Station Eleven: Chapter 49 Summary & Analysis

The clarinet, it happens, hates Shakespeare. She has always wanted the Symphony to perform something else. A year before being taken by the prophet, she started writing her own play with the hope the Symphony could perform it. But she only ever wrote the opening line: “Dear friends, I find myself immeasurably weary and I have gone to rest in the forest.” It is this note that the Symphony later discovers and thinks might be a suicide note.

While they were reading the note, she was waking up after being drugged and taken by the prophet’s men. Around her, the prophet and his men plan a confrontation with the Symphony. The clarinet realizes Sayid is there too, angrily asking questions to the prophet, and she realizes Dieter has died. She learns that she was abducted because two hostages are better than one for the exchange of Eleanor.

The clarinet manages to make eye contact with Sayid, who mouths to her instructions on how to get back to the road. She then pretends to be asleep, but alive, so that the prophet leaves her an opportunity to escape, but she ends up falling asleep for real.

When she wakes, Sayid is discussing the horrible things the prophet has made his men do with the boy. The boy seems to know it isn’t right, but feels he has no choice. Apologetically, he says that the men are highly trained and can pick off Symphony members one by one until they get what they want. During the conversation, Sayid keeps the boy distracted so that the clarinet can escape. Silently, she slips away and is able to tell the Symphony to change their route. They leave immediately, and are unable to locate Kirsten and August, who are at this point off fishing by the golf course.