The people at the reception were shocked because Ibarra is supposedly dead. Simoun signed it with his real name “Juan Crisostomo Ibarra”.
Simoun leaves the reception early and leaves a note with the words: “Mene Thecel Phares” which means “the future is predetermined” and is generally implied that a bad event is going to happen. According to Simoun, the lamp will stay lighted for only 20 minutes before it flickers if someone attempts to turn the wick, it will explode and kill everyone-important members of civil society and the Church hierarchy-inside the house. The reception will take place at the former home of the late Captain Tiago, which was now filled with explosives planted by Simoun. At the wedding reception of newlyweds (the bride being the ex-girlfriend of one of the friends of Basillo-Isagani), Simoun tells Basilio that his plan was to conceal an explosive which contains nitroglycerin inside a pomegranate-styled Kerosene lamp that Simoun will give to the newlyweds as a gift during the wedding reception. Simoun started planning uprisings and stashed guns in the shop of an ally. Basilio, now all grown up, is at first reluctant to join in on Simoun’s idea but ends up being part of the plan. He encourages the government to make bad decisions and to abuse their power so that it would spark a revolution among the masses. Simoun is a confidant of the Captain-General. And near the end of the novel, when he discovers that his lover, Maria Clara, died in the convent, he becomes all the more furious. He becomes hungry for vengeance for all the misfortune our country has suffered under the tyranny of the Spaniards.
He seems to have long abandoned his once vision of ending the despotism of Spain with words and peace. He came back to the Philippines as Senor Simoun, disguised with a beard. During the period in between the story line of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo which is 13 years, Ibarra left the Philippines and became a wealthy jeweler. El Filibusterismo Summary Crisostomo Ibarra is back and as Simoun.