American Psycho: At Another New Restaurant Summary & Analysis

Bateman is out to dinner with Evelyn. The week before, they’d attended an office Halloween party, and Bateman dressed as a serial killer. Their dinner conversation is, as usual, shallow and tense. Evelyn mentions a shirt she’s been seeing everywhere that says “Silkience Equals Death.” Bateman corrects her: it’s “Science Equals Death.” Across the room, Bateman sees a man he hardly recognizes and waves to him enthusiastically. Evelyn is annoyed and argumentative, until she spots someone she knows, Robert Farrell. She tells Bateman how handsome she thinks Farrell is, though she hopes she isn’t making Bateman jealous. The two then argue over Bateman’s hair and workout routine and Evelyn sees that she’s upset him.

Evelyn attempts to change the subject, telling Bateman a story about two friends of hers, but he is hardly listening, just staring at her breasts and interrupting to ask the waiter for a scotch. Bateman muses to himself about the “lack of carnality” that he used to love about Evelyn and now dislikes, and remembers a recent therapy session where he was asked what kind of contraception he and Evelyn use and what their favorite sexual positions are. Evelyn keeps talking, they argue over the prices on the menu, and when their food arrives Bateman gets into an argument with a waiter offering them fresh ground pepper, and Evelyn is embarrassed.

Bateman has planned something special for dessert. Earlier that day, he’d stolen a used urinal cake, taken it home, covered it in chocolate, froze it, and popped it in a Godiva box (Evelyn’s favorite). He’s brought the box with them to dinner and asked the waiter to surprise Evelyn with it at the end of their meal. She is delighted when it arrives and offers to share the treat with Bateman. He refuses and allows Evelyn to dig in. He watches her take a big bite and observes her face as she tries to process what it is she’s tasting. It’s “minty,” she tells him, unaware of what it is she’s actually eating. As Bateman watches her, he has a realization. Even this act isn’t pleasurable or fulfilling to him. It’s merely something he feels he must do in order to even put up with Evelyn for three hours.

At the end of the meal, Evelyn tells Bateman that she wants “a firm commitment.” At this point, he isn’t too fazed. Bateman tells Evelyn that things between the two of them are over, citing in part his love for murder. She doesn’t seem to understand, and calls the waiter over to order coffee. Bateman continues, telling her that, at 27, he can’t get trapped with the burden of a commitment. She asks if he’s still seeing his shrink, and he tells her that at the end of their last session his therapist asked Bateman if he could get him into a nightclub.

Evelyn tries to reason with Bateman, calling him “honey,” which he detests, and telling him how their breaking up would make their friend group a mess and asking him “what about the past?” Bateman isn’t moved. He tells Evelyn that she’s just not important to him. Evelyn becomes hysterical, first telling Bateman that he’s pathological and then pleading with him, asking what she can do to change his mind. He tells her she could, maybe, wear erotic underwear, know more about cars, and say his name less often, but eventually just tells her to give it up.

After much spectacle, Bateman finally gets up to leave Evelyn sitting at the table. She asks him where he’s going, and he enters his own mind, lost in a maze of business and violence – he sees the image of Evelyn’s skeleton, twisted and crumbling. When he comes to, he tells her he’s going to Pago Pago, and that, because of her outburst, he won’t be paying for the meal.