“This Is Not Our Chance. Chance Macy Is Our Chance.”

Okay folks, I know I’ve been losing a couple of steps here and there but at what point did we see these two mooks actually encourage their teammates to take sides in their competition? Did they not start talking “Team Rapson” and “Team Thayer” of their own volition? And at what point did the fire hydrant-shaped Corina grow to be as tall as Rapson and nearly as tall as Thayer?

The wackiness of this setup just gets wackier when Corina suggest they go at it with chairs WWE style and just trash the place. Maybe this is how she really ended up at Valley Mod and all that talk of supporting her depressed mom was just a facade. Better they go at it with butter knives at five paces. There’s an ex-Mudlark at State U who could give ’em a few pointers.

Mudlarks with Filthy Souls

Well surprise, surprise, surprise! Rapson enters Casa Karenna only to find Thayer manspreading across Corina’s sofa. Didn’t realize Will had such enmity toward Rapp, but then again he might just be pissed that his quarterbacking rival has turned into a potential blocker. I’ve already used up my Fight Club references and I’m really hard pressed to come up with any explanation of what we’re seeing here that doesn’t quickly devolve into pornography. So have at it, ya filthy animals.

Being Milford, this is going to end in the most nonsexual way possible. Also being Milford, my money is on Gil putting up Mimi to put up Corina to do his job for free what he could not: get his quarterbacks – and, by extension, the rest of their teammates – to play nice with each other, again in the most nonsexual way possible.

CK One, Acqua Di Gio Zero

Rapson, bathed in cologne, is dropping by CK’s place ready to pitch some serious woo when…

Uh oh, CK has cooked up a zany plot by inviting another guest to this little get together. The mystery guest is most likely Will Thayer and CK’s scheme is like a sitcom trope of the precocious kids arranging their separated parents to meet somewhere to orchestrate a reconciliation. Oh that darned CK. What a scamp!

Is this plan going to work? Will these two idiots pull their heads out of their butts? At least they’ll probably stop fixating on getting into CK’s pants since it would appear that this gesture is taking that possibility off the board. Unless…

Maybe CK has something freaky in mind. Yuck. Forget I said that. Maybe CK needed a fourth for bridge and the mystery guest is Tom Muench (who is quite the card sharp…or might be for all we know).

So You’re Saying There’s A Chance?

Today we have a conversation between Corina and some of her volleyball teammates. I assumes these are her volleyball teammates. There hasn’t been much done to establish these bit players. There’s one named Becca, I think. But that’s entirely the point of this fall plot. CK is the object of fascination for our two rival QBs and then the volleyball team became a stupid bargaining chip in their game to crack through the CK barrier. So it’s no surprise that the two teammates are sulking about the state of Mudlark football.

Milford has two losses in the Valley Conference. But one of our disposable volleyball players is aware of a scenario for Milford to get the conference title. It’s probably one of those scenarios where two other teams have to tie or something. Now I remember that volleyball player’s name! It’s Becca Exposition!

So CK greets this information with an “Okay.” Is that a drawn out “ooookaay” as in and what am I supposed to do with this or is it really a spark of concern (undercut by the casual application of lipstick). My instincts say CK don’t give a toss because Friday nights are for Crazy Eights with mom.

Corina’s Shakin’, Not Stirred

Boy, Central pretty much sucks at everything this season, don’t they? Too bad we didn’t see how badly they sucked at volleyball. Then again we haven’t seen much more volleyball action than Rapp has – just that one panel about a month ago. We should get to see some more soon, though, since Corina has made that a prerequisite to getting down the base path with her.

That is Corina, isn’t it? The coarsening of her profile in P1 looks like a throwback to Berrill’s style and that’s not her usual mullet she’s wearing, either. Next panel she looks like a completely different person as she has a seizure describing Becca’s performance against Central. Finally all hairs are back in place as Rapp hates to see her leave but loves to watch her go.

