Dumbing of Age

well aint that suspicious

This is really getting old.

Is there something you'd like to tell the class Carol?

... Okay, Hank calling on his own would have been cause for alarm, but Carol calling? Unless she is that desperate to talk to Joyce after Joyce gave her the Cold Shoulder, something is seriously not right. Especially since she was with the group trying to get the bail money to bail out Ross. So either this is something else just as bad, she had a My God, What Have I Done? moment off screen, or she is really that desperate to talk with Joyce.
What is?

Edited by RebelFalcon on Feb 15th 2020 at 3:11:23 PM

Well, Hank calling wouldn't necessarily be cause for fresh alarm. I assume that the default guess there was that he wanted to warn Joyce that Toedad was on the loose — which would actually have been useful, but that ship seems to have sailed now, one way or another.

It is possible that Carol has realised that things have got out of hand. She wouldn't necessarily need a full Heel–Face Turn to realise that Toedad running around might lead to more trouble for everyone than it resolves.

Last we saw her though she didn't believe Toedad did anything wrong and was bemoaning the fact that they couldn't post bail for him.

Yeah, it would be a stretch for her to have become conflicted. Though she might have found something out about Amber's father or something. Still, come to think of it — why hasn't she told her husband about whatever the issue is?

Worst case, she was recruited to draw Joyce out in some way... But I can't quite see that. Well, doubtless we'll find out eventually.

The resolution to that stupid Blaine thing.

Blaine is dead, crushed by his own hammer.

It was all detailed in the classic Amazi-Girl story: The Night Danny Wilcox Died.

I’m probably way off the mark here, but the thought did occur to me that Mike may not have fallen off the roof... yet.

This might be (but probably isn’t) showing other events that happened that day, focusing on the characters other than Mike, up until that night when everything goes to hell.

Amber's already talked about forgetting something important so at the least we're being lead to believe this is following up on last night.

The way that panel is laid out, I suspect more that he did make those calls, but he doesn't want Carol to know, and therefore is lying because she's in the room.

Yeah I'll eat my own hat if Carol is somehow trying to pull a Heel–Face Turn.

She's already been established as basically irredeemable.

I disagree. She has shown herself as a person of conviction, but not evil. Easy Evangelism doesn't work either direction.

She complained that a man who shot up a college to kidnap his daughter did nothing wrong.

How many of us defend friends and family long after we ought to? She said his heart was in the right place, not that he'd done nothing wrong.

She still tried to victim blame Becky and was actively working to post his bail money along side most of the community.

She called up her traumatized daughter to tell her that Toedad meant well like that was worth anything.

She was clearly contrasted against Hank trying to be a better person in the arc where Joyce returned home.

"The way that panel is laid out, I suspect more that he did make those calls, but he doesn't want Carol to know, and therefore is lying because she's in the room."

I don't think that works out - she wouldn't be hearing the "dozen times" part anyway. If he's doing a coverup, he could've brushed that comment off, no? Though it could be an in-character failure, hm.

And on Carol, the place toe's heart is in "my daughter belongs to me and is mine to mold into what I want" and she is in fact fully on that page. Especially with "I would do the same for you" proclamations.

Edited by Adannor on Feb 15th 2020 at 10:26:03 PM

It's worth pointing out that, on the writer's tumblr after that strip went up, they talk about how their own mother used the "I would die for you" thing on them a lot, and very clearly considered it a negative and a means of control.

Yeah, that was Fuzzy's link.

Okay, it could be Hank hiding his own actions from Carol. If so, I think it’s slightly misleading writing/art, but whatevs.

The only thing is, that means that Hank is fairly directly lying to his own wife. I’m not sure that fits his own moral code.

He's done it before, back when Joyce took the car without asking. And that was just for the sake of winning an argument, here he might actually believe Joyce is in danger and Carol is responsible for it.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Feb 15th 2020 at 9:28:21 AM

Guess we're about to find out

"to continue our casual conversation".

Okay yeah that maps out to "he's fibbing and is just bad at it"