Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Welcome Back Thérèse!

Modern day Thérèse makes her first appearance in For Better or For Worse today since her baby shower 2 years ago, and this is her first confrontation with Liz since New Years, 2005. Needless to say, I am quite disappointed that Lynn Johnston is not going to allow Françoise to have her moment with Liz alone, without bringing in Thérèse. This puts Liz in the situation of being the woman Françoise only likes because her mother rejected her. That is hardly a stirring endorsement for future happiness with Elizabeth.

Today’s strip has a number of ambiguities. However, what can we tell for certain from this strip:

1. Françoise is able to recognize her mother at a long distance. This has to happen for the scene to work, but once again it raises all kinds of issues with the story Lynn Johnston has been telling about the Thérèse who threw away Françoise and Anthony.
2. Françoise likes her mother well enough to ditch Liz and run to her calling “Mom”. Of course I have to wonder what people in the mall would think watching this scene. “Hum! It looks like the little girl is escaping from her frumpily-dressed kidnapper to the arms of her mother. Should I call the police?”
3. The August retcon about Thérèse made it appear she would be leaving for the city, which has obviously not happened. I think the retcon ignored little things like Thérèse’s career and boyfriend which might keep her in Milborough.

Well, Lynn Johnston. I had hoped you were not going to have Thérèse be smacked down in this mall, but once again, you have made my plotting fear come true. The obvious sequence of events is going to be:
a. Thérèse rejects Françoise.
b. Françoise gets upset.
c. Françoise is comforted by Liz.
d. Françoise decides she likes Liz after all and tells this to Anthony when they get back together.

Over and above this, I am not sure I am not exactly sure what direction the smackdown is going to take. Thérèse does not appear to be repulsed by Françoise, although her “No!” is a clue she is unhappy about the situation. Will Thérèse be painted as an unrepentant villainess, or a parent forced into the uncomfortable situation of explaining her divorce in a public venue to her child? The August retcon was fairly kind to Thérèse, but did put in some sharp barbs about Thérèse’s low opinion of Anthony and how she left him in debt after the divorce. On the other hand Lynn Johnston may not be able to make her point about Thérèse, unless she is painted with the darkest brush possible.

14 Comments:

Blogger Ellie said...

Françoise is able to recognize her mother at a long distance. This has to happen for the scene to work

Not even that, necessarily. We could just as easily have had Liz say "Let's go see that snowman" in panel 1, and walk around a corner and come face-to-face with Therese. "Fran-fran?" (or similar) Therese would say, startled. The combination of seeing her mother's face, hearing her voice, and getting called the one nickname only her mother used, would be a vaguely plausible situation to make Francie say "MOM!" and grab her. Then the strip could proceed apace.

Also, that "no!" is so ridiculous it's giving me a migraine.

2:08 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

There's another way things could play out. I can, as you did yesterday, foresee a parallel between Thérèse and Becky Maguire. Much like April's former rival, her life may not be what she'd hoped it was. Seeing Liz being a better wife and mother than she could to the family she threw away for nothing could explain the 'No' quite nicely.

3:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"This puts Liz in the situation of being the woman Françoise only likes because her mother rejected her. That is hardly a stirring endorsement for future happiness with Elizabeth."

But Liz always gets things that have been rejected and gets to "recycle". Therese finally had to dump Granthony before Liz could "officially" make her move; Liz got her job because some woman gave it up at the last minute; she will have a child only because Francoise's mother rejects her. Even Liz's home is going to be the one Therese left. Lynn has totally painted Liz as a loser who only gets "throwaways". Of course, this way, Liz never has to work for anything either--good old fate just takes care of it all.

DJ

7:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Best possible outcome: we get to hear Therese's side of the story over the inevitable cups of coffee. And a bombshell gets dropped: Anthony was unfaithful first, not just emotionally but physically. With Julia. Or Anthony has a temper beneath that milquetoast demeanor, which he keeps hidden from Liz but which led him to be abusive to Therese. Or he and his family (are they still alive?) we so relentlessly awful to Therese over her "selfishness" and postpartum that she had to leave. Something resembling a PLOT TWIST, dammit.

But no. We won't get that, because that would involve storytelling.

7:25 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Ellie,

The scenario you have projected with running face-to-face into Thérèse works based on the idea that Thérèse would speak to them or use a nickname for Françoise. That would be a reasonably nice Thérèse. The fully villainous Thérèse, in that situation, would recognize Elizabeth and Françoise, ignore them both, and keep on walking. So, depending on which Thérèse we are going to get in the next few strips, I may or may not agree with your alternative.

