- Nurse Ratched stands at the front of a room and leads an exercise class for the patients of the mental hospital. Ratched finishes up and everyone (including McMurphy) sits down in a circle.
- Nurse Ratched returns to where the last patient meeting left off, talking about how a patient named Mr. Hardy was talking about how uncomfortable he was with the way other men looked at his wife. He also said that he might have given his wife reason to seek sexual attention from other men, but he didn't specify how.
- Ratched asks the group if anyone has anything to say to Mr. Hardy, but everyone stays silent.
- Next, Ratched asks a bearded man named Scanlon to start the new group meeting by talking about himself. But he refuses to speak.
- Ratched moves next to Billy Bibbit, who also refuses. Nurse Ratched tries to shame him into speaking, but McMurphy interrupts by making a flicking sound with his deck of cards.
- Nurse Ratched takes the lead and asks Mr. Harding about his troubles with his wife. Harding uses a bunch of intellectual language that doesn't really go anywhere until another patient tells him to knock it off and get to the point.
- Harding gets agitated and starts ranting about a bunch of abstract concepts like form and content, thinking that he's saying something very clearly even though no one else gets it.
- Some of the patients start laughing when Harding uses the word "peculiar," and he thinks they're calling him gay. It's pretty clear that none of these people can get their ideas across to anyone else.
- Meanwhile, McMurphy is loving every second of what's going on.
- Another nervous man named Cheswick tries to come to Harding's aid, but Harding doesn't want his help. He turns on Cheswick and makes him feel terrible. Before you know it, everyone in the group is screaming at each other.
- The scene ends with McMurphy and Nurse Ratched sharing a hard stare. Dun dun dun.