The next day, when Rhoda is playing in the garden, the caretaker, LeRoy (Henry Jones), heckles her that she killed Claude with her shoes and that he, LeRoy, took the burnt shoes as evidence. When Rhoda reacts in anger, LeRoy realizes his accusation, made in jest, is actually true. He opens the incinerator and finds what remains of the shoes. Christine and Rhoda go to dinner at Monica's and Mrs. Daigle returns, drunk, demanding to speak with Rhoda. Outside, off camera, Rhoda sets a sleeping LeRoy's bedding ablaze to keep her secret safe. From the apartment window, Christine and Monica watch him burn (the viewer only hears LeRoy's screams). Christine babbles incoherently after witnessing the death; Monica realizes that Christine believes Rhoda is guilty of something awful, but still has no inkling that Christine believes Rhoda to have committed murder. That night, a visibly calm Christine tells Rhoda that she dropped the medal into the lake, and then gives her daughter a lethal dose of sleeping pills, telling her they're her new vitamins. Then she attempts to kill herself with a gunshot to the head (in the book and play, she succeeds). Instead of being killed, however, Rhoda and Christine are found and taken to a hospital and both survive. In the middle of the night, during a storm, Rhoda sneaks out in a rain slicker and goes to the lake and out on the wharf to try to find the medal. Lightning strikes her, killing her instantly, unlike in the novel and play.
At the end of the story, the cast is introduced during a theatrical-style curtain call. After her credit is read, Nancy Kelly delivers a spanking to Patty McCormack (both laughing). The spanking continues as the film fades out; a screen card then requests that the audience not divulge the ending.