I’ve been complaining all along that Killers of the Flower Moon doesn’t deliver a satisfying catharsis in the matter of Lily Gladstone‘s Mollie Burkhart character. She never slaps or even scolds her slow-on-the-pickup husband Ernest, (Leonardo DiCaprio) after learning he’d injected her with poison. And she never says boo to arch-villain William Hale (Robert DeNiro) for his complicity in murdering various Osage brethren.

This photo suggests that if push ever came to shove, the stout Mollie could have easily beaten Hale up (she’s almost twice his size) and could even give Ernest a bruise or a black eye or at least give as good as she gets in a wrestling match. The skillfully manipulative Scorsese never allowed viewers to contemplate Mollie’s size advantage, of course.

But if I’d been in Marty’s shoes, I would have insisted on a Mississippi Burning-style payoff in which Mollie gets Hale in a headlock and forces a confession. Or maybe just slaps him around for pleasure. You can call this a crude Charles Bronson scenario, but the heart wants what it wants. The heart of Joe Popcorn. I mean.

Remember Little Big Horn!