The Trap Ending Explained: How Do A Crime Novel & An Interview Help Unmask The Killer?
The Trap is a German series on Netflix based on Melanie Rabbe’s 2015 novel. An author writes about her sister’s murder and relives her guilt and experience through her imaginary characters. A journalist uncovers unsettling facts about the author and a dark secret about her past.
The Trap Plot
Lisa Konrad (Friederike Betch), a celebrated author, has been living a solitary life for the past 10 years completely cut off from the outside world. Save for a bunch of people who make her close knit circle- her publisher Norbert Rudow (Matthias Brandt), her agent, the therapist, her assistant Yuma and her dog Bukowski. Lisa suffers from agoraphobia.
Lisa also suffers from the guilt of not making it on time to save her sister. She has flashes of the murder and the killer regularly. The memory haunts her. One fateful night Lisa spots her sister’s killer on TV, a well known journalist Robert Lenzen (Hans Löw). Lisa decides to write a book fictionalising her sister’s murder- surprising everyone with her choice of crime as the subject. She demands an interview specifically with Robert before the book release – a first time for her as she is known to be reclusive. The Trap is set!
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The book and the interview are devices to draw Robert closer to Lisa so that she can extract a confession and his DNA sample. Meanwhile, Robert does extensive ground work on Lisa by spying on her. He learns about her mental condition and depression- which he uses to his advantage to manipulate her. Who is the killer? What happened on the fateful night of July 5th, 2015? What is Lisa’s secret? These form the basis of the series The Trap.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead For The Trap
The Final Episode Explained
In the final episode Lisa- after 10 long years- finally steps out of her house. Symbolic of Lisa stepping out in pursuit of the truth! She requests her assistant to drive her to her parents house. It’s an emotional moment- Lisa meets them after 10 years! For the first time after her sister’s death. Her parents are not very happy about Lisa writing a book about her sister’s murder. But they admit that it’s eventually her decision since it’s also her story. When Lisa confronts them about how they know so many details of the book they tell her that a journalist shared the draft with them. Lisa realises that it’s Robert who had visited them and incited them against her. She borrows her father’s phone and leaves for Robert’s place to confront him.
The Final Confrontation
Lisa secretly tucks the phone on her socks and puts on the voice recorder. When she reaches Robert is already prepared for her visit. Lisa realises Robert hasn’t discarded her gun as she sees it on the table near him. Lisa demands to know how Robert incapacitated her. She wants to know how he played a particular music tune that had an adverse effect on her? He says it’s from a small music player concealed in his photographer’s kit and from another phone hidden in his coat. Robert reveals that he learnt about her medical and mental condition from her therapist’s report- which is detailed and precise. From this he learns about Lisa’s anxiety and depression.
He tells her he mixed GHB in her water and bufotenine, a psychoactive hallucinogen, in her coffee to make her throat dry so that she is incapacitated and cannot report to police immediately. From here starts a long duel between the two and the revelation of what actually happened on the night of Anna’s murder. Robert, though initially not interested in the interview, agrees to meet Lisa because he wanted to know what evidence she had against him and also wanted to expose Lisa and Anna’s truth. He reveals that the book has only a rose tinted account of Anna and not the true account of their stressful relationship.
Robert & Anna’s Truth
Lisa further confronts Richard about his relationship with Anna. Richard, a successful editor-in-chief and a father, had always lived under the shadow of his wife and her publisher father. Although talented, his success was always credited to his wife and her father’s influence. But when he meets Anna things change for him.
He finds respect and recognition from Anna. They are drawn closer and have a relationship. But when Richard realises that his wife is pregnant with their 2nd child he confesses this to Anna and requests her to end their affair. This enrages Anna and she threatens to expose Richard to his wife. She also wanted their relationship to be a matter of pride and one-upmanship against Lisa. And at that very moment she gets Lisa’s calls. In a moment of rage and desperation Richard stabs Anna and leaves her bleeding. Lisa enters Anna’s house and finds her lying in a pool of blood. Also catching a glimpse of Richard behind the curtain.
Lisa & Anna Truth
Robert reveals that not everything between Anna and Lisa was rosy. Lisa confronts Robert and asks him how much he knows about Anna. He tells her about the underlying tension between Lisa and Anna. And how Anna loathed Lisa’s fame. She never considered Lisa as a good writer and found her to be too overrated.
Lisa also realises this under current of envy and loathing in her sister- revealed in a series of flashbacks from their past. In her book Lisa mentions that Anna had eight stab wounds on her. But Robert confronts this fact (at gun point) and tells Lisa that he has stabbed Anna only six times! What about the remaining two?! At this point Lisa knocks Robert on his head and escapes accusing him of pinning the murder on her. Robert fires at Lisa’s direction and she stumbles.
The Final Altercation
When Robert comes looking for Lisa he finds her in an empty pool. He points the gun at her and tries to extract a confession from her. Meanwhile, Lisa’s agent and her publisher arrive at the spot- in the beginning of the episode they go looking for Lisa in her house and get a clue of Lisa’s whereabouts from a real estate ad of Robert’s house. Robert realises that they have alerted the police and the truth is out. He shoots himself in the head and lets Lisa live.
The police find no conclusive proof of Lisa’s involvement in Robert’s death and let her free. The publisher and the agent testify for Lisa. In the final shot Lisa takes out the phone and plays the recording between her and Robert – the part where he questions the mystery of the two extra wounds. She deletes the recording and walks into the lift. She has a sly unsettling smile to the camera! Is she also the killer? Did she inflict the fatal blow? There’s no mention of a second season. But the ending is open ended! Watch out for this space.
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KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.