This Is Where It Ends: Epilogue Summary & Analysis

After the police finally leave Opportunity High, Fareed breaks in through the roof and spreads word through social media to the students, who gather their siblings and friends and descend on the school. It’s almost like any other drive to school, except everyone is aware of the thirty-nine people now dead. Autumn is in the hospital having surgery on her leg, any plans for dancing now forestalled. Instead of running away, she’s now “tied to Opportunity,” but Sylvia reflects that everyone who endured the shooting is bound to the town as well.

On the roof, everyone forms a quiet circle. Fareed stands next to Sylvia and prays quietly. She wishes that Tomás were here, playing a prank as usual, but instead Claire stands on her other side, mourning her brother Matt as well. Fareed addresses the crowd, saying that no one will ever forget this day or the people that died in the school. Then he reads out the names of all the fallen students; for each one, a friend or sibling retrieves a paper lantern from the center of the circle. Sylvia picks up Tomás’s.

When all the names have been read, Fareed encourages the others to live good lives in honor of those they lost. The students light the lanterns in unison and send them up into the sky. Sylvia wants to keep hold of Tomás, but she knows that she needs to release him “toward the promise of a new day,” so she lets go.