What happened in Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Scarlet

Author: Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2

- Cinder (January 2012)
- Scarlet (February 2013)
- Cress (February 2014)
- Winter (November 2015)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her.

As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Read a full summary of Scarlet by Marissa Meyer below. If you can’t remember what happened in Scarlet and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

In short

Scarlet’s grandmother has been missing, and she goes off to find her with a stranger named Wolf. Wolf turns out to be a member of some sort of gangster wolf pack, but he tells her that he quit. Yeah right. They go to Paris together, but when they get there, Wolf turns out to still be a member of the pack and actually Lunar, and Scarlet gets captured. She finds out that her grandmother was kidnapped by the wolves because she has information on the Lunar heir, Princess Selene. Turns out Selene lived in Scarlet’s hangar’s basement for eight years. Oh. During her imprisonment, Scarlet finds out that her grandfather was Lunar and her grandmother gets killed.

Meanwhile, Cinder escapes prison with an awesome captain named Thorne. They get on his ship, which Cinder turns into Iko by planting her ID chip in it, and then head to Europe to talk to Michelle Benoit as well. When they get to Scarlet’s house, however, the entire Earthern Union is under attack by the Lunars, and Cinder and Thorne only barely manage to escape. They then go to Europe and find Scarlet and Wolf, who is back to being good now. Together with spaceship Iko, they attack the wolves and their leader, and manage to escape. Now, Cinder is on a mission to become even stronger so she can beat Levana. It’s all very badass and awesome.

What happened in Scarlet?

• Scarlet Benoit works at her grandmother’s farm and is on her way to sell her products to a tavern when she gets a message that the police gave up searching for her grandmother. Scarlet’s grandmother has been missing for a while, and Scarlet doesn’t trust it. She even found her grandmother’s ID chip!
• When Scarlet brings her supplies to the tavern, there is a mysterious stranger (when isn’t there?!) who happens to be a badass streetfighter. She’s immediately intrigued by him, even though he doesn’t seem to eat regular food, which is weird. He also has some numbers tattood on his arm and his name is Wolf. Rawr.
• When Scarlet gets back to her house, she finds her dad – who is kind of messed up and doesn’t really talk to her – searching her grandmother’s stuff to find ‘something’. He has been tortured by the same people who apparently kidnapped her grandmother. And apparently, those guys had the same tattoo Wolf has. INTERESTING.
• Scarlet goes off to find Wolf to question him. He is actually busy streetfighting in an abandoned farm, and she sees that he’s an amazing fighter. He claims to have nothing to do with her grandmother’s disappearance and then disappears himself. Hmmm.
• The next morning, Wolf shows up at Scarlet’s farm to scare the crap out of her. And to tell her that he wants to help her find her grandmother. Meanwhile, Scarlet seriously considers shooting him.
• Wolf explains that he used to be part of a wolf pack, some sort of gang in Paris, and that he quit working for them. They are apparently the ones who kidnapped Scarlet’s grandmother because she used to be a pilot for the military.
• Then Scarlet’s father shows up again, nearly destroying the hangar next to the house, looking for something again. He wears a transmitter as well, meaning the gang can find him anywhere.
• Scarlet and Wolf, now a team, get on the train to Paris. At the station, some guy is watching them. Later Scarlet meets the guy again in the train. His name is Ran and he’s quite creepy.
• Then the train goes on lockdown because someone suddenly has the plague. Afraid to be quarantined and to lose more precious time, Scarlet and Wolf get off the train. When they get into the forest, there are wolves howling, because of course there are.
• They walk for a while before they run into Ran again. Scarlet finds out that Ran is a part of Wolf’s pack (teehee). It turns out that Wolf is an alpha, and Ran is only an omega. Ran and Wolf fight and eventually, they leave Ran behind to go catch up with another train.
• Then Scarlet figures out that Wolf and Ran were actually sent to retrieve her grandmother but that he escaped the morning she was taken. Scarlet’s grandmother was supposed to lead them to Princess Selene, the Lunar heir (*cough* Cinder *cough*) because apparently, she was at Luna at the same time that Cinder was taken. Oh, also, Scarlet’s grandfather apparently was a Lunar.
• They get on the train and they make out, which is a very important part in the story, obviously.
• Scarlet has a dream of her grandmother talking to Cinder’s adoptive father.
• Scarlet receives a comm that her father is dead.
• Then they get to Paris and go to the pack’s headquarters. When they find the pack leader, Master Jael, actually a Lunar thaumaturge, it turns out that Wolf was working for them the entire time. No, scratch that. He is actually Lunar. WHAT?
• Scarlet is put in a cel, but gets to visit her grandmother later. Scarlet learns that her grandmother is actually a Shell, and that the wolves want to know why. But after they talk, grandmother suddenly turns into Ran, who was trying to question her.
• One chapter from Wolf’s (or Ze’ev Kesley’s) POV shows that Queen Levana is planning an attack on Earth.
• Wolf comes into Scarlet’s cell and kisses her, which Scarlet obviously does not want, but he does it to get an ID chip in her mouth. That’s… convenient. He also basically tells her to escape the night after.
• When the attack starts, Scarlet goes to find her grandmother. She learns that Cinder is the girl that her grandmother saved. Then that jerk Ran comes in and kills her grandmother. BASTARD.
• Scarlet runs away and Ran follows her, but then Wolf fights him because he’s secretly good, if you hadn’t figured that out yet. However, that Jael guy is apparently controlling Wolf’s thoughts and he’s having a bit of a hard time.
• Then they meet Cinder and Thorne.

