This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS from late in the set. Do not read this post unless you've read ALL of the books that have been published. You've been warned.
Note: This is another very long post, but I would rather have everything together than spread it out across multiple posts.
I reread the books this summer to look at the information we are given about Ethan, Eleanor, and Lady Gisela's plans. I have gathered everything here in this post, although I have left out some of the redundancy from the books.
In particular, I wanted to see if it's reasonable for me to continue to assume that Ethan's death was faked after the death of one Forkle twin. The obituary for Ethan and Eleanor states that Eleanor was 10, which would place the deaths years before the Forkle death. I don't think we can trust what the obituary says. If I'm right, then my belief about when Ethan's death was faked could still be valid.
It's best to read these posts first, since I'm not going to rehash everything:
#9.5 Unraveled Part 4 Ethan Benedict Wright II
#9.5 Unraveled Part 5 Eleanor Olivia Wright
Forkle's Pared-Down Identities
Ethan and Eleanor
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In case you haven't read my other posts, I do believe that Kenric is Forkle. I also believe that Forkle's fifth identity is Ethan Benedict Wright II.
One Forkle twin dies in Book 5. The surviving twin says in Book 6 that he will pare down his identities. I believe that the pared-down identity is Ethan. Based on comments made by Fintan, I believe that Ethan's death was faked during the timeline of Book 6.
In Book 7, Ethan and Eleanor are first mentioned, and we learn that they are supposedly dead.
Readers first learn about Ethan midway through Book 7 when Keefe recovers a shattered memory from years before. In that memory, Lady Gisela mentions that someone could be useful.
Book 7, page 371 "That crystal leaps to a city called London, near a house with a green door. The person who lives there might be useful—we'll see." In the memory, the envelope that Keefe is to deliver has a symbol with "two crescents forming a loose circle around a glowing star." The symbol represents the three sources.
Keefe later retrieves a memory of green human eyes.
Book 7, page 423 "The only useful piece was a pair of green eyes. But they're so blurry we can't even tell if they're from a guy or a girl or a kid or an adult." "But you know they have to be human eyes," Sophie reminded him. "Yep. That was my big breakthrough."
The green eyes belong to Eleanor.
Oddly, Forkle can braid hair, and he can do it rather well.Book 7, page 431 Shockingly enough, he wove her hair into the most intricate braid she'd ever seen. "Do I want to know why you know how to do this?" she asked. "Of course—but that's a story for another day."
I think the mention of Forkle knowing how to braid hair is one of Shannon's clues. If Forkle is Ethan, then he might have braided Eleanor's hair.
Book 7 page 685 "The truth is, now that there's only one of me, I'm falling further and further behind in my responsibilities, and the Black Swan is suffering.
I thought that this passage meant that Forkle hasn't faked Ethan's death yet. He likely has, because Fintan was captured near the end of Book 6.
Fintan mentions Ethan to Sophie.
Book 7, page 710 "Truthfully? I don't have all the details on that. Some projects Gisela kept to herself. All I know is that she was hoping to recruit someone and it didn't work out." "A human?" Sophie pressed. Fintan nodded.
This confirms that Ethan and Eleanor's deaths have been faked by this point in Book 7. Fintan's knowledge means that it happened in Book 6's timeline. However, this is assuming that Lady Gisela told Fintan the truth. I don't rule out that Ethan's death could have been faked during the timeline of Book 7 due to the quote from page 685 (see above).
Sophie tells Keefe what Fintan said.
Book 7, page 724 "He said your mom kept certain projects to herself, so he didn't know very much about them. But he did tell me that your mom sent you to that house in London to try to recruit someone for something—and yes, she was trying to recruit a human. Fintan said it didn't work out."
Sometime later, Keefe shows Sophie his drawing of Ethan that he made after he retrieved another memory.
Book 8, page 78 A really nerdy-looking guy. Between the tweed blazer and the bow tie and the ruddy cheeks and the wild hair, he looked like some sort of professor stereotype... "He's human," Sophie realized, focusing on the man's deep brown eyes... it was almost jarring to see someone with the same eye color as her—and someone with deep smile lines and strands of gray peppered through his messy red hair.
Book 8, page 78 "Look what he's holding," Keefe told her, pointing to the man's left hand, which held an envelope sealed with a symbol they'd only seen one other time: two crescents forming a loose circle around a glowing star.
Book 8, page 80 And the man that Keefe had drawn was a pretty generic-looking British guy—from his bright ginger hair down to the elbow patches on his blazer.
On page 510 of Book 8, Sophie asks Mr. Forkle to take Dex to Watchward Heath to search all of his cameras for Ethan. On page 542, Mr. Forkle arrives—acting rather strange—to tell Sophie and Keefe that he and Dex found the man. Mr. Forkle also says that he did additional research before leaving Watchward Heath—which I personally find a bit odd—to talk with the kids. Mr. Forkle usually withholds information, and in this case, he preemptively researches the situation. Hmm...
