Long Way Down: Two Summary & Analysis

No one is there when the elevator door opens, so Will punches the L button over and over. Will mumbles “come on” under his breath. He’s scared, upset, and uncomfortable spending one more second in this elevator. It’s starting to feel like a coffin. Uncle Mark chuckles that Will would never survive in prison as the doors finally start to close. Will feels happy they’re almost there, but just before the doors shut, fingers slip in and cause them to open again. It’s Shawn. He steps into the smoky elevator wearing the blood-soaked clothes in which he died.

Everyone is thrilled to see Shawn. He slaps hands with Buck, spins Dani around, and embraces Uncle Mark. Beaming, Shawn approaches Pop. They hug and then shake hands like men. Then, all the ghosts line up against the wall as Shawn turns to face Will. Will recounts how, as a kid, he’d follow Shawn around making a strange noise. Shawn would wait for Will to get bored and then ignore him for the rest of the day, which always surprised Will. Now, Will and Shawn look at each other. Will says Shawn’s name, but Shawn says nothing.

Will steps forward and hugs Shawn, but Shawn stands there awkwardly instead of hugging him back. Will thinks Shawn looks like “a middle drawer / of a man.” He asks Shawn why he won’t say anything, and then tells him about the drawer and the gun. Will tells Shawn that he’s doing what Shawn always told him to do, which is what Buck taught Shawn to do, what their grandfather taught Uncle Mark to do, and what Uncle Mark taught Pop to do. Will says that so far, he’s followed the first two rules: he hasn’t cried and hasn’t snitched. Will explains that he’s on his way to follow through on Rule No. 3 and kill Riggs. He says three times he knows it was Riggs.

Will confesses that he’s scared and needs to know if he’s doing the right thing. He asks if the Rules are the rules, and he asks “Right?” many times. The words seem to take the shape of a question mark, with Shawn’s name at the bottom. Will tries to hold back his tears and looks away from Shawn. Around him, everyone else’s lit cigarettes look like glowing L buttons. Will looks back at Shawn and sees that he’s crying, with tears pouring from his eyes and snot running from his nose. Will reminds Shawn that the first Rule is no crying as one of his own tears falls down his face—but it’s only one, so it doesn’t count. Will repeats the rule to himself.

Even though Shawn isn’t supposed to cry and never did when he was alive, Will realizes that Shawn is still his favorite and only brother. A grinding, moaning sound, like the one an elevator makes, comes from deep within Shawn. That noise is the only thing Shawn communicates to Will. The elevator stops. Will suddenly thinks that when his ears ring, it sounds more like a flatline than a bell. In the moment before the doors open, everyone stands there in the thick smoke. The elevator is crowded and feels like a coffin.

Will looks around. All he can see through the smoke is the orange glow from the five cigarettes. Shawn isn’t smoking, so he’s invisible. Will senses that Shawn’s cigarette is burning in Will’s stomach, and it feels like stinging fire. Will wants out; the elevator door opens and the smoke rushes out. Everyone else rushes out behind the smoke and the L button’s light goes off. Will stands alone, dried tears on his face and his pants still wet. The gun is still in his waistband. Shawn turns back to Will, tears still in his eyes, and asks Will if he’s coming.