Who exactly is Edith Prior? I don't really get her part in Allegiant

[Claire]

So when that woman at the end of Insurgent says that she is Edith Prior I don't really understand her role in Allegiant because it seems to me that she isn't mentioned very often in Allegiant. So if anyone could explain this to me that would be great.

[Sheena]

Edith Prior is an ancestor of Tris's. At the end of Insurgent, they think she was leaving them a message to tell them that Divergents are to save the world, but she over-exaggerated the truth on Divergents. That's all she is--an ancestor, also in the first Prior family when they were all Erudite.

[Kristen]

When they decided to start the experiment in Chicago, she was one of the people they implanted into the city. Her name was not actually Edith Prior. She (or the scientists) changed it to that once they reset her memory.
But yes, as Sheena said, she is Tris and Calebs ancestor. I'm not sure if they mentioned how many generations back. I want to say it's something like 7 or 8.

[Ilana]

i don't know if it was really 7-8 generations that they've been enclosed in Chicago though. i cant' recall what they said about when they decided the put the experiments into place and when they found that Chicago was really the only one that worked and kept it going.

[Kristen]

I'm not really sure how long it was. I just remember those numbers for some reason. But when I read stuff like this, I also tend to make up things that aren't actually mentioned and I start to think they were....lol

Actually, I believe Chicago was reset once already by the time Divergent begins. That's where alot of the destruction around the city came from.
But I don't remember, in total, how many years each experiment was.

In Allegiant, I think they said that Chicago was the most successful experiment at that point. The others had all broken out in various forms of conflict and/or their systems collapsed. And they said if Chicago failed in that way again, they would have to scrap the entire idea of the experiments, since it would be the "last straw". Which is why when everyone was getting ready to go to war again in Chicago, they planned to reset their memories before they had the chance.