Awesome / Ménage à 3

• The end of the Babes in Toyland arc. Zii has accidentally broken one of Gary's most prized Transformers in his absence^note With DiDi, but the real focus of the arc is not on her, found out that she can't find a replacement and invented a story to clear herself of all charges. What does Gary do when he returns? First, he sees right through Zii's plan (warning: slightly spoilery link); then he keeps cool during the whole thing (more spoilers) instead of freaking out as one may expect, and finally... Well, this. (BIG spoiler). In how many ways is it awesome?
  • After years of near-impossible naïvete, Gary catches the Smart Ball and manages to remain in control of the situation all the time — confronting Zii, the comic's self-designated trickster, no less! Sure, she was pressed for time and invented a pretty flimsy story, but Gary has failed to see more obvious things before.
  • Zii's attempt to trick her way out of responsibilities failed for once, cracking the aura of Karma Houdini that many fans found unlikeable.
  • Everybody in the forums suspected it'd happen, everybody in the forums hoped for it to happen, everybody in the forums rejoiced when it happened. As a forumite pointed out, you know it's well done when everybody sees it coming and everybody still loves it.
• Gary got himself a date with an underwear model. Sure, it took a while to materialise, and things then got complicated — but she's still hot, which has got to count for something. It impressed people at the time.
• Gary went from total hopelessness to having multiple women fighting over him, and deals with it surprisingly well, sometimes. Though he can still be very, very hopeless. He even had the guts — or stupidity — to say he liked both girls of a pair instead of choosing one.
• Zii's revenge on an Internet troll, who has a sig reading, essentially, I Banged Your Mom. Guess what Zii does with his mom?
• Gary's first meeting with the real Amber is this. Gary, being Gary, doesn't realize that she's the real deal and instead thinks that it's Dillon in disguise (though to be fair, that would be a reasonable assumption, given the previous few strips). Anyway, Gary's there to practice the "swirly-go-round" kissing technique, and Amber recalls the time Dillon ate her out with that same technique. So Amber tricks him into eating her out by blindfolding him, and Gary falls for it. But what makes it awesome is that he took that technique and IMPROVED upon it, which turned out great for Amber AND him when he found out it was her.
• Gary delivering the Swirly-go-round technique to Kiley, giving her an awesome orgasm.
• Zii finally makes her self-appointed wing-girl status beneficial to Gary when she stops DiDi from deliberately ruining his early-stages relationship with Kiley by dragging her off the scene. Also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.
  Zii: Weeeeeee're lesbians!
• Kiley overcoming her A-Cup Angst next to busty Sonya, by calling her out on her "latent homosexual urges."
  • That could count as a Kick the Dog moment, though - yes, Kiley's asserting herself rather than having a complex over it... by using other people's complexes against them! (But at the same time, if Sonya's not gonna fight fair, why should Kiley?)
  • It's more awesome when you have context. Sonya is using her body, even shooting nude photos of herself to send to Gary, to get him away from Kiley. Realising she can't hope to compete that way, Kiley proves the use of her psych knowledge and not only gets Sonya to stop going after Gary, but allows her a breakthrough in admitting her love for Zii and coming to terms with the fact that she is at least bisexual.
• When Yuki finally realizes that DiDi is a rival for Gary, she grabs a hotdog...AND EATS IT! Remember that Yuki has a phobia concerning anything remotely phallic. The following page is even better, especially considering their size difference. "Gary. Is. Mine."
• Peggy has been in the comic for a bare few months — just days, in the comic's own timescale. But she decides that she needs to fix Sonya's relationship with Zii, just to get herself a good night's sleep. So she initiates Operation: Jealousy — while suffering from sleep deprivation, and running on incorrect information about the situation. In the process, aside from demonstrating useful cooking skills (and a cute butt), as a side-effect, she makes a friend of Yuki, and causes Zii's view of her to shift from annoyance to respect. However, the comic's discussion boards were still full of people assuming, from past knowledge of the comic, that the plan would crash and burn disastrously. Instead, Peggy, physically exhausted and on the point of passing out, closes the deal and causes Zii to suffer a Heroic BSoD that may represent a major character development for her. Then Peggy passes out.
• Zii and the Troublemakers getting their act together, taking the stage and rocking out so hard that they not only completely blow Angel's group away but the crowd cheers for an encore!
• This strip is one for Gary. Happy birthday, indeed!
  • Two strips later, it gets better.
  • And after the threesome, it's revealed that Chanelle arranged for a veritable conga line of former co-workers to show up for a turn on the Swirly-Go-Round. Even if it's somewhat on-par with Yuki's treatment of him, it has to be a boost for his ego.
    • It's better than that: recall, what, the day after Zii and Didi moved in back in strip #072? Zii promised to have Gary "up to [his] armpits with nekkid girlies!" by his thirtieth birthday. Well, not only was she right, but his success with the ladies has Zii jealous. DAMN.
• Kiley goes through the comic alternating outbursts of near-hysterical panic, weird Hollywood Psych, and rather awesome useful insights. In addition to her Armor-Piercing Question attack on Sonya (see above), she manages to get Yuki to the stage where she can actually touch a penis without instantly going berserk — and then, she manages to bring DiDi to her first-ever orgasm, despite Kiley being not only heterosexual but also terrified by DiDi's breasts. This just leaves the question of what Kiley can't do if she tries (and doesn't panic).
  • Kiley calling out Matt for using her and lying to her in his scheme to use the foursome to prove he's better than Gary at sexual activities. She then leaves him. Hell, the whole arc is a beauty from start to finish. Matt is a sexual narcissist with a pathological obsession to dominate the other person—and in just one stroke, in just one swipe, Kiley exposes him for what a horrible person he is and utterly demolishes his confidence. If not for Gary, the comic's resident Too Dumb to Live character, Matt would have been completely ruined as a character.
• Gary finally, finally standing up for himself and having the backbone to say no. And then doing the smart thing and getting out of there.
  • Which is made even better as he was following the advice Tracy herself had given him earlier.
• Followed shortly after where he breaks with his habits of quietly reading comics while trying to ignore the loud sex of his roommates by seeking out Peggy.
  Gary: I'm feeling feisty.
• The following morning, when Tracey and James both ask Gary out on a date, Gary's able to do some effective Xanatos Speed Chess to get out of an awkward situation. He gets them to agree that whoever he chooses to go out with, he's able to go out with the other one if the date doesn't work out. They agree. He chooses James, then during the date he comes clean and explains he never gave him a blowjob and used a grapefruit instead. The next morning, he asks Tracey out like he's always wanted and she agrees...well, she then drags him onto her cam show in lieu of dinner or sex. It almost worked.
• Sonya, the supposed Brainless Beauty, destroys Yuki's illusions and Zii's band with three words and perfect timing. (Strip #1373, 11/28/17)
• Gary accepts that his sexual relationship with Peggy is just physical and nothing more. He then realizes he has to move on because he wants something deeper. This doesn't sound like much, but considering Gary's character development, and how most comedies would have a ton of shenanigans about trying to win Peggy over, it's huge.
  • It doesn't end there though; after a brief hiatus, we come back and have Gary just contritely confess and apologize for spying on Peggy, and telling her calmly how he feels. No shenanigans, no comedic misunderstandings, just having a direct conversation. Peggy's so touched she excuses herself because she has something in her eye.