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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Is Where It Ends, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gun Violence
Community and Tragedy
Family and Sibling Relationships
Change, Uncertainty, and Growing Up
Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Tomás and Fareed prepare to open the doors, knowing they must be stealthy yet still communicate the possibility of escape to those inside. Pulling gently, he sees Sylvia alive inside the auditorium; but he’s shocked at the bodies onstage, including those of several teachers. It’s chilling to see Tyler onstage with a gun; he should have believed Sylvia when her sister told him Tyler was dangerous. Still, he knows that as long as Tyler is paying attention to Autumn, people can sneak out the doors. He gently taps Sylvia, who is relieved to see him and starts quietly directing those around her out.
Tomás is both shocked and unsurprised to see that Tyler is the shooter. This shows that he was aware of Tyler’s malicious behavior prior to the shooting, but also that he didn’t believe that it merited a response or would lead to larger problems. Although it’s not clearly not Tomás’s fault that the shooting happened, his reflection points out how dangerous it can be when society accepts or dismisses “routine” acts of abuse and misogyny.
Themes
Tomás and Fareed crawl into the auditorium, silently showing students the way out. Surprisingly, no one makes a disturbance or rushes out the door; instead, the students move with care and coordination. Tomás wishes Sylvia would leave immediately, but she instead works her way through the students, spreading the word.
Despite their fright, the students leave quietly so as not to jeopardize the escape prospects of others. Their ingrained sense of community responsibility saves lives and shows that Tyler has failed to break their values.
Themes
From the corner of her eye, Autumn can see people leaving the auditorium; she knows she has to keep Tyler’s attention on her. She remembers the night of her Mom’s death, which had been preceded by weeks of hectic work with the ballet company she ran. In the memory, Autumn waits for an hour after dance class for her mother to pick her up, only for the police to tell her that she’s crashed the car in exhaustion and died. In the present, Autumn whispers to Tyler that she can’t change the past; she can only honor her mother by continuing to dance, as she wanted. She reminds him of the good times they shared, like the ballet they saw together last year.
Tyler hates Autumn’s dance in part because he believes his mother died as a result of working too much; in contrast, Autumn sees dance as the best way to continue her mother’s legacy. It’s normal to try and “make sense” of a random tragedy like their mother’s death, but Tyler does so by succumbing to his fear and letting it harm those around him. In contrast, by accepting that she can never rationalize the accident, Autumn is able to appreciate her mother’s life and move on with her own.
Themes
For a minute it seems like Tyler will lower his gun, but then he shakes his head and turns around, glimpsing the students crawling toward the door. Autumn grabs his shoulders and he hits her in the face with his gun, throwing her to the ground. He says that she’s too late to save him.
While Tyler’s abuse seems extremely aggressive, it’s just an escalated version of his attack on Sylvia during the junior prom—which neither she nor Claire, who witnessed the incident, thought was serious enough to act on.
Themes
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Sylvia sees Autumn fall to the ground and watches Tyler strike her again. She wills Autumn not to fight, and to let her and Tomás take care of things. She alerts a group of freshmen to the open exits, watching Fareed’s calm demeanor as he alerts other students. She feels pride as she watches people slip out the doors to freedom.
While Sylvia wants to help Autumn, she knows that doing so would turn Tyler’s attention to the fleeing students. Her loyalty to the community clashes here with her personal loyalty to her girlfriend.
Themes
Claire stares at OHS’s old-fashioned exterior; she’s grief-stricken when she sees Jonah’s empty car. All around, police officers are working to build a road block and set up a tent to process survivors. Another officer gestures to Claire and Chris, clearly waiting to interview them. Behind him, she sees Coach Lindt and her teammates from the track team.
The physical transformation of the school’s exterior into a chaotic war zone shows both a determination to address the crisis and the fact that even the police can only do so much to help the students trapped inside. In this sense, the scene outside the school mirrors the emotional tumult within the community as it tries to process this attack from within.
Themes
On Twitter, Jay responds in frustration to reporters, saying that he skipped school and has no idea what is happening. An anonymous user chides Jay for being “naïve” enough to believe rumors about the shooting. Privately, Jay messages Kevin again, asking if he’s safe.
This callous comment from a Twitter user points out that it’s partly the community’s unwillingness to cope with unpleasant truths—like Tyler’s long history of abuse—that leads to crises such as this. Jay’s message is especially poignant given that the reader knows Kevin has already been murdered.
Themes
