Vineland

Brock Vond learns that Frenesi is married with a daughter. He arranges to have Zoyd and Prairie dealt with. Nearly a year after Frenesi runs away, when Prairie is still a baby, Zoyd is visited by Hector. He brings with him a “shaggy monolithic slab” of marijuana (294), which is evidently a set-up for a drug operation. Hector reveals that the drugs are a present from Vond. Then, he signals the team to swarm Zoyd’s house.

Sasha arrives at the house and confronts Zoyd, who explains that he has been set up. Sasha agrees to watch Prairie while Zoyd deals with the police. As he changes Prairie’s diaper, he worries that this may be the last time he sees his daughter. Zoyd is taken away and thrown in jail. At night, he cries in his cell. He overhears someone calling to him. Identifying Vond, Zoyd assumes that he wants custody of Prairie. Instead, Vond convinces Zoyd to sign documents that make Zoyd the sole parent of Prairie. Zoyd also signs an agreement that he will never try to contact Frenesi.

The next day, Hector comes to the jail. He tells Zoyd that he will be released. Zoyd goes to collect Prairie from Sasha and tells Sasha what happened in the jail. As part of his agreement with Vond, he must perform his annual stunt for two reasons. First, he will be able to cash the disability checks. Second, Vond will be able to keep track of Zoyd’s location and status. Zoyd tells Sasha that he is sure that he saw Frenesi with Vond when Vond left the jail. Sasha suggests that Zoyd move to Vineland, as many other people—whom she refers to as a “mass migration of freaks” (305)—have now left Los Angeles. Van Meter helps Zoyd pack, then Zoyd and Prairie hitchhike to Vineland.

They stop for a night in San Francisco and stay with Wendell “Mucho” Mass, an old musician friend of Zoyd. Under the stage name Count Drugula, Mass worked as a record producer following his separation from Oedipa Mass (a character from The Crying of Lot 49). Mass switched out LSD for cocaine and his nose eventually disintegrated. Since rehab was not available at this time, he sought help from a “moralistic rhinologist” named Dr. Hugo Splanchnick. The doctor scared Mass into giving up drugs by showing him test tubes which he claimed were filled with the decomposing brains of people with substance misuse disorders. Now free from drugs, Mass lost his credibility as a music producer. His work suffered, causing a problem for his then-clients, the Corvairs.

Zoyd and Prairie play pinball while they wait for the bus to Vineland. On the bus, Zoyd falls asleep. When he wakes up, they are passing through a redwood forest, dense with fog. Zoyd retrieves his possessions from Van Meter after some difficulty. In Zoyd’s Dodge Dart, they return to Vineland and stop briefly in the Fast Lane Lounge for a drink. Many hippies left Los Angeles for Vineland, but the town is “still not much different” (317), being the same since the Russian and Spanish settlers came upon the fishing villages of the Tolowa and Yurok peoples. Zoyd plans to settle down in Vineland.

A couple who are returning to Los Angeles sell their trailer to Zoyd, who settles on a piece of land on Vegetable Road. When Van Meter’s dog has a litter of puppies, Zoyd takes one of the dogs and names him Desmond. He does odd jobs to fill his days, including working as a day laborer alongside the Thanatoids. Many of the people with him are former artists or “spiritual pilgrims” who have been forced into work after the end of the hippie dream.

As Zoyd settles into this new existence, Sasha reaches out to him. He is invited to family reunions on the sole condition that he brings Prairie. His purpose in life is now to protect his daughter. As well as many other threats, he must protect her from Brock Vond.

When “a thickening radio fugue” is heard across Vineland (323), the Thanatoids wake from their beds and tents. DL and Takeshi worry about events. Meanwhile, Prairie visits the mall with Che, her friend, and they explore the shops, ice rink, and food court. They talk about their difficult family lives and steal small items, recalling even bigger, more expensive things that they have shoplifted in the past.

DL and Takeshi visit former 24fps member, Ditzah Pisk. When they arrive at Ditzah’s house, they find a burning pile of 24fps archive documents in the driveway. DL and Takeshi return to the office, where a group of worried Thanatoids are waiting for them.

During this time, Brock Vond is leading regular search-and-destroy missions with his CAMP henchmen. At the same time, Hector has been spotted around Vineland. He mentions Frenesi often and dreams of producing a television show of his own. In this police show, he would arrest communists, substance misusers, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. He meets with two producers, Ernie and Sid, about the project, which he wants to title “Drugs—Sacraments of the Sixties, Evil of the Eighties” (342). When the show is a success, President Reagan praises Ernie and Sid.

Hector is searching for Frenesi because he wants her to help write episodes of his show. He searches for her in a casino/inn outside Las Vegas, where she is supposedly working as a cocktail server. Hector finds Frenesi, but he struggles to convince her to write and direct his show. He is persistent, particularly when he shows her a photograph of Prairie. Since the Reagan budget cuts, he explains, Vond’s various projects have struggled and Vond has been on a rampage. Vond set up Zoyd, scared away Zoyd’s dog, and took his house. Now, Vond is going after Prairie. Frenesi insists that her years as an informant will offer her protection. She was sent all around the country by Vond, but Hector tries to explain to her that any deal she might have had now no longer exists. Brock Vond and his men have now taken over an airport near Vineland and they are “waitin for somethin” (349).

