A draft stage had the Entertainment reaching Don Gately…

This is planned-but-unwritten material: it appears in outline or margin notes but was never drafted as a scene.

In the manuscript. Unplaced draft state, per the Newsweek archive report: "In one draft, Wallace considered delivering a copy of "the Entertainment" to the character of Don Gately." (raw's own double-quoted "the Entertainment"; no ms/date locator given)

In the published book. This material does not appear in the published book. Published shadow = Gately's hospital strand (scene 185 pp. 972–981) and the samizdat-dissemination record

Evidence. A single source reports this. (a 2010 archive-overview report; no draft page cited). Documented by the Newsweek archive report.

Bears on. This difference bears on the following open questions: does Gately survive the hospital / what the beach scene is; what happens between p. 981 and p. 3 (the Annulation-Text); who mailed the samizdat copies; who mailed the samizdat copies.

Further notes. Evidential value for the ending cluster: a discarded route by which the lethal cartridge reaches the Gately strand — the published book never puts the Entertainment in Gately's orbit, so arguments from that absence should know the connection was on the author's table.