- Vindice has achieved the revenge he's been after for nine years and the whole play so far. Sounds like a good place to end, right? But the play doesn't stop there. Nope, it goes on to show us what happens in the wake of all the events so far.
- Ambitioso and Supervacuo have no sooner celebrated becoming the Duke's heirs (imagining Lussurioso to be executed), than they fall to squabbling among themselves. It's in the Villain's Handbook somewhere: If you can't be nice to the hero, then you can't be nice to the other crooks, either.
- They do manage to agree to share the glory of their scheme equally, but it's hard to feel they can be trusted. Then they fall to plotting how to help Junior escape, still unaware that they accidentally sent him to his death that morning.
- Just then, an officer comes in carrying… wait for it… the decapitated head they assume belongs to Lussurioso. The brothers laugh gleefully to themselves but try to pretend they're weeping with grief.
- They ask how he died, and the officer says he was full of rage, and that they could not convince him to pray. This was a huge deal at the time, because it was widely believed that an unrepentant sinner would go to hell but that God would have mercy and spare a repentant soul from eternal damnation. So it's pretty grim to find out that someone didn't pray before being executed. Ambitioso and Supervacuo make light of this issue, showing how little they care.
- Just then, Lussurioso walks in. This is quite a shock to Ambitioso and Supervacuo. Like that first time you see Darth Vader again after he goes spiraling off into space back at the first Death Star. Lussurioso unknowingly rubs it in by saying "I thank such kind lords as yourselves, I'm free" (3.6.71).
- Supervacuo and Ambitioso make a quick recovery and say they are amazed with joy to see him. Lussurioso thanks them again, still not knowing he's rubbing it in. Supervacuo and Ambitioso, never ones to miss an opportunity, say how much they pleaded with the Duke for his freedom, and Lussurioso calls them deserving and says he will think on their pleading for him in his best studies (3.6.81-82).
- Lussurioso leaves, and the brothers curse him and yell at the officer who brought them the head. They accuse him of deceiving them, but he's puzzled, since he genuinely thinks he's done what they wanted and what the Duke commanded. You just can't get ahead as an honest officer in a corruption-riddled state. Go figure.
- Finally, the brothers ask to see the head. It slowly dawns on them that it is the head of their own full brother, Junior. They are furious and burst out in curses and complaints, even turning on the officer, who was only doing what he thought to be his duty. They relive everything they did unknowingly to lead up to his death. Dark irony is totally looming.
- They conclude that their wiles went awry, and there's nothing sure but mortality. This might seem like a perfect moment for them to swear off violence and go in for pacifism, but instead they plot—you guessed it—revenge. They even threaten to "pull down all" (3.6.119) to get it. Anyone see those dark thunderclouds on the horizon?