How It All Goes Down
Nick Dunne—Forty Days Gone
- We are now entering the third and final part of our saga, Shmoopsters, aptly titled "Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa)."
- Nick is out on bond waiting for his murder trial to start. This is actually quite a testament to his cooperation—they chose to let him return home since he didn't skip town in the days before his arrest. Nick figures he's got three months left in his house before he's bussed off to prison—or until he kills himself, because there's no way he's going to give Amy the satisfaction of seeing her plan fully play out.
- Meanwhile, Nick continues his ploy to get Amy to come home. Every day he does a taping for Rebecca's crime blog, where he waxes poetic about fond memories of their marriage and works up some tears. The truth is, he really just wants her to come home so he can let her have it for ruining his life. Plus he's facing a murder conviction, and a future death row inmate's gotta do what a future death row inmate's gotta do.
- Nick has just finished the day's taping of the Sucking Up to Amy Internet Hour when there's a rush of voices from the camera crews camped outside. Someone frantically rings the doorbell three times in a row—trained to not hide from bad news, but let it pour all over him like toxic hot fudge, Nick immediately answers it.
- It's Amy. She's returned.
- And she's in really bad shape. Her wrists and ankles are purple and bruised like she's been tied up, her face is bruised and beaten, and her body is covered in dried blood. She practically jumps on Nick and holds onto him, and as much as he wants to kill her right there, the cameras are rolling, so he hugs her back and gives them what they want to see.
- Inside, she tells Nick that Desi Collings abducted her the morning of their anniversary. The handle to the Judy puppet had fallen off and she'd just finished looking for it. He used it to beat her unconscious in the kitchen—at least according to her story. She's also turned super sweet, asking Nick if he found the puppets for their anniversary gift. Whatever happened to "You are done" and "Follow your beloved river up up up"?
- Nick accuses Amy of framing him for murder and she says she can explain. Rather than feeling the total rage he's felt since he learned she was plotting against him, he experiences a confusing mix of emotions as he recalls memories from their life together and the plans he'd once made for them. Still, he has to face up to the nightmare she's created and get some answers.
- To begin with, he wants to know why every anniversary clue lead to a place where he had relations with Andie. Amy just pretends not to know this, saying that all the locations were meaningful to her and Nick and she didn't know about the affair until Andie came out to the news about it (Desi made her watch all the media coverage of her disappearance as torture).
- There's a lot Nick wants an explanation for—the diary, the panties in his office, her purse. Right now, though, he has one disturbing question that outweighs them all. Where's Desi? Amy's only response is a quiet, sad smile.