39 pages • 1 hour read
Casey McQuistonRed, White, and Royal Blue
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 14-15 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary
When Alex returns home, he and June go to Ellen’s office to discuss how the scandal will impact the campaign. Nora, who has been incommunicado for days, suddenly appears to drop a bombshell. She’s found evidence that Richards ordered the surveillance that exposed Henry and Alex’s affair. He also hired hackers to infiltrate the White House’s private servers to obtain the personal email stream between the two men. Although Nora hasn’t been able to figure out who sent her the lead about Richards, Alex immediately recognizes the coded signature on the bottom of the email. It was Rafael. Ellen determines to take down the entire Richards campaign by giving the story to the press.
Shortly after the Richards scandal breaks, Alex decides to make a public statement about his relationship with Henry. June has written the speech for him, and Henry is standing beside him at the podium to lend support. Alex says:
He is my choice. Like countless other Americans, I was afraid to say this out loud because of what the consequences might be. To you, specifically, I say: I see you. I am one of you. As long as I have a place in this White House, so will you. I am the First Son of the United States, and I’m bisexual. History will remember us (374).
The speech is well-received, and demonstrations are held in support of the couple. Once the excitement dies down, Alex goes to Rafael’s office to apologize for his outburst weeks earlier and asks why Rafael went after Richards. Rafael explains that Richards was a sexual predator who propositioned him when the latter was still an intern. Richards kept a folder about Rafael’s troubled youth and his undocumented family and threatened to use it against him. Rafael concluded that Richards would use any underhanded tactic at his disposal to win the presidency, and Rafael was determined to stop him. He only joined the Richards campaign to ferret out dirt on the senator. He intends to open up a full congressional investigation against Richards with Alex’s help.
A few days later, Alex drives to the airport with Henry, who needs to conduct his own damage control tour in the UK. The queen has officially acknowledged Alex as a royal suitor, so he will eventually have to participate in ceremonial activities in Britain as well. Alex thinks, “Today, Henry goes back to London. Today, Alex goes back to the campaign trail. They have to figure out how to do this for real now, how to love each other in plain sight. Alex thinks they’re up for it” (385).
Chapter 15 Summary
Four weeks later, Alex and Henry are in London having their official courtship photos taken. Catherine has snapped out of her depression and immerses herself once more in politics and in her family. Bea is sponsoring an addiction recovery charity, while Henry will be fostering a foundation for LBGT rights. Alex is planning to attend law school, and Nora will go to grad school at the same time, while June has just been offered a book deal. It seems that everyone is finding a new way to make a difference in the world.
On election eve, the First Family is waiting for returns in their hometown of Austin, Texas. Early results show Richards taking the lead. Ellen nervously asks June to write her a concession speech just in case. Her daughter refuses and insists that the Claremont ticket will win. Henry arrives in time to wait out the tense battle state by state. Alex is concerned that their relationship may have alienated Texas voters, but Nora says the polling indicates that their base has remained loyal and that they’ve actually found favor with independents too.
Hours later, the outcome of the entire election hinges on Texas. It hasn’t voted Democrat since 1976. To everyone’s amazement, when the votes are tallied, the state goes to Ellen. Alex pulls Henry onstage with him for his mother’s victory speech. She says:
My family, made up of the children of immigrants, of people who love in defiance of expectations or condemnation, of women determined never to back down from what’s right, a braid of histories that stands for the future of America (416).
Henry confides to Alex that he’s bought a brownstone in New York so the two can be together more often. On impulse, Alex leads Henry outside, where they borrow two bicycles and ride to West Austin. Alex takes Henry up the walk to the house where he grew up. Referring to more than the election, Henry declares that they won. “Alex reaches down into the front of his dress shirt and finds the chain with his fingers, pulls it out carefully. The ring, the key. Under winter clouds, victorious, he unlocks the door” (418).
Chapters 14-15 Analysis
The final set of chapters exposes everything that has previously remained private and casts it into the public realm. Alex makes a statement to the press announcing his relationship with Henry. Queen Mary designates Alex as a suitor for Henry’s hand, and the two will follow the royal family’s courtship protocol. In addition, Rafael exposes Richards’ scheme to hack White House servers and conduct a smear campaign against the First Family.
Henry has, at last, found a way to honor his own identity just as Alex has done. The two plan a future together in which Henry establishes a part-time residence in New York. Honoring their respective identities also means that both men will devote their future energies to helping causes that lay claim to their hearts as much as their feelings for one another do. At the same time, Nora, June, Bea, and Pez all have found ways to express their own identities in work that will make a difference in the world.
The story culminates with an election that celebrates the triumph of independence over conformity. Alex and Henry’s affair had been kept a secret for fear of public reaction. Alex assumed all along that his bisexuality would cost his mother the election, but the public proves him wrong. From the show of support outside Buckingham Palace to the later demonstrations in the States, the positive public response shows just how much values have shifted away from conformity and repression. The final testing ground is Texas itself. Ordinarily conservative and tradition-bound, the voters of the state demonstrate that they can appreciate diversity by electing a female candidate with a gay son to another four years in the White House. The motif of the key and signet ring make one final appearance in the last paragraph of the book as Henry and Alex claim their hard-won victory in Alex’s childhood home.
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By Casey McQuiston
