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  • Why didn't Nick refuse Darby's offer, and instead make a similar deal with Ames? Both Nick and Clyde knew Darby was the actual killer, and Ames tried to stop him. I doubt Clyde would have been nearly as mad about Ames getting a (deserved) slap on the wrist as he was about Darby getting it.
    • "It's not about what you know, it's about what you can prove in court." Simply put: Nick wasn't able to pin Darby as easily as he could pin Ames, as Darby was more than happy to throw Ames under the bus. Plus, the conviction record was too important to Nick. He later lampshades that he would've put Darby away if the crime scene wasn't contaminated.
    • Okay, then why was Ames easier to pin than Darby? Darby lacks even a single scene where he looks like he could begin to look sympathetic before a jury. Ames looks horrified with his role in what happened even at the time.

  • How the hell could Darby have possibly been allowed to plead guilty to murder in the third degree? The killings took place during the commission of a felony (home invasion), making it Felony Murder, and unless I am mistaken, felony murder is ALWAYS treated as first degree.
    • Incompetence comes to mind. During Clyde's bail hearing, he cited a case that had absolutely nothing to do with bail. The case was about filing paperwork related to an appeal after being convicted. And Clyde didn't even cite the case properly. That the judge treated it as relevant and was willing to grant bail because of that citing, along with all the other decisions related to the Darby case (by the same judge) says that she was either stupid or corrupt. In fairness, lack of evidence and confession also factored into the judge granting bail (perhaps also that she does remember Clyde, regrets approving the deal, and was trying to give him a break). It should be noted that she was the only judge who died in the film. Nick's boss, staff and assistant died for the same reason: they allowed a rapist/murderer to walk away with a slap on the wrist on their watch for their own personal gain.
    • 'Incompetence' doesn't work very well when the film is pushing at the idea of failures within the letter of the criminal justice system. If the judge is just an idiot that didn't know her law, that undermines the while thing. That seems like an excuse of poor writing more than anything else.

  • If Clyde was such a super assassin and strategic mastermind, then why didn't he apply any safety protocol to his own home? supposedly he was retired at that point, but you don't need to be part of a military black ops program in order to maintain basic security... Like having a peep hole installed in your front door.
    • Seeing how his identity seems to have been a closely guarded secret, having higher than usual security might raise unwanted attention. He also seemed to be expecting a food delivery, so his guard was down.
    • A peephole is literally just a hole in a door with a set of lenses for one-way viewing. Many front doors come with them by default, especially in urban areas.

  • Why would the guards allow Clyde to be given a steak with the freaking BONE still in it ?
    • The security was so convinced that Clyde had someone plant something in the food, they missed the obvious part of the T-bone already being in the steak. Mind that all of this was happening under pressure, which tends to make people miss otherwise obvious things.
    • Bones in food are one of the most basic things that COs screen for in specialized meals, and a T-bone steak literally has the word 'bone' in its name.

  • How did Clyde, who planned his revenge to the smallest detail that nobody in the Justice Department could find clues or trace back to him, not do a better job of hiding his financial transactions?
    • Because he wasn't planning to get away with it or he thought he had covered them but didn't know about the boyfriend that had access to the information needed. His plan was to have his revenge on every person that was directly or indirectly involved in allowing Darby to get off with little more than a slap on the wrist for murdering his family. At the same time, he wanted to force Nick to actually care about justice (actually doing his job) instead of maintaining his conviction rate.

  • This is a part of Clyde's plan I don't really understand. I probably missed his reasoning at some point. But why did he send the snuff film of Darby's death to Nick's family? I would think out of all the lines he was willing to cross to get his revenge, traumatizing an innocent young girl would not be one of them.
    • Nick cared about Clyde's brutally murdered family less than he did about having a clean record, so traumatising Nick's family is Clyde's way of giving Nick a taste of what Clyde was feeling, as well as making sure that Nick took the case personally for once.

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