The Da Vinci Code | Chapters 59–70 | Summary

Summary

Chapter 59

Bishop Aringarosa phones Opus Dei's New York headquarters. He has a phone message from France to call back immediately. When he makes the call on his way to the airport in Rome, the bishop is dismayed to find it's the number of the French police.

Chapter 60

The narrator reiterates that Sangreal (Holy Grail) can be read as Sang Real, or "royal blood." The bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene continued through time, especially through the royal French Merovingians. Sophie now understands that Mary Magdalene is the Grail and is also identified with the five-petal rose and the pentacle. Teabing explains why the Church had to reject these truths to retain power. He shows that the Bible does not contain the truth about Jesus and Christianity. The truth lies in sacred documents buried in Magdalene's tomb—this is the Grail all are seeking. Rémy interrupts them to have a private word with Teabing.

Chapter 61

Sophie contemplates what she has learned and wonders if her grandfather was in the royal bloodline. Langdon explains how other artists hid secret knowledge of the Grail in their artworks. Even Walt Disney is said to have done so in a movie. In the middle of their talk, Teabing returns to the room and tells Langdon, "You have not been honest with me."

Chapter 62

Teabing has learned that Langdon is wanted for murder. He asks Langdon and Sophie to leave. Sophie mentions the keystone, and Teabing freezes—he wants it so much. While Sophie tells him about the keystone, Silas is hiding in the garden with a loaded gun. Teabing seems shocked to learn that three other Priory members have been killed along with Saunière. Now only Sophie and Langdon have access to the Grail secret. They discuss who might have committed the four murders: the Church or another group. Teabing states that the Priory had promised to reveal the Grail at the End of Days, or around the millennium. So perhaps the murders occurred to prevent this revelation. Teabing insists the Church is behind the murders. Sophie reveals the gold key. Langdon tells Teabing the keystone is hidden under his sofa. Hearing the word keystone prompts Silas to enter the house.

Chapter 63

Collet and the police have arrived at Teabing's estate. Fache orders a dumbfounded Collet to postpone the arrests until he arrives. The police find Silas's car and the bank van. Meanwhile, Bishop Aringarosa realizes things in Paris have gone terribly wrong for him and Opus Dei.

Chapter 64

Teabing is cradling the rosewood box. He looks inside and contemplates the cryptex. While Teabing and Sophie examine the cryptex, Langdon reexamines the rosewood box. He finds that the inlaid rose on top can be removed from the inside. He removes it, and notices the thin piece of wood has indecipherable writing on it in a language he doesn't recognize. As he examines the four lines of writing, Langdon is struck on the head and collapses.

Chapter 65

Silas is standing in the room, holding Sophie and Teabing at gunpoint. Silas demands the keystone Teabing is holding. As Teabing struggles with his crutches, he totters and the keystone drops toward the floor. One crutch crashes into Silas's leg. Silas falls as Sophie kicks his jaw. As he collapses Silas's gun discharges a bullet into the wall. Collet and the police hear the shot. They use it as an excuse to invade the house without waiting for Fache. When Langdon regains consciousness, Silas is tied up on the floor. His cilice shows he's a member of Opus Dei. Sophie finds the wooden rose inlay Langdon had dropped. She wonders what the writing means. The police cars pull up to the house.

Chapter 66

Collet and his men look through every room in the mansion. They can't find anyone. They move on to the barn where one policeman finds an elaborate radio transmission setup. The police notice a narrow road that leads from the barn into the woods and realize one of Teabing's cars is missing.

Chapter 67

Rémy is driving them all, including the trussed-up Silas, along the woodland road toward a small airfield. Teabing arranges for his private plane to be ready in a few minutes. It will fly them to England. Langdon has an idea. He asks to use Teabing's phone to call the United States.

Chapter 68

Langdon calls his New York editor to find out if he had already sent out copies of Langdon's new manuscript. He had, and one copy went to Saunière. The manuscript is about the Priory. Langdon thinks this is why Saunière had wanted to meet him for dinner. The group arrives at the small airport to fly to London.

Chapter 69

During the flight, they discuss the keystone. Teabing stresses the enormous responsibility Sophie has as she looks for the keystone. Since the top Priory members have been murdered, Teabing explains how Sophie should make the keystone and Grail public when she finds them. Releasing them would prevent the Church from trying to hide or destroy them.

Chapter 70

Collet is upset because he realizes the car carrying Langdon and the others has eluded his men. Fache gets a phone call from Vernet. Vernet admits he helped Langdon and Sophie escape from the bank and promises to reveal all only if Fache promises to protect the bank's reputation. A policeman discovers Teabing and the others have reached the airfield and taken off.

Analysis

Much of the beginning of this section expands on the theme of the sacred feminine and the symbol of blood as a key to an important spiritual truth. Sophie ponders the idea that "The Holy Grail [Sangreal] is Mary Magdalene ... the mother of the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ." Mary Magdalene is also associated with her symbol, the rose, which denotes her and the divine feminine. Teabing is amazed at the rose symbol atop the rosewood box. The rose convinces Teabing that the cryptex is genuinely a key to finding Magdalene's grave, the Grail. Langdon ponders Teabing's statement, "The key to the Grail is hidden beneath the sign of the Rose." The Sangreal is believed to be in England, which is where the group flies off to. Sophie hopes that when they find the Grail in England, she will learn "the truth about [her] family," or blood line.

Teabing explains that the Church conspiracy extended to attempts to destroy the royal bloodline of French Merovingian monarchs. Some had been murdered, but the bloodline continues to this day. Thus the royal blood of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is found in living individuals. The symbol of the bloodline reinforces the concept that spiritual truth is still manifest on earth. Sophie tells Teabing that all four top Priory members have been killed. He immediately suspects the Church of the murders, as it fits with the Church's policy of destroying the Grail's spiritual truth. However, Langdon is less certain of the Church's involvement in a murder conspiracy. Teabing goes so far as to implicate the Priory in a compromise with—or capitulation to—the Church. This subconspiracy, he asserts, involved a promise by the Priory not to divulge its secrets. Yet secretly the Priory had set a time when it would reveal the truth to the world. Teabing thinks that time was the millennium (the year 2000), which is why the Church would murder the Priory members near that date.

When Silas enters Teabing's house with his gun drawn, another act in the playing out of Opus Dei's supposedly independent conspiracy to find the Grail ensues. However, Teabing and Sophie foil Silas before he can shoot anyone or get his hands on the cryptex. Teabing assures everyone that Silas "is not working alone" but is part of an Opus Dei conspiracy to get the Grail.

When Teabing makes the offhand remark that the word rose is also an anagram (word puzzle) for the word eros (sexuality), Sophie begins to rethink the ritual she had witnessed her grandfather participating in.

When Langdon removes the rose from the top of the rosewood box, he finds a four-line message in a strange and undecipherable language. The motif of obscure language intersects here with the use of puzzles as clues.