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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Ends with Us, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cycles of Abuse
Naked Truths
Good and Evil
Chosen Family
Summary
Analysis
Lily chooses not to go home after work, fearing she may run into Allysa and have to explain what’s happening. She goes back to Atlas’s instead. That evening, she gets a text from Allysa begging her to visit. Lily lies and tells her that she’s in the hospital getting stitches after banging her head at the shop. Allysa offers to have Marshall join her since Ryle is gone. Lily realizes that Ryle told Allysa he was leaving without sharing the whole truth, so Lily knows she has until Ryle gets back in three months to come clean to her. She cringes at this thought; she feels that she’s hiding the truth from people just like her mother. Lily tells Allysa that she’ll come by the next day.
Though Lily worries that lying about her injuries to Allysa mirrors her mother’s behavior, in this case, Lily’s lack of transparency is an example of self-love. Sharing with others invites comment and judgment, and Lily is not yet ready for the input of people who haven’t had her experiences. This time, Lily lies not to protect her abuser, but to protect her privacy and processing space; thus, withholding the truth is another way in which Lily reclaims her power.
Themes
A car pulls up that isn’t Atlas’s. Whoever it is knocks at the door and rings the bell simultaneously. Lily is worried it may be Ryle or Atlas’s girlfriend, Cassie. She tries to catch a glimpse of the person, but she can’t see them. Lily texts Atlas while two men begin yelling for him through the door. With the chain still securing the door, she cracks it to speak with them. They ask who she is, and she gives her name. She is hesitant to tell these strangers that Atlas isn’t home. Atlas calls her back and explains that they are his friends who came for a poker night that he forgot to cancel. He tells her he’ll call them and tell them to go home.
Lily’s initial worry that Cassie may be at the door is another indication that Lily still has unprocessed feelings for Atlas—they are just overshadowed by her more immediate concerns about her safety. Her reaction to the men knocking at the door reveals how Ryle’s abuse has not only destroyed her ability to trust him—it’s also impacted her ability to trust others.
Themes
Now that she knows that she’s safe, Lily lets the two men in. They introduce themselves as Darin and Brad. As they settle in, they ask if she can play poker. Lily tells them she used to all the time in college. They ask her about her head, and she is surprised to find herself telling them everything. Lily describes the attack, how Atlas helped her, and that discovered she was pregnant in the hospital. Darin is stunned into silence. Brad, however, nonchalantly recommends a product that will help with the scarring. This actually makes Lily feel better, as if Brad normalized the situation for her.
This scene introduces the first people in Atlas’s life other than Lily. While many people would find this response inappropriate or abrasive, Lily appreciates that Brad respects her enough to treat her like a person rather than a victim. Brad’s words also imply that just as her scars will physically heal—even better for the medication he recommends—she will emotionally heal as well.
Themes
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Brad tells Lily that their friend bailed on them for poker, so she should join the game instead. Lily agrees. She shuffles the cards for them. Another man named Jimmy arrives, and Brad brings him up to speed on what happened to Lily. The four of them play a few hands waiting for Atlas to come home. When he arrives, he pulls her aside to ask if she wants them out, but Lily assures him that the distraction is helpful. Atlas brushes Lily’s hand affectionately as they talk. Though Lily knows he does it to comfort her, she notices it sparks desire in her.
Both the normalcy of playing poker and talking to people outside her typical circle brighten Lily’s outlook considerably. For the first time in days, she isn’t worried about her safety, the decisions she needs to make, or how the people important to her will react to her news. Because Lily is not distracted by her trauma for once, she has the emotional and mental space to notice Atlas’s touch and, more importantly, her reaction to it.
Themes
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Back at the poker table, Atlas’s friends ask how he and Lily met. Atlas tells them that she rescued him when they were children. Brad points out that Atlas is returning the favor now. Atlas is confused, but Brad reassures him that Lily told him the whole story. Brad tells Lily that in his experience, things always get better. Darin jokes that Brad has never been pregnant or abused by his husband. Atlas is furious. Lily tells him to calm down. She asks how the three men met Atlas, and she learns that Brad is the dishwasher, Darin is the sous chef, and Jimmy is the valet at the restaurant.
Atlas’s friends prove to be shrewd observers of the human condition. Though they’ve not experienced Lily’s specific circumstances, it is clear that their own difficulties have given them wisdom, patience, and humor that Lily desperately needs. Lily’s openness with Brad, Darin, and Jimmy also shows Atlas that, even without him, Lily can fend for herself and will be okay.
Themes
They all keep playing until Atlas’s phone rings. He leaves to answer it, and Lily suspects that he’s talking to Cassie. Eager for more information about her, Lily asks if Cassie has ever attended poker night. The men tell her they’ve never heard of someone named Cassie, nor has Atlas mentioned having a girlfriend. When Atlas comes back, Jimmy asks who Cassie is, and Atlas admits that Cassie doesn’t exist. Atlas tells his friends it’s time to go. They say goodbye to Lily before reminding Atlas that they’ll see him next week for poker.
