Continued Cameo Exposition

The Trey Davis and Jaquan Case story continues.

I don’t know where this is going or whether any of this is important. I know that Trey looks like a baby-faced Gil in Panel 2.

 

Fullback To School

I am intrigued by the notion that the Pelwecki project has become a Burns family effort.

Hooked On Tronix

I can’t exactly put my finger on it but Trey’s response to Other Guy cracks me up. Also cracking me up? Trey’s hair. We’ll have to see how it’s rendered in the ensuing strips but there is definite potential there.

Fullbacking For Dummies

Okay. Maybe we’re done with baseball? At least, for today, we’re talking about football. At least we’re preparing for football. Somebody is preparing for football. Is it Heather Burns and The Secret Pelwecki? Heather tried to coach Pelwecki into a QB last year. Maybe he’s got different ambitions this year. Was Pelwecki bigger than 220? Maybe it’s a new project for Heather. Maybe these are two other people with hair of similar configuration.

All those questions may or may not be answered in the coming days. But who are these two tall men? Is one of the crushing on maybe Heather Burns? If we’re repeating Heather coaching Kevin from last Fall, why not revisit the stupid who’s crushing on who from Spring (liberally defined to include July)? “Crushing on”….ick.

ETA: Observant commenter Downpuppy just pointed out that the Pelwecki at fullback scheme was revealed at the conclusion of last years fall plot. Thanks Downpuppy.

Shaken And Half Baked

Like some of our readers, I thought the last few strips were going to bring us to a Dafne penned piece about “What It’s Like To Be Seen As An Abuser Based On Rumor And Innuendo”. But that’s not the piece Dafne wrote. She wrote a piece about “What It’s Like To Want To Clock A Guy”. Ms. Rizk thinks it’s excellent, but what relevance does it have?

On second reading, it gets even more muddy. She didn’t truly want to punch him, but she understood the impulse? How did she arrive at this understanding?

 

Gil Gets His Dig(g)s In

One of our Central City protestors (the Tommie Smith/John Carlos descendant) gets a name and becomes as central to the plot as any Milford girl.  The “other item” Gil was shaking Skip down for must have been her name and digits. I leave it to the readership to discuss the propriety of what Skip and Gil have done. Suffice it to say it doesn’t leave a very good taste in my mouth.

I’m assuming Gil’s convo with, I’m assuming, Ryan will pick up tomorrow with, I’m assuming, what Gil said to Ms. Diggs after appreciating her “taking a stand” that wasn’t written here.  Odds are it will involve some gentle variation on “keep your ****in’ mouth shut.”  I’ll be surprised if her response isn’t some variation on the “HA” behind her head.

From the Pantheon of Mysterious Objects Dept.: Diagonally striped thing above and to the right of the GIL mug (or is it below and to the right? I can’t tell); backdrop of P3 (they’re standing outdoors, presumably; is it a huge backstop, more Prairie Style Windows, or what?).

Did Someone Say Track?

Hey remember how there was a whole thing about one of the girls liking one of the guys on the track team? Yeah, me neither.

Bonus points:

Kaz’s barbed wire tattoo peeking out beneath his sleeve that he still regrets getting but can’t afford to get removed.

Truly, Madly, Reluctantly, Unfortunately

Good thing I went with the color version of the strip today. These fair-haired women with prop glasses are all starting to look alike. Today it’s Ms. Rizk, not Dr. Pearl; we know this as Gil is the summoner, not the summoned. (Not that it’s clear Dr. Pearl summoned Gil but, you know, pecking order and all.)

Ever since the Central game the strip has been playing a huge game of connect-the-dots. Great leaps ever forward – from Kaz’s near telepathic understanding of what Gil wants to Gil’s visit to the Van Aukens to Gil’s chat with Dr. Pearl to today – with a lot of gaps to fill. Is it clear that Gil spoke with Ryan at his home? (The “genuinely remorseful” comment to Dr. Pearl might lead us to believe he did.) Whether he did or didn’t, what prompted Gil to speak with Dr. Pearl next? (To get the green light from the Doctor to lean on Ms. Rizk to quash Daftpunk’s article?)

And now, what leads Ms. Rizk to add the “unfortunately” tag to her statement implying that Dafunk’s article has already been quashed? Is it meant for us to deduce that, even though she’s been against Daffy’s hit piece on the ‘Cane from the get-go, she secretly wants to run the article? As our astute readers commented yesterday, this spring arc has turned into another of Rubin’s classic Bechdel Test fails. Girls’ sports have taken a back seat not only to boys’ sports but also to high school journalism which, by maintaining its integrity, may end up protecting a male athlete at the expense of his female victim and accusers. Ms. Rizk’s “unfortunately” may be her subtle form of protest against the Milford jockocracy.

Gil won’t give that a moment’s thought, ’cause sarcastically, he’s in charge.