Bazarov’s parents are thrilled when he returns. His father promises to let him work in peace and prevents his mother from expressing strong feelings. Bazarov is filled with a “dreary boredom and a vague restlessness” (148), growing even pricklier when his parents attempt to draw him out with conversation about work or Arkady.

Bazarov attempts to get the peasants to discuss their theory of the world and the peasant commune, but they tell him that the commune depends on the master and “the stricter the master the better for the peasant” (149). When he leaves, the peasants dismiss Bazarov’s attempts to philosophize with them: he was just “blabbing his tongue. He’s a gentleman, you see, you think he understands anything?” (149). This undercuts Bazarov’s claims to be more in touch with the peasants than Pavel: He “didn’t even suspect that in their eyes he was still something of a laughingstock” (149).

Bazarov becomes an assistant to Vassily, and his tendency to mock his father cheers the older man as a possible sign of improvement. He brags about his son’s every accomplishment, to the bemusement of the peasants and the priests.

Treating a peasant with typhus, Bazarov cuts himself during the man’s autopsy, and the cut becomes infected because he delays cauterizing the wound.