We all know how Matilda, using her wonderful powers, drove the evil Miss Trunchbull out of town. Through a series of events she somehow convinced the principal of her school that Miss Honey’s dead father, Trunchbull’s own brother, was somehow haunting her.

It was a feel good moment to see a bully get a dose of her own medicine and be frightened out of her wits. But somehow, there’s a small bit that everyone seems to gloss over regarding Trunchbull.

When Matilda first tried out her powers on Trunchbull, it was at Trunchbull’s home during a dark windy night. Matilda pulled out all the stops and used every scary thing she could think of: moving the clock’s hands forward to the next hour; shifting Trunchbull’s seat just as she was about to sit on it; making the chandelier’s lights dim on and off, shot put balls rolling down the stairs; and the coup de grâce of the haunting: making Trunchbull’s portrait fly into the fireplace and having Magnus’ (her dead brother) own portrait hover in the living room before taking the place of Trunchbull’s portrait.

It was at that point that Trunchbull lost her wits and ran out of the house. She would have kept on running and the movie would have been thirty minutes shorter had she not caught sight of Matilda’s red bow flying in the wind. Now this is where it gets interesting – just a few moments ago Trunchbull experienced probably the most defining proof that ghost hauntings are real. She then sees something that convinces her a child was responsible for everything that just happened.

Can we sit back and just ponder the mental connection Trunchbull made? Ghost in my mansion – a child’s red bow – child must be responsible! How does that make sense? Why would Trunchbull think a child is capable of doing all those unnatural things? And on the flip side, if a child really is capable of making objects fly in the air and move things without touching them, then why was her next move confronting a large number of children at school and intimidating them? Shouldn’t her next logical decision is to run away from kids as far as she can?

The only explanation I can come up with is Miss Trunchbull is really crazy, and not because of the obvious reasons.