The role of Peggy...

I can kind of see what you mean. Ultimately Peggy got the better ending


They've got cars big as bars, they've got rivers of gold

That's exactly what I thought too.

Siri
Don't Make Me Have to Release the Flying Monkeys!

It was a great role for Shelley Winters and she played it well. She's a tough broad who usually plays those kinds of characters but Peggy is different and she still pulls it off. It's critical to the story that Peggy is believable as a family-focused, sweet young woman. Shelley makes us care about Peggy; that someone like her could end up in a situation like that.

She thought the guy was interested in her only to find out she was used. She felt horrible she brought Nick into her home and subjected her family to that ordeal. It's all believable, even that she's willing to sacrifice herself and leave with Nick for the sake of her family; and the hurt she would feel when they don't see that. Her sacrifice is what ultimately saves them. By taking action she gave them the strength to act too.

Technically, it's a happy ending but no one walks away from such an experience unscathed. They all have their lives and that's great but the family's home has been contaminated with the memory of that jerk in it, holding them hostage, mistreating them. They will lose some of their peace of mind, some trust in others, and for Peggy her innocence but they, especially Peggy, gained strength. She had to kill someone; a scum though he may have been, she still had to take a life.


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]