry, Arlen noticed he had the Ace of Spades, the Ace of Clubs, the Eight of Spades, the Eight of Clubs, and the Nine of Diamonds. This is known as the Dead Man's Hand and was the same hand Wild Bill Hickock had before he died.
• Arlen almost died in the patrol van when a traffic light fell and killed the driver, making the van swerve out of control and almost crash into a tank truck.
• While with Tina, Arlen muses, "If heaven was anywhere as good as this, he was about ready to pack his bags, say his goodbyes, and jump on board the first available Greyhound bus that was bound for glory. Next stop: the Elysian Fields."
• Residents of The Imperial had been complaining for years about the old sign out front, telling the management to replace it or the weakened base before it fell over and killed somebody.
• The gusts of wind (which no news stations had predicted) that led to Arlen's demise, by blowing the neon sign into the room, were likely the same ones that killed Warren.
• As he desperately tries to stop the flow of blood from his crotch, Arlen feels a strange coolness prickle his skin, like the hand of Death had gripped him.
• While dying, Arlen remembers a French saying: Le Petit Morte. This means The Little Death and refers to an orgasm.