74 pages • 2 hours read
Victoria AveyardRed Queen
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 20-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 20 Summary
In the aftermath of the gunfire, Mare cuts the power to the lights, plunging the room into darkness for the Reds to escape. She holds on until a fleeing woman knocks her over, putting her face-to-face with one of the corpses. Cal finds her and makes sure she gets to safety before leading a group on a manhunt for the assassins. An explosion rocks the palace. The Scarlet Guard set off a bomb, which was not part of the plan. Mare joins the rest of the royal family, who are afraid and angry. Elara and the king to argue about the mistakes they’ve made. Elara storms out, and Cal and Evangeline arrive.
Cal leads the group to the cells, where a group of Reds, including Kilorn, are held. Cal demands an explanation for Kilorn working in the palace and being a member of the Scarlet Guard. Mare makes up a story, and the royals torture the prisoners, stopping with the arrival of Evangeline’s brother (who the Red Guard were meant to kill). He kills one prisoner, but Mare shocks him before he can murder Kilorn, even though Kilorn’s knowledge will incriminate her and Maven. The king orders the prisoners be left overnight and leads the group back to the ballroom, where he vows to bring death to the Reds responsible through any means necessary. In the resulting cheers, Mare shares a look with Maven.
Chapter 21 Summary
Later that night, Mare visits Julian to tell him about her involvement in the attack and ask for help shepherding the prisoners to safety. Mare summons her guard, and Julian uses his power to have him take them to the cells. Mare turns off all the cameras and Julian tells all the guards not to remember them. In the cells, Mare convinces the guards to leave and demands to know about the bomb. Farley swears it wasn’t the Guard’s doing, and Mare sets them free. The group scuffles with the returning prison guards, gaining their freedom and leaving signs of a struggle behind.
The Reds escape via the garage where Cal parks his cycle. Walsh tells Mare she hopes Mare becomes queen one day. Kilorn lingers, but Mare pushes him out, saying they both know she needs to stay at the palace to help the cause.
Chapter 22 Summary
The next morning, Mare learns the royal family is leaving that afternoon. The queen questioned guards about the escape last night, and Maven ran interference, directing suspicion away from Mare. The explosion wasn’t the result of a bomb; a bullet punctured a gas line and blew up when Cal hit it with fire. The queen will use the explosion to her advantage to make the Guard look like monsters.
Cal emerges from his room in a foul mood and wearing armor. His legion won’t go to the front lines because it’s too dangerous to risk him. Instead, he will team up with Evangeline’s brother to seek out the rebels behind the attack at the ball. Mare watches him go, fearing him.
With no lessons to attend, Mare wanders through the palace until she arrives at Julian’s chamber. It’s been emptied in preparation for leaving and seems so small without the books and maps. Julian lies and tells Mare he’s not returning to the capital because he’s accepted an archivist job elsewhere, but Mare knows he’s really getting a head start before Elara learns of his involvement in the escape.
On the ships that afternoon, Maven updates Mare on the investigation into the escape. The Red blood that was found in the cells will be analyzed. Mare panics because it’s her blood, which means her death is imminent. Maven kisses her with a ferocity that surprises them both, and he promises, “I won’t lose you, Mare” (280).
The journey up the river fills Mare with dread. At the Stilts, the Reds are forced to watch the boats pass and are whipped if they fall out of line. Beyond, there are fancy vacation homes for the important Silver families, followed by a dark forest and factories. Finally, they reach the capital, and Mare struggles to fathom its magnificence. As she studies it, she realizes it is more than a city—it’s a fortress that was “built to endure war, not peace” (286). Winning against such a place will be nearly impossible, but Mare must try for all the Reds whose lives are as bad or worse than hers was.
Chapters 20-22 Analysis
Mare’s worlds collide in this chapter. Until this point, she has attempted to play two sides against the middle—the Guard against the Silvers—while her loyalty waffled depending on who felt most trustworthy. The attack forces her to see the ugliness of rebellion and war. Though the explosion turns out not to be a bomb set by the Guard, the idea that the Guard could depart from the plan so violently makes Mare see them (and Reds) as just as capable of destruction as the Silvers. Mare doesn’t know there wasn’t a bomb when Farley says the Guard didn’t cause the explosion, and Mare helps the prisoners escape on her word because Mare wants to believe the Reds are right. She can’t yet fathom a world where Silvers aren’t responsible for every bad thing that happens.
The escape plan and its success should have been a clue to Mare that her actions weren’t going unnoticed. Everything goes almost too smoothly, and Mare is blinded by her fear and desire to keep Kilorn safe. She wants to believe she’s making a difference and clings to the idea that Maven will protect her. Mare fears Cal hunting down the rebels because it means he’s looking to kill Kilorn. She doesn’t yet see Cal’s efforts as his way of protecting people; she only sees him as protecting Silvers from the Guard.
The kiss in Chapter 22 is Maven’s biggest move toward making Mare believe him. It is possible he feels something for her, but it is more likely that he is pulling out all the stops because he needs her to continue believing him more than ever. Maven knows Mare feels torn and that those feelings could lead to her making choices that would hinder his plans.
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By Victoria Aveyard
