How does Demon Copperhead end?
The novel's climax converges at the Devil's Bathtub, the same waterfall where Demon's father drowned before Demon was born. Rose tells Demon and Maggot that Fast Forward can be found there. On the way, they pick up Hammer Kelly, who has spiraled into drug use after losing Emmy to Fast Forward's abuse, and who brings a rifle, intent on reckoning. At the falls, Fast Forward is preparing a reckless dive when he sees Hammer aiming the rifle at him; startled, he falls and is killed. Hammer tries to save him from the water but drowns in the attempt. Both young men die at the site that has haunted Demon's family for two generations.
The deaths leave Demon devastated on top of earlier losses: his girlfriend Dori, who had miscarried their child, dies of an overdose, and Emmy has already been rescued by June (with Demon's help) from an Atlanta drug den where Fast Forward had essentially trafficked her. In the aftermath, June sponsors Demon's stay at a rehab center in Knoxville. There he gets clean, resumes drawing, and begins work on a graphic novel chronicling the history of the Appalachian people. Maggot is sent to juvenile prison for having supplied Hammer with the drugs he used the night he died, and Tommy moves away to Pennsylvania to marry a woman he met online, scattering the tight childhood circle that once orbited the Peggot house.
Years pass. Demon stays connected to Angus (Coach Winfield's daughter), now away at college in Nashville, and finds his feelings for her deepening. When his old teacher Annie is about to give birth, Demon drives back to Lee County, visiting his grandmother Betsy, great-uncle Dick, and June, but avoiding a retirement party for Coach out of fear of the memories the place still holds. Betsy hints, coyly, that Angus has feelings for him. Visiting Angus the next day as she prepares to sell her late father's house, Demon comes to understand that the connection between them has always been mutual.
The book closes with Demon and Angus driving away together toward the ocean he has longed to see his entire life, his hand resting tenderly on the back of her neck — a quiet, hopeful ending after a life defined by loss, addiction, and the long shadow of poverty in the Appalachian mountains.
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