Skippy Dies

The Seabrook College community grieves over the loss of Skippy. Howard, Tom, and Father Green attend the funeral mass along with Skippy’s year and some girls from St. Brigid’s, including Lori. Acting Principal Greg Costigan introduces Howard to Skippy’s parents, and they talk about Skippy’s great-grandfather, who fought in World War I. Skippy’s father regrets not telling anyone about their family situation earlier, but he thanks Howard for trying to talk to his son anyway.

At the Ferry, Farley becomes upset over the school’s inaction against the factors that led to Skippy’s death. Tom is incensed with him, so Howard tries to intervene. The argument escalates into a fight, so Howard pulls Farley outside and sends him home. Howard thinks about the last time he saw Skippy and then remembers his own youth.

At home, Howard answers a knock on the door and moves to evade a punch from his visitor.

Ruprecht gathers his friends to unveil his new portal pod, hoping to bring Skippy back from the past. An angry Dennis storms out and returns with the toy robot that had supposedly been transported by the first pod. He reveals that he took it, proving that the first pod never worked. Ruprecht and Dennis get into a fight, which the others stop. After Dennis leaves, they try to get Ruprecht to continue talking about his plan, but Ruprecht resigns to the truth, shutting off his computer for the first time in months.

The school board summons Howard after he reports that Coach Tom came to his house and confessed to molesting Skippy during the team’s last swim meet. Tom admitted that he wanted Skippy to come back to make amends, as well as to reassure him about staying in the team.

Greg suggests that the case should be dismissed since nothing can be done to help Skippy anymore, hinting at fears that escalating it could be costly for the school. The priests suggest handling the matter privately. Howard argues against their decisions, but Greg points out that Tom’s role in Skippy’s death is plausibly deniable. The board decides to redirect public attention to Skippy’s mother as the major factor for his death.

As the meeting ends, Greg offers Howard a new position as the school’s first archivist, a role that will prevent Howard from speaking out against the school. Father Green muses that their discretion on the matter is a sin.

Howard is disillusioned by the school’s decision. He calls Halley, tells her that he regrets his actions against her, and asks if she would like to come back. She declines, saying that he always chooses to escape situations out of convenience. She encourages him to deal with his life as it is.

Father Green withdraws from his classes, which leads some to remember that Skippy had done volunteering work with Father Green the day he died. Rumors abound, but nobody does anything about it.

Ruprecht becomes passive at school, punishing himself with an incessant consumption of doughnuts. During this time, his friend group disbands. Likewise, Carl is largely disconnected from his environment, unresponsive to anyone in ways that mirror Ruprecht’s behavior. Finally, Howard signs his new contract.

Lori’s parents try to console their daughter as she grieves. Lori remembers Skippy visiting her with his frisbee after Carl sent the video, which prompted her to scream at Skippy until he went away. Carl repeatedly tries to reach out to her, but she blocks all contact with him.

Lori is booked to do a screen test for a children’s television show. She can hardly focus on preparing for it since she worries that swallowing Carl’s semen will somehow get her pregnant. Ruprecht visits to communicate Skippy’s last wish, telling Lori that he loved her. Suddenly, Ruprecht accuses her of being the girl in the video, recognizing the ring shape in the clip as the doughnut ring from Ed’s Doughnut Shop. She denies it, which only makes Ruprecht angry. She rejects everything she ever learned about Skippy, including the knowledge that his mother was sick and that he wanted to quit the swim team. It becomes clear that Ruprecht is learning this information for the first time.

After Ruprecht leaves, Lori admits to herself that she did love Skippy and finds herself changed by the revelation. She starves herself to deal with her pregnancy anxieties, taking one of her “diet pills” to manage her hunger.

Carl becomes paranoid that the ghost of Skippy is following him. He goes to Janine to see if she can arrange his reconciliation with Lori. Janine reassures him that Lori will eventually open up to him again. After he gets suspended from school, Carl spends more time with the drug dealers, who reveal that their supplier is a man called “the Druid.” Barry is excited to meet him.

Janine asks to meet with Carl and tells him that Lori has been collapsing due to starvation. She then asks for more drugs and has sex with him as payment.

Ruprecht is hurt by the revelations at Lori’s house. He continues to cope by eating doughnuts and giving deliberately wrong answers in class. This influences the other second-years to become unruly. Further discontent spreads among the student body, the parents and alumni, and even the priests.

Greg confides his worries in Howard, who is unable to suggest anything that Greg doesn’t already agree with. However, when Howard recommends showing a more proactive reaction to Skippy’s death, Greg uses it to justify renovating the school swimming pool with the proceeds from the Christmas concert. The principal manages to use the excitement around the pool to mobilize the students into participating in the concert.

