I think non-fans have a chance with that one.

Hmmm. You think he was maybe a private detective? The coat and hat are pretty stereotypical though, maybe he was more of a hipster drug lord. (extremely obscure rlm reference there.)

Only if Ralph ditched his racist family and showed that he understood that his family’s enthusiasm over anti-cat racism wasn’t acceptable any more.

I’m uncomfortable with treating these two events equivalently. So I’ll address the Sarah Lynn question, and ignore the second part.

He would be able to live his life without thinking that he was probably responsible for someone’s death. Not just anyone, either: a friend, a colleague, a former lover, a sort of daughter figure. Someone whose life he made worse by being around her.

The difference it would have made was inconceivably huge.