Dear Evan Hansen

The next day Evan thinks about how Zoe’s vulnerability affected him. He thinks about how deeply he cares for her and feels guilty that his relationship with her and all the positive changes in his life are based on lies. He contacts Alana to talk about the next steps for the Connor Project and apologize for his absence. Doubting Evan’s friendship with Connor was real, Alana tries to kick him off the project. He shows her the letter, the one Connor took from the computer lab, and claims it is Connor’s suicide note. She shares it online, hoping it will garner enough attention to raise the $14,000 needed for the orchard, but it backfires, and people post degrading comments about the Murphys and directions to their house.

Evan goes to the Murphys’ house, where the family has begun to fight with one another under the weight of the anger and sadness resulting from the letter’s appearance online. Evan feels guilty when they blame one another for their role in Connor’s suicide. He observes:

“This house is burning. I did this. I set it on fire. I never meant to. I only wanted to help them. This was my refuge. Improbable, but true. A place where I could come and feel safe and accepted and wanted. Now it’s crumbling before my eyes” (304).

Unable to handle the guilt any longer, he confesses that he wrote the letter and Connor took it from him. The Murphys are shocked and devastated by Evan’s revelation, and Mr. Murphy asks Evan to leave their home.

The chapter then shifts to Part VIII of Connor’s narrative, as he follows Evan out to the street, where Evan collapses from the pain of disappointing the Murphys. Connor explains he has been there before and felt that pain. Connor bends down to Evan and tells him that the only way forward is to own his pain.

After Evan leaves the Murphys, he stands on the curb outside their house and thinks about the events of the past few weeks. He thinks about his work at Ellison Park over the summer and confesses that he didn’t fall out of the tree when he broke his arm, he jumped. He didn’t plan to, but when he climbed up in the branches of a tall oak tree, he thought about all the pain he had been feeling and just let go. He recalls, “I saw the ground below, all the way down. I looked up once more, at the whole world; it was beautiful, I knew it was, but I wasn’t a part of it. I was never going to be a part of it” (316).

Evan goes to the hospital where his mom works, and she tells him she figured out that he wrote the note. She apologizes for how distant she has been and how it has affected Evan. They drive home from the hospital, and Evan stays in the car after his mom goes inside. He switches over to the driver’s seat, where he presses on the pedals and imagines what it will be like to drive again.

Part IX contains Connor’s final words. He explains that he reached out to Miguel on the first day of school, complaining about the pain of being back at school. Miguel responded with a thumbs-up emoji. Connor wrote back, telling Miguel he missed him. Miguel never responded, so Connor erased all the messages and pictures on his phone before taking his own life. He takes one final walk through the house to say goodbye.

The Epilogue takes place 20 months after Connor revealed to the Murphys that he made up the letter. Evan has made peace with his imperfections and the events surrounding the Connor Project. He says that when he returned to school after telling the Murphys the truth, he expected to be ostracized when everyone found out. However, nothing happened because the Murphys never revealed the truth.

Evan cut ties with the Connor Project, hoping that the initiative would continue in his absence, but after the campaign for the orchard ended, the project dwindled as well. Alana and Jared stopped talking to him, and his popularity in school faded. He and Zoe stopped talking as well.

Evan recalls one day when he was wandering around and stumbled upon a fundraising event. A stranger, who happened to be Miguel, called out to him. Miguel told Evan how much Connor meant to him: “Connor, he was just...I’ve never met someone like that. That innocent. That pure. Sometimes I think maybe he was too pure...for all this” (350), showing that he truly did know Connor better than anyone else.

In the present day Connor sits on a bench in the new Connor Murphy Memorial Orchard, writing a letter to himself while he waits for Zoe. When she arrives, she tells him that her parents visit the orchard all the time. She thanks him, and when Connor asks why she chose to meet at the orchard, she says, “I wanted to be sure you saw this” (357). Zoe leaves, and Evan finishes writing his letter, in which he expresses hope that the orchard will provide solace for someone in need, which is what he and Connor needed all along.