Summary
Patrick goes to the concert where he sees Kat and finally receives a positive reaction from her.
The night of the party, Bianca tries to leave the house, but Mr. Stratford stops her and says she cannot go unless Kat does. Bianca begs Kat to go to the party, and Kat relents.
Patrick arrives, saying he is taking Kat to the party, and they leave together.
At the party, Kat sees Bianca and Joey together and responds by getting drunk. When she hits her head and falls, Patrick takes her outside, and Kat throws up on him.
Meanwhile, Cameron pursues Bianca but Bianca is still interested in Joey. She soon becomes bored by Joey's self-absorbed behavior, and decides to go home rather than go with him and her friend, Chastity, to another party. She asks Cameron for a ride home.
Outside her house, Kat attempts to kiss Patrick, but he does not reciprocate and she storms into the house.
When Cameron drops Bianca off, he confronts her about her selfish behavior. In the middle of his rant, Bianca kisses him.
Analysis
In this middle section of the film, audiences will notice how characters and events start to shift slightly from the established narrative.
When Patrick goes to see Kat at the concert, for example, he steps out of his comfort zone and enters an all-female space (Club Skunk) where he receives many stares and sneers from the women around him. The gesture, however, communicates to Kat that he is truly interested in her, and she begins changing as well: no longer flat-out rejecting his advances, Kat instead starts flirting with Patrick while at the concert.
These slight differences suggest that both characters have room and capacity for change, and that they bring those changes out in each other. When Kat agrees (reluctantly) to attend Bogey Lowenstein's party, she does so as a type of self-sacrifice to make her sister, Bianca, happy. These decisions Kat makes showcase how she is gradually softening, brought on both by her mild interest in Patrick and her care and concern for her sister.
The aftermath of Bogey's part is significant because it shows two divergent paths that the Stratford sisters take: Kat, used to being antisocial, attempts to kiss Patrick in her car, but is ultimately rejected (viewers do not necessarily know why, but Patrick's reaction suggests that he is uncomfortable kissing her when he was paid to take her out). Alternatively, Bianca is left alone at the party once Joey and Chastity abandon her, and she receives a ride home from Cameron and ultimately kisses him.
These two different experiences highlight once again the disparity that exists between the two sisters. However, it also suggests that Kat and Bianca are becoming more and more alike, as Kat takes on the social qualities of Bianca to make herself vulnerable with Patrick, while Bianca surprises everyone by choosing Cameron over Joey.
