'Mercy' Movie Ending Explained: Who Killed Nicole Raven? And Why?

In Mercy’s ending, LAPD officer Chris Raven finally solved the mystery centered around his wife’s murder, thereby proving his innocence in the Mercy Court. Four years ago, around 2024, Chris lost his long-time partner, Ray Vale, in the line of duty, and Chris tried his best to bring his partner justice, but the jury acquitted Alex Varga (the man who shot Ray) of all charges against him. It made Chris furious with the way justice was served in the country. The police officers put their lives at risk to catch these violent offenders, and the court simply released them based on the jury’s decision. It was the reason why Chris decided to create a system where these capital offenders are executed without any “mercy,” and thus came the idea of a fully autonomous courtroom where culprits are judged and executed by an AI. Yes, you heard that right. Mercy Court had an AI agent, Judge Maddox, who had access to the defendants’ digital footprint and all the crime scene evidence, based on which it would execute them. If the defendant couldn’t prove his innocence in 90 minutes, Maddox would mete out capital punishment. It was quite interesting the way the film handled this small detail, as all the violent offenders are sent to the AI-powered “chair,” the term that’s synonymous with what awaits convicts on death row. By the way, capital punishment is legal in California, though no such sentence has been carried out in the state since 2006. Okay, I know I bored you with the details, so without any further delay, let’s jump straight into who murdered Nicole Raven and why.

Spoiler Alert

David Webb Was Rob Nelson’s Brother

So, Robert “Rob” Nelson was Chris and Nicole’s common friend. He worked with Nicole in the Viking Shipping company, which delivered a lot of industrial-grade chemicals to numerous enterprises in California. And some two years ago, Rob met Chris in an AA support group and became his sponsor. But Rob didn’t grow close to Chris and Nicole by accident. He had been targeting them for a long time. Why? Because his estranged brother, David Webb, had been wrongly executed by Chris’ Mercy Court. Shortly after the AI program was started, LAPD arrested David for the murder of Valeria Bennett, and David went on to become the first person tried and executed by the Mercy Court. However, Rob always believed that his brother was innocent, as he was talking to David on call when Valeria was stabbed to death (just like Nic). But due to a lack of evidence, the AI declared David guilty and killed an innocent man. It was ironic that Chris’ computer-powered court, which was instituted to stop violent crime in the city, had its own chair stained with the blood of an innocent man. There’s a reason capital punishment has been discontinued by most of the states: even after lengthy investigations, detectives often fail to gather all the necessary evidence. What if some new evidence comes to light after a defendant’s execution and proves their innocence? Who will be held accountable for the defendant’s murder? You can’t say you made a mistake and just shrug it off. It’s why we have formulations like Blackstone’s ratio, that state that it’s better to risk saving 10 guilty men than to condemn an innocent one. The question here: can an AI agent understand the gray areas we are talking about? I’ll come to that later.

Rob killed Nicole Raven

After David’s murder, Rob decided to seek revenge against Chris and devised an elaborate plan to take away everything he held dear. He started stealing synthetic urea and nitric acid from his shipping company to create explosives. Rob’s endgame was to blow up the Department of Justice building from where the Mercy program was operated. In short, the place where his brother was wrongfully executed, and by bringing the entire building down, he wanted to make sure that Chris’ AI program could never murder another innocent man in the future. And when he had enough explosives in his arsenal, he finally decided to execute his plan.

On 14th August, 2029, Chris and Nic had a heated argument at their house. After staying sober for a year, Chris had started drinking again, and Rob, being his sponsor, was aware of the fact. It’s likely that Rob took advantage of the situation and hid Chris’ favorite whisky flask to make sure that he would come knocking down Nic’s door and pick a fight with her. At this moment, Rob was already hiding in the basement. He’d arrived there two days ago to attend a barbecue party but never left. Chris, on the other hand, in a fit of rage, had smashed Nic’s favorite vase in the kitchen, making things easier for Rob. After he left, Rob came out of the basement and stabbed Nic to death. He made sure that all the evidence in the kitchen framed Chris for his wife’s murder, as he was the last person who visited the house.

In the meantime, Rob left the house out the backdoor, believing there were no cameras around, but Chris’ neighbor, Bill Peterson, had installed a motion sensor-activated camera in his backyard, which captured Rob leaving the house. Due to an outage, the AI failed to retrieve footage from Peterson’s camera before the trial. A few hours later, Chris and Nic’s daughter, Britt, arrived at the house, only to find her mother soaked in her blood. She quickly informed the cops, who suspected Chris of his wife’s murder. The LAPD found Chris in a bar and asked him to surrender, but Chris started throwing punches at the cops, making his case worse. He was finally arrested and sent to Mercy Court to send a message to the public that no one is above the law, not even the man who started the AI program to execute violent criminals.

Rob Kidnapped Britt Raven

After Chris was arrested, Rob started loading the explosives onto a Viking Shipping truck. However, by this time, Chris and Maddox had figured out the link between the missing chemicals and Nic’s murder, which was why Chris decided to talk to Rob, but he was nowhere to be found. Maddox sent a SWAT team to his office, and it’s likely that someone or something alerted Rob, and therefore he made a short detour to Nic’s parents’ house and abducted Britt to make sure no one would blow up his truck or fire at him before the truck reached its destination. So, when Rob’s involvement in Nic’s murder and his master plan came to light, Maddox released Chris from the chair, believing he was innocent. But he didn’t want to go, because if the trial ended, Maddox would lose its access to the LA Municipal Cloud. In short, it wouldn’t be able to help Chris anymore, so Chris asked it to delay the judgment until he had stopped Rob. Yes, this was the moment the film became messy and unbearable. I won’t bother you with the details because, trust me, none of it matters. The film starts contradicting itself and making random choices just to follow the senseless logic it has set up.

Rob Was Arrested

In Mercy’s ending, Chris finally confronted Rob, who had held Britt at gunpoint and threatened to blow up the building. Why? Because he saw Chris as being guilty of executing an innocent man, his brother, David Webb. Okay, this is interesting; let’s talk about it. You see, Chris started the Mercy program because he was angry with the justice system that let his partner’s murderer get off scot-free. So here we have a man who justified creating a killing machine because his partner didn’t get the justice he deserved. My question is, would killing hundreds of men bring back the one he’d lost? I am sure even Ray Vale wouldn’t have agreed with Chris’ methods if he was still alive. As I said earlier, prolonged investigation and lengthy jury trials exist for a reason. It’s a delicate matter where everyone is trying to be very cautious so as not to execute an innocent man. I don’t have a law degree, but I think we all know why the justice department is independent of the police department. But in his anger, Chris tried to become judge, jury, and executioner. No, it wasn’t the AI. Artificial intelligence is just an excuse for those who have the power. In the end, they are all going to tell you that AI can make mistakes. But so can humans. And my dear friend, if you’ve already got people on standby to make mistakes, then why do you need an AI? To spike your share capital, right? Okay, let’s not go there. Let’s talk about the film.

The jury found Alex Varga not guilty of Ray Vale’s murder, but we all saw how he killed Ray, right? Chris saw his partner taking his last breath in front of his eyes. How could he forget it? So here, the jury released a guilty man. We can all agree that’s what happened. However, in David Webb’s case, Chris’ new partner, Jacqueline “Jaq” Diallo, removed David’s phone, which would have helped him prove his alibi, from the evidence room. Furthermore, in Chris’ flawed Mercy program, the defendants had to represent themselves in the Mercy court, meaning they weren’t given a chance to hire a lawyer with whom they could share their side of their story. Remember, Rob told Chris that his brother was mentally ill due to some childhood trauma, and obviously he couldn’t have been in a position to present the facts and figures to an AI. A human judge would have been able to understand his case better, but Chris snatched that opportunity from him. Now, if you compare both trials, in Alex’s case, Chris or any other cop could have brought up new evidence and reopened the investigation, but in David’s case, the man once murdered cannot be brought back to life. So, Rob was right. Frankenstein’s monster isn’t the real monster, but the man who created it. To exact his vengeance, Chris created a terminator and caused a ripple that not only killed David, but also Nic and the numerous other people killed by Rob. The thing is, Rob was doing the same thing Chris did in his time. They both sought revenge, but it was Chris who started this cycle. Thankfully, Chris didn’t shoot Rob for killing his wife, because the film wanted us to believe that its protagonist had learned his lesson the hard way. Nope. I don’t buy that crap. My issue with the film is that it refuses to see Chris as a monster. Instead, it delivers a line, “We all make mistakes, and we learn,” to wrap things up. Legally, Chris couldn’t be charged with David’s murder, but I think if he had an ounce of conscience left in him, he should terminate the Mercy program and resign from his post for his involvement in an innocent man’s murder. But he isn’t going to do that, right?

Jaq Will Be Charged

So Rob was right. He was talking to his brother, David, on the phone when Valeria Bennett was murdered. But because David was a homeless man living in the red zone who had accidentally picked up the murder weapon, the police presumed that he was guilty. After David’s arrest, Rob called the precinct to inform the cops of his brother’s alibi. This call was taken by none other than Jaq, who, just like Chris, wanted the Mercy Program to work, which was why she removed David’s cellphone from the evidence locker and disposed of it so he would be charged for murder. The funny thing is, Maddox told Chris that it could access everything on the cloud, but somewhere, it missed all the important details. In Chris’ case, it failed to check his neighbor’s backyard camera, which could have established Rob’s presence in the area. In David’s case, it failed to access Jaq’s bodycam footage. I mean, she was the cop who booked him. So isn’t it logical to check her bodycam footage to get a clear picture of the crime scene? I mean an AI is going to put a defendant on trial so one expects you know everything about the case because it may cost a man his life? So my question here is: when a human error costs a life, the people responsible for it are charged and arrested, like Jaq and Rob were. But what if a machine error kills an innocent? Who should be held accountable?

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