We Need to Talk About Kevin Chapter 7: December 12, 2000 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • In the present, the Supreme Court is still trying to decide who the president will be: Bush or Gore.
  • Eva gets thinking about how she doesn't really care about anything anymore, not after the trial.
  • It seems that after Kevin's crime, Mary Woolford, the woman from the grocery store in Chapter 1, filed a civil suit against Eva.
  • Mary's daughter was killed by Kevin, and Mary was shopping for a settlement.
  • Instead of settling, Eva took her to trial, against advice from legal counsel.
  • Eva was angry, not really at Mary, but at the hypocrisy of the United States legal system: she can be innocent until proven guilty but sued for absolutely anything, and regardless of whose fault it really is, still be out thousands of dollars in legal fees.
  • This gets Eva thinking about her own hypocrisies, like wanting a baby because she was bored.
  • Eva writes to Franklin about how she may have seemed stoic during her pregnancy, but it was an act. She hated every minute of it.
  • Eva even tried to pretend that the act of giving birth itself didn't hurt.
  • Eva asks for an epidural, but by that point, it's too late. Kevin is almost here.