• Meanwhile, Cinder is trying to escape from her cel in the Eastern Commonwealth. She lands in the cel of Captain Carswell Thorne, and they escape together.
• Luckily, Thorne has a ship somewhere, so they go off to find it. However, they have difficulty getting the ship to actually do something. They almost get caught, but Cinder uses her super awesome cyborg abilities to get the ship to work and they escape.
• Then Cinder has the best idea in the history of good ideas, and she implants Iko’s ID chip in the spaceship. Iko. Is. Now. A. Spaceship. Holy awesomeness. Iko and Thorne flirt, which is awesome as well.
• When coming up with a new plan, Cinder tells Thorne about wanting to look for the Lunar heir (princess Selene, actually Cinder herself). According to Kai’s android in the first book, Michelle Benoit (Scarlet’s grandmother) knows more about this. They also learn that Scarlet doesn’t have any hospital records. Uh oh. They go to Europe.
• They land near Scarlet’s house and find a space under the hangar that seems to have been Cinder’s escape place for her first time on Earth. So Michelle Benoit did indeed hide her, and for eight years apparently.
• They go to find supplies in the village, but they are then chased by the Lunars. Cinder tries her best to use magic and hide them, but they find them anyway and ask for Peony. Cinder and Thorne get into a pretty epic fight and manage to escape finally.
• They get back to spaceship Iko and fix the ship. Cinder also gets rid of Peony’s ID chip. When they take off, they learn that Luna is attacking Earth.
• They go to Paris to find Scarlet.

How did it end?

Cinder and Thorne find Scarlet and Wolf, who is busy going crazy. Cinder, Thorne and Scarlet try to carry Wolf to Iko… I mean, to the spaceship. They are also being chased by pissed-off wolves. It’s not very fun. They then fight the thaumaturge and the wolves, but badass Iko the spaceship manages to fight the wolves as well. Scarlet is badass as well, because she went into the ship to get a shotgun and then shoots the thaumaturge. Unfortunately, he doesn’t die. But they do manage to escape. Cinder eventually tells everyone that she’s Princess Selene, even though Scarlet already knew. Scarlet and Wolf basically get together again. Then Cinder decides to start training and become stronger, so she can beat Levana.

Anything else

Cyborg: Half human, half android. Cinder has a robot foot and hand, but turns out to be almost 40% robot. Which is a lot.

Letumosis: The deadly plague.

Lunars: People living on the moon (Luna).

Magic: A brainwashing power that only some Lunars possess.

Comm: Some sort of text message.

Thaumaturge: A Lunar who works for Queen Levana.

This is a full plot summary of what happened in Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!

Other recaps for this series:

• Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles #3.5)
• Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)
• Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)