Sometimes a Great Notion

The narrator offers glimpses into many characters’ lives. Hank and Lee go to bed with unsettled thoughts. The spiritual Indian Jenny has been rationing a bottle of whisky that she believes to be holy. Joe Ben superstitiously anoints each of his sleeping children with his spit because it is Halloween. Hank considers going to church with Joe Ben.

Lee tries to convince Viv to let him go with her to collect oysters. However, Joe Ben and his wife Jan are going to a church event, so Lee instead accompanies them. Still high from all the marijuana he’d smoked the night before, Lee leaves the church tent and walks back to town, intending to find Viv while she is collecting oysters.

A group of teens in a van pick Lee up and give him a lift. They tease Lee, calling him “Dad,” and he jokes back, though he feels suspicious of the teens. He asks to be let out near the shore. Lee makes his way through the thick vegetation of pitcher plants. On the beach, he runs into the teens again. Their van is stuck in the sand. The teens taunt him for not being a helpful Stamper, forcing him to try to get the van out of the water.