How It All Goes Down
Nick Dunne—One Day Gone
- Nick leaves the press conference knowing that he screwed up by smiling and being socially awkward on camera, but it's too late now.
- Gilpin gives him an update. The cops have been canvassing his neighborhood, including a couple of vacant houses with squatters. Nick suggests that the kidnapper may have been one of the dozens of unemployed, disgruntled men wandering the streets of Carthage. In case you haven't picked up on it, the town isn't exactly prosperous, especially since their mall, the biggest thing to ever happen to them in terms of jobs, has totally gone under in the bad economic conditions.
- Gilpin finally lets Nick open his anniversary gift. It's the first clue to the treasure hunt, which describes a rhymed fantasy scenario of sex and role-playing in Nick's office at the local college, where he's an adjunct professor of journalism. Nick is stunned by how easy she seems to have made the clues this year. To both finish Amy's treasure hunt and retrace her steps of the previous few days, Nick and Gilpin set off for Nick's office.
- In the office, they discover three things. The envelope marked "Second Clue" has two notes in it—the clue itself and a love note talking about how brilliant Nick's mind is. Gilpin also discovers a pair of red panties hanging on the office doorknob. Embarrassed, Nick explains that he and Amy liked to have sex in his office sometimes to make things interesting.
- Nick and Gilpin read the second clue, which is not revealed to us, and when Gilpin asks him what it means, Nick lies and says he doesn't know.
- Once Gilpin decides to get lost, Nick takes a cruise over to the Days Inn, where the Elliotts have set up headquarters for the Find Amy Dunne Taskforce. Marybeth and Rand are still both a mess and are even contemplating drinking alcohol, which is probably a rarity for them. The Elliotts make it clear that they think the police's suspicion of Nick is totally ungrounded and that they have told the detectives so—Nick isn't so sure he believes them.
- They also explain that they're concerned that the kidnapper may have been some kind of Amazing Amy groupie, which sounds kind of creepy, but apparently does exist. In high school, Amy's best friend, Hilary Handy, was obsessed with her, even dyeing her hair blonde and telling the Elliotts that she was going to kill Amy and be their daughter instead. Weird.
- Another potential suspect is Amy's old prep school boyfriend, Desi Collings, who is another freak show in his own right. Things started out pretty innocent between Amy and Desi, until Desi started planning out their life together, right down to the number of children they'd have and their names and genders (all boys). This understandably freaked Amy out, but what really ripped it for her was when she met Desi's mom, Jacqueline—and discovered she looked exactly like her. Hello, Oedipus complex. As a climax to the whole mess, Desi broke into Amy's dorm room, got naked, and overdosed on pills. Obviously he lived, but his relationship with Amy did not—even today though, Desi continues sending Amy letters, which she promptly throws away.
- Nick decides to go check out Desi on his own, since he lives in St. Louis, which isn't a far drive. Marybeth says that the police definitely think that someone in the vicinity was involved. She looks at Nick for a disturbing, brief second, as if she momentarily suspects him and then dismisses the idea.