Didnt make sense..
Why would Rabbits dad pay his brother Bob to kill his wife and kidnap his son?
shareWe don't know the motive other than BOTH brothers were NOT good men [messed up childhood and all]. Could have been for the insurance, or just tired of his family, etc. The brother knew his sibling had an appetite for murder, so he used him, probably more than once in his life. What we are led to believe in the film though it was intended to just kill the wife. Our main character referred to not expecting Rabbit, a couple of times. And I'm sure had the boy's father understood the dilemma would have just he rather kill the boy as well. We have no understanding that the boy's father ever understood he was alive all that time.
What's interesting is in the end of the film - the audio through the credits leads us to believe that just like the murderous brothers, that they now turned Rabbit into a serial killer as well.
- Just adding my .02 :)
Yeah I think that all makes sense.
I had an additional thought though, looking at the blonde kid (Colin) from Brad's second marriage. Now, I'm not very good at judging kids' ages, but I thought maybe the boy was old enough to indicate that Brad must have been having an affair with wife #2 while still married to wife #1, and she got pregnant with this kid, so that's why Brad wanted to get wifey #1 and Tim out of the way so he could move on with his new family.
I don't know if that fits the timelines, but it did cross my mind anyway.
_____________
"Maybe I should go alone"
- Quint, Jaws.