So, Nate takes matters into his own hands, and beats Tyler to a pulp, nearly murdering him. One could believe this show of violence is for Maddy, but it’s not. It’s an outlet for Nate’s wild rage and a way to make his many dreams of retribution real. Since Nate has terrible information on Tyler, he can brutalize him without threat of retaliation. We can tell this is Nate’s driving force by how cooly he leaves the scene: freshly showered like Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) in American Psycho and wearing Tyler’s clothing. Nate’s ability to look even better in Tyler’s clothing than Tyler is part of the draw. Maddy is an afterthought here.