An hour later, Boesman is feeling the effects of the wine, and for amusement, he forces Lena to recount the morning's events in Korsten. Using a harsh, mocking tone and exaggerated gestures, he mimics her distress when the white men arrived with bulldozers to demolish their shanty town. To Lena, it was a travesty, another humiliation inflicted by their white oppressors. Boesman, however, claims that seeing his dilapidated hut fall actually brought him joy and a sense of liberation. "Freedom! That's what the white man gave us," Boesman exclaims. "When we gathered our things and started walking, I felt like singing. It was Freedom!"

Despite his proclaimed freedom, Boesman could only return to the familiar and mundane. Although the world seemed open before him, he still picked up an old piece of scrap metal and constructed another makeshift shelter on the banks of the Swartkops, just as he had done countless times before. Frustrated by this realization, Boesman retreats into his shelter with his second bottle of wine.

Left alone with Outa again, Lena tries to lift her spirits by talking more. She describes to the old man the feeling of traveling with all their belongings on their backs, the sweat from hard work under the sun, and the comfort found in a cheap bottle of liquor. In a desperate attempt to fend off the misery and frustration closing in around her, she begins to clap, sing, and dance, working herself into a sweat before crawling under a blanket with Outa once more.

Disgusted by the sight, Boesman, unable to retaliate against the white men who are his true oppressors, finds another way to vent his frustrations on Lena. He confesses that when he beat her that morning for dropping some of their collected deposit bottles, it was actually he who had broken them when the white men chased them away.

To Lena, this insult is worse than the bruises from his beating. "Why do you hit me?" she implores. "To keep your life warm? Learn to dance, Boesman. Leave your bruises on the earth." She shakes Outa to keep him from falling asleep and demands that he witness the next beating Boesman is sure to give her. Their argument escalates, with Lena begging Boesman to beat her and Boesman screaming in frustration that their lives are not worth the two graves they will someday be buried in.

At the conclusion of Boesman's rant, Lena interrupts him. The elderly man has ceased his murmuring and has passed away in her arms. Outa's death at the end of this tumultuous day overwhelms Boesman. His reaction shifts from ridicule to blame, then to frantic defensiveness, culminating in a violent assault on Outa's lifeless body, mirroring the way he has often beaten Lena in the past.

‘‘Look at you!’’ Lena shouts. ‘‘Look at your hands! Fists again. When Boesman doesn't understand something, he hits it.'' She informs Boesman that he must now leave, while she intends to stay. She threatens that when the authorities discover Outa's body, they will see the bruises he inflicted and will hunt Boesman down as the old man's murderer. As Boesman hurriedly gathers their belongings for another escape across the countryside, it is Lena's turn to mock him. "Tonight it's Freedom for Lena,'' she exclaims. "Whiteman gave you yours this morning, but you lost it.’’

Ultimately, however, Lena finds she cannot live without Boesman. She bids a final farewell to the old man, who had been an unusual companion to her for such a brief period, then takes on some of Boesman's load and begins to follow him down the road. ‘‘Where we going?’’ she inquires. ‘‘Better be far.’’

‘‘Coega to Veeplaas,’’ he replies. Boesman finally assists Lena in recalling all the places they have traveled to, in their correct sequence, and she realizes, ‘‘It doesn't explain anything.’’ Then, with one last glance at their barren campsite, Boesman and Lena shuffle off into the darkness once more.