In Francis’s apartment, Henry confirms to Francis that Richard now knows the truth about the bacchanal: Henry, Francis, Charles, and Camilla killed a local man, and Bunny knows as well. Henry argues they could never have gone to the police without being convicted as outsiders trespassing on Vermonters’ land, and the urgent danger is Bunny’s inability to keep quiet. Henry and Francis explain that Bunny was accidentally present in Henry’s apartment the morning they returned in bloodied sheets, and later connected the “deer” story to a newspaper follow-up about the death.

They recount how Bunny’s discovery escalated into leverage. Henry tried to manage Bunny by spending money and taking him to Italy, but Bunny became demanding, read Henry’s Latin diary (including translated insults and references to the killing), and realized Henry was trapped by secrecy; Henry eventually fled Rome, leaving Bunny cash and a ticket. Back at school Bunny continues to sponge and subtly threaten them while claiming the “murder” as a joke, trapping the group into placating him financially and socially.

As weeks pass, Bunny grows erratic: outbursts at Henry, public taunts, and targeted cruelty toward Francis, Charles, Camilla, and Richard. Richard becomes increasingly alienated from Bunny as Bunny attacks Richard’s class insecurity and lies. Meanwhile Henry begins pursuing “solutions,” collecting obscure books and supplies, and visits a head shop while acting secretive.

Henry privately involves Richard in a poisoning plan: he shows Richard mushrooms and admits he tested lethal and nonlethal doses on a neighbor’s dog to estimate death-cap toxicity. Richard warns the dosage problem is unsolvable and the plan is too risky. Henry also lays groundwork by giving Julian “safe” mushrooms so Julian grows accustomed to accepting Henry’s foraging; at lunch Julian even jokes about Claudius’s death by poisoned mushrooms and then asks Richard whether Bunny seems strangely obsessed with ethics and forgiveness.

Late one night Bunny drunkenly comes to Richard’s room, vomits, and finally tells Richard the murder story, making clear he feels wronged and holds power over the others. Richard immediately calls Charles; after failed attempts to reach Henry, Camilla uses a phone “code” to contact Henry and send Richard over. Henry abandons the mushroom scheme, deciding the poison is too slow because Bunny could talk for hours before dying, and begins planning a faster, less traceable “accident.”

Henry convenes the group and sets a new plan: on Sunday they will wait at a specific ravine along Bunny’s usual hiking route and push him to make it look like a fall, even discussing drowning him if needed. Richard leaves shaken. The next day they go to the ravine but discover Bunny has gone to a campus party instead; as they prepare to leave, Bunny unexpectedly arrives in a yellow rain slicker and confronts them about “sneaking around,” forcing Henry to improvise a cover story about searching for ferns as he steps toward Bunny.