Summary
With Bunny's death confirmed, Hampden College grieved. Richard and the others observed that many tributes to Bunny were insincere or untrue. Bunny's parents left the campus and returned to their home in Connecticut, taking Henry with them. They knew Henry fairly well because he had been good friends with Bunny for a number of years. Henry sent word to Francis and the others that the Corcorans were not interested in pursuing further investigations because the press had been depicting Bunny as someone with drug and alcohol problems, and his parents were embarrassed by this. Henry also sent word that the Corcorans were inviting all of Bunny's friends to stay at their house the night before the funeral.
Francis and Richard drove to Connecticut together, arriving at a new and modern home. There were many people gathered at the house, and Richard was horrified when Bunny's father had several violent outbursts of grief. In response to the strain and the stress, Charles and Richard drank and took various pills, while Henry developed a migraine. At one point, Charles stole Francis's car keys and drove off, upsetting the rest of the group. When Charles returned, he refused to explain where he had been. At the funeral, Henry read a poem that had been one of Bunny's favorites. After the funeral, they all went to the cemetery and watched as Bunny's coffin was buried.
Back on campus, Richard continued to be tormented by guilt, manifesting in the form of grotesque nightmares. Richard also spent far less time with his friends from Greek class. Henry seemed to be withdrawn and isolated, and there was a mysterious tension between Charles and Camilla. Richard also noticed that Charles was drinking more heavily than ever. Francis also experienced panic attacks which he mistook for a heart attack, leading to Richard taking him to the hospital in the middle of the night. Richard began to plan for his summer, applying for a house-sitting opportunity in Brooklyn, and looking forward to being away from Hampden.
One night, Henry came to Richard's room in the middle of the night. He explained that he had received a call from the police, notifying him that Charles had been arrested for drunk driving while driving Henry's car. Henry wanted Richard to go and post Charles's bail; he gave Richard money to use for this purpose. Richard was confused as to why Henry was asking him to do these things, but Henry would only cryptically say that there were things about the investigation that Richard did not know, and that Henry and Charles had had a fight the night before. Richard retrieved Charles from the jail, and the two of them walked back to Charles's restaurant. Charles complained that he thought everything was Henry's fault, and that the FBI had been much more suspicious than Henry revealed. They knew that things had been strained between Henry and Bunny during the trip to Italy, and they had also found the records of Henry buying the plane tickets. Fortunately, because the college, the local police, and Bunny's family had all wanted things closed up quietly, the FBI had dropped its investigation, but Charles remained convinced that Henry had almost ruined all of them, and that it would have been better had someone else been in charge. Charles also shared his summer plans of staying in Boston at an apartment owned by Francis's aunt.
Camilla came home once Charles and Richard were at the apartment, and Richard was stunned to see Charles kiss her in a very sexual way. Richard left and went to go and see Francis; Richard asked Francis whether Charles and Camilla slept together. Francis confirmed that he was fairly sure they did; in Francis's mind, the sex was less important than the violent jealousy Charles displayed. Francis also explained that he and Charles sometimes slept together, particularly when Charles was drunk. Richard heard from Cloke, and then from Francis, that Camilla had moved out of the apartment she shared with Charles, and into an expensive hotel. Francis explained that Henry had arranged the move and that he suspected that Henry and Camilla had been romantically involved for some time. Richard found Charles sleeping outside one night, and took care of him as Charles got sicker and sicker. Eventually Richard took Charles to the hospital. Richard and Francis visited Charles there, bringing him alcohol and gifts, since neither Henry nor Camilla would see him.