Lily’s preoccupation with Cassie proves to be completely unnecessary—she never existed. Learning that Atlas had lied about having a girlfriend this whole time fundamentally shifts his and Lily’s dynamic. Throughout their friendship, Lily always trusted Atlas to be honest, but now she sees that he contains bad in him as well. The intent behind Atlas helping Lily is now unclear, and his actions carry a different weight.
Themes
Lily can’t stop thinking about the fact that Atlas lied about Cassie when they first ran into each other. She wonders if he lied to her because he never wanted to be with her in the first place, and a fake girlfriend was just an easy excuse. Lily also considers that if Atlas had been honest, she may have chosen to be with him instead of Ryle—and the events of the last few months would never have happened. Lily tries to leave, but Atlas stops her.
Atlas’s lie, combined with the nagging hurt of him never coming to find Lily as an adult, leads Lily to believe that Atlas had been purposely pushing her away. If that is true, then his desire to help feels like pity. The other option—that Atlas was trying to avoid complicating her new relationship with Ryle—is just as upsetting to Lily because it is another instance of how the existence or absence of honesty can shift the course of one’s life.
Themes
With tears in her eyes, Lily confronts Atlas. She asks the real reason he never came back to find her. Atlas admits that he did. When she was in college, he came home from his first tour with the Marines to see her. When he got to her school, he saw that she was happy with her friends and another guy, and he didn’t want to complicate her life. Lily tries to remember who her boyfriend at the time had been, but she can’t. He was nowhere near as special as Atlas has always been. Instead of talking with Lily, Atlas went back to the Marines to try to improve his life even more.
Lily finally asks Atlas what has actually been bothering her since way before Ryle entered her life or they ran into each other at Bib’s: why their future plans never came to fruition. His explanation breaks Lily’s heart almost more than if he’d just forgotten about her. He showed up, but he incorrectly assumed that he could not measure up to the inconsequential man in her life at the time. It seems that the same lack of self-esteem that compelled Atlas to improve himself before finding Lily led him to walk away from her without even trying to talk to her.
Themes
Lily is angry and wracked with images of what could have happened if Atlas had only spoken with her. She worries that Atlas never felt the way about her that she felt about him. Lily asks him why he lied about Cassie. Atlas tells her that she seemed so happy with Ryle and that he didn’t want to mess it up. Also, he was jealous. Atlas’s admission overwhelms Lily, so she decides to go home. There, she will be able to process what happened with Ryle without the added complication of her feelings toward Atlas.
Lily’s anger at this news is fully justified; though Atlas thought he was freeing Lily to live her life, he was actually undermining her agency by not giving her a chance to decide. He took her choice away from her by not speaking to her in college, and he took it away again by claiming he had a girlfriend that day outside Bib’s. The nature of Atlas’s betrayal is wholly different from Ryle’s abuse, but Lily cannot handle them both at once.
Themes
Atlas is sad that she is leaving, but he drives her home and walks her upstairs. When they get to the door, Atlas realizes that Lily is terrified. He offers to check the apartment for her. Once he’s turned on all the lights and confirmed it’s safe, she comes in. Atlas is hesitant to leave. Lily tells him that she can’t figure out how to salvage her life while he’s in it trying to fix things for her. Before he leaves, Atlas tells her that he will be there if she ever needs him. He asks her only to call if it’s an emergency, because he can’t just be her friend. Lily knows he’s right.
Even in conflict, Atlas wants to help Lily, and Lily in turn knows she needs Atlas’s support to feel comfortable returning to her home. Once she feels safe and Atlas makes sure she knows she can always count on him, they agree it’s time to part ways. They both set healthy boundaries that are driven by self-awareness of their needs and limitations.
Themes
After Lily and Atlas say goodbye, Lily hears a knock at the door. She knows it’s him. When she opens the door, he wraps his arms around her and kisses her face. Lily begins to cry. He tells her that he knows the timing is awful, but he doesn’t want to lose another chance to tell her how he feels. Atlas asks that if she ever wants to find love again, that she finds it with him. He tells her she is still his favorite person. He leaves without a response. Finally alone, Lily reels from the two heartbreaks she’s experienced in the past two days.
Atlas seems to have learned from his former mistakes. Though the timing is worse than ever, he tells Lily what he really wants: Lily, but on her own terms. Acknowledging that the timing is off breaks Lily’s heart, but her decision to part ways with Atlas shows that she is learning to do what is best for herself. In their final goodbye, it is apparent that their unconditional love for each other—the kind that comes simply from being glad someone exists, even in all their complexities—is untarnished by this conflict.
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