Taxi Driver Scene 3 Summary

  • Tom and Betsy are chatting at the campaign headquarters.
  • They're discussing how they would light a match if they had certain fingers missing. Tom tries to light a match he has in his mouth and fails.
  • Tom talks about how the mob kills stool pigeons and how they blast dudes' fingers off as punishment.
  • Outside, Travis exits his cab and enters the headquarters. He walks up to Betsy, offers to volunteer for the campaign, and delivers a weirdly personal speech about how Betsy is the most beautiful woman he's ever seen.
  • She asks him about his opinion of Palantine's positions, and Bickle admits he doesn't know anything about them—but he asks her to get some lunch with him, and says she looks lonely and unhappy and that he'll be her friend.
  • Surprisingly, she agrees to grab something to eat with him later.
  • Cut to the snack at a diner: He's eating pie with melted yellow cheese, as she eats fruit salad.
  • Travis talks about a poster he wants to get for his room, and then asks Betsy about work, about Tom, and compliments her eyes. Travis says Tom and Betsy don't seem to have any chemistry.
  • He asks Betsy if she felt the intense connection he sensed with her immediately, and she says she did. Travis says he thinks Tom is silly.
  • Travis invites Betsy to a movie and she accepts. Then, she compares him to a guy who's "partly truth, partly fiction, a walking contradiction" from a Kris Kristofferson song.