The Mason nut

Something that always bothered me about The Hunter is this. The psycho Mason terrorizes his pregnant wife Dotty at the school where she teaches, and even says he's planning to kill her and Papa both. This happens while Papa is away hunting down the Branch brothers. When we next see Papa he's being driven home by some friendly Mexicans. He sees Dotty at home watering the lawn. What's the first conversation they have together? Lamaze class! Not even a word spoken about the at-large lunatic who is ready to kill them at any moment. No discussion of precautions to be taken, or getting the cops involved. That's just bad screenwriting. Still, I enjoyed the film, flaws and all.