Let’s Refocus

In Monday’s strip, Lynn has established that Liz misses her old job, her old community and her old boyfriend, I mean her boyfriend. Now we segue into the car purchase, for which we have been waiting. Elly, out of the blue, decides she is going to be Liz’s banker. Most of the message boards discussed how this was a bad idea, because it will prevent Liz from ever getting a credit history of her own. Foolish commentators. Don’t they know that Liz doesn’t need a credit history? She’s going to be married by September next year to Anthony, and they can make purchases with his credit history.

Anyway, I took great delight in this strip because 3 years back, Elly Patterson loaned Mike $1K and when he paid it back to her with interest, she rubbed it in his face. When I post as Mike Patterson, I have made that incident a running joke. “Don’t borrow money from mom, because she will make you pay forever (or use money to steal your friends).” Tomorrow’s strip pretty much shows that to be the case, as Elly and Liz get Gordon, the business owner, to act as their personal salesman for Liz’s new car. Gordon probably would have done it anyway, because he is a nice guy. However, I can tell you the number of times I have been to an auto showroom and the owner of the business showed me around -- exactly 0 times.

Since we are now duplicating the sequence of car-buying established with John earlier this year, we can expect the test drive that leads to the convenience store and Anthony. The only question now, is how can Liz ditch momma Elly, for those close and personal conversations you know she and Anthony are going to have over their angst of once again not being able to be together, because this time Liz is with someone, and Anthony is not. I think that’s what we are going to get first time meeting post-Thérèse. I am not sure how they are going to get around the Paul issue, but with the hints they have left, obvious choices are:

a. Paul admits he is not really trying to get the transfer to Toronto, because he just plain doesn’t want to live there.
b. Paul is messing around with Susan Dokis.
c. Paul does move to Toronto, but absolutely hates it and he breaks up with Liz when she won’t move back with him.
d. Paul and Liz have a fight over the moose tapestry.
e. (My favourite) Paul moves to Toronto and Liz decides she wants to teach English in Japan.

The other question is how intimate Liz and Anthony are going to be, while she is waiting for the situation with Paul to resolve. When Anthony was with Thérèse, Liz danced with, had close hugs with, held hands with, and flirted during his wedding with Anthony. Not to mention the whole rape rescue thing. But Thérèse was a jealous French bitch, so it was all right. Paul has been portrayed as a good, if a little clingy, guy, so it will be interesting to see just how far Liz goes with Anthony, before the good constable finds his way out of Liz’s life. It’s hard to root for Liz at all as it is now, but I have every confidence that Lynn Johnston will find a way to make her even more repulsive and unlikable than before. Go, Lynn, go!!