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Summary
Sections 51-55
51
Maggot ropes Demon into helping him steal Sudafed from Walgreens with Swap Out’s assistance. Demon learns that Fast Forward and Emmy have split, but Emmy hasn’t returned home—a troubling sign that things might be worse than he initially thought.
Meanwhile, Red Neck gains unexpected popularity, with readers writing in and asking for more strips. One comic about leaving tobacco flowers at graves to honor loved ones resonates deeply, inspiring people all over town to leave tobacco flowers at gravesites. The strip’s success prompts Tommy’s boss to push for it to become a weekly feature. Believing Tommy is the creator, the boss offers him an additional ten dollars a week. Under mounting pressure, Tommy reluctantly outs Demon as the artist, claiming he did it for Demon’s benefit.
Demon, uncertain about the next steps, goes to Ms. Annie’s house to seek advice. She says ten dollars a week is far too little and offers to act as his agent. She successfully negotiates fifty dollars a week for the strip, which Demon agrees to split with Tommy, who will help develop the stories.
While at Ms. Annie’s home, Demon observes her and Mr. Armstrong’s bohemian lifestyle, including her textile art, such as a striking piece of Devil’s Bathtub, and Mr. Armstrong’s impressive folk art collection, although he just calls it “art” rather than “folk art.” They have a deeply supportive partnership, which stands in stark contrast to the chaos in Demon’s life. They drop not-so-subtle hints that Demon needs a supportive partner to help him quit drugs and build a stable life. However, Demon brushes them off, convinced that love means never giving up on someone, no matter how flawed the relationship.
Later, Demon receives a call from Rose Dartell, who claims to have something for him from Emmy. When they meet, Rose reveals that Fast Forward is now living in Atlanta and has cut Mouse out of the drug trade. He’s dealing directly with Mexican traffickers, who he allows to rape Emmy as part of their arrangement. When Demon expresses disbelief, Rose tells Demon that Emmy is unrecognizable, and returns the snake bracelet that Demon gave Emmy years ago.
52
At home, Dori’s condition deteriorates rapidly. After getting fired from her haircutting job, she loses all motivation to leave bed, spending her days getting high. Demon tries to intervene, first by taking away the TV and later by breaking it, but nothing changes.
Demon continues working with Tommy on the Red Neck strip. During one of their sessions, Tommy talks about his girlfriend, Sophie, and how he can share everything he thinks and feels with her. Demon listens, feeling a pang of jealousy and sadness over the stark difference between Tommy’s healthy relationship and his own. When Tommy suggests they move their work to his garage, Demon feels hurt, thinking Tommy doesn’t trust him and suspects him of stealing. However, Tommy’s concerns are about safety—he worries about Demon working around machines and tools like X-Acto knives while strung out.
Demon admits to Tommy that he’s heavily addicted but insists he can quit. Tommy counters that Demon will need help and mentions Sophie’s mother, who got clean through AA after leaving her husband. Demon dismisses AA, recalling the religious overtones and his mother’s negative experiences. Tommy explains that Sophie’s mother had to leave her addict husband to get clean, pointing out that living with an addict often drags you into addiction too.
They move their work to Tommy’s garage, where Hailie, now older, often pops in like she used to as a child. Mrs. McCobb occasionally talks to Demon and confides her worries about Mr. McCobb’s shady dealings with U-Haul, further deepening Demon’s unease.
When Demon calls June, he reveals as little as possible but shares that Emmy is alive. June is overjoyed and immediately begins strategizing how to find her. She believes Martha is the key. Martha, now deeply entrenched in addiction, has been in and out of a methadone clinic in Knoxville, but it hasn’t helped. June learns that Martha is at a crack house and sends Demon and Maggot to retrieve her, knowing Martha won’t willingly come with her.
