Dear Evan Hansen

At school, Evan and Jared arrange a time to write more emails. Evan also joins Zoe’s table for lunch, where they brainstorm costume ideas for Halloween. The next day Evan meets up with Jared to write 10 more emails, including one in which Connor asks for help kicking his drug habit. Jared makes a quick jab at Evan, reminding him that none of this is real: “The only thing you should be worried about right now is building that Orchard for Connor. Because if there was one thing about Connor, the guy loved trees. Or wait, you love trees. That’s weird. Isn’t that weird?” (232). Evan is hurt by this, and tries to brush it away.

The perspective shifts to Connor in Part VI, and he talks about following Evan. It makes him feel like they maybe had a real friendship, or they could have had a real friendship. It reminds him of his friendship with Miguel from Hanover, the boarding school his parents sent him to. Miguel is the friend Connor has been referencing all along, the one he contacted the day he died. Miguel was the first openly gay person Connor ever met, while Connor was just starting to identify as fluid. They spent a lot of time together, until Connor took the blame for Miguel when he was caught with weed at school, expelled, and sent to rehab. They stayed in touch and finally met again later at Connor’s house.

People from all over reach out to Evan to express how the Connor Project resonates with them. Evan muses, “What I do know for sure is that these people all seem to have a desperate desire to connect with someone. They feel inspired to share their incredibly personal stories” (239). Some of this attention has gone to Evan’s head, and he posts a selfie that earns many likes in mere minutes.

Mrs. Hanson confronts Evan after seeing the video of his speech. She is hurt that Evan kept his supposed friendship with Connor a secret as well as his involvement with the Connor Project. She says she doesn’t recognize the new, more confident Evan. Evan accuses her of spending too much time at work to pay attention to him. Before she leaves for work, Mrs. Hanson tells Evan she is happy that he had a friend, even though Evan kept him from her, and she hopes they can be more open with one another.

At Zoe’s house, Evan has his first real conversation with Mr. Murphy in the garage. Mr. Murphy gives Evan Connor’s unused baseball glove, saying, “My dad and I, we used to throw the ball around in the backyard every Sunday afternoon […] I thought Connor and I could do that. He used to complain that I was never around, I was working all the time, so I said, all right, let’s set aside Sunday afternoons for just the two of us. And then, all of a sudden, he wasn’t interested anymore” (250). Mr. Murphy talks about his relationship with Connor, which reminds Evan of his disappointment in his own dad. At home, he takes out a pin marking the site of a trail in Colorado he was hoping to explore with his dad.

Evan goes to Zoe’s open mic, where she plays an original song. They go back to Evan’s house while his mom is at work. Zoe sees the stack of papers about the essay contest, and Evan reluctantly tells her that he will need scholarships to pay for college since his parents can’t cover all of his tuition. He changes the subject to the Connor Project, but Zoe asks if they can talk about other things. She tells him the original song she played at the open mic is about him.

In Part VII of his story, Connor talks about his friendship with Miguel becoming more intimate. He recalls a time when Miguel confronted Connor about how he pushed Miguel away whenever Miguel tried to get closer to him, saying: “You always do that […] anytime I get too close […] It’s like you only give me these tiny glimpses” (266). Connor panicked and ran away from Miguel, and the two lost contact until Connor contacted him one last time on the day he died.

Evan forgets to help Alana pass out postcards for the Connor Project. Alana tells Evan that they are $17,000 short of their fundraising goal, so she is putting the emails online in a last-ditch effort to gain more publicity. Evan protests, claiming that it violates his and Connor’s privacy, but Alana responds:

“Not anymore. They belong to everyone now. I mean, that’s the whole point. And the more private they are, the better. That’s what people want to see. We have a responsibility to our community to show them everything, to tell the truth” (270).

She mentions there is a discrepancy in the timeline of events discussed in the emails. Afterward, Jared and Evan get in an argument in which Jared tells Evan that Connor’s death is the best thing that ever happened to him.

Evan and Zoe go to her house where they find Mrs. Hanson waiting for them. Mrs. Murphy explains she invited Evan’s mother over to tell her something important. Mrs. Hansen looks embarrassed, having had no idea until recently that Evan and Connor were supposedly friends or that Evan had been spending so much time at the Murphys’ house. Mrs. Murphy explains that Zoe shared that Evan has been writing essays for scholarship contests; she and Mr. Murphy want to give Evan the money they had saved up for Connor. Embarrassed, Mrs. Hansen rejects the money.

When Evan gets home, Mrs. Hansen is waiting for him and explains how mortifying it feels to be unaware of what Evan has been up to. Evan blames her frequent absence from home and says the Murphys have stood in as a surrogate family for him: “They like me. I know how hard this is to believe. They don’t think that there’s something wrong with me. That I need to be fixed, like you do” (282). Mrs. Hanson apologizes, telling Evan that he’s “the one good thing that has ever happened to [her]” (283).