Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Isabel Kleefeld, Tom Spiess, and Friederich Oetker, Netflix’s ‘The Trap’ begins by charting how Lisa Konrad’s life changed after the killing of her sister. With the killer never being caught, Lisa slowly found herself losing her grip on her life, and before long she had become a recluse too afraid to set foot outside her house. In the decade that follows, she forges a new, powerful bond with her pet dog, Bukowski, and the two become inseparable. When she eventually finds the killer on her TV screen and sets out to confront him, Bukowski can be seen around her almost at all times, either bringing comfort, joy, or watchfulness depending on what the scene calls for, until the grim nature of this revenge quest catches up to him as well. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Bukowski the Dog Survives the Bear Trap Attack and Remains Lisa’s Best Friend
Despite a close brush with death, Lisa Konrad’s pet dog, Bukowski, ultimately makes it out of the story alive. The real mystery that goes unanswered, however, is how he got injured in the first place, and who might have actually been behind it. After Lisa discovers Bukowski bleeding out, with a bear trap clamped onto his leg, she gets hit with traumatic images of Anna’s death, and falls unconscious soon thereafter. While we don’t know what happens immediately afterward, it is implied that Rudow and Yuma, who had just arrived at the house, found the dog and took him to a veterinarian. The next time we see Bukowski, he has a bandage wrapped around his leg and seems to be on his way toward a speedy recovery.
The dread surrounding all the bad things that could potentially happen to Bukowski primarily stems from how little we get to know about him post-injury. The show even plays on this detail when Lisa, while talking to Robert, claims that her dog is upstairs. At first glance, this feels like a lie to cover up the fact that Bukowski is dead, but thankfully, that assumption is soon proven wrong. That said, the question of who set up the bear trap in the first place is never answered, which keeps us guessing. In retrospect, Robert doesn’t seem to be the kind of person to hurt a dog for no reason, especially since his real plan involves gaslighting Lisa rather than using violence. As such, there is a good chance that it wasn’t him or an actively malicious person behind Bukowski’s injury, but instead, bad luck.
The fact that we see Bukowski lying on the porch suggests that he might have crawled that far after getting injured while playing outside. In that case, it might be that a hunter or local resident set a bear trap for their own purposes, not knowing that a dog might get caught in it. Regardless of the reason, what gives the show its emotional potency is how Lisa identifies her pet as a core part of her life. Having spent 10 years with little to no human contact, Bukowski has become the object of her affection, much in the way her sister once was. This draws some direct parallels between the scene of Anna’s death and the dog’s injury, and while Lisa might not have been able to save her, she can rest assured that Bukowski is alive and well.
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