Being that Trey's relationship with her was questionable to begin with, it won't last since Trey has to live with her dealing with moments that can trigger the trauma all over again. Examples being Emily seeing a truck similar to what Jason drove, the sound of a lawn mower, and reading or hearing of other women going through the same thing she went through.
Even worst is hearing when Jason gets out of prison. Jason is only serving ten years for his crimes. One can only imagine the horror she'll feel when he gets out or... when he attacks another woman after getting out.
If Trey is not sincere in being patient with her as promised, Emily will have to end the relationship again, but for good.
Since he is only getting tens years, his reign of terror may continue when he finishes his time in prison. If not...
Being that Jason came from a pretty comfortable life before he was convicted, he most likely will hang himself to give his victims a hollow victory in sentencing him.
Jason's reign of terror in Los Angeles might not be an isolated incident. He may have attacked other women in different states but wasn't brought to justice for those crimes yet. If Jason Barnes isn't his real name, then Emily and the other survivors aren't his only victims. He could have an estimate of 30 other victims behind him with some of them not going to the police out of fear and intimidation.
The film ends saying that Jason was sentenced, not convicted. These two meanings are different:
- A Conviction refers to the outcome of a criminal trial. It is the act of proving or declaring a person guilty of a crime.
- A Sentence, on the other hand, is the formal declaration by a court imposing a punishment on the person convicted of a crime.
- A Conviction is a result of the verdict of a judge and/or jury. In contrast, a Sentence is typically ordered by a judge.
- The court cannot order a Sentence unless the person has been found guilty or convicted. Therefore, a Conviction must precede a Sentence.
This means Jason has enough time to appeal both his criminal and civil court cases. In other words, he can sue Emily, the other women he raped, his neighbor, Trey, and the Police Department for damages even though he got caught.
The civil suit he would have target Emily, the other women, and his neighbor with would be Defamation since the neighbor didn't come forward to the police and none of the women submitted Rape kits for the trial. He can sue Trey for violating his Restraining Order in approaching his neighbor. As for the police, he can sue them for negligence and get the criminal case thrown out as a Mistrial.
In conclusion, if the police would have done their job and helped Emily submit a Rapekit and got a proper statement from the neighbor, Jason wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
However, no matter how many times this film is viewed, it's pretty clear that Jason won't do prison time and he wins in the end because of how flawed the Justice system is.
Poor Emily is going to have watch Trey serve time for running Jason over with his car and because she took him back, if they get married, they will be in millions of dollars in debt after Jason sues them. They'll have to sell their LA home and return to Idaho due to not having enough to pay back to Jason, even though Emily's Rape wasn't her fault.
