68 pages • 2 hours read
The Sanatorium
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Chapter 91-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 91 Summary: “Five Weeks Later”
With Will back on his feet, Elin and Will wait for the funicular, ready to finally leave the mountain. They have stayed to be with Isaac, worried about him after the loss of Laure. The weather is clear, and the sky is blue, a contrast from the snowy weather they arrived to weeks earlier. Isaac waits with them. They invite Isaac to come back to the UK, but he decides he needs to stay and try to get back to a normal life. He feels awful for doubting Laure, revealing that he had been burning photos of her from his wallet when he thought she’d betrayed him. Elin assures him that the situation was abnormal, and his reaction was human. She reminds him that Laure disappeared on purpose, but he still feels guilty and wishes he would have done more to find her.
Elin invited him to come back to England with them, again, but Isaac politely declines, saying he’ll come to visit, instead. He acknowledges the way their relationship has grown, implying that he wants to stay close with her from then on.
They hug goodbye, and Elin fights tears, not wanting to leave him. Before he leaves, Isaac hands Elin a copy of a photograph of Sam, noting that Will told him she didn’t have one. Elin struggles to look at the photo: a picture of the three of them at the beach with a sandcastle they’d built together. She’s happy to finally have a picture of Sam to replace her faded memories.
Chapter 92 Summary
Elin and Will ride in the funicular, heading down the mountain. She feels strange leaving Isaac, but Cecile has been arrested, so she believes he’s safe. Lucas, she reveals, has also been arrested for hiding Daniel’s body and covering up evidence. Elin apologizes for getting Will involved: “I never meant for you to have to deal with any of this. You… you mean everything to me” (383). Will hugs her close and expresses relief that they can finally move on.
Elin pulls out a magazine and shows him furniture that she wants for their new place, hinting that she’s finally ready to move in with him, much to Will’s joy. Elin gets a message from work asking her to have a decision by the following week, having given her an extension to take care of Isaac. Will asks her if she has made a decision. Elin has. She doesn’t say what the decision is, but she is happy and ready to start her new life with Will.
Epilogue Summary
A man sitting in a carriage behind Elin’s is watching her happily talking to Will. He knows she is oblivious to him, just as she was back at the hotel. He reveals that he’s the one who pushed her into the plunge pool and that he knew she had no idea who had pushed her. However, he likes the anonymity: “That’s the sweet spot, isn’t it? That tiny space between happiness and fear” (385).
A news article details the murders as well as the dark history of Le Sommet back when it was a sanatorium.
Chapter 91-Epilogue Analysis
Five weeks after Cecile and Lucas’s arrest, Elin’s outlook on life has changed significantly. She has reconciled her relationship with her brother Isaac, growing from her mistrust in him to a motherly concern for his wellbeing. Isaac, too, has grown to care for Elin in a much deeper way. Will has recovered from being stabbed, and he and Elin have stayed in Switzerland for the last five weeks while they all recovered physically and mentally from their trauma.
Elin seems to have finally learned how to choose happiness, making up her mind, finally, about making a stronger commitment to Will. She leaves Valais with a renewed sense of purpose and restored relationships with both her brother and her boyfriend.
However, the reader quickly learns that the happiness she’s gained may soon be in jeopardy. A man, unknown to the reader, rides in the funicular carriage behind Elin’s, watching her from a short distance. We’re not given any clue as to why he’s watching or what he wants with Elin, but immediately it’s clear that this person does not have good intentions for her. Here, Pearse continues her pattern of subverting plot expectations throughout the novel to suspend the conclusion. In this instance, she intends to make the reader anticipate another book that continues Elin’s story.
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