That night, Frenesi returns to Flash and Justin. She tells her family that they need to go to Vineland because she has found work as a director. Hector has left them tickets at the office used by Flash’s handler, Roy Ibble. Roy is infuriated by Frenesi and Flash arguing about Vond. He can no longer contain himself, interrupting to say that no one knows what Brock Vond is doing. If anything, he suggests, Vond’s actions may be connected to a Reagan project codenamed REX 84, which is supposedly a “readiness exercise.”

Frenesi and Flash reach the Vineland airport. They are met by security and a film crew named Panaflex. From there, they are taken to the Vineland Palace. At this time, Hector is at the Cucumber Lounge. He watches Billy Barf and the Vomitones, wondering whether he could convince them to record music for his show. He hopes that he can make them work for a cheap price.

Backstage, Zoyd is wearing a disguise that he has borrowed from the landscaper, the Marquis de Sod. He thinks about how he could get back his house and his dog, so that he and Prairie can live in peace. Zoyd’s lawyer is named Elmhurst. Zoyd asks him about the chances of getting his house back from Vond and the federal agents, as it has been seized by a RICO case. Elmhurst explains that the burden of proof works in the opposite way in this case: Zoyd will have to prove his innocence, rather than the authorities proving his guilt.

Sasha arrives at the Vineland Palace with a new romantic partner. Derek is a “terminal sobriety case” dressed in Nazi regalia (361). Sid and Ernie have engineered a confrontation between Sasha and Frenesi for their television show. Rather than fight, as Sid and Ernie had hoped, Sasha and Frenesi hug and dance together.

At the Zero Inn, Prairie finds a booth with DL and Takeshi. A crowd of Thanatoids have gathered to watch a performance by the Holocaust Pixels. Weed Atman appears to Prairie. He complains that he is caught in his Bardo because his karmic balance is not settled. When Prairie asks about Frenesi, Weed admits that he does not know what will happen to her. Prairie and Weed become friends.

Against her own caution, Prairie goes to her family reunion. The Traverse-Becker family greets her warmly. Her mother is there, and they reunite for the first time in many years. Prairie also meets her “new brother,” Justin. Zoyd is present, watching the television with Flash. They seem comfortable in each other’s presence, despite their shared past with Frenesi. As she puts the young Justin to bed, Prairie stops by Flash and Zoyd. She mentions how well she is getting along with Frenesi, though she senses that her mother is also expecting to be criticized for abandoning Zoyd and Prairie.

Later, Prairie seeks out some alone time in the woods. She wants to clear her head, so she lays down in a clearing. Prairie falls asleep and is woken by the sound of a helicopter overhead. She sees Brock Vond leaning from the helicopter like something from a television show. He is planning to kidnap Prairie. Vond tells Prairie that he is her “real dad,” but she responds with insults. She does not want to go with him. Vond and Roscoe receive an order over the radio: Reagan has cut the REX 84 program, so they must return to their base. Vond is furious. He spends the entire helicopter ride complaining to Roscoe. When they reach the base, he pulls out his gun and steals the helicopter, piloting it to Vineland again.

In Vineland, Prairie meets a man named Alexei. He says that he is a Russian troubadour who heard the helicopter and came running. He is searching for American rock and roll. In particular, he wants to find Billy Barf and the Vomitones, who are “very famous in Soviet Union” (377). Prairie takes Alexei back to the family reunion.

Since Vond is not a trained helicopter pilot, he crashes on the way back to Vineland. Leaving the wreckage behind, he steals a car, only for the battery to die on the road. Vond calls V&T Towing from a telephone at the side of the road. Blood and Vato reach him in their truck. As they drive along, Vato recounts an old parable from the Yurok people in which a man followed his lost love into “the country of death” (379). In doing so, he became lost himself. As Vato reaches the end of the story, Vond notices that they are descending into the earth. Arriving at a river underground, they are met by a man and a woman. Vato tells Vond that the pair are ready to collect Vond’s body, as he cannot continue with it anymore. Evidently, Vond died in the helicopter crash. He is being taken to an afterlife.

The Thanatoids hear that Brock Vond is dead. They continue their party at the Zero Inn. DL hears the news and reconsiders her debt to Takeshi. In consultation with Sister Rochelle, however, she learns that this time she has spent with Takeshi has not been a journey. Moreso, Takeshi is her “means of transport” (382). The agreement not to have sex is abandoned and DL and Takeshi start a new, more romantic relationship.

Sister Rochelle tells a story about a war on earth between heaven and hell. According to the story, hell emerges victorious and turns Earth into a tourist destination, only to realize that the plan is not viable. Hell abandoned the project. The portals between hell and earth grew over. Occasionally, however, unlucky people happen to stumble into them. The people of Earth view hell as a “storied place of sin and penitence” (383), Sister Rochelle explains to Takeshi, but the real purpose of hell is to be a place where people can be reunited with the people who reside in the unredeemed earth.

Billy Barf and the Vomitones play alongside the Holocaust Pixels at the Zero Inn. Alexei joins them, revealing his talents as a musician. Leaving the group. Prairie returns to the clearing where she talked to Vond. She settles down in a sleeping bag and calls out to Brock Vond, telling him that he can now return and take her “anyplace [he wants]” (384). Her offer is not answered, and she falls asleep soon after. When she wakes up the next day, Desmond the dog is licking her face. Desmond, she thinks, must believe that “he must be home” (385).