As the second day at sea drags on with no ships appearing, Pi Patel’s earlier hope fades. Near sunset, Pi notices mako sharks circling the lifeboat, repeatedly approaching close enough to make Pi fear an attack on the thin metal hull.

Orange Juice, the orangutan, raises her head above the tarpaulin and slowly scans the empty ocean with a visibly mournful expression. Pi recognizes her searching as grief for her lost young, and the shared sense of loss deepens Pi’s despair.

Without warning, the hyena erupts into violence and begins tearing a strip of hide from the zebra’s belly, opening a flood of blood. The zebra struggles weakly, but the hyena escalates, ripping out organs and eating as the zebra remains alive, its resistance steadily diminishing.

Orange Juice stands and roars, confronting the hyena in a tense, face-to-face standoff across the zebra’s ruined body. Blood in the water draws sharks into a frenzy; they slam into the boat and churn the sea around it, but after failing to reach food they eventually drift away. The confrontation ends without a fight, leaving a stunned silence, stench, and crusting blood.

At the second sunset, Pi finally stops denying the truth and accepts that his family is dead. Overwhelmed by grief, Pi collapses on the tarpaulin and weeps through the night while the hyena continues feeding.