Jim: I was afraid to...

Helen: But you could have written, it's been almost a year since you escaped!

Jim: But I haven't escaped! They're still after me! They'll always be after me! I've had jobs, but I can't keep them. Something happens... someone turns up...I hide in rooms all day and travel by night...No friends, no rest, no peace. Keep moving.. that's all that's left for me! Forgive me Helen. I had to take a chance to see you tonight...just to say goodbye...

Helen: Oh Jim! It was all going to be so different...

Jim: It is different... they've made it different! (a noise startles him) I've got to go!

Helen: I can't let you go like this!

Jim: I've got to!

Helen: Can't you tell me where you're going? (he shakes his head, glassy-eyed) Will you write?(he shakes his head) Do you need any money? (again, a shake) Jim! How do you live? (he is completely obscured by shadows now)

Jim: (a disembodied voice emanating from a black screen) I steal!

No problem solved by deus ex machina. No subverter of the American Dream identified and exposed. The state itself is indicted for its role in the reduction of Allen to a non-person. The film does not offer any hope of redress from within the system. And Jim doesn't even get to be a martyr.

"I steal".