Richard spoke with Camilla, who showed him evidence that Charles had been physically abusive towards her. Nonetheless, Richard pleaded with her to move out of the hotel. Richard was terrified that all of the tension and conflict would lead to someone revealing the truth about Bunny's death. Francis and Richard went to have lunch with Julian, and Julian showed them a letter he had recently received. The letter was from Bunny and included information that Henry had killed the farmer, and that Bunny now feared Henry would kill him. Because the letter had initially been put in the wrong box, Julian only received it after a long delay, and had no idea when it was sent. Julian dismissed the letter as someone playing a prank on him, but Francis and Richard could tell that the letter was genuine. They also noticed that the final page of the letter had been typed on stationery from the hotel where Bunny and Henry stayed in Italy. Julian had not yet noticed this detail, which would confirm for him that the letter was genuine. Richard and Francis frantically tried to get the letter away from Julian, but Julian ended up seeing the stationery while meeting with Henry. Henry, Richard, and Francis watched as Julian realized that the students had almost certainly killed Bunny. Julian showed almost no reaction, and returned the incriminating letter to them, but also abruptly abandoned his teaching job and moved away from the town.
The Greek students were now in a tricky situation, as they would have to change their majors, and finish the semester with an incompetent substitute teacher. They would also have to take at least an extra year of studies, which presented a huge financial challenge for Richard. Meanwhile, the court date for Charles's drunk driving charges was approaching; because the car belonged to Henry but Charles had been driving, both of them would have to appear together. However, by that point, Charles and Henry could not even stand to be in the same room without getting into violent arguments; Richard and Francis were terrified that legal consequences for the drunk driving charges would somehow lead to renewed interest in Bunny's death. Richard and Francis took Charles to the country house for a few days in hopes of helping him get sober and calm down. However, one night they realized that Charles had driven off alone. Frantically, Richard and Francis tried to find him.
Richard and Francis eventually went to the hotel, where they told Henry and Camilla what had happened. While all the friends were gathered together, Charles stormed into the room with a gun. He threatened to kill Henry, and while the other struggled to intervene, Richard was shot in the stomach. The noise had by then attracted hotel staff and other guests, who were in the process of trying to break into the room. Henry was able to get ahold of the gun, and then to everyone's shock, he shot himself in the head.
Analysis
Perhaps because they are all quite isolated and alienated from everyone except each other, the Greek students are somewhat stunned to see other individuals grieving Bunny's death. Some of the grief is melodramatic and performative, but the grief of Mr. Corcoran represents the raw agony of a parent who has lost a child. For Richard and the others, who are often detached and analytical, these displays of emotion are profoundly uncomfortable. The chaotic family scene at the Corcoran home represents the complete opposite of the elegant, composed, and analytical world that the Greek students built for themselves in Julian's classroom and the country house. However, what the Corcoran world possesses is actual human feeling, even if it comes from flawed and sometimes unappealing individuals. While they grapple with these emotions triggering their guilt and shame, Richard in particular also has to confront the realization of what death actually means. Like many young people, Richard felt immortal and had never had to live with the consequences of death. This innocence was part of what allowed him to participate in the cruel plan, but only once it is too late does he understand the gaping permanence of death.
During the initial investigation of Bunny's disappearance, the Greek students had felt a strong loyalty to one another, and a tight group bond. They were utterly dependent on each individual playing their role in covering up the secret, and their guilt could be sublimated into anxiety about whether or not they were going to get caught. The true scope of their trauma emerges once life returns to something supposedly "normal" and they no longer have any immediate threat of discovery. In different ways, all of the students manifest their inability to cope with their crime, whether through nightmares, abusing alcohol and drugs, or experiencing panic attacks. Their close bond also starts to fall apart, since they now remind each other of the terrible thing they have done. Earlier in the novel, Richard's worse fear had been to be excluded or abandoned from the group, but now he actively starts to distance himself from them, and plans a summer in which he will get away from them and from Hampden. Richard also learns that he has not actually been privy to all of the secrets (such as the relationships between Charles and Camilla, and Charles and Francis), which makes him feel more disengaged from the group.
