Tally: "Just figured you were keeping track of every time. [1] I let you down, [2] I breached your trust, [3] I let you die"
Drag Path: Maybe once or twice or three, he's tried his hand at drowning me"
We just watched the end of the third cycle, where instead of letting TB down or flat out betraying him, he lost and "died". Drag Path narrates the fourth cycle
#Low stakes theory: Clancy just finished the third cycle
reef wren
left vine
reef wren
Or maybe torchie has to die for clancy to complete his cycle..
reef wren
Tally: "Just figured you were keeping track of every time. [1] I let you down, [...
To expand on this: this progression does show Clancy learning from each past cycle. First he let TB down, who thought Clancy would be able to break right out but overestimated this new exception's strength. So on the second cycle TB tries harder, a lot harder, to get Clancy ready for the fight. Maybe the strain was too much and pushed Clancy to turn on TB, using anger as the reason he accepts Blurryface and restarts the cycle. The third cycle we just watched let TB die, more metaphorically than anything; everything went perfectly, Clancy was ready, until he more or less gave himself up willingly (kinda)