Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow

Simon awakes to the dry, itchy feeling of the Humdrum’s presence. He hurries to the woods near the Pitches’ home. There he finds the Humdrum, who can now speak and touch objects. The Humdrum has Baz under his control. When Simon asks the Humdrum what he wants from Baz, the Humdrum retorts that “the real question” is “what does he want from” Simon (414). The Humdrum pushes a void into Baz, making him ravenous for blood and magic. When the vampire attacks Simon, Simon allows his magic to flow into Baz until the vampire regains his autonomy. Simon asks the Humdrum if he took Baz’s magic. Before disappearing, the Humdrum answers, “I don’t take anything. I’m just what’s left when you’re done” (416).

Baz thinks that Simon Snow and the Humdrum are somehow the same person, which means he’s in love with a villain. Baz laughs and kisses Simon, relishing how they’re both disasters. The boys hear the Pitches calling for Baz. Realizing that the area is now a dead zone, Baz tells Simon to run.

When Simon exits the dead zone, he conjures himself dragon wings, “red and leathery with grey spikes at the hinges” (424). As he flies over the Pitch estate, he tries to send rain to put out the fire his magic set in the woods.

When Simon arrives at Penny’s house, his red wings, black-tipped tail, and yellow-orange glow make him look “like Satan incarnate” (425). The Bunces help Simon get cleaned up and tuck him in bed. Although he’s conscious, he’s exhausted and won’t say a word. Penny struggles fruitlessly to undo his transformation.

In the morning, Simon wills his wings and tail away and tells Penny how the Humdrum used Baz against him. Penny explains that all of Hampshire is now a dead zone. As the Old Families hold a secret war council, the Pitches claim that the Mage controls the Humdrum. Baz comes to Penny’s house, and the three teenagers go to her father’s office. Looking at the maps of dead zones, Baz and Penny realize that they appeared on days when Simon’s magic burst out of him. They theorize that the first time this happened, when Simon was 11, he used so much magic that he created an echo of himself—the Humdrum. Baz postulates that the Humdrum is a hole that wants to grow, so it sends creatures to attack Simon so that he’ll use more magic. Simon wants to tell the Mage all of this, but Baz objects.

Simon suspects that the Mage might decide that the best solution is to kill him, and Baz adds that the Old Families will be after Simon’s head, too. Baz wants Simon to keep his promise to solve Baz’s mother’s murder, but Simon thinks they have more pressing problems now.

Baz goes to the numpties’ hideout under Blackfriars Bridge. He’s sad, but not surprised, to have to do this alone—just as he has always suspected, Simon prioritizes him “just below the rest of the world. And far, far below the Mage” (440). Numpties are always cold, so they crowd around the magical fire Baz uses to light his way. The numpties tell Baz they were hired to kidnap him by a mage they call a “headstone” (443). When they try to capture Baz, Nicodemus appears and helps him escape.

Nicodemus explains that the Mage hired the numpties and also sent the vampires to Watford. Although the Mage may not have intended for Natasha Pitch to die in the attack, it made his revolution easier to achieve. Nicodemus wouldn’t tell Baz the truth before because he knew the Mage would kill him. Now, Nicodemus no longer cares about the consequences because the Mage arrested Ebb.

Penny uses a spell to talk to Baz through a dog, telling him to hurry back before Simon faces the Mage alone. Nicodemus wants to come too, but Baz will “be damned to hell twice over” (448) before he allows another vampire in Watford.

Agatha’s mother is relieved that her daughter isn’t with Penny and Simon, who both disappeared after the Pitches’ estate became a dead zone. Agatha still hasn’t told her parents that she and Simon broke up, and she also doesn’t tell them that Simon was at Baz’s house when the Humdrum attacked. Agatha is used to Simon getting along with “[a]nyone who doesn’t mind the risks of befriending a human wrecking ball” (450), but she thinks Baz is a villain who is only getting close to Simon to bring about his demise. As much as she hates it, Agatha knows that she has “to play [her] part” (452), so she sneaks off in her Volvo.

Baz drives toward Penny’s neighborhood.

Penny tries to convince Simon to run away with her instead of going to the Mage.

Simon argues that he can’t leave the world of magic and that it’s his purpose to fix things, although he’s starting to wonder if he’s meant to destroy the world instead of save it. Simon sprouts red dragon wings and a tail and flies off.

On the autumn equinox, Davy and Lucy snuck into Watford and went to the abandoned oracles’ room. Davy drew “a pattern on the floor with salt and oil and dark blue blood” and chants spells and rituals (457). Then they had sex, which magically conceived a child. Lucy felt “a pull deep in [her] belly. Like a star had collapsed there” (459).

Agatha wants to tell the Mage everything she knows and then have a normal afternoon with her Normal best friend. When she arrives at Watford, the Mage’s Jeep is parked there, but he’s not in his office. She sees lights in the White Chapel.

Still in flight, Simon wonders if the magic he’s using to transport himself to Watford is creating or enlarging a dead zone and whether everyone is wrong about him being a hero.

