Opening
These chapters deliver the novel’s emotional crescendo: a fraught reunion, a vicious confrontation, and a cinematic rescue at a train station. Out of crisis, the characters choose each other, their art, and their true selves—culminating in a jubilant public return for Radio Silence.
What Happens
Chapter 86: WE HOPED
Back at Aled’s college, Frances Janvier and Aled Last find Carys Last, Daniel Jun, and Raine Sengupta waiting in the foyer. The siblings’ reunion is raw: Carys—a sharp, bold contrast to Aled’s shrunken, rumpled self—hugs him and whispers an apology for leaving him alone with their mother.
Frances sits with Daniel and Raine, telling them Aled is “absolutely terrible,” then forcing a bleak laugh—at least he isn’t dead. The fragile relief vanishes when the door opens and Carol Last walks in. The room’s hope hardens into dread as mother and children lock eyes.
Chapter 87: ON YOUR OWN
A standoff ignites. Carol dismisses Carys as irrelevant, claiming she’s here for her “real child.” Carys, no longer afraid, calls her out for torturing Aled—then detonates the truth: “You killed the dog, Carol?” Carol’s chilling reply—calling the pet a “burden and a nuisance”—exposes the rot at the core of their Abusive Family Dynamics.
Aled cuts through the shouting, barely audible but resolute: he’ll speak to his mother alone. Carys begs to face her alongside him; he refuses: “Yes, I do.” He leaves with Carol. After twenty agonizing minutes, Raine hears a car door slam. They race outside just in time to see Aled and Carol speeding away in a taxi.
Chapter 88: UNIVERSITY
They realize she’s taking him to the train station to drag him home. Raine guns the car, the group flying through traffic. At the station, Aled and Carol stand beyond the ticket barriers. Frances shouts across the divide that he shouldn’t go, suddenly recognizing she’s about to make the same mistake he did—surrendering to the Pressure of Academia and the Education System.
Aled whispers he has no other options. As the train pulls in and Carol tugs his arm, Raine boosts Frances over the barrier. She runs to Aled, holds out her hand, and makes a promise built on their Platonic Friendship and Love: a different life—joint shifts at the post office, making Universe City, choosing joy. It’s a defiant vision aligned with Finding Your Voice and Pursuing Passion. Aled yanks free from his mother, takes Frances’s hand, and steps off the train.
Chapter 89: 5. SPRING TERM (c)
All five cram into Aled’s dorm for the night. In the dark, Frances admits she doesn’t want Cambridge or English anymore—she pursued them because she thought she had to. Making Universe City is where she feels real, a breakthrough in Identity and Authenticity. Aled suggests art college, and the idea lands. Later, pretending to sleep, Frances overhears Aled explain he’s demisexual—attraction only after an emotional bond—mending his fractured connection with Daniel and marking an affirming moment of LGBTQ+ Identity and Representation.
In the morning, Frances dyes Aled’s hair pastel pink, echoing Radio’s look and signaling rebirth. On the drive home, the car breaks down; Carys and Raine stay behind to sort it out—and to talk about “university alternatives.” Aled, Frances, and Daniel take the train, plotting Universe City’s return. Frances calls Frances's Mum: she doesn’t want university. Her mother simply says, “That’s okay.”
Chapter 90: SUMMER
Summer: a massive YouTube convention. Aled is the headliner, about to appear publicly as Radio Silence for the first time. Frances bumps into a girl from her old school (strongly suggesting Tori Spring from Solitaire); they share the relief of surviving school. Backstage, Aled—pink hair, three-piece suit—looks terrified and impossibly cool. Frances has her art college acceptance in her pocket but keeps it quiet.
When the announcer calls for the creator of Universe City, fear freezes Aled. Frances steadies him: “It’s your show. If you like it, then it is brilliant.” He walks into the roar—cosplayers everywhere—and takes the mic: “Hello. I hope somebody is listening...” A mock-up YouTube page closes the chapter: Radio Silence is back, and Aled stands in the light.
Character Development
The rescue forces everyone to declare who they are—onstage and off. By choosing each other and their craft, they reject paths designed to contain them.
- Frances Janvier: Abandons the Cambridge track, admits what she wants, and chooses an art-and-creation future. She becomes the agent of Aled’s escape and her own.
- Aled Last: Breaks from abuse, defines his identity, reconciles with Daniel, and reenters the world as Radio. The pink hair marks a visible rebirth.
- Carys Last: Returns not to flee but to fight. She confronts Carol, protects Aled, and starts envisioning nontraditional futures.
- Daniel Jun: Steadfast, perceptive, and tender. He listens to Aled’s demisexuality and rebuilds trust.
- Raine Sengupta: The friend who acts—driving the chase, boosting Frances over the barrier, and choosing practical solidarity.
- Carol Last: Fully revealed as an abuser whose control rests on cruelty, culminating in the dog’s killing.
Themes & Symbols
These chapters crystallize the novel’s rejection of narrow success narratives. The train platform scene dismantles the idea that prestige equals fulfillment, confronting the pressure to perform academically with a counter-ethic of chosen family and creative purpose. Platonic love becomes the engine of liberation, powerful enough to sever abuse and re-script the future.
Symbols underscore these turns. The train represents a fixed track—parental control, institutional expectation, inevitability. Stepping off literalizes agency. Aled’s pastel-pink hair—deliberate, bright, and public—replaces the hidden, harmed self with a self-authored identity. And the YouTube stage completes the arc: the private voice becomes communal, echoing outward where listeners can answer back.
Key Quotes
“You killed the dog, Carol?”
Carys’s accusation rips away any ambiguity about Carol’s character. It reframes the past as systematic cruelty, giving Aled and Carys moral clarity to sever ties.
“Yes, I do.”
Aled’s quiet insistence on speaking to his mother alone signals a turning point: even in fear, he claims the right to decide—foreshadowing his larger break from control.
“You can live with me and we’ll get joint shifts at the village post office and we’ll make Universe City together, and we’ll be happy.”
Frances doesn’t offer romance or prestige; she offers partnership and a concrete alternative. The specificity of “joint shifts” makes the dream practical, not fantasy.
“That’s okay.”
Frances’s mum dissolves the terror around rejecting university with radical, uncomplicated acceptance. One sentence rewrites Frances’s future.
“It’s your show. If you like it, then it is brilliant.”
This reframes success as self-defined. The metric isn’t external validation but creative integrity—exactly what frees Aled to step onstage.
“Hello. I hope somebody is listening...”
Aled’s signature line, spoken publicly at last, closes the loop from isolation to community. The voice that once hid now invites the world in.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters stage the story’s central test: will the characters choose imposed roles or self-authored lives? The train rescue answers with action, proving that friendship and creative purpose can dismantle abuse and institutional pressure. The aftermath—Frances claiming art, Aled claiming Radio—shows the cost is real, but the payoff is freedom. The convention epilogue confirms their choice holds: the work continues, the audience is waiting, and the voices that mattered in private now resonate everywhere.