\n<\/p>\n
From the moment the first trailer for A24\u2019s The Drama<\/em> dropped\u2014and honestly, even before that\u2014the internet was abuzz with rumors and speculation about the film\u2019s big twist. The pitch-black comedy from Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as Emma and Charlie, a Boston couple preparing for their wedding. When Emma and Charlie are at a food-and-wine tasting with their best friends, Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), the couples play a game where each person admits the worst thing they\u2019ve ever done. It\u2019s all in good fun until it becomes Emma\u2019s turn, during which she admits to something so wild, so seemingly unforgivable, that she sends the entire outing, the wedding, and potentially her relationship into disarray.<\/p>\n Instantly, there was only one question on everyone\u2019s mind: What the hell did Emma do?<\/em> Fans on Reddit feverishly speculated: Did Emma stalk Charlie before they started dating? Was infidelity involved? Nobody online knew for sure until the publication of a TMZ<\/em> story that\u2014intentionally or not\u2014essentially spoiled the film, launching a whole new cycle of conversation about The Drama.<\/em> Then, to make matters even murkier, The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> brought attention to a resurfaced<\/a> 2012 essay in which an adult Borgli detailed a past romantic relationship with a teenager. It\u2019s enough controversy to overshadow the film itself, even if it is called The Drama.<\/em><\/p>\n So: What did TMZ<\/em> publish? What did Borgli say? And again: What did Emma do?! Now that the film is officially out\u2014it hit theaters April 3\u2014we can finally break it all down. (If you couldn\u2019t tell, spoilers for The Drama<\/em> follow.)<\/p>\n First: the actual plot twist, which comes fairly early in The Drama<\/em>\u2019s run time. Wine-drunk and in the company of her closest confidants, Zendaya\u2019s character timidly shares that when she was a lonely, bullied teenager in Baton Rouge, she planned, but did not follow through with, a school shooting. Emma\u2019s shocking admission rattles the entire wedding party, particularly Haim\u2019s Rachel, whose cousin was left paralyzed by an act of gun violence. The rest of the film deals with the fallout from her confession.<\/p>\n This plot twist remained mostly under wraps in the months leading up to The Drama<\/em>\u2019s premiere. In a move somewhat at odds with the content of the film, A24 spent weeks marketing The Drama<\/em> as more of a romantic comedy, making the film seem like something in the vein of last spring\u2019s Materialists<\/em> (which itself can only tenuously be described as a rom-com<\/a>). Zendaya and Pattinson posed as their characters for a fake wedding announcement that appeared in The Boston Globe;<\/em> Zendaya\u2019s own engagement to Tom Holland was a meta element frequently mentioned on the press tour, with the star often decked out in dazzling white and channeling \u201csomething old, something new, something borrowed, something blue\u201d on various red carpets.<\/p>\n