52 pages 1 hour read

Noah Hawley

Before the Fall

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

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Part 3, Chapters 36-44

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 36 Summary: “The Blacks”

Eleanor invites Scott to stay the night. He is sleeping on a pullout sofa when Doug returns. Scott prepares himself for a drunken argument, but Doug goes straight to bed. The next morning, Scott and JJ skip stones in the river. As he watches the boy, Scott thinks about the conversation he had with Layla last night. She told him she had buyers lined up for all his paintings—but he found that these long-awaited words didn’t mean anything to him. She had asked when he was coming back and invited him to Greece. Scott fears she’s becoming emotionally attached. After the phone call, Scott had searched for a video of Dworkin’s record-breaking at-bat. He pauses the video, mid-pitch, and wishes he could pause and rewind his life to the moment the plane took off.

By the riverbank, Scott suddenly hears a low-flying helicopter flying. Scott picks up JJ and runs back to the house. The helicopter has landed in Eleanor’s yard, and Gus and Agent O’Brien—who has been put back on the case—emerge. They tell Scott about the bullet holes in the cockpit door and Melody’s body in the main cabin, but Scott doesn’t remember any of it. The realization that the crash may have been intentional deeply unsettles him.