Summary
At the next rehearsal for the play, Felix imagines that Miranda is watching the entire time, and this comforts him. Felix has another lunch with Estelle, where she tells Felix that the Literacy Through Literature Program is going to be cut in the near future. She also tells him that Sal O'Nally will be bringing his son, Fred, to the production of The Tempest. Fred, Estelle explains, is very interested in the theatre and hopes to produce his own plays one day. Felix debates whether or not to include Fred in his revenge plot.
On the day of the screening, everyone involved is in on Felix's revenge: Estelle, 8Handz, and the rest of the players. Tony and Sal arrive, and the play begins. They are served from plastic cups that Felix has taken care to differentiate from others, as the ministers' drinks have been spiked with something to heighten their anxiety and confusion. This is the moment that the Prologue detailed, as the play begins and is off to a seemingly normal start. Soon, however, the lights go out and the goblins demand that the ministers follow them to another area of the prison. Fred, Sal's son, is brought to a cell where Anne-Marie demands that he read Ferdinand's lines with her as Miranda.
The ministers -- including Sal, Tony, and Lonnie, Felix's former colleagues -- find themselves in a cell and begin to discuss what is going on. They decide that it must be a prison riot and contemplate how to stop it. Tony has a secret conversation with another authority figure, Sebert, in which he encourages him to kill Sal and blame it on the prisoners. All of these reactions are being recorded by Felix in a separate room. The men are brought to the "green room," where they are presented with grapes to eat. The grapes react with what the men have had to drink; the men begin to get very confused and lose their memory of what has happened so far.
8Handz begins to get concerned that the drugs are too much for the ministers and convinces Felix to put a stop to the plan. Felix agrees, and the goblins escort the ministers to yet another room. There, they see Felix dressed as Prospero and he explains what has been going on. His plan is a success: Felix demands his old job back and everyone agrees to his terms, afraid that the video footage from the first cell will be leaked to the public and their own jobs will be lost. In the meantime, Fred and Anne-Marie are hitting it off in their own cell, and they agree to go on a date.
As the section concludes, Felix thinks he hears Miranda singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
Analysis
Felix's "revenge" in this part of the novel, while specific to the Correctional Facility environment, operates much like Prospero's machinations in The Tempest. With the help of Ariel, Prospero is able to manipulate the weather on the island to confuse and cloud the minds of those who are shipwrecked on it. Some characters are even lulled into a deep, hypnotic sleep throughout the play. Likewise, Felix and the inmates drug Tony, Sal, Lonnie, and the other ministers in the justice department in order to enact their plan. Once again, the similarities between The Tempest and the novel are brought to the forefront, suggesting a parallel between the island -- strange, unfamiliar, and a different experience for various characters -- and Fletcher Correctional, where the ministers are lost and confused. On a broader note, this comparison challenges readers to consider the portrayal of largely "unfamiliar" environments and their inhabitants, like prisons and prisoners, with more deference and complexity than is typically afforded them.
The success of Felix's plan may surprise readers, as the novel has heretofore presented him as a victimized but nonetheless self-interested character obsessed with his own revenge. However, like The Tempest, the novel aims to show how its central character grows and develops, rather than focusing on whether he fails or succeeds at the revenge aspect of the plot. Prospero, for example, ends The Tempest by leaving the island and giving up the magic that has allowed him control over the others throughout the play. Similarly, Felix returns to his old job but in a new capacity that has him working as part of a creative team -- a conclusion foreshadowed by the way Felix welcomed and encouraged the inmates at Fletcher Correctional to contribute their own creative interpretations to their performance. This personal growth espoused by both Prospero and Felix helps explain why the novel does not end with the simple return to the status quo readers were introduced to at the beginning. Rather, the novel ends with the players and the prison, the catalyst for the performance and Felix's progress forward.
