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Scarred
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Chapter 47-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 47 Summary: “Tristan”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, physical abuse, pregnancy termination, death by suicide, sexual content, and substance use.
When Simon asks Tristan what he is drawing, Tristan is not sure that he should tell the boy, as Tristan and Sara must still keep their plans a secret. By this point, Michael has sent troops to the southern border, and Tristan knows that his own plans for seizing power are coming to fruition. Tristan and Sara spent last night plotting together, and Tristan now wants her to be his queen. Simon asks Tristan if he will be able to have a lady of his own one day, and Tristan promises that Simon can have anything he dreams of. Simon wants a father and asks Tristan if he will fill this role. Tristan says that he cannot be Simon’s father but that he can be his friend.
As Michael and Sara return from an outing and pose for a cameraman, Tristan feels extremely jealous. Suddenly, Michael kisses Sara on the lips, and Tristan loses his temper.
Chapter 48 Summary: “Sara”
Tristan storms into Sara’s room in the middle of the night, and they have sex. Afterward, Tristan begins drawing on Sara, but she suggests that they discuss the plan for the following night. The plan calls for Sara to convince Michael to take her to his quarters, where she will drug him. Tristan will then rally the rebels and find Sara. As they plot together, Tristan draws a heart with a chain around it. The words “Tristan’s Property” are written on the padlock.
Chapter 49 Summary: “Sara”
It is time for Sara and Tristan to implement their plan. Michael takes Sara’s suggestion to return to his private quarters, and she flirts with him. She then asks for more wine, and as Michael pours it, she laces his glass with laudanum. Michael sits down and looks at Sara searchingly, making her nervous, but he just asks her if she plans to give herself to him. Sara dodges the question and says that she wants to get to know him. Michael puts his glass of wine against her lips and attempts to pour the liquid into her mouth. He drags Sara by her hair, asking if she thought he wouldn’t know of her treachery. Telling her that he has captured Tristan, Michael tells someone else to tie Sara’s hands. He brings Ophelia out and gloats that his best decision was to have Ophelia spy on Sara. Michael asks Sara if she wants to see Tristan.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Tristan”
Tristan is tied in the courtyard in a position designed to dislocate his shoulders. As Michael enters the courtyard with Sara, Tristan notices how sluggish Sara’s movements are. Michael takes a heated poker and jabs it into Tristan’s chest, declaring that while the guards are torturing Tristan, Michael himself will rip Sara apart. Tristan yells for Sara, but she has succumbed to the laudanum and is now unconscious on the ground. Michael gives the poker to a guard and tells him to “stick [Tristan] every hour until he begs for death” (304).
Chapter 51 Summary: “Sara”
Sara wakes to find herself in the dungeons, chained to the wall. When Marisol approaches with a key, Sara realizes that she is a rebel. Marisol explains that Tristan helped her son and her lover, so she became a rebel and agreed to help him in return. Sara escapes and finds Edward and Sheina in the shadowed lands. Edward, Sara, and Sheina walk to the Elephant Bones Tavern.
Sara speaks to Tristan’s followers, attempting to convince them to storm the castle. When they are initially skeptical, she reminds them of all that Tristan has done for them. The crowd is moved by her words, calling out, “‘Long live the queen! Long live the queen!” (310).
Chapter 52 Summary: “Tristan”
Simon finds Tristan where he is being tortured in the courtyard. There is a loud noise, and Tristan tells Simon to wait for him in the tunnels. Sara arrives and frees Tristan, fixing his dislocated shoulders. She tells him that the rebels are in the tunnels, ready to fight. Tristan realizes that he has just sent Simon to the tunnels where the rebels are. Sara urges Tristan to save Simon, and suddenly Uncle Raf appears and calls out that if they both surrender, the rebels in the tunnels will be allowed to live. Tristan reluctantly runs to save Simon while Sara surrenders to Raf.
Chapter 53 Summary: “Tristan”
Tristan finds Simon in the tunnels with Paul. Tristan sends Paul and Simon away from Gloria Terra.
Tristan has been an outlaw for three days, enduring the painful knowledge of Sara’s captivity. He and Edward smoke a joint near a bar, and when Tristan urges Edward to flee, Edward declines. Tristan enters a bar filled with soldiers and chooses one to bring a message to Michael; the other guards are shot. Tristan starts an ethanol fire, setting the downtown area aflame, and then tells the soldier, “If he doesn’t give me Sara, I will burn this entire city, this entire country to the ground until he has nothing left to rule” (321).
Chapter 54 Summary: “Sara”
Sara is chained in her room, but she has not been hurt. Michael is also present. Uncle Raf tries to coax Sara to see his perspective, but she spits at him, and he slaps her. A soldier enters and tells Michael that Tristan is burning everything and will keep burning the city until Sara is released. Michael is furious. Then, Marisol enters and announces that the castle is on fire.
