Dark Family Drama Unfolds in Gripping Netflix Thriller

Night Always Comes has been a strong performer on Netflix, and an early scene in the film, where Doreen comes home with a new car, features one of the most perplexing character actions in the entire story. Night Always Comes deviates from its source novel in some unexpected ways, crafting a taut and suspenseful thriller.

Night Always Comes’ great cast sees Jennifer Jason Leigh, star of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, taking on the important role of Lynette’s mother. Doreen is an important character in the film, where she, Vanessa Kirby’s Lynette, and Zack Gottsagen’s Kenny live together, putting great effort into just making ends meet.

Steeped in dark realism, not everything works out in Night Always Comes’ emotional ending. While there are elements of a happy ending, there is also a great deal of pain that comes along with the film’s conclusion. Much of this pain is rooted in the relationship between Lynette and Doreen, made manifest by the latter’s new Mazda.

Lynette’s Mom Never Wanted To Keep The House In Night Always Comes

Doreen buys the Mazda so that Lynette will not be able to buy the house. She has a great deal of bitterness over her own past, earned through years of laboring under a system that has not given her much care, and justifies this purchase as her finally doing something for herself.

Lynette needed $25,000 as a down payment on their home, as well as for her mother to co-sign on the loan. The movie begins with a tense scene of meeting with the seller, where Lynette repeatedly promises that Doreen is on her way. Doreen does not arrive, and Lynette is left with one more day to get things together.

One of the best reasons to watch Night Always Comes is the performances, which add greatly to the scene where Doreen and Lynette finally speak their minds to one another. In this tense mment, it comes out that Doreen never actually planned on buying the house.

Doreen avoids telling the truth about this at first. She claims that she tried to tell Lynette that she didn’t want the house, and insists that Lynette wouldn’t listen to her. Following this disagreement, Doreen decided that throwing away the money on a new car was her only escape from sharing a doomed mortgage with her daughter.

Through their conversation, the truth slowly begins to come out. Doreen has a great deal of resentment for her daughter and her past, blaming Lynette directly for getting into sex work at age 16. She claims that Lynette is not stable enough for them to build a sustainable life together and looks to escape from her.

Doreen is hurting, and she punches down. She projects her own guilt onto Lynette and uses that as an opportunity to push her out of their lives. Doreen made plans to abandon her daughter, and she made the cowardly decision to buy a car to force the situation rather than confronting the difficulties of their relationship head-on.

The truth of this finally comes out when Lynette pleads with her mother for help, and Doreen tells her plainly that she can’t save her. This cold scene hurts, especially after Lynette’s desperate efforts throughout the film to give all of them a brighter future.

Unfortunately, it seems there has always been difficult tension between Lynette and Doreen, and it is largely caused by a lack of social support. With such complex experiences, it is easier for Doreen to place the blame directly on her daughter rather than to confront the structural injustices that have forced them into such dark circumstances.

The ending of Night Always Comes is hard and emotional, but it does give Lynette some agency. Unfortunately, things are more tragic for Kenny and Doreen. Wrapped in loss and bitterness after having been exploited by a difficult world, they move on without Lynette, replacing her with a brand-new Mazda.