The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Susan arrives; she is Rachel’s mother and Bel’s grandmother. Bel dislikes her because Susan believes that Bel’s father, Charlie, is guilty of killing Rachel. Now, Susan repeats this belief, and she and Bel argue. Bel points out that Charlie had an alibi; he was in the hospital with an injury that he sustained at work. The film crew records the argument. When Charlie arrives, Susan accuses him of murder and states that Bel is unsafe in the house with him. Bel calls Susan a “horse fucker,” shocking and silencing her. Bel and Charlie leave, and on the way out, Charlie asks Ramsay not to intentionally plan controversial scheduling overlaps for his documentary. Ramsay reminds Charlie that he signed a contract. Charlie suggests that Bel sit in the back seat, but she insists on moving gear off the front seat so that she can sit there instead.

Bel walks with her 15-year-old cousin, Carter, to the next documentary shoot. Carter’s father is Jeff, Charlie’s brother. The families live only a few houses apart and are very close. Now, Bel refers to Carter’s application to dance at the arts school, Juilliard, and privately reflects that everyone always leaves her eventually. They arrive at Bel’s house. Carter’s parents, Jeff and Sherry, are there along with Charlie and the film crew. Charlie reminds Bel to seal the trash can properly because she forgot to do so that morning. Ash attaches a mike to Bel, commenting on the awkwardness of the interaction. Charlie and Jeff’s father, Patrick, arrives with his caretaker, Yordan. Filming begins, and the family watches home videos of Rachel. Bel shivers to see her young mother on the screen.

On screen, Rachel holds baby Bel while the family plays in the snow. Rachel calls Bel “Anna” (her full name is Annabel). Bel sees the junk pile in the background and recognizes it as her grandfather’s out-of-business logging yard. As the Price family watches the videos, Ramsay asks Charlie how he feels. Charlie is glassy-eyed and talks about how much the footage makes him miss Rachel. Sherry agrees that she was pregnant with Carter at the time the home video was made.

In the next video, Grandpa reads to Bel from a green-covered book. At this point in time, Carter is a baby. The video shows Charlie arriving home after being found not guilty of Rachel’s murder. The young Bel runs to hug him; she had been living with Jeff and Sherry.

In the present moment, Jeff stands up abruptly to use the washroom, and Ramsay protests at the interruption. Charlie embarrasses Bel by telling the story of the time when she wet herself in the back of his truck as a young girl. When Grandpa is asked about Rachel, he unexpectedly slaps Charlie, who explains that his father has vascular dementia and is prone to outbursts. The family then watches a final video of Rachel and Bel that was filmed only two days before Rachel’s disappearance. Bel says that she isn’t sure what she would do or say if Rachel were to reappear. Charlie says that he would grab her in a hug and tell her how much he has missed her.

The narrative reveals that Bel keeps a collection of stolen things in her nightstand. She overhears Charlie and Jeff discussing the documentary. Jeff points out that filming the documentary might have been a mistake. Charlie reminds him that they have nothing to hide and points out that they need the money for Grandpa’s care.

The next morning, Bel is unhappy to see Ramsay and his crew waiting outside her school, Gorham Middle & High School. Ramsay says that they could speak to her friends and film her walking through the school. Sammy, a girl who used to be Bel’s friend, volunteers, but Bel silences her with an angry retort reminding Sammy that she once called Charlie a murderer. Upset, Bel asks Mr. Tripp, one of her teachers, if she can be sent home.

Bel participates in a scene that recreates the place where she was found. The scene includes the same make and model of her mother’s car. An actress plays Rachel, and Bel feels uncomfortable with this, especially when she must sit in the back seat of the car. Bel and Ramsay recreate the scene for the documentary. Bel explains that she was found in the back seat of the car. Ramsay adds that Rachel’s scent was tracked by sniffer dogs to the middle of the road, where the trail disappeared. Bel doesn’t remember what happened because she was too young.

Ramsay and Bel also discuss Phillip Alves, a man who became obsessed with the mystery of the case and stalked and kidnapped Bel when she was eight years old, demanding answers that she could not give. Jenn, the actor playing Rachel loudly suggests during the lunch break that Charlie must have killed Rachel. Bel angrily throws crumpled trash at Jenn’s head and leaves.

Bel angrily walks home. Along the way, she sees someone whom she assumes is Jenn, although her Rachel costume is now bedraggled and dirty. When the woman gets closer, Bel realizes with shock that it is the real Rachel Price, her mother.

Panicked and overwhelmed, Bel runs home, fleeing from Rachel. She enters the house and curls up on the floor; she doesn’t want her mother’s return to be real because it is too overwhelming. She thinks of her father and assumes that he will be thrilled to have Rachel back, so she resolves to go back and find her mother. Suddenly, Rachel herself knocks on the door.

Once inside, Rachel looks around the house, and Bel offers her water. Rachel suggests that Bel call the police, but Bel calls her father instead, telling him to come home. Bel asks Rachel where she has been, but Rachel does not know.

Rachel says that she was kept in a basement and didn’t know the man who kept her there because he usually delivered food for her in the dark. She explains that on the day she was released, the man put a bag over her head, drove her around for hours, and then left her on a stretch of highway. She explains that she walked for eight hours to reach home. Charlie enters the house and is shocked to see his wife. Bel senses that something is wrong because he seems scared rather than excited. Charlie asks where Rachel was and how she got back, and Rachel repeats her description of being held in a basement and finally released.

Bel notices an inconsistency when Rachel retells the story. The first time, Rachel said that the man cut the engine, but, in this version, Rachel claims that he left the engine running. Bel reasons that it could be a simple mistake, but she is suspicious. Rachel states that she and Bel hid in a bin on the day of her disappearance in order to escape from the man whom Rachel sensed was following them. Dave Winter, the Chief of Police, arrives to follow up on a report from their neighbor, Ms. Nelson, that she saw Rachel Price. Winter is shocked to see that the report is true.

Bel provides a statement to the police about her mother’s reappearance. She asks the police chief whether the evidence of her mother’s reappearance—like the tote bag that the man allegedly put over her head—has been recovered from the highway. Dave Winter assures Bel that everything is in order. People witnessed Rachel walking on the highway, and he believes that any discrepancies in her story can be explained by her exhaustion. The police organize a cheek swab to be taken from Bel to confirm Rachel’s identity, but everyone, including Bel, is confident that it is really Rachel.