How It All Goes Down
Nick Dunne—Ten Days Gone
- Gilpin and Boney whip out the diary and are prepared to use it against Nick. To start with, Gilpin asks Nick to tell him about Amy's illness, and he doesn't mean the fact that she's totally psycho. Nick doesn't know what he's talking about, so Gilpin points to an entry that describes the two of them having drinks, then Amy waking up sick the next morning with a headache and blue nails—cardinal symptoms of anti-freeze poisoning.
- Even though Nick contends that this never happened, the diary (as we already know) is filled with stuff that's got the power to send him to prison—we're talking rape accusations, fits of rage, and of course, Nick saying that he "might kill" her. Considering that Nick's lied to the cops a lot, none of this looks good.
- Here's the other thing: They found the diary at Nick's dad's house, in the furnace—the one place Nick didn't look—and the edges had been singed, making it look like Nick tried to burn it.
- As a result, Nick and Tanner don't have any other choice: they have to tell Boney and Gilpin that Amy is alive and framing Nick for murder.
- As expected, they don't buy it—Boney doesn't believe that Amy would really spend over a year plotting Nick's demise, while Gilpin says that only Nick, conveniently enough, understands the inside jokes in the treasure hunt clues. Meanwhile, Boney accuses him of being stoic and insensitive toward Amy's love notes. While Nick attempts to bring up Hilary and Tommy as evidence that Amy's done this before, Gilpin shuts him down—Hilary has made two suicide attempts and Tommy's a recovering drug addict, which makes them unreliable.
- Tanner attempts to bring out the Punch and Judy dolls to explain the symbolism in Amy's gift. This backfires in one incredibly explosive grand finale. Boney notices that the Judy puppet doesn't have a handle—which is big and weighty enough to be used to club someone to death. Like, in the head. Like, to make them bleed all over the kitchen floor. As a result, Tanner and Nick leave the conference room with Boney seeing Nick as guiltier than ever before.