Summary
Michael and Cameron interview a number of male students, but all reject the idea of dating Kat. When Cameron sees Patrick violently dissecting a frog in biology class, he suggests him for their plan.
They decide they need to pay him to accept, and begin to look for "someone with money, who is stupid." They decide Joey is the perfect source of money for their plan. Wanting to date Bianca himself, Joey agrees, believing that Michael only wants him to participate so that he will make Michael "cool by association."
Joey approaches Patrick on the soccer field and offers him the money to take out Kat. After some negotiating, Patrick agrees. He attempts to ask out Kat multiple times, but she rejects him.
Outside a music shop, Joey parks directly behind Kat and she intentionally backs into his car. Kat and her father get into an argument about the incident, which escalates into an argument about Kat's college choice.
Joey confronts Patrick about his failure to take out Kat, and Patrick increases his price.
Meanwhile, Cameron and Michael approach Patrick and explain that they are the real masterminds behind the plan. They tell Patrick that he should take Kat to an upcoming party.
Cameron enlists Bianca's help, who takes him to Kat's bedroom to find out what she is interested in. They find concert tickets, and Michael and Cameron share the information with Patrick.
Analysis
This segment of the film introduces audiences to its relatively complicated plot line: Cameron and Michael plan to pay Patrick to date Kat so that Cameron can date Bianca, but they also enlist Joey to provide the money, under the pretense that Joey can date Bianca.
The complexity of the plot is due, once again, to the film's source material. The Taming of the Shrew focuses on the major plot between Katherina and Petruchio (Kat and Patrick), while also entertaining a subplot in which a number of suitors vie for Bianca's affections.
That Cameron and Michael orchestrate the entire scheme while Joey and Patrick remain in the dark (that is, until Cameron and Michael fill Patrick in) is a further testament to the film's knowledge of Shakespearean theater. In Shakespeare's plays, those who remain detached from their own plots are often the most successful at achieving their desired result, and the film presents Cameron and Michael as surprisingly deft at negotiating high school relationships despite their obvious isolation from the popular crowd.
This part of the film also helps further distinguish Kat as a difficult outsider, fleshing out her "shrewish" character and even turning it into the butt of the joke. Cameron learns that Kat is interested in "angry girl music" and will be attending a concert at "Club Skunk" the upcoming weekend, to which Patrick responds, "I can't be seen at Club Skunk."
The film therefore portrays Kat's particular brand of feminism – distinguished notably by her hatred of men – as something mockable at the same time it portrays Kat as markedly more intelligent than all her peers. In this way, the film straddles a line between entirely condemning or entirely condoning Kat's perspective: at times she is correct in her assumptions of men and her peers, and at other times she is simply attempting to perform a particular role she feels she should fill. In this way, the film departs slightly from its source material to actually partially validate Kat's perspective rather than simply making her "shrewish" attitude something to be laughed at.
