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

Thursday, August 15, 2013. Rachel is preparing for a job interview that Cathy has set up for her when Scott calls her to talk about what happened between them. Rachel says that they made a mistake. Scott, however, says he wants to talk in person. Rachel is hesitant, but Scott talks her into coming over. Earlier, Rachel read a story in the newspaper about the deceased father of Megan’s dead child—his death rules him out as a suspect and brings Scott back to the forefront of the investigation.

Rachel arrives Scott’s house to find him drunk and in a state of disarray. The house smells terrible. Scott offers Rachel a drink, but she refuses. Scott tells her that the DNA tests done on Megan’s fetus have come back: the child was neither Scott’s nor Kamal’s, meaning that Megan was seeing someone else. Scott angrily asks if Megan confided in Rachel about an affair with an unknown man. When Rachel says that Megan didn’t, Scott becomes angry and shoves Rachel into a chair. He yells at Rachel, pointing out that as Megan’s good friend, she must have known everything about Megan’s private life. When Rachel is silent, Scott reveals that he knows Rachel never even met Megan.

Rachel and Scott begin arguing. Rachel insists she only wanted to help the bereaved Scott by informing him about Kamal, but Scott accuses Rachel of being “insane.” He says that Riley asked him if he and Rachel are in a relationship—and that he answered her by saying he has higher “standards” than that. Riley told him that Rachel was “a sad little liar” who didn’t know Megan at all. Rachel’s phone beeps, and she moves toward her purse. Scott, however, grabs Rachel’s bag and dumps out its contents. He opens up her phone and reads a notification about her upcoming appointment with Dr. Abdic. Scott becomes even angrier and more frightened. He advances on Rachel and pushes her up against a wall, squeezing her throat with both hands.

Scott accuses Rachel of bringing information about him to Abdic and the authorities. Rachel insists, again, that she wants only to help Scott. She begs him to let her go. Scott releases his grip on Rachel’s throat but begins dragging her upstairs by the hair. He shoves her into a room, closes the door, and locks it. Rachel throws up on the carpet. After she finds a smashed picture of Scott and Megan in the corner of the room, she runs to the window, throws it open, and screams for help. Scott opens the door and shows Rachel a notepad he found in her purse: it is full of notes about Scott, Megan, and Abdic. Scott tells Rachel that she’s too pathetic for him to waste his time on, and he orders her out of the house. Rachel runs for the front door.

Friday, August 16, 2013. Rachel has barely slept after a drunken, terror-filled night trying to escape memories of her harrowing encounter with Scott. After leaving Scott’s house, she left Tom a note in the mailbox of number 23 and called the police to tell them that Scott beat and imprisoned her. The detectives, however, only asked what Rachel was doing at Scott’s house. They ordered her to stay away from him, warning her that she was jeopardizing their progress. Now, Rachel showers and dresses: she is going to stop at the station and give an official report before going to her job interview.

That afternoon, after her interview, Rachel is on her way to the train when the redheaded man grabs her arm and apologizes for his behavior on the train the other day. He introduces himself as Andy and invites Rachel for a drink, and she accepts. At the pub, she asks him what happened on that Saturday night at the underpass, when he helped her up off the road. Andy tells her that he found her beneath the underpass, cut up and upset. Andy assumed she’d had a fight with a boyfriend, because a man and a woman were walking away from Rachel toward their car. Even after hearing another person’s account of the events of the night—which seem fairly ordinary—Rachel feels unsettled. She doesn’t remember seeing Anna with a baby in her arms; she wonders where Evie could have been.

Saturday, August 17, 2013. Rachel calls Tom and asks why he didn’t respond to her note. Tom says that he didn’t get a note—but that if Rachel left one, it would explain why Anna has been mad at him. Tom angrily asks Rachel what she wants. Rachel asks him for details about their encounter on the night of Megan’s disappearance—and whether Anna was with him when he came out looking for her in the car. Tom says that she wasn’t—and the he regrets wasting his time trying to help the “filthy, stinking drunk,” Rachel. He tells her to stop calling, stop visiting, and stop leaving notes; then, he hangs up abruptly. 

Sunday, August 18, 2013. Rachel sits at home in front of the TV, feeling lonely and stupid for believing that either Tom or Scott had feelings for her. She is determined, however, not to drink in an attempt to numb the pain she feels—she wants to experience everything. As Tom’s words run through her head, however, she recalls one time when she woke up hungover and in pain, covered in blood. Tom showed her the bruises she’d inflicted upon him—though Rachel swore she never would have hit him, Tom insisted she did. After a while, Rachel says, she learned to just apologize whenever she woke up uncertain of what happened the night before. She is determined to remain strong and sober and to avoid something like that happening again.

As Rachel falls asleep to the sound of the TV, she experiences yet another sudden flashback—she remembers being in the underpass and seeing Tom come toward her. He slapped her across the mouth, she remembers—and then he punched her with his keys still in his hand, bringing the serrated metal down on her head.