Tower of God: Why Did Rachel Betray Baam? Ending Explained

Tower of God is a manhwa created by SIU in 2010. Alternatively known under the name “Slave In Utero,” SIU has been on hiatus for quite some time due to health reasons, while the already published chapters on Webtoon have been given an anime adaptation in 2020. The first season introduced our leading heroes and left everyone at the edge of their seats, as the final episode shone a light on a rather shocking turn of events. Rachel pushed Baam off the platform and betrayed the one whose entire journey through the Tower was for her sake. But why did she do it?

Rachel betrayed Baam out of jealousy and selfish desires, as her dream was to gaze upon the stars and get away from her grim reality. The final episodes reveal that, even though Rachel entered the Tower before Baam, she was never among the chosen ones to climb it. Faced with the bitter truth about her “worthless existence,” she clings to a treacherous thread in order to reach the stars she so desires, at any cost.

With Rachel’s entire journey through the Tower during season one seeming oddly mysterious, the gullible Baam never doubted his “light.” He never expressed any desires other than to climb the Tower for her stars. So why did things play out this way?

Does Rachel get her revenge on Baam?

Rachel is first introduced through Beam’s stories of his past and the reminiscing that occurs as he continues to climb the Tower. The portrayal he painted was that of a kind, gentle, loving soul who has been trapped in a dark, sorrowful world that she could only escape if she was to one day reach the top of the Tower of God. 

As he happened to wake up in the same place she lived, the two got close to the walls that surrounded them. Baam seemed to have no recollection of his life prior to awakening in The Hole. This grim underground world left its inhabitants with no other choice but to fight every day for their survival, as the desolate, dark surroundings engulfed all, with barely a trace of some kind of light.

Being condemned to such conditions, Rachel dreamt of the shiny stars and yearned to gaze upon their radiance. The girl so desperate and powerless was utterly crushed by reality once she learned the truth once she had entered the Tower. When Headon appeared before her, Rachel faced the cruelest realization. The Tower that was her only hope, the sole light beaming in the darkness of her world, never called for her.

As Headon posed an impossible challenge, Rachel was struck with utter desperation. The dreams and hopes that kept her going for so long died instantly. Her weakness denied her any chance at greatness. She was never to climb the Tower and would never escape the darkness. It was at this moment, after all, hope had faded, that Baam appeared in front of her eyes as Headon declared the “birth of a savior.”

While Baam couldn’t see her, she witnessed him passing the same impossible test and advancing further, almost as if being kicked while already on the ground. The growing anger and envy worsened as Headon continued to beat down on this broken girl, saying how the ugliness seeping out from inside her made him cringe. Holding onto a thin thread, Rachel wouldn’t give up on her dream, which is when Headon faced her with another realization – she wanted to be the most exceptional star that would shine the brightest.

On her knees, Rachel was prepared to do anything to climb the Tower, and so a choice was given to her to either abandon her dream and spend the rest of her life in The Hole or murder Baam and be granted passage through the Tower. In a sense, she may have gotten her revenge; however, the catalyst of her desire to do so was her feelings of anger and envy resulting from her powerlessness.

Is Rachel a traitor in ‘Tower of God ‘?

Because of her hidden intentions and harbored emotions of envy, anger, and despair, she isolated herself from everyone even more. For someone who desired to shine the brightest and be the most extraordinary star, she made herself a lonesome outcast who acted as an observer rather than the leading character in the story of the chosen ones climbing the Tower of God.

As much as her own emotions generated the jealousy she felt toward Baam, her actions amplified the same notion, and she grew angrier as she became more and more envious. Despite her despair, she managed to conceal the inner conflict that was instilled in her ever since she was allowed to go further in the Tower, having accepted Headon’s offer.

Putting on an act, she was more so victimized in the eyes of other participants, especially since most befriended Baam and knew how far he was prepared to go for her sake. The attention and the potential that Baam had were everything that Rachel wanted. Thus, she betrays Baam and the efforts of the group when she goes against their plan to pass the level and pushed Baam to his death.

Is Rachel a villain in ‘Tower of God‘?

While she betrays the remaining participants and Baam, Rachel does not seem villainous as a character. The fact that she hesitated and essentially drowned herself in the thoughts her torn mind conjured and the feelings of envy that arose from her realizing that she was never destined for greatness fails to paint a picture of anything but a conflicted and, above all, very “human-like” character.

An “average Joe,” or Jane in our case, lived an unprivileged life and strongly grasped onto the one dream that kept her going. As much as Baam saw guidance in Rachel and referred to her as his “light,” in the sense that she gave his existence a purpose, Rachel’s purpose was her dream. Thus, both characters’ main drive is their “light.” Ultimately, Baam saw the light in Rachel, while Rachel saw the darkness she feared and was trying to escape in Baam.

This feeds into the notion that Baam and Rachel might actually be two sides of the same coin whose paths were filled with different temptations and obstacles. Moreover, according to the information on the Tower of God Wiki, the creator of the story, in fact, dedicated a lot of attention to Rachel’s character and set her opposite of Baam. It is a character he seems to care a lot about, as her development was perhaps even the most tangled of all thus far, and he doesn’t seem to see her as a villain in this tale.

Moreover, the last episode hints at a much bigger plot being at play in Tower of God. Despite the fact that Rachel was acting on her own and made a deal in secrecy, she seems to also have been used in a different ploy. As things currently stand, her character development may yet surprise us.