33 pages • 1 hour read
Lauren OliverBefore I Fall
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7 and Epilogue Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
After dreaming about being in her guidance counselor’s office with giant inspirational posters, Sam wakes up to her alarm on February 12, Cupid Day, again. But this time, she’s in a good mood. She’s determined to save both Juliet’s life and her own. Sam also does what she can to do everything right, starting with stopping Lindsay from stealing another student’s parking space. She goes into the school nurse’s office where the roses for Cupid Day are kept and makes some adjustments to what Juliet Sykes will receive; she spends forty dollars to buy Juliet a huge bouquet instead of the single rose with a mean note from Lindsay. Sam spends math class scrubbing bathroom stall doors, removing the AC=WT (Anna Cartullo = White Trash) graffiti to stop the spread of rumors against Anna.
At lunch, she starts to break it off with Rob, but he becomes frustrated when she abandons him to go after Juliet upon her arrival. Her friends stop her when they start talking about Juliet receiving three dozen roses. By the time Sam learns that Juliet didn’t throw them away, she loses sight of Juliet. She’s a bit relieved, since she’d not been sure what to say to the other girl. Kent shows up just as Sam is fantasizing about kissing him. He asks her about missing math class, and then produces the rose he got for her. She asks about his party and tells him she’ll be there.
Sam is just about to tell Kent that she died days ago or that she was falling for him when they’re interrupted by Lindsay. Lindsay asks Sam if they’re going to TCBY, and is rude to Kent, who turns to leave. Sam tells him she’ll see him later and he smiles at her. That night, Lindsay, Elody, Ally, and Sam arrive at Kent’s for the party. Before she can talk to Kent, Rob shows up and asks her to apologize. Sam is angry at him but doesn’t show it. She tells him he should go and wait for her in what happens to be Kent’s room, naked. She promises to be there in five minutes, like he had promised her on one of the other nights she attended this party. Then, she sends another couple who are making out into the same room. When Rob runs, half dressed, from Kent’s room, everyone laughs at him and Sam tells Ally they’re not dating anymore.
Sam runs into Bridget and Alex and hints to Bridget that Alex has not been faithful. Juliet arrives at the party next, and Sam drags her away before she can say anything to Lindsay. She leads her to the bathroom and starts to apologize; Juliet presents a list of the wrongdoings Lindsay, Ally, Elody, and Sam committed against her over the years. When Sam brings up the roses, Juliet grows angry. After her anger fades, she tells Sam that until Lindsay’s parents got divorced, she and Lindsay were best friends. As Juliet tells Sam about her friendship with Lindsay and how it ended, she reveals that it was Lindsay who wet the sleeping bag at Girl Scout camp, not Juliet. Juliet leaves the bathroom and Sam tries to follow but is delayed by a large group of people. Bridget stomps past, Alex on her heels. After Bridget locks herself in the bathroom, Alex calls Sam a bitch—and that’s what makes Sam jump into action to try to find Juliet.
Before she can pursue Juliet, Kent finds her. Sam decides she can’t be good enough for him and leaves. She makes her way down the driveway and locks The Tank, glad that as the designated driver, she has the keys. Sam reaches the road and falls into it, almost getting hit by a car. Just as she spots Juliet about to jump into the road, she leaps at her and pulls her out of the lane into the woods. Despite Sam’s efforts, she’s unable to keep Juliet from jumping into traffic a second time, and once more witnesses her demise.
An hour later, after being questioned by the police and dropping off Ally and Elody, Lindsay and Sam are alone at Lindsay’s house. Lindsay asks why Juliet killed herself, and Sam tells her they can’t ever know. Sam asks her about why she kept up the story that Juliet had peed in her sleeping bag at Girl Scout camp. Shaking, Lindsay answers that she didn’t think Juliet would just take the abuse. Lindsay expected her to fight back. Before going into her house, Lindsay apologizes to Sam. Kent gives Sam a ride home. She tells him that she split up with Rob, and that the ride home has been the only good part of the evening. They kiss outside her house in the idling car.
Chapter 7 Summary
Sam watches a loving exchange between her parents, and hugs Izzy when she brings her gloves; she sees her whole life with Izzy in her mind’s eye, from Izzy’s infancy. Sam also imagines Izzy’s future before giving her the bird necklace she always wears, which was a gift from their grandmother who died before Izzy was born. In Lindsay’s car, Sam pleads with Lindsay and Elody to go to Starbucks for a latte. It’s not the latte she wants, but rather to enjoy the ride around their town, Ridgeview, for just a bit longer. Sam knows this is going to be her last day. They cave.
At school, Sam leaves her friends to go to the Rose Room again to arrange for an extra rose for Kent, and then wanders the halls for first period. She does her best on her chemistry quiz and arrives early for math class. When Mr. Daimler tries to flirt with her, she calls him out on it. The rest of the class files in, including Kent, and Sam thinks about the moments they’ve shared over her past repetitions of this day. Sam waits for Kent after class and they talk about the note on the rose she gave him, which asks him to keep his phone on and his car ready that night. He tells her about the party and she says she knows, but that she might need him to drive her somewhere—and if he does, she’ll share a secret with him. When she sees Rob, she breaks up with him. Then, sitting with her friends, she sees Juliet with the single rose she sent her, and Juliet looks happy.
