the revenge engine, dismantled by the program — "The man's going to two-step out…"
The man's going to two-step out of at the very least a probation-violation and prosecution on all his old highly convictable charges because I have to pitch the case, for the sake of my own recovery
Context
The program working by making the resentment unaffordable: the engine that has driven half of Gately's plot — the prosecutor with the kid's photo pinned to his Priority-board, biding his time to get him — is dismantled not by mercy toward Gately but by the A.D.A.'s own recovery, which requires him to pitch the case lest acting on the resentment doom him. The most convictable defendant walks because his hater's sobriety costs more than the conviction is worth. Recovery as statecraft: it doesn't make the man good, it prices his hatred out of reach.