Rab Hands Sarah to Duke and Is Killed

Rab Hands Sarah to Duke and Is Killed is the turning point at which Rab’s promise to Mae collapses into a paid handover: he delivers Sarah to men acting for Duke, and Duke’s associates kill him as they take her. The episode makes Sarah’s vulnerability unmistakable, while her later recollection connects Rab’s betrayal to the beginning of her exploitation.

Rab’s Promise and the Handover

The morning after Mae’s death, Rab is guilt-ridden and says he must keep his promise to Mae. He has little to offer Sarah beyond half a can of beans, and leaves to speak with friends about what to do. When he returns, he is in better spirits and brings a stranger, claiming that the man works for someone who wants to adopt a little girl. Sarah does not know what Rab has arranged and is wary of the visitor.

The stranger has already assessed Sarah at the docks and now examines her again. When he asks her name, Rab cannot remember it; asked what her mother called her, he says the man may call her whatever he likes. The stranger pays Rab and tells him to clean Sarah up, obtain decent clothes, and bring her to a specified address. Rab accepts the money and presents the arrangement as good fortune for Sarah, despite having no evidence that it is an adoption.

Duke’s Arrival and Rab’s Death

At the later meeting, Sarah recognizes the man who had inspected her at the docks. Duke asks her name, and Rab again shows that he has effectively surrendered any claim to her identity. Duke pays him while Rab eagerly counts the bills, still too intoxicated to recognize the danger in Duke’s response when Rab repeats his name.

Sarah notices Duke’s anger and tries to flee, but cannot make herself heard or escape through the door. Duke’s associate restrains her while another man strangles Rab. Once Rab is dead, the men prepare to remove his body and make his death appear to be the consequence of drunkenness. Duke orders them to retrieve money Rab had stolen from him before disposing of the body in the river. The killing thus accompanies, rather than interrupts, the transfer of Sarah into Duke’s control.

Consequences and Later Recollection

Much later, Sarah tells Michael that Rab sold her to a brothel and that Duke had a predilection for little girls. She describes the sale as only the beginning of what followed. Her account recasts Rab’s earlier language of care as a broken promise: the man Mae trusted to protect her daughter instead accepted payment for her transfer.

The episode also clarifies the force of Sarah’s later belief that her past has defined her. She recalls having been sold as a child and treats the resulting exploitation as something she cannot erase, even when Michael rejects her conviction that it makes her irredeemable. The narrative’s contrast between Rab’s professed obligation to Mae and his eager acceptance of money gives the handover its central moral weight; his death does not undo the betrayal or protect Sarah from Duke.