Pepper spray

Pepper spray is both a weapon and a hidden piece of Nina Winchester’s plan: she leaves it where Millie Calloway can find it, intending Millie to use it against Andrew Winchester. When Millie finally deploys it, the spray incapacitates Andrew long enough for her to get out of the Attic Room and lock him inside.

Placement and Purpose

Nina leaves a bottle of pepper spray in a blue bucket in the closet. Millie finds it there while confined in the Attic Room, where she fears Andrew will punish her again and make the next confinement longer. The bottle is not an accidental discovery: Nina later reveals that leaving it was part of her plan for Millie to kill Andrew.

Nina’s explanation revises the apparent purpose of her actions. She had initially hoped to hire a maid who might become her replacement and prompt Andrew to let her go. But she says that replacement was not why she hired Millie, gave her a copy of the room’s key, or left the pepper spray. Together, the key and concealed weapon make the bottle part of a deliberate, concealed intervention.

Use Against Andrew

Millie sprays Andrew at close range, holding the nozzle about three inches from his eyes and pressing it twice. She turns her head away and closes her eyes to avoid being sprayed herself, though some residue reaches her. Andrew screams, his face turns bright red, and he claws at his eyes; his phone falls from his hands.

The spray gives Millie a brief opening rather than resolving the danger by itself. After more than six hours planning while three books rest on her abdomen, she gets to her feet, slips out before Andrew can see again, closes the door, and uses Nina’s key to lock him in. She then retrieves Andrew’s phone and disables its Lock Screen setting before it can require a password.

Narrative Significance

The bottle connects Nina’s secret intention to Millie’s immediate struggle: an object hidden in an ordinary closet becomes the means by which Millie interrupts Andrew’s control and changes who is confined behind the locked door. Nina intends the weapon to help bring about Andrew’s death, but the scene establishes its immediate consequence as escape and confinement, not that the spray itself kills him.