My Job is the Most Important

Today on For Better or For Worse, Liz appeared to be more concerned about her job than anything else regarding the Howard Bunt trial. On April's Real Blog, qnjones as Liz dropped a line about how Paul and Liz were having trouble talking about the subject, so I had Paul jump on this with a long dialogue about all the things Liz may be worried about with her job, and Paul trying to pull her back to more important things. I had to include a line from Susan Dokis explaining the mysterious comment in Liz’s September monthly letter about how Jesse Mukwa was not responding to her mail. The obvious choice was that Jesse couldn’t read or write.

The other big shock was that the Howard Bunt trial won’t occur until next month, so that means Howard has to find some way to occupy himself during that time. I thought of a fake marriage, and this gave me an opportunity to snark on Mike and Dee’s fake marriage. aprilp_katje as April proved to be the perfect foil and she did exactly as I hoped she would and pointed me to the website pages talking about Mike and Dee’s wedding.

My only complication was that I could not think of thing Shannon Lake would say about today’s strip, so I left her blank.

Tomorrow’s strip: The triumvirate is complete. John supported Anthony during their talk about his divorce. Elly supported Anthony when she asked Elizabeth if Anthony was helping her with her life or with a car purchase. And now April joins the fold with her “At least Anthony will be there for you” talk. I am starting to get concerned it has been so long since Constable Paul Wright has been mentioned. I have portrayed Paul as being regularly consulted about the situations in the strip, but when I think about how Elizabeth had to be forced to tell Paul she was moving away from Mtigwaki by Vivian Crane and how shutmouthed she is to April, maybe Paul does not know a thing about Howard, the attack, or Anthony. The best part is that if Lynn continues to play this like the Mike / Deanna romance, where a tragedy (car crash / attempted rape) brings them back together, then as Mike never told Rhetta about Deanna’s car accident, Elizabeth will never tell Paul about her attack and Anthony’s role in it.

My prediction:
October: The trial of the century. Howard is put away for a long time. Elizabeth and Anthony openly show affection for each other. Paul is mentioned to Anthony for the first time. Elizabeth feels something like guilt. Not actual guilt, because that is not possible for Elizabeth.

November: Mike’s first draft of his book is completed and receives rave reviews and goes off to be published. April and Becky face off once again over cheating in school, and Shannon Lake will comfort the dejected April. Hopefully there will be a Jeremy Jones appearance where he won’t look 40 years old.

December: Elizabeth goes to visit Paul and finds him in the arms of Susan Dokis. Elizabeth says, “That’s a relief” and makes some hideous pun about his name. The final appearance of Jesse Mukwa who, realizing that there is someone in the world who keeps their promise to return and see him, becomes the first Ojibway to perform brain surgery on the moon. He says, “Thanks to Elizabeth Patterson/White Goose keeping her promise, I have achieved greatness and magically solved all my problems which came from having been abandoned by my parents at a young age.”

January: Just like Mike, Anthony will propose to Elizabeth on New Years’ Eve. She accepts and we make a note that Elizabeth likes to ditch boyfriends over the holidays. Mike’s book becomes a best-seller. Many readers spontaneously vomit, while others write gloriously funny foefiction, imitating excerpts from the book. It’s looking like a Happy New Year.