Fixer-Upper

Pete gives Darin and Jess the tour of their soon-to-be home. Despite being forced by her husband to move here sight unseen, Jessica bravely imagines ways to brighten their surroundings. Darin, meanwhile, continues his dickish ways by obliquely suggesting that Pete’s possessions are so much trash.

There’s quite a lot of FW history associated with Pete’s pad. According to Wikipedia,

…Les and Lisa lived there before buying their home. Becky and Wally took it over, and then apparently during the time jump John and Becky lived there together before John turned it into a storage space for his comics, probably since the basement shop has flooded in the past.

While Pete’s alleged best friend Darin has been a jerk this week, hopefully Pete will recall Mooch’s thoughtfulness from four years back:

Peter Out

OK, so Darin and Jessica had been living at the Taj Moore-hal while Les and Summer were in Africa, meaning Les’ OCD episode was totally pointless. Today Darin, the web and wireless app maven must borrow the work computer to search for an apartment. In bursts Pete to inform his landlord that, after much soul-searching and careful deliberation, has decided he must tear himself away from his friends and his hometown to go and be among the backstabbing dirty dealers Back East. Rather than offer Pete their best wishes and tell him how he’ll be missed, Funky and (Pete’s best friend) Darin only care about how this benefits them. They don’t even try to conceal their glee over Pete’s imminent departure.

Back to the Grind

Epicus Doomus
August 23, 2012 at 3:35 am
Oh that wacky Owen, always so stupid, unmotivated, lazy and worthless! And he has a trademark daffy hat, too! He’s OUR Crazy Harry! And just like how Harry had his trademark air guitar gag, Owen has a beloved running gag of his own too: the look of general idiocy on his face!

Well today’s strip offers something new (besides a respite from the “Becky’s Mom’s a Bitch” arc): a glimpse of Owen laughing and enjoying himself like a normal kid. Although skateboarding seems a little too cool a pastime for these two marching band/comic book nerds. At any rate, their fun soon falls victim to Westview’s Undercurrent of Melancholy.

That's Alls I Can Stands

Well now she’s just totally out of control, unilaterally making decisions that even Becky herself would not be authorized to make on her own. A high school that last year was nearly forced to cut its athletics somehow has money to order new band uniforms? Yeah, whatever. The good thing that happens here is that Roberta finally sends Becky right around the bend, changing her facial expression from yesterday’s utter deadpan to today’s look of…rage? Disgust? Agita? Whatever Becky’s feeling, she looks funny as hell. And if “Dad” is “filming”, that camera is even more archaic than it looks!