Bromden doesn't experience "the fog" anymore in the ward. He's asked clean up the staff room, which he believes has poison covering the ground. Because the staff thinks he's deaf and dumb, they allow him to continue cleaning in there while they have their meeting, during which the subject of McMurphy comes up. Some think he's just a con man that is not insane at all and some believe he should be sent upstairs to the Disturbed ward. Nurse Ratched says he can't go up there and they can't transfer him elsewhere because that would mean he's won. She wants to win, so they decide to keep trying to break him down.
In the next group meeting with the Nurse and the patients, many of the men appear to have gripes and concerns. They're standing up to the Big Nurse (McMurphy's definitely influenced them) for the first time. Then they go swimming and the lifeguard explains to McMurphy that since he's committed (and not sentenced anymore like he was in prison), they can keep him there as long as they want to. He also says that he has a cast on from a football game, but there is no cast. As Cheswick has a freak out screaming "I ain't a little kid!" to the Nurse for keeping his cigarettes from him, Bromden has a sad flashback to when his father signed the papers for the government to take his land. One day soon after, the aids have to pry Cheswick's fingers from the bottom of the swimming pool grate to bring him to surface - he has drowned himself.
Nurse Ratched finds Sefelt having a seizure because he hasn't been taking his medicine (he's been switching it with Frederickson) and yells at Frederickson for inducing his seizure. He comes to the conclusion that you're "damned if you do, damned if you don't," because either he had to take his meds that he hated and made him feel funny (and they never told him what they were either) or he switched with Sefelt and then he gets yelled at.
During a trip to the library one day, Harding's wife visits, blowing kisses to the staff (who let her in when they're not supposed to because she's so flirty) and other patients. Harding treats her like crap and McMurphy notices, telling Harding that he no longer feels bad for him. Harding tries to convince him that life with his wife was hell, but McMurphy doesn't get it - she seems nice, even though she's a bit forward with the other guys. What McMurphy doesn't know is that Harding is gay, which has surely had an effect on his mental illness since he doesn't want to admit it. Soon after, Bromden finds Martini pretending to be a jet pilot with the tub in the tub room.