Mr. Forkle gives Sophie an obituary for Ethan Benedict Wright II. The obituary is "three short paragraphs," and readers don't get to read what it says.
Book 8, page 545 "Ethan Benedict Wright II, and”—her stomach turned—“ his ten-year-old daughter, Eleanor Olivia Wright, were struck by a bus outside of the British Library and killed instantly."
That's all we are told. No dates, nothing. The reader is being led to believe that the accident was a good four to five years before. The supposed accident wasn't years before, because we learn in Book 9.5 that the accident wasn't even real. If the accident wasn't real, then we can't assume when it happened because... it never happened.
I believe that Ethan Benedict Wright II was Forkle's fifth identity and that he quit using it sometime during the timeline of Book 6 or 7. I assume that Forkle chose the date upon which Ethan and Eleanor were killed. All Forkle had to do was pick a British newspaper, and then hack into their archives. He could have changed the file for a certain issue from years before to contain the fake obituary. Until Shannon reveals concrete evidence that Ethan disappeared before Sophie came to the Lost Cities, I'm going to assume that the deaths were faked during Book 6 or 7.
Forkle didn't expect for Keefe to recover a memory or for Sophie to have Dex search for Ethan's photo. Forkle had to help Dex search the cameras for various elves within a week of the supposed deaths. The only elf who appeared in the London footage was Gisela.
Book 8, page 546 Keefe sighed. "So you guys really think it's a coincidence that the same human guy who got a letter from my mom—a letter she had me illegally bring to the Forbidden Cities and then went to pretty drastic lengths to erase all my memories of—just happened to die that same year?"
Book 8, page 553 Sophie's eyes took a second to find the string of tiny white numbers hidden in the corner, and if she was reading the time stamp correctly, then Lady Gisela had been standing in front of Big Ben at 8:14 p.m. The obituary said the accident happened at 7:09 p.m.
From this, the kids conclude that Gisela could have killed Ethan.
Book 8, page 554 "Well… that's… convenient," Fitz said slowly. "So the accident just happened to take place in one of the rare gaps in the Black Swan's surveillance? Nobody else thinks that's odd?" "Oh, I think it's very odd," Mr. Forkle told him.
I think Forkle chose the location for Ethan's death on purpose so that no one could discover that it was fake.
Book 8, page 576 "You wouldn't want to harm anyone else, would you?" "What do you mean 'else'?" Keefe spat through gritted teeth, rising so easily to her bait. His mom smiled wider. "You know very well who I mean. Why would we be here otherwise?"
Gisela's statement appears to confirm that the accident was real, that Ethan and Eleanor are dead, and that the deaths occurred before Sophie came to the Lost Cities. The problem is that the Black Swan has a leak, and the leak is someone very close to Sophie. Here's why:
Edaline tells Sophie (Book 6, page 764) that Gethen somehow knew that Prentice had been healed. Gethen (Book 7, page 757) knows that Fintan told Sophie about the Neverseen's plans for the Celestial Festival. Gethen (Book 7, page 759) knows that Tam has been training. And then, Gethen reveals more information that he shouldn't know. Gethen knows that Fitz has suspected Alvar all along but nobody
believed him. Gethan states that Sophie didn't even believe him. Gethen even
mentions how much Fitz relies on Sophie.
It's a bit unnerving how much Gethen knows. Undoubtedly, the leak also told the Neverseen about the photo of Gisela in London placing her at the scene of the accident.
Since we learn in Book 9.5 that Eleanor is alive and was never hit by a bus, then we know that Lady Gisela didn't kill Ethan and Eleanor. That is... we can't rule out that Gisela could have killed Ethan, but I believe that both deaths were faked. She's just messing with Keefe by using what the leak told her.
In Book 9.5, Keefe writes down everything he knows, including:
Book 9.5, page 150 Sometime after I delivered the letter, Ethan—and his daughter—were killed. The obituary called it an accident. Said they were hit by a bus. But my mom was in London that night—barely an hour after it happened. I don't believe in coincidences.
But it was just a coincidence. The accident didn't happen; Forkle picked a date for the fake obituary. It was a coincidence that Dex found Lady Gisela on camera that same day.
Book 9.5, page 154 That's probably why Forkle didn't have any recordings of the "accident"—which felt like more proof that his mom had to be behind it.
No, it's because Forkle made sure that the accident was placed where there was no surveillance.
Book 9.5, page 154 Either way, a ten-year-old girl ended up dead, along with her father.
Eleanor didn't die at 10, since she's still alive.
Book 9.5, page 156 Ethan had been holding Mommy Dearest's letter.
Keefe made deliveries to Ethan more than once, since he also put a letter in the mailbox.
Book 9.5, page 162 The top article was the same one that Forkle had already shown him. The two after that were so short, they were barely more than the names. The fourth described Ethan Benedict Wright II as a "prominent astrophysicist"—which was at least some new information.
One of the obituaries has a photo.
