The Return of Connie and Phil

Back last February, the relationship between Elly Patterson’s brother Phil Richards and her best friend, Connie Poirier reached a point where Phil admitted to Connie that he was not interested in her and she wrote a personal ad to seek after other men. The originally published sequence with Connie and Phil involved a storyline where Connie traveled to Montreal to visit Phil unexpectedly, leaving her son Lawrence in the care of Elly. When Lawrence was injured, Connie opted to stay in Montreal to pursue Phil, who ultimately told her that he was not interested. This was a low point in the life of Connie Poirier because it showed she would not only humiliate herself in pursuit of a man, but she would also put that pursuit ahead of the needs of her son. When this sequence did not appear last February, there was general rejoicing that perhaps Lynn Johnston had decided to excise this embarrassing bit from Connie’s life.

Here we are in November and with today’s new-run in For Better or For Worse, it appears that Lynn is getting ready to reintroduce the storyline. Connie Poirier has bought Phil his favorite scotch and a bathrobe, and tells Elly that she and Phil communicate on a higher level. All the conversation and resolution between Connie and Phil from last February seems to have been forgotten. I think Lynn Johnston hopes that her readers will forget that too.

Lynn Johnston’s motivation seems clear. The relationship between Connie and Phil ultimately leads into a lot of strips with Connie, Phil, Dr. Ted McCaulay, and the woman Phil marries, Georgia. Lynn probably feels she has to do the reprints so that she can lead into the straight reprints in Early Spring. I understand her motivation, but I am disappointed she is not getting rid of this awful story as I had hoped.

My favourite part of today’s strip is Connie’s gift choice and Elly’s reaction to it. Connie clearly plans to get Phil drunk and get naked with him. Elly only considers the bathrobe to be an intimate gift, and does not question the getting drunk with scotch part. Every time Lynn Johnston brings alcohol into her strip, I remember her drinking habits she mentioned in her trip to Oaxaca, where it seemed like Lynn’s diet consisted of snacks and beer. I interpreted it to be that Lynn Johnston drinks quite a bit. When Elly fails to mention the ramifications of the scotch to Connie, it just reinforces my interpretation. Elly thinks nothing of tossing back a bottle of scotch between friends, but the bathrobe shows intimacy. I expect Lynn Johnston thinks just the same way Elly does.