Not affiliated with Harvard College. Scott and Rachel still suspect Dr. Abdic, so Rachel goes to him for therapy to see if he acts guilty. | Cohen, Madeline. Tom is married with Anna Boyd with the baby Evie. When Megan's body is found buried in the woods, Scott and Rachel have a brief one-night stand. All aboard. Although she doesn't know exactly what it was, she recalls her ex-husband, Tom, and his new wife, Anna, both being there. Rachel becomes invested in the case and trying to find out what happened to Megan, where she is, and what exactly she herself was up to that same night Megan went missing. The next day, she hears the news of a woman named Megan Hipwell who went missing. Her therapist had advised her to come clean, and given her a friendly kiss after their talk. He asks her if she can identify the man based on a picture and she says yes. She also goes to the police station and tells them about what she saw, but they end up refusing her evidence because she was drunk the night that Megan disappeared. He buried her in the forest and ran away. We see her on various trips watching a blonde woman in her home with her husband. We thought Scott had anger issues. As time passes, she remembers tiny details like falling on the stairs and a red-haired man helping her out. When they checked his house, there was no trace of Megan in Kamal's bedroom. We flashback to the night Megan revealed to Scott that she had an affair. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. All those train rides to and from London are just her pretending she still has a job. Then she takes the train home. Rachel decides that she must talk to Anna about this, despite their relationship. Will Rachel manage to remember what happened yesterday? On the day Megan went missing, Rachel remembers that she was by where they live, but she doesn't remember what happened because she was heavily drunk. This golden couple lives on the same street Rachel used to… before she failed to get pregnant, started drinking, and her husband cheated on her and divorced her. But then one day, when Rachel will unwillingly witness a scene taking place in Megan's porch, filled with pure rage, she will get off the train intending to intervene, only to wake up in the following morning covered in blood, bruised and completely oblivious with Megan nowhere to be found. At a BBQ held by Tom's boss, she drunkenly made a scene and is blamed when Tom is fired. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. As the book ends, Rachel decides to get away from that area for a while and reclaim her sobriety and her life. Parents Guide. Rachel lives with her university friend, Cathy, after she broke up with her husband and had no where to live. Toward the end of the novel, we also learn that he was having an affair with Megan. And he turns out to be a pretty good therapist to boot, helping Rachel confront her drinking problem and her memory loss. Rachel decides to go to the therapist, Kamal, to see if he can recover her memory, and to try to find any information that will make him a suspect again. Then come the TV reports: Megan Hipwell is missing. One day, she sees Jess kissing a man. Rachel's memory is completely blacked out; she has no idea. Who might be the killer? Rachel explains that she has been on this train for years and always sits in the same seat, three cars down, so she has the perfect view of a neighborhood. Just when Rachel suspects Tom may have killed Megan, Anna finds a secret phone in Tom's gym bag. Soon she learns that Megan is missing and Detective Riley that is in charge of the investigation visits Rachel to interrogate her since the neighbors had seen an alcoholic woman wandering in the area. | Scott, drunk and angry, manhandles Rachel and locks her in a room. a girl on a train. But Anna is unable to put aside her dislike for Rachel and go with her, even though the evidence against Tom is mounting rapidly. When Rachel tells her about Tom, she believes her. Would a man in mourning sleep with another woman days after his wife is found dead? Rachel admires Megan and Scott since she believes they are the perfect couple. It's good advice, but Scott doesn't take the news well. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. During her marriage, Rachel became depressed about her infertility and developed a drinking problem that has resulted in continual blackouts and destructive behavior. She says she is a new person now and thinks people can see that in her, as a man in a suit makes judgmental eye contact from a nearby seat. Rachel soon sees Jess smooching a man who isn't her husband, and then a few days later, Jess disappears. Every day, she takes the train in to work in New York, and every day the train passes by her old house. However, there is one house that she cannot wait to see each day. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. | Tom's suggestion to have an abortion touched a nerve, and Megan yelled and screamed at Tom, saying she'd expose their affair. Rachel calls them Jason and Jess, and the train stops outside their house every morning. From the train, Rachel spots Megan kissing a stranger and becomes infuriated at her. The pre-paid cell phone turns out to be Megan's. Rachel is an alcoholic and infertile woman that frequently has blackouts and shares an apartment with her friend Cathy. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The problem is that Rachel was totally drunk and doesn't remember anything beyond that. All aboard. Whoa. Wow, things are really complicated. Rachel was Tom's mistress. Kamal tells her that memories cannot be recovered; however, a person who has lost a memory can often remember glimpses by going back to the scene where everything happened. The reader sees this scene from Megan's point of view; she says she was just trying to be honest with everyone and take care of her baby. She says they have the perfect marriage and she says that's the marriage she could have had. Anna calls the ambulance and tells everything to the police, clearing Rachel's name. Every day, she takes the same morning and evening trains, observing the same suburban houses by the tracks. The next day, she wakes up with a horrible hangover, various wounds and bruises, and no memory of the night before. On the way she travels past her old house, where she and her then-husband, Tom, used to live. She tells us her husband always said she had an overactive imagination. She loves this house because it reminds her of her past, perfect life, before she and Tom divorced. She had a blackout in the underpass, so her memory is one big black hole. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Plus she appears to be stalking her ex-husband, his new wife, Anna, and their baby. Eventually, Rachel recovers her entire memory of Saturday night when she was in the underpass. Rachel travels to and from New York each day on the train. Rachel tells him about what she saw, and he at first denies it but then admits that he was having an affair with Megan. Some days, they kiss; other days, they have sex. The Girl on the Train study guide contains a biography of Paula Hawkins, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.