"Melinda, what happened tonight?" Officer Liu asks after pulling her to safety and calling for an ambulance. It's the final line of the film, and the credits roll before viewers can hear her response. What could her response even be, though? That she was Billy's willing accomplice in the robbery? That she was indirectly involved in Sheila's death? That she tied Billy up and attempted to sexually assault him? That the store is burning because she poured gasoline over everything to cover her tracks? Before her final confrontation with Billy, Melinda seemed willing and ready to confess everything to Officer Liu, but now, sitting in his prowler and basking in the glow of his undivided attention, the truth might not come out so easily.
Self-preservation is a good enough reason to keep her mouth shut, but there is another element, too. The events of the night have clearly awakened something within Melinda, a disturbing and sadistic streak that led her to not only meet the violence of the moment — knocking out Billy, pulling a gun on the bikers — but to take it to uncomfortable new lengths.
Cobham-Hervey saw the character as a "naive, innocent dreamer" and someone who is always looking for "positive connections," even if her methods are, to put it lightly, questionable. Keeping the truth from Officer Liu might keep Melinda out of prison, but it creates a distance between them, as Liu will only ever see her as a suffering victim. It's possible that Melinda will tell the truth in an effort to not just connect with her longtime crush, but to revel in the darkness that was within her all along.
