the notion of the higher power; of the anonymous authority in the next room – whether that be a dead father, or a religious deity; a coin toss, or the higher ranking police officer on the telephone. The fact is that both Anton and Llewelyn buy into that notion wholeheartedly as the concept of fate, in order to avoid being held accountable for their choices as men, and they destroy everyone around them as a result.

Carla Jean, by contrast, spends the entire movie deferring to Llewelyn as the higher power, repeatedly asking him, “What should I do?” Only at the end, as she is faced with her own mortality, does she demand that this man - this stranger; this unknown power; this person who has helped create her situation in collaboration with her dead husband - acknowledge his autonomy, as he...

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