Demon and Maggot find Martha in a terrible state, but she comes with them without resistance. However, when she begins to sober up, she tries to escape from the car, insisting June hates her. Seeing Martha’s condition horrifies Demon—it’s a glimpse of Dori’s likely future. He resolves to break up with Dori, knowing he can’t save her, but before he can act, Dori drops a bombshell: she’s pregnant.
53
Demon clings to the hope that the baby will inspire Dori to get clean, but her behavior only worsens. She begins shooting up when he’s out of the house, and her addiction remains as unrelenting as ever. Desperate for guidance, Demon goes to June for advice on what kind of medical care Dori and the baby might need. Instead of offering direct advice, June turns the conversation to Emmy, pleading for Demon’s help in retrieving her from Atlanta.
Reluctantly, Demon agrees, and they head to the address in Atlanta with June’s brother, Everett. After knocking repeatedly, an old man informs them there was a shooting at the house, and the inhabitants, including a white girl, moved to a nearby development. When they arrive at the second location, they find the key hidden in plain sight. Inside, they discover a harrowing scene: a passed-out man, two babies lying on cardboard pizza boxes, and finally, Emmy and another girl, both half-naked and unconscious in a back room. Demon picks Emmy up and carries her to the car.
On the drive back, June notices Demon showing signs of withdrawal and gives him a pill for his stomach, urging him to think of his unborn child. She tells him she had a similar talk with his mother years ago, as they were good friends. Demon presses June about his father, and she describes him as exactly like Demon: beautiful and kind-hearted, someone with too much compassion for the harsh life he’d been dealt. Demon doesn’t recognize himself in the description.
When Demon asks how his father died, June explains that his mother had accidentally ventured into deep water and couldn’t swim. His father jumped in from too high, breaking his neck in an attempt to save her. June acknowledges how hard the road ahead will be for both Demon and Emmy. She mentions her hopes for a new drug called Suboxone, which might help her clinic treat addiction more effectively.
Before parting ways, June extracts a promise from Demon to take steps toward change, but as soon as he’s alone, Demon takes an Oxy before heading back to Dori, falling deeper into the cycle he longs to escape but cannot yet break.
54
When Demon comes home, he’s met with a horrifying scene—Dori is bleeding heavily from what appears to be a miscarriage. She’s frantic and begs him for a morphine patch, but he restrains her, afraid that she’s already taken too much and will overdose. His fear is well-founded; Dori has overdosed multiple times before, especially with morphine patches, forcing Demon to revive her with improvised methods that may have caused unknown medical complications.
For the first time, it truly hits Demon that Dori has become like her father—someone incapable of being left alone. She is utterly dependent on him and clings to him, terrified that he’ll abandon her as everyone else in her life has. This realization solidifies Demon’s sense of responsibility, and he resolves that his main purpose is to keep Dori alive.
55
June sends Emmy to a long-term rehab facility, and Demon visits to say goodbye. Demon returns the snake bracelet, which she’s surprised to see again. Demon questions why she still wears it, and she’s caught off guard. The moment becomes charged, and she nearly kisses him but stops herself. Instead, she tells him to take care of Dori and that Dori doesn’t deserve him. Emmy explains that it’s the same reason she broke up with Hammer—because both Hammer and Demon are fundamentally good people, while she changes herself constantly to fit what others want.
As Demon leaves, he runs into Hammer waiting outside. Hammer, visibly heartbroken, says that Emmy was "the one" and asks Demon to tell her goodbye and that he still loves her.
Later, on his way to Tommy’s, Demon hears the phone ringing but assumes it’s Dori, so he doesn’t pick up. It turns out to be Angus, calling in a panic. She tells him she’s scared and begs him to come immediately, even saying he might have to kill U-Haul. Demon rushes over to find U-Haul chasing Angus. He fights U-Haul off, and Angus insists they can’t let him leave. They take his keys and lock themselves in his car.
Angus reveals that U-Haul is threatening to report Coach for embezzlement unless she has sex with him. Angus further explains that she learned from Mr. McCobb that U-Haul has been stealing money from Coach’s accounts for years, funneling part of it into Mr. McCobb’s business. Demon stays with Angus for a while to make sure she feels safe, then secures the room by pushing a dresser against the door before leaving.
