Station Eleven: Chapter 39 Summary & Analysis

Two weeks before the collapse, Miranda flies to Toronto from New York. At this point, she is a high-powered, well-traveled business executive for Neptune Logistics. She sees “ghosts” of her older self everywhere, poorly dressed, uncertain, and anxious. Now Miranda is confident and competent. She whispers into the mirror, “I regret nothing,” once again. She goes to meetings for work until she has to meet Arthur.

The reason Miranda is seeing Arthur is a call she received a few months ago from Arthur telling her that his father died. She expresses her condolences and wonders why he called, as they haven’t spoken since the divorce. Arthur responds that Miranda knows where he is from.

Arthur is staring in a production of King Lear, and they decide to meet at the theatre, since Arthur is in the middle of his third divorce and believes going to a restaurant will be too public. Though the paparazzi stopped following her long ago, Miranda spends some time on her appearance (her “armor”) before leaving her hotel. On the way in to the theatre, she’s noticed by the paparazzi, and the photo Kirsten discovers in the tabloid in Chapter 38 is taken.

Arthur and Miranda meet in his dressing room, where they begin by exchanging pleasantries. She asks him how the previews for the play are going, and he tells her he has been enjoying working with a Shakespearean scholar as a consultant for his role of Lear. After Miranda expresses condolences for the loss of his father, Arthur takes the opportunity to tell her about the impending publication of Dear V.

Though she is mentioned in the book, Arthur tells Miranda he did use some discretion in his letters to Victoria. He tells Miranda he thinks he deserves this publication, since he treated Victoria like a diary instead of a real person reading letters. He assumes she agreed to publish the letters for the money. Throughout this conversation, Miranda can’t tell if Arthur is acting or not, and wonders if the blurring of borders between performance and life happens to all actors.

The topic of conversation turns back to catching up: Miranda isn’t married, she has no kids, and she loves her job and her life. Arthur, on the other hand, has an eight-year-old son (Tyler) who lives with his mother (Elizabeth) in Jerusalem.

At this point in the conversation, a young Kirsten enters the dressing room with her coloring book. Miranda is introduced to Kirsten and reflects that she will probably grow up to be unadventurous and well-groomed. Miranda also sees in the way that Arthur interacts with Kirsten how much he misses his own son.

Arthur then asks Miranda if she is still drawing, to which she answers yes, always. Her focus has lately been on the Undersea as opposed to Dr. Eleven himself. This question reminds her to give Arthur two copies of the first two issues of the “Dr. Eleven” comic books.

While Arthur flips through the comics, Kirsten colors in her coloring book. Kirsten fears that she has messed up coloring the princess’s dress, but Miranda and Arthur think it’s perfect. The conversation between Arthur and Miranda ends with Miranda saying she’s headed for Asia in four days. She informs Arthur that twelve percent of the world’s shipping fleet is moored outside of Singapore Harbor.

A little while later, Miranda realizes she forgot to give Arthur the paperweight that Clark Thompson brought to the dinner party in Los Angeles eleven years earlier. She studies it for a moment, and then has it shipped to the theatre for Arthur.