he's outright scared
Yes, because his life is about to implode even if Trey is found guilty. He's upset because he is not going to escape informal justice. The investigation and trial will expose him as a rapist who not only covered up his crime but is associated with the tragic miscarriage of justice that sent an innocent man to solitary confinement on death row for 20 years, while he went on to enjoy a privileged life.
Trey brings up the supposed bite on Nelms' hand to muddy the waters. Muddying the waters is Trey's stock-in-trade. See his entire exchange with Daniel in George's trailer. He loves to manipulate, to play with people. He's an ace opportunist, an inveterate liar, and he has the capacity to spontaneously do all that under pressure.
But Trey's scar story won't help because there's other evidence against him. This will include the murdered girl's own brother's testimony that George Melton told him "Trey went back."
Moreover, Nelms has already admitted to rape, that the act was not consensual, but was forced. A bite mark on the hand of any one of Hanna's three rapists is not going to be unexpected. Trey doesn't know that Nelms has made this confession.
they were friends and it's likely he was influencing things. Chris obviously confessed to his dad
To taking part in gang rape, yes.
Roger Nelms' influence resulted in George being forced to change his story -- the story Trey had ordered him and Chris to tell "or else." That story being that they saw no sex or rape at all.
When Trey heard about George's unexpected version of events, he realized that George had now actually pointed a finger at Daniel and that Foulkes pressured him to do that. He realized then that LE were evidently more than half-way convinced that Daniel was their man. Which means he had an opportunity to tighten their tunnel vision.
He accomplished that, not by saying he saw Daniel raping Hanna, but by DENYING he saw it, which made it seem to LE that he was "protecting a friend" as CJ assumed, while adding another lie in the form of claiming he saw Daniel and Hanna arguing, which gave LE the motive they were looking for.
This same premeditation, this coolness under fire, happened earlier that day, before the kids were brought to the station. Trey had the presence of mind to call on Chris and reinforce that they keep their stories united, thereby implying that he did not know Hanna was dead.
Trey emphasized more than once -- I count three from memory -- that he could have sex with Hanna anytime he wanted. Since she was 14, in fact. It is a key fact that Trey was, and remains, seriously invested in the idea that he'd never need to force this girl to have sex with him. He jumps at any suggestion that his motive to kill her might be related to her denying him sexual access "anytime I wanted to." It's a point of pride with him to let people know that.
Except... we know that on that night, Hanna DID refuse him. As Nelms testifies, Trey described this as "change the rules in the middle of the game," to deny him sex, and he was "not going to go down for that." It's important to note that Nelms quotes Trey saying the exact same words we hear Trey himself use when talking to Daggett: "Not going to go down for that."
Trey says to Daggett that he never "thought" he raped Hanna because to him it could only be consensual. Therefore, he wants Daggett to know, he could have no motive for killing her.
According to Trey, the only one Hanna refused permission was Chris, ergo Chris had motive to kill her. Trey evidently cannot accept Hanna "changing the rules" on him. To his mind it can't ever be non-consensual, since she is his to be had "any time I wanted." By that logic, Trey should "not go down for that" -- "that" being a rule that, in his mind, could not apply to him.
Trey assumed Hanna was easy. How dare she turn around and refuse him - and in front of other boys? And now there was even a risk she might claim he raped her. And Nelms and George might give in and confess all three of them gang raped her. From his POV, all of this would amount to exposure of his being denied access to this girl that he could “have” anytime he liked. She caused all this anxiety by "changing the rules."
Evidently having free access to Hanna for sex was a point of pride with him. She meant something to him, but not in an affectionate sense, because someone you can "have" any time you like is effectively property. And so, after Hanna is dead Trey keeps in his lockbox along with other childhood items a nostaligic keepsake of Hanna -- her hair scrunchie.
Trey tells Daniel:
TREY
You know what? If it had been
me? I would've gone down there
and killed every sonofabitch who
put anything inside of her.
Here he literally projects himself into Daniel's shoes - that is, someone who has a "claim" on the girl, witnessing her having sex with others. What he actually did is threaten to kill those others if they tell, and kills the girl who, in his mind, started out letting them "have" her, then "changed the rules" and denied them. That is rage.
SHERIFF PICKENS
Daniel, you know what happened.
She was pretty beat up down
there. Wounds like that, a young
man has to be angry,
Nelms testifies:
NELMS
But afterwards, she was more
worried about Daniel than what
had happened... Well, she kept
asking us not to tell him... She
just sat there. Looking ashamed,
and I don't know how else to say
this, but kind of pouty... like how
my daughter does now sometimes
when she's... hurt, or mad. Or
disappointed.
So Hanna, who Trey tells Daggett he'd been having sex with since she was 14, not only "changed the rules," causing him grief, but adding insult to injury was now thinking only of
Daniel – and telling him, Trey, not to say anything to him! With that comment Hanna made it crystal clear that she belonged to Daniel, NOT to Trey, and in a way that Trey could never access.
The blows to his ego just kept coming, that being the topper. There’s the rage CJ was talking about, the motive. That’s why “Trey went back,” and that’s why he was happy to send Daniel to death row.
When we think about motivation, we have to acknowledge that Trey ticks all the boxes of psychopathy: manipulative, narcissistic, emotionally shallow, grandiose, and so on. Further, violent psychopathy runs in the family, as we learn in George's trailer. Trey talks about his psycho relative, and is not happy when Daniel clarifies that the man isn't just Trey's
dad's second cousin, but
his cousin too.
On the one hand, the link to madness doesn't sit well with Trey, which is why he keeps emphasizing "
once removed." But on the other, he also admits he was not horrified by his cousin's act, and in fact was and is intrigued by the madness, wishing he'd seen the Lorca plays -- that is, he wishes he'd experienced the sources he thinks led to his cousin's madness:
TREY
I had an uncle who went
batshit. Just lost it. A
cousin, I guess it was. Is.
DANIEL
How'd he lose it?
TREY
My dad's 2nd cousin. He's
old now.
DANIEL
So he's your 2nd cousin too.
TREY
What?
DANIEL
Your dad's 2nd cousin is your
2nd cousin, only once removed.
TREY
Yeah. Anyway. He just lost it
one day, man.
DANIEL
That can happen...
TREY
He's was, uh, artsy. Real artsy.
Well, however artsy you can be
in Spartinburg. He was always
putting on plays... lots of
Spanish stuff...
DANIEL
Lorca?
TREY
Sure, doesn't matter.
DANIEL
Lorca was shot on the side of
the road, a month into the
Spanish civil war.
TREY
Well my dad's cousin stabbed
a librarian in the face three days
into 1991.
...
TREY
Hey, you want me to turn down
the jambs? So she's not worried
about you being around a bad
element? Tell her you are the
bad element.
(pause)
I was just a kid, back then. I
never understood why he did
it, my 2nd cousin.
(looks to the back room)
Once removed! I remember my
family being horrified. Didn't
understand that either. To be
honest. I wasn't horrified. I was
like, wow -- wish I'd seen them
plays.
Another thing to watch with Trey: how often he says "To be honest."
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
reply
share
evil_henchman
8 years ago
because his life is about to implode even if Trey is found guilty. He's upset because he is not going to escape informal justice.
His life is already going to explode, so this shouldn't give him additional worries. Stuff like that is never going to stay buried, especially not in such a small town. Realistically, people would already know about that much anyway.
You can't just go somewhere and confess to rape and expect no one to know about it. Even if there isn't an outright press conference, people will talk.
Trey doesn't know that Nelms has made this confession.
There is a whole scene in which the Sheriff personally tells Trey about it, so he knows. The scene goes on with Trey saying Nelms is lying and the Sheriff saying "why would he lie...".
reply
share
Whatlarks
8 years ago
It's not a case of additional worries but of additional intensity of the same worries. The reality is starting to hit hard. The press conference signals the beginning of widespread knowledge of his guilt. The scene of his testimony showed how badly he wanted to distance from the past, from responsibility: "God, it was so long ago. I'm not the same person. I wasn't even that person back then." The press conference slams shut that hope of escape.
You're right about Trey knowing about the confession. Good catch. Sheez, I even quoted it in this thread. All Chris can do is deny Nelms' testimony on the grounds that he "never thought" he was raping Hanna as opposed to Nelms knowing. I have a feeling that's not going to fly very far with Sondra.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
reply
share
Makarov-324
8 years ago
But Trey's scar story won't help because there's other evidence against him. This will include the murdered girl's own brother's testimony that George Melton told him "Trey went back."
A big flaw with this Trey theory is putting so much stock in the "trey went back" line.
Even if we ignore the out-of-show fact that the showrunners structure of the season and finale points towards Chris, and we only look at in-show, there is little reason to believe this particular line.
The line comes from Bobby Dean who very recently almost killed another innocent person that he wanted to believe had done the crime. Once more stuff comes out and the spotlight was put on Trey, here comes Bobby Dean with this convenient memory. There's no reason to believe this is a credible source.
Now when the viewer does consider the likely out-of-show intention of the writers, it's pretty clear that we are meant to believe Bobby Dean and the exchange is meant to lead the viewer to Trey which continues along to Nelms&Chris.
reply
share