Analysis
Emmy's arc parallels Emily's in David Copperfield in its engagement with the "fallen woman" trope, but Demon Copperhead subverts and modernizes this Victorian narrative to expose deeper societal failures and systemic oppression. Both Emmy and Emily are figures of innocence whose lives take tragic turns due to external pressures and exploitative relationships. However, the portrayal of Emmy provides a sharper critique of the cultural and structural conditions that perpetuate these cycles.
In David Copperfield, Emily's fall from grace is framed largely as a moral failing, with her shame and exile tied to Victorian notions of purity and propriety. Her story reflects the gendered double standard of the time, where women bore the brunt of societal condemnation for perceived transgressions, often leading to irreparable social ostracization. Emily’s arc, while sympathetic, often centers on redemption through male intervention, reinforcing the idea of male saviors within a rigid moral framework.
In contrast, Emmy’s trajectory reflects a more modern understanding of the systemic forces that contribute to her "fall." Her relationship with Fast Forward—an abusive and exploitative figure who uses her as a pawn in his drug dealings—highlights the vulnerabilities that come with being a young woman in a community ravaged by addiction and economic decay. Emmy’s choices are less about individual morality and more about survival in an environment that offers her few alternatives. The "fallen woman" trope is recontextualized as a societal failure rather than a personal one.
Emmy's fate, like Emily's, carries a sense of tragedy, but it’s used to critique not just individual actions but the systemic issues—like the opioid crisis and the exploitation of vulnerable populations—that shape and constrain her life. Emmy, like many women in her position, is not defined solely by her fall but by the complexities of her resilience and the forces working against her. This modern take on the "fallen woman" trope challenges readers to consider the broader cultural and structural failings that perpetuate such narratives, making Emmy’s arc a powerful indictment of the systems that trap her.
Demon’s realization that Dori has become like her father—someone incapable of being left alone, who needs constant caregiving—reflects his growing understanding of the cyclical nature of trauma and dependency. However, this insight also casts a harsh light on his own role in perpetuating these patterns. Just as Dori’s father relied on her as an untrained caregiver, Dori now relies on Demon to manage her addiction and ensure her survival. In trying to save her, Demon inadvertently mirrors the dynamics of his own relationship with his mother, where his childhood was consumed by caregiving and attempts to navigate her unstable behavior. This repetition highlights how deeply entrenched these patterns of codependency are, and how they create a self-perpetuating loop that entraps both individuals. His efforts to break free from the cycles of his past are undermined by his inability to escape the role of caretaker—a role thrust upon him by broken systems and generational neglect.
The parallels between Dori and Demon’s mother are emphasized during her pregnancy. Just as his mother wasn’t able to permanently quit drugs when she became a mother, Dori’s hope for a better future with her baby is overshadowed by the insurmountable hold of dependency. This devastating cycle is highlighted in Demon’s conversation with June, who reflects on his mother’s similar journey—full of intentions to improve but ultimately unable to escape the systemic forces stacked against her. When she loses the baby, it’s devastating, as the child is a symbol of hope and a potential turning point for their lives. On the other hand, Demon wonders if the baby was spared from a life of inevitable hardship and pain, shaped by the same cycles of poverty, addiction, and trauma that defined his own existence.
Despite the weight of these circumstances, Demon’s work on Red Neck becomes a powerful symbol of his resistance and his capacity for creating meaning in a seemingly hopeless environment. The strip’s growing popularity and its emotional resonance with the community showcase Demon’s potential to use his art as a tool for healing and connection. The comic’s depiction of leaving tobacco flowers at graves becomes a poignant act of collective grief and remembrance, providing a sense of agency in the face of overwhelming loss. Through Red Neck, Demon begins to see the value of his creativity and the impact he can have, even as he remains mired in his own struggles.
