The scene where Steve is watching the news story about the robbery and murder of Mr. Nesbitt is freighted with great significance. And this is surely intentional on Steve's part, as he builds up in his mind a cinematic reconstruction of events. First of all, it shows how his involvement in this terrible crime just got terribly real all of a sudden. To hear about the crime from a newscast gives it a whole new dimension of reality—a degree of objectivity that Steve, as a participant in the robbery, can never gain himself.

An even more important aspect of this scene is when Steve's brother switches channels to watch a Road Runner cartoon. That the cartoon only makes an appearance for about thirty seconds doesn't in any way lessen its significance. For there's a lot of heavy symbolism here, in keeping with Steve's self-consciously cinematic approach to storytelling.

The cartoon could well be said to represent the innocent childhood world which Steve has left behind by participating in the hold-up at Mr. Nesbitt's drugstore and which he will leave even further behind when he goes on trial for murder. In symbolic terms, the flickering of the cartoon on Steve's shocked face represents the dying embers of his childhood innocence.