Looking for Alaska Chapter 54 Summary

one hundred two days after

  • The details of the prank are revealed: the man who will play Dr. Morse is actually a stripper named Maxx (but his real name is Stan).
  • To avoid monetary trouble, Takumi and Miles collect Maxx's appearance fee, which amounts to five bucks from each junior.
  • Everyone knows about the prank, but no one talks. Amazing, right?
  • Maxx doesn't show up at Speaker Day at the scheduled time, and instead he's ten minutes late (he's also about thirty and very handsome).
  • Annoyed because there's a glitch in his plan, the Colonel meets a late Maxx, hands him a copy of the speech, and pays him in advance.
  • Miles doesn't think that there are any expellable offenses in the prank; he read the handbook fairly carefully.
  • Miles sits with Maxx/Dr. William Morse in the front row of the bleachers because Maxx is his father's "friend." Lara and the Colonel sit behind him. Takumi surreptitiously connects his speakers to the gym loudspeakers.
  • When the Eagle introduces Dr. Morse, everyone claps. The entire junior class knows about the prank but no one else does.
  • Maxx/Dr. Morse starts reading the speech that the Colonel and Miles wrote for him, and when he gets about two paragraphs in, Lara stands up and tells him to take off his clothes.
  • Still reading from the speech, Maxx/Dr. Morse says that the situation is interesting and that it's important to "subvert the patriarchal paradigm" (102after.35).
  • Maxx/Dr. Morse yells "This one's for Alaska Young!" (102after.35), Takumi starts to play music, and Maxx starts to strip.
  • The crowd—predictably/understandably—goes nuts.
  • After a few stunned seconds, the Eagle leaps up and tries not to smile as he points to the door for Maxx/Dr. Morse.
  • Once Speaker Day ends (the second speaker was terrible), everyone wants to know if it was Miles, the Colonel, Lara, and Takumi—all four of them say it was Alaska.
  • As the four are relaxing in Miles and the Colonel's dorm room, the Eagle suddenly opens the door. He says he knows it was them but implicitly acknowledges that he approves. How could anyone be mad at such an awesome prank?