The ringing in Chief’s ears is a transmissions from the Combine to the components installed in Chief’s brain. When the ringing stops, it means that the Combine is flummoxed by something, which, in this instance, is McMurphy’s return to nonconforming behavior.
Hooking his thumbs in the belt loops of his pants, McMurphy again adopts the stature of the Hollywood Western movie hero, swaggering toward the glass of the nurses’ station. He refers to Nurse Ratched as “Ma’am” as Jimmy Stewart referred to Marlene Dietrich in the film Destry Rides Again. The reader is led to believe that a showdown of epic proportions is about to begin.
