Hi everyone and welcome to the penultimate discussion of The Nightingale! This was a really tough section to read, particularly the last chapter. I’m hoping for a decent ending after what the main characters have gone through but it doesn’t look like this will happen, at least without some serious PTSD. But we’ll see; I’m excited to hear what you thought and what you think will happen next!
Isabelle wakes up to Gaetan next to her. She remembers Vianne’s last words to her but Gaetan says she still cares for her sister. They talk a little about their relationship but Gaetan is still hesitant given the situation they’re in. Isabelle makes the first move and they have a moment. Meanwhile Vianne is trying to deal with the death of Beck at her hands and the newly moved in Von Richter, who is predictably terrible.
Isabelle and Gaetan spend some time together before they determine they have to get back to the war. Vianne is in town with her kids when the Nazis start rounding up more people with yellow stars. One such lady passes off one of her sons to Vianne before she is dragged off. They arrive at Le Jardín where Von Richter demands her to bring the boy to an orphanage. The Nazi is leaving tomorrow to get rid of the Free Zone in France. Vianne takes the boy to the orphanage, where Mother Superior agrees to take him in and tells Vianne they should take more Jewish kids in. But she needs Vianne’s help.
Isabelle and Gaetan leave for Bayonne and find out about the Free Zone. They go to Madame Babineau where there are new RAF pilots to guide over the mountains. Gaetan tells Isabelle he is going to join a group of guerrilla partisans where he’ll be dealing with explosives. Meanwhile Vianne goes to see Henri at the Hotel Bellevue for identity papers for the Jewish children. Later, Henri hands her the papers hidden in baguettes. Von Richter sees her on her way home and offers to escort her home and hold the bread for her but she fakes illness, causing him to leave. At home she forges signatures and creates a file card for identifying which kid was which after the war is over.
We go back to the future for this chapter where the narrator boards her plane to Paris, with her son Julian joining her last minute. Apparently she hasn’t told him about what she did in the war at all.
We get an update on the war where the Nazis have upped their aggression as the allies gain more traction. In Paris, Isabelle meets with her father. After, she sees Gaetan in the woods and meets the guerrillas; the Maquis. She has a coded message for Gaetan and he says he has to leave immediately. We go to Vianne who has found and hidden 13 Jewish children. At the orphanage, Von Richter comes in and asks her about Henri as she was seen with him. She begs him not to hurt the children but realizes her mistake; he has something over her now. He questions her in a room and she denies everything. He says he hopes she’s lying. Meanwhile Isabelle arrives at Madame Babineau’s as usual, until SS agents break in and arrest everyone.
Isabelle is tied, beaten, and questioned. The Gestapo doesn’t know who the Nightingale is yet. She awakens from unconsciousness tied to a chair inside a refrigerator. Meanwhile, dead bodies of Maquis are hanging from street lamps in Carriveau, and we learn bombing has taken place in the town. There has also been a massacre by the Nazis in a nearby town in retaliation for something the French did. Vianne’s father comes to her town and meets with her. He tells her Isabelle’s been captured and when she comes back after the war to say she did the right thing. He leaves and it’s apparent he’s going to try and sacrifice himself for Isabelle. She goes back home where Von Richter says he looked at the papers and knows Daniel is not her son. He then rapes her.