The week before the concert, Father Laughton complains that Ruprecht is purposefully disrupting his quartet’s Pachelbel performance. Greg tries to convince Ruprecht to perform well but fails.

Geoff, Dennis, and Jeekers visit Ruprecht to convince him to perform better for the concert. A man and a woman arrive in a van marked “Van Doren Drainage.” Dennis realizes that they are Ruprecht’s parents, alive and well rather than lost and left for dead in the Amazon, as Ruprecht had previously claimed.

Father Foley talks to Ruprecht’s parents about their son’s grief, telling them that he is currently in a state of anger. He asks if there is some way they might help to get him to move on in time for the concert. Nevertheless, Ruprecht’s parents leave him as he is. He stomps on his French horn in frustration.

Howard’s concern for Ruprecht grows, but he fails to take the initiative to speak to him. Skippy’s mother mails Howard her grandfather’s military uniform to show to his history class. Jim Slattery tells Howard about the history behind the uniform in Turkey, where many of the volunteering Irish soldiers faced significant attrition and defeat, returning home only to be forgotten. Howard decides that teaching his students about the uniform is futile. Slattery encourages him to teach them to care. Howard notices how much Skippy’s great-grandfather, a Seabrook alumnus himself, resembles Skippy, and he is moved to reconsider his conclusion.

Tom is granted a reassignment to Mauritius. He and Greg celebrate in the presence of faculty onlookers to shape the narrative around his transfer. Howard and Farley are sickened by their performance.

Howard begins his lecture on the uniform when the students spot Carl approaching the school, having forgotten about his suspension. Slattery intercepts him and turns him away. Howard feels his conviction in the uniform waver, so he brings everyone out of the classroom on an impromptu field trip, delivering his lecture on the way to the museum. His hopes are deflated when he learns that the museum has no exhibits on World War I. Farley calls Howard on Greg’s instruction, but Howard hangs up before he can be scolded. He takes the class to the Memorial Gardens to find markers relevant to their studies.

The boys are deeply engaged by Howard’s lecture. He talks about how writers and scientists were compelled to investigate the afterlife in reaction to the war. Finally, he tells the boys that the Irish soldiers managed to cope with their war-related traumas by looking out for each other and remaining friends.

The next day, Howard is called to the principal’s office. Greg scolds him for taking his students outside school without authorization, expanding his diatribe to Howard’s general teaching approach. Howard argues for the importance of teaching history that the students can relate to, but Greg accuses him of taking revenge for his handling of the Skippy situation. He posits that whatever Howard will do against the school will fail against its institutional reputation. He suspends Howard.

Before Howard leaves, he notices that the fish in Greg’s aquarium have been replaced. Brother Jonas suggests that the other fish starved to death.

Dennis tries to collect on a bet after claiming that Howard has “lost his mind.” Geoff, Ruprecht, and Jeekers refuse to pay up. Suddenly, they see Miss McIntyre outside the school. Howard comes up to talk to her.

Aurelie has returned for career counseling, and she and Howard briefly catch up before Howard brings up what happened between them. Aurelie declines to talk about it, telling him instead that his students will be much better off as people because he cares for them. As she leaves, he taunts that her work only serves to make “old men that little bit richer” (572). She affirms his observation.

On the news that night, Howard sees his old schoolmate Guido LaManche speak on behalf of a development company after their project to build a science park was stalled by the unearthing of a prehistoric fortress. Howard is appalled by Guido’s statements. Ruprecht calls Howard and asks to meet at Ed’s Doughnut House. Howard believes that Ruprecht has realized Tom’s involvement in Skippy’s death. He tries to hint at it when they meet.

Instead, Ruprecht asks him about a scientist he had mentioned during his lecture at the Memorial Gardens, someone who used electromagnetic waves to speak with the dead. Howard tells him about Oliver Lodge, a scientist who lost his son during the war and turned to spiritualism in reaction. He discusses the scientific theories behind his work and then tells Ruprecht how those theories were eventually disproved. This upsets Ruprecht, so Howard tells him about the writer Rudyard Kipling, who, also having lost a son, channeled his grief into writing the history of his son’s regiment, preserving him through memory. Ruprecht worries that he is starting to forget Skippy and starts to hit himself. Howard tries to console Ruprecht further, but he leaves.

Meanwhile, Janine tries to convince Carl to forget about Lori after she is taken to the hospital. Later, Barry calls him to tell him that they are going to meet the Druid. Another voice speaks over the phone, saying, “He will be waiting for you, Carl” (584).