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Summary
Chicago Stadium, July 12, 1979, Chapters 1-2 – One Last Thing Before I Go, November 5, 2012
Chicago Stadium, July 12, 1979, Chapter 1
Daisy and Billy sing “Honeycomb” together, even though it’s painful for Daisy to be around Billy. For the duration of the song, Daisy says it feels like they are the only ones in the room. Billy isn’t sure if he knew that Daisy was planning to leave the band, but he does remember thinking Daisy was the most beautiful woman in the world. Daisy sings the song the way Billy originally wrote it—filled with his promise to Camila about their future together. Then, Daisy sees Camila, Julia, Susana, and Maria watching and knows that Billy will never be hers. When Daisy smiles at him after they exit, Billy understands that she is leaving the band.
Graham and Karen fight about the abortion and realize they can’t be in the band together anymore. Graham tries to talk to Billy, but Billy blows him off because he is focused on getting tequila. Billy goes to the bar and has a conversation with a stranger. Though he’s conflicted, Billy takes a drink of tequila, breaking his sobriety. Billy wishes the stranger would take his drink away, and seeing that Billy is struggling, the man does. Meanwhile, Daisy and Camila talk. The author reveals that she is Julia and that she was there and remembers the conversation. Camila tells Daisy that she won’t break up Billy’s and Camila’s relationship, and that she knows Daisy’s a good person. She says she doesn’t want to see Daisy suffer and they talk into the early morning. Finally, Camila kindly tells Daisy that she hopes she will never see her again, and Daisy leaves. Billy goes back to Camila and decides to leave rock ‘n’ roll.
Chicago Stadium, July 12, 1979, Chapter 2
Daisy leaves a note saying she’s left the band and is not coming back. Billy says he’s taking a break from touring. Eddie is furious at Billy for this, but it becomes clear that the band is breaking up when Pete also announces that he’s leaving and Graham and Karen refuse to talk to one another. Daisy later says in an interview that she left the band because Camila asked her to and that it was the best decision of her life. She also says she loved Camila very much even though she didn’t know her very well. In an author’s note, it’s revealed that Camila died in 2012, surrounded by family, including Billy.
Then and Now, 1979-Present
Daisy says she’s been sober since 1979. She has since published books, traveled the world, and adopted sons, and she attributes everything she’s accomplished in her life to getting clean. After the band breaks up, Pete and Rod both leave the music business. Warren marries Lisa Crowe, has kids, and lives in a huge house in California. Similarly, Graham gets married and has kids, though he wonders what might have happened if Karen had loved him enough. Graham has his own hot sauce business, Dunne Burnt My Tongue Off, and he and Billy are once again on good terms. Simone is divorced with a daughter who is in the music business. Karen lives alone in a house in the mountains, as she wants. After Daisy Jones & The Six part ways, Billy continues to write music for other musicians at Runner Records. He builds the house in North Carolina, just like he said he would in “Honeycomb,” and lives with Camila there until she passes away. He is still reeling from losing her. Billy and Daisy both tell the interviewer that they were a great band.
One Last Thing Before I Go, November 5, 2012
Camila leaves a note for her daughters, telling them where Daisy’s phone number is. She says at the very least, Billy and Daisy owe her a song.
Analysis
In this final section of the novel, the song “Honeycomb” represents Daisy giving up her dream of being with Billy and supporting his vision of his future with Camila and his daughters. Throughout the Aurora tour, Billy avoids singing “Honeycomb” because Daisy doesn’t like singing the song. The implication is that it pains her to sing a song about Billy’s hope for a happy, stable future with Camila. But when Billy and Daisy sing “Honeycomb” for what turns out to be the last time, Daisy feels the pull between them at the beginning of the song, and she gets lost in that feeling. This suggests that she is deeply, painfully in love with Billy. Billy is filled with both an appreciation for Daisy and a sense of loss that anticipates that she will leave him while they sing. By singing the original words to “Honeycomb,” Daisy expresses her faith in Billy as a husband and father. But at the same time, by supporting his vision of the future with Camila, she loses him. It’s only through letting him go and sacrificing herself that she shows Billy that he’s strong enough to be the person he wants to be.
Julia’s role as the narrator further destabilizes these narratives, emphasizing the unreliability of the stories and underscoring the impossibility of a single narrative truth. Until this point, the author of the book has been unnamed, posing as a neutral historian who is telling the story of the band. When Julia names herself as the author of the book, it becomes clear that the author is not objective, but another narrator of the story whose account and mere presence as the interviewer could impact the way the story was told. This reflects most poignantly on Billy’s accounts. Billy often hesitates to name what he felt for Daisy, claims that songs he wrote are not about her, and generally avoids admitting the intensity of his feelings for her. While this could mirror his own inability to accept his feelings, it could also represent an attempt on Billy’s part to protect Julia from hearing uncomfortable truths about her parents. Similarly, it’s unclear how Julia’s presence would change the way Daisy tells the story. Daisy asks if she should continue to call Camila by name instead of saying “your mother,” suggesting that all the interviews have an element of performance in them.
The final turn of the novel emphasizes the redemptive power of love in all forms. In their last conversation, Camila and Daisy are extraordinarily honest with each other. Camila warns Daisy that she will get hurt pursuing Billy and that, though Daisy is in love with him, Camila still wants the best for her. This is a radical act of love, defying expectations for how women who are in love with the same man are expected to act. Daisy marks this moment as integral in her getting sober and achieving all she has in life. Billy also receives love from the mercy of a kind stranger who takes his glass of tequila away from him after he breaks his sobriety. This helps him to see how much he has to be grateful for and what he has to lose. In a final act of tremendous love, Camila instructs Julia to put Billy and Daisy back in touch after her death. The idea that they owe her a song suggests that Camila gives them her blessing to rekindle their romance, as the two first fell in love writing songs. These unconventional acts of love suggest that people can find love, and the redemption it offers, in unexpected places.
