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Probably the first letter of your fish stands for the partner, the rest means "out" in the sense of "mistaken". Does that make sense?

It seems very inconsistent and arbitrary as to whether the theme-word is added to the answer (e.g. 6D), or it or a synonym is removed from the question (e.g., 1D),, or neither (e.g., 3D).

However, I still cannot parse 4A (although it is an anagram of a synonym of the theme-word), 1D (is JC a mushroom?), or 17D (although it's almost there!).

And I have no idea about 14A yet!

Thanks, GK - that makes perfect sense!

Reference GK's last posting, surely the theme word has to be added to the answer, so the answer to the clue is actually three letters long? It almost looks as if "gone out" is superfluous.

Pendragon:
4a is the anagram you suspect, anagram indicated by 'criminal', but the 'criminalised' word in the clue is omitted.
1d is Jesus Christ, not a mushroom.
14a Definition is beyond content/happy.

Pendragon: I agree on your general point --- too random in the end.
4a: first 4 wds = def.; anag of syn of theme wd, I suppose
1d: An unusual word but of course in Ch.; word-play was correctly expl. above, removing the zero!
17d I explained above (I assume you know the theme wd!)
14a imo a brilliant clue, & the last one in for me: def is "beyond content" (correctly accented!);anag of "garden I let" minus theme wd

Feeling better now?

The theme may be added or removed from the clue or the answer.

Indeed, nikki --- but that does turn out a bit weak in some cases, I find.

Did anyone follow Ixion's expl. for 36d? I didn't!

Assuming you mean 3d, GK, the island is Guam. The theme is removed from the added 'mo'.