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Rose Armitage (played by Allison Williams), Chris's seemingly perfect girlfriend, weaponizes her charm and affection to earn Chris’s trust. She is vocally against casual racism and takes great pains to present herself to Chris as different from her family. Her chilling ability to mask her true nature is what enables her to lure Black men into her family’s scheme without raising suspicion. Her deception is especially effective because her performances of allyship are so pitch-perfectly typical of the self-righteous, privileged white girl caricature. She believes that, especially in comparison to her parents, she presents herself as fully accepting of Chris’s Blackness. She also thinks that her protestations of her family’s racism show her in a better light. It’s clear that both Rod and Chris find her attitude a little ridiculous, though Chris initially seems to believe she means well. 

Rose’s true colors emerge, however, when Chris attempts to leave the Armitage house in upstate New York. In moments, she shifts from being a protective partner defending her boyfriend to being a chilly, detached captor. As Chris pleads with her to help him escape, she calmly pretends to search for their car keys, stalling just long enough for her family to subdue Chris, then whispers that Chris was “one of her favorites” as she watches him being carted away. She later sits in her room, emotionlessly eating cereal and scrolling the internet to find her next victim. She shows no remorse for her actions whatsoever; to her, Chris is just one of many Black bodies her family can use. 

Rose is a key figure in the Coagula cult’s operations, as they require a “honey trap” in order to lure Black victims to their house. The family's other option is the more aggressive and dangerous “wrangling” technique employed by Rose’s brother Jeremy. Rose secures potential victims by forming romantic relationships with them, so there’s very little risk to her. She uses her physical beauty and her convincing performance of affection as weapons against her boyfriends. Her ability to switch between affection and cruelty confirms that she does not see her Black male victims as people, but as means to an end. Her final attempt to manipulate Chris into sparing her life proves that deception is her weapon of choice, as she continues to rely on it even when her true nature, and her crimes, are exposed.  

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