Character Relationship Map: Backtrack

Characters

• Peter Bower (played by Adrien Brody) — protagonist

  Peter is a troubled psychotherapist haunted by nightmares and visions after the death of his daughter Evie. His investigation into Elizabeth and his deceased patients leads him back to the train disas...

• Barry (played by Malcolm Kennard) — supporting

  Barry is Peter's childhood friend and the person who shared responsibility for the secret behind the train disaster. As a teenager, he led Peter to the tracks, where their bicycles contributed to the...

• Elizabeth Valentine (played by Chloe Bayliss) — supporting

  Elizabeth is a young girl who appears mute in Peter's waiting room and leaves him the date of her death. Her ghost leads Peter toward the hidden truth: William strangled her in the switch house, and h...

• Felix (played by Bruce Spence) — supporting

  Felix is one of Peter's patients and is later understood to be among the people who died in connection with the train disaster. Although little of his personal history is given, his ghost is part of t...

• Patient (played by Jill McKay) — minor
• Barbara Henning (played by Robin McLeavy) — supporting

  Barbara is a police officer and the daughter of a passenger who died in the train disaster. She receives Peter's confession, initially doubts his visions, and later investigates inconsistencies surrou...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Peter Bower → Patient (Professional Therapist And Patients) — Peter's professional relationships provide the pattern that leads him to the train line and False Creek.

  Peter treats several patients referred by his mentor, and his research reveals that all of his patients died on or near the same date.

• Peter Bower → Felix (Professional Therapist And Patient) — Felix's death becomes part of Peter's investigation into his patients' shared history.

  Felix is identified as one of Peter's patients, and Peter later sees Felix among the ghosts connected to the train disaster.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Felix → Patient (Unknown Shared Victimhood) — Felix and the unnamed patient belong to the same group of deceased patients tied to the accident.

  Felix is one of Peter's deceased patients, while the plot states that all of Peter's patients died on or around the date of the train disaster.

• Barbara Henning → Elizabeth Valentine (Narrative Death Investigator) — Barbara's investigation connects Elizabeth's unexplained death to the concealed crime.

  Barbara discovers that Elizabeth was the only victim whose cause of death was inconclusive and concludes that Elizabeth was not killed in the derailme...

• Peter Bower → Barbara Henning (Unknown Confessor And Investigator) — Barbara becomes the investigator who tests Peter's account and uncovers the hidden crime.

  Peter confesses the accident to Barbara, and she investigates the inconsistencies surrounding the crash and Elizabeth's death.

• Peter Bower → Barry (Social Childhood Friend) — Their shared childhood secret binds them together but also creates lasting guilt.

  Peter meets Barry at a local bar and discusses the secret event they experienced together as teenagers.

• Peter Bower → Elizabeth Valentine (Narrative Haunting Subject) — Elizabeth's appearances force Peter to investigate the hidden truth behind the accident.

  Elizabeth repeatedly appears in Peter's office, gives him the number 12787, and later appears as a ghost connected to the train disaster.

Story Analysis

A grieving psychotherapist investigates ghostly patients and uncovers the murder concealed behind a historic train derailment.

Plot Progression

1. The Number In The Waiting Room — Peter struggles with grief, nightmares, and his wife's depression. Elizabeth's silent visits and the number 12787 begin an unsettling investigation.
2. Ghosts Along The Rail Line — Peter discovers that his patients died around the same date as Elizabeth. Visions and the discovery of a ghostly mentor direct him toward False Creek.
3. The Buried Derailment — Barry reveals the secret behind the teenage accident, but refuses to join Peter's confession. The ghosts and new evidence show that the bicycle explanation is incomplete.
4. The Murder Behind The Crash — Barry's death and Barbara's investigation expose contradictions in the official story. Peter finally remembers witnessing Elizabeth's murder and the switch being pulled.
5. Judgment On The Tracks — Barbara is abducted and Peter is restrained, but Elizabeth's ghost disrupts the escape. The approaching train kills the murderer and releases the dead.