Summary
Having returned to the ward after electroshock treatment, McMurphy is all the more motivated to break out of the hospital. He visits Chief’s bed to tell him that they need to break out, but Chief does not agree, and tells McMurphy he cannot go with him. McMurphy will not take no for an answer, insisting, “It’s easier than you think, Chief.” Chief Bromden confides in McMurphy about his tragic life, how his father is a drunk, and how he does not want to return to the outside world. The ward is a safe shelter from the dangers of society. To illustrate his plight, Chief Bromden tells McMurphy that his father was a big man, and because he was confident in his size, the world “worked on him” and so he “shrank” himself with drinking. Seeing that the world did not allow his father to live to his full potential, Chief Bromden has sought shelter in the routinized uniformity and relative safety of the hospital.
McMurphy remains motivated to break out of the hospital, and invites Candy into the hospital to help him celebrate on the eve of his escape. When the guard Turkle tells McMurphy to go back to sleep, McMurphy brings him over to meet Candy and her friend Rose at the gate. While Turkle is disapproving at first, McMurphy bribes him with the promise of getting to spend time with Rose, so that Turkle will let the women into the facility. Turkle is taken in by the promise of flirtatious attention, and allows the women to enter.
McMurphy wants to have a celebration in the ward with the other men before making his permanent escape, and to bring the patients one final moment of joy and celebration. Rose stays with Turkle, gently flirting with him to distract him from the mayhem they have planned, while McMurphy takes Candy for a walk around the facility. The men wake up to McMurphy flickering the lights in the ward and Candy singing over the loudspeaker. Delighted and confused, the men awaken and follow McMurphy into the nurse's office to drink and celebrate Christmas. When Turkle finds the men partying in the nurse’s office, he becomes angry that they are imperiling his job.
The departure of McMurphy would never come without some kind of risk, and the noise in the ward almost gives them away to hospital authorities. Turkle's scolding is interrupted by the clicking footsteps of a night supervisor coming down the hall. Frightened of the consequences, the men hide in the office. Turkle speaks to the supervisor, insisting that he was just listening to a record and that he has done nothing wrong, but unfortunately they are interrupted by a crashing noise. Just as the viewer thinks the men will be found out, Candy peaks her head out giggling and closes the door. Turkle pleads with the supervisor and insists that he was lonely, pretending that Candy is the lone visitor. This is enough to convince the supervisor to look the other way, but not before she insists that he send the woman home immediately.
After the supervisor leaves, Turkle sends the patients back to bed, angry that his job has been put in the balance. The nurse’s office is a mess from the debauchery of the men, but the men do not listen to Turkle, instead celebrating Christmas together in the ward, streamers and music and dancing included. The men use the record player that once was the source of acute tension between McMurphy and Ratched to play Christmas music and to revel in the holiday together. The sterile ward is festooned with streamers and decorations, and the men get to spend their holiday joyfully. Again McMurphy has brought joy and ease to the ward.
As McMurphy prepares to leave, he provides one last favor. Billy's flirtation with Candy that began on the boat once again bubbles up at the party. Billy dances with Candy, while the other men watch and some of them sleep. As McMurphy says goodbye to the men and prepares to leave the ward that evening, Billy looks visibly upset and tells McMurphy that he is going to miss him. McMurphy realizes that it is not actually him that Billy will miss, but Candy. Charmed by Billy's sweetness, McMurphy offers for Billy to come with them and leave the ward, but Billy tells him he is not ready to leave yet. In lieu of a departure that night, McMurphy offers to write to Billy to tell him where he will be when he gets to Canada. Billy asks McMurphy if Candy is going with him. As the strength of Billy's feelings for Candy become clearer, McMurphy offers to help him sleep with Candy for the night. McMurphy calls Candy over to talk to Billy, but Billy responds anxiously. McMurphy kisses Candy as he sends her into a room to be intimate with Billy and provide him with the sexual experience he so desires.
As Billy and Candy close the door for privacy, the men crowd around outside, hoping to hear the proceedings, but McMurphy leads them away. McMurphy, Chief Bromden and Rose wait for Candy to finish with Billy and McMurphy wears a cryptic expression while he waits. This act of generosity shows that McMurphy's agency and self-motivated behavior is also what allows him to be surprisingly selfless.
Analysis
When Chief Bromden explains his biography to McMurphy, the viewer is given a window into how the ward has become a shelter for some of the men. Upon arriving back at the ward after having gotten electroshock treatment, McMurphy remains undeterred, coming to Chief's bed spouting plans of escape. However, Chief explains that he does not want to return to the outside world because of how society hurt and limited his father. He feels safer in the ward, after seeing his father driven to alcoholism by the ways the world "worked on him." The outside world that McMurphy longs to reenter represents an even larger version of the mental hospital for Chief Bromden. In Chief's view, freedom is impossible, because there will always be someone trying to shrink or limit the individual. While Chief's point of view is emotionally affecting, the viewer cannot help but think that his chosen captivity is worse; after all, isn't the hospital is just a microcosm of all of the oppressive structures of the outside world? Chief is not insane, he is just looking for safety and trying to make himself small in a world that perceives him as a giant, and could easily punish him for it.
McMurphy continues to press his luck in this section of the film, and his overconfidence in his ability to shirk the rules makes him more and more vulnerable. It's hard to believe that McMurphy would try his luck again after being administered electroshock treatment, but his gall and relentless undermining of the system are, after all, his defining characteristics. Furthermore, while he is seeking to undermine the hospital, his aim is also somewhat innocent: his real goal is to show the patients a good time and help them to celebrate Christmas in an otherwise drab environment. The party he throws is touching, as we see the men enjoy the kind of camaraderie and fellow-felling that they likely have never had, certainly in the ward. McMurpy's altruism, however, puts Turkle's job at risk. McMurphy is at once innocently selfless and shockingly selfish, treating people with alternating care and disregard.
The effect of McMurphy's care has perhaps the strongest effect on Billy Bibbit, who all but worships him. Billy is sad about McMurphy's departure, as McMurphy represents a kind of father figure to Billy who encourages him to live his life without shame. Because we know the inhibiting and destructive effect the judgment of his mother and Nurse Ratched have had on Billy, we are sympathetic to his bond with McMurphy. McMurphy's generosity combines with a kind of vague indifference when he offers Candy to Billy as a sexual favor. McMurphy offers Candy to Billy as his final gift to the ward. Here, McMurphy represents the free reign of the individual male libido and encourages the other men to live their life in the same way. It is, indeed, a relief to see Billy happy and without sexual shame.
The party introduces a strain of tension in the movie. Even though the Christmas decorations and the joyfulness of the patients create a sense of warmth, the viewer suspects that this anarchic display will not go unpunished, given the harsh measures employed at the hospital. The party ends on an ambiguous note. The audience knows that Billy has gone to bed with Candy and that Candy and McMurphy are set to leave and run away to Canada, but we do not see their departure, and instead are left with the image of McMurphy waiting for his girlfriend to finish deflowering the impressionable Billy. Because the scene ends so vaguely, the audience wonders if perhaps McMurphy's generosity will not go as smoothly as planned.