9:03 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2

A Becky McGuire-style smackdown is still possible, as you suggest. The biggest difference is that we got to see self-centred Becky go down in flames at the Gym Jam, before we finally got to humble Becky at the Telethon. Lynn Johnston may cut to the chase for lack of time and go straight to humble Thérèse. However, just last week, Elizabeth said specifically about Françoise, “Some day, she’ll come to me.” After seeing Françoise run across the mall to Thérèse, I now expect a similar scene with Françoise running to Elizabeth, to make Elizabeth’s prophecy come true. The trick is, I am having a hard time imagining how we can get to that scene, with a humble Thérèse. With an evil Thérèse, I can picture it easily.

9:05 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DJ

Lynn has totally painted Liz as a loser who only gets "throwaways". Of course, this way, Liz never has to work for anything either--good old fate just takes care of it all.

I am suddenly reminded of the song Second Hand Rose

9:06 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dlauthor,

Best possible outcome: we get to hear Therese's side of the story over the inevitable cups of coffee.

The nightmare of most men is to see the old girlfriend talking to the new girlfriend. Imagine a scene of Anthony Caine coming to his food court rendezvous with Liz and Françoise and finding them in heavy conversation with Thérèse and then he has a mild panic attack. I would love a scene like that. It would be hilarious. Moreover, Lynn Johnston used to do scenes like that. I fear that kind of story-telling is a thing of the past; but maybe Lynn will surprise us.

9:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I went back and looked at those comics archives and came to the conclusion that this strip has never been any good (at least not in the last five years). And here I thought I just hated it because it changed from a quality comic into drek.

James

10:06 AM  
Blogger Ellie said...

The fully villainous Thérèse, in that situation, would recognize Elizabeth and Françoise, ignore them both, and keep on walking.

Or Francie is running around the corner and crashes into Therese, who scolds her daughter (pet name and all) out of instinctive annoyance.

I really, really think the seen-across-the-mall panel was unnecessary and dumb.

Anyway, I'm not a parent, but aside from Francie's weird changing height and maturity level, isn't her hair awfully long for a 2.75-year-old? Even most kids at their upshernish don't have locks that go halfway down their back.

12:24 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Ellie

I really, really think the seen-across-the-mall panel was unnecessary and dumb.

I agree with this. I have trouble spotting people I know very well across crowded malls, so the idea that Françoise could do this with a mother she has rarely seen does not work. I think Lynn needed that scene to contrast with a scene coming up where we get to see Françoise come to Liz, as Liz said she was waiting for Françoise to do for her last week. That comment was so recent, and Françoise’s run to Thérèse was so dramatic, it seems unlikely that Lynn is not using it to set something up.

As for “unnecessary”, let’s just say, I got a little chuckle seeing Françoise rip away from Liz, who not only couldn’t keep up with a 2.75-year-old, but also did not take her hand out of her coat pocket the entire time she was running.

As for Françoise’s hair, my daughter started out bald, like Françoise did and her hair did not start really growing until she was about a year old. As I write this, I am looking at a picture of her when she was 2-years-old, and her hair was down to her neck just above her shoulders. I can’t judge much after that, because when her hair got that long, her mother started cutting it. However, it seems unlikely to me my daughter’s hair could have grown down her back in 9 months from that point.

1:00 PM  
Blogger howard said...

James,

For me, the downturn of the comic occurred around early 2002, and the archives don’t go back that far. The better stories and the strips would evoke a laugh or a mild chuckle, are mainly before that time. The archives on the www.fborfw.com website only go back to 2003. If you check the ones on the Houston Chronicle, their archive goes back to September 24, 2001

2:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Howard,

Thanks for the tip on the older comics. I'll check out the older strips.

Maybe I'm reading the old ones through the prism of my disdain for the current arcs.

Your commentary is much more entertaining than the actual strips.

James

3:06 PM  
Blogger howard said...

James,

Thanks for the compliment on my commentary. I have found in looking at the older strips that they don’t rely nearly as much on the final panel pun, the characters are nicer to each other, and there is a lot less jumping around between storylines between characters. There is more often a story carried to its conclusion, or at least to its next logical step. Some of them are similar to some of the modern ones though.

3:46 PM  

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