Gone Girl Chapter 26 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Amy Elliott Dunne—February 15, 2012

  • Check out that date, folks—we are getting closer and closer to the day Amy disappeared. Keep your eyes out for clues, because this entry contains several important ones.
  • According to Amy, something is really, truly, radically wrong with Nick. It's a kind of depression that's moved past the normal grief of losing a parent and turned into sheer resentment toward Amy. One night, she finds him sitting alone at the table looking at a pile of credit card bills. Could they be the same bills Boney and Gilpin showed Nick at his interrogation, the ones he claimed to know nothing about?
  • Then things really take a turn for the worse: Nick starts abusing Amy physically. He pushed her and she hit her head on the kitchen island, and then he attacked her. He apologized, but she doesn't believe him—the look on his face as she stared up at him from the kitchen floor was like he wanted to do it again.
  • As a result, we now get an answer to an important clue in the case: the story of the day Amy went to buy a gun. Noelle told her about the mall and how easy it is to buy contraband, so she tried to get one. The irony of the moment isn't lost on her—it's Valentine's Day and she's going to buy a gun to have on hand if Nick ever tries anything again. She doesn't think he will, but claims she'd feel safer if she had a weapon. Of course, we all know that the quest for the gun fails.