The ending

I thought the ending was perfect as was Huston's acting in it. One shot where she was weeping over him created the most grotesque impression for me. It was shot from behind her and the way her body was moving, it seemed as if she were a predatory beast feeding on him. Not suggesting that any such symbolism was the intent of the director but it certainly shook me up.

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"..., Lily has no bruises or marks at all on her neck..."
"Did Myra actually attack Lily, or did she simply break in and get shot?


When we last see Myra alive, she is on top of Lilly - choking her.
We next see Lilly after a few days have presumably passed, and she is wearing Myra's scarf around her neck.

First of all, leypra, my compliments on your powers of imagination. Sometimes writers/directors invite us to draw conclusions about stuff that happens off screen. Sometimes those conclusions are more obvious than others and there's not a heck of a lot of options for the assumptions we make. Sometimes it's more ambiguous and invites a lot more possible or likely interpretations. Yours is among the most fantastical I have ever read for any movie. First of all it seems unlikely that the storytellers intended for us to arrive at that conclusion. There's next to no evidence for it. And... in terms of likelihood, he would have to attach a very sophisticated blood squirting apparatus to himself, a bit of a stretch in itself. He would have to know that Lilly was going to slug him with the briefcase at the precise moment he lifted his drink to his face. He would have to ascertain that the glass he held was not made of glass but a less dangerous material. He would have to know that the briefcase would fly open on impact, he wouldn't get away with opening it himself when he's faking being dead. He would have to know that Lilly would leave to get a drink of water. I'm sure there are more unlikelihoods but I'm tiring out. So IMO... yup, you're way off base all right. :-). Feel free to take issue with any of this, nothing like a good debate.

I have to concur with Byzantine15. Good imagination, but no dice.

Roy enters his apartment just as Lilly has 'packed' the briefcase; the two of them talk; Lilly leaves for the kitchen, while Roy considers what is happening;
Lilly returns with two glasses of water; the two talk some more; a trusting Roy turns away to take a sip of the water; Lilly grabs the briefcase, smacking Roy in the head with it - in an attempt to knock him unconscious; her aim turns fatal and Roy bleeds to death;
Crying, Lilly stuffs the bloodied money back into the case and begins heaving; she staggers back to the kitchen sink, cleans herself up and then leaves the apartment with the re-packed money.

The variations of what cash we see, and don't see, sticking out of the closed briefcase - is a continuity error that slipped past the filmakers. It's a goof, that's all.
It's cool that you put so much thought into your suspicions though. Some on this board dismissed the ending altogether.

I was just about to respond with the same point. It's not a caper or a heist movie. It's a character-driven movie about 3 really messed up people trying to survive. With that in mind, the ending is nothing but brilliant.

I would say her emotional response was certainly toward Roy.
Lilly had the long drive back to LA to contemplate her shaky future. She did not have time to contemplate the sudden killing of her own son.
No amount of street-smarts prepared Lilly for that.

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I don't buy the Roy faking his own death scenario, because nobody's come up with an answer to this question: WHY would he do it? Why would he fake his own death? It's his money, after all - it's not as though he's conning Lilly out of anything. He would have had to have anticipated an awful lot in order to have a blood packet in exactly the right place when she hits him - and there isn't a single shred of evidence to support any con on his part beyond vague inconsistencies that are no more than continuity glitches. How long is she out of the room running the cold water? A few seconds? Enough time for him to grab the briefcase, empty it, hide the banknotes (where?), close the briefcase and then take up the same prone position - when he wouldn't even know whether she was going to leave the room at all, or for how long, or whether she might take the case into the kitchen with her anyway? The car at the end MIGHT have been following her (in the which case, it's Bobo's men, not Roy's) or it might simply have been a random car using the same road - and why anyone crossing the street should be seen as being significant is beyond me. People do, after all...

No, there is no planning involved in this final scene. These characters are all strictly small time. Myra relied on her former partner (Cole?) for her money previously and has been reduced to prostitution to pay her bills, Lilly has been siphoning off money from Bobo - and gets caught, while Roy gets beaten up when his money switch is spotted and, basically, knows his own limitations - he does not want to get involved in long term cons because they're too dangerous. None of them have the brains (or the desire) to pull off any kind of complicated con, no matter what Myra thinks - and they are all out of their depth in one way or another. As others have said, this is a character driven movie, dealing with three linked individuals who are basically losers and where, to put it crudely, s**t happens.