Rachel’s role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap Twist made no sense

As always, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller Trap culminates in a shocking twist – but the role that Cooper’s wife, Rachel, plays in that twist makes no sense. Trap takes place at the concert of a huge pop star named Lady Raven, where the police are certain that a notorious local serial killer known as “The Butcher” is present. The story is told through the eyes of Cooper, a goofy father played by Josh Hartnett, who brought his teenage daughter to the show. Cooper is alarmed to see the police raiding the place, because, after all, he is the Butcher.

As soon as the first Trap trailer dropped and revealed that Cooper is the serial killer, it seemed pretty obvious that there would be a second twist in the film. Shyamalan doesn’t intend to reveal his twists unless there’s another twist around the corner. To be sure, the film’s third act is full of unexpected twists. The story begins in the show, the cops close in on Cooper and the final surprise is that it was his wife who orchestrated the trap. But the logic of this last part does not stand up to scrutiny.

Rachel knew Cooper was the butcher in the trap before he was caught

Rachel was the one who led the police to the show

After Cooper escapes from the FBI in new civilian clothes, he returns home to confront Rachel. She confesses that she suspected he was the Butcher based on the smell of his clothes, so she began following him. At the beginning of the film, Cooper learned that the police found out he was going to the concert when they found a receipt for his ticket at one of his safe houses, which was anonymously reported to them. Rachel admits she was the one who left the receipt at home. That receipt led the police to set the trap.

Turning in Cooper would have prevented a show full of innocent people in danger

Rachel’s plan was needlessly elaborate

Rachel’s plan to lead the police to Cooper was unnecessarily complicated. Instead of just reporting her suspicions and turning over the evidence, she led the police on a wild goose chase. It not only took dozens of police officers away from other work they could be doing to secure all of an arena’s exits; she also put other bystanders at risk. Rachel could have stopped Cooper from going on the show by reporting him, but instead, she put an arena full of people – mostly girls – in danger in the presence of a serial killer.

And even after putting a concert full of children at risk and removing almost all of the city’s police and SWAT officers from their normal duties, this plan still failed. During Cooper’s attempts to escape the show, he pushed a woman down a flight of stairs and caused a horrific burn when he caused an explosion in a food stand’s fryer. All of these injuries could have been avoided if Rachel had just called the police instead of sheepishly leaving a receipt at the crime scene. The only reason Rachel did this was to facilitate the premise.

The film explains why Rachel didn’t just use a simpler tactic to turn Cooper over to the police. When she began to suspect that her own husband was the Butcher, she didn’t want to believe it. If she had been more willing to accept that she married a monster, she would have called the police immediately. But she left behind a more subtle trail of crumbs because she hoped Cooper was innocent. Still, she had seen too much evidence of Cooper’s killing spree to have that excuse to hold back any water.

How Trap Wasted an Even Better Twist for Rachel

It would have been amazing if Rachel was Cooper’s partner in crime

When Cooper returned home to confront Rachel, It almost seemed like he was alluding to Rachel being involved with him. But of course that wasn’t the case. This final confrontation was really about Cooper realizing that his wife was the one who tipped off the police to his whereabouts. Still, it would have been a much better twist if Rachel was the real Butcher and Cooper was just her assistant, or if Rachel had been Cooper’s partner in crime in some way. Maybe torturing and killing people like poor Spencer was his twisted way of expressing love.

The problem is that Shyamalan started with the idea of ​​a serial killer being surrounded by cops at a pop concert and worked backwards from there. The twisted ending makes no sense because it only exists to explain a premise that was absurd to begin with. Trap is a very entertaining film, with a wonderfully dark sense of humor, but its plot has several refrigerator logic problems – and this is the most glaring.