At the mention of the second victim's name, Vaughn's narrow-eyed stare is distracted by something off screen and there is a cut to the boy's mother approaching the dock. The movie's subliminal colour for danger is evident on the right of the frame in the form of the yellow road blocks and on the left by a fisherman in bright oilskin dungarees. As the camera tracks backwards the woman in the yellow sweater and hairband glimpsed earlier amongst the crowd comes into view. Spielberg cuts to a dramatic close up of the grieving mother's profile as she comes face to face with Brody. There is a certain theatricality to the scene: the measured approach of the woman in weeds and the dramatic gesture of the slap, which is followed by an accusation that in its repetition of the phrases you knew and my boy has a certain incantatory ton to it - elements that would not be out of place in a Greek tragedy.
A low-angled wide shot of the dock presents a tableau of Hooper, Vaughn and Brody against a backdrop of the chastened crowd and the crucified fish. As the chief walks away, mournful horns on the soundtrack signal the shift from the celebratory mood of the group with which the scene began to the tortured introspection of the main protagonist. The mayor once again takes control of the situation. He refers to the dead shark as 'an ugly sonofabitch', an epithet which Brody will use (but not complete) when he fires the fatal shot that blows up the air tank. Vaughn gives instructions for two fishermen to dump the carcass in the sea the following day, which serves to set up the upcoming scene where Brody and Hooper must perform their half-assed autopsy under the cover of night.
