I Am the Messenger: Joker: The End is Not the End Summary & Analysis

Late at night, someone knocks on Ed’s door. Ed takes a deep breath and opens the door. A bald man in a suit with a mustache stands in front of him. He asks Ed if he may come in and, when Ed consents, he sits down at the kitchen table. He opens his briefcase and takes out a letter. He insists Ed open it, but Ed instead asks who sent him. The man, of course, does not know. Finally, Ed opens the letter, which tells him to go down to the cemetery.

At the mention of the cemetery, Ed wonders if his father planned the whole scheme of the cards before he died. He knows his father used to walk the streets of the town after leaving the pub, so his father would know the addresses listed on the cards. Ed runs to the cemetery.

Ed finds Daryl and Keith standing next to his father’s grave. Keith says Ed is so similar to his father that he was likely to die just as underachieving as he did. Daryl reveals that he and Keith were hired in order to challenge Ed, so he didn’t actually end up like his father. However, Keith reveals, Ed’s father is not the person who hired them.

Ed asks Daryl and Keith how they knew he would be at the cemetery at this exact time. They say their employer always tells them where to go and the employer is never wrong. Neither of them knows who the employer is, however. Daryl reveals that they came here tonight to remind Ed not to die in the same state his father did. Daryl and Keith tell him he has to wait a little while longer and then they walk away. Ed thanks them, but he knows they don’t hear him, and he will never see them again.

Ed waits a few more days and then one day at dawn, a young man gets into Ed’s cab. When Ed asks him where he wants to go, the young man says Ed’s own address. Ed freezes, but the young man orders him to drive. As Ed approaches his house, the young man removes the cap that has been concealing his face. Ed realizes the man is the failed bank robber from the start of the book.

The robber instructs Ed to drive past each address he went to for the mission. Lastly, they drive past Ritchie’s house, the playground where Marv met his daughter, and Audrey’s place. Ed wishes he could stay forever in the happy memories with his friends, but he and the man return to Ed’s house. The robber pulls a mirror from his pocket. He holds the mirror up to Ed’s face and asks him if he remembers how, at the trial, he said that every time Ed looked in the mirror, he should see a dead man.

Ed envisions Angelina, Milla, and Sophie. He remembers Father O’Reilly’s laughter, Angie’s ice cream, and the brotherly love of Gavin and Daniel. He sees the Christmas lights, his mother’s disappointment and love, and Bernie’s old cinema. He sees all this in the mirror, as well as Ritchie by the river, Marv in the park, and Audrey in the three minutes they danced together. The man asks Ed if he still sees a dead man in the mirror. Ed says no, and the man says then this entire scheme was worth it. The man says goodbye forever and tells Ed to go inside.