History Tearjerker / DumbingOfAge

* Joe is trying ''very'' hard to put his skirtchasing days behind him and shed his reputation as a manwhore, but in contrast to the rest of the readily accepted CharacterDevelopment that's been unfolding around him, almost ''nobody'' [[ReformedButRejected believes that Joe is capable of change.]]

* "But Don't Give Yourself Away" starts out badly for the Walkerton twins and Lucy when the Walkerton parents suddenly show up, promptly ruining Sal's month because she doesn't want to see them. Then Linda assumes Walky's new girlfriend is Joyce (which, note, she was the only white girl in the group), and immediately loses interest when she learns his girlfriend is actually Lucy. (Lucy is oblivious for now but how long will that last?) Then, when she says she plans to meet them both for lunch, she explicitly states she means Walky and Lucy, as she knows Sal 'makes her own plans'. But then she postpones lunch until dinner and says she'd understand if Lucy was unavailable for it, while clearly hoping she won't make it. And despite Walky's assertion that Lucy should stay away, Lucy just isn't getting it.

** Once Lucy finally clues in about Linda's problem with her, they come up with a scheme to make her look better by comparison by claiming Walky's dating Amber instead: Amber, who stabbed Sal and has no shame about rambling about anything she's into (see: her rambling about Transformers mpreg). It even ends up ''working'' too, up until Amber accidentally drops the bomb about how Walky had been flunking math until she hacked his grades, and Linda proceeds to tear into Walky over flunking.

** Once Lucy finally clues in about Linda's problem with her, they come up with a scheme to make her look better by comparison by claiming Walky's dating Amber instead: Amber, who stabbed Sal and has no shame about rambling about anything she's into (see: her rambling about Transformers mpreg). It was WORKING too, and then Amber accidentally drops the bomb about how Walky had been flunking math until she hacked his grades. If Amber's words about Linda's face draining of color is any indication, Linda is ''not'' taking that well.

** What's worse about all this is they could have been forewarned and had time to mentally prepare for this visit...[[PoorCommunicationKills if Walky had just checked his email and seen the one from his mom saying they plan to visit.]] Or, you know, if she had just bothered to email Sal too.

* "But Don't Give Yourself Away" starts out badly for the Walkerton twins and Lucy when the Walkerton parents suddenly show up, promptly ruining Sal's month because she doesn't want to see them. Then Linda assumes Walky's new girlfriend is Joyce (which, note, she was the only white girl in the group), and immediately loses interest when she learns his girlfriend is actually Lucy. (Lucy is oblivious for now but how long will that last?) Then, when she says she plans to meet them both for lunch, she explicitly states she means Walky and Lucy, as she knows Sal 'makes her own plans'. But then she postpones lunch until dinner and says she'd understand if Lucy was unavailable for it, while clearly hoping she won't make it.
** Not helping is Jennifer's (probably correct) assertion that ''she's'' Linda's favorite child (despite not being related), nor her firm belief that dating Lucy is going to make Walky TheUnfavorite.

* "But Don't Give Yourself Away" starts out badly for the Walkerton twins and Lucy when the Walkerton parents suddenly show up, promptly ruining Sal's month because she doesn't want to see them. Then Linda assumes Walky's new girlfriend is Joyce (which, note, she was the only white girl in the group), and immediately loses interest when she learns his girlfriend is actually Lucy. (Lucy is oblivious for now but how long will that last?) Then, when she says she plans to meet them both for lunch, she explicitly states she means Walky and Lucy, as she knows Sal 'makes her own plans'.

** Not helping is Jennifer's (probably correct) assertion that ''she's'' Linda's favorite child (despite not being related).

** Then Carol drops ''another'' couple bombs: the divorce has been finalized for a week now, and she sold her house because "God told her to" in a dream. This gets Joyce so panicked that she hastily texts Joe begging for help. Carol's clarification of 'God told me to' makes it worse: she plans to give the money to the church because they're on the verge of losing their building because they used it as collateral for Ross's bail, and...well, we saw what happened there. Joyce is ''not'' taking it well that Carol is still supporting an organization that indirectly killed Mike.

** Then Carol drops ''another'' couple bombs: the divorce has been finalized for a week now, and she sold her house because "God told her to" in a dream. This gets Joyce so panicked that she hastily texts Joe begging for help. Carol's clarification of 'God told me to' makes it worse: she plans to give the money to the church because they're on the verge of losing their building because they used it as collateral for Ross's bail, and...well, we saw what happened there.

** Then Carol drops ''another'' couple bombs: the divorce has been finalized for a week now, and she sold her house because "God told her to" in a dream. This gets Joyce so panicked that she hastily texts Joe begging for help.

* When Faz [[https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/nurture/ opens up to Amber]] about his worry that he's [[GenerationXerox destined to become Blaine 2.0]], his last line in the strip becomes incredibly sad when thought about, as the top comments point out: what's intended to be a joke about Faz being a perverted little creep reveals that Faz is so abused and touch-starved that he cannot but interpret ''any'' form of physical affection - in this case a hug from his ''half-sister'' - as sexual stimulation. Even worse is how his warning/preemptive apology for this reveals that he knows how fucked up it is.

** And then she tries to ''steal Walky away from Lucy''. Anyone else, they'd be called unflattering words, but it's just too easy to feel ''sorry'' for Dorothy because she's on the verge of a mental breakdown and just trying to go back to the last time she felt happy. Walky turns her down which leads to Dorothy breaking into Ruth's room to try to find her alcohol stash to [[DrowningMySorrows drown her sorrows]].

** And then she tries to ''steal Walky away from Lucy''. Anyone else, they'd be called unflattering words, but it's just too easy to feel ''sorry'' for Dorothy because she's on the verge of a mental breakdown and just trying to go back to the last time she felt happy.

** And now Dorothy is having a full-blown existential crisis, realizing that her life-long ambition might not be what she wants to do anymore, and the resulting trauma from being in the hostage situation may keep her out of it anyway, due to the stigmatization of mental issues such as depression and PTSD. And she wonders if she's continuing on the path to presidency because she still wants to, because she's sunk so much time in pursuing that path that changing her mind will feel like failure, or sheer ego not letting her quit.

** And now Dorothy is having a full-blown existential crisis, realizing that her life-long ambition might not be what she wants to do anymore, and the resulting trauma from being in the hostage situation may keep her out of it anyway, due to the stigmatization of mental issues such as depression and PTSD.

* While out for breakfast with Raidah's circle of friends, Asher drops a harsh truth on Walky: it's probably Linda's connection with the dean that allowed the 'definitely has a criminal record' Sal to attend university in the first place.

* The reason Dorothy decides not to accept her entrance into Yale: they only accepted her when she told them about being in the hostage situation, and she feels guilty about using a day that was so traumatic and tragic to get an advantage. Becky is ''not'' happy about being the reason Dorothy is refusing to go (as it was her father that started it all) and points out that Dorothy is going to have to do a ''lot'' worse than exploiting a traumatic situation for gain if she wants to make it into politics, straight up calling her a bad politician. (Not helping is the next day Raidah tells her to her face she doesn't trust anyone who is willing to become a war criminal. Dorothy can't even tell herself she wouldn't do that.)