The Girls are in the shadow world.
- They entered the shadow world and when they stayed in it long enough, they become shadows. All that remained are shells of their former selves that disintegrated when they went back to the real world.
Dores and her brother are going to have a confrontation.
- Ian is going off to find the girls. He could have stumbled across the tower and end up in the other world. Dores will find him and go insane. If she slapped her best friend, the one person that she has left, she would be raging angry at the man who had ruined her life. She would go berserk and try to kill Ian. One out of two things could happen:
- Ian would keep Dores back and somehow get through to her through The Power of Love and get her to come back home where the family reunites and realize how special Dores is.
- Ian would end up killing Dores out of self defense and feel very guilty about what he did. He felt like a failure and decide to go on a journey of atonement.
- Now that Dores has been almost certainly Killed Off for Real, this can probably be considered Jossed.
- And now Dores and Elia are Back from the Dead. Thankfully, Ian seems to have undergone some much-needed Character Development and he and Dores part ways amicably. Consider this one Jossed.
The mirror world amplifies your worst traits in order to enable it to kill you.
- Elia's neediness and desire to be loved were the reason she went back to the "blobs" that eventually killed her. Note that they never actually show any affection towards her — she merely projects that emotion on to them. If she had simply followed her friends, she would have escaped, but she was desperate not to abandon her "creations" the same way her father abandoned her. Dores' temper gets even worse on the other side of the tower, since, generally grumpy as she is, her family life has caused her to have rage issues to spare. Her fate is sealed when she gets into a fight with Vandi, causing her to fall and smash some of the eggs. Again, there was nothing physically stopping her fleeing with Vandi — after all, she'd already seen what had happened to Elia.
The message of the narrative is that being a woman is terrifying.
- The comic seems very critical not only of society's expectations and gender roles, but of the biological reality of being female. Many of the more horrific and tragic events in the story are linked to, or a direct result of, being a woman. It isn't shaming men, or claiming that women are weaker (it certainly passes the Bechdel test with flying colours) — but it is drawing attention to aspects of womanhood that can be distinctly anxiety-inducing.
- The main trio: Vomit or lay eggs that eventually kill them, after experiencing drastic changes in personality akin to mood swings. The symbolism of laying eggs is fairly obvious, the vomiting less so (link to morning sickness?). The result of this "birth" is a parasite that literally eats them alive.
- Vandi: As a woman, you will be expected to run the household whether you like it or not. No, it doesn't matter that you are a child who still has an adult parent in the form of your dad. You will therefore have to shelve all of your dreams as a sacrifice to your family.
- Dores: It doesn't matter how talented or devoted you are; you will always be overshadowed by the males in you life, even when they are unworthy of such adoration.
- Elia: Vulnerable women are easily manipulated into becoming involved with unsuitable men, because a desire to be loved will trump common sense.
- The Oracles: If you are a talented and powerful woman in your own right, your strength and skill will be stolen and exploited by greedy men, who will use you until you have nothing left to give.
- Vandi's mother: Childbirth is terrifying. And possibly lethal.