On their way to TCBY, Sam confirms to Lindsay that she dumped Rob. Sam insists on stopping at the Chinese restaurant where Alex and Anna are eating, and she gives Anna a book of M.C. Escher drawings; on the day when they smoked together in the bathroom, Anna mentioned she liked his drawings. Anna is surprised at the gift but almost smiles to Sam, who leaves to rejoin Lindsay. After school, at Ally’s house, Sam thinks about what she loves most about her three best friends and shares a hug with them. At Kent’s, Sam convinces her friends to go into the party while she drives The Tank home, promising she’ll get them a ride home after the party. Instead of taking Lindsay’s car to Lindsay’s house, Sam ends up at her own home. She watches the windows for a few minutes and then drives to Lindsay’s. On the way, she calls Kent and asks him to pick her up.
In his car, in his driveway, Kent asks for the promised secret. Sam tells him that his kiss is the best she’s ever had—and then he answers that he hasn’t kissed her. She tells him, “Better get started then, because I don’t have much time” (452). They kiss. Sam tells Kent that he saved her life, and then leaves the car to go in to the party. Sam finds her friends who express concern about her behavior that day, but she assures them she’s fine and hugs them before leaving again. She realizes she’s crying, and wipes her face as she awaits Juliet. When she finds her, she leads her away and tells her that she knows Juliet’s plans for the night. Sam apologizes to Juliet, and then tries to stop her from leaving alone. When Kent calls out to Sam, Juliet squeezes past her.
Kent demands to know why she is trying to run from him; Sam tells him that she has to help someone. Sam goes outside to follow Juliet. Kent follows. Sam catches up to Juliet, pulling her back from the road and hugging her. Sam realizes that Kent has brought Lindsay, Elody, and Ally with him when she hers them calling for her in the woods. Juliet tries to jump into the road again, so Sam launches after her to push her to safety. Sam ends up getting hit and is thrown into the air. As she dies, she sees Juliet, who asks why Sam saved her. Sam answers that it was the opposite—that she was the one who was saved.
Epilogue Summary
When she dies, Sam doesn’t see all of her life, but rather her favorite moments from life, ending with kissing Kent.
Chapters 6-7 and Epilogue Analysis
Sam wakes up certain that she must save Juliet—and she thinks that rather than try to pull her out of traffic or stop her from shooting herself, the way to save her is to keep Juliet from wanting to kill herself to begin with. To that end, she thinks she can fix Juliet’s problems by sending her a lot of roses…only, when she asks Juliet about it later at Kent’s party, Sam learns that Juliet thought Lindsay, Ally, Elody, and Sam had sent those as a prank, to make her feel worse about herself. Juliet reminds Sam that they’d tried to prank her with a secret admirer in the past and that she wouldn’t be duped again like that.
When Juliet jumps into traffic again, thus ending her life, Sam finally begins to understand that she can’t just buy a few dozen flowers and fix Juliet so that she won’t want to take her own life. A bouquet, Sam realizes, isn’t enough to undo the years of ridicule and bullying Juliet was forced to endure. The other shortcoming Sam encounters is that she thinks she can change Juliet’s perspective of that bullying by simply telling her that they didn’t mean to be mean to her. This backfires, and Sam realizes that by trying to explain away their bullying, she fails to take responsibility for it and its consequences.
The other change that’s starting to solidify for Sam is her disdain for Rob. She realizes that he doesn’t really love her at all, and she ends up dumping him. Sam also conquers her sexual insecurity when she tells off Mr. Daimler for hitting on teenage girls. Becoming secure in her sexuality and in her self-worth allows her to realize that she’s a good enough person to be with Kent.
The first thing Sam does once she reaches the party is to take The Tank out of the equation. Without that, Elody can’t die in a car crash and Lindsay can’t kill Juliet. Next, she is honest with Kent about her feelings for him, and then she offers Juliet a sincere apology. She’s earnestly trying to make Juliet happy instead of just trying to save her own skin. The apology doesn’t work though, so she followed Juliet to the road, prepared to do what she must.
When Sam sacrifices herself to save Juliet, she knows that she’s going to die—but unlike her first death which was filled with fear, guilt, and regret at remembering how she and her friends bullied Vicky, this time, Sam is filled with peace. She’s finally able to die happy, having reconnected with her family, discovered her inner strength and worth, and found a way to rise above the pettiness of popularity to put someone’s—Juliet’s—needs above her own.
That is why Juliet saved her life and not the other way around. That’s how Kent saved her life. They gave her life meaning, whereas before, she had little to no meaning in her life. Everything she did before this week of repeating Cupid Day was to fulfill some instant urge or to prevent boredom.