Now it’s a matter of time to see which of the dueling QBs shows his face first at a Lady Mudlarks volleyball match. I’ll laugh if it ends up being Leonard Fleming. Heaven knows we need a good laugh right about now. Hope you TWIMers had a fun and safe Halloween, shook one, not stirred one, in Sean Connery’s memory, and remember to turn your clocks back before you turn in tonight.

Dueling Bad Jokes

Hard to believe there could be a worse team than Milford in the Valley, innit? Yet here we are. Wonder why we never see anyone else in the conference use some archaic formations, defensive schemes or kung fu treachery to make up for their shortcomings against Milford. Most likely because Gil hasn’t updated his playbook for this century and would be equally ready for those plays.

How will this play into our blossoming quarterback controversy? Easily. The Thayer-led Mudlarks will open up a big lead on Central, then Gil will relent and put Rapson in to mop up. Still trying to convince Gil he’s the better talent, Rapp will again defy Gil, call an audible and run a big-yardage play for a score. Gil benches Rapp permanently, Central’s coach accuses Gil of running up the score after the final whistle, and things get ugly.

At least that will offer up more excitement than Friday night at Casa Karenna, where mom and daughter are caught up in a high-stakes game of gin rummy or Uno or something. Probably Uno, since Corina might want to keep mom away from the gin and rum and steer her toward the Yoo-Hoo. Hiyo! (Calling it “a duel of their own” implies that the Milford-Central game is some kind of duel which seems kind of off given Marty’s description of the game turning into a blowout.) Corina cares more about her mom’s mental health than Milford football, which is certainly understandable given this past summer’s backstory. Now if only she could allude to that without being a jerkface to everyone she meets…

Knees Like Torgo

It appears as though Terry “You can call me Rapp” Rapson has decided validation from Corina is one of the spoils that the starting QB can expect. Maybe he should have asked Will Thayer how that’s been working out. Corina’s body language, icy stares and skull jewelry, not to mention her snappy comebacks, send a pretty clear message to would be QB suitors. Corina don’t care, so get it through your thick skulls jockos.

What is wrong with these losers? Why is Corina the big prize? Look at these bit players on the volleyball squad. QB attention seems to have major capital in their community. Wise up, Rapp and troll through volleyball practice and one of these girls will probably dry hump you in the Bucket parking lot just for the story!

Let’s talk about Corina’s body in panel 3. Even with the inconsistent approach to drawing in this strip, it’s been established that Corina is “thicc” in that she’s of average build but with Johnny Bench-like proportions in the lower half. I think panel 3 tries to stick with that routine, but something went wrong in the knees. Perhaps Corina should consider wearing the black kneepads favored by her teammates. Those striped numbers are not doing her any favor. Nobody wants a chick with big, meaty knees.

Torgo supposedly has goat legs. What’s Corina’s story?

A View to a Kill Shot

Will Thayer has been to Milford volleyball games about as often as Milford volleyball games have appeared in this strip.

This is the first time that we’ve seen actual in-game volleyball action, at least since I’ve been blogging for TWIM. As a result of that I can’t say for certain whether P1 is an accurate representation of a volleyball kill shot. I’d have expected Becca not to be so far into her follow-through relative to where the ball appears, unless she was well above the net when she hit the ball and is now on her way back down to earth.

Panel 2 has me wondering again whether Rubin actually reads this blog. We have almost to a person collectively complained about the lack of attention given to girls’ sports and well-developed female characters in Gil Thorp. Now here we have Corina giving voice to that sentiment and, having been given an entire summer’s worth of backstory about her, I s’pose that counts for character development from Neal’s POV. As tdrew pointed out yesterday, we don’t know when the volleyball games are played and whether they conflict with football games or practices. Just the same Corina’s gonna get that attendance figure up through the power of sheer obnoxiousness. It’s not quite the Paloma Padilla approach but it might work.

Finally we have Thayer’s on-field rival Rapson asking rando teammate about the new girl. How long has he been in Milford? He should know that all he needs to do is hit the diner and get the lowdown from Maureen.