Agatha enters the chapel and finds it filled with smoke and magic. She hears the Mage chanting. The Mage grabs Agatha, seemingly to soothe her fears that Simon is in danger because of Baz, but the Mage’s next words are sinister: “You don’t have much to give [...] but I’ll take it” (464).

Baz is driving to Watford with Penny as quickly as he can. He thinks he’ll have to kill the Mage to keep the headmaster from killing Simon.

Penelope still doesn’t trust Baz because he’s “cynical, manipulative, and utterly ruthless” (464). She thinks Baz would hurt Simon if given the chance, and she’s desperate to get her best friend to safety.

In the chapel, Agatha is crying because she’s convinced the Mage is going to kill her. Just then, Ebb appears and attacks him with a spell more powerful than anything Agatha has seen even from Simon. Agatha knocks the Mage’s wand out of his hand and flees the chapel.

Ebb and the Mage battle. The Mage believes that he could “fix” Simon now, but, in the Chosen One’s absence, he has to settle for stealing Ebb’s magic, “the brightest star in the Realm, next to Simon” (469). To take Ebb’s power, he has to kill her. Ebb muses that she never had the choices she thought she did. She’s more powerful than the Mage, but she’s not accustomed to using her power to fight. The Mage stabs Ebb, and she decides that her death “is for the best. This is for a reason” (472).

When Simon finds the Mage in a room at the top of the White Chapel chanting Queen lyrics over Ebb’s bleeding body, he assumes that the Mage is trying to help her. Simon’s magic reacts without Simon even needing to think, healing a head injury the Mage received during his battle with Ebb. The Mage apologizes to Simon, tells him that he isn’t the Chosen One, and asks Simon to give him his power so the Mage can finally settle things with the Humdrum and the Old Families. Simon begins to comply when the Humdrum appears. The Mage has never seen the Humdrum before and is astonished by his resemblance to Simon. The Humdrum explains that he’s “not anybody’s boy” and more like an “exit wound” or an “exhaust trail” left by Simon’s magic (478). Simon tells the Humdrum, “I’m sorry that all the good stuff happened after I left you” (479). He pours all of his magic into the Humdrum despite the Mage’s attempts to stop him.

Baz and Penelope arrive at Watford. Agatha tells them that the Mage is evil and is after Simon. Penny asks Agatha to come with them, but she cries that she can’t and runs off. Arm in arm, Baz and Penny make their way through the stifling miasma of Simon’s magic. Baz uses a spell that can only be cast by someone “stupidly in love” (484) to allow them to reach the upper room where Simon is still holding on to the Humdrum. When the deafening noise and blinding light finally stop, Simon falls to the floor. The Mage attacks Simon, demanding that the boy give him his magic, but Simon tells him that it’s all gone. Simon stops Baz from biting the Mage. Penelope casts a spell that amplifies Simon’s voice, turning his words into a spell when he pleads, “Stop it, stop hurting me!” (485). The Mage dies immediately, implying that only his death would keep him from hurting Simon again.

Lucy recalls how Davy doted on her during her pregnancy and how she tried to hide feeling the baby devour all of her magic and strength. She named him Simon and chose Snow as his middle name. She wants Simon to know that “none of it is [his] fault”—she and Davy are the ones who made him so “hungry” and “powerful—like starting a fire in the middle of the forest” (489). Lucy lived just long enough to hold Simon after his birth, and she has come back to tell him that she loves him.

Penny, Simon, and Baz sit around the Mage’s body, “past the point of sorrow and exhaustion and relief” (491). Simon blames himself for the Mage’s death. He no longer has any magic. Baz takes Simon in his arms, telling him that he’s saved the day and that everything is all right.

Penny’s family finds her, Baz, Simon, and the bodies. Premal and Penny’s mother reconcile, and Penny’s mother is appointed the new headmistress of Watford. Baz keeps the Old Families from waging civil war and resumes his studies, but neither Penny nor Simon goes back to school.

On graduation day, Baz gives a speech because he’s at the top of his class. He asked Simon not to come because, although Simon is as “brave, honest, inflammably handsome” as ever (498), he no longer has magic, which makes it difficult to be around other mages. Baz incorporates part of his mother’s graduation speech into his own address. After the ceremony, he brings a bouquet to her grave and tells her that he’s going to be all right and that he’s decided to go on living because that’s what she would do in his position. Simon surprises Baz by attending the end-of-year ball. Simon still has his wings and tail, although they’re currently enchanted to be invisible. As they dance, Simon worries that he doesn’t belong with Baz because he was a fraudulent Chosen One, but Baz counters that he will always choose him.

Agatha is studying in California and living as a Normal. She doesn’t know why Ebb sacrificed her life to save Agatha, but she plans to honor Ebb’s memory by escaping the politics of the magical world just like Ebb tried to.

Simon and Penny move into a flat together seven months after the Mage’s death. Neither of them was charged with a crime, and the magical world remains at peace without one person as its sole leader. The dead zones haven’t disappeared yet, but Penny’s father theorizes that they will in time. Simon is seeing a magical psychologist and going to college. Baz is close by, attending the London School of Economics. Simon never thought his life would be this way, but, then again, he never expected that destiny would allow both him and Baz to live. He decides that his magic was a small price to pay in exchange.