feeling really crazy about my own private idaho again. i hate when people say that scott is the person who drives away with mike at the end because it undermines the gravity of the choice he made. maybe he DID feel the same way about mike maybe he DID get with carmela so quickly bc the sincerity of mikes confession scared him but honestly it doesnt even matter. if he did feel the same way and acted on that it would mean giving up whatever good graces with his father he had left and therefore losing his status/inheritance. it would mean he wouldnt be able to go through with the "incredible change" from a "fuckup" to a "good son" that he had been planning for literal years. maybe theres a quiet tragedy in his having to repress a part of himself for that but its really hard to see it that way while acknowledging that he had options that no one else did, that mike sure as hell didnt. scott made a choice to break mikes heart for the sake of money, power, respectability, and the film makes it painfully clear that he wouldnt undo it. his father dies he gets the money and he still wont even look at mike when he passes him on the street. mike hits a dead end and he doesnt have any ties that can save him. he cant count on scott to help him through his narcoleptic episodes this time the family he found in the other hustlers is awful his blood family is worse the best mike can hope for is that maybe this stranger is kinder and that this time it will be different. THATS why the person in the car has to be a stranger THATS why its the only ending that makes sense DO YOU GET IT