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Summary
Aurora, 1977-1978, Chapters 10-17
Chapter 10
The band goes out to the desert to shoot the album cover for what will be Aurora. During the shoot, Billy and Daisy don’t want to look at each other but the photographer catches the tension between them when they finally do. The album cover ends up showing only Billy and Daisy’s torsos on the front, and the two of them locking eyes on the back with the band around them. Billy and Daisy are both satisfied with the album cover, but Eddie, Karen, and Graham are frustrated about not being the center of attention.
Chapter 11
The band finishes Aurora, and its members go their separate ways for a time. Eddie catches Graham and Karen together before they leave for a cabin. Warren spends time on his houseboat, Eddie and Pete go to New York, and Daisy goes to Phuket, Thailand. While they are all away, Billy, Artie, and Teddy stay in the studio and make massive changes to the sound of the album in post-production.
Chapter 12
Lonely, Daisy sends a postcard to Simone asking her to come stay with her in Thailand. Before Simone can get there, Daisy meets Niccolo Argento, an Italian prince. Daisy likes that he doesn’t know who she is. They do a lot of drugs together, and Daisy feels accepted by him when she tells Nicky her story. Simone is worried about Daisy, but by the time she gets to Phuket, Daisy is gone. Daisy and Nicky have flown to Italy, where Nicky proposes to Daisy and the two get quickly married. Daisy later says she regrets the marriage but not the dress she wore at the ceremony. When Simone finds Daisy in Rome, she is naked and intoxicated. She tries to get Daisy away from Nicky, but Daisy refuses to leave. Simone recognizes that Nicky validates all of Daisy’s worst impulses when she attempts to help Daisy sober up.
Chapter 13
The band, except for Daisy, all listen to the post-production album with the record execs at Runner Records. While the execs love it, the other band members are angry that Billy changed their sound without them.
Chapter 14
Daisy finally returns to L.A. to start rehearsing for the tour, though she almost lets Nicky convince her it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, it’s Simone who persuades Daisy to return, which Simone frames as having to drag her home. In the studio, Billy and Daisy don’t speak to each other at first, but when they do they get into a fight. Billy offers Daisy his shirt because she’s shivering, and Daisy gets angry. The argument almost comes to blows until Nicky intercedes, and it culminates in Daisy telling Billy she wants him to stay away from her.
Chapter 15
Jonah Berg does another story on the band for Rolling Stone and notices tension among the members when he sits in on their rehearsals. When Jonah asks if Karen and Graham are an item, Graham says yes but Karen says no. Jonah sees that Daisy is intoxicated and offers to interview her another time, but she insists on holding the interview then. He asks her what’s going on between her and Billy and she tells him the truth.
Chapter 16
Jonah gets Billy alone for an interview and tells him that Daisy said he’s a recovering addict who cheated on his wife during the band’s first tour. Jonah says he needs another story or he’s going to print that, so Billy tells him that he hates Daisy Jones and says her talent is wasted on her. Jonah chooses to print Billy’s story, and both Billy and Daisy speak of regretting what they said to him.
Chapter 17
Rolling Stone publishes Jonah’s article, “Daisy Jones & The Six: Are Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones Rock ’n’ Roll’s Biggest Foes?” The article and the controversy around it are instrumental in Aurora becoming a knockout hit. According to Rob, the tour also sees a huge boost in sales from the article because people wanted to see Billy and Daisy interact in person.
Analysis
Aurora’s album cover holds a mirror up to the tension between Billy and Daisy and within the band as a whole. The tension between Billy and Daisy peaks during the photoshoot, where both are focused on avoiding each other’s gazes. The photographer catches the way this avoidance is a kind of attention in itself. At this discordant point in their relationship, neither likes what they see of themselves in the other, but they also are inexorably drawn to each other. The photographer describes the negative space between the two as charged, which is what he captures in the album cover. Part of what makes the album cover—and the album itself—iconic is that Billy and Daisy reflect each other and play with the balance between light and dark, masculine and feminine. The tension between the two pulls focus from the rest of the band, who are literally in the background as Billy and Daisy are centered on the cover, which leaves several of the members upset. Thus, the album cover captures the way Billy and Daisy mirror each other and the way the rest of the band often feels like they exist in their shadow.
The contrast between Nicky and Billy reflects the difference between the relationship Daisy thinks she deserves and the love she actually wants. Simone observes that Nicky encourages Daisy’s worst impulses, and she begins to lose her grip on who she is and what’s most important to her under his influence. It goes so far that Daisy almost lets Nicky convince her that her work with the band, which is the most important work of her life at that point, doesn’t matter. By contrast, Billy encourages the work that is most important to Daisy and looks out for her wellbeing. He pushes her to get sober and to work harder on the aspects of singing that are a struggle for her, which helps her reach new levels of greatness. He is so concerned about how cold she always is that, even when they aren’t speaking, he attempts to give her the shirt off his back. This illustrates that Billy is genuinely dedicated to Daisy’s wellbeing, and he wants the very best for her. Daisy says of her relationship with Nicky that she wishes someone had told her that love didn’t have to be torture, suggesting that during her marriage to Nicky, Daisy didn’t believe she deserved something better.
This section explores the role of the media as both a device for telling the band’s story and a force influencing it. Both Daisy and Billy attempt to control the narrative with the media and each tells Jonah hurtful things about the other as a reaction to their own pain. Daisy is still hurting and spiraling after being romantically rejected by Billy, and she attempts to use the media to punish him for her pain. By telling Jonah that Billy is an addict who cheated on Camila, she threatens Billy in the most hurtful way possible. Billy responds in kind with the most hurtful story possible by telling Jonah that he despises Daisy and thinks her talent is wasted on her. While these stories tell a truth about the band, neither tells the full story. Warren points out that Jonah, representing the media, is always two steps behind the truth. It is not that Billy and Daisy hate each other, but quite the opposite: they are in love with each other. Despite this inaccuracy, the Rolling Stone article helps shape the band’s history because it boosts ticket sales and propels them into the kind of stardom they have been pursuing.