The Greek students are also shown to have been very naïve in their approach to the consequences of the murder. Perhaps because they had successfully gotten away with the murder of the farmer, they believed that if they could get through the initial investigation of Bunny's death, they'd be free to move on with their lives. However, even once the investigation is closed, there is always the possibility that it could be reopened if anything suspicious were to come to light. Richard realizes with horror that the possibility of getting caught is going to haunt him for the rest of his life, and this reveals why he has always felt permanently stuck in this period of his life. The toxic specter of the murder complicates things like the tension between Charles and Henry, and Charles's drunken mishaps: these things are incredibly threatening because they could lead to the murder coming to light. The fear of getting caught creates narrative tension as well as psychological insight into the characters, making a novel in which the crime was revealed immediately surprisingly suspenseful. As James Shell explains, "the problem Tartt sets for herself is to sustain the narrative tension after having laid all the cards of her plot on the table, and she does so quite skillfully, by introducing the possibility (which seems, for most of the second half of the book, a probability) that one of the conspirators will slip up or allow his conscience to get the best of him" (Shell, n.p).
The incident with Julian and the letter most strongly highlights the perpetual precarity the students now have to live in: they could never have anticipated that such a document would surface, and yet they are now suddenly back on the precipice of being found out, weeks after they thought everything was resolved, and that they were safe. Julian's reaction to finding out about the murder is both a salvation and a disappointment for the students. He preserves their secret, but he also utterly fails to live up to the nurturing and paternal role they had wanted to cast him in. Tarrt makes strong use of the retrospective narration technique in this section, with Richard musing that he is tempted to lie and construct an alternative narrative. Richard still feels a childish longing to lie to himself, and to readers about Julian being a better man than he was, but he ultimately forces himself to grapple with the chilling reality that Julian did not care about anyone except himself. In some ways, Julian's reaction makes all of the students' actions meaningless: by pursuing things like the bacchanal, and beauty at any cost, they believed they were living up to the philosophy and principles that Julian taught them. When those principles are revealed to be hollow, the students have to realize that none of the things they have learned will help them to be good people or lead meaningful lives. While Bunny was usually mocked by the other students, when he died, his father genuinely grieved for him. As a surrogate father to the Greek students, Julian does not show any parallel care or concern. He simply turns his back on them and focuses on preserving himself.
The Greek students killed Bunny because they could not handle the pressure of having someone who knew their secrets, but was also erratic and untrustworthy. Ironically, after Bunny's death, Charles becomes similarly unhinged and dangerous to the group. His heavy drinking and bitter anger towards Henry makes him a potential liability who could at any moment disclose damning information about the rest of the group. Upon learning that Charles spent the night in jail, Henry and Richard have to figure out if he was alone in the cell because they are terrified that Charles might have slipped up and said something. Henry and Camilla lose patience with Charles, and start to splinter off from the group; their burgeoning romantic relationship also drives a wedge between them and the others because they now prioritize each other over the unity of the whole group. Richard and Francis are caught in between, because they still love Charles, but are also panicked about what could happen if he continues to deteriorate. The collapse of the group is characterized by declining faith in Henry's leadership, as the other individuals start to question whether he has actually acted in the best interests of the group. Both with Henry and Julian, someone in whom they had placed a lot of trust turns out to be deeply flawed.
The violent climax of the novel contrasts with the cool, collected, and meticulous aura of the group earlier in the novel. It seems almost impossible that the sophisticated, intellectual, and caring group of friends could have disintegrated into violent chaos; while the novel is seemingly about education, the Greek students actually experience a kind of mis-education or devolution, as they lose touch with the better versions of themselves and succumb to jealousy, rivalry, and petty infighting. When they engaged in the bacchanal, the students thought they were liberating themselves, but really they trapped themselves in a spiral of violence, secrets, and lies. As Maria Grip writes, "as Henry and Richard are under the illusion of control with the intention of maintaining it, they are in fact losing it and instead admitting an opening for uncontrolled chaos and violence to erupt" (2).
The contrast between Richard and Henry's injuries during the conflict reflects their respective roles in the group. No one is particularly invested in Richard; he happens to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and gets shot as collateral damage to a deeper and darker conflict, similar to how he was not involved in the bacchanal, and wasn't even supposed to be there when Bunny was killed. Henry has always been the one in the group with the most agency and control, and his suicide shows him clinging to that control and self-assertion. He would rather die on his own terms, in a way that may seem heroic to him, rather than live in fear and chaos.
