A Visit from the Goon Squad: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

This story is told through the voice of a young woman named Rhea. Late at night, Rhea, Scotty, Bennie, and Jocelyn go to Alice’s house. Alice tells the group about a private school where she went up until 6th grade. Her sisters still go there, and are required to wear uniforms. Scotty asks to see Alice’s sisters, so they go upstairs. Scotty and Bennie follow Alice. They both have a crush on Alice, though Bennie is entirely in love with her. Rhea has a crush on Scotty, but Alice loves Scotty. As they climb the stairs, Jocelyn tells Rhea that Alice’s sisters will be blond because rich children are always blond. In the room, as they look at Alice’s sleeping sisters, Rhea worries they will scare the children with their punk rock attire, which includes dog collars, safety pins, and shredded t-shirts.

The year is 1979, and Rhea is glad that the 1980s are almost here. She is sick of the burned out hippies that hang around San Francisco, where this story takes place. She enjoys punk rock music, and spends her time hanging out with Scotty and Bennie, who are in a punk rock band called the Flaming Dildos. At school, Rhea, Scotty, Bennie, and Jocelyn, hang out on a strip of pavement called “the pit” with the other punk rockers. Scotty plays a lap steel guitar he built by himself, and everyone listens to him. Scotty’s mother died three years prior from an overdose of sleeping pills, and he has gotten quieter since then.

Bennie is new to the school, and wears his hair in a Mohawk. Bennie is able to get along with the “cholos” (young Mexican Americans who dress in a particular style), who hang out down the path from the pit. Rhea wonders why the cholos talk to him, and Jocelyn tells her that Bennie is a cholo, too. Rhea explains the triangulations of love within the group: Rhea likes Bennie, but Bennie likes Alice, who likes Scotty. Scotty likes Jocelyn, and Jocelyn loves Scottie, but she isn’t in love with him. Jocelyn is seeing an older man named Lou, who picked her up hitchhiking.

Rhea notes that nobody in the group wants to date her. She blames this on her freckles, which she plans to remove when she can pay for it herself. Until then, she has her dog collar and dyes her hair green to draw attention away from the freckles. She feels ugly in comparison to Jocelyn, whom she thinks is beautiful. They have done everything together since fourth grade. Jocelyn has seen Rhea’s dad drunk, puking in the buses, and Rhea has seen Jocelyn’s dad hugging a male prostitute before her parents divorced. Despite these intimacies, Rhea missed the day Jocelyn met Lou while hitchhiking. Lou, a powerful record executive, snorted lines of cocaine off of Jocelyn’s bare butt, and they had sex twice. Rhea made Jocelyn tell each detail of the story so she could like she and Jocelyn were equals again.

On Saturday, Jocelyn and Rhea go to Scotty’s garage for band practice. Alice is there with a recorder that her dad bought her, and with a real microphone. Joel, the band’s drummer, shows up next. His dad waits for him outside for the entire practice. Joel is a high achieving student who applied to Harvard, and his dad is overprotective. Rhea notes that the neighborhood is right by the ocean, and all of the houses are brightly colored, but when the garage door closes, they all suddenly feel enraged.

Toward the end of the practice, a kid named Marty shows up to try out for the band. Rhea notes that he is overweight, has pimples, wears an AC/DC t-shirt, and plays violin. They record a song called “what the fuck” about a failed relationship. While everyone sings, Rhea watches Bennie, admiring his Mohawk, but he turns his attention to Alice.

Bennie and Scotty later drive around from club to club with the recording of their music, trying to get the Flaming Dildos a gig. They want to play a show at a club called the Mab, where all of the best punk bands play. Bennie deals with the club managers while Scotty waits in the car. The band members feel that they have to be careful with Scotty. As a young boy, when his mother went away, Scotty would stare at the sun. There are permanent smudges in his vision now, but he likes them because they remind him of his mom.

The band goes to the Mab every Saturday after band practice. They drink from Rhea’s dad’s liquor before going, and Rhea notes that Jocelyn needs to drink more than her to get drunk. They eavesdrop in the Mab’s bathroom, getting all of the gossip around the punk scene. They also enjoy slam dancing to the bands, which makes them feel like real punk rockers. But Rhea wonders what makes a person really punk. She notices that no punk rockers have freckles.

On another Saturday night, the band goes to the Mab, but Jocelyn goes out with Lou. After the concert, they return to Alice’s house, where Alice’s mom serves them yogurt. Rhea remembers one night Alice’s mom brought hot cocoa to them on a gold tray, and Jocelyn said she just wanted to flaunt her wealth. This evening, with Jocelyn gone, Rhea asks Alice if she still has the school uniforms she mentioned earlier. She brings Rhea upstairs to her room, which is full of stuffed animals. Rhea notes that Alice seems nicer when Jocelyn is not around.

Alice takes the uniforms from her closet and asks if Rhea is making a joke. Rhea says no, and promises not to laugh with Jocelyn later about the uniforms. Alice says she doesn’t care either way. Rhea notices that Alice’s pants are ripped and her eyes have dark makeup, but because of her blond hair, she could never be a real punk. Rhea asks why Alice’s parents let them come over, and Alice says they aren’t her parents, but her mother and stepfather.

Later, Bennie tells Jocelyn and Rhea that the Flaming Dildos got a gig at the Mab. They shriek and hug him, and Rhea notices his heartbeat. She remembers each and every time they have hugged. They ask who else knows, and he tells them Alice, which bothers them.

After the news, Jocelyn uses Rhea’s phone (at her house) to call Lou. Lou scolds Jocelyn, telling her not to call him, but to just let him call her. Rhea grabs the phone and asks Lou why he is being rude, but he tells Rhea to give the phone back to Jocelyn. Jocelyn tells Rhea she has to leave the room. Rhea joins her brothers, who are working on a science project, on the balcony. She looks straight into the sun, the way Scotty did. Jocelyn comes out a short while later, overjoyed. She tells Rhea that Lou is coming to the show and might give the Flaming Dildos a record contract.

The night of the concert, Rhea and Jocelyn meet Lou for dinner at a fancy restaurant. Rhea notes that he looks as old as her dad. The girls sit under Lou’s arms, and Rhea notes that they are “Lou’s Girls.” After they order, Lou slides a tiny brown bottle of cocaine under the table, and the girls go into the bathroom. Jocelyn has a small spoon, and takes four hits. She gives Rhea one. When they return, Rhea feels as if she has eyes all over her head. Lou tells them about a trip he took to Africa, and about a train there that didn’t stop, but only slowed down for people to jump off. Rhea says she wants to go to Africa, and Lou tells her maybe they will go sometime. Rhea feels as if she is beginning her adult life this evening.

They walk together to the Mab, Rhea and Jocelyn beneath Lou’s arm. In the hustle and bustle of Broadway, Rhea feels that once her freckles are gone, her whole life will be like this. The girls go into the bathroom and put their dog collars and safety pins on, and when they return the band is setting up. Bennie shakes Lou’s hand, and tells him it’s an honor to meet him.

The band starts playing, and people respond by throwing cans and bottles at the stage. The band keeps on playing, and Alice tries to tackle the people throwing garbage. The crowd erupts, and everyone begins slam dancing. Rhea notices Scotty close his eyes, and notes that his magnetism is starting to work. One of the garbage-throwing spectators jumps on stage, but Scotty kicks the man in the chest. Scotty smiles in a way Rhea has never seen before, and she realizes that Scotty, out of all of the friends, is the truly angry one.

Rhea turns to Jocelyn, and is surprised to find her kneeling in front of Lou, giving him oral sex. Lou’s hand rests on the back of her head, and his other arm is around Rhea. Rhea wonders how Jocelyn is able to breathe, and it begins to seem like Jocelyn is some kind of animal or machine. Rhea tries to focus on the band, but Lou grasps her shoulder. He turns his head toward her and lets out a groan. Rhea begins to cry.

After the concert, everyone goes to Lou’s house. The apartment is more extravagant than Jocelyn told Rhea, and she feels betrayed by this. Inside, everyone is shook up from the show. Lou brings Bennie up to his recording studio, and Rhea tags along. She notices how Bennie continues to look out the door at Alice. Rhea feels like she wants to cry again. She worries that what happened in the club counts as having sex with Lou. She leaves the studio and goes into Lou’s bedroom, lying down on his bed. Jocelyn joins her, and Rhea says that Jocelyn should have told her. Jocelyn asks what she means, but Rhea doesn’t know. Jocelyn grabs a framed picture from the nightstand and shows it to Rhea. Lou is in the picture with his six children. Lou looks happy in the picture, and Rhea notes that he looks like a normal dad.

Lou comes into the bedroom, and Rhea leaves. She waits, at the top of the stairs, looking down into the living room. Scotty is playing a gold guitar and Alice is behind him with her arms around his neck. Bennie is still in the recording studio, playing music over the house’s sound system. As Rhea listens, she thinks that Bennie will never know how much she understands him. In that moment, she notices Marty looking at her, and she understands that she is the ugly one in the group, so she “gets” Marty. Frustrated, she goes through a set of glass doors onto Lou’s balcony.

After a short while, Lou joins Rhea on the balcony. Rhea asks him if he remembers being their age, and Lou responds that he is their age. She tells him he has six kids, and he agrees, but tells her he will never get old. She says he is already old, and Lou tells her that she is scary. Rhea agrees, saying that her freckles are scary. He tells her it’s not the freckles. She is a scary person, and he likes it. He says she is going to keep him honest. Lou tells Rhea that people will try to change her, but she shouldn’t let them. He says she is beautiful, and one day a man will fall in love with her freckles and kiss them one by one. Rhea starts to cry. Lou gets close and Rhea focuses on Lou’s body, stating that it looks like someone has walked on his skin and left footprints. The world is full of shitheads, Lou says, but Rhea shouldn’t listen to them. She knows Lou is a shithead, but she listens anyways.

Two weeks later, Jocelyn runs away. Rhea tells her parents that she is with Lou. Scotty and Alice have begun dating, and Bennie no longer hangs out with Scotty. Rhea notes that it is like Bennie and Scotty no longer know each other. Rhea wonders if she had pulled away from Lou that night at the Mab, if Benny would have settled for her the way Scotty settled for Alice. Jocelyn’s parents contact Lou, and he tells them he will bring her home in two weeks, next time he comes to San Francisco.

While Rhea is waiting for Jocelyn to come home, Alice invites her over to her house. She has never seen Alice’s house in the daytime, and it seems smaller. Alice is calm and happy now that Scotty loves her. Rhea wonders if Alice is actually real, or if she’s stopped caring whether she is real or not, or if not caring is what actually makes a person real. They go to the backyard where Alice’s sisters are playing tetherball. Alice’s sisters turn to them, laughing, wearing their green uniforms.