- Travis goes to a porno theater and tries to hit on the woman who's running the concession stand. She won't tell him her name and threatens to complain to her manager.
- Travis orders snacks and soda and goes inside. The action on the porno theater's screen is blurred out, so we can't see anything.
- Even after his long shifts, Bickle still can't sleep. On the voiceover, he complains about his lack of purpose, his need for a place to go.
- He continues talking about a woman he has a crush on—she works for the campaign of a Presidential candidate, Charles Palantine. Bickle compares her to an angel.
- At the campaign office, we see her—Betsy—interacting with her co-worker Tom as they discuss how to market Palantine.
- Betsy notices Bickle staring at her outside the window in his taxi. She points him out to Tom.
- Tom goes outside to say something to Travis, but Travis peels out quickly.
- We see more of Travis driving around at night, picking people up, and watch the fare meter run.
- He stops off at a diner where three other taxi drivers are talking about women.
- One of them, Wizard, claims that he had sex with a passenger after she started taking off her panties in the cab. Wizard introduces the other two drivers as Dough Boy and Charlie T.
- Travis tells them about a report he heard—a cabbie was cut up by a crazy guy way uptown.
- He gets distracted by some guys who are dressed like pimps in the diner.
- The other cabbies urge Travis to buy a gun, while Travis stares at Alka Seltzer fizzing in his glass.
- Dough Boy shows him a piece of the actor Errol Flynn's bathtub he's trying to sell.