Tristan is in the courtyard. Michael drags Sara outside with him as Raf tries to get the guards to call more soldiers, but Tristan says that the soldiers are all dead. Tristan orders the gates opened, and dozens of rebels rush through. Tristan kisses Sara.
When Edward puts a gun to Raf’s head, Sara intervenes and asks Raf if he killed her father. He tells her that he only did it out of love for their family. Sara hits him and then sets him on fire. Edward tells her that it is time to move, and Sara realizes that Tristan has already left. Tristan runs after Michael, who is attempting to flee.
Chapter 55 Summary: “Tristan”
Tristan catches Michael at the cliff’s edge. Michael declares that the people will never let Tristan rule, but Tristan plans to claim that the “mad king” started the fires. Tristan pins Michael down with his boot but is distracted by the sight of Sara fleeing the castle. Michael shoves Tristan off-balance, pins him, and strangles him, but Sara arrives and stabs Michael in the back. Tristan shoves Michael off the cliff, expecting to feel relief, but he only feels disappointment.
Chapter 56 Summary: “Tristan”
It is several weeks after Michael’s death, and Tristan’s mother is scheduled to be executed next week. While Tristan talks to the people, Sara sees a flash of red hair: Ophelia. Sara follows Ophelia and asks if she is all right.
Ophelia says that she was pregnant but that Michael made her get an abortion. Then, Ophelia throws herself into the river. Sara contemplates trying to save her but then decides to let her drown. Tristan joins Sara and kisses her.
Epilogue Summary: “Tristan”
Seven years after taking power, Tristan and Sara have a tryst in the hallway before he addresses a crowd of thousands. He tells them that it has been his greatest honor to help rebuild Gloria Terra. Simon and Paul stand on the balcony with Sara and Tristan. Simon is now an adult; he hugs Tristan. Sara brings a sword that belonged to Tristan’s forefathers and offers it to Simon. Tristan introduces Simon to the crowd as the “rightful heir to the throne of Gloria Terra…and the one true king” (336). He removes the crown from his head and places it on Simon’s.
Chapter 47-Epilogue Analysis
This section adds a darker tone to The Struggle Between Duty and Personal Desire when Tristan abandons his duty and responsibility to his people and chooses instead to set the city on fire in order to force Michael to release Sara. While he is motivated by his love for Sara, the fires that he starts soon destroy the castle and much of the city, harming the very people whom he rallied with his rebellious rhetoric. In this way, Tristan’s personal desire takes precedence over his responsibility to protect his subjects. When Tristan is confronting Michael, Michael points out Tristan’s hypocrisy, saying, “You’re no different from me. I killed [our father] for the crown, and here you are killing me” (329). Thus, while Tristan believes himself to be a hero for avenging his father’s death, Michael points out that Tristan’s own actions are easily just as villainous as his own. McIntire therefore uses this scene to acknowledge the morally ambiguous nature of her protagonists and their aims.
As everyone’s ambitions collide in a literal and figurative conflagration, this section furthers the complex familial relationships at play in the novel, highlighting the trauma that familial bonds can inflict. A prime example occurs when the disillusioned Sara realizes that her uncle’s ostensibly protective actions were in fact designed to manipulate her emotions and compel her to serve his own ominous goals. This hidden dynamic underscores the darker side of family loyalty, as Sara’s devotion to her own loved ones prevented her from realizing that her uncle and cousin were using her for their own ends. Similarly, Tristan’s complex relationship with Michael adds new depths to his character, and it is clear that his quest for revenge stems from his personal suffering at Michael’s hands over the years, as well as the lingering sense of betrayal he feels toward those—like his mother—who neglected to stop Michael’s abusive behavior. Ultimately, Sara and Tristan’s relationships with their family members illustrate the lasting impact of familial trauma and provide a powerful explanation for their own dramatic actions.
In this context, the novel’s thematic focus on The Consequences of Vengeance culminates with Sara and Tristan’s success at avenging their fathers’ murders. However, although they both achieve their goals, they soon learn that they can take very little emotional comfort in the realization of their revenge. When Sara forces her uncle to confess to his crimes and then ends his life, she suddenly realizes that her triumph is “empty” and that “there is no happiness in vengeance” (327). Similarly, when Tristan pushes Michael’s body off the cliff, he feels deeply disappointed, and McIntire uses these anticlimactic details to suggest that revenge is never as satisfying as it is believed to be.
However, although the two protagonists take little joy in their vengeance, they find new emotional strength in their love for one another, and their devotion highlights an optimistic culmination of The Convoluted Road to Redemption. Although Tristan’s actions have revealed that his own character is morally compromised, he ultimately relinquishes his dreams of political power and passes the crown to Simon, realizing that he has his ultimate reward—Sara—and no longer needs the crown’s power to build a fulfilling life.
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