“the end”
In the end, the conditioning was removed due to political pressure and the gov was willing to kiss his butt, hence your correct perception that he saw himself in the catbird seat.
The inertness they’re referring to was the part of the film after conditioning and before it was removed, where he would get violently ill if his old personage began to rise, like when his old buddies, now cops, beat him up.
I hadn’t thought of it that way...
Great book...great movie. My wife hates it...she said it forever ruined “Singing In The Rain” for her. I think I understand, because it kind of did for me too.
She said she didn’t like it because it is all about indiscriminate violence, and I said. “Yes...then you understand it. That is the whole point of it.”
(of course, that, and the fundamental underlying premise that if you take away the ability for someone to be evil, does that make them “good”?)