- Oedipa drives down to San Narciso to meet Metzger, the co-executor of Inverarity's will.
- When she first arrives, she experiences "an odd, religious instant" (2.2).
- She wonders if this is how Mucho feels at work when he makes signals to the other DJ, but cannot hear the music that's being played; "did Mucho stand outside Studio A looking in, knowing that even if he could hear it he couldn't believe in it?" (2.2).
- Oedipa drives past Yoyodyne, a giant aerospace company that Pierce invested in and originally lured to San Narciso by getting the county tax assessor to give them a break; "It was part, he explained, of being a founding father" (2.3).
- Oedipa imagines the highway as a vein flowing into L.A., and herself as one melted crystal of heroin doing her small part to feed the city.
- Oedipa stops at a small motel called Echo Courts, which features a young seductive looking girl on their billboard.
- The manager is a young boy named Miles who whistles a song in an English accent as he walks her to her room.
- He then explains that he is in a group called the Paranoids, and they sing in an English accent because their manager thinks it will help them sell records.
- Oedipa tells Miles that maybe Mucho can play their tape on the radio, and he thinks that she is trying to proposition him and begins to move into her room.
- Oedipa picks up the TV antenna to defend herself, and Miles backs off.
- That evening after Oedipa has let her hair down, the lawyer Metzger shows up. He brings a bottle of wine, and Oedipa is surprised to find that he is remarkably good looking.
- As they begin talking, Metzger tells her that he used to be a child movie star, and that he performed under the name of Baby Igor.
- Metzger asks if Oedipa wants to know what Inverarity said about her as they drew up the will, but she is not interested.
- Oedipa turns on the television, and it is a movie called Cashiered that Metzger played in when he was a young boy actor.
- It's about a man who gets kicked out of the British Army because he is covering up for a friend, but to redeem himself he follows the regiment with his son and St. Bernard.
- The three of them build a mini-submarine and torpedo Turkish Merchantmen with the dog manning the periscope. (Yes, in case you were wondering, Pynchon is messing with you.)
- At one point there is a musical interlude, and Baby Igor sings a song.
- Oedipa thinks that Metzger must have paid the hotel manager to play the movie; "it's all part of a plot, an elaborate, seduction, plot" (2.31).
- The next commercial is for Fangoso Lagoons, which Metzger informs her Inverarity owned part of. The commercial brings back Oedipa's feeling of an odd religious instant, but then Cashiered comes back on.
- Oedipa and Metzger continue to drink wine, and then—in the movie—the sub passes through a minefield. Metzger rolls away from the TV set as if in trauma.
- He then explains that there was always a gate in the minefields for German U-boats to pass through, and Oedipa is vaguely impressed.
- The bottle of wine gone, Metzger pulls out a bottle of tequila. He reveals that he knew about Oedipa and Inverarity's trip to Mexico because Inverarity wrote it off as a business expense and Metzger did his taxes.
- Metzger begins explaining the kinship between lawyers and actors, and moves in on Oedipa. He tries to get her to bet on what'll happen in the movie, but she refuses.
- An ad comes on for Beaconsfield Cigarettes, in which we learn Inverarity also owned a stake.
- Oedipa bets that Baby Igor's family will survive the submarine battle, and Metzger continues to be coy.
- Oedipa "[hears] commercials chasing one another into and out of the speaker of the TV" (2.66).
- Oedipa changes her mind and bets that the whole family will die. Metzger kisses her hand.
- When the movie comes back on, Baby Igor and the dog are nowhere to be seen and Oedipa thinks she is right.
- She begins asking Metzger questions, and he says that they will play Strip Botticelli—every time she asks a question she has to take something off.
- Oedipa agrees, but tells Metzger she is going to slip into the bathroom and he has to close his eyes.
- In the bathroom, Oedipa puts on all the clothes she can find. When she looks in the mirror she sees "a beach ball with feet" and begins laughing so hard that she falls and knocks over a can of hair spray that begins atomizing and flying all around the room (2.78).
- Metzger rushes in and dives onto the floor beside her while the can flies around the room, breaking the mirror and shattering the frosted glass in the shower.
- Miles and his band—the Paranoids—enter, and think that whatever Oedipa and Metzger are doing, it's kinky.
- Oedipa asks the Paranoids to serenade her and Metzger, and the band goes out to the pool to set up.
- Another commercial comes on, and Metzger tells her that Inverarity owned part of that company too.
- "Sadist," Oedipa yells, "say it once more, I'll wrap the TV tube around your head" (2.86).
- The Paranoids begin to serenade Oedipa and Metzger from the pool.
- Oedipa and Metzger go back to Cashiered, and begin playing Strip Botticelli in earnest. Though Oedipa begins undressing she thinks "that they, among all possible combinations of lovers had found a way to make time itself slow down" (2.105).
- At some point, Oedipa goes to the bathroom to put on even more clothes, and returns to find Metzger passed out in nothing but boxer shorts. She rushes to him and begins kissing him.
- Metzger wakes up and starts undressing her, but by the time he has finished, she is asleep. They have sex anyway, with the Paranoids playing a fugue in the background.
- When they finish, the Paranoids blow a fuse in the hotel and all the lights go out.
- As they lie there "amid a wall-to-wall scatter of clothing and spilled bourbon," Baby Igor and his family drown on the TV screen (2.106).
- Oedipa is angry because she thinks that she should have won the bet. Metzger doesn't care.
- Oedipa asks what Inverarity told Metzger about her.
- Metzger says, "That you wouldn't be easy" (2.110).
- Oedipa begins to cry, but after awhile she goes back to Metzger on the floor.