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Jo Rempel's avatar

love this. trap was one of my faves from last year & shyamalan is one of the few directors tackling modern things directly (tiktok live climax??). & as you point out the old is terrifyingly new sometimes.

juror #2's moral cynicism is really interesting when you factor in alcoholism & its place in the nuclear family (james mason in ray's bigger than life comes to mind). in a flashback we see hoult looks at a glass of liquor. we don't see him drink, but in terms of montage, the presence of an object outweighs the absence of its corresponding action. (likewise there is no father without a child, no axe without a limb.)

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Charlotte Simmons's avatar

Fantastic stuff here. My question is, in the case of Juror #2 specifically, what would you say is the relationship between the more contrived image of the family and the very real love that exists within the family?

I would argue there would be a selfishness to the act of Justin admitting to his potential fault (because we never get a straight confirmation that it was him). He relieves himself of the guilt he would have otherwise had to carry, but he abandons his pregnant wife (who's high risk) in the process. Meanwhile, justice is no more or less affected by whichever body ends up getting punished for the crime, so is not responsible of Justin to protect the body (his own) that he knows is non-violent and that his wife and unborn child are effectively depending on, even if he'll have to shoulder that guilty conscience for the rest of his life?

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