Book 9.5, page 163 Ethan Benedict Wright II looked exactly like Keefe had drawn him, with his wild hair, tweed jacket, and crooked bow tie. And he had his arm around an adorable little girl.
The photo could have been an old photo used for the purpose of misdirection. Obituaries frequently use old photos, so Eleanor being a little girl doesn't prove anything about when the accident supposedly happened.
Book 9.5, page 168 And while Ethan Benedict Wright II had been called "prominent" in that obituary, Keefe had yet to find a single reference to his work.
This is odd and a sign that Ethan might not have been a real human. If Ethan was a Forkle identity, then perfunctory effort was used to set up a slight paper trail.
Book 9.5, page 224 The only slightly interesting thing he'd found was a brief article that mentioned the "groundbreaking work of Dr. Ethan Benedict Wright II in the search for alternative energy sources."
Book 9.5, page 225 And yet, all of Ethan Benedict Wright II's obituaries had left off his title.
Ethan's work was "groundbreaking," yet there's very little information available for Keefe to find. Very basic information was placed in a few articles to give Ethan a plausible backstory so that Lady Gisela would approach him. The obituaries were hastily created, since they leave off Ethan's title.
Book 9.5, page 237 "Then how come my mom told me, 'You wouldn't want to harm anyone else, would you?' when she ambushed me in London?" "Well, I'm not your mom, so I can only speculate here, but... she'll say or do anything to turn you into the obedient little wonder child she's been counting on."
That's exactly what Gisela was doing. The Black Swan's leak informed the Neverseen about the kids finding a photo of Gisela near the scene of the accident within an hour of the accident, so she acted like it was Keefe's fault that she killed Ethan and Eleanor.
The tombstones (Book 9.5, page 340) for Ethan and Eleanor state "Ethan Benedict Wright II, Beloved Father" and "Eleanor Olivia Wright, Cherished Daughter" with no dates. This supports my theory that the accident didn't happen when the kids think it did. Keefe also notices that Ethan's tombstone doesn't include the title "Dr."
Book 9.5, page 349 "So I watched you slip the letter through the letter box, and then I followed you down the alley, trying to find out where you were going."
This passage doesn't match Keefe's memory of seeing the letter in Ethan's hand, so it establishes that Keefe made more than one delivery to Ethan.
Book 9.5, page 351 "Blond woman, about as tall as me, wearing a fancy cloak?" "Sounds like her," Keefe muttered, ..."I take it that means you've met Mommy Dearest." "No—but I saw her." "When?" "Doesn't matter." "See, but it really does... Where did you see my mom? And how long ago was it?"
I have long had a theory that Kenric is Ethan Benedict Wright II. In a future post, I'll explain how I think this is still possible with what we learn in Book 9.5. If I'm right about Kenric and Ethan, this is what I currently think:
Kenric was messing with Lady Gisela by letting her attempt to recruit him as Ethan Benedict Wright II. While this plan was in progress, Kenric probed Fintan's mind about stellarlune and learned about Elysian. What he learned scared him, so much so that he realized that he had made a mistake as Ethan Benedict Wright II. In Book 9.5, Eleanor Olivia Wright tells Keefe that her father told her that he had made a big mistake. It all fits.
Now, I feel that Ethan was pretending when he told Eleanor that he had made a mistake. Ethan needed to fake his death, and he came up with a good story to tell Eleanor. That aside, Eleanor knows something. What she knows is anyone's guess.
One last thought—I compiled this post to see how the plot points with Ethan and Eleanor develop. Ethan and Eleanor aren't mentioned until Book 7. The very first mention is when Keefe remembers seeing green eyes (Book 7, page 371). Forkle braiding Sophie's hair occurs not too long after, and I believe the hair braiding is relevant (Book 7, page 423). The rest of the clues gradually follow.
I concluded
my post on Mr. Forkle with this statement:
Books 8, 8.5, and 9 dole out answers and are all part of the end-of-series payoff.
Book 7 is the lead-in to the end-of-series payoff. Shannon starts to set it up in Book 7 as she begins to reveal information about Ethan and Eleanor. It remains to be seen what Ethan and Eleanor's true significance is, but their roles will be important as the series wraps up.
I have long considered Book 7 to be my least favorite book in the series, but my opinion of it has improved. I appreciate it much more now that I've discovered how many clues are in that book. It is an important book that would be easier to digest if some parts were shorter.
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Update (August 1, 2025):
This passage was pointed out as proof that Ethan must have died shortly after Keefe delivered the letter.
Book 9.5, page 360 He shrugged. "It’s hard not to assume the worst when you recover a stolen memory and find out you delivered a letter to someone who ended up dead not long after." Eleanor chewed her lip. "It was just a letter, Keefe."
I agree that the above passage makes it
seem definite that Ethan died (or had his death faked) at least three years before. If Eleanor is being completely honest with her answers, then Ethan has to have been dead for years.
I feel that Eleanor is being evasive. What if she's agreeing with whatever Keefe says in order not to reveal secrets? We just don't know.
All of my past Keeper posts are linked from this page:
Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories
