(Credits: Netflix)

Netflix is always one adaptation away from adding yet another gold to its hall of fame. And this time, Benjamin Caron’s Night Always Comes is the scoop of showbiz gold we’re talking about. Based on Willy Vlauntin’s 2021 novel, this Netflix film revolves around the desperate attempts of a woman living in the Pacific Northwest to raise enough money to stop eviction from a house in the city where she was born and brought up.

At the heart of the crime drama is Lynette, the protagonist portrayed by Vanessa Kirby, who has less than 24 hours to raise $25,000. Failure to do so will leave her and her family without a roof. To organise that lump sum amount, Lynette resorts to one bad decision that leads to another and yet another, causing a chain reaction of desperate attempts that put her in danger.

She walks a tightrope with each step she takes. But with every stretch of legs, she’s made to confront the ghosts of her past while grappling with the new ones that haunt her day and night.

But the question that looms over at large is: does Lynette raise enough money to save herself, her family, and her home? Let’s check out!

Night Always Comes ending explained

What are the sources of Lynette’s money-making strategy?

Lynette works two jobs alongside escorting in Night Always Comes. But despite her efforts to keep the family afloat, her mother, Doreen, ends up throwing her under the bus. “I think the idea that you can work three jobs and not be able to afford your home is uniquely a modern tragedy”, Caron weighs in to Tudum. As he sees it, Lynette’s story is a reflection of the American working class.

So, when Lynette is pushed to start anew with just a day in her hand, she takes the hard way out every single time. Starting with turning to Scott, her escort client, she requests to borrow money to help her with the deposit amount to secure her home. But Scott? He makes light of it, giving her a reality check that he comes only for his personal enjoyment, not to share in her family life burden.

Although she accepts Scott’s payment that night, she takes an impulsive decision to steal and abandon his car. Next, she resorts to Gloria, her escort friend, for assistance. While she agrees to help Lynette, stealing from her politician partner’s safe, she only gives $500 from the $3,000 Gloria owes her, leaving her to fret in another pad that’s beyond her means.

But how does Lynette open the safe?

Lynette in Night Always Comes is a woman with a plan, albeit only bad ones. Upon being left with a drop in the bucket, she tries to crack open the safe with a few codes she guessed. However, upon repeated failures, she turns to her bar co-worker and ex-convict Cody. Despite putting up a lie that it’s her safe that she had forgotten the passcode for, she fails to convince Cody.

But Cody agrees to help her out for a price. When his friend finally opens the safe, they find $19,000 cash and a stack of cocaine. While they try to outdo Cody and Lynette, stealing the things for themselves, the duo leave for the road quickly. However, still troubled with $4,000 less, Lynette requests that Cody sell Scott’s car.

She first goes to pick Kenny up from a friend’s place, and her brother and Cody gel up to each other. But just when viewers think there’s some light at the end of the tunnel, Cody snaps at Lynette. Firstly, she has yet to pay him, and secondly, she has still not taken into account just how risky this could have been for an ex-convict. While Cody grabs the cash and tries to leave, Lynette ends up running him over in a decision taken in the heat of the moment.

So, does Lynette get the remaining $4,000?

Lynette pulls out the last straw of her existential crisis by turning to her ex-boyfriend, Tommy, who pushed her into escorting. Back then, she was only 16 years old. Although Tommy agrees to finance the rest of the amount by selling the cocaine from the safe, it still leaves her $1,000 short. Lynette doesn’t have many options other than to agree to the deal. While they go to Tommy’s buyer, Blake, Lynette’s trauma comes back from her teenage years.

“Here, Lynette faces the forces that have shaped her story: class, money, gender, and the legacy of trauma,” Caron adds. Even the character Blake has knowledge of Lynette’s past, evident from the line where he refers to their deal as a “trip down memory lane.” But before she can figure things out, he gets inside an airpod, attempting to physically assault Lynette.

Lynette tries to make a run, smashing a lamp over Blake’s head. And once she finds Kenny, they hit the road again.

Does Lynette save her house ultimately?

Lynette’s ultimate roadblock is at square one: her mother, Doreen. The conclusion of the Netflix film offers a nuanced plot twist, where Doreen plucks out the shattered glass pieces while explaining the motivation behind her act. She clarifies that by purchasing the car, she intentionally wanted to stand in the way of the home purchase.

That confession was enough for Lynette to realise that, despite her desperate attempts, she’s back at where she started. She confesses that all she tried was to look out for her family. But once she understands her mother doesn’t want her around, Lynette leaves the house for good. She says one last goodbye to Kenny and leaves the cash for Doreen and Gloria.

As Caron puts it, “In the end, Lynette’s greatest moral act is to finally choose herself, to break the cycle of self-destruction that has defined her.” While you may find her falling into familiar patterns throughout the film, the final act of letting go and saving herself instead of the house defamiliarises Night Always Comes, snatching it away from the tropes of predictability.