Cry Me A Quiver
In For Better or For Worse, poor Elizabeth expresses her desire not to have a beau because the last one left too many arrows. Ouch! The Nipissing First Nations people have to be smarting from that racially-stereotyped phrase. Something must have happened between them and Lynn Johnston for such a thing to pass by her. Ever since Liz left Mtigwaki, the storyline has taken an adversarial look at the First Nations people.
So, as Warren Blackwood does some major brown-nosing with Gordon Mayes, we are faced with what appears to be the new theme with Elizabeth i.e., I want to take a break from guys. Actually this is not a new theme with Elizabeth, because what is really at work here is Elizabeth's typical reaction every time a man overtly confesses his desire for her. She withdraws.
Take Constable Paul Wright for example. He professes his love for her and wants to move to be next to her. She moves away.
Take Warren Blackwood, the old one from university, not this "Whoa"ing vampire, suck-up Warren we have now. He takes a job in Vancouver and the relationship with Liz essentially ends until he shows up out of nowhere for her graduation. Does Liz seek a job in Vancouver? No. Then Liz moans and complains for months that Warren doesn't fly his helicopter all the way across the country to see her, but when he finally does, she shoves Paul Wright in his face and tells him he wasn't there for her.
Now we have Warren Part II. He confesses his interest in her, and the first thing out of her mouth is "I don't want a boyfriend."
Finally, we have Anthony Caine. He's so low key he's not even visible at the Mike party. Since the Howard Bunt going after, he has not said a single word about being interested in romance with Liz. Thought balloons aplenty, but no words. Therein lies the secret to wooing Liz. Never tell her you like her. Never express a feeling to her or ask for her feelings on things. The more emotionless you can be, the closer you will get to her heart (or whatever she uses for one). I can just see Anthony's proposal to her, "I am completely ambivalent about our long term relationship. If you are ambivalent too, then perhaps we can be ambivalent together. I think what my daughter needs is a mother who never expresses her feelings." Liz says, "I believe in my heart, if we are intended to get married, then the wedding will occur." Anthony says, "It's just faith."
Then the wedding is setup and determined without the involvement of the bride and groom, who look at each other on some September morning and repeat the romantic vows to each other. Anthony, "Well, Liz. It looks like faith put our wedding together and even put me in a tuxedo." Elizabeth, "Yes, Anthony. Thanks to faith we are going to be together forever...For Better or For Worse. Which one doesn't really matter to me. I am ambivalent. What's important is that my parents and my whole family are better than yours, and any children which may happen to spring from my loins are better than any you already have." Anthony says, "I agree with you completely."
So, as Warren Blackwood does some major brown-nosing with Gordon Mayes, we are faced with what appears to be the new theme with Elizabeth i.e., I want to take a break from guys. Actually this is not a new theme with Elizabeth, because what is really at work here is Elizabeth's typical reaction every time a man overtly confesses his desire for her. She withdraws.
Take Constable Paul Wright for example. He professes his love for her and wants to move to be next to her. She moves away.
Take Warren Blackwood, the old one from university, not this "Whoa"ing vampire, suck-up Warren we have now. He takes a job in Vancouver and the relationship with Liz essentially ends until he shows up out of nowhere for her graduation. Does Liz seek a job in Vancouver? No. Then Liz moans and complains for months that Warren doesn't fly his helicopter all the way across the country to see her, but when he finally does, she shoves Paul Wright in his face and tells him he wasn't there for her.
Now we have Warren Part II. He confesses his interest in her, and the first thing out of her mouth is "I don't want a boyfriend."
Finally, we have Anthony Caine. He's so low key he's not even visible at the Mike party. Since the Howard Bunt going after, he has not said a single word about being interested in romance with Liz. Thought balloons aplenty, but no words. Therein lies the secret to wooing Liz. Never tell her you like her. Never express a feeling to her or ask for her feelings on things. The more emotionless you can be, the closer you will get to her heart (or whatever she uses for one). I can just see Anthony's proposal to her, "I am completely ambivalent about our long term relationship. If you are ambivalent too, then perhaps we can be ambivalent together. I think what my daughter needs is a mother who never expresses her feelings." Liz says, "I believe in my heart, if we are intended to get married, then the wedding will occur." Anthony says, "It's just faith."
Then the wedding is setup and determined without the involvement of the bride and groom, who look at each other on some September morning and repeat the romantic vows to each other. Anthony, "Well, Liz. It looks like faith put our wedding together and even put me in a tuxedo." Elizabeth, "Yes, Anthony. Thanks to faith we are going to be together forever...For Better or For Worse. Which one doesn't really matter to me. I am ambivalent. What's important is that my parents and my whole family are better than yours, and any children which may happen to spring from my loins are better than any you already have." Anthony says, "I agree with you completely."
posted by howard at 9:59 PM
2 Comments:
The more emotionless you can be, the closer you will get to her heart (or whatever she uses for one).
Yes--this seems to be Liz in a nutshell. Geez, what is wrong with this girl?
I haven't watched The Bachelor reality TV show in a few years now, but I think Lynn Johnston is suffering from the same situation which appeared on that show. The show's producers wanted the bachelor's final choice to be a surprise, show they would show the most romantic footage of the bachelor with the girls he didn't choose, and the dullest footage with the girl he did choose. Then, when the chosen girl is revealed, the audience is surprised, but they were also robbed, because one of the primary desires of the show was to have the chance to watch a romance develop from the beginning.
We see Liz miserably in love with Paul "after" she moves to Milborough, where we can't see his reaction. We are blindsided when he comes up as "cheater". However, if we had seen Paul's side of those 2-hours-a-night conversations with Liz, we might be able to see the effects those long conversations had on Paul and his defection to Chipper would have been more like, "What's taking you so long to go with Chipper?"
With this story arc, we are seeing all the enthusiasm of Warren with Liz. However, what we don't see is the Liz / Anthony interaction, beyond a wordless arm touch when he comes on the scene.
What Lynn Johnston is trying to do is give us Warren as a red herring. Then after Warren goes bad for being too much of a traveler or messing around with models or whatever stupid thing Lynn makes up, then out of nowhere we are going to find that Liz has been spending every afternoon with Anthony and his daughter and little Françoise calls her mommy. I fully expect we will see very little of Anthony and Liz reestablished, and when it happens, it will hit us like an ANVIL with this message "Lynn Johnston wants to quit doing this freaking strip."
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