Meanwhile, at the sort of motel that usually winds up in news stories featuring the words "multiple victims," "police standoff," and "hail of gunfire," two gentlemen are expositing like crazy. The first is Ramon (played by Luis Guzman, who used to be one of the Steven Soderbergh Players), who appears to be the caretaker of this hellhole; the other is Mr. Dickstein (played by Willie Garson, who has probably seen a Steven Soderbergh film), an attorney who presided over the sale of the motel, apparently to a team of eccentric microbiologists looking for a new place to study infectious disease. Anyhow, to the expositing: the hotel's been sold, which means its lone squatter -- the aforementioned drug-addled Butchie -- will need to be expelled posthaste. Dickstein, it appears, has something of a surfer-groupie man-crush on Butchie, on account of Butchie revolutionizing surfing way back when; Ramon would just like Butchie to leave and take his six months' worth of accumulated filth with him. He goes to tell the just-arrived Butchie that the motel's been sold. "I have to take a horrendous dump, Ramon," Butchie says, beating a path to his motel room. "And after that, I want to hear every fucking detail." Ah, Milch -- you melodious wordsmith. Anyhow, once Butchie goes off to take his horrendous dump, Ramon and Dickstein negotiate the terms of his departure. Dickstein offers $200, noting that Butchie's injury claim with the city for being run over by a beach-sweep while passed out has been settled for $2,300. Ramon notes that the settlement was paid out yesterday, meaning it's probably been turned into a down payment on some off-label heroin. Dickstein says he's good for the $200 for Ramon's trouble; fine and dandy, Ramon says, but you're helping me load up all this motel flotsam and jetsam onto a truck. I believe that's a course for second-year law students, by the way.

Hey, did you know that "I have to take a horrendous dump" is a euphemism for "I need to shoot up with this $2,300 worth of heroin I just purchased?" Because that's what Butchie's doing right now. Score one for Ramon and his canny understanding of human nature.