The phone conversation at the end of the movie ties up the plot's loose ends and everything seems to make sense until... Gloria says the words "Daryl Zero." How did she figure out who he was? (He was using a false name the entire time she knew him.) If you can make sense of this, please explain, because I'm mystified.
shareI don't think there is supposed to be a clear answer. It is just to show that she somehow figured him out. She was the one person that he understood and she was the one person that understood him. She was his equal. He is able to find find where she is going before she does, and, in turn, she can follow the crumbs back to his real name.
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She witnessed the confrontation between Stark and Arlo near the end. They used Zero's name then, and she looks like she might've been within earshot.
You're absolutely correct. Additionally, we know she's extremely talented in that she defeated the last PI that Stark has hired.
shareHow did Irene Adler in a Scandal in Bohemia who that it was Sherlock Holmes under his disguise. She just did; it was consistent with her character. This movie is certainly based on the Sherlock Holmes character and tales.
My accountant says, "1 + 1, 40% of the time, equals divorce".
Good call on Irene Adler. His words at the end echo what Holmes' says about Adler.
Also, of course, Holmes' general reticence with women, his use of drugs, etc.
too right, she is obviously good at detecting herself, since she found out who her father was. i am guessing she probably made a list of who her father was likely to employ to find out who the blackmailer is in order to find out how to foil them, as is mentioned early in the movie, she foiled at least one previous detective. she must have known about elusive but greatest detective, "Daryl zero", but since he keeps his face and person under wraps, she wouldnt have recognized him right off. but when she found out he wasn't who he said he was, she started deducting who he could be.
remember the famous sherlock axiom: "Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."
I think she's suspicious of him from the get-go. She's clearly no fool, and given her situation must be acutely aware of anyone she runs into on a regular basis-- especially random people who can mysteriously divine that she's a paramedic. Remember at one point, Zero says that Stark isn't generally paranoid since he doesn't remember Zero's (fake) name. But Gloria does take the trouble to find out Zero's (fake) name from the receptionist-- very telling. Later, the question about the "corrodium 3 deduction" was clearly meant to be a test to see if Zero really was an accountant (apparently he passed the test-- but again, she's clearly no fool, and must know that a phony accountant can do his homework). Later still there is a scene where the receptionist mentions that Zero told her he's an architect. I think that's probably the final evidence for Gloria that he's not who he says he is. So she was probably suspicious all along that there was more to him than there seemed to be, and there are small clues along the way. It wouldn't be hard for her to figure out that he's probably an investigator, and we're left to imagine how she could figure out exactly who he is.
share
She was still somewhat surprised when the receptionist says he's an architect, though. (The reciept left on the table helped confirm he wasn't really an accountant.)
I don't think it matters so much how she figured out who he was -- I think it's more meant to be a sign of intimacy that she somehow does know.
"Later, the question about the "corrodium 3 deduction" was clearly meant to be a test to see if Zero really was an accountant (apparently he passed the test-- but again, she's clearly no fool, and must know that a phony accountant can do his homework)."
No actually, he failed the test. Corrodium is a fictional element, and when he went on to make up an explanation for it, she immediately knew he wasn't an accountant and thus likely not who he said he was.
I don't think she was in any way his equal. She simply didn't seem that bright.
She was also ridiculously easy to catch. Don't know how the last PI didn't catch her.
That said, she was somewhat cute.
Well said, Lord-Z:
She was his equal, one thing he had never encountered before.
That's why they came together, romantically speaking, in the first place, though neither knew why at the time.
One of the best movies ever made.
I think Lord-Z has it right. DZ left enough "crumbs" -- the forgotten receipt, the fictitious Corrodium 3 explanation, the account/architect lie, how he accidentally showed his firearms expertise after acting like he'd never handled a gun before -- for Gloria to deduce that he was, indeed, the famous Daryl Zero. He did, after all, declare her to be his equal.
Case closed.
I think the corrodium 3 deduction was supposed to be true, at least that is how I took it.
I agree with whoever said it just showed how much alike they had, strong intuition and deductive/investigative skills. I love this movie.
Hmm, im probably way wrong, but i thought it was cuz pullman was telling the story throughout the entire movie on his PC, he was typing out his memoir of that case ,not telling the story as it happened, it was telling the story much longer after it happened, and at the end when she called him Daryl Zero, that is when(while he was retelling the story on his journal memoir PC thing) he just put that in as his name, since that was what she referred to him as and he is the only woman he ever loved. So i think the name meant something to him, plus it explains to me the funny look on his face when she says Daryl Zero over the phone, cuz he is like oh,thats a new one(he used a few diff names during the memoir)!!!It wasnt ah , omg how did she figure out my name was Daryl Zero, i dunno, that is my analysis, if it makes any sense.
shareThe character of Gloria is portrayed as a very skillful and intuitive person in her own right. Given that she is putting herself in considerable danger by blackmailing Stark, Gloria is hyper aware of everyone around her. When she first meets Daryl at the gym, she is impressed and a bit intrigued when he deducts that she was a paramedic. Being a detective requires a broad sense of intuition and she picks up on that. From that moment on, she begins to investigate Daryl. When she asks him to do her taxes, it's because she wants to catch him in a lie. When he agrees to help her, she takes it one step further and asks him about a vague tax deduction. He calls her bluff by knowing what she is talking about. She almost lets her gaurd down until the girl at the gym mentions that he's an architect and not an accountant. After that, she's back to trying to figure him out. Although it's implied that when Daryl forgets to take the reciept when they leave the restraunt they were eating at that it tips her off, it's really just one last piece of conformation that he isn't who he says he is. Off screen I think Gloria has pin pointed who Daryl really is by keeping track of Stark as well. On the phone, she even mentions that 'the others' never got close to her. So it's easy to assume that she already knew she was being persued by Daryl Zero. She just didn't know exactly who he was til she met him posing as Nick Carmine.
shareThere's another possibility... although the character of "Daryl Zero" is unknown to me (and likely most who've seen the film) it's indicated that he is supposed to be well known in the country... like Hercule Poirot or Nero Wolfe. Since she knows Stark has been hiring detectives, it figures that with his money, he can hire "the world's best detective". So it would be an easy guess for her.
"I think that boy's cheese slid off his cracker" The Green Mile
I think this guy got it!
I mean, we have zero information on how she figured it out s we have to analyze the whole thing and I think this is it. Zero is well known in that universe(remember the cop's reaction when Arlo mentioned Zero) So it makes sense she put 2 and 2 together
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