MovieChat Forums > Top of the Lake (2013) Discussion > Too many loose ends ... here's my list o...

Too many loose ends ... here's my list of top 20


1. Who was the father of Tui's child?
2. Was Matt really Robin's father or was he just bluffing?
3. Who was Robin's fiance of 5 years?
4. Why did Matt kill Bob but didn't take the land back from a bunch of old ladies?
5. Why did Tui decide to go to the woods to give birth? (very freak idea for a 12-year old)
6. Where did Tui's mother vanish?
7. What was the issue between Johnno and his father?
8. Why weren't Robin's rapists caught?
9. Why didn't Robin make any attempt to catch her rapists - even though she was a police officer?
10. Why was Robin sacked by Al for a petty brawl?
11. Why wasn't GJ able to solve the problem of any of the women?
12. Why was GJ heading to the bushes when she said she was leaving?
13. What was Al running in his basement? child pornography or child sex trafficking?
14. Did Al die?
15. Did Al rape Robin, or take advantage of her when she passed out in his house?
16. Why did Al take the keys out of her pocket when Robin passed out in his house?
17. What was the purpose of inserting that Pathologist's character when none of his cases were solved - or we didn't see any headway or link with the original story or characters?
18. Who really hanged Zanic?
19. Did Al manipulate the DNA test results in the end?
20. Is New Zealand really that beautiful?

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Al was the father of Tui's baby not Matt. Tui remarked to her friend in the woods that she "didn't know how it even go in there" in a moment of honesty meaning she must have been drugged by Al with the date rape drunk that was found at his house in the last episode when the child sex ring is exposed. This means he also used this on the boy with blonde hair because they found it in his bag. Also Matt denies any seuxal involvement with Tui and Al fabricates the test results when telling Robin (also she never actually checks any paper work to prove this, she just takes his word). Al also drugged Robin when she went for dinner at his house. it's never confirmed but it's more than likely that he raped her. Al didn't die but he was badly wounded. Tui was hiding from the shame of being pregnant and she was scared to face her dad. He didn't want to face the truth that his daughter had been raped or stupid enough to get pregnant. Matt had some serious mummy issues which would have been the reason for his inability to connect with feel empathy for females in adult life (he treats that American lady terribly and with such hatred - although she was rather nutty and annoying). He is in denial of the fact that Tui might be dead or never coming home but after going up to her room with the dog thinking she was there he has a moment stroking her pillow where he realizes his daughter might never be coming home, that's when he panics and hires the hunters. Tui knew that he would probably try to kill her baby (which he almost did) and also that he was in business with Al who ran the sex ring. The hippy commune was odd but i think that whole scenario was to show how lost and hurt and messed up everyone can be. Even the super together Robin loses it and winds up there in the end. While GJ seems to tell the bluntness and simplest form of truth to the women to try and help them, although they seem too crazed and daft to benefit from it and only focus on their own mental issues "over and over" without being able to see the big picture she is trying to show them, so she leaves. Tui wants GJ to stay because she acted as a mother figure, taking her in and also telling her to "trust/follow the body, never underestimate the power of the body and it's intelligence" which i think helped her greatly giving birth. Matt was Robin's father but luckily Johnno is told Matt is not his father in a convenient turn of events in the last episode. This show was slow but ultimately thought provoking and touching. All the different accents were initially confusing though.

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All of the above sounds right to me, except...

We don't know that Al was the father of Tui's baby, do we? It could have been one of the other men we saw at his house with the kids.

I find it difficult to believe that Robin would not know if she had been raped at Al's house. There would be evidence of one kind or another that she couldn't miss, I would think.

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OK, I'm definitely not going through this entire thread to see if anyone has actually answered these properly, but I think it's worth doing, so in case no one has, here goes:

1. Al. This should be obvious from the final showdown where Tui wakes up (after being drugged) on the couch upstairs (in private) at Al's place. The other hints are when Tui says "I don't even know how it got in there" (cause she was drugged), and when Jamie says "you know who it is, wake up".

2. The strongest implication is that Matt is indeed Robin's father. Nothing crops up later to challenge the claim, but the fact that Jonno is "exonerated" implies that it was important that one of either Robin or Jonno not be Matt's child. The other clue is how strongly Robin's mother reacts to Robin and Jonno's relationship. It always seemed a little too strong for the intelligent woman to be chalked up to a "sins of the father" type reaction. She is knows the truth and is a little aghast at the implication.

3. Steve. He is not an important character. The ending of their relationship is another sign of Robin's world is falling apart, partially due to her increasing and not-involuntary detachment from the binds (and safety) of her other life. The show is partially about her journey of healing, which began with her fleeing to Australia pregnant and ends with saving Tui and her baby.

4. Matt didn't mean to kill Bob. He was trying to punish him not kill him. As to why he didn't kick the women off his land, well legally he couldn't and personally he probably had more important things to do anyway.

5. That's one of the central questions of the show and, thankfully, we never get an explicit answer. Tui is obviously headstrong and wilful like her father. Also she is terrified and confused. She clearly has the skills to survive in the woods as Matt so often explains and so she must have felt that somehow being alone and in the wild was safer than being in town with her violent, unpredictable father and her rapist (even though she does not know who it is, she knows someone did it).

6. I can't remember what exactly happened here but suffice it to say Tui's mother is not a very important character. She clearly has had little contact with Tui in the last few years and is therefore not a big part of her life.

7. We never find out, not even a suggestions, really, but given the temperamental and moral differences between them we can assume that at some point Jonno simply got out of there, unlike his brothers or just about anybody else (except Tui's mother, which explains why they might spend time together).


8. Robin's mother never pressed charges, and as we know the Laketop police force isn't into doing more work than they have to. Robin confronts her mother about that in episode 4 or 5.

9. 15 years later is probably a bit late to go digging up old rape cases where there can be no remaining evidence, especially ones in which you are the victim. Plus she had other things to do.

10. "Glassing" someone is hardly a petty brawl. Robin could easily have been tried and convicted for assault. But the real reason is that Al wanted her off the case and out of New Zealand. He never wanted her (or anyone) investigating that case in the first place, remember.

11. GJ is not a problem solver. She simply runs a place for women to go to when they feel they have nowhere else to go. She gives advice only reluctantly and it generally consists of telling people that only they can solve their own problems, and they can all solve their own problem by adjusting their ideas of status, love, pain, family, etc., which is true if you think about it. Moreover GJ knows that advice rarely helps anybody, and so she says what she has to say and doesn't belabour any points. That's my take but GJ is probably the least transparent character in the show so it's hard to say for sure.

12. She was walking up the road, presumably in order to catch transport out of New Zealand. (To Iceland?)

13. Possibly a bit of both, although I would bet mainly on the latter. It would be easier to control if you only dealt with people you know personally. This, along with his kickbacks from Matt, explains his unusual wealth.

14. I'm going with yes. Again, it's not made explicit but the absence of his arrest or some other such scene is telling.

15. I didn't think so at the time but it is possible. My argument against it would be that I didn't feel that particular degree of creepiness from Al before or after. Also, Robin might know if she had been raped, Rohypnol or not, and it wouldn't be worth it for Al to compromise himself in such a way. Al was nothing if not calculating, even more so than Matt. That said, the biggest clue that Al did drug her is when Robin says "what's the alcohol content of that wine?" My personal guess is that Al intended to drug her but didn't go through with it for whatever reason but that could be wishful thinking. I will add that I don't think it's necessarily wrong or emotionally manipulative to have us sympathise with Al here, despite what we know about him in hindsight.

16. So she couldn't drive herself home. It's a well-known thing in Australia/NZ at least to take a drunk person's keys so they can't drive.

17. Actually all of those cases were essentially "solved." We know what happened to Bob Platt, we can safely assume that the girl who was killed by the car was another of Al's victims, and Wolfgang Zanic was likely killed by Matt, although that is again not made clear.

18. The implication is Matt and his sons, but I must admit that doesn't feel entirely right to me, but maybe only because I liked Matt a little too much.

19. We don't know if he so much manipulated them as simply lie about them, but yes, he was lying.

20. Yes! And the crazy thing is all of that scenery is genuinely only in a limited area around Lake Wakatipu.

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Yes a truly nasty piece of tv, gibberish chatacters esp Stunned Fish Moss and the wacko white guru; nonsensical story.
I see no redeeming tv qualities.
I gave it 1*, and that was for the gloomy autumn landscapes, ok maybe take 1 off for the horrid container shed cabins that Campion dumped in our mountains. NZ backcountry goth , kinda at it worst ~

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I'm staggered that anyone could assume Al was being honest about those DNA test results. I wouldn't believe a single thing Al said, he was a manipulative criminal and a psychopath.

We don't see Robin doing anything with Matt's ashes (if that's what they were), and it's not mentioned again.

Also - why does Al present Matt's ashes to Robin? Matt's next of kin are his sons, Luke and Mark (though it is likely that he was indeed Robin's father, IMO).

All in all, this series could've been done in 4 episodes, max, instead of 7. Waayyyyy too much padding.


~Memories made in the coldest winter~

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Were you paying attention? :P

1. Al, or one of the other members of the paedophile ring
2. No not bluffing. Robin's mum told her that it was very important not to date Johnno. However, Johnno's father turned out not to be Matt, so the two were not related and were able to continue the relationship.
3. It didn't matter - he was a guy that was not relevant for us as the viewers.
4. He accidentally killed Bob. He was supposed to very harshly threaten him. He could not take it back because is was most likely legally bound to them.
5. Tui was terrified of what was happening to her. She's a kid who was confused and scared.
6. Tui's mother wasn't relevant to us as the viewer. But I suppose she would have had to step in at some point.
7. Matt left Johnno to rot in jail in Thailand, hence their not ruined relationship.
8. Robin's rapists were dealt with by the town, and her family moved her away rather than having a court case. Most rapes do not result in a court case.
9. Do you know how hard it is to successfully get someone convicted of rape? Her family decided not to press charges at the time and so years and years later there is no point as it would just get thrown out of court.
10. It was not a petty brawl - she was a police officer who stabbed a man in the chest with broken glass. You'd get done for GBH for that, so she actually got off lightly.
11. She's not a magician.
12. She was on the road, following it.
13. Child pornography and rape.
14. Probably not but he would have rotted in jail.
15. Good question - I did not even think about that. Probably - he spiked her drink is my best guess. That's when I was sure he was the culprit.
16. I guess so she couldn't get away at all? Or attack him?
17. He brought in the case of the girl who got "hit by the car".
18. Probably Al.
19. He completely made them up to get away with it (not about Johnno though as he handed them to him).
20. Yessssss, have you seen Lord of the Rings?

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You know OP, if you really paid close attention to the show you would know the answer to every question. Everything was answered.

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Yes, all good answers to "non-loose ends".

I was wondering what the women were celebrating when they all drank the champagne (episode 6, I think). Was it because Tui had been found?

I also thought they were making drugs in Matt's basement, not porno.

My other question is how Al could keep this up for so long without anyone finding out. Small towns rarely lend themselves to big secrets. Something this big would have broken wide open long before Robin arrived.

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