The Girl on the Train: Rachel: Four Summary & Analysis

Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Rachel is on the 8:04—but she is headed to Witney, not London. Megan has been missing since Saturday evening, and while Rachel doesn’t want to run into Tom or Anna, she feels compelled to go to Witney. She has been reading articles about Megan’s disappearance obsessively; she’s learned that Megan and her husband Scott argued Saturday night. Megan left the house, and Scott has told reporters that he believed she went to stay with a friend, Tara Epstein—but Megan never arrived at Tara’s house. Megan was last seen walking toward Witney station around 7:15. Rachel wonders if she is the only person in the world who knows that Megan was having an affair. Rachel’s head throbs as she wonders what could have happened to Megan; she feels both excited and afraid.

Later that day, as Rachel settles into her train seat to head on to London from Witney, she realizes that she has a voicemail from Cathy. In the message, Cathy, who feels badly about Rachel’s taxi accident, tells Rachel that she can stay in the apartment for as long as she wants. Before hanging up, Cathy asks Rachel to come home tonight and skip the pub. As Rachel hangs up, she thinks about how she hasn’t had a single drink today—she wants a clear head for the first time in ages.

Rachel recalls walking around the familiar town of Witney that morning feeling like a trespasser. While walking through the underpass toward the train station at the end of her jaunt, Rachel experienced a flashback—she remembered being slumped against the wall, covered in blood. She realized that the memory must have come from Saturday night—the night of Megan’s disappearance and of her own blackout. Rachel hurried toward the platform, yet the flashback kept deepening, and she recalled being helped up by the strange redheaded man from the train.

Presently, in London, Rachel goes to a library and sits at a computer, obsessively reading stories about Megan’s disappearance. After several hours, she decides to return home. She is determined to call the local police and inform them about Megan’s affair. As the train pulls into the station at Ashbury, Rachel receives yet another phone call—it is Cathy. The police are at the house waiting to talk to Rachel.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013. In the morning, Rachel recalls the night before, when she met with—and lied to—the police. She finds the idea that she could have had something to do with Megan’s death ridiculous. But Rachel also knows enough about blackouts to realize that because the brain stops making short-term memories in such a state, there is always the chance that one can harm themselves or others during that state of “deepest black.”

When Rachel got home, she encountered two police officers: a man in his forties, Detective Inspector Gaskill, and a younger man whose name Rachel, in a state of panic, has since forgotten. Gaskill questioned Rachel about her whereabouts on Saturday night. She admits that she went to Witney to see Tom—but she decided this was a bad idea and returned home. Gaskill told Rachel that she was seen acting strangely on Blenheim Road around the time that Megan left home—investigators learned this when speaking with Anna Watson. Rachel felt embarrassed and nervous, recalling the flashback of sitting in the underpass covered in blood. 

The detectives showed Rachel a picture of Megan and asked if she’d seen her. Rachel said that she hadn’t. Gaskill gave Rachel his card and urged her to call him with any further information. Before leaving, Gaskill asked where Rachel worked. Because Cathy was in the room, Rachel lied about still being employed by the public relations firm she was fired from months ago. Now, looking back on the interview—and fearing that her lies will catch up with her—Rachel decides to go to the police station, come clean, and inform Gaskill about Megan’s affair. 

Hours later, in the evening, Rachel thinks about what happened when she’d visited the police station. After asking to speak to Gaskill, Rachel was taken to a room where she met with Gaskill and a female officer, Detective Sergeant Riley. Rachel described the redheaded man she saw at the train station and reported that he helped her up after she slipped on her way out of the station. She admitted to having been let go from her job. The detectives continued to press her about the events of Saturday night, but Rachel was evasive. The detectives told her that Anna informed them that Rachel once broke into the house and attempted to kidnap her baby, Evie. Rachel became upset and protested that no such thing is true. The detectives suggested that Rachel stretch her legs and get some food—then come back to finish her interview.

Rachel had gotten a sandwich and sat in the park to eat it. There, she reflected on her struggles with fertility—even after a round of in vitro fertilization, she could not get pregnant. The pain broke her—and in turn, she broke her marriage. Though Tom didn’t need a child and insisted the two of them should focus on being happy, Rachel could not push away her feelings of shame, and loneliness as she watched friends and acquaintances rapidly start families of their own. As a result, she began drinking heavily.

Rachel had returned to the station and explained that she was drunk—and depressed by a Facebook post Tom made about the joys of new parenthood—when she went to his and Anna’s house and picked their baby up out of her bassinet. She meant to simply go talk to Tom, but when she entered the house using a spare key, she found Anna sleeping on the sofa and the baby, Evie, crying. As she was telling this story, Rachel realized that she should have changed some details to make it more believable—implying that it is a lie. Gaskill and Riley continued badgering Rachel about the story, insisting that she wanted to harm the child and that she had been pestering Anna and Tom relentlessly. The detectives pointed out that Rachel has not changed her last name after the divorce—and that she was wearing her wedding ring on a chain around her neck.

Gaskill and Riley began to suggest that perhaps Rachel attacked Megan, believing that she was Anna—both women, they pointed out, are of similar build with blond hair. Rachel told the detectives that their idea was stupid. The detectives asked Rachel if she knew that Anna and Megan were acquainted—but the fact that Megan babysat for Anna came as a true shock to Rachel.

As Gaskill and Riley continued to press Rachel about her physical injuries and the taxi accident in London, Rachel decided to play her trump card. She pushed her chair back and said she was leaving—and that she assumed the police would be following up with Megan’s lover. The detectives asked Rachel what she meant, and she told them about seeing Megan kissing someone else from the train. The detectives, intrigued, asked Rachel to describe the man further. After getting what they needed from Rachel, the detectives dismissed her—and warned her to stay away from Blenheim Road.

Now, on the train home, Rachel feels excited. She has no desire to return home and pour herself a drink—she wants to stay on her toes. For the first time in a long time, Rachel says, she has a purpose—or at least a distraction.

Thursday, July 18, 2013. Rachel buys three newspapers for her morning train journey and reads the articles about Megan that they contain. Rachel learns from the articles several facts about Megan: she was born in 1983, her brother died when she was 15, and her parents are now dead as well. There are several quotes in the articles from friends and acquaintances of Megan’s, all of which describe her in lovingly. When it comes to facts about the investigation, though, the articles are sparse, and the quotes they feature from the detectives assigned to the case are vague. At the signal, Rachel notices two policemen in Scott’s garden. Rachel becomes determined to remember what happened on Saturday night—and to get in touch with Scott to tell him about Megan’s affair. 

That evening, Rachel is back on the train. She was caught in a rainstorm on the way to the station, and her clothes are drenched. Earlier today, she sent Scott an email after finding his address on the website for his IT business. In the message, she introduced herself as an acquaintance of Megan’s and stated that she had some information about Megan that might help him. Now, however, as Rachel reads a new article about how a man is being questioned in connection with Megan’s murder, she fears that Scott is a suspect—and that he’ll never see her message. Rachel begins craving a drink.

As the train lurches to a stop at the Witney signal, Rachel catches sight of the red-haired man again. He smiles at her. Rachel again remembers him helping her up on the stairs at the Witney station. As the man stands and disembarks the train, Rachel regrets not following him. She fears that without questioning him about Saturday night, she’ll never figure out what happened.