Huh? How did Walker crack the Roleplay case??

[pogofan]

Can anyone explain how Walker concluded, almost correctly, that the college girl using the Retro Girl costume had hired the Pulp? (Actually, the group as a whole had tried to hire him but failed; anyway, he was close.) I know Walker heard the dying Pulp say "The rule of the day is, 'Get them before they get you, and you win.'" And before his fight with the Pulp, he'd been told by another of the college kids that he thought he'd heard the Pulp ask his previous victim, "Why did you take her?" But I have no idea how he would've figured out the girl's involvement from that. What am I missing?

[tdaniel]

I think if you go back to the beginning of the arc you'll see Deena discover her and question her. Now with 4 dead students dressed as powers and one dressed as Retro Girl fearing for her life it makes sense Walker plays this hunch and puts 2 + 2 together.

[pogofan]

Whuh?? Sure, they'd met the pretend "Retro Girl" earlier: it was in questioning her at the station that they got the description that pointed to the Pulp. But I still don't see how Walker would go from

1) The Pulp has targeted for murder a group of kids who dress up as super-heroes [sorry, "powers"].
and
2) At least one of the kids is still alive (actually, more than one).
to
3) Therefore, that kid must have hired the Pulp.

What would make Walker think that she, or any of the kids, had done anything to deliberately attract the Pulp's attention? The fact that she was afraid for her life doesn't help; she would be afraid almost regardless of the Pulp's motives. (If anything, seeing her afraid might have undermined Walker's theory that she had hired the Pulp.)

The best idea I can come up with is that the Pulp's dying words sounded like something he had picked up from contact with the kids--even though I don't remember seeing "retro Girl" or anyone else referring to "the rule of the day" or even "winning." But even taking that premise, why would Walker assume that the previous contact had involved someone HIRING the Pulp?? And why assume it was "Retro Girl"?

I hope there's more to it than that--because if the internal logic of the series is as weak as it seems to be here, I won't want to follow it any further.

[rdrsfn82]

I believe it's the line about the rule, I think one of the earlier characters said that line as well and that's how he figured it out.

[pogofan]

I believe it's the line about the rule, I think one of the earlier characters said that line as well and that's how he figured it out.

I just reread the entire story, and nothing about a "rule of the day" appears anywhere until the Pulp says it. So it seems that Walker just pulled this insight out of the air. (Or using amazing powers of intuition, which amounts to the same thing from the reader's point of view.)

Wow...I realize there are other important things like character development, dramatic tension, etc., but a series that pays so little attention to internal plot logic is not for me.

[Doctor_Chronos]

Write it off to he had a Sherlock Holmes or a Monk moment.

[seanmac81]

I think it was more the "Get them before they get you" line. That would seem to imply that the people the Pulp was killing were somehow after him for some reason, and the Pulp, crazy mo-fo that he was, decided to kill them first. SO why would a bunch of wimply roleplayers be after the Pulp? Because they hired him to be part of the game. Doesn't seem like too much of a leap to me, and this is the conclusion I came to when I first read it.

[amphacid]

I think when Walker asks the fake retro-girl "Why did you hired him", "you" refers to the whole roleplayers group and not only to her.

He goes to the last player alive, that's all.

I didn't see a flaw in the plot there.

[macchupichu]

Write it off to he had a Sherlock Holmes or a Monk moment.

monk's secret name is sherlock ?:confused: