One of the most major things I have never understood about NCFOM is why does Chigur blow up a car as a distraction to go into a pharmacy and steal a bunch of shit he could have just purchased over the counter. All he gets is gauze pads a rolls, tweezers, a needle, thread, alcohol, and the only questionable thing he steals is Lidocaine. And I'm not even sure that liquid Lidocaine was back then, or even now, illegal to buy, as you can still purchase it legally in the form of topical Lidocaine patches which are often used to treat things like muscle soreness and back pain. It's not like he was stealing morphine or something.

It seems to me that it is completely retarded to cause a huge scene which would draw massive attention, likely to himself, just in the hope people will be too distracted to see him go behind the counter and steal things he could have just bought. I mean, he must have had money, right? He must have been given some kind of per diem credit card like they gave Woody Harrelson. So why would he blow up a car to steal $30 worth of stuff and risk getting caught? Has anyone ever been able to explain this? It's really bordering on plot hole territory here, and I hate throwing that term around, because it's usually said by autists and lore fags. But this is ridiculous.

>>24528218 (OP)
because it's le cool and le violent

>>24528218 (OP)
Damn ur right

Yes city for young women

in my experience if you have a hard time understanding something that a character does for some pointless reason, it's because you are viewing it through your own point of view when it can only be understood through the character's point of view

we can just assume he had no money

you should admit your illiteracy, there would be more dignity in it.

He was hurt and therefore on the ropes. He took no chances

>>24528218 (OP)
Was he visibly hurt? People in that line of work would take notice of that kind of thing. Maybe call an ambulance etc.

>>24528218 (OP)
I thought the whole point of his character is that he's baffling. His methods and doctrines only make sense in his monomaniacal psycho head. He focuses on shit that we would never think of, and he thinks it elevates him above everyone else to do so.

>>24528218 (OP)
>I mean

>>24528218 (OP)
The guy had a fucking hemorrhagic wound on the leg and he could barely walk. He knew there was the possible risk of some nosy guy asking questions in a vulnerable state and situation.
The diversion was all about him being extra careful and even merciful, the guy at that store was probably going to have a deadly encounter. Chigurh didn't want to even face the risk of having to kill someone in that state.

These
>>24528505
>>24528505

If he lost consciousness, he'd wake up in custody or dead. If the teller was armed, walking in gimped and bloodied could activate almonds. And criminals avoid hospitals as much as police stations and jail if they can help it-- him in that state buying that set of medical supplies, it's not that much of a stretch to suspect Chiggurh's a robber trying to triage a botched job he barely escaped.

>>24528218 (OP)
I suspect you're talking about the film not the book?

In the book, this issue is made quite explicit. Chigurh goes first to a random shop and buys everything there that he can (scissors, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, Betadine antiseptic, etc).

Then he does the thing with blowing up the car outside the pharmacist and goes in and gets stuff that presumably needs prescription or is not commonly available. Hydrocodone tablets, tetracycline and sulfa. He looks for penicillin but can't find it.

Perhaps the law has changed since 1980 when this book is set, and now some of the latter items are available without prescription. Or perhaps it varies from state to state. I would tend to trust Cormac's fact-checking but it doesn't really matter if he was wrong in one little detail. The overall sequence seems sensible and plausible.


The film just dropped him going to the first shop to save time, kept the car blowing up thing coz it's cool, and presumably didn't take care to show him getting something that couldn't be bought without prescription.

Purchasing stuff from a pharmacy would've left a permanent record of them being purchased, who by, time of purchase, etc.