Who is The Trawler? The Shards cast tease the truth as another serial killer suspect emerges

The central mystery of The Shards is the identity of The Trawler, a serial killer who has made Los Angeles – and Buckley School – their hunting ground. Following the release of episodes three and four, two cast members have dropped clues about the perpetrator. 

Ryan Murphy’s latest TV show is an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ autofictional novel of the same name, with the main character – Bret (Igby Rigney) – being based on the famed author himself. 

But let’s not get it twisted – yes, Bret borrows certain character traits from his high school peers, the 1980s setting and aesthetics are true to life, but the events of the story are made up. And that includes the serial killer who becomes the target of Bret’s obsession. 

The Trawler doesn’t simply murder their victims – they stalk them beforehand, abduct their pets and subject them to horrific acts. One particularly grisly sequence sees Matt Kellner (Owen Painter) forced to eat his fish, with a recording of the ordeal later delivered to Bret.

The violence has since crept even closer to Buckley, with episode three seeing student Really Rhonda (Ivy Wolk) abducted after leaving the roller rink. 

Bret, who seems to be the only one bothered by these events, continues on his own solo investigation, his obsession becoming tangled up with Robert Mallory (Homer Gere). At the end of episode three, he discovers a blood-stained Buckley uniform with a live iguana underneath it at a property Robert was using. 

But anyone who’s read The Shards will know that Bret’s an unreliable narrator. This becomes clearer in episode four when he tries to convince his friends that something’s up with Robert, but fails to mention his discovery.

All of this is to say the further we dig into this case, the murkier it becomes. We’re not about spoiling the book here – instead, let’s look at who could be The Trawler based solely on what the series has shown us so far, along with a few interesting clues from the cast.

Who the main Trawler suspects are in The Shards

So far, the two frontrunners are Robert and Bret. Robert is obviously the suspect the series wants us to be looking at. His arrival at Buckley coincides with The Trawler becoming an increasingly prominent threat and he lies about where he spent the previous year.

Plus, Bret discovers he has links to the very property containing the bloodied uniform, and episode four only makes him look more suspicious. Bret learns that Robert’s mother died in mysterious circumstances and that he subsequently spent time in a psychiatric facility. 

When Bret (seemingly) confronts him at Susan’s party, Robert completely unravels – drinking heavily despite being on medication, becoming increasingly erratic and eventually ending up in the swimming pool, where he has to be rescued.

But there’s another way to read this entire scene. Robert’s breakdown could be the reaction of someone whose darkest secret has almost been uncovered, or Bret could simply have said something mean to him (we never actually hear what Bret whispers to him at the party). 

And then there’s Bret himself. The series has repeatedly reminded us that we’re experiencing much of this story through his perspective, and episode four gives us another reason not to take everything he says at face value. 

He withholds crucial information from his friends while trying to convince them Robert is dangerous, and even begins questioning his own motivations as his obsession grows.

There’s also the simple fact that The Shards is very interested in the stories Bret constructs about the people surrounding him. Is he genuinely piecing together clues everyone else is ignoring, or is his fixation on Robert causing him to force unrelated events into a narrative that makes sense to him? 

Four episodes in, the show very deliberately hasn’t given us enough information to answer that. Bret and Robert actors Igby Rigney and Homer Gere added to the mystery in a recent interview with Decider. 

The outlet said they felt bad for Robert during the swimming pool scene, to which Gere thanked them. But Rigney chimed in, “Don’t side with this guy!” Gere added, “I appreciate it… Igby’s a terrible, terrible man.”

Rigney then said, “No, no, no! He comes into our school lying about where he was last year. I just want to say that’s not a good look,” but Gere added, “Robert is a man of high repute.”

Ultimately, they’re just fooling around, but one of them is telling the truth. Or maybe neither of them, according to this new fan theory about The Trawler’s identity…

Could Susan be the killer?

Following the release of the latest batch of episodes, one viewer took to Reddit to share their suspicions around Susan (Kaia Gerber), Bret’s friend who grows increasingly close to Robert. 

“My current suspicion for who The Trawler is… I’m keeping a close eye on Susan from now on, and I need to rewatch to check a few things,” they wrote. And it’s not out of thin air either – they provided a series of clues that could indicate she’s the real killer. 

“Apart from Bret, who we know is home alone, we don’t see much of her home life or what she is up to away from school or the friend group… I can’t remember if she got a phone call from The Trawler (an obscene call doesn’t count),” they said. 

“There were multiple references in episode 4 about how her father was a doctor, and I was wondering at the end of episode 2 who could get their hands on LSD (and more specifically an old-school pharmacy / apothecary supply bottle). 

“So too she seems worried about the meds that Robert is on (unlike anyone else) and we are not told what they are.”

The Redditor also noted how The Trawler likes to play music, and Susan often says “I love this song” when a tune comes on. And then there’s the fact that the killer tortures their victims by forcing them to eat. 

“What and why is going on with that? What are the reasons? We learn that Susan was at a fat farm ‘maintaining’ when she wasn’t ‘even fat’,” they continued. 

For now, Robert may be the person Bret wants us watching. But at this stage in the series, it’s worth keeping an eye on every character until we know more. 

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Featured image credit: FX