Jerusalem: Act 3 Summary & Analysis

After returning from the fair, Davey and Lee knock on Johnny’s door. Lee is wearing his new T-shirt and holding a goldfish in a bag. Johnny does not respond to the knocks on the door. Ginger walks up wearing a helmet and holding a coconut. Lee suggests that Ginger take off the helmet. Ginger responds that it does not come off. Lee offers to hold the coconut so Ginger can give it a try. They get into a fight over who can hold the coconut, which ends with Ginger setting it on the ground. Then, Ginger takes the helmet off.

Ginger asks Lee if Johnny is around. Lee says he is unsure. Davey tells Ginger that he just got a text message about a party that needs a DJ. He suggests that Ginger go and DJ the party. Ginger heads off as if to follow Davey’s advice but goes in the wrong direction. Davey yells after him to no avail. 

Lee and Davey break into a song about the summer weather and leave. Lee leaves the goldfish in a bag behind as a present for Johnny. From the trees, Johnny watches Davey and Lee leave. Wesley shows up and tells Johnny about what has been going on at the fair. Wesley is very drunk and complains about how difficult it is to run a bar on fair days. His complaining turns into a rant about his wife, Sue, who seems to be more responsible for the bar than Wesley himself. Then, Wesley starts crying and drunkenly confessing that he is in love with one of the women who works at his bar. In response, Johnny tells Wesley to go home.

Wesley leaves as Parsons and Fawcett approach Johnny’s home. Fawcett tells Johnny that he only has two hours left to vacate the premises or they will forcibly evict him. Johnny asks Fawcett if they have met before. Fawcett reminds him that they saw each other in court after Johnny trespassed on private property and assaulted the property’s owner.

Fawcett and Johnny get into a fight over who owns the land Johnny’s mobile home sits on. Johnny insists that they cannot make him leave and that he could care less about the people that want him gone. Parsons starts reading out the list of people who have signed a petition demanding that the council remove Johnny from the area. After Parsons reads many names, Johnny orders him to stop. He continues to defend his case. Fawcett cuts Johnny off by saying he deals drugs to minors. Then, Fawcett reminds Johnny that the council will raze his property and arrest him if he is not gone by 9 a.m. the following morning.

Fawcett and Parsons leave Johnny with the signed petition ordering him to vacate. Once they are gone, Johnny lights the petition on fire. As he does so, Professor walks up to Johnny with a garland of flowers on his head. Professor tells Johnny about how the drugs he took greatly improved his time at the fair. However, he grew sad later in the day when he realized the reason his dog Mary had not come back to him is because she is dead and has been for a long time. After a moment of sadness, Professor cheers up, sniffs the summer air, and breaks out into song. When his song is finished, he leaves.

Phaedra steps out of Johnny’s trailer and asks him about Fawcett and Parsons. Johnny says they came to make him a knight. Phaedra does not question him any further on the matter. Phaedra picks up the goldfish that Lee left behind and asks Johnny about it. Johnny tells her it belongs to her now and urges her to take good care of it. Then, he goes inside, fills up a bowl with water, and puts the fish in it for Phaedra.

Phaedra asks Johnny why he continues to hang around Flintock when he has the option of going anywhere. Johnny tells her he ended up in the clearing after attempting to park his mobile home and breaking an axle in the process. Because he never fixed it, he never left. Phaedra does not believe the story. She asks Johnny about the strangest things he has seen in the woods, and he rattles off a long list. Some of the list sounds true and some sounds as false as the rest of the Johnny’s stories.

At 5:55 p.m., Phaedra tells Johnny that she will only be the May Queen for five more minutes before turning back into her boring old self. Johnny promises to treat her the same regardless. Phaedra cannot believe how fast the year flew by. She asks Johnny to dance with her to celebrate the end of her reign as the May Queen. Johnny is hesitant because he does not want to seem inappropriate, but Phaedra convinces him.

As they are dancing, Troy appears with two other men. Phaedra runs away, but the men grab Johnny, violently beating him as Troy stands guard. Ginger shows up as the men are beating Johnny. Ginger hears Johnny scream, but he runs away instead of helping Johnny. The men use a branding iron to burn an X into each side of Johnny’s face. After they finish, they leave Johnny alone by himself, charred and bloody.

Ginger returns to Johnny and asks what happened. Johnny does not give a clear answer, though he does tell Ginger to stay away from him. Ginger warns Johnny that an army of men with shields and batons are coming to destroy his home. Johnny says the men sound dangerous and tells Ginger to get away. Ginger offers to stay and help, but Johnny brandishes an iron poker at him and angrily orders him to leave. Ginger does as Johnny asks.

Once Ginger leaves, Johnny turns around and sees Marky behind him. Marky tells Johnny that he got lost. Johnny asks him about his time at the fair. Then, he asks Marky to sit on the drum, which he claims a giant gave him. Johnny points to the blood on his face and tells Marky about how Byron blood is special. When he was in the hospital after a dangerous stunt, the doctors told him he has the rarest type of blood there is, which is especially valuable. Johnny says he sells his blood every six weeks to make money, and he encourages Marky to do the same if he is ever in trouble. He also advises Marky to ignore school, focus on women, and to not let anyone else tell him what to do. Then, he tells Marky to go back to Dawn. Marky does as his father asks.

After Marky leaves, Johnny takes a can of gasoline and splashes it all over his home and the surrounding area. Then, he utters a long and complicated curse upon the local council for removing him from his home. He lists off many of the people who signed the petition to get him removed and warns them they are outnumbered because “every Byron boy that e’er was born an Englishman” is on his side. Then, he pounds the giant’s drum furiously and demands